Doctor Who (2005) 1-04: Aliens of London

Episode:

700

|

Serial:

160

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

|

Director:

Keith Boak

|

Air Date:

16-Apr-2005

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm reviewing the 700th episode of Doctor Who! At least, that's how it works out by my count. Things weren't quite that simple when it comes to the production side however, as it was being filmed in the same block as the pilot episode Rose. In fact, the first scene that Christopher Eccleston filmed for the series was for this episode.

The episode's called Aliens of London, by the way, and it's a secret two-parter. There's no clue in the title, you just get to the end and find that there's no ending. I hope that doesn't count as a spoiler to anyone, because I'm supposed to keep all my SPOILERS down in the review below.

Doctor Who (2023) 2-01: The Robot Revolution

Episode:

885

|

Serial:

313

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

|

Director:

Peter Hoar

|

Air Date:

12-Apr-2025

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about Doctor Who again. This time it's the first episode of the latest season: The Robot Revolution.

Hasn't classic Doctor Who used that title already? Hang on, no I must be thinking of The Robots of Death. Or maybe just Robot. I guess robots rebelled a lot back in the day. Speaking of ancient episodes, they brought the director of series 6's A Good Man Goes to War back for this one. Doctor Who directors typically direct a block of two episodes and sometimes another block next season, and then they're done. It's rare for a director to return years later like this. I think Graham Harper might hold the record with 21 years between 6th Doctor story Revelation of the Daleks and 10th Doctor story Rise of the Cybermen, but Peter Hoar is now in second place with 14 years. That's about the same amount of time that showrunner Russell T Davies disappeared for!

I wish I could say that the second coming of RTD has been my kind of thing, but so far it's been hit and miss, and stories like The Church on Ruby Road and Joy to the World have me feeling like it's not a series for me anymore. Starting season 1 with Space Babies should've been a clue that they were showing me the door and inviting the next group of fans in.

Just please let this be better than Space Babies, please let this be better than Space Babies...

There will be SPOILERS below and probably some earlier episodes as well if my thoughts go in that direction.

Doctor Who (2005) 1-03: The Unquiet Dead (Quick Review)

Episode:

699

|

Serial:

159

|

Writer:

Mark Gatiss

|

Director:

Euros Lyn

|

Air Date:

09-Apr-2005

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Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's the 20th anniversary... of the third episode of the 2005 Doctor Who revival. The season had started airing a couple of weeks earlier with Rose, but I've already reviewed that one. I've also reviewed episode 2, The End of the World. But I haven't reviewed this one, so this is the story I'm writing about to celebrate 20 years of (additional) Doctor Who.

The first season of the revival had 13 episodes and 8 of them were written by showrunner Russell T Davies, so there wasn't much room for other writers to come in and make their mark, especially seeing as Davies had planned the season out in advance and was rewriting people's scripts. But there were other people who helped define this new Doctor Who, and one of them was Mark Gatiss. The guy kept coming back as a writer (and an actor) until season 10, and this was his first story.

That title, The Unquiet Dead, feels very classic Doctor Who to me, like there must be half a dozen serials that end in 'Dead'. There aren't though, not even one. There's The Seeds of Death, The Ambassadors of Death, The Green Death, The Robots of Death and City of Death, but if it's 'Dead' you're after, you have to go to the RTD era.

Wow, that is a surprisingly good collection of serials I just listed, each one (arguably) better than the last. I can say that now because I've watched all (existing) episodes of classic Who. I still haven't seen all of modern Who though, and Unquiet Dead was one of the ones I missed, so this was actually written after my very first viewing. I'd been spoiled on what happened though. Oh, that reminds me...

This is the kind of review that's full of SPOILERS.