DOCTOR WHO: SERIES TWO DIARY

At last, after a year of waiting, with a brief interlude for The Christmas Invasion, we have the second series of the new Doctor Who show. We have a new Doctor to look forward to and thirteen more episodes in time and space. We even get to see the Cybermen, Sarah Jane Smith and K9. Hopefully, just like last time, it will be essential viewing, offering up exciting adventures, told with a verve and audacity that no other TV show seems to be able to offer. This diary is written as the episodes air, to capture the moment, and to review the episodes as they are meant to be reviewed, in their Saturday slot, with only the trailer for the next episode as knowledge of what's to come.

2.1 New Earth

Regrettably, the new season of Doctor Who gets off to what isn't exactly a bad start, but it's certainly not a fantastic start. I think it's always risky to start a new season with a comedy episode, and this is what they've done, despite the presence of 'diseased human zombies' that should have been serious and quite tragic. Since David Tennant's Doctor doesn't have the benefit of being introduced as a mystery figure we see through the eyes of Rose, he should have been given a much more dramatically intense opening episode.

One of the main problems with New Earth is there are just too many ideas thrown in, you have the Face of Boe, you have the plot with Cassandra and you have the mystery of how the Cat People are curing all the diseases. It just seemed to throw everything in and as a result all the ideas suffered. It didn't help that a lot of the stuff was at opposite ends of the emotional spectrum. The Cassandra plot was played largely for laughs, while the mystery about the Cat People should have been deeply tragic. What actually happened is the comedy elements affected the more serious elements of the episode. To be honest, while I realised I was supposed to feel sad for the 'diseased human zombies',I didn't, because it didn't actually come across as that sad (or that scary from an adult perspective), which I think was caused by a mixture of the episode's juxtapositions and potentially David Tennant's Doctor not actually managing to make me feel for the situation the human test subjects are in. It was like the situation alone was supposed to be enough to change the emotional intent of the episode on a dime, but it doesn't work like that, the situation and how (and how well) the actors react to it engenders the correct reaction (along with more esoteric elements like theme, mood, music, lighting, etc). Regrettably, the performances didn't change the intent of the episode enough.

The problem is also shown by the resolution to the episode, after failing to convey the tragedy of the 'diseased human zombies' we get the miracle solution that puts everything back to normal. Now, this is what the Doctor does, so the fact it happened isn't a problem in and of itself, it's just how it happened. If you compare the 'Doctor cures everyone with his genius' moments in The Doctor Dances with this example, this one is left wanting. In New Earth, it happens 'matter of factly', the Doctor just does it because he can and everyone is cured. Again, very little intensity to it, character development or emotion, instead it comes across more like a children's TV presenter running around in some mad game. Interestingly, the episode The Empty Child also serves as an example of how to balance an episode across two emotional extremes, as that episode is quite sinister and scary, yet it achieves that while also pulling off an excellent series of flirtatious scenes between Rose and Captain Jack. It can be done.

It's early days for David Tennant, and I quite like him as an actor, but Christopher Eccleston is a hard act to follow, especially since he got the benefit of playing a Doctor coming out of a galactic tragedy and got to ride that over a season designed to allow him to purge that issue from his system. The truth is though, Eccleston played a Doctor that swept you up in the romance of it all, and he did it well. This meant that even the smallest things had a grand emotion to them, even his speech to Rose about him feeling the Earth spinning in the first episode of season one was inspirational. You felt he cared, and I fully suspect if Eccleston had been in this episode you'd have fully felt for the plight of the 'diseased human zombies' as his acting would have made you care. At the moment I don't feel anything for David Tennant's Doctor, while Eccleston's grabbed me immediately as soon as he said 'Rose, run for your life! and then the speech about feeling the Earth clinched it. David Tennant's Doctor just seems to have less emotion about him. He seems to take it more in his stride, and just seems to care slightly less. The only emotion he tends to show is when he shouts to show he is angry, but the emotion of it doesn't seem to carry over to me, it's more a recognition he's angry by virtue of him shouting.

It wasn't all bad though. I thought Billy Piper was excellent as the possessed Rose, and did a much better job of that than David Tennant, who just came across like Austin Powers when possessed. I also thought the production values on sections of the episode were excellent, namely the outside views of the city and the make-up on the Cat People was particularly impressive. It was also good to see the return of the Face of Boe, and his enigmatic statements at the end had me wanting to know what they will lead to in this season or even the next. I also thought the ending was good, the Doctor taking Cassandra back to the last time she considered herself beautiful, only to have herself be the last person that told her she was beautiful. That was a poignant and ironic moment, that carried something, which is more than can be said for the rest.

The dyamic between Rose and the new Doctor also shows promise, but at the moment there is no clear direction of where it is going to go. It's interesting because a new dynamic is going to have to be forged by virtue of the fact Tennant is a very different actor and the fact he looks much closer to Billy Piper's age. I think the relationship will potentially be more playful, as Tennant seems more comfortable with that side of the Doctor, but I'm not sure this would be strong enough to replace the one forged between Eccleston's Doctor and Rose. To be honest, elements of Tennant's Doctor, his anger, and righteous indignation and ego could well move the two of them further apart. It could go either way. At the moment though, it's promising, but needs working on to give it some dramatic muscles. In the previous season, Rose proved to be the mechanism by which the Doctor found his way out of mourning for the events of the Time War, that's a strong dramatic arc to live up to.

