Fox news really advanced in 200,000 years…
In episode seven we see less character driven story, but an interesting setting that works for the most part. To my knowledge, this was a fully original episode, nothing was really bothered from previous doctor who’s or at least… nothing too important (correct me if I’m wrong). If you are wondering whether this episode was solid, in my opinion, I will definitely say yes. It was structurally sound, and some of the tech and ideas were cool.
Right off the bat I liked how the Doctor was somewhat wrong about where they landed, how the tech was ninety years behind. And why was this tech so behind? Because of corrupt news stations! I can’t help but feel that this episode was a small satire on how our world is being run now, how everyone doesn’t ask questions and just listens to the news. Which the Doctor pointed out (in a fantastic way).
In the end, they persevered after one of the workers began to disobey the news stations, and save them. Adding further satire to the already satirical situation, the head of the news station was some ugly fat bloated alien that expelled a lot of “hot air”… is this genius? Or am I just reading into things?
Where the episode faltered was in some of the storytelling aspects. The pacing was fine, but seemed to slow during the middle of the episode, following the insignificant third wheel of the Doctor and Rose. His blithering stupidity almost got himself and them killed, only to return back to present day with his strange brain-surgery-thing, and freak out his mother… I don’t know how I honestly felt about this story, all I know is that it was illogical. Especially for the Doctor to bring along some completely random stranger.
I can’t write this review without mentioning the elusive “floor 500”, where the “walls are made of gold”… This better be another satire, because if people are really stupid enough to believe that, then the media has their claws into society so much so, that after the Doctor killed the Alien-media leader, the world must have turned into complete chaos.
Also, Simon Pegg! He brought his great acting into Doctor Who, and it was a lot of fun to see him play the sarcastic lackey. It was obligatory to see Simon in at least ONE Doctor Who episode, and oh boy was I happy to see him here.
Overall, this episode wasn’t as intense and gripping as “Daleks” but it was more solid than the previous entries in the series, causing me to believe that this show can in fact be a weekly piece of solid entertainment rather than some rarely good show. Which is promising! Perhaps it’s due to the fact that I have become accustomed to the campiness of the show, but it seems to have significantly been dialed down, and this is nothing but good. The comedy and thrilling aspects of these episodes has been balanced very well, and I hope to see more episodes with this sort of structure.
P.S- So the Doctor allows anyone to really come with him? And what now? The mom knows her son implanted some messed up brain-chip thing that makes his brain visible with the snap of his fingers?
Grade: B
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