Story #205 - Victory of the Daleks (2010)

 

Harry -

Well here we are, arrived at perhaps the first truly divisive story of the Moffat era. Let's get the big debate out of the way. Dorabella: is it a funny name or not?

Sarah -

It’s unexpectedly funny, considering that it was a memory planted by the Daleks. Where do you come down on this pressing issue?

Harry -

It's the kind of name that gets shortened immediately, so the child would probably grow up as either a Dora or a Bella, which is not so bad. But it would not be on my top 10 baby names list.

Apparently there was a bit of fuss over the Daleks in this story too, particularly the New Paradigm Daleks.

Sarah -

A fuss in Doctor Who fandom? Say it isn’t so!

Harry -

Big and brassy, these New Paradigms are a throwback to the colourful Daleks of the Peter Cushing movies. I imagine Steven Moffat had fond memories of those films and gave writer Mark Gatiss the green light to create a version for the New Who era. Watching them emerge from the progenitor chamber was like something at an auto show -- here's the new model for Season Five, in five spectacular colours! I know some people associated with this blog rushed out to buy the entire set.

Sarah -

I’m shocked, shocked! Nah, just kidding, I remember quite well your obsession with the New Paradigm Daleks. They certainly are shiny and festive, which feels a bit surplus to requirements when it comes to taking over the universe, or whatnot.

Harry -

The BBC marketing department must have loved these Daleks, but apparently fanhood at large did not.

Sarah -

I’m a bit of an agnostic when it comes to the NPDs in general, but I’m not a big fan of them in this story. It’s a promising story that gets waylaid by the big reveal of the NPDs. There are way too many long and lingering shots of the Daleks as they emerge from the chamber and assemble to face the Doctor.

Harry -

But the colours. There's a red one!

Sarah -

As much as I love shiny red things, It’s a whole lot of fanwanking, even if much of the fanbase was too busy being angry to notice.

Harry -

Fair enough. There's a strong throwback vibe to the story that goes beyond the paint jobs of the Daleks. For this story, Gatiss also adapted the premise of "The Power of the Daleks" -- where a small group of Daleks insinuate themselves among a group of humans and pretend to be willing servitors, while scheming to regroup and mass produce themselves anew. The "I am your soldier" line is an almost identical quote from the 1960s story.

Sarah -

I love the throwback to Power of the Daleks, which has been gloriously animated since this episode first aired. Victory of the Daleks is about as Mark Gatiss as Doctor Who can be; he does love the celebrity historial. The Eleventh Doctor’s reaction to the Daleks is exactly the same as the Second and Ninth Doctors when everyone else thinks they’re harmless -- and I’m totally here for that. I love the look of Ironside Daleks and the To Victory propaganda poster, which I was so excited to buy at Chicago TARDIS in 2010. It still hangs in my kitchen.

Harry -

Another win for the BBC marketing department!

Sarah -

Take all my money!

Harry -

Setting aside all the Dalek hooplah, there is indeed a huge celebrity involved in this story, and it's Winston Churchill -- or rather the idealized Winston Churchill to whom British pop culture and favourable historians have given enduring life. While the actual Churchill has become a problematic hero in modern times, here he is portrayed in almost comic book terms. Big, bombastic and heroic. The Winston Churchill we'd love to embrace I think.

Sarah -

In the end all humans are problematic, why should historical figures be any different? He was the big, bombastic, heroic figure that led Britain through the war, with all the biases of his gender, race, and class that we now abhor. Ian McNeice’s performance certainly plays to the wartime hero angle of his persona.

Harry -

Who couldn't relate to Amy's excitement at meeting the hero of World War Two? He's got a war to win and he will seize every advantage, including Bracewell's Ironsides much to the Doctor's dismay. Which is where the Doctor's fantastic, Troughtonesque and Ecclestonesque tirades come into play.

Sarah -

One of my favorite aspects of the story was the Ironside Daleks using Churchill to get the Doctor to London so they could get the Doctor to testify that they were, in fact, Daleks. Even if they were inferior to the NPDs. Now, that’s what I call playing the long game.

Harry -

The story skips along at such a pace that the conflict between the Doctor and Churchill is barely given any space. I wonder if this story might have been better off as a two-parter. Back in the day, "The Power of the Daleks" was an all-out six parter which allowed for the Doctor's suspicions to be more fully fleshed out.

Sarah -

I can’t help but think it would be a stronger story if it were a two-parter or if some of the NPD screen time was given to the Doctor-Churchill conflict. Even the inter-Dalek conflict and extermination of the “inferior” Daleks feels rushed after all the time spent showing us the shiny new Daleks.

Harry -

At least we got that one great scene where the Doctor goes apeshit on one Dalek before everything kicks into gear. Cue the space-bubble spitfires for a rousing outer space dogfight!

