Doctor Who (2005) 1-08: Father's Day (Quick Review)

Episode:

704

|

Serial:

163

|

Writer:

Paul Cornell

|

Director:

Joe Ahearne

|

Air Date:

14-May-2005

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm watching Father's Day, by veteran Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell. He only ever wrote two stories for the TV series, with this being the first, but he'd been writing Doctor Who novels, audio dramas and comics since the start of the '90s, so he'd had a bit of practice by this point.

The episode wasn't released on Father's Day, by the way. Wrong month entirely. Just like how the Christmas episode, The Unquiet Dead, wasn't released on Christmas. It's a weird thing to point out, but the series loves its holiday specials so much that these days that if you see a character eating an Easter egg, for example, the episode probably aired at Easter.

Alright, this is where the SPOILERS start, so it's your last chance to get off. Though I'll only spoil things that happen in this episode or earlier. As far as this review is concerned I've time-travelled back exactly 20 years to 2005, so if you're watching the series for the first time this will be safe to read.

Doctor Who (2005) 1-07: The Long Game (Quick Review)

Episode:

703

|

Serial:

162

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

|

Director:

Brian Grant

|

Air Date:

07-May-2005

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching The Long Game, which is either the 7th or the 703rd episode of Doctor Who, depending on how you count it.

It's closer to 703rd to me, because I started in the Matt Smith era, continued watching the modern episodes as they aired, went back and watched all of classic Who, and now I'm here. Okay I did check out the big Russell T Davies era stories everyone mentions like the finales, Blink, Forest of the Night etc., but this never made the list. No one ever says "Hey, you've got to check out The Long Game, it's got Simon Pegg in it!" Even though he does turn up in it, I knew that much going in. I've also known how it ends for a long while, because it's a bit of a meme.

Okay, there are SPOILERS below for this episode and maybe earlier stories too, so stop reading now if you value your ignorance.

Doctor Who (2005) 8-02: Into the Dalek

Episode:

802

|

Serial:

243

|

Writer:

Phil Ford and Steven Moffat

|

Director:

Ben Wheatley

|

Air Date:

30-Aug-2014

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I already wrote the Ninth Doctor story Dalek and now I'm jumping forward exactly 100 episodes to write about the Twelfth Doctor story Into the Dalek. Not to be confused with Star Trek Into Darkness, which came out a year earlier and contains zero Daleks.

This is the second episode of the Twelfth Doctor's first series, coming right after Deep Breath, and the two stories were filmed by the same director, Ben Wheatley. He's more of a movie director than a TV director, specialising in horror, so he wasn't the worst choice for the job.

Phil Ford was the head writer on spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures for most of its run and wrote 11 stories, but he only ever wrote two episodes of Doctor Who: this and The Waters of Mars. Incidentally this is the first episode since Waters of Mars to have two writers credited under the title, though it became more common after this. I mean it was never uncommon to have two people working on the script, because the showrunner often did an uncredited rewrite, but after this point there's a lot of 'and Steven Moffat' or 'and Chris Chibnall'. I think part of the reason for this is that putting a bigger name on the script can entice bigger name actors.

Okay, I will be going through this episode scene by scene, sharing my thoughts and observations as I go. So if you want SPOILERS for this and earlier stories, keep reading.

Doctor Who (2005) 1-06: Dalek

Episode:

702

|

Serial:

161

|

Writer:

Robert Shearman

|

Director:

Joe Ahearne

|

Air Date:

30-Apr-2005

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm writing about the 702nd episode of long-running British sci-fi series Doctor Who, called Dalek.

It was inspired by a Big Finish audio drama called Jubilee by the same writer, Robert Shearman. I don't know how similar they are as I haven't listened to it, but it has a Dalek on the cover so I wouldn't be surprised if they show up there as well.

You could argue that it spoils the surprise a bit to put the villain's name right there in the title, but it's basically a tradition. The Daleks turned up in 17 classic serials and 13 of them had 'Dalek' in the name. Plus Russell T Davies has no issues with giving a few things away if it's going to get them more publicity and viewers. If you've got one of the most iconic villains in British television history returning to screens after two decades you don't hide it.

If I remember right, the plan for this episode was that it could work as a jumping on point for people who hadn't checked the series out yet, but were curious about what they were going to do with the Daleks. Since the show's second ever serial the Daleks have been Doctor Who's biggest draw and they're probably the reason it survived its first few seasons. Funny thing is, the Daleks nearly sat this one out, as they're not owned by the BBC and discussions with the Terry Nation estate hadn't been going great. For a while the episode would've been called The Sphere and it would've starred a new, more spherical villain. Maybe we don't live in the worst timeline after all.

I'll be going through the whole episode scene by scene with screencaps and recaps so there'll be SPOILERS here, for this and earlier stories. I'll not say a thing about anything that aired later though. Not even if it shows up in the next time trailer.

