Rogue Review

Rogue

The big three

Story 309, Season 1 Episode 6

Doctor: The Fifteenth Doctor

Companions: Ruby Sunday

Fresh writers Kate Herron and Briony Rodman deliver an absolutely delightful episode with some incredible chemistry between Groff and Gatwa.

The Review

The Chuldur Shapeshifters

One of the biggest things missing from the Chibnall/Whittaker era were fun romps. Almost every episode felt so serious. Rogue is an absolute blast of a good time as the Doctor and Ruby uncover an alien conspiracy in 1813 England. The Chuldur shapeshifters are weird bird people who love literally cosplaying as people. (Honestly the Doctor explaining cosplay was a little meta). They’re unique weird looking aliens, with a penchant for murder. Just when we thought we knew all four of them, it turns out that there was a fifth one the whole time. The set is perfectly designed, and the costuming work was fabulous. Ruby is slightly sidelined as the third lead behind Gatwa and Goff, but I don’t see that as an issue as 73 Yards was a full on Ruby episode. Millie Gibson looks fantastic, but the story is also a good reminder that she is still a teenager. The Lady Gaga battle scene was pretty funny.

Bring Rogue back immediately

From the first scene even with Groff as the bounty hunter Rogue not speaking much, the chemistry between him and the Doctor was off the charts. This might be the best chemistry the Doctor has ever had with anyone. The Doctor plays music in his ship messing with them, then gets one of those “I’m the Doctor” speeches with faces of previous Doctors (including Jo Martin!) everyone was clamoring for. Even fifteen minutes in I was ready for them to just kiss already, and boy did they. Rogue ends up taking a hit for the Doctor but saving Ruby from getting shunted to another dimension and tells the Doctor to find him, leaving him his ring. This is one of the strongest guest performances the show has ever had, Jonathan Groff absolutely must be a recurring character.

Yeah, I’m the guy who loves Tooth and Claw, the historical romps are a favorite of mine. While nowhere near as clever as Dot and Bubble, this story is a much more fun watch. That’s one of the great things about Doctor Who: you don’t like an episode, give it a week. This is one I’m definitely going to be revisiting.

10/10: This is Doctor Who! Great fun messing around in in 1813 fighting shapeshifting aliens and kissing Jonathan Groff, what more could you want?

Apparently the Shalka Doctor was in the floating Doctor Who heads. RTD never fails to troll

73 Yards Review

73 Yards

Don’t you see her?

Story 308, Season 1 Episode 4

Doctor: The Fifteenth Doctor

Companions: Ruby Sunday

Russell T Davies goes full experimental in the astonishing 73 Yards. Almost no-Doctor required.

The Review

The old woman on the hill

It’s quite simple. Ruby and the Doctor land on a cliff in Wales and disturb a fairy circle, and soon the Doctor vanishes. A mysterious woman starts ‘following’ Ruby, but really always appears just 73 yards away from her doing some incantation. Ruby rushes to a pub where we think we’re going to get a pub under siege story…but it doesn’t happen. Gradually we see Ruby’s life deteriorate, she loses her mother forever when she speaks to the woman. A year later Kate and UNIT come to help her, but it has the same effect: they abandon her forever. It’s honestly completely chilling. Millie Gibson is unbelievable in this episode, she’s thrown off the deep end, there’s no Doctor, and she absolutely carries this story. Still only a teenager, it’s incredible: she’s such a star. Over time Ruby comes to live with the weird old lady, which is really all she can do.

World supervillain Roger ap Gwilliam

The circle mentioned Mad Jack, and in 2046, Ruby realizes it was warning her about Roger ap Gwilliam, a crazy man who the Doctor mentioned almost started a nuclear war. Millie Gibson (doing her absolute best playing 40 year old Ruby), chillingly watches the future unfold until she is able to execute her plan to get the creepy old woman to drive Roger mad too. Then we jump to a Ruby on her deathbed in hospice, and as I sort of guessed but was shocked to see happen…the old woman was Ruby. She’s sent back to 2024 where her presence distracts Ruby enough to get the Doctor to not step on the circle, and all is well. Some will decry this story’s lack of explanation, but it’s supposed to feel unknowable. Ruby finds herself caught in something beyond understanding, but something that saves the whole planet.

