Episode #161 : The End of the World

The Doctor: You think it'll last forever: people and cars and concrete. But it won't. One day it's all gone. Even the sky. My planet's gone. It's dead. It burned, like the Earth. It's just rocks and dust. Before its time.

Rose: What happened?

The Doctor: There was a war, and we lost.

Episode 161:   The End of the World.
Companions:   9th Doctor and Rose Tyler.
Air Date:         2nd April 2005.

The Ninth Doctor takes his new companion, Rose Tyler, to the year 5,000,000,000 to see the sun expand and destroy the Earth. The observation deck space station, Platform One, is holding an event with the richest beings of the time observing the Earth's destruction, but mysterious metal spiders gifted by the Adherents of the Repeated Meme to the other guests are secretly infiltrating and sabotaging the station.

After a reasonable but perhaps shaky start, Doctor Who continues with story set against the backdrop of the Earth's last hour before destruction. But the Doctor isn't here to save it, the Earth has had her time. Instead, he thinks bringing Rose to the far future will be an adventure but doesn't consider the impact it will have on his new companion. That is one of the things I especially like about this episode. Previous companions seem to get past the culture shock quite quickly and adapt with ease. Rose however gets rather upset that she is seeing the Earth die even though it is billions of years in her future. We also see her reaction to suddenly realising that she has just picked up and off into time and space with a complete stranger. Again, something we didn't see under the classic show. For the criticism that was levelled at RTD during his time as producer of the show, it is elements like this that really help define the new Who.

This story also features the first instance of the phrase Bad Wolf which would appear in every episode of this first series from here on. Here it is spoke by one of the alien visitors who mentions "the Bad Wolf scenario".

As you see in the above quotation, this story starts to introduce the back story which we have missed while the show was off air. It appears that Gallifrey has been destroyed in some sort of conflict with an unnamed enemy and that the Doctor is the last of the Time Lords. At the time of air, I didn't like this as I am rather fond of stories that feature the Time Lords but as we go along we eventually learn of Gallifrey's fate.

There are quite a few elements in this story which will return as the show goes along, including the Face of Boe and Lady Cassandra, in addition to the Bad Wolf plot line. The End of the World is a very good example of Doctor Who but I can't help but feel that it might have been better if stretched out to two parts. There is a lot crammed in here and doesn't get nearly enough air time. However it does end with some thought provoking comments and all good science fiction should entertain and make you think.

Episode #160 : Rose

Do you know like we were sayin'? About the Earth revolving? It's like when you're a kid. The first time they tell you that the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it 'cause everything looks like it's standin' still. I can feel it. The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinnin' at 1,000 miles an hour and the entire planet is hurtling around the sun at 67,000 miles an hour, and I can feel it. We're fallin' through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go... That's who I am.

Episode 160:   Rose.
Companions:   9th Doctor and Rose Tyler.
Air Date:         26th March 2005.

It's just another day in the life of London teenager Rose Tyler. That is, until she meets the Ninth Doctor. The plastic on Earth has come to life, and the Doctor has to stop it before the Nestene Consciousness can take over. Rose's life will never be the same again.

The show has been brought back by Russel T Davis and BBC Wales. I was very surprised that the show had done away with the multi-episode stories and was now running like every other show with a roughly 45 minutes story. At the time I was disappointed but now I realise that the show is better for it.

Immediately we are introduced to the new Doctor, played by Christopher Eccleston. He is very different to any of his previous incarnations but is perhaps a very good means of introducing the character and the show to a modern family audience. At times his persona gets a bit much, especially with the references to humans as "stupid apes".

Rose Tyler, played by former pop star Billie Piper, is an interesting companion. Unlike the classic companions, Rose is simply an everyday young woman who finds herself drawn into the alien invasion by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. As well as Rose we are introduced to her boyfriend Mickey and her mother Jackie. Both are characters who will have potential as the show goes along.

