I find the first season of Doctor Who to be remarkably consistent. Everything so far has been consistently good. The Aztecs however, is the first Doctor Who story which I consider to be great.

The story revolves around Barbara being mistaken as the reincarnated God Yetaxa, and her efforts to try to alter history. This sets her up in conflict with the Doctor, as Barbara wants to stop the Aztec's more barbaric practices, namely human sacrifice. The Doctor however knows that it is dangerous to try and rewrite history ("you can't rewrite history! Not one line!"). This the main thematic conflict, but the main narrative conflict comes in the form of Tlotoxl, the high priest of Sacrifice, who doubts Barbara's divinity and schemes against our heroes.

Tlotoxl is a tremendous antagonist, his devious scheming is utterly compelling and he is deliciously performed by actor John Ringham. He makes an intelligent and formidable foe, who arguably wins in the end. Barbara fails to change the Aztec's culture and the TARDIS team leave with Tlotoxl still with great power, arguably more than at the start. His opposite in this story is Autloc, the high priest of knowledge. Autloc is a more forward thinking compassionate man, and Barbara's only real ally in her quest to stop the sacrifices. At the end Barbara is dejected that she was unable to change history, but the Doctor reassures her that her efforts were not entirely in vain, as although she couldn't save a culture, she changed Autloc's life and made him a better man.

Barbara is my favourite member of the original TARDIS team, so it's great to see her at the forefront of this story. Barbara having to navigate a culture that she isn't native to, as well as all of Tlotoxl's nefarious machinations are a joy to behold. Plus she looks awesome in her head dress and robes. This is also probably Jacqueline Hill's best work on the show, showing the intelligence and compassion that are arguably Barbara's defining traits.

But this story isn't all about Barbara. Ian and The Doctor also get some compelling stories and memorable moments. Ian gets to be in full on action hero mode for a lot of this story. His climactic fight with Ixta the Aztec warrior is one of the more thrilling action scenes in this era of the show.

The Doctor's subplot where he accidentally gets engaged to an Aztec woman is great fun. The engagement itself, as well as the subsequent scene where he lets this slip to Ian are both genuinely funny. But this subplot is not just played for laughs. The relationship between the Doctor and his fiance Cameca is actually kinda sweet. She becomes an ally to the team, helping them to escape in the end, even though she knows it'll end her engagement. Her saying goodbye to the Doctor is lovely and we get to see a much softer side to the Doctor here. He genuinely regards Cameca with warmth and affection.

Add to this some really good production value, with great sets and costumes all the way through. Yes there are some clearly fake backgrounds on display, but they do their job of providing an excellent sense of scale, making the setting feel much bigger than other stories from the era.

All in all a great looking story with compelling plots based on excellent character work. One of the best stories in all of the First Doctors era.

I hate this episode. I really do. In fact I may have rated it too highly in all honesty. But I felt that Eve Myles is doing a fantastic job in this episode, and so she single handedly bumps the rating up at least half a star.

My biggest problem with this episode is that all of the Torchwood team are complete idiots here. This series has had to rely on our heroes doing something obviously stupid many times over the course of this series. But usually it's just one character messing up, and with some sort of motivation. In this episode all 5 Torchwood members are inconceivable dumb for much of the episode, and the reasons why are so rushed and lazily drawn that it feels completely forced and unnatural. Honestly this whole series has made a strong case that the team at Torchwood 3 are actually terrible at their jobs. This has never been more evident than in this episode, where they essentially cause the end of the world, twice. It's utterly infuriating and frankly just bad storytelling.

So the basic plot for this episode is that when Owen opened the rift last episode to save Jack & Tosh, it caused the rift to expand and now all of history is pouring out through it. This is causing problems all over the world, with many seeing this as the 'End of Days'. Firstly having a global event of this scale feels way to big for 5 idiots in Cardiff to have to deal with. Secondly the episode does a bad job of demonstrating how big and global this threat is. They say it a bunch, but outside of Britain all we see is some UFOs over the Taj Mahal. So the threat level is too big in that it's a global calamity, but it never actually feels like the global calamity that we're told it is.

Anyway that's not the major problem. The major problem is that this was all clearly caused by Torchwood opening the rift. So everyone apart from Jack decides that in order to save the day they must... open the rift, but more. That's their genius plan, to do the bad thing that caused all the problems again. It's so obviously a terrible idea, and it turns out to be a really terrible idea because when they do so they release Abaddon, devourer of worlds.

Literally all of our team apart from Jack decide to do the stupidest thing, just for the sake of having a big monster to defeat at the end of the episode. They're all idiots for doing this (apart from Jack, but I'll get to why he's an idiot later). The justification that we're giving is some vague suggestions from Bilis Manger. That's right the suspicious and sinister Bilis who last episode the team realised was up to no good and do not trust, well now the team just listen to what he says without really questioning it. I hope he's not up to no good. I hope he doesn't want to unleash an apocalyptic monster to destroy the world. Why would he want to do that? Actually why does he want to do that? Why does he want to destroy the world? Doesn't matter, this episode isn't interested in giving anyody good character motivations.

For example the other thing that happens to convince everyone that they should open the rift is the team (minus Jack) all get visions. Owen sees Diane, Ianto sees Lisa and Tosh sees her Mum. Firstly it's a sad indictment of how little this show has defined Tosh's life outside of Torchwood, that there isn't actually a character from the show to appear to her. So they have to just fall back on her Mum appearing, a character we've never seen or really know anything about. But that's a different issue. My big issue here is that 3 supposedly smart people are convinced to do something that'll damage reality, for a second time btw, they've already done it once and now reality is threatened, because if they do, people they love will come back because... reasons. The world is ending, but I'll cause it to end faster because if I do I might get to see my dead girlfriend (or mum or Tosh's case) is a terrible justification. It makes these 3 characters look incredibly stupid and incredibly selfish.

Gwen is the only person who's motivations I can kinda buy. She's still a complete idiot, but Eve Myles sells the crap out of her characters grief & desperation. Gwen isn't shown visions of lost loves. She's shown a vision of Rhys dying (from the now incredibly trustworthy Bilis), so she knocks Rhys out and takes him to Torchwood where she can keep him safe. Then Bilis appears and stabs Rhys to death. I don't even understand why Bilis needs to trick Gwen into taking Rhys to Torchwood in the first place. Why couldn't he just appear at Rhys' house and kill him there? Doesn't ultimately matter, this episode has much bigger problems, but it feels needlessly convoluted. Anyway Gwen then decides that opening the rift will bring back Rhys. Again I don't really understand why she (or anyone else) thinks that the rift which is causing all of the problems, is actually a magical solution all of a sudden. But at least Gwen is believably out of her mind, so she's the character I dislike least in this episode.

Jack keeps saying that they can't open the rift, it'll make things worse. The other 4 Torchwood members stage a mutiny, Owen even shoots Jack in the head. Yes Jack comes back as always, but Owen didn't know that. As far as Owen was concerned he just murdered his boss. The team then use everyone's retinal scans to open the rift again. I don't think it's ever really explained why everyone's retinal scans are needed to open the rift now, when last episode they weren't, but whatever, who cares at this point. Turns out Jack was right, because of course he was. They open the rift Abaddon appears and the big monster showdown that the episode has been building to is complete crap.

Firstly just having Ianto mention the word Abaddon once, in an incredibly sweaty bit of dialogue where Ianto is reading end of the world prophecies from the bible (because sure, why not) does not equate to sufficiently setting up the big bad of your whole season of television. But even if they did setup Abaddon well, he'd still be s**t. He stomps around Cardiff for a bit, the effects budget can't really stretch to showing any real carnage, so we're just told that anything Abaddon's shadow touches has died. So Jack lures Abaddon to a field, because if Abaddon feeds off life, and Jack can't die, so what happens if Abaddon tries to feed off Jack. This means that the big climactic battle for the whole series, is John Barrowman screaming in shadow for a couple of minutes. Then his immortal life force defeats Abaddon, which also seals the rift and resets the timeline to before any of this happened. Again the episode doesn't even begin to explain why defeating Abaddon seals the rift and alters time, but it's gives us a happy ending. Except Jack has died... except no he hasn't, they just pretended he had for 5 minutes. Yay there were no consequences to any of it.

