It sounded as though Russell T Davies had gone absolutely barmy. Big Brother. What Not to Wear. The Weakest Link. And Daleks? And yet it has resulted in one of the best episodes of the year, a cutting satire that reminds you of the extremes reality TV can be taken to and a gripping build up to the final, climatic episode. I was astonished at how excited I got during this episode, at the beginning I was groaning, halfway through I was roaring and at the end I was positively glowing. If anybody was still unconvinced that RTD is the man to bring Doctor Who back on the screen than surely this episode has put that to rest.

I think a lot of this episodes success is down to Joe Ahearne’s outstanding direction. To be fair to the man, he has not delivered a single bad shot and has already wowed us with his dramatic flair (Father's Day) and his visual eye (capturing the locations of Cardiff beautifully in Boom Town). This had to be Ahearne’s trickiest episode yet and the one that could so easily fall flat on his face if he didn’t get the atmosphere perfect. And he has done it in the only way possible, playing the reality TV gone mad deadly straight so that the viewers are on the edge of their seats willing the participants to survive. It could have been so easy to camp it all up and poke fun but instead RTD and Ahearne take the very simple premise of you lose you die to the extreme and the result is nail bitingly tense. I loved it.

After Dalek had aired I exchanged several e-mails with a friend discussing the merits (or otherwise) of trimming Jubilee down into its TV counterpart and losing its disgusting humour. I said, and maintain, that something defining was lost in that transition, that Jubilee’s unique brand of sick humour was what made it so unique. You were laughing at the macabre events taking place (such as the insane President of the English Empire receiving a gift of a midget from the American people who he wants to shove inside another Dalek casing and pretend he has his own Dalek army. Alas, midget is too small and he has to cut his arm off to fit him inside!) but you weren’t sure whether you should be laughing because it is all so gross. I love it when a story can have that effect on me, making me feel uncomfortable enough to squirm. Bad Wolf had a similar feel to it. Clearly the idea of game shows like The Weakest Link being run by an Anne Droid (brilliant name) who kill off its contestants when they lose is an absurd idea and very funny but when played as seriously as this (look at the first actress to be voted off, she is absolutely shitting herself!) it becomes something worth getting worried about. This brand of confliction kept me riveted throughout. The only game show that didn’t leave me in a cold sweat was What Not to Wear but that featured one of my favourite sequences on television ever (where the unbelievably horny Captain Jack, stark bollock naked, pulls a gun out of his ass!)…and to be fair it was certainly the funniest of the lost, provoking shrieks of delight as the man was stripped off his clothes (we’re a very sheltered bunch!).

I have for a long time now been despairing at the state of the TV schedules and the overload of trashy reality TV that has been forced upon us. I asked a friend at work the other day what on Earth did we have left that could possibly be analysed. Celebrity toilets? Public executions…you vote for the method? Reality TV seems to me to the laziest excuse for television, a cheap way of filling up the screen time and making stars out of complete nobodies who do not have a shred of talent (unless you really think that Jade Goody is worth listening too?). Drama’s (Doctor Who) recent win against reality TV (Celebrity Wrestling) has proven that the public have grown out of these childish excuses for television want something that has had a bit more effort out into it. They want plots. They want characters. They want television that you have to watch rather than any old dispensable rubbish you can switch over halfway through. It cracks me up that Doctor Who is providing that service whilst also sending up reality TV. And Bad Wolf shows you just how far it can go if you let it. Look at I’m a Celebrity Get Me out of Here…you may as well be executed after serving a poor term on that show…your career is as good as over! The sad truth of that matter is that reality TV as portrayed on Doctor Who is far more entertaining than your standard reality far because people are being killed off. I think it would dangerously addictive if this were reality. I think we should stop this cancer before it spreads! Gosh, I do have a flair for the melodramatic but you get my point, the potential for this to get out of hand and be hugely successful is there. Never underestimate how far people will go to be entertained...how many people used to attend public executions in good Queen Mary’s time?

I haven’t experiences build up frenzy this good since the good old days of DS9. Russell T Davies sure knows how to whet your appetite for next week. It’s a shame that the Daleks involvement was spoiled in the teaser last week (although I’m sure that couldn’t be helped, what with the ratings to worry about and all) as he has constructed this script very skilfully to conceal their involvement until the last possible moment. He has been building up this episode and its surprise re-appearance of the Daleks since The End of the World and it is very rewarding for the constant Bad Wolf references to finally get explained. He even manages to salvage something from The Long Game, answering some of my criticisms about the Doctor’s suddenly rush to leave in that story, explaining how and why the Jagrafess was installed AND (most brilliantly of all) clarifying what that incomprehensible (at the time) title meant. Very, very clever, considering how impressed I have been with his plotting and climaxes (oo-er) I should have known better to have doubted him. See Cornell, this is how it should be done.

