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18 June 2025
This review contains spoilers!
Ah the age old televisual tradition of creating smaller, self-contained stories to save on budget. It's a tradition I rather like, and seeing as the finale is much bigger than the rest of the episodes in the Series 1's episodes, I'm sure they had to make some other relatively cheap episodes to compensate.
But just because this episode was clearly designed (at least in part) to be made relatively cheap, that doesn't mean it's bad. I really do like this trope and I really like this episode as well.
What I like about these smaller (cheaper) episodes is that they sometimes force the writers to get creative (see something like Midnight). Or, in episodes like this, they force the writers to create a lot of scenes of characters talking. If you want to just the show exploring themes or characters, why not just create a scenario where the characters have to sit around and discuss something that reveals either theme or character.
This episode doesn't have a massive thematic conversation. But The Doctor and Blon do have a philosophical discussion. Now honestly I'm not that interested in whether it's ok for the Doctor to turn Blon into her planets authorities, even though he knows it'll mean her execution. I've already watched The Doctor, Rose & Mickey blow up the rest of her family. I didn't feel bad about the rest of the Slitheen, so I don't feel bad about Blon. She broke the law and has apparently been tried. So I personally take no issue with The Doctor turning her over to the executioner. But I did like this conversation. Even if there isn't much interesting in the topic itself for me. The fact that Blon is obviously trying to manipulate the Doctor leads to some really fun exchanges. The fact that her actual plan isn't actually to convince the Doctor, but to keep him occupied whilst her tech opens the Rift, also means that it doesn't matter that her arguments were never going to work on the Doctor (or me).
The other main part of this episode is Rose and Mickey reuniting for an evening. Russell T. Davies biggest strength is arguably how he gives the companions more of a life on Earth then other showrunners. They always have friends & family on Earth as well. This allows us to see other sides of the companions, and it gives us another side to view their adventures from. The people who are left behind. I forgot how good some of these exchanges were. It ends a little abruptly for me, but that might just be because I wanted more. But Mickey exclaiming that Rose makes him 'feel like nothing' really worked for me. Mickey has been trying to move on with his life without Rose in it. He's seeing someone new for example. But he comes running when Rose says she's in Cardiff for a few days. He knows that he can't help but want to see Rose, and that he'll never properly commit to his new relationship or any sort of life without her. He also knows that Rose will always prioritise The Doctor and their adventures over him. Rose never intended to do this, but she's made their relationship entirely one sided. It's very relatable why he feels this way, but Mickey's jealousy has made him bitter.
The interesting thing about Mickey's story here on a rewatch is how much he exits as though he's turning bad. He slinks away into the shadows with a mean look on his face and without saying goodbye. He really does look villainous here. I wonder if there was any talk around this time of making Mickey a bad guy in Series 2. I'm glad they didn't, but that shot feels very deliberate.
Smallsey
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