Overall, it was just an average episode, saved by moments and performances rather than exuding quality itself. It just had incompatible ideas in it that all seemed to get thrown in, and the writing and the performances didn't really manage to pull them together into a package that worked. I think David Tennant's Doctor is still on probation, which is a pity as I think he is a good choice, it's just Christopher Eccleston turned Doctor Who into a weekly rollercoaster ride of sheer emotion and verve, a classically romantic tale of adventure, danger, tragedy and death, while at the moment, early signs show this elusive quality might be lost under Tennant's Doctor, making the show a less rich experience both dramatically and emotionally.

You see people watch shows for different reasons, and the selling point about Doctor Who for me was that classically romantic tale of adventure, tragedy and death, told with a sheer verve and passion that came off the screen through Eccleston's and Billy Piper's performance. I don't really see the value in episodes having weighty topics in them, such as human experiments, without the emotion of that being carried through the script and the actors performances. It's presence alone isn't interesting. Neither is seeing the 'New Earth', or Cat People, on their own. It is the dramatic performances that sell everything (born out of the script, of course). So, no matter how cool the other stuff is, without the excellent emotional, character driven ride it's only ever going to be an average or interesting show, rather than a brilliant one.

It's early days though for the new dynamic, so we shall see. Still, next week is a period piece involving a werewolf and Kung Fu monks, what more could you want?

2.2 Tooth and Claw

If there was a vote for the best pre-credit Doctor Who sequence in the new series, Tooth and Claw would win it by an astronomical margin. The appearance of the monks at the old house was very atmospheric, and the resulting Wuxia action sequence combined with the 28 Days Later style camera work was excellent. What other show can have a group of martial arts monks facing off against farm hands in 19th Century Scotland? In truth, it was probably a bit over the top, and doesn't really make much sense, but it was worth it for one of the best opening sequences on British television. It's just a pity the monks got neglected once the moonlight fell on the werewolf.

Tooth and Claw seems to serve the same purpose as the first season episode, The Unquiet Dead, in that it is a period peace with a horror theme. Strangely enough, if you count The Christmas Invasion as the first episode in the life of David Tennant's Doctor, the format of the show so far has been eerily similar to season one. In the first episode, The Christmas Invasion, The Doctor deals with an invasion of Earth by aliens. In the second episode, he goes far into the future and deals with the future of humanity and even meets Cassandra and the Face of Boe again. In the third he goes all historical and gets involved in a horror story with a supernatural element that's obviously explained as aliens and science. I also believe the Cybermen make an appearance mid-season, and in the final episodes, which is the same position the Dalek episodes occupied in season one. It remains to be seen how closely they follow the template and how this affects the viewing experience.

These period piece episodes always put the BBC on firm ground, as if the BBC is good at anything, it's good at historical dramas, it's used to producing, writing and directing them and no doubt has a thousand and one props on hand. As a result, it's not surprising that Tooth and Claw looks great. The costumes, sets, by and large the acting of the various supporting cast and the whole historical side of the production looked fantastic. The observatory on the top of the house was a stroke of genius, and just fantastical enough, and the set for that was also magnificent, as was the rest of the house. The advantages of not having to create a futuristic or alien set from nothing I guess. The major special effect was the werewolf, it was very well done, similar in quality to the one in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The werewolf was at its most scary in human form though, the conversation with Rose and the 'alien' sat in its cage being one of the best in the episode.

I also really liked the story. The idea that the alien life form had come to earth many years ago and just grown over the years, with them forming a cult around it, finding new hosts for it over the centuries, was very atmospheric. The whole plan to infect Queen Victoria was also suitably ridiculous, but it was a suitably ridiculous that worked, with the vision of the Werewolf ruling a vast empire and dictating the course of human history in some evil and nefarious direction. The image The Doctor had of it creating an empire of steam and iron was an interesting take, conjuring up all sorts of Steam Punk possibilities. The whole idea that the last owner of Torchwood Manor and Queen Victoria's husband were both scholars trying to unravel the mystery of the werewolf and destroy it was also great, though it was very coincidental that Queen Victoria happened to have the diamond with her on the night the monks set their plan in motion.

As with The Unquiet Dead, Tooth and Claw has a historical figure as a major character, almost equal in importance to The Doctor and Rose, who has their own dramatic story. In The Unquiet Dead, the crises of faith that Charles Dickens was going through, based around his belief in the supernatural or not, worked really well as a central dramatic element of the episode. The performance by Simon Callow was also one of the highlights. Regrettably, this can't be said for Queen Victoria, as the acting just didn't seem to flow right, and just never seemed natural. She never really felt that engaging as a character either, which has to be put at the feet of Pauline Collins, she just couldn't impart the necessary gravitas while also allowing the audience to connect with the character in any way. The journey Queen Victoria went through on the episode wasn't particularly strong either.

The fact Tooth and Claw serves as the events which gave birth to Torchwood, the organisation that features in the new series of the same name, was interesting. Not only because it was created by Queen Victoria, but because it was largely created out of a recognition that David Tennant's Doctor is reckless and dangerous and to some extent enjoys his life of danger and adventure too much. After all, several people died in this episode, yet Rose and The Doctor seemed to be having way too much fun. It's also ironic that The Doctor gave birth to the organisation that allowed Harriett Jones to destroy the Sycorax cruiser in The Christmas Invasion, much to his annoyance. The Doctor's actions may have given birth to an organisation that is less than perfectly altruistic, a sort of darker UNIT.

I must admit, I'm still not connecting with this series as much as the first season, and this does come down to the fact that David Tennant is portraying a Doctor I'm just connecting with less. He's less a Doctor to inspire you with the romance of it all, and instead him and Rose seem to be on some irreverent journey through time, having fun and a laugh despite the fact people are dying, or potentially dying, in their wake. The Doctor himself is also quite callous, and also not that sensitive, stopping to watch 'the beauty of the Werewolf', and still making jokes right to the end despite the death count. He doesn't even know when he's being insulting. It's a bit like two students parading through time not really giving a care to anyone or anything, just having laugh and seeing the sites.

