We open on a guy with terrible bleached blond hair running through a quarry or gravel yard or some shit. IDK. He ends up by an industrial looking building, and stops when he sees the TARDIS. He walks slowly towards it, and music gets all floaty vocals and spookiness. He touches the TARDIS, then Rose yells out for the Doctor from somewhere off screen. Bad Hair Guy runs towards it. He ends up in a factory. Rose and the Doctor, both still off screen, yell at each other about where "he" has gone. Bad Hair Guy finds himself in a corridor with lots of doorways off it. There's a pig-like grunting noise from somewhere, and he cautiously walks down the corridor. He pulls open a door and finds himself face to face with a giant spitty alien.
We had such a lovely time last episode, I'm feeling all giddy about this recap! Shoutout to the, um, science side of that recap (basically Mairead...) for the insight into black holes. (K: SERIOUSLY. I may be shitty at replying to comments, but those comments were the freaking bomb.) Now, let's all watch as the show ignores all that science and gets to the FEELS shall we?
Oh, we cut from really extensive previouslies to the credits:
Oh, we cut from really extensive previouslies to the credits:
The TARDIS vworp vworps its way into a spaceship-y looking storage room. It sounds decidedly unwell. The Doctor and Rose walk out the door, and he makes worried sounds while stroking the TARDIS. Rose says if he's worried, they can leave and go somewhere else, and they both fall about laughing.
Marines: Those crazy kids and their lack of self-preservation! But seriously, watching them laugh in those last two gifs is everything.
K: LITERALLY EVERYTHING.
Marines: Those crazy kids and their lack of self-preservation! But seriously, watching them laugh in those last two gifs is everything.
K: LITERALLY EVERYTHING.
Rain, thunder, lightening. Somewhere, a guy sits inside a shop, pouring over a book. A TV program is playing in the background. The announcer signs off just as the guy realizes he's overdrawn and needs a money miracle. Watching TV while also maybe thinking about needing money miracles? MY LIFE. But with less "God Save the Queen" playing in the background.
Kirsti: I had a total "IT'S THAT GUY FROM THAT THING!!" moment when he came on screen, but wasn't sure what that thing was. According to IMDB, it's our old friend Britain Only Has Ten Actors, because he's been in Hot Fuzz, Little Dorrit, and Chocolat.
Kirsti: I had a total "IT'S THAT GUY FROM THAT THING!!" moment when he came on screen, but wasn't sure what that thing was. According to IMDB, it's our old friend Britain Only Has Ten Actors, because he's been in Hot Fuzz, Little Dorrit, and Chocolat.
After the previouslies, we go straight to the credits, because why the fuck not. DOO WEE OOH.
After the credits, the Doctor aims a mystery thing at the Cybermen, and a beam of orange light bursts out. It hits one Cyberman and spreads to the others, kind of like how the Nazis die in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Cybermen crumble to ash and everyone makes a run for it.
I cannot stop laughing over that gif. Conveniently, Driver pulls up in the blue van and everyone piles in. Except for A Pete, who makes a run for the house to rescue A Jackie.
After the credits, the Doctor aims a mystery thing at the Cybermen, and a beam of orange light bursts out. It hits one Cyberman and spreads to the others, kind of like how the Nazis die in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Cybermen crumble to ash and everyone makes a run for it.
I cannot stop laughing over that gif. Conveniently, Driver pulls up in the blue van and everyone piles in. Except for A Pete, who makes a run for the house to rescue A Jackie.
Lab. A scientist we can't see hits a button and electricity crackles. He tells someone else that the prototype has passed every test and is working. In the shadows, a man says that "working" isn't the correct word because that would apply only to machines. The man comes out of the shadows so that we see he's in a motorized chair.
Kirsti: I flail with excitement because it's Owen from Vicar of Dibley!!! Excuse me while I spend the rest of the episode expecting him to talk about how he's late because his sheep exploded or something.
Kirsti: I flail with excitement because it's Owen from Vicar of Dibley!!! Excuse me while I spend the rest of the episode expecting him to talk about how he's late because his sheep exploded or something.
We open at Versailles in the height of its opulence. Courtiers run and scream from an unseen threat. A man in a red velvet coat approaches a woman in a dress four times wider than she is, and tells her that they have to go. It's Sophia Myles, who I know better as Beth from Moonlight and Beth from Spooks. Also as Fanny Price's little sister from the Mansfield Park movie.
Marines: MOONLIGHT! It is my far away dream to recap some one-season-wonders a la Firefly, and Moonlight is way high on that list. Also, Sophia Myles was dating David Tennant at this point, which is fun.
Marines: MOONLIGHT! It is my far away dream to recap some one-season-wonders a la Firefly, and Moonlight is way high on that list. Also, Sophia Myles was dating David Tennant at this point, which is fun.
We'll start this with an announcement: Sweeney is officially bowing out of these recaps. It's mostly because she needed to reorganize how she spends her time and this was an easier thing to take off her plate. She can probably tell you all her reasoning in the comments, because she's still going to try and hang out there and perhaps keep up with the series. That said, Sara will be joining us as the third recapper and our official Snow. YAY SARA!
