#4 (2.3): School Reunion.

1 episode. Approx. 44 minutes. Written by: Toby Whithouse. Directed by: James Hawes. Produced by: Phil Collinson.


THE PLOT

Mickey calls the Doctor and Rose to investigate strange occurrences at a school. Rose takes a job in the kitchen and discovers that there was a full staff turnover a few months ago. The Doctor goes undercover as a physics teacher, and makes a discovery of his own: Students with knowledge not only beyond that of a school kid, but beyond that of the entire planet!

Somehow, it's all linked to the new headmaster, the mysterious Mr. Finch (Anthony Head), and to his new policy making school dinners "absolutely free - but compulsory." But the Doctor and Rose aren't the only ones investigating Finch and his school. Investigative reporter Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen), the Doctor's travelling companion from several lifetimes ago, has also been tipped off.

For the Doctor and Sarah Jane, it will soon be just like old times. But for Rose, Sarah Jane may well be a vision of things to come...


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: This episode really hits on the loneliness so fundamental to the new series' Doctor. He's thrilled to see Sarah Jane again, to see that she's still active and investigating. But when asked why he didn't go back, he tells her that he couldn't. He seems to have only one direction - forward. Almost as if he's afraid to look back, lest he see how many of the people he knew and cherished have died along the way. This is reinforced when Sarah Jane says she thought he must have died. "I lived. Everyone else died." Tennant is quite good at these haunted moments.  The series would be well advised to give him more quiet and reflective scenes, and fewer scenes such as the rather annoying moment in which he babbles the word "Physics" over and over again.

Rose: Initially hostile to Sarah Jane, though it soon becomes apparent her frostiness is mainly down to insecurity. She had thought her relationship with the Doctor was unique, and now she sees that he has been just as close to other women as he is to her - and has left them. This prompts a very good exchange in which she and the Doctor talk around the nature of their relationship, neither of them wanting to define it, which makes the Doctor's assurances that he won't leave her less reassuring for her than might be the case.

Sarah Jane Smith: After the Doctor dropped her off (in the wrong city, on the wrong island), she returned to her life as an investigative journalist. She is stunned to meet him again and hurt that he never came back for her. She is also hurt to see his new, very young assistant. "I can tell you're getting older, your assistants are getting younger," she observes - and Rose is a fair few years younger than Sarah Jane was when she first met him.

Mickey: Clearly enjoys Rose's discomfort at being confronted with Sarah Jane. He teases her that the Doctor's actually just like "any other bloke," complete with an ex. Sarah Jane prompts him to reflect on his position within the Doctor/Rose dynamic, leading him to conclude that he's "the tin dog" - a circumstance he decides he needs to change.


THOUGHTS

School Reunion is another episode with a rather thin main plot. There is one excellent "plot" scene: the Doctor's poolside confrontation with Finch. The use of color and lighting evokes a certain sterile coldness that reflects Finch's personality.  But the Finch/Krillitane plot is weak overall and often seems perfunctory, particularly during the all-too-typical rushed climax.

On the other hand, the plot isn't really the point here. It's just an excuse to bring the new Doctor together with Sarah Jane for an adventure. An exercise in nostalgia for old fans, bringing the Doctor together with the best-remembered companion of the classic series, while at the same time making that resonate for new fans by filtering this reunion through Rose's perspective.

In this area, the episode succeeds quite well. The scenes in which Rose reflects on what the future may hold for her are effective. A particularly strong exchange occurs when she confronts the Doctor about leaving Sarah Jane and never even mentioning her thereafter, "not even once!" The Doctor's reply, extremely well-played by David Tennant, gives a hint at the loneliness such a figure would inevitably experience. "You can spend the rest of your life with me," he says sadly, "but I can't spend the rest of my life with you."

The climax feels perfunctory: a lot of running around corridors, punctuated by a big explosion. I also never really believed that the Doctor was seriously tempted by Finch's offer, which saps any emotional urgency from the last Act. Still, School Reunion works a lot better than other over-rushed, underplotted episodes such as Rose and New Earth, thanks mainly to James Hawes' strong direciton and some fine character scenes.

This really should have been a 2-parter, though, to allow the character scenes to be framed by a plot that didn't feel like a quick add-on.


Rating: 6/10.

Previous Episode: Tooth and Claw

Next Episode: The Girl in the Fireplace

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#2 (2.1): New Earth.

1 episode. Approx. 42 minutes. Written by: Russell T. Davies. Directed by: James Hawes. Produced by: Phil Collinson.


THE PLOT

The Doctor takes Rose further into the future than ever before, bringing her to the world of New Earth, settled during a wave of human nostalgia that followed the destruction of the original Earth. This isn't entirely a sightseeing tour. The Face of Boe is dying, but has a message to relay before he passes. Assuming he ever wakes up from his coma.

