I noted when I reviewed ‘Aliens of London’/‘World War Three’ that, for me, the rot was starting to set in. I was sufficiently impressed with ‘Dalek’ that I’d forgotten this, but with ‘The Long Game’ the feeling came back with a vengeance. And I’ve realised exactly what it is about the series that is bugging me.

Russell T. Davies has made it well known that his primary concern when writing television is characterisation. This is obvious throughout his Doctor Who episodes, with the main emphasis being firmly on the relationship between the Doctor and Rose. The trouble is, the episodes written by Mark Gatiss and Robert Shearman both boasted characterisation that complimented the plot, with memorable supporting characters in form of Charles Dickens in ‘The Unquiet Dead’ and the Dalek in ‘Dalek’. What Davies seems to be doing is concentrating on characterisation to such an extent that his plots are secondary to it and suffer as a result. Worse still is the fact that none of his characters have any depth besides the Doctor and Rose; the supporting characters are usually barely sketched ciphers, with prime examples here being the Editor and Cathica, neither of whom we learn anything meaningful about; the Editor is a villain, Cathica is a journalist, but beyond that we get no insight into what motivates them. There are obvious exceptions, including Mickey and Adam, but both of these exist purely to emphasis the bond between the Doctor and Rose, and Rose’s suitability as companion material.

This is painfully obvious in ‘The Long Game’, as Davies uses Adam as a contrast to Rose. Consider the similarities; both step out of the TARDIS for the first time to find themselves in the far future on a space station orbiting the Earth. Both initially suffer from culture shock as they stare out of observation platforms at the Earth below, and both are provided with a reassuring link to their lives in the past via the contrivance of Rose’s modified phone. At this point, they make different choices; Rose wanders around with a sense of wonder, talking to various people, whereas Adam quickly sees the potential of his new situation and tries to exploit it, having a chip implanted in his head so that he can download information about his future to make use of when he gets home. The result is that the furious Doctor dumps him back home, informing him, “I only take the very best” and looking pointedly at Rose. Which is fine, except that Davies did exactly the same thing with Mickey in ‘Rose’, presenting two humans of the same age group and background with something alien and terrifying; Mickey ended up gibbering in terror, whereas Rose turned into Mrs. Peel and saved the Doctor. We were given another reminder of Rose’s suitability as a companion in ‘Aliens of London’/‘World War Three’, with Mickey redeeming himself but turning down the Doctor’s offer of travelling with them because he believes that he is incapable of coping with the lifestyle. We don’t need reminding that Rose is great, the Doctor keeps pointing it out to us. It’s also rather ironic that as a result of Davies’ use of Adam here, Rose is relegated to the traditional companion role her, following the Doctor around and asking questions, and being used as leverage over him by the villain.

Then there’s the Doctor. The portrayal of the Ninth Doctor is proving rather interesting, as he seems to be a bit of bastard and not somebody I’d actually like to go travelling with. He’s quick to judge people, and his treatment of Adam here is a case in point; Adam’s actions in ‘The Long Game’ are a mistake, but understandable. Yet the Doctor gives him no second chances, dumping him back at home and rather nastily warning him, “If you show that head to anyone, they’ll dissect you in seconds. You’ll have to live a very quiet life.” This is of course after he not only took Adam to the future and left him wandering about on his own anyway, having told him, “The thing is Adam, time travel is like visiting Paris; you can’t just read the guide book, you need to throw yourself in”, but also after he gave him a credit chip with unlimited credit that allowed him to have a chip fitted in the first place. The point being, that this Doctor is short-tempered, unforgiving, and very quick to judge others. He also threatens the Editor with physical violence, and looks like he’s going to punch Adam at the end; as the Editor says, “Ooh, he’s tough, isn’t he?” All of which makes for an unsympathetic lead character, and is presumably a result of the trauma he feels as a result of seeing Gallifrey destroyed by the Daleks, and whilst I don’t actually like the Doctor as a result, he does make an interesting character in this respect.

