When the doctor arrives to return Martha to her London home only half a day after she left, they notice that her sister Tish is on the TV screen with a Professor Richard Lazarus, who insists that he has found the method for changing the face of humanity. The doctor decides to attend Lazarus's prestigious event, which Tish has organized, in order to see the Professors intent and to meet Martha's family as well. The Professor,an elderly man steps inside a chamber that the doctor recognizes as a hypersonic wave amplifier and after it almost overloads before the doctor unplugs the device,the Professor emerges appearing at least four decades younger. He exuses himself from the event with his business partner and lover,where without her knowledge he reveals he had been only using her for years and then suddenly transforms into a gigantic creature and consumes her.
As the doctor and Martha observe Lazarus's DNA is in an impossibly unstable state of flux, they run to discover his partner's death. By this time Lazarus is attempting to do the same to Tish. Luckily the doctor arrives and is able to allow her to witness the create Lazarus has become personally. Realizing this is a rejected stage of human evolution the doctor attempts to use the hypersonic device to reverse the process for the professor. The plan fails and Lazarus escapes to the abbey where he once hid from the London Blitz. With Martha and Tish present the doctor uses the pipe organ in the abby to reverse the aging process in Lazarus which kills him,though naturally in the end. Before leaving, Martha insists that the doctor bring her along as a permanent companion before the answer phone in her home receives a message from her mother-a warning about the doctors destructive nature from a Mr. Saxon.
This story takes on the old tale of humanity trying to outrun aging and death. In the case of Professor Lazarus however,there is a twist. His reasons are not based in ego but rather in the fact that he has taken into his head that the whole of humanity's purpose is to outsmart the aging process. The doctor in turn reveals his own insecurities about his own life,knowing full well everyone around him in the moment are not the least bit aware of his own extremely advanced age. We also see the possessiveness and trauma Martha's mother faces as she comes to terms with her daughter making her own decisions-choosing a rather unpredictable life of adventure with the doctor rather than settling into a comfortable life on Earth. Since this is a very similar dilemma as faced by companion Rose Tyler with her mother Jackie, Martha elects in the end to become an official companion on the doctor's future travels.
Confronted by the newly born hybrid Dalek Sec,the doctor is able to use the radio he reprogrammed to create a sonic burst. The doctor, Martha, Tallulah and Frank run back to Hoover Ville where they inform Solomon of what has happened. Soon the pig slaves arrive accompanied by two Daleks. They tell Solomon that he and the residents are to be exterminated. Solomon attempts to negotiate peacefully with them and is,of course exterminated for his trouble. The doctor offers his own life. Upon witnessing this, Sec orders the Daleks not to kill him and asks the doctor to join him. While in his company, after instructing Martha and Tellulah to use his psychic paper to get into the Empire State Building to investigate what the Daleks are really doing, the doctor observes as Sec reveals that he has no intention to kill anymore human beings as he has become convinced the Dalek race must return to having emotions beyond hatred and killing. Sec plans to use a solar flare to power a DNA converter to use cadavers collected for some time to create new Dalek/human hybrids to fasilite this.
The other two Daleks stage a mutiny over this and sabotage the equipment as Sec prepares to start the solar collector. The doctor travels to the top of the Empire State Building where this takes place with Laszlo, soon joined by Martha and Tellulah, where they tell him he has to remove the Dalekanium panels from the building in order shut it down. It temporarily knocks him out. When he awakens and the group escape the pursuing pig slaves he leaves his sonic screwdriver behind, which activates the human shells. While Lazslo is dying,the doctor along with Martha and Tellulah return to her theater where the human Daleks confront their creators along with a captive Sec. The doctor again offers himself as a sacrifice until the human Daleks reveal they will not kill without provocation. The energy of his screwdriver has infused them with time lord DNA therefore, they Daleks decide to exterminate them along with Sex even as Martha,Tellulah and a dying Laszlo escape with the doctor. After the final surviving Dalek Caan transports through time, the doctor uses the Daleks genetic laboratory to help Laszlo survive and allows him to disappear peacefully with Tellulah into the Hoover Ville before departing with Martha.
