Tag: Rose Tyler

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Doctor Who New Series Season 02

New Earth

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Rose leave present-day Earth behind for adventures on a new Earth – namely, a planet called New Earth that the human race colonized following the destruction of humanity’s homeworld. A mysterious message has brought the Doctor to ward 26 of a hospital operated by the catlike Sisters of Plentitude, but along the way he is separated from Rose. She is diverted to an underground hideaway, where she is subjected to a psychograft by none other than Cassandra, who she thought had died on Platform One. Cassandra is indeed still alive, but wants to resume life in a human body, even if Rose’s is the best she can manage. The Doctor becomes suspicious about the hospital’s seeming ability to conquer any disease, and with the strangely-behaving Rose back at his side, he discovers that the Sisters of Plentitude have bred a new kind of lab rat to help them cultivate and devise cures to these diseases. But the Doctor knows these unfortunate, caged creatures by another name: homo sapiens.

Download this episodewritten by Russell T. Davies
directed by James Hawes
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), Zoe Wanamaker (Cassandra), Sean Gallagher (Chip), Dona Croll (Matron Casp), Michael Fitzgerald (Duke of Manhattan), Lucy Robinson (Frau Clovis), Adjoa Andoh (Sister Jatt), Anna Hope (Novice Hame), Simon Ludders (Patient), Struan Rodger (Face of Boe)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 02

Tooth And Claw

Doctor WhoIn 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.

Download this episodewritten 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

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Doctor Who New Series Season 02

School Reunion

Doctor WhoAfter Mickey alerts them to strange goings-on near Deffry Vale High School, the Doctor and Rose each take a job there, the Doctor posing as a new physics teacher and Rose winding up as a dinner lady in the school’s cafeteria. The new headmaster, Mr. Finch, has brought a new curriculum, a new lunch menu, and several new staff members with him. But original faculty members and even students are vanishing without a trace. Rose spots large barrels of a strange and apparently dangerously corrosive oil being moved around by the cafeteria staff, and the Doctor discovers that students who have been eating foods from Mr. Finch’s new lunch menu, prepared with that oil, are demonstrating knowledge and learning ability far beyond 21st century humans. The Doctor is stunned when he learns that someone else is investigating these unexplained happenings – namely, reporter Sarah Jane Smith, his former traveling companion, with her now somewhat dilapidated K-9 in tow. While the Doctor and Sarah are cautiously eager to renew their friendship, it becomes apparent – especially to Rose – that traveling in the TARDIS and seeing the wonders of the universe carries a price.

Download this episodewritten by Toby Whithouse
directed by James Hawes
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), Anthony Head (Mr. Finch), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Rod Arthur (Mr. Parsons), Eugene Washington (Mr. Wagner), Heather Cameron (Nina), Joe Pickley (Kenny), Benjamin Smith (Luke), Clem Tibber (Milo), Lucinda Dryzek (Melissa), Caroline Berry (Dinner Lady), John Leeson (voice of K-9)

Notes: Elisabeth Sladen first appeared as Sarah Jane in 1974’s The Time Warrior, the premiere of Jon Pertwee’s final season as the Doctor. She remained with the Doctor after his regeneration, accompanying Tom Baker through 1976’s The Hand Of Fear, which did indeed see the TARDIS dropping School ReunionSarah off in what she thought was Croydon. In 1981, Sladen and John Leeson starred in the first spinoff of Doctor Who to make it to production, K-9 & Company, in which she found a gift from the Doctor – her own K-9 unit. Sarah and her K-9 appeared in one further Doctor Who story, 1983’s The Five Doctors.

Guest star Anthony Head – a.k.a. Anthony Stewart Head – starred as Giles in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. He’s been linked several times to Doctor Who, including a contender for the role of the Doctor himself when the new series was first announced in 2003. He appeared as a cunning, immortal villain in the linked Excelis trilogy of Big Finish audio plays, though he did so without ever meeting any of his co-stars, since recording schedules forced him to record his dialogue alone without any other actors! He has thus “appeared” with previous Doctors Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy without actually working with them. He also had a small role in the BBC Radio one-off story Death Comes To Time. Another series in which Head starred was Manchild, alongside Don Warrington (the President in Rise Of The Cybermen and the voice of Rassilon in the Big Finish eighth Doctor stories).

