#12 (3.0): The Runaway Bride.

Donna (Catherine Tate)'s wedding doesn't quite go as planned...

1 episode. Approx. 60 minutes. Written by: Russell T. Davies. Directed by: Euros Lyn. Produced by: Phil Collinson.


THE PLOT

A stranger has somehow appeared in the TARDIS: A woman in a white wedding dress.

The Doctor gapes at the impossibility, particularly when he realizes that the woman, Donna Noble (Catherine Tate), is completely ordinary. Donna is enraged at being taken from her wedding to HR manager Lance (Don Gilet), right as she was walking down the aisle, and the Doctor has no explanation for how this could have happened. He does know that Donna is as irritating as she is irate, however, and resolves to get her to the church as quickly as possible.

The TARDIS gets her to the right city on the right date, and Donna hails a cab. Situation resolved... Until the Doctor notices that her driver is one of the same robotic Santas that he tangled with the previous Christmas. He manages to rescue her, but not in time to make her wedding. He instead delivers her to the reception, which has gone on without her.

While Donna reunites with her not overly-worried family, the Doctor reviews the video footage of the wedding. That's when he realizes that Donna has been infused with huon particles, energy which should not exist. When he learns that her workplace is an office building formerly owned by the Torchwood Institute, the pieces start coming together... And when he discovers a secret sub-basement in that building, he realizes that he's stumbled into a plot that traces back to the dawn of the Earth, and that just might spell the planet's ending!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Is intrigued by Donna's impossible appearance in his TARDIS - but when she notices a blouse of Rose's, he is uncharacteristically willing to forget that mystery just to get this shrill intruder out of his life as quickly as possible. It is only when he sees Donna in imminent danger that he gets pulled back into her situation. At the reception, while other couples dance, he keeps thinking of Rose - right up until he notices the videographer from the wedding, and is able to distract himself with the mystery. The climax, in which the Doctor grimly takes action against the villainous Queen of the Rachnoss (Sarah Parrish), is particularly memorable, with Tennant's Doctor actively frightening in this moment.

Donna: Barrels into the series with a shrill voice and a shriller attitude. For the first part of the episode, she is unbearable - loud, overly emotional, loud, unlikable, and loud. But once she has to accept that she's not making it back to her wedding in time, she settles down for a nice, contemplative scene on a rooftop in which actress Catherine Tate shows some terrific chemistry with David Tennant. That scene would be evidence in itself of why she was worth bringing back, even if Catherine Tate did not proceed to be terrific for the remainder of the episode. A noteworthy scene that ties in with the ending is when, after the attack at the reception, Donna tries to get the Doctor to help some of those who were hurt. He refuses to slow down, telling her that he needs to focus on "the bigger picture" - Which reinforces Donna's statement at the end, that he sometimes needs someone to stop him.


THOUGHTS

My thoughts on Donna's characterization are a microcosm of my thoughts on The Runaway Bride as a whole. The first 15 - 20 minutes are mostly unbearable: Overly broad, overly frenetic, and overly loud. There are actually a few good lines in there, with Donna's rant about pockets particularly amusing - But the stray good line can't help but get buried underneath the sheer busy-ness of it all.

Then, after a bizarre car chase (which is actually rather enjoyably staged), things finally settle down. We get some quiet bits, the characters of the Doctor and Donna start to properly emerge, and the whole story becomes so much more enjoyable that I can scarce credit that it all came from the same creative crew.

A particularly effective undertone is that Rose's departure is a raw nerve for the Doctor. This entire story is happening to him directly after losing her in Doomsday. This influences his attitudes throughout the story, and makes this a strong epilogue to the Rose era, reinforcing how important she was to him.

It should have stayed the final word on Rose, in my opinion, with only an occasional stray reference thereafter... But that's a complaint for another day.

The story itself is fairly clever. The explanation for how Donna was catapulted into the TARDIS for the Doomsday cliffhanger is not only given an explanation, it is made part and parcel of the story. There's also a nice end twist that is planted early in the story, but which is not blatantly telegraphed. The story also works nicely as a bridge between seasons, with the Doctor's reaction to Rose's departure following on from Season Two, and the planting of the name "Mister Saxon" near the end.