This is why Jack is an idiot btw, because there are no consequences. Well firstly he spends a lot of the episode being an asshole to his team. But mostly he's an idiot because when he wakes back up he's just like, well done team, we saved the day. Now onto season 2. Did he forget that his team, staged a mutiny and murdered him so that they could open the rift against his wishes. In doing so they released a giant demon who killed a bunch of people, proving him right and meaning they were wrong to go against him in the first place. Jack has to apparently die, and experience agonising pain fighting a freaking demon in order to rectify all the ways his dumbass team f*cked up. There's no consequences to any of that, Jack just wakes up and we all pretend non of that ever happened.

So yes Jack is also an idiot. Meaning we're 5 for 5 on the main cast of this show being idiots who are terrible at their jobs. What a terrible way for a series of television to end.

In my opinion, this is the best episode of series 1. There's a few things that are good about it, but I think one of the things that this episode does better than the rest of the series is that it gives every member of Torchwood something to do. There have been too many episodes where Tosh & Ianto especially are pretty much just left standing around in the background with nothing to do. But in this episode all of our characters have an active role in the story and are given some nice character moments. It's the most competent and likeable the Torchwood team as a whole has ever seemed to me.

The premise of this episode is that Jack and Tosh are investigating an old, derelict dancehall because people have heard strange noises and old music coming from inside. Whilst inside they get transported back to 1941. Here we meet Captain Jack Harkness, the real Captain Jack Harkness. The American soldier who's name our Cpt. Jack took, and is due to die the next day whilst out in his plane on a routine training exercise.

So the episode revolves around Tosh trying to leave clues in the past for Gwen to discover in the present, that will help them safely open the rift, thereby allowing Jack & Tosh to return to the present. At the hub Owen is desperate to open the rift, willing to do so without all the necessary information to do it safely as he hopes he'll be able to see Diane again if he does. Ianto rejects the idea of opening the rift without the data from Tosh needed to do so safely. This leads to the two of them fighting over whether to open the rift or not. There's also Bilus Manger, the manager/caretaker of the dancehall played wonderfully by Murray Melvin. He's a creepy and sinister figure, who can move from one timezone to the other seemingly at will. His goals and motives are unclear, especially as he appears at times to be helping our team, although he does sabotage one of Tosh's notes, meaning the present day Torchwood don't quite have all of the data needed to safely open the rift.

The present day stuff is good. Gwen demonstrates that she's good at her job, and the conflict between Owen and Ianto is rooted in their  respective characters, making for some very satisfying drama. But the best part of the episode is the stuff in 1941.

Firstly the period setting looks great. The costuming and hairstyles are incredibly well done. This is also probably Tosh's best episode. She's on a mission to leave the clues needed for her teammates to bring her back, and has to do so whilst navigating the racism & sexism of the time. She shows a sense of intellect in her problem solving, as well as a real dignity and mental fortitude that I wish we'd seen more of in the rest of the series.

The episode manages to also have a strong emotional core thanks to the burgeoning romance between both Captain Jack's. What starts quite coyly, with the two Jack's respecting each other whilst talking about leadership develops into more. John Barrowman is very good talking to Tosh about his past, and the real Captain Jack's tragic future. We get good moments exploring identity, legacy, leadership and overcoming fear. It culminates in the real Jack taking our Jack's hand, and leading him onto the dancefloor where they dance together before kissing in front of everyone, just as the rift reopens giving our heroes a way to return. Before leaving 1941 our Jack kisses real Jack again and watches as real Jack salutes him whilst 1941 fades away. It's a really beautifully realised scene, and John Barrowman really sells his pain at knowing the real Jack's fate, but knowing he cannot save him.

So this is not just the best episode of Torchwood the tv show so far, it's also the best episode for Torchwood the team so far. The biggest highlight in an underwhelming first series of the show.

I think it's fair to say that I'm not a big fan of the first series of Torchwood. It has it's moments and there are a couple of genuinely good episodes, but on the whole it isn't for me. If I had to say what my biggest complaint with the series as a whole is, it would probably be Owen Harper.

This show seems to be in love with Owen Harper, it certainly appears that every woman on this show is apparently in love with Owen Harper. He's given so much focus throughout the series, whilst Tosh & Ianto get almost nothing to do in most episodes. I don't mind a show pushing a character to the forefront, or having a standout character, but usually these characters are likeable. Owen's edgy cynicism isn't nearly as cool as the show thinks it is, often I find it actively unpleasant in fact.

So this episode is mostly focused on Owen, who after Diane left him last episode has turned to drinking and fighting in bars. There are also people who have been kidnapping Weevils, and Owen has to try and infiltrate this gang of Weevil kidnappers. He discovers that this is the doing of a group of frustrated men, who kidnap the Weevils so that they can fight them in a cage. This episode is basically just Alien Fight Club then, only it doesn't really have much to say about masculinity.

Everything regarding the main plotline of this episode I find to be generally nasty and cynical. From Owen, who has wants to fight and feel pain to distract him from his heartbreak. The edgelord, manosphere antagonist who keeps banging on about man's rage, as though he's got some profound truth (he doesn't). The entire plot, where aliens are being tortured and used for entertainment by angry idiots. Many of these angry idiots literally get mauled, even killed by the Weevils that they fight in the cage. Everything about this episode screams 'Edgy!', but I don't think it has any real substance. It ultimately just adds up to men punching things in grubby rooms. This whole story seems to be designed to be as uninteresting to me as possible. I couldn't care about any of it.

The only other part of this episode that is really worth mentioning, is the scene where Gwen confesses to Rhys, telling him of her affair with Owen. This looks like it's going to be a good scene, but unfortunately the episode immediately undoes things by having Gwen give Rhys the retcon amnesia drug, so he forgets the entire confession. This is not only morally dubious of Gwen, but it undercuts the scene dramatically by immediately removing any consequences for Gwen's actions. So even the B plot isn't as interesting as it thinks it is. A very underwhelming episode all in all.

My memory of this episode was that it was very mid. In fact all I remember was that it was set on the New New York motorway, Ardal O’Hanlon plays a cat, The Macra are here and the Face of Boe says “You Are Not Alone”. Mostly I thought it was just sitting around in stationary cars talking. Now there is a lot of that to be fair, but unlike the cars, this episode moves. It’s a really good episode and I’m not sure why I used to think otherwise.

The Doctor and Martha arrive on the lower levels of New New York (not the upper levels he visited with Rose). Here they find a society in decay, vendors are selling moods like ‘Happy’ or ‘Forget’ (established as a drug analogy). The streets are mostly deserted because most citizens here have taken to the motorway, in order to move away to a better life. The issue is that the motorways are in Gridlock, and has been for the past 24 years. Martha gets kidnapped by a couple who are expecting their first child and want to give it a better life. With Martha on board they can access the fast lane (you need at least 3 adults to gain access to the fast lane, hence why they needed Martha), which makes them think their motorway journey should only last the relatively short 6 years. The Doctor chases Martha, realises this is all wrong and investigates (discovering the fast lane is infested with deadly Macra). His investigations lead to the Senate on the upper levels. Here he discovers that everyone up top has died and the motorway has been shut off, meaning all the cars on the motorway have nowhere to go ultimately, they just ride the motorway indefinitely. The citizens up top were all killed by a virus which mutated in a new mood drug called Bliss, which most of the people on the upper levels had gotten addicted to. The people below weren’t abandoned but were saved, as this deadly virus had become airborne. Now that it is safe up top, the Doctor with the help of the Face of Boe, reopen the motorway and gives everyone on it access to the upper levels, saving the inhabitants of New New York, who can now rebuild their society.

The idea of an entire episode being mostly set in cars, stuck in a sci-fi traffic jam riding the motorway indefinitely is such a fun and fresh idea. It’s the sort of premise that a show like Doctor Who is uniquely suited to do. I love how fully this episode commits to this premise as well. Yes, there is a lot of sitting and chatting in stationary car, but I liked it on this watch, because it allows us to get to know the people and the rules of this unique motorway setting. Plus it doesn’t take long for the Doctor to go into rescue mode, giving the episode some momentum as he tries to rescue Martha, then discover what happened & save everyone in the upper senate. I found the opening of the motorway and all the cars rising out into the sun filled overworld to be a genuinely triumphant moment.

Martha gets to show her empathetic side by understanding and even befriending her kidnappers. They aren’t bad people, just desperate people who see an opportunity for a better life for themselves and their expected child. She also gets to show some smarts by working out how to stop the Macra from attacking them in the fast lane. Her best scene though is at the very end. Before returning to the TARDIS Martha has enough of the Doctor keeping secrets, so she refuses to get back on the TARDIS, defiantly sitting in a chair until the Doctor will talk to her. Martha stands up to the Doctor and he relents, sitting with her and telling her all about being the last of his kind. The episode ends with our 2 heroes finally connecting as equals.