Eccleston has really hit his stride now and is delivering flawless performances week after week. It is a shame he should be cut away from Barrowman and Piper so much considering this is their penultimate episode together but that cannot be helped in a script that requires each of them to face a different challenge. I love that sense of danger he portrays now, with each successive episode the ninth Doctor is becoming the scariest Doctor of the lot and not because he is wrestling people next to a vat of acid (nowt wrong with that anyway) or cyaniding them to death but because he constantly acts as though he has got nothing to lose. As the last surviving member of his race there is a bitter, resigned side to him that cannot abide evil in the universe and will snuff it out through whatever means necessary. So when he says he will escape the Big Brother house, you believe him. When he rushes to save Rose from the Anne Droid, you believe he will. When he stands in front of thousands of Daleks and tells them he will bring them down no matter what you bloody well believe him! He’s one mean mamma and not somebody I would ever want to cross. No other Doctor has seemed quite so determined to do things his way and considering his status as the last of the Time Lords he appears quite reckless. I like that a lot, Eccleston finally has a hook and runs with it. Its shame we wont be seeing more of this dangerous Doctor as I fear this nasty streak could be taken to real extremes and provide some great drama (although the sight of him facing off with a Dalek with a bloody great bazooka was scary enough!).

Billie Piper and John Barrowman continue in their periphery roles as companions with their usual panache. It shocked me how well the Doctor and Linda (with an I) were getting on in this episode, for a while it felt as though he had forgotten Rose and was willing to pick up anyone as a companion as long as she was sweet. I can see how Rose could be written out of the series now; she has served her purpose as the new companion, adjusting newcomers to this madcap life of the Doctor’s and dealing with all the family issues that come with it. I don’t want that to sound like faint praise because I think Rose has been the key to this series’ success and Billie Piper has been infectiously good in every episode. The only fresh place they can take her now is to deal with the Doctor’s regeneration which I have no doubt Piper and RTD will handle with their usual aplomb. Captain Jack on the other hand can stay a while simply because we haven’t had this sort of dynamic with the Doctor before, a charismatic action man who deals with much of the comedy and action and leaves the Doctor to do all the clever stuff. Barrowman is extremely confident with his characters identity and we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of this sweet macho man. Certainly his scenes in this episode are brimming with confidence and his chemistry with the Doctor is highly entertaining. Plus, you know, you see him starkers.

This episode is one of the most visually stunning of the series so far with some excellent lighting and visual effects. The controller was another of RTDs whacko ideas that he pulls off, bleached in blue light, with fluorescent cables hooked all over he body, this is a highly disturbing image. Each of the game shows looks utterly authentic and snaps you into the banal and colourful world of reality TV with ease. The exterior shots of Station One are amazingly complex and the awe inspiring vista of Dalek ships with leave shivers crawling down your back. Boom Town was obviously the money saver for the last two episodes and it looks like it was money well spent. I love the retro look of the robots too, it matches the old fashioned Daleks and their colourful spaceships…it almost takes you back to the sixties when they were at the height of their power. And the final shot is certainly an eye opener; surely we have never had such a convincing picture of Dalek firepower painted for us before…?

Anything that didn’t work? I’m not sure about Jack waving that huge bazooka thing about…looked a bit too camp for my liking. And the Daleks behave rather like how you would expect them to rather than acting with the newfound menace from Rob Shearman’s tale. “WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS NEGATIVE!!!!”…hmm, looks like they are back to their old, campy selves.

But considering the list of hurdles this episode had to leap over it is amazing that it turned out as good as it did. Dark, dangerous and electrifyingly climatic, this is the most surprising episode of the year.

I was very worried about this episode due to its reality television content. I hold the view that reality television is an extremely tacky form of programming, and though I may watch the occasional reality programme, on the whole I disagree with it. So upon learning that this episode would feature the Weakest Link (more a game-show than reality), Big Brother (the programme responsible for the reality craze) and What Not To Wear (fashion according to two badly dressed females) I didn’t hold high hopes for this episode. This wasn’t helped by HEAT, one of those tacky celebrity magazines, declaring that Russell T.Davies has written the episode especially for them. That, for me, was not a very good recommendation for the episode. But I still decided to tune in and see it for myself instead of relying on reviews and friends comments.

The episode wasn’t tacky which can only be a good thing. BUT that didn’t stop it having a few problems that did rather spoil my enjoyment of the show. For a start that Big Brother house looked far too small. It seemed to consist of the diary room, a small living room and the eviction corridor. What about everything else? The bedrooms, kitchen, dinning air, bathroom? The set felt very small and actually felt like a studio set, was that the point though? I doubt it. The Big Brother house may look weird and bizarre but rarely does it looks like a television set. But this one did. Seeing as they got permission to use the theme tune, the name/format, and the logo couldn’t they also have got permission to film in the real house? When this episode went into production the current series of Big Brother hadn’t started so surely it could have been possible? And couldn’t they have filmed on the real set of the Weakest Link instead of that very small and obviously fake one? The real one would have been much better and an audience watching the contestants could have been a sinister addition. An audience sheering at the apparent death of a contestant would have unnerved the audience and heightened the tension. Instead the Big Brother & Weakest Link sequences looked cheap, as if the budget had run out.

The robots looked dreadful, simply dreadful. They reminded me of some lego creation rather than a scientific creation. I think it would have been better to use Anne Robinson and others and just made them up to look slightly robotic. And in the Weakest Link the contestants could have been killed by a laser coming from Anne’s eyes, far better than a gun in the mouth. A nice close up to a pair of red burning eyes and then a laser shooting out and killing the contestant. Much more sinister and scary. Instead we got pathetic and cheap looking robots that ruined the sequences for me. Sure it would nice to have Anne Robinson, Davina McCall and those other two doing the voices but it would have been either better if they had actually appeared in person. But would the budget have stretched to that?

