Still, he could've been talking about HELEN "Back Of The Neck" RAYNOR who has delivered the best opening two~parter so far of DOCTOR WHO's return (mind you, she was competing against herself for one of them). THE POISON SKY kept the level, set at the denoument of THE SONTARAN STRATAGEM, up almost throughout the episode and it did have the feel of a series finale in parts. Very sinister and dramatic (perhaps too much in parts).


Oh yeah, if you haven't seen this episode (and why not?) then I would strongly suggest you do not continue with this post. Don't even look at the pictures! Go now! The SONTARANS continued their glorious war~like behaviour and were all the more lovable for it - "The bravery of idiots is bravery nonetheless". Nice line. The scenes of those little bastids battling with the UNIT soldiers was pretty darn good, lots of lasers! And, more importantly, lots of deaths including poor ROSS who I think we had all grown to lurve a little bit. Sniff.


I enjoyed the way that UNIT were presented and, in particular, COLONEL MACE who managed to prove his worth in the face of THE DOCTOR's mention of THE BRIGADIER. As a sidenote, I was never a fan of 'The Brig' but it was nice to hear him get referenced. And what did Mace do that was so flippin' good? He only went and brought the VALIANT back! And lookee what it did:


CATHY T was as pant~curlingly pleasingly as ever. As was the tear inducing BERNY C. Some great scenes (yet again) between this pair, including this line: "Go and see the stars. And the bring a bit of 'em back for you old gramps." Sniff. DAVEY T went back to rushing his lines a bit which is a tad annoying and the boy 'genius' was as irritating as he was last week. Why did they make him American? Top marks for the CG work including the aforementioned VALIANT, the shots of London (and the rest of the world) along with the burning sky (see below).


Direction~wise, there was some pleasing nods to the 'classic' (remember that does not mean better) series with DONNA hiding in a spaceship corridor while the Sontarans walked by. Still with CATHY T, the shots of her in the TARDIS were really beautiful showing off the size of the time machine whilst hinting at how important DONNA can be, matching its grandeur.

There were some other nods to the show's history with a mention of the Sontarans' enemy the RUTANS (though if you've seen a Rutan, it's hard to imagine how they could perform in a war, let alone one that raged 50,000 years - I mean, they're just flippin' electric jellyfish for eff's sake!) along with the "Are You My Mummy?" quote. I did guffaw at the locations in the world that had nuclear capability - North Korea! RTD, you are a bad boy!

There were, as always, some negatives but not enough to get in the way of my enjoyment. But I'll point them out anyway. If the Sontarans are all about war why would they disable their enemies weapons? Surely that's a bit dishonourable? Also, it seems their armour didn't repel bullets. I mean, come on! I did not enjoy COLONEL MACE's 'Independence Day'~esque speech but the appearance of the VALIANT made me forget it pretty quickly. The SONIC SCREWDRIVER got overused again (and as a flippin' TV remote!) and that kiss between Mace and his bee~atch was most unwelcome and seemed really incongruous. Still, as I said, these are not enough to get in the way of my enjoyment especially as THE DOCTOR's Hand In A Jar made such a dramatic return.


An incredibly exciting end to a great episode. What does it all mean? Well, I'm sure all will be explained in next week's installment, THE DOCTOR'S DAUGHTER. You can see a preview in my previous post. Now, for those of you who have seen this episode, you're probably thinking, "Hey Cam, wasn't ROSE in this episode?" She sure flippin' was! Here's how it happened; due DONNA turning round:


Did she see her? Don't think so, but it did appear ROSE was saying (or shouting) "Doctor". It was quite a haunting insertion and it did rather take me out of the story for a couple of minutes as I was continually thinking about her and what it all meant. Very odd too that it was so early on the episode. Congrats to RTD & Co. for keeping that a secret and this is how it looked:


'Til the next time,
C.