An Hour of Who a Day: 01/07/15

January 7: "The Doctor Dances"

Great cliffhanger resolution here, as the Doctor sternly tells the advancing patients to go to their room -- reasoning correctly that the people here have a connection with the main child who is acting as the leader. "I'm really glad that worked," the Doctor says. "Those would have been terrible last words."

If the first episode concentrated on a sense of suspense and creepiness, this episode is more of an action-based one, with more chases and a couple death-defying feats near the end. That's not to say that there's no suspense or creepiness on display here -- indeed, there are just as many worrying moments, with the bit with the typewriter (an added scene when the episode was running under length) and Algy's transformation into a gas mask victim being two particular highlights. It's also really wonderful how the Doctor's solution to the cliffhanger comes back to bite them. "I sent it to its room," the Doctor realizes, as he, Rose, and Jack look around the room in the hospital that the child was kept. "This is its room." It's moments like that, presented with supreme confidence and panache, that help sell this story.

But perhaps even more impressively, they've also got time for some character moments. Steven Moffat seems to delight in puncturing some of the show's more sacred cows -- the sonic screwdriver is scrutinized and comes up somewhat lacking ("Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, 'Ooh, this could be a little more sonic?'" Jack says disparagingly), but most pertinently the question about whether the Doctor can be involved in anything beyond a platonic relationship is brought up playfully, most often using the euphemism "dance". "The world doesn't end because the Doctor dances," Rose says, and while she's actually talking about dancing here the subtext is clear. (And, in case you missed it, they make it about as explicit as they can later, when Jack proves to be interested in both women and men: "Relax, he's a fifty-first century guy. He's just a bit more flexible when it comes to... dancing.")

But there's a third meaning at work as well, one that's often overlooked even though it's referred to in the title. (After all, the first meaning makes for a really strange name and the second doesn't happen, unless we really missed something off-screen.) Even though he may not be the smoothest suitor (or even be interested in being a suitor at this point), when it comes to saving people and doing the right thing there's no one more adept. "You want moves, Rose? I'll give you moves," the Doctor declares, as he sends the upgraded nanogene software to the rest of the nanogenes. And thus we get an absolutely joyous resolution, as everyone affected by the gas mask plague (thanks to the nanogenes) is restored to perfect health: "Everybody lives, Rose! Just this once, everybody lives!" The Doctor dances with joy as he's able to save everyone. It's a beautiful moment, and everyone affected does live -- even Captain Jack, who was ready to sacrifice his life to stop a German bomb from killing everyone in the railyard, is saved by the Doctor and brought onto the TARDIS before the bomb explodes. Looks like they have a new traveller aboard.

"The Empty Child" / "The Doctor Dances" is a supremely confident story, one that moves at a good clip with a swagger, as if it knows just how good it is. It helps that they've made this a two-parter; a single episode version wouldn't have been nearly as good. We get some fabulous performances from everyone and a new companion in Captain Jack Harkness, who'll go on to have lots of adventures without the Doctor (although none of them will ever explore or even refer to the missing two years of his life as a Time Agent that he mentions as a motivation here). It's scary, it's funny, it's brave, and it's unabashedly happy. "The Empty Child" / "The Doctor Dances" isn't just a standout story of Eccleston's tenure, or of the BBC Wales run, but of the entire programme.