I tend to think that Runaway Bride would have been better had it been the length of the regular episode. Most of the first Act is not necessary to the story, and the frenetic activity of that opening segment is the worst single feature of the show. On first viewing, I nearly switched off during the first 15 minutes; on this viewing, even knowing it improved, I still had to push myself through that first patch.

But it gets so much better after, that I still find myself awarding a strong score. This is a good episode - if one that requires just a touch of viewer indulgence with it.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

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#10 (2.11): Fear Her.

The Doctor and Rose, punchably smug.

1 episode. Approx. 45 minutes. Written by: Matthew Graham. Directed by: Euros Lyn. Produced by: Phil Collinson.


THE PLOT

The Doctor takes Rose just a few years into her future - to the 2012 Olympic Games, in London. They are walking through a residential neighborhood when Rose notices posters of missing children. The Doctor senses residual energy from the children's disappearance and realizes that this is no simple kidnapping. These kids were snatched out of time and space entirely.

Their attention is drawn to the home of Trish Webber (Nina Sosanya), whose daughter Chloe (Abisola Agbaje) has been withdrawn and isolated since her father's death. Chloe stays in her room all day, drawing pictures and refusing to talk to anyone. When the Doctor pushes his way in, he determines that she is acting as host to an alien parasite - an Isolus, a life form that has befriended Chloe because it shares her feelings of loneliness after being isolated from its own family. Now whenever Chloe draws a picture of somebody, the Isolus takes them, building a new family for itself.

The Doctor resolves to send the alien back to its home, which will help it, Chloe, and the people it has snatched all in one go. But the Isolus and Chloe are one step ahead of him. The girl draws one more picture - and when Rose turns around, the Doctor has vanished!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Relates to the Isolus' loneliness in a way Rose cannot, and refuses to outright condemn it even as he works to repair the damage it has done. He lets slip that he was a parent once - something that clearly takes Rose by surprise. These are a couple nice character beats in an episode that otherwise overwrites his smug and manic tendencies. It's likely no coincidence that these bits are very well-played by David Tennant, who otherwise seems to be mostly on autopilot.

Rose: Delighted at a trip to the 2012 London Olympics. Even in the midst of an enthused babble by the Doctor, though, she can't help but notice the missing child posters. She directs his attention to them, all but saying that this is a mystery they need to solve. She is also the one who notices Chloe, whose "own mum seemed scared of her." Without the Doctor, Rose is the one who saves the day, quickly putting together the pieces of what the Isolus needs and using the Olympics to set things right... in a nauseatingly bad scene that kicks off several worse scenes, but that's a whole other matter.


THOUGHTS

Near the start of the episode, there's a quite clever gag that sees the TARDIS materializing in a narrow space the wrong way around, so that the Doctor can't leave until he shifts its position. It's quick and it's funny - made more so by David Tennant's perfectly judged facial expression when the Doctor reacts to the problem.

I'm leading with that because I think it's good to start a review with some praise - And I just don't have much praise to give to Fear Her. The episode was made quickly and cheaply after Stephen Fry's long-gestating story finally fell through. While City of Death was famously cobbled together by Graham Williams and Douglas Adams over a weekend, that frenzy of creative brilliance was the exception. More often, when an episode is thrown together at the last minute, you're going to end up with something... Well, something a lot like Fear Her.

As the synopsis probably shows, writer Matthew Graham (of Life on Mars fame) has the sketch of a good Doctor Who story. He also makes a stab at unifying the characters and plot thematically. The Isolus, Chloe, and the Doctor are all isolated characters, and the Isolus' feelings of isolation are what drive the plot. With more time, I suspect the themes and story could have been made to work together quite nicely.

But with no time, there was apparently no chance to separate text and subtext. There's no subtlety here at all. The themes are directly expressed through dialogue, which results in some awkwardly stilted exchanges among the characters and an over-the-top hilarious news broadcast at the end. There was also apparently not enough time to convincingly work out plot complications. As a result, only a few minutes after Rose specifically tells Trish not to leave Chloe alone, Trish does so for no compelling reason - Which basically puts her in the "too stupid to live" category. Basically, the whole thing plays like a first draft, with no time for the writer to work out how to layer subtext and work out plot hurdles before the film dates.

