4

Written by: Mark Gatiss

Directed by: Euros Lyn

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[-] SpaceScotsman@startrek.website 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I have a no real strong feelings about this one. Kind of middle-of-the-road.

The domestic plotlines are something that this era of Doctor Who has done well. Casual references to "beating it out of you", presumably referring to homesexuality, casual mysoginy. The final speech confronting the father about fascism is excellent and stands the test of time.

This is another episode where the pair of Doctor and Rose feel to have jumped around a bit. After last episode's downer ending they're all upbeat again. This has happened a few times this series. I really enjoyed Detective Rose being clever in this episode, without any prompting from the Doctor.

The monster of the week is kind of confusing and annoying. We're not given a whole lot of motivation other than "it should have died, but it's trying to come back" so it's a ghost story without a ghost. I do not care for the fact that every big villain in DW seems to insist on screetching out a catchphrase: Exterminate. Delete. "Hungry" is particularly offputting. It makes the monster mechanical rather than something alive living in the airwaves. The colour TV joke was a nice bit. At the very end I'm not entirely sure what the Doctor's plan involved, and how it was supposed to save everyone, but it worked and the episode ends with all the victims smiling and being happy even though they've just spend days(?) in non-corporeal hell.

One thing that stands out during a rewatch is the CGI of the people being sucked into the TV does not look anywhere near as creepy as I remember when watching this on a small CRT. I guess there's something a bit meta about that, given the episode's TV theme. Depending on the lighting, the faceless toe the line between genuinely creepy and immersion breaking. I could see this working well re-made to discuss mobile phones and being sucked into the internet.

This is another episode where the pair of Doctor and Rose feel to have jumped around a bit. After last episode’s downer ending they’re all upbeat again. This has happened a few times this series.

Yeah, I know I've been banging on about this all season, but it really seems the like episodic sequence is all out of whack.

this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2026
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