Smith and Jones The Shakespeare Code Gridlock Daleks in Manhattan Evolution of the Daleks The Lazarus Experiment 42 Human Nature The Family of Blood Blink Utopia The Sound of Drums Last of the Time Lords

BBC New Series Season Three

• The Great Collapse by Billy Barron
• Another half of Tennant's by John Nor
• A Review by Alan Morrison
• A Review by Ron Mallett
• The Year of the Tacky Score by Hugh Sturgess
• A Review by Tal Hazelden

The Great Collapse by Billy Barron 18/9/07

I can honestly say I've never seen a Who season like this one. One that is generally very strong and then near the end completely collapses. The collapse is largely due to the flaws I've seen repeated over and over in new Who.

I was going to include Runaway Bride, but our site host has it as part of the previous season. In any case, I reviewed it separately so you can read that. The short version is that I liked it more than most.

We start off with Smith and Jones. I'll give Russell credit that he writes really strong character introduction stories. It's fun, interesting and makes sense. Martha's introduction to the TARDIS is just wonderful. The rumor is that David Tennant himself thought up is "Is it? I never noticed" line. Great episode.

The Shakespeare Code was fine, but a little too cute with its Shakespeare play references for its own good. I'm going to move my comments on Gridlock to later.

The Dalek episodes were a strange mix of having cringeworthy moments (I won't mention it because it might be a spoiler, but you know which one I'm primarily talking about if you have seen it), great moments (e.g. the Dalek look over his shoulder to see who is listening), great acting, and incredible cinematography. Overall, continued good work.

The Lazarus Experiment was an average Who episode. 42 was great, but it's flaw was that it seems like a redo of The Impossible Planet.

Human Nature/Family of Blood excited most people more than me. Still, it was fine though it would have worked better as just one part.

In my opinion, Blink was one of the finest episode of Who to ever bless the screen. It might be the best all time, but I'm not ready yet to say that. The plot is just tight. Sally Sparrow is a wonderful character. I only have one more nit about the whole thing which I'm not going to even mention.

At this point in the season, excluding Gridlock (going to get to in a moment), we have a season whose worst is average. Martha is working well, Jack is coming back soon. Everything is looking great.

Unfortunately, now we get to what I consider the 4-parter: Gridlock, with the final 3 episodes. Gridlock bored the pants off of me and I didn't like the way the story was handled either. Then the story continues in Utopia. Utopia was better, but most of the story turned out to be padding for the reveal at the end of the story.

Unfortunately, John Simm showed up with his half-Joker/half-Riddler-from-Batman act, not the character he was supposed to be playing. The Batman TV series actors were better at both roles as was Jim Carrey as the Riddler. Still, I'll grant Simm was better than Nicholson as the Joker.

Between his horrible character (although he may have only been doing what RTD asked) and the chaotic script, The Sound of Drums was a dismal failure. It was a huge mess which I can only compare to The Chase or Mindwarp in that regard.

Now we are at the point where Gridlock raised questions and answered none. Utopia and The Sound of Drums did the same. Not a very satisfying situation.

Then we end the season with Last of the Time Lords. I might have enjoyed this more if we hadn't have two Davies Ex Machina scripts to end the previous two seasons. In fact, I'd say that Last of the Time Lords is mostly a reworking of The Parting of the Ways. If The Parting of the Ways wasn't around, I'd be happier about the end of this season.

And then, the whole thing feels like it is ripped off pieces of other movies (Star Wars, Flash Gordon, Lord of the Rings, etc). There is a great post on Outpost Gallifrey with 10 or 12 pictures of other movies that summarize the entire plot.

Oh yeah, I haven't even mentioned the gaping plotholes. Let me just say they were enormous and rather obvious if you spend more than 2 seconds thinking about it.

Meanwhile, Jack was a complete waste in these 3 stories. It was either in his contract or was Torchwood PR. Not much point to it, which was a huge disappointment to me. Nothing much resolved about him and the hint dropped near the end is in my opinion more of a stab at fandom rumors than anything to take seriously. I'm also rather unhappy about how the Martha story arc is progressing (not going to say more to avoid spoilers).

Tennant did a generally good job this season especially playing John Smith. However, his emotional moments late in the season didn't ring true to me. The good news for him is that none of the Doctors (except maybe Hartnell) in the classic series could really carry off those kind of scenes either.

So where does this leave this season? To be honest, it's going to take me a while to digest it. I think in the end, I'll probably end up rating this as a Top 10 season of all time. But what's sad was that going into (and maybe even coming out of) Utopia, it had a shot at being the best.

I'm very concerned about Series 4 right now outside of Tennant himself. I think RTD has outlived his usefulness as a writer and needs to let others handle the writing duties. Since Tooth and Claw, he is responsible for 1 great episode (Smith and Jones), 1 good one (Runaway Bride), 3 so-so ones (Army of Ghosts, Doomsday and Utopia), 2 bad ones (The Sound of Drums, Last of the Time Lords) and 2 that are complete pants (Love & Monsters and Gridlock). Not a good recent track record. Steven Moffat is the guy who needs to step up and do more writing.

Another half of Tennant's by John Nor 23/10/07

This will be a review of the 2007 Season so far - episodes 1 to 7, as I believe the Nu-Who Seasons are structured to have two halves. I am writing this before the transmission of episode 8.

With my review of the 2006 Season, I focused on two aspects of the stories: finding patterns of repeating story-types across the 2005 and 2006 Seasons and discussing the arcs. I will do the same thing here. Briefly: does the 2007 Season first half repeat the pattern of story-types I highlighted in review of the 2006 Season? The answer is, broadly, yes, if I rephrase the story-types slightly - with the exception of one episode.

