Gridlock

OH. DEAR.

Two words sum this one up. When I heard rumours that the Troughton era creature that would return in Series 3 would be the Macra, I thought "Well, at least they may be able to improve on their last outing". But this rather poor take on the "something lurking in the undercity" storyline takes away the one thing that made the Macra anything more than mutant crabs. Coupled with the fact that this isn't even the main plot, we waste rather a lot of the episode finding out about them.

Take away the Macra, and concentrate on the main story (the destruction of New Earth by a virus), and you have a much better plot. This should really have been expanded on. The Face of Boe's return is the first time that Boe has been anything other than an alien face in the crowd. Novice Hame's story of redemption is engaging enough.

However, bearing in mind the content of the Vote Saxon sites started by the BBC, the revelation made by the Face of Boe is hardly shocking.

Unfortunately, because of the tedious inclusion of the Macra Mcguffin, this return to New Earth is scarcely satisfying. Once more we get Davies by numbers ? an episode designed purely and simply to move the series' arc plot along a notch.

I really wish, now, that RTD would just stop writing the episodes on concentrate on producing them. Increasingly, the RTD-penned stories are the least satisfying ones.

Lets hope next weeks Dalek episode picks up a little.