Doctor Who (2005) s04e13 – Journey’s End

Journey’s End opens with one of the series’s biggest cliffhanger cop-outs–and “Who” is all about the cliffhanger cop-out, so it’s actually a surprise. If the opening titles hadn’t already given it away, I guess.

This episode reveals the villains’ master plan and features them seemingly defeating Doctor David Tennant at every turn. If writer Russell T. Davies hadn’t introduced the deus ex machina early, there might be some tension about whether or not Tennant and company make it through. It’d just be so sad if he died now he’s reunited with Billie Piper.

Apparently it’s straight up they had a romantic—albeit unrequited—love, which isn’t how any of their episodes played especially not once she recruited ex-boyfriend Noel Clarke (who appears here) for the ride. But whatever. Make it all about giving Piper’s character a better ending.

Of course, Piper’s finale is nothing compared to Catherine Tate, who manages to get a more inglorious sendoff from the show than Christopher Eccleston—who just got forgotten like he’d done something wrong—harsh as his crime was not being David Tennant as Doctor Who, who himself wasn’t even David Tennant as Doctor Who yet.

Anyway.

No spoilers, but if you were intentionally writing “Doctor Who” to be full of layered misogyny, I don’t think it’d turn out any different than this episode turns out for Tate. It’s one hell of a flex from Davies.

The evil plan is kind of silly and better effects would help but not going to happen. What else… Camille Coduri is back too. She and Clarke team up with Elisabeth Sladen, which is closer to fun than you usually get with Coduri and Clarke.

It’s also one of those episodes where Tennant does his super-serious thing when he’s upset and it gets old really fast. And the way they end the season is just… unfortunate. It’s all really unfortunate.

Especially since Davies’s villains are better than they seemed last episode, occasionally even funny. More funny would’ve helped. More funny and a better subplot for Freema Agyeman, who manages to be a featured guest star but still get the shaft.

Because “Doctor Who” is about blowing off everyone but Piper, apparently, in a mad chase to bring her back to the show or something.

Whatever.

A friend of mine’s been worried I’m going to turn into one of those “Doctor Who” evangelizers who tells everyone to watch it.

I told him not to worry.

Doctor Who (2005) s04e12 – The Stolen Earth

I started The Stolen Earth with some reservations thanks to the previous episode—a de facto prologue—which managed to both waste and diss Catherine Tate simultaneously, but the first scene won me over a bit. It’s an exterior street scene with Tate and David Tennant and it’s actually shot well. There’s no telling how much better this show might be with better lighting from Ernest Vincze (in general, though this episode too).

Not to mention the CGI. There’s a lot of grand scale CGI this episode and… it’s not good. It’s not even on par with the non-CGI “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” which is a bummer. If “Who” were ever going to deliver on visuals, Stolen Earth would be the time to do it.

The episode kicks off the two-part (three-part including last episode, which should count but apparently doesn’t) season finale… it’s the end of the world. The end of all worlds.

Though we don’t see the all worlds, because Billie Piper’s already here on Earth and now it’s time for Tennant to find her and why isn’t he more excited (because it’s the end of the world, Donna).

Anyway.

Right after the opening scene—and the last good exterior lighting in the episode—the Earth disappears and the TARDIS stays in place. Cue opening credits, including the full “Doctor Who” revival cast (well, not Christopher Eccleston but whatever)—Freema Agyeman, John Barrowman, Elisabeth Sladen, and Billie Piper! In addition to Tate and Tennant, obviously. Written by revival creator and main writer Russell T. Davies!

The first half or so of the episode—which is really well-paced regardless of the questionable special effects–is the “Who” sidekicks trying to figure out what to do without the Doctor. Finally they all figure something out by working together—well, with the help of a special guest star, whose inclusion is nice but just points out how the show failed them (though failing your actors is the only singular thing about “Doctor Who: Phase II”)—and are able to get Tennant to Earth.

Tennant and Tate have been hanging out at the Shadow Proclamation, which isn’t a document but a (poorly CGI-rendered) place, where there are some aliens in charge and then the Rhino cops from last season. The Rhino cops are just comic relief then gone (they’re probably there for last episode’s teaser).

