If you haven't seen this season yet and want to get a general overview/review of it please see my spoiler free Season 3 (2007) review. This post is an episode-by-episode one and it will be full of spoilers!
Season Overview:
This season is the third season after the show's revival in 2005. With a new companion introduced and the excellent David Tennant as the Doctor newcomers to the show could use this season as their introduction to Doctor Who. Personally, I would reccomend starting at 2005, because there are many excellent episodes you wouldn't want to miss, but if you do choose to start here with season 3 and then go back and catch up later you will not be disappointed.
Overall the quality of the episodes this season is excellent and Freema Agyeman and David Tennant both do an excellent job in their roles.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Episode 1: Smith and Jones 3/31/2007
This episode is a great introduction to Martha Jones, a medical student who helps the doctor save the day when weird things start to happen at the hospital. Unlike Rose, Martha starts out very competent and even in this first episode, even while crazy things are happening that make all the other humans around her concerned, Martha keeps a level head and makes a huge contribution to saving the day. All the while she gets to know the Doctor and she's intrigued by the possibilities that the TARDIS, and her experience at the hospital, present. I loved alot of things about this episode, including the Rhino space police. In fact, I wish they had been used again later on in the season, especially in the last three episodes. Overall, this was a great episode and a wonderful introduction to Martha. OUTSTANDING EPISODE
Episode 2: The Shakespeare Code 4/7/2007
This wasn't one of the strongest episodes this season. I found the witches and their weird spell at the end a little over-the-top, but overall it was enjoyable and a little different.
Episode 3: Gridlock 4/14/2007
When I found out we were going back to New New York yet again I was disappointed, but overall I enjoyed this episode a lot. Although it took place in the same city and on the same planet as a previous episode it was still quite a different world. The crabs were a little silly, but I loved the whole Gridlock concept and the way the passengers just kept on going and kept on hoping for a better life was somewhat thought provoking. Overall, a good one, and I have to admit I was glad to see the end of the Face of Bo - not fond of the pickled head style of aliens...more on this later. OUTSTANDING EPISODE
Episode 4: Daleks in Manhattan (1) 4/21/2007 & Episode 5: Evolution of the Daleks (2) 4/28/2007
This episode worked because it brought back the Daleks in a different way. I like the concept of the cult of scarro and how the other Daleks turned on Dalek-sec. I also like how he became much less bloodthirsty after his change (which is not what I expected since the human he used was pretty brutal). The tentacly face was stupid, though. Overall a great two part story and it included some likable secondary characters. I really wanted the Doctor to take on the kid Frank, played by Andrew Garfield for an episode or two...
Episode 6: The Lazarus Experiment 5/5/2007
This episode was fine until the weird scorpion monster version of Lazarus was revealed. I'm sorry, but there are limits to mutation and I could not suspend my disbelief any longer when I saw the scorpion thing and realize that Lazarus was changing back and forth between it and his normal human form within seconds! That huge of a change was just not justifiable and didn't make any sense. Also, if the changes were all due to his "dormant genes" then why did they show his DNA changing? Anyway, up until the point right before the monster, especially when they were showing us his new brutal personality and the way he turned on his partner and so on, those little changes, it was a good episode.
The other thing I want to discuss here is Martha's family. Many have commented on the fact that they didn't get to like her family as much as Rose's. There's a simple reason for this. The writers didn't like her family as much as they liked Jackie and Mickey. First of all, there were too many of them and the show spent almost zero time on developing their characters. Tish was just used as a tool to get the Doctor and Martha into different places where she was working and the mother was so terribly developed. I hate to say this, but I think the writers just had trouble making a sympathetic Black character with the mother. She hated the Doctor as much as Jackie did, but Jackie never tried to get the Doctor killed or started spying on her daughter for some weird government people. If you think back to how long it took for Mickey to become a properly developed 3D character and the vehement hatred that we saw for Chloe in her episode last season it just seems that the writers aren't sure what to do with main characters that are Black. I hope this isn't the case, and I hope we see more well-developed Black characters, but this is my feeling/analysis right now.
