This is the episode that is pure filler. It adds little and doesn't do a great deal. The only reason it exists was for Annette Badland to return after an appearance earlier in the series as Margaret the Slitheen in order to reprise her role. That any of this episode works at all is a miracle but it actually works surprisingly well. Not least because she doesn't spend nearly so much time in her Slitheen rubber suit and the farts are reduced to just the occasional grumble of the stomach. I guess RTD listened to the criticism then!
Eccleston is superb as the Ninth Doctor in his penultimate appearance and Rose and Mickey are given lots of time together to examine their failing relationship in several touching moments that are all building up to an emotional hard-hitter when they decide to amicably part ways at the end. Jack Harkness gets to be his usual cocky self which is always welcome. He's the perfect anti-Doctor with his more in-your-face shoot-first attitude. But it's Christopher Eccleston who really shines as he is forced to take Margaret out on a 'date' for dinner where she tries to kill him at every turn so as to avoid returning to Raxacoricofallapatorius to receive her death penalty. Eccleston deadpans every line in his uniquely comical-but-deadly-serious manner that has defined the Ninth Doctor as he prevents every one of Margaret's attempts on his life whether it be by casually catching her poison dart between his two fingers or stopping her from spiking his drink by just switching their wine glasses round or neutralising her noxious gas-breath with some mouthspray.
The episode is not without it's weak moments. For a good part of the episode we see Margaret running away but being teleported back to run towards the TARDIS quartet repeatedly in a sequence that wouldn't feel out of place in Looney Tunes. The earthquake isn't the greatest example of CGI you'll ever see. And then there's the bit with the egg at the end. But if you can put these quibbles aside what you have is a very poignant episode that looks at the issue of capital punishment and what responsibility the Doctor really has or hasn't got for his actions. It's an episode where the good bits outweigh the bad bits and provides a nice slower pace ahead of the action-packed two-parter that follows. This episode contains some of Eccleston's finest moments as the Ninth Doctor and is well worth your time watching. 7/10
Eccleston is superb as the Ninth Doctor in his penultimate appearance and Rose and Mickey are given lots of time together to examine their failing relationship in several touching moments that are all building up to an emotional hard-hitter when they decide to amicably part ways at the end. Jack Harkness gets to be his usual cocky self which is always welcome. He's the perfect anti-Doctor with his more in-your-face shoot-first attitude. But it's Christopher Eccleston who really shines as he is forced to take Margaret out on a 'date' for dinner where she tries to kill him at every turn so as to avoid returning to Raxacoricofallapatorius to receive her death penalty. Eccleston deadpans every line in his uniquely comical-but-deadly-serious manner that has defined the Ninth Doctor as he prevents every one of Margaret's attempts on his life whether it be by casually catching her poison dart between his two fingers or stopping her from spiking his drink by just switching their wine glasses round or neutralising her noxious gas-breath with some mouthspray.
The episode is not without it's weak moments. For a good part of the episode we see Margaret running away but being teleported back to run towards the TARDIS quartet repeatedly in a sequence that wouldn't feel out of place in Looney Tunes. The earthquake isn't the greatest example of CGI you'll ever see. And then there's the bit with the egg at the end. But if you can put these quibbles aside what you have is a very poignant episode that looks at the issue of capital punishment and what responsibility the Doctor really has or hasn't got for his actions. It's an episode where the good bits outweigh the bad bits and provides a nice slower pace ahead of the action-packed two-parter that follows. This episode contains some of Eccleston's finest moments as the Ninth Doctor and is well worth your time watching. 7/10