Gridlock

Ok, time to catch up a bit.

Two Saturday's ago the third episode of the third series of the current run of Doctor Who aired.

"Gridlock" saw the Doctor's return to New Earth, first introduced in the last series mighty lame first episode.

Unfortunately this episode wasn't much better.

Spoiler alert and what not.

Following the previous weeks rousing and fun adventure with Billy Shakes, The Doctor decides to take Martha on a trip into the future.

The episode starts off promising with some really good bits in the TARDIS about the destination, and Martha asking if they could go to the Doctor's home planet. Some angsty stuff that's fun for fans, and is all part of the setup for the rest of series three.

Then they land on New Earth and things get boring, and really go no where. Which, if you think about it, makes a strange kind of sense. The main bulk of this episode is all about a huge traffic jam. What could be more fun and exciting than that. It sure jumps to the top of the list of ideas for a fun filled action packed adventure to me! Not!



It turns out that somehow, and I'm not sure of the how or why, the planet's air is toxic or something. It wasn't explained to my satisfaction, maybe a repeat viewing will help? But anyway, people are all sent into this underground flying bus motorway travelling for years going nowhere, so that the Face of Boe can use his life giving gas to keep every one alive until the Doctor can arrive and save the day. Oh, and there are giant crab monsters underneath all the flying buses to add some sort of danger/suspense element.

The whole story makes no sense really. It was just lights and sounds in the background while the Doctor realizes that Martha is a person, and to stop pining after Rose. And as set up in the last two series, the Face of Boe gets to impart his final message to the Doctor. After it was established in the first series that the Doctor's homeworld was destroyed, and he was the last of the Timelords, most fans expected that Boe's last word's would be "You are not alone", so it was kind of anticlimactic when that is exactly what he said.



So in summary, there was about 10-15 minutes of interesting/fun show, and the rest was highly forgettable/boring/no purpose.

I hope we never return to New Earth, it is a boring/lame place.