Who Review: The Long Game
It’s the year 200,000, and Satellite 5 is the news hub for the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. From Floor 139, the Doctor, Rose, and Adam look out over the Earth as it receives all its information from the floors above them. The Doctor encourages Adam to explore, but a couple of things trouble him. First, the fact it’s so warm. Second, there are no aliens. Everyone is human. And then there’s the fact that the three of them are the only ones asking questions. Even the so-called “journalists” don’t seem to care. From this he figures that human progress has been stunted by about 100 years. Then one of their new journalist friends, Suki, gets promoted to the coveted Floor 500. Her friend, Cathica, is jealous. They say the walls of Floor 500 are made of gold. It’s the opportunity to advance. At least so they say; no-one has ever actually returned from Floor 500 to confirm the stories. This makes the Doctor and Rose all the more curious to find out what goes on in the corridors of power. The Doctor’s concerns are justified when he meets the boss. And his problems are intensified when Adam’s thirst for knowledge leads him into trouble…
SPOILER ALERT!! My comments may (and likely will) contain spoilers for those that haven’t seen the episode. If you want to stay spoiler-free, please watch the story before you continue reading!
It seems “The Long Game” started life as a script Russell T. Davies submitted to the Doctor Who office at the BBC back in the 1980s. Clearly it wasn’t made (or you would have seen a review for it before now), but now he’s show-runner and head writer, he has the power to give the story a chance. It’s a good story; not outstanding, but a good solid plot, with a nasty bad guy, a monster, and even a lesson about unchecked greed.
When the story opens, the Doctor gives Rose an opportunity to impress her new boyfriend by feeding her information about where and when they are. This underscores the purely platonic relationship between Rose and the Doctor. Best friends, and nothing more. Adam’s status as Rose’s flirt-interest is short lived, however, when he sees the Earth and faints. And it’s downhill from there for his character. Not only does he use Rose’s enhanced phone to try to send information about the future to his Mum’s answering machine, but he uses the Doctor’s credit bar to pay for the head-flap operation. This gives him access to the vast data store contained in Satellite 5. It also means his forehead has a built-in flap that opens when someone clicks their fingers. These flaps are used by the journalists so their brains can be used to process stories, which are then transmitted to Earth. They don’t actually retain any of the data.
Suki and Cathica are our connection to this world, a couple of ambitious journalists who think, at first, the Doctor works for the company and is testing them. Suki falls victim the the Editor on Floor 500. The Doctor invites Cathica to come with him and Rose to investigate what goes on upstairs, but she declines. She doesn’t want to get involved. However, her curiosity gets the better of her, and she ends up saving the day. Some people don’t like when the Doctor needs to be rescued, and I agree if it happens too often. But in stories like this, we see the Doctor as the one who inspires courage in others. He saw Cathica hiding from the Editor, and made sure she understood how to mess with the systems and bring down the Mighty Jagrafess–the Editor’s boss. No doubt seeing the Doctor and Rose putting themselves in danger to try to help encouraged her to act.
The Editor is ruthless and evil, but he is merely the servant of the creature on the ceiling, the Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe. (And how evil is RTD for coming up with a name like that for poor Simon Pegg to get his tongue around?!). The truth behind Satellite 5 is that it doesn’t merely report the news; it makes the news. Through its “reporting” it manipulates people and events on Earth, or rather the Jagrafess does the manipulating. But who owns this operation? All the Editor will say is that it’s a consortium of bankers. Some consider the fact no real motivation is given for why the Editor, the Jagrafess, and this “consortium,” want to control the human race to be a plot flaw. But to be fair, the story’s called “The Long Game” for a reason. And this is not the end of the game.
The Doctor and Rose managed to stay alive through their anonymity. They are not in the Satellite 5 system, so no-one knows who they are. That is, until Adam plugs himself in to satisfy his greed for knowledge, and his desire to be ahead back on Earth in 2012. With the information in his brain fed into the system, the Editor now knows all about the Doctor and Rose. Adam. the genius from the future, proves to be the worst kind of companion, and loses his spot in the TARDIS crew. “I only take the best,” the Doctor tells him. “And I’ve got Rose.” Yeah… but wait until the next episode… 🙂
In itself, “The Long Game” is good, but not Must-See. However, as part of the season story arc, without spoiling too much for those new to this season, you do kinda need to watch this story to get what happens later.
