For a full spoiler free review of this season see my Tenth Doctor/Season 2 review. This blog post is intended to allow me to talk in detail, with spoilers, about each individual episode of the season. Be warned, there will be rants below.
Season Overview:
This season is the second season of the 2005 revival of this long-running show. As I mentioned in my reviews, I would recommend starting with season 1 (2005) which features Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor. The Christmas invasion special is also an excellent episode that eases viewers into the change from Eccleston's Ninth Doctor to Tennant and the Tenth Doctor.
Tennant does an excellent job as the doctor. It's highly enjoyable to watch him think and rant while trying to solve a problem/save the world and he has a truly unique personality. His performance is so good that many consider Tennant to be the best doctor. I would not, however, recommend starting your Doctor who experience here because the stories/episodes are, overall, weaker than those of season 1.
This episode was one I found slightly annoying. They could have gone to any other planet, but they end up going to "New Earth." Not only that, but we have to meet the Face of Bo and Cassandra again... I thought the cat nuns were silly, and the way the doctor cured the patients. Overall, I think the idea behind this episode, the imprisonment of those patients and the way the nuns thought of them as less than human and so on, were promising ideas, I just despised the way it was done.
Episode 2 - Tooth and Claw 4/22/2006
I enjoyed this episode much more than the previous one. It was slightly closer to the level of the episodes in the previous season. There were some stupid things, such as the ninja monks with the orange suits, but overall it was an enjoyable episode.
Episode 3 - School Reunion 4/29/2006
This is a good episode that, to me, was somewhat spoiled by Rose's interaction with Sarah Jane and the whole stupid jealousy plot-line. And also K-9... Oh, and Mickey's interaction with K-9...>.> It was a decent and watchable, and again Tennant's acting was wonderful, especially when he met Sarah Jane.
Episode 4 - The Girl in the Fireplace 5/6/2006
When I saw the preview for this episode, I was thinking "Oh no, clown aliens meets the three musketeers, this is going to be terrible!" I thought the bad guys in it would be very stupid. I could not have been more wrong. It was a wonderful episode, one of the best this season, and many fans rightly loved it. For me, the effect was spoiled by a moment of utter stupidity at the end. The doctor KNEW how the mirrors/portals worked, and yet he told Reinette she had two minutes to pack her bags and went back through the portal to the spaceship! This is just lazy writing. They wanted the sad ending, but that doesn't mean they can do it by disregarding the fact that the doctor is a 900+ year-old genius alien and wouldn't make such a stupid mistake.
If someone had put a tiny bit of thought into this it could have been beautiful and very emotional at the end. All they had to do was, for example, make the doctor make this "mistake" on purpose, give us a reason why he would have realized that Reinette couldn't come with him. Anything. They could have had a robot, or anyone, or anything, pull him back through the portal. As it was, there was no reason for me to feel anything at Reinette's loss because of the lazy writing.
A hugely wasted opportunity.
Episode 5 - Rise of the Cybermen (1) 5/13/2006 and Episode 6 - The Age of Steel (2) 5/20/2006
This two-part story was action-packed, provided an interesting twist by taking them to a different parallel dimension/reality, and again brought in Rose's father(well, the alternate dimension counterpart, anyway), who I've grown to like a lot. There were so many little moments that were great and I loved the characters in the resistance. For me, the best thing was Mickey finally growing into a serious and awesome character, into a hero in his own right. And, of course, the cybermen were somewhat creepy. The only downside was the really bad acting by Roger Lloyd-Pack as the villain, and the weird, weird use of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" song. Overall, this two part story was the BEST STORY THIS SEASON.
Episode 7 - The Idiot's Lantern 5/27/2006
This episode was entertaining and featured an interesting villain, and you have to love it when a TV-show criticizes TV-watching! However, in the end it's a forgettable story that won't stand out as one of the best or worst. It was worth the 45 minutes you'll spend watching it, but beyond that, nothing special.
This was a very strong two-part story. The doctor and Rose meet and interact with some very well-written characters on a ship sitting on a planet which is, impossibly, orbiting a black hole. I liked the look at future space-faring humans and some of their failings and differences and similarities to human society today. The character that gets possessed did a wonderful job portraying both the normal/somewhat scared intellectual and the frightening, devilish beast. The ending fell a little flat for me. I didn't like the "body" of the devil (which reminded me of the Balrog from Lord of the Rings!) as much as the "spirit" which was possessing people. I also dislike the Ood, but these are small quibbles. Overall, a wonderful story, ONE OF THE BEST THIS SEASON!
