I am – Hercules!!
The BBC hired the guy behind “Queer As Folk” to write a whole bunch of new “Doctor Who” episodes. They’re now airing every Saturday night in the United Kingdom, and the seventh aired a few hours ago.
Sorry, kids. Apparently that Dalek who reviewed last week’s episode only reviews the episodes with Daleks in them. It saddens me too.
BEWARE THE MANY NON-INVISOTEXTED SPOILERS BELOW!!
“Doctor Dan” says:
DOCTOR WHO – 27.7
“The Long Game”
Writer:
Russell T. Davies (Casonova, Queer As Folk)
Director:
Brian Grant (Hex, Clocking Off)
Synopsis: Adam discovers that being a Time Lord’s companion isn’t as easy as it looks, when the trio arrive in the year 200,000 A.D, aboard Satellite 5 – a central hub for the galaxy’s news broadcasts.…
Verdict: “The Long Game” already marks the show’s second venture to an orbiting satellite after Davies’ own “The End Of The World” (is he obsessed with satellites, or is this a cost-cutting concern? Probably both). One thing prevalent with this new series is the limitations of the settings, which in conjunction with the constant return to present day Earth, makes the whole show seem somewhat constricted. The TARDIS can apparently go to anywhere, and “any-when”… so quite why The Doctor is obsessed with Earth-related satellites and underground complexes is beyond me… sigh…
Anyway, “The Long Game” is a fairly strong episode – blessed with a good central premise and a likeable guest appearance by Simon Pegg (Shaun Of The Dead) as The Editor, a white-haired, frosty-faced villain who lives on Floor 500 – which houses a deadly secret from the human workers below. Christopher Ecclestone is really coming along now, managing to give a more three-dimensional performance than in the earlier episodes, while Billie Piper continues her solid and believable work. Bruno Langley, playing Adam, is also a good new addition (although, it will transpire, under-used in the series as a whole…)
The production reeks of 80’s Doctor Who, however. For some reason the BBC just can’t create believable futuristic architecture, so just make sure everything’s shiny, metallic, and with computer screens dotted about. In “The Long Game” they’re going for a “Blade Runner-meets-Deep Space Nine” style that just doesn’t come together. Still, it’s effective enough on its own terms and doesn’t ruin an enjoyable story. The CGI used it generally good (particularly Type 2” brain surgery where a flap opens in the centre of your forehead to allow assimilation of news, and the episode’s “end of level” monster – a sort of limbless, ceiling-suspended, Giger’s Alien…)
Fundamentally, there’s always something quite old-fashioned and frivolous about all of Russell T. Davies episodes. “The Long Game” is very average, but contains enough good-natured old-school “mystery” to keep people happy. At times it’s almost like a futuristic episode of Scooby Doo! As I’ve said before, I just don’t think Davies’ has the chops to pen truly great science-fiction stories, and it’s a shame the majority of the 13-episodes are written by him. While I can’t deny “The Long Game” kept me entertained for 45-minutes… I just wish we had more Doctor Who episodes that actually challenged and provoked ideas within the audience, instead of just coasting by on good-will and light-heartedness…
The Good:
a) The Editor – Simon Pegg (TV’s Spaced, Shaun Of The Dead) having great fun as this week’s villain.
b) Bruno Langley – a strong “companion” who should return, if there’s any justice.
c) The CGI – underused and the better for it…
d) Some neat parallels are drawn to out own post-9/11 world during The Editor’s “monologue-ing” at the end.
e) The final “click your fingers” gag is so, so, so obvious… but still very funny!
The Bad:
a) The production design comes across as quite cheap and clichéd.
b) Somehow I don’t see how an answering machine can receive the entire galaxy’s news data via a mobile phone…
c) A vendor calls The Doctor “sweetheart” – yet another homosexual nudge from Davies?
The Geeky:
a) Simon Pegg is the main guest star! Need I say more?
Doctor Dan’s Rating for 27.4:
***
Next Week: Rose travels back in time to meet her father before his death in a car accident, and uses the TARDIS to change history… with disastrous consequences!
“Zoe F” says:
'The Long Game'
Featuring an evil Simon Pegg as 'The Editor'
This episode was set in the future on a space station called Satellite 5 which is responsible for sending out over 600 stations of news to earth.
The main journalists have had 'type 2' chips implanted into their heads which, when activated, slide open to reveal a flower shaped hole though which their brains are visible. This enables direct downloads of information. The journalists have become computers.
Apart from the ick factor this concerns the Doctor as he knows this technology is outdated and he begins to wonder what has held the human race back. He asks 'Cathaca', one of the head journalists, why there are no aliens on board, for which she has no answer and has never thought to ask the question.
The answers are found on Floor 500. A place where all employees aspire to work because 'the walls are lined with gold'. Pfft yeah right. Once such employee is discovered to be an undercover anarchist and 'promoted' to Floor 500.