Meet-the-heroes: Smith and Jones.

Historical-horror: The Shakespeare Code.

Doctor's-character-deepened-in-Douglas-Adamsesque-setting: Gridlock (following The End of the World and The Girl in the Fireplace.)

Attempted-Earth-invasion-two-parter: Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks.

Very-Classic-traditional-story: The Lazarus Experiment (following The Long Game and The Idiot's Lantern.)

The exception: 42. My previous review had the story-type of "It's a bank holiday weekend and it's time for the return of a Classic Icon, with a new emotional spin and a focus on character!" as I catergorised Dalek and School Reunion. This year, firstly, the scheduling of the episodes seems to have been more relaxed - no more ensuring a May bank holiday "second launch". Secondly, none of episodes 1 to 7 had the first appearance of a Classic Icon returning for the 21st Century. (The Macra are not iconic!) Both of these points perhaps signify a more confident production team this year.

Doctor Who has always had pre-planned story-types to help structure its Seasons. Way back in 1963, there was the writer's guide that David Whittaker created for Sydney Newman. According to the writer's guide, there would be three kinds of stories in this new series: Past, Future and Sideways.

And so the first three stories: An Unearthly Child (the whole four episodes e.g. 100,000 BC or WHATEVER story-title nitpickers may choose!). The Daleks. The Edge of Destruction.

The Sideways category (Planet of the Giants, The Space Museum) became less and less popular with the writers. (Although both Inferno and - in Nu-Who - Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel were a nod to the old Sideways style!)

Going by the eventually established Classic Series tradition, Russell T seems to have redefined the basic three as: Present, Past and Future.

(Which also matches the 1963 season: Serial 1, ep 1 / Serial 1 eps 2-4 / Serial 2.)

So - as well as categorising the story-types across the Nu-Who Seasons as I have described above, there is another clear pattern. Episodes 1 to 7 have a Present, a Past, and a Future story within episodes 1 to 3, then the Attempted-Earth-invasion-two-parter, the Very-Classic-traditional-story.

There is also another story-type: Dalek in the 2005 Season, The Girl in the Fireplace in the 2006 Season and now 42 in the 2007 Season.

This iconoclastic story type underscores the fact that this is Nu-Who now, with emotional aspects to the fore. Just as Ninth losing his cool and displaying a spitting rage and Tenth "dancing" were shocking and surprising moments which defined Nu-Who, the Doctor in 42 admitting he is scared is a very Nu-Who moment.

This moment leads into a discussion of the arc storylines so far. This was the moment at which the Doctor and Martha became close, after the Doctor being quite distant from her after the first six episodes. There was a "front" which he had been using to mask his feelings from her, and its crumbling here signaled his acceptance of her. (As well as Martha receiving the super-phone and Tardis key.)

As this particular emotional arc story-line - the Doctor accepts Martha as a companion and gets over Rose - came to a close over episodes 6 and 7, these episodes also saw the beginning of the Saxon-tracking-the-Doctor plot arc story-line.

There are various motifs that have appeared over episodes 1 to 7 - those of Family, Blood and what it means to be Human. Knowing the story-titles of episodes 8 and 9 there seems to be a certain amount of build-up there. There is also the recurring idea of being able to alter DNA. Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks was the only disappointing story so far, as the approach to DNA there was a real hindrance to the suspension of disbelief.

Going back to those motifs, and some observations. Family: "I had a brother once..." in Smith and Jones. "You are not alone" in Gridlock. Hmmm.

Blood: As I mentioned in my review of The Shakespeare Code, the production design has introduced a recurring blood-red colour to compliment the ongoing bronzes, greens and blues of Nu-Who. What with the Doctor's blood being sucked through a straw, "the old ways of blood and magic", "hydrogen for blood" in 42 and the various new bloodlines in the other episodes, there is a lot of it about. And it is another name for Family, really.

What does it mean to be Human?

All of this is leading into the first part of Human Nature/The Family of Blood which I am just about to watch this afternoon...

A Review by Alan Morrison 4/1/08

There's no doubt in my mind that this has been the best season of new Who so far. It has in my view had the most consistently strong stories out of all three series, and included the longest continual run of top class episodes from Human Nature through to Utopia. One might even argue, given that 42 is actually still a fairly good episode and above the standard of the more mediocre offerings of previous years, that this run could be traced right back to the third episode of this season, Gridlock. That's a pretty mammoth string of classics and near-classics.

Such a shame then that the penultimate episode, second in The Master arc of the series, and opener to the official season finale, was so appallingly executed, harking back to the pantomime excesses of Aliens of London/World War Three and the political absurdities of The Christmas Invasion and Army of Ghosts. Thankfully the final episode, Last of the Time Lords, albeit spiced with the usual melodramatic elements (see also Parting of the Ways and Doomsday) and near-Messianic take on the Doctor, just about manages to pull the season up by its bootstraps for its last 51 minutes, and delivers a fairly satisfactory climax with the apparent death - emotively directed - of the Master.

It's rather ironic that this series turned out to be so strong compared to its more bitty predecessors, considering it got off to a pretty dismal start with two of the worst episodes this year: the rather stupid, Hitchhiker's-esque Smith and Jones, and the gratingly smug Harry Potter replica, The Shakespeare Code. That these two episodes still looked pretty classy in no way redeemed their complete lack of substance and real drama. Smith and Jones was pretty much a vacuous runaround, while The Shakespeare Code - inexplicably lauded by many fans - also lacked any real grit or substance, and served more as a moving tourist brochure for the Globe than anything else. Sadly its few interesting aspects such as the voodoo-style dolls used to manipulate people and the witches' poet-speak did little to significantly lift what was generally an implausibly plotted, self-congratulatory romp.