I will say that for its first first 30 minutes, Fear Her is poor but tolerable. The final ten minutes, however, see the episode go for broke, making the situation as big as possible. At this point, what had been merely bad becomes so astonishingly inept. Be it the television announcer's verbal orgasms over how the Olympic torch now stands for hope and love and rainbows and puppies, or the way in which a monster is chased away by two guest characters singing a song while huddling in fear, or the Doctor's final bit of grandstanding... Absolutely everything in this final segment is so brazenly overwrought that it becomes hilarious.

While this is easily the worst episode of the new series' first two seasons, it does just barely avoid bottom marks thanks to two or three decent moments for the Doctor and the unintentional comedy value of the final stretch. Still poor, though.


Overall Rating: 2/10.

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#7 (2.7): The Idiot's Lantern.

The Wire feasts on Rose!

1 episode. Approx. 45 minutes. Written by: Mark Gatiss. Directed by: Euros Lyn. Produced by: Phil Collinson.


THE PLOT

The TARDIS materializes in London, 1953, on the eve of Queen Elizabeth's coronation. The Doctor and Rose have only barely stepped outside before they witness a bizarre scene: Mysterious men in black, taking a man away from his home while his relatives protest. It's a scene that's become common in this small neighborhood, as men and women have been transformed by their brand new television sets, purchased cheap from local electronics dealer Mr. Magpie (Ron Cook).

The transformations are effectively appetizers, feeding The Wire (Maureen Lipman), a presence that lives within the television signal. The Wire is preparing for a feast: The coronation, when for the first time in British history millions of people gathered around television sets. The Doctor is determined to stop the creature from its feast, and he's been given one added piece of incentive.

The Wire's most recent victim is Rose!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: "Start from the beginning. Tell me everything you know." The Doctor deals with two different figures, both of whom initially oppose him: Detective Inspector Bishop (Sam Cox) and Eddie Connolly (Jamie Foreman). Bishop is a career detective in over his head. His interrogation of the Doctor quickly turns into a confession that he just doesn't know how to deal with this situation. The Doctor quickly sizes him up as a good man and offers his help. By contrast, Eddie Connolly is a fool, a blowhard in love with the sound of his own voice. The Doctor sizes him up quickly as well, and dismisses him as an obstacle.

Rose: The smugness the character sometimes displays in Series Two is at its worst here since Tooth & Claw.  There's a scene in which she observes the Doctor's dismissal of Eddie Connolly, then chips in by embarrassing the man further. The Doctor's act serves a purpose, getting the blowhard out of the way so that he can talk to his more reasonable wife and son. Rose's followup is just spite. Combined with her being all too obviously all too pleased with herself about it, her actions actually serve to make me feel a little sympathy for Eddie - or at least, it might have done, had Eddie been portrayed as having even a single redeeming quality.


THOUGHTS

The Idiot's Lantern was one of the worst-received episodes of Series Two, and it's easy enough to see why. The Doctor/Rose teaming is at its most smug, their mutual admiration of each other's general awesomeness making their interactions quite grating. The Connolly family are drawn in broadstrokes, with Eddie in particular a one note imbecile, making it hard to connect with them as real people. On top of all this, Gatiss' script tilts toward the preachy in a ham-fisted scene that gives Eddie Connolly his comeuppance.

In fairness, Tooth & Claw shared some of the same flaws, particularly in the Doctor/Rose characterization. But while that episode made up for it with a relentless pace, The Idiot's Lantern lacks anything visceral or compelling. From start to finish, this episode feels exactly like what it is: Filler.

With all that said, it's not bad filler, and probably does represent writer Mark Gatiss' best television Who script (admittedly, damning it with faint praise). It's better-paced than The Unquiet Dead, which left most of its plot for the final ten minutes. And though Euros Lyn's direction goes overboard in trying to be visually stylish, with so many tilted camera angles that it gets distracting after a while, it does at least add a bit of atmosphere to the proceedings... something which can't be said of Gatiss' later, Moffat-era offerings.

There are a few nice visual beats, with a particularly good bit in Magpie's shop as the Doctor sees the faces of all The Wire's victims on the television screens. The Wire herself isn't a fully successful creation. The idea is interesting, and Maureen Lipman is effective in the scenes in which she's talking quietly in kindly tones. But when The Wire is reduced to shouting, "Hungry!" and cackling evilly, she comes across more like a Scooby Doo villain than anything else.

