Time and Space: A Doctor Who Journey

Series 1, Episode 8 : The Empty Child
Written By : Steven Moffat
Directed By : James Hawes
Villian : The Child
Synopsis: Rose and the Doctor find themselves in London during the height of the London Blitz in 1941 trying to solve the mystery of an aliens spaceship that has crash landed.  A group of homeless children are chased by a mysterious and frightening child and Rose meets the infamous Captain Jack Harkness.

One of the best and most frightening episodes ever conceived!  I still get chills anytime I hear a child say "Mummy".  This was the episode that really hooked me on this show.  There is so much going on in it and yet it flows so well.  It is jam packed full of great characters, witty lines, geeky references and things you never even knew creeped you out (like kids in gas masks).




I love Captain Jack.  Not only is John Barrowman and incredibly attractive man, he does a great job at capturing the charisma of Jack.  From the first moment we meet him, you can tell there's something special about him.  I think one of the best decisions they have made is making him a recurring character and eventually giving this character his own show with the spin off Torchwood.

Rose and the Doctor both really grow as this story unfolds.  We see elements of the Doctors wit and learn a little bit more about his past with his passing remarks.  Rose really starts to stand on her own two feet by dealing with the mysterious Jack in such a way as to not reveal too much information about who she and the Doctor truly are even though Jack sweeps her off her feet.

The character of Nancy is fabulous.  She is strong in a way that you have to admire.  The way she looks after all the other homeless kids and still makes them mind their manners and chew their food makes me smile.  I can't imagine being in her position.  She makes you think about the real kids that went through the Blitz without any adult to look after them and yet they managed to survive.

Anytime I recommend Doctor Who to someone, I always tell them to keep watching until this episode and by the time you finish part 2 (The Doctor Dances), you will be totally hooked.  There is really nothing bad in this episode.  The dialogue is smart, the pacing is quick, the bad guy is creepy and the story stays with you for a very long time afterward. This is one of my all time favorite episodes and by far my favorite of Christopher Eccelston's Doctor.


Rating: 10 out of 10

Interesting Details:

• Mauve is the universal color for danger.
• Red is the universal color for "camp" leading to many misunderstandings between humans and aliens in the future. "All those red alerts, all that dancing"
• The ship they are following jumps time tracks
• This is the first time the Doctor uses the alias of John Smith in the new series
• Rose makes a Star Trek reference
• This is the third time we see through the villains eyes. (Previously the Dalek and the Reapers)
• The Doctor makes his debut as a stand up comedian without even realizing it.
• The fake phone on the TARDIS rings, surprising the Doctor
• We see Jack's attitude towards equal opportunity "dancing" before we even know his name.
• Cell phones interfere with Chula spaceship instruments
• The "west end musical" the Doctor refers to is Oliver, in which one of the main characters is Nancy, the big sister type to the homeless kids.
• Captain Jack also uses psychic paper
• When Rose hands the psychic paper to Jack it says she has a boyfriend called Mickey, but she considers herself available
• Jack doesn't know who Spock is
• Nancy jokes about the Doctors nose and ears being big
• Jack and Rose dance to "Moonlight Serenade" by The Glen Miller Band
• The Doctor goes to Albion hospital, which is the same hospital they took the pig creature to in Aliens of London
• The injuries all the victims have are massive head trauma to the left, partial collapse of the chest to the right, scarring on the back of the hand and a gas mask fused to the face.
• Before the war, Doctor Constantine says he was a father and a grandfather but now he is neither.  The Doctor responds that he knows the feeling showing that he too had a family (kids and grandkids) before the Time War
• You can hear Doctor Constantine's skull crack when the gas mask emerges
• Rose tells Jack that they are Time Agents and that the Doctor is named Mr. Spock
• The Chula war ship was an ambulance and Jack was scamming them
• There is one reference to the Title in this episode
• There is one passing reference to the Time War
• There are no Bad Wolf references

Series 1, Episode 8 : Father's Day
Written By : Paul Cornell
Directed By : Joe Ahearne
Villians : The Reapers
Synopsis :  The Doctor takes Rose back in time to witness the day her father is killed but when Rose saves her father's life, the Reaper's are unleashed on the world and begin to destroy everything.