But things soon took an upturn with the least likely hit of the new series, the refreshingly witty and imaginative Gridlock. With this genuinely amusing polemic, RTD proved for the first time that with sufficient application he could just about pull off a proper satire. In many ways this episode echoed the McCoy oddballs, in particular Paradise Towers and The Happiness Patrol. But, in its slightly grittier execution, well-paced tempo and eclectic scripting, it managed to deliver on a directorial and atmospheric level in a way that Nick Mallet in particular failed to do.

Daleks of Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks was a good solid story with an excellent new take on the eponymous enemies in the human Dalek. This was very much Day of the Daleks territory (with Pig Men instead of Ogrons), and particularly the sewer scenes harked back to the series of old. This is probably the most old-Who style story to date in new Who.

The Lazarus Experiment was again a surprise episode, with a show-stealing cameo from Mark Gatiss. The cathedral scene for me goes down as a classic moment. Although there is a dip in originality with 42 - or the poor man's Satan Pit - this episode is still fairly well made, and is actually probably the most gritty and depressing of the entire run. But it acts as a fairly sturdy bridge to the following story.

Human Nature/Family of Blood was of course the most anticipated two parter and, by and large, lives up to its predicted classic status. The first episode in particular stands out as the best episode of new Who to date, arguably on a par with some of the second tier classic stories from the old series. In its unique humanization of the Doctor into a wistful school teacher in a 1913 public school, Human Nature will undoubtedly start creeping up even further in most fans' ratings, to the dizzy echelons of the likes of Caves of Androzani, Deadly Assasin, Talons of Weng-Chiang, Pyramids of Mars, Genesis of the Daleks et al. Though I can see why it may very well achieve such a grand classic status in the entire cannon, due to its very unusual plot, I still felt that its closing episode Family of Blood was not as strong, even if it did include one of the greatest shots ever of the schoolboys gunning down scarecrows in slow motion.

Human Nature/Family of Blood is the nearest Who has ever come to a film; moreover, an arthouse flick, in its closing scenes. Human Nature particularly shows just what can be achieved with the monies pumped in now to Doctor Who. It wholesomely brings to fruition the costume possibilities previously glimpsed in the consummate The Unquiet Dead and Tooth and Claw. (Although, having said this, I still think you can never beat the sheer gloom and atmosphere of the old Who costume stories, such as Pyramids of Mars and Talons). This is certainly the standout story of the series, and of new Who so far and in my books puts the pretty good but over-rated Empty Child/Doctor Dances into the shade in comparison. In any other era, less hyped than this one, Human Nature might have come out as controversial and criticised as the likes of Deadly Assassin was in its time. In some ways it's a shame it hasn't, as this would only add fuel to its already classic status. Human Nature/Family of Blood lifts Who up to a new level of poetic depth, not seen substantially in my opinion since the Davison era (Kinda, Enlightenment). Having said that, it does have some of the poetic feel of the latter McCoy stories, in particular the torrid Ghost Light and The Curse of Fenric (inevitable, of course, as it was originally a Seventh Doctor New Adventure). But Human Nature manages with more time and money, to deliver a production matching its scriptural poeticism. When are they going to make Lungbarrow? It has to be done.

And just when one thinks things have to take a downturn, they continue on the same poetic level. Blink was another surprise gem of the series, working extremely well in spite of the Doctor's near-absence throughout. Thankfully a strong actress was chosen for the main role and so one could actually feel some interest in her fortunes. The Weeping Angels are to my mind the most exceptionally conceived monsters ever to appear in Who (close runners up being the Voc Robots in Robots of Death and the Clockwork Androids in Girl in the Fireplace), not only in their visual realisation, but in their actual ontology. A race of creatures which only exist when one isn't observing them is almost profound, and the shots of them flicking in and out of more and more malevolent poses while the lights faltered around the TARDIS was stunningly shot. Along with Father's Day and Fear Her, Blink taps into the eeriness of the classic series Sapphire and Steel. A surprise classic.

But for me the first episode so far in new Who to really put a shiver down my spine was Utopia. Derek Jacobi far surpassed my expectations in his superb performance, even though I regard him as one of the best British TV actors of all time. His turn as the Master has to rank as the best since Delgado. That an actor of Jacobi's stature should so obviously relish this performance makes it all the more spine-tingling. The scenario of this episode is also excellently realised and directed, Graeme Harper finally pulling off something more akin to his two classic giants of the old series. Though it is set at the end of time itself, replete with implausibly archaic dress codes (re Yana's 19th century style outfit), like Gridlock, it still works. The vampire humans are actually quite creepy, and bear nice homage to the stock primitives of many a Blake's 7 episode. In many ways Utopia reminds me of Blake's 7, with a crabby genius hiding away in his laboratory on some distant rocky planet (cue Orac, Traitor, Games, Orbit etc). Brilliant stuff.

Sadly the downturn comes rather late this season, in the penultimate episode, which turns out to be a very unsteady and directionless bridge in the three episode arc. Sound of Drums is basically an irrelevance and frankly could quite easily be erased from the series, as it adds very little, and what it does add to things (the background story to the Master) is repeated again anyway in the far better concluding episode. Also, the fact that Last of the Time Lords picks up a year on from the Master's domination of Earth shows that in fact the previous episode is largely unnecessary. When I watch the season again, I will skip Sound of Drums (as well as the first two episodes - for me the season starts with Gridlock). It's such a shame it appeared at all, as it broke the impetus of the longest run of excellent episodes since, in my view, Season 19.

