RTD to Leave, non-shock

Well the speculation probably started the day he got the job but the BBC has officially announced that Russell T Davies is stepping down from the helm of Doctor Who to be replaced by Stephen Moffat after the 2009 specials come to a close. So, the man who brought Doctor Who back to our screens has served his time to be replaced by the man who is widely acknowledged as bringing us the best episodes of the relaunched

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: announcement, BBC, RTD, Russell-T-Davies, Stephen-Moffat

4×06: The Doctor’s Daughter

Last year, Stephen Greenhorn gave us the intriguing Lazarus Experiment.  It was a tale of genetic manipulation gone wrong that had a few unforseen links to and consequences in the season finale.  This year we get a genetic manipulation gone right story as a “progeny machine” was heavily featured, which created completely perfect people in a matter of seconds from a small cell sample.  So, after all the

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Catherine-Tate, David Tennant, Donna, Experiment, Georgia Moffett, Hath, Jenny, Lazarus, Martha, Russell-T-Davies, Stephen-Greenhorn

The Poison Sky was the conclusion to last week’s cliffhanger although we then got another surprise one tagged on the end of the episode, which was only slightly spoiled by the BBC’s “One to Watch” trailer earlier in the day, more on that later though.  It hardly took a great mind to work out the best way to rescue poor Wilf from the car, in fact while the “great mind” was tinkering about under the car with his suddenly impotent

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: BBC, Bernard Cribbins, Confidential, Doctor, Donna, Martha, One to Watch, Poison Sky, Rose, Sontaran, UNIT, Valliant, Wilf

4×04: The Sontaran Stratagem

It’s always nice to have a stratagem. According to dictionary.com its a plan, scheme or trick for deceiving an enemy, although what exactly the inhabitants of Earth had done to deserve the wrath of Staal The Undefeated and his Tenth Sontaran battle fleet wasn’t quite clear from episode one of this series’ first two-parter. Essentially, the plot involved the Sontarans surreptitiously distributing a new carbon eliminating device for all the world’s 800 million cars that was coupled

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bernard Cribbins, Christmas Invation, Cloning, David Tennant, Haka, Helen-Raynor, Martha-Jones, Ryan-Sampson, Sontaran, Stratagem, Time War, UNIT

4×03: Planet of the Ood 

The previous Ood appearance in Doctor Who, back in Series 2’s Impossible Planet/Satan Pit double bill, essentially served as a plot device for a race of passive creatures who could easily be possessed by the Beast who was the ultimate villain of the piece.  In fact, I seem to recall that the early plans were to have the Slitheen appearing instead of the Ood… thank heavens for small mercies when we were spared that particular fate.  However, the inclusion of a passive, servile race of

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Catherine-Tate, David Tennant, Donna, ood, planet of the ood, tim mcinnery

4×02: The Fires of Pompeii

Just from the pre-credit sequence, you could determine that, if nothing else, we were in for a visual treat with The Fires of Pompeii as the sets at the Cinecitta Studios in Rome were sumptuous and gave a depth and richness to the exterior shots that was a cut above 95% of any other dramas you care to mention. The other hints of what was in store came from the dialogue between DT and CT (a useful shorthand that is gaining popularity on “teh internets”), here we

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Caecilius, Cambridge Latin, Catherine-Tate, Cinecitta, David Tennant, Donna, Peter Capaldi, Phil Davis, Pompeii, Pyroviles, Rose, Vesuvius