And just as things were improving, we take another backslide.  Once again, this episode sets up many things to come, including introducing Rose's father Pete and showing why changing your own past is a very bad idea.  The story overall, however, is a little weak and forced at times.  The Reapers are not frightening in the least.  Some of the other characters are annoying.  Rose drives me crazy with her tantrums and stupidity.  While I can understand what she did and why (let's face it, we would all be tempted by that) I still find it hard to get to involved in this episode.

The best part of this episode is by far Pete.  I love that his character is deeply flawed and not at all what Rose expects.  I love flawed characters.  They are real.  I also really enjoy that despite Pete's flaws and daft schemes, he's very caring and incredibly smart.  He figures out what is going on with very little prompting and shows a strength of character that reflects in Rose.

It really seems like this whole episode is just one great big set up to a quick resolution at the end.  Pete makes a sacrifice, Rose get her chance to be there for him, and Jackie gets some closure.  The Doctor teaches everyone a lesson not to question his decisions and we move on and almost forget any of this ever even happened.

Over all, this episode is ok.  Not very memorable, not the best, but still not the worst...and no Sliteen.

Rating: 5 out of 10

Interesting Details:

• Pete Tyler died Nov. 7, 1987
• Pete gets Jackie's name wrong at their wedding
• There are the words Bad Wolf on a poster on the wall near where Pete is supposed to die
• The Doctor gives Rose a death glare
• Pete Tyler invented a health drink called Vitex
• Rose and the Doctor being in the same point in time creates a weak point in time, perhaps this is why the Doctor states he can't cross his own timeline in future episodes.
• An Ordinary man is the most important thing in creation
• The Doctor talks about going back in time to save his own people, but in future episodes he reveals that this wouldn't be possible because the war is time locked in order to prevent such things from happening
• The Tardis becomes an ordinary Police Box
• Rose's phone plays the first phone call in history instead of her messages
• Jackie and Pete have some serious marital problems
• The older something is the stronger it is
• Pete proves he is a pretty smart guy when he figures everything out on his own
• Mickey hugs Rose around the waist they same way he did in the first episode when he didn't want her to leave.
• Touching your past self creates a paradox
• The Time Lords would have cleaned up this mess were they still around.  They enforced time laws
• Pete pieces together what the Doctor knew all along.  His death would put everything right.
• Rose does change the past.  She changed the time and location of her father's death, held him while he died and the driver stopped.
• There is no reference to the title in this episode, although it was originally title "A Wound in Time" which is a line.
• There is one mention of the Time War, but it is not actually named

Series 1, Episode 7 : The Long Game
Written By : Russell T. Davies
Directed By : Brian Grant
Villians : The Editor, The Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe
Synopsis : The Doctor, Rose and Adam find themselves in the distant future on Satellite 5 which broadcasts the news to the entire Earth empire, only the Doctor feels something is wrong.  Can they uncover the secret of the mysterious Editor and find out who is controlling Satellite 5 and set things right before it's too late?


This episode really begins to set up the long game that Russell T. Davies has been playing all season and will continue for many seasons to come.  When you look back on this, you can see how much was set up in this episode.  Hints of something wanting to control the human race and more of this mysterious Bad Wolf thing.  While the story itself is a little lacking there are a lot of good things in this episode.

My personal favorite thing being the appearance of Simon Pegg as The Editor.
Simon Pegg has long been a favorite of mine, not only for his acting, writing and amazing movies (Shaun of the Dead is one of my favorites) but also because he is a giant fanboy.  Pegg has stated that he has been a Doctor Who fan since he was a child and tells many cute stories about it in his autobiography, including one where he got a Jelly Baby from "his Doctor" Tom Baker at an autograph signing.  Even though he is playing a sinister character in this episode, you can feel how excited he was to be doing it.  He helps all fans out there hold on to the dream of one day being a part of the thing that you love because, well, he got to do it.

Adam Mitchell plays a fairly prominent role in this episode as well.  His purpose seems to be more that of showing why the Doctor is so selective with his companions and also why he generally only travels with one.  Good people are hard to find and the temptation to use the knowledge you can gain from time travel would be too much for almost anyone to bear.  Although we get hints here and there of the Doctor doing just that, his companions always seem to find a way to rise above that temptation and just enjoy the ride.  We also see how hard it is to have two companions because if they separate, how can the Doctor possibly keep track of what both of them are doing.  Adam is not a good companion.  I don't think his character was ever intended to be.  I think he was more of a lesson than anything.