We end with the apparent death of the newly resurrected Master, a character which has now been just about as lampooned as he possibly could be, by ironically one of our strongest young TV actors. Simm clearly doesn't take Doctor Who too seriously, which is a bit of a pity given such a brilliant buildup to his inception as the Master. One can only suppose the actor has only seen the worst RTD episodes. I would guess the director is much to blame also, but then no one seems to have the power nowadays to stand up to the crass whims of the series' ubiquitous producer.

Nevertheless, Last of the Time Lords serves its purpose and makes up in some small way for the shambles of Sound of Drums (a massively wasted opportunity). Another controversial aspect of this series has to also be the bizarre Gollumnization of the Doctor, very well realised but arguably a little pointless. It also asks new questions as to the true ontology of the Time Lords, but I suspect we won't be getting any answers.

All in all then, the best season so far of new Who. Tennant's portrayal begins to settle down a bit more and in particularly Gridlock, Human Nature, Utopia and Last of the Time Lords, excels.

Martha proves as pointless and empty a character as I had suspected from the start of the season, in what must be one of the most tedious departing scenes ever done for a companion.

Series Three is far more satisfactory and consistent than its predecessor and points the way forward in general for how the show should continue: imaginative, compelling, risk-taking, and even a little bit poetic.

A Review by Ron Mallett 17/1/08

Method:

Having reread my reviews of each of the stories making up the first and second seasons, I discovered that many were very repetitive: the production values of the new series were excellent, the writing is uneven and over-injected with "New Adventure" generation emotionalism, Billie Piper can't act. Therefore I've decided on a change of approach. I'd watch the whole series, re-watch it, and then provide a short analysis of each story and follow it with an integrated series of conclusions.

Smith and Jones by Russell T. Davies:

Once again we have a title for an episode which reflects the emphasis on emotional interplay rather than concepts and adventure (you know, what sci-fi is actually supposed to be about).

More silly science as well: I'm not an authority on gravity but I am sure that the Earth has more mass than the moon, therefore why would the rain drops under any circumstances fall upwards, inter-dimensional portal or not?!

The Shakespeare Code by Gareth Roberts:

Even my wife groaned when she read the title of this one. Still, as so often is the case having been written by someone other than RTD (Gareth Roberts), this was by far the most solid instalment so far.

By the way, Shakespearean performances took place during the day. Think about it: lighting, torches, fire danger... oh, well I suppose the damn thing burnt down six decades later anyway! And of course Shakespeare had to be young and sexy so there could be a bit of flirting, not the balding poof we've been lead to believe he was (we all know the Doctor should have been depicted with Christopher Marlowe don't we, snigger snigger).

Gridlock by Russell T. Davies:

Didn't anyone ever think to get out of their vehicles and walk?

Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks by Helen Raynor:

Whenever I think of this story my thoughts are marred by the trauma caused by hearing Eric Loren state: "I am a human Dalek." This story is perhaps the most derivative yet, having stolen concepts from everything from Evil of the Daleks to Revelation of the Daleks, thrown it up against a New York/Great Depression background and thrown in some of the worst dialogue (plus worst fake American accents) ever. Kids, go and listen to Evil or watch Revelation and you'll find out what a Dalek/human hybrid story should be. I'm not going to waste anymore pixels on this trash. Except to say that I really enjoyed Hugh Quarshie, who can clearly make trash sound like treasure.

The Lazarus Experiment by Stephen Greenhorn:

You just can't keep Mark Gatiss out of the new series can you? Actually here he proves that he's about ten times the actor than he is the writer. I find it difficult to believe that a clearly intelligent character like Francine Jones would form an opinion of a person simply on the say so of a stranger. Yes, she also speaks to Saxon apparently but he's a politician; do you believe everything they tell you? Thought not. There is some nice symmetry in the plot concerning the Church as a place of sanctuary - although it's a bit beyond credible that the Doctor would know exactly where to go to find the mutated Richard Lazarus (another indication that the single part 45 minute story format is too rushed). Also the name Lazarus seems a little forced doesn't it? Why not just call him Professor Richard DNA-Chop-Chop? A little morality tale about the dangers of trying to cheat death or just a season slot filler - or both?

42 by Chris Chibnill:

Doctor Who often works best using the old device of sticking a small number of people in an enclosed space facing some great danger. It doesn't work so well here but it's a nice attempt. One could be nice and say like its title (a play on the name of the American "the clock is ticking" action-drama 24), the story is a homage to all those sci-fi flicks from Alien to Supernova about crews of far-flung ships being picked off one by one by some threat... but I'm not nice, so I'm going to say that it's unoriginal and that if it wasn't for the quality of the direction and the CGI it wouldn't be worth watching.

Human Nature/Family of Blood by Paul Cornell:

We've got to the point now that the New Adventures generation of writers are so in control of the concept of Doctor Who, bereft of real ideas as ever, they are raping and pillaging their own "legacy" and offering them up as the latest and greatest ideas. For those under 12 years or perhaps 12 IQ points that enjoyed this one, this was a rehash of a very un-Doctor Who novel (typical of the NA trash) featuring the 7th Doctor wherein he retires from time-travelling to become the teacher of a boys' public school in England (oh, very likely). Anyhow, the unbridled tear-jerking meant that Tennant could over-act to his heart's (both with one and two) content and I could consequently damage the Dalton, vomiting all night as the memories of a once heroic, alien character were quashed by more current ones of Tennant sobbing when he realised that he wasn't going to get his end away with the school nurse and that he was going to have to get off his butt and do his job rather than laze around and die in bed of old age. The second episode was the worst, particularly when we got to see the Doctor dish out punishment to the three main offenders (banishing one to live in every mirror ever?! That is so very Cornell). The final scenes, when we visit an elderly Latimer, seem redundant and a lame attempt to create an even more emotional reaction. Why not have him die tragically as a great deal of his generation did? That would have actually been more emotionally affecting if we had known (due to his visions) that he would die in a few short years with the Doctor's watch in is hand. I look forward to Cornell's next script, Mother's Day, wherein we finally discover that the TARDIS is really the Doctor's mother and his next companion encourages them to go to a relationship counsellor in order to straighten out their relationship.

