Bad Wolf

Back in the mid 1990's I sent a letter to the BBC, addressed to Davros. I did this because I had a hunch that the Beeb had been taken over by the Daleks, such was their reluctance to bring the Doctor back to our screens. I received a reply from Viewer and Listener Corresponance, which perhaps proved my point!

Why mention this now? In "Bad Wolf", the Doctor and his companions return to Satellite 5 to find that the earth's entire TV output HAS been controlled by the Daleks for a century.

But this is not made clear to begin with. The episode opens with the Doctor, Rose and Jack beamed mysteriously from the Tardis into different game shows, all of which even casual TV viewers will be familiar with. The Doctor finds himself in a version of Big Brother where eviction means death, Rose is a contestant on the Weakest Link where the 'walk of shame' has been replaced by death...and Jack on a makeover show run by homicidal versions Trinnie & Susannah. All the game show hosts seem to be 'droids, and were voiced by their 21st century 'real life' personas to excellent effect.

Tension builds as we begin to realise that each and every show involves death or mutilation, but thankfully the Doctor and Jack are able to escape their games and rush to help Rose...but too late! I'm old enough to remember Adric being killed, but my wife was really shocked to see Rose shot. Even though we both know she appears in future episodeds.

Poignantly the Doctor discovers that all this terrible 'entertainment' began 100 years ago, at the point when he, Adam and Rose left Satellite 5 in "The Long Game". He believes that somehow he has caused this awful future for the people of earth.

The Doctor, Jack and the Big Brother housemates make their way to floor 500 to find the root of the mayhem, and discover a woman hooked Matrix-style to Satellite 5's systems. During a solar flare when the satellite is shut down she is able to tell the Doctor that she has been performing this job all her life, and that she does it for her masters, who she is forbidden to name. She's brought the Doctor here to bring an end to it all.

The Doctor surmises that the entire earth's population has been encouraged by air pollution and junk TV to sit inside doing nothing, and has been kept in the dark about something in orbit around the planet. Disabling a cloaking signal that the satellite is broadcasting he discoveres 200 Dalek ships readying themselves for an invasion. Not only this, but they have captured Rose in the belief that the Doctor won't attack them, and actually seem not to understand him when he says "NO".

All in all a superb episode, by far the best of the RTD-penned stories. We are still in the dark as to who or what the Bad Wolf is, though a small clue was given in the post-epsiode "next week" trailer. The tension is building to boiling point and next week's final episode will be essential viewing. I've read that some people believe the final two epsisodes should have been shown back to back, but the BBC is handling this perfectly. We will get teasers every day next week leading up to Saturday when all will be revealed. No instant gratification junk TV here.

A final word about the feel of the show. All the androids were excellently realised, the effects were very good indeed and we had the old Doctor Who feeling of not knowing what was going on until near the end of the episode, and of the Doctor working it all out. Like "The Unquiet Dead" and "The Empty Child/Doctor Dances" this episode balanced perfectly the need to update Doctor Who while keeping it honest to the previous 26 series. TV does not get much better than this.