I'm hoping there is a method in this madness, and that we are seeing the continuing story of one character despite the regeneration. It could said that David Tennant's Doctor is a product of the catharsis he went through when he refused to destroy the Earth to destroy the Daleks, and ultimately represented by his sacrifice to save Rose and his resulting regeneration. The reaction of Queen Victoria already suggests that Rose and the The Doctor are going to suffer for their flippancy and irreverence, as they live the high of this new beginning. It's possible that future episodes may, metaphorically at least, bring them back down to Earth.

Tooth and Claw was a good episode, not as good as the best the series has to offer, episodes such as Dalek and Father's Day, but it was a good episode. It was certainly better than the mess that was New Earth, aided by being a well done period piece, with excellent special effects and a much more unified theme and mood. This also meant that the actions of Rose and The Doctor could be seen in the dangerous context they are hopefully meant to be seen in, rather than just as part of a humorous escapade like in New Earth.

Next week we have aliens in a comprehensive school, Anthony Head playing the main bad guy and the return of Sarah Jane and K9, so it will be interesting to see how David Tennant plays that connection to The Doctor's past.

2.3 School Reunion

What's been interesting about the second series is it may have had a rough start with New Earth, but it turned in a solid action, horror, period piece with Tooth and Claw, and it's certainly hit the ground running with School Reunion. Not only is School Reunion one of the best episodes of the new show, up there with Dalek and Father's Day from season one, it's the episode that begins to define David Tennant's Doctor, and finally cements him in the role. It also takes the biggest step so far to marry the old and the new.

School Reunion does something we've not seen in the new show before, it effectively begins in media res. We don't see the Tardis arrive at a specific time and place. Neither do we see The Doctor and Rose pulled into any sort of adventure. The episode begins with The Doctor already in a comprehensive school pretending to be a teacher. Rose is also filling a much less glamorous role masquerading as a dinner lady. As the episode unfolds, we find that The Doctor and Rose are investigating the school after being called in by Mickey because he thinks something weird is going on, UFO sightings and other strangeness are mentioned as the reason, truth be told it's not really that important. What is important is that an alien race masquerading as humans are using the school kids to achieve something nefarious and The Doctor, Rose, Mickey and....Sarah Jane Smith are there to find out the answer. The fact we don't see the Tardis arrive is used for excellent effect, and I suspect the main reason for the episode's structure, as we see it for the first time when Sarah Jane Smith discovers it completely by accident, and we feel the emotions hitting her unexpectedly.

While the presence of Sarah Jane Smith in the episode is obviously one of its main selling points, what's brilliant is it does not use this as an excuse to concentrate on that above all other things. The episode stands out because it gets lots of things right. The main element it gets right is the writing, this episode is almost perfectly written. Despite having to divide time between six significant characters, if we include the excellent Mr Finch, and the provision of a dramatic arc for K-9, along with fitting in all the action and a suitable plot, the episode is perfectly paced. It also balances the emotions of the episode perfectly.

Like all the best episodes of the new series, this one wears its emotions on its sleeve, and has a heart to it that cannot help but give you a lump in your throat by the time the credits are rolling. The core of the episode focuses on the inherent loneliness of The Doctor's life, how he compensates for this by forming relationships with his travelling companions, but ultimately he knows the relationships are doomed in one form or another because they will grow old and die, and he won't. The presence of Sarah Jane, the one companions The Doctor left behind, rather than the other way around, serves as an excellent way to analyse this issue. It also further develops the relationship Rose has with The Doctor, as she'd never considered the future before, and had been perfectly happy to live in the moment, until she sees her future and historical self at the same time in the face of Sarah Jane Smith. She now knows he will almost certainly break her heart. It's powerful stuff.

The acting in the episode by all concerned was exemplary. David Tennant finally gives us a Doctor you can care about, while not damaging the hard edge he'd established. It helps that he gets one of the best written scenes in the show so far, when The Doctor and Mr Finch engage in some verbal sparring like only two major grade protagonists can. It was an excellent dance of words, excellently written and acted by both David Tennant and Anthony Head. Like two skilled gunfighters, facing off, just with no guns and across a comprehensive school swimming pool. As they say, only in Doctor Who. The scene easily rivals similar confrontations in Dalek and Parting of the Ways, which says a lot as those scenes benefited from the presence of the Daleks and a lot of history. Indeed, Anthony Head is wasted slightly in this episode, as his performance was that good as a foil for The Doctor the scene cried out for him to be playing The Master at that point, and not the head of some relatively innocuous alien race.

Billy Piper and Elisabeth Sladen play their roles perfectly, allowing for the conflict to occur with neither character coming off with any negative connotations. The journey that Rose and Sarah Jane go through is very well written, the subtext is obviously that of the current girlfriend meeting the ex-girlfriend, which Mickey quite obviously points out, and it works really well, with the two characters going from jealousy, to friendship and ridiculing The Doctor, to a knowledge that one day Rose will be in Sarah Jane's position and, when she is, Sarah Jane will be there for her. Elisabeth Sladen puts in an excellent performance that is touching and subtle, it's excellently pitched and very well done.