Floor 500 is a supercooled wasteland with an unusually high corpse count. The fact that the people are dead however doesn't prevent them from working (we've all worked with people like that, right?). Their chips continue to function after their death so they can be used as puppets of the Editor (Simon Pegg) and the Editor in Chief (big monster that resembles a cross between the Alien Queen and an Arse with Teeth).
Incidentally Simon Pegg (aka Shaun of the Dead) makes a decent bad guy, even if he does get bossed about by the aforementioned alien Arse with Teeth.
Meanwhile the New Assistant Adam thinks it would be a good idea if he snuck off and had a chip implanted so he could find out what technological advances have been made, steal them, and leave a message on his mum's answerphone so he can decode it when he gets back and make huge great wadges of cash. Tosser. He has his chip set so that it opens up to reveal his brain when he clicks his fingers.................(see end of review)
The Doctor and Rose get summoned to Floor 500 where Evil Simon Pegg provides a nice exposition of the Arse With Teeth's evil masterplan. Apparently for the last 100 years, the Arse with Teeth has been in charge of the news, and the human race, creating stories which instill fear in people and prevent them from reaching out to other alien races or avdvancing as far as the Doctor knows they should have done.
We find out that The Arse with Teeth's name is 'The Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe' (well done Simon for pronouncing that) but as Simon Pegg says 'I call him Max'. Max needs the temperature to be kept cold for it to survive. Simon Pegg is mightily pissed that he cannot find any information on who the Doctor and Rose are.
Unfortunately as New Assistant Adam is extracting info from the Satellite, Evil Simon Pegg is able to extract information from his brain and find out who the Doctor is and where he came from. He then plots to use the Tardis to travel back in time and ensure that the human race never gets a chance to exist.
Cathaca, whose curiosity has finally been piqued by the Doctor's questions, has snuck up to floor 500 and overhears the Evil Plan, rushes off to use her info spike type 2 chip thingy to override the system and divert all the heat to Floor 500. The Doctor and Rose escape with Cathaca leaving Evil Simon Pegg to deal with an overheating exploding Max.
A pissed off Doctor transports Former New Assistant Adam back to his home and zaps the answerphone with his sonic screwdriver thingy. The Doctor tells Adam that he only takes the best, and he has Rose. They leave. Adam's mum returns home and says that he has been gone 6 months 'time goes by like that' *clicks fingers*........................
Best line 'Ladies, Gentlemen, Multisex, Undecided, Robots.....'
Sorry if this review makes little sense, but then the episode didnt really make that much sense to me. Still gets four stars though.
Zoe F
“Supertoyslast” says:
Doctor Who 27.7
"We all know what happens to non-entities. They get promoted."
What's it called?
The Long Game
Who's it by?
Russell T Davies
What does the Radio Times say?
Simon Pegg guest-stars as the sinister Editor. In the future, he oversees broadcasts to the entire Earth Empire. But who is he working for?
The verdict? The Doctor, Rose and new assistant Adam arrive on a space station 200,000 years in the future during the 4th Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Microchips in the heads of all 96 billion human beings keep track of everything and provide an endless stream of information. But the Doctor is surprised to find that human civilization has stalled when it should be at its height. Just what is holding it back?
This was the episode that I had really been waiting for. Simon Pegg in Doctor Who? Unmissable! This comes from the pen of Russell T Davies who has written the weakest episodes so far. But that didn't worry me. The best two episodes may have been written by other writers, but I reasoned that the first few Davies episodes were produced in a block. The first two were written before Eccleston was cast. Surely Davies was just finding his feet and this was the one that would really deliver? Sadly I was foolishly optimistic.
The truth is that there isn't really anything bad about this episode. No burping. No farting. It's just that there isn't anything particularly good about it, either. The story has potential but it ends up being a bit by-the-numbers. The media satire could have been far more biting. But all we get are a few lines about "we create a climate of fear to make aliens unwelcome". I like that idea a lot, but that's just about all we get. Those notions could have been explored a lot more. This should have been The Truman Show in space, but instead is just routine.
Thankfully, Simon Pegg at least partially rescues this episode - despite most of his role being exposition. I can't help but feel that it would have been more satisfying if the main villain had been Pegg's Editor, instead of who he was working for. Pegg could really have cut loose then and been truly menacing. The nature of his threat is weakened by him just being a subordinate. If he had been a cross between Christof from Truman and O'Brien from 1984 I can imagine that the sparks between him and the Doctor really would have flew. But Pegg is always a joy to watch and relishes the few witty lines that he is given. However, he is somewhat undercut by the being-stuck-in-one-room syndrome and most of his lines being delivered to a screen.
Tamsin Greig is one of our quirkiest comedy actresses - perfect for Doctor Who. Unfortunately she is wasted in a very dull role. And what happens to Adam just makes me think "well what was the point of that?" Even Davies's usual flashes of wit and humour are largely missing here. No further hints about the Time War or the Doctor's past, either.
The Bad Wolf references were handled well before. Just brief comments between background characters that only the fans would really pick up on. Little details about what happened to the Time Lords. They seemed to be deliberately referencing things that the characters were aware of, but the audience wasn't being let in on the secret. Now the Bad Wolf references are nonsensical (or at least highly coincidental). Last week a helicopter just happened to be called Bad Wolf 1 and this week there is a reference to Bad Wolf through a TV news channel. This isn't intriguing - it's just baffling.
