catherine tate

(S04E07) The Doctor and Donna are caught in the middle of an Agatha Christie murder mystery adventure. Literally.

The British have always been proud of their history. This is evident in the excellent quality of most historical dramas done by the BBC. Doctor Who, being a BBC production, has displayed this in spades having had the Doctor already meet two of their most famous writers in previous seasons (Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare). The tradition continues in this episode when the Doctor and Donna travel to England in 1926 and meet Agatha Christie in the midst of a set of murders.

Spoilers after the jump...

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(S04E06) The Doctor gives birth to a daughter. And he didn't even get any snu-snu out of it.

A quick synopsis: The TARDIS suddenly dematerializes unexpectedly before Doctor Martha Jones has a chance to leave and finds itself on the planet Messaline in the year 6012. There is a generations-long war between the two occupying races, the humans and an alien race called the Hath.

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(S04E05) When we last left our intrepid Time Lord, the Sontarans had released poison gas from every car fitted with their ATMOS device. Donna Noble's grandfather, Wilfred Mott, was trapped in one of those cars and suffocating on the gas while the Doctor and Donna looked on in horror as every car on the street released deadly clouds of smoke. And now, part two...

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(S04E05) Yet another classic Doctor Who villain gets an update. This time it's the Sontarans in their first television appearance in 23 years.

For a revision, it's actually pretty accurate to the original series. The only difference with the Sontarans now is that they're all short. This is actually an improvement on the original series since they've always been from a heavy gravity world yet appeared at normal size (which always struck me as a little odd, unless the Sontarans we've seen historically were the professional wrestler versions).

(S04E04) The Ood return.The race was seen two years ago in the two-parter "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit" as a servant race. In this episode, we learn exactly why they're so good at being servile. Here's a hint: it's not by choice.

Arriving on the planet known as the Ood-Sphere in the year 4126, the Doctor and Donna find the planet's Ood-production factory which prepares them for shipping throughout the three human-occupied galaxies.

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(S04E03) The Doctor and Donna land in ancient Pompeii, and it's Volcano Day (a phrase used by Christopher Eccleston a few seasons ago to describe when Mount Vesuvius erupted). As usual with Doctor Who, a race of aliens are involved and this time they're called the Pyrovile. They are trying to harness the power of the volcano for their own nefarious needs and are turning local humans into creatures like them as a side-effect.

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(S04E02) Catherine Tate returns as Donna Noble from last year's Christmas Special "The Runaway Bride" and this time she's going to stick around for a little while. While investigating a shady weight-loss company called Adipose (named for the scientific name of fat tissue), the Doctor and Donna run into each other.

For a Doctor Who episode, this was a great episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures. This goes back to my statement from last week in which Russell T. Davies, while not a bad writer, simply cannot write science fiction.

In the No Duh News category, Sci Fi Channel has reported that they've acquired the fourth series (or season) of Doctor Who for air beginning in April. What's great additional news is that they've also picked up The Sarah Jane Adventures as well. The latter series focuses on Elisabeth Sladen's Sarah Jane, one of the most popular and famous "companions" in Who History, as she battles to keep Britain and the world save from alien encounters and invasions.

Sarah Jane is aided by a small group of children in her quest. And while the series has a lower budget than Who and is geared more towards a children's audience, I still found it to be tremendously fun. And any opportunity to see K-9 is worth it in my book!

Please note that the title was meant to be said in a very sleazy voice, stretching out the word "ladies" to "lay-deez" accompanied by an inappropriate waggle of the eyebrows. Now that the finale of Doctor Who has aired, loads of news regarding the upcoming Christmas special and fourth series has started coming in and all that news is about the ladies (again: "lay-deez").

First off, it has been announced that music super-star Kylie Minogue will be the Christmas special companion. The only film I have seen her in is Moulin Rouge!, but I don't think the Green Fairy's giggling and playful rump-shaking is enough to create a fair appraisal. But judging by Kylie's overall fabulousness, I think she'll do a pretty good job in "Voyage of the Damned" special. There's two more bits of casting news I've included after the jump, but they include spoilers from the series three finale! Don't keep reading unless you've seen it already! You have been warned! Exclamation mark!

[SPOILERS AHEAD]