Unfortunately, in another key respect, he’s simply irritating across the board. I had put some of my growing dissatisfaction with the Ninth Doctor down to Christopher Eccleston’s occasionally forced and stilted performance, but I think its more down to Davies’ writing, since I had no problem with the Doctor in either ‘The Unquiet Dead’ and ‘Dalek’. This is a Doctor who does tricks, using his sonic screwdriver to pull rabbits out of hats in a way that makes me think it’s time the Terileptils paid him another visit. Yet again somebody else saves the day; having bumbled around until Rose saved him in ‘Rose’, and having relied on Mickey to blow up 10 Downing Street in ‘Aliens of London’/‘World War Three’, he here depends on Cathica to save the day, adding to the air of impotence that surrounds this Doctor. The other main problem lies again with his relationship with the Rose. Having indulged her by informing her that they are in the year two hundred thousand and that they are on a space station he rather sweetly lets Rose point all of this out to Adam in order to show off. Almost immediately afterwards however and for the rest of the episode, he starts acting like a jealous lover. When Adam faints, the Doctor tells Rose, “He’s your boyfriend” and she replies, “Not any more”, a badly scripted a juvenile exchange that makes the pair of them sound like horny adolescents squabbling. Even whilst furious at Adam for getting himself chipped and letting the Editor know all about him, his only reprimand to Rose when he learns that she has given Adam the TARDIS key, and thus provided the Editor with the chance to get his hands on it is, “You and your boyfriends.” Basically, we’ve gone from the kind of subtle sexual tension that arises from the gentle flirting between leads seen in programmes like The Avengers to a situation where the Doctor seems to be actively trying to get into Rose’s pants. I don’t especially want the Doctor to start having sexual relationships with his companions, but if it will put an end to this feeble sixth form sexual tension and petty jealousy, I’d rather he just shagged her on the console and had done with it.

Anyway, what about the plot? For one thing it’s rather flimsy, and is extremely lazily executed, with a massive infodump from the Editor and yet another big explosion at the end. It has already been described as “old school” and it certainly feels like a rather clichйd nod to the past; some fans hypothesized that Simon Pegg’s character would turn out to be the Master, and he might as well have done, since the Editor is a smug, self-satisfied, gloating, chuckling megalomaniac with a goatee, who sells out the human race to a big alien monster and then tries to leg it at the end. Pegg is also slightly hammy at times, which only heightens the effect, but I must admit that despite my reservations about the episode, the Editor is easily the best and most entertaining thing about it. The plot is also used as an excuse for some more satire, and as in ‘Aliens of London’/‘World War Three’ it’s far too unsubtle to be called subtext, with commentary on the use of the media to manipulate the public, such as when the Editor notes, “Create a climate of fear, and its easy to keep the borders closed. It’s just a matter of emphasis.” Cathica explains the lack of aliens on Satellite Five by telling the Doctor, “I suppose immigration’s tightened up, it had to what with all the threats” but is of course unable to specify what these threats are. The trouble is that whereas the satire in, for example, ‘The Sunmakers’ was used to drive the plot, here it feels bolted on so that Davies can take casual pot-shots about whatever issue happens to on his mind this week.

‘The Long Game’ is at least quite well directed by Brian Grant, with some particular scenes worth mentioning, including Suki’s discovery of the rather grisly frozen corpse, and the swift cut between the Doctor bundling Adam into the TARDIS on Satellite Five and the throwing him out into his living room. The design is bizarre, with very retro sets that like a nineteen-eighties attempt to depict the future, with padded red leather walls, perforated metal seats, and junk food outlets. The Jagrafess also looks quite good, although it does remind that the scripted reasons for keeping aliens out instead of trying to manipulate them like humans is more down to budgetary limitations than plot logic. The guest cast is also generally good, with Bruno Langley working perfectly well as Adam, Christine Adams as Cathica, and Tamsin Grief as the slightly sinister yet slightly seductive Nurse.

But it isn’t enough to save the episode. Yes, ‘The Long Game’ is mildly entertaining, but it really ought to have been so much better. So many details annoy me here, from Rose’s utter stupidity in forgetting the word “Jagrafess” seconds after it’s been said several times, to the fact that yet again a character in a Davies script keeps uttering “Oh my god!” which is starting to feel like a lazy catchphrase. I’m also getting board with his sense of humour; I didn’t mind the burping wheelie bin or the farting Slitheen, but I don’t want this kind of base humour every single week, and in this episode we get the facile inclusion of the utterly ridiculous vomitomatic. But the part of the episode that annoyed me like no other was the diabolical final scene, as Adam’s mum comes into the room. Guess what? She clicks her fingers! No, really, did anyone see that coming? As a consequence, ‘The Long Game’ had the unexpected result of making me try to remember when I last heard somebody clicking their fingers in real life, and coming the conclusion that it doesn’t actually happen all that often.

So basically, I’m starting to realize that whilst I’m still entertained by the new series, I’m looking forward to the three remaining episodes not scripted by Davies far more than the ones that he’s penned. Which does rather bode well for next week.