It’s time-killing with a lot more emphasis on the Earth sidekicks, with Piper sheltering with Tate’s family, Bernard Cribbins and Jacqueline King, and Agyeman reuniting with mum Adjoa Andoh (the other four people in the family are completely forgotten). Piper goes from being a badass interdimensional warrior last episode to mooning over absent Tennant, albeit with a giant gun (she looks like she’s walking around with a guitar).

Once the episode—just about halfway through, not even the cliffhanger—reveals the villains, things pick up a bit. Especially since Piper and Agyeman move on out of their respective shelters and the companion supporting cast energy drain goes away.

There are some predictable moments with the reuniting and the villains, with a bit of a cheap cliffhanger device too, but if you’re going to assemble a bunch of likable actors—almost Piper this time too—and have them dramatically goof off around sci-fi, you could do a whole lot worse than Stolen Earth.

Also, am I the only one who thinks “Torchwood” crossover guest star Gareth David-Lloyd looks like Zach Morris?

Doctor Who (2005) s04e06 – The Doctor’s Daughter

It’s the most successful “Doctor Who” in a dozen episodes (ish) and succeeds by giving Freema Agyeman her own arc, Catherine Tate pure supporting to David Tennant, and another potential for Tennant. So apparently the show needs four leads. If they could keep up this level of success.

And The Doctor’s Daughter is a great success. Though “Daughter” is a bit of a misnomer.

Writer Stephen Greenhorn contributed what ended up being one of last season’s best episodes—and one of the better Earth ones—and Daughter is similarly strong. Though there’s also director Alice Troughton, who gets just the right performance out of every scene, which is important.

Not having seen the original series, I don’t know if there’s similar earlier “Doctor Who” to this episode, but it plays like a “Star Trek: The Original Series” episode. Two of them, actually.

The “Star Trek” version has Kirk (David Tennant), Spock (Catherine Tate), and Bones (Freema Agyeman) beaming to a planet. They find themselves held at gun point by some paramilitaries who then make Tennant put his hand in a Theranos machine. Turns out it’s not just DNA coding him, it’s using that DNA to make an offspring; Doctor DNA with some preloaded warfare programs because they’re cloned to adulthood. So not really Daughter, though Tate rejoices in joshing Tennant about fatherhood—okay, so maybe Tennant’s Spock and Tate’s Kirk—anyway, there’s an info dump about Tennant being a dad in the old series or something and I’m once again almost ready to go read about this stuff but I keep refusing to do the work.

And also—very late mention—Georgia Moffett is the name of the actor playing the daughter. She goes from not talking to being awesome very quickly. Greenhorn writes the heck out of the scenes where Tate and Moffett bond—oh, yeah, Tate’s definitely Kirk in this one.

Meanwhile, Bones (Agyeman) is off with one of the enemy who she got stuck with when she stood too close to some red shirts and then got trapped when an enemy who she helped.

The enemies are these fish guys. They look like Muppets. Agyeman would do great with Muppets. She’d also do great with a “Martha” spin-off where she gets to run the show because she’s amazing in her subplot. It’s like they included it as an apology for last season.

It’s a lovely adventure for her character, who’s been stuck in a support role for way too long.

And then there’s a perfect finish.

There’s a little too much melodrama but the cast handles it but even before the end just gets magnificent it’s still pretty great so you can forgive it. This episode’s really good.

It’s so good Nigel Terry’s rather bad human villain can’t even bring it down. But acting showcase-wise it’s all about Agyeman and Moffett. For this episode, it’s their show.

Doctor Who (2005) s04e05 – The Poison Sky

Despite some good acting and fine direction, The Poison Sky is unambitious for even an unambitious “Doctor Who” two-parter resolve. A lot of the plot hinges on teleportation and maybe teleportation really is just one sci-fi genre shortcut too many. “Who” can’t handle it.

And then this episode’s (relatively) out of nowhere cliffhanger is a great setup for the next episode, turning Sky into a strange bridging episode.

There’s a lot of weird drama and a lot of David Tennant not being right about things. He tries to convince military guy Rupert Holliday-Evans they can’t attack the invading aliens because they’re killing machines but the 21st century “Doctor Who” army guys do just fine. Then there’s a completely undramatic Kobayashi Maru, which maybe gets some okay acting from Catherine Tate and Freema Agyeman but it’s just forced melodrama. It doesn’t even give Tennant anything particularly good to do in that moment, instead relying on Ryan Sampson, who takes an interesting path to becoming a Tennant protege but apparently not companion material? Sampson was good last episode, bad this episode. All the other acting is about the same, including Bernard Cribbins getting tiring fast and Jacqueline King being bad.

