To put it bluntly, The Idiot's Lantern is not very good. It's a standard sci-fi story around televisions gone haywire - in hindsight the Giggle really is able to do what this episode was going for with it's focus on the first television broadcast much more efficiently. Idiot's Lantern and the woman in the TV are just plain annoying, though. That family that is the focus of the story is almost as unbearable as Maureen Lipman. I think Lipman is a fine actor, too, rather that she just was given a thankless role and had poor direction. It feels like the story taking place in the 50s was trivial and could have happened in any decade with television.

There's not much more to say on this episode. I often just skip it as it can be so loud and a bit of a nuisance with its noise. The dad is also really hard to watch. To this episode's credit, it is probably because it is a realistic take on how fascism grows in people - but the handling of this material is very clumsy and I feel as though the script needed a rewrite, while the actors needed better direction all around. Even the Doctor and Rose don't leave much of an impression on me here. Rose losing her face and the Doctor losing his mind in response should be a much bigger moment on the level of the Human Nature two-parter, and instead it kind of feels like a bit of a nothing moment. I should feel some catharsis at the Doctor standing up the the Dad and the Wire - instead of feeling nothing.

Weirdly enough, unlike others I don't hate this ending. Sure, the dad is a monster, but he is still Tommy's dad, and I don't hate the idea of Tommy being open to the idea of his dad reconciling with the family or redeeming himself potentially in the future. That's up to the man's victims whether that path is open and whether they want to continue a relationship with their, hopefully now former abuser - but it is their decision. Tommy being allowed to make it is his choice and I am not against the idea. It feels like an idea often unexplored in fiction (or at least not one done maturely all too often) so I don't hate that idea. Again, though, the execution feels quite lacking.