After the somewhat dismal Boom Town (which seemed to me a filler that was merely meant to set up the cracking finale) I figured that Bad Wolf would almost have to be an improvement--which it was, but after a second viewing I'm still not quite sold on the lampooning of reality TV. It just seems to me that a fad in the 20th C. wouldn't have continued that long into the future, even if there is a progression towards "killing" the people who are "kicked off the island" so to speak, I think that "reality" TV would burn out very quickly before any such point was reached. (Think of the use of the zombies in game shows in the ending of Shaun of the Dead, for example, as a parody that seems more in the realm of possibility, IMO, despite the fact that they're bloody zombies).

Now, of course, this is Doctor Who, and there has always been a need to suspend disbelief at times that exceeds most other shows. So considering this entire Season (series for the UK folks) of Doctor Who, and the over-tendency to reference current events, Bad Wolf performed as expected, but that still doesn't mean we all have to like it. It's too close to home, or too obviously close to home, and even more than the Pertwee era, lacks subtlety in referencing current events.

Overall, Bad Wolf seemed again, a little too much like a setup, and it seems Boom Town was a wasted story. The setup of Bad Wolf could've been there, and that would've have left two episodes to deal with the Daleks. I am far from a Doctor Who purist, but I think the main shortcoming of the new program has to do with 45 minutes not being enough to tell a story, so we're stuck with overflow material being collected into a bucket and presented as Boom Town, instead of a fully realized story.

Wow! That was good. I have a feeling that there will be actual tears when I watch the finale. Christopher Eccleston is just brilliant as the Doctor; the Doctor who doesn't stand around waiting for explanations - a Doctor who just does what he has to. Brilliant. I'm missing him already!

As far as the episode is concerned, the idea that reality shows are beamed to the populace to cover up an impending invasion is very satirical but also ingenius. I liked seeing the Doctor in the Big Brother house, acting as I know he would act. He was irritated by it all and wanted a way out. Excellent sequence which more could have been made of. The Doctor would be a more interesting housemate than the ones we have now!

I thought the What Not to Wear was less interesting, but when Captain Jack took the laser out of his ass I just couldn't believe it! A really good idea. It reminds me of the IRA prisoners in the H-Block jails who used to stuff cigarette packets to smuggle them in and exchange. Probably isn't good for prostate though.

The Weakest Link was also a good sequence and while I think Paterson Joseph is a good actor, you really did not quite believe him in this - there was something 'amateur' about his performance. The woman who got zapped first was definitely better in the small time she had! And when Rose got vaporised I really did think that was it - I mean we have been hearing she is and she isn't returning to the series. The look on the Doctor's face when he thinks she's gone was brilliant. He didn't fight off the guard cuffing him, he just looked crestfallen - like his whole world had crumbled. I did punch the air when he and Jack attacked the guards in the cell though. Go on my son!

I did not quite understand the fact that the laser was a transmat beam. We saw Rose on the Dalek ship, but where were all the other people who got zapped. And why are they zapping them all to their ships? Surely the Daleks couldn't fit them all! I'm sure this will be explained in the next episode. And the Bad Wolf thing hasn't really been properly explained, has it?

All in all, a fantastic episode and I have tried to avoid all the internet ramblings. Mr brother reckons the controller of the Daleks will definitely be Davros, I reckon it will be the Dalek Emperor and my friend at work Adam mentioned something about it being a deformed Bruno Langley [think Evelyn Smythe in Real Time]. I love the way I have no idea.

Roll on the finale!

Ok RTD... you've finally delivered half of the sort of Who script your much lauded talents have promised... but to date had failed to deliver.

Anyone who has either read my previous reviews here... or my frequent posts on rec.arts.drwho .. will know that I'm one of these'old school fans' who are supposedly in the minority and cannot criticise RTD - the saviour - on any point without fear of lynching.

But let's get one thing straight. I have no intention to personalise my reviews with attcks on the man himself. His enthusiasm and knowledge of the 2005 TV industry, combined with his influence on Messers Gardner & Hennessey (not to forget Collinson too) has certainly aided the positive and forceful return of Who to our screens. That achievement is not in question...