Then you have Mickey and K-9, both of which go through a transformation of sorts in the episode, which is again a testament to the writing and the acting (at least in Mickey's case). It is a testament to the episode that they can make you believe a robot dog that 'looks a bit Disco' can be a hero. In many ways, just like Sarah Jane represents a mirror for Rose, K-9 is used as a slightly humorous mirror for Mickey, when he realises he's sort of the second-grade sidekick, and in many ways 'the robot dog' when it comes to the relationships formed around The Doctor. School Reunion takes K-9, who you would have thought would have been a hard sell in the modern show, for a modern audience and somehow turns him into a character that you'd have no problem being on the show week in and week out. Hell, even my heart rose in my throat when K-9 heroically held off the bad guys in the school hall with his laser. As for Mickey, he changed in this episode, somehow moving from a rather ineffectual character to one who is comedy genius, and who, when he asked to join The Doctor in the Tardis you found yourself wanting the answer to be yes. I'm left wondering whether they are building him up so he can die later on, as I have a sinking feeling either Mickey or Rose's mother will die this season.

It also seems that a number of themes have been running through the first three episodes, though it's always way too easy to see things that aren't really there. This is especially true after the whole Bad Wolf undercurrent of season one. We obviously have Torchwood, which was mentioned in The Christmas Invasion, and the reason why it was formed was shown in Tooth and Claw. This is almost certainly going to be a darker UNIT, and will almost certainly come into play in the final episode of the season, featuring the Cybermen for the second time. We also seem to have a bit of symbolism going on with the moon, the hospital in New Earth had a crescent moon symbol, Tooth and Claw obviously had the Werewolf raging out at the full moon and School Reunion had numerous shots of the bad guys against a large, full moon. We also have an emphasis on the past in that New Earth has the Face of Boe passing on eternity's secrets, as well as Cassandra's obsession with the past. In Tooth and Claw we have the whole arc for Queen Victoria being based on the death of her husband and him looking out for her. In School Reunion we have the weight of the past being pressed upon The Doctor. Not sure what all this means and whether it will be borne out in the episodes to come, but it's an interesting observation either way.

You could list and describe scenes and performances in this episode for pages and pages, it's so full of good material. It's quite simply one of the best episodes of the new show, and it really raises the stakes for season two after a relatively lacklustre start. Let's hope the momentum carries on into next week when the Tardis lands in the 18th century court of Louis XV, and The Doctor and company meet Madame Du Pompadour, and some sinister Clockwork men.

2.4 The Girl in the Fireplace

The Girl in the Fireplace is an interesting episode, because it demonstrates how the 'suitable for age groups eight to eighty format' can sometimes be to the detriment of the show. While its mass appeal is its greatest strength, and it's essential genius, it can occasionally result in episodes which conflict with themselves. You see, while The Girl in the Fireplace has very strong elements, you can't help but feel the core idea could have been better implemented by dropping some of the series baggage for 45 minutes.

The episode begins in 18th century France, with chaos obviously ensuing in a mansion and a young woman calling to The Doctor for help through a fireplace, as she knows he will come to help her. Mysterious, well paced and excellently acted. After the credits, the TARDIS arrives on a space ship in the future and The Doctor discovers numerous time windows following the life of a girl named Reinette, who will become Madame Du Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV. What follows is a story about clockwork robots threatening Reinette throughout her life. In an attempt to save her from the robots, The Doctor appears to her at points throughout her life as well, as a 'guardian angel', first when she is a young girl and at various different points, culminating in him returning due to her call for help in the opening scene. This sets up one of the best parts of the story, a romance told at two paces, one side experiencing the relationship over the course of her life, and The Doctor experiencing it in the space of hours.

The Girl in the Fireplace works best when it is concentrating on the scenes between The Doctor and Reinette, at various points in her life. Sophia Myles, who plays Reinette, plays the role perfectly, and in many ways she carries the episode, as she makes you believe The Doctor would find her fascinating and you can't help but fall in love with her character yourself. The development of the romance, in the sumptuous and gorgeously realised period setting, is excellent, and the interaction between the characters is enthralling. The end of the relationship is also perfectly done, with Reinette dying, The Doctor never having returned after telling her to run to the window and pick a star: a lifetime for Reinette, but only minutes for The Doctor.

In all honesty, the rest of the episode is pretty weak. The plot involving the clockwork robots seems pretty desperate, and while it works in the context of framing the romance, it's not that brilliant in and off itself. The scenes with Rose and Mickey don't really add anything to the episode, in fact, they just detract from the central story. Unlike School Reunion, the overall pace and structure wasn't as good, neither was the time spent with the different characters as deftly orchestrated and the jeopardy plot had less weight. You can't help feeling the core story could have been told in a better way, that would have left more time for it, especially since the scenes that detracted from it didn't really add anything (in terms of developing Rose and Mickey) or actually proved to be ridiculous (such as The Doctor acting drunk like someone from The Young Ones).

Another problem is the editing of the episode, you can't help but feel scenes were filmed that have been edited out. After an excellent scene in which Reinette persuades The Doctor to have a dance, you don't actually see them dance, which I think you should have done. In the scene in which Rose turns up to give Reinette a message, Rose gives Reinette an explanation but it just seems glib, and more flimsy excuse to get Reinette and Rose talking, and then the opportunity is wasted. Then the final scene, with The Doctor arriving on a horse to save the day, he did that knowing he would be trapping himself in history and leaving Rose and Mickey to rot on the spaceship yet we see no scene of him making that choice. It just left things slightly disjointed.

The episode also progresses the relationship between Rose and The Doctor, in that this episode clearly positions the relationship as becoming more distant. Over the course of the first season Rose and The Doctor had a passionate and intense relationship, as he whisked her off out of her dreary life, and he essentially dealt with his grief through travelling with Rose. Now Rose is travelling with someone who comes across like her older brother, slightly distant, a bit irreverent and not necessarily seeing Rose in any romantic context at all. While it may not end badly, I certainly think this relationship is going to go through its bad moments, you can see it coming. After all, he fell in love with Madame Du Pompadour, while he's never had a romantic relationship with Rose in that sense, least of all now. He wasn't all that bothered about being trapped in Earth's past either, despite it meaning Rose was left on the space ship.