Sarah -

I did roll my eyes a bit, but it made as much sense as anything else and how else were they going to get rid of the Daleks?

Harry -

Gatiss must have loved scripting all that RAF banter. After the Dalek ship is given a proper thrashing (hurrah!), we arrive at the final crisis. The Daleks reveal that Bracewell is a bomb. As in "The Beast Below" the Doctor tries and fails to save the day. It falls upon Amy to talk Bracewell into deactivating himself, convincing the machine that it is human and incapable of mass murder.

Pond 2

Doctor 0

Sarah - 

Good decision to keep Pond around!

Harry - 

The one thing that really didn't make sense was that once Bracewell's trigger was deactivated, the Doctor and Amy let the robot pack up and leave the Cabinet War Rooms, presumably to head to a life undercover, or perhaps to Scotland to seek out the mythical Dorabella. Presumably that means an inactive Dalek robot is still out there wandering the British Isles. Certainly a better fate than blowing one's self up. Maybe he got into Morris dancing, or Scottish independence. Who knows, eh!

Sarah - 

Bill Paterson is so lovely as Bracewell that I don’t even mind the Doctor and Amy giving him another chance at life. What does worry me is Amy not remembering the Daleks and that crack in the wall. 

As an aside, If you’ve not been, I recommend a visit to the Cabinet War Rooms next time you’re in London. The way things are going pandemic-wise, that will probably sometime around 2030. 

Harry - 

Best Line: after the Daleks call the Doctor's jammy dodger bluff: "I was promised tea!"

Favourite Moment: the New Paradigm Daleks reveal.

Lasting Image: those colourful Daleks!  I'm looking at one as I type this.

7/10

Sarah - 

Best Line:

Amy: "What, so you mean I've got to stay safe down here in the middle of the London Blitz?"

Doctor: "Safe as it gets around me."

Favorite Moment: the Doctor in the elevator with Churchill, waving the cigar smoke away.

Lasting Image: the poster! I’m looking at it as I type this. 

7/10

Our marathon continues with Story #206: The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone...

Story #204 - The Beast Below (2010)

Harry -

I think, Sarah, when we started our marathon rewatch of Doctor Who in its televised entirety, we aimed all our focus on the classic era and left the Matt Smith era alone for these past ten years.

Having watched his first two stories, I wish we hadn't done that. They have both been so good!

Sarah -

I like that we have a bit of distance on the Matt Smith era, it's helping me bring a fresh perspective. But I have to disagree on "The Beast Below". It didn't hold up for me and I have a feeling it could end of being the low point of the series. Turns out Steven Moffat agrees with me. In an interview for the 50th anniversary he was asked for his favorite and least favorite episodes so far:"The Beast Below…it was quite a mess…it was all over the place…” 

I have to agree.

Harry -

You came armed with a link! Feeling outgunned here, but I will say what I liked about the story. Amy wastes no time showing she's got the chops to be a great companion. She successfully investigates on her own, she shows empathy where the Doctor is prepared to give none, and she follows his earlier advice to keep her eyes open for details, which leads her to resolve the story's main mystery.

Sarah -

Sorry, I didn't mean to get all librarian. I remembered Moffat's comment from 2013 and was almost surprised to find the reference.

Harry -

Moffat's Scottish roots provided for some lighter moments of dialogue between Amy and the Doctor.

The Orwellian society aboard Starship UK offered an irresistible dilemma for the Doctor to wade into, despite all his high and mighty talk of never interfering. The entire story was dripping with allegory. The smilers were very unsettling, and downright horrifying when they stood up to attack; a good example of Moffat turning something unexpected into an object of terror.

Where did it go south for you, Sarah?

Sarah -

Almost from the beginning. The story feels very thin, but maybe that's ok. Amy gets to have her first adventure in the future, where she's more than 1,000 years old, and does all the resourceful things a companion gets to do. The Doctor is ready to send her home, but realizes that she sees the things he misses, so Amy gets to stay in the TARDIS.

Harry -

Moffat's look at a future UK society was a bit uneven. He predicts, and this one is a surer bet with each passing year, that the Scots will choose their own course and strike out on their own. He's bang-on about the impulse that most people have to look away and pretend they see nothing when someone is in distress.

Sarah - 

It does feel prescient, doesn’ it? Brexit in Space!

Harry - 

I wasn't sure about Liz 10 though. Not the character herself, because she was well performed by Sophie Okonedo. It's the notion that even a thousand years from now, the English will still be clinging to their monarchy, and an increasingly impotent one at that. The shadowy figures behind the scenes (future bureaucrats?) are the ones who know all the secrets and keep things running.

Sarah - 

I wish Okonedo was given more to do, but one doesn’t expect much from the monarchy, so it might be appropriate.

