"The Next Doctor"

There is something about the Victorian Christmas that makes it seem more Christmassy than any other type of Christmas. Maybe it's because of Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Maybe it's because such British Christmas symbols as the German Christmas Tree have their roots in the era. This is why it is a genuine thrill to see the Doctor emerge from the TARDIS to be greeted by the sight of carollers, men in stovepipe hats and boys in Norfolk jackets. He is stunned to hear his name being called and rushes to the source- a young woman who, strangely, continues calling for the Doctor, upon which a handsome man, seemingly in his early forties appears. Dressed to the nines in the height of Victorian fashion, he takes control of the situation, brandishing his sonic screwdriver, shouting 'Allons-y!', only then realising that the skinny stranger beside him has done exactly the same thing.

Of course, it soon becomes obvious that this man is not, nor ever will be the Doctor, but a man named Jackson Lake who, in the process of suffering the worst event of his life, suffered dissociative amnesia, a 'fugue'. However, in this case, there was something to replace the memories and personality that had fled- a burst of compressed information about the Doctor. Lake, believing himself to be the Doctor, attempts to live up to 'his' past, with his assistant Rosita, his sonic screwdriver (which is a normal screwdriver) and his TARDIS- 'Tethered Aerial Release Developed In Style'- a balloon! Despite the spectacle of this story, at the heart is the tale of a man in turmoil who has turned to the Doctor for salvation in a way that no-one else ever has. In subconsciously trying to save himself, he has become a genuine hero, not because of the information about the Doctor, but his own innate courage. This is very canny writing by Russell T Davies and is remarkably touching without one being cloying. The story also sees the return of the Cybermen who are up to their old tricks, but with a new, deadlier conclusion. To do this, they need child labour from the workhouses, which leads to the evocative plot of children toiling in the shadow of a vast steampunk machine. We also have the character of Miss Hartigan, a woman clearly born out of her time, whose ambition is enslaved to the Cyber King- a vast Cyberman with the capability of destroying cities and converting multitudes in its belly. Although the Cyber-plan takes second place to the journey of Jackson Lake, it is certainly a diverting plot thread.

The characters are well written and are brought to life by some stellar performances. David Morrisey is outstanding as Jackson Lake in a performance that is both very Victorian and easy for anyone to relate to. The gorgeous Dervla Kirwan is brilliant as Miss Hartigan, whose driving ambition makes her overcome even Cyber-conditioning.

The realisation of the story is sound enough with the scenes of the Cyber-king rising and wreaking havoc being truly awesome. However, director Andy Goddard sometimes takes his eye off the ball- Dutch angles are used so arbitrarily it sometimes appears that the camera was tilted by accident and there are some framing problems. The editing, too is a bit off. However, the cinematographic skills of Ernest Vincze do a great deal towards correcting this, as do the fantastic production values.

Although not 100% successful, "The Next Doctor" is tremendous fun and still way ahead of most 20th Century Cyberman stories.

NEXT: "Planet of the Dead"

"Turn Left"

Ever since It’s a Wonderful Life, the ‘What if X was not there?’ storyline has been used many times in film and television and it was time for this question to be asked in a Doctor Who episode: What if the Doctor wasn’t there to save us? We are presented with a world where the Doctor died as a result of the encounter with the Empress of the Racnoss. As a consequence, Martha dies when the Judoon steal the Royal Hope Hospital (together with Sarah Jane, who was the only one who stepped up in the absence of the Doctor). The starship Titanic crashes into Buckingham Palace, causing a nuclear explosion that devastates the south of England, causing the breakdown of British society. The USA would help, but the Adipose have harvested their young from the fat of America (one wonders why they didn’t do that in the first place!) Torchwood (with the obvious exception of Captain Jack) also give their lives immolated with the burning of the poison sky. We are presented with a Britain that is truly broken, where martial law is in operation and, eventually, non-British people get shipped off to labour camps. Some may find this a bit too grim, too 'adult', but this is what life would be like without the Doctor- a bit too close to real life for comfort. And it is clear that it isn’t just Britain or even the Earth that is affected. Overhead, without any fuss, the stars are going out...

