
by David Finniss
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As fans were well aware of Tennant’s upcoming departure from his role as the Doctor, Davies decided to have some fun with the idea. We first saw this with the fake out regeneration in “The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End” and the idea continues here. The title is misleading and the opening sequence presents this as the relaunch’s first multi-Doctor episode.
While this does not turn out to be the case, it is an entertaining ride nonetheless. Following up on a major story featuring the Daleks, we get a major story featuring the Cybermen. The only difference being that this takes place in the 1850’s. Still, the Cybermen seem to pick up right where they left off when last we saw them.
I’m torn on the Cybermen as every time they appear, I wonder if they are the ones from the alternate universe or the ones from Mondas. In this instance, it’s made clear that these are the Cybus Cybermen from “Earth 2″, but it’s a nagging problem. It would be cool to see the two meet up at some point. My guess is that they would either join forces or go to war, seeing the other as “imperfect”. In any event, it should happen as it could streamline things a bit. Then again, recent episodes seem to ignore that and just have them appear as Cybermen, leaving the viewer to decide which one it is that they are seeing.
The episode has a healthy balance of humor, but also features some rather poignant moments as well.
Jackson Lake is fun to watch as he tries to take on the persona of the Time Lord, doing his best to gear himself up with his own iterations of the sonic screwdriver and even building his own TARDIS..sort of. It’s rather funny to see his own take on these various things, even coming up with a new TARDIS acronym to justify the name of his own craft, in this case a hot air balloon.
He really does steal the show. While he isn’t the Doctor, I would’ve been more than happy to see that he was the next iteration. No offense to Smith, who is doing fantastic as well, but this guy would’ve been a worthy successor to boot. Then again, a lot of fans pointed out that he was over the top, even by Doctor standards, so maybe the bit would’ve worn thin. I enjoyed watching him, I know that much.
While the Cybermen have been seen before, we do get some variation as far as villains go with the introduction of Miss Hartigan, a woman who bears a grudge against men and joins the Cybermen in order to help bring an end to their partriarchal rule. I wouldn’t have minded getting more insight into her character. We get glimpses here and there, but we’re never really sure why she has the grudge that she does.
In any event, she does provide one of the more interesting plot twists. Of course, with the Cybermen being villains, you know that they are going to try and screw ...