The Long Game

This story, from the outset, didn't really excite me that much; Doctor and co arrive on a space station which is being manipulated for sinister means by an alien menace. It didn't really strike me as anything amazing, unusual or different, which the series had offered up to this point. In short it really wasn't anything to look forward to or get excited about because the plot had been done before in other stories such as The Ark in Space and to be blunt it didn't strike me as anything special.

So I am pleased to say that overall these fears were dispelled. It was exciting, and it was a different and interesting take on a classic storyline. It flowed along with a fast slick pace and the CGI effects were amazing, especially the Jagrafress of blah blah blah, which looked like a very convincing hunk of meat. The choice of casting Simon Pegg as the evil genius' puppet, The Editor, was inspired and I can not think of a better person to play the part. I can't begin to praise his performance and he is one of my all time favourite actors and comedians, why can't he play the next Doctor?!!!! The guest appearance of Tamsin Greig actor was very welcome, I thought she would play it for laughs but she delivered her character very convincingly. I am pleased to see that Adam has been cast aside as I felt his character had nothing fresh to offer the series. But as usual the performances by Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper were top notch.

These praises aside I do have have a few niggles about the episode: First of all I thought the interior of the station could have been more imaginative, as I thought that what was portrayed was slightly glitzy and reminiscant of the eighties. This was definitely an 'old school' episode but updated. Also, what was the reasoning behind the Jagrafress of blah blah blah's plan? It wanted to stunt the advancement of humanity, yeah great, but what was it for? To herald an invasion? Or will this be answered in a later episode? Who knows, no pun intended.

To wrap up i'll just say that the episode was good but for such an average story to come after Dalek is unfortunate. I think I'd place this story above The End of the World (my least favourite story so far, yes I know it's a controversial opinion! I know some of you love it but I think its just an average story) and the unfairly ripped apart Aliens of London. This story did better than I thought it would but then again I didn't expect too much...