After last week's "Dalek", which I found ultimately disappointing, I was hoping that "The Long Game" would live up to the promise of the intriguing trailers. It did. The plot was classic Doctor Who - the Doctor and his companions arrive on a space station in the distant future, where life seems to be going on as normal. But something is wrong. The 4th Great and Bountiful Human Empire is not as great, or as bountiful, as it should be - something is holding back their technology and their society. As the episode unfolds, we discover that those who get promoted to floor 500 never return - something is lurking up there, directing everything, controlling the lives of every single human being by manipulating the news media. In a nice little nod to the series' previous incarnations, you don't see the alien until the end of the episode, and while the toothy CGI Jagrafess was a bit of a let down, it still looked more scary than, say, a big rubbery glowing blob, or a man made from licourice allsorts.

The episode is a very obvious and at times unsubtle satire on the modern media, with all the galaxy's news manipulated by the Editor (played with gleeful menace by Simon Pegg, who stole every scene he was in) in order to turn humanity into a race of unquestioning conformists. There were some more subtle moments, such as when the Doctor confronted Cathica over the absence of aliens on Satellite 5. Defending the strict immigration controls, she could only cite vague "threats," reflecting the current climate of distrust created by politicians and the media on matters of immigration and asylum.

The acting was at times excellent - Simon Pegg stuck a wonderful balance between pragmatic self-interest and hand-rubbing evilness - and at others, poor. Bruno Langley's Adam never really moved beyond "irritating idiot side-kick," making it quite a relief when the Doctor got rid of him, and the character of Suki, while no more fleshed-out than the usual "first victim of the alien" role, seemed a rather unlikely freedom fighter. And mention should briefly be made of the moment when, as his brain absorbs information directly from Satellite 5's computer, Adam's mobile transmits glowing blue light to his mother's answerphone, destroying any suspension of disbelief that had been built up.

All in all, a thoroughly watchable episode - inventive, satirical, and with one or two genuinely scary moments. Classic Doctor Who with a very modern slant.

Well, that was kinda different.

This was another first for TV Doctor Who -- an example of how sometimes, the Doctor might up and pick up someone who is NOT cut out to travel in the TARDIS.

Adam, who you might remember survived the events of the Van Statten Complex last episode in "Dalek," has well, how to put this? Turned out to be a bit of a dipshit. Unlike Rose, who took everything that she's seen so far with a sense of amazement and childlike wonder, Adam was taken to one era (The Fourth Human Empire) and tried to capitalize on it in his own time, by first not only using the cell phone the Doctor gave Rose to call his house and relay future history to his voicemail; but then up and goes and gets a tactical neural implant. And not just ANY implant -- the kind that opens a door on your forehead, revealing your brain, and capable of receiving a compressed information stream, which Adam then tries to call home and record.

So, yeah, abusing not only the Doctor's tech, but trying to bring far future tech into our century? Never a good idea. And the Doctor realizes his mistake, and for the first time ever, merely dumps the fool off at home. Not that the Doctor seemed to mind too much, even before he mucked about -- there was definitely some jealousy there, with Adam around Rose. Hmmm, you don't think? ;-)

Oh yeah, and there was some story happening too, something about an information satellite having been corrupted by am alien parasite thingy, and with Shaun of the Dead in charge of things, and humanity in a cyberpunk/Blade Runner type future setting going backwards because of the parasite....

But you know, it was kinda secondary to the real story in the end -- that sometimes, schmucks come aboard the TARDIS too.

Quick!! Quick!! Quick
Pack it all in- be slick!
Go Go Go
Do not explain- too slow!

Why? Why? Why?
Did Dr Who land? – I cry.
Holes Holes Holes
This cullinder – own goals!

Who? Who? Who?
Ceiling monster – were you?
Past Past Past – lacking
So Lost in pace – whizzing!

Earth Earth Earth
Reality – Too much
Seen Seen Seen.
Marrs fantasy – spoils dream.

Two Two Two
Parter by rights – would do.
Brew Brew Brew
The plot with care – time flew!

Hiss Hiss Hiss
Happy villain – fright missed.
Served Served Served
Sole strength none – no verve!!

Set Set Set
Plastic door flaps – forget!
Spin Spin Spin
Station so real - revolvin’.

Joe Joe Joe
Average grade – good show.
Act Act Act
This man Chris can- Fact Fact!