73 Yards is a bold, beautiful mystery, the kind of experimental story Doctor Who had been crying out for since Extremis. In 60 years of thousands of Doctor Who stories, there has never been anything quite as bizarre as 73 Yards. For that: it’s beautiful.

10/10: Long after the first watch, I think 73 Yards‘ haunting beauty will stick with me. Embrace the unknowable, and oppose fascist politicians who want nuclear armageddon

Millie Gibson is a teenager and one of the strongest actors in show history

Wild Blue Yonder Review

Wild Blue Yonder

Who Do You Trust?

Story 302, 60th Anniversary Special 2

Doctor: The Fourteenth Doctor

Companions: Donna Noble, Wilfred Mott

We go even further beyond in a story that becomes an immediate classic.

The Review

The TARDIS is perfectly fine

At last…this is why Doctor Who is incredible. We regrettably went the entire Chibnall era without a true classic episode you could point to and declare that is what the show is about. Demons of the Punjab was incredible, but not necessarily something that only Doctor Who could’ve done. This is (okay maybe Star Trek). Following a hilarious cold open where Isaac Newton discovers ‘mavity’ instead of ‘gravity’ (which is just a joke and isn’t hinting at anything…right?), we land on a massive abandoned spaceship. The TARDIS’ hostile action system kicks in, and it vanishes with the Sonic, leaving the Doctor and Donna to unravel this mystery. It’s a two-hander…and then the penny drops when the two split up and start talking to two people who are very decidedly not the Doctor and Donna. The true villain are these ‘Not Things’ from the edge of the universe, who occasionally turn into revolting body horror. It’s the Other Mother from Coraline, horrifying copies who just can’t quite get the arms right.

The Fourteenth Doctor looking fabulous

The plot is relatively simple once you know it, but watching this story was exhilarating and tense. Many scenes of trying to figure out who was real and who was the copy, and unraveling that the ship was about to self-destruct to prevent these non-things from entering the universe. We get more insight into the Doctor and Donna, Donna’s newfound confidence, and how the Doctor is feeling after the whole Flux thing with half the universe getting eaten and not knowing their origins. I am so happy that RTD is dealing with the fallout from Jodie’s run head on, and not papering it over like it doesn’t exist. That’s one big fear for this era gone. The resolution is thrilling, climatic, with the Doctor almost taking on the wrong Donna. At the very end back on Earth, we get a reunion with a now wheelchair-bound Wilf, and to see Bernard Cribbins still in top form at the end of his life was so bittersweet.

Regardless of what happens in The Giggle, this dynamite episode proved that Doctor Who still has the goods 60 years later. For people wanting more characters and fan service, I get it, but The Power of the Doctor filled that role well enough for me not to be worried here. Also, shout-out to the fun interlude comic preceding this story with the Doctor and Donna careening through history.

10/10: Been too long since I’ve given out a ten. A slimmed down cast in an impossible problem has worked wonders from Midnight to Heaven Sent and even on audio with Scherzo, add Wild Blue Yonder to that canon.

Wilfred Mott/Bernard Cribbins you lovely lovely man. We all miss you

Farewell, Sarah Jane Review

Farewell, Sarah Jane

The Sarah Jane Adventures Finale

One day in the middle of a pandemic, Russell T. Davies gave us the conclusion of The Sarah Jane Adventures we always wanted.

The Review

Luke remembers his mom

This is one emotional thirteen minutes of television, well not television, a special presentation made during the depths of despair in 2020. What else can I say except it’s beautiful? We hear from Jo, from Ace, but the true treat is to hear from Luke, Clyde, and Rani again. Jacob Dudman does an excellent job as a narrator. Yes, these are characters, but they’re clearly the actual humans too. Sarah Jane and Elisabeth Sladen were both remarkable people, and you can feel the impact she had on generations of Who characters and fans. The highlight comes from Rani, who as Sarah Jane’s protege deservedly closes out the series. To her, she imagines that Sarah Jane isn’t really dead, but out there with the Doctor on one last adventure. Isn’t that all how we want to end? When Sladen died in 2011, it was so unexpected, too young, too brutal to bear. Nine years later, we were ready. Everyone was sad, but they were happy and thankful too. Long live Sarah Jane.

10/10 Could it get anything else?

