TW #15 : Sleeper

Tosh: You said we weren't allowed to use that again.

Jack: It's just a mind probe.

Ianto: Remember what happened last time you used it?

Jack: That was different. And that species has extremely high blood pressure.

Ianto: Oh, right, their heads must explode all the time.

Episode 15:     Sleeper.
Companions:   Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper and Ianto Jones.
Air Date:         23rd January 2008. 

A burglary turns into a slaughter and Torchwood suspect alien involvement. When the investigation escalates into a city-wide assault, Jack realizes the whole world is in danger.

Sleeper is a story about alien invasion but not the sort that we normally see. In this story we have an infiltration by aliens referred to by Jack as Cell 114. They come to Earth disguised as humans but with their true identities locked away until triggered. At which point they show certain shape-shifting qualities and try to disrupt Earth's defences. The team have found one who they help retain their human identity and try to thwart the invasion.

When this story first aired I figured that the invasion by Cell 114 was going to be the overarching plot for this season. It sets itself up perfectly for that but alas no, Sleep is simply a one off episode with no connection to anything else. The events are never referred to ever again. In hindsight this does spoil the episode for me because by itself the story doesn't do anything. You can't drop something major like this down and then just walk away in my opinion.

Sleeper isn't a great episode anyway. There is nothing to drive the main characters forward either with their own stories or the show in general. Already season two shows that it isn't going to be as good as season one. We know that as the show goes along it gets weaker and weaker each season. I do wonder whether Torchwood should have been left with just the one season?

TW #14 : Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang

Jack: So, how was rehab?

John: Rehabs. Plural.

Jack: Drink, drugs, sex and ...?

John: Murder.

Jack: [laughs] You went to murder rehab?

John: I know. Ridiculous. The odd kill, who does it hurt?

Captain John Hart, an old friend of Jack's, appears through the Rift, and causes problems for the Torchwood team.

Episode 14:   Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang..
Companions: Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper and Ianto Jones.
Air Date:       16th January 2008.

Torchwood kicks off it's second season with an interesting start. The Torchwood team are visited by an old associate and lover of Jack's, a former time agent known as Captain John Hart. The new arrival is a violent amoral individual with as big a sense of overt sexuality as Jack's. After committing murder for no real reason, he lures the Torchwood team out with stories of hidden radiation bombs and then tries to bump them off without knowing that Jack cannot die. Ultimately he is found out and sent back through the Rift although he drops hints of something to Jack - "By the way, I found Gray" - before disappearing.

Captain Jack has returned from his sojourn with the Doctor and Martha, and must try to fit back in with his team who are understandably upset about being ditched. There is no indication just how long he was gone but it must have been many months or maybe up to a year but the feel of things. Without the friction of his return I don't think the season would have kicked off as well.

Captain John Hart is played by James Marsters who is more known for playing the vampire Spike in the Buffy: the Vampire Slayer show. I'm quite a fan of that particular role although I do feel Spike is channeled a bit too much in his role as John Hart. Marsters was a great choice for the role though in my opinion. I can't think of many other actors who could pull off that role quite as well.

Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang is a good start to the season but suffers from a definitive lack of plot. The episode feels more like a filler designed to set up events later in the series rather than a full season opener. It also continues the elements of silliness appearing more and more in the modern Whoniverse. For example it starts up with the Torchwood team chasing a fish-headed alien in a sports car through the streets of Cardiff, stopping briefly to let an old lady cross the road. Really? It doesn't even look very good and the scene is just silly.

Episode #194 : Voyage of the Damned

"I'm the Doctor. I'm a Time Lord. I'm from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. I'm nine hundred and three years old, and I'm the man who's gonna save your lives and all six billion people on the planet below. You got a problem with that?"

Episode #193:           Voyage of the Damned.
Companions:            10th Doctor.
Air Date:                  25th December 2007.

A spacecraft set on an apocalyptic collision course with Earth, a host of killer robot angels and an evil severed-headed mastermind — it's just another Christmas for the Tenth Doctor.

Voyage of the Damned was the Christmas special for 2007. While the Christmas is the setting for the episode the story is more relevant to old disaster movies like The Poseidon Adventure. This is good for me as quite frankly I am sick to death of the Christmas special's being so firmly entrenched in Christmas. How many times can the Doctor be caught in seasonal adventures?