Doctor Who returns with a classic villain, the Nestene Consciousness and it's Auton servants. They are invading the Earth as their worlds were destroyed in a war. This is the first reference to the Time War in the new show though we won't learn that in this story. It could have been easier to start with something more recognisable like the Daleks but I think the BBC did the right thing and come back with a known but less iconic monster.

The show is much better for having been brought back at a time when decent production values allow for excellent special effects, make up and, at last, well done script writing. There are humorous elements included that don't quite work and I wish they had not been included. Some of these, such as a plastic rubbish bin eating Mickey Smith and then burping were frankly childish. But for a first introductory episode, Rose is well done and long in coming.

Episode #159 : The Enemy Within (Doctor Who).

"Grace, I came back to life before your eyes. I held back death. Look, I can't make your dream come true forever, but I can make it come true today."

Episode 159:   The Enemy Within.
Companions:   8th Doctor and Grave Holloway.
Air Date:         27th May 1996.

The Master is apparently exterminated by the Daleks on Skaro, and the Doctor agrees to take his remains back to Gallifrey in the TARDIS. The Master is not really dead, however, but has transformed into a shapeless morphant creature. He causes the TARDIS to make an emergency landing on Earth, in the city of San Francisco, in the year 1999. The Doctor emerges from the ship to find himself in the midst of a street battle between rival gangs. He sustains gunshot wounds and, accompanied by young gang member Chang Lee, is taken to hospital for emergency treatment. Surgeon Dr Grace Holloway attempts to save his life but, failing to understand his alien physiology, actually causes his 'death'. The Doctor later regenerates into his eighth physical form. The Master has meanwhile taken over the body of an ambulance driver named Bruce. This is just a temporary measure until he can achieve his ultimate goal: to inhabit the Doctor's body.

After a hiatus of several years the Fox television network wanted to produce a new series of Doctor Who. In conjunction with the BBC this single pilot episode was commissioned. It was never picked up afterwards and for many years was the only appearance of the 8th Doctor, though following it came dozens and dozens of novels and audio dramas. This made Paul McGann technically the longest serving Doctor with more adventures to his name and any other incarnation.

Paul McGann was the perfect choice for the role.  He brings a personality and sense of character that really fits with the role. They could have easily given the Doctor to an American actor and it would not have been the same. There are many things wrong with this American adaptation but his choice is not one of them. As a well done addition, we do start off with Sylvestor McCoy as the 7th Doctor and get a regeneration sequence. The network could have just gone straight in with McGann but handing over the baton as it were, does a nice job of showing that we are talking about the same show/universe.

On the other hand, Eric Roberts, was not the best choice. I like him as an actor, but he is more of a B movie actor and just not right for this part. He chews the furniture with his acting style as the Master and seems far too malicious even for that villain.

The title "The Enemy Within" is not an official title. If I remember right, the director gave it that name at a convention should fans require a name. I prefer that title over a simple "Doctor Who". I do seem to be in the minority yet again with this story. It is horribly Americanised and I don't know many British fans who warmed to it very well. It just does not feel traditional Doctor Who but British and American television styles are very different so I can live with it happily. Other issues are the references to the Doctor being half human which thankfully were ignored by the fans and by the BBC. Some things you just don't screw around with. Even with these issues I think that The Enemy Within is what I expect of the show in general.

One nice thing that this version of the show does, and it continues in the rebooted new series, is that you get a more in depth feel for the Doctor. He's no longer just a time traveller wandering the universe, having adventures and setting things right. The way he is written brings the character to life and makes him more three dimensional.

Episode #158 : Survival

"There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, where the sea's asleep and the rivers dream, people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice and somewhere else the tea is getting cold. Come on, Ace, we've got work to do."

Episode 158:    Survival.
Companions:   7th Doctor and Ace.
Air Date:          22nd November to 6th December 1989.

The Doctor takes Ace to present day Perivale so that she can revisit old friends. Most of them however have been transported by cat-like Kitlings to the planet of the Cheetah People, a race with the power to teleport through space. Ace is transported and joins up with two of her friends, Midge and Shreela, and a boy named Derek. The Doctor follows and encounters the Master, who has drawn him into a trap to try to gain his help. This planet gradually transforms its inhabitants into Cheetah People - an influence to which the Master himself has fallen victim - while they in turn, through the savagery of their actions, cause the planet to move ever closer to total destruction.

