Shows how busy writing I am, that I watched this on Thursday and wanted to write it up but felt fic should come first! Master Plan Part 7 is nicely underway (though there's still a long way to go yet), and this evening I've actually started on my Big Bang fic. Yes, I know, yesterday I said I wasn't going to start it till January, but living around Anything Goes at the moment got me thinking about Cole Porter and gave me a few ideas, including one for the opening few paragraphs. It feels good to have made a start, but I'm not rushing into this one. I still have a hell of a lot of research to do on the period and Cole Porter!

Anyway. The review.


First of all, see this for my thoughts on Steven Moffat's recurring character… :-)

Apart from that, the main thing I noticed about this episode was the amazing chemistry between the main characters. Last episode it was Rose and Jack, with Jack turning on the charm full blast – and who could resist that? This time, with the three of them together, it was the Doctor who took centre stage. We had a very entertaining (and hot!) demonstration of Jack and the Doctor jostling for alpha position and gradually starting to trust and respect each other (not that Jack made that easy, with his teleporting away without warning anyone what he was doing) and figure out how their relationship was going to work.

But there was also surprising chemistry between Rose and the Doctor. I say surprising, because so far all I'd seen was Rose smitten by the Doctor and a vague fondness on his part. But here, for the first time the Doctor comes down to human level and starts actually flirting. Faced with competition (serious competition – Mickey doesn't count!), the Doctor starts to behave less like Rose's father and more like a normal man. Now, I'm not going into OTP land here, because I'm still just seeing crush on her part and older-man fondness on his, but it's definitely a development of the more equal, less father-daughter relationship that was begun in Father's Day.

Also, on a more shallow note, for the first time I actually found the Ninth Doctor hot. Perhaps because he was actually behaving like a sexual being for the first time. But definitely hot (especially at the beginning when he's having a go at Jack), and I wasn't expecting that.

The story about the 'empty' child was still, I feel, pretty much just a vehicle to introduce and reform Jack and therefore not the most important part of the episode, but I liked the way it was told. The child's room with all the drawings of his mummy was chilling, and the whole 'bomb'-site scene was excellent. I love the resolution, even if it is a bit feeble upon closer examination, because it hits all the right buttons and it made me cry.

So many good bits in this one. "It's got the power of a God, and I just sent it to its room!" Jack trying to shoot the child with a banana and his admiring "Nice switch!" to the Doctor. The Doctor not wanting Jack to know that his sonic 'weapon' is just a screwdriver. The conversation about 'assets': "Well, I've got a banana and in a pinch you could put up some shelves." (Brilliant!) The whole conversation about 'dancing'. "Actually, I quit. Nobody takes my frock." (So very Jack.) "Didn't look like talking!" - "Didn't feel like dancing!" The bit about two years' memories and "Your friend over there doesn't trust me, and for all I know, he's right not to."

Jack going to 'distract' Algy – and then having to watch him die, making it personal. Nancy singing a lullaby to the soldier who's been taken over. Nancy's "What future?" and Rose telling her the English win the war. Jack's face as he realises what he's done by releasing the nanogenes – that it's all his fault. The Doctor, happy: "Just this once, everybody lives!" The thrown-in-rather-like-the-Face-of-Boe-thing (i.e. to make you boggle) – "Look at you, beaming like you're Father Christmas!" - "Who says I'm not, red bicycle when you were twelve?" (Very cool.) Jack preparing for death, chatting to the computer and initiating Emergency Protocol 417 (martini). The very interesting snippet about the last time he was sentenced to death he had four hyper-vodkas and woke up in bed with the two executioners (has anyone written this fic yet, and if not, why not? *g*).

And the pay-off of the Doctor and Rose not noticing they'd been transported to Jack's ship because they were dancing – Jack about to die a hero and not noticing the TARDIS had docked with his ship! And "Much bigger on the inside" – "You'd better be!"

I also thought it was interesting that Jack could have been written out very easily by simply letting him die, having had a very satisfactory redemption arc. Especially interesting since we know he was always intended to be around for the next three episodes and then whatever the spin-off that became Torchwood was going to be.

Shame we didn't get to see Jack dancing at the end. I get why, for story purposes, it had to be Rose and the Doctor, but it was a shame. JB's such a good dancer.

One little quibble: I don't get the bit about Villenguard. Jack says he can't get another blaster because it's "Gone now." It blew up. Why can't they just go back to before it blew up? Surely that's the point of time travel!

Anyway, a really, really good episode, with loads and loads of great moments - and Captain Jack!

9.5/10