Back to Season Two
Hello there! I began watching 2005’s rebooted Doctor Who from the very first airing of the very first episode, at the impressionable age of nine years old. I’ve since rewatched various seasons at various times in my life, but with the arrival of season 11 and Jodie Whittaker I’ve decided to (perhaps belatedly) rewatch seasons 1-10, providing short reactions to each episode. I’ll make one post per season and, just a warning, mild spoilers are inbound. And just so we’re clear, I don’t consider the Doctor’s regeneration to be a spoiler, as it’s typically advertised to viewers well before the fact!
Alright then, season 3. Not one of my favourites broadly speaking, though I do remember enjoying the finale. Martha’s probably my least favourite companion in the show. She’s all right, but her relationship with the Doctor just makes me dislike him and feel sorry for her, which isn’t the most entertaining dynamic. Before Martha, though…
Episode Christmas: The Runaway Bride
Possibly the best companion entrance of all time.
“Right, then. Rose is gone. The Doctor’s hearts are broken. How do we make a Christmas episode that isn’t completely depressing in the wake of this? Oh, I know. We’ll toss a character at the Doctor who’s even more eccentric and bombastic than he is.”
Well, I’m not complaining. This episode did a great job of forcing the Doctor back on to his feet, without completely ignoring the fresh trauma he’s still having to deal with. Rather than depressing, this episode was hilarious, and possibly the only low point in it was the, erm, cheesiness of the villains. I know it was tongue in cheek, but it was still eye-roll worthy.
Episode 1: Smith and Jones
Trying to make a habit of starting a season in our bed-wear, are we?
Here’s Martha! This episode is actually one of my favourites in season 3. It’s a great introduction to Martha as a character, and despite what I’ve previously said regarding favourite companions, it is refreshing to the Doctor interact with someone who doesn’t think the sun shines out of his ass. For a good half an hour, at least. Then… ah dear.
Episode 2: The Shakespeare Code
“Come sleep beside me so I can complain at you for not being Rose!”
I have many issues with this episode. It contains all of my least favourite things, from magic being explained away with infeasible sci-fi jargon, to uninteresting villains getting a lot more screen time than necessary. And oh my god, enough with the Shakespeare references! Ho ho, here’s a quote he hasn’t written yet, har har here’s some Robert Frost that he tries to steal. The odd nod is fine but this was just never-ending!
As I mentioned at the start of this blog post, the Doctor becomes somewhat annoying this season due to his oblivious mistreatment of Martha. Nowhere is this more apparent than in this episode, where he spends the entire time giving her mixed signals, whinging about Rose, and generally spending most of the time making snarky comments about Martha. He was honestly a bit of a prick.
Episode 3: Gridlock
Just gonna classify this as “the gritty season”
This is more like it! Although I can only imagine the premise came to the writer somewhere along the M5. The world building was handled deftly here, establishing the world succinctly without making it an info dump or feeling out of place. Plus there was some important character development at the end of the episode, which solves some of the problems I had regarding the Doctor and Martha up until now.
Episode 4 and 5: Daleks in Manhatten / Evolution of the Daleks
The Empire State Building signifies the divide between them. Or something.
I don’t know enough about Old Who to know how this story would be received by those more well versed in Dalek lore, but it had some interesting ideas, I suppose. I don’t know, there was good and bad. On the one hand there was a lot to be said about the nature of Daleks and the folly of hatred here, and how they’ll never evolve past what they are due to their current nature. On the other hand, the Daleks are at this point becoming overused and at times come across as a little ridiculous.
I’ve flipped on Martha again. During these two episodes she had so many overreactions. “Oh my GOD,” she exclaims, “the Statue of Liberty!!” She reacts about the same when she sees a Dalek kill someone in cold blood. And when she figures out how to kill a bunch of pigmen. She’ll probably react the same when she finds out wine gums are two for a pound down Sainsbury’s. Settle down, Martha. Stop being perpetually gobsmacked.
Episode 6: The Lazarus Experiment
Pictured: Companion trying fruitlessly to explain Time Lord friend
Hopefully pitched as Meet The Parents: Freakish Human Scorpion Edition, this episode is one of season 3’s best. I’m a sucker for a mad scientist story, but the concept of a human attempting a process which Time Lords have perfected – and failing utterly – lends itself to some wonderful arguments between the Doctor and Lazarus. Plus, Lazarus is played by Mark Gatiss, and you’ve got to love a bit of Gatiss on screen.
