Doctor Who Archives - (New) Series 3

So with the loss of Rose, the Doctor picks up a new companion this series with Martha - a student studying to be a doctor (of the medical kind). It was hard, having just changed to a new Doctor last year to then change companions, and Martha sometimes gets the short end of the stick when it comes to companions (the Doctor still mourning the loss of Rose). But she's smart, she's got guts and the Doctor needs her.

To be completed

So this is the first of the two-part episodes and it's an interesting change in dynamics as the Doctor, literally, becomes human. There's a group of aliens hunting The Doctor but they've got only a limited amount of time so The Doctor decides to hide and wait out the 3 months. Using the chameleon arch (which will pop up again later this series), he wipes his memories and turns himself human. Human John Smith, teacher of a boys' boarding school in England in 1913, with Martha tagging along as his maid, watching over him. All his memories are stored in a fob watch.

He may have forgotten who he is but his memories seep through in his dreams and the journal he keeps is full of drawings and fantastical 'stories'. For two months, all seems to be going well but then, trouble starts brewing on a few fronts. First, John Smith begins to fall in love with Nurse Joan Redfern (which leads to heartbreak later) and secondly, the aliens have landed. Martha is flummoxed. The Doctor had left a video of instructions on what to do in his 'absence' but he hadn't anticipated falling in love or an alien encounter.

The aliens by the way, take form by possessing several humans and are pretty creepy, particularly the actor playing the 'son'. He's got the strangest expressions and mannerisms. This family of aliens call each other 'mother-of-mine, son-of-mine' etc. The scarecrow army is scary too in the way they've sewn the eyes and mouths. They suspect and sense that The Doctor is in the area but not having seen his face, don't know what he looks like. Tim Latimer, one of the school boys has low-level telepathic abilities and ends up taking the Doctor's fob watch and being able to hear his whispers. When he unwittingly opens the watch and releases some of whatever-is-inside, the aliens pick up the scent. Tim sees glimpses of the truth throughout the episode, the truth of 'John Smith', of Martha, of his own future but it's all confusing and the watch tells him to wait, to hide.

Martha, having realised that the aliens have managed to track them tries to get The Doctor back but the fob watch is gone and John Smith is having none of her nonsense. He's asked Nurse Redfern to the village dance and effectively throws Martha out. But she's not giving up and tries to confront him again at the Dance. The episode ends on a cliffhanger as the aliens enter the dance and having figured out that John Smith is The Doctor, hold Martha and Nurse Redfern hostage, forcing the Doctor to choose between them.

It's an intriguing episode as The Doctor isn't the font of knowledge and we see him as a human, bumbling about as humans do, doing things that we'd never see him do as The Doctor (teaching children to prepare for war, getting into a relationship). It's also difficult for Martha, reduced to being a maid during a time when women and people of colour were subservient to the men, having to watch over The Doctor who had no idea of her worth.

Part two of this two-parter picks up where the last episode ended, with Martha and Nurse Redfern held captive and The Doctor forced to choose between them. But he is saved when Tim Latimer opens the fob watch and distracts the aliens (he does this several times throughout the episode). People flee and The Doctor, Martha and Nurse Redfern return to the school. The students take up defensive positions and prepare for battle against the aliens. 'The Family of Blood' as they call themselves arrive with their scarecrow army.

When the time comes, The Doctor is unable to fire at the scarecrow army and after the Headmaster is killed, he calls for retreat. The trio flee to an empty house where John Smith is once again confronted with the truth, he is not who he thinks he is, he is The Doctor and he must take the fob watch (brought by Tim Latimer) and become the Time Lord he is. Only problem, he's made quite a nice life here and he doesn't want to 'die'. He doesn't want to lose everything he's gained. I love how Tim Latimer describes The Doctor - "He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night, and the storm in the heart of the sun. He's ancient and forever. He burns at the center of time and he can see the turn of the universe. And... he's wonderful"

It's strange and heart-wrenching to see The Doctor/John Smith having to come to grips with the truth and the decision he has to make. He can see what his life would be like as a human (marriage, children) and he doesn't want to let it go. But in the end, he gives it all up to become The Doctor. How the Doctor blows up The Family's ship (swiping buttons on the wall) makes no sense (really, who would design a spaceship like this) but it's done. What he does to 'The Family' in the end is quite chilling - the fury of a Time Lord. Made more so by the narration of the son - "We wanted to live forever. So the Doctor made sure we did." It's somewhat reminiscent of his actions in the Christmas episode "The Runaway Bride" when he sentences the Racnoss' children to death. It's a reminder of the darkness within him.

But it's also heart-breaking for Nurse Redfern, who never expected to fall in love again and finds out that the man she's falling for is not who she thinks he is. The Doctor asks Nurse Redfern to join him in the TARDIS, that maybe they could start again. But she declines, asking him - if he hadn't come, would those who were killed have died? In her mind The Doctor hid amongst them, leading the aliens to them, while John Smith was willing to 'die'. She hasn't forgiven him for what happens, it hurts far too much. But, she still has John Smith's journal (which pops up again several seasons from now).

