Dan Owen reviews
Series 4 Episode 5: "The Poison Sky" (Part 2 of 2)
Broadcast on BBC1, Saturday May 3rd, 2008
Series 4 Boxset:
Series 4 Part 1:
Series 3 Boxset:
Director:
(TV: The Sontaran Stratagem, The Poison Sky)
Screenplay:
(TV: Daleks in Manhattan, Evolution of the Daleks, The Sontaran Stratagem, The Poison Sky)
Cast:
The Doctor: David Tennant
Donna Noble: Catherine Tate
Martha Jones: Freema Agyeman
General Staal: Christopher Ryan
Colonel Mace: Rupert Holiday Evans
Commander Skorr: Dan Starkey
Wilfred Mott: Bernard Cribbins
Sylvia Noble: Jacqueline King
Jo Nakashima: Elenor Matsuura
Luke Rattigan: Ryan Sampson
Ross Jenkins: Christian Cooke
Prvt. Harris: Clive Standen
Prvt. Gray: Wesley Theobald
Female Student: Meryl Fernandes
Male Student: Leeshon Alexander
Captain Price: Bridget Hodson
Herself: Kirsty Wark
US Newsreader: Lachele Carl
Synopsis:
With Earth's skies poisoned, The Doctor tries to defeat the Sontarans, as
Martha's clone manipulates UNIT and Donna is transported to the Sontaran
spaceship...
"This isn't war! This is sport!"
-- Commander Skorr (Dan Starkey)
As second parts go, The Poison Sky made for an effective climax to
last week's set-up, although it failed to make the subplot with Luke Rattigan
(Ryan Sampson) develop into much. As an egotistical American child
prodigy, his role in helping the Sontarans implement ATMOS in the world's
cars was fine, but this episode's attempt to give him a megalomaniacal agenda
of his own (to repopulate Earth with his Academy's students after "planetfall"?)
just didn’t work.
Fortunately, everything else about Helen Raynor's script worked well, with
some crowd-pleasing moments and a good sense of mounting jeopardy. Following
on from
The Sontaran Stratagem,
the skies above Earth have been poisoned -- although death only occurs in people
when the atmosphere reaches 80% toxicity. Quite a flaw for genius Rattigan to
have made, but necessary to give The Doctor a fighting chance to revert the
damage, of course!
Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) has been cloned, and "Martha Clones" now
works undercover as the Sontaran's "operative", curiously deactivating the world's
nuclear arsenal – despite the fact even The Doctor (David Tennant) knows
the planet's nukes wouldn't dent the Sontaran ship! So quite why she bothers
doing any of this was very unclear, rendering Martha Clones' role wholly
unnecessary.
Donna (Catherine Tate) returns to help The Doctor after her Gramps
(Bernard Cribbins) is saved from inside his poisoned car by her
mother Sylvia (Jacqueline King) smashing the windscreen with an axe.
Unfortunately, The Doctor seems to be treating Donna with kid gloves (unlike
Rose and Martha), and orders her to hideout in the TARDIS where the gas can't
reach. Soon after, Sontaran-controlled UNIT soldiers attach beacons to the
TARDIS and General Staal (Christopher Ryan) is able to teleport the
TARDIS aboard his ship – relishing the capture of a Time Lord's vessel (right).
The Doctor tries to prevent UNIT engaging the Sontarans in battle, even after
they arrive at the ATMOS factory with Commander Skorr (Dan Starkey),
as they can neutralize conventional weapons. Using a phone with a connection
to the TARDIS, he also has to talk Donna through disengaging the teleportation
field so he can rescue her and retrieve his TARDIS, while working out a way
to clear the skies of the ATMOS poison. Phew!
Despite some niggling problems (episodes are rarely cast-iron), The Poison
Sky generally provides the thrills and spills you expect, and it's always
a pleasure whenever a story has The Doctor at the centre of the action. He's
been quite passive this season (particularly in Partners In Crime and
Planet Of The Ood), so seeing him in the thick of things, plausibly
thwarting the Sontaran plan is great fun. It was also nice to see his moral
side come out, as he amusingly grumbles about guns again, and eventually decides
on a suicide mission purely because it would give the Sontarans a choice in
their fate. How selfless is that? I know he has regenerations, but still.
In fact, the emphasis on The Doctor pushes both companions even further into
the background. The real Martha is absent until her inevitable rescue, the
evil "Martha Clones" doesn't have much baring on events, and Donna's role
is once again relatively minor. Catherine Tate is getting more agreeable as
the weeks pass by, but does every episode have to involve her crying? It's
getting a bit tiresome. Still, her reactions to events are being written more
realistically (loved how nervous and scared she was in the TARDIS aboard the
Sontaran ship) and she's offering audiences something different with The
Doctor/companion dynamic.
And I must say that Donna's Gramps is already my favourite companion family
member; someone with a twinkle in his eye who wants his granddaughter to grab
life's opportunities. Unlike Donna's grumbling mother, nicely placed by
Jacqueline King. Rupert Holliday Evans didn't have much to do in part 2 as
Colonel Mace, but Christopher Ryan was once again very memorable as General
Staal. It was just a pity his character remained stuck on his spaceship and
only got one brief scene with The Doctor. A missed opportunity for such a
great character, blessed with the perfect voice for cartoon villainy.
