Doctor Who:
Bad Wolf/ The
Parting of the Ways
By Russell T.
Davies
“I am the Bad
Wolf. I create myself. I take the words, I scatter them in time and space. A
message to lead myself here.”
The Doctor,
Rose and Jack have been taken off the TARDIS by a teleport and dropped into
familiar game shows of the past that are now housed on Satellite 5. The Doctor is concerned that something isn’t
what it seems especially if whoever it is is powerful enough to teleport them
from inside the TARDIS. The Doctor and
Jack both escape their games but Rose is in trouble on The Weakest Link game
and is in danger of being disintegrated.
Unfortunately they are too late and the Anndroid does the deed and Rose
is dead.
The Doctor
and Jack make their way to level 500 and Jack discovers the TARDIS in one of
the archive rooms. He also makes another
discovery. Rose isn’t dead in fact she
has been teleported somewhere else. The
Doctor tries and figures out what is going on by talking to the
controller. What he discovers brings terror
to him and to Jack. Rose is on a Dalek
ship and there appears to be an armada of them.
The Doctor must save Rose and defeat the Dalek invasion force even if it
costs him his Ninth incarnation.
The
Christopher Eccleston era is over as quickly as it started. The last story of the rebooted Doctor Who first
season gives us a regeneration. A
regeneration that not many people expected to happen but when news leaked out
it was met with mixed emotion. Most were
upset that the actor would soon bolt from the part and have people wondering if
you didn’t want to do it for the long term why bother taking the part at
all. The role does have a long filming
process taking at least 8 months and then there are the fans so maybe Christopher
Eccleston did not know what he was getting into. Even so new fans of the show were treated to
their first regeneration and the show would continue with David Tennant who
makes his first appearance in the role.
The story is
an epic confrontation with the Daleks and the reveal that Rose was the Bad Wolf. Thought to be extinct and wiped from
existence as a result of the Time War they make their return in a big way. In a big way is the return of the Emperor of
the Daleks last scene back in 1967 in Evil of the Daleks. What makes these Daleks different is that
they are made with humans that have been taken off Satellite 5. This was a pretty cool way to bring back a
Dalek army and this one off Dalek army was pretty creepy if you think about it.
The overall
story is not bad as I enjoyed the first half watching the killer TV programs
and wondering how The Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack would escape without
getting disintegrated. That story was pretty fun to watch and was made better
when the big reveal was made when Rose was on the Dalek ship. Plus the dialog between The Doctor and The
Daleks at the cliffhanger was really great and one of the best speeches in the
new series. It just sends chills up your
spine as you know The Doctor means business and you can get a sense of dread in
the Daleks as he delivers it. It is definitely one of the best.
The second
half sees The Doctor and Jack in a futile attempt to fight the Daleks as Rose
is tricked and sent back to Earth. We
see The Doctor struggling with his conscious if he can kill everyone in order
to save the Earth and universe from the Daleks.
We also see Rose alienating herself from her Mom and Mickey by thinking
of herself and being selfish. In fact it is this act that saves The Doctor and
resurrects Jack. If Rose wasn’t selfish
and thinking of herself The Doctor might have ended up dead right there on
Satellite 5. As it was her act of
absorbing the time vortex caused the 9th Doctor to regenerate as he
absorbs it out of Rose and then sends it back into the TARDIS thus killing
every cell in his body. What is strange
is that the vortex kills him but does nothing to Rose who is only a human.
Strange if you ask me.
Even though
Christopher Eccleston’s era was short and brief he is the one that got the ball
rolling and got Doctor Who rolling on this successful run. He hands off the baton to David Tennant in
dramatic fashion saving his companion from being absorbed by the time
vortex. His short era while not perfect
was fun and given his performance secured a new era for Doctor Who on TV that is
still going strong today.
Grade A
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