I have said that the question is what if the Doctor wasn’t there to save us. However, it is soon obvious that the real question is what if Donna wasn’t there to save the Doctor? For the whole thing is brought on by a mysterious fortune teller on the planet of Shan Shen. Somehow, she is persuaded not to take up the job that led to her meeting the Doctor. This is the story of Donna Noble, the temp from Chiswick, whose normal life was ruined, but not destroyed by the horrors that were unleashed upon Britain. This episode is very much Catherine Tate’s and any lingering complaints about her performance should have been thoroughly eradicated. Donna is recognisably the same gobby woman from "The Runaway Bride", but Tate gives her more depth, understanding that Donna is not the one-shot character she once was. She can be crass and rude (such as in her initial treatment of Rocco Colasanto) but she shows real determination and grit and we love her for it. Bernard Cribbins works his inestimable magic in another delightful performance as Wilfred, but Jacqueline King deserves special praise for her excellent performance as Sylvia, effortlessly showing the fight draining out of her. Rocco is played by Joseph Long in a performance that initially screams ‘comedy foreigner’, which makes his eventual fate even more shocking and tragic in a wonderfully judged performance. However, there is another significant character- a mysterious blonde woman who rushes into Donna’s life at key points. Rose is back, although it has to be said that Billie Piper seems to be a tiny bit uncomfortable in the role, like wearing an old pair of shoes. It is wonderful to see her again, however, and her performance is good, in spite of Piper’s uncertainty.

Davies wrote the great script, but it is the masterful direction of Graeme Harper which binds it all together. Scenes of office mundanity are punctuated with tragedy, a bucolic Christmas is shattered by nuclear holocaust. Then, of course there is the unforgettable scene where Donna travels back in time. The beetle on her back is a very basic animatronic creation, but Harper’s direction makes it genuinely creepy. Harper also makes sure that the effects are as blinding as they have always been and Murray Gold provides another outstanding score.

This is a triumphant and thrilling story anchored by a phenomenal performance by Tate. Donna not only saves the Doctor, but saves the world (This is most emphatically *not* a reference to the execrable Heroes). However, Rose whispers two words that, as before, appear everywhere. The cloister bell rings...

NEXT: "The Stolen Earth"/ "Journey's End"

"The Unicorn and the Wasp"

I have never been a fan of Agatha Christie- perhaps I was spoiled by the excellent TV adaptations with Joan Hickson and David Suchet, but I find her books rather lacking as literature and nothing like as good as the adaptations. I am obviously in the minority here, which is why it is the Dame of Detection who is chosen to be the next great historical figure for the Doctor to meet. Gareth Roberts creates a story that is as close to being an all-out comedy as the revived programme has been. The script is littered with allusions to Christie titles that get (intentionally) less subtle as the story goes on. The episode is full of pastiches of Christie, from the teaser (which also has a hint of Cluedo) to the whole set up. A diverse group of people at a country house, murder, red herrings galore and all the suspects brought together in a drawing room for the dénouement. Of course the villain isn’t a venal cad or a forgotten illegitimate scion, but a giant alien wasp- this is Doctor Who after all! However, despite the gags, this is not just a parody. The inspiration for the story is Christie’s real life disappearance in 1926, and Christie’s mental state is dealt with effectively and sympathetically. Roberts might be a Christie fan, but he is well aware of her critics- she says herself that she does not consider her work to be great literature. Roberts cannily addresses another criticism of Christie- that she does not give death itself the appropriate weight in her stories- by having her chide the Doctor about his flippancy. The characters might be stock Christie on the surface, but there is more under the surface- the juxtaposition between the characters’ alibis and what they were really doing does this comedically, but Donna’s realisation that Roger’s footman (and lover) cannot openly mourn his death is touching. Of course, the reason why the plot is like a Christie pastiche is because the villain is unconsciously making it so- a nice touch.

