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.

I'm not a person who watches particularly masses of television, and as such I hadn't sampled any of Russel T Davies' work until the new adventures of Doctor Who graced our screens. As such, I was quite intrigued by the veritable waterfalls of liquid gold that drenched his reputation in the excited and egaer run-up to the 26th March. I pondered whether Davies was genuinely as talented as the magazines, websites and newspapers so enthusiastically proclaimed, or if this was only a generous dollop of varnish as a component of pre-series hype. Having watched four of the Davies-penned episodes now (Rose; Aliens of London; World War III; The Long Game), I regret to conclude that the latter is the case. All of the adventures that Russel has written are hit-and-mostly-miss: if you'd excuse the contorted metaphor, there are occasional great peaks of brilliance and ingenuity in the topography of the episode's integrity, yet these great vantage points look out over an uninspiring landscape of humdrum, monotonous level plains and a few plummeting abyssal crevasses of simply dreadful ineptitude that set you squirming.

"The Long Game" is unfortunately no exception to this model. To its credit, there are excellent production values manifest in this episode. The sets are marvellously designed and convincingly constructed - Level 139 is bustling and thriving, but equally cloying and oppressive, just like a real congested centre of humanity, and the icy, harsh, sharp-edged domain of Level 500 is very professionally made: there's not even the slightest suggestion of the wobbly cardboard that undermined the drama in so many of Eccleston's predecessors' adventures. The CGI is also impressive, with the viscous slime-sheathed alien looking genuinely organic and the image of dawn in space construed of genuine gold (even if it was hideously clichйd). I particularly enjoyed Adam's subplot - he acts extremely well, conveying the incredulity and incomprehension of the most pronounced culture shock that someone can ever be subjected to perfectly, and Davies does tie his bumbling misadventure into the main plot effectively. The summary expulsion of Adam from the TARDIS (is one single adventure the shortest tenure for any Companion?) I think is also a good way for detailing the character of the Doctor: like when he was proclaiming victory over his chained nemesis in "Dalek", Eccleston's incarnation of the Doctor has a savage undercurrent. Adam's error in trying to send back data to the past (silly boy - has he never watched "Back to the Future"?), whilst severe, is understandable - he is a virgin time traveller unaccustomed to such things after all. Yet the Doctor sees fit to use this one mistake as an excuse to terminate his berth on the TARDIS and also to consign him to a life sentence of insignificance and obscurity thanks to the encumbering albatross of his cranial implant, when as a genius he's supposed to be a person who's going to make his mark in the world. Meting out this fate takes vindictiveness to a whole new level!

I would have liked Adam to have stayed on longer, but who knows - he might return someday. If Mickey the Idiot can investigate a comprehensive profile of the Doctor, it shouldn't pose much trouble for Adam the Genius.

But despite the limited and individual positive sections I mentioned in the second paragraph, the overarching theme of the episode is riven with so many holes that Davies was probably eating a sandwich with Swiss cheese on it whilst writing. It's difficult to appreciate Suki being a "freedom fighter" when she has a handbag around her shoulder whilst pointing guns... and if she's been killed, how is she supposed to be able to latch onto the Editor's foot to prevent his escape? It may be justice, but it's frankly illogical. Furthermore, the way the crisis is resolved - the journalist just STANDING THERE and listening to the long exposition before toddling off to make everything better was painful to watch. Also, if Adam has only been abaord the TARDIS for a short while how does he know "everything the Doctor knows"? The resolution of the main plot was also far too neat and sanguine - everything accelerating back to normal? When you destroy the controller the result is invariably anarchy and chaos. The Doctor acting as some great revelationary angel - breezing in, making grand society-convulsing seismic changes to humanity, and zipping back out in the blink of an eye - is corny beyond belief.

I know that this is only a nitpick, but since when did Yale manufacture a line of TARDIS keys?

So, altogether, I have to conclude that this episode is an average one. It has its moments, and when those moments arrive they are marvellous. Yet they're only transitory, and are painted against a tedious backdrop. The trailer for "Father's Day" looked mightily impressive - but it's a cause for worry when the seconds-long snippets for a forthcoming episode provoke your interest more than the preceding complete one...

As an overseer and idea man- "editor in chief", if you will- Russell T. Davies has been a godsend for Doctor Who. But as a screenwriter, his work's seemed a bit flat, with The End of the World being the only one of his stories to date that comes anywhere near "classic" status. The Long Game continues this streak of mediocrity, although much like Rose and the Slitheen two-parter, there are fantastic elements that convince you the second coming of, say, The Caves of Androzani is right around the corner.