Sarah Jane Smith has also appeared in two series of Doctor-less audio adventures from Big Finish, though in this case without K-9 (in the final story of the first “season” of her adventures, Sarah notes that K-9 has been incapacitated, though the nature of K-9’s state of disrepair in the audio plays is a case of deliberate sabotage; it’s unclear if this is the same damage that the Doctor seems to fix rather quickly). Big Finish producer John Ainsworth has said that School Reunion likely takes place between the first two “seasons” of Sarah’s audio adventures.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 02

The Girl In The Fireplace

Doctor WhoThe Doctor, Rose and Mickey explore a strange, unoccupied starship, sitting at a dead standstill in deep space – with its engines operating at full power to punch several holes through the fabric of time. Several chambers within the ship open into pockets of Earth’s past, specifically the history of France. The Doctor quickly discovers that the ship’s occupants, elegant but deadly clockwork robots, are interfering with the history of a young girl who, in exhibits chronicling her young adulthood, becomes known as Madame de Pompadour. The Doctor repeatedly interferes with the robots’ attempts to alter history, and unwittingly goes from being Madame du Pompadour’s imaginary friend to her savior at several points in his history. But to save her from the robots’ last attack, the Doctor may have to maroon himself thousands of years in Earth’s past, leaving Mickey and Rose stranded in the future.

Download this episodewritten by Steven Moffatt
directed by Euros Lyn
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), Sophia Myles (Reinette), Ben Turner (King Louis), Jessica Atkins (young Reinette), Angel Coulby (Katherine), Gareth Wyn Griffiths (Manservant), Paul Kasey (Clockwork Man), Ellen Thomas (Clockwork Woman), Jonathan Hart (Alien Voice), Emily Joyce (Alien Voice)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 02

Rise Of The Cybermen

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS plunges out of the time vortex and into a parallel universe, and the Doctor fears the last TARDIS in the universe has made her final flight. Trapped on a parallel version of Earth, the Doctor, Rose and Mickey quickly find out what’s the same (they’re in London) and what’s different (Pete Tyler, Rose’s dad, is still alive, well, and hawking energy drinks from interactive signs on every street corner). Zeppelins fill the sky, carrying the rich and powerful – one of whom, inventor John Lumic, is stricken with a terminal disease. Lumic invites the President of Great Britain to hear a pitch for the newest innovation from his corporation, Cybus Industries. Cybus has already made Lumic unimaginably rich with the sales of its ubiquitous “EarPods,” devices which download news, sports, and even phone calls directly into their wearers’ brais ns. Now Lumic wants to offer “the ultimate upgrade” to the British public – constant connectivity, and virtually indestructible exoskeletal armor, which will virtually transform humanity into a new species – one which Lumic calls Cybermen. The President forbids any further experimentation along these lines, but Lumic has already begun creating an army of Cybermen in secret. The President goes to the lavish Tyler home that night for Jackie Tyler’s birthday party, but thanks to his ability to retrieve information from EarPod wearers, Lumic knows where he’ll be. The Doctor loses control of both of his companions – Mickey goes to see if his grandmother, dead in his reality, is still alive in this world, while Rose insists on finding her family. Curious about the effect that the EarPods are having on humanity, the Doctor tags along with Rose to the Tyler home, but this just means they’re present when Lumic’s army of Cybermen attack, killing the President and anyone else who won’t submit to Lumic’s “voluntary upgrade.”

Download this episodewritten by Tom MacRae
with thanks to Marc Platt
directed by Graeme Harper
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith / Ricky Smith), Shaun Dingwall (Pete Tyler), Roger Lloyd Pack (John Lumic), Andrew Hayden-Smith (Jake Simmonds), Don Warrington (The President), Mona Hammond (Rita-Anne), Helen Griffin (Mrs. Moore), Colin Spaull (Mr. Crane), Paul Antony-Barber (Dr. Kendrick), Adam Shaw (Morris), Andrew Ufondo (Soldier), Duncan Duff (Newsreader), Paul Kasey (Cyberleader), Nicholas Briggs (Cyber voice)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 02

The Age Of Steel

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and his friends are trapped by Lumic’s new breed of Cybermen. Using the last remaining power source from the TARDIS, the Doctor immobilizes the Cybermen with an energy beam, and the survivors of the Cyberman attack on the Tyler mansion are now on the run. Ricky, the alternate universe’s battle-hardened version of Mickey, is killed by Cybermen while trying to escape. Pete and Rose try to infiltrate the Cyber-factory, using fake EarPods as a disguise, to find this universe’s Jackie, only to discover that she has already been converted into a Cyberman. The Doctor and Mrs. Moore, a resistance fighter from Ricky’s operation, discover an army of dormant Cybermen hidden beneath London. Mickey forms an uneasy alliance with Ricky’s friend Jake to storm Lumic’s zeppelin and try to find the controls Lumic uses to guide the Cybermen. Lumic, however, is no long in control – his enfeebled body is scheduled for an “upgrade” by the Cybermen, whether he wishes to remain human or not – and when he is in control, he is no longer Lumic. The Doctor still sees an opportunity to thwart the Cyberman invasion and return the TARDIS to its own universe, but not everyone who came with him will be making the return trip.