This series also seems to be taking steps to affirm The Doctor's role as the protagonist of the series. In the first series it could have been argued Rose had equal billing, and from a certain perspective was actually the lead character. This series has distanced The Doctor from Rose over the course of the four episodes, and also shown him to be more directly responsible for saving the day, rather than empowering others to do so, which is often what happened in the previous series. This isn't so much a negative or a positive, more an observation.

Despite The Doctor's role as a protagonist getting a boost this season, the performance by David Tennant still seems very hit and miss. It's potentially becoming clearer why though: it just seems so damned inconsistent. At times it's like he's playing at being The Doctor, rather than becoming The Doctor in any meaningful way. His best performance to date has been in School Reunion, but that was also the more measured performance, and less prone to actions that make him come across like a children's TV presenter or being so exuberant he starts to almost sound like Kenneth Williams. Whether it was a difference in the scripts, or whether Christopher Eccleston provided the performance despite the scripts, Christopher Eccleston played a Doctor that seemed consistent in character, and that was a character that seemed well placed within the context of the stories being told. You don't get this sense with David Tennant's Doctor, School Reunion aside. The performance is just too scattered and all over the place for me. It's not exactly bad, but it just provides a barrier to actually connecting with the character, and making him feel 100% at home in the story being told. The ironic thing is, despite Eccleston's performance being more human, he also managed to make The Doctor more alien, Tennant's is a bit more 'out there' and yet he is coming across more and more human with each episode.

Overall, The Girl in the Fireplace is a good episode, it's one you would watch every so often if you had the DVD set, but you'd watch it for the excellent romantic relationship that forms the core of the episode. In truth, the rest of the episode isn't that interesting and acts just as a mechanism to keep Rose and Mickey busy and to allow the romantic relationship to develop through moments in time, combined with an element of danger. In a perfect world, the episode would have been done slightly differently to place even more focus on the romance elements, and reduce the humour and Rose and Mickey jeopardy, but you can't have everything.

There is only one thing to say about next week: Cybermen!

2.5 Rise of the Cybermen

The first season saw the return of the Daleks, excellently done in Dalek and The Parting of the Ways, and it could be argued that Dalek is one of the single, best episodes of Doctor Who ever, so Rise of the Cybermen and Age of Steel had a lot to live up to. It had to deliver a story that was suitably epic enough for the return of The Doctor's second most iconic enemy, and since it is a two-part story, they don't really have any excuses. It has to be big, and I'd argue, since it sits in the middle of the season, character defining and leave its imprint on the second half of the season as we move to the final chapter, which also features the Cybermen.

The TARDIS suffers an accident, causing the TARDIS to be thrown into a parallel universe and 'die', leaving The Doctor, Rose and Mickey stranded. In a quirk of fate, the parallel universe is a representation of modern London, with some obvious differences. It's not long before Rose discovers her father is alive in this reality, and apparently a success. Despite The Doctor's advice, both Mickey and Rose set off to explore how the parallel world differs with respect to their families. In the meantime though, a dying megalomaniac, John Lumic, is creating the Cybermen, cyborg beings with human brains and bodies of steel, as a way to save himself from death.

So, how does Rise of the Cybermen, the first part, stack up? Well, regrettably, you can't help but think the story is quite simple and uninspired.

The episode basically flicks between Rose and The Doctor paying a visit to Rose's alternate family, Mickey dealing with his alternate life and the story of John Lumic trying to get sanction for his experiments and his cybernetic creations. The trouble with this is, by giving equal weight to what John Lumic is up to, it removes any sense of mystery from the episode at all, as the audience knows what's going on before it's dramatically revealed to The Doctor and his companions. As a result, the impact of the first appearance of the Cybermen is reduced twice, once because everyone was waiting for it, and twice because the audience had been told the how, when and why over the course of the episode. It removed any sense of mystery that could have been rescued from the situation. It also has to be said, that having the Cybermen created by a mad genius driven to save himself from his own failing body is just a bit obvious.

The Rise of the Cybermen also suffers because it dedicates too much time to Roses alternate family. Let's face it, this alternate view of Rose's family might have been fascinating if we hadn't had the episode Father's Day in season one. Opening the issue again just seems cheap and pointless, as her father made the ultimate sacrifice for her in Father's Day; it seems odd now to flirt with the topic again with alternate versions. The time dedicated to it in Rise of the Cybermen, doesn't go anywhere or achieve anything beyond establishing facts like her father's still a good guy at heart and her mother's turned into a bit of a bitch, and all their money hasn't delivered happiness. It doesn't provide significant character growth for Rose because she's already dealt with the loss of her father.

Even though this episode is a two-part story, it's obvious that this isn't Rose's or The Doctor's story, but Mickey's. We had the whole of season one establishing that Mickey is a bit useless to one degree or another. Then we had School Reunion defining Mickey as a stronger character, even if it was one based on his wish not to be the 'robot dog'. Now we have Rise of the Cybermen, which gives Mickey the chance to meet the Grandmother he killed inadvertently by not fixing a piece of carpet, and meet an alternate version of himself that isn't incompetent, and not only that, is the leader of the resistance movement against the megalomaniac John Lumic. This will undoubtedly mean that the alternate Mickey (called Rickey) will die and the real Mickey will take his place, or the real Mickey will die to save the alternate one. While the ending to Mickeys story now seems inevitable, his story was the most interesting part of the episode.