The final ever episode of the classic series comes crashing down after the excellent couple of previous stories. Survival is just poor both in story and in production values. The kitling (above) and the cheetah people costumes are just plain bad. No one thought about spending much on this story and it spoils it so very much.

The Master makes his final classic era appearance here and it feels so much like that his inclusion was simply tacked on for the sake of it. At least in Survival he isn't up to some nefarious but ill-thought out scheme. He is out to escape the planet of the cheetah people and free himself from the transformation into a cat.

Survival is another adventure where Ace gets the centre stage with much of the events being plotted around her. The Doctor however seems to have lost something in this one. Gone is the intelligent and manipulative Time Lord from recent stories and in his place is a more incompetent investigator. Disappointing to be say the least.

It is a shame that the classic show died with this as the final episode. It deserved better. The problem is however that since the end of the Tom Baker era there had been a severe drop in the production values of the show. The look of the show has often been cited as one of the reasons that the show was cancelled by the BBC. Survival is a perfect example of that.

Episode #157 : The Curse of Fenric

"We hoped to return to the North Way, but the dark curse follows our dragon ship... The Wolves of Fenric shall return for their treasure, and then shall the dark evil rule eternally."

Episode 157:   The Curse of Fenric.
Companions:   7th Doctor and Ace.
Air Date:         25 October to 15th November 1989.

The TARDIS materialises at a secret naval base off the coast of Northumberland toward the end of the Second World War. Dr Judson, a scientist there, has created the Ultima Machine, an early computer designed to break German codes. The base's Commander Millington plans to let a Russian commando unit led by Captain Sorin steal the Machine's core, which he has booby-trapped with deadly toxin. Judson uses the Machine to translate some ancient runes from the crypt of the nearby St Judes church and this leads to the release of Fenric, an evil entity from the dawn of time whom the Doctor trapped seventeen centuries earlier in a Chinese flask by defeating it at chess.

The Curse of Fenric is an exceptional story that covers multiple story lines and wraps up a number of plot lines that we perhaps didn't even notice were there. Mainly the story deals with the return of Fenric, a Great Old One, sealed away by the Doctor in a much earlier untelevised adventure. We learn that the Doctor beat Fenric at chess in order to do so. The chess game we saw previously in Silver Nemesis, was part of Fenric's scheme, and we learn that the time storm that snatched Ace away from home to deposit her on IceWorld was also his doing. Fenric had been planning things for a very long time.

The script for this is perfect. There isn't anything wrong with it and combined with excellent production values gives us a chilling atmospheric tale of ancient horror set to a backdrop of the second world war. If only the late 80's could have had this level of writing and production value all the way through then no one could have complained.

The celebrity guest star in this tale was Nicholas Parsons, a household name in the 1970's and 80's for the game show Sale of the Century. In this story he plays a priest who has lost his faith because of the horrors of war.

This story is very much a return to classic Doctor vs the monsters but with some of the best writing of the classic show. You cannot go wrong with The Curse of Fenric.

Episode #156 : Ghostlight

Ace: It's true isn't it. This is the house I told you about.

Doctor: You were thirteen. You climbed over the wall for a dare.

Ace: That's your surprise isn't it? Bringing me back here.

Doctor: Remind me what it was that you sensed when you entered this deserted house. An aura of intense evil?

Episode 156:   Ghostlight.
Companions:   7th Doctor and Ace.
Air Date:         4th to 18th October 1989.

The Doctor brings Ace to Gabriel Chase, an old house that she once burnt down in her home town of Perivale. The year is 1883 and the house is presided over by Josiah Samuel Smith, who turns out to be the evolved form of an alien brought to Earth in a stone spaceship that is now in the basement. Others present include the explorer Redvers Fenn-Cooper, who has been driven mad by what he has seen there, and Nimrod, Smith's Neanderthal manservant. Smith intends to use Fenn-Cooper's unwitting help in a plot to kill Queen Victoria and restore the British Empire to its former glory. His plans are hampered by Control, a female alien whose life-cycle is in balance with his own. Ace inadvertently causes the release of the spaceship's true owner - a powerful alien being known as Light.