Download this episodewritten by Tom MacRae
with thanks to Marc Platt
directed by Graeme Harper
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), Shaun Dingwall (Pete Tyler), Roger Lloyd Pack (John Lumic), Andrew Hayden-Smith (Jake Simmonds), Helen Griffin (Mrs. Moore), Colin Spaull (Mr. Crane), Paul Kasey (Cyberleader), Nicholas Briggs (Cyber voice)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 02

The Idiot’s Lantern

Doctor WhoIntending 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.

Download this episodewritten 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

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Doctor Who New Series Season 02

The Impossible Planet

Doctor WhoThis 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.

Download this episodewritten 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

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Doctor Who New Series Season 02

The Satan Pit

Doctor WhoThe 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.

Download this episodewritten 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

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Doctor Who New Series Season 02

Love & Monsters

Doctor WhoElton Page’s path has been crossed by the Doctor on more than one occasion, but in the past couple of years the encounters have come with more and more frequency. Trying to find out what it all means, Elton meets a blogger named Ursula, who has seen the Doctor in person. The two of them become good friends, eventually finding out that there are others who share their fascination with the Doctor and the TARDIS, but their tight-knit group – which Elton names LINDA (the London Investigation ‘N’ Detective Agency) – evolves beyond that interest, giving all of its offbeat members a place to call home. That is, until Victor Kennedy arrives on the scene. With seemingly limitless resources, and an unusually intense interest in the Doctor’s whereabouts, Kennedy begins assigning “homework” to Elton, Ursula and their friends. Some of the members of LINDA stop attending meetings without a further word, and finally Elton speaks up, refusing to do Kennedy’s bidding any more. But when Kennedy reveals his true identity – a creature who absorbs not just the minds but the physical mass of its prey – Elton realizes that it may take the Doctor to save him again. But every time the Doctor appears in Elton’s life, terrible things happen – and even this occasion will be no exception.

Download this episodewritten by Russell T. Davies
directed by Dan Zeff
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Peter Kay (Victor Kennedy), Marc Warren (Elton Page), Shirley Henderson (Ursula Blake), Simon Greenall (Mr. Skinner), Moya Brady (Bridget), Kathryn Drysdale (Bliss), Paul Kasey (The Hoix), Bella Emberg (Mrs. Crook)

Notes: The author of this guide happens to agree with Elton that you can’t beat a bit of ELO. “Mr. Blue Sky,” excerpted repeatedly in the episode, originally appeared on the 1977 album Out Of The Blue, as does “Turn To Stone” (heard in the Tyler household), while LINDA’s song of choice is “Don’t Bring Me Down,” from Discovery (1979). The Abzorbaloff was created by William Grantham, a young Blue Peter viewer who participated in a competition during the first season to create a monster that would feature in the series itself. LINDA – not the same group, mind you, but the Liverpool Investigation ‘n’ Detective Agency – was originally invented in an episode of the children’s show Why Don’t You?, written by Russell T. Davies during his tenure as a producer on the show (1988-92).

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 02

Fear Her

Doctor WhoRose and the Doctor arrive in London just in time for the running of the torch to open the 2012 Olympic Games. But a pall hangs over the perfectly ordinary neighborhood where the TARDIS has materialized: posters for missing children, all of them having disappeared in the space of the week, are everywhere. An elderly woman named Maeve claims to feel an evil presence in the neighborhood, and seems to have known, just before each child disappeared, that they were about to vanish. A woman named Trish keeps a close eye on her daughter Chloe, not out of fear that she’ll disappear next, but out of fear that Chloe may be behind what’s happening. The Doctor and Rose come to that conclusion too, discovering that something evil is exerting its influence, having taken over Chloe’s body. But can they stop more people from disappearing – possibly even the entire human race – and restore Chloe’s true personality?