Harry - 

So we get to the big moral horror of the story. The Doctor has been teasing it by playing around with glasses of water, then we get a big clue when he and Amy get shot down a conduit into a stinking, slime-filled chamber. Once the requisite characters are assembled down below, the beast upon whose back the UK is travelling is acknowledged. The great secret of Starship UK is revealed and it's not pleasant. A starwhale, the last of its kind, has been harnessed and for some stupid reason is being tortured as it conveys the UK through space. The Doctor wants to lobotomize the beast so it will continue on while brain-dead. It's up to Amy to observe that the creature has only friendly intentions and there's no need to torture or destroy its mind.

Pond 1

Doctor 0

Funny that Moffat would pan this story, after spending a lifetime dreaming what he would do and the stories he would tell as Doctor Who's showrunner.

Sarah - 

Imagine finally getting the job you wanted since you were eight-year-old -- I wouldn’t know what to do with myself!

Harry -

Very true.

Sarah -

Maybe I should have given this another watch, but I didn’t and I don’t feel like I have much more to say. I’m ready to find out what’s up with Winston Churchill. Shall we? 

Harry - 

Our first Matt Smith historical, let us go forward together!

Sarah -

Best Line: 

"Oh, I'm way worse than Scottish."

Favorite Moment: Amy discovering she’s 1306 years old. 

Lasting Image: The Smilers are so creepy.

6/10

Harry -

Best Line:

"You look human."

"You look Time Lord."

Favourite Moment: Amy out-thinking the Doctor and saving the starwhale.

Lasting Image: Smilers for sure.

7/10

Our marathon continues with Story #205: Victory of the Daleks...

Story #203 - The Eleventh Hour (2010)

Sarah -

"The Eleventh Hour" is one of my favorite new Doctor stories. The slate has been wiped clean and a new era has begun!

Harry -

I forgot how good this one is. It starts with the Doctor's arrival (literally a crash landing) in the life of a new companion. After the initial confusion and a comedic sequence about food, it's a wild pacey adventure that doesn't let up until Matt Smith's inaugural I am the Doctor speech. "The Eleventh Hour" is great fun!

Sarah -

It’s so much fun! But I still can’t buy into fish fingers and custard. Ick!

Harry -

I keep meaning to try it someday, but it's been over ten years and counting...

Also, I semi-dread the fact that the musical theme created for this Doctor by Murray Gold will be running through my head ceaselessly in the coming months, but I can live with it.

Sarah -

It’s quite jaunty, isn't it?

Harry -

So much jaunty!

The new production team led by Steven Moffat reboots the show flawlessly. Doctor Who was the very first TV show to reboot itself, and has done repeatedly over the decades while maintaining perfect continuity, best of both worlds.

Sarah -

It’s a whole new world and comfortably familiar at the same time.

Harry -

"The Eleventh Hour" offers opening moments of mystery to draw in first-time viewers while giving a nod to longtime fans. I love that the TARDIS swimming pool makes an audible cameo, but it doesn't take away from anyone who hadn't seen the show before. A former work colleague had never watched Doctor Who until she checked out a holiday-time marathon of Season Five. She became hooked and Matt Smith will forever be her Doctor.

Sarah -

That’s lovely! This was also the season my daughter started watching NuWho. She was raised on Classic Who and will always love Tom Baker, but Matt Smith was the first real-time Doctor she watched. She and her brother were young when Doctor Who came back and we thought it would be too intense for them. By the time Matt Smith became the Doctor, she was older and ready for action. My son maintains his allegiance to his favorite Doctor, Peter Davison, but his sister is all about Matt Smith to this day!

Harry -

It's hard not to get pulled along by the energy in this story. Smith is practically bouncing off of everything he comes into contact with. Before long, his new friends are running to keep up.

Sarah -

He had me from the moment he popped out of the TARDIS. Everything was there from the beginning.

Harry -

Two challenges that the Doctor must face up front are the mysterious thing in Amy's house, and the consequences of having left Amy behind when she was a child. For the Doctor it was a matter of minutes, but for Amy, the Raggedy Man's appearance/disappearance caused lasting issues.

Sarah -

It all happens so quickly, but the Doctor’s disappearance leads to years of trauma for Amy. How horrifying to grow up in a town where everyone knows all about your trauma and mostly thinks you’ve made it all up. It’s a wonder Amy manages to function at all!

Harry -

It did seem troubling that everyone in the village seemed to know about Amy's Raggedy Man. She could barely revel in being right all along, what with the monster in her house, which turns out to be a shape-shifting alien fugitive, which has drawn a galactic police spaceship to the planet Earth in pursuit. The most horrifying thing, besides the snake creature and the barking man, which were both well done, was the complete indifference of the Atraxi voice coming from the spaceship. It declared with total banality that if Prisoner Zero did not surrender, it would simply annihilate the entire planet and move on. There's some cosmic horror for you!