The visuals in this episode, while not the sweeping scenes we saw in The End of the World, are still quite good.  I really enjoyed the use of color on the various floors, especially floor 500 with its shades of blue and grey mixes with a little white.  I found the Jagrofess a little disappointing.  To me it looked just like a giant blob with teeth, but gave no sense of the intelligence that it must have in order to control things as it had been doing for the last 90 years.

While the characters of Cathica and Suki are descent, they don't really grab us they way they should.  I think that we were supposed care more when Suki dies, but I just didn't.  I think we were supposed to cheer more when Cathica starts thinking for herself, but I just thought "about time!"  Perhaps the little set ups of things to come made their character development suffer, but then again, the set ups are really what make you love this when looking back.  Overall, it's a descent episode, but takes a bit of a step back when you compare it to Dalek.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Interesting Details:

• The height of the human empire is around the year 200,000 where the earth is covered in mega-cities, 5 moons and has a population of 96 billion.
• Some people just can't handle time travel.  Adam faints within the first 2 minutes of the episode.
• This is one of the few times the Doctor is shown getting money.
• Foods of choice include a Kronk burger and a beef flavored slushie
• The Face of Boe announces his pregnancy on Bad Wolf TV
• Cathica refers to her fellow workers as "ladies, gentlemen, multi-sex, undersided or robot"
• Humans will believe anything.  No one questions that they never see anyone from floor 500 or that the walls are supposedly made of gold
• Adam shows that he will never be a good companion when he uses time travel for personal gain.
• The Doctor feels that humanity has been set back about 90 years and Satellite 5 started broadcasting 91 years before
• Mars has been colonized by humans.  It also has a University.
• A pico-surgeon is a futuristic brain surgeon
• A vomitamatic freezes waste by way of nanotermites in the lining of the throat, producing vomit ice cubes
• The Tardis doesn't translate the Jagrofess
• The Editor represents a consortium of banks that helped install the Jagrofess
• The Doctor doesn't stay to help clean up the situation.
• The Doctor knows that Adam can never reveal what he knows because of the Type 2 chip in his head.
• There are no mentions of the Time War
• There are no mentions of the title, although it is mentioned in a later episode.

Series 1, Episode 6 : Dalek
Written By : Robert Shearman
Directed By : Joe Ahearne
Villians : Dalek, Henry Van Statten
Synopsis : Deep in an underground bunker in Utah, the Doctor and Rose are drawn to an alien distress signal.  They find billionaire Henry Van Statten and his collection of alien artifacts, including the Doctor's oldest and most deadly enemy, the Dalek.

This is truly a brilliant episode.  They have done an amazing job of re-inventing the Dalek and introducing them to a new generation.  From the tongue in cheek nods to the past to the slow reveal of the Dalek in the darkened room, this is a frightening and entertaining ride.

The redesign of the Dalek's s brilliant!  I love how they stuck to the original look and feel as I feel it's important to connect with past audiences that have loved this show for years.  The pepper pot shell, plunger and whisk are all still there but are sleek and elegant in their design.  Nicolas Briggs, who voices the Dalek, is amazing at creating fear through his staccato delivery of his lines and the tiniest inflection of emotion.  I also love how they address all the things that fans from the past have commented on about the Daleks.  Oh no, not a plunger!  Whatcha gonna do now Dalek, I climbed a flight of stairs.

Probably one of the most intriguing scenes in this episode is the one in which the Doctor meets the Dalek for the first time since the Time War.  Eccelston masterfully swings from fear to a manically laugh when he realizes the Dalek has no weapons.  He shows anger at the thing he hates most and we see a glimpse of the Doctor that could make a decision to destroy not only the Daleks but his own people in order to end the Time War.  Then in the blink of an eye, we see his remorse over the agonizing decision that has plagued him since he destroyed both races.  To show that many emotions so believably and so quickly really demonstrates how wonderful an actor Ecceston truly is.  I also really love when the Dalek tells the Doctor that he would make a good Dalek after the Doctor tells him to kill himself.

