Episode #258 - Kill The Moon

"Tell me what you knew, Doctor, or I'll smack you so hard you'll regenerate."

Episode #258:      Kill the Moon.
Companions:        The 12th Doctor and Clara Oswald.

Air Date:              4th October 2014.

The Doctor, Clara, and Courtney go visit the Moon in 2049, where they discover that the Earth's constant companion is a little more than another mere celestial body.

Kill the Moon is an adventure where the Doctor takes Clara and one her students, Courtney (who we have seen about Coal Hill school this season), on a trip to the moon in the year 2049. Mankind has all but given up on space travel but there has been a mining survey which has gone quiet - bar a few final screams. The companions meet up with an unlikely group of former astronauts sent on mission to find out what has happened. One by one they start being picked off until the cause of the problem is revealed to be a giant space creature hatching from inside the moon-shaped egg.

At first this is a good story that plays into some nice science fiction horror tropes. Always my favourite Doctor Who type adventures. We have suitably edge of the seat type scenes and encounters with giant spider bacteria monsters. Great. Once it is revealed to be a hatching egg the tone changes into a moral dilemma. Do you blow up the creature to save the Earth or do you let it hatch and risk the lives of everyone down on the planet below?

The dilemma is quite thought provoking and how it is scripted is done well too. You can feel the issues on both sides. A credit to the screenwriter. However, and this is where I have an issue with the episode. The stance taken by the Doctor feels so far out of character that I wonder what they were thinking. The Doctor basically says it is nothing to do with him and humanity must decide. Okay, that may an overreaction to the human situational reaction - this incarnation of the Doctor seems to do that a lot! - but abandoning Clara, Courtney and the astronaut to their possible fate one way or another is so out of character. Then when confronted by Clara at the end, it feels like he is backpedalling his way out if it. I really think that they could have done better than that with the Doctor's personality and reactions.

We are left with a brand new moon so that clears up that little problem. However, the Doctor says that the moon was laid 100 million years ago. We know that the Silurians went into hibernation because of an appearance of the moon so did a giant space creature lay an egg then and it only just hatched? Just an small aside that came to mind whenever I have watched this episode.

Overall I like this episode even with the out of character elements of the story. It holds up as a typical sort of adventure for the modern era of the show. Not one of the best but far from being the worst we have had in recent years. Could have been a lot better though.

Episode #182 : Smith and Jones

"I'm talking to an alien? In hospital?! What, has this place got an E.T. department?"

Episode #182:   Smith and Jones.
Companions:     The 10th Doctor and Martha Jones.
Air Date:           31st March 2007.

Just when it seemed it would be yet another chaotic day managing her family's disputes, Martha Jones finds trouble waiting for her at work. Trapped on the Moon with space rhinos looking for a criminal and the air running out, she will have to come to trust a seemingly mad stranger calling himself "the Doctor". But can the Tenth Doctor save the day this time?

The new season of Doctor Who starts with a nice story about an abducted hospital and an alien search for a missing murderer. It sees the introduction of Martha Jones as the new companion, her dysfunctional family and the first appearance of the Judoon.

The episode deals with the translation of a London hospital to the moon where the "police for hire" Judoon can legally search it for a missing plasmavore responsible for the murder of the Child Princess of Padrivole Regency Nine. Because they have no legal right to search on Earth they move the hospital so that it isn't under legal protection. The problem is that both the plasmavore and the Doctor are both aliens in a hospital full of humans.

Smith and Jones is a clever story and despite looking somewhat silly, the Judoon are a nice new addition that wouldn't have been out of place in the classic era of the show. What lets this one down for me is a certain scene where the Doctor hops around whilst somehow transferring radiation into his foot and then his trainer before throwing it in the bin. Whoever though up that scene needs a slap. It's another element of silliness that fails to work and for me spoils the entire episode really.

I like Martha in this one. She is a good strong female role and at least for now isn't in love with the Doctor. She is along for the ride because it is exciting and takes her away from the hassles she has back home with work and family. If only we had more companions like this. Unfortunately over time she does get written with some small infatuation with the Doctor but for now it is a breath of fresh air to just have a self sustained companion.

In the last couple episodes of Torchwood there are signs showing "Vote Saxon" which also appear here. This would be the plot for the season that won't play out until near the end.

Episode #67 : Frontier in Space

"In a reminiscent mood are you, Doctor? Poor Miss Grant, you have my deepest sympathies."

Episode 67:   Frontier in Space.
Companions: 3rd Doctor and Jo Grant.
Air Date:       Six episodes. 24th February to 31st March 1973.

The Doctor and Jo are caught in the escalating tension between planets Earth and Draconia, and discover that the Master is secretly working to provoke the two into all-out war.