I find it extremely hard to believe that reality television will be with us, or make a come back, that far in the future. In fact I would go as far as saying it is highly unlikely, unrealistic and therefore unbelievable. It was just a cheap ploy to make yet another and unoriginal attack on the state of television in the modern age. This would have been better achieved by setting the episode in the present day rather than thousands of years into the future. Having the twist of shows killing of their contestants isn’t a new idea and is in fact a rather boring one. I have written several essays and articles regarding the state of television and reality television. In each of them I note that it won’t be long until someone tries to televise a life death, more than likely in America first. So its already well documented and whenever anyone attacks reality television they use that argument, amongst others, to describe why its so bad. So this was another element I didn’t real like. A more in-depth look at the Long Game’s manipulation of news would have been far interesting. In that episode they barely touched on the subject, it was just mentioned really, and the Doctor returning to find the news still be manipulated for a far more evil purpose would have been much more interesting and slightly more original. A twist could be Satellite 5 creating false news stories to hide the bigger one, such as the survival/return of the Daleks.

Moving on to the Doctor and once again Davies feels the need to reduce him, in parts, to that bloody smiling idiot. He had a great big grin smacked across his face during parts of the episode that totally ruins any tension or suspense. What’s the point of being scared if the Doctor is smiling? What’s the point of wondering what’s coming next if the hero of the piece has a smile bigger than the M25 across his face? I really wish this annoying habit of having the Doctor walking around with a massive grin on his face, and thereby ruining any tension or suspense in the scene, is dropped in the next season. Another trait I hope is dropped is the Doctor suddenly stopping what he’s doing and exchanging small talk about how he loved this programme or some other trivial matters that only make him look stupid/silly instead of alien.

This episode carries on the theme set up during the previous one of having to face up to the consequences of your actions, of having to pick up the pieces, to clear up the mess. This is something that Doctor isn’t real good at. When a mystery is solved or an alien invasion stopped he disappears in the TARDIS and doesn’t hang around to clear up or deal with the consequences. Due to this Margete escaped and able to try and destroy the World (and as an added bonus Cardiff) to save herself. In this episode because of the Doctor’s rash actions in The Long Game satellite 5 closed down and the Earth government and economy collapsed something that shouldn’t have happened. It could be argued that because of the Doctors actions during The Long Game the events of Bad Wolf took place.

And are we closer to finding out who or what Bad Wolf is? I don’t think we were told during that episode, we were? Instead it seems that several others join the list of suspects. Those are the Daleks, Linda, Captain Jack and whatever saved the Daleks during the time war (Davros?) and was heard during the trailer for the next episode. By introducing Linda the producers are hoping we’ll think she joins the Tardis crew but I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s killed off during the battle with the Daleks, something that happens for “shock factor”. The flashbacks to remind the reviewers all the Bad Wolf references were good but I’m now wondering whether we’ll ever find out who or what Bad Wolf is about what it all means. Is it really that important or just a coincidence? Have they really managed to manipulated the Doctor for all this time, since he met Rose? Have they really managed to foresee everything that the Doctor has done over the past 11 episodes? And since it started when Rose joined could it be Rose herself or even dippy Mickey, annoying Jackie or dangerous Adam? Or could it be the Tardis or heaven forbid the Doctor? I guess we’ll have to wait until next week.

Performances were pretty good with Captain Jack being much better than in previous episodes. As ever Billie Piper was better than all the others and her reaction to realising that being voted the weakest link was death was truly great television. Christopher Eccleston was good when not playing the grinning idiot and the guest stars were average really. They were better than in some previous episodes but still lacked character and felt rather two dimensional, a problem with most of Davies scripts.

And with the end of the episode we’re left with a massive Dalek fleet preparing to invade Earth, we presume, Rose in the hands of the Daleks and The Doctor & Captain Jack preparing to do battle and rescue Rose. The trailer for next week looks extremely interesting and seems to suggest that the Daleks are now religious! I await next week’s episode with egger anticipation. Makes a change from dread.

Another Dalek invasion? Of Earth?! ThatВ’s IT?!

LetВ’s just get stuck right in. IВ’m sort of a lapsed Doctor Who fan, and so I wasnВ’t much affected by the pre-emptive new series excitementВ… It was pretty inevitable to me that itВ’d be probably be bad, and if not, well, great, but I wasnВ’t going to get my hopes up. IВ’ve watched all of the episodes up to now and died a little inside, but not quite felt incited to actually SAY anything about it В– someone else (even if itВ’s just one little voice in the background) has been there to mirror my thoughts about how substandard the music/direction/scripts/В…acting, etc etc has been. Then I watched В‘Bad Wolf,В’ and, really, I just wanted to cryВ…

ItВ’s SHOCKING.

By which I mean, fucking awful.