This story concludes this two part episode that is actually very telling about how the Dalek race confronts vulnerability. Naturally because Sec is now hybridized with human DNA, he begins to see the advantages of compassion and courage that the standard Daleks were completely unable to comprehend. Sec also recognized that the Dalek's perceived advantage of having only the emotions necessary to kill was equally their greatest disadvantage to their survival as their culture naturally embraced death over life. By somehow relating to men they were unsure of for very different reasons Martha and Tellulah make excellent companions in this story as they both try to help the doctor accomplish his mission of defeating the Daleks and helping them to somehow understand that humanity's emotionally varied nature was actually every bit to their advantage. Though his character doesn't survive to episodes end, Solomon's heartfelt and moving speech for peace between human and Dalek indicates the strong personal ties created by the enforced poverty of the Hoover Ville environment. This sad irony was why the doctor left the now malformed Lazslo, likely cast out of the rest of society in that time, there with the other residents.
Laszlo, the boyfriend of 1930's New York City chorus girl Tellulah, finds himself abducted by an pig-like creature. The doctor and Martha have arrived at the same time-1930 NYC just in time for the completion of the Empire State Building and the first year of the Great Depression. Upon them landing in Hoover Ville they meet a gentleman named Solomon, who thinks them to be new poverty stricken residents. A man who addresses himself as Mr. Diagoras suddenly arrives and lures the doctor,Martha,
Solomon and another newcomer named Frank into tunnels below the city with the promise of work. What none of them now is that Mr. Diagoras answers to a higher authority: the Dalek Sec who has taken him on as a partner so that Diagoras construction workers can complete work to the empire state building. While under the city the doctor locates a green jellyfish-like mass. The doctor is accidentally lured into a trap by the pig creatures and the group are chased out of the tunnels (loosing Frank in the process) into the theater where Tellulah accosts them with a prop gun. Of course Tellulah is concerned for the same reason everyone else is: men are disappearing from the Hoover Ville. And all lured away by the same promise of employment that had just resulted in Frank being abducted. Meanwhile Sec is revealing his plans for his species to Diagoras, who has been called to his presence.
He and the other three Daleks in the city are the last four survivors of their species-part of a group called the Cult Of Skaro looking to create an evolutionary process in order for their race to survive. He than proceeds to physically absorb Diagoras. While Tellulah is performing in her show onstage as Martha looks on from wings while the doctor is analyzing the mass with a makeshift DNA scanner, he discovers it's an infant Dalek. By this time Martha has observed a man who looks like the Laszlo she saw in one of Tellulah's photos and motions for her to give chase as Laszlo runs away. The doctor follows them into the tunnels where Laszlo informs them, including reuniting with a confused Frank, how the pig men are genetically enhanced Dalek slaves made from human beings they have scanned to have low intelligence. But ones of higher intelligence are taken for another purpose. When the doctor and Martha are taken to the Empire State Building for that reason,the doctor instructs Martha to demand that Sec tell them what is being done. The Dalek armor on Sec opens and out of it emerges a cyclops Dalek/human hybrid.
One of the key elements over the decades of Doctor Who about the Daleks has been the fact that everything they do is motivated only by their understanding of themselves as the only superior species in the universe. Having died in the great time war the last surviving Daleks have only found one recourse for survival, one they never anticipated as ever occurring. The Cult Of Skaro's leader Sec has determined that the Dalek's must evolve, merging with a lower order species to survive and have chosen humans so they can be bipedal. Of course they also chose to do so during a time in human history when people were desperate and frightened to do any job to earn their livelihood. The doctor points out this irony that only one of his species to his knowledge has survived yet four Daleks have. In their quest to become the ultimate survivor, the Daleks have now been forced break their own understanding of themselves as the only species worthy of survival, and merge with humanity (far inferior in their eye) to continue their mission.
Upon taking Martha Jones to visit New New York in lieu of her request to see his own home planet,the arrive five billion years into the future into a slum where emotion enhancement patches are being petaled. Martha is abruptly kidnapped by two individuals who take her onto a mammoth motorway-populated by non moving,wall to wall RV-like vehicles that take years to move only a few miles due to the lack of movement. She was only kidnapped in order for her captures to allocate themselves a mildly faster position in this motorway. The doctor finds himself leaping from one vehicle to the other in this gas chocked environment searching for Martha. He comes across one run by a bipedal feline named Brannigan,his human bride Valerie and their kittens. He explains to the doctor that unseen police will take care lead them to New New York itself one day. Realizing the messages from the so-called "police force" is a prerecorded message,he proceeds to journey by himself to the lowest level of the motor way to see what he is up against.
