Tag: Reviews (N)

The title is a spoiler, the Radio Times gave away the ending and yet I still really enjoyed it; it even looked as if it was shot in America.

Odd choice for a returning villain ruins a great first two acts; Tennant’s performance keeps getting better.

It’s like ‘The Unquiet Dead,’ only better.

Better than ‘New Earth;’ worse than ‘Fear Her.’

The Unquiet Dead

The good: the two thirds of the story, Charles Dickens and the developing relationship between Rose and the Doctor.

The bad: the last third of the story and the ‘suddenly we look evil Gelf.’

I had forgotten just how good Eccleston is as the Doctor; he often plays the character for laughs but it works because often you feel the humour is being pushed so as to hide the fact that this regeneration of the Doctor is really quite morose at heart. I sit watching these episodes really wondering what a second Eccleston season would have looked like. I’d pay good money to have found out.

Plot-wise, this feels very Seventh Doctor and it sets itself up well and then, regrettably, rushes towards a conclusion. Indeed, it’s very ‘Ghostlight’ and, now having watched the behind the scenes material, you get the impression that that is the kind of material Mark Gatiss, the writer, would like to be working on. The original plot, about a Spiritual Hotel, sounded very 7th Doctor. The commentary was slightly more informative than that of ‘The End of the World,’ although there were frequent moments where you knew the commentators were watching the episode rather than finding something interesting to say.

Coming up next: Aliens of London/World War III – Not my favourite two-parter ever.

The End of the World

I had forgotten just how good this story was; wonderful character moments and its as strong a second episode as you could possibly want. Mystery, suspense and tension galore between and about our two protagonists.

Pity about the actual plot. It’s trite, a bit silly and it doesn’t live up to the promise of seeing the death of the world. Still, it’s only when the drama focuses on the Cassandra plot that you worry, and the principal scene that shows this is the bit of exposition/reveal at the end.

Whereas ‘Rose’ was an example of what ‘Who’ could be ‘The End of the World’ is an example of a classic Who story. Funny, really, seeing that ‘The End of the World’ is, visually, a story that couldn’t have been done in Classic Who.

The commentary wasn’t up to much; you can only pat yourself on the back about your special effects so many times before it gets a little boring.