Look out! He's got a knife!

Doctor Who season 3

I haven't been well the past few days, so I've whiled away the time watching the 3rd season of the new Doctor Who. I had quite a few issues with the past 2 seasons (spotty stories, too many deus ex machina, some really dire episodes) but have kept watching because I enjoyed the character interactions and the acting.

Season 3 strikes me as a marked improvement in a lot of ways. I still have issues, particularly with the season finale, but this season contained some of the strongest Doctor Who I've ever seen and never sunk to the lows of season 1's Dalek or season 2's Fear Her. I still think that David Tennant is easily the best Doctor since Tom Baker, too.

Here's my take, episode by episode. I have no regard for spoilers, so if you haven't watched it I'll say: you should watch Blink, it's the best one. I'm going to give away the end of stories without warning, so read on at your own risk.

Xmas special: The Runaway Bride
I've not seen much of Catherine Tate, who I gather is a comedian, but I thought her & Tennant had good chemistry and this was a fun story. It was sort of let down by the rather tragic over-acting of the villain, and the re-use of the Santa robots shows a lack of imagination.

Smith and Jones
This story is merely OK, but does a good job of introducing new companion Martha Jones and features a wonderfully nasty villain played by Anne Reid.

The Shakespeare Code
Now this is more like it: witches and spells and Bill S. copping some of his own best lines from the Doctor. "Fifty seven academics just punched the air" indeed - Bill was clearly the Capt. Jack of his day.

Gridlock
The season's weakest episode is a silly allegory reminiscent of some dodgy stories from the Colin Baker & Sylvester McCoy eras. Features the underwhelming return of the Macara, if anyone remembers them (I don't). Taken literally it's an unworkable concept; taken as metaphor it's heavy-handed and plodding. Let's move on.

Daleks In Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks
This contains one of my favourite Dalek moments ever, the one-on-one conversation between Mr. Diagoras and Dalek Caan. Otherwise this is a very up & down two-parter with some nice bits and some really dreadful dialogue - particularly just about everything that the hybrid Dalek says..

The Lazarus Experiment
A not-bad story anchored by a great performance from Mark Gattis, who had previously written good episodes of seasons 1 & 2 and who is probably best known as a member of the League of Gentlemen.

42
A pretty good adrenaline pumper told basically in real-time, about trying to stop a spaceship from falling into the sun, this treads some of the same boards as the movie Sunshine but is less naff.

Human Nature/The Family of Blood
Long-time fan Paul Cornell finally gets to write a story, with good results: the Doctor becomes temporarily human to hide from some pretty nasty baddies. This is pleasingly dark, has great performances from the four villains, and even features Jessica Hynes (formerly Stephenson) as a love interest for the Doctor, confirming Tennant as the randiest incarnation yet. This story plays up the Doctor's moral ambiguity in ways that I liked. A highlight, but better is still to come.

Blink
One of the best Doctor Who stories ever, this sidelines the Doctor and Martha to tell the story of Sakky Sparrow (played by the ridiculously cute Carey Mulligan) and the Praying Angels. Scary stuff, cleverly told. If you only watch one episode of the new Doctor Who I'd recommend this one.

Utopia//The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords
This three-part finale features the return of the Master, very well played by John Simm. After some brilliantly bleak, dark and blackly funny stuff in the first two parts, it all gets a bit silly in the third part and finishes up with a "it never really happened" finale that annoys the living shit out of me - they might as well all wake up to find that it was a dream. The very end, where the Master "finally dies" yet again, didn't really convince me but was well played.

So there we go. Some mighty strong stuff, a bit of a damp squib ending, but still well worthwhile and I'm glad I stuck with it.

Posted by pearce at February 10, 2008 6:40 PM