What has been my focus is the continued frustration with RTD the script writer - who the Evening Standard recently called 'god-like' - for not delivering a Who script that mirrored the obvious talents displayed by 'Queer As Folk', 'Casanova' and 'The Second Coming'. "Rose" was OK... "End of the World" likewise... but "Aliens of London" & "World War Three" were pure pantomimie... with "Boomtown" adding to the insult. "The Long Game" was also derided at the time... although I found it fairly innocuous.

So now to "Bad Wolf". Suspend disbelief... disengage the scientific brain and RTD finally delivers a rip roaring tour de force that suggests he can deliver... there is so much RIGHT about this... but as with all RTD scripts there are also fundamental errors that threaten to derail a cracking express train of an episode. In fact 'Bad Wolf' neatly summarises the whole WHO 2005 season in it's highs and lows... but more on that later... let me start with my problem with this episode...

200100.

Let me restate that. 200100 - 198,095 years in the future?

This is the future. Not the near future... but a time far far away... Consider this for a moment... this is a time when...

Television is still the mass form of entertainment.
Big Brother has had at least 504 episodes (that's the one where they "all walked out..")
Ground Force/ The Weakest Link / Countdown / What Not To Wear are all TV concepts that have 'endured'.
Anne Robinson, Trinny & Susannah and Davina Mc Call's voices (although electronic) still persist - 198,095 years later?
Humanity still wears 20th century clothing?
There was a President Schwarzenegger (sorry RTD... that's a Demolition Man joke...)
Sonar is an effective method for tracking space craft?

I could go on... and the fix? Make the date more realistic. 2150 say... afterall it is a hundred years on from the last Dalek Invasion of Earth... and we know that they are successful for a while by the Third Doctor's visit to the 22nd Century... new viewers wouldn't need to know that, but think of the Doctor's realisation that he had inadvertently set in motion the events that caused problems that his previous selves had had to sort out? The nostalgia buffs would be adding their voices to the RTD deifying... well maybe not yet...

Yet DESPITE these obvious plot holes... 'Bad Wolf' was hugely enjoyable... it was a real shame that the Dalek reveal had been blown by the trailer... because the moment you hear that 'Dalek hum' when Rose is transmatted to the Dalek ship would have been SO MUCH better. It was beautifully crafted... as was the extermination of the 'Controller', with a stunning 'reflection' shot of the approaching Dalek.

The final CGI moments with the Daleks 'elevating' on screen were so reminiscent of TV21 from the 60's / 70's I was elated! And if you've seen the latest BBC teaser... you'll see more of the same... now that is FANTASTIC!

So we've had lows... and highs... in fits and starts.. My hope is that the 'threat' that permeated parts of this episode can be maintained into the finale. There is a real danger that these things can be hyped too much... and I'm sorry RTD you are only halfway to delivering... if you can emulate Mr Moffat then I shall be ringing your praises... but there could just be one dodgy wrap up too far...

Be warned... with all the nonsense whizzing around the forums about Adam... the TARDIS... a certain Kaled scientist... and various other BAD WOLF theories we can only hope that there is a logical payoff, but my caution is tempered with 200100... if RTD can explain that then I might be happy next Saturday at 7:45.

The alternative venom spitting madman is not an option I dare contemplate.

Remember too... it's only HALF TIME...

I've been dropping into the review page over the course of this series, to hear what others have been feeling about it, but this is the first time I’ve been inspired to write my own opinions. I’m glad I waited until this almost conclusion. My opinions have swerved almost maniacally over the course of the last twelve weeks; from crushing disappoinment to squeals of excitement; from genuine terror to lip-bitten embarassment. Now they feel settled. Settled and sad.

Not that 'Bad Wolf' made me cry. I’m afraid it wasn't powerful enough. I was moved to tears by the plight of the solitary dalek, and the following week, sitting spellbound in a room full of surfers, while Rose and her father realise the essential need to die when it's your time. I’ve shivered and giggled at the gelth and celebrated as the most scary story (Richard Wilson vomiting up a gas mask) twisted into the most optimistic. How often in Doctor Who does not one soul perish? All these stories were masterpieces of writing; shocking, witty, intelligent, complete and as far as I was concerned, utterly successful.

It is somewhat ironic, therefore, to realise that the man who gave the possibility of life to these stories, should have failed so dramatically when it came to his own work.