Most Martha Moment: Shouting “Oh my god, is that an alien?” despite having seen Lazarus transform from his human state before her very eyes, and despite understanding the technology that took him there.
Episode 7: 42
This episode set off at such a pace that I didn’t even have time to grab a good establishing screenshot!
Oh blimey, I forgot about this episode. Despite quite clearly trying to recapture the success of last season’s The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit, this episode did quite a lot right. It placed the Doctor and Martha in genuinely tense situations that allowed their crisis states to shine (I’m making that term up), and they managed to capture the “by the skin of their teeth” feeling quite successfully once again. Plus, the production quality of the environment made the ship’s proximity to the sun feel very plausible indeed.
One thing I would criticise the episode for is pacing. We barely get to meet the side characters before half of them are killed off, and while the concept of having an episode occur in real time is commendable, I think that’s largely what caused the problem here.
Episode 8 and 9: Human Nature / The Family of Blood
The star of the show, let’s be honest here
Another great premise for an episode, this time exploring the concepts of identity and human nature (hence the title). As a period piece it felt quite believable, too. The scarecrows were nicely inventive, but the real star of the show had to be Harry Lloyd, who played a fantastically entertaining villain. It also demonstrated David Tenant’s range as an actor, which not many people have the privilege of showcasing to such an extent within one role.
Most Martha Moment: Slapping John Smith in the face to get him to “snap out of it” despite being told – and rewatching a recording telling her – that the only thing that could bring him back was the watch. I’m starting to think that Martha might not be the brightest companion in the shed.
Episode 10: Blink
SpoOoOoOoOokyyyy
Moffat’s masterpiece. He might have made some questionable choices in his tenure as showrunner later on, but the fact that he wrote this will always stand as a testament to his credibility as a writer. He took an everyday object and turned it into one of the show’s most terrifying villains, whilst presenting the most unique and interesting take on time travel so far in the series. Last season’s episode without main characters was one of the worst, but this one was one of the best.
Episode 11: Utopia
Reunions are such fun, aren’t they? Don’t worry Martha, you’ll get your turn
Fantastic premise. End of the universe, last living people, what kind of society is that? What do they hope for, work towards? De-evolution is explored, of course. The return of Captain Jack is extremely appreciated, and his newfound power is fun to explore, too. And this episode mostly acts as a build-up to the finale, and is a wonderful break from the norm as it mostly involves discussion and character exploration, as well as delving fully into the world without wasting too much time on the Monster Of The Week stuff.
Big ol’ juicy spoilers from here on out. In fact, why are you reading this if you don’t want to be spoiled? I’m curious. Let me know on Twitter if you’re one of those people so I know how to approach these posts from season 4 onwards.
Episode 12 and 13: The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords
When love and hope literally foils your master plan
John Simm is fantastic. If Tenant’s Doctor is an erratic and bombastic version of his overall character, then Simm’s Master explores that extreme as an antithesis. This was my first encounter with the Master and he left a lasting impression one of the best villains in fiction for me. In fact, this is one of my favourite season finales in all of Doctor Who. The stakes are so high, and the end of episode 12 is so bleak. It’s not even a bad Martha story. She finally solves the Doctor crush problem by saving the world and realising that shit, there’s more to life than him.
The ending was a bit much, though. I get that the psychic link existed because of the satellites than brainwashed everyone, I get that, but… even then, everyone thinking of the Doctor gave him super duper de-aging levitation jesus powers? What? How does that work? And I get what they were going for with the forgiveness thing, but that being the sole effective strategy against the Master was a bit much. Ah well, can’t have it all, can we?
Summary
Season three, then. I feel like I’ve said it enough at this point, but Martha is such a polarising companion for me. I’ve criticised her enough though, so I do just want to reiterate that she does have her moments. This is also the Tenth Doctor’s worst season, as he spends much of it moping and neglecting Martha. However, there were some interesting storylines here, and while it may have taken a while, the show did manage to grow out of Rose and the Will They Won’t They atmosphere that the first two seasons embodied. And it had John Simm in it!
Now: Onwards, to Donna!
Perpetually Perturbed 