Doctor Who (2005) s04e06 – The Doctor’s Daughter

It’s the most successful “Doctor Who” in a dozen episodes (ish) and succeeds by giving Freema Agyeman her own arc, Catherine Tate pure supporting to David Tennant, and another potential for Tennant. So apparently the show needs four leads. If they could keep up this level of success.

And The Doctor’s Daughter is a great success. Though “Daughter” is a bit of a misnomer.

Writer Stephen Greenhorn contributed what ended up being one of last season’s best episodes—and one of the better Earth ones—and Daughter is similarly strong. Though there’s also director Alice Troughton, who gets just the right performance out of every scene, which is important.

Not having seen the original series, I don’t know if there’s similar earlier “Doctor Who” to this episode, but it plays like a “Star Trek: The Original Series” episode. Two of them, actually.

The “Star Trek” version has Kirk (David Tennant), Spock (Catherine Tate), and Bones (Freema Agyeman) beaming to a planet. They find themselves held at gun point by some paramilitaries who then make Tennant put his hand in a Theranos machine. Turns out it’s not just DNA coding him, it’s using that DNA to make an offspring; Doctor DNA with some preloaded warfare programs because they’re cloned to adulthood. So not really Daughter, though Tate rejoices in joshing Tennant about fatherhood—okay, so maybe Tennant’s Spock and Tate’s Kirk—anyway, there’s an info dump about Tennant being a dad in the old series or something and I’m once again almost ready to go read about this stuff but I keep refusing to do the work.

And also—very late mention—Georgia Moffett is the name of the actor playing the daughter. She goes from not talking to being awesome very quickly. Greenhorn writes the heck out of the scenes where Tate and Moffett bond—oh, yeah, Tate’s definitely Kirk in this one.

Meanwhile, Bones (Agyeman) is off with one of the enemy who she got stuck with when she stood too close to some red shirts and then got trapped when an enemy who she helped.

The enemies are these fish guys. They look like Muppets. Agyeman would do great with Muppets. She’d also do great with a “Martha” spin-off where she gets to run the show because she’s amazing in her subplot. It’s like they included it as an apology for last season.

It’s a lovely adventure for her character, who’s been stuck in a support role for way too long.

And then there’s a perfect finish.

There’s a little too much melodrama but the cast handles it but even before the end just gets magnificent it’s still pretty great so you can forgive it. This episode’s really good.

It’s so good Nigel Terry’s rather bad human villain can’t even bring it down. But acting showcase-wise it’s all about Agyeman and Moffett. For this episode, it’s their show.

Doctor Who (2005) s04e05 – The Poison Sky

Despite some good acting and fine direction, The Poison Sky is unambitious for even an unambitious “Doctor Who” two-parter resolve. A lot of the plot hinges on teleportation and maybe teleportation really is just one sci-fi genre shortcut too many. “Who” can’t handle it.

And then this episode’s (relatively) out of nowhere cliffhanger is a great setup for the next episode, turning Sky into a strange bridging episode.

There’s a lot of weird drama and a lot of David Tennant not being right about things. He tries to convince military guy Rupert Holliday-Evans they can’t attack the invading aliens because they’re killing machines but the 21st century “Doctor Who” army guys do just fine. Then there’s a completely undramatic Kobayashi Maru, which maybe gets some okay acting from Catherine Tate and Freema Agyeman but it’s just forced melodrama. It doesn’t even give Tennant anything particularly good to do in that moment, instead relying on Ryan Sampson, who takes an interesting path to becoming a Tennant protege but apparently not companion material? Sampson was good last episode, bad this episode. All the other acting is about the same, including Bernard Cribbins getting tiring fast and Jacqueline King being bad.

Good direction from Douglas Mackinnon, good performances from Tate and Agyeman (who gets to play her third different person in three seasons on “Who”) while Tennant’s… eh. It’s not a good two-parter for anyone but it’s particularly not good one for Tennant, except when he’s seemingly messing with Agyeman’s character’s evil clone.

But those scenes never go anywhere, not really. Agyeman ends up with a surprisingly solid character arc on it though, which is a surprise because writer Helen Raynor initially seems to be using the clone as a device to avoid writing Agyeman’s regular character. Though maybe it’s just waiting out the runtime to avoid having to have any hard talks with Tennant; has there ever been any scholarly work on the psychology of the Doctor’s “friendships” with his companions and so on.

Good cliffhanger though. Very enthused for next episode. And Raynor does better with this two-parter than the last one. This one’s just a middling Earth two-parter, not a bad Earth two-parter.

Doctor Who (2005) s04e04 – The Sontaran Stratagem

Based on the teaser—which spoils Freema Agyeman’s return—I wasn’t looking forward to The Sontaran Stratagem. Mind you, I also didn’t know the Sontaran were a return alien race from the original series so maybe if I was a Sontaran fan….