Graeme Harper is easily up to directing this script, showing a flair for comedy that is not surprising, if you remember his helming of the Rik Mayall sitcom The New Statesman. The juxtapositions in the depositions of the suspects are dealt with in style, as is the main comedy set-piece, the Doctor’s hilarious ‘detox session’. The period production is dealt with in the BBC’s usual degree of excellence. The titular wasp is a great creation, although its sound could have been more effective. The guest performances are perfect. Leena Dhingra is always good value and it is always wonderful to see Felicity Kendal. Christopher Benjamin returns to Doctor Who in another hugely entertaining performance and Tom Goodman-Hill is great as Reverend Golightly, spouting Anglican platitudes one minute and buzzing with alien fury the next. Fenella Woolgar is simply outstanding as Christie, giving her a sense of fun while still portraying her sadder side. Tennant and Tate have a whale of a time and their enthusiasm is obvious in every scene.

"The Unicorn and the Wasp" is the bees knees (sorry!) and comes highly recommended.

NEXT: "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead"

The Sontaran Stratagem"/ "The Poison Sky"

Helen Raynor’s previous Doctor Who story was "Daleks in Manhattan" / "Evolution of the Daleks", which I consider to be the nadir of the relaunched programme by a considerable margin. So it was with great trepidation that I awaited the broadcast of this two-parter. Happily, Raynor provides a far better script this time. The Sontarans storm back and it is obvious that Raynor and Russell T Davies really understand these monsters. Unlike the Daleks and the Cybermen, these are not creatures who have been altered to remove or restrict emotions, but are merely conditioned to be bellicose from birth (or hatching). This obviously means that they are easier to characterise and Raynor does this excellently- the face-off between the Doctor and General Staal at the climax is brilliantly written. The plot is simple, but not predictable and shows inventiveness . The setting at the Rattigan Academy at first seems like something out of The Sarah Jane Adventures, but is incorporated well into the story. Most importantly the script has coherence and internal consistency, the lack of which damned Raynor’s previous Dalek two-parter. The pseudo science is no less fake than in "Daleks in Manhattan" / "Evolution of the Daleks", but it doesn’t contradict itself and such is the verve of the story that it can be forgiven, even the quite extraordinary method used to disseminate the Poison Sky- surely burning it would use up all the oxygen, asphyxiating the Earth even more quickly? The story is helmed by Douglas Mackinnon who directs with great verve, and energy, effectively dealing with spectacular scenes, such as the appearance of the Valiant, to more intimate ones such as Donna’s reunion with her family.

The characters are also well written. Child geniuses are seldom appealing characters, but Luke Rattigan is very memorable and is excellently played by Ryan Sampson. His arrogance is to the fore early on, but his betrayal by the Sontarans leaves him sobbing like an infant on the floor and his redemption is very moving. This story sees the return of UNIT, led by Rupert Holliday-Evans’s Colonel Mace, who plays the Brigadier role (the real one is mentioned for the first time this century and has received a knighthood- hurrah!) and it is good to see that the non-commissioned end of the ranks is not full of stereotypical army grunts. We have the wonderful character of Private Harris, played by Clive Standen, who discovers the clone in the basement. He acts like a typical squaddie, taunting General Staal about his height, yet displays intelligence and sympathy when examining the clone. Staal is played brilliantly by Christopher Ryan, who makes the character a very believable leader of an army of clone warriors, yet is not above humour. The look of the Sontarans takes the best from their previous appearances (i.e. the Kevin Lindsay versions) and updates them with 21st Century prosthetic techniques with very impressive results.

One thing I was very much looking forward to was the return of Martha. Miss Jones is now Dr Jones and Freema Agyeman effortlessly shows her as being more mature, with more responsibility, but still the Martha we know and love. Her performance as her evil clone is nicely underplayed and all the more sinister for that. Donna is great in this, displaying her ‘supertemp’ skills and it is always great to see her family. Anyone expecting a cat-fight between Martha and Donna were to be disappointed and their relationship is good- although I love their differing responses to the Doctor’s safe return. The Doctor is presented in a way closer to the Jon Pertwee era than ever before and David Tennant plays the part with his usual excellence. Raynor wrote very generic Doctor material in her previous story, but this time she goes for archetypal- the Doctor saves the day by inspiring someone to be better.