Download this episodewritten by Matthew Graham
directed by Euros Lyn
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Nina Sosanya (Trish), Abisola Agbaje (Chloe), Edna Dore (Maeve), Tim Faraday (Tom’s Dad), Abdul Salis (Kel), Richard Nichols (Driver), Erica Eirian (Neighbour), Stephen Marzella (Police Officer), Huw Edwards (Commentator)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 02

Army Of Ghosts

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Rose pay a visit to Jackie, only to find that ghosts are walking the surface of the Earth – and Jackie claims that, after the initial shock wore off, no one’s been worried about it much and the apparitions have become a fixture of everyday life, appearing at regular intervals. Ever skeptical, the Doctor rigs up a device to “trap” one of the ghostly figures, which elicits an almost violent reaction from his prey. He finds the source of the power that’s enabling the “ghosts” to appear, narrowing it down to a place known as the Torchwood Institute. Inadvertently bringing Jackie along, the Doctor and Rose go to investigate Torchwood, but the Doctor is startled to find that not only is his arrival expected, but Yvonne Hartman, the director of Torchwood, knows who he is and that he seldom travels alone. Once again accidentally bringing Jackie along instead of Rose, the Doctor learns Torchwood’s mandate: to secure alien technology (including the TARDIS) and repel alien threats (a category into which they apparently feel the Doctor belongs), not for the good of the world, but to restore Britain to its imperial glory days. In the depths of Torchwood’s secret headquarters, a strange sphere has been the subject of intense study – radiating no heat or energy, it doesn’t appear to exist, and yet there it sits. The Doctor recognizes the sphere as a voidship, a vehicle capable of traversing parallel dimensions, and warns that it’s an extremely dangerous artifact. Equally dangerous, he warns, are the “ghost shifts” Torchwood is deliberately setting into motion. Deep within the Institute, a force from another universe begins to take over Torchwood, even taking control of the ghost shifts. They are the Cybermen created by John Lumic, and they’re not alone – every ghost seen in every city and country in the world is one of their soldiers, and if they can figure out how to increase the energy of the next ghost shift and bring the legions of ghostly Cybermen into corporeal existence, their takeover of Earth will be complete.

Except that the Cybermen aren’t the only ones trying to take over.

Download this episodewritten by Russell T. Davies
directed by Graeme Harper
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), Tracy-Ann Oberman (Yvonne Hartman), Raji James (Dr. Rajesh Singh), Freema Agyeman (Adeola), Hadley Fraser (Gareth), Oliver Mellor (Matt), Barbara Windsor (Peggy Mitchell), Hajaz Akram (Indian newsreader), Anthony Debaeck (French newsreader), Takako Akashi (Japanese newsreader), Paul Fields (Weatherman), David Warwick (Police Commissioner), Rachel Webster (Eileen), Kyoko Morita (Japanese girl), Maddi Cryer (Housewife), Derek Acorah (himself), Alistair Appleton (himself), Trisha Goddard (herself), Paul Kasey (Cyberleader), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek voices / Cyber voices), Barnaby Edwards (Dalek operator), Nicholas Pegg (Dalek operator), Stuart Crossman (Dalek operator), Anthony Spargo (Dalek operator), Dan Barratt (Dalek operator), David Hankinson (Dalek operator)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 02

Doomsday

Doctor WhoJust as the Cybermen flash into existence all over the Earth, a new threat erupts from the voidship – a group of Daleks, known to the Doctor as a particularly dangerous bunch called the Cult of Skaro, emerge with an unknown device of Time Lord origin called the Genesis Ark. The Daleks are fiercely protective of the Ark, but despite its origins, the Doctor has no idea what it is. The Cybermen aren’t the only visitors from a parallel world: Mickey Smith, Pete Tyler and the soldiers of an anti-Cyberman resistance force have tracked their prey to this world, but now find themselves outgunned as the Daleks and Cybermen launch a full-scale war against each other, with the human race trapped in the middle and Torchwood powerless to fight back. Worse yet, the Genesis Ark is activated and reveals its Time Lord nature: bigger inside than out, it is a prison for millions of Daleks captured during the Time War, who join the fight that’s laying waste to the entire Earth. The Doctor works out a plan to send both of the alien armies back into the void. But even if he can save the world, this time he may not be able to save Rose – and even if her newly (if awkwardly) reunited family saves her, her TARDIS traveling days are numbered.

