Doomsday

Now this was a perfectly enjoyable piece of television. It had emotional content, it had drama and it had action. It just didn't feel like the climax to anything, and I don't think it was anything to do with Catherine Tate (I don't see how that couldn't have been part of a 'Next Time...' trailer though).

The dialogue was good throughout, and while it felt strange to see the Daleks and the Cybermen essentially having a massive bitch fight at each other, no-one could deny that it was not very entertaining telly. The Daleks were portrayed as the ultimate evil in this episode to the fullest extent possible, but at the cost of the Cybermen being humiliated almost as badly as they were in Silver Nemesis. Okay it took special effects to kill them this time, but it was still ridiculously easy to do so. Also why did they just stand around in the family home looking dramatic? Where they baking them muffins? Cybermen would either take the family for conversion or kill them, not hang around like an annoying relative at Christmas. And for two of the Doctor's deadliest enemies, you really think one of them would've thought 'Hang on, I could just shoot him!' by now, especially in this episode. David Tennent is, of course, possibly the best Doctor when it comes to just talking at his enemies. Not to death, like McCoy, but just into confusing them into telling him enough information to continue the plot. For the two biggest enemies to be involved it does take a lot of suspension of belief that they don't even attempt to kill the Doctor.

Otherwise, a fun fast paced episode ensued, but it felt more like a middle of the series episode. Wotsername of Eastenders got converted, and we didn't especially care. Then just as there was some sort of setup with the Doctor being in one dimension and Rose being in another, which seemed very promising, it was straight into the emotional stuff. The Jackie and Pete scene went on a bit without really affecting me on an emotional level. I was glad when the aliens who were supposed to be invading the planet FINALLY catch up with the heroes. I could imagine the Cybes saying to each other on the stairs 'Are we good to go?' 'Nah, the cleavage lady is talking to the cockernee ragamuffin, we have to wait until the music gets drama- OH CRAP IT'S US! WALK LIKE YOU'RE CONSTIPATED! WALK LIKE YOU'RE CONSTIPATED!' The Jackie/Pete interplay got better as it was established that the characters had grown apart due to the differences in their respective realities. Nice bittersweet moments ocurred later in the episode.

Oh aye, and the Genesis Ark is a Time Lord artefact which the Doctor hasn't heard of (which I personally find hard to believe). It is also a Time Lord Prison for Daleks. How monumentally stupid are the Time Lords that they decide to IMPRISON millions of the most evil and dangerous beings in the Universe in a handy travel sized container? A race they are at war with? Did Romana bring them in line with the Geneva convention? How stupid would you have to be? On the plus side, a very nice idea by RTD to have named Daleks with slightly more character to them. Made these Daleks seem slightly more dangerous, apparent inability to shoot anything while they're in Exposition Mode notwithstanding.

Then the episode appears to be extremely rushed in order to fit everything in. The Doctor has a very simple plan which he executes flawlessly apart from Rose. She stays behind either: A - because she is brave and loyal, or B - because she is bloody minded and silly.

Technically she wouldn't have had to be a hero if she had obeyed the Doctor's instructions and stayed in the other universe, and if the Doctor wanted her to go through in the first place presumably he had a plan to get both levers down then she didn't have help in the first place. Meh, I suppose the Doctor was just wrong or something.

Then we arrived predictably at the heroic set piece complete with slo-mo 'Noooo!' moment and fortuitous if completely unlikely piece of redemption for Cyber-Pete as I shall be calling him (he went all cold and clinical, rather like a Cyberman no less. Gosh RTD is clever sometimes). Then we got the leaving scene. This was lovely. That's the third or fourth time this series we've got the Doctor hovering on the 'L' word (Sarah Jane, Mme de Pompadour and Rose twice), and it was nice to see him cry on screen as you imagined he may have been on the verge of doing all these years.

Then Catherine Tate appeared and the drama was undercut somewhat. Not Catherine Tate's fault of course, I just felt like they could've put that after the credits.

All in all less of a big climax that PotW, but overall a fun episode with a load of nice scenes to remember it by.