Sarah - 

Shape shifting is something that always creeps me out, so this story always hits an effective horror note for me. The moment that really hits me is when the mother with the twins says, “Oh, I'm getting it wrong again, aren't I? I'm always doing that. So many mouths.” It makes me want to hide behind the sofa. 

Harry - 

After lots of climbing and running, the new TARDIS team saves the day and Matt Smith cements his place at the end of a lovely past Doctors montage. Hurray!

Sarah - 

I’m such a sucker for these moments. Smith’s, “Hello. I’m the Doctor. Basically, Run” makes me want to cheer every time.  I also appreciate the Doctor stealing clothes from a hospital doctors’ dressing room for the third time in his career. 

Harry - 

You will probably agree that the best and worst thing about this episode was the guest appearance by Olivia Colman. Future Oscar Winner and all-around superstar Olivia Colman (best)! Given barely a half dozen lines and about three minutes of screen time (worst)! What a terrible waste!

Sarah - 

You may recall that Olivia Colman was my dream Doctor before Matt Smith was announced, so it was exciting to have her in the opening story, but so very disappointing that it was for little more than a cameo. I demand she be brought back in a proper baddie rold. Do you hear me, Chibbs?

Harry - 

Let's rally and press on, a whole new era awaits!

Best Line: "Carrots! Are you insane!" (Nice callback to the Sixth Doctor's last words onscreen.)

Favourite Moment: Olivia Colman's creepy cameo.

Lasting Image: the Doctor meeting Amelia for the first time.

8/10

Sarah - 

Best Line: “I'm the Doctor. I'm worse than everybody's aunt. And that is not how I'm introducing myself.” It makes me laugh every time.

Favorite Moment: The Doctor popping out of the TARDIS to meet Amelia.

Lasting Image: Little Amelia Pond sitting on her suitcase, waiting for the Doctor. 

8/10

Our marathon continues with Story #204: The Beast Below...

The David Tennant Era - Final Thoughts

Harry -

As eras go, this one was as grand as they come. An energetic Doctor, big blockbuster stories, and New Who at its pop culture peak.

Sarah -

Oh, those heady days of the RTD Era! The mere existence of Doctor Who was nothing short of a miracle. Everything was awesome just because it existed. Well, maybe not everything, but I was willing to let some (or maybe a lot of) stuff slide because it was Doctor Freaking Who on my television, which I never thought was going to happen again.

Revisiting the Tennant Era has been challenging. So many of the things I was able to brush off on first watch really got under my skin this time around.

Harry -

Totally agree. The giddiness of watching season after season of New Who was great when it first happened. Having completed a repeat view of this era, there was so much that got under my skin. The arrogance of the Doctor. The season-finale blockbusters that were so much noise without much story. RTD's maternal issues playing out every time we met a companion's mum. And complicated relationships taking over from simple friendships when it came to the Doctor's travelling companions.

Sarah -

Seriously, what is it with RTD and mothers? Writing every companion's mother as difficult is positively pathological!

Harry -

We encountered some brilliant new aliens, from the Sisters of Plenitude to the Weeping Angels to Vashta Nerada. Historically, we met Queen Victoria, William Shakespeare and Agatha Christie. I loved all of these encounters and they delivered on what we love and expect from Doctor Who.

Sarah -

And two fabulous new companions! Martha and Donna are both favorites of mine, despite how they're treated by the show. My favorite Martha moment is when she walks away from the TARDIS because she knows she deserves more. It feels a little obvious to have her end up with Mickey, another companion treated badly by the Doctor, but in my head cannon they're having a wonderful life together.

Harry -

Yes, it was nice to see a couple of characters who endured "complicated relationships" in the show find happiness with each other. While kicking Sontaran asses.

Sarah -

I was so angry when Donna was robbed of all her growth the first time around and was just as angry this time around. I hope Donna has a wonderful life with her husband -- and her lottery winnings.

Harry -

Donna ranks very high on my list of fave companions and I will not forgive RTD for the way he wrote her out of the Doctor's life. Once again, Big Finish saved the day by rolling out new audio adventures for them, and they've been great!

I have to go back to the blockbuster finales as what was most disappointing from this era. The stakes in these stories were so wildly massive and just unfathomable (from the fate of the Earth all the way up to the fate of existence itself) that they were hard to engage with.

Sarah -

Right? I like a good finale, but they got to be just too much.

Harry -

But there were some wonderful gems in this era. "School Reunion", "Human Nature/The Family of Blood", and :Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead" will always be classics of this era for me.

Sarah -

Absolutely. Now that we've finished the era, I'll probably dip back to watch old favorites now and then, but there will be other stories I don't think I'll be rushing to see.

Harry -

Yeah, it was good to rewatch this era right around the 10-year anniversary of Tennant's departure. Given some distance and some contrast with subsequent eras, it settles nicely into the history of the show. At the time it was so loud and mega, seemingly the be all and end all of the revived series, but now I think of it as just one way to do Doctor Who. As with all previous eras, I'll check out certain episodes again, but there are some I'm glad we may never have to watch again.

