Three members of the Woolstencroft family are contributers to BC Magazine. Each discovered the BBC's Doctor Who at a different point: Tony goes all the way back to Hartnell, Ian started with Pertwee, and Daniel came on board during Davison's stay in the Tardis. Each week, they will offer their take on the latest episode. This is WooWho.
On the Return:
Daniel: Doctor Who is back! Saturday night television is saved! That said, rival channel ITV had things covered for the last few weeks with their surprisingly gripping Primeval. Can season three of Doctor Who reclaim the crown?
Tony: This was a moderately successful first episode to what’s erroneously called season three (which I find immensely annoying).
Ian: Saturday tea-time is something to get excited about again! Hopefully this will be the most consistently good season since the show's triumphant return.
The Script:
Tony: The plot is quite good for Russell Davies - he hasn’t been the strongest writer on the series - but he appears to have aspirations to join the writers of EastEnders, judging by the appalling family of caricatures he’s lumbered the Doctor’s new companion with. Poorly written and poorly acted, I hope they won’t feature as often as Rose’s mum did previously.
Ian: Agreed: the opening scene is obviously designed to introduce us to Martha's family, but feels like an outtake from a bad soap. Thankfully things get a little better with the arrival of the Doctor, and the transportation to the moon of the hospital in which Martha works. The reasoning behind this is a little shaky: alien race of the week - the Judoon - have no jurisdiction over Earth, yet it's okay for them to transport a human-filled piece to the moon? Logic is rarely a prime ingredient in a good Who story.
Daniel: Martha's family had a far better introduction than Rose's - and could lead to some potentially entertaining circumstances in the future. Just as long as The Doctor doesn't settle back into his "popping 'round for tea" routine again, things'll be okay. Beyond that, this was a witty, effective piece of writing that's totally out of character for Davies.
Ian: I'd say the weakest moment is probably the throwaway reference to Martha's cousin who "died during the Cybermen invasion". I'd expected Russell T. Davies to come up with something a little cleverer than that to explain why Martha looks exactly like one of the Torchwood employees in the season two finale.
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