Just to be clear, I donВ’t just hate this series because I feel I should, or because I decided to. Like I say, much as I absolutely adore Doctor Who, it hasnВ’t particularly been part of my everyday life for a few years, so I came to the new series pretty much unbiased. And, for the most part, it didnВ’t provoke a particularly strong reaction in me either way. В‘RoseВ’ and В‘The End of the WorldВ’В… crap, lightweight, blah blahВ… the non-RTD oneВ’s are so much better, heВ’s too flippant, too much juvenile humour/sexuality etc etcВ… But I could deal with it. I have an abiding love for the character of the Doctor and the central concepts of the series that I thought, ehh, much as it might be shite that thereВ’s 12-year-old-level В‘sexual tensionВ’ in the TARDIS, I can weather it. If anything, the worst elements of this series have made me rediscover my absolute love for what is now В‘the classic series,В’ and also for the Virgin/BBC books. So at least thereВ’s one upside.

Maybe the books are the problem though. Having first encountered Doctor Who through a few mid-nineties repeats, it wasnВ’t until I discovered the New Adventures that I found В‘myВ’ Doctor Who, and realized how completely special and unique and beautiful and wonderful it is. (Or: can be.) And probably because of that, IВ’ve never particularly viewed the program as В‘justВ’ a kidsВ’ show. IВ’ve always kind of watched it knowing that thereВ’s so much else going on, thanks to the depths of the novels. Which isnВ’t to say IВ’m a revisionist NA-nut. OrВ…whatever. But I like my Doctor Who to work on a few more levels than your average episode of fucking Balamory. Which is, letВ’s be honest, pretty much the level weВ’re operating on with this series. I hate when people seem to have this attitude that when Doctor Who tries to do something a bit more than В‘aliens invade, aliens repelledВ’ itВ’s sort of В‘getting above its stationВ’. That certainly seems to be the attitude in this series. WHY does it have to be В‘a kidsВ’ seriesВ’?! Or, why, if youВ’re trying to attract kids/a family audience, why does that mean there can be no intelligence whatsoever? Why does ever single little thing have to be spoon-fed?! В‘His Dark Materials,В’ for example, appeals to kids and adult. В‘His Dark Materials,В’ is also, you know В– good. The ideas, the scale, the characterization, lack of fart-jokesВ… I hate that even Doctor Who, this time around, has succumbed to dumbing down, to spoon-feeding itВ’s audience, desperately trying to keep the attention of the lumpen proles itВ’s apparently targeting, and sell loads of tacky merchandise.

Why the hell isnВ’t Doctor Who allowed to be, wellВ… GOOD. To be В‘a quality productionВ’. With intelligence, maybe a bit of flair in the direction department (heaven forbid!), less flashy-but-crap special effects (okay, okay, I know В– judge it in terms of a TV series, not by comparison to a film, but...youВ’re going to, arenВ’t you, really, and so - they look shit. And, oh yes, theyВ’d look shit even if you didnВ’t compare it to a film). The thing is, who cares? None of the Doctor Who stories considered to be classics are thought of as such because of the effects, for GodВ’s sake! I donВ’t give a crap about effects. Then or now! Surely if weВ’re fans of *Doctor Who* we shouldnВ’t care in the slightest about special effects. Who else is going to be more aware that they DONВ’T MATTER В– surely if we DID give a crap, we WOULDNВ’T BE DOCTOR WHO FANS.

These are the reasons I loathed В‘Bad WolfВ’. But more specifically: IВ’m not hugely keen on the Ninth Doctor/Rose, etc, but, at the same time, when theyВ’re treated as actual characters (В‘The Empty Child,В’ even В‘DalekВ’), then В– fine. But RTD doesnВ’t do that. They В– and everyone else В– become these empty ciphers. (Especially Mickey and Jackie. I know this isnВ’t exactly new ground, but В– seeing as everyone seems to be warming to them as the series has progressed (what? WHAT?!) В– I just would like to say that in every one of their appearances I would STILL like to bludgeon them to death with an iron stick. SorryВ… I digress.)

В‘Bad WolfВ’. Oh, fuck it, I hate to resort to a list, but: the sets from В‘The Long GameВ’ are STILL sub-В‘Paradise TowersВ’ SHIT. The androids are somehow no better than those from В‘The Greatest Show in the GalaxyВ’. The pathetic, excruciatingly slow way in which the laser (whatever) comes out of the Anne DroidВ’s mouth is so crude itВ’sВ… excruciating. The DaleksВ’ ship set looks like theyВ’re about to start playing Quasar. Oh, and that hysterical end-of-В‘More Than 30 Years in the TARDISВ’-style shot at the end, with all the poorly computer generated flying Daleks hovering for NO REASON. PlusВ… oh yes. В‘Big BrotherВ’. Et al. I canВ’t even be bothered to muster the vitriol I feel about that whole aspectВ…. В‘Ooh, itВ’s so quirky, itВ’s like Land of Fiction shitВ…В’ NO - itВ’s lazy and shallow and embarrassing (В‘Whoa, weВ’re so postmodern!В’ / В‘WeВ’ve got the voices of a few fatuous presenters no-one even likes!! Result!В’). Why does no-one ever EVER give any thought to how dated the thingВ’ll look in a few years, which В– considering the shelf-life of existing Doctor Who В– is something of an oversight.

Plus, Captain Jack pulling a gun out of his arse В– oh, ha ha, how funny (itВ’s not exactly В‘Fenric,В’ is it?).

