January 9: "Bad Wolf"

And right after our first sequel we get our second, as this two-parter deals with the consequences of the Doctor's actions in "The Long Game".  Well, sort of.  This episode says that the problems Earth faces in 200,100 are the result of what happened on Satellite Five a hundred years earlier, but given the reveal at the end that the Daleks have been working behind the scenes for quite some time, it looks like they're more likely to blame.

But here we are, at the beginning of Christopher Eccleston's final story as the Doctor, dealing with those consequences mixed with a healthy dose of reality television.  It's rather tragic that this is the end of the ninth Doctor, because Eccleston's performance here is so good.  He was never really "off" in his performance, but those early episodes have some moments of what feels like forced jollity -- perfectly in keeping with the characterization, but there nevertheless.  But here there's none of that.  We get all the range Eccleston's been showing the whole season, but there's never a sense that it's forced, even when he's asked to turn on a dime (such as in the Big Brother house, when he learns that the losing contestants are killed and he goes from annoyed to confused to determined in the space of a few seconds).  He's also incredibly charming with Lynda and seems genuinely pleased at the thought of her traveling with him once this reality television situation is sorted.  But then there are his more serious moments -- he's very intense when he's silent, after he thinks Rose is dead -- and it's really wonderful how he doesn't say a word until "Let's do it" to Jack, who immediately springs into action.  But his intensity here and in the speech to the Daleks at the end are marvelous to behold.

"Do I look like an 'out of bounds' sort of guy?" ("Bad Wolf") ©BBC

Captain Jack also comes off really well in this too.  He's highly entertaining in his reality TV moments ("Ladies, your viewing figures just went up," he tells the two droids after they remove his clothes on live TV, and then there's the moment where he pulls a concealed blaster from somewhere while naked -- "You really don't want to know," he tells them when they ask where he was hiding it), but what's more striking is how he seems to instinctively follow the Doctor's orders and settles in comfortably as a subordinate.  He even calls the Doctor "sir", and not facetiously either.  Really, the only one who doesn't shine in this episode is Rose, and that's because she spends a lot of this episode either forced to play The Weakest Link Deadly Edition or thought to be dead.  (And don't worry, she'll get a chance to stand out next episode.)

The reality TV stuff (the main plot of this first part) isn't as biting a satire as it could have been -- partly because the production companies that own the rights to these shows have given permission to use their logos and music and such (and thus wouldn't be terribly thrilled with too barbed an approach) and partly because Russell T Davies is an admitted fan of the genre.  As such, the parodying focuses more on a "what if?" scenario regarding deadly game shows -- not exactly the most original subject (and one Doctor Who itself had already sort of tackled in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy), but one that they get a surprising amount of mileage out of.

But ultimately this is about bringing all the "Bad Wolf" clues to a head (complete with a recap of some of their appearances during the course of the series), as the Doctor realizes that "someone's manipulated my entire life," and giving us the big reveal at the end of the episode that the Daleks are back, somehow -- and in the grand Terry Nation tradition of waiting till the end of the episode (and referring to them as something other than "Daleks" -- "my masters", in this case) before making the big reveal, even though the previous trailer spoiled the surprise (and now that the episodes are 45 minutes, you have to wait twice as long as when Nation did it).  But now they've shown themselves; the end of the ninth Doctor is almost here.

Fantastic cliffhanger, though:

DALEK: We have your associate.  You will obey or she will be exterminated.
DOCTOR: No.
DALEK: Explain yourself.
DOCTOR: I said no.
DALEK: What is the meaning of this negative?
DOCTOR: It means no.
DALEK: But she will be destroyed.
DOCTOR: No!  Because this is what I'm going to do.  I'm going to rescue her.  I'm going to save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek fleet, and then I'm going to save the Earth, and then, just to finish off, I'm going to wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky!
DALEK: But you have no weapons, no defences, no plan.
DOCTOR: Yeah.  And doesn't that scare you to death?  Rose?
ROSE: Yes, Doctor?
DOCTOR: I'm coming to get you.

(from The Doctor Who Transcripts - Bad Wolf)