Tag: BBC1

Forced to regenerate by absorbing the power of the time vortex before it kills Rose, the Doctor isn’t feeling so well himself. Rose is shocked by what’s happened, accusing the new Doctor of being a Gelth, a Slitheen, or some other manner of impostor. Even after he recalls a moment that only he and Rose were there to witness, the Doctor can’t convince her that he’s the same person in a new body, and guesses that she wants to go home. But even after he sets the TARDIS on a course back to Earth to return Rose on Christmas Eve, the Doctor coughs up more of the time vortex energy – his ordeal isn’t over, and he says something is going wrong with his regeneration. When the chiming of the TARDIS’ cloister bell begins to fill the console room, it’s yet another signal that something has gone horribly wrong…

Season 2 Regular Cast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Billie Piper (Rose Tyler)

written by Russell T. Davies
directed by Euros Lyn
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: none

Notes: This untitled special was originally transmitted as part of the annual Children In Need appeal, with no credits for anyone other than the show’s two stars. A lengthy “recap” trailer covering events in The Parting Of The Ways was edited together, but due to overruns of various live performances during the broadcast, it was edited down at the last minute. This was also the first Doctor Who television production since 1964’s Edge Of Destruction to feature no one other than the show’s current regular cast, and to take place entirely inside the TARDIS. (The 1996 TV movie is not counted in this statistic because of its rather unique nature.)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

In 1879, a band of warrior monks takes Torchwood House and its staff by force – a place which just happens to be Queen Victoria’s next stop on a trip through Scotland. The monks bring a cage with them, containing an unearthly terror which they also hope to introduce to Her Majesty. The Queen’s entourage happens upon the Doctor and Rose, who have only just arrived, expecting it to be 1979. Her Majesty brings the travelers with her to Torchwood House, where a trap has been waiting over two centuries to spring. On schedule, when moonlight falls upon the monks’ cage, its passenger – a werewolf – breaks loose. Now the Doctor finds himself having to protect not only Rose, but Queen Victoria and perhaps the entire human race.

written by Russell T. Davies
directed by Euros Lyn
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Pauline Collins (Queen Victoria), Ian Hanmore (Father Angelo), Michelle Duncan (Lasy Isobel), Derek Riddell (Sir Robert), Jamie Sives (Captain Reynolds), Ron Donachie (Steward), Tom Smith (The Host), Ruthie Milne (Flora)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Intending to go see Elvis perform live in the 1950s, the Doctor and Rose wind up in London instead, on the eve of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Among the last-minute preparations, though, the time travelers witness an event that suggests that there’s more going on than a celebration. Black cars are pulling up to homes, and men spill out to abduct someone and leave again. The Doctor and Rose, after being urged by one family to turn their backs and say nothing, instead invade that family’s home under the guise of government inspectors to find out what’s happening. The truth that emerges is horrifying: something in this part of London is robbing people not just of their consciousness, but their faces. As the Doctor discovers where the police are taking the victims, Rose visits an electrical store selling TVs at a ridiculously low price and finds out that an alien intelligence called the Wire is behind the strange occurrences – but she becomes the Wire’s next victim moments later.

written by Mark Gatiss
directed by Euros Lyn
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Maureen Lipman (The Wire), Ron Cook (Magpie), Jamie Foreman (Eddie Connolly), Debra Gillett (Rita Connolly), Rory Jennings (Tommy Connolly), Margaret John (Grandma Connolly), Sam Cox (Detective Inspector Bishop), Ieuan Rhys (Crabtree), Jean Challis (Aunty Betty), Christopher Driscoll (Security Guard), Marie Lewis (Mrs. Gallagher)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

This time, the TARDIS has gone too far – so far into the future that it doesn’t know when or where it is. The Doctor and Rose do a bit of exploring and find that they’re on Sanctuary Base 8, a human outpost built on a planet whose stable orbit around a massive black hole isn’t just improbable, but should be absolutely impossible. Ancient writing on the base’s walls is so old that even the TARDIS’ gift of translation can’t help the Doctor decipher it. The bedraggled human crew – including an officer who has had to step uncomfortably into a command role following the death of the expedition’s captain – has found that some source of power under the planet’s surface is keeping it at a safe distance from the black hole. Entire star systems fall past the planet and into oblivion, but inexplicably, the planet itself remains; but even then, the base isn’t completely safe, as earthquakes rattle their delicate habitat (and one particularly violent tremor seems to swallow the TARDIS whole, trapping the Doctor and Rose on the base). The small human crew is supplemented by a servile race called the Ood, who don’t seem to object to working for the humans. A member of the base’s crew begins hearing voices, and then finds that he’s covered with the same symbols as the alien writing. The Doctor joins a foolhardy expedition beneath the planet’s surface, hoping to find out for himself what’s keeping the planet in place – but that’s a question that everyone there may soon regret asking.

written by Matt Jones
directed by James Strong
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Danny Webb (Mr. Jefferson), Shaun Parkes (Zachary Cross Flane), Claire Burnbrook (Ida Scott), Will Thorp (Toby Zed), Ronny Jhutti (Danny Bartock), MyAnna Buring (Scooti Maniska), Paul Kasey (The Ood), Gabriel Woolf (voice of the Beast), Silas Carson (voice of the Ood)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

The Ood, under the control of the one they refer to as the Beast, close in on Rose and the crew of Sanctuary Base 8, while the Doctor and Ida Scott are stranded beneath the surface of the planet. The Doctor makes a reckless jump into the pit they’ve discovered there – a literal leap of faith – while Rose helps the survivors of the Sanctuary Base marshal their resources to save themselves. In the pit, the Doctor finds the Beast – its body, chained forever in the pit, rages aimlessly, seemingly unable to communicate with him. Little does Rose know that the Beast also is on the base with her – its disembodied intelligence inhabits the body of a young archaeologist, quietly helping the Ood whittle the crew down to just two men and Rose. But the crew manages to shut down the telepathic field controlling the Ood and, leaving the Doctor and Ida for dead (over Rose’s objections), they flee the base in their only escape vehicle. Now, unless the Doctor and Rose take decisive action without being able to contact one another, the Beast’s mind may escape into the civilized center of the galaxy to build its new army.

written by Matt Jones
directed by James Strong
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Danny Webb (Mr. Jefferson), Shaun Parkes (Zachary Cross Flane), Claire Burnbrook (Ida Scott), Will Thorp (Toby Zed), Ronny Jhutti (Danny Bartock), Paul Kasey (The Ood), Gabriel Woolf (voice of the Beast), Silas Carson (voice of the Ood)

Notes: The Doctor mentions Draconia and Daemos as worlds that have an image of the beast. The third Doctor met the Draconians in 1973’s Frontier In Space, and have continued to feature in Doctor Who print fiction and video productions; the latter is an interesting choice since it’s the homeworld of Azal, a demonic creature who the third Doctor battled when it posed as the devil in 1971’s The Daemons; the Beast seen here might have been a much older and more powerful Daemon, or something else entirely.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green