Sarah - 

We started this project just after Matt Smith's first series ended and I decided at the beginning that I would avoid rewatching stories until we reached them in our marathon. This means I've been waiting to rewatch the Smith era for 10 years! I am so ready to move on. 

Harry - 

Same here!  Farewell Tennant and RTD, on to Smith and Moffat!

Sarah - 

Allons-y!

Our marathon resumes with Story #203: The Eleventh Hour...

Story #202 - The End of Time (2009-2010)

Harry -

We have finally reached The End of Time, and I'm feeling fine. Sarah let's break out the gin to toast the end of another era.

It's got to be over a decade since I watched this and the "victory lap" ending was as cringeworthy as remembered. However I was surprised to find the story leading up to it was better than I thought. Definitely better on a rewatch.

Sarah -

I was hoping to have the same reaction as you, but I think I liked it even less on this rewatch. At the very least, I know I won’t ever have to watch it again.

On the upside we have Wilf as the Doctor’s companion. Hooray! Unfortunately, it’s also Christmas time, so we know nothing good will happen. Cue the resurrection of the Master by some lame cultists devoted to him, which leads to the massacre of innocent people in a quarry. Remember how excited we were when John Simm was announced as the Master? How naive we were. I’d almost rather watch Eric Roberts’ performance. Almost.

Harry -

John Simm's Master was very jarring at first. Very hyper and over the top, a dark reflection of David Tennant's Doctor. As Doctor Who has rumbled on for over 50 years, each iteration of the Master has shed a layer of Roger Delgado's initial quiet coolness and become more bouncy-bouncy bonkers. We have watched this character grow increasingly insane over time. This Master continues the progression. I remember not liking him when this season first aired, but over time he's become a favourite, probably because of his performance in the Capaldi era which we will get to.

Sarah - 

I’m already counting the seasons to the return of the Master!

Harry - 

The resurrection scene was definitely bad. The cult, the massacre, the barely plausible Gallifreyan biology that makes Time Lords immortal, bleh. At least Lucy Saxon took a measure of revenge and threw a spanner into the works, screwing up the process and leaving the Master more a flickering flame than a fully-formed being again.

Speaking of comebacks, I wonder how tempted RTD was to write Donna back into one more story. If he really wanted, he could have found some way for the Doctor to restore and preserve her mind for at least one more adventure. New Who's showrunners seem to have carte blanche. However it's interesting that it didn't happen. Instead, we got Wilf as the companion and it was a smashing time. Wilf leading his own merrie branch of L.I.N.D.A., what a riot.

Sarah -

Donna’s return was one of my favorite parts of the story. I hope she’ll be very happy with her husband and that lottery money won’t hurt! Wilf’s band of Doctor-hunters were adorable, but I’m not sure about the lady who couldn’t keep her hands to herself. Still, he probably has it coming after the Queen Bess comment.

Harry -

And so the early part of the story bounces between three corners. The Master reborn and bonkers, the Doctor in pursuit, and Wilf & Co. in pursuit of the Doctor.

An air of mystery is added by a mysterious woman who delivers enigmatic messages to Wilf. Surprisingly, RTD let her remain an enigma.

After a couple of confrontations with the Doctor, the Master is kidnapped by some paramilitary thugs and the story kicks into another gear. The Master is briefly held captive by Joshua Naismith, a man of unlimited wealth and power. Briefly. Feigning that he will help Naismith harness a piece of alien technology that can supposedly make humans immortal, the Master rigs it up to instead transform all humans into Master-clones. A Master Race! Very clever. But like all of the Master's schemes in New Who, it's all high concept but filled with holes. We will see this pattern repeat itself: the Master/Missy creates a massive army, but fails to think through all the ramifications and the entire project collapses. As they say, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Sarah -

I feel exhausted just thinking about this nonsense. The Master is the, well, master of bonkers schemes, but this one takes the cake. Just what we need, a whole planet of the “Master” race. And when did he start being able to shoot electricity and fly? I can’t even tell you how much I loathe this plot line.

Harry -

It's totally in keeping with the modern era's Master in that his/her plots are nonsense, as if the point to the entire thing is to get a reaction from the Doctor. Get a room already!

Sarah -

The whole Obama/recession storyline is silly. And the mispronouncing of his name got under my skin. While I’m on a tear here, what the what with the creepy Naismith? The way he looks at his daughter may be the grossest thing in Doctor Who’s history.

Harry -

Eww eww Naismith. Please do not get a room!

Sarah -

And then we have the Time Lords, making their first return since Trial of a Time Lord in 1986. They’re as irritating as ever and I’m more than ready for Gallifrey to be destroyed.

Harry -

I don't recall if the return of Rassilon was known before this story aired. 