Blink by Steven Moffat:

Steven Moffat is a very good writer, good enough for his scripts to rise above most of the artificial emotionalism that dogs the new series. The non-linear aspect of the story worked very well: having the main thrust of the action follow Sally and relegating the Doctor and Martha to supporting characters for most of the story. My wife commented that it would have made a good Twilight Zone story and I totally agree. The concept of "subverting the format" for once did not seemed forced in anyway. This is how to do it and do it well (for a lesson in how not to do it please see Love & Monsters by Russell T. Davies).

Of the cast, Carey Mulligan is particularly worthy of note, and not just because she's hot, but because she's clearly a very talented actress and played her character of Sally Sparrow so well that it sort of had me wishing that she could become an ongoing character.

Utopia, The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords by Russell T. Davies:

Just like the seventies, the season is finished off by a major story and this must certainly be considered one of the best of the new crop. It has a lot going for it as now not only do we encounter the Master, but Captain Jack returns and we get to see an impression of how the universe will end: not with a bang, but a whimper!

Sir Derek Jacobi is amazing as Professor Yana in Utopia. It's just a pity that he didn't continue playing the role for the rest of the story-line, although John Simm is moderately amusing in the role (he doesn't have the "presence" of Jacobi in both genial and evil modes).

Even the typical Davies' "tidy resolution" doesn't feel as convoluted as the story is given the space of three episodes to develop and is therefore better paced. Captain Jack's return adds another layer to the story both as a plot device and also in terms of giving some much-needed comic relief to what would otherwise be a much darker tale. Davies injects the script with as much emotionalism as he dares, of course, but somehow it seems more justified as it is more restricted to fleshing out the relationship between the two, last Time Lords.

I do have a major gripe however: understandably, the production team wanted to keep the chance of the Master returning open, but the hand seen collecting the Master's ring at the end seemed to take a little away from the emotional weight of the resolution.

One thing that astounded me was the portrayal of just black people as servants aboard the Master's "heli-carrier". Davies throughout the series has been committed it seems to diverse casting and on the surface, this decision seems inconsistent with a policy of making the series a truly "multi-ethic" one which reflects the demographic realities of the West. I suspect he was trying to make the Master seem more evil by having him prescribe roles on the basis of race (there was also some allusion to him being slightly sexually perverse in the final episode, all adding to his overall cruelty rating). Still it seems a risk as it could be misinterpreted, although one has to keep in mind it's really a black woman, Martha, who saves the day. It just made me a bit uncomfortable to watch it.

Still, this was a fine way to end the series, most definitely on a high note.

Conclusions:

Overall, this series has been a massive improvement over the last. The second season really hit an all-time low even by its own standards with excrement like Love & Monsters and Fear Her (which were almost impossibly worse than Boom Town; note the common element among two of those stories). Any incarnation of Doctor Who is largely dependant on the performance of the main actors, the quality of the writing and the final production values. David Tennant isn't Chris Eccleston, he's too young and an over-actor but he's settled into his role and at least his performance has continuity, which makes it bearable. Freema Agyeman provided a welcome contrast to Billie Piper, her character providing a far more worthy companion for the Doctor (and better realised if I might say). Such a pity she's left the series so soon. Hopefully history is not going to repeat itself and like the Liz Shaw/Jo Grant incident we are not going to have such a promising character replaced by an utter moron because the "bogan" percentage of the audience need someone to ask the most obvious questions and "bounce" at the right moment.

There have been some solid stories this season but even the best have been ruined once more by the unbridled emotionalism grafted on by the "New Adventures" generation (Cornell being the worst; he should get a job writing for the Bold and the Beautiful and leave Doctor Who to science fiction writers). Davies is ironically responsible for some of the best and most of the worst of the stories offered up. Thankfully, for the last two seasons he has limited his contributions to 5 out of 13 episodes as opposed to 8 in the first season. Many of his stories are very poorly plotted and rely on the silliest science possible (the inverted rain in Smith and Jones being an example). Still he was responsible for Utopia, although much credit for it being so impressive must be laid at Sir Derek Jacobi's feet, as it could have so easily been tedious. The Shakespeare Code was moderately good, the only true problems being related to production decisions (a sexy Shakespeare? Performances by torch-light?!). It was Blink which stole the season, the concept of having villains which were creatures of the abstract being a novel one. Steven Moffat remember was also responsible for The Empty Child, which, despite the "emotionalism", was one of the most compelling stories. Not only was it original, Blink was genuinely creepy and for once the method of "subverting the format" didn't appear forced as it did in the terrible Love & Mosters (you know, the one which climaxed with a guy alluding to regularly sticking his todger in a block of concrete).

Even the concept of the season story-arc (this time the Mr. Saxon epic) didn't seem so convoluted this time around. The first three-part story of the new series worked very well indeed. It's been a common observation that the better stories have been the two-parters (given they have the scope to properly develop characters and space out events) and the Master storyline was all the more effective given three episodes to work itself out. Very neat, the first time in the whole new series where I actually thought "I wish I'd written this." That must be a good sign.

