My Review of Doctor Who's 1x10: "The Doctor Dances"

Written by Steven Moffat
Directed by James Hawes

The Doctor (to Rose/Captain Jack): “I’m really glad that worked. Those would’ve been terrible last words.”

Amazingly it’s been a good while since I’ve heard the words “go to your room” in a parental tone and the opening sequence to part two of this brilliant adventure only got better and better. An impossible feat you might think but a fact.

Briefly escaping the clutches of the infected hospital staff and patients in Albion Hospital, we got some very nice moments with The Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack as more about our mysterious former Time Agent was unravelled.

So Captain Jack has a thing for conning other Time Agents with useless items of junk which he masquerades as valuable ships etc, gets half paid and destroys the evidence and commiserates with the latest buyer that he’s duped in parting with his cash?

Not exactly a very nice thing to do but it does seem that both the scriptwriter and the lovely John Barrowman are pretty determined to make us like Captain Jack, so much that Jack manages to teleport The Doctor and Rose safely away from The Empty People to his invisible spaceship. You know after we get some fake out moments with our trio in peril of course.

Although learning more of Captain Jack’s past makes Rose a little cautious of him, is it that big of a shock that The Doctor is a little less eager to trust him? Honestly, not within the slightest.

The con artist thing aside, Captain Jack seems to know a lot about different technologies and even The Doctor can’t help but feel suspicious and rather threatened by this and with Rose being constantly impressed by Jack. She notes how both men are rather alike and it begs the question – just how much alike are they really?

The Doctor is alien, the last of his species whereas Captain Jack is one part of his species. When The Doctor dies, he regenerates and then looks like someone else, we don’t know what happens to Jack, assuming for a second that he might not be human. The Doctor remembers all his 900 plus years of time travelling while Jack has had two years of his life and memories erased, like Sydney Bristow in Alias.

Jack also made a point of noting that The Doctor might have good reasons to not trust him and keeping with the Alias comparison, Captain Jack could’ve actually have been a bad guy or kidnapped and brainwashed by other Time Agents (or someone or something else) into committing evil acts.

I definitely want answers to this sooner rather than later, especially if he’s going to be a permanent fixture from now on. Can you tell from this review that Jack being a regular is a good thing in my books?

To recap, my reasons for liking Captain Jack are quite simple. He may be a bit of a scamp but there’s an irresistible charm to this guy’s presence. Not only was Jack’s interplay with Rose fun to watch but the dynamic between him and The Doctor is superb.

It’s kind of a platonic love/hate/mutual respect type of relationship with these two and John Barrowman and Christopher Eccleston are great to watch and The Doctor could do with another bloke to bounce off.

The Doctor is still the most knowledgeable of the bunch but I can’t wait to see our duo now become a trio. Hopefully Jack will fare out better than Adam ever did and it’s nice that this show continues to show ambition and a desire to shake up the format, although old series have featured more than one companion with The Doctor at a time.

Also if there’s another reason why Jack should stay, it’s because that even though he was a little responsible for the Nanogenes in that fake ambulance (his junk not being so useless after all) mutating all and sundry who have interacted with Jamie into Empty People/Gas Mask people, he did his best to amend the situation by containing the bomb and faced with no way of escaping, he was willing to take his death gracefully. Thankfully with much chiding from Rose, The Doctor put his suspicions aside and rescued Jack.

Even better news and nonchalantly thrown in, it also turns out that Jack is bisexual when he volunteers to distract Algy at the railway station where the bomb was hidden. Rose’s reaction to this revelation is nothing short of priceless. Can this guy get any better?

As for The Empty Child storyline, it’s revealed that all along it’s been Nancy who was responsible for his hungry pursuit of his mother. It’s not a real shock to learn that Nancy is his Mum, especially given how she left the other kids to protect them and freaked out when she was chained beside an infected soldier at the railway station.

Florence Hoath is a delight and Nancy’s final acceptance of her responsibility as Jamie’s mother by admitting it to her lost child is touching. All the time while I was watching this two part instalment, I never viewed the Empty People as villains and Nancy’s plight of being teenage single parent is a realistic issue, dealt wonderfully here through fantasy and slight metaphor.