There is discovers a group of Macra,energy feeding crab creatures he encountered in his second incarnation that threaten everyone on the motorway as they are consuming their fuel for power. The vehicle is has entered is again entered by Novice Hame,the bipedal feline he'd encountered earlier who teleports him to the council building on New New York. Apparently the entire city's population were killed 24 years earlier within a few short minutes by a pandemic virus caused by an emotion patch called "bliss". The virus was so virulent it spent itself. But Hame herself has saved by the chemical influence of the Face Of Boe,an extremely ancient time lord legend. And Hame has maintained the motorway to keep the population from being killed by the Macra and because of the lack of energy to open the motorway and allow the drivers through. After encountering the doctor,Boe uses his last ounce of energy to allow all the drivers back into New New York to repopulate-including reuniting Martha and the doctor and,after an indication by Boe on his death bed that the doctor isn't alone,he confesses his status as the last surviving time lord to Martha before they depart.
This is one of the most telling and touching stories I've seen on the current version of Doctor Who. The story itself is extremely topical as it tells the story of urban decay gone mad. Where many science fiction motion pictures with a similar concept eventually degrade into the cliche of a action/adventure chase,the action in this story is totally motivated by the premise. The population of New New York actually have come to live in a permanent traffic jam,building a life and even a religion of sorts (whose hymns actually move Martha Jones to tears when she hears them) around their conditions. It's the doctors unconventional bravery and irascibility that eventually shows these people to their destiny. Hame,once breeding humans were scientific purposes,is redeemed first by the benevolent Boe and than by the doctors own willingness to make self sacrifices to help others. The touching part of this story comes in the very end when Martha comes to learn of the doctor's true nature as the last of his kind,and of his new motivations for companionship aboard the TARDIS.
On her first journey in the TARDIS,Martha finds herself and the doctor in 16'th century London,just around the block from the Globe Theater,the home of The Bard himself. Along the way they discover he is to be performing 'Love Labours Won',the long lost Shakespeare play there that night. Upon witnessing the man in action,the pair find Shakespeare himself to be captivated with both of them-especially taking a shining to Martha and the doctor's mention of her mythical home of "Freedonia". However something strange begins to brew literally. Two people under the Bard's employ both die mysteriously-both of heart related ailments. However all are present when the second death occurs,and Martha clearly sees a witch flying away,confirming the doctors earlier suspicion that these unusual deaths could only have occurred through something in the neighborhood of witchcraft. One of the peculiarities the doctor notices is that the Globe Theater is designed in the shape of a tetradecahedron.
Shakepere is able to recall a theatrical friend named Peter,who was driven mad by talk of witchcraft and who he himself committed to the Bedlam Asylum. The doctor visits there in order to hypnotize Peter in providing him with answers of what he saw. The coven of witches who were involved in this affair take note of the doctors alien presense and appear before the trio of him,Shakespeare and Martha to kill Peter-at which time the doctor addresses them as Carrionite,a group of ancient aliens dependent on words and symbols in the right combinations to perform tasks. Since this,of course would be interpreted by Elizabethian England as "magick",they have come to Earth to try to set up a colony. Realizing that the Carrioite trio have manipulated Shakespeare into writing specially coded numbers and words that will allow the Carrionite to allow them to use his theater to bring about their invasion of the Earth. At the doctors request,Shakespeare uses his own wordliness to bring upon the end of the Carrionite,at which point they become trapped in their own crystal ball with the doctor and Martha depart-with Elizabeth the first threatening the doctor with beheading upon departure.
One of the interesting elements of the modern day Doctor Who historical stories is their almost complete relation to an outside alien influence. This succeeds because William Shakespeare,as portrayed in this story,is as inadequate with the spoken word as he is eloquent with the printed word. There are plenty of pop culture references relating to time travel and witchcraft here as well. The doctor mentions Marty McFly's dissappearance when his family are in danger in Back To The Future and Harry Potter is also referenced (along with J.K Rowling) in the climactic scene with the Carrrionite at the conclusion of the story. This episode is also interesting as it actually makes reference to Martha's racial identity,with the doctor making it abundantly clear that he sees the difficulties that humans tend to place over skin pigmentation as being "political correctness gone made". It's still wonderful to see Martha Jones' wonder and awe at the very idea of encountering The Bard in person,similar to Amy Pond's encounter in Vincent And The Doctor. Overall the story has many pluses,namely of which the time (and space) honored idea that one person's science is someone else's magic.