This is a really fun episode that with a unique premise. The motorway is such a limited setting, but the episode finds ways to explore what it is and what it means to its inhabitants. The Doctor and Martha both get moments to shine, the supporting cast are distinct & likable, and we get some foreshadowing from the Face of Boe at the end. A jam-packed story with good ideas that I’d definitely been underappreciating prior to this rewatch.

In my opinion, Martha Jones had the best character introduction in the first RTD era. Rose’s introduction was definitely great, but that episode had to establish the entire premise of the show as well as just Rose. Plus the actual plot in ‘Rose’ was pretty unmemorable. The plot in ‘Runaway Bride’ was about as fun and exciting as the plot in ‘Smith and Jones’. But, I found Donna to be a little too much in her introductory episode. But Martha gets to be likeable, well established and in a fast moving, enjoyable plot for her first story.

The reason I bring this up is because for me, Martha starts very high on my companion meter. So it’s incredibly frustrating to see how fast this series starts to make her look worse.

To be fair to this episode, it does give Martha some good moments. She’s still the intelligent and capable woman we met in ‘Smith and Jones’. That sharp, enquiring mind is more than enough to keep me invested in the character. However, the unrequited love that she seems to be experiencing with the Doctor was a big mistake. This is made worse by the fact that the Doctor doesn’t notice and doesn’t care about it. Add in the fact that the Doctor repeatedly invokes Rose, even doing so (unintentionally) as an unflattering point of comparison for Martha (Rose would know what to say, implying that Martha isn’t up to scratch).

I may not have been a big fan of the 10/Rose love story, but it definitely helped to increase the popularity of the show, and was a beloved dynamic in some areas of the fandom. So following up the “great love story” of 10/Rose with another love story, a new love story that is entirely one sided, where the Doctor shows no awareness or interest in reciprocating Martha’s affections. This is clearly a mistake. The Doctor is far too interested in pining over Rose than paying Martha any mind at all at some points in this story. It all just makes Martha feel inferior. Our new companion wants a romance that neither the audience, nor the Doctor want. So a big part of Martha’s character is something that our hero and the viewers can’t get on board with. Her characterisation can’t help but put her in direct comparison (even competition) with Rose, and it feels designed to make her feel less than Rose. This isn’t helped by the Doctor all but saying this out loud in this episode.

It’s a shame really, because the rest of this episode I enjoyed more on this rewatch. Yes the Carrionites aren’t the most interesting villains, but nor are they the worst villains we’ve seen. In fact I like the fact that they visually resemble witches, specifically bringing to mind the weird sisters from MacBeth. So they tie in nicely with our historical celebrity, especially because their power lies in words (spells). Fortunately the Doctor has one of the finest wordsmith’s to ever live as an ally this episode.

That wordsmith is William Shakespeare, here played by Dean Lennox Kelly. I’m somewhat ambivalent to this interpretation of Shakespeare. He’s not the stuffy, pompous writer that many a schoolkid imagines whilst being forced to study his work. This is good, but I’m not the 16th Century rockstar persona they give him here entirely works. Also there might be a few too many Shakespeare references in the episode. Some of them I found amusing, but some felt a little sweaty and they go back to that well a lot.

In general though, this episode chugs along nicely. It’s a very pleasant and easy watch with some good ideas. The setting and tone work for me as well. But I still find it disappointing that Martha is immediately relegated to being the companion equivalent of a meaningless fling. She’s fun to be with whilst it lasts, but will never be anything more and her purpose all about getting the Doctor over Rose, his great love. There’s too much time focusing on who she isn’t, for us to get too invested in who she is.

Fun Fun Fun Fun Fun Fun Fun… I think this episode is a ton of fun.

The plot such as it is involves the Doctor noticing some sci-fi anomalies surrounding a hospital, so checks himself in. Here he meets trainee doctor Martha Jones, just in time for the hospital to be transported onto the moon. This is due to the Judoon, some interplanetary police for hire, who are searching for a criminal in the hospital, but as they have no jurisdiction on Earth, had to transport the hospital onto neutral territory, the moon in this case. The hospital is in a forcefield, so has its own atmosphere; however there is a finite amount of air, so the oxygen is running out. The Judoon search for an alien, which is a problem for our alien hero. This becomes more of an issue because the villain is a Plasmavore, who drink the blood of their victims. Once they drink the blood of their victims, they take on their genetic properties, allowing the Plasmavore to pass as human. The Doctor has to not only trick the Plasmavore into getting captures by the Judoon before the oxygen runs out in the hospital. He also has to stop an energy blast going off, hastily made from an MRI machine, that will not only kill everyone on the moon, but also half the population of the Earth.

This episode zips along at a nice, breezy pace. The dialogue is fun, but never undercuts the multiple threats in play here. The oxygen running out in the hospital means there is a ticking clock to events, increasing the sense of tension and urgency within the episode.

Anne Reid as the Plasmavore is having fun and makes for an interesting villain. Her chemistry and banter with the Doctor is a delight too.

The Judoon are both a fun design and a fun secondary antagonist for the episode. They aren’t villains; they’re just idiotic thugs with police powers, who just single-mindedly follow their protocols. This means they keep getting in the way, and because they’re looking for an alien they become a force for the Doctor to constantly need to avoid.

As good as all these elements are, the main draw of this episode is Martha Jones. I really like Martha in this episode. She’s instantly likeable, smart & perceptive. She’s willing to take risks, and proves herself a worthy sidekick for the Doctor here. I also like that she has her own life going on. She has a messy but relatable family dynamic. She has aspirations, wanting to become a doctor herself. I personally think that Martha gets the best introductory episode out of the 3 main RTD era companions, and she’s setup so well for the rest of the series.

This isn’t an all-time classic by any stretch. But as a light, enjoyable episode of television to ease you back into a new series, and as an introduction for a new companion, it’s really frickin’ good. Also did I mention that it’s fun.

Probably my most common complaint when watching the old Doctor Who serials is that they can be too long for the plot they're telling, so could stand to be an episode or two shorter. This is a weird serial in that I think it could probably do with being an episode or two longer.

The first episode sets up the plot. The alien planet of Marinus has a giant machine called the Conscience, which is the arbiter of justice on the planet. It maintained law and order, and was even able to radiate out it's will, eliminating evil thoughts. Then one of the evil alien race known as the Voord was able to resist the machine and corrupted it. Arbitan, the keeper of the machine has reprogrammed it so that it will work on the Voord again, but it requires 5 keys, 4 of which he has misplaced around the planet. So our team have to go out on a number of fetch quests to gather these keys.

The first episode is pretty good. It sets up the plot and the stakes clearly and interestingly enough. I think the Voord look good. It's a simple design, but they look striking and are instantly understood to be villainous just by their apperance. It also sets up a story that requires our heroes to go to a number of different locations and have a collection of mini adventures.

Sounds good, but this is actually also the stories biggest problem. Team TARDIS have to recover 4 keys (5 if you count the fake key they also spend time recovering) from a number of new locations, then conclude the story back at the Conscience by the end. There's only 5 episodes to accomplish all of this. So what tends to happen is that the team arrive somewhere new, we have to then establish the new setting, setup where the key is/might be, setup a threat or obstacle of some sort. Then because there isn't much time the team has to quickly and simply overcome whatever is preventing them from getting the key, so that they can indeed get the key and move onto the next location.

Some of these locations are distinct and interesting. I like the screaming jungle and the ice caverns. The cities are less distinct, feeling more like generic old school Doctor Who sci-fi cities. But there isn't enough time to truly explore any of these locations. So I can't get too attached to any of them. The threats that the team have to overcome, never get to feel that threatening either because the team find out how to overcome most of these threats like 5-10 minutes after encountering them. Nothing can be too hard for our team to get past, because there isn't enough time for them to struggle with the threats.

The best part of the story is the murder plot/court case that takes up much of the last two episodes. This is largely because it's the only plot point that is given any real time. It's also the only obstacle that's preventing the team from getting a key, that isn't (almost) immediately resolved. There's some genuine tension and the team have to actually spend some time solving a number of problems. Even this plotline has some rushed plot resolutions though. Some of the Doctors courtroom antics, and the rescue of Susan both feel too quick and easy in their execution.

Not a bad story by any means. The fact that there's always a new location, new threat, new problem etc... means that this episode is never boring, and it gives the story a fast(ish) pace for '60s Doctor Who. The issue is that because there's always a new location, new threat, new problem etc... we have to rush through many of the plot points in the story. Nothing really lands, it's just a lot of weightless incident.

