Rose is being held hostage by the Daleks, and Earth is facing a full-scale
Dalek invasion. Does the sonic screwdriver have a setting for this
situation?
Cast and Crew
Christopher Ecclestone and David Tennant as the Doctor
Billie Piper as Rose Tyler
John Barrowman as Captain Jack
Jo Stone-Fewings as Male Programmer
Jo Joyner as Lynda
Paterson Joseph as Roderick
Nisha Nayar as Female Programmer
Noel Clarke as Mickey
Camille Coduri as Jackie Tyler
Barnaby Edwards, Nicholas Pegg and David Hankinson operated the
Daleks
Anne Robinson was the voice of the Anne Droid
Nicholas Briggs was the voice of the Daleks
Written by Russell T. Davies
Directed by Joe Ahearne
Daleks created by Terry Nation
Originally aired on BBC One in the United Kingdom on the
18th of June 2005
Synopsis
The Doctor faces down a Dalek army about to invade Earth which
is holding Rose hostage.
High Points
- The Doctor’s rescue of Rose
- Rose’s realisation what all the Bad Wolf means
Low Point
Roderick. He’s just irritating and far too one-dimensional. How
many times have we seen a character like that just before an alien
invasion?
The Review
So, the Daleks invade Earth. That’s been done, but not like this.
The low point detracts from this score a bit, as does the final
resolution. Doctor Who may not have done this before, but
other things have. That said, the plot still shows some nicely
original quirks and combinations. Four out of six.
We’ve come to expect a pretty high standard from the
effects and this week they really did deliver. Six out of six.
As a continuation of last week’s episode, the story once
more has to rate highly, although it’s not perfect. Some of the pacing
just didn’t seem quite right – if anything, this could’ve done with
another fifteen minutes so that everything could have happened at its
proper pacing. Oh, and the Doctor once more does two weeks’ work in
five minutes. Five out of six.
Since the cast are either returning regulars or the same as
last week I cannot fail to give them six out of six again.
The emotional response is strong. Rose in particular
inspires strong feelings as she works her way through the situation to
her solution, taking control of her destiny. This brings up a parallel
thread in Jackie, who is once more faced with the certainty of losing
her daughter. Five out of six.
The production was remarkable. There’s not much more I
can say about it really – we’ve seen Daleks fight in the series already,
and in large numbers they’re even better. Six out of six.
My overall score has to be a resounding six out of six.
This is a fine way to finish the series (and for Ecclestone to bow out of
the role), and leaves us wanting more more more! I can barely wait
until the Christmas special, and the thought of having to wait until
March to see series two is really not a pleasant one. Roll on Doctor
Who!
And that gives a total of thirty-eight out of forty-two.
Resolution
I was really unhappy with the resolution. If communing with a TARDIS can do
that (and what Rose said she could do), even it costs an individual his or her life
(or only a regeneration) how in the world were the Time Lords ever defeated?
Why can’t any situation dire enough be resolved by tossing someone (or even a
human, if that’s necessary) at the heart of the TARDIS?
For a season of Doctor Who that was by and large quite excellent, the resolution
was a bit Star Trekky – even if it did cost the Doctor a regeneration.
Re: Resolution
Perhaps it takes a special personality to handle the communion? Perhaps the Tardis itself chooses who to commune with? There might well be factors involved that we have no inkling of. (And, probably, the writer(s) don’t either.) Maybe this will be part of the plot in the next season? Lots of maybes and perhapses.
Re: Resolution
My take on it was that the pure heart/pure intentions of Rose were the only thing that kept the TARDIS from striking her dead. The Doctor did say in “Boom Town” that no one fully comprehended the heart of the TARDIS – it’s a sort of wild card that would have been just as likely to wipe out the Time Lords rather than the Daleks if used as a weapon of war.
And with that in mind, may I point out that both the Time Lords and the Daleks were almost completely wiped out following the Time War, with no real explanation yet given?
Re: Resolution
I agree with this. And who knows? Rose was starting to sound a bit delusional at the end. If The Doctor had not steped in and taken in the Tardis’ energy, it looked like it might have driven Rose a bit over the edge
Re: Resolution
I Think It Did Drive The Doctor A Bit Batty At The End, Too.
I Agree, It Was A Bit Dues ex Machina, But It Was Still Pretty Good. What I Didn’t Get Was Why The TARDIS Was Hurtling Through Space In The First Place. Since When Does It Actually Travel Through Space To get Anywhere?
Re: Resolution
All that is, all that was, all that could be…
Sounds like it would drive anyone batty – I’m just hoping the new Doctor isn’t crazy because of it. Unbalanced and/or slightly eccentric is good, but full-on crazy is bad.
