Doctor Who series 1 The Long Game review

Here's what you need to know; the Doctor, Rose and Adam travel to the distant future and land aboard Satellite 5, a city sized news broadcasting station broadcasting all over the Human empire, but something is wrong, and mysterious goings on seem to be happening upstairs that the Doctor becomes determined to uncover.

At least this episode doesn't try as hard as The End of the world to shock the audience. Though this episode is a much more on the mystery; what exactly is going on up on floor 500? And that is indeed interesting, as is the idea of not asking questions, which is admittedly a fascinating idea to me, as the implications of it, as seen in this episode, are actually really scary, and is something I actually really like in this episode. Something else I really like is Simon Pegg, who's plays the kind of villain of the episode, maybe it's just because I love every film I've watched that has Simon Pegg in it, but he plays a fun character, and it looked like he had fun in the role, he too is really interesting, as it looks at first like he is the one pulling the strings. What is actually pulling the strings I have mixed feelings on though, it's an awesome idea that gets somewhat tarnished by the big reveal near the end, especially given how bizarre the villain actually looks, it's kind of dumb, and he only speaks in growls and roars, which is also kind of dumb. And, to be honest, coming off of Dalek, where the bad guy was a Dalek, the real bad guy in this episode is poor. The technology used aboard Satellite 5 is kind of cool, with people with microchips in their heads, literal doors in their heads that expose their brains and allow compressed knowledge to stream through, it's a creative use of the human brain really. A returning character from Dalek, Adam is also something I have mixed feelings on. On one hand, I think I understand why he goes about doing what he does in this episode, but on the other hand, why would you want a literal door in your head that exposes your brain? his motivations are very human, but they aren't very relatable, and you end up with the same idea of him that the Doctor does. There's little to say about the 2 mains, since not a lot is done with them in this episode, leaving the supporting characters, speared headed of course by Simon Pegg, but then there's Adam, and a journalist whose name I don't even remember, which is either down to her weird name or her only discernable character trait being bitchy and jealous, and possibly smart enough to start asking questions, with a little prodding from the Doctor.

The spine of this episode's story is brilliant, I really like the idea of people not asking questions and how dangerous that can be, but the rest of the episode teeters between cool, and fun but forgettable, with little development of character, a disappointing reveal near the end, I can say I thought Simon Pegg played a fun character. Coming off Dalek, this episode is a bit underwhelming, while not a down right bad episode, it's a step down overall from the bar the series has already set for itself.