Features some spoilers.
The second installment of the specials celebrating Doctor Who's 60th anniversary has been released, and in contrast to the stuffed-full and frenetic "The Star Beast", this is a quieter, far weirder episode. And as you should know, Doctor Who is at it's best when it's flat out weird.
Following the console explosion at the end of the previous episode, The Doctor and Donna find themselves on a massive, empty spaceship. It looks quite impressive in the long shots, too bad in the tighter shots they are clearly walking on a treadmill with CGI background behind them.
They wander and banter for a bit (evidently the Fourteenth Doctor fancies Isaac Newton) and find a decrepit, slowly moving robot but no other evidence of life. Then mysterious forces notice them, and try to replicate their bodies into physical reality. (Lots of references here to various things, such as the movie The Thing and the previous Who episode Midnight, which was also about mysterious forces invading a ship on the edge of the Universe.)
It is wonderful to see Tennant and Tate playing evil versions of their characters, whose worst instincts and fears are brought to the fore by the aliens. Then of course there's lots of running up and down a hallway shots (a Russel Davies tradition) and timey wimey dialogue, until the Doctor pieces together what the aliens want and why the previous captain of the ship is floating outside.
Following that, we get a brief scene back on Earth where Bernard Cribbins puts in his final appearance as Wilf, a heartbreaking bit all the way around. Things don't stay nostalgic for long as things start exploding and people go mad around them, manipulated by the as-yet unseen Toymaker, making his first appearance in the series since 1966.
A solid episode that played on the actors strengths with a straightforward SF plot (once you understand what's actually happening on the ship. I give it a 9 out of 10. Next week we see Neil Patrick Harris as the big bad of the season, the Toymaker, the final fate of Donna Noble, and the regeneration of Doctor Fourteen into Fifteen...maybe? See you then!
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