Watching Doctor Who

Welcome to the reaction post for Doctor Who: series 3 episode 3 - Gridlock. My full-fledged review will appear after this episode airs in the U.S…sometime this Summer.

Spoiler warning!

Okay, Gridlock…where to start? Well, I enjoyed it, but it did seem a bit low on plot. It was sort of like The Long Game in that it obviously had several points it had to cover. Unlike The Long Game, it still kept my attention. Plus, I could totally see an entire population wiped out by the access to perpetual “Bliss.” (Okay, so it mutated and became a virus, but still.) The Face of Boe finally got to tell his great secret, and that confused The Doctor to no end. Especially since The Face of Boe had just said that they were each the last of their kind. (There are some hints about this in the Confidential if you listen closely. It seems that the answer lies somewhere between what you’d expect. Plus, we may learn who The Face of Boe really is? Hmmm…)

Interesting that The Doctor mentioned his family again. I wonder if this is leading up to something? The Macra! Way to hearken back to the second Doctor, RTD! The Macra seemed to be the Baddies, and yet sort of incidental to the plot. Hmmm… I suppose that Drugs were the real baddies? Glad to see that Martha isn’t the type to panic easily. Also nice to see that she’s adapting to new situations well and thinking her way through things. She just might survive this life for a while. (Do you think that she will ever visit the wardrobe room so that she can dress for her environment?) She even managed to get The Doctor talking about Gallifrey. (And oh how I love that description.) I enjoyed the fact that when The Doctor told the folks in Pharmacy City to close up shop, otherwise he’d come back and shut them down, for once they believed him. When he eventually returned they were gone. How about the Doctor’s method of descent, eh? Nice bandanna. (Oh, I’d also like to say: Cute Kittens!) Such an interesting variety of interiors on those vehicles. Did you notice that Novice Hame got a second chance? The Doctor even likes her again. The people trapped for years on the motorway were strangely optimistic, don’t you think? It made a nice change from the usual group of depressed folks. They had such hope of a brighter future, and The Doctor gave it to them. Mind you, when he realized that everyone in the upper city was dead, and he wanted to know how long ago it happened, did you think that for one frozen moment he wondered if he had caused the problem? He had that look like he was doing some quick math.

So, there are my random observations from one viewing. Did you like the ep? Did anyone else notice that one of the guys in next week’s ep looks like the Ringmaster from the 7th Doctor episode “The Greatest Show in the Galaxy”?

Image Source: The BBC Doctor Who Site

Doctor Who, Gridlock