The seventh episode of series one is quite an odd little number in my opinion. It is the first episode in this revived series which has a bland feel of normality to its presence. It feels as though it is nothing more than a filler episode; merely existing to help move the series through its thirteen episode run. The episodes preceding never had this feel of normality attached to them. Episodes one to three introduced audiences to how Doctor Who functions in past, present and future spaces; episodes four and five introduced the two part story structure; and episode six reintroduced the Daleks to the 21st century.
To have an episode that feels like business as usual is not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to television programs. Most of the time they work just fine and help to move things along. Yet I really cannot help but look at this episode with negative eyes. I loved the event feel of the first six episodes and I wanted this theme to remain throughout the entirety of series one; but it doesn't and for that reason The Long Game turns out to be one of my least favorite episodes of New Who.
Strangely enough, however, there is more going on in this episode than is apparent upon its first viewing. It exists as a form of exposition for the series one final; setting up a space in Doctor Who that will ultimately become the platform for episodes twelve and thirteen. Likewise, the episode is also a catalyst for the final. The Doctor's reaction to the events of this story ultimately go on to initiate the series final battle. Here, the acts of the ninth Doctor are sowing the seeds of his own doom. This is a fantastic idea and I really should applaud Davies for making this move, yet I just can't bring myself to do so. The episode may work in order expand the world surrounding the grand series final, as well as helping to give it more of an emotional punch, however the whole story does not possess any value as a separate piece. Yes, it will create more of an emotional punch several episodes down the line, but here it serves as a dull filler story that lacks the excitement which was easily found in earlier stories.
Despite the uneventful nature of this episode, however, the story is huge in its scale. The story is set in the year 200,000 during the fifth great and bountiful human empire; making this one of the biggest story spaces that has been used in the revived series. But this is where the main problem stems when it comes to this episode. It's a huge, vibrant idea that is crammed with potential to tell a massive story, yet none of that potential is utilized. The episode is set in a small, contained space where viewers are never allowed to learn about the rules and cultures of this vast, intergalactic human society. Instead we just get a story about some mysterious floor that packages and manipulates humanities news broadcasts. This self contained space may have worked well in Davies' similarly sized Aliens of London/World War Three story, yet here it just makes the whole episode come across as a great big waste of potential (plus the fact that it only has 45 minutes to tell the story causes even more problems for such a massive story platform).
There could very well be a reason why this episode has a far bigger space than its 45 minute run required, however. Davies actually wrote this episode many years prior to his involvement in the show and actually pitched the idea for this story to Doctor Who producers during the 1980s. As we know, the format of the show during the classic era was much different to what it is today. Episodes were told over a number of weekly stories, twenty-five minutes in length. Run times for each story could sometimes cover over three long hours of television; spaced out over multiple episodes. If Davies initially wrote this story with that sort of a format in mind, then it makes perfect sense as to why he would sketch out a space of this size. This episode would have worked perfectly with a longer run time to play with and Davies would have been able to explore more aspects of this universe than he was able to do in a self contained 45 minute piece.
The episode was rejected by producers in the 1980s and instead of leaving the script on the shelf, Davies has used his position as show runner in 2005 to bring it to life. I honestly think that if this episode was made during the show's classic era, then it could have worked brilliantly, however it is an episode that does not work with the 2005 format. Yet when I say 'work' I don't mean that in the sense that the episode fails to run in a coherent manner. In fact the episode's narrative runs along quite smoothly in this episode; successfully sporting a beginning, middle and end. What I mean by the term 'work' is in terms of the story's quality. This is an episode which sits amongst the below average mark; failing to be anything that is remotely special.
So what is actually wrong with this story? Well it's just quite a bland and overused idea. The whole point of the episode is the idea that in a futuristic society, the media is used as a device that serves to manipulate and influence its viewers for its own gain. It's an attempt to explore a satirical theme that has been explored by countless authors before this episode's existence.
But maybe I am being too harsh on this episode, because it really isn't a terrible one. It works just fine and gets from point A to point B without any trouble. The problem is that I just find it a dull episode. It ticks all the right boxes, but it doesn't tick any boxes which I would like it to tick. Average episodes are not a bad thing, but then I am a spoiled brat who wanted this series of Doctor Who to be above average week after week (a want that no show can ever truly deliver).
The Long Game does actually explore another idea other than the media plot, and is an idea that apparently existed within the original 1980 script. I'm referring to the failed companion concept that exists within this story. During the previous episode, the Doctor and Rose allowed Adam Mitchell - a boy genius from the year 2012 - to accompany them on their travels. For one episode only, he becomes a transient companion for the series. In this episode, it transpires that Adam is not cut out for space/time travel. Not only does he react negatively to the reality of what is happening around him, but he also decides to exploit his access to time and space by stealing future knowledge and sending it back to the past. He essentially become selfish; using time travel for his own personal gains.
The idea is nice, but it is not utilized to its fullest potential. Firstly, the role of Adam could have played a far bigger part in this episode. It would have been quite nice to see Adam's naivety exploited by a villainous character. There were so many ways that Davies could have used this failed-companion role to tell a real tragedy of a story. Adam could have fallen in with the wrong crowed, throwing him into the role of a companion-turned-villain. They could have even drafted out a story where the realities of time travel could have driven him insane. Davies is great at character development and I'm confident that he really could have made a narrative like this work a treat. Instead we just had some kid who wanted to take advantage of the information that the world of tomorrow possessed.
Secondly, the Doctor's reaction to Adam's sub-plot is just down right...odd. He gets angry at Adam's actions and sends him back to his own time period. At this point, the Doctor becomes something of a hypocrite. I say this because during the events of the story, Adam has a computer device installed into his head which allows him to download knowledge and information into his brain. At the (literal) click of a finger, the device activates and a door in the front of his head slides open, revealing a piece of his brain. If the Doctor is so furious that Adam's attempts to take information back to the year 2012 could rewrite all of history, then why is he fine with dumping a human back there who has a magic door slapped on the front of his forehead? Surely the fact that the Doctor takes him back to his present time period makes the past just as vulnerable to change as Adam's own actions were.
Furthermore, the Doctor is angry mainly because Adam has used time travel for his own personal gain. Who wouldn't do this? I'm pretty certain that most humans would exploit time travel if they were ever granted access to such a privilege. Additionally, surely it's the Doctor's fault that all of this has happened in the first place. The Doctor was the one who took Adam 200,000 years into his future, which makes him the one who is responsible for Adam's selfish actions. The Doctor's dumping of Adam feels more like he is pushing all of the blame onto Adam; washing his hands of the whole affair in the process.
To make things even more unusual, the very next episode revolves around Rose well... using time travel for her own personal gain. It's strange that episode seven ends with the show confirming that selfish time traveling is the work of a bad companion in the making, only to start episode eight with Rose committing the very same act. Why is the Doctor happy to abandon Adam in his present time period, yet he's happy to let Rose continue traveling with him after her own timey wimey fuck up? I guess it makes sense, seeing that Rose and the Doctor have a stronger relationship than the Doctor does with transient companions, yet the fact that both of these plots take place right next to one another burdens the ninth Doctor's character with a stale aroma of hypocrisy.
But what the heck, I am being incredibly bias to this episode. I just didn't really enjoy it all that much. The story was bland, the episode felt like a dull filler piece and Adam Mitchell was an incredible waste of a character. I'm probably being horribly unfair on the whole story, but I just can't help myself from feeling this way.
This one just wasn't my cup of tea. But that doesn't really matter, as the next episode really does raise the bar in terms of quality.
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