Given the speculation over the media's effect on the election campaign, 'The Long Game''s subject of media manipulation is pretty topical. It's been done before, though (notably by another long-lived franchise in 'Tomorrow Never Dies'), and I didn't feel this treatment brought much insight. Little about the newsgathering technology made much sense (why process the news in a human brain rather than a computer? what are the subsidiary people for? why bother with an external datastream?). As the secret of Level 500 is revealed to the viewer early on, the episode lacked tension, and the CGI Exercise, whoops the Guaranteed-Easy-To-Kill* Alien of the Week, had a refreshingly bland World Domination motivation. (*It's beginning to remind me of that infamous 'Blake's 7' episode 'Sand'.)

Like the main plot, the B-plot toyed with an interesting idea -- the ethics of time travel -- without exploring it in enough depth. Bruno Langley as the teen genius Adam acquired in 'Dalek' never had much oomph, and I'm not particularly sad to see the back of him.

After the heavy investment in the relationship between Rose & the Doctor in previous episodes, I was disappointed that there was no fallout from the events of 'Dalek'. Indeed, neither had much to do here, beyond holding hands in the lift.

All in all, 'The Long Game' had a distinct lack of sparkle. The sets felt very 70s DW, and not in a good way: I wondered if they'd spent all their budget on twelve episodes, and had to squeeze this one in on the tea money. The satellite setting in a far-future Earth empire was over-reminiscent of 'The End of the World', which only highlighted 'The Long Game''s relative poverty.

We're more than halfway through the new season now, and some worrying glitches are emerging. I commented earlier on the upbeat pacing, cutting straight to the action & avoiding all those exposition scenes on the Tardis. The downside is that I'm beginning to miss the grounding effect of the Tardis interior -- like the Liberator flightdeck or the Buffy library it's central to the show, even if scenes there tend to be workaday. The focus on Earth in all the episodes so far is rational given the foregrounding of Rose, yet I'm beginning to doubt the assertion that the new Tardis can travel in space as well as time.

Last week's 'Dalek' set a high standard, and 'The Long Game' just didn't deliver.

It was always going to be tough following an episode like ‘Dalek’ but it would appear RTD didn’t really try and instead recycled a rejected script from series 24.

The Tardis materializes in the distant future, on a space station orbiting the Earth at the height of its Fourth Empire. The series is once again let down by dull, lifeless sets, unimaginative costume design and in the year 200,000 we can still be expecting to eat fast food courtesy of ‘kronck’ burgers. If it had been set in the year 2020 I would have struggled to accept this as the future but 200,000, please…

The story and plot are paper thin, a scary monster attaches itself to the ceiling of a satellite (why the ceiling? – less CGI – saves the purse strings) but don’t worry, turn the heating up and he’ll explode. The End.

The one redeeming factor with this episode has to be Simon Pegg, who despite some seriously dodgy dialogue manages to pull off one of the best performances of the series, so far.

A few people seem upset/shocked with the sudden removal of Adam from the Tardis but I think they’re missing the big picture here. Adam has been returned to Earth with a computer in his head for a very good reason and I expect him to return in series two with a very large axe to grind with the Doctor.

I have enjoyed the series so far but have to agree with the general opinion that the stronger stories are those not written by RTD. He has definitely got the length right, 45 minute self contained stories seem to be the way forward. Imagine having to sit through another three episodes of ‘The Long Game’.

I wasn't going to submit a review of this epieosde. Earlier today I read through the first few reviews that had been submitted, and was shocked to see so many people coming out to say "oh! Russel T. Davies is a good chap really." I was apalled!

I've seen for a few weeks now a simple problem with the new series, and simply put it's Davies' scripts. The two non-Davies scripts so far, Unquiet Dead and Dalek have been hailed all round as the finest two episodes so far. Please please Davies and BBC take the hint.

So what's wrong with Russel T. Davies' scripts anyway? (and what does the T stand for? Is that like the T. in James T. Kirk??) The problem is a simple lack of any depth or substance. The Unquiet Dead and Dalek both have something in common that no other episode so far has. This is that they took a simple premise and didn't try and either over-complicate it, or do too much with it.

Davies' scripts have so far translated almost as cartoons, parodies of what an episode should be. It's like Little Britain Sci-Fi sometimes.

I didn't really enjoy this episode simply as he was trying to so much with it that there was no depth. I would like him to have completely dropped the Adam story. If you were going to include a parable about "why it's wrong to change history", then I think that'll come about in the next story, and is indeed the entire basis for it.

We didn't find out anything about why the journalists were apparently so unwilling to ask questions. We didn't delve at all into the character of the Editor. Pegg was magnificent. Eccleston and Piper are playing off each-other so well now, that they'll be completing each other's sentences in a couple of weeks.