9x9
Billed as the scariest Doctor Who of the season so far, The Empty Child lives up to the hype. Set during the London Blitz, it's a dark episode, both tonally & emotionally, with decided resonances of that other cult British sf series, Quatermass. The eerie repetitive cries of the lost child, the wailing sirens, the rows upon rows of sinister gas masks -- it all added up to a chilling episode. The gas-mask scene (you know the one I mean) was probably the first time in the new series that I turned off my "I'm quadruple the age of the target audience" vibe & just reacted. The subdued score knew when to pull back and let silence do its work.
The Empty Child really proves the value of the double-episode cliffhanger format: the tension wound up slowly, the action never felt hurried, and we had time to grow to love Nancy (solidly portrayed by Florence Hoath) before her life is threatened. Richard Wilson was also perfect in his brief spot as the other Doctor.
I didn't warm immediately to time traveller & self-confessed conman Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), and his lightning-speed romance with Rose didn't quite convince. However, his introduction to Rose provides an interesting mirror to her early encounters with the Doctor. Harkness is dashing & technically-savvy; unlike the Doctor in The Unquiet Dead, he wears clothes that fit the period. Best of all, after he rescues Rose he sticks around to ply her with champagne, rather than just wandering off. I get the impression he might fit Rose's ideal of a time traveller rather better than the Doctor, and I'm interested to see where they're going with the three-way relationship.
Rose got a bit of a raw deal this week, what with the screaming & the swooning, but it was about time the Doctor got to be proactive in his own show. Indeed, The Empty Child was an excellent episode for him, uniting both the dark & the light sides of the Ninth Doctor.
The Beeb is always good for a costume drama, and the interiors were all crammed with authentic-looking details. The stolen meal during the air raid was a wonderful touch -- though I did wonder why a family at that time would be eating tea at half past nine at night.
Nothing's perfect. The Rose-hanging-over-the-London-skyline moments were a bit "we can do cgi, nyah!"-ish, and in plot terms, I did wonder why Harkness decided to spill the beans so early. But the cliffhanger left plenty of other questions to while away the hours before next Saturday -- where did the virus come from (my money's on Harkness's nanotech)? will Rose abandon the Doctor to go off with the Captain? can the Doctor's 'red is camp' comment in the teaser just be a mauve herring?
The Empty Child fuses old & new-style Who, and gives fans a new menace worthy to join the Cybermen & the Daleks. I rate it 8/10 -- my favourite so far.
The Empty Child really proves the value of the double-episode cliffhanger format: the tension wound up slowly, the action never felt hurried, and we had time to grow to love Nancy (solidly portrayed by Florence Hoath) before her life is threatened. Richard Wilson was also perfect in his brief spot as the other Doctor.
I didn't warm immediately to time traveller & self-confessed conman Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), and his lightning-speed romance with Rose didn't quite convince. However, his introduction to Rose provides an interesting mirror to her early encounters with the Doctor. Harkness is dashing & technically-savvy; unlike the Doctor in The Unquiet Dead, he wears clothes that fit the period. Best of all, after he rescues Rose he sticks around to ply her with champagne, rather than just wandering off. I get the impression he might fit Rose's ideal of a time traveller rather better than the Doctor, and I'm interested to see where they're going with the three-way relationship.
Rose got a bit of a raw deal this week, what with the screaming & the swooning, but it was about time the Doctor got to be proactive in his own show. Indeed, The Empty Child was an excellent episode for him, uniting both the dark & the light sides of the Ninth Doctor.
The Beeb is always good for a costume drama, and the interiors were all crammed with authentic-looking details. The stolen meal during the air raid was a wonderful touch -- though I did wonder why a family at that time would be eating tea at half past nine at night.
Nothing's perfect. The Rose-hanging-over-the-London-skyline moments were a bit "we can do cgi, nyah!"-ish, and in plot terms, I did wonder why Harkness decided to spill the beans so early. But the cliffhanger left plenty of other questions to while away the hours before next Saturday -- where did the virus come from (my money's on Harkness's nanotech)? will Rose abandon the Doctor to go off with the Captain? can the Doctor's 'red is camp' comment in the teaser just be a mauve herring?
The Empty Child fuses old & new-style Who, and gives fans a new menace worthy to join the Cybermen & the Daleks. I rate it 8/10 -- my favourite so far.