This is an episode that is difficult to get excited about - not worth loving or hating. At least there's nothing cringeworthy in it and manages to pick up a few points for Simon Pegg's enjoyable performance.
Supertoyslast's rating for Doctor Who 27.7?
***
“Steve Lacey” says:
Hey Herc
Don't know if you'll run with this, but here's a review of tonight's Doctor Who, entitled "The Long Game" and featuring appearances from Simon "Spaced/Shaun of The Dead" Pegg and Tamsin "Black Books" Grieg
Well, I guess the best way to describe this is that it feels very much like "Family", the ST:TNG episode that followed "The Best Of Both Worlds". Last week's episode was perhaps the best Doctor Who to have ever been produced, so whatever followed was going to be a comedown. On initial viewing, "The Long Game" feels lightweight and throwaway, but it grows with familiarity.
Last week, the Doctor (reluctantly) took a young English technology expert into the TARDIS, and this week he takles his first trip into the future. To a space station above the earth. Where people are disappearing mysteriously. And The Face Of Boe appears. Stop me if you've heard this one before. The parallels between this episode on "The End Of The World" are relentless (Adam even gets hold of the time-travelling mobile phone), but the joy comes from seeing how he deals with this - namely by fainting, then by trying to send technology data back in time onto his mum's answerphone.
In fact, "Family" is a bad comparison. Better is "The Zeppo", the BTVS episode where Xander did some messing about whilst Buffy and everyone else saved the world. The interest was with Xander (at the time the only un-empowered Scooby), not the monster trying to take over the Earth. Thus, the more interesting plot is seeing an imperfect, self-centered guy mutilate himself (he gets a nifty data-port implanted in his forehead) for a quick buck.
Well, onto the guest stars. Whilst it's nice to see Simon and Tamsin, one wishes that they could have been given better parts to play. Tamsin in particular is wasted as an obsequious nurse, a part anyone could have played. Simon Pegg fares better, but only by virtue of being the human bad guy. previews for the series suggested that despite the name "The Editor", he would be a futuistic 'fan boy', who was overly familiar with the Doctor. Instead, he's a contorlling, manipulative, morally bankrupt media mogul (hello, how did Rupert Murdoch not launch legal action?), and looks fine in the role, but again, it's a fairly generic part, and he does nothing to make his appearance shine.
The direction is lively, and far better than Keith Boak's early efforts, although Joe Ahearne is still directing King, and the design is lovely, especially the alien behind the plot. There should be more gigantic bulbous alien creatures in SF, and I'm glad that this episode features one.
This is an episode that many people will not like for the moment. However, I think that this will change over the next few months, as fans re-visit it on video and DVD.
Next week: Pterodactyl's in church!
“Amir” says:
Very good episode. Simon Pegg, who proved he could do
Average-Joe-Turned-Hero in Shaun of the Dead, is (literally) ice cool
as the
Editor, not so much evil genius of a dystopian future but the
spineless,
smart servant of an alien force unseen throughout much of the episode.
The
year is 200,000 AD, and the Doctor, Rose, and that damned annoying
temporary
male companion Adam (arrogant "genius" prick from previous episode)
have
come expecting haute-cuisine and a future unlike anything Earth has
seen. So
they're a bit surprised when they land on Satellite 5, orbiting the
Earth
(which now has 5 moons), to find it's, well, a bit crap. It's damned
hot and
no-one wonders why, people are eating "Kronkt" burgers and there's this
talk
of a media corporation which controls all the enws (tones of Tomorrow
Never
Dies there). Course, there's a megalomaniac behind all of this, the
question
is who... or what. The "journalists" receive and send the "news" (sorry
for
all the "irony" marks) via this weird box/spike/chip implanted in their
foreheads that opens up. Ewww. Anyway, floor 500 is where everyone
wants to
go, not knowing it's deathly cold up there and the eeeeeeeevil Editor
will
take your dead body as an information collector the second he has the
chance, thanks to the commands of.. the
Jathro-something-quite-unpronouncable (fun in the making-of Doctor Who
Confidential as Simon Pegg tries to nail the line when he introduces
the
monstrosity), AKA Max. This is some massive alien-meat-bitch in the
ceiling
of this building, which requires massive cooling. Hence, the Editor
(so-called because he edits all the news for the ignorant humans),
contracted by banker associates, has agreed to take on the cooling of
this
massive beast (leading to massive heat below from the pipes), and these
evil
bankers get loads of money. I think. That's what I liked about this
episode.
While some of the jabs at media manipulation were not-so-subtle (and
there
was even more Government/Iraq War bashing), it made a change from
aliens
saying "I'm shaking my booty" and farting at every (in)opportune
moment. And
that Adam kid gets ditched (YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!). And did I mention
Simon
Pegg's brilliant? Now I must buy that Spaced 3-Disc Collector's DVD...
