I like Billie Piper, thought she did a fantastic job in season 1 particularly and find her attractive in Secret Diary but her delivery and appearance seemed a bit...odd tonight. She looked far better in the after show follow up on BBC3 and she wore no make up on that. It looked like she was over enunciating every word on the show and since by her own admittance the character Rose is a chav it was a bit strange.

On the whole exploring the Sliding Doors element of things provided a solid backdrop to the episode. The preview to next week looked bombastic with every character under the sun appearing. However with the shots of millions of CGI ships it had echoes of in tone of the Master finales from Series 3, which doesn't inspire much hope in me because I found those to be all over the place...

c ya in an hour.

I'm not a big fan of some of his writing ability at times, and have certainly bitched about his style on some of his weaker tales but seeing him on set on the BBC3 show was fun. He had such childlike glee with the show, and talking about it with such passion.

I'm awaiting the reign of Moffat eagerly to see what he can add to the show, but also curious to see what Davis moves on to.

(2) What is the final fifth, Greenflashlight?

(3) Should someone actually start a campaign to persuade Moffatt to bring back Sally Sparrow??

And yes we need to start something going for Sally Sparrow. Please dear god, give us Sally Sparrow.

I was also really distracted by Roses teeth and lisp, I wonder what happened? She was in a period drama immediately afterwards and there was no sign of it.

Next week looks great but lets hope the glut of spinoff characters making a comeback isn't overwhelming.

BTW didn't half the Torchwood lot buy the farm in the series 2 finale?

Dimensionally transcendental plot holes.

But if you can switch your brain off and not think about them, then an enjoyable little romp.

It reminds me of a recent interview that Gillian Anderson did about the new X-Files film, where she said on the first two days of filming she was rubbish at playing Scully. Though in her favour it had been a 7 year gap, compared to Piper's 2.

"Hey, I can't remember how I played the biggest character in my career! What do I do? Oh yes, instead of rewatching previous episodes I'll just go out there and start talking with a lisp, whilst pretending that Old Desu from Old Boy has had at my gnashers with his trusty pliers"

John Simm: totally shit.

Sorry but this guy can't act and is totally full of himself. Also he was The Master so surely fucking not??

Harry Lloyd: this guy was Will Scarlett in the new Robin Hood. Also he was the main guy out of the family of blood episode so again, I can't see it

Aiden Gillen: Tommy Carcetti from The Wire

Now this I can see: he has the RTD pedigree, so I can see him being slipped in there (ahem) as a parting shot; he's young/handsome enough that he could carry off the part and he has the acting chops to boot.

Incidentally I actually laughed twice during this episode, despite disliking Catherine Tate - the line about "I'd leave the mouse mat but you might cut yourself on it" and als the bit where she was like "Oi Vera Duckworth, go back and feed your whippets". Trust me my American amigos, this was a funny line in the UK

In fact please stop running these pieces of shit AICN.

What the fuck guys???

and most of the stuff I wrote about RTD.

But I have to say on reflection, I'm glad they had that scene with the happy 'non-Brit' getting carted off. Yeah it was pretty heavy-handed but at the same time it is a family show and in my opinion if kids get to learn about all the horrible shit that went down during WW2 then that is a good thing - not to mention the fact that the "it's happening again" could also refer to the way that us Brits had labour camps for foreign nationals - a fact that seems to have conveniently slipped past most history classes - I'm not saying Dr Who will educate kids but what I am saying is that the little darlings might do a bit of research or ask some tough questions and that is a very good thing....

But yes to join in with everyone else - what the fuck was going on with Rose? Very Sean Connery.

According to the missus she suffered from anorexia or something so maybe it's just general too-skinniness and her skin just doesn't fit her mouth any more???

Rose returns
References to most major RTD Episodes so far.
Donna doing her shouting thang
Heavy handed references to imigration and concentration camps.
Hey, they mentioned the bees!

What it didn't have:

Character development
Plot develpoment
Any sense of logic
An ending that made sense.
A relistic looking bettle.
A budget over £5

I can't switch my brain off so I must ask:

If Rose could travel to the location where Donna was dying why couldnt she make Donna turn left.

Final plot twist Donna's Mum knows a short cut.!

jccalhoun - Yeah, it WAS a clip show, and kind of pointless, but it WAS a blast - some very daring, messing with that alternative seasons 2-4 universe was fantastic, and some great foreshadowing. Yep, Billie WAS a bit weird tonight, but I think she'll get better. And make Bernard Cribbins Doctor no.11!!!

kuryakin - Scray stuff, especially with the conspiracy forums on the internet buzzing with the rumours of internment camps being built all over the USA RIGHT NOW, but with no real indication of who's going to end up in them...

I do think it's important we remember ALL the stuff that happened in the Wars, and that moment between Cribbins and the Italian guy was truly heartbreaking. One of the best moments in the whole episode.

One last question though: If RTD was really this great a writer all along - because, plot holes aside, tonight was a rollicking great ride - why the hell did it take four seasons for him to unleash two great scripts on us in the same month?!?!? Bastard!!!

But the vanishing bees? Is this really going to be explained in a story involving Daleks? If it is then kudos to RTD. He's done a genius series arc.

Brigadier met at least four Doctors. And Tegan was dropped on earth then found the Doctor again.

1. Her hair was parted different, how hard would have it been to get this right? Um... wasn't your hair parted above your right eyebrow before?

