What did you think of this episode?
Sonic!
Good!
Bumpy-wumpy!
Exterminate!
Ooof!! I might struggle to defend this one!!
I am usually a firm believer that every Doctor Who episode has something in it but straight from the start I struggled. The acting seemed off in the opening sequence.
This one has not aged well either. I guess that is partly down to being set in a future that we have already lived through. If anything can make a man feel old it is watching an episode talking about events that are six years in the future, but now 12 years ago. 18 bloody years. Piss right off!!
This episode has my number one pet hate - and I know Doctor Who is Doctor Who, monsters and planets and corridors and the like, however, I do like my planets and its peoples to react in a way I think people would react in normal life - especially when the planet they are on is Earth. In this episode nobody reacts how a normal human would react.
"You just took a council axe from a council van and now you’re digging up a council road! I’m reporting you to the council!"
Case in point, the council man. I think if the street became even more deserted he would be out shagging the road. Calm down mate, it's just tar!! This episode has the ultimate moment though - the moment when this pet hate became my pet hate, the moment that started it all off...
"Not you too, Bob!"
That was it, that was the line. Huw Edwards (of other fame these days!) commentating on an empty Olympic Stadium. The drama completely sucked out of it for me. Doctor Who can be cheesy, and corny, and at times clunky, but this was another level!! You've got to laugh at it really. I made sure I watched this episode late at night when nobody else was awake, I like to protect this show, and I didn't want any eyes on this moment.
Things got even worst later when the bloke carrying the flame randomly collapsed and Huw asked us if the Olympic dream was dead. Well no, firstly get the bloke some bloody help, and then someone else take the flame - don't just stand there and watch him claiming the Olympics is caput!!
The episode is actually a lot darker than I thought, looking at it with my weary old eyes now I can see that Chloe's Dad was obviously an absolute cunt!! I guess I must of dismissed this all those years ago, but now I see it and think blimey, what did go on in that house.
"It's more than a flame now. It's more than heat and light. It's hope, and it's courage, and it's love."
I am sorry to say but this is one episode that would go in my Doctor Who Room 101. Acting a bit iffy, story a bit iffy, my pet hate striking numerous times. That said, Billie Piper looks smoking all the way through this, so there is that I guess, and there is a cat in it, cats are cool.
RATING: Exterminate!
BEST LINE: "There’s something in the air. There’s something coming. A storm's approaching."
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