The production quality continues to be very high. It isn't up to American standards, of course, as it Doctor Who will never have budgets to compete with similar shows produced there. Still, Doctor Who has a tradition of making the most of what's been allocated and the CGI, costumes, makeup and music are impeccable (to the extent that when one is watching the show, I've found you are not really conscious of them; after all, it's when the illusion is spoiled by something that doesn't quite work that you begin to notice such details). The only problem I still have is the American-style use of actor's names on the title sequence and the soundtrack which is far too orchestral. The directors also do a great job; for instance, Graeme Harper made such a basic story as 42 quite watchable.

The new series then has been running long enough now then, to have developed a heart of its own which consists of new format traditions, a new emotional dimension and a re-worked mythos in many respects. The background concept of the "Time-War" I suppose has acted as an insurance policy to cover any incongruities evident in the re-working, of which there have been many. The most intriguing change has been to make the Doctor more "human" (and at one point in this season quite literally so). This may have made the character more approachable for a non-hardcore, sci-fi audience but it has destroyed much of the mystery/mystique surrounding him. The Doctor I grew up with was an alien, he was honourable, caring, compassionate but also detached and never horny. Perhaps a more responsible way of injecting a emotional dimension would have been to carry on the precedent set by Sophie Aldred's character of Ace and have that be the companion's role. Perhaps having two companions who both travelled in the TARDIS and interacted intimately while the Doctor looked on bemused might have been a better track to take. I notice that this season the "emotionalism" has been consciously toned down but the Doctor is still involved in it, although as the unresponsive participant in an unrequited love scenario. Still, people of my generation (now the 30-somethings) have to get used to the fact that the old Doctor is dead and gone, as is his series. The bleeting of the Blum and other of the NA set (a sort of a cross between the intolerable selfishness of the baby-boomers and the spoilt, self-indulgence of Generation Why) insisting that they are both the same series, is laughable. The old series is dead (aside from DVD releases and Big Finish Audio, even the Past Doctor novels have been discontinued as gradually access to any version of the concept is cut, aside from Davies interpretation) and the new series is apparently here to stay. It's mostly drivel, of course, but it isn't all that bad. It's just sad, as it could have been so much better.

The Year of the Tacky Score by Hugh Sturgess 20/1/08

There's no doubt in my mind that this is the weakest of New Who so far. (Sorry, yes, I know I'm ripping off the first line from your review, Alan, but yours sort of inspired me. Think of this as a YouTube-style 'response'.) By my count, they've been getting worse as they go along. I don't know whether this is because of the shock factor of 'oh my God, it's Doctor Who!' is running off, but - having rewatched earlier episodes with my jaundiced eye - I've concluded...

Series 3 was THE BIGGEST LOAD OF SHIT I'VE EVER SEEN.

Sorry, I was overreacting then. It wasn't the biggest load of shit I've ever seen. Big Brother is far worse, and Kyle Sandilands is far more an all-purpose object of hatred than Murray Gold. But I do feel worse about Series 3 than about those two twins of mediocrity, BB and Kyle. Perhaps it's because I expect more from Doctor Who? Yes, that's it; this disappointed me, far beyond my ability to see that it's far superior to most other things on telly. (This is also the year The Chaser's War on Everything turned bad, so it's been hell down here in Australia.) Even though I was uncertain about features of Series 1, and I was somehow aware that Series 2 wasn't as good, I've never felt a total lack of interest in seeing what comes next. I've never thought of Doctor Who as a whole as lazy.

But let's get down to brass tacks. The series gets off to a definitive start with The Runaway Bride. I haven't got any real hatred or dislike for this one (in fact, I rather liked bits of it), but it failed to make an impression, which is fatal for something with so much money spent on it. The things I liked - the Doctor's hapless explanation of why he can't go back in time and change history; Donna's pathos-inducing plea for money for a taxi; 'you had the wedding reception without me?!' - manifestly don't include anything beyond individual lines, and the story as a whole really does describe the series as a whole: people running around trying to get us interested in them and their situation, but not giving us any reason to care.

Wedged at the beginning of the season was the 'cherishably strange' Smith and Jones. A not-too-bad introduction of Martha, and with a suitably wacky 'sub' plot about rhinos invading a wandering hospital on the moon to find an old lady. It's obvious Martha is being set up as the New Girl by the way the Doctor keeps finding reasons to applaud her insights, even when they're not exactly works of genius; Martha's reasoning that there must be air outside because the windows of a hospital aren't exactly air-tight is sensible, yes, but hardly 'brilliant, in fact'. And her mock-serious suggestion that they are 'trespassing on the moon' is far from 'very good': the Doctor's already explained that they've been brought here by the Judoon as the moon is 'neutral soil'. I did like the Plasmavore's 'I've even brought a straw', though.

After that, we have the lame waste of time by Gareth Roberts called The Shakespeare Code. I've already reviewed it, but I will say this: I've just rewatched it. It hasn't aged at all: crap then, crap now.

Gridlock is far better, and Mr Cat (I forget the names of both the character and the actor) is quite amusing, but apart from that, it too was just a bit flat and safe. I never felt anything for the characters, because I never felt a stake in their world. Also, the obvious fact that the Doctor and Martha are going to survive (even though this is the formula of the series, it's still bad if the story makes it so obvious) makes all the other characters seem rather safe, since they're always with one of them. The Face of Boe is, once again, tacked on with no concern to how he fits into the plot.

