Thursday, May 8, 2008

Doctor Who S04E05-The Poison Sky

The world is in chaos. A large cloud of gas produced by Atmos vehicles is starting to spread across the entire planet and grow slowly towards its deadly density. While the world is in disarray, the Sontaran’s send a strike force to London to eliminate the remaining U.N.I.T. forces. And with Donna, Martha and the Tardis all in the hands of the Sontarans, The Doctor’s options are running low. As the world, literally, holds its breath, all brace for the final, desperate last stand to begin.

What started as a truly rousing, heart pumping story arc ended just as strongly as it began with this episode. We got a fair share of everything, drama, Doctor techno-babble and lots and lots of action sequences. Arguably the big payoff of this episode was the inevitable showdown between the Sontarans and U.N.I.T. The see saw change in luck for both sides at key moments in the story gave it its much needed boost of edge of your seat excitement.

I was quite relieved that Donna’s Grandfather made it out of the conflict unscathed (saved by Donna’s mother with an ax no less). Granddad has become one of my new favorite characters of the series, the wily old geezer who is serious when he needs to be, and I can’t wait to see what kind of a role he plays in the episodes to come. Donna herself got placed in an interesting predicament when she was beamed up to the Sontaran ship with the Tardis and forced to infiltrate to help The Doctor. Donna continues to grow on me, although I don’t think she will ever be as good a companion as Martha or Rose (who made a very creepy blink and you’ll miss appearance on The Doctor’s monitor when Donna tried to contact him: where the heck is she?)

Martha was a bit of a background presence this week. Much of her screen time was given to her doppelganger created by the Sontarans and even she was a bit wasted and less convincing of a creative clone, which in the end gives her presence away to The Doctor. But, as clearly seen in the last scene of the episode, she will have a bit more of a role to play next week.

Overall, not that bad a way to spend a Saturday. It was sad to see the boy genius die in the end as I would have liked to have seen him return in one form or another later on. But other than that, I was impressed. Oh, and for all of you hardcore lovers of the old Doctor Who serials, U.N.I.T. figurehead The Brigadier, was given a name only cameo this week. Turns out he’s still alive, but stuck in Peru of all places. While I did like the U.N.I.T. characters in this story, the presence of this character would have been an added bonus. Still, can’t have everything now can we?

Next Week: Trapped in space…with The Doctor’s daughter?

Rating-9/10

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