Ranking: 4 Pips = Great | 3 Pips = Good | 2 Pips = Okay | 1 Pip = Bad
“The Runaway Bride”
Anika: 3 Pips
Who doesn’t love Donna? I actually know a lot of people who don’t love Donna but they’re wrong.
Sam: 3 1/2 Pips
DONNA! What an introduction! Minus 1/2 pip because the Doctor’s kind of a jerk to her (this is his theme for the season).
“Smith and Jones”
Anika: 3 Pips
Who doesn’t love Martha? I actually know a lot of people who don’t love Martha but they’re wrong.
Sam: 3.999999999 Pips
I’m taking off a little bit for the stupid kissing thing, but the fallout of that doesn’t really happen until later and overall this was an episode about Martha and Martha is amazing. She impressed the Doctor, she saved the hospital (and world) and she’s extremely clever. I love Martha Jones. Also her sister is Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and that is one heckuva family.
“The Shakespeare Code”
Anika: 3 Pips
Okay, it’s not as good as the two above but it uses Harry Potter as Shakespeare and I can’t give it below three for that alone. (But it’s really a 2)
Sam: 2 1/2 Pips
I didn’t really love the baddies in this, and Shakespeare was fine, but I dunno. It was sort of an episode of the Doctor taking Martha for granted and I don’t love that. But I suppose narratively it fits in with the structure of the season. Also there was a little bit of frustrating hand-waving of historical racism.
“Gridlock”
Anika: 2 Pips?
I don’t actually remember anything about this episode.
Sam: 3 Pips
I like this episode a lot for a few reasons. First, Martha’s kidnapping forces the Doctor to not only consider her as an actual human being but gives Martha some time away from the Doctor. And here’s the start of her thread for the season, really. This is where she first learns about the power of a collective story. The macra were a bit ho hum, but the end of this episode, with the Doctor telling Martha about Gallifrey, is one of my all-time favorite scenes in the series.
“Daleks in Manhattan”
Anika: 3 Pips
I mean, Andrew Garfield is in it. And I love Dalek stories. . .
Sam: 3 Pips
Okay, so Peter Parker from the Marvel noir series walks into a Hooverville, is kinda gay, and meets the Doctor. How could anyone not like this episode? Sure it goes a little off the rails at the end, but there are some great moments. I also really like the setting and the supporting characters.
“Evolution of the Daleks”
Anika: 1 Pip
But this story goes off the rails really quickly and I prefer to pretend I don’t remember anything that happened.
Sam: 1 Pip
This is an episode that happened, and the bad guy was a human-dalek with penises protruding from its head. Also lightning? Idk.
“The Lazarus Experiment”
Anika: 2 Pips?
I do not recall anything that happens but I like Martha’s family and the formal wear quite a lot.
Sam: 1 1/2 Pips
Every time I watch this episode (and I’ve seen it 8 or 9 times now, at least) I’m always surprised by the last 15 minutes, because the story seems pretty well buttoned up. It’s just… not well paced? I find it boring. Sure, we get a little more intrigue re: the Saxon thing, and we get to see more of RTD’s issues with mothers played out on screen, but this episode is watchable only for Martha (as always) and Trish. Also the CGI of mutated Lazarus is nothing to write home about, and wasn’t even when it first aired.
“42”
Anika: 3 Pips
The RPG plot device is silly but entertaining nonetheless.
Sam: 3 Pips
I really liked this episode. It’s a nice little bit of adventuring in the middle of the season, before things ramp up for the back half. Martha is great in it, and I enjoyed the stupid mechanic of having to answer trivia questions to open doors. It’s so stupid. But so fun. Minus a pip for the pacing (again).
“Human Nature”
Anika: 4 Pips
Hey look, it’s the Martha eps I go out of my way to rewatch! In my opinion Doctor Who is at its best when The Doctor is more of a force than a person. Here that idea is explored through The Doctor himself and it’s pretty brilliant.
Sam: 4 Pips
“Human Nature” and “The Family of Blood” are my favorite episodes of the season. I love everything about them. And my love comes, in large part, from loving Cornell’s original book, which featured the seventh Doctor and Bernice Summerfield. The plot details were different, but the themes (war, loss, grief, etc.) were the same. I thought this was a really well-realized adaptation. And Jessica Hynes was amazing, especially since I was only familiar with her from comedic work, like Spaced.
“The Family of Blood”
Anika: 4 Pips
It’s just SO SAD. But in this ultimately good way. It’s like Sally Sparrow will soon say (in the next episode) “it’s happy for deep people.”
Sam: 4 Pips
Everything I said above. And I cry like a baby every time John & Joan get to see the flashes of their future. Like. A. Baby. Plus when Martha and the Doctor go to see Latimer on Armistice Day… ugh, every time. What an emotionally powerful episode, stuffed into a story about aliens trying to chase the Doctor down.
“Blink”
Anika: 4 Pips
My favorite episode of this Who series and my second favorite episode of every Who series.
Sam: 4 Pips
You know. This set the standard (and coined the term) for timey-wimey episodes, was probably the best Doctor-lite episode of the entire series (though I love “Turn Left”), and introduced the weeping angels, who were absolutely terrifying. Also Carey Mulligan is a gem. I didn’t even take a fraction of a pip off for her getting together with the dude at the end, because it was all pretty adorable.
“Utopia”
Anika: 2 Pips
Sam: 2 1/2 Pips
This is another episode with weird, clunky pacing that still kind of surprises me. The first time I watched this I was fresh off watching the first season of Torchwood, but I find that Jack is a lot more enjoyable many years removed (and after “Children of Earth”), knowing his whole arc. Derek Jacobi is superb as Yana (That whole Y.A.N.A. thing is a strange, anvil-like reminder that this is supposed to be a kids’ show with storytelling that is only so complex.) and the flash we get of him as the Master makes me wish we could got another episode or two or ten with him in the role.
“The Sound of Drums”
Anika: 2 Pips
Sam: 1 1/2 Pips
I really really like Lucy Saxon.
“Last of the Timelords”
Anika: 2 Pips
P.S. Martha Jones is AMAZING and neither The Doctor nor the series ever knew what to do with her. It’s a terrible injustice that has not as yet been redeemed.
Sam: 3 Pips
Martha Jones is a superhero, which is the only reason this episode has anything more than -1 pip in my heart. She gives it four pips all by herself. The Jesus!Doctor is awful, his relationship with the Master here is… I don’t know. My first introduction to the Master was Eric Roberts, so I admit that maybe my point of view is skewed. But I had gone back and seen various incarnations of the character by the time this aired, and not only did I not love Simm as the Master (at this point, I’ll change my mind later) but I didn’t buy the romanticism of their relationship. Also it was extremely frustrating to watch the Doctor try to save the Master when he’d lacked so much mercy all season. But. Martha Jones is a superhero, and good for her for walking away.