Rani says farewell

The Curse of Fenric Review

The Curse of Fenric

The march of the Haemovores

Story 154, Episodes 689-692, Season 26 Episodes 8-11

Doctor: Seventh Doctor

Companions: Ace McShane

The story of Ace and the Seventh Doctor comes to a dramatic climax in one of the most stunning, ambitious, stories of the classic series.

The Review

Ace discovers the chess board

There’s a growing horror that builds throughout The Curse of Fenric that is unlike almost any other classic series. I think the best comparison is The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit, except this takes place in a quintessential location: a small British village during World War II. When it arrives, there’s no particular reason for the Doctor to be here. Soon though, the plot unfurls: ancient Viking inscriptions, a British commander so desperate to defeat the Nazis he’ll become one, a scientist obsessed with the Ultima Machine, a revolutionary new computer. Somehow, the inscriptions hold power and sway over the Commander Millington. All the while, two girls turn into vampires, and soon out of the ocean walk disfigured people that look like barnacles are attached to them. Suddenly, the Ultima machine starts spitting out lists and lists of names, and then ‘Ingigia’ before with the flash of lightning and vampires at the gates, evil is unleashed. Fenric is here. The horrifying score throughout the story builds the sense of menace, and few Doctors have captured the underlying anger and rage better than McCoy.

You must have faith

Often, the best stories often having something spiritual to them. This isn’t about God or religion, but it’s about that crucial quality of faith. We all want to have faith in something or someone. For the Russian soldiers they truly believe in the cause of the Soviet Union (interesting politics for 1989 here), but the preacher lost his when his sainted Britain started bombing the Germans too. For Ace, her faith was in the Doctor, completely, until the cruel moment where the Doctor shreds it completely in front of Fenric, on the verge of destroying the planet. Ace loses her faith, allowing the last vampire to destroy Fenric rather than doom his future Earth. The final piece is that Ace met her mother as a baby, the woman she hates and despises. She asks the Doctor how it could be, but finally has the confidence in herself to swim in the sea. The Doctor had to break her faith in him but gave her something greater, confidence in herself. Fenric is presented as simply evil, the Doctor saying that’s not even it’s real name, it’s in a sense the devil. Faith is the only thing that can defeat the devil, but the only faith we can be sure in is our own strength and courage.

Curse of Fenric is an all-time classic, a top 5 classic story without a doubt, a triumphant work that showed, yes, Doctor Who still has its ability to challenge and inspire.

10/10 There are a few confusing elements, but it really doesn’t matter in the drama and the horror.

Dangerous undercurrents? Not anymore

The Greatest Show in the Galaxy Review

The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

Ace’s fear: clowns

Story 151, Episodes 678-681, Season 25 Episodes 9-12

Doctor: Seventh Doctor

Companions: Ace McShane

For the first time in years, Doctor Who delivers a masterpiece of a story, perfectly melding Sylvester McCoy’s talents with an epic, well-directed tale.

The Review

Cool Doctors don’t look at explosions

It’s finally here, the next truly great story after Caves of Androzani which feels like a lifetime ago. The Doctor and Ace find themselves drawn to the Psychic Circus, a rather cheap looking tent on a very barren but sufficiently alien looking world. The build up to the circus is excellent, with the Doctor and Ace encountering a crazy biker and then T.P. McKenna’s perfectly played Captain Cook and the goth young werewolf Mags. Captain Cook is dressed like an old British colonialist, and is some intergalactic explorer, constantly having boring anecdotes all ending with how actually bored he was. The combination of Cook and a circus are both perfect foils for the Seventh Doctor, last season he cut a very generic figure, here this is the first story that simply must be a Seventh Doctor story. In fact, once the circus’ overlords the Gods of Ragnarok are revealed, the Doctor distracts them with some skills we know Sylvester McCoy possesses himself.

Gods of Ragnarok

Ace has less to do than usual with this excellent cast of characters, but she still holds her own and is always wonderful on screen. We have Deadbeat, formally Kingpin, the leader. There’s the Ringmaster and Morgana, supposedly in a relationship chafing under their rule. There’s Bellboy, the reject who created the circuses’ robots. There’s a ‘super-fan’ of the circus, a perfect parody of nerd culture that manages to not be disrespectful. Seeds sown in part one come back in part four in brilliant ways, and finally, we must discuss the Chief Clown played by Ian Reddington. Emotionally turning on a dime, always fearsome, he is the truest villain of the story. Despite often looking like it’s someone’s home video, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy is fresh, bursting with new ideas, an evil circus perfectly suited to the Seventh Doctor. I almost forgot what great classic series stories felt like.