"The Sontaran Stratagem"/ "The Poison Sky" is wonderful fun and proves that Ms Raynor had it in her all along.

NEXT: "The Doctor's Daughter"

"Planet of the Ood"

One minor niggle that I had with "The Impossible Planet"/ "The Satan Pit" was that the Doctor didn’t show more outrage at the fact that humanity was using another race as slaves. This is addressed in this story- as the Time Lord himself says, he feels he ‘owes the Ood one’. We are taken to the Ood sphere (‘Near the planet Sense Sphere’, forging a link in fiction to the Sensorites, the Ood’s conceptual forbears) where we see genteel corporate types being offered cut-price deals on the ‘product’ sold by Ood Operations, while Ood are shipped throughout the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire like battery hens in crates, after they have been ‘processed’. However, there is a problem- the Ood are developing ‘Red-eye’ a phenomenon familiar to those who recall "The Impossible Planet"/ "The Satan Pit" and it is clear that the 'relationship' between the two races is coming to a crossroads. It seems odd at first that the Doctor is barely involved in the outcome at all- yet this is not really in the spirit of the story. The Ood should not be saved by an outsider and, despite the horror that they go through, notably the removal of their hind-brain to ‘process’ them, it is a processed Ood, Ood Sigma, who becomes the Toussaint L'ouverture of his race. The idea of the hind-brain seems a bit unlikely- I find it hard to believe that they could have evolved this system naturally, selfish gene and all that, but it makes up part of some very interesting world building.

Graeme Harper does his usual excellent job in the director’s chair, crafting the episode with great skill. The teaser for the episode begins with an advertisement for Ood Operations which says a great deal about society in the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire with great economy. There are many memorable scenes, shot and cut with great energy, with a special mention for the horrific scene where Halpen meets his comeuppance. Harper is helped by the usual strong show from design and production. The Ood sphere is an excellently realised ice planet and the sets are simple, yet effective. Murray Gold provides a very spooky Ligeti-inspired score that is amongst his best work. The cast is superb, with Tim McInnerny brilliant as the amoral, yet believable Halpen and the lovely Ayesha Dharker playing Solana, a person who is not bad but, ultimately, is just not good enough.

As said, the Doctor plays only a minor role, yet he is present to observe all events and it is his relationship with Donna that compensates for his lack of active involvement. At first, Donna is shocked by the sight of a dying Ood, yet that quickly turns to sympathy. The scene where the Doctor enables her to hear the Song of the Ood is very moving and Catherine Tate puts her all into the role in a great performance. David Tennant plays the Doctor as wanting to solve the crisis, as usual, but he is perfectly happy to see it solved without him and graciously asks to play a small part. David Tennant is wonderful- yet again.

With a serious message about slavery (including digs at present day corporations) "Planet of the Ood" is a very entertaining story as well, and I eagerly await the Doctor’s involvement in the liberation of the Functionaries of Inter Minor.

NEXT: "The Sontaran Stratagem"/ "The Poison Sky"

"Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood"

The scene is set with the Doctor and Martha running into the TARDIS, on the run from an unseen foe and it looks like it’s business as usual. Then, the Doctor’s eyes open- only it isn’t the Doctor, but a schoolmaster. Martha enters wearing a maid’s uniform and we find out that it is 1913 and the Doctor is apparently a dream of this man. Roll titles.