Good direction from Douglas Mackinnon, good performances from Tate and Agyeman (who gets to play her third different person in three seasons on “Who”) while Tennant’s… eh. It’s not a good two-parter for anyone but it’s particularly not good one for Tennant, except when he’s seemingly messing with Agyeman’s character’s evil clone.

But those scenes never go anywhere, not really. Agyeman ends up with a surprisingly solid character arc on it though, which is a surprise because writer Helen Raynor initially seems to be using the clone as a device to avoid writing Agyeman’s regular character. Though maybe it’s just waiting out the runtime to avoid having to have any hard talks with Tennant; has there ever been any scholarly work on the psychology of the Doctor’s “friendships” with his companions and so on.

Good cliffhanger though. Very enthused for next episode. And Raynor does better with this two-parter than the last one. This one’s just a middling Earth two-parter, not a bad Earth two-parter.

Doctor Who (2005) s04e04 – The Sontaran Stratagem

Based on the teaser—which spoils Freema Agyeman’s return—I wasn’t looking forward to The Sontaran Stratagem. Mind you, I also didn’t know the Sontaran were a return alien race from the original series so maybe if I was a Sontaran fan….

They’re all right, though they’re functionally really similar to the rhino guys without being adorable. Quite the opposite.

Though they’re affable-looking enough. The episode makes a big deal out of them being strange-looking but they’re not, not for “Doctor Who” London where there are at least annual alien invasions.

The episode also does the first “Doctor Who” revival companion-team-up. There was the episode where Elisabeth Sladen guested but she was a companion on the original series. Agyeman and Catherine Tate have a proper team-up, which—much to David Tennant’s chagrin—doesn’t involve them mooning or cat-fighting over him.

This reunion is a little while after last season’s finale with Agyeman and this season’s Christmas special, which introduces Bernard Cribbins as Tate’s grandfather (though he’s not introduced in that capacity in his first appearance). Although it hasn’t been long, Agyeman’s gotten engaged to the dude she was after from the alternate future and also started working for UNIT, which is basically the SHIELD for “Doctor Who,” including the helicarrier. They’ve apparently been around since the old series but didn’t get involved with any of the alien attacks until fourth season of the new show.

Rupert Holliday-Evans is the UNIT boss. He’s pretty good. Christopher Ryan is the main Sontaran. He’s fine. Ryan Sampson plays a Mark Zuckerberg analogue who sells out humanity to the aliens; he’s not bad.

The episode’s a solid team-up between current and previous companions, with some nice moments for Agyeman and Tennant, and the danger plot—Sampson’s globally ubiquitous car GPS plugin is a weapon—is exciting.

Though Jacqueline King continues the show’s trend of obnoxious companion moms. And Cribbins is best in small doses; the show overuses him.

And it’s great to have Agyeman around.

I was worried as writer Helen Raynor and producer Susie Liggat—who only produces Raynor episodes—didn’t turn in a particularly good two-parter last time but this time… solid. Solid two-parter.

Though the cliffhanger’s a little less world-shattering than usual.

Doctor Who (2005) s03e13 – Last of the Time Lords

So, when I started watching “Doctor Who,” I didn’t have any idea the title is a joke. Or can be a joke. Even though I’ve known about the show most of my life… didn’t realize it.

Now, is the “Time Lord” thing… is the “Lord” part really important? I don’t think I’ve ever seen heavy Christ symbolism in a British production before—Life of Brian aside—and it’s really weird to see. It’s also bad because it invalidates the very idea of Freema Agyeman getting anything to do with the show.

Given John Simm at one point mocks her for not being Billie Piper to her face… you’d think she’d get to something more than just blow smoke up David Tennant’s derrière. But no, it turns out smoke blowing is Agyeman’s whole job. What’s the point of having a stronger character and a better performance if the show’s going to shaft you even more than it shafted your predecessor. But with an added, frequently iffy racial element.

Tennant does end up having a good moment in the episode, as he gets yet another showdown with Simm—I don’t even remember if it’s the final showdown—the episode’s got a lot of action and a lot of running and a lot of walking and a lot of showdowns.