This episode also introduces the mini companion, Adam Mitchell.  I find his character interesting because he demonstrates why the Doctor often travels with just one trusted companion.  More on this in the next episode.

There is another brilliant moment near the end of the episode where Rose stops the Doctor from killing the Dalek and helps him find his way back to being himself and not the soldier that he was forced to become in the past.  It is beautifully written and well acted.  Billie Piper really shows some strength in this one and show us why Rose is one of the most beloved companions of all time.

Really the things that make this episode so wonderful is how it develops the characters of the Doctor, Rose and the Daleks.  The presence of other characters, including Adam and Van Statten, really takes a back seat to this.  Are you starting to enjoy the ride yet?  I know I am.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Interesting Details:

• The TARDIS can be drawn off course by a distress signal
• This is the first trip to the United States.
• The museum contains chunks of meteorite, moondust, the mylometer from the Roswell spaceship, a stuffed Slitheen arm and an old Cyberman head with a label on the case identifying it as being from the old episode "The Invasion".
• The call sign for the helicopter is Bad Wolf One
• Lame joke: "I'll tell you how they got in.  In-tru-da window"
• This is this first time we see directly through another character's eyes (Dalek) instead of our usual third person observer status. 
• Van Statten claims to own the internet 
• The Doctor reveals that it was him who ended the Time War and destroyed not only the Daleks but also the Time Lords
• This is the first time we see the Doctor actively resort to violence instead of reason or others doing t for him.
• The Daleks cry of "have pity" mirrors the line said by Davros, the creator of the Daleks, in the old episode "Genesis of the Daleks"
• The Doctor compares Van Statten to Davros 
• The Doctor reveals he did not survive the Time War by choice
• We get to see the Doctor's two hearts in this episode
• Van Statten reveals that he has scavenged from alien artifacts to invent things including broadband and the cure for the common cold
• The device used to torture the Doctor looks a lot like a Dalek eye stock
• Rose unwittingly provides the Dalek with all it needs to heal and also what ultimately destroys it by touching the Dalek
• No one will question the effectiveness of the Dalek plunger after watching it "sucker" someone to death, download the internet and open a lock
• The Doctor says the Dalek can calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat and yet it takes 13 seconds for the Dalek to open the lock.
• The Dalek has a field surrounding its body that stops bullets
• Van Statten shows just how despicable he is by totally dismissing the deaths of all the humans and wanting the Dalek left unharmed.
• The Dalek's mighty enemy, a flight of stairs, if finally conquered with the chilling cry of "Elevate".  This is not the first time a Dalek has levitated, contrary to popular belief.  They mastered hovering in the past episodes "The Chase", "Revelation of the Daleks" and flew up a flight of stairs in "Remembrance of the Daleks"
• The Dalek's evil nature is apparent in the battle with the soldiers and scientists when it kills everyone in a very intricate water/electrocution rather than taking them out one by one and allows the Doctor to watch.
• Rose learns to run a lot faster in the future after being sealed in with the Dalek in this episode
• The Dalek reveals that it is feeling emotions and is therefore contaminated
• This is the first time we see inside the Dalek's shell
• A Dalek is so bent on destroying all that is non-Dalek that it wishes to die but cannot without being ordered to like a good soldier.
• Van Statten gets his just reward by having his memory wiped and dumped on the streets just like he did to an employee at the beginning
• The Doctor is reluctant to bring Adam along with them.
• There are 3 mentions of the words Time War and multiple references to it
• There are multiple mentions of the title in this episode
• There are no mentions of chips in this episode

Series 1, Episode 5 : World War Three
Written By : Russell T. Davies
Directed By : Keith Boak
Villian : The Slitheen
Synopsis : Downing Street announces mankind's first interplanetary war.  The Doctor, Rose and Harriet Jones race against time to stop the villainous Slitheen, but only Mickey and Jackie hold the key to salvation.

Make it stop, for the love of everything, make it stop!  Ok, so this episode is slightly better than the last one, but only because they slightly reduced the number of fart jokes in it.  I do love some of the dialogue in this episode, particularly the bit where the Doctor bluffs about increasing the flammability of alcohol.