They’re all right, though they’re functionally really similar to the rhino guys without being adorable. Quite the opposite.

Though they’re affable-looking enough. The episode makes a big deal out of them being strange-looking but they’re not, not for “Doctor Who” London where there are at least annual alien invasions.

The episode also does the first “Doctor Who” revival companion-team-up. There was the episode where Elisabeth Sladen guested but she was a companion on the original series. Agyeman and Catherine Tate have a proper team-up, which—much to David Tennant’s chagrin—doesn’t involve them mooning or cat-fighting over him.

This reunion is a little while after last season’s finale with Agyeman and this season’s Christmas special, which introduces Bernard Cribbins as Tate’s grandfather (though he’s not introduced in that capacity in his first appearance). Although it hasn’t been long, Agyeman’s gotten engaged to the dude she was after from the alternate future and also started working for UNIT, which is basically the SHIELD for “Doctor Who,” including the helicarrier. They’ve apparently been around since the old series but didn’t get involved with any of the alien attacks until fourth season of the new show.

Rupert Holliday-Evans is the UNIT boss. He’s pretty good. Christopher Ryan is the main Sontaran. He’s fine. Ryan Sampson plays a Mark Zuckerberg analogue who sells out humanity to the aliens; he’s not bad.

The episode’s a solid team-up between current and previous companions, with some nice moments for Agyeman and Tennant, and the danger plot—Sampson’s globally ubiquitous car GPS plugin is a weapon—is exciting.

Though Jacqueline King continues the show’s trend of obnoxious companion moms. And Cribbins is best in small doses; the show overuses him.

And it’s great to have Agyeman around.

I was worried as writer Helen Raynor and producer Susie Liggat—who only produces Raynor episodes—didn’t turn in a particularly good two-parter last time but this time… solid. Solid two-parter.

Though the cliffhanger’s a little less world-shattering than usual.

Doctor Who (2005) s04e03 – Planet of the Ood

“Doctor Who” is sometimes a tad British. So when we find out this episode David Tennant didn’t realize the Ood were a slave race the last time he encountered them (season two) even though Billie Piper had a whole subplot about it… and saying they’re just too British assuming positive intent. There’s the much darker one where people noticed Tennant didn’t give a shit about the slave race and felt the need to mansplain he was busy.

That bit aside, it’s a fairly great episode. For seasons three and (so far) four anyway. The show’s been tumbling with bumps for ages now.

Anyway.

Tennant and new companion Catherine Tate—the first one who seems to have been tested opposite Tennant for amusement chemistry versus weird longing—end up in the future on the Planet of the Ood where they find out all about how the humans enslave the Ood. The Ood are still gross looking so even though they’re infinitely sympathetic—even more so when we find out the secret of the Ood (okay, the first secret of the Ood, the second secret of the Ood is where things go wrong)—it’s always disquieting. Also some of the Ood are going rabid and presumably a danger to those around them, in this case Tate.

Really good special effects on some of the episode—albeit on par with a theatrical B sci-fi movie from the late nineties (basically Screamers)—specifically the exteriors. It’s an ice planet.

The supporting cast—Tim McInnerny as the foolish and greedy boss, Ayesha Dharker as his sales person, Paul Kasey as McInnerny’s personal Ood—is solid. Never too showy, always in service of the episode. Even when they’re dealing with what’s going to be the second secret of the Ood, when the special effects—but maybe more the production design—fail. It’s just too much.

And then the ending is way too naive.

But most of the episode’s excellent. Though Tate’s subplot about realizing life in the TARDIS is dangerous for guest stars seems a little pat. A companion trope.

Doctor Who (2005) s04e02 – The Fires of Pompeii

It’s a big episode of “Doctor Who,” at least in terms of getting some of the show’s time travel “rules.” At least in the current series; I’m not sure about the original (though David Tennant implies there may be different rules between now and then).

When Tennant and Catherine Tate find themselves in Pompeii, the day before the volcano, before—per “Doctor Who” history, which the wife did advise probably shouldn’t be taken as fact—the residents don’t even have a word for volcano. They’ve never seen such a thing; there’s just the mountain.

Unfortunately that bit comes back into play later, for James Moran’s teleplay’s last bit of Romanophilia (but a very British actors playing Romans Romanophilia), which ought to send the episode out on a low point but there manages to be an even more quizzical epilogue. Despite featuring these philosophical arguments between Tennant and Tate, Pompeii really is about the Roman “My So-Called Life” Moran really wants to be writing.

See, after they land and realize it’s almost volcano day, Tennant wants to get out of town… only someone’s sold the TARDIS out of its parking spot. I swear the Doctor didn’t lose the TARDIS every third episode in the first season just so they’d have some inherent drama.

Anyway.

