I agree. It was wicked, and I have even higher hopes for this series now.

The Cambridge Latin stuff made me really chuckle. I remember those books as having a filthy subtext, but perhaps we just added that ourselves out of sheer boredom.

More "classic" figure pictures:



If you buy all of the above, you will have the parts to make this bad boy:

Whether Donna becomes an irritant or not as the series goes on I don't know (and I doubt), but Tate has so far proved she has the acting balls for comedy and drama to make her, I think, one of the great assistants.

I like that she has a nickname for him, though Spaceman isn't as good as Professor.

She should have stuck with Charity Doctor

The 'terror' aspect is somewhat nullified by the happy grin.

I've just noticed, there's no celery on Peter Davidson's lapel!

I'm just amazed at how well they've captured Tom Baker's mad staring eyes.

Weird that they forgot something like that, but managed to remember to put on Colin Baker's cat pin.

Joe Dempsie is guest starring in this series? Hooray! I love Joe Dempsie!

Yeah, the Tom Baker one is uncanny in its resemblance full stop, although the Colin Baker is pretty close too.

I think they are all pretty good!

There is also a set of five classic Daleks being produced as well, by the way.

I will certainly try to get hold of the Tom Baker figure, and probably the Zygon and Peter Davidson ones was well.

The classic Dalek set comprises of 3 5" Daleks as seen in 'The Dead Planet' (1963), 'The Planet Of The Daleks' (1973) and 'Genesis Of The Daleks' (1975).

Future classic figure releases include:

Special Weapons Dalek as seen in 'Remberence of the Daleks' (1988) comes in white and gold and has a front mounted energy cannon instead of the plunger arm.

Tenth Planet Cybermen as seen in 'The Tenth Planet' (1966) their first appearance in Doctor Who

Season 12 Gift Set - full set featuring classic characters from the 1974-75 era.

The figures are out in August and will retail at £7.99 for the individual figures, and £16.99 for the Dalek set.

Wow! What an episode!! Loved it that the humans were the baddies. Loved the plot twists. Loved the music. Loved that there was less shouty Donna, but there still wasn't any need for the 'do I look single? do I?' bit. Loved the moral debate and historic references.

All in all, probably the best episode so far.

Really?

It was okay, the ending was a bit pants and what was Thunderbird 3 doing in the show tonight?

Yeah, it was OK. A bit muddled.

My Mum liked it, I thought it was a bit whishy washy tonight. Not a bad episode by any means but a bit of a let down after Pompei.

Just caught up on The Fires of Pompeii, which I forgot to record last week and had to track down through semi-clandestine means, and I thought it was a very good episode. Compared to the opening episode, which I enjoyed bu thought didn't really have much going on, it had a greater sense of story and did much more to establish the Doctor-Donna relationship. Catherine Tate has managed to quell all my justified misgivings about her, though she did get a bit too shouty at times (I cringed at her delivery of ''Well, I might have something to say about that, Spaceman''), and I look forward to seeing their relationship develop. It was also great to see Peter Capaldi and Phil Davis giving such game performances.

It was okay. The one thing I didn't like was when the head guard made the rest leave so that CRANE ACTION SCENE could happen.

It made absolutely no sense and was clearly just in it because they wanted to up the action in the episode.

Other than that, it was good. But the preview for next week was even better - Sontaran!

I enjoyed last night's episode. It was slightly patchy in a couple of places but, like last week, it harked back to a bit of classic Who in feel.

Halpen turning into an Ood* was my favourite moment of the series so far, I think. Positively horrific...I loved it!








* Was I the only person to think for a split second Michael Jackson was going to pop up after he bend forward during his transformation?

I just caught up with 'The Fires of Pompeii' - what a superb episode. Great guest performances, and I loved the development of the relationship between Donna and the Doctor. I thought Catherine Tate was excellent and really showed her acting chops.

I thought that was extremely well done - and yes it was horrific.

I agree with those who couldn't see the point of the crane chase - I can only guess it was to counterbalance some of the more thought-provoking moments. Kids probably liked it.

It was utterly ridiculous.

"I've always wanted to do this!"

Do what? Flail around for a while and chase someone with a crane? And then after a bit the guards just turn up again and catch the Doctor anyway, so it's not even like it served a purpose in the storyline.

I think it was meant to represent humans' madness for power and control. Though I agree, it didn't really work and came across as quite pointless.

Something I didn't mention, which I meant to, David looked everso shattered in his trailer on Confidential. His eyelids were barely able to stay open, the poor love.

It was all a little hackneyed to be thought provoking. Will humans never learn? They only thought whether they could, never stopping to think whether they should! There were monsters on that planet, and truly we were they. Blah, blah, blah.

I could have lived with the well worn themes, but I was disappointed with the muddled story. It just didn't make much sense, and I didn't really care about the Ood. They were irritating with and without their secondary brains. Isn't it annoying when people hum all the time? I have to admit to laughing at the transformation scene, which as well as being stupid, sort of trampled on their earlier point about them being the superior race, as a punishment that's pretty harsh. As Donna says, it's hard to know what's right or wrong in an episode of Doctor Who; but I'd say bringing back an alien race, rehashing a point you've already covered with the same race in an earlier episode (rubbish slave analogy), just because you made loads of masks for that earlier episode and they're just sitting around a Cardiff warehouse doing nothing, probably falls into the 'wrong' camp. I seem to remember Rose being as disgusted as Donna about the concept of a slave race. I don't think there was nearly enough extra material to make a whole episode about them, and what was added was largely stupid. As a side dish they worked well in the earlier double bill, but as a main course I was left wanting more. Or less... Less Ood more of anything else.

"Secondary brain", tee hee hee, I know a few blokes who think with theirs.

