Who Review: Bad Wolf

Returning from the hatchery on Raxacoricofallapatorius (see “Boom Town”), the Doctor, Rose, and Jack are mysteriously teleported out of the TARDIS. The powerful beam renders them unconscious, and when they wake, they find themselves in some kind of TV hell. The Doctor appears to be in a futuristic version of the popular reality show, “Big Brother.” Rose is playing “The Weakest Link” game show, and two female androids are giving Captain Jack a style make-over in a version of “What Not to Wear.” But these games have a sinister edge: losers are disintegrated. When the Doctor figures out what’s going on, he gets himself evicted. As he expected, he isn’t killed. Whoever is running the shows wants him alive. He escapes and goes looking for Rose and Jack. But the station he’s in seems familiar. It’s Satellite Five, the station whose downfall he brought about 100 years ago (see “The Long Game”). Back then, the Earth was a thriving empire; now the planet’s inhabitants spend their time watching television, afraid to leave their houses. All this time, something has been controlling the destiny of Earth. Something that currently has Rose, and ultimately wants the Doctor. They’ve been playing a long game, and now it’s time for revenge.

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!

The penultimate episode of the season is the first of a two-part story that connects some dots from earlier episodes, and completes the “Bad Wolf” story arc. Those words have been following the Doctor and Rose since the second story, and now they find themselves back on Satellite Five, which is now run by the Bad Wolf Corporation. We must be about to find out what it means… but not quite yet. That’ll come in the finale.

It seems episode writer and show-runner Russell T. Davies had been wanting to do a “game shows gone mad” story from early on in the planning of this Who re-boot. Now he gets his dream-come-true. The shows featured in this episode were all very popular in the UK at the time “Bad Wolf” broadcast. Davies was particularly pleased that the original hosts of the shows agreed to voice their robot counterparts (Davina McCall plays the Davinadroid for “Big Brother,” Anne Robinson is the Anne Droid for “The Weakest Link,” and Trinny Woodall and Susanna Constantine play Trinn-e and Zu Zanna in “What Not to Wear”).

One interesting theme this story toys with is that of consequences. Usually, the Doctor arrives somewhere, fixes the problem, then moves on. Rarely does he return to see how everything turned out. I can only think of two Classic Who stories where the Doctor has had to deal with the consequences of his actions (“The Ark” and “The Face of Evil”). Now he’s confronted with the effects of bringing down the Mighty Jagrafess and the Satellite Five station 100 years before. The Doctor thought the human race was being stifled by the Satellite’s constant flow of information, with no-one analyzing and asking questions. But that’s nothing compared to what’s happened to humanity now. Lost without the Satellite, people have retreated to their homes and accepted the relentless stream of game shows and reality television piped to them by the new occupants of the Satellite. As the Doctor rightly says, “I created all this!” But the Doctor can’t take all the credit. After all, he and the whole human race are being manipulated. Whoever is working behind the scenes has been playing a long game (hence the reason why the initial Satellite Five episode was called “The Long Game”), and they’re getting ready to make their final move.

In the closing minutes of the episode, the antagonists are revealed: hundreds of Dalek ships swarming around the satellite, and hundreds of Daleks in each one. This is the kind of effects shot Whovians have been craving for a long time. Previously, the only way you could get that many Daleks in one place at one time was to use little models (see, for example, the final episode of “Planet of the Daleks”). Modern CGI, however, can give us hundreds and hundreds of fully operational, realistic-looking Daleks. One of the best moments of the New Series.

Subtle (and not-so-subtle) clues to the antagonists’ identity were dropped throughout the episode. When Jack and the Doctor are captured, they are sentenced to serve time on the lunar penal colony. The last time that was mentioned was in the Third Doctor story, “Frontier in Space,” which was part of the story arc culminating in “Planet of the Daleks.” Also, the Controller, who seems to be hooked to some kind of frame by lots of wires, looks a bit like the Emperor Dalek from the Second Doctor story, “Evil of the Daleks.”

We also get a name-drop that will be relevant next season. Anne Droid asks one of the contestants, “The Great Cobolt Pyramid is built on the remains of which famous old Earth institute?” The correct answer: “Torchwood.”

There are a number of gag lines and humorous elements (including some innuendo from Jack, though we’ve come to expect that of him) in this episode, which is understandable given the premise. In a way, knowing the drama to come, “Bad Wolf” serves as some light relief before the darkness. Not classic, “Must-See” Who, but good Who, and a great cliff hanger, leaving you on the edge of your seat for the finale.