As medical student Martha Jones is preparing for both work and her kid brother's 21'st birthday party,she continually finds herself encountering a mysterious man who,as a patient she is looking after in the presence of head doctor Mr. Stoker identifies himself as John Smith. As she talks to her sister on her cell phone,she finds that a steady rainfall is localized around the hospital and suddenly moves upward before the hospital is shaken by a violent energy pulse and Martha and everyone else in the hospital find themselves on the moon. Martha meets up with the John Smith there who,of course then identifies himself as the doctor and she correctly suspects the involvement of extra terrestrials considering all of the similar incidences in London in recent history. The doctor determines them to be Judoon,who are Rhinoceros-like creatures who act as police for higher and are genetically cataloging the humans in the hospital in their search for some type of alien suspect. As the doctor and Martha soon discover during the long and rather torturous cataloging process,Mr.Stoker has been drained of all his blood by a creature the doctor identifies as a Plasmavore,capable of mimicking any life-form whose blood it consumes.
The doctor manages to irradiate one of said Plasmavore's artificial security drones after which he manages to by some time by kissing Martha to give her a trace of his alien DNA. While the Judoon catalog her,the doctor discovers in the MRI area that a hospital worker named Florence Finnegan,apparently the Plasmavore the Judoon is looking for due to her murder of the child princess of Padrivole Regency Nine,is trying to use the MRI scanner to destroy the side of the Earth facing the Moon so she could use one of the Judoon ships to make her escape. The doctor allow Finnegan to extract his blood,thereby allowing the Judoon to execute Finnegan who is now identified as the culprit. The hospital is promptly returned to Earth after Martha's attempts at CPR on the doctors twin hearts saves his life. Upon returning to Earth,with the entire incident written off as a drugging in the press,Martha escapes her brothers chaotic birthday party to find the doctor has invited her to journey through time and space with him. A surprised Martha, marveling typically at the spectacle of the TARDIS gladly excepts.
This is an excellent introduction for Freema Agyeman's Martha Jones. As a quick on her feet learner,who is able and willing to look beyond herself in order to assist those around her in the manner of the best doctors,endears her very quickly to the doctor. In fact,between his time buying kiss to her when confronting the Judoon,as well as her willingness to save the life of the alien man she hardly knows in order to save the life of those in the hospital staff of their dwindling air supply on the lunar surface shows her to be squarely in the spirit of the Sarah-Jane Smith Doctor Who companion archetype. There's also some potent insights into the doctors character in this well written action-adventure tale. He reinforces that roentgen-type radiation has little to no effect on his body. Not only that but his reactions to Martha's quick witted and relatively cool head about what she's experiencing indicates that,perhaps many of his travelling companions are selected by him long in advance and my not be the random travelers they sometimes appear to be.
Succeeding a Doctor Who companion as notable and popular as Billie Piper's Rose Tyler is no easy task,not unlike what Louise Jamison faced when she succeeded Elizebeth's Sladen's Sarah-Jane Smith in her role as Leela during Tom Baker's years with the show. Yet that is just what Freema faced in 2007 when she took on the role of Martha Jones during the second series of David Tennant's tenth doctor. Today is her birthday. And although it's been many years since Martha has been on board the TARDIS,a special shout out to Freema and her family!
Known primarily for his role as Captain Jack Harckness in the first seasons of the Doctor Who relaunch and the program's spin-off Torchwood,John also has the distinction of being an actor,singer,
musical theater performer,writer and TV personality who enjoys duel citizenship between the US and the UK. He is proudly and openly homosexual and his portrayal of the bisexual Captain Jack in Doctor Who and Torchwood added a vital dimension to his character in both. I would like to dedicate this post to John and his partner Scott Gill the best of days today!
Upon Rose's request,the doctor takes her to November 7th,1987 to witness the car accident that killed her father Peter Alan when she was a baby. At first unable to bare witness to the event,she and the doctor return and on impulse she runs into the street and pushes her father away from the car that was supposed to have killed him. Upon returning to her future home with her father,extremely grateful she saved his life,the doctor accuses her of selfishly interfering with history and returns to his TARDIS to regroup. There he finds the TARDIS has become a regular police box and he is menaced by a huge red eyed Gargoyle type creature. Rose and her father meanwhile are on the way to family friends Stewart and Sarah's wedding. Stewart's father has disappeared,along with many others in this end of London. As Rose confronts her mother and fathers apparently difficult relationship,the doctor arrives along with the Gargoyle's to reveal the reason for the disappearances.