Am I the only person who thinks that David Tennant is going to have as hard a time as Peter Davison being accepted as the new Doctor? He’s got some big shoes to fill….
Re: Resolution
No I’m quite with you there. I haven’t thought the stories were very good (and eccleston keeps calling it a childrens program in interviews), hower the chemistry has been brillaint. I didn’t know any of the actors before this, but between him and Billie Piper it worked great. And Captain Jack was fine too.
Now its just Piper and this new guy whom I took a dislike to the moment I saw him.
But then I didn’t know him either, so perhaps I can learn to like him.
We shall see come chrismas.
Re: Resolution
It actually does that in at least one other episode. I mean, it even crashed into a spaceship and got stuck for a bit during the fourth doctor’s run.
Re: Resolution
Okay. A Better Question Might Be ‘Why?’
Re: Resolution
Distraction. Hey, look at the box and think you can do something to it.
Re: Resolution
This episode typified most of what was wrong with the series as a whole. The Doctor, for all his promises in the previous episode failed to deliver, he did save Rose, but his promise to save Earth and wipe out the Daleks would never have worked since he would have to had wipe out everyone on Eqarth in order to wipe out the Daleks. This feels like a cheat on the part of the scriptwriter! He sets up what will be a cracking climax and doesn’t deliver on the promises! Furthermore, the Doctor spends most of the episode building something he is never going to use, while everyone dies to buy him some time, all the deaths are a waste of time since he never uses the delta wave!. Again we have to much ‘kitchen sink’ drama in the middle of what should have been a pure actioner. By all means feature jackie and Mickey, but put them in it nearer the end of the episode so it doesn’t feel like I’ve turned over and Eastenders is on. I give the episode 5 out of 10. Hopefully the next series will have a far more heroic Doctor, less domestic scenes and better scriptwriting with far better stories. If all stories were as good as The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, I wouldn’t be complaining!
Bad Wolf
What did everything think of the Bad Wolf resolution?
I thought it was a satisfying explanation, but I was hoping for something that would stretch over to the next season.
I can’t believe we have to wait 6 MONTHS for the next season! Not only are the British seasons shorter, the also take longer breaks!!
It was kind of sad to see the 9th Doctor go. He was pretty good and I wish Christopher had decided to sign on for at least another season. Something I don’t understand. If the Doctor basically remains the same person, why all that goodbye stuff at the end before the regeneration?
Re: Bad Wolf
Maybe we haven’t seen the end of Bad Wolf. It might have something deeper in the next series. Very sad to see the 9th Doctor go. Christopher Eccleston was brilliant in the role.
I think the regeneration means that the Doctor becomes a new person, kinda like he’s switching places with an alternate version of himself or something. Maybe they explained it in more detail with one of the other Doctors.
I’m curious to see though if we learn more about the Time War. Anybody know which Doctor this involved? Was the backstory created purely for this series or did it feature in some of the previous ones?
Re: Bad Wolf
As far as I’ve been able to piece together, the Time War happened over a series of novels featuring the short-lived (at least on TV) Eighth Doctor. I’ve only read synopses, so I could be completely misreading things.
Re: Bad Wolf
That Time War was Between The Time Lords And The Faction Paradox, And Is Supposedly Just In The Books.
The Show’s Timewar, Between The Daleks And The Time Lords, Was New As Of This Season.
Or, At Least That’s What I Was Told by An Avid Reader Of The Books.
Re: Bad Wolf
That’s a relief! I thought I’d missed some serious action in the movie (which I haven’t seen). At least I can take comfort in the fact that I’m in the dark as much as everyone else about The War…except maybe the scriptwriters.
Re: Bad Wolf
Believe me, you haven’t missed much. I decided to find all the
regeneration stories and watch them , after having seen this episode. I had
never seen the movie so I acquired it (thanks, bittorrent) and watched it last
night.
It is unbelievably bad, it is as though the characters and back story of
The Doctor were taken and inserted into “Standard Hollywood Sci-Fi
template”. It reminded me of nothing more than the Dungeons and Dragons
move from a few years back, and believe me, that is a damning statement!
“Caves of Androzani” is next on my list, I’ve always had a soft spot for
Doc #5 and I think “Androzani” and his Dalek story are his finest hour.
Re: Bad Wolf
Nope. The Time War in the books was between most of the Time Lords and
the Enemy, who is never clearly defined. Faction Paradox is a group of Time
Lords (and others) who embrace paradox and are something of a “voodoo
cult.” They profit from the Time War, but are not main combatants. There
are other factions of Time Lords who are also on the outside of the conflict,
like the Celestis (who grew out of the Celestial Intervention Agency and tried
to create a safe haven outside of time).