"There’s no puzzle to solve, no enemy to fight. Just three lost people who have somehow become our responsibility.

Jack says this part way through the episode, and it's true. This is just a story of 3 people from 1953 who accidentally get transported to Christmas 2006 through the rift in Cardiff. There's no real threat, little tension, just a fish out of water premise. It may be a little slow, but I think this is charming.

Our 3 time travellers split off into 3 stories, each partnered up with a member of our main cast. Diane the pilot with moxie gets paired up with Owen. Her passengers were John and his niece Emma. John bonds with Captain Jack, whilst Emma gets taken under Gwen's wing. Tosh and Ianto are also there, but as is too often the case they haven't got anything to do really.

The best of these 3 stories is the John and Captain Jack one. John and Jack seem to genuinely get on well, Jack even telling John that he's also travelled through time and doesn't belong in 2006 either (something his team don't know yet). This is the most emotional story here, with John struggling with this new world. He'd already made a life for himself in 1953, and doesn't relish the idea of having to do it all again in a world he doesn't always understand. He keeps trying to reconnect with his old life, but his old house is derelict and abandonned, and his only remaining relative is his son, who is in a care home with Alzheimer's. The scene where John visits and talks to his son is heartbreaking. He keeps trying to connect, but his son doesn't follow what he's saying. He thinks he's gotten through talking about old football matches, but it turns out the son is just flashing to memories of his past. He isn't remembering them, he's reliving them. It's a cruel symptom of his senility. John decides to take his own life, with Jack keeping him company as he does.

The worst story is probably the Emma and Gwen story. It's fine, they have a nice sisterly bond and Gwen gets to explain modern attitudes about sex to a teenager from the 1950s. But it's very thin. Basically Emma has an argument with her uncle and storms out. She ends up sleeping on Gwen's sofa, realises that she has more independence now than she had in the '50s, then gets a job in London and leaves to begin her new life. This story is mostly to setup problems in Gwen & Rhys' relationship, as Rhys realises that Gwen has lied about who Emma is and questions what else she's lying about.

There's also Diane and Owen. Obviously being a woman Diane is unable to resist Owen's "irresistable charms". I haven't enjoyed Owen throughout much of this series, but he is quite likeable here. This is a very gentle episode, and as a result Owen is softened, meaning his usual crass brashness is barely on display. Diane is a woman from the 1950s who is ahead of her time. She's independent, enjoys casual sex and adventure. She just wants to fly, but can't as she technically hasn't got a valid licence in 2006. Owen and Diane start a relationship, Owen starts to have feelings he's uncomfortable with, but despite his unwillingness he still falls in love with Diane. Diane is too much of a free spirit however, so she gets in her plane and flies off, leaving a heartbroken Owen behind.

Much like Countrycide, I wouldn't want many episodes like this. But as a one off it's a lovely change of pace. Although considering this episode and Countrycide are my 2 favourite episodes of the series so far, I don't think I like the usual pace and tone of the more normal Torchwood episodes that much. Luckily the show will evolve into something more to my taste, eventually.

It's an RTD Christmas episode. So it's not going to be deep or complicated or heavy on lore. It's going to be a fun romp for the family to enjoy on Christmas day. This episode certainly ticks all of those boxes. It moves at a great pace, has some fun set pieces and a good villain.

I want to shout out Sarah Parish's performance as the Empress of the Racnoss. It's big and over the top in a fun, scenery chewing kind of way. But again, this is a Christmas episode so we don't want subtlety. She's great and considering the amount of makeup and prosthetics she has to act through, I think it's impressive. The makeup/prosthetics also look really good. It all adds up to what I consider to be a very memorable villain.

I can never get fully on board with this episode though, and the reason is simply that I find Catherine Tate as Donna Noble to be very annoying for a lot of it's runtime. Catherine Tate's performances in Series 4 are probably the best from any companion in the modern era. When she later returns, Donna Noble becomes one of my favourite companions in NuWho as well. But here, here I think she's too much. To be fair to this episodes Donna Noble, they do manage to find some shades to give the character some depth and by the end I can see how this character becomes the character I love from Series 4. So I couldn't say the performance as a whole is one note. But, for a lot of scenes in the episode I find it incredibly one not, and that one note is to angrily shout every line at the Doctor. Most of the time I don't find her funny, I do find her annoying, and it does affect how much I enjoy this otherwise very fun Christmas special.

This might be the least engaging mystery I've ever watched.

Some random guy we don't know called Eugene was hit by a car and died. Not sure why Torchwood need to investigate a random hit and run, but who cares? They decide that the cause of death was by hit and run. This should be case closed. I appreciate we the audience know that Eugene is hanging around as a ghost (or whatever he is). But, the Torchwood team don't, so there's no reason to keep investigating.

But Gwen does, because something apparently doesn't add up. Like... umm... the last thing he did on his phone was to take some photos of some random shoes (hey that's the title of the episode). What could these shoes mean? Well nothing, he just accidentally took some photos whilst holding his phone.

I think the justification is that Eugene was a Torchwood super fan, who followed the team around and kept trying to get Gwen to look at his own "alien" artifacts and investigations, only to be politely dismissed each time. Which causes Gwen to feel guilty for not talking to him more or something, and then she'd be compelled to get to the bottom of his death (and apparently fall in love with him or something whilst doing so). Except the secret about his death was that he got hit by a car, a thing we all knew from the very first scene. There's no mystery here. He got in an argument with his friends about some MacGuffin that is apparently an alien eye, then ran off upset and didn't watch where he was going whilst crossing the road.

The only thing mysterious about the death itself, is that Eugene's ghost is hanging around afterwards. A thing the Torchwood team don't know until the end of the episode, so it doesn't justify anything Gwen does before then. The reason this happens is because Eugene swallowed the alien eye to stop his friends from stealing it (it's worth a good amount of money). I don't think the episode even gives much explanation as to what the eye is or why it can keep a persons spirit around after death either though. So the mystery isn't even well explained.

The episode is trying to give the nice "enjoy life, live each day" message. It does this in a very heavy-handed and corny way. But it's a nice enough sentiment. Honestly the episode, much like the character Eugene is relatively sweet and well-meaning. It's just also feels like a complete waste time.

This episode is pretty good, but honestly I expected to like it more. It feels like this episode has a reputation as one of the better episodes in Season 1. Plus I like Indira Varma as an actor. So maybe I went in with too high an expectation here. It's not bad, but it's definitely not great either.

The major issue I have with this episode is that the story is complete nonsense. Not in a fun way, but in an absurdly convulated way. So just to recap, Suzie had been working against Torchwood for at least 2 years, as she's been messing with some dude for at least that long. Her plan is to brainwash some random dude into becoming a sleeper agent. Then in the event of her death, his actions would force the Torchwood team would  to resurrect her with the resurrection glove from episode 1.

Let's just look over this plan. If Suzie dies and isn't able to visit the dude she's been brainwashing for 2 years, he will activate and become a crazy killer who leaves the word 'Torchwood' at the crime scenes. This will get Torchwood's attention, and then through some other clues (basically involving the amnesia drug Torchwood have, and talking to the deceased victims) Torchwood will realise they need Suzie's help. They'll use the resurrection glove on Suzie, but unlike the other people they've used the glove on, Suzie knows how to make the resurrection permanent. She'll steal the lifeforce of the person who used the glove and get her life back, at the cost of this person's life (this happens gradually over time). She'll then help them catch the sleeper cell, who will repeat a poem in his cell which when said enough times will cause a lock down of Torchwood as Suzie escapes.

Besides the fact that doesn't seem like the same Suzie as we saw in the first episode. That Suzie seemed to be a good member of Torchwood, who was unfortunately corrupted by the power of the Resurrection Glove. Now she's become this evil mastermind, who has been preparing an intricate plan for 2 years, just in case she dies. That's not the worst reveal in the world to be fair, and the episode does get some fun out of Suzie as a machiavellian supervillain. But, she is now just a villain, and a pretty thinly drawn one. Besides a desire to not be dead, there's not really anything to explain why/how she's been lying to and betraying Torchwood for years. The episode does give her some interesting moments, and Varma gives a fun performance so I'll let it pass. But, it doesn't excuse the fact that her plan is so incredibly dumb.