The premise seems ridiculous, the sets bargain basement, but incredible ideas and performances and direction make this an absolute classic and remind us that at its peak Doctor Who is absolutely the greatest show in the galaxy.

10/10 Finally, another perfect story. It’s been years in real life time. I think Doctor Who is going to have a great 1989.

The Cantankerous Cook and the awesome Mags

The Curse of Clyde Langer Review

The Curse of Clyde Langer

Clyde gets a splinter

The Sarah Jane Adventures Season 5 Episodes 3-4

One final Clyde-focused story gives us another classic as we learn the power of having a support system.

The Review

Clyde and Ellie

The best character in The Sarah Jane Adventures has always been Clyde: Daniel Anthony’s portrayal of a kid pretending to be cocky to get over his anxiety and secretly wanting to be an artist has provided the best moments of emotional depth. Here, we get one more as Clyde is cursed by an ancient Native American god/alien to where anyone who hears his name immediately viciously turns on him. It’s happened before in visions, but seeing Sarah Jane rudely cast him out is tough to watch, even worse when she calls the police on him (an even more biting commentary in the 2020s). A few seasons ago, Clyde would’ve crumbled under his own anxieties, but this time he knows something is wrong and correctly deduces his curse. It’s a shame of the big three child actors that Daniel Anthony doesn’t act anymore, because it’s a great performance as Clyde.

Sky is the only one immune to the curse

Sarah Jane and Rani (and Clyde’s mom) both feel like they’ve lost someone, but hate Clyde the moment they hear his name. It falls to sweet young Sky who is unaffected by the curse to appeal to them and eventually breaks the hold. The totem pole is banished, but then the real heartbreak sets in. Clyde met Ellie, a homeless girl his age, who kept him safe and introduced him to the life. They quickly fall in love, with Ellie potentially even giving Clyde his first kiss. She leaves to get coffee right as Sarah Jane finds him again, and after he goes back to search for her finds she took a truck somewhere else in Europe and he’ll never see her again. It’s a bit on the nose, but Sarah Jane says the most alien world is that of the homeless: if we cared to look. It’s a sad ending, but with a great message.

Daniel Anthony gets one final hurrah as Clyde, the best character of this show who has provided the biggest emotional moments.

10/10 I have a week spot for kids struggling with their place in the world, okay?

The ‘Museum of Culture’ was hilariously cheap-looking

The God Complex Review

The God Complex

The Shining meets the Minotaur

Story 222, Episode 781, Series 6 Episode 11

Doctor: The Eleventh Doctor

Companions: Amy Pond, Rory Williams (River Song)

The Doctor confronts his own vanity in one of the best stories of the Matt Smith era.

The Review

The Doctor and River

First, a word on the mini-episodes First Night and Last Night which fit in here. They’re mainly silly little capers featuring multiple Rivers and Doctors. The Doctor picks up River for their first solo outing from her point of view, and Alex Kingston does a great job playing her more wide-eyed and younger. Things take a turn when a future Eleventh Doctor shows up saying he’s taking her to Darillium, the the last place River said she saw the Doctor before her death in the Library. We do learn later that the Doctor chickened out of it, and glad he did because that gave us The Husbands of River Song. Anyway, onto The God Complex where the Doctor again has to confront endings. It’s one of the best constructed sets in show history, an 80s hotel like The Shining but combined with the maze of the labyrinth in the Minotaur myth. It’s perfectly rendered, and Whithouse knows exactly what story he’s telling.

The Doctor and Amelia

It’s a simple story at its heart, there are rooms that show everyone’s worst fears, and after seeing them people start to ‘praise’ the Minotaur which devours their souls. The turn comes when the Doctor realizes it’s not fear the monster is after, it’s the faith generated in a response to that fear. We have a gambling addict, a conspiracy theorist, and Rita, played beautifully by Amara Karan who falls back on her Islamic faith. Finally when it comes for Amy, her faith is in the Doctor, and the Doctor shatters it by telling her he always knew something bad would inevitably happen to her but he just wanted to be adored. Interestingly, Rory doesn’t have a fear, an impressive amount of character growth. The Doctor can no longer bear to keep risking the Ponds, so he gives them a house and pops off. Doing what? Saving them.