I've met Russell. I liked him. He is ebullient, wonderful and garrulously infectious, like a hit single or a quick joke. And he brought Doctor Who back to TV screens, which, if not exactly reaching out to a new audience ( I work with 10 kids aged 6 to 21 - only one watched a single episode and he did not return), was able to indulge an older generation with some choice nostalgia fodder. But the quality of his own efforts within the series have been strangely lacklustre. Give him an estate and his ear for the contemporary and council is stylus fine. But ask him to rise to the possibilities of infinity and we find an imagination that considers 200,000 years in the future to be pretty interchangeable with 100 years later or 5 billion years after that.

I felt deja vu watching 'The Long Game'. Surely these were the same lines, the same story, we'd been told at 'The End of the World'? If it was sad enough that 'The Long Game' then appeared so shockingly pedestrian, with only Tamsin Grieg's Nurse having character depth, how much more embarrassing to see that in 'Bad Wolf', an already insufficient idea was milked harder, until the strain became palpable.

TV land is not fascinating enough to warrant two such similar adventures in a barely-disguised sequence of studios, where humanity is on both occasions blind to the fact it's being controlled by either a toothy, festering alien zit, or, once again, a billion daleks. I feel saddened by 'Bad Wolf'. It might have been something to do with being so repeatedly fed the titular phrase throughout the series. Expectations ran 12 episodes high. Or it might be something else.

It is hard to enjoy watching even Doctor Who, when so much of it feels swamped by the creative bankrupcy of hyper-reflexive TV; a self-devouring culture in love with its style and out of ideas. At one point Russell has the doctor come daringly close to criticism when he says 'Half the world is too fat, the other half too thin and you just sit there watching television.' But of course he can't continue down this route, for that would be to question the very box that gave rise to Doctor Who in the first place. So there it ends, with a joke about bears.

The sadder truth for me is that even at its current best, Doctor Who is now a historical phenomenon. It's good to see it again; it's nice to feel somehow vindicated because the british press are clapping; I can easily see a few more series in the pipeline. But like everything currently mediated, it will suddenly become chewed up, turn less cool, feel vaguely past its best, lightweight, repetitive, a joke and then, like it did in the late 80s, it will disappear into the rarefied soundscapes and paperbacks of weighty devotion.

The kids have not taken to it. How could they? TV for them is exactly as it is in 'Bad Wolf' - a series of fashion-driven game shows streaming into their heads constantly. All American in fact or spirit, all littered with adverts reminding them how much more there is to accumulate. They are increasingly stripped of the imagination that leads people to think about inventing such an idea as Doctor Who. They grunt as the outpourings of hundreds of channels stream past them. The only button that doesn't work is the one that calls the system by its proper name and is marked 'shut down'.

I love Doctor Who, for the magic it allows us to see the world with. But I understood as 'Survival' came to a close that even the best TV programmes, like seasons and civilizations, rise and fall. If I had to chose between a future where the height of modern British screenwriting talent pens another story driven by the omnipotence of TV, and one where we all have the chance to live more creatively, I know which one I would switch off first. Like Rose and her father, there is a time for everything to die. Even Doctor Who.

And that can't but make me sad.

As if the prospect of Dalek invasion was not frightening enough, RTD offers us the potentially more nightmarish scenario that reality television will be around for the next two hundred thousand years. With shows like В‘Big BrotherВ’ and В‘The Weakest LinkВ’ set to run for the next few geological eras, enslavement by the Daleks looks positively benign in comparison.

Someone has been playing the В‘long gameВ’ indeed, as the Doctor and his companions find to their cost when they are whisked away from the TARDIS by a transmat beam after completing another off-screen adventure in 13th Century Japan. The Doctor ends up in the Big Brother house, whilst Rose and Captain Jack find themselves on В‘The Weakest LinkВ’ and В‘What Not To WearВ’ respectively. Pretty soon they realise that these versions of the shows are not quite what they seem, as homicidal androids and disintegrating beams are deployed on the contestants.

The idea of reality TV gone wrong is of course older than reality TV itself; 1968В’s В‘The Year of the Sex OlympicsВ’ is probably one of the earliest examples. The satire in this episode also seems to owe a lot to В‘Judge DreddВ’ (the comic strip and not that naff film with Sly Stallone), particularly one adventure where DreddВ’s house robot tunes into illegal pirate TV broadcasts.