And farewells. And surprises. It’s never anywhere near as cute as it ought to be. Tennant, despite that one good moment—and not counting when he’s only doing a voice performance—doesn’t really get much to do in the big season finale. Agyeman gets less, but she got more throughout the season. Sometimes. Even with her part so decimated, when the episode ends with Tennant in the same spot as last season… they should’ve just had him waking up and taking a shower. At least show what the TARDIS living quarters look like.

And Agyeman’s send-off is awkwarder than it ought to be. Especially considering how strong she started. It all feels like a defeat.

Doctor Who (2005) s03e12 – The Sound of Drums

It’s still got Russell T. Davies but there’s a director change since last episode. Now it’s Colin Teague, which turns out fine because Teague’s the best director they’ve had all season except maybe Hettie Macdonald. But as far as doing straightforward “Doctor Who” successfully—especially since it’s a modern day episode—Teague excels.

Though not even Teague can handle the rough opening, which has David Tennant, Freema Agyeman, and John Barrowman getting out of last episode’s big deal cliffhanger with absolutely no difficulty because sonic screwdriver.

And then we get a really fast information dump catching the viewer up on what the characters are quickly realizing—all season has been just four days in Agyeman’s regular timeline, culminating in an election of a new prime minister (John Simm), who has quite the history and bone to pick with Tennant. More, everything conspiring against Tennant and Agyeman has been for this Simm related plot. It even gives a way to redeem Agyeman’s duplicitous mom, Adjoa Andoh, while again using sister Gugu Mbatha-Raw as a damsel in distress. Only this time she doesn’t get to be second sidekick, she’s just… damsel in distress.

Because there’s a real danger—Simm—who’s got everyone in his reach and has no qualms about getting rid of his enemies. He even gets back up from his wife, Alexandra Moen, who seems reservedly horrified at his behavior. But Simm’s got all the power.

Moen’s good. It’s a weird, quiet part, but she’s good.

And Simm’s great. Especially once his master plan—getting to do a first contact meeting with some aliens, bringing new glory to the United Kingdom—is in full motion. Because there’s something off about those aliens, which are little flying globes—Tennant’s never even heard of them, which is impossible.

Colin Stinton plays the U.S. president, who doesn’t want the British getting all the history glory. Stinton’s not a good stunt cast. It’s a miss.

But everything else is a hit. Until the last act when it seems like a kids’ TV show as Simm rules from on high in his SHIELD helicarrier, which is a particularly silly turn but whatever.

The last act gets silly, but the character drama for Agyeman in particular… it’s good.

Doctor Who (2005) s03e11 – Utopia

So I very awkwardly noticed the female producer who did a couple episodes of “Who” is gone, with Phil Collinson back. It was an awkward notice because she was actually gone last episode. She just did the two-parter with the pre-WWI love story.

This episode is Russell T. Davies writing and it’s the start of the season finale so it’s very clearly the return to old time new “Doctor Who.” I never thought I’d be so happy to see Davies’s name on the writing credit but it’s nice he’s handling it.

We open in Cardiff, with the Doctor (David Tennant) gassing up the TARDIS on the energy rift and telling latest lovesick sidekick Freema Agyeman all about it while making the now uncommon season one references. And then John Barrowman reappears—also last seen in season one—and runs and jumps on the departing TARDIS.

Said TARDIS then loses control and goes to the end of the universe. The stars are winking out, it’s really the end this time. But the final remnants of the human race are trying their best to survive, getting scientifically-minded but not formally educated Derek Jacobi to build them a rocket.

As a teen, I didn’t like Derek Jacobi for some reason and it took me a while to change my mind. But I can’t—based on the IMDb—figure out why. I thought about that history a lot during the episode, which has Jacobi finding a kindred spirit in Tennant, who agrees to help complete the rocket to Utopia. In a hurry too, because the Road Warrior cannibals are at the gates, clamoring to get in.

It’s really nice having Barrowman back. He’s his same flirtatious self, though he’s got a secret. It’s a weird secret—portentous maybe—but it doesn’t matter. Especially if you’ve been watching the “Torchwood” spin-off series, I’ll bet, where Barrowman found a regular gig.