There is more afoot than just the Face of Boe. Cassandra, who survived her apparent death on Platform One, lurks in the hospital's basement. She knows that the humanoid cat-nurses are hiding a secret. When she sees Rose Tyler enter the hospital with this all-new Doctor, she uses stolen technology to lure the girl into her cellar. She transfers her consciousness into Rose's body, using Rose's relationship with the Doctor to find out what the hospital's secret might be.


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Early in the episode, he half-jokingly describes himself as a "new new Doctor." It's an accurate description. The Ninth Doctor had a certain melancholy hanging about him, even in his lighter moments. He was, effectively, the shellshocked Doctor, always haunted by the ghosts of his past. The Tenth Doctor is exuberant, embracing all that life, the universe, and everything has to offer. The dynamic between him and Rose is more comfortable than the one Rose and the Ninth Doctor shared, and he seems perfectly fine with it when Rose describes their first sojourn into the future as their "first date."

Rose: Notice the difference between the way Rose says goodbye to her mom and to Mickey. She recites a series of effusive "I love yous" to her mom. When Mickey says he loves her, she simply responds, "Bye." Don't think Mickey won't be reflecting on that. She is still adjusting to the differences in this "new new Doctor," but she does seem very comfortable with his youthful new persona.


THOUGHTS

New Earth is not a good episode, but that should come with a qualifier. For 3/4 of its running time, New Earth is actually pretty good fun. My problems with the episode have little to do with the forced comedy, enough of which actually works to make up for the hackneyed body-switch plot. My problems have nothing at all to do with bad science at the climax. I don't care if the way the Doctor applies the cure for some nonexistent sci-fi diseases doesn't line up with real medicine.

No, my problems with New Earth rest almost entirely with its last 10 minutes. Everything's running along smoothly. The story is wafer-thin, but it is a fun action/comedy romp. Then Cassandra pops into the head of one of the zombies... and is apparently so overwhelmed by what she finds that she suddenly becomes a completely different character inside of about two minutes' screen time. "I'm dying... but it's all right" may be a noble sentiment. But it's one that goes against everything about a character who has been defined by clawing for more life, trampling over the lives of others in the process.

That could be effective, too, if it was the result of convincing character growth. But Russell T. Davies' teleplay simply takes one two dimensional character and flips her into becoming a completely different two-dimensional character. As a result, everything about the ending simply comes across as mawkish and false.

In an episode whose virtues were fairly mild to begin with, an ending such as this is a disaster. The result is the worst new series episode I've reviewed to this point... though worse will eventually come.


Rating: 4/10.

Previous Story: The Christmas Invasion

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#1 (2.0): The Christmas Invasion.

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


THE PLOT

The TARDIS comes literally crashing down to Earth in the middle of Rose's Council Estate, where her mother and boyfriend are startled to see the doors fling open and a stranger emerge, babble excitedly at them, and then collapse. They are even more surprised when Rose tells them that this stranger is the Doctor, having undergone a transformation.

The Doctor is unconscious, recovering in Jackie's flat. This would be no particular problem... but as ever, the timing is as bad as could be. The Sycorax are coming to Earth, and they are using a blood sample from an unmanned Mars probe to control 1/3 of the Earth's population. Prime Minister Harriet Jones (Penelope Wilton) is given an unthinkable ultimatum: Surrender half of the Earth's population to slavery, or the blood-controlled third of the populace will die!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: David Tennant's debut... sort of. There was a five-minute, one-scene Children in Need special, which basically acted as a supplement to the ending of The Parting of the Ways.  But this is his first full story... and he spends most of it unconscious.

Which actually works rather well, because it makes his return at the end hugely dynamic. Up to that point, the characters are wondering who this new Doctor is... and when he emerges from the TARDIS, a hyper ball of energy ready for action, it turns out that he doesn't know who he is yet, either. Tennant is terrific, particularly when he turns from glib and hyperkinetic into suddenly grim and a little ruthless, as in his elimination of the Sycorax or in his final dealings with Harriet Jones. A very promising start, that takes limited screentime and turns it into a virtue.

Rose: Berates herself as "useless" without the Doctor, but she actually doesn't do half-badly. Given the resources at her disposal, her prioritizing getting her people (Mickey and Jackie) to the safety of the TARDIS is really the only option and a perfectly sensible one. Once confronted with the Sycorax directly, she has the presence of mind to yell for Mickey to close the TARDIS door, knowing that it is vital that the Doctor and his time machine don't fall into their hands. She makes an attempt to deal with the Sycorax, bluffing by using the names of races she has encountered in her travels with the Doctor. The attempt fails, and only the Doctor's sudden recovery saves her, but she makes a valid effort and keeps her head while doing so. Not a bad showing at all.