Now episode:
GILES. I'm glad we're getting this out of the way so soon in the episode because GILES, GILES, GILES!
Now episode:
GILES. I'm glad we're getting this out of the way so soon in the episode because GILES, GILES, GILES!
A group of monks approach a castle and a bald one, the head monk presumably, tells a man that they want the house, and they will be taking it now. The owner is like LOL okay, do you want my wife, too? But Bald Head Monk isn't kidding around and says that he will take that shit with his fists. He kicks Home Owner to the ground and a fun(ny) fight scene develops as Bald Head Monk orders the other monks to remove their hoods, revealing a group of Not Monks who are actually Ninjas with badass fighting sticks. They fight their way through the entire castle, taking it over. Learning martial arts would be so be worth it if it kept you from having to sign a 30-year mortgage loan.
The Tenth Doctor and his Converse take charge of the TARDIS, and fiddles with various things on the console. He flicks a switch, and the engines start up, and he grins. It's pure Tennant "OMG THIS IS MY CHILDHOOD DREAM COME TRUE" and I love everything about it. Outside, Rose hugs Jackie and Mickey goodbye and runs in with what's clearly an empty pack on her back.
Marines: At least she's graduated to proper goodbyes with her family now. The sadness on Mickey's face as he watches her walk into the TARDIS and Jackie just walking away, sending her girl back into danger? I want to hug them both.
K: Same, girl, same.
Marines: At least she's graduated to proper goodbyes with her family now. The sadness on Mickey's face as he watches her walk into the TARDIS and Jackie just walking away, sending her girl back into danger? I want to hug them both.
K: Same, girl, same.
First, there is a mini-episode that connects The Parting of the Ways with The Christmas Invasion, which you can watch here. Mostly it's Rose asking this new Doctor who he is. It's a single shot, tight scene that looks like it was filmed like this: Hey. No one move! Read this script real quick! We're gonna shoot it in five. And I mean that it in the nicest way possible, as I think this was aired to benefit charity... Point is that the acting is a bit off and it is a strange introduction to David Tennant's Doctor. I watched this and at the end yelled, "BRING BACK ECCLESTON."
Kirsti: Whereas, you know, I watched it after I'd already seen all of Ten and I squealed.
Kirsti: Whereas, you know, I watched it after I'd already seen all of Ten and I squealed.
Marines: I understand that we have a little less reason to celebrate here, since Series 1 was only 13 episodes, but some of those first few (or 7) were rough....
When I originally wrote my part of this recap, three months ago, this was a lot of squealing about finishing a 13-episode season. Well, that took us a bit longer than anticipated between holidays and relocations and naps and stuff, but still: HOORAY FINISHING EVEN SHORT THINGS! Now, episode:
The Daleks all scream at Rose to predict the Doctor's next move, since she knows and understands him. She doesn't tell them that knowing the Doctor means knowing he's a bit unpredictable. I mean, a wide tooth smile, waving around his sonic screwdriver, a convenient way out of trouble. That's all I got.
Kirsti: Honey badger don't need no stinking plan!
The Daleks all scream at Rose to predict the Doctor's next move, since she knows and understands him. She doesn't tell them that knowing the Doctor means knowing he's a bit unpredictable. I mean, a wide tooth smile, waving around his sonic screwdriver, a convenient way out of trouble. That's all I got.
Kirsti: Honey badger don't need no stinking plan!
This episode is off to a great start because the title is Bad Wolf which means we kick off the drinking game BEFORE we start watching. This pleases me greatly.
We start 100 years after the Simon Pegg episode. The Doctor wakes up in a tiny spinny elevator. He falls out and a girl with pigtail buns helps him up as he stumbles about, terribly confused by how he got there. Pigtails explains that he's been "chosen" to be in some sort of Big Brother type house. The Doctor is summoned into "the diary room" where he sits down in a big red chair with a giant case of "Are you fucking kidding me?" which is a fair reaction.
We start 100 years after the Simon Pegg episode. The Doctor wakes up in a tiny spinny elevator. He falls out and a girl with pigtail buns helps him up as he stumbles about, terribly confused by how he got there. Pigtails explains that he's been "chosen" to be in some sort of Big Brother type house. The Doctor is summoned into "the diary room" where he sits down in a big red chair with a giant case of "Are you fucking kidding me?" which is a fair reaction.
After a bunch of previouslies reminding us about the Slitheen, a worried man tells someone off screen that he's looked at the plans for something and they're unsafe. He pleads with Mystery Person to put a stop to it immediately before millions of people die. The camera pans around to show us Margaret, now in some position of authority. After establishing that he hasn't shared this information with anyone else, he turns away and says that the plans are almost as if someone wants the project to go wrong, wants to wipe the entire city off the map. He turns and screams because Margaret has taken off her skin suit and is all Slitheen-y. She attacks and we throw to the credits.