Ghostlight is a fantastic story and a real example of how good late 80's Doctor Who could be. It starts off as a suitable atmospheric horror tale in a "haunted house" and then it slowly resolves into well thought out science fiction. Ghostlight has so many levels to it that a viewer really needs to watch it several times over to catch them all. This was explained by Julian Knott in an issue of DWB as follows:

'A script as well-balanced as it was well-packed into three episodes (with no discernible padding) deserves much praise. After a couple of viewings it becomes apparent that there is hardly a word wasted, and that many key words and phrases have been picked to convey a very specific meaning (such as the Doctor's remark that Ace's change of clothes into [those of] a "Victorian gentleman" is a "metamorphosis"). Every action has a reason, every occurrence an explanation. Even the standard defuse-the-bomb/stop-the-countdown "firestorm program" sequence at the end made enough sense in context, and succeeded in rounding the story off nicely. Even if some things are not made clear at the time they occur, then they are explained, or can be explained, at a later stage.'

The Doctor is simply fantastic in this story. He balances numerous "games" and seems to be fully aware of everything that is going on in the old house. While this is an element of every incarnation I don't think it is ever so well written in classic Who as it is in both this story and the following on Curse of Fenric.

The story gives Ace a fantastic and long awaited story where she is the centre of the plot. Not nearly enough companions get that in my opinion. In Ghostlight we learn about an event that scared her as a young teenager and the Doctor brings her back to the past of that event to force her to confront her fears.

Ghostlight is a simply marvellous story that gets better with age. I recommend it fully.

Episode #155 : Battlefield

"Well if my hunch is right, the Earth could be at the centre of a war that doesn't even belong to this dimension!"

Episode 155:   Battlefield.
Companions:   7th Doctor and Ace.
Air Date:          6th to 27th September 1989.

The TARDIS materialises in the English countryside near the village of Carbury, where a nuclear missile convoy under the command of UNIT's Brigadier Winifred Bambera has run into difficulties. Lying on the bed of the nearby Lake Vortigern is a spaceship from another dimension containing the body of King Arthur, supposedly held in suspended animation, and his sword Excalibur. Ancelyn, a knight from the other dimension, arrives on Earth to aid the King but is followed by his rival Mordred and the latter's mother, a powerful sorceress named Morgaine. They all recognise the Doctor as Merlin - a fact that the Time Lord attributes to events in his own future.

Doctor Who meets Arthurian legend and surprisingly does it very well. Our lore of King Arthur comes down to us from another dimension where the figures of legend are very much real, and where a possible future version of the Doctor (in an untelevised adventure) is the wizard Merlin. Or maybe that universe has it's own Doctor? The writers have combined the Arthurian tales with a strange pseudo-science that gels very well even when you realise that you are watching knights in armour fighting with swords and laser guns.

The Doctor is back to his dark manipulative self at last. Ace also gets a good amount of screen time and a fair amount of dialogue which is refreshing since she hasn't really had the opportunity since Dragonfire. It is a shame that the writing and storytelling for McCoy get so much better on his last year as the BBC plot to cancel the show.

This story also sees the long awaited return of UNIT and the Brigadier. Even good old Bessie gets brought out of mothballs for this adventure. We also get a short meeting with Doris, the Brigadier's wife who was frequently mentioned but never seen. Though I do think the references were probably lost on younger fans at the time who hadn't watched the earlier classic show.

With Battlefield I do appear to be in the minority as apparently many fans dislike this story. It is considered to have too many characters who don't get enough individual screen time. I've also read that many feel the battle sequences uninspired and the sparkler-like effects for the laser guns just a poor choice. I can see past all that and find Battlefield an entertaining adventure for the Doctor.