Doctor Who News for 2008 (Season 4)

Doctor Who: Journey's End (S04E13)

 (Mon Jul 07 2008 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Wow. This episode picks up immediately following the previous ("The Stolen Earth") episode. At the end of that episode it looked like everybody was about to die, or had died. Sarah Jane was surrendering to Daleks, a Dalek was attacking Torchwood with Ianto and Gwen doing their best imitation of "let's go down fighting", and the Doctor had been shot by a Dalek and was regenerating. The big question from last week was this surprise regeneration of the Doctor since it's known David Tennant's contract went through 2010 (at least). Mere trifles... rather than regenerate into a new Doctor, the Doctor regenerated into himself. Weird trick if you ask me. And then to save Sarah Jane they had Mickey and Jacky materialize next to her car, with a huge gun for each, and blow away the Daleks. Oh, and Torchwood, they borrowed a scene from The Matrix and froze the bullets in time saying something about a Time Lock which Tash fortunately finished before she kicked off this mortal coil. Oh, and speaking of prisons (where Gwen and Ianto found themselves) these Daleks have some tricks, as a full blown Dalek Empire, which we haven't seen before. Such as disempowering a TARDIS regardless of the defenses it possesses.

Doctor Who: Stolen Earth (S04E12)

 (Sun Jun 29 2008 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Oh my, it appears that Russel T. Davies wants to go out with a big big big bang. The Stolen Earth is essentially the middle episode of a three part story, which began with Turn Left. In the previous episode we were left with an ominous warning from Ms. Bad Wolf that darkness was coming. Of course that Rose was able to get to the same universe as the Doctor meant something seriously bad was happening. The "darkness" was spreading across all universes, but in this episode did not match with what I expected. I expected something like a blanket sucking energy out of everywhere, but in this episode we have several (27) stolen planets ... hmmm.. just how is that a blackness spreading across all universes? Either they have a continuity problem or it's going to be addressed in the next episode.

Doctor Who: Turn Left (S04E11)

 (Sun Jun 22 2008 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time))

Another tour de force of time travel stories on Doctor Who. This episode asks the question -- How would your life be different if your decisions were different?

Clearly where we end up in life is directly determined by the decisions we make along the way. It's also determined by what goes on around us, the decisions everybody else makes, and for that matter the context we all live in on this planet in this star system in this galaxy etc. But, really, what path would life take if there were a different set of decisions?

In the episode they suggest that for most people it wouldn't make much difference. Choose one job versus another job, what difference does it make? But in the case of Donna Noble, the Doctors companion, that choice ends up being between accompanying the Doctor and not doing so. Then because the Doctor truly dies because Donna is not with him, without the presence of the Doctor the whole universe dies, step by step.

Doctor Who: Silence in the Library, and Forest of the Dead

 (Fri Jun 09 2006 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time))

Oooooo! This is why Doctor Who stories should be spread over multiple episodes. So many of the Doctor Who episodes since the revival have been one-episode wonders where the story was rushed .. and a rushed story is often one not told as well. Even some of the two-parters since the revival have been too rushed. In any case these two stories are very well paced, extremely interesting, and excellent feats of story telling. That they were written by Stephen Moffett, the next lead writer, portends good things for the future of Doctor Who.

The story is about a library, not any old library but one that is the size of a whole planet and contains every book ever written. But, strangely, there is nobody there in this library. Why? The strange goings-on start almost immediately with an ominous message saying to watch out for the shadows. And shortly afterward a group of researchers burst upon the scene, one of whom, Dr. River Song, amazingly already knows the Doctor. Many creepy and odd events occur until there is another of the endings where someone sacrifices their life in order that the Doctor will live.