Episode 10 - Love & Monsters 6/17/2006
No matter how much time I spend describing how terrible this episode is, I don't think I'll truly capture the horror of it. I could live with the concept. A bunch of people who had encountered the Doctor in their past come together and... start baking and making music... sure. Ok. I was even able to look past the weird scooby-doo sequence at the beginning, putting it down to the character Elton's POV. As soon as Victor Kennedy showed up, it was obvious he was going to be the villain and my immediate thought was that he was working for Torchwood and would trick them into finding the Doctor. If only.
Instead, he turns out to be an alien creature called an Absorbaloff that absorbs people into him and their faces can be seen sticking out of his stomach and in one case, his backside. It's not only the stupidest monster ever, but then what the doctor does when he shows up is worse. He is unable to save all the victims, unfortunately, but he somehow manages to preserve the face of Elton's love interest Ursula onto a slab of concrete, thereby dooming her to miserable life. And they end the episode by explaining to us that Elton and Ursula do still have a 'love life.'
This episode is so wrong on so many different levels. From the crude toilet jokes and Ursula's fate to Jackie being attracted to Elton (and the camera showing us a lengthy shot of her in a skimpy little mini-skirt), to the Absorbaloff, it's something that I wish I had never watched. This is not really Doctor Who, but since I don't get to choose what counts as canon and what gets erased for all eternity, let's call it the WORST EPISODE.
Episode 11 - Fear Her 6/24/2006
I'm not sure why so many people hated this episode. I didn't mind it. It was way better than the terrible Love&Monsters and I personally liked it much more than The Idiot's Lantern. I like it when the "monster/alien threat" isn't really evil. The resolution of the story was also strong. Even after the Isolus' spaceship was found their troubles weren't over. Along with the victims who came back to life one of Chloe's drawings also came alive, a drawing of her violent dead father which scared her and her mother both to near paralysis. It was Rose urging them to sing that ended up calming them and saving the day. It may not be one of the best episodes, but it was a good one.
Episode 12 - Army of Ghosts (1) 7/1/2006 and Episode 13 - Doomsday (2) 7/8/2006
This was a satisfying finale, and the SECOND BEST STORY THIS SEASON. We finally get to see Torchwood from the inside and many characters and enemies come back and make an appearance. Rose is an integral part of the struggle in this two-parter and even Jackie, Mickey, and alternate-universe Pete Tyler have a role to play. Of course, we see the return of the Cybermen, which I felt were better used in this episode where they were pitted against the fearsome Daleks. The Cybermen/Dalek convo is one of most memorable moments.
Many characters were given a great and fitting send-off including the Torchwood head/director Yvonne, who gets turned into a cyberman, but somehow still manages to help the others "for Queen and Country", her personality breaking through the Cyberman suit. The other character we said goodbye to was, of course, Rose, and this was handled wonderfully. I really was afraid that she was going to die, but with the help of alternate-Pete she managed to only be trapped in the alternate world where the Doctor couldn't reach her.
This was an excellent ending to the season and to Rose's time aboard the TARDIS. The doctor's reaction to her loss was truly heartbreaking. The only thing that ruined it was the stupid screeching bride at the end, although I loved the way he kept saying "what?"
Episode 14 - The Runaway Bride 12/25/2006 (Christmas Special)
After the last wonderful Christmas special this one was just terrible. It did nothing to connect the two seasons. The actress who played the bride was terrible. We had Torchwood shoved down our throats yet again even after its death in the last episode, and the monster threat was just plain stupid. Seriously, these monsters have been planning to take over the world since before the Earth's formation? Utterly ridiculous. But mainly I hated it because of the actress who plays the bride ... >.>
Overall, this season's stories were a little weaker than those of last season. We still had gems like the Cybermen story, the Satan Pit story, and so on, but nothing really rose to the creepy awesomeness of last season's Empty Child story-line. It was saved by David Tennant's wonderful acting, every minute of which is a treat to watch. You won't want to miss this season, but you may want to skip Love & Monsters.
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