The doctor explain to the befuddled and frightened crowd at the wedding chapel that these creatures represent the force that sterilizes time paradoxes of the type Rose created unintentionally. He notices the TARDIS key he asked back from Rose is glowing. He uses Stewart's cellphone battery to charge it enough to bring the TARDIS back. However,while convincing her mom and dad she is there daughter,Rose glances at her younger self,creates another paradox and the doctor sacrifices his life to save everyone else as a result. Crestfallen,Rose is comforted by her father who noticed out the window the car that was to run him over leaping back and forth out of time-with no purpose. He realizes his death is the only way to save his daughter and now the world. He jumps out in front of the car,and Rose has a chance to say her final goodbyes to her father before she departs with the doctor,alive again thanks to the undoing of the paradox,on their voyages through time and space.
This is probably the most emotionally involving story up to this point of the relaunched Doctor Who series. This story expands on the character of Rose even more so than the story of Ace in the seventh doctor era. I don't think Russell T.Davies was unaware of the irony of setting this story during the same time period the 7th doctor/Ace stories also took place. The story also takes a rather different spin on the idea of altering history. It's not an alternate timeline that's created: alien creatures,possibly something the time lords (if alive) could've prevented as the doctor pointed out,tried to destroy a perceived time paradox. Even though the doctors confidence in Rose is shaken,it's largely because as she points out he cannot take credit. Perhaps because it was a similar mistake he once made. While finding out her parents didn't have quite the sweet and romantic relationship she'd always believed,this story did give Rose the chance to put some closure on her existence.
Upon arriving on Satellite 5,part of the bountiful 4th human empire millennia in the future the doctor observes some odd behavior from some of the people there as Rose and Adam mingle with the other residents on the Satellite. For one there's the presence of two news magnets gunning for a promotion: long time head staff member Cathica and new hopeful Suki. As an intimidated Adam wanders off on his own to explore the Satellite,the doctor and Rose discover Cathica and all the other members of the news staff are in fact fed a wealth of information through a connection to a massive computer on the Satellite through chips in their brain that open up a gigantic memory core in the middle of their forehead. What Rose and the doctor don't know is at the same time,Adam has been trying to send computer information about human history back to his families answer phone,and inadvertently had such a chip installed in his brain in order to gain access. It is Suki who gains access to Floor 500 of the station,where it seems those chosen for the position of Editor are sent but never return. Rose and the doctor both question this,along with the unusually high temperature on board Satellite 5.
The man in charge who calls himself the Editor reveals Suki to actually be a resistance fighter to this news system who is sent to infiltrate Satellite 5,and she is pacified into working for him. When Cathica helps the doctor and Rose infiltrate Floor 500,they find their suspicions are correct-an alien called a Jagrafess has been the power behind Satellite 5 since it was built nearly a century earlier,manipulating the entirety of humanity by using media intimidation tactics to keep them from resisting it's will. It is not helped that Adam's attempt to interface with the main computer reveals the doctors identity and plans to the Editor and his master Jagrafess. Realizing the Jagrefess is diverting the heat to the rest of Satellite 5 to maintain it's own preferred cooler temperature,Cathica interfaces with the main computer and kills the Jagrafess and the Editor-leaving Cathica to rebuild humanities golden age back to where it was meant to be. Realizing the betrayal,the doctor continues on with Rose but leaves Adam behind with his family-asserting he "only takes the best".
This story represents the most telling and socially relevant socially relevant future fiction that either the audience ignores after the show is over or cynically takes the incorrect way. The message however is an important one. From the Jagrafess,The Editor and even Adam Mitchell-essentially the Benedict Arnold of Doctor Who companions,are all motivated by their own avarice and greed in their actions. The humans aboard Satellite 5 are controlled and mechanized like machines-literally the slaves of fear to an alien who is using their gullibility to take over their intergalactic empire. It's media manipulation gone amok. And Adam,of course being very much the spawn of another media controlled era of the early 21'st century,is just as susceptible for the Jagrafess's manipulations as anyone on Satellite 5. While the doctor,Rose and eventually Cathica reaching for her humanity are able to save it by thinking for themselves,Adam fails due to his own selfishness and therefore goes against the doctors core morality. A wonderfully written story that reveals not only much about Doctor Who and it's characters,but the dangers humanity face if they are not thinking independently.
Responding to an alien distress signal,the TARDIS lands the doctor and Rose in an underground facility in Utah in the year 2012 that contains a number of alien artifacts. They are approached by the head of this facility Henry Van Statten,who has been collecting many extra terrestrial artifacts hoping to make his fortune. While investigating the area for the source of the distress call,the doctor soon comes upon it: a single Dalek. Upon explaining to Van Statten that the Dalek would kill every human it encountered,as it took the destruction of his own people to destroy the Daleks in the last great time war,Van Statten learns of the doctors extra terrestrial natural. In the company of Van Statten's assistant Adam,Rose confronts the Dalek who makes it clear it has been mistreated by the people in the facility and mainly wants to survive. The Dalek interfaces with Rose,escapes from it's hold and begins to go on an enormous killing spree of those who brutalized it.
