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New Who Series 3
Topic Started: Sep 17 2012, 02:00 PM (45 Views)
TheDoctor
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Doctor Who Series 3

The Doctor’s story continues on with the Christmas special, Runaway Bride with Catherine Tate playing the feisty red-head Donna Noble on her wedding day. The Doctor and Donna have to deal with the Racnoss queen’s plot to destroy the earth to free her children. The Doctor is able to defeat her before heading off after Donna turns down the chance to travel with him.

The main series begins with Smith and Jones with, The Doctor using his fake identity John Smith to investigate strange goings on whilst trainee Doctor Martha Jones learns he has two hearts. While we get an invading Judoon army trying to capture the plasmavore after The Doctor tricks her and she’s captured he whisks Martha off for one trip.

Like with Series 1 and 2 we once again get the formula of episode 2 in the past but this time further back to Tudor England and episode 3 set in the distant future. Starting with episode 2 the Shakespeare code we have The Doctor and Martha meeting Shakespeare and dealing with the carronites who force him to finish Love Labour’s Won, but with the use of Shakespeare’s words and of course Expelliarmus (Good old JK… yeah he really said that!) . Gridlock set on New Earth from series 2 is a rather strong episode with subtle hints on society’s over need for things to make their life better. The Doctor saves the people trapped on the freeway but the Face of Boe dies telling him “You are not alone” the episode concludes with The Doctor recounting the story of Gallifrey and how beautiful his home once was.

The two parter; Daleks in Manhatten and Evolution of the Daleks… goes along with the rest of Series 3 it could have been that something special but falls flat and while it’s good to see Dalek’s again and Peter Parker (well it’s Andrew Garfield pre-spidey). The idea of a human Dalek is quite farfetched and you’d think the Cult of Skaro could have come up with a more genuine way of saving the Daleks than having a human hybrid. It’s a shame Moffatt couldn’t pen the Dalek two parter but his episode later in the series is definitely worth waiting for.

The Lazurus Experiment returns The Doctor and Martha to present day England, where he have a run in with Martha’s family and we hear more about this Mr. Saxon we’d previously heard and seen posters of “Vote Saxon”. The episode revolves around Lazurus restoring his youth before changing into a monster seems to be rather pointless… but in fact this episode is just a device to sub a plot idea in the series finale. 42 is the next episode where The Doctor has 42 minutes to save the day and of course he succeeds, it’s one of them episodes which just seems to be filler and only the ending where it’s revealed it election day and Martha not answering questions about The Doctor to her mother Francine that further sets up the series finale.

Now we get to a run of episodes which are regarded by many as the strongest run of episodes in New Who. First up the two parter Human Nature and Family of Blood. The Doctor on the run from the family uses a fob watch to become human. He hides in 1913 as a school professor John Smith, the family arrives possessing several people in an attempt to find the time lord. During the episodes John falls in love and we get some great moments and the final decision to turn John back into The Doctor really pulls at the heart, it’s David Tennant at his absolute finest.

The Series Doctor lite episode is Blink featuring the Weeping Angels for the first time and of course penned by Steven Moffatt. The episode features the struggles of Sally Sparrow dealing with the loss of her best friend who was transported back to the 1920’s whilst then having to help save The Doctor and at the same time not blinking! It’s truly one of the greatest Doctor Who stories and I’m sure not many will argue against that.

The three part series finale features Utopia, Sound of the drums and last of the timelords. With two returning characters… we’ll start with Utopia. The TARDIS refuels in Cardiff and picks up Captain Jack Harkness which sends the TARDIS to the end of the universe. Jack and The Doctor unite and meet up the last humans and Professor YANA who’s attempting to send the rocket of humans to Utopia. However as the episode draws to a close YANA opens a fob watch and regains the consciousness of a time lord… The Master. Who is shot and fatally wounded by his assistant Chanfo but he manages to get inside the TARDIS regenerates and escapes though The Doctor manages to lock to coordinates of the console.

We have Sound of Drums and last of the time lords. The Doctor, Martha and Jack arrive on present day earth and learn that Harold Saxon won the election… who is in fact The Master. We get some great two and through dialogue between the two time lords. With The Doctor been hunted, however the Toclafane allies of The Master appear and wipe out a tenth of the population. The Doctor captured and aged, Jack killed (seemingly). Martha teleports and escapes. She spends a year telling the people of earth about The Doctor and apparently putting together a weapon that would kill a time lord dead with no chance of regeneration (or you know just kill him mid regeneration two bullets would do). Martha is taken back before The Master before she reveals that the great plan of The Doctor is one seen in Peter Pan… Martha reveals that she told the people of earth to chant for him in the same way as you clap your hands and say you believe in fairies resurrects them… and yes The Doctor does restore to normal (Thanks Tinkerbell) and defeats The Master before he’s shot and stops his regeneration and dies…. The episode ends with Jack returning to Torchwood and Martha leaving The Doctor for good.

Episode Scores:
- Runaway Bride 5/10
1) Smith and Jones 6/10
2) Shakespeare Code 6/10
3) Gridlock 7/10
4) Daleks in Manhatten 6/10
5) Evolution of the Daleks 4/10
6) The Lazurus Experiment 5/10
7) 42 4/10
8) Human Nature 8/10
9) Family of Blood 9/10
10) Blink 10/10
11) Utopia 8/10
12) Sound of the drums 6/10
13) Last of the time lords 4/10

Average Score: 6.3

Doctor score: 7/10
Martha score: 7/10

Story Arc:

1)Missing Rose: A major part of Series 3 was The Doctor still upset at the loss of Rose. Now from one point of view I can see why as she was the first companion since the time war and they were very close, however it hurts the Rose character and The Doctor who never overly mourned any companion nearly as much as her which makes this arc quite terrible. Which is unfortunate.

2)Harold Saxon: the main story arc features Harold Saxon who is The Master and in my opinion is the strongest arc of the RTD era. It was well thought out and made sense, though it’s a shame the final execution in the series finale didn’t work too well. This Harold Saxon arc ties into the overall arc of the RTD era the last of the time lords/lonely god. However I really don’t want to touch upon this until my final review of the RTD era.
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