Doctor Who Revisited: Series 3 (Part 2)

“People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey... stuff.”

Cramming the mediocre episodes consecutively into the middle of Doctor Who Series 3 was much like ripping off a plaster quickly: painful, but at least the suffering was over and done with. After laughing myself stupid at the ‘human daleks’ and those… items… protruding from their faces, I then endured ‘The Lazarus Experiment,’ an episode that promised much, but delivered little. And then there was ‘42.’

Look, I’m not a fan of the stories involving unknown space crews – and there seems to be at least one in every series – but even by the usual standards, this one was pretty naff. Any suspense in the seventh episode was sadly overshadowed by the fact it was all a bit Scooby Doo: zombies in spacesuits chase the crew down the long, metal corridors, booming the catchphrase “Burn with me!” before vaporising victims on the spot. Yoiks! But when the mask is lifted, the culprit is… er, a nearby star that has a penchant for possessing humans. And it would have got away with it too, if it wasn’t for that meddling Doctor…

Thankfully, Doctor Who can swing from high levels of silliness to heartbreaking drama in the space of a week, as proven by ‘Human Nature’/’The Family of Blood.’ Unfortunately for me (because I’m a heartless crone who gets easily bored of romantic storylines), this mini serial was more period-drama romance than sci-fi, with writer Paul Cornell demonstrating his talent for scripting both soap operas and public schoolboy aliens. The main strengths of these episodes were the performances: Freema Agyeman was great, as Martha wrestled with her own feelings for the human Doctor, but it was Harry Lloyd who stole the show as the sinister sniffy alien son, Baines.

Then we came to episode number ten. ‘Wink,’ wasn’t it? No, sorry, ‘Blink,’ that’s the one. Yeah, it was okay I guess. Moving on…

Aha, no, just messing. Truth is, it’s incredibly difficult to explain just how superb this Moffat-penned episode is. The story line, the monsters (stone angels that kill you by sending you back in time), the scenery (haunted house), the catchphrases (“Don’t even blink”), the camera angles are just… perfect. It’s essentially a short horror film for kids. ‘Blink’ is not only the best episode of Series 3, but of New Who so far, no arguments, full stop, end of. So there.

By this time, we all knew what was coming. We’d seen enough Doctor Who finales to spot the clues throughout the series, and this time, it was Mr Saxon. ‘Utopia’ was a gentle warm up to the inevitable reappearance of the ultimate bad guy, the Master. This being New Who, it was too much to expect a suave, moustachioed Roger Delgado-esque villain; instead, Derek Jacobi proved to be marvellous in the role. Temporarily. This is Russell T Davies suspense at its best, as, in the space of two minutes, Professor Yana discovers his new identity and then gets shot and then regenerates and and and then steals the TARDIS??!

And what a regeneration it was – give that casting director a cookie. John Simm steals every scene he’s in, and is an excellent antidote to some of the trite lines that the Doctor comes out with in ‘The Sound of Drums’/’Last of the Timelords.’ To say that this double-parter is action-packed would be a severe understatement; it’s more stuffed to bursting point, with Davies stamping down on the lid to keep it all in. On the plus side, there are a number of scenes rich with comedy, such as the phone exchanges between Doctor and Master (“Are you asking me out on a date?”), and Martha is finally allowed to save the day. However. The ending is ludicrous and unsatisfying, especially when the Doctor gets a bit of a God-complex (he even floats at one point). The Master remains in character until the end, although it’s not quite the last we’ll see of him…

See Part 1 here

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