Doctor Who (2005) 1-05: World War Three

Episode:

701

|

Serial:

160

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

|

Director:

Keith Boak

|

Air Date:

23-Apr-2005

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm reviewing the second part of Aliens of London, which is called World War Three. It's one of the rare part 2s to have a title that ends with 3.

Giving each part of a serial its own title was nothing new for Doctor Who, there are over a hundred classic episodes with individual titles. But it did get old and they stopped doing it three seasons in, back in the First Doctor era, which means this was a bit of a break from tradition. Plus there's no name for the complete story, the closest you can get is calling it "Aliens of London/World War Three" or "the Aliens of London two-parter", so that was unusual for the series too.

I'll be going through the whole episode scene by scene, so everything past this point will be SPOILERS.

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

Episode:

700

|

Serial:

160

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

|

Director:

Keith Boak

|

Air Date:

16-Apr-2005

---

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

Episode:

699

|

Serial:

159

|

Writer:

Mark Gatiss

|

Director:

Euros Lyn

|

Air Date:

09-Apr-2005

---

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.

Doctor Who (2023) - Christmas 2024: Joy to the World

Episode:

884

|

Serial:

312

|

Writer:

Steven Moffat

|

Director:

Alex Sanjiv Pillai

|

Air Date:

25-Dec-2024

---

The good news is that Sci-Fi Adventures has finally returned to cover a brand new episode of Doctor Who! The bad news is that it's been six months since I last wrote a full scene-by-scene review like this and I've forgotten how to do it. Honestly it's lucky I remembered I'm supposed to take notes.

Anyway, this is a Steven Moffat episode and that's a pretty big deal, seeing as he's written some of the best stories in Doctor Who history. They haven't all been winners, but that's no surprise considering how prolific he's been. By my calculations this is the 50th episode that Moffat has been credited for writing or co-writing for Doctor Who, which is even more than Russell T Davies' 41. He's still way short of Classic Who writers Robert Holmes (72), Terry Nation (62) or Malcolm Hulke (54), though, and I doubt they'll ever be beaten...

... unless you count full stories instead of episodes, in which case those numbers become Robert Holmes (18), Terry Nation (11), Malcolm Hulke (8), Russell T Davies (33) and Steven Moffat (40... ish). (It's hard to know what to count as a two-parter sometimes.) So Steven Moffat has set an almost unbeatable record here, especially considering how seasons are getting shorter and further apart. At least, it would've been if RTD wasn't so close to catching up.

I should warn you that this review will contain SPOILERS for every minute of this episode and certain minutes of previous stories.

Doctor Who (2023): Season 1 Review

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the latest first season of Doctor Who! It's also known as series 14 or season 40, depending on how stubborn you are.

Filming began on 5th Dec 2022, so it took a long while for this to finally reach TVs. In fact, the last full actual season of the show was in 2021. But it's finally out and now I have opinions about the dawn of the third age of Doctor Who.

Though maybe I should hang on until the next season's out. I mean 8 episodes and a Christmas special isn't much to review. This run of episodes flew by so fast that I'm not sure I was able to get a good enough look at them to describe what I saw. Then again, if I wait any longer I'll have forgotten what happened, so I should probably just get on with it.

There will be SPOILERS for this season, the recent specials, and maybe other episodes too.

Doctor Who (2023) - Christmas 2023: The Church on Ruby Road (Quick Review)

Episode:

875

|

Serial:

304

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

|

Director:

Mark Tonderai

|

Air Date:

25-Dec-2023

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about The Church on Ruby Road. Because I said I would, and it'd be weird not to after covering the other three 2023 specials. Plus this is a big deal. It's the first episode of the Fifteenth Doctor's era of Doctor Who!

It's going to be hard for Ncuti Gatwa to follow David Tennant, one of the most beloved Doctors in the series' history, but Matt Smith has already proved that it can be done. I'm not worried, as there has never been a bad Doctor in the series' entire history. Though sometimes good Doctors get stuck in a string of mediocre stories that prevent them from really shining. I'm sure there's no way that's going to happen to Ncuti though. Probably.

There will be SPOILERS below, but nothing for stories that come after this.

Doctor Who (2023): The Giggle

Episode:

874

|

Serial:

303

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

|

Director:

Chanya Button

|

Air Date:

09-Dec-2023

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching the third and final Doctor Who 60th Anniversary special, The Giggle. That's seriously the title they went with. That's going to be stuck with us in episode lists forever now. Still, at least it's easier to spell than The Tsuranga Conundrum or The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos.

I just typed those from memory by the way, which I guess proves that my exposure to Doctor Who has gone way beyond safe limits. I can't remember what happened in Flux though, so there's still hope.