Overall, this isn't a bad episode, but it also isn't a good one. It sort of sits in the middle, watchable but unmemorable. The sort of show for which the term, "Meh," was created.


Overall Rating: 5/10.

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#5 (2.4): The Girl in the Fireplace.

1 episode. Approx. 44 minutes. Written by: Steven Moffat. Directed by: Euros Lyn. Produced by: Phil Collinson.


THE PLOT

The Doctor, Rose, and Mickey step out into a spaceship in the far future. Mickey is thrilled to find himself in an entirely different galaxy, but the Doctor realizes that something is wrong. There's enough power running through the ship to blast "a hole in the universe," he muses.

The ship is populated by clockwork robots, who have killed the crew and used their parts to repair storm damage. They are only missing one part now. For whatever reason, the robots have decided that the only possible replacement part exists in the past. They are using their immense power to create time windows, all of them opening to different points in the life of Reinette Poisson (Sophia Myles), also known as Madame de Pompadour. When they find the window that will lead them to Reinette at age 37, they will kill her.

The Doctor starts searching the time windows himself, in an effort to stop the robots - and in so doing becomes a part of Reinette's life, entangling himself in ways he cannot anticipate.


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: This episode was produced in the production block after School Reunion and New Earth, and it shows in David Tennant's performance. He has truly found the part by this episode. Instead of running around frantically, he is able to maintain a certain stillness that makes his presence much more powerful. With regard to the Doctor, the episode actually makes a good follow-up to School Reunion. His interactions with Sarah Jane and Rose really brought out his essential, unending loneliness - the void which Madame de Pompadour picks up on and seems all-too-briefly to fill.

Rose: She seems to have gotten her bitchily jealous side sufficiently exorcised in School Reunion, and is far more sympathetic to Reinette. She still visibly reacts to the Doctor's bond with her, though. At the end, when she asks, "Why her," it takes a moment to clarify that she is asking why the ship targeted her. She clearly also wonders why the Doctor can cross that emotional line with Reinette, but isn't willing to do the same with her.

Mickey: His first trip in the TARDIS takes him into space, and he reacts with enthusiasm. He grins at the sight of the stars outside the ship, and is easily led into exploring the ship's corridors with Rose. He and Rose make an engaging pair as she essentially mentors him in what it means to travel with the Doctor. Rule one is apparently to break rule one and go ahead and wander off.

Madame de Pompadour: Sophia Myles is the object of affection for both the clockwork men and, ultimately, the Doctor himself. It's a risk, creating a character to act as an explicit romantic interest for the Doctor. But a combination of very smart writing and excellent acting brings it off. Myles is enchanting, with lively, intelligent eyes and a wonderfully expressive face. She's called upon to anchor the episode, to provide it with its heart. She succeeds splendidly.


THOUGHTS

The first genuinely great episode of David Tennant's tenure, The Girl in the Fireplace is a masterful construction. It's a single episode packed with disparate elements, every one of which pays off. It's remembered for its emotion, and it should be. But it also deserves credit for its structure. This is an episode with no fat, in which nothing is wasted. A single-parter that has more and richer content than most multi-parters.

From the Doctor's perspective, the entire relationship with Reinette occurs over a single day. From her perspective, it is a series of meetings across a lifetime. Somehow, the script and the two actors convincingly convey a relationship, or at least the potential of one. The look on the Doctor's face, when Reinette replies to his flippant "Wish me luck" with a tearful "No," is perfect. In that instant, the Doctor realizes what he's walking away from, and for at least one second regrets it.

Technical credits are outstanding. The set design for the spaceship is dark and ominous, an effective contrast to the bright color of the Palace of Versailles. The music score is one of the series' best, and I enjoyed the way the score evolved with the episode. Very tinkly, almost like a music box, when it is accompanying the child Reinette. Richer, full orchestral for the adult Reinette.

It's just one of those episodes where it all comes together. An expertly structured script, outstanding performances, strong technical credits. Plus that little something else that separates a good episode from a great one.


Rating: 10/10.