It isn’t clear yet whether the show’s Time War is the same as the books’ Time
War – the Enemy in the books used a lot of different races to do their bidding
and it’s completely plausible that Daleks would have been their instrument in
some aspect of the final battle.
There are a lot of subtle aspects in the TV show that refer to events and
details in the novels and Big Finish audio dramas (for example, the Paradox
spirits from outside of time – and the episode The Unquiet
Undead is a partial rewrite of the audio drama
Phantasmagoria). This is because some of the staff of the TV
show were also writers for
the earlier material. It’s not clear yet whether they’re trying to maintain
continuity with it or not, but they haven’t contradicted it outright.
Also note that David Tennant was a voice actor in the Big Finish audio dramas
(including Dalek Empire III).
I hope we end up seeing the Time Lords restored – those were always my
favorite episodes. It would be extra special to see Faction Paradox or
Romana. Which does bring up the question, why didn’t Rose restore the Time
Lords? Or maybe she did….
Re: Bad Wolf
I liked the Bad Wolf resolution.
I thought it was good because all along I’d kind of assumed that the words “bad wolf” were in some way significant in describing who the “bad wolf” was and that the “bad wolf” was somehow present in the background as time went on.
As it turned out it the opposite was true. The words “bad wolf” were only significant because the station happened to be run by (and have a big sign saying) “Bad Wolf corporation” and Rose+ chose to push the words back (and forwards) through time as a pointer to tell her where she needed to be.
I think Rose+ did save everyone. It seems to me that at that point she was flush with power and it seems a stretch to believe she only saved Jack. She seemed almost omnipotent, whacking Daleks, pushing “Bad Wolf” signatures through time etc etc. I don’t see why she wouldn’t have fixed everything, including Earth’s bombardment, even if it wasn’t shown.
The only thing I think I’d have liked to have seen was her pushing a symbol back to Mickey to let him and her mum know she was successful.
It would have been cool if Mickey had knelt down with his hands in his head as the Tardis started fading and when he eventually looked up there was a picture of a rose on the wall behind where the Tardis had been.
Re: Bad Wolf
The next time she visits home they’ll know all is well. Maybe we’ll find out the answer to a mystery that’s BIGGER than the BAD WOLF: Why did Rodgrigo owe Jackie the use of the large wrecker?
The parting..
No comment yet about the kiss? I remember when Cap’n Jack was introduced someone mentioned they thought the gay references were something you wouldnt see on American TV… so the smacker of a kiss Jack laid on the Doctor would be censored to oblivion then I’d guess?
All in all an enjoyable episode – particularly liked Lynda’s death, the Dalek floating in space saying ‘Exterminate’ in a vacum was cool!
Re: The parting..
I liked Jack’s subtle bisexuality references. They were funny because they were unexpected.
I thought it was a nice goodbye kiss.
That was an enjoyable scene (in a dramatic way). You have to wonder though, is she really dead? Jack isn’t. Which leads me to ask: Why didn’t the Doctor and Rose go look around for survivors before taking off like that? It’s got to suck seeing your friends abandon you as the only survivor on an evil 500 storey space station!
I’m sure that we can count on seeing Jack (and maybe Lynda?) at some point next season!
Re: The parting..
While I would have liked to see Rose save Lynda, my opinion is that they would have shown it if she had saved her. I am curious as to why they left Jack behind. Although, the Doctor rushed them out, so maybe he doesn’t know Jack’s alive and Rose may have been too concerned about the Doctor to wait for Jack.
Re: The parting..
I Took That As The Doctor Didn’t Know Jack Was Alive, And Rose Was Unconcious. When Rose Came To, She Didn’t Remember Being A TimeGoddess, And Thus Didn’t Know Jack Was Brought Back To Life.
Re: The parting..
I liked that they did that – I was thinking “the yanks are going to blow a fuse if they see that” ;-)
*g*
Re: The parting..
That’s assuming we can see it. Are there any American stations carrying this series? BBC America does not, nor does my local PBS (who carries other BBC shows). Where can a poor American see an episode?
Re: The parting..
Internet.
As far as I’ve heard, there is no US broadcaster yet. Just Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and North Korea, as far as outside of the UK goes.
This sucks for those of us hoping for Region 1 DVDs anytime soon too…
Re: The parting..
As far as I’ve heard, there is no US broadcaster yet. Just Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and North Korea, as far as outside of the UK goes.