So, the story is simple. After leaving Martha being and a brief encounter with his 5th self, the Doctor's TARDIS is struck by a spaceship designed to look like an old Earth cruise line and appropriately called the Titanic. Things start to go wrong when the Captain turns off the shields and she is struck by flaming meteorites and starts to go down. The Doctor and a handful of survivors must try to save the ship, protect the Earth and find out the cause of all what has happened.

The story to Voyage of the Damned is really rather good. I like the old 60's and 70's disaster movies so it is right up my street. The effects look good especially the design of the star ship Titanic. In these elements the BBC were spot on. Shame that sometimes the same level of detail isn't applied to the regular episodes.

The special guest star is no other than Austrialia's queen of pop, Kylie Minogue! That must have been quite the coup to get someone as famous as her to make an appearance, even on such a popular show. She plays a doomed waitress named Astrid Peth who might have been a companion had she not given her life to save the Doctor. 

We also get a brief meeting with Wilfred Mott before his introduction in the following season. I don't know whether it was the intention at this time to add his character to show or not however. Wilfred is played by veteran actor Bernard Cribbins who already has a connection to Doctor Who as he played a companion in the cinematic adaptation of Dalek Invasion of Earth.

If I like this episode so much what lets it down and reduces it to a average 3 rating? Well, to start with I dislike the elements involving the Queen. As the ship plummets to its doom over London, it is heading straight for Buckingham Palace and the Doctor rings up the Queen to have her evacuate. As he saves the ship she is seen waving and calling out "thank you Doctor". It is played for laughs but it feels so out of touch and it spoils the ending. There is also an scene where the Doctor snaps his fingers, summons a pair of robot angels and has them carry him aloft. The scene once more smacks of the godhood element that has been relevant of late. In fact that scene received many complaints from the Catholic viewers because of the connotation. It is the little elements that spoil an otherwise good episode. If they had been handled better or not included at all I would have been more generous with the rating.

Even so, Voyage of the Damned is one of the best Christmas specials so far.

Episode #193-A : Time Crash

"Hey, I'm the Doctor. I can save the universe using a kettle and some string. And look at me, I'm wearing a vegetable!"

Episode #193-A:       Time Crash.
Companions:            10th Doctor and 5th Doctor.
Air Date:                  16th November 2007.

After saying his goodbyes to Martha Jones at the end of Last of the Time Lords, the Tenth Doctor accidentally pilots his TARDIS into the path of... the Fifth Doctor's TARDIS! As the current Doctor muses over aspects of the Fifth, the Fifth Doctor becomes increasingly worried as their combined TARDISes threaten to rip a hole in space and time the size of Belgium! 

This was a short sketch shown during the November 2007 Children in Need night on the BBC. It fits in exactly between Last of the Time Lords and Voyage of the Damned. Time Crash was the first incidence in new Who where we had a crossover between the old and new shows, as well as being the first new multi-Doctor story. Largely played for laughs, Time Crash is however, considered canonical.

The interaction between the 5th and 10th Doctors is extremely clever with plenty of references thrown in such as LINDA (from Love and Monsters), as well as references back to the adventures of the 5th Doctor. This was Steven Moffat writing at some of his best. I always get a giggle out of it. There's a nice sense of nostalgia too once the 5th Doctor recognizes his older self. 

If you haven't seen it, here is the short clip. 

SJA #6 : The Lost Boy

"The Xylok are a crystalline lifeform. We crashed here as what you would call a meteorite, beneath the Earth our crystals have regrown and become strong again, but nevertheless remain trapped. The release of the Xylok is my purpose. You gave me the chance to fulfill it, the chance to plan."

Episode #6:       The Lost Boy.
Companions:     Sarah Jane Smith, Luke Smith, Maria Jackson, Clyde Langer, K9 and Mr Smith.
Air Date:            12th to 19th November 2007.

A missing child turns out to be, both visually and genetically, Luke. Sarah Jane is forced to hand him over to the "parents". Heartbroken, Sarah Jane rejects Maria and Clyde, and with Maria's dad threatening to sell the house to keep his daughter out of danger, it seems the gang's adventures have come to an end, whilst Luke discovers his new "parents" are not all they seem — an old enemy has returned, and this time, they are in league with a member of Sarah Jane's faithful team in a plot to bring the moon crashing to Earth.

Although not the best episode The Lost Boy is a fitting end to the first series of the Sarah Jane Adventures. The plot itself isn't much but it is more the revelation that the genius super computer in Sarah Jane's attic, Mr Smith, is in fact an evil computer seeking to free a malevolent crystalline race, the Xylok, from their confinement within the Earth makes up for it.