I know maybe this all sounds a bit flippant, or willfully negative, or whatever В– but thatВ’s just because I probably couldnВ’t even begin to express how unutterably depressing I found this story В– the epitome of everything thatВ’s been bad about the whole WINO series (Who In Name Only В– has anyone else used that? Ooh IВ’ve still got itВ…). I love love LOVE Doctor Who, I really do. It saddens me to see it so pathetically dumbed down. Which isnВ’t to say, of course, that it hasnВ’t been pretty В‘lightВ’ before. But at those points where it as strayed towards that territory, thereВ’s been no pretence at making it anything other than light family fun. And thatВ’s fine, thereВ’s a dignity there. At least, if thatВ’s the way youВ’ve decided to approach it, then thereВ’s consistency there. But RTD tries to have his cake and eat it. Not only is the feel of the series as a whole wildly inconsistent, but within his own stories, heВ’s tried to В‘doВ’ funny/postmodern/В‘lightВ’, but at the same time set up this В‘huge,В’ supposedly В‘epicВ’ plot, whichВ…oh hang on, simply involves the same two words being unceremoniously crow-barred into the scripts (oh, yeah В– could not BELIEVE it when we got a flashback of each and every referenceВ… IВ’d thought earlier, Oh, ha, ha, imagine if they sunk that lowВ…! Then, they do, and take away any of the effectiveness those references might otherwise have had.). At first, I actually quite liked the Bad Wolf references В– the fact that it was allowed to remain enigmatic, not cop-out early on was pretty effective, butВ…thatВ’d only remain true if they actually built up to something suitably big and epic and awe-inspiring over the course of the later stories. Okay, we have one more episode left, but В– thatВ’s my point; rather than trying to wring all the revelatory impact from the VERY LAST episode, couldnВ’t the concept have been fully explored and built up over at least the last couple of stories, not continue to be relegated to increasingly unsubtle (and obligatory) throwaway references?!

JESUS CHRIST. ItВ’s all so grim. And then people lap it up. OkayВ… if you like it, fine - but I canВ’t help wonder how much of a TV Movie situation this is going to develop into; everyone loved that at first (because it was new!), but then realized how shoddy it was! It ticks me off that WINO is so cynically aimed at the widest possible audienceВ… The choices theyВ’ve made in terms of their В‘visionВ’ for the series seems so spineless В– everythingВ’s so simple, so black and white (even when they tried to introduce a little ambiguity in В‘Boom Town!,В’ they ended up copping out with the, В‘Oh, she was evil after all, how convenientВ’ ending). It strikes me as taking the easy way out; why canВ’t there be a bit more darkness, more В‘horror,В’ if you will, to highlight the DoctorВ’s moral standpoint? Which can still work with humour В– just not the patented RTD wannabe-witticisms; something a bit drier, maybe. If onlyВ…

Okay, perhaps this is just because I canВ’t share well, but I donВ’t give a crap about wider audiences being able to enjoy the joy that is (should be) Doctor Who! If В‘a wider audienceВ’ didnВ’t appreciate В‘Ghost Light,В’ or whatever then В– their loss! I know, to a certain extent, the series has got to be able to support itself with ratings etc, but, to be quite honest, are you *that* desperate that you take vapid, intellectually devoid wide-audience-compatible Doctor Who over no Doctor Who at all? Personally, give me Doctor Who with some depth, or just axe the bastard thing.

Before I begin, I'd like to thank each and every reviewer who mentioned "Daleks" in their review of Boomtown for spoiling a major part of this episode for me. I purposefully avoided watching the trailer because I was told it contained a major spoiler, only to have that spoiler revealed for me in the reviews. I guess I should have known better than to read a review with the potential to contain a spoiler I was purposely trying not to see, and the blame should also be placed squarely on the Beeb for their shoddy trailer-making in the first place, but I'm still very disappointed that the seminal, climactic surprise of the entire season of Doctor Who was spoiled for me by people who weren't careful enough in how they wrote their reviews. I wish I could have seen this episode without knowing what was coming.

Yes, I put spoilers in this review, but I only spoil the episode itself, not the trailers for the next episode; people are mature enough to choose whether or not to read a review before they see the episode in question, and they know going in that any review is going to spoil something. But it's also their choice whether or not to watch the trailers, and I don't think they should be spoiled for an episode they haven't even had the chance to see yet.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest: "Bad Wolf" is an exercise in how, if you get enough stuff right, the audience will blithely ignore everything else. Never mind the many, many, many points on which this episode strains suspension of disbelief; it's so witty and clever and suspenseful that we shove our disbelief into that elevator, wave goodbye, and send it to floor 500.

Let me just hit the highlights of the things that could have sunk this episode if they hadn't done everything exactly right:

Drivel. After watching В“Boom TownВ” and thinking nothing could be worse, along came В“Bad WolfВ”. Having sat through В“The Web PlanetВ”, В“Horns Of NimonВ” and В“Delta And The BannermenВ”, В“Bad WolfВ” ranks up there as one of the most embarrassing episodes in the seriesВ’ history. Where can one start to explain just how embarrassing this pretence at cleverness is?