Talking of robots thereВ’s a fair few of them on this episode, with voices provided by the people they are mimicking. I donВ’t know how well this will go down in the states and other places where they may not have heard of Davina McCool, Trinny and Suzanna and Anne Robinson. Over here it was a hoot.

The robots have more than a little bit of Dalek about them, the Anne Robinson droid being fitted with a death ray that shoots from her mouth. But of course it isnВ’t quite what it seems, as the Doctor as the others realise later on.

Amongst the non-celebrity supporting cast Lynda (Jo Joyner) seems to be one to watch, as well as having the honour of being one of the few people the Doctor has openly flirted with, she also seems potential companion material. Martha Cope also puts in a good performance as the Controller, an unfortunate human female who has been wired up to a computer since the age of five. This seems like a nod in the direction of В‘Remembrance of the DaleksВ’ where a young girl was connected to the Dalek battle computer. It seems that it was she who transmatted the Doctor and his companions to the Game Station (Satellite 5 a century after В‘The Long GameВ’), where she hid them in the stations continual out put of deadly game shows. Apparently the Daleks donВ’t watch reality TV, something very much in their favour it has to be said.

This episode, as one would expect, helps to tie up a number of loose ends from previous episodes, particularly the aforementioned Episode 7. We are also given a flashback sequence for the eponymous Bad Wolf references in a scene that owes a lot to the Brigadier regaining his memory in В‘Mawdryn UndeadВ’. However we are still none the wiser as to the true nature of the Bad Wolf, something that Davies et al have teased us with since В‘The End of the WorldВ’.

What we do learn is that Bad Wolf is the name of a network (something we already knew from В‘The Long GameВ’) that now specialises in reality TV, which it broadcasts to the stupefied population of Earth.

All of this of course is a cunning plan by the Daleks, who are lurking at the edge of the solar system in a giant fleet of saucers. These were very similar in design to the saucers on the rejigged scenes in Dalek Invasion of Earth DVD. Other nods towards past Who were also present in the way in which the Daleks were not revealed until near the end of the show, in true Terry Nation fashion. As if that wasnВ’t enough we had Rose being menaced by a sucker arm in a Dalek POV shot straight out of their first appearance four decades ago. The DaleksВ’ Master Plan is now their В‘stratagemВ’ and they concluded the episode with a traditional chant of В‘exterminate, exterminate.В’

However this wasnВ’t the real cliffhanger, which was provided in the previews for next week, which gave us a mysterious voice telling the Doctor, the Daleks В‘survived through me.В’

So who does this voice belong to? With Who fans being warned to stay away from the Internet this week and a press screening set for Wednesday, its going to be hard not to find out one way or the other before the episode airs next Saturday. Almost everyone from the Master to Davros by way of the Dalek Emperor has been postulated as Bad Wolf. I have my own theories about this and my general feeling is that it will be someone from the continuity established during this series. However, only time will tellВ…

Now.. has there ever been a premise that seemed so loaded for self destruction? Putting Dr Who in futuristic versions of Big Brother and Weakest Link? Not just future versions.. but exactly the same show, complete with Voice of Ann. And written by Russell Davies, whose stories have been amongst the weakest of this season (is this season 1 or season 27? Ah, well..), often with workable ideas but poorer execution and annoying flatulent humour. Yes, it looked like disaster loomed.

Well, up until the last second of the preview following В‘Boom TownВ’ В– В‘We have been detectedВ’.. cue shivers! Still.. Big Brother?

Well, jolly god show, Russell, В– can I call you Russ? В– me old mate! Bad Wolf was an excellent show, one of the episodes from the season to show to the unconverted. Excellently written, acted and directed. So, lets break things down in a slightly confused order.

Gotta say, there were several aspects of the episode that reminded one strongly of Doctors past В– of Sylvester McCoy, in particular. There was much in the Weakest Link and Makeover pastiches that brought to mind the old biddies of Paradise Towers, the Kandyman of Happiness Patrol and The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. And the preview from next week with the Daleks advancing on the barrier was strongly reminiscent of В‘Resurrection of the DaleksВ’ (I suspect, though, without the pantomime deaths of station personnel).