The end result had the Nanogenes reversing their own effects and everyone restored to their human status. The Doctor acts like its Christmas and in fairness, he’s not exactly wrong with feeling that way.

The episode ends on a fantastic note as our Time Lord shows both Captain Jack and Rose inside the TARDIS that he certainly can dance.

Also in “The Doctor Dances”

Because this is part two of a two part story, the “Previously On” bit was back. They don’t use them as much as other shows are likely to, do they?

Rose (to Captain Jack): “When he’s stressed, he likes to insult species.”
The Doctor: “Rose, I’m thinking.”

Captain Jack’s weapon was a sonic blaster, who could be used as a sonic cannon or disruptor. The joke with The Doctor swapping it with a banana during an attack was a little amusing. I think he was paying Jack back for the showing off earlier on.

Rose (re Captain Jack disappearing): “Why is it always the great looking ones who always do that?”
Doctor: “I’m making an effort not to be insulted here.”

Character bits: Jack used an on-com to communicate with The Doctor and Rose, he’s from the 51st Century and his ship is a Tula one, like the one he tried to con beforehand.

Rose (to The Doctor): “You got the moves? Show me your moves!”

The Doctor: “We were talking about dancing.”
Captain Jack: “It didn’t look like talking.”
Rose: “Didn’t feel like dancing.”

The “Bad Wolf” logo appears in German on the bomb that Jack dispatched. What is the connection with these two words?

The Doctor (re Captain Jack): “He’s a 51st Century guy who’s a little more flexible when it comes to dancing.”
Rose: “How flexible?”

There were a few gay connections in this episode. Jack confessed to sleeping with two of his executioners and Nancy blackmailed Mr Lloyd into letting her loot his house because of an affair.

Nancy: “Tell me, do you think that there is anything I couldn’t believe?”
Rose: “We’re time travellers.”

The Empty Child/Jamie: “Are you my Mummy?”
Nancy: “Yes, yes I am your Mummy.”

The Doctor made a reference about Rose and a bike when she was twelve years old. Thinking of “Father’s Day”, it isn’t an accident that she’s his latest assistant.

The Doctor: “Everybody lives, Rose. Just this once!”

Captain Jack (re the TARDIS): “Much bigger on the outside.”
The Doctor: “You better be.”

Standout music: “Moonlight Serenade” and “In The Mood” by Glenn Miller. Even the latter got me in the mood for dancing.

After such a spectacular first episode, “The Doctor Dances” is not only on a par but it is actually better than “The Empty Child”. The wonderful characterisation, the heartfelt moments and restoration of the Nanogenes victims, aided by an uplifting message from The Doctor and all that dancing at the end. Fantastic!

Rating: 10 out of 10.

My Review of Doctor Who's 1x09: "The Empty Child"

Written by Steven Moffat
Directed by James Hawes

The Empty Child/Jamie: “Are you my Mummy?”

How about that, four very simple words but instantly made into an iconic sentence. The Doctor and Rose travel through time looking for a mauve coloured bomb but luckily for viewers, instead we get something much more special on offer as the TARDIS make it’s way into 1941’s London Blitz with a history lesson that no-one should forget anytime soon.

Curious to locate the bomb, The Doctor walks into a lounge bar and asks the punters about seeing anything falling from the sky recently. A simple enough question to ask except even I didn’t expect the audience of such to mistake The Doctor for a stand up act.

Meanwhile Rose is drawn to a child wearing a gas mask and calling for his mother. It’s from here on in that The Doctor and Rose are on a separate course but not to worry as both of their little adventures are interconnected and fun to watch in the process.

Rose’s attempts of locating the boy, only for her to be dangling from a rope in mid air during a German air raid for a good fifteen minutes was amusing until she lets go and gets rescued by Captain Jack. An impeccable piece of casting, John Barrowman is an absolute delight as Rose’s rescuer uses a special beam to pull her into his ship and uses Nanogenes to repair her hands. Already I find myself liking this guy.

