Don't forget the first Doctor had a granddaughter, and a bit of a romance in The Aztecs.

Nobody to comment on the Cybermen?

Far too much set-up in this episode! After seeing part two of the "mummy" episode the day before, two of the series cliffhangers have come from "the doctor is surrounded". I can't remember exactly how "Bad Wolf" ended though.

I don't agree, I liked the slower story telling, it reminded me of a classic Doctor Who story but with better special effects.

You can tell a good Doctor Who story in 45 minutes, but not a classic one.

End of "Aliens of London" -- Doctor is zapped, everybody else is surrounded.
End of "The Empty Child" -- everybody is surrounded
End of "Bad Wolf" -- Rose is surrounded
End of "Rise of the Cybermen" -- everybody is surrounded

I thought "Rise of the Cybermen" was okay, but a big step down from last week's episode. I've never been that big a fan of the Cybermen, as I consider them "Daleks with legs". This could have been turned into a Dalek story, just rename the villain to "Davros" and do a find/replace to turn "Delete" into "Exterminate."

I guess I was being generous with stating only two of them.

I also had a serious Davros vibe with that Cybus guy.

The Tyler stuff was unnecessary- we get it! Rose misses her dad! The heavy was too over-the-top for me to really believe. I liked the scene between Mickey and his grandmother though. It gave that character something other to do besides whine and pine.

I thought the Cybermen were pretty cool. I think I might like them better than the Daleks.

I like the Cybermen redesign. Still clunky but in a good retro way. Didnt like the parallel universe idea, simply because it gave us two Mickeys and Rose whining about her dad- again.

The episode was pretty sloppy in spots, just generally, from some of the drama, to the action, and transitions. I think that applies to most of the episodes. I dont know what their schedule is like, but I really think they would benefit from focusing on more rewrites and/or a better editing crew.

Well....... I didn't like it.

The writing seemed sloppy compared to the recent episodes, and there was way too much cheese. Also didn't like the stuff about Rose wanting to meet with her "parents".... that area's been drilled, there's no need to go there again. This seemed like Patrick Troughton's "The Invasion", but with a silly plot...

So far this season, this is how I think of the stories:

1) Girl in the Fireplace
2) School Reunion
3) Tooth and Claw
4) New Earth
5) Rise of the Cybermen
6) Christmas Invasion

I've been so busy at work that I haven't been able to watch the last two episodes. Kills me but once I get the time, I've got a lot of Who to get through.

I really enjoyed it. Good episode, loved the alternate universe and nice fleshing out of Mickey....finally.

Enjoyed the latest episode ROTC and like the new cybermen. The trouble, for me, that stopped this being an excellent episode was



So for me I'd rate this about a 7/10. The best episodes for me this season, so far being SR and TGITF (both about 9/10), then ROTC, then TAC (6.5/10), finally NE (which was a very average 5/10 IMHO).

Well, the Doctor gets out of the cliffhanger a little too easily/quickly this week.

I'm torn on Mickey's departure. One the one hand, it will hopefully mean less Rose-centered earth storylines, on the other he was no longer an idiot.

Agree the cliff hanger resolved too simply with just the convienently available device with previously unstated capabilities. Similar to the cheat at the end of Aliens of London where the Doctor just says "nope not going to affect me because I'm an alien".

But overall a great episode. love the bit where the Doctor gives Mickey the instructions as if to "some idiot". The emphasis on idiot there serves to highlight the change in the character over his arc from Rose to Age of Steel.

Yeah, but it still beats "Go to your room!"

I enjoyed the episode though not as much s the first part.
Not really all that sad to see Mickey go though it is sad that they fleshed him out and then got rid of him.

Those male companions just don't last long do they? That's three now.

Just watched The Idiot's Lantern and aside from production design and a few other technical elements I found it very disappointing. It seems like the writer had a good idea, but never bothered to flesh it out. The ending/resolution was probably the most disappointing. From the moment Rose is transformed you know it's going to be reversable, but they don't even bother explaining it. The Doctor just builds a Deus Ex machine to defeat the bad guy, has a frantic, nonsensical battle and auto-magically everyone is cured. Easily my least favorite episode of the new season.

Next week looks very promising though.

Definitely not without flaws, The Idiot's Lantern was still very enjoyable. I liked the design (including the overall look of the episode, the doc's hairstyle), the music, and the villain. Don't know about you guys, but I found it pretty spooky having a woman in a black and white TV set talk to me. Pretty good buildup leading to revealing what happened to the "grandmother" as well... lot of suspense there where the family keeps everything hushed up and we're led to believe there's "a monster in the attic" kind of thing.

Yes, the resolution needed a bit of tuning up, but overall, I quite liked it. Found it quite refreshing and original. I know a lot of people over at OG aren't fond of it either, but for now, until I revisit this episode again, I'll rate it as follows:

1) Girl in the Fireplace
2) School Reunion
3) Tooth and Claw
4) The Idiot's Lantern
5) Age of Steel
6) New Earth
7) Rise of the Cybermen
8) Christmas Invasion

here's how I would rate the stories so far...

1 - Tooth and Claw 10/10
2 - School Reunion 10/10
3 - Rise of the Cybermen & Age of Steel 9.5/10
4 - Girl in the Fireplace 8/10
5 - The Idiot's Lantern 7/10
6 - Christmas Invasion 7/10
7 - New Earth 6/10

I have to count Rise/Age as a single story of two parts

I thought Lantern was a fun story and very enjoyable... not an all time classic, but a nice short story in between two double episode adventures.

They did a good job of presenting a dull story, but that didn't change the fact it was dull.

To me, the season so far has built to the high points of "School Reunion" and "The Girl in the Fireplace" and has been downhill since then. Apparently, I need more Moffat scripts.

I liked "The Idiot's Lantern" quite a bit, certainly moreso than the Cyberman two-parter. Interesting villain, fun backdrop, and Rose looked great!

What was interesting about the baddie? A mediocre talking head actress hamming it up on a tv screen?

I agree, Rose did look great in the episode. I far prefer her without a face.

Have to say that one of the things I absolutely love about the new series is the DIVERSITY of stories.... there's always something for everyone. While the Cybermen two-parter wasn't my cup of tea, I know others adore it, etc... Got to be satisfied about that.

not only the new series, but the old one too... thats what I love about Doctor Who the best, the stories are so different from one to the next, yet it's the same show. not just being able to go anywhere in time and space, but one story might be very scary, dark and gothic and the next story might be almost played like a comedy.

speaking of the classic series... Genesis of the Daleks (4th Doctor) and Revelation of the Daleks (6th Doctor) comes out on DVD next Tuesday!

I liked the episode. Not great but better than New earth by a long shot.
Nice to see the Doctor Dress up occsionally as well. I dont think he changed much from his usualy outfit in the old series.

And some of those times you had to wish he hadn't. I'm thinking here of Green Death where Jon Pertwee dresses as a Cleaning Lady.

For those who know British Pantomine it was done exactly the way you'd expect Widow Twankee to look (she's always played by a male actor) and IMHO lowered the tone of an otherwise excellent story.

There are other more meaningful examples, the Doctor often had to change costumes to put on Spacesuits and the like. Peter Davison looked nifty in a nice yellow number as I recall.