What happened?
The Doctor and Martha travelled into the future to New Earth, a planet The Doctor had visited previously with Rose (in series 2, New Earth). However, they find themselves in the underworld; a place little more than a slum. Martha is kidnapped by a couple who take her onto the packed traffic jam of a motorway, believing that 3 people in a car entitles them to take the fast lane. The Doctor investigates and discovers the traffic jam is endless, the motorway a neverending circle, beneath which lie ravenous crab-like creatures.
The Doctor makes it to the overworld to discover humanity has been wiped out, and all that remains is the Face of Boe struggling to maintain enough power to keep the underworld denizens alive. The Doctor finds a way to open the underworld’s ceiling and frees the people. The Face of Boe is then able to die but, before doing so, tells The Doctor he is not alone.
Martha asks what it means and The Doctor tells her the Face Of Boe must have been mistaken as he is the last Timelord.
Thoughts
I really enjoyed this episode. On the surface it had all the hallmarks of being a rather run-of-the-mill filler and yet as it unfolded it was mining some really clever ideas and themes that really chimed with me. Indeed, at first when I thought the underworld traffic jam gridlock was a deliberate ploy from the ‘higher ups’ to keep the masses occupied, I thought the show was really tapping into rather profound territory regarding social structure.
The idea that the masses could be drip-fed a fiction to keep them ticking over in their literal dead end, treadmill lives felt like a serious commentary on how the world works – the masses kept controlled and pacified in their position in life, blinkered to the reality and the larger scheme of things.
As it turned out Gridlock wasn’t attempting to be quite so politically cutting, and instead settled on a tragic situation where the people stuck in traffic were oblivious to a terrible disaster that had occurred. I was a tad disappointed, I suppose, but a return to the Face of Boe, and the promise he had made to reveal a secret as his last words to The Doctor was at least fulfilled.
Although his remarks that The Doctor is not alone are hardly offering up anything concrete to go off. The Doctor’s conviction that the Face of Boe was wrong didn’t seem overly-convincing – perhaps he doubts the belief he’s held for so long that he really is the last remaining Time Lord?
It’s certainly the most obvious conclusion to reach from the Face of Boe’s final remarks: that there is, somehow, somewhere, another surviving Timelord. But then the expression is cryptic enough to be moulded and interpreted in a whole number of other ways so, I suspect, such a clear-cut assumption won’t be correct.
The other good element to this episode was the relationship between Martha and The Doctor. I do get the feeling that she has rather fallen for him a little quick and it feels somewhat premature for her to have such absolute faith in his abilities to rescue her, and to extol his brilliance to other people. That being said, it was good that she demanded he speak to her properly and he acknowledged to himself that he hadn’t really been treating her fairly.
Good episode then, offering a solid storyline with character progression and even a dash of longstanding show mythology thrown into the mix. I certainly got a lot more than I expected!
What was the best part?
I am tempted to go with the moment The Doctor was questioning the nature of the traffic jam, of the validity of the information the people were receiving. However the close of the episode, with The Doctor rather reeling about the information he is not alone and admitting he had lied to Martha about his home planet and then plainly telling her what had happened and how it used to be. With the music and singing it verged on the cheesy, but I think it just about managed to get away with it.
What do I think will happen next?
I’d anticipate further clarification around the Face of Boe’s words (though I don’t expect that to happen within the next episode or two at the very least). My guess would be that perhaps The Doctor is a father? I do remember an offbeat remark he once made in the last series, about being a father. . . I’m a bit hazy on it, but I can only figure that somehow The Doctor isn’t quite the last Timelord in existence.
The Doctor and Martha travelled into the future to New Earth, a planet The Doctor had visited previously with Rose (in series 2, New Earth). However, they find themselves in the underworld; a place little more than a slum. Martha is kidnapped by a couple who take her onto the packed traffic jam of a motorway, believing that 3 people in a car entitles them to take the fast lane. The Doctor investigates and discovers the traffic jam is endless, the motorway a neverending circle, beneath which lie ravenous crab-like creatures.
The Doctor makes it to the overworld to discover humanity has been wiped out, and all that remains is the Face of Boe struggling to maintain enough power to keep the underworld denizens alive. The Doctor finds a way to open the underworld’s ceiling and frees the people. The Face of Boe is then able to die but, before doing so, tells The Doctor he is not alone.
Martha asks what it means and The Doctor tells her the Face Of Boe must have been mistaken as he is the last Timelord.
Thoughts
I really enjoyed this episode. On the surface it had all the hallmarks of being a rather run-of-the-mill filler and yet as it unfolded it was mining some really clever ideas and themes that really chimed with me. Indeed, at first when I thought the underworld traffic jam gridlock was a deliberate ploy from the ‘higher ups’ to keep the masses occupied, I thought the show was really tapping into rather profound territory regarding social structure.
The idea that the masses could be drip-fed a fiction to keep them ticking over in their literal dead end, treadmill lives felt like a serious commentary on how the world works – the masses kept controlled and pacified in their position in life, blinkered to the reality and the larger scheme of things.
As it turned out Gridlock wasn’t attempting to be quite so politically cutting, and instead settled on a tragic situation where the people stuck in traffic were oblivious to a terrible disaster that had occurred. I was a tad disappointed, I suppose, but a return to the Face of Boe, and the promise he had made to reveal a secret as his last words to The Doctor was at least fulfilled.
Although his remarks that The Doctor is not alone are hardly offering up anything concrete to go off. The Doctor’s conviction that the Face of Boe was wrong didn’t seem overly-convincing – perhaps he doubts the belief he’s held for so long that he really is the last remaining Time Lord?
It’s certainly the most obvious conclusion to reach from the Face of Boe’s final remarks: that there is, somehow, somewhere, another surviving Timelord. But then the expression is cryptic enough to be moulded and interpreted in a whole number of other ways so, I suspect, such a clear-cut assumption won’t be correct.
The other good element to this episode was the relationship between Martha and The Doctor. I do get the feeling that she has rather fallen for him a little quick and it feels somewhat premature for her to have such absolute faith in his abilities to rescue her, and to extol his brilliance to other people. That being said, it was good that she demanded he speak to her properly and he acknowledged to himself that he hadn’t really been treating her fairly.
Good episode then, offering a solid storyline with character progression and even a dash of longstanding show mythology thrown into the mix. I certainly got a lot more than I expected!
What was the best part?
I am tempted to go with the moment The Doctor was questioning the nature of the traffic jam, of the validity of the information the people were receiving. However the close of the episode, with The Doctor rather reeling about the information he is not alone and admitting he had lied to Martha about his home planet and then plainly telling her what had happened and how it used to be. With the music and singing it verged on the cheesy, but I think it just about managed to get away with it.
What do I think will happen next?
I’d anticipate further clarification around the Face of Boe’s words (though I don’t expect that to happen within the next episode or two at the very least). My guess would be that perhaps The Doctor is a father? I do remember an offbeat remark he once made in the last series, about being a father. . . I’m a bit hazy on it, but I can only figure that somehow The Doctor isn’t quite the last Timelord in existence.
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