Okay fawning aside, the mysterious and downright sexy Captain Jack isn’t shy of relaying information to Rose. Within the episode, he’s revealed to be a Time Agent and assumes that Rose is one too. In fact it also turns out that he’s directly involved in the thing that The Doctor and Rose were looking for and plans to destroy it within two hours if he isn’t given a substantial price for it.

Aside from that, watching the two of them flirting with each other is a surprising delight. Jack is definitely something of a smooth operator and wasted no time in trying to charm Rose, not that he had to try very hard. I was charmed by him too. Sorry, I am doing my best to stay focused but even I have to swoon a little bit.

As a seducer, Jack definitely hits all the right buttons. He laid out the champagne, treated us with classic music, all while him and Rose were on top of his invisible spaceship beside Big Ben, 65 years prior to the Slitheen destroying it. Rose could barely contain her attraction towards Jack, even if she wasn’t as full on about it as he was.

She was also happy to call his bluff in regards to the bomb but at the same time, she definitely enjoyed being sweet talked by him and seemingly enjoyed the modern Jack’s methods than the new fangled Doctor’s (there’s a funny ongoing joke about Spock from Star Trek here as well).

Even if everything else in this episode had failed to hit the mark, then the presence of Captain Jack certainly would’ve made up for it. However, to be fair, Captain Jack was only the tip of a very impressive iceberg here.

Having The Doctor and Rose split for much of this episode had the former receiving a phone call from the TARDIS. This should be impossible as the TARDIS is not actually connected to a phone but it still happens and when a mysterious girl named Nancy advices him not to answer, more questions pop up as a lone gas mask child terrorises The Doctor, Nancy and several children looking for it’s mother.

Every time Nancy legs it, The Doctor pursues her and she isn’t exactly forthcoming with answers. Anyways, a small child even one wearing a gas mask shouldn’t be viewed as a threat but it is as Nancy’s warning of touching the boy and turning into one of the infected gas mask people is very true.

There’s a fantastically creepy as hell atmosphere every time we encounter the lonely child but it’s virtually impossible to not sympathise with the child who is seemingly unaware of the damage he’s causing left, right and centre.

After much badgering from The Doctor, Nancy finally admits that the child is her brother who was killed in an air raid and before The Doctor should try and get the mauve bomb, he should talk to Dr Constantine. Florence Hoath who plays Nancy is wonderful in the role and you can easily see that the girl has major guilt issues of her own.

The Doctor then met with the slightly prickly Dr Constantine who informs him that Jamie has turned the entire hospital staff and patients into gas mask creatures before morphing into one himself. The Doctor almost went overboard noting the impossibility of their transformation and we got another standout guest performance, this time from Victor Meldrew’s alter ego Richard Wilson.

Our final scene in the hospital exposed Captain Jack as a con man seconds after him and The Doctor and Rose exchanged pleasantries but that was nothing compared to the fact that gas mask people are actually still alive rather than living dead. We got a clear picture of that as they began to surround The Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack while in another side of town, Nancy breaks back into the house when she fed those children earlier on in this episode and is trapped by Jamie.

If I didn’t think before that Nancy knew more than she was letting on, I certainly do now. Her scenes with both The Doctor and Jamie in the final fifteen minutes more or less confirmed this for me.

Also in “The Empty Child”

According to Jack, the mauve bomb that The Doctor and Rose were searching for wasn’t a real bomb. Then what is it?

Captain Jack (to Algy): “Sorry man, I gotta go and meet a girl but you’ve got a nice bottom to.”

This might be a dumb question to ask but from that brief interaction, does this mean that Captain Jack is possibly bisexual? I did get that impression.

The Doctor (to a cat): “I’m gonna meet somebody who gets the whole ‘don’t wander off thing’. 900 years of phone box travelling, it’s the only thing left to surprise me.”

Rose (to Captain Jack): “I’m hanging in the sky in the middle of a German air raid with a Union Jack across my chest but hey, my mobile phone is off.”

Rose was unaffected by Jack’s psychic paper. Nice to see that extends beyond The Doctor’s use of it. Also Jack said he was single and worked out while Rose, although she considers Mickey as her boyfriend is footloose and fancy free.