One of Davies stated goals for Who is that he wants to give the series a true emotional centre, something it's lacked for a good long while. Curiously enough, The Long Game is perhaps the least emotionally involving episode this season. Intellectually, I appreciated and admired Davies' biting commentary on the current stagnant state of Western civilization, but there was nothing in the episode that really made me want to rush out and change the world. It was only at the end that I really *felt* anything- namely, admiration for Cathica's selfless acts and pride at the Doctor's assault on Adam's selfishness. The rest of the time, I was distracted by the episode's similiarities to The End of the World- everything from the Doctor explaining the state of affairs on future Earth to a new companion while overlooking the planet from an observation window on a space station to the superphone call back home to the villain exploding due to excessive heat right down to the cameo by the Face of Boe reminded me of that far superior episode. RTD would've been wise to explicitly link the two episodes, similiar to The Ark in Space and Revenge of the Cybermen, perhaps with The Long Game taking place on Platform One in its infancy. It probably wouldn't've made the similiarities any less glaring, but it would, perhaps, make them more excusable.

In the plus column, Adam has gone from a character with potential to a fascinating possible new enemy for the Doctor. While I did enjoy Bruno Langley's performances as Adam and wished he'd stayed on a bit longer as a proper companion, I'm glad that he wasn't killed off and that he has an interesting new status quo- the companion gone bad with (potential) access to all the information in the world. Also, Anna Maxwell-Martin was very, very easy on the eyes and lovably perky. In some ways, she reminded me of Jewel Staite from Firefly/Serenity, and it's a shame her character was killed off so quickly. And while Davies aforementioned attack on the rot that's set into American and British culture may not have been terribly subtle, it was brave, and certainly thought-provoking (I hasten to add that I don't think Blair and Bush are controlled by an enormous phallic ceiling-hanger from outer space, but hey- anything's possible!).

Rusell T. Davies deserves all the accolades in the world for getting the BBC to bring back Doctor Who, and honestly, I hope he sticks around for a few years to guide the show. But for season two, I sincerely hope he cuts back on his writing duties. His scripts have been serviceable, but rarely above, and I'm beginning to see a "sameness" creep into them. A wider range of writers would very much help the series stay fresh and diverse.

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’.

First of all let me say to one of the other reviewers Paul Clarke, mate you should put your name down to produce the series, because I agree with you 100%. RTD is ruining Dr Who to the point where I think overtime the series will lose ratings in the same fashion that Star Trek Enterprise did, because the stories are shallow, lacking depth, and lacking that sense of realism.

I am really disappointed in how the new series is going, I thought that RTD being a loyal fan of the series would have stayed true to the original, but he has done exactly the opposite. I love Rose, she is played brilliantly by Billie Piper, and the Doctor is ok but I do feel that he is very violent at times, makes quick judgements, and abuses people who don't know as much as him. This is probably why I loved Dalek so much, because the Doctor finally found his equal, the Dalek.

There was only one thing I liked about the Long Game, and that was Simon Pegg, he was absolutely brilliant, and he would have made and awesome Master! Speaking of which if they could find a way to bring back the Master that would be brilliant, if not then the Valeyard or the Rani would be great. As I mentioned before there just aren't anough ties with the original series. But this story was so shallow, you learn nothing useful about anything, the stories do just seem to concentrate on the relationship between the Doctor and Rose, which I have to say is actually quite sickening. The way he grabs her hand every time he runs off to solve the next part of the mystery.

This story is just so fake, and pathetic I don't know where to start, the only epsidoes I have loved, and I mean really loved are The Unquiet Dead, and Dalek, both of which are the only non RTD stories so far this season. Why can't he pick years which are a little more realistic 'the year 5 billion, the year 200 000', pick something a little more believable. I remember watching an interview with RTD saying that the old way of having two parters and four parters just doesn't suit the new series, but I beg to differ, even the non RTD stories lack some depth and would be brilliant if they were made into two parters, that's what Dr Who is all about, being left in suspense until next weeks episode.

I spose I should get back to the story. This story like the other RTD stories are very manufactured, and it seems that all RTD's writings including this one just seem to be mainly focused on the Dr's and Rose's relationship, whereas the other non RTD episodes developed their relationship with the story. Adam, to me, just seemed like a waste of space in this episode, RTD kind of made him like the other boyfriend, and the Dr was like the jealous boyfriend.

Sorry Russell, but if you continue going the way you are with the new series you are going to have to find yourself a new job, because writing, your writing, is pathetic, and the only reason why people are watching the new series is because Dr Who has a new generation of fans out there aswell as many old fans like myself who have been so anxious to see a new series. Dr Who is the best concept of any sci fi I have ever seen and with every episode you are writing you are destroying a legend. You are turning the Doctor into everything he is not. The RTD episode seem more like fantasy than science fiction, and this time war keeps being mentioned as if it is an excuse to get rid of all the old characters from the original series, I do hope that we one day get to see this time war , and get it reslved finally. What I think would work well with the new series would be a season long story much like what Enterprise did with the Xindi, and perhaps have it deal with the time war when we see the 8th Dr in the middle of the time war, and have the 9th or 10th Doctor there somewhere aswell.

The new series just lacks depth and realism, and this episode is very representative of that, no wonder the yanks haven't bought the rights, they like sci fi that they can believe, and this is just rubbish.

RTD stick to Queer as Folk.