The ideas behind "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood" are pretty sound- The Doctor hides from the Family by becoming human and burying his memories and intelligence behind the personality of John Smith, a history master at Farringham School for boys. However, this is merely a canvas, on which Paul Cornell (using his excellent novel as a basis) has painted an absolute masterpiece. With the Doctor absent, our attention is focussed on Smith and he comes across as a sympathetic and endearing character that is definitely not the Doctor. However, the Doctor finds a way of breaking through when Smith is asleep, making Smith dream of things that seem like sheer phantasy, which he records in his Journal of Impossible Things. The way that the story is structured cleverly mirrors this- after the pre-titles sequence, the story looks like a period drama, but slivers of Doctor Who start breaking through until we have a cliffhanger where a village dance has been invaded by a cross section of pre-war society, armed with disintegrator guns. World War One strongly affects the tone of the story- Cornell accurately depicts the worldview that the Great War destroyed forever- man was capable of anything, an Englishman doubly so. The boys, trained in use of weapons to fight the Enemy in a just and chivalric war will stand in filthy trenches, get mown down by machine guns and choke on from mustard gas. They fight men of straw, just as their fellows will train for combat the next year.

However, this is not just a story of alien invasion, but one driven, primarily by characters. At the centre is John Smith, a timid, yet kindly man who finds love with the school Matron, Joan Redfern. This romance is tenderly done and we come to appreciate both characters to such an extent that, while we want the Doctor back, we are truly sorry to see Smith go. Cornell does not make it entirely clear whether Smith is an invented persona or a kenotic reduction of the Doctor, but this works in the story’s behaviour- is Smith’s heroic act with the cricket ball a piece of the Doctor poking through or is it entirely Smith? Particularly well written is Joan’s dawning realisation of the fact that her love is for a man who doesn’t really exist- her asking Smith about his childhood and receiving encyclopaedia entries as an answer is heartbreaking and written with a Borges-like elegance. Joan comes off as a splendid character, a strong, intelligent and decent woman that one can easily understand Smith falling for, but with the strictness that a School Matron should show, that is a mask of propriety for her true kindness. The rest of the staff and the schoolboys are equally well drawn. One very refreshing aspect is the refusal to make the characters hold anachronistic values- Martha’s colour is an issue with even sympathetic characters such as Smith and Nurse Redfern and Martha’s dignity and resolve throughout is wonderful.

There is one character who permeates the story, yet hardly appears- the Doctor himself. We see people’s yearnings for him both selfish (the Family) and otherwise (Martha). Tangential, yet vital is the character of Tim Latimer, a boy with an unusual gift who understands the Doctor better than any other, giving the most wonderful description of the Doctor ever written:

'He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun... He's ancient and forever. He burns at the centre of time and can see the turn of the universe.'

Critically, when the Doctor reappears, he is impersonating John Smith to lessen the blow before he utterly defeats the Family. The shift of narration to Baines/Son-of-Mine is inspired- we see the Doctor as his enemies see him, an implacable destroyer. In fact, until the time, the Doctor and Martha depart in the TARDIS, we are always seeing the Doctor from another character’s perception of him.

Charles Palmer directs a very impressive production with virtually no weak points. There is no time to list all the memorable scenes, so I’ll just pick a few- the flashback to the Doctor’s transformation, the boys machine-gunning the scarecrows, the heartbreaking ‘dream of a normal life’ and, of course, the wonderful coda, where the Doctor and Martha attend a Remembrance Day service where an aged Tim Latimer is guest of honour. The performances are splendid. Jessica Hynes is compelling as Joan and Thomas Sangster excellent as Tim. Harry Lloyd manages to convey the alien without going over the top, in a hugely skilful performance as Baines/Son-of-Mine. However, the best performances are by the regulars. Freema Agyeman gives one of the best ‘companion’ performances of all time in a thoroughly wonderful performance- her medical ‘talk to the hand’ scene is sublime. David Tennant’s performance is astonishing, possibly the best performance by any actor playing the lead role, although he mainly plays another role. Tennant makes Smith endearing, fearful, yet very brave and we truly mourn his passing.

"Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood" is not one of those tediously trite sci-fi stories that tell the reader ‘what it means to be human’- it points out why the Doctor can never truly be like us, while celebrating the best of humanity- Joan is awed by the Doctor, but not so much that she fails to reprimand him for the havoc he has caused, dismissing him from her presence- while she finally mourns for the man she loved. It seems weird that, a few weeks before, I was thinking that Doctor Who had lost it, for this is truly one of the best Doctor Who stories of all time.

NEXT: "Blink"