Overall, The Poison Sky marked the end of a two-part adventure that was
very enjoyable, with enough incident and amusements to keep you glued. It
didn't fit together as snugly as it could have (with Rattigan quite pointless,
Martha - right - wasted in part 2, and Donna underused throughout), but it was still
far from boring and the sweep of the story pushed things along nicely.
Most impressively, it was a strong revival for the Sontarans, had some great
writing for Tennant's hyperactive Doctor, contained several exciting moments,
and a few welcome in-jokes for old fans to grin at. I particularly liked the
nod at the Brigadier's existence ("stranded in Peru"), The Doctor
wearing a gas-mask and quoting "are you my mummy?"
(see The Empty Child),
the return of the Valiant airborne aircraft carrier (see
Last Of The Time Lords)
and a subliminal flash of Rose Tyler on the TARDIS view-screen. How curious...
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Review copyright © Dan Owen, 2008.
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The following is a list of all the Doctor Who content reviewed to date :
2008 Series 30, Episode 13 - "Journey's End", by Dan Owen
2008 Series 30, Episode 12 - "The Stolen Earth", by Dan Owen
2008 Series 30, Episode 11 - "Turn Left", by Dan Owen
2008 Series 30, Episode 10 - "Midnight", by Dan Owen
2008 Series 30, Episode 8 - "Silence in the Library" (part 1 of 2), by Dan Owen
2008 Series 30, Episode 7 - "The Unicorn and The Wasp", by Dan Owen
2008 Series 30, Episode 6 - "The Doctor's Daughter", by Dan Owen
2008 Series 30, Episode 5 - "The Poison Sky" (Part 2 of 2), by Dan Owen
2008 Series 30, Episode 4 - "The Sontaran Stratagem" (Part 1 of 2), by Dan Owen
2008 Series 30, Episode 3 - "Planet of the Ood", by Dan Owen
2008 Series 30, Episode 2 - "The Fires of Pompeii", by Dan Owen
2008 Series 30, Episode 1 - "Partners In Crime", by Dan Owen
2006 Series 28, Episode 1 - "New Earth", by Dan Owen
2006 Series 28, Episode 2 - "Tooth & Claw", by Dan Owen
2006 Series 28, Episode 3 - "School Reunion", by Dan Owen
2006 Series 28, Episode 4 - "The Girl in the Fireplace", by Dan Owen
2006 Series 28, Episode 5 - "Rise of the Cyberman", by Dan Owen
2006 Series 28, Episode 6 - "The Age of Steel", by Dan Owen
2006 Series 28, Episode 7 - "The Idiot's Lantern", by Dan Owen
2006 Series 28, Episode 8 - "The Impossible Planet", by Dan Owen
2006 Series 28, Episode 9 - "The Satan Pit", by Dan Owen
2006 Series 28, Episode 10 - "Love and Monsters", by Dan Owen
2006 Series 28, Episode 11 - "Fear Her", by Dan Owen
2006 Series 28, Episode 12 - "Army of Ghosts" (Part 1 of 2), by Dan Owen
2006 Series 28, Episode 13 - "Doomsday" (Part 2 of 2), by Dan Owen
2005 Series 27, Episode 1 - "Rose", by Dan Owen
2005 Series 27, Episode 2 - "The End of the World", by Dan Owen
2005 Series 27, Episode 3 - "The Unquiet Dead", by Dan Owen
2005 Series 27, Episode 4 - "Aliens of London", by Dan Owen
2005 Series 27, Episode 5 - "World War Three", by Dan Owen
2005 Series 27, Episode 6 - "Dalek", by Dan Owen
2005 Series 27, Episode 7 - "The Long Game", by Dan Owen
2005 Series 27, Episode 8 - "Father's Day", by Dan Owen
2005 Series 27, Episode 9 - "The Empty Child", by Dan Owen
2005 Series 27, Episode 10 - "The Doctor Dances", by Dan Owen
2005 Series 27, Episode 11 - "Boom Town", by Dan Owen
2005 Series 27, Episode 12 - "Bad Wolf", by Dan Owen
2005 Series 27, Episode 13 - "The Parting of The Ways", by Dan Owen
2005 Series 27, Episode 1 - "Rose", by Dom Robinson
2005 Series 27, Episode 1 - "Rose", by Paul Manners
And the Audio CDs :
2000 04: The Land of the Dead
2000 06: The Marian Conspiracy
2000 10: Winter for the Adept
2000 12: The Fires of Vulcan
2000 14: The Holy Terror
2000 15: The Mutant Phase
2001 16: Storm Warning
2001 18: The Stones of Venice
2002 28: The Chimes of Midnight
2002 30: Seasons of Fear
2002 31: Embrace the Darkness
2002 35: ...Ish
2002 39: ...Bang-Bang-A-Boom!
2003 Doctor Who Audio CDs: An introduction
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