Episode 7: 42 5/19/2007
This episode is very similar in feel to the two part story the Impossible Planet/the Satan Pit. I think that we got to know the crew a lot better in the two-parter, and so we emphasized more with them, but this one did have some things going for it. First the lack of Ood, which never really worked for me. Second the lack of balrog-style satan monster was a plus. The only irritating thing was Martha being relegated to the damsel in distress role and needing to be saved by the doctor when she got stuck in that little escape pod. Also, it should have been a lot hotter in that spaceship, just saying.
Episode 8: Human Nature (1) 5/26/2007 & Episode 9: The Family of Blood (2) 6/2/2007
This was one of most outstanding Doctor Who stories. David Tennant put in an excellent performance as John Smith, the human that the Doctor turned himself into when he trapped his "essence" inside that watch. The first episode was very strong because it hammered home, again and again, the differences between the Doctor and this John Smith. And the second episode showed us, quite hauntingly, that John Smith had no desire to change back, that he considered it his own death/suicide to open that watch. The boy Jeremy Baines, who gets possessed by one of the Family of Blood is played wonderfully by Harry Lloyd. It was a chilling performance that reminded me of teenage Voldemort. Overall, a very strong story that I would consider the SECOND BEST OF THE SEASON
Episode 10: Blink 6/9/2007
Like Love & Monsters this episode had very little of the Doctor and his companion, focusing instead on a regular character that notices the Doctor and some of the weird things he's battling. Unlike Love & Monsters this episode is good. More than good, it's the BEST EPISODE THIS SEASON. Sally Sparrow is a delightful character that keeps her head in life-threatening situations. The weeping angels are very creepy villains that show that you can have frightening, bone-chilling evil without blood and guts being involved. The character development was outstanding, from Sally sparrow down to her friend who was only in the show for about 3 minutes, but still managed to make us feel sympathetic and make a difference in the story-arc, down to Detective Inspector Shipton. It was all excellent. If only the season had ended here on this high note...>.>
Episode 11: Utopia (1) & Episode 12: The Sound of Drums (2) & Episode 13: Last of the Time Lords (3)
After the three amazing episodes that came before it this season finale was a huge disappointment. I kept waiting for it to get better, reminding myself of the other strong season finales but unfortunately, it just kept getting worse and worse and worse. I thought the sharp-toothed cannibal aliens in the first episode were terrible, but after finishing up I was wishing to have them back.
The main problem with this story is that it's a convoluted confused mess. It just doesn't make any sense. The incoherent plot is a painful reminder of how well the previous two season finales brought together various elements running through those seasons. The connection/theme for season 3 was weak and see-through. We could see right away that this Mr. Saxon was somehow important, but knew nothing about him until the finale.
Usually what makes a plot good is that you can kind of guess what's about to happen and then you watch and see that it's not what you expected, but much better. In this three-part finale (btw, why was it three parts?) we had no basis upon which to make any guesses or predictions and randomness followed. The entire earth was under threat but the entire time I was thinking that this was just plain stupid. Also, I think it's a huge cop-put for Martha's huge achievement to be making everyone think of the doctor and chant his name. Seriously?
The worst by far was the final episode in which the Master was just stupid, the Doctor went from the weird shriveled thing stuck in a bird cage into this invincible being, and then the reset button was pushed bringing everything back to what it was before Saxon took over and killed off most of the population of the earth. And then they had to end with the "What? What?" thing which really lost all of its effectiveness the second time around.
Some have said that at least the reveal of who/what the toclafane glbe things were was good. Personally I hated that more than the rest of the stupidity because of 1) the paradox nonsense and 2) the cheap way in which they got away from showing a proper conclusion to the utopia thing.
The last thing I'll say is that the characters of Jack Harkness and the Master were both completely destroyed in this terrible disgrace that they called a finale.
When I first saw this finale I was so annoyed and depressed that I almost stopped watching.
Voyage of the Damned (Christmas Special)
This episode was far from perfect, but I liked it a lot mainly because it helped erase the horrors of the season 3 finale from my mind. It was not perfect, but it was a lot more sane than the finale so yay! My main problems with it are that the aliens were too human-looking aside form the cyborg dude, and that the Doctor had to kiss Astrid at the end and weep over her as if he'd known her all his life, and of course the villain reveal. I loved Russel Tovey's preformance as Midshipman Alonso Frame. Overall, not bad, though again, it did nothing to connect the two seasons.
Overall, this season was a wonderfully strong one, only ruined by the terrible finale.
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