The first point that people seem to hold is that Bad Wolf is a satire. I am pretty gob-smacked by the amount of people who have hailed this episode as, to quote one site, В“a brilliant satire on modern reality-TV and game showsВ”. Which is rather funny when one considers the meaning of the word satire: В“a literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit.В” And while thereВ’s plenty of derision coming from EcclestonВ’s Doctor (as usual, for example, the В“whole human race reduced to mindless sheepВ” line, repeated from В“The Long GameВ”, although one wonders why since reality-TV doesnВ’t imply that people are mindless sheep, just that they have very bad taste), the only irony here is that Bad Wolf contains all other aspects applicable to what most people would call a satire. Compared to В“The Sun MakersВ”, it has the subtlety of a bull in a china shop; compared to the genuine moral messages in В“Vengeance On VarosВ”, it is filled with irrelevant platitudes; and compared to В“The Happiness PatrolВ”, it lacks both creativity and feeling. This is an episode that displays more sophistry than sophistication. That RTD has used popular contemporary game shows (and hosts) rather than invent his own, which could either mirror the content of said game shows or reflect similar themes, is sheer laziness. ItВ’s not clever, itВ’s not trying to poke fun or be witty, itВ’s just a cheap ratings-grabber completely lacking in originality. What more do you need to justify this claim than the fact that 200,000 years in the future (exactly as in В“The Long GameВ”) everyone is wearing 20th century clothes! Even when they were just jumpsuits with exotic symbols drawn on them or spikey foam attached, Doctor Who costumes have always tried to be different, no matter how ludicrous some of the outcomes. That people in the far-flung 4th Great And Bountiful Human Empire wear the same clothes we do, act the same way we do, watch the same shows we do, is not reflective of a genius writer but an uninspiring hack. And this doesnВ’t bother anyone?

(And again on creativity: why have all the stories in the season been set in London, Cardiff or a space station? When the series first began in В’63, the travellers ended up on an alien planet in the second story! And here we have gone one whole season without. I guess whatВ’s really worse, is not just that all the stories have been set in these rather dull locations, but that В“The Long GameВ” and В“Bad WolfВ” are actually set in the same location!)

The second point is on death. Now from what I can see, the only point of introducing Lynda was as a Rose substitute so that after RoseВ’s apparent death, viewers would assume she had really died and that Lynda would now be taking her place on board the TARDIS. (ItВ’s not for nothing that the two characters are almost identical.) Is this a clever ploy to fool the audience into believing that Rose is dead? Perhaps, and if it is, it is quite clever. Unfortunately, like many similar moments in the new series thus far, the illusion is completely let down when Rose is revealed to be safe and well about ten minutes later! At least when we thought Peri died in В“Trial Of A Time LordВ”, we didnВ’t find out she was still alive until several episodes later.

The whole issue of using the death of main characters in drama to create tension, pathos or some such reaction from the audience, is only useful when the character really dies or at least is dead for an extended period of time, long enough for the audience to become accustomed to the fact. We have already had one Slitheen come back from the dead, weВ’ve had the entire cast of В“The Empty Child/The Doctor DancesВ”, weВ’ve had RoseВ’s dad (who came back from the dead twice!), now we have Rose, and in В“The Parting Of WaysВ” it will be Captain Jack. And then thereВ’s the Daleks. ItВ’s great to see them back and they do look superb but itВ’s annoying that here we have a species who were extinct bar one but six episodes ago. And now theyВ’ve returned in force through a less-than-dramatic loophole only to be completely exterminated again as a species in the next episode! Arrrggghhh! What is the point of killing and reviving characters so frequently??? We know the Daleks will be back in a season or two anyway, so why make grand claims to have destroyed them completely?

Point three: the Bad Wolf arc. Now this is something laughably ridiculous. Lots of people have commented how Super Rose, having been able to send messages back in time and space, sent such obscure and unhelpful ones. Very few people have commented, though, that the messages Rose did send to herself were actually rarely seen or heard by her! The references in The End Of The World, Dalek, The Long Game, FatherВ’s Day (give or take), and The Doctor Dances, would probably not have been noticed by Rose, either occurring when she was not present, being so small as to go unnoticed or else being in a foreign language! Once again we have what has become typical of the new series: a pretence at cleverness, and only that. There is nothing clever at all about the Bad Wolf arc. Even the revelation of what Bad Wolf is is unsatisfying and sloppy. Many of the theories fans have come up with are far superior than the one RTD has, which begs the question why he is penning so many episodes. Yes, people will get down on their knees and worship RTD for bringing back Doctor Who, but when it all comes down to it, a review is a review, not a homage. I am glad that the new series is back and while some of it is really good, with some cracking stories, a lot of it is a pale imitation of Doctor Who of old.

And the last point, although there are many more I could make and IВ’m sure others will make one day when everyoneВ’s stopped worshipping RTD, is regarding characters. For me, one of the greatest disappointments of the new series is the lack of hero-figures it contains. When I watched Doctor Who as a kid, the Doctor and his companions were always people you could look up to, to emulate in life and try to make a better world. This new series has very few such characters.

The Doctor seems more incompetent than effective, unable to resolve any issues himself and makes blunder after blunder. After presenting the Doctor throughout this season as a killer, we see him in В“Bad WolfВ” realising that his past actions have created the world in which he now is. Strangely, however, he only dwells on this very important point for a minute, as opposed to the half-hour of pedestrian philosophy and padding for a plot we had in the previous episode, В“Boom TownВ”. The way the Doctor has been shown in this new series, one has to wonder why he even bothers to do anything at all, since he canВ’t seem to get anything right and tends to make things a lot worse. The idea was already raised in В“Trial Of A Time LordВ” and rightly resolved as being mostly irrelevant since not only are the DoctorВ’s intentions good but also in the utilitarian balance of things, he tends to do far more good than evil. So why bother to raise the point again В– and not just raise it, but leave it unresolved?

