The Long Game

I thought this was a good, solid episode witha few salient points to make about the manipulation of the media and how clever distortion of language can lead to overgeneralisation and people not thinking too much as they are bombared with information (All together now, "weapons of mass destruction"....as opposed to "pretty harmless weapons that don't hurt anybody" perhaps?) Things didn't get too preachy and I think Simon Pegg gave an absolutely terrific performance which was the best thing in the story. So, not up there with 'Dalek' or 'The Unquiet Dead' but not at all bad...

BUT, and it's (ahem) a big but.....

I'm a tad worried about how the Doctor is coming across at present. This is no criticism of Chris (he was SUPERB in 'Dalek') . This stems from the writing....

Basically, my worry is that the Ninth Doctor is in danger of becoming far too unsympathetic in his treatment of supposedly "lesser mortals" which is beginning to risk him seeming far too judgemental and, well, that can lead to seeming positively smug! Not an attractive trait in anybody, let alone our favourite time-lord. Adam may have been foolish in his actions, but come on.....he's a young chap who's been thrust into a ridiculously alien environment and not adapted at all well. But the final scene with the Doctor and Rose leaving him behind (with a massive hole in his head!) left me feeling genuinely uncomfortable. Their behaviour just seemed too, well, smug? Callous? I just didn't *feel* right.

I mean, the Doctor didn't exactly cover himself in glory during 'Dalek' and it was terrifically handled. As a big Fifth Doctor fan I have no problem with fallibility in our hero, but a consistant lack of understanding of the fallibility of others? Yes, I do have a problem with that. (Contrast the 5th Doctors treatment of the would-be assassin Turlough. He came good when the chips were down *because* of the Doctors' inherent goodness, y'know?)

Maybe all this is going somewhere and I'll have to eat my words, but whilst I have no problem at all with a "darker" Doctor, it will be a problem for me if these traits continue without being challenged and I end up not liking the Ninth Doctor very much!

Thinking on, it has been the "stupid apes" that have saved the day in most of the stories so far. Rose, Gwynedd, Mickey and now the promotion-obsessed girl in this episode all helped to save his (and many others) ar*e!!! Shouldn't he have twigged that by now?

If this is a subtle 'character' arc and such potential hypocisy is addressed, I'll have my words served with chips, please. But I'm not sure this is the case!

Whole episode...six out of ten.