Doctor Who Season 3 Review

Trailer courtesy of Gallifreyforever97

Episode Guide

The Runaway Bride
Smith & Jones
The Shakespeare Code
Gridlock
Daleks In Manhattan
Evolution Of The Daleks
The Lazarus Experiment
42
Human Nature
Family Of Blood
Blink
Utopia
The Sound Of Drums
Last Of The Time Lords

Fresh off the shadow of Season 2 and its incredible finale, Season 3 takes a while to get going and its two halves of the season juxtapose one another. The first half is slow moving, awkward and Martha takes a while to warm to. The second half however, changes the season on its head and is leagues ahead with some great episodes.

The story continues on from the previous series with The Doctor a broken shell of a man after his depature from Rose. He eventually meets up with Martha Jones (Freeman Agyeman), a confident, independent woman in the surface who quickly falls for the Doctor. A questionable way of introducing the character, half the season sees her chasing him for her affection and it quickly grows tiresome. When she becomes less dependant on the Doctor is when she really shines and her turning point is during ‘Family Of Blood’ where her performance solidifies her as a good companion. However, her character just doesn’t have the same spark that Tennant and Piper had and she spends most of her time living in the shadow of the previous companion.

As mentioned before, Season 3 is a season of two halves. The first, woeful by Doctor Who standards and although some of the stories have some good creature design and individual stories, Martha’s character takes too long to establish herself and her love for the Doctor is too similiar to that shown by Rose and as such, she doesn’t differentiate herself enough.

The stories from the halfway point though are brilliant. Freeman is finally given some room to flex her acting skills in her role and her character is fleshed out. Its during these episodes that her and the Doctor finally begin to gel and the latter episodes are brilliant. “42” is a nod towards the Satan episode in series 2 with a clever twist on the same plot.

Following that, is the two-parter that follows. It’s here that the series really kicks into another gear altogether with “Human Nature” and “Family Of Blood” some of the best episodes of the series. The stand out though is most definitely “Blink”. Every now and then an episode comes along, highly regarded as one of the best in a show’s history, “Blink” feels like that episode. The writing is nothing short of genius and the monster design is so clever its terrifying in its own right. Here, the Doctor takes a back-seat as a different protagonist goes on a race against time to save the Doctor amidst the horrors of the weeping angels. If anything is remembered from this season it will be this episode.

There’s no denying that the finale here doesn’t quite match up to that of Season 2 but for the first time since the show’s return, we see a 3 parter with the return of another old foe. Of course, I won’t give anything away but its a nice nod to classic Who and a great storyline.

To summarise, Season 3 feels like a hangover for the first half of the season, unable to shake the cobwebs of the brilliant Season 2 and bring a new companion in with a fresh perspective. The second half however, is far better with some great episodes and an explosive finale that looks promising for Season 4 with a new companion and new story lines.