And why do big brains swallow activists? I didn't know big brains had mouths. I was half expecting it to belch.

I was quite happy to learn that Donna is a West Ham fan. Ginger and a Hammer. Pretending I'm The Doctor's assistant has been made that little bit easier.


Though I suspect they've mixed up Chiswick with Chigwell, bless 'em . By rights Donna should be a Chelsea fan. Nevermind. I know which I much prefer.

Why couldn't they have had a giant rubber brain worked by technicians? It would have been so much more fun.

Watch Time and the Rani sometime.

Then you'll know.

I thought Planet of the Ood was a step backwards after last week's Fires of Pompeii.

For such a weighty subject - the enslavement of a species to serve mankind - the plot itself was actually pretty thin, and to my mind it was a fairly poor way of bringing back an obviously popular alien. Looking back at it now, all that really comes to mind is that there was a lot of running around and people shooting guns, a lot of it just didn't make any sense.

I was also disappointed that Donna seemed to take a step, well, not exactly backwards, but possibly sideways. It felt to me, that the writer of this episode hadn't been reading from the same page as everyone else.

It was good to see the Ood though, and some depth - even if it was nonsensical in places - was added to the race as a whole. Hopefully they will be back again one day, and given a better story.

In other news . . .

This week's Radio Times has a Sontaran on the cover, and they are giving away part one of The Resurrection Casket on CD (another read by David Tennant job!).

I just had a chat with a colleague, who watched last night's repeat, and he thought it was absolute balls.

"Not as bad as 'Daleks in Manhattan'", I countered.

"Only because that was a two-parter", he replied.

He thought (a bit like me) that it was a whole episode written around some leftover costumes. Though, I was nowhere near as disappointed as him, we did share similar criticisms.

They outdid themselves last week, I really hope James Moran gets a lot more work from them in future, but the preview for the upcoming two-parter looks balls. Suddenly Steven Moffat's double bill seems a long way away.

Not that I'm complaining! My life is always a little bit better during 'Who' season, even when the episode is below par.

The Ood brain implement in the hand thing reminded me of a certain brand of perfume (which name escapes me). Armani Diamonds perhaps? Or one of those Fairy Non-Bio balls.

Other than that - I agree with Zoz.

I concur. More running around with guns and shooting and soldiers getting in and out of vans and in and out of warehouses and up and down metal staircases and across and along gangways. It's like the BBC pleading "BUDGET! We have a BUDGET! We're just like YOU, AMERICAN SCI-FI SHOWS! We can be like YOU!".

To be honest, I actually really like the Ood. They're pretty neat looking aliens and I love the way they blink and turn evil. They were just saddled with a lame mythology and purpose (how come characters under an oppressive system in sci-fi are always far less interesting when they are freed from slavery? See also The Matrix sequels and how Zion is filled with smelly hippies holding endless sweaty raves and council meetings), naff action sequences and yet another seedy intergalactic corporation. Not the usual supply of embarassing clangers of typical Doctor Who, but just generally boring. Kinda hoped their song would have been "I Want To Break Free" by Queen.

It's the Sontarans. They're not that deep. A Sontaran episode is always going to be more action, than anything.

Does anyone else read Lawrence Miles' blog?

Makes for interesting post-episode reading, though it's a bit long-winded.

Christmas Special Spoilers already

Oooh, David Morrissey. That bodes a hell of a lot better than Kylie.

That's going to set of other rumours.

Y'know. Those kind of rumours.

Yes . . .

Anyway . . . They've just played a longer trailer for next week's episode, and where I wasn't that enthused after the one on Saturday, I am now! This could be good!

I think I would have to agree there... the Sontarans have always been a bit one dimensional... we must rule everything!!!

I liked last weeks... watched it on the PC last night... I thought it had the right amount of gravitas and I would have to disagree that Donna's "reverting" so to speak.

Maybe I'm just easier to please. And I am comparing it with the first episode!

In the original series, the Sontarans were always at war with the Rutans, I wonder if they will get a mention, or whether they will just become a generic force of invaders, wanting to take over the Earth for no very good reason?

Depends on who's written it... It's not as if the Cybermen had any connection with Mondas...

That would be bloody brilliant.

He's an absolutely marvellous actor, and sexy to boot.

DT is signed on through 2009 though, I thought.

He is - but that's not going to be a series, just some specials which I assume will be one-offs. He's doing a season at the RSC this year which will limit his availability for filming.

And I'm STILL trying to get a ticket - DT as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart as Polonius is a combination I want to see.

Yeah, I knows all that, which is why the spotted guest star on the Christmas special is unlikely to be taking over the main role (unfortunately).

Oooh Colonel Brandon.

I thought Wifey was hinting at some kind of slash fiction story? Did I get that wrong?

And according to the powers that be (well, Russell Davis) David's appearance as Hamlet was booked after the decision had been made to do specials in 2009, so it wasn't Hamlet limiting Tennant's availability, it was something he chose to do to do during his time off.

Oh! Really? My brain doesn't naturally go there!

He would be good though wouldn't he? Yes. And it'd make Mark Kermode happy. Or it would, if he watched any TV.

EDIT: picture spoiler

It's another festive 'Blackpool' reunion

Sexy picture spoiler

They'll probably make a brief mention of their history, like they did with the Macra, and then disregard it completely, saying 'Oh yeah, we won that...'

What would be good, is if they needed the Earth for a strategic advantage, and humans are just things that are getting in the way. That would fit with Sontaran history.

Lots of much better pictures and Christmas Special spoilers

Is it me, or does Mr. Tennant look a little haggered there...

Also, why has the Mail called the Cybermen the Doctor's "deadliest enemy"?