Doctor Who 29x10: "The Doctor Dances" (28/05/2005)

The second part of the two-parter.

Gasmasked Zombies bent to the will of a Four Year Old threaten London during the WWII
Blitz after a time and space displaced Alien Ambulance is engineered to crashland by an
ex-Time Agent Con-Artist. After they get lured into the con, can the The Doctor, the Last
Timelord in his 9th Incarnation, and his travelling companion Rose, a teenage girl from
early 21st century London, save the world from Certain Doom, reunite a lost boy with his
mummy and still have enough time for a dance?

God, I love this show.

"Those would have been the worse last words ever."

"Who has a sonic screwdriver?" "Haven't you ever gotten bored? Had a lot of shelves to put up?"

Father Christmas.

As I suspected, the complete arc was better than the sum of its parts, at least part the first. I liked the first part, but it suffered from some awkward moments and pacing early on, IMO. This episode brought the whole to a very clever, tightly plotted, and well realized conclusion. Some great character moments- "I sent him to his room!"- on all sides, the Doctor, Rose, Nancy, and I even started to like Jack Harkness a little by the end of it (his nonchalance in part one seemed a bit too forced and cliche- he's given a bit more to do here, and some more development). I especially liked the actress who played Nancy- she was very good in both episodes.

The ending really came together in a way I hadn't remotely anticipated- all sorts of diverse and seemingly unrelated elements from part one actually factored into the conclusion, and in natural ways. Until the end, I was convinced that the dialogue between Jack, Rose, and the Doctor about the gas masks was going to be all that was said on that topic.

Didn't catch any "Bad Wolfs" this time around, but I was too enrapt in the storyline to pay too close attention. Anyone else notice it?

Also, there was an interesting moment to me regarding Jack.

[sblock]The Doctor has this guilty look on his face when Jack mentions his two year memory loss. Given Jack's former "Time Agent" status, could his memory loss be somehow related to the Time War?[/sblock]

Interesting to see next week's storyline. Thought they'd rounded up all those nasty Slitheen, but now that I think about it, I do seem to recall the General and Prime Minister mentioning their sister was absent...

Is Captain Jack a Time Lord? I admit I haven't seen more than snippets of the new show, being in America and all.

I've only seen the first part so far, but Jack does not seem to be a Time Lord. He though the Doctor and Rose were time agents, from an organization that he himself used to work for. I think he is human.

Yeah, I got the sense he was simply a human from the far future.

Viking Bastard said:

Yeah, I got the sense he was simply a human from the far future.

Click to expand...

He was a human from the 51st century. The Doctor specifically explained to Rose how humanity had spread out, well, slept around, throughout half the galaxy by that point.

I thought this arc was fantastic. This is everything I want out of science fiction. Or at least the kind that can be filmed.

Kilmore said:

Is Captain Jack a Time Lord? I admit I haven't seen more than snippets of the new show, being in America and all.

Click to expand...

Nope, not a Time Lord - an ex-'time agent'. I look forward to an explanation of just what it is that 'time agents' do.

And I'm an American too, but thanks to some kindly soul in Wales, I've seen all the episodes.
(yes, I'm gloating).

I thought this story was excellent. Once again, terrific character development. Russell Davies is doing a wonderful job of making the Doctor more "modern" and more mature without losing any of what made him appeal to me in the first place. I am really going to miss Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper. They'll be a hard act to follow. But it's Doctor Who, so the next cast will have to suck pretty badly to make me stop watching.

So can the Dr dance?

Very good, I'm getting more pleased with the series as it goes on, definite change to more character and story development compared to the past.

I enjoyed it. I liked the first part a bit better but it was quite enjoyable. I think Capt. Jack is a pretty good character. How long will he stay? Will he go after Rose or the Doctor?

I do wish they could adventure through time and SPACE like the classic show though. Now they are headed back to meet Rose's family again. Can't they bring back the Master to kill them off so we can have some stories set somewhere else?

This two-parter was the creepiest Dr Who yet; my favourite of the bunch so far. The explanation and resolution was excellent too - all the elements had been seen and presented to us throughout the episodes, and suddenly it all came together in a wonderful 'of course!' moment.

Very touching in parts too.