I’m sure you meant to say SOUTH Korea! Big difference there. ~tom
Re: The parting..
Re: The parting..
I’m in the US, and I had the same dilemma, but I solved it. I have one word for you: Bittorrent!
Re: The parting..
I get it off the USENET groups. I usualy have the episode complete in time to watch it Sunday evenings. That’s what, 30 hours after it airs? (timezones, I see it on MY Sunday evening, that’d be early Monday morn in the UK.)
Re: The parting..
I think it was dumb of the BBC to allow it just for the fact that they limit their audience that way for no good reason. I don’t watch Dr Who to get someone’s politics pushed at me. Keep it a show that everyone can enjoy and it will be around a lot longer.
Re: The parting..
Eh. Carry that logic too far and you get tripe like the Doctor Who TV Movie,
complete with car chases and romantic scenes.
I’d rather they stay true to their creative concepts of the characters and be
cancelled after one season (which it hasn’t been – the BBC has comitted to 2
more and hopefully their word is better than SciFi’s on Farscape) than have
them go down the road that gave us the Doctor Who TV Movie.
Re: The parting..
We never hear from these people about heteronormativity being too political. If the yanks want to watch intelligent sci-fi, then they will have to widen their view of what’s permissible in human nature. And I’ve yet to hear anyone complaining about the last pure human being a transsexual (Sorry, did you miss that bit in The End of the World where Cassandra shows Rose the mountains where she lived as ” a little boy”?).
I wonder what the American Right will make of a character named Foetus Sigma anyway? (This was revealed as the Doctor’s name in The Armageddon Factor, classic series.)
Re: The parting..
Erm… LOL, that was Theta Sigma. Google it.
Re: The parting..
Not Sure How Limitted Their Audience Is…
The BBC Isn’t In This To Make A Profit, Being State Funded, And A Rumour Has It That The Episode Of Rose That Was Leaked Onto The Internet Early Was Intentionally Leaked By the BBC.
Re: The parting..
I give credit to these guys for a gay kiss that didn’t gross the hell out of me.
Canadian news has been plastering fugly guys tonsle-diving on each other lately on account of the gay-marriage hooplah, which was bothering me about as much as open torso surgery and mass grave images they also insist of broadcasting during supper time, so I was relieved to see that Doctor Who can have that without the perverse pleasure of the gross out.
But Captain Jack’s bisexuality was well played all the way through, I liked how ge was flirting with the station manager when they took over Station 5, that was cute. He’s the kind of character that should have been in ST since Voyager… the idiscriminate space playboy.
But ST has been lost to the network executives (damn you, Berman!) since Gene’s passing. So we’re lucky to have the Doctor picking up the slack of progressiveness through sci-fi.
Did the Doctor love Rose?
I’m guessing he did, and that made his goodbye all the more poignant, since that personality and all the emotions that go with it would be destroyed during the regeneration.
Re: Did the Doctor love Rose?
Then why would he remember Barcelona? Do all the emotions and personality seem to go, or is that just the all too real fact from the past that its actually a different person. Tennant could still play the part (depending on the writers) with the same logic as Ecclestone, but of course the cemistry will be different.
Re: Did the Doctor love Rose?
His personality and emotions will get replaced, but not his memory.
Re: Did the Doctor love Rose?
Yes and no… if the regeneration went smoothly, yes. Some regenerations
have left him confused and with substantial gaps in his memory, others have
been no big deal. Peter Davison’s regeneration in particular was really rough,
needing a “zero room” to help him complete it, Colin Baker’s left him with
such a fragile grip on his sanity that his perception of his memory shifted
from moment to moment, and a Tom Baker episode (“The Brain of Morbius”)
made reference to a group that assisted Time Lords with difficult
regenerations with the “Flame of Life.” Paul McGann’s left him without much
memory for a while. The first couple of regenerations were no big deal,
though.
I bet that you’re right in this case and Tennant’s goes smoothly. That doesn’t
seem to be the kind of wrench that this group of writers likes to throw into
the works.
time war
Russell T Davies has catagorically said that the Time War in the novels is completely different.
I enjoyed the episode, but for yet enother deus ex machina ending. My main problem with theis series is that Doctor rarely saves the day. Character development of Rose and jack or whoever is one thing, but it negates all the Doctor’s experience and knowledge and skill. Especially after the cracking ending to ‘Bad Wolf’, where he vows to wipe the daleks out and save the earth, and he’s reduced pretty much to a bystander. Again. Also, I prefer my regeneration scenes a bit more dramatic, the Doctor properly on the verge of death, lying on the floor, shot from above. And the old effect was better, it looked more organic like a natural process. Suppose that was some of the Time/space continuum escaping from though. I agree with the comment about how could the Time Lords have possibly lost too.