Sarah - 

I definitely remember being surprised the first time around, so I’m guessing not. 

Harry - 

Timothy Dalton's performance was scene-chewingly amusing, but I'm not sure what we were meant to think at the end. Was Rassilon not all that great after all, his scheme broken up by the lightning-flinging Master? Or had the Master evolved into some entirely new kind of being, able to fling lightning at the mighty Rassilon? Best not to expend too many brain cells on it. After all, Wilf is knocking.

And so the Tenth Doctor meets his demise. Not by the Daleks or Cybermen, not by some stupendous new monster, but by poor old Wilfrid Mott trapping himself in a chamber that's about to go nuclear. Ever since "The Caves of Androzani", I've wanted to see another story where the Doctor sacrifices a life in order to save just one person, not in some grand space opera setting but in a quiet corner of the universe. We got that here and it should have been great but for RTD blowing the regeneration up into the most self-indulgent, eye-rolling ordeal of all time.

Sarah - 

Right? It would have been perfect if the Doctor just regenerated and moved on. To be fair, if there’s one person worth dying to save it’s Wilfrid Mott. 

Harry - 

There's no need to go over the victory lap. It sucks and I'm not a fan, but it was RTD's farewell and he deserved to have his way after resurrecting the greatest TV show of all time. I really can't say anything else nice, so let's wrap it up.

Sarah - 

The victory lap may be the most egregious thing ever in Doctor Who, let’s leave it be. 

Harry - 

Best Line:

Wilf enters the TARDIS for the first time: "I thought it would be cleaner."

Favourite Moment:

Tough to pick one. I liked some of John Simm's manic moments. Gross but riveting.

Lasting Image:

Wilf's final goodbye to the Doctor.

5/10

Sarah - 

Best Line: 

Doctor: "I'd be proud."

Wilf: "Of what?"

Doctor: "If you were my dad."

Favorite Moment:

The return of Donna Noble!

Lasting Image: 

Wilf hugging the Doctor

3/10

Story #201 - The Waters of Mars (2009)

Sarah -
I've been looking forward to this story, which I haven't watched since the first airing. I remembered it being the best of the Specials year and I was not disappointed.


Harry -
Everyone acted the hell out of this one, especially Lindsay Duncan as Captain Adelaide Brooke. Wow!


Sarah -
Duncan is definitely one of my favorite guest actors of the Tennant era. She’s spectacular as Adelaide.


Harry -
The only memories I had of this story were the "Gadget gadget" droid, and the dripping monsters. But I forgot how much of a horror story this one was. More haunted house than base under siege. What happened to the infected crew members was horrific.


Sarah -
"The Waters of Mars" is a proper horror story and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The junior member of the Smith household, let’s call her Ace, commented that the story reminded her of Alien. Alien is my favorite horror film, so I’m down with that.


Harry -
Wicked!


Sarah -
I love that the chaos starts with a simple carrot.


Harry -
A simple carrot, bitten by the first unfortunate member of the crew, bringing something very ancient back to life and setting off a chain reaction for Adelaide and her crew.

I can't recall if there was an expectation that a story set on Mars would include the Ice Warriors. They did get a shout out by the Doctor quite late, but the menace he encountered here was something else entirely. An ancient race or intelligence (that understood a Northern Martian dialect, apparently), that craved or depended so much on water that it was ready to travel to Earth and soak up its seas. It was up to the Doctor to stop this invasion before it even got off the planet. Only, once he realized where he'd stumbled into, and who he was among, and what day it was, he suddenly wanted to leave the Mars base as soon as possible.


Sarah -
It’s so rare to see the Doctor react this way, which just amps up the tension even more. He knows how this is going to end and watching it happen is unnerving. He keeps trying to get out of there, but can’t manage to do so.


Harry -
Half the time he was was standing in a doorway in his orange spacesuit, knowing he should leave but desperate to stay. He hung around, then got completely carried away at the end when he should have just left.


Sarah -
We’ve already called out Lindsay Duncan’s performance, but the entire cast is fabulous. Watching them be infected one by one is terrifying. Maggie’s transformation while talking to Yuri is especially effective. Sharon Duncan-Brewster’s performance well and truly scared me. The moment that broke my heart was Steffi starting the video of her children when she realizes she’s about to transform. That was crushing.


Harry -
The props and costume crews outdid themselves here. The monsters were very unique and very horrifying.

Each time a crew member fell victim to the infection was traumatic. I forgot how powerful this story was. 

It all leads up to a series of confrontations between the Doctor and Adelaide. First, when she cottons on to the fact that he knows more than he's admitting. Then, when she refuses to let him leave until he lets her know what he knows. Their final face-to-face was the most explosive of all. Having gone completely apeshit movie hero, the Doctor rescued Adelaide and two remaining crew members before the Mars base was completely destroyed. Knowing her future history, and realizing that it has been altered with potentially massive consequences, Adelaide rounds on the Doctor with fury. How dare he play god and tamper with human history, and then act all full of himself for having saved a few lives, when he might have prevented the disaster from the very beginning. I love how she completely tells him off.


