What did you think of this episode?
Sonic!
Good!
Bumpy-wumpy!
Exterminate!
Now I mentioned previously in my Star Beast review that on second viewing I was a bit unsure of the episode, however on a second viewing of this one it went up ten fold in my estimations. Now this is mainly down to one reason, the RTD hype machine. I think this worked against this episode on my first viewing as my brain was whirring too much to fully take in the bloody brilliance unfolding before my eyes.
So we all know that this was an episode shrouded in secrecy, and the secrecy of the episode was becoming its USP. Therefore throughout watching this all I was thinking about was who is going to pop up. With the Doctor being imitated all I could think is that the monsters might fight back by imitating a past Doctor or a past companion with the memories from the Doctor and Donna. I was thinking this all the way up to the very end.
My second watch though and all that baggage was gone, and fucking hell David Tennant and Catherine Tate are bloody amazing in this. After a very slow start, a start almost as slow as old Jimbo, this turned into amazing Doctor Who. Doctor Who at its imaginative, weirdest best!!
"My arms are too long."
It was creepy, funny, scary, everything I want in an episode, this could be summed up in the giant Doctor and Donna stuck in the corridor, squished, looking both bloody hilarious and bloody creepy at the same time.
The build up to the reveal of the monsters was so good, and those long arms looked fantastic. I will say this a million times in this review, but David and Catherine made some truly great villains. It is only a little thing, but David Tennant can give one hell of an evil smirk and I am all over it.
I love all the scenes with the Not-Things, David's jaw dropping was the best thing I have seen in Doctor Who for years. I also love the Doctor talking about the TARDIS, and where it would end up, I love this little speech.
“It destroyed half the universe because of me. We stand here now on the edge of creation, a creation which I devastated. So, yes, I keep running. Of course I do. How am I supposed to look back on that?”
I was worried after The Star Beast that maybe we had had our fill of David Tennant, but here he is superb and we get a much better understanding of why his face is back. The battle with the Flux and the emotion the Doctor feels about it, how much he has lost since the last time his face was knocking about, the pain he has, the anger he lets out. Could this be linked to Donna telling him to just let it go in the previous episode, as he has a good old kick and scream here then settles himself down, he has let go of his anger over the Flux.
When they realise what has happened to the ships captain, bloody hell, that was tragic, and spooky, and again, brilliant!! I love it when Doctor Who makes my tummy jump when something scary or bad is revealed, and this happened here.
The TARDIS saves the day in the nick of time, and oh shit, there is bloody Wilf, still as fantastic as ever. Bernard Cribbins truly was a one off, his scenes always fill your heart with joy and sadness.
So, a bloody brilliant episode, one I will come back to in years to come I think.
RATING: Sonic!
BEST LINE: "It's funny, cos I wonder where the TARDIS goes at random. Maybe it lands on some outcrop by the sea. And there's a tribe and they worship it for 100 years. Then they grow up and try to burn it. Then they get wise. They preserve it. Then they build a city all around it, till the TARDIS is just a tiny little dot, surrounded by skyscrapers and monorails. Time passes and the city falls. It all gets swept away. And there's the TARDIS… still on its outcrop… by the sea. She's the only thing I've got left.”
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