This is an episode that blows me away, but it is so smart and well-structured and envisioned with great consequences, I can’t fault it.

10/10 A pitch-perfect episode, and in another universe, a perfect departure for the Ponds

Saying goodbye

Escape to L.A. Review

Escape to L.A.

California dreamin’

Torchwood Season 4 Episode 4

Torchwood: Miracle Day finally starts getting good with an intense episode taking us across every plot thread.

The Review

Look behind you Gwen!

Now, this is morel like it! The Torchwood team arrives in Los Angeles, home of Phicorp’s headquarters to stage a raid on their data servers. Gwen is trying to get Rhys to get her dad out of the hospital, but he ends up getting sent to a Phicorp camp. Esther started out visiting her sister and ends up reporting her to child protective services, a man was waiting at her house and tails Torchwood all the way to LA. Rex is feeling glum about the new ‘Dead is Dead’ slogan and visits his anti-government Dad who lives in a ramshackle apartment. The raid on Phicorp is tightly constructed with Gwen in a hilarious dress and hairstyle named ‘Yvonne’ and Jack as a delivery man. The two are caught by the assassin sent by the Families/Triangle and are saved by Rex who staggers up 33 flights of stairs. In classic Gwen fashion, she’s pissed because he shot the assassin just as he was going to reveal some juicy info.

Bill Pullman has been perfectly sickening as Oswald

We get some more Dr. Juarez at an overflow hospital, and this is where the Oswald Danes story takes off. Ellis Hartley Monroe, a Tea Party mayor, starts a ‘Dead is Dead’ campaign to ostracize people who should have died. Oswald calls her bullshit by picking up an abandoned baby and becomes a voice of the people. Once again, Oswald is a truly horrible reprehensible man, even the horrible PR woman Kitzinger says she absolutely detests him but loves the publicity he brings. Overall, this is a long episode, but one that kept me hooked showing the Miracle continuing to spiral out of control with a tense heist sequence.

After a largely filler episode three, Miracle Day gets on track with one of the best episodes of the show, non-Children of Earth category.

10/10 There are lots of moving characters and plot, and for now, all are believable!

Starting to appreciate these two

Space/Time Review

Space/Time

It’s two Amys. They’re coming to your town.

Story 213.5, 2011 Children in Need Special

Doctor: The Eleventh Doctor

Companions: Amy Pond, Rory Williams

Four mini episodes are enough for me to toss them together as story 213.5 as we cover Space/Time and throw in Bad Night/Good Night.

The Review

The TARDIS materialized inside itself

I miss the days when Doctor Who did extra little content like this. The last canon Children in Need special, Space/Time sees Rory looking up his wife’s skirt through the TARDIS’ glass floor, causing a paradox situation briefly resulting in two Amys (one from the future) that flirt with each other. It’s all silly fun, but my favorite bit is where the future Doctor proudly tells the past Doctor the lever to fix the TARDIS spawning inside itself is ‘the wibbly lever!’. Matt Smith does these silly little interactions so well. Sure, Rory looking up Amy’s skirt is a bit crass, but at least they’re married by this point so it’s not really creepy.

The Doctor offering advice

After consulting continuity guides, it seems here is the best spot for Bad Night/Good Night, two blu-ray exclusive scenes of Amy catching the Doctor after going on adventures with River. I think Matt Smith pulls off explaining absurd situations seriously better than any Doctor. In the first, Queen Elizabeth II has been turned into a fish, and the Doctor is figuring out how he’s going to sort it. In the second one he’s spending time with two of his wives as he tells River that Marilyn will have to use the biplane. It ends on a sweet note with Amy wondering how she can remember her childhood with no parents and now with parents at the same time and the Doctor just saying ‘hey, time’s always being re-written, so get over it and go get ice cream’. I think that’s fine advice.

There is little room for anything to go wrong, so full marks from me on these mini-episodes.

10/10 “The Prince of Wales? No, not which Wales, which Prince”

Oops, that’s not the Queen. It’s the wrong fish