2. Her eyebrows, they are shaped very differently now.

3. Her eye make up, it looks like she had more liner on before.

4. She lost like ten pounds, about 1/3 of her actual weight.

5. On the tooth front, it seems like they are different in the confidential there was a side shot that looked like her front teeth were actually ON TOP OF her actual teeth.

http://tinyurl.com/4eobov

As for Rose, yeah she looked a bit thin and her hair was off but fuck it, I was happy to see her again.

I think most of Piper's change was due to a dramatic weight loss. That can alter a person significantly.

Joedini -- Your review was filled to the brim with MAJOR spoilers. You even revealed the climax and resolution to the episode! Please, try not to treat your reviews like a play-by-play commentary. I'm smart enough not to read this page until I've watched the show, but other people who haven't would have every moment of suspense totally ruined by your review.

Look at it this way: If you wrote a review for "Planet of the Apes" when it was new, and actually included the phrase "and once Taylor sees the Statue of Liberty he knows he has been on Earth the whole time!" then you're doing it wrong. Instead, you would want to write, "And the ending includes a twist that will likely shock you." or something equally benign.

So when you say, "throws herself in front of a lorry" you're not doing the readers any favors. Got it?

Keep trying. Just cut out the major plot-spoiling parts next time. Don't give away the ending. Don't tell us every twist. Let us experience them as they hit us in the show's flow, the way it was intended.

As for all this talk from the Doctor about Donna being linked to him, and having a lot of parallel worlds surrounding her: Come on! She's either The Master or The Rani. Just because the Master is dead doesn't mean an earlier regeneration couldn't have picked up that ring - - And what a great big FUCK YOU to The Doctor it would be to masquerade as a companion for a while! Of course, her being the Rani makes more sense, especially when you consider that The Rani's personal and physical attributes sort of match Donna's. She'd be an ideal Rani.

Or if you prefer a different, more snarky explanation, then Rose is smart enough to get the loudmouthed redhead to toss herself in front of a lorry instead of doing it herself.

Either way.

As for the soothsayer in Pompeii saying Donna had something on her back, he was not referring to the beetle. She did not have it on her bsack then, so that was a misdirection. there is something about her that is going to cause her to become the ultimate, sacrificing hero. For all i know, she has a connection with the Red Dalek. I would not put it passed RTD.

I've been thinking about the episode "Utopia", and it seems like Yana would have gotten his memory back and opened that watch and become the Master anyway (I don't think the Doctor or Martha did anything to specifically trigger it).

So any ideas? Why wasn't Saxon/the Master running around in this alternate universe?

Did someone knock her teeth out???

There are a few plot holes however:

1) Without Donna suddenly turning up in the TARDIS at the end of Doomsday, who's to say that the Doctor would even have shown up on Earth to fight the Racnoss?

2) Wasn't it explained in VOTD that the Titanic crashing into Earth would have caused an extinction level explosion rather than merely just taking out half of England?

3) If the Doctor had never met Donna and died then how come everyone in the present day haven't been turned into Pyroviles? (Fires of Pompeii).

It's not a big deal though-- my enjoyment of the story was not affected.

Put it's a fair point about the Daleks in the 1930's. My guess would be that once time started to alter that other events either just never occurred at all, or those events were altered, i.e. the Atipose in the US and not in the UK. Just a thought.

You have writing room, meaning a group of people who tweak/fix scripts. But you typically have one main writer for the script he/she gets the credit, even though other people piss into the same pot. Don't even get me started on how many hands the fucking Flintstone movies went through.

Now if you came up with the idea, but someone else wrote the script, you might get a "Story by" credit for one person, then a "Teleplay by" credit for someone else.

I think the way Who works is they commission a script, but once they own it, RTD, et al, go through it adding all the bees references, the foreshadowing stuff, and generally "punch" the script up to meet their standards.

So the "writer" gets the "Written by" credit in the opening titles, and the story editors just fix it, add to it, cut it down for budget reasons, etc., before it's shot.

We already know all these characters so it's not as if they'll need to spend any time setting up who they are. Except maybe Davros, who might need a scene or two to explain to the younger audience who it is. But everyone else can arrive on screen with little to no introduction.
Meanwhile the plotlines (disappearing planets etc) have already been seeded, so again that'll save time.

This means they'll be able to cram quite a lot into the 90 minutes. I'm hoping that it's all great. But if I hear a Rogue Traders song I'll start panicking.

Btw – It feels really pleasant to read through 170+ posts here without seeing any of the stupid vitriol.

So I, for one, will miss Donna, no matter what her ultimate fate is.

If she does die or leave or whatever then can I make an early request to Steven Moffat to try to keep Bernard Cribbins in the show.

http://tinyurl.com/4zbeo 5 Please fix any spaces in the URL.

Pure class The gun seige 2 parter contains plotting that RTD would love to be able to write.

if it's like the season 3 ending - not so happy. oh. RTD wrote that didn't he.

Hopefully the season finale will give Turn Left some answers too.

Going to blame that one on Sarah Jane? Oh can't. She died on the Moon. Torchwood? No, they died during the Atmos fiasco.

That's just one quite large plot hole. There are plenty more. I can't help it if you're too blind to see them.

I can't believe your giving this lazy bollocks a pass. It was shit. Not as bad as unicorn & wasp, but still pretty fucking awful- and nowhere near as good as last week. Which was meh.

I hope they kill her off in 13, Rose leaving was the best thing that happened to the show.