Doctor Who S03 Wrap-Up

Marines: Series 3 done and done!

I used to say that this was my least favorite season and my least favorite companion and now I’m not sure if that’s true. I do know that I’ve found a newfound appreciation for Martha and what a capable, wonderful companion she truly is. What hasn’t changed is that this season suffers a lot from some crazy plot lines and giant plot holes. Most of the time, and with only a few exceptions, the good episodes are good DESPITE some other bad stuff happening in the background.

Plus, though I mentioned it pretty much every episode, but I hated how the season shoehorned in Martha’s affection for the Doctor. Again, I don’t hate that it happened (I love him too, girl) but I just hate that it was so forced and hamfisted. Martha having an side conversation with another woman character about unrequited love happened too much.

So, here we go, rankings:

Blink – Still one of my favorite episodes of all time. The Weeping Angels are my favorite badies with their passive-super-aggressive way of killing people by letting them live. I love Sally Sparrow and seriously, there is a reason why this episode is so well loved.
The Runaway Bride – I love Donna Noble so much and I think the reason I was able to move on from Rose was because Donna was so spectacular and this episode a good transition. Also, POCKETS!
The Shakespeare Code – I called this shallow fun and I think that opinion holds. The villains made very little sense, but Shakespeare was fun and JK Saved the day.
The Family of Blood –
Human Nature – Part 1s tend to always be just below part 2s, but it was a good introduction and a wonderful performance by David Tennant.
Smith and Jones – I liked this! Again, all that beginning stuff with the Doctor dealing with his loss was great to watch and Martha really jumped right into the story.
42 – Pretty enjoyable considering some things we saw this season but still, The Impossible Planet did it better.
The Last of the Time Lords – I kind of wanted to rank this higher because Martha is amazing, but nothing, nothing, nothing about their plan to take down the Master made a lick of sense. And Gollum Doctor was just too weird. IDK.
Gridlock – This episode was super, super weird but had a lot of memorable moments. We got a big reveal from the Face of Boe and heard more about Galifrey which is always fun.
The Sound of Drums – John Simm is great but the episode was a little haphazard. While we’d been getting Saxon clues all season, the total domination still felt sudden.
Utopia – Captain Jack! Plus, while the episode was also weird, it had a great reveal and John Simm.
The Lazarus Experiment – Okay, guys, the scorpion human monster was also really weird but I’m ranking it above the penis Daleks because I thought this episode did a much better job at looking at bigger concepts. I felt for the Doctor as he talked about the price of outliving people.
Evolution of the Daleks – Slightly better than part one (below) but too much silly in an episode that wanted to be taken seriously.
Daleks in Manhattan – I still don’t get what Daleks were doing with pig hybrids and why.

Kirsti: Series 3 is a mixed bag for me. There’s a lot in this season that I really love – Blink, for example – and I adore Martha’s character arc more and more with every rewatch. The foreshadowing over Saxon is great, there are some feels-tastic scenes and wonderful guest stars. But there were also a lot of truly awful moments and overly familiar stories and “…what the fuck” decisions. I’m looking at you, Penis Face Dalek Hybrid.

Blink – Seriously, this episode is SO FUCKING GOOD. It even stands up to recapping over the course of three hours, so that should tell you how good it is.
The Shakespeare Code – I really like this episode. Sure, the monsters of the week are pretty dumb, and we have to deal with Martha getting all swoony over the Doctor when he’s busy being sad about Rose. But how can you not love Shakespeare quoting J.K. Rowling?!
The Runaway Bride – Look, in my opinion, Donna Noble is basically the greatest thing that ever happened in New Who. And her introduction was pretty perfectly placed. Despite being a Christmas special – which are often a bit throwaway – this one brought feels and laughs and some wonderful scenes. And I think in the aftermath of losing Rose, the Doctor needed Donna’s bluntness to help him process things and bring him back from the darkness.
The Family of Blood – It’s always hard to discuss two parters individually, but for me, Family of Blood was just that little bit stronger. We see just how much Martha’s been through in the past 3 months. We see just how dark the Doctor is capable of being. We get to see the Doctor’s human side being heartbroken once again. The villains were creepy. And the ending, where they show up to see Tim Lattimer on Remembrance Day makes me cry every time.
Human Nature – An excellent set up that lets us see Martha’s true worth for basically the first time. A little rough in places, especially when Harry Lloyd started gnawing on the scenery like there was no tomorrow, but still pretty stinking good.
Gridlock – Admittedly, I may have a soft spot for this episode because it features The Face of Boe and Annie from Being Human. But it did set up season 3 quite nicely to have the Doctor be all “Fuck it, let’s just repeat my trips with Rose” and then have everything be a fucking disaster.
Last of the Time Lords – Yes, this featured the ridiculous tiny-Doctor-in-a-birdcage debacle of which the fandom does not speak. But I loved everything this episode did for Martha’s character. EV. ERY. THING.
Smith and Jones – This was a nice introduction to Martha’s character, and I’ll be eternally grateful to the writers for screwing with David Tennant by making him say “Judoon platoon upon the moon”, but other than that, this was a bit meh.
The Sound of Drums – After all the Saxon foreshadowing this season, it was great to FINALLY get the big reveal. And I do love John Simm as the Master. But this was…not great. The TARDIS keys mixed with phone parts being able to hide people was total contrivance, and the Toclafane are just dumb.
42 – For me, this felt a lot like the diet version of The Impossible Planet. There were definitely some great moments. But on the whole, this fell flat for me.
Evolution of the Daleks – Look, I love that they went to Depression era New York, and it’s hilarious that Andrew Garfield is in this two parter. But the “Guess what? ONE SURVIVED” Dalek loophole gets really old really quickly, and the pig people were just stupid.
Utopia – Sure, it featured the return of Captain Jack Harkness, which is always welcome (*cough* PAY ATTENTION, STEVEN MOFFAT *cough*), but for the most part? This felt like set up for the two part season finale, and it just didn’t really work for me.
Daleks in Manhattan – Dalek-human hybrid = dicks all over your face. Nope.
The Lazarus Experiment – Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Seriously, this was basically a less interesting version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. And I gave very few fucks about it. Probably because I recapped it and had to spend 4 hours watching a really average episode…

As always, let us know down in the comments what your favorite and least favorite moments of the season were! We’ll see you soon when we kick off series four.

Next time on Doctor Who: We kick off a new season with the Christmas special in S04 E00 – Voyage of the Damned.

Marines (all posts)

I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.

Marines (all posts)