Once they’re helping with the rocket it’s all just a countdown to see what’s going on with Jacobi, who stares longingly at the TARDIS and ignores his female devotee (Chipo Chung, who’s great as an humanoid insect). Hint hint.

The cliffhanger’s not particularly enthralling and the final surprise mugs a little too much but… I guess the episode itself plays all right. Lots of running though.

Lots of running.

Doctor Who (2005) s03e10 – Blink

Blink is apparently not a backdoor pilot to a “Doctor Who” spin-off where recognizable cast—in this case Carey Mulligan on her way up—interacts with the world of Doctor Who without necessarily having to do a lot of scenes with David Tennant. Or Freema Agyeman, who’s second-billed but feels like she left the show and everything is to pretend she didn’t.

Mulligan is a single young Londoner who takes photographs of sad things because doing so makes her happy who discovers a surprising message from “The Doctor” somewhere there can’t possibly be a message. Especially not one for her.

She gets her pal, Lucy Gaskell, to go look again at the message on the wall—which warns of “weeping angels,” these stone statues all around the abandoned, haunted house Mulligan is investigating. Also investigating is fetching young copper Michael Obiora, who’s got all sorts of chemistry with Mulligan. It’s actually an obscene amount of chemistry and amazing the show’s able to get away with it. Technically speaking, the only thing wrong with the episode is Murray Gold’s music. Hettie Macdonald’s direction is fantastic. She totally gets the episode through the concept episode setup and does an excellent job with the actors. It’s a bummer there’s not a romcom spin-off for Mulligan and Finlay Robertson, who plays Gaskell’s DVD rental shop owning brother. Robertson finds evidence of “The Doctor” on various DVD Easter egg hidden features. It’s a weird way to date the episode.

I wonder what kind of special features this season had as far as Easter eggs. Mind you, Agyeman doesn’t appear in any of those Easter eggs segments, which are Tennant apparently answering unheard questions. It’s quirky but not successful. Especially not given Agyeman’s not around because—we later find out—she’s working in a shop to support Tennant as they’re trapped in the past.

So basically the episode is a “Doctor Who” episode like if they made a “VHS board game,” cut out the interactive parts and threw in footage from a different movie. In this case, Mulligan’s murderous weeping angel statues.

It’s a bunch of randomly excellent pieces baked into an outstanding whole.

Until the jaw-dropping bad end stinger. It’s a disaster.

But mostly a big win for Mulligan, Macdonald, and writer Steven Moffat.

Doctor Who (2005) s03e09 – The Family of Blood

So I thought this episode—wrapping up a two-parter about the Doctor (David Tennant) turning himself into a human so as to avoid some aliens who are hunting him and losing himself in early 1900s England—wasn’t going to get any worse after Tennant, having regained his memory and alien… superpowers (sure, okay), asks his human love interest, Jessica Hynes, who he no longer can feel the same way about, if she’d like to join him on the TARDIS.

In order to have this moment, the episode needs to ignore the following. First, Hynes is an early 20th century racist White woman who has been overtly racist to Freema Agyeman. We don’t get to see Tennant and Agyeman reunite, not really, even though she’s spent two episodes catering to his similarly racist White 20th century man when he didn’t have his memory back and had to keep him (and his lady) alive while he was ready to surrender the secrets of the universe to the bad guys. The human Tennant. Because he was a dipstick.

Second, Hynes has already rejected him in his alien capacity. Not just because Tennant no longer loves her—it was a fairly chemistry-absent love in the first place—but also because we’ve done the “the Doctor’s a violent, cruel guy” actually reveal in this episode. The Doctor is willing to do the violence so others don’t have to… which even figures in with the pre-WWI boys school militarization thing—macho imperial British jingoism in 2007—there’s a lot wrong with this episode and the previous one, it’s just not worth going through all the things. Even if they are fascinatingly dated for their time period.

Third, there’s no impression Tennant has checked with Agyeman about Hynes joining them. Like. Two episodes about Tennant being apathetic to the companion and he’s just as apathetic as before. Even though he remembers everything from the human phase, including Agyeman confessing her love. So he’s intentionally cruel.

But fourth, it doesn’t matter because the episode manages to get worse with the Saving Private Ryan postscript.

It’s a big episode full of bad ideas. Agyeman ends up as dissed a companion as Billie Piper and, even more striking, Tennant’s stopped being enough of a draw on his own.