Besides the fact that it took her years of planning, the actual plan itself is bad. Firstly she needs a member of Torchwood to be able to use the glove, something that non of the team could do at the time of her death. Secondly they need to resurrect the victims and get enough clues to realise they need Suzie's help. If the victims just cried upon hearing they were dead and said nothing useful (you know like in episode 1, the only time we've actually seen the glove in action) then the plan fails. Then once she's been resurrected Torchwood will just lock her in a cell. I guess being alive in a cell is better than dead, but unless someone decides to go against Torchwood protocol, that's as far as her plan takes her. Luckily for her it's Gwen's turn to be bad at her job this week, and so Gwen releases her just at the perfect time for the lockdown to happen and trap the rest of Torchwood inside. If that lockdown happened a little earlier, the plan would've been revealed too early and she'd still be in her cell, where she would stay locked up. If it happened too late, then it wouldn't have really achieved anything, except be very annoying for Torchwood. Oh, and all the team have to do to stop her it turns out, is destroy the glove, which takes literally one bullet to do. But Suzie leaves the Glove with the team and they realise they have to destroy it at the climactic moment.

I've just written an essay just on Suzie's 'Masterplan' and not much else. In my defense, it's a ridiculously convoluted plan, with so many inconsistencies. I find it baffling on any kind of storytelling basis, that this is the plot here. The reason I think this episode didn't connect with me quite as I'd hoped, is because I kept watching what was happening and thinking "What? Really?"

Which is a shame because despite the plot, I did sorta like this. There's some nice character moments here. Despite criticising Gwen for releasing Suzie (it was an obviously bad idea), it does make sense for her character(ish). She's the heart and humanity of the team. Between her guilt for replacing Suzie, Suzie apparently saving her life earlier in the episode, and Suzie's father dying, I can buy Gwen doing this. She's still a bit of an idiot for doing it, but we're all a bit of an idiot sometimes. Plus it leads to some nice Gwen & Suzie interactions.

So ultimately I think this episode is a complete mess. But, it's not without it's charms.

We're at the mid point of the series, and we're just now getting round to putting some spotlight on Tosh. This is a good thing, Tosh was in need of being more fleshed out. However, I will quibble about the story they give her here. Toshiko's whole deal in this episode is basically that she feels overlooked by her coworkers and isolated at work. This isn't a bad story exactly. It's just that it's basically the same basic story that Ianto got in his spotlight episode. Also she's into Owen, because this show seems to think that Owen is the most amazing man in all of Cardiff. Seemingly every woman on the show must want to have sex with Owen.

Anyway this leads to her being befriended and manipulated by Mary, a woman who gives Tosh a pendant that can read people's thoughts. This allows Tosh to hear about Owen/Gwen's affair and the sadness inside Ianto. She can't read Jack's thoughts though, apparently it feels like trying to read the mind of a dead man. Mary and Tosh's relationship becomes sexual. Mary turns out to be an alien. She convinces Tosh to sneak her into Torchwood to retrieve an artifact. Jack is already waiting with the artifact when they arrive. The artifact turns out to be a 2 person transporter designed for a prisoner and a guard. Turns out Mary (not her real name) is an alien criminal, who came to earth 200 years ago, killed her guard, took over the body of a prostitute called Mary and has been sustaining herself all this time by consuming human hearts. Jack gives her the transporter, but he's reprogrammed it to send Mary into the heart of the sun, killing Mary and destroying the device. Tosh talks to Jack and destroys the pendant.

It's all just fine. It's nice to get more of Tosh, and we get to see her seem both happier and sadder than usual in this episode. But the plot isn't very engaging and the episode loses points because Tosh's story (she feels underappreciated at work, leading to her doing something stupid that puts Torchwood at risk) feels like a repeat of Ianto's story from 'Cyberwoman'. I thought 'Cyberwoman' did it better.

Torchwood does the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, only in rural Wales and without any chainsaws.

The cold open is a really well constructed, little slasher movie scene. I thought it was very good and grabbed my attention immediately. The splitting up of the group and Gwen getting injured early were both very effective ways to raise the stakes. The episode does a good job of building and maintaining a creepy & tense atmosphere throughout.

The episode sets this up to have a sci-fi/supernatural creature doing all these killings. So the reveal that it was just the human residence of a creepy little town, who every 10 years or so murder people who pass through for their cannabilistic pleasures seemed like it might underwhelm at first. But the mundane origins of our killers arguably makes this episode scarier. Plus Owen Teale gives a fabulous performance as the leader of the cannibals. The way he explains why the townsfolk kill as being "Because it made me happy" was genuinely chilling.

I really like this episode. Doing a take on a horror movie seems like a fun use of Torchwood's ability to be more 'adult' than Doctor Who can be. I wouldn't want it every week, but as a one off this was a refreshing change of pace.

I find media that tries very hard to appear edgy to usually be very annoying. On that note this episode has a pedophile and ends with Jack sacrificing a child.

But even without the 'edginess' that is prevalant in this episode, I don't really know what this was. I understand the plot, but it just left me at the end of the episode feeling very "Huh! Really?". It's not a terrible idea, fairies are real but are actually an ancient and malevolent race. They usually keep to themselves but have a tendency to latch onto a child who they deem 'the chosen one'. If anyone is mean to 'the chosen one' they then decide to kill them.

You could build a solid episode from that idea, but this doesn't work for me at all. I don't find the fairies interesting, either in design or how they're characterised. I don't find what they do fun to watch. I don't really understand the lore, for example I don't get why they need a chosen one. I also don't like that the ending is essentially just do nothing, just let them complete their plan and take the child then they'll go away. Torchwood don't really do anything in this episode, except investigate the fairies and explain (poorly) what is happening. If you took Torchwood out of the episode, basically everything would happen exactly the same. We just wouldn't have any characters to provide exposition.

Just a real dud of an story for me, which is disappointing because I thought this series was getting better every week until this episode.

This is a hard story to properly judge. Obviously the episodes are missing, and as good a job as has been done trying to restore the story with set pictures and audio, it can't help but take away from the enjoyment. Things like the climactic sword fight between Marco Polo & Tegana can't help but be less effective when you just see som photos of a sword fight and here the sounds of swords clinking together.

The episode still manages to create an intriguing story and has some tense scenes despite this. I enjoy Susan's friendship with Ping-Cho for example. The Cave of 500 Eyes, was an enjoyable set piece. I also like how they build up Kublai Khan for 5+ episodes and when we meet him, he's not this strong, young warrior king. He's a slightly mischievous older man, still powerful just not in the way I was expecting. It's nice the way he bonds with the Doctor as well, bonding with another older man.

Like many of the older serials however, I think this story is too long at 7 episodes. It repeats the same story beats a lot to pad out the run time. Tegans tries to betray Marco Polo at least 4 times, he's thwarted and despite our heroes suspecting he's up to no good, they can never prove it to Marco Polo. Also the Doctor tries to break into the TARDIS to get it up and running multiple times. These aren't bad plot points, but they lose their impact after they've been done a few times.

If this story was a little shorter/less repetitive and could be watched in it's proper format I think this could be a very good, maybe even great story. However as it stands I only really found it decently entertaining.

I don't think the Cyberwoman costume is bad. A word I've heard people use to describe this costume is dehumanising. It's definitely not the most common word I've heard, but I have heard it said more than once. I think this is great word to describe the costume, I just don't see why some people use the word as a pejorative. The costume is dehumanising, which is thematically appropriate for a character who has very literally been dehumanised.

Yes there's a lot of skin on display, but at points in the episode this is used very effectively to portray the humanity (even the lost humanity) of the character and the body horror elements of the Cybermen. There are shots in this with the flesh and metal mashed together that are genuinely creepy. As much as people talk about how the flesh on display is used to titillate, it's also used effectively to look uncomfortable and make the viewer uncomfortable as well.

And yes, it obviously is also used to titillate. I'm sure this is the main reason so many people have a hard time with the costume. But that's not an issue with it being badly designed. It's supposed to be titillating, so if anything the fact that it is only demonstrates that the design works. People may not like it, and that's completely valid, but this is Torchwood. Especially in it's early days Torchwood was expressly designed to be sexy. There's nothing inherently wrong with wanting to make your show sexy, although I accept that Torchwood sometimes misses the mark in doing so.

For example Owen & Gwen kissing in the morgue drawer in this episode doesn't work for me. But I don't like that because it just seems like an incredibly dumb thing to do both for the story and the characters. These characters have never seemed to share any chemistry or even like each other (their apparent dislike for one another isn't even fun or flirty). Even worse is the cirumstances surrounding the kiss. They're in fear for their lives, silently hiding so that they're not found and killed by a killer robot. So why would they decide to aggressively make out? The show gives no reasonable justification for this moment. I'm not pretending the Cyberwoman costume is amazing or anything, but I think there's enough in universe justification for it. So it doesn't bother me like the kiss does. Apart from the heels, I don't like the heels.