Then thereВ’s the DoctorВ’s line about В“wiping every last Dalek out of the skyВ” (which is technically wrong, since space isnВ’t sky). While I donВ’t have a problem with this intense machismo, which seems to be a very strong trait with EcclestonВ’s Doctor, it is, as usual, the machismo of a eunuch. Regardless of the DoctorВ’s boasts, it will be Rose/Bad Wolf who destroys the Daleks in the final episode of the season, leaving the Doctor doing bugger all. Again this reflects the trend of the entire season: a Doctor who is supposed to be a hero but rarely seems to have the answers to anything and finds himself in situations where he relies on others to do things for him (characters or props, viz. the overuse of the sonic screwdriver В– you can see why JNT decided to get rid of it!). The 9th Doctor is so useless that he might as well give Rose control of the TARDIS and retire. And when the Doctor even confesses to loving В“Bear With MeВ”, IВ’m sure we have to agree that it adds no small amount of В“greatnessВ” to his character.

So thatВ’s the star of the show, although more of a red dwarf than a neutron star. What about the rest of the characters? Captain JackВ’s main motivation in the show seems to be trying to sleep with everything he comes across or else making constant sexual passes and innuendos, to the point where every conversation involving his character is one. Although he adds some needed humour and action to the show, IВ’m sure most parents would love their children to display that certain quality of sexual perversity inherent in Captain Jack. His character is yet another example of how low the show has sunk. A critic of the new series has rightly pointed out that sexual (overtly homosexual) references may have some place in Doctor Who provided that they complement the context and themes in the story. However the gutter innuendo RTD seems to enjoy injecting into the series is pointless, probably just there for cheap jokes and to seem В“contemporaryВ”, and completely irrelevant to both plot and context. That the Doctor should spend even a line of dialogue in a 45-minute show trying appeal to Captain Jack or telling him (when the latter tries to pick up one of the station controllers in this episode) that В“thereВ’s a time and placeВ” for that sort of thing, is abysmal and would have William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee rolling in their graves. RTD doesnВ’t seem to understand himself that В“thereВ’s a time and placeВ” for that kind of muck, and the time and place certainly isnВ’t contemporary Doctor Who. I guess thatВ’s what happens when one person on a programme has so much power he can sanction his own ideas, being both producer and main script-writer. He might be a great soap writer, but RTD sure has a hell of a lot to learn about writing either science-fiction or Doctor Who.

Rose is the only character that is in the slightest way admirable in the new series, even if she is incredibly stupid at times (and this is В“incrediblyВ” for a Doctor Who companion). And while all these characters may be entertaining В– IВ’ll admit, theyВ’re not boring in the slightest В– the level of morality they exhibit leaves more than a lot to be desired.

Ultimately Bad Wolf is an episode in a series that is generally pretending to be clever and creative, but really canВ’t be bothered trying or else doesnВ’t have the talent to do so. (2/10)

Being a proverbial hater of surprises, I'd read all the spoilers I could regarding this episode. Which is pretty gosh-darned easy when you're a Canadian since we get the stories transmitted to us two weeks after their shown in England. I'd even read the reviews on this page to get some answers I was looking for and was actually disappointed to see how some fans of the series are, once again, being pointless "nigglers" who seem impossible to satisfy. With the diverse reactions I was reading, I once more felt like I did back in the eighties when I was subscribed to three or four fanzines. It seemed to be impossible to get a clear idea on the effectiveness of these stories since there were just such radically different opinions being expressed about them. I knew that, once again, it was all going to boil down to me watching the story and just judging for myself. And, if anything, forgetting the opionions I'd read already on these stories was the smartest thing I could do. Lots of points being made about them were extremely uneducated, at best, anyway!

So, I turned on my T.V. Tuesday night (again, things are a bit different over here in Canada - "Who night" is Tuesday for us) and powered up the VCR so I could add to my old VHS collection and waited for 8PM to roll around. I knew, already, what was going to happen in most of this episode. Which I realised might hamper my enjoyment of it (especially the "where did you get that gun?" joke with Captain Jack). But I accepted that as a consequence for my inability to resist internet spoilers!

Was I, even with all the surprises spoilt, still happy with what I saw?

Very much so.

I'm not so big of a "Russell T. Davies basher" as some of you folks are (funny how he's already being referred to as "RTD" just like poor old "JNT" of the old days). I thought "Rose" was the best way to start the series - "End of the World" was decent - the whole business with the Slitheen was his weakest offering but it was still some good storytelling overall and "The Long Game" ranks up there for me as being as excellent as the offerings the guest-authors have given us. But "The Parting of Ways", in my opinion, beats anything we've seen this season in terms of storyline and style. It's Doctor Who at its best. Not just because we've got classic villains in the mix but you've got a neat "T.V. gone bad" concept going on and an overall plot moving at breakneck speed too - something other two-parters of this season haven't managed so well.