All in all an enjoyable two-parter. There were seriously creepy aliens. A different and intriguing set of circumstances and take on The Doctor.

One of my favourite episodes of all time despite it not having much of the The Doctor. I think it's also a great episode to introduce people to what Doctor Who is about - time, monsters, witty banter and adventure. The Weeping Angels are one of the scariest and best new monsters firstly because statues are everywhere and secondly because they are genuinely freaky and grotesque.

The main protagonist in this episode is Sally Sparrow who has one of the best quotes/conversations - "I love old things, they make me feel sad" "What's good about sad?" "It's happy for deep people".

Two of the people she knows gets sent back in time by the Weeping Angels so we get the weird situation where she's talking to a young detective one minute and then the next minute she's visiting him in a nursing home where he's a 70 year old man having taken the slow path back to the present. It turns out that The Doctor and Martha have also been sent back to 1969 and are stuck there until Sally can send the TARDIS back to them. How this happens is a wonderfully weird time loop. At the end of the episode Sally runs into the Doctor and Martha (who don't know her) and hands them her full written account of her experience. At some point in the future, the Doctor and Martha get sent back to 1969 but they have the transcripts and details from Sally's account so back in 1969, they set things up so that by 2007, everything is in place for Sally to send the TARDIS back to 1969. And then she writes down her account...you get the picture.

We go through Sally's experience as she slowly figures out what to do and finds the crumbs the Doctor has set up. Her best friend's brother Larry Nightingale acts as side-kick as he locates easter eggs on the 17 DVDs that Sally owns, each with a pre-recorded one-sided conversation. It's eerie as we see TV-Doctor first spout random lines then seemingly hold a conversation with Sally until we realise he's reading from a transcript that Larry is writing down in the present as he watches the conversation between Sally and TV-Doctor. Loopy much!

Another great quote - "the angels have the phone box".

One question that did bug me - the angels can only move and attack when they aren't being watched hence the refrain "don't blink, blink and you're dead". But, surely alternating the eye you close would work just fine? Wink rather than blink! Stephen Moffat said the same in a panel BUT, that would be rather boring and take away the suspense and terror that Sally and Larry experience.

But overall this was a fantastic episode and the angels are a favourite monster, popping up again in several future series including the rather tear-jerking "The Angels Take Manhatten".

Captain Jack, Captain Jack is back. After being left on a space station at the end of series 1, Jack finally gets to confront the Doctor about being abandoned and find out why he cannot die. It was great hearing about what Jack's been up to and the Doctor's reasons for running away (okay, so he was dying and regenerating but we never heard a peep about Jack afterwards when everything had settled down).

Turns out Jack's a time anomoly and the Doctor cannot stand it. Neither it seems can the TARDIS which tries to shake Jack off and travel to the end of the universe. Here the remaining survivors of the human race attempt to travel to 'Utopia' to escape the futurekind (which look like humans with pointy teeth).

It was an episode of callbacks - Jack had the Doctor's hand from the Sycorax invasion, Jack himself, Torchwood, Canary Wharf, the chameleon arch.

This episode also introduced at the very very end the Master. Another Time Lord and the Doctor's...frenemy. Looking forward to seeing how the Doctor interacts with another Time Lord, someone his equal and a little bit of a crazy genius. And having stolen the TARDIS, the Master's definitely got the upper hand. This episode sets up the two-part series finale.

The Prime Minister of the UK is the Master under the guise of Harold Saxon. This was nicely sprinkled throughout the series (even in the series 2) with posters of "Vote Saxon" in the background of several episodes.

The Doctor wasn't able to stop the Master from stealing his TARDIS but he was able to lock his destination. And he's back on Earth in the present (four earth days after Martha joined the Doctor) having slowly over the last 18 months worked his way up to Prime Minister. Even Martha voted for him! He's managed to, through the mobile phone network, hypnotised everyone into trusting him.

But now the trio are on the run and Martha's family has been taken into custody. It's not clear what the Master's plans are (except maybe taking over the world) but he's brought some murderous alien friends with him. He is in a word - bonkers. In a psycopathic way. And the Doctor it seems, is powerless to stop him, made prisoner while Marth manages to escape to set the Doctor's plan in motion.

Cool makeup effect - seeing the Doctor physically age about 135 years old.

To be completed

Introduction

Christmas Special - The Runaway Bride

Episode 1 - Smith and Jones

Episode 2 - The Shakespeare Code

Episode 3 - Gridlock

Episode 4 - Daleks in Manhatten

Episode 5 - Evolution of the Daleks

Episode 6 - The Lazarus Experiment

Episode 7 - 42

Episode 8 - Human Nature

Episode 9 - The Family of Blood

Episode 10 - Blink

Episode 11 - Utopia

Episode 12 - The Sound of Drums

Episode 13 - Last of the Time Lords