If you ignore the costume (which I think is fine) then this is a really good episode. The character work here is very good. Ianto obviously gets his best episode to date. But I think Jack does as well. The scenes between the two of them have the best human drama in the Series so far.

This is also a fun and exciting base under siege story. The characters feel truly desperate in the scenario and it sells how dangerous the Cyberwoman is. Look, I'm a simple man. You give me an episode of television where a robot lady punches a dinosaur and I'm probably going to have a good time watching it.

I had a good time watching this.

There's some nice ideas here, with memory as an emotional force. Asking if it's ok to kill a murderer, even if the murderer deserves it, what is the impact on the killer and are they now not a murderer too. Can you avoid your fate, or can fighting against something happening be the cause, does seeing your possible future make that future more or less likely.

There's some fun sci-fi ideas that stem from the weird alien artifact that can show you the past and the future. The episode does take the time to focus on these ideas and the tone of the episode is suitably creepy and melancholic.

But it never really clicked for me. It has the ideas and interrogates them, but ultimately I feel like it didn't actually have much to say.

Owen gets a lot of spotlight in this episode. Although it's nice to see more layers to the character, especially as his brash, crass & creepy demenour made him previously seem superficial and he's been the character I enjoy the least. So to see him troubled & vulnerable by what the artifact shows him is a nice change of pace for the character. I'm just not sure I buy him becoming a vengeful killer. Admittedly the show doesn't have him go through with it, so I guess he's really more of a vengeful threatener. But he certainly thinks about, probably even desires killing the man he saw getting away with murdering a young woman 40 years ago. This transformation feels very sudden and very dramatic to me, and not in a believable way.

Still all in all an interesting episode full of atmosphere. It tries to do something different with both it's plot and it's characters, but is only somewhat successful with both. It does get points for trying though.

I think this is fun.

Yes the alien sex gas is incredibly silly. But we're all Doctor Who fans here, silly is nothing to be ashamed of. As long as it's fun, I've no issue with silly. This is fun.

I think it's valid for people to dislike the horniness of this episode. At points it goes (maybe too) hard on the horniness (teehee I wrote hard on). But in the beginning at least, that was arguably the entire raison d'être for the show. It's Doctor Who, but edgy and cool and bloody and sweary and horny as hell. This episode leans on the horniness more than most episodes, so I get why people who aren't a fan of the horniness dislike this episode. But I'm fine with it, so it rarely becomes any sort of an issue to me.

I actually think if you ignore all the Alien Sex Gas nonsense, this does a better job of establishing Torchwood than the first episode. The Gwen having a bad first day, but perservering and showing she's a worthy addition to the team is good stuff here. This episode actually shows the workings of Torchwood a lot better than in the first episode. It definitely shows the Torchwood team and their dynamic much, much better than in the first episode.

I also buy why Gwen would want to join, as well as why Jack would want to recruit her here. A big complaint of mine regarding the first episode is that I don't think it justifies Gwen's recruitment. It doesn't really make sense for either Gwen or Jack for her to join the team at the end of that episode.

Gwen in this episode wants to do good and recognises the growing need for a team like Torchwood. But she also recognises that Torchwood can be a little detached from humanity. Too focussed on the alien goings on and not focussed enough on the humans that are impacted by it. She not only recognises this, but seeks to rectify it.

This human touch, as well as the fact that Gwen grows into the team throughout the episode, coming up with a plan to stop the alien all by herself, clearly demonstrates why she is a valuable addition to Torchwood. Jack sees this, and says this. So I fully accept why he'd recruit her now as well.

For me this is both more fun than episode 1, and does a better job of establishing the show. It's far from great television. But I think it's a step up from 'Everything Changes'.

I'd forgotten the look and feel of this series. It's very of the time, but unlike Doctor Who it's trying so hard to be cool and edgy that it actually feels more dated. This is an entirely subjective complaint, but I really dislike this era in culture where things often wanted to be 'dark & gritty', only here I'd say the look is more 'grim & grimy' (seriously clean those cells, they look gross). So I don't want to complain that it's objectively bad, because there's clearly been a lot of thought and effort in the production design. They've really commited to the style of the show, and it does a good job of differentiating this show from Doctor Who. So objectively I think it's good work. But, subjectively this is a tone and aesthetic that I personally find annoying and ugly. So it'll likely have a negative impact on how much I enjoy rewatching this show.

I don't think this is an especially good episode for establishing the show. I don't think it's necessarily bad, but it falters in some ways. In particular in it's establishing of Torchwood itself. Outside of Gwen and Jack (Suzie maybe) I don't feel like I know these characters. We're told their names, job titles and then basically just told 1 very broad personality trait. Owen is horny (with a dubious grasp on consent), Tosh is a nerd who likes books, Ianto is... handsome in a suit. On top of that I don't really get a feel for what they do. Yeah we're told they do alien stuff, but this is a Doctor Who spinoff, this fact didn't require much establishing. Other than they don't really do that much other than occasionally bringing people back from the dead. A skill they don't really do after this episode.

I don't even think this episode actually explains why Gwen wants to join Torchwood, or why Torchwood would recruit Gwen. There's the scene in the bar between Gwen & Jack. Gwen is definitely curious about Torchwood in this scene, but she makes no attempt to join. She asks to be their liaison with the police. So she doesn't want to actually join Torchwood in this scene, then they erase her memory, one of the Torchwood team threatens to kill her at gun point, she witnesses 2 people get shot in the head and one of those people comes back to life. Why would having Torchwood mess around with and threaten her life, then witnessing some horrific deaths make Gwen want to join? I repeat, she doesn't want to join the Torchwood, then we're shown Torchwood being responsible for her having an awful time and she's now for some reason eager for more awfulness. It makes no sense to me.

As for Jack, I do buy that he likes Gwen in this episode. So that is arguably enough justification to ask her to join. But at the bar he decides she needs to have her memory wiped so that she can have absolutely nothing to do with Torchwood. What makes him decide afterwards that she's worth recruiting. She doesn't even solve the mystery really. She has no idea what's going on whilst Suzie is monologing and confessing to everything that's happened. Jack has to figure everything out and save the day entirely on his own, Gwen doesn't do anything except sorta remember something is going on near Torchwood's base and goes there confused. But her not actually doing anything except nearly getting herself killed makes him think she's now ready to be on the team apparently.

I'm willing to go with it because the show needs a POV character and they've established Gwen not only as a character, but as a character I like. So sure put Gwen on the team I guess. But it feels like the in universe explanation for why she's on the team is because they just lost a female member of staff and it's just quicker to just ask the next women they see to replace her.

The plot here isn’t anything special honestly. The Daleks and the Cybermen have their showdown. The Daleks easily win, which then robs any further showdown between them of most of its potential excitement or tension. If we know the Daleks can just mow down the Cybermen without taking any real damage, then there’s no tension here. The Cybermen just become fodder for the Daleks to kill, except because the Cybermen are also villains there isn’t even any tension as to whether or not they survive. The previous episode set up this grand climax with the Doctor’s 2 biggest, most iconic enemies. Then one of those enemies is immediately shown to be basically ineffectual for most of the story. So basically these whole Dalek vs Cybermen story very quickly becomes pretty underwhelming.

There is the whole plot about the Genesis Ark. But, on this rewatch I realised that this is all a big load of nothing. If it wasn’t in the episode at all it wouldn’t really make any difference. I mean you setup that the Daleks have this weapon called the Genesis Ark, and that it’s Time Lord technology. That’s cool, I’m intrigued, I wonder what it’s going to be. The answer is just more Daleks. So honestly what was the point? It doesn’t change anything in the episode. Before the Ark is open the stakes are that the Daleks, are fighting the Cybermen, people are getting caught in the middle & killed, and humanity may not survive the chaos and destruction. After the ark has opened the stakes are are that even more Daleks, are fighting the Cybermen, people are getting caught in the middle & killed, and humanity may not survive the chaos and destruction. It doesn’t make a shred of difference to the Doctor either. Once the ark has opened and we’ve explained what’s inside, I don’t think the Doctor mentions anything about it again. He just continues with his plan, which is exactly what he would’ve done if there was a Genesis Ark in the story or not. Considering how much time they spend on this plot point, it has basically no actual impact on the episode. It just makes the episode look bigger I guess.