Mickey/Jackie: Very much in the background, basically presented as the "normal people" that Rose feels she has to protect. Jackie gets a nice character beat, as her shrill comedy overtones drop away briefly for a well-done scene in which she cares for the unconscious Doctor. Mickey gets to further realize that Rose has already drifted away from him, a realization he voices at the end when he says, "You're never going to stay, are you?" Both actors have long since found their footing in the roles by this point, and their cartoonish portrayals in Rose are happily a distant memory.


THOUGHTS

If Spearhead from Space was the classic series' "second pilot," then The Christmas Invasion fills the same role for the new series. Many of the same trapping as Rose are here: the recognizably modern-day setting, the alien intruding on the mundane world and turning it upside down, the story seen entirely through the eyes of 21st century characters (mostly Rose and Harriet).

With Christopher Eccleston's rapid departure, care is taken with the introduction of the new Doctor, and the entire concept of regeneration. Eccleston's huge popularity in the role (and yes, in 2005 Eccleston was hugely popular) leaves the production team taking care to overcome audience resistance to the recasting. Rose dismisses him as not being "the proper Doctor" just as some members of the audience might. And then, after a brief action scene near the beginning, the story withholds the Doctor, allowing the situation to become increasingly dire in his absence.

Only at the end does he come back awake and in charge of his own wits.  By then, as he beams energetically at us as much as the characters and asks, "Did you miss me?" Well, the answer is already a firm "Yes," and that last ten minutes belongs to Tennant, with every aspect of the script and direction designed to make him utterly dominant.

Almost everything about the Sycorax plot works. The gradual build of the threat, leading up to the moment at which people around the world stand at the edge of rooftops thanks to the Sycorax blood control, is beautifully executed. The Sycorax craft is a superb piece of design, organic and malignant all at once. When it enters the atmosphere, it looms above the London skyline like a malignant tumor.

Not everything works, though. Early in the episode, there's a sequence involving evil Santas and a killer Christmas tree. This serves no purpose whatever, is never really linked to the main plot, and seems to be there just because Russell T. Davies thought it would be cool, regardless of lack of context. This five minutes could have been cut from the episode without affecting any of the rest of the show... and in my opinion, that's exactly what should have happened.

Finally, no discussion of The Christmas Invasion could be complete without addressing...


HARRIET JONES AND THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

Harriet's decision at the end, and the Doctor's reaction to it. If you somehow haven't seen the episode yet, and have somehow missed all the reams of discussion about this ending, then this would be a good place to stop reading.

I can't help but wonder what alternate reality this show is set in, wherein Harriet's action against the Sycorax would have destroyed her political future. Remember the context of the episode. The Sycorax planted a full third of humanity on rooftops, threatening to make them jump. This means very, very, very few people would not have known somebody on one of those rooftops, and many of them would have directly witnessed the chilling sight of a friend or loved one suddenly under complete alien control, thrust directly into harm's way. That's not even addressing the third of the population actually under that control, or the question of how aware they were of losing control of their own bodies.

Whether it was right or wrong, Harriet's decision to destroy the Sycorax ship and all aboard would almost certainly have been a popular one, rather than one greeted with a response of "Cold-Blooded Murder," as one of the news crawls at the bottom of a television screen declares it to have been. Rather than being villified for having "blood on her hands" (another news crawl glimpsed at the end), she would have been largely applauded by the public at that time in that situation. Her decision would only have been second-guessed after the fact. A long time after the fact.

(And yes, I'm aware this was meant as a close parallel to the sinking of the General Belgrano at the start of the Falklands War. To which I would point out: (a) That incident did not destroy Margaret Thatcher's career, and the subsequent war did quite the opposite; and (b) That incident did not involve a foe that had directly placed 1/3 of the population in jeopardy.)

The way the ending plays out also means that the Doctor's furious response to a possibly misguided, but highly understandable, human action directly paves the way for the next couple of Prime Ministers (see The Sound of Drums, Last of the Timelords, and Torchwood: Children of Earth). But let's not dwell on that point, either, given that the show itself never will...


Rant aside, this is a strong hour of television. The pacing of the Sycorax story is tightly controlled and well-executed, the acting of the regulars is terrific across the board, and Tennant's entrance simply could not have been handled better. A minor niggle about the "pilot fish" moment and some difficulties with the ending don't really get in the way of this being a very good episode. Easily the best first story for a new Doctor since Castrovalva, a full quarter-century earlier.


Rating: 8/10.

Previous Story: Children in Need 2005 - Regeneration Cutaway (not yet reviewed)

Next Story: New Earth

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