I don't really have a lot to say about this one.  While it does set up some things in the future with Harriet Jones and the Bad Wolf internet virus, it's one of those take it or leave it episode's for me.

I really don't know why the Slitheen annoy me so much, but I always seem to skip every episode with them in it, not only in Doctor Who, but also in The Sarah Jane Adventures.  They are really one of the worst villains in the entire Whodenverse, in my humble opinion.

Rating: 4 out of 10

Interesting Details:

• The Doctor reveals he is not human to the Slitheen at the beginning of the episode
• The Slitheen all seem to be connected via the compression box around their neck as evident by the electrocution of all of them when the Doctor attacks the one
• The Doctor uses a fire extinguisher as a weapon
• The Slitheen reveal that they are a family
• The Slitheen call the Doctor's bluff with the alcohol
• This is the first time the Doctor asks the name of someone who was killed trying to help and no one knows the answer.
• The Doctor struggles to place why he knows the name Harriet Jones.  She becomes very prominant later
• The Doctor's password is "buffalo" which overrides everything
• This is where Mickey makes his value as technical support apparent
• Jackie destroys the Slitheen with a mixture of gerkins, pickled eggs and pickled onions although all she needs is the vinegar
• The Slitheen reveal that their plan is to reduce the Earth to molten slag and sell off the pieces as fuel for other spaceships.  There is an intergalactic recession on.
• The American newscaster's name is Mal Loup which is very rough French for Bad Wolf
• The British swear of "Oh Bollocks" is cut off by the missile explosion
• The Doctor suggests Harriet run for Prime Minister and then figures out why he knows her name.  She gets elected in the future.
• The Doctor is not keen on anything domestic, like family dinners
• The Doctor makes the graffiti kid clean off the TARDIS
• The Doctor give Mickey a virus to put online and destroy any mention of him.
• Jackie stresses that she wants a promise from the Doctor that he'll keep Rose safe, but he never answers her
• There are no mentions of the Time War in this episode
• There are no mentions of chips in this episode
• There is one mention of the title in this episode
• There are 4 farts in this episode and multiple mentions of them
• Harriet Jones introduces herself 5 times

Series 1, Episode 4 : Aliens of London
Written By: Russell T. Davies
Directed by : Keith Boak
Villians : The Slitheen
Synopsis : The Doctor takes Rose home just as a spaceship crash lands in the Thames.  The Doctor and Rose try to solve the mystery of the crash, the survivor and try to unmask the Slitheen.

Truth, I find it very hard to review this episode.  I dislike it.  I usually skip right over this one and the next episode as well when I watch the series.  For the sake of this blog however, I will buckle down and watch it again.

Why do I dislike this episode so much.  Well, that's an easy one.  The Slitheen.  They annoy me.  They aren't frightening in the least.  They are kind of stupid too which makes it hard to believe that they were even able to establish themselves as well as they did.  And to top it off, I hate potty humor.  I don't get it.  The fart joke gets super old quite quickly.  I realize this is a family show and that kids may find this amusing, but I also find it patronizing that they seem to cater to the lowest common denominator with these villains.

Now, not everything in this episode is bad.  We get to see a real mama bear side of Jackie when she unloads on the Doctor for taking Rose away from her for over a year.  We see a tiny bit of the strength that Mickey becomes capable of in later episodes.  And we meet the wonderful Harriet Jones.

While this is one of my least favorite episodes of the series, It is important to watch it at least once since it does foreshadow some important events and introduces some important characters.  However, after you've seen this one once, you can probably skip it in the future like I do.

Rating: 3 out of 10

Interesting Details:

• The Doctor gets his time/date wrong again by returning Rose 12 months later instead of 12 hours
• There is a kid spray painting Bad Wolf on the side of the TARDIS
• Jackie is the first mother to ever slap the Doctor
• The Doctor reveals he is 900 years old.
• The alien ship that crash lands takes out the iconic Big Ben landmark on its way down
• The first mention of U.N.I.T. is in this episode
• The Doctor gives Rose a TARDIS key
• The U.N.I.T. soldiers follow the Doctor's orders without even questioning him, even though he hasn't identified himself
• Toshiko Sato makes an appearance in this episode as a pathologist.  Tosh is a technical expert in Torchwood and later reveals that she was covering for Owen this day as he had a hangover and she pretends to be a doctor.
• The Doctor refers to Mickey as Ricky multiple times in this episode
• The Slitheen have never heard of the Doctor
• U.N.I.T stand for United Nations Intelligence Taskforce
• The Doctor makes reference to his past regenerations when explaining why U.N.I.T won't recognize him
• The Slitheen that attacks Jackie is the only one with a visible zipper
• This is the first cliffhanger episode in 16 years
• There are no mentions of the Time War in this episode
• There are no mentions of chips in this episode
• There are no mentions of the Title in this episode
• There are 16 farts in this episode
• Harriett Jones introduces herself 4 times in this episode.

Series 1, Episode 3 : The Unquiet Dead
Written By : Mark Gatis
Directed By : Euros Lyn
Villians : The Gelth
Synopsis : The Doctor and Rose find themselves in 1869 and the dead are walking.  They team up with Charles Dickens to solve the mystery of the local undertaker, the seer maid, the gas creatures and the risen corpses.

Still dealing with the slow start of this reboot, this episode finally start to pick up a tiny bit of steam by adding one of the great elements at the disposal of this show, exploring the past and meeting some of history's greatest characters.  Simon Gallow does a masterful job of bringing Charles Dickens to life.  One of my favorite things that this show does is show historical figures are real people with real problems and issues, just like the rest of us.  When you first meet Dickens, he is a tired old man who makes reference to how he has screwed up his personal life and his marriage.  It's not until he gets onstage to do a reading of A Christmas Carol that the Dickens most of us have heard of is seen.  We see the great story teller who has enthralled countless generations.  I like that he isn't perfect.  I like that he is a huge skeptic.  I also really enjoy when the Doctor is trying to explain to him what the phrase "number one fan" means.

Although the main plot in this episode is not one of the strongest in the series, it is going in the right direction.  The idea of the Gelth is much greater than it's execution.  There is so much build up making you feel sorry for them and wanting the Doctor to help them and then wrestling with the decision along with Rose of how ethical it is to allow them to recycle our dead that the big reveal that they are in fact evil is fast, forced and a little out of left field.  I feel they could have spent less time with Rose and the Doctor locked behind a gate helpless with just a bunch of hand reaching at them for an enormously long time and maybe a little more time establishing the fear that the Gelth should bring.

I did really love the Gwenyth and I was very happy to see Eve Myles parlay a career out of this episode with her role on Torchwood.

While this is not one of the most memorable episodes ever, it is still fairly solid and can stand one it's own.  Like any newborn, the show's first steps are a little wobbly, but hang in there.  The best is yet to come.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Interesting Details:

• First episode to begin without a focus on one of the main characters
• First time the Doctor gets his date/location wrong
• The Doctor gives Rose some very complicated directions to find the wardrobe (first left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left) which shows that there is a lot more to the TARDIS than just the main control room
• The Doctor invents the term "Fan" early 
• Rose's age, 19, is revealed
• Dickens uses the phrase "What the Shakespeare is going on?" a play on the phrase "What the Dickens?"
• First mention of the Cardiff rift, which become prominent in future episodes as well as in Torchwood
• Gwenyth reads the Doctor's mind when pouring him tea
• Gwenyth mentions "the Big Bad Wolf" when speaking to Rose
• Gwenyth's psychic powers are strengthened because she grew up on the rift according to the Doctor
• This is the first mention of the Time War.  It was previously only referred to as the war.  The Gelth also give a sense of the scope and devastation the war caused.
• The gaseous Gelth come out of the door knocker after Dickens, mimicking the knocker in A Christmas Carol
• The doctor refers to some of his past adventures (fall of Troy, WW5, the Boston Tea Party) some of which actually happened to previous Doctors
• Dickens quotes Hamlet when explaining Gwenyth's death; "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy"
• Dickens talks about the ending for "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" being about aliens.  Dickens novel was never completed in real life.
• Dickens final line is "Good Bless us, everyone" in reference to his novel, A Christmas Carol.
• There are 2 mentions of the Time War in this episode
• There are no mentions of chips in this episode.
• There are no mentions of the title in this episode.