Frontier in Space is a rather long winded and drawn out story that starts off as a tale of two empires on the verge of war, then moves to a prison tale before introducing the Master and the Daleks! It feels like there is just too much going on and it the pacing is far too slow because of it.

The story is basically about the Master trying to drive a wedge between humanity and the Draconian Empire, so that they go to war and then his "allies", the Daleks, can move in and mop up whatever or whoever remains. Other than an odd sense that he hates Earth because the Doctor likes the planet (and us) there seems to be no real reason for the Master to actually be doing any of this.

The end of the story seems alsmost as pointless. Having defeated the Master's plans by allying Earth and Draconia, he sends a telepathic transmission to the Time Lords and then passes out. Frontier in Space continues on, although unconnected really in the following story, Planet of the Daleks. I guess it must have been a time of slow ideas for the show.

Unfortunately this story is also the last time we see Roger Delgardo as the Master. In June of 1973 he was tragically killed in a motor accident while filming a movie in Turkey. Although Anthony Ainley would continue the role in later years and very well, it is Roger Delgardo who I think carried the character best.

Sadly Frontier in Space is really not a very well written story and other than it continues immediately into the next story it would be one I would suggest viewers avoid. In this instance I really feel that I have to give a thumbs down.

Episode #48 : The Seeds of Death

"You can't kill me... I'm a genius!"

 

 

Episode 48:   The Seeds of Death.
Companions: The 2nd Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot.
Air Date:        Six episodes. 25th January to 1st March 1969.

 

The TARDIS lands in a space museum on Earth in the late 21st century, where the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe learn that contact has been lost between Earth and the Moon. In this era, instant travel -- T-Mat -- has revolutionised the Earth. Its people have lost interest in space travel. The Doctor and his companions travel to the Moon in an old-style rocket and reach the Moonbase, control centre for T-Mat, only to find a squad of Ice Warriors have commandeered the base and plan to use the T-Mat network to their advantage.

The Seeds of Death is a fantastic story. Certainly one of the best from this era of the show. Everything about it works, from the story itself, to the look of the sets and the ice warriors, and down to the acting. All in all, it makes watching it a real treat.

The story itself deals with an invasion of the moon, and soon to be the Earth, by a fleet of Ice Warriors. But first they must capture the moon and use the T-Mat (called transmat when reused in later stories) to transport strange fungus plants to Earth in order to make the planet more suitable for the invaders. This reminds in part of the red weeds from The War of the Worlds by HG Wells. The fungus only fails when you realise that it's just vast amounts of bubble bath and a few popping balloons.

One thing I love is just how much more characterised the second Doctor is in this story than ever before. This story really does bring forth my appreciation for the second Doctor than I usually feel in these old black and white episodes. Well worth watching.

There is one thing that I find odd however in this story. The Ice Warriors are a technologically advanced race; they can construct and fly starships through space, have powerful heat ray guns...etc, but are yet easily fooled into flying too close to the sun. Surely they would have realised something was wrong and changed course? They must know where Earth is in the solar system? That is the only problem I find with this story.

Episode #33 : The Moonbase

"There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things. Things which act against everything we believe in. They must be fought."

Episode 33:      The Moonbase.
Companions:    The 2nd Doctor, Polly Wright, Ben Jackson and Jamie McCrimmon.
Air Date:          Four episodes. 11th February to 4th March 1967.

The TARDIS arrives in 2070 on the Moon, where a weather control station under the command of a man named Hobson is in the grip of a plague epidemic - in reality the result of an alien poison planted by the Cybermen. Jamie is knocked unconscious and lapses into a delirium, leaving the Second Doctor, Ben, and Polly to fight off a massive Cyberman attack.

Two episodes of this story currently survive and I have never seen the remaining two. However, I do own and have read repeatedly, the novelization of The Moonbase so that and an internet synopses are what I will base this short review on. Supposedly though, at the end of this year, 2013, this story will get the animation treatment to make it a fully watchable episode again.

We have a rather quick return of the Cybermen, perhaps because they proved popular in the Ten Planet the BBC decided to see if they could be the new Daleks? The costumes have massively improved since we last saw them and they appear much more mechanical now than then. Despite that they do seem to have vulnerable plastic elements which eventually leads to their destruction at the end of the story.

The story is set upon the moon only fifty odd years from now, where the worlds weather is controlled by a piece of machinery called a Graviton. How it does this with gravity I don't know. When it goes out of alignment the world is struck by strong winds and hurricanes. The Cybermen want to eradicate human life on Earth so they can claim the planet. I guess the assimilation ideas weren't fully thought through at this time though the story does mention some crewmen of the moonbase being made cybernetic.

Not a bad story really though I am looking forward to watching it if the rumours of animation are true.