Fifteenth: The Devil’s Chord

Writer: Russell T. Davies

Director: Ben Chessell

Companion: Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson)

Series: 14, episode 2

Summary: The Doctor and Ruby head to 1963, hoping to see The Beatles record their first album. Instead, they meet The Maestro, one of the Toymaker’s children. They are attempting to steal all the music from humanity, hoping to create a wasteland where only the “aeolian tones” exist.

Review: I did like this episode overall, but there was one glaring problem: why even have the Beatles? None of their songs were in the soundtrack, and they barely have anything to do with the plot! I mean, if you’re not even going to spend however much money it would take to secure the copyrights for even part of a song, you could have just used a fictional band instead, especially since the actors barely resembled the Fab Four.

Jinxs Monsoon as The Maestro was the best thing about the episode. Their performance was well done, and I liked the battle between them and the Doctor.

Overall, a good episode despite its ridiculous flaw.

Grade: C-

Fifteenth: Space Babies

Writer: Russell T. Davies

Director: Julie Anne Robinson

Companion: Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson)

Series: 14 (I refuse to renumber the Modern Era!) , episode 1

Summary: The Doctor and Ruby have their first official adventure together. They arrive in the time of dinosaurs, and the Doctor almost kills a butterfly, briefly changing history. (Thankfully he fixes it). Then they travel to the future and arrive on a space station populated and controlled by babies. It’s also terrorized by a monster.

Review: While I liked this overall, it had a few flaws. My first problem is the Doctor says the title of the episode way too many times. If you say an episode’s title too often, it’s not quaint; it’s annoying.

The second flaw is that I felt like the episode was trying to evoke a nod to abortion. While I do sympathize with some leftist views, I’m not really sure where I lean on the abortion issue. I’ve gone back and forth on it too often. Fortunately, it was only a few lines.

Finally, I didn’t like the monster. A monster made out of snot? Are we really going back to disgusting aliens like the Slitheen family?

I like Gatwa’s energy. It’s only been three episodes (counting the last special), but I’ve already begun to see how he’s portraying the Doctor. I also like that it seems like the Doctor and Ruby are connecting not in a romantic way (as most of the companions in Davies’ did), but in the fact that they are both adopted. This is a good idea. There are so many ways to connect people besides on romantic levels.

Ruby’s curiosity was well done. I’m not entirely sure what I think of her, but I think Gibson is doing a good job overall.

So overall, a good but flawed start.

Grade: C

Fourth: The Invasion of Time

Writer: Graham Williams and Anthony Read (credited as David Agnew)

Director: Gerald Blake

Producer: Graham Williams

Companions: Leela (Louise Jameson) and K-9 (John Leeson)

Series: 15, episode 6 (21-26)

Summary: The Doctor feigns insanity and attempts to lay claim to the presidency of Gallifrey, attempting to head off the Vardans, who are attempting to conquer. But he eventually discovers that there is an even more dangerous foe waiting in the wings: the Sontarans. Leela stays behind with K-9.

Review: I like how Tom Baker plays up the Doctor’s insanity ploy, as it leads to some funny moments. One of the best examples is a scene where he orders a guard to hand him an orange jelly baby. He then throws his bag from the guard, saying “One grows tired of jelly babies.”

I like the twist of the Sontarans’ plot towards the end. It’s not as surprising nowadays thanks to plot summaries in Wikipedia entries, but it sets up a good cliffhanger in part 4. However, the final episode felt rushed, and I still think Leela’s exit should have been better executed.

This isn’t one of my favorite episodes, as I don’t like the pacing of the second half of the episodes. It goes too fast at that point.

Overall, this is a good finale.

Grade: B

The Sarah Jane Adventures: Lost in Time

Writer: Rupert Laight

Director: Joss Agnew

Producers: Brian Minchin & Phil Ford

Series: 4, episode 5

Summary: Sarah Jane, Clyde, and Rani are lured into a shop where an alien has been sighted. The Shopkeeper forces them to look for pieces of Chronosteen, and are transported to three different eras: Clyde travels to WWII, Rani to 1500s England, and Sarah Jane to a haunted house in the 1800s.

Review: This was a decent story. I liked how the story was split on three different fronts. Of the three, I thought Clyde’s story was the best.