Unfortunately the story continues the irritating family issues from the Jackson family. Now that Maria's father knows about aliens and what the team get up to he steps in to a both save the day and wanting to move away to protect his daughter. We'll get that in the start of the next season.

We do get the return of the Slitheen from the start of the season. The youngest is seeking revenge for the death of his father but has been manipulated by Mr Smith. This time they seem to have solved the farting problem in their skin suits.

The Lost Boy isn't a terrible story but it just didn't grab my interest at all. Uninteresting story and the addition of the Slitheen really didn't serve any purpose. At least we get a cameo from K9 again.

SJA #5 : Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?

"You were never forgotten, never! What I saw that day, it changed me forever. I saw how precious life is, and it made me fight to defend it across all these years, because of you, Andrea! It was all because of you! My best friend."

Episode #5:       Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?.
Companions:     Sarah Jane Smith, Luke Smith, Maria Jackson, Clyde Langer and Mr Smith.
Air Date:            29th October to 5th November 2007.

One day, Sarah Jane Smith exists. The next, only Maria Jackson knows of her. Andrea Yates takes her place, but Maria knows that Andrea has done something to remove Sarah Jane from the space/time continuum. It is up to Maria to uncover the identity of the "Trickster" if the human race is to survive. But with Sarah Jane and Luke wiped from existence and Clyde having lost all knowledge of his former adventures, Maria must save the world single-handedly. But she finds it may be time to tell her father about her secret life with Sarah Jane if the whole world is to survive.

I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. It was, for children's television a little darker than expected which made it much better in my eyes. Essentially some strange alien device protects Maria from alterations in the time line when a mysterious figure called the Trickster decides to alter the past so that thirteen year old Sarah Jane is killed and her best friend, who should have died, survives in her place. Maria has to resolve things in time to prevent an asteroid from striking the Earth and killing everyone.

It is a good story but suffers from the usual time alteration story line issue... ignoring what went before. The Trickster removes Sarah Jane so she wasn't around to help the Doctor and UNIT during the 1970's defeat all those alien invasions.We know the Doctor is good but there doesn't appear to be any real changes to the time line and since Sarah Jane was important to those events, surely something should have been referenced? However, there is a nice reference where the Trickster decides to see what things would have been like without the Doctor about to stop them, which leads into the upcoming Turn Left story.

The Trickster is an interesting villain though I can't help feeling that he is superfluous when you have an almost identical figure in the Black Guardian. Perhaps it was decided that it would require too much of an introduction for children? Either way, it gives the show it's own nasty otherworldly recurring villain so I can't complain. Alongside the Trickster the episode introduces a creature called a Grask which serves the Trickster in some way. I'm sure he'll make an appearance as well in the future.

SJA #4 : Warriors of Kudlak

"Oh, please don’t be offended, but this isn’t the first time I’ve had a gun pointed at me. And guns from other planets – ooh, afraid I’ve rather lost count!"

Episode #4:       Warriors of Kudlak.
Companions:     Sarah Jane Smith, Luke Smith, Maria Jackson, Clyde Langer and Mr Smith.
Air Date:            15th to 22nd October 2007.

Children have gone missing, but how? Will Luke and Clyde win Combat 3000? And who is the mysterious Mr. Kudlak?

Not an original story but entertaining all the same. While trying to teach Luke the hows and whys of being human, they decide to play a game of laser tag at a nearby venue called Combat 3000. This laser tag outfit is a cover for an alien general, Kudlak, who is looking for worthy would-be soldiers to fight in his people's war against someone called Malakh. Children with the right skills are abducted, crated and sent off to fight in the war. Unfortunately the war ended ten years ago and his battle computer fearing having nothing to do in peace time doesn't bother informing him. Kudlak turns out to be not such a bad individual after all and vows to find the children and return them home.

The story focuses more on Luke and Clyde than Sarah Jane. It is nice to see the companions getting their own story so soon into the show. Already Clyde is becoming more likeable than when he first appeared but the "learning humanity" elements of Luke's story are already a bit annoying.

The effects aren't bad and I especially like how well the production team managed to pull off a fully insectoid face and mask for Kudlak. Worthy of proper Doctor Who if you ask me. What I like most about this particular villain is that at the end of the day he isn't the villain. The human minion, Mr Grantham, on Earth is far worse in my opinion than the alien. Kudlak was doing what he thought he needed to but when the truth of the situation comes out he realises the error of things and sets out to correct them. Not something that you normally see in science fiction shows like this.