Next, we have the Dalek two-parter. And we introduce Helen Raynor, the woman who can't think up story titles to save herself. A story about a machine that shows you ghosts called The Ghost Machine is acceptable, if dull, but a story about Daleks in Manhattan called Daleks in Manhattan immediately gives up its claim to be a serious piece of drama, as the title is drawing attention to the single, gigantic gimmick at the heart of the story: Watch me, I've got Daleks! In Manhattan! Evolution of the Daleks is better, but stupendously awkward as piece of grammar. Just Evolution would be fine. Or what about Heart of Daleks? No, that's too good to waste on this tawdry, perfunctory runaround.

Helen Raynor is clearly someone who has no idea what makes a good Doctor Who story, and is just cobbling together ideas and set-ups that 'worked' before. Lawrence Miles pointed out that they were by far the most traditional episodes of New Who so far, and I'd argue that it's due to the author just writing down a half-remembered folk-memory of what a Doctor Who story is like, with a foreign locale slapped on top of it. Think about it: the Doctor Who story everyone who isn't a fan remembers is 'Doctor Who goes back in time and fights Daleks'. Of course, that story is... That's right: there is now no story in which the Doctor goes back in time and fights Daleks (except if you count special cases like Genesis of the Daleks, and a member of the public would hardly describe that as 'the past', and there's Remembrance, but the '60s is hardly ancient history). This manages to be a cliche when it's never been done before. Everything seems familiar and safe. I could see the 'Doctor Who plot developments' playing out before my eyes, especially the mercilessly contrived 'to show that things aren't as they seem, we will have the human villain have a hapless victim exterminated to underline his point'. The central ploy - Daleks evolving to avoid extinction - is fascinating, but it's buried in dross.

Something that's just as much a Doctor-Who-by-numbers story is The Lazarus Experiment. It is, again, blatantly based on confused memories of what constitutes a Doctor Who story: scientist argues with nature, nature wins, carnage ensues. This kind of story is inherently boring after a while, and not a little nasty, as it suggests that we shouldn't strive to change what we are, that nature is always right and we shouldn't try to change it. Again, the Doctor takes the moral high ground for little conceivable reason, other than That's What the Doctor Does in These Kinds of Stories. This episode also has two contrived deaths. The first is the murder of Lady Thaw, done simply so we can see that Lazarus is turning into a monster, and thus resolves her 'character arc' in the simplest possible way. Why should we care about a story that kills of its characters simply so the author can demonstrate the presence of the threat? The second in the murder of Olive Woman, in particular her single, grating line of dialogue. Speaking roles cost more than extras, so wouldn't it be more economical to cut her only line of dialogue? Was it to create the feeling that she was a real person, and make us feel for her death, or so we could be pleased that someone so annoying has been killed, or... what? On the upside, the Doctor's embarrassed 'oh, y'know... stuff' is really funny, and Mark Gatiss' sinister performance (and his icy delivery of line 'no, my dear, that I learnt from you') makes entertaining viewing.

42 is the same as the last three episodes: cliched, lazy and perfunctory. Characters die to drum up suspense, characters have 'arcs' and 'issues' to make us think they might possibly be real in some world, characters then forget these issues when the crisis has passed. Dr Science was also suffering a fit of apoplexy beside me, as the captain and her possessed husband die of asphyxiation when they slowly fall out of an airlock rather than instantly being vaporised by being within a few thousand kilometres of a sun; how said death is slow and 'graceful' rather than explosively decompressed and nasty; and the monstrous design of the tractor beam controls (they're on the outside of the ship where a normal person can't reach them, for God's sake).

Finally, we get to the good episodes. Indeed, the best episodes of all. First, the Human Nature two-parter, which would be a highlight of any season. The Family of Blood is 10/10, while Human Nature is 8.5/10 simply because the plot felt a little empty, as if they were playing for time before the first cliffhanger. I saw episode two first, and there was nothing in it that I couldn't understand straightaway, and I didn't feel as though I'd missed anything. Son of Mine is so sinister he's funny (and he knows it), and his two soliloquies are hair-raising. 'War is coming, war of the whole wide world... do you think they will thank the man who taught them it was glorious' revels in the death and destruction we know is coming, and the final monologue to the audience is one of the most chilling things in Doctor Who - remarkable as it's about the Doctor (and deserves to be quoted in full):

'He never raised his voice; that was the worst part. The fury of the Time Lord. And then, we knew - knew why this man who had fought with gods and demons - why he'd run away from us and hidden. He was being kind. He wrapped my father in unbreakable chains forged at the heart of a dwarf star. He tricked my mother into the event horizon of a collapsing galaxy, to be imprisoned there, forever. He still visits my sister, once a year, every year. Sometimes I wonder if one day he might forgive her, but there she is, can you see? He trapped her inside a mirror. If you ever look at your reflection and see something move, just a for second, that's her. That's always her. As for me, I was frozen in time, and the Doctor put me to work standing over the fields of England, as their protector. We wanted to live forever, so the Doctor made sure that we did.'

People have criticised the episode for being just a pale imitation of the novel. That's not merely wrong but unfair: they're vastly superior on almost every level. Paul Cornell may be able to jerk tears at the end of his novels, but his writing style for the first 230-odd pages is enough to make you weep for all the wrong reasons. Rendered as a piece of television, without the bizarre carnage that ensues during the novel Human Nature and without his thin, Terrance-style prose, it is revealed as the masterpiece everything thinks it is. Away from the printed page, the camp menace of the Family is revealed, and can be revelled in. And David Tennant is never better than in his hysterical pleas for Joan to justify his existence: 'That's all I want to be: John Smith. With his life, and his job, and his loves. Why can't I be him? Isn't he a good man?' He makes it seem so easy.

