Writer: Russell T Davies
“If you don’t mind, I’m going to have to refer this upstairs.”
From the soaring heights of ‘Dalek’, Davies return to the writer’s desk brings us what is honestly a pretty underwhelming story, and certainly the weakest of the series so far. It’s really a shame because the story has all the makings of a great episode: A great ensemble cast, a dynamic and interesting setting and a compelling antagonist (until the third act, at least).
It’s a story that has a lot of potential, but ultimately, ends up being an inferior version of ‘The Beast Below’, making it somewhat redundant. Aside from a ‘Bad Wolf’ reference, this episode adds nothing to the canon or the wider series, save for the inclusion of Adam from the last episode, although his role in both stories amounts to nothing more than a tag-along, adding along to the strength of the ensemble but doing nothing of any real significance.
We find our heroes on Satellite 5, in the year of our Lord 200,000, overlooking The Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Satellite 5 is essentially a gigantic centralised hub for all of Earth’s journalism, and the cookie-cutter “Who controls the world’s information?” plotline is blatant from the start. It unfolds that, rather predictably, the world’s information is distributed by a not-very-nice man known only as “The Editor”, a name that makes him sound far more interesting than he really is. Simon Pegg is suitably entertaining in the role but isn’t given a lot to work with and doesn’t really ever have much of an intimidating factor or a presence of any substance, although very little of this can be placed at his feet. In terms of the narrative, The Editor is little more than a human-shaped stand-in for the real villain, The (ahem) Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe. Mercifully, they refer to it as simply the Jagrafess for the majority of the episode. Or Max.
Unfortunately, the Jagrafess is quite literally a big alien stuck in the ceiling. And is beaten by the main room he’s housed in getting too hot. This is a prime example as to exactly why this episode is so underwhelming: Even though its set way into the future, on a gigantic city, contained inside a satellite, the episode has no scope. It adds nothing much to the series, lacking any contribution to the depth of the characters, it doesn’t place the Doctor or Rose in an environment with new stimuli, and we don’t really learn anything about anyone. What is the Jagrafess? Why is it here? Why Satellite 5? Where does it come from? Is it evil or simply desperate to survive? Why does the Jagrafess need to stay cold?
Who is The Editor? Why doesn’t he have a normal name? Who the hell is anyone in this episode?
I suppose this is the worst part of the entire episode, in that it sets itself up with mystery and intrigue, creating what could be an interesting partnership between The Editor and the Jagrafess, and totally squanders it by introducing the Jagrafess about ten minutes before it dies, and giving The Editor very little to do. Adam prances about and ends up getting some sort of code reader implanted in his head, downloads the history of the microprocessor, nearly gets the Doctor and Rose killed because The Editor… reverse-downloads his brain? It honestly doesn’t really make much sense at all. Following Adam’s admittedly dire blunders, the Doctor decides to take him home, figuring that the futuristic technology in his head will force him to lead a quiet life because scientists would cut him up to get into the tech in his head, which is about as stupid as the rest of the reasoning applied in the rest of the episode.
I suppose some merit can be granted at the idea of a potential companion being abandoned, deemed not worthy enough. To travel with an immortal alien in a time machine is a special privilege, and it cements the implication that the companions are the best of humanity, chosen because of something special inherent to them. The idea that not just anyone can become a companion is a nice implication; when the audience sees something in a companion that they can identify with, it allows them to feel as if they could be a companion themselves, which is a nice way to bring the audience closer to the fantastical adventures onscreen.
Aside from that, however, an underwhelming affair. Davies can, and has, done much better than this before and since, and the revived first series should mean that the writers are putting their best foot forward. A stumble in what is otherwise a series peppered with excellent episodes.
5/10
Joe Porter 