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#3 (2.2): Tooth and Claw.

1 episode.  Approx. 43 minutes. Written by: Russell T. Davies. Directed by: Euros Lyn.


THE PLOT

The Doctor and Rose step out of the TARDIS into 19th century Scotland - right into the line of fire of a squadron of English soldiers. It is an honor guard, escorting Queen Victoria (Pauline Collins). The Doctor uses his charm, a Scottish accent, and his psychic paper to gain the Queen's good graces, and he has firmly ingratiated himself into the royal party by the time she stops for the night at the Torchwood estate, home to Sir Robert (Derek Riddell).

Sir Robert's welcome is marked by a series of hints that all is not well. Hints that are ignored by the Queen, who wants to see the estate that her late husband so often visited. But the estate's mysterious new servants are revealed to be a renegade order of monks, who have seized control of the house in order to gain access to Queen Victoria. Not for assassination - but to infect her with the blood of the werewolf waiting in the cellar!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Finding himself in 19th century Scotland, the Doctor assumes the role of a Scottish doctor - rather niftily named after probably the series' longest-serving companion. This allows Tennant to use his normal speaking voice through most of the episode's first half. Once the crisis hits, the Scottish accent drops away as "The Doctor" emerges, something which Queen Victoria picks up on later in the episode.

Rose: Is obnoxious. Seriously. This is by far the worst episode to date (possibly ever) for the character of Rose Tyler. The running gag in which she tries to get Queen Victoria to say, "We are not amused" isn't funny the first time it's brought up, and becomes progressively more grating as the episode goes. I think there is too much of a comfort level between Rose and Tennant's Doctor. Rose's ordinariness acted as a sort of anchor for Eccleston's edgier Doctor. Opposite Tennant, she just sort of settles into a smug, rather unlikable blandness.

Queen Victoria: Pauline Collins returns to Doctor Who for the first time since 1967's The Faceless Ones. In the almost 40 years between that story and this one, Collins achieved a strong reputation as an actress - one which shows its merit in her performance as the queen. Collins has enormous presence, and it's her performance which anchors the episode. As she sees the Doctor and Rose giggling over having met a werewolf mere seconds after we have heard the screams of one of the wolf's victims, she is appalled - with good reason.


THOUGHTS

Tooth & Claw is a good, entertaining action piece. There is a lot of energy, a lot of momentum, and a few highly effective moments.  All of this is tremendously well-directed by Euros Lyn, whose confidence and polish behind the camera makes him a natural for stories like these. It is definitely a good episode.

But it's not a great one. The script has some visible holes, particularly with regard to the monks. The teaser makes much of the monks, as they cast aside their robes and reveal themselves as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon-style martial artists, complete with flying. As soon as the werewolf is unveiled, they are relegated to a plot device, keeping their intended victims inside the house. They disappear completely at the end. I guess once the plan failed, they used their Shaolin powers to fly away.

More successful is the setting up of Torchwood, which will come into play first at the season's end, then in the Torchwood spinoff. This episode shows us Torchwood's genesis, and it's not a bad origin story. A house that's already linked to the supernatural, a queen who sees the very worst side of our overly-smug heroes, and a final decree to "be ready."

The transformation is the single most effective scene in the episode. There is something genuinely disturbing about the human-form werewolf. Ironically for a werewolf story, the wolf is far more frightening in human form than after it transforms. The black orbs as eyes, the unearthly quality in its voice as it tells its story to Rose, the taunting of Rose having "something of the wolf" about her... It intercuts dramatically with Sir Robert's story, and then the monks' chanting. All finely calculated to have viewers on the edge of their seats by the time the actual change begins. The momentum continues for a good 10 minutes or so after that, with the episode only stopping for breath again when the Doctor, Rose, Sir Robert, and the Queen lock themselves into the study. An excellent transformation scene, followed by a terrific action set piece.

The climax is adequate, though it doesn't match the intensity of the transformation. Stronger than the Doctor's defeat of the wolf is Queen Victoria's admonition of the Doctor and Rose. An admonition that they utterly ignore, given that we see them laughing about werewolves in the royal family, and hear them mock howling from inside the TARDIS, as the episode fades to the "Next Time" trailer.


Rating: 7/10.

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