The Doctor (to Ernie): “What’s a copper going to do with the lot of you? Arrest you for starving?”

We got a lot of signs here. In the lounge bar there was “Hitler Will Send No Warning”, a boarded house had “We Are Still Living In This Blast” and there was “Always Carry Your Gas Masks”.

The Empty Child/Jamie: “Are you my Mummy?”
The Doctor: “No Mummies here. Just us chickens, well this chicken.”

Fashion wise – Is Jack’s World War Two gear meant to be the real deal or just for infiltration purposes? Also the last time I saw any woman wearing a Union Jack top was Sarah Michelle Gellar is an episode of Buffy back in 1999. It did quite suit Rose, if I’m being honest.

Nancy: “Do you have special powers too?”
The Doctor: “What are you trying to say?”
Nancy: “Goodnight Mister.”

The scene where Jack kept calling The Doctor “Spock” and Rose “flag girl” was very funny. Rose really threw in the Star Trek references in this episode.

Rose: “This isn’t business, this is champagne.”
Captain Jack: “I never try to discuss business with a clear head.”

Constantine made a reference about being a father and a grandfather. Is it an allusion to the First Doctor and his granddaughter/assistant Susan?

Captain Jack (to The Doctor/Rose): “I’m a con man. That’s what I do, I con people.”

The Hospital in the final scene is Albion Hospital. It’s exactly the same hospital from “Aliens Of London” and “World War Three”.

Constantine: “I suppose the plan is to blow up the hospital and blame it on a German bomb.”
The Doctor: “Probably too late.”

Standout music: “Moonlight Serenade” by Glenn Miller. It’s quite an appropriate song too for this era in time.

“The Empty Child” is an absolutely breathtaking piece of television in every way possible. The beautiful imagery of a war torn London, with superb and luscious special effects to heighten the Blitz stricken London along with some intense direction from James Hawes. Throw in Steven Moffat’s wonderful script, a thoroughly engaging plot, a nice level of terror, fantastic music, humour, guest stars and all round performances and you have one of the best moments in TV history. Roll on part two.

Rating: 10 out of 10.

My Review of Doctor Who's 1x08: "Father's Day"

Written by Paul Cornell
Directed by Joe Aherne

Within the first half of the debut season we’ve encountered plenty of monsters of the week scenarios and with the exception of “Dalek”; we haven’t really had a personal mission as such. The drawback of being a 900 year old Time Lord and having only human assistants is often being dragged into their own personal baggage and as much I love Rose, she’s no exception to the rule.

The episode opens up with a nice if rather overly sentimental narration from Rose praising her father and a flashback of Jackie telling a young Rose about Pete Tyler’s death. In the present day inside the TARDIS, Rose asks The Doctor if she can visit her father on the day he died so she can sit with him so he wouldn’t die alone. Oddly enough, The Doctor actually agrees to this request twice, opening up the predicted can of worms and our jeopardy of the week in the process.

If I had been in Rose’s predicament, watching her father about to die by a passing car, I’d want to save him too, despite whether or not it would have an effect on time. How could The Doctor not realise that Rose’s judgement would be clouded on seeing this particular event?

If I look at it from Rose’s perspective, it’s easy to see why she saved Pete’s life. He’s her father, she’s never had a relationship with the man and in her mind she was given an opportunity to reverse history and do some good, even if it’s rooted in a selfish desire.

She rationed with The Doctor that her Dad wasn’t going to start World War Three or make world peace, both being believable arguments but you knew he wasn’t going to see it like that.

The Doctor and Rose have had a few disagreements before but this was the first time in which things did get a little heated, he even took back her TARDIS key, he was that pissed off with her. Although both of them raised vital points about the other, the ensuing confrontation came across as a little silly.

As for the man in question, who Rose risked her relationship with The Doctor for, I found myself liking Pete Tyler, even more than I’ve come to like Jackie and a lot more than I liked Jackie in our 1987 trip here. Expertly played by Shaun Dingwall, Pete isn’t quite the successful businessman Rose was brought up to believe he was.