These two greats are followed by Steven Moffat's Blink. I missed this one first time round (formal dinner, as it happens, and very nice it was too), but everyone else who saw it couldn't sing its praises loud enough. Right after The Family of Blood, I was perhaps not as impressed as I might have been if it had been after (say) The Shakespeare Code, but I was still bloody impressed. But that's how, it seems, everyone reacts to it. They don't go 'what a fantastic piece of TV, omigod, omigod', they say they were 'impressed'. I can't help but think that the author's showing us how clever he is, such as how the Doctor's recorded comments match Sally's twice.

After these great three, we have the final three. Two of these are bad, one of these is kind of good. Utopia is - at its heart - a dull, repetitive story that could feature any Doctor-Companion team. That's OK, because the execution is meant to be brilliant, and the points we're looking for - Captain Jack, the Master - should be fantastic. They're not. The execution is dull and pedestrian (and, like crap middle of the season - from Shakespeare Code to 42 - pointlessly rushed), and THEY USE A FUCKING QUARRY!!!! A quarry, with all the monies being spent on this series, is just criminally lazy. So: pointlessly rushed reintro of Captain Jack; pointlessly rushed arriving-and-running-away-from-things, pointlessly rushed set-up, pointlessly rushed subplot, pointlessly rushed climax. Not even Derek Jacobi can save it.

The Sound of Drums could be really exciting (if not good), if Murray Gold had been tied up and thrown into a threshing machine before he composed the score. This is a problem throughout the series: the ability to use the Welsh National Orchestra has gone right to his head, and he can no longer compose a score that doesn't have giant drums, sweeping strings and trumpets as an integral part. The result is overdone (particularly in the already melodramatic 'memory lane!' scene at the climax) and has that Saturday Morning Serial feel to it: never a good thing to associate with kind of villain we have here. Really, it's a godsend when said villain reveals his hitherto undisplayed passion for Rogue Traders. Who'd have thought that Voodoo Child would be preferable to the actual score?

The Last of the Time Lords is nicely nightmarish, showing us what would happen if the Doctor ever truly lost, and it does give us a reason to care a bit more. The music rears its ugly head at the climax, though, and it ruins the good work it had been doing up until that point.

So, that one bit-of-fluff, three OK ones, seven crap ones, and three great ones. If the crap and the great cancel out, we still have four crap ones, one bit-of-fluff and three OK ones. Why? How? How could the near-flawless Series 1 turn into this? The answer is laziness. The reason, I think, that Utopia was so bad was that it was all so routine. Same goes for The Shakespeare Code. It's as if the stories have become so formulaic (which they have) and so familiar (which they have) that the production team are just doing it in their sleep. The overwhelming feeling from the bad episodes was that no one was trying. Even by episode five, I was counting the cliches as they appeared. That worst of cliches, the 'we'll demonstrate how dangerous this threat is by having it arbitrarily kill someone in a contrived fashion' one. Let's go from the beginning: Smith and Jones has the Judoon vaporise that patient because he threw a vase at them (ineffectually); The Shakespeare Code has the witches eat that guy at the beginning (they show no further signs of cannibalism) and later decide to kill the fat Master of Revels rather hastily (after he has rather hastily insisted that Shakespeare's next blockbuster isn't going ahead, weirdly); Daleks in Manhattan has the guy at the beginning captured by the pigs (though his reappearance later slightly makes up for it), and the worker going off to the meet the Daleks (this is supposedly an incentive to keep working - does Diagoras always encourage his workers by killing them?). The Lazarus Experiment has the murder of Lady Thaw simply to increase (or, indeed, create), tension, which is pointless, because you know it's coming, and it's so badly handled anyway. 42 has death of characters every few minutes to build up suspense. The Sound of Drums is worse: simply to build up tension, the Master kills his entire cabinet (why? why? for God's sake, why?).

The verdict seems clear. The production team has got so used to making Doctor Who that it isn't special anymore; it's just routine. Even Russell T, the man who brought real character 'issues' to the program, kills off characters simply to artificially create tension, which cheapens not just the characters but the function of death in a narrative.

I can't go on, so let's just hope that things will be better next year.

A Review by Tal Hazelden 5/5/08

29.0 The Runaway Bride
The Tardis in a highway chase is alone worth it.

29.1 Smith and Jones
Introductions all round. Nice to meet you Martha. We're off to a fun start.

29.2 The Shakespeare Code
A good villain, played well, makes a bad Who story good.

29.3 Gridlock
Throw out plausibility at the start of the story and stay lighthearted. Near-pantomime and parody Who can and does work when mocking modern life.

29.4 Daleks in Manhattan
Well scripted. Fun characters. Some good dialog. Why does it feel off?

29.5 Evolution of the Daleks
Themes from the heart of the ongoing Dalek saga since The Dead Planet. Feels like a synopsis. Holds up the legend of the Daleks rather than contributes to it. Still fun though.

29.6 The Lazarus Experiment
Let Who be Who and The Outer Limits be the Outer Limits, please.

29.7 42
Mice in a maze in an oven. Might we have a real plot?

29.8 Human Nature
The season finally spikes into the show we love.

29.9 The Family Of Blood
Paul Cornell honors Doctor Who and the audience.

29.10 Blink
Riveting. Thrilling. Charming. Frightening. Mr. Moffatt, I love you.

29.11 Utopia
Captain Jack soars. Jacobi's brief turn as the Master is the best ever.

29.12 The Sound of Drums
It's certainly imaginative. But the Master as a character has always been really a stock Bond arch-villian. It worked during Pertwee and never fit right afterwards. It still doesn't.

29.13 Last of the Time Lords
Good final exit for the Master. Enter the Rani.