Peter Capaldi is a successful stone merchant who buys the TARDIS because it’s modern art. Tracey Childs is his wife, Francesca Fowler is the teenage daughter who’s in the soothsayer academy, François Pandolfo is the listless son. They have antics and arguments throughout the episode, with everyone apparently thinking Capaldi and Childs are just parental enough for the scenes to work without much writing.

It’s sort of right? More right about Capaldi and Childs being able to carry the scene than the scenes working without the writing. A lot of it is based on the actors’ likability more than anything else.

And it takes them a while to get likable because there’s a whole weird showdown between Tennant, Fowler, and Pompeii’s leading soothsayer, Phil Davis. The scene plays very weird.

But so long as it gets to Tate challenging Tennant, it’s fine. Tate is paying off. Though two good episodes for a companion isn’t a streak or anything yet.

Rather good production values—albeit not the best lighting or effects—on the Pompeii stuff. It feels big enough.

Doctor Who (2005) s04e01 – Partners in Crime

Despite the previous season taking place over four or five days (as they play out in the show’s present), this episode doesn’t rush Doctor David Tennant reuniting with perfect companion (and pre-last season companion Freema Agyeman) Catherine Tate. Tate was the previous year’s Christmas special; a fill-in between Billie Piper and Agyeman.

But now it’s all about Tate. Since we’ve last seen her, she’s started investigating the paranormal and strange in hopes of happening across Tennant again. Not agreeing to be his companion on his immediate rebound from Piper was the biggest mistake she’d ever made.

The show takes its time bringing Tennant and Tate back together, with director James Strong and writer Russell T. Davies doing a great job dragging it out. Tate’s current investigation—which Tennant happens across—is a miracle diet pill. There’s a nice montage of them each investigating before they happen across the same lead at the same time and quickly get found out. It’s a great scene.

Possibly villain Sarah Lancashire’s best scene. She ought to be a better villain but there’s something shallow about her character. The alien plot involves repopulating a global population from human fat. Lots of adorable fat aliens. Not the best CGI, but cute CGI. The show leans it on it hard.

We also get to meet Tate’s supporting cast—I can’t remember if mom Jacqueline King was in the previous Christmas special, which involved Tate’s wedding—so mom King and granddad Bernard Cribbins. Cribbins is all heart, King is another annoying companion’s mom, though a little different than what we’ve seen before.

Maybe because we don’t see King and the Doctor together… it’s just King being crappy to Tate.

The show doesn’t really pretend there’s much question about whether or not Tate’s ending up on the TARDIS, but there’s some lip service to Tennant having previous romantic disinterest issues with Agyeman, which is weird. We never got the same clarification on Piper? Does the show ever do a good companion-transition?

Speaking of companions, though there’s a big companion-related surprise at the end of the episode. Presumably it’s going to be important later in the season.

Doctor Who (2005) s03e00 – The Runaway Bride

How does the Doctor (this time David Tennant) usually respond to his companion leaving the show for, presumably, their own projects? Does it matter if you inherent your companion from the last Doctor? Have English school teachers been reading themes on this subject for decades now?

I’m vaguely curious about “Who” canon stuff. Not enough to Google. I’m willing to go into it as tabula rosa as possible.

So I didn’t know there was a Christmas episode between seasons two and three and I gave myself a bit of a spoiler for next season (but not worse than the preview at the end of Runaway Bride).

Runaway Bride does not feature a new companion for Tennant, rather a done-in-one sidekick, in this case the Bride (who’s not actually running away), played by Catherine Tate. The episode does not feature any appearances by anyone left behind last season, but it does take place immediately following the climactic events. So Tennant’s in a seriously bad mood this episode. Presumably. Again, we don’t get any idea how he’s experiencing the loss, not really.

But Tate’s the perfect foil for his mourning. We get to see Tennant acting opposite a much fuller performance than usual, getting to see that the Doctor and the guest star chemistry only with the companion. Tennant’s did his best with sidekick slash love interest slash ward slash protege Billie Piper but the show never delivered on the pair’s initial promise.

So it’s an inglorious postscript farewell to Piper.

Like she got her farewell two-parter and it was nice and all but give them a few months and writer Russell T. Davies is showing the promise of a stronger female character opposite Tennant.

Tate and Tennant are great.

The story’s about her getting transwarp beamed from her wedding to the TARDIS. Tennant gets Tate back to groom Don Gilet all right—albeit a little late—and then it turns out there’s a giant star-looking space ship (you know, for Christmas) attacking the Earth and Tennant’s going to need her help to save the world.

Bad villain though. It doesn’t seem to be Sarah Parish’s fault as much the part itself. Parish’s an energy vampire. Might have to do with the special effects too.

But a good, fun episode. The show’s got a much less lethargic tone than it did towards the end of last season, lot more slapstick. Davies has finally decided it should actually be fun instead of pretending to be fun.