Sarah -
YES! The Doctor has had that coming for a while. What happened to, "you can't rewrite history! Not one line!"


Harry -
It was something he badly needed to hear. Left alone again, he finally admitted to himself, "I've gone too far" with his Time Lord victorious shtick.

He seems to hallucinate the appearance of an Ood on a London street, before retreating to the TARDIS with destiny about to crash down upon him. What a wild story.

Shall we see how the Doctor's song ends?


Sarah -
Let’s go!


Harry -
Best line: "I hate funny robots."

Favourite moment: Adelaide rips the Doctor to shreds.

Lasting image: Andy, the first victim, transformed by the waters of Mars.

7/10


Sarah -
Best Line: 
Adelaide: State your name, rank, and intention.
Doctor: The Doctor. Doctor. Fun.

Favorite Moment: Adelaide telling the Doctor off for rewriting history.

Lasting Image: Maggie after her transformation.

8/10

Our marathon continues with Story #202: The End of Time...

Story #200 - Planet of the Dead (2009)

Harry -
Here's a story I probably haven't watched since around the time it was first broadcast. I didn't remember much about it aside from the setting of a London bus crashed on a desert planet, and the one-off character of Lady Christina de Souza.


Sarah -
It's definitely the first time I've watched it since 2009. I wasn't looking forward to watching it, remembering that I wasn't a fan of it the first time out. With expectations so low, I found myself not as annoyed by it as I expected, but not particularly engaged by it either.


Harry -
Watching it again the other day, the opening scene where Christina plunders a golden chalice from a museum brought to mind of all things the Cartmel Masterplan. If I'm remembering it right, Cartmel had planned to write Ace out of the show in 1990 and replace her with a cat burglar. History did not pan out that way, but Cartmel might have been amused to see the Doctor teaming up with a cat burglar years later.

Sarah -
I'm sure Cartmel would have had something to say about that. No one loves discussing his work more than he does.

I didn't remember much about the story besides Lady Christina and the bus, so it was a surprise to see Daniel Kaluuya as Barclay, long before his international stardom.

Harry -
That was definitely a "whoa!" moment.

There weren't many others here. After the museum alarm triggered a pursuit and bus chase, Lady Christina and the Doctor end up on the other side of the universe with a collection of baffled passengers. Back on Earth, the police call in UNIT, and the typical UNIT activities unfold. Roll in with heavy artillery, take total control and seal off the area until something Doctory happens.

Sarah - 
It was all a bit predictable, wasn’t it?

Harry - 
Things were a bit more interesting on the desert planet. The Doctor and Lady Christina strike up a friendship and go exploring. They discover another wreck, that of a spaceship piloted by anthropomorphic flies. The aliens were vastly superior in design to the buggy aliens from "The Web Planet", but they weren't given much to do. As characters go, they seemed to be as baffled as the folks back on the bus.

Sarah - 
Bafflement all around. It was sad when the aliens were killed while the Doctor was trying to get everyone back to the bus. 

Harry - 
To add some pressure to the situation of the broken down bus, the threat of a coming storm arises. The "storm" is in fact a swarm of metal-shelled, omnivorous flying beasties and it's feeding time.

So, the Doctor and Lady Christina utilize their skills and cleverness to figure out how to repair the bus, and the Doctor connects with UNIT to get their help in sorting out the mysterious portal through space.

Enter Dr. Malcolm Taylor. A force of nature all his own. I forgot that he was in this story as UNIT's brilliant and excitable scientific advisor. His scenes added some levity to the story, with a Quatermass gag thrown in.

Sarah - 
Malcolm is my favorite part of the entire story and I’m always down for a Quatermass reference.  It made me remember when we planned to watch one episode of The Quatermass Experiment at Chicago TARDIS and ended up staying up much too late to watch the whole story.  That was so good!

Harry - 
It was a great series.  The Holstian theme music still resonates.

And cue the race to the finish! The Doctor and Christina hoof it back with some fancy alien technology to power the bus. Malcolm rigs up the time portal, and UNIT stands by with guns ready. They went hog wild once the bus was back through with a few stray alien beasties, blasting them out of the sky and damn the consequences.

Earth saved, hurrah, etc.

Once the aliens are done away with, the Doctor helps Lady Christina slip away and escape on the alien-powered flying bus... which gave me a thought.

With a few tweaks, this could have been an Iris Wildthyme story. Swap her in for Lady Christina, give the story a more gin-soaked flavour, and find a way to introduce Panda. Maybe the crew of the second wrecked ship could have been tiny anthropomorphic pandas instead of insects. Iris rescues one and they become inseparable. Wahey!! The imagination runs riot thinking about this.

