Series 1 (Season 27), Episodes 9 + 10: The Empty Child & The Doctor Dances

The Doctor tries to find an object which has fallen from the sky, if only he had read the blog!

New-who's second multi-part story, written by Steven Moffat, was the highlight of Series 1. It received a Hugo award for 'Best Drama Presentation, Short Form' whilst simultaneously scaring children and adults alike across the nation. Cries of 'Are you my mummy?' were going up from children for the rest of the week after the scary monster introduced in this episode were heard to use the catchphrase. The Torchwood team is now almost complete as John Barrowman debuts as Captain Jack Harkness, the multi-sexual, ex-time agent from the 51st century.

Synopsis: The Doctor and Rose chase a mysterious object in distress flying through the time vortex to London in 1941. In the heart of the Blitz Rose and the Doctor get separated, both meeting rather unusual people. As Rose finds herself hanging from a barrage balloon she is picked up by Captain Jack Harkness who wishes to discuss a deal. Meanwhile the Doctor is busy chasing a mysterious young woman named Nancy who seems to know a lot of information, about the crashed object and the mysterious little boy, but isn't telling. The Doctor is directed towards an old hospital where he meets Constantine, who shows the Doctor how the gas masked patients have been physically changed. Once the Doctor and Rose are reunited, along with Jack they are cornered by the Gas Masked Zombies who all want to know 'Are you my mummy?'.

Featuring: The Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston), Rose (Billie Piper) and Captain Jack (John Barrowman)

Enemies: The Empty People

Afterthought: This episode doesn't actually stack up to its full potential. The jokes continually clash with the creepiness of the story and the German air raids were impossibly fake. It's nice to see the addition of Captain Jack to the TARDIS crew after the failure of Adam earlier in the season. I would have preferred to see Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways receive the Hugo award as it turns out much better than this.

Verdict:

Story: 4/5, Very cleverly written!

Effects: 1/5, The nanogenes are quite cool, shame about everything else.

Humor: 3/5, While very funny, it clashes terribly!

Mark Campbell: 5/5, I think he needs to have a word with his mummy!

TOTAL SCORE: 13/20

Elsewhere:

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Empty_Child and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doctor_Dances

Official Site  - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074ds9 and http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074dsp

Are you my mummy? Next Time: Boom Town

Gas masked zombies attack!

Series 1 (Season 27), Episode 8: Father's Day

Rose tells her dad of the future. I wonder if she remembered to tell him about this blog?

To further develop Rose's character and to gain a greater understanding of the ever increasing laws of the Doctor Who universe, a story was commissioned to feature the aftermath of Rose changing an important event in her own history. Paul Cornell, who writes this episode, had worked on the Doctor Who books range along with Russell T Davies following the shows cancellation in 1989 and subsequently was asked to write this episode. A heavy feature of this episode is flashbacks to Rose's past in which her mother, Jackie, tells her all about her loving dad. Once Rose visits the past however she discovers that things are not as she imagined them.

Synopsis: After remembering a conversation she once had with her mum, Rose asks the Doctor to take her back to see her dead father while he was still alive. The thing that sticks in Rose's mind is that her dad died alone and so she convinces the Doctor to take her back so that she can be there with him when he dies. Rose, however, messes up her first attempt and instead of going with the plan on her second attempt, rescues her dad from his impending fate. This releases the Reapers and destroys the 'dimensional transcendental' powers of the TARDIS which make it bigger on the inside. With Reapers on the loose around the church and no way out, there are not many options left open to the congregation. The congregations last chance of survival is destroyed when Rose touches her younger self and a Reaper breaks in and kills the Doctor...

Featuring: The Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston), Rose (Billie Piper) and Jackie (Camille Coudri)

Enemies: Reapers

Afterthought: There is real sense of emotion in the latter scenes of this. How old is Mickey meant to be; three, four, five years older than Rose? What about the driver, did he not think it was a bit weird when he found himself driving somewhere he didn't need to be at the end of the episode?

Verdict:

Story: 4/5, A really emotional script with a slightly darker approach to the Doctor's attitude!

Effects: 4/5, An exciting brilliance, except when the Doctor is eaten.

Humor: 3/5, A good attempt but the mood is dampened by the episodes impending doom.

Mark Campbell: 4/5, He agrees with me!

TOTAL SCORE: 15/20

Elsewhere:

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father's_Day_(Doctor_Who)

Official Site - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074drw

The Doctor's 'constant companion is death' - Chameleon Circuit. Next Time: The Empty Child & The Doctor Dances

Reapers attack!