The doctor requests Van Statten cooperate with him instead of further experimentation to help locate the new Dalek threat. After dozens of Van Statten's guards have been exterminated,the Dalek accosts Rose while trying to escape but will not kill her. Instead the Dalek uses Rose as a hostage in order to secure it's escape from the doctor. When the Dalek confronts Van Statten,the man who captured it,it finds it cannot even exterminate him as it's affected by Rose's pleas to spare his life. Adam helps the doctor secure a group of alien weapons Van Statten had to try to destroy the Dalek. When he discovers Rose and the Dalek,he finds the Dalek has revealed it's biological self to Rose,and is begging to be killed. Since the doctor even cannot morally do this,the Dalek opts for destroying itself rather than live a life unsuited to itself. Van Statten's memory is wiped after being escorted from the facility for his crimes. After departing,Adam inadvertently steps into the TARDIS just as it departs.
Not only is this the first Dalek story of the relaunched series,but it's one of the least convention of it's type through the Doctor Who cannon. It focuses on a single Dalek,which as a lot in common with the doctor in being the last of it's kind and trying to survive. The wrinkle in this equation is both are convinced it's their duty to destroy the other. The doctor cannot kill the Dalek in the end,realizing the paradox between the Dalek's biological imperative to destroy from,as the doctor explains to Van Statten,it's nature as "the ultimate in racial cleansers" and the doctors own personal reasons for wanting the Dalek destroyed. Van Statten,motivated only by his own thoughtlessness and avarice,is countered by Rose Tyler's compassion for the suffering Dalek. It's the story that really introduces the complex morality of the doctors relationship to the Daleks in the relaunched series and emerges as one of the most powerful stories of this particular series.
Upon escaping from the Slitheen family,the doctor runs from the confused UNIT soldiers at 10 Downing street only to find Rose and Harriet Jones trapped in the conference room. As the Slitheen give chase,the doctor activates a security code that traps the trio within,but keeps the Slitheen out. Before locking the final door,the Slitheen reveal themselves to be a family who are not on Earth to invade it. Jackie and Mickey are frantically searching for Rose when they are again confronted by the Slitheen. The doctor,Harriet and Rose than proceed to troubleshoot the unusual smell of the gas expelled by the creatures and determine they are Calcium based lifeform,to the doctors understanding anyway,from the planet Raxicoricofallapatorius. He calls Jackie and Mickey and instructs them to create a concoction of pickle brines. Jackie throws it at the alien,who bursts into an explosion of viscous gel. It isn't long however before the group have bigger things to worry about. The members of the special council on extra terrestrials,of course actually the Slitheen in disguise,announce to the world that there are alien weapons trained on Earth,and the only way to defeat them is by using a nuclear weapons store.
When the doctor confronts the Slitheen-knowing full well they are lying to the people of the world,about their plan upon them again arriving at the concealed chamber,they reveal their true plan for the planet is to irradiate it so parts of it could be sold to fuel spaceships as a galactic recession is occurring As it turns out,the only way to save the planet is to blow up the parliament building at 10 Downing with a conventional non nuclear missile with he,Harriet and Rose within. Already begging the doctor to guarantee Rose's safety,this terrifies Jackie. Rose makes the choice: she is willing to go along and has the idea of the trio hiding in the earthquake proof maintenance closet. The pan succeeds and,with the prime minister dead,Harriet Jones now has a bit with the doctor and Rose's blessing. Just as Jackie is about to give the doctor a chance,Rose decides to formerly accept the doctors earlier invitation to join her-though this time she says her goodbyes.
This story points to humanity's inability to cope with life beyond their own. When the affair with the Slitheen is over,the doctor even evokes the hypocrisy of religion noting while the newspapers insist on an incident millions witnessed as a hoax,they are willing to believe in "something invisible". The doctors vulnerabilities are his concerned silence when Jackie Tyler begs him for an answer whether her daughter Rose will be safe in his hands. In many ways,the Slitheen are not that much different than many human political lobbyist groups,who often invent massive lies for the news media while they selfishly plot about events that could lead to the destruction of the world. Though a very well paced and tense action tale,at it's core the action delivers an important message of standing up against psychic numbing against the truth while your watching this story unfold while your on the edge of your seat.