If anything deserves praise in the episode, it's the special effects, as, without a doubt, someone decided this episode should be a budget buster. Ironically, it isn't so much the Cybermen that define the scale of the episode, but the presence of the airships that can be constantly seen in the skies above London. There are a number of wide shots of the airships in the sky and they look great, you also get a number of shots from below, of airships coming over buildings at low altitudes and they look great as well. They are really good, and didn't have that 'okay but not great' look some of the other series effects have had.

As for the Cybermen themselves? Well, it's a bit strange, as while you recognise the excellent work that has gone into realising them for a modern audience, the excellent art work on the suits, the effort training people to move in groups as a singular machine and dramatic shots like Cybermen bursting through windows, they lack a certain punch. It's as if the Daleks returned better than ever, while I'm not sure the Cybermen, overall, are better than their previous incarnations. I think I know why this is, though I realise this may be influenced by my less than encyclopaedic knowledge of the classic shows.

The return of the Daleks in the previous season was effective because they became actual protagonists, scary not just because of how cool they looked, but because each individual Dalek could actually hold its own in an argument with The Doctor. As far as I remember, this was rarely the case in the classic show, as Davros invariably played the verbal sparing partner, leaving the Daleks to largely roll around anonymously and screech 'exterminate'. In contrast, in the relatively modern Cybermen episodes of the classic series, such as Earthshock, it was the Cybermen who provided an enemy The Doctor could spar verbally with, via the eponymous Cyber Leader, who spoke in a deep, monotone, Darth Vader sort of voice. The voice was really good, and still sounds good in my opinion. The incarnations we see in Rise of the Cybermen lack this dramatic punch and instead have become less singular entities, but more mindless cogs of a singular mind with discreet phrases they tend to use like being 'upgraded' and 'deleted'. Not only that, their voices sound like theyve been put together by a teenager using a Vic 20 with some sound software. The last thing they can do is argue their nefarious plan with The Doctor, as the Cybermen themselves dont have one; they just have a singular purpose to upgrade humanity. Not only that, unless something changes in Age of Steel, the new Cybermen are going to have their voice be a megalomaniac in a wheelchair, which has similarities to Davros. It leaves the Cybermen themselves without any dramatic punch or impact to be honest. They felt weak.

In many ways it's hard to judge Rise of the Cybermen, because it isn't complete until we see Age of Steel. As a standalone work, it didn't really have much impact, dramatically it was relatively weak, the reasoning for John Lumic to create the Cybermen was a bit tired and formulaic and the Cybermen seriously lacked impact. The cliffhanger was also lacking, and was a far cry from the ending of Bad Wolf, which was up there with the Star Trek episode Best of Both Worlds as one of the best cliffhangers on TV. In many ways, the episode felt like it was treading water to a degree. As a result, you have to hope that the complete work of Rise of the Cybermen and Age of Steel actually delivers as a whole, and for that to happen, Age of Steel is going to have to be significantly better. Since it's the conclusion, rather than being saddled with establishing the build up, we can only hope it is. Even though it continues down the formulaic road, ideally we'll see the Cybermen gain independence from John Lumic, get a good Cyber Leader, and face The Doctor as great enemies rather than mindless foot soldiers.

As well as completing the story, Age of Steel also represents another turning point, as it will be the exactly halfway through the season, and so far season two has not even been close to the quality of season one. This is for various reasons, David Tennant's Doctor is just less engaging than Christopher Eccleston's, they are repeating a formula this season that they used last season: the structure of the series is similar, the use of a returning iconic villain is similar, the use of a phrase (in this case Torchwood) throughout the season to provide some sort of weak build up to the final episodes is similar, etc. All these elements add up to make the whole series just dramatically weaker and less engaging, intimate and visceral. While you don't have a terrible TV show, it's good to watch, you don't have classic TV show, and you certainly have one more towards the Children's TV show end of the scale.

Strangely, Age of Steel is the first episode of the new series not to be previewed at the end of the previous episode. Someone's going to die for sure, but will it be Mickey or Rickey?

2.6 Age of Steel

Age of Steel follows on immediately from the cliffhanger established in Rise of the Cybermen, with The Doctor, his companions and Rickey's team surrounded. In the first minute, we find out why The Doctor strangely took the last remaining source of power for the broken TARDIS with him, so he could use it as a plot device to disintegrate the Cybermen and make a run for it. What then follows is a bit of typical Doctor Who running around, which sees Rickey killed in front of Mickey, then they embark upon a three way attack on Lumic's headquarters. The Doctor and Mrs Moore enter through an old tunnel network, Rose and her father pretend to be controlled via dummy ear pieces and walk in through the 'front door' and Mickey and Jake go to the roof to take control of the airship and stop the signal that is causing everyone to walk in and be turned into Cybermen.

As predicted, Age of Steel was largely a Mickey story, with him being the only character to progress in any significant way. This is a good thing, as one of the negative elements of the first season was the way that Mickey was portrayed as the useless, simple and cowardly boyfriend all the way through season one. It was interesting to see him give as good as he gets in School Reunion, and provide some humor that isn't based on him being useless, but actually being witty. While it may have been a bit formulaic to either kill Mickey or have Mickey take Rickey's place, it did allow the character to ride off into the sunset in a world in which he has, and will continue, to make a difference.