This story, from the outset, didn't really excite me that much; Doctor and co arrive on a space station which is being manipulated for sinister means by an alien menace. It didn't really strike me as anything amazing, unusual or different, which the series had offered up to this point. In short it really wasn't anything to look forward to or get excited about because the plot had been done before in other stories such as The Ark in Space and to be blunt it didn't strike me as anything special.

So I am pleased to say that overall these fears were dispelled. It was exciting, and it was a different and interesting take on a classic storyline. It flowed along with a fast slick pace and the CGI effects were amazing, especially the Jagrafress of blah blah blah, which looked like a very convincing hunk of meat. The choice of casting Simon Pegg as the evil genius' puppet, The Editor, was inspired and I can not think of a better person to play the part. I can't begin to praise his performance and he is one of my all time favourite actors and comedians, why can't he play the next Doctor?!!!! The guest appearance of Tamsin Greig actor was very welcome, I thought she would play it for laughs but she delivered her character very convincingly. I am pleased to see that Adam has been cast aside as I felt his character had nothing fresh to offer the series. But as usual the performances by Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper were top notch.

These praises aside I do have have a few niggles about the episode: First of all I thought the interior of the station could have been more imaginative, as I thought that what was portrayed was slightly glitzy and reminiscant of the eighties. This was definitely an 'old school' episode but updated. Also, what was the reasoning behind the Jagrafress of blah blah blah's plan? It wanted to stunt the advancement of humanity, yeah great, but what was it for? To herald an invasion? Or will this be answered in a later episode? Who knows, no pun intended.

To wrap up i'll just say that the episode was good but for such an average story to come after Dalek is unfortunate. I think I'd place this story above The End of the World (my least favourite story so far, yes I know it's a controversial opinion! I know some of you love it but I think its just an average story) and the unfairly ripped apart Aliens of London. This story did better than I thought it would but then again I didn't expect too much...

So, we've passed the halfway stage of Doctor Who's return to TV. So, in addition to reviewing The Long Game, I'm going to make a few comments about the season so far.

The Long Game was built on that mainstay of Doctor Who plots for over 40 years: Something's wrong at the heart of the glorious Earth empire, with a quick sideswipe at the media. RTD's wish to tie everything in to the human race takes a mundane approach: people buy food from fast food outlets, and wear suits, jeans and t-shirts. The space station interior is impressive, and well lit.

Simon Pegg is suitably menacing as the Editor, and his turncoat act at the end is worthy of the Master's various attempts to leave his collaborators to their fates. The easy manner, and humour he injects into the role, add to its general creepiness.

His unpronouncable, but incredibly impressive CGI alien boss, is used well. In a very "Alien" approach, we see ever-increasing glimpses of the creature throughout, which builds up a lovely tension to the piece.

The subplot involving Adam is a great treatment of the idea that we'd all use a trip to the future to enhance our own lives, although the denouement of this plot seems to indicate what I suspected: it would take an impressive companion indeed to break in to the chemistry between Rose and the Doctor. Tamsin Grieg is slightly unnerving as the nurse, without actually being a villain.

The Doctor is on top form, possibly the most recognisably "Doctor-ish" performance from Eccleston so far.

My one gripe now is that I think the Bad Wolf storyarc is being a little overplayed now. Is it really necessary to have a reference dropped into EVERY episode? A minor grumble, I know, but sometimes it just seems to be there for the sake of it. Maybe all these references are crucial to the resolution, but its difficult to see how.

This episode had some nice touches but struggled to really get above your typical sci-fi fodder. Mind control is hardly something which has not been used before and there was not much in "The Long Game" which was new and dazzlingly different. Even the title is a bit of a misnomer and does not suggest anything. This is a pity because the idea of journalism and the editor is something which could have provided a lot of possibilities and investigated further. While understandably there are limits in 45 minutes, Dalek certainly did have an epic feel to it. The Long Game felt a bit, well, long and drawn out!

I thought the opening scene was good as Adam collapses in shock at realising he is in the future and looking out upon the world.

At the start, Rose seemed to take everything in her stride and almost took on the Doctor's role as the investigation began. Simon Clegg's portrayal of The Editor was suitably evil but the silly monster was not all that impressive up above. The most thrilling part of the programme was Adam getting the brain surgery and taking in all the information as The Editor discovers who the Doctor really is.

It was a good ending and I thought it was very good for the Doctor to take Adam back home and show him the damage he had done. It was also very neat to have his Mum walk in and snap her fingers. I felt Adam did not offer a great deal in the episode, and it may have been better to have a sinister companion like Turlough.