I'm expecting that this is where we see the Fourteenth Doctor regenerate into Ncuti Gatwa, which is a bit sad actually. It's rare that I honestly can say that a Doctor is going too soon, but this time he's really going too soon. Three episodes doesn't quite beat Paul McGann's record of one movie, but it's a lot shorter than Christopher Eccleston's thirteen episodes and even that wasn't enough.

There will be SPOILERS below for this story and earlier ones.

Doctor Who (2023): Wild Blue Yonder

Episode:

873

|

Serial:

302

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

|

Director:

Tom Kingsley

|

Air Date:

02-Dec-2023

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching the second of Doctor Who's 60th Anniversary specials, Wild Blue Yonder! Hang on, isn't that a Futurama episode?

I've been doing a great job of avoiding learning anything about these specials but I didn't have to try too hard with this one. Seems that they've been extra secretive with it, which raises questions about what they've been hiding. I do know that it way written by showrunner Russell T Davies however, just like the rest of the specials. In fact, all of Doctor Who's specials in the modern era were written or co-written by the current showrunner at the time. What this means is, it's going to be a while before I see someone else's name at the start of one of these episodes.

There will be SPOILERS below for this episode and earlier ones.

Doctor Who (2023): The Star Beast - Part 2

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm still writing about The Star Beast, the first of Doctor Who's three 60th Anniversary specials. You can read PART ONE by clicking that text.

I've noticed that a few fans seem disappointed that we've gotten David Tennant back for three episodes as they wanted to get straight to Ncuti Gatwa. I guess some people are kind of done with the idea of returning to older characters and legacy actors in general, after the onslaught of nostalgia we've had this past decade.

In the last 8 years we've had movies and series starring Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, Mulder and Scully, Jean-Luc Picard and Seven of Nine, Neo and Trinity, Rocky Balboa, John Rambo, Laurie Strode, Maverick, Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan Kenobi, Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator, Michael Keaton's Batman, Indiana Jones, Rick Deckard, Captain John Sheridan and Dave Lister. Plus they just made a game with Peter Weller playing RoboCop again!

Personally though, I'm one of the people who keeps watching all this stuff. In fact, I've been thinking I should check out some Big Finish audio dramas, where the classic actors have been reprising their roles consistently for 24 years. It's all good as long as it doesn't get in the way of new characters and actors being introduced, and I don't think it has in this case. Filming for the Barbie movie overlapped with the specials so it doesn't seem like Ncuti Gatwa was ever an option and I'd rather have three bonus episodes with David Tennant than nothing at all. They can continue giving me bonus Tennant stories next year as well if they want, I won't complain.

There will be SPOILERS below, for this and earlier stories.

Doctor Who (2023): The Star Beast - Part 1

Episode:

872

|

Serial:

301

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

|

Director:

Rachel Talalay

|

Air Date:

25-Nov-2023

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching the first of Russell T Davies' 60th Anniversary specials: The Star Beast. That's such a pulp sci-fi title that it shares its name with a Robert A. Heinlein novel from the '50s. RTD ain't going with something as ordinary as 'Rose' this time, we're straight into laser guns and space monsters... presumably. I haven't seen the trailers and I don't actually know what it's about.

There's another familiar RT involved with this: director Rachel Talalay. She missed the first RTD run and skipped the Jodie Whittaker era, but she was trusted with every big season finale of the Peter Capaldi era, including Heaven Sent/Hell Bent so she's definitely who you want setting the tone for the show's latest regeneration.

It seems like they're considering this the start of a new volume of Doctor Who, with the 2005 Revival ending with Power of the Doctor last year. I let this information settle into my brain for a bit and I've decided that I like it. Dividing the show up helps me keep it organised in my head and after 18 years it could use a bit of a relaunch. Though maybe they could've waited until after the big nostalgic return of David Tennant to make a fresh start!

I'm going to be going through the whole episode scene by scene, so beware of SPOILERS. There are 60 years of this show for me to ruin now, so I won't get greedy and spoil things that happen in later episodes.

CLICK HERE TO SKIP THE FIRST 11 PICTURES AND JUMP STRAIGHT TO THE START OF THE STORY

Doctor Who (2005): The Day of the Doctor - Part 3

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the final third of The Day of the Doctor, the epic 50th Anniversary Doctor Who special. Click one of these links to jump to an earlier part: PART ONE, PART TWO.

Did you know that the title is shiny 3D, not just flat white? That's just one of the awesome observations you'll be getting as I finally finish taking this episode apart.

There will be SPOILERS below, for this episode and earlier ones. Otherwise, you should be safe.

Doctor Who (2005): The Day of the Doctor - Part 2

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I want to go to London and slide down that railing.

Anyway, I'm still writing about The Day of the Doctor, arguably the most special of all of Doctor Who's anniversary specials. I've reached the middle third of the episode, but you can CLICK HERE to return to part one.