Download this episodewritten by Russell T. Davies
directed by Graeme Harper
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), Shaun Dingwall (Pete Tyler), Andrew Hayden-Smith (Jake Simmonds), Tracy-Ann Oberman (Yvonne Hartman), Raji James (Dr. Rajesh Singh), Paul Kasey (Cyberleader), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek voices / Cyber voices), Barnaby Edwards (Dalek operator), Nicholas Pegg (Dalek operator), Stuart Crossman (Dalek operator), Anthony Spargo (Dalek operator), Dan Barratt (Dalek operator), David Hankinson (Dalek operator), Catherine Tate (the Bride)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 04

Partners In Crime

Doctor WhoOn Earth in 2008, the Doctor investigates a company called Adipose Industries, the makers of a diet pill that magically makes the fat “walk away,” suspecting that there’s something sinister to their miracle cure for obesity. Little does he know that his friend, former runaway bride Donna Noble, is also at Adipose, having just taken a job in health & safety. Also realizing that Adipose’s claims are too good to be true, Donna begins her own investigation. Donna’s family has criticized her for not sticking to any one job for any length of time since the mysterious circumstances around her not getting married, but what she can’t explain to them is that she regrets not taking the Doctor up on his offer of travel in the TARDIS – and hopes she’ll see him again someday. As she and the Doctor independently snoop around Adipose, they both learn of the more sinister agenda behind the miracle diet pill – and each other’s presence. Just as quickly, they’re both on the run, with Donna leaving no doubt that she expects to be off with the Doctor once the current crisis is over. There’s just one problem: she’s assuming that they’ll both survive the wrath of the mysterious Mrs. Foster once the secret of Adipose is out.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Russell T. Davies
directed by James Strong
music by Murray Gold

Cast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Catherine Tate (Donna Noble), Billie Piper (Rose Tyler), Sarah Lancashire (Miss Foster), Bernard Cribbins (Wilfred Mott), Jacqueline King (Sylvia Noble), Verona Joseph (Penny Carter), Jessica Gunning (Stacey Harris), Martin Ball (Roger Davey), Rachid Sabitri (Craig Staniland), Chandra Ruegg (Clare Pope), Sue Kelvin (Suzette Chambers), Jonathan Stratt (Taxi Driver)

Notes: The episode carries a dedication to Howard Attfield, the late actor who played the role of Donna’s father in The Runaway Bride. He originally shot some scenes for Partners In Crime, but upon his death, the bulk of his dialogue was rewritten for Donna’s grandfather, played by Bernard Cribbins. According to the show’s producers, Donna’s grandfather is indeed the spirited but perhaps slightly unhinged newsstand man encountered by the Doctor (and also played by Cribbins) in Voyage Of The Damned. The Doctor’s observation about how things can come and go through a catflap are nearly identical to a similar comment his seventh incarnation made in 1989’s Survival – a story whose working title was Catflap.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 04

Midnight

Doctor WhoThe Doctor is eager to take a trip to the uninhabitable planet of Midnight, whose sun’s radiation renders the surface completely inhospitable to any known kind of life – or so the legend has it. Faced with the choice of either this or sunbathing next to an opulent swimming pool, Donna lets the Doctor go off on his own for once. The Doctor gets acquainted with fellow passengers along the way, but when the tour ship comes to a sudden halt, so does the cameraderie – especially when the pilots’ cabin is wrenched away from the ship and something begins knocking on the hull from outside. One of the passengers is apparently taken over by some form of life which has defied expectations and evolved on Midnight, and in its new body it begins rapidly learning about human characteristics such as speech. But when the other passengers become terrified enough to discuss throwing the possessed woman out of the ship to certain doom, just to rid themselves of the alien life form, it appears that the being is learning some of humanity’s darkest behaviors too. And this time, there’s almost nothing the Doctor can do to stop the worst from coming out of everyone present.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Russell T. Davies
directed by Alice Troughton
music by Murray Gold

Cast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Catherine Tate (Donna Noble), Billie Piper (Rose Tyler), Lesley Sharp (Sky Silvestry), Rakie Ayola (Hostess), David Troughton (Professor Hobbes), Ayesha Antoine (Dee Dee Blasco), Lindsey Coulson (Val Cane), Daniel Ryan (Biff Cane), Colin Morgan (Jethro Cane), Tony Bluto (Driver Joe), Duane Henry (Mechanic Claude)

Notes: A few episodes after meeting the Doctor’s daughter, this time around we meet the Doctor’s son – in real life. Guest star David Troughton is the son of the second Doctor, Patrick Troughton, and played a minor role in the last second Doctor story, The War Games, in 1969. He played a much more visible role opposite the third Doctor in 1972’s The Curse Of Peladon. Like his father, he’s no relation to this episode’s director, Alice Troughton, who has also directed installments of Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green