Throwing the Doctor into a human habitat certainly seems to work very well at this point but tonight's show lagged somewhat. End of the World, which used the same set, was many years ahead, and also miles better than The Long Game. Some more aliens in the space station would have spruced things up a bit.

We have now reached the half way stage with the brand new series of Doctor Who and some of it has been absolutely excellent with the first three episodes and Dalek being particularly impressive.

With next week's episode harking back to Rose's past and changing time, I have a strong feeling that we are set for another rollercoaster ride. The Long Game was fun in places, with some great quips from the Doctor, while Rose also seemed quite settled in her role, but that all looks to change next week.

I felt the journalism idea could have been better handled and, being a journalist myself, I would have loved to write last night's episode! I didn't even think that The Long Game was even scary in places. The old skeletons may have been slightly fearsome but it was hardly anything shocking.

I hope there is much more of the terror element in subsequent weeks. The absence of the Tardis interior in recent episodes has been a bit disappointing but that is a minor gripe!

The Long Game was run of the mill sci-fi and did not have the fast cutting edge of some of the best Who episodes so far in the series. The pace was not so great, and the budget meant that the same set had to be used as in The End of the World. It had the makings of a good story but just did not deliver.

As a Television series progresses, one hopes that it will introduce new ideas and stories whilst tying up old ones. This episode has answered a question that has long plagued me and a few people I know. Why haven't any of the companions tried to gain knowledge for personal gain..? Well, now we know.

Eccleston and Piper have developed such a dynamic that it is amazing how well they play off of each other. The love and care that the characters have for each other develops more as the series goes on. In the way they look at each other, and comments made by Adam as to their relationship.

Simon Pegg was great in the role of The Editor, but I feel that he should have had a bit more screen time. And the creature was just disgusting. At one point it really looked like he was drooling on Rose's head.

The effects department (both SFX and CGI) need to be commended for their work on the new series. The effects seem flawless and unnoticeable.. which is the greatest compliment that one can pay to an effects team.

With six episodes left in the first series, one wonders how it will all play out.. especially with the whole "Bad Wolf."

It was nice to see "The Face Of Boe" turn up in a newscast.

At the beginning of The Long Game, you might be forgiven for thinking, 'Hang on, wasn't this episode screened already?' The sets and CGI shot of the satellite look lifted straight out of The End of the World. Only less expensive-looking. End has been my favourite Davies episode thus far (although Dalek blew everything out of the water), so I held back my worry and let it happen. It wasn't half-bad.

I mentioned in my Aliens of London review that RTD seems to have a tension in his writing between his more radical nature and his love of traditional Who. This was blatantly evident here. The first 15 minutes of The Long Game feel like a McCoy story. With the icy Floor 500, I kept flashing back to Dragonfire. Major problem is that Who has moved on - we really shouldn't be stuck in that mould any more. Thankfully things picked up in the second half, as Adam had a bizarre personality change and became a money-grubbing liar. You have to wonder just what RTD was intending to do with the character - why bother to introduce him (relatively anonymously bar some entirely understandable flirtation with Rose) at all in Dalek if he's going to be dumped in the next episode?

Some of the issues (lightly) touched upon concerning the power of the media and how people will do almost anything if told to were extremely interesting. It was a joy also to see Rose playing the part of the seasoned time traveller, giving new-start Adam his induction. The CGI beastie was one of the best thus far in the series, too. And, of course, Simon Do-No-Wrong Pegg.

But there were problems - mainly in the design. The sets looked like ... well, sets. The matte backgrounds were horrifically realised and it all felt a million miles away from the spectacular spaceship crash in AoF or the planetary explosion of EotW, or even the ethereal Gelth of UD. It was just kind of shoddy.

Also, the Bad Wolf references that were so teasing initially seem to be a bit silly now. It's as if they're just being stuck in any-old-where and it'll take some serious explanation to justify this come episode 12.

Still, a good, solid, standard episode.

What's most annoying is that Davies really is a stunningly good writer, but we just haven't seen that in his Who work so far. He's written a good pilot, a clever follow-up and then treaded water a bit. Every one of his stories has parts that are great. Just not full episodes that are great. Personally, I'd love to see him rework some of the ideas from his old Dark Season children's drama. Dark sci-fi doings in a High School. I'm sure he's got some superb adventures in him for the show. He just hasn't got them to us, yet. Still, at least there was no farting or burping this week, so things are looking up.

The concept for next week's episode is a killer - always rely on Paul Cornell to take a love of traditional Who and shake the concept up a little.