There will be SPOILERS here for this and older stuff, but nothing for newer stuff. I'll mention a few things from the novelisation as well, which shouldn't be too much of an issue as it's the same story.

Doctor Who (2005): The Day of the Doctor - Part 1

Episode:

799

|

Serial:

240

|

Writer:

Steven Moffat

|

Director:

Nick Hurran

|

Air Date:

23-Nov-2013

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing a bit about The Day of the Doctor, the 799th episode of Doctor Who! It got so close to being a milestone in the show's history. People could've still been talking about this story even now. But nope, it missed out by just one episode.

However, the story turned 10 years old last month, so I figured that this would be a good time to write something about it. Speaking of anniversaries, I've been writing about a lot of anniversary specials lately. The Three Doctors was Doctor Who's 10th, The Five Doctors was the 20th, Silver Nemesis was the 25th and Trials and Tribble-ations was Deep Space Nine's 30th.

Doctor Who did have a 30th Anniversary special, the Doctor Who/EastEnders crossover Dimensions in Time, made for Children in Need, but I'll be skipping that. I've seen it before and once was enough. In fact, it was the first Doctor Who story I ever saw from start to finish. I had no idea what the series was back then, but after watching Dimensions in Time I knew I didn't like it, and then the TV movie confirmed it. To be fair, if my first exposure to Star Wars had been the Holiday Special I probably would've avoided the rest of that for 20 years as well.

Anyway, the 40th got nothing new on television at all, but for the 50th Anniversary the BBC treated fans very well. There was An Adventure in Space and Time, dramatising William Hartnell's time on the series, The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot spoof, starring the classic Doctors, and then there was The Day of the Doctor, the 50th Anniversary special itself, simultaneously released both on TV and in actual cinemas. In 3D!

These screencaps aren't going to be in 3D, but I'll try to add some depth to my commentary as I go through the whole damn story scene by scene. Well, the first third of it a least. Either way, there will be SPOILERS below.

Doctor Who (2005): The Night of the Doctor

Writer:

Steven Moffat

|

Director:

John Hayes

|

Date:

14-Nov-2013

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm finally writing about The Night of the Doctor, the surprise seven-minute minisode prequel to The Day of the Doctor that just appeared on the internet out of nowhere a week before the 50th Anniversary.

2013 was a while ago now, and it's maybe hard to imagine what it was like to be a Doctor Who fan back then. It was the end of a Doctor's era, whose final run had been marred by long gaps between poorly received stories. But it was also an anniversary year and people were hyped for the return of familiar faces in a big anniversary special written by one of the series' most beloved writers. So it was basically nothing like 2023...

No one was hyped for The Night of the Doctor however, in fact they didn't know it was coming at all. But then a few people watched it and afterwards they told their friends to drop everything, stay off Twitter, and watch it themselves. Even knowing what it was about would be too much of a spoiler, all that fans needed to know is that they had to see it.

So I'll warn you now that there will be SPOILERS here, both for the episode and relevant stories leading up to it. I won't spoil anything that happens after this story however, even things that fans at the time would've already known.

Doctor Who (1963) 25-10: Silver Nemesis, Part Three

Episode:

677

|

Serial:

150

|

Writer:

Kevin Clarke

|

Director:

Chris Clough

|

Air Date:

07-Dec-1988

---

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the final part of the infamous Silver Nemesis. It's only a three-parter this one. You can click these links to go to PART ONE or PART TWO.

There had been other three-parter episodes earlier in the show's run, even a couple of two-parters, and a one-parter, but the Seventh Doctor era was when they really became a regular thing. It's a little surprising to me that it took them so long, as splitting up a story into a beginning, a middle, and an end seems very natural, and people love their trilogies. Three-parters also have the advantage, theoretically, of not being padded out with irrelevant scenes and dragging on too long. I'll let you know how well that worked out in this case.

This is going to be full of SPOILERS, at least up to this point in the series.

Doctor Who (1963) 25-09: Silver Nemesis, Part Two

Episode:

676

|

Serial:

150

|

Writer:

Kevin Clarke

|

Director:

Chris Clough

|

Air Date:

30-Nov-1988

---

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've got more Silver Nemesis for you, whether you want it or not. However you can CLICK HERE if you'd rather go back to to part one.

Silver Nemesis was writer Kevin Clarke's first serial for Doctor Who and, coincidentally, also his last. Though to be fair, at this point every serial was someone's last, as there were only five more stories left before the classic series got cancelled. Doctor Who did eventually come back, but the writers didn't (except for Rona Munro, who returned to write one of Peter Capaldi's final episodes).

There will be SPOILERS here for this episode and earlier stories. You don't have to worry about me spoiling anything that happens later though.