Captain Jack В– I like this character. We already have the В‘everyman perspectiveВ’ provided by Rose. Jack provides more of an equal foil to the Doctor - with his own highly advanced technical skills, self sufficiency and combat prowess, heВ’s an excellent complement. And his easy charm and omnisexuality makes him a totally unique, 21st century companion. And he manages it without being sleazy. IВ’m sure there are people who object to this characteristic of his, but I find it most entertaining. IВ’ll draw the line at him, the Doctor and Rose having a mГ©nage-e-TARDIS, but until then В– go, Jack! I wonВ’t comment on his laser up the ass trick. Well, beyond mentioning it. And how В– HOW В– did they get away with him fondling those robot boobies? I guess tis ok if theyВ’re robots В– not that that stopped him from flirting with them! How would he and C3PO get along, I do wonder..

Rose actually didnВ’t have too much at all to do in this episode. Obviously out of her depth at trivia from the year 200,100, all she is in, is danger. And, as she often is, she is responsible for the (this time presumed) deaths of many. I mean, crikey! Who activated van Stattens Dalek? Who brought the Reapers to Earth? Rose, Rose and Rose! Accidents, sure, but she seems to be an even bigger death magnet than the Doctor!

And the Doctor.. well, a bravura performance by Eccleston and some great writing, again! IВ’m a little uncertain about the truly outrageous flirting he was carrying on with Lynda В– itВ’ll be all right if she gets in the way, indeed! But, in all truth, this is probably the first time that DaviesВ’ own writing has captured the essence of the Doctor. Because we all have certain baseline expectations of the Doctor, within the individual variations provided by each actor.

The first 30 minutes of Bad Wolf are pretty good Who. Not just good Who, pretty good television. But the last 10 minutes are sheer brilliance, some of the best Who В– best TV В– IВ’ve seen in absolutely ages. Starting with the Doctor kneeling over RoseВ’s В‘ashesВ’ (say, why does the transmit beam leave ashes behind?), while Jack plunges forward, with the sneaky Roderick hiding behind the game show assistantВ… the Doctors near catatonia as the guards interrogate them.. and then, springing into action with a simple В‘LetВ’s do itВ’. What was especially great was that Jack also reacts instantly В– the two make a good team. Moving on, the very funny exchange between the Doctor and Davitch (?.. Programmer 1!) when he tosses him his gun.. The revelation of what the gameshows have been doing.. В‘Rose is still alive!В’ and the two men embraceВ… the Controllers rebellion and self sacrifice.. the revelation of the Dalek fleet.. the Daleks back in classis threatening mode, the Doctor cheesing them off, and ending with a rousing chorus of В‘ExterminateВ’, only this time from a whole shitload of Daleks and not 3 or 4!!! I know, everyone will have been stunned by the same things, but I just have to recite it.. I must have seen the last 10 minutes of В‘Bad WolfВ’ a half-dozen times already and am STILL not sick of it!

Weaknesses? Well, nitpicks, really. Now, I should point out that I still donВ’t know the significance of Bad Wolf В– who or what is it, and how did the reference follow the Doctor and Rose through time? Although a recap of the references was quite unnecessary В– itВ’s not been that long since we saw them, especially the one from last weeks Boom Town! I do wonder how Rose knew van StattenВ’s helicopters call sign, though В– that was.. a weak link. And why was Lynda so happy to see the Doctor appear in the Transmat? ItВ’s not another contestant В– itВ’s another victim! And why, oh why, does everyone in the year 200,100 look like theyВ’ve stepped off the street in 2005? Granted, one wouldnВ’t necessarily want them in one piece spandex outfits, but at least SOME effort could have been made to make them look.. well, different.

But those are minor nitpicks which didnВ’t detract from the enjoyment at all. I could rhapsodize on about the preview but the forums are full of enough of that.. especially the maddening, frustrating question of.. who the hell is that with the last word? Agh!! Russell T Davies will make lifelong friends or lifelong enemies with В‘The Parting of WaysВ’В… donВ’t mess it up, Russ!!!!!!

Oh, and just for the record.. I think Lynda would make a much hotter assistant than Rose. There, IВ’ve said it.