Whilst the villains are fighting each other, the Doctor figures out how to send them all back into the void. The catch is that anyone who has crossed from one dimension to another will also get sucked in as well. This includes everyone from Pete’s world, and of course the Doctor and Rose. The Doctor wants everyone (including Rose, Mickey and Jackie) to transport over to Pete’s world to stay safe whilst he just holds on tight. Rose obviously refuses and transports herself back to be with the Doctor. They successfully suck everyone in, but Rose has to let go to stop the void from closing too soon, and is subsequently getting sucked into the void. Just before she dies, Pete pops back to grab her and deliver her safely to the alternative Earth. The world is saved, all the villains are trapped in the void, and it’s a nice tidy ending. Except of course that the Doctor and Rose are separated, and now that the void has closed they have no way to get back together.

And this is where the episode really shines. The world ending stuff may not be that compelling, but that’s because the episode is far more interested in its characters and their emotional arcs. As much as I’d like a good end of the world story in this finale, I’d rather have the story focus on its characters. If the episode is unable to deliver both, they at least chose the correct side of the finale to focus on.

The end of this episode is entirely focused on the characters. The day has been saved and Rose (with her family) is stranded on another Earth, unable to get back to the Doctor. There are tears, a vague dream, and a chance to say goodbye on a Norwegian beach whose name translates as Bad Wolf Bay. The Doctor is able to transmit a hologram of himself to interact with Rose for a couple of minutes before the cracks between dimensions are all finally closed.

I don’t like the 10th Doctor and Rose together. I think they bring out the worst in each other, and I find their default dynamic comes across as self-satisfied and self-absorbed. Their relationship feels somewhat co-dependent. Even in this episode when Rose is talking about staying with the Doctor and not with her family, I find her to be very dismissive and disrespectful to Jackie. All season it has been a detriment to the characters and to the show.

I also don’t like how RTD has written multiple times in the Series leading up to this finale that Rose was going to die (both parts in the two part finale start with Rose saying this) and it’s said in other episodes as well. She doesn’t die. I don’t care that you can argue that she’s listed amongst the dead, so is officially listed as having died in the battle of Canary Wharf. I don’t buy any argument along the lines of “she’s died emotionally”. She doesn’t die. It was all just a cheap way to force some extra drama into the finale.

I also think when you look at it Rose gets a mostly happy ending. She has her Mum, her Dad is (sorta) alive again, she’s even still got Mickey. Heck she’s even rich now. It’s sad that she can never see the Doctor again, but she still gets a much better life as a result of her adventures with the Doctor. When you stop and think about it, Rose’s ending here is not nearly as tragic as the show would have you believe.

Except of course that it is as tragic as the show would have you believe. I may have problems with a lot of the lead up to this moment. I may have quibbles after the fact when I think about it. But when I watch the episode I can’t help but feel the tragedy of their parting. The performances and Murray Gold’s score in that final scene completely sell it. Even the things that I might’ve found unbearably smug in other episodes (the Doctor saying ‘Quite right too” for example) are pitched just right here. I don’t think this ending is as devastating as some people do. I definitely still don’t want these two to be together. But I absolutely believe how much they want to be together. I absolutely believe how much it hurts them to be apart. Their heartbreak is absolutely heart-breaking to watch.

I still prefer the finale to the first season. That finale is also more interested in the characters than the battles. But the threat here feels pretty run of the mill and doesn’t even have enough actual plot to sustain the episode. Whereas the threat in ‘The Parting of Ways’ was more experimental and gave the Doctor an interesting moral conundrum. I also find the character/emotional arcs more satisfying in Series 1. But somehow against all odds, I find myself moved by this finale and actually invested in the Doctor and Rose.

I’d forgotten just how early this episode tells the viewers that the “ghosts” are actually Cybermen. On this rewatch I found this decision to be a mixed bag. For a lot of the episode this is a minor weakness for the episode, but at the climax it winds up being a big strength. I’ll explain:

I consider this to be a small weakness for a good chunk of the episode because we the audience, know more than the characters. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, in fact it can be an excellent device to create tension (Hitchcock’s bomb under the table example being the go to for explaining how). The problem for me at least is there’s a good chunk of time between when the episode reveals that it’s the Cybermen to the audience, and when the episode reveals this to the characters. So there’s a good chunk of the episode of our characters trying to solve a mystery we already know the answer to. I wouldn’t call it boring; all this time spent not progressing the story. But, it definitely felt like the episode was spinning its wheels and I grew a little impatient waiting for the plot to continue.

However I can’t hate the decision because it gives us a brilliant cliffhanger. This episode (and this season as a whole honestly) has put so much effort into foregrounding the Cybermen, it makes the Dalek reveal at the very end genuinely shocking. Purely in terms of giving the audience a ‘Holy Sh*t’ moment and hyping them up for the next episode, this is probably the best cliffhanger of the modern era.

So in terms of the actual plot, I don’t think there’s anything special here. It feels a little safe narratively speaking, lacking the ambition of the previous finale. It makes sense, and the stakes are high, but apart from the Dalek reveal at the end, it’s mostly just a pretty ordinary Doctor Who story, just on a bigger scale.

There’s good stuff here to be sure though. I found the Doctor and Jackie to be a fun little pretend Doctor/companion team. The Mickey reveal kinda rules.

We also finally get to properly meet Torchwood this episode. I find this version of Torchwood a bit odd. They’re so different to what Torchwood becomes, that it’s hard to reconcile them as the same thing in my head. The franchise spent a lot more time building up Captain Jack’s Torchwood that it has become the default version, and so it’s what I think of when I hear the word. This isn’t a criticism of the Torchwood from this episode. It’s not this episode’s fault that it feels different to a TV show that hasn’t even aired yet. I just find it a little jarring going back to watch this episode and this version of Torchwood is all.

As its own thing, the Torchwood from this episode is fun. I do enjoy that they’re antagonists, what they want is at odds with the Doctor, and they’ve caused some of the problems our hero needs to solve. But they’re not evil, just self-serving. They want to makes themselves, and by extension the British Empire more powerful, and their job is to eliminate hostile alien threats. Unfortunately they consider the Doctor to be a hostile alien threat (I mean, they’re not wrong). But I think it’s fun that despite being in conflict with the Doctor, there’s never really any hostility or aggression shown. They like the Doctor and are clearly fans of his work. So they claim he’s their prisoner, but he doesn’t feel like he’s in any real danger there. They butt heads with the Doctor, but tend to do so through delighted smiles. It’s a fun dynamic that feels fresh compared to many antagonists.

So yeah it’s a pretty ordinary story all told. Fun, but not especially exciting until the end, where the cliffhanger elevates it to being a little above average.

For me this is one of the worst stories in all of Doctor Who. There are a number of problems with this episode. But, one of the main reasons I dislike this more than almost every other DW story is because it commits the unthinkable crime of being boring. Really, really boring.

There are other reasons I don't like it though.

I don't like criticising child actors, but so much of this episode relies on Chloe Webber working as a character, and unfortunately the performance is not good enough. To be fair to the actor though, it's not a very well written character. I'm not sure Meryl Streep could find a way to make this character interesting.

I also dislike the stuff with the dead father. I get that just having a child with some colouring pencils be your antagonist isn't very threatening. So I understand why they had her dead dad, who was abusive before his death, coming back to life from his picture. But it's just a red light and an angry voice. It's such a boring monster. The justification for this even being a thing is that if living things can become a drawing, then drawings can become living things. I appreciate a red light is very cheap, but Chloe could've drawn anything. Surely they could've had Chloe draw something that was a little more interesting and still cheap. Hell they could've kept the red light and still written out the abusive dad.

I dislike the child abuse implications in the episode. Especially because the abuse angle feels very tacked on. There's no reason for it to be in the episode. It's never explained or explored, it's just a lazy attempt to add some drama. The closest the episode comes to given a reason for it's existence is because the plot requires Chloe to be lonely. An abusive dad can likely explain why Chloe liked to sit on her own drawing. But the episode makes more effort to explain her loneliness is because her mother isn't there for her. If you've got a dead dad and a neglectful mother, that's more than enough reason for Chloe to be lonely, you don't then also need to make the dead dad an abuser. I think throwing in past trauma without any real justification is a very cheap way to create drama and tension. It's made even more unforgivable here because it fails to create any real drama or tension.

And the less said about the 2012 Olympics stuff the better. It's some of the corniest writing in the entire series. Apparently the olympic torch is humanity's greatest symbol for hope and love. So much so that humanity is seemingly about to give up on both those concepts when the torch bearer collapses. But luckily the Doctor is there to carry the torch and light the olympic flame, and our hearts or something. Yuck.