Re: time war
No disrespect intended, but can you provide a pointer or a reference to that?
I’ve seen so many statements attributed to Davies that later turned out to be
highly distorted or even patently false that I strongly prefer to see the direct
quotes before taking something as gospel…
Thanks…
Re: time war
No worries. Davies has a column in the Doctor Who Magazine, called Production Notes. I think it was the month before last, he was saying how the Time War in the TV series is definitely different from the one in the novels. Not least because (a) the Time War in the novels is way off in the future, past the Doctor’s time, where they have very sophisticated sentient TARDISes, and (b) because the BBC is a public service broadcaster they wouldn’t actually be allowed to have a plot line in one of their programmes that you could only fully see by buying BBC merchandise (ie the books). They even delayed the relase of the final Eighth Doctor novel, ‘The Gallifrey Chronicles’ in case people thought they had to read it before seeing the series.
Re: time war
Thanks… that’s logical, though I buy (b) a lot more than I do (a) – it’s a
freaking time war, “way off in the future” doesn’t
mean a whole lot.
In the books we see Time Lords from Gallifrey’s future far
in advance of the Doctor’s home Gallifrey time interacting with the 20th and
21st century Earth (and
the Doctor) with some frequency. In fact, the first humanform-TARDIS
(Compassion) comes about as part of the Doctor’s time line partly because of
Gallifrey’s awareness of its future.
So it seems to me that it’s not so easy to say one Time War is different from
another, unless they say that the books are not part of the continuity (and I
think the BBC has been clear that the books are part of the continuity).
On the other hand, being a Time War I suppose its nature can change
radically from one take to the next, and continuity doesn’t necessarily mean a
whole lot.
Which brings us to the question: if the Time Lords were removed from Time,
how come people remember them? Particularly, people who are not in time
active cultures like the humans in 202105(ish)? That keeps bugging the heck
out of
me.
spoilers are NOT cool!
Ok, the blurb there was a spoiler for the first part ep that hadn’t aired yet on CBC.
Now, if I wanted to see reviews of the BBC’s schedule, instead of the the CBC, I wouldn’t be reading a Canadian site, would I?
If you wanna be all “scoopy” and have reviews from the UK, fine, but how about NOT HAVING SPOILERS IN THE DAMN FRONTPAGE?
Another Thing…
Anyone Else Think It’s Weird That The Doctor And Jack Both Seem To Regard Rose As Being Something So Much More Than A Simple Girl Picked Up In London?
I Mean, Sure, They Might Both Have Feelings For Her, But It Still Seems Like They Know Something Else. The Doctor Had Some Feelings For Lynda, And Didn’t have A Problem Sending Her To Her Death, But He’s Willing To Risk The World For One Girl From A Different Time?
Re: Another Thing…
I agree, I think Jack just fancies her, but the Doctor does seem to think she is special, as does the tardis…
I’m wondering if it’s all to do with the Bad wolf thing though – because all the references Rose scattered back/forth around the universe seemed to have more of an impact than simply making her realise she needed to go back… almost every episode in the series seemed to begin with the tardis being drawn into some situation or another… perhaps the tardis was being drawn to bad wolf references and somehow tardis/doctor/rose all the same kind of wavelength all along without exactly realising? (Or perhaps that’s missing the point – I guess if Rose deliberately put the bad wolf references in exactly the places they’d just visited then it is no co-incidence that they were drawn to them!!).
So maybe the doctor was picking up all along on the fact that the tardis already knew that ultimately Rose would be the saviour… ? (All a bit confusing though sequentially – if Rose hadn’t opened up the tardis to go back then she wouldn’t have scattered the messages so she wouldn’t have been inspired to go back! but anyway…)
Another thought – now we’ve had another regeneration I think its time to revisit the threads from episode 1 – I’m putting another comment back there too should anyone want to look…
Re: Another Thing…
Bah, might be bad doing it, but I responded to your post for the ROSE episode.
Re: Another Thing…
Shortcut For Those Not Willing To Search.
Grabbing
I still don’t understand who pulled the doctor and the others out of the Tardis – and into the games?
If the Dalek God was in charge, and the daleks were frightened of Dr Who, why would they deliberately bring him just before they invaded? Doesn’t make sense to me.
Re: Grabbing
The Gamemaster, the babbling woman with wires in her and such, brought them there so that the Doctor would eliminate her masters, the Daleks.