Regrettably, Age of Steel doesn't improve upon what we saw of the Cybermen in Rise of the Cybermen, so I found myself having to accept the fact that the Cybermen are not going to repeat the success of the Daleks and storm into the new series better than anyone could have ever imagined. In the case of the Cybermen, you can't help but think they were better before, and I never thought I'd be saying that. The main problem is the Cybermen just aren't scary, neither are they sinister or threatening; they come across more like action figures stomping around with voices that would just make you laugh. I still can't agree with the idea they all seem to have a singular personality, moving around in formation and speaking as if part of one mind, or at least one purpose. In the few episodes I've seen of the classic Cybermen, I remember them being emotionless, but not necessarily like carbon copies of each other. They seemed to have no emotions in the sense that Vulcans have no emotions, which didn't exclude some sense of a sinister personality, while these new ones seem like they are all stomping around with the same computer program running in their metal bodies. I thought it might improve when Lumic got 'upgraded' by his own creations, and became the Cyber Controller, as that might have returned us to the good old days of the deep voiced Cyber Leader, but he didn't really work either. He didn't really give the Cybermen any dramatic weight. On what we've seen currently, I won't actually be looking forward to a future Doctor Who episode that features the Cybermen, as the they are pretty lackluster.

Overall, the problem Rise of the Cybermen and Age of Steel have is they are written in the most by the numbers way that it could have been written in, and the script doesn't have a single spark of originality. The fact the Cybermen are created by a dying man who does it to give himself immortality is just a tired and obvious idea, it's the first idea that would come to you and you'd discount it for something more exciting. The fact the Cybermen seem to be carbon copies of each other with no original thought in their heads was also the easy way out, and The Borg did it better on Star Trek. The Cybermen needed to be creatures without emotion, but that doesn't preclude a sense of menace, or an ability to hold a conversation. The use of the alternate time line, a weak tool in and of itself to avoid a whole host of challenges, was also implemented in a tired and formulaic way, and due to Father's Day, didn't really add anything. The pathetic attempt to endear the audience to weak guest characters, essentially 'red shirts', in an attempt to make us feel sad when they died was jarring. The same could be said of Jackie Tyler, I didn't care she got turned into a Cyberman, as it wasn't really Jackie Tyler. I could go on and on. The only saving grace was Mickey getting some sense of an ending to his character. The episode took no risks, the script had no meat to it, seemed a bit messy, neither did it rise to any challenges, it was written in the most formulaic, obvious and traditional way possible.

Ironically, this lack of originality in the writing sort of plays to the fact that Age of Steel is the closest the BBC has come to doing big budget scifi on the small screen, or on the big screen for that matter. The episode is quite large in scale, with lots of Cybermen stomping around, thanks to making quite a few suits and using editing to give the impression there are even more. The episode also has some strong imagery in it, most notably the lines of Cybermen, silent and dormant in the tunnels The Doctor and Mrs Moore take to Lumic's headquarters; it's so obvious they will begin to move and the episode doesn't disappoint. The air ship on the roof of Lumic's headquarters is also grand in scope, and looks really good, and Mickey's heroic decision to hold the airship in place and get a message to The Doctor, Rose and Pete Tyler was suitably heroic. It was let down slightly by the fact that the three of them then took the same old staircase we've seen in the episodes Rose and New Earth, and probably some others I've missed. While the script may not have been that great, some of the visuals, and the scope of the action is audacious, but just like banal summer blockbusters, a good piece of fiction these do not make, even in a visual medium.

Interestingly, there was no attempt to tie the Cybermen to the Cybermen featured in the classic series, while Rose mentioned the Cyberman helmet she saw during season one, The Doctor glibly explained that the Cyberman they are facing are the Cybermen of this reality, and as such they have come into being in a totally different way, namely on Earth via John Lumic. While this is a bit weak, it does leave some questions regarding the final episodes of the season, which also feature the Cybermen. Will the final episodes of season two feature the Cybermen of the 'proper' Doctor Who continuity or will the Cybermen of the alternate reality break through? It's almost certainly going to be the latter, as anything else would be too confusing for the viewer (and they'll want to re-use the suits), so the show must be assuming that the classic Cybermen didn't survive the Time War and are going to be re-established in the show via the ones born in Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel.

Regrettably, Rise of the Cybermen and Age of Steel, leave me with the feeling I was watching a kids show, airing at 5.30pm in the evening, and a bad one at that, as kids shows with more dramatic weight and better storytelling have aired in that time slot. In fact, to a degree, this is a problem with season two as a whole so far. Season one felt like a good, solid, dramatic show that happened to also appeal to kids; season two feels like a kids show that just might, if you are lucky, have the odd worthwhile thing in for adults.

Rise of the Cybermen and Age of Steel really represents a low point in the new Doctor Who show so far, and represent a seriously missed opportunity.

2.7 The Idiot's Lantern

The problem with reviewing a TV show in a diary fashion, is it can become a right pain to summon up the enthusiasm when the show seems to be on a downward spiral, and seems to be less and less relevant to you with each passing episode. It's a joy to do when you are riding a wave of enthusiasm due to the show dragging you along, kicking and screaming in its wake, but mediocrity is hard to write about.

The Doctor and Rose arrive in 1950's London, though they were supposed to appear in New York, to see Elvis, but as usual the TARDIS got it all wrong. The poor thing has probably visited London during so many different time periods that its circuits have got confused. Still, it gives us an excuse to see Rose dressed up like she's just come off the set of Grease. Anyway, it's the eve of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, TV's are spreading throughout the city like wildfire, and people are being taken from their homes by mysterious men in black. We know that it's some sort of alien working its evil through the TV signal, but The Doctor and Rose have to figure it out, while soaking up the period and interacting with the people and the attitudes of the time. Obviously, The Doctor ultimately saves the day, but not before Rose herself has all the electromagnetic signals sucked out of her brain.