Right from the start, as we get the dizzying rotating overhead shot of the Doctor stuck in the tiny closet, we can see this plot is barely going to slow down to let us catch our breath. Each member of the crew is thrown into peril and forced to deal with it in their own way. And, as some of them succeed at extracting themselves, we get embroiled in yet deeper plots. More problems on Sattelite Five and the deeper issue of "Bad Wolf" being brought to the forefront but still not quite revealed. I'm actually impressed with how the titles of some of Russell's stories don't quite make sense til later in the season - we see now, just how "long of a game" the problems of Sattelite Five really are. I was even a bit reminded of the old "Invasion of Time" story. How we get a bigger nastier alien race using a lesser villain to set things up for them until they can truly move in and "make the kill" they want to make. Great plot-building on "RTD"'s part and I don't think anyone with an inkling of appreciation of good writing can deny that. His ability to give us a "semi-umbrella-themed" season is masterful. I do hope he doesn't always handle his seasons this way. I would like Who stories to be a bit more independent of each other in later seasons. But this was a good move in the first season.

Now, to me, the final 10 to 15 minutes of this story is some of the strongest "Who" I've seen in the history of the series (a term that is probably getting overused already, I'm sure) but before I extoll on that, there are a few more elements I want to discuss. The rescue of Rose (or rather, the failed rescue of Rose) was extremely well-achieved - even though I knew already that she wasn't dead. The whole sequence gave us a bit of that "old series" feel where the Doctor always had to get the poor female companion out of danger cause she couldn't do it herself. But this time, we don't get the annoying "Doctor, help me!" screams. Rose is doing her best to get out of this problem on her own - and she almost manages it. She just doesn't have the technical advantages the Doctor or Jack have with sonic screwdrivers or guns-up-the-butt so she has to try to beat the game at its own rules. Which is, sadly, an impossibility. And, again, even though I know she's fine - I loved what they did with the Doctor staring at her pile of ashes. The whole operatic choir and background noise drowning out was very moody and effective.

The other really good point of this story is Captain Jack. I've completely fallen in love with the character now (even though I'm straight!) and, as I think I mentionned in another of my long-winded reviews, he can almost merit his own spin-off series. He's both played and written with just the right amount of style. And his ability to remain pretty well "non-plussed" about anything is great fun. As is his flirting! One almost wonders if they'll ever truly bother to explore the memory loss issue. They don't really need to if they don't want to. He's doing just fine as a valid member of the TARDIS crew that is just getting on with the adventure rather than dwelling on past pains. Like the whole "Nyssa never bothering to get revenge on the Master" bit that was done in the old series.

And then, finally, we reach the climax of the story. The Doctor finding out who is truly at the end of "The Long Game". Unless you closed your eyes and plugged your ears at the "next week" sequence during the ending credits of "Boom Town", you know already who it is. Just as you knew the Doctor was going to walk in and see a Dalek in the containment tank during "Dalek". But the anticipation of the revelation is still something to be savoured. And the "teaser" moments were classic. Rose slightly emulating Barbara in the "Dead Planet" as the eyestalk follows her after she regains consciounsess - the Controller laughing as she gets killed. It all just looked so great. And set up the moment we're all really waiting for: how's the Doctor going to handle things when he finds out it's the Daleks?

And how he handles it is one of the few surprises I hadn't read about yet. Which made the moment all the more poignant. First, the whole look on the Doctor's face as the communication channel is opened is yet another testament to Eccleston's performance. This is the Doctor really getting ready for a good scrap. He's facing another Dalek army and he knows he's gotta look mean!

But then, when he says "No" to the Dalek ultimatum - you almost think that obcession that was taking him over in "Dalek" is at work again. That, in order to defeat the menace, he's willing to throw aside his care for Rose. But when he twists it all around with the rest of his speech, it brought out in me all those "shivers" I'd got when I watched the old series as a boy. The Doctor telling off the bad guys were always my favourite moments in the show. And this is one of the best tell-offs the series has done since a similiar sequence in "Remembrance of the Daleks" where Doctor #7 took down Davros over a communication channel. It's bravado at its best, really. The Doctor has nothing in his favour to defeat the greatest evil race in the universe. And still, he's not scared. He's going to do it and he's not even worried about dieing in the effort. He knows he can beat the Daleks. He's done it before. And the fact that the Daleks actually brush Rose aside to accelerate their stratagem shows that they know he means business. That when the Doctor says he's going to win - he's to be taken seriously. Regardless of the circumstances.

I loved the feel of that moment. There's a big nasty fight just around the corner and the Doctor's not afraid of it. Fantastic stuff that's exhilarating to watch even if you're not that teenaged boy anymore!

As I write this, it's still one more day before I get to watch "Parting of Ways". Again, I've read all the spoilers and know how it will resolve. But again, this matters little. I have still spent most of my week dieing to see this final episode of the season. And that is because the penultimate episode was so well-achieved that I can't wait for the "bang" this story will finish off with.

Yes, there are a few flaws to "Bad Wolf" (ie: the "Bad Wolf" flashback sequence bordered on American T.V. cheesiness) but they pale so much in comparison to the strengths of this episode that I can almost ignore them entirely. With stories like these, I feel the wait for a new series was more than worth it. This is what season finales are supposed to be all about....