This isn't the complete disaster that some people will tell you it is. Make no mistake the final act is a complete disaster. Everything with the Absorbaloff is horrifically bad. But there are some good things before that, and I'd like to throw some compliments this episodes way before I talk about what I dislike.

Firstly I think Marc Warren is very good as our lead for this Doctor-Lite story. This episode is something of a mess in terms of tone and characterisation. But no matter how inconsistently written or unlikeable the script makes Elton Pope, Marc Warren's performance always makes him easy to sympathise with and root for.

I also have to say that I'm quite fond of LINDA. This group of loveable misfits make for a sweet and charming group. They're initially bonded by a curious obsession with the Doctor. But they grow into something more, becoming genuine friends in a manner that feels natural and heartwarming. The story seems to acknowledge that they perhaps need the group at first, due to a sense of loneliness and perhaps even trauma (Elton & Bridget are explicitly having to deal with their own personal trauma). But they learn that they can help each other and fill the holes in each others lives without having to focus on the Doctor.

Speaking purely from a narrative perspective, I think this story is at it's most successful when the guys and girls of LINDA stop caring about the Doctor and just get to know and enjoy each others hobbies and interests. This is ultimately a problem for the episode though. The less this is an episode of Doctor Who, the better it is. The more Whovian the episode becomes, the worse it becomes. There's a good episode of television about a lonely fandom coming together in here. It's just that as an episode of Doctor Who it falls short, and the more it leans into being about the Doctor and his world, the worse the episode gets.

The best thing about this episode though is Jackie Tyler. Camille Coduri has had good moments in the show for sure. But I'm not sure she's ever had a great episode as an actor or for Jackie as a character. She is wonderful here. The broad comedic strokes she's often relegated to giving are still there. But at times they're geuinely very funny (the scene in the laundrette springs to mind). The times when the broad comedy starts to look like it might become cringe-inducing (I'm thinking of her heavy-handed seduction of Elton), the episode and the performance manage to smartly pivot away from comedy into something a little heartbreaking. Yes Jackie is a little desperate, but she's clearly in a place of intense loneliness since Rose (and now Mickey) have left her. This part of the episode is probably the best performance Coduri gives in the show. It starts of as a screwball sex comedy, then turns into a somewhat sad and tender human drama, before Jackie has a fierce confrontation with Elton. She may not like Rose going off on her adventures, and she's always been somewhat ambivalant in her feelings towards the Doctor. But, she is still Rose's mother and she will protect her and even the Doctor with her life.

But as good as some of this episode is, for me the good doesn't do enough to compensate for the Absorbaloff. Peter Kay is OK when he's playing Victor Kennedy, but his performance once he's revealed as an alien is horrendous. It feels like a terrible impression of Mike Myers playing Fat Bastard in the Austin Powers movies. The design of the monster isn't very good and it looks even worse with the CGI faces uncannily moving around on his body. His logic behind wanting to absorb the Doctor is thin, but I can accept it. I have no earthly idea why he decides to absorb most of the LINDA gang though. It doesn't seem to help him in any way.

And again the tone of this episode is all over the place. The ending I find especially jarring tonally. Elton gives a triumphant speech to camera about this experience. But my dude, you were almost killed, all of your friends died and your girlfriend is now a paving slab. I don't care that you got to meet the Doctor or how good Ursula is at giving head, this was not a joyous turn of events that you should happily reminisce about.

I think this might be both the Doctor and Rose's best episodes in all of Series 2. I probably shouldn't be surprised that the episode where I like them the most is also the episode where they never share the screen until the very end of the episode.

I'm not going to spend long on the plot. It's good and it moves but I haven't much interesting to say about it. The Doctor explores the Satan Pit whilst Rose and most of the remaining crew of Sanctuary Base 6 are trying to survive the possessed Ood. Through Rose's leadership, their individual skills and some teamwork the remaining crew make it to the ship and fly off the base. Unfortunately Toby is still possessed by the Beast, who is using Toby to escape his prison. Fortunately the Doctor works out that the Beast was imprisoned on this planet for a reason. The energy that is allowing the planet to stay in orbit around a black hole, is also keeping the Beast imprisoned. So if the Beast were to ever escape his prison, the energy would stop, causing both the planet and the Beast with it to plummet into the black hole. The Doctor causes this to happen, finds the TARDIS and rescues everyone whilst Rose kills the possessed Toby.

Rose is really good here. Whilst everyone has been affected by the Beast taunting them, and are currently panicking, Rose keeps a level head. She's been with the Doctor long enough to know what to do in these situations. She takes stock of what she has available to her. She doesn't know the base or it's contents, but she knows she has a capable crew who do. She also identifies which problem most urgently needs solving. In this case it's that the crew are trapped (Zachary the acting captain is trapped at the bridge. Everyone else by the drill) and the murderously possessed Ood are breaking through the doors. So she motivates her team to solving the problem at hand. Danny (who is in charge of the Ood) realises that he has a way to turn off the Ood's telepathic field, effectively incapacitating them (at least temporarily). However they need to get to Ood habitation for this to work, and that currently seems impossible. Mr Jefferson (in charge of security) realises how to get there, through the maintenance tunnels. The problem with that is that there's no air in those tunnels. Zachary (acting captain) realises that on the bridge he can manipulate the atmosphere inside the base and manually move the air around so that everyone else can get to Ood habitation. Toby (the archaelogist in charge of studying the ancient civilisation that have imprisoned the Beast) does... umm... well he pretends not to be possessed and looks at Rose's bum. Ok so they're not all winners. But by working together they are able to successfully incapacitate the Ood and retake control of the base, albeit with the loss of Mr Jefferson, who sacrifices himself to buy everyone else enough time to escape.

It's a wonderful sequence that gives (almost) everyone something of value to do and demonstrate the worth of every person. Take Zachary who has been promoted to acting captain due to the death of the original captain for example. He feels unworthy of the role, as well as useless being trapped in the bridge where he feels he can't help his crew, only able to push some buttons. Shaun Parkes is great in these 2 episodes btw. It's rivetting watching him just push some buttons, and seeing him demonstrate his worth as the captain he was never supposed to become. He also sells the moment a little later where Rose refuses to leave with them on their ship, so he orders his crew to hold her whilst he drugs her unconscious and carries her onto the ship. This scene could be uncomfortable, seeing 3 older men restrain and render a young woman unconscious against her will. But Parkes really sells this as an act of kindness, and you feel it when he explains that he isn't prepared to lose anyone else on this base.

The other side of the story we have the Doctor and Ida down in a chasm. I quickly want to shoutout Claire Rushbrook's performance as Ida. She's also great in these episodes. Her reckless curiousity feels natural and charming, when it could've easily seemed annoying. I also really feel for when she's afraid of dying alone.

But this episode really plays to David Tennant's strengths. More than maybe any other Doctor (certainly of the modern era) Tennant is great at tackling long speeches. This pays off here because although he has Ida to talk to at the start of the episode. For a decent chunk of it the Doctor is basically just talking to himself or a non-verbal, satanic monster. But if you give David Tennant something worth saying, you can just leave him to monologue and it's thrilling to watch. I can't imagine any other Doctor doing such a good job making all the exposition at the end feel as natural or compelling as he does here.

I don't think the question about whether the Beast is literally Satan or not is that interesting. I think it's clearly supposed to be an ancient monster where the idea has persisted and formed the basis for many satanic figures. But that it isn't literally Satan. It's a fun idea worth some dialogue though, but ultimately I don't think the episode is too interested in answering this question. At some point the Doctor realises he doesn't need to know what he's fighting, he just needs to know how to beat it.

I do like that this idea has the Doctor talking about belief. What his beliefs are and questioning them. I think there's interesting stuff in there. I particularly like his line about how he would have no trouble believing the Beast came from beyond time, but he cannot bring himself to believe the Beasts claim that he comes from before time. That doesn't fit with his beliefs, but he can't justify why it can't be, besides that it breaks the rules he's given himself to explain his beliefs.

But all of this belief talk is partly there so that the Doctor can give his little speech before choosing to send the Beast into the black hole. The Doctor saying "But I’ve seen a lot of this universe. I’ve seen fake gods and bad gods and demi-gods and would-be gods, and out of all that, out of that whole pantheon, if I believe in one thing, just one thing, I believe in her." actually works for me here. It helps that the episode has done a good job showing why Rose is someone worth believing in. This all adds up to me actually liking the Doctor/Rose dynamic for the first time this season. It's still a problem that it took 9 episodes to make this happen. But's it's better than nothing.