The Idiot's Lantern is a strange episode, as there is nothing particularly wrong with it, and you feel it should be better than it is, but for some strange reason all the elements don't really add up to the sum of their parts. The Idiots Lantern is very similar to The Unquiet Dead and Tooth and Claw, specifically The Unquiet Dead as Mark Gatiss wrote both episodes. The similar elements are namely the horror overtones, the period piece feel and the fact that the episode is as much a drama about the period characters as it is The Doctor and Rose. As I say, the individual parts of the episode are great, the Fifties is realised very well, the period piece characters are very good, specifically Tommy, the alien enemy was suitably surreal and sinister, the episode was very well paced, and had a rousing and exciting conclusion all packaged into 45 minutes. You watch the episode and you realise it should be more impressive, but for some reason it isn't. Is it the familiarity of the format having been seen in two episodes previously? Is it the lack of dramatic weight from David Tennant? Is it that Simon Callow's performance as Charles Dickens is hard to beat? Is it something more elusive?

The Wire, the alien nemesis, played by Maureen Lipman, was one of the stand out elements of the episode. While it's totally mad as to why this alien should be in the 'TV signal' and sounding like a slightly sinister TV presenter of the time, it worked quite well. It was familiar, yet not, and certainly eerie, though it could be said it degenerated too much into her repeating how hungry she was at different pitches rather than concentrating on making her an excellent foil for The Doctor in a similar way to Mr Finch in School Reunion.

The conclusion was also suitably action orientated and quite good, and it brought back memories of a previous Doctor hiking up another mast and falling to his death in the process. It was good the way that Tommy was involved in the action, making sure the power never went off to allow The Doctor to complete his plan of recording The Wire harmlessly onto a Betamax tape. I'll be honest, I actually wanted Tommy to join The Doctor as a companion, for some reason his character, attitude and prominence in the episode had me wanting to see more of him and how his character and relationship with The Doctor would develop over time.

Was the episode scary? I think it was trying to be, but it left you feeling you should be scared rather than actually being scared. Which is fine, the show is designed to be scary for people much younger than me, but it's telling that I didn't find the episode unsettling, like I did with episodes such as The Unquiet Dead, Dalek and The Empty Child. The episode did try and give things a bit of a visual style which worked quite well, The Doctor had done his hair in a almost Fifties style, Rose had got all dressed up posh, and the episode used slightly angled camera shots every so often. The historical scenes like the family gathering around the TV and marveling over the worst TV picture in the world was also interesting. The trouble is, good dramatic television all these things do not make, as that comes down to the script and the acting, and again there was a mediocrity to it all. I mean, despite Rose getting attacked by The Wire and being rendered brain dead with no face, I got more of a dramatic story from the family drama surrounding the 1950's family the episode focused on. It was probably one of the reasons Tommy was so interesting, being the central character of that drama.

What's starting to get very annoying is the lack of any overriding context between the episodes, while in the first series each and every episode was a self-contained story, the relationship between Rose and The Doctor, and other semi-permanent characters like Captain Jack, remained consistent and developed from episode to episode using whatever material they could harvest from the story being told. This just isn't happening this season, other than a few continuity problems, the episodes could actually be aired in any particular order, and to be honest, they sort of feel like they have. They certainly feel like they've been written independently. The relationship between Rose and The Doctor in The Idiot's Lantern is more like what we saw in New Earth and Tooth and Claw, it's as if the events in School Reunion and The Girl in the Fireplace, which established a more distant relationship, never actually happened. This is a big problem, as I think the season one approach, which essentially made not only each episode a story, but the whole season a story, compensated somewhat for the weakness in individual episodes. In season two, all you've got is the individual episode, and as such the 'something for everyone' approach is not working for me.

I know I keep going on about it, but the trouble is he keeps giving me a reason to, but David Tennant's performance is, again, a complete non-event. This is an episode in which Rose gets attacked by The Wire, has her brain literally sucked out of her head, and all The Doctor can do is tell us how irate he is, and how he now means business, by shouting. The trouble is, you don't feel his anger, or that he's that arrogant, you just get the sense David Tennant shouts because he can't think of any better way to portray it. School Reunion remains the only episode, so far, in which we got a performance out of David Tennant that was remotely rich and engaging, they need to go back to that more measured, subtle and sinister performance.

The viewing figures are still strong for the show, so I'm potentially in a minority in thinking this season has been decidedly average, but who knows, as I'm still tuning in every week, so maybe many other people are, despite the dissatisfaction? To be honest, it comes down to the eight to eighty factor I think. It's supposed to have mass appeal. It obviously does, and I can see how the show would be really good for a family sitting down to watch it together, with 2-3 generations watching. I can understand how kids are finding it must see TV. The trouble is, as a mature, 35 year old man, who expects a bit of emotional intensity, strong character relationships and a bit of depth to his TV shows, the second series still isn't delivering. The mystery is how often I can say that in this diary when there are still six episodes to go.

Halfway And Not So Good

Well, the season is half over, and so far it hasn't really impressed. The first season stood out by making The Doctor more than a man, he became a force of nature, a catalyst for change, something mythical and romantic. The journey he and Rose took had verve, excitement and romance to it like a great a adventure tale. This hasn't so much happened in season two. The relationship between Rose and The Doctor hasn't really worked, though it took a momentarily interesting turn in School Reunion, and the episodes have lacked anything that connects them. While season one felt like one grand adventure of verve and excitement, so far season two has felt like individual episodes of a TV show, a lot of them hit and miss. David Tennant's performance hasn't helped, which has been so random, at times brilliant, School Reunion and The Girl in the Fireplace, and at others times amazingly bad (even some moments in The Girls in the Fireplace reached playschool proportions).

We shall see if things improve in season two, but so far School Reunion is the best episode of the season by a mile.

Ian O'Rourke, as well as being the man behind Fandomlife.net, is also a fan of anything that engages his imagination, be it a book, comic, TV show, theme park, an IT Project or business change.