Sarah - 
Get Paul Magrs on the phone -- it’s time for a rewrite!

Harry -
Proof that it would not be too difficult to weave Iris into the show.  She would have made this one of the best stories ever.  I want this now!

Sarah -
The story is passable, I guess, but there’s little to inspire. 

Harry -
Well sure now that I've been whipped into a Wildthyme frenzy.

Sarah -
When Big Finish announced their Lady Christina series, I just shrugged. 

Harry -
I'll take Katy Manning any day.

Sarah -
I have no need to rewatch this episode anytime soon. 

Harry -
Are we still talking about this episode?

Sarah -
Ready for a trip to Mars? 

Harry -
Wahey!

Sarah - 
Best Line: 

Malcolm: Fifteen Malcolms. It's my own little term. A wavelength parcel of ten kilohertz operating in four dimensions equals one Malcolm.
Doctor: You named a unit of measurement after yourself?
Malcolm: Well, it didn't do Mister Watt any harm. Furthermore, one hundred Malcolms equals a Bernard.
Doctor: And who's that? Your dad?
Malcolm: Don't be ridiculous. That's Quatermass.

Favorite Moment: Malcolm meeting the Doctor.

Lasting Image: The bus is the most iconic thing about this story. 

4/10

Harry -
Best Line:

Captain Magambo: "I don't believe it. Guns that work."

Favourite Moment: Definitely Malcolm. "I LOVE YOU!!"

Lasting Image: the publicity shot of the Doctor and Lady Christina always comes to mind first.

5/10

Our marathon continues with Story #201: The Waters of Mars...

Story #199 - The Next Doctor (2008)

Harry -
The mind plays tricks, as Jackson Lake would attest.

It was surprising that we are got to this story so late in the Tennant era. It feels like it came much sooner, perhaps before we'd even met Donna Noble. But here it is, part of that handful of specials that mark the extra "half-season" that Tennant hung around for. Interested in other projects, but not quite ready to relinquish his hold on the sonic screwdriver, Tennant worked out a reduced load of stories with RTD so that they could enjoy one more year as Doctor Who's star and showrunner.

What I remember most about "The Next Doctor" is that from the moment this special's title was announced, speculation was rife that we'd catch a glimpse of Tennant's successor, and maybe even see a regeneration take place. After all, it had been one whole episode since the last time we'd been teased with a regeneration. Snark aside, there's not much else that stands out for me in rewatching this story. What were your memories going in, Sarah?


Sarah -
I definitely remember the chaos unleashed when David Morrissey turned up in the trailer for "The Next Doctor". The title was a clever ploy on RTD’s part. I imagine ratings for the Christmas special would have been higher than usual that year. 

I think the concept of having the Doctor’s memories imprinted on Jackson Lake’s brain is brilliant. It’s clever to have the Doctor think he’s meeting his successor when he’s not.


Harry -
As mindbenders go, it was positively Moffatesque.


Sarah -
In retrospect, I think it would have been a more interesting episode if the truth about Jackson Lake had been revealed later. The Cyberking nonsense is nowhere as compelling as the mystery of the Next Doctor.


Harry -
Oof!  The Cyberking.  I guess it was meant to shakeup a bog standard Cybermen-invade-Earth story.  In this case, the reveal came way too late.  Mercy Hartigan was totally forgettable as the villain-slash-human stooge.  Neither her backstory nor her motivation to conspire with the Cybermen was given much thought, making her one of the worst adversaries in the Tennant era.  Naturally, she got her just desserts in the end and the Cyberking got zapped out of existence.  I really would have liked to see the Cyberking in a different setting, maybe somewhere rural where you could really play up the wicker man folk horror aspects.  Cybermen feeding terrified peasants straight into the belly of the monster.  That sort of thing.  Hopefully somewhere out there is a fan fiction along those lines.

Anyway, it's all over, hurrah and happy Christmas.


Sarah -
I usually cut Christmas stories a lot of slack and try to just enjoy the episode, but this is the beginning of the Tennant lap of honour year so it’s bound to be more than a little annoying. I don’t really have much else to say.


Harry -
Same here.  Not much note taking took place during this rewatch.  Happy to move on.


Sarah -
Best Line:  If you could stand back, sir. This is a job for a Time Lord.

Favorite Moment: The Doctor’s confusion when he meets Jackson

Lasting Image: For better or worse, the massive Cyberman stomping around London 

4/10


Harry -
Best Line: I'm the Doctor. Simply, the Doctor. The one, the only and the best.  [loved the delivery, such oomph!]

Favourite Moment: Jackson unveiling his TARDIS.

Lasting Image: Terrified peasants being fed to my alternate-universe rural Cyberking.

5/10

Our marathon continues with Story #200: Planet of the Dead...