Instead he’s a bit of chancer with daft money making schemes and according to an overly permed Jackie, something of a ladies man too. In other words, the guy is the kind of geezer you’d expect on EastEnders. Normally this kind of character would make me cringe and despite some incredibly clichéd dialogue, Pete remained a likeable presence throughout the episode.

Watching him and Rose slowly develop a bond over the hour was intense. We had some rather naff double entendres, Rose learning that her parents weren’t shy of public rows and Jackie realising slowly who she really was. Pete is supposed to be the one who’s dense but Jackie beats him to it. Some of these scenes were quite superb but others sort of missed the mark but for the most part, things were believable and we got some neat foreshadowing for future events.

Whether it was a young Mickey clinging onto an older Rose in the church or Jackie having The Doctor look after baby Rose. I laughed at Jackie’s comments of pitying the poor girl who ends up with Mickey when he’s older or even The Doctor being trusted by Jackie. Mostly though I liked the perceptiveness of Pete and how he realised that being alive had caused the world to alter, even though The Doctor didn’t tell him that.

Now onto the drawback of the episode. As a result of Rose saving her father, all the parishioners at Stuart and Sarah’s wedding (Jackie is a bridesmaid), some ghoulish creatures appropriately titled the Reapers start attacking the place, forcing The Doctor to barricade everyone in the church.

It seems the more time is disrupted with, the stronger they get. So thanks to Pete giving our Rose herself as a baby to hold, the Reapers manage to get inside and devour The Doctor and the TARDIS. I gasped at the moment and as baddies went, the Reapers are one of the more successful ones to date. Rose went through a gamut of guilt and although it was her fault, it was easy to still sympathise with her.

The highlight of the hour though was the last five minutes, culminating in Pete’s death. The guy escaped death and although if he had lived, he might have actually bettered himself as a person, he knew he had to die for things to be right in the world. Billie Piper and Shaun Dingwall worked wonderfully in that scene together as Rose had to watch her father die again without saving him.

The episode ended as it began with another narration from Rose on her father and a new version of her flashback with Jackie before our present day Rose and The Doctor headed back into the TARDIS, seemingly patching up their differences.

Also in “Father’s Day”

Pete Tyler was born on the 15th of September 1954, making him a Virgo and dying on the 7th of November 1987. He died when he was 33. His middle name was Alan and Jackie’s full name is Jacqueline Andrea Suzette Prentice.

Rose: “It’s just an ordinary day.”
The Doctor: “The past is another country. 1987’s just the Isle of Wight.”

Pete had a lot of Trophies, were they all for bowling? Most of the products he tried to flog looked naff though, especially the Vitex.

Rose: “That car was gonna kill you.”
Pete: “Well, give me some credit, I could see it coming.”

Pete: “So that wouldn’t be a mixed signal then at all?
Rose: “Absolutely not.”

I don’t think we actually got any “Bad Wolf” indicators in this episode, even though Rose caused this week’s chaos. We didn’t see it scrolled anyway and I don’t think any of the Reaper creatures made sounds indicating “Bad Wolf” either.

Stuart: “You seem to know what’s going on.”
The Doctor: “I give that impression.”

Was The Doctor lying when he said to Rose he had no idea of what to do with the Reapers or was he hoping both Rose and Pete would figure it out for themselves?

Jackie (to Pete): “The world’s about to end and what do you do? Cling to the youngest blonde?”

Rose: “Can’t do anything right, can I?”
The Doctor: “As you ask, no. So don’t touch the baby.”

I noticed there was a looping kind of effect with the car that killed Pete several times in the episode and how cool was the idea of using the very first phone call by Alexander Graham Bell in this episode?

Pete: “Who am I, love?”
Rose: “My Daddy.”

Standout music: We got both Rick Astley and The Streets. Not really a fan of both acts but I’m sure they are plenty of viewers who enjoyed the past/present contrast though.

While Dreamwatch had given “Father’s Day” a rather scathing review, I’ll admit they were right about some stuff. Although an interesting idea, like last week things are spoiled but instead of sloppy pacing, it’s too much sentimentality worthy of a soap that detracts an overall pleasant enough outing. It’s better than “The Long Game” but it could’ve been better itself.

Rating: 6 out of 10.