We Are Not Alone
Are We There Yet?
Thousands sat through the Man United v Watford FA Cup semi final waiting to see whether Watford could pull off a shock victory. Not through any great sporting interest, or even for a love of football but because the BBC had announced that, if the match was to go to extra-time then the third episode of Doctor Who, “Gridlock” would be delayed by a week. What outrage there would have been. The season was already a week later than planned after being delayed by the England v Israel Euro qualifier… a viewing experience I’d dearly love to forget, anyway. Thankfully, for all (except the Watford faithful, I guess) the semi-final was a one sided affair and by the time the Reds fourth goal went in, the sound of DVD recorders being set up could be heard throughout the land.
On screen we headed back for our second visit to New Earth and our third to the year 5-billion-or-so under the pen of Russell T Davies, following The End Of The World and New Earth from previous series. When Rose and the Doctor had visited before they only gazed upon the city of New New York from across the water in an area suspiciously similar to the Gower peninsula. This time the Doctor, possibly unwisely, takes Martha back to one of the old haunts he used to frequent with his former squeeze, and in to the city itself. Landing in the rather grimy “under city” it is not long before the duo are approached by drug peddlers and then separated when Martha gets kidnapped and taken to the motorway… not the start the Doc was hoping for and the pain this causes is clear on his face as he futilly calls after the car that has whisked her away. So, the premise is set up, the Doctor must go to the motorway and rescue Martha.
Things are never that easy and, as the next sequence of events unfold, we discover some of the truths and some of the mysteries of the super highway. It was at this point that I felt, in both a literal and a story sense, that things were not moving forward very much. However, it soon picked up. The Doctor launched himself down from car to car to the bottom of the lane where he looked down to see a very old foe of his waiting below, while Martha and her kidnappers were getting into strife with the very same foe. I am not old enough to recall the first appearance of the Macra, so their surprising revelation here was no more than a nice nod to the older fans (but a welcome one nonetheless) and they filled the role of dangerous foe very adequately.
Elsewhere in the city above, the Face of Boe and Novice Hame were tracking down the Doctor and when the nun with a gun finally caught up with him, the Doctor himself was taken against his wishes. The resolution of the storyline was soon to follow as the three of them (Time Lord, Cat Nun and big face in a jar) worked out how to save the motorists and resurrect New New York. One of the major feats of this series, and good sci-fi in general, is to have so much humanity on display in a situation that, on the surface, is so absurd but, as the motorway’s roof was opened up, and Boe revealed his secret and then died and as Martha and the Doctor sat down for a heart-to-heart, I’m sure that there were tears aplenty from the 8 million viewers.
David Tennant’s performance is moving from strength to strength as some of his more extreme attributes have been toned down and a little more depth has been allowed to flourish. The look in his eyes as he told Martha about Gallifrey was incredibly moving. Freema herself continues to impress with a scene stealing capabilty and a subtleness of characterisation that has left me not missing Billie Piper at all. A little Time Lord mythology and the revelation from the Face of Boe to the Doctor that “You are not alone” all added to the mix in what was a solid episode. I have the feeling that this is going to be one of those installments that matures with age and repeated viewing and I’m off to re-watch it with the BBC podcast commentary any moment now. Of course, the big benefit of not having to wait another week for this, is that we have more New York next week as the Daleks invade Manhatten.
Tags: BBC1, David Tennant, Doctor Who, FA-Cup, Football, Freema-Agyeman, Gridlock, Manchester-United, Martha-Jones, New-York, Russell-T-Davies, The-Doctor
