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Series 4 Episode 5: “The Poison Sky” (Part 2 of 2)Broadcast on BBC1, Saturday May 3rd, 2008 As premiered ondanowen.blogspot.com
Series 4 Boxset:
Series 4 Part 1:
Series 3 Boxset:
Director:
- Douglas Mackinnon
(TV: The Sontaran Stratagem, The Poison Sky)
Screenplay:
- Helen Raynor
(TV: Daleks in Manhattan, Evolution of the Daleks, The Sontaran Stratagem, The Poison Sky)
Cast:
- The Doctor: David Tennant
Donna Noble: Catherine Tate
Martha Jones: Freema Agyeman
General Staal: Christopher Ryan
Colonel Mace: Rupert Holiday Evans
Commander Skorr: Dan Starkey
Wilfred Mott: Bernard Cribbins
Sylvia Noble: Jacqueline King
Jo Nakashima: Elenor Matsuura
Luke Rattigan: Ryan Sampson
Ross Jenkins: Christian Cooke
Prvt. Harris: Clive Standen
Prvt. Gray: Wesley Theobald
Female Student: Meryl Fernandes
Male Student: Leeshon Alexander
Captain Price: Bridget Hodson
Herself: Kirsty Wark
US Newsreader: Lachele Carl
Synopsis: With Earth’s skies poisoned, The Doctor tries to defeat the Sontarans, asMartha’s clone manipulates UNIT and Donna is transported to the Sontaranspaceship…
“This isn’t war! This is sport!”— Commander Skorr (Dan Starkey)
As second parts go, The Poison Sky made for an effective climax tolast week’s set-up, although it failed to make the subplot with Luke Rattigan(Ryan Sampson) develop into much. As an egotistical American childprodigy, his role in helping the Sontarans implement ATMOS in the world’scars was fine, but this episode’s attempt to give him a megalomaniacal agendaof his own (to repopulate Earth with his Academy’s students after “planetfall”?)just didnt work.
Fortunately, everything else about Helen Raynor’s script worked well, withsome crowd-pleasing moments and a good sense of mounting jeopardy. Followingon fromThe Sontaran Stratagem,the skies above Earth have been poisoned — although death only occurs in people when the atmosphere reaches 80% toxicity. Quite a flaw for genius Rattigan tohave made, but necessary to give The Doctor a fighting chance to revert thedamage, of course!
Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) has been cloned, and “Martha Clones” nowworks undercover as the Sontaran’s “operative”, curiously deactivating the world’snuclear arsenal despite the fact even The Doctor (David Tennant) knowsthe planet’s nukes wouldn’t dent the Sontaran ship! So quite why she bothersdoing any of this was very unclear, rendering Martha Clones’ role whollyunnecessary.
Donna (Catherine Tate) returns to help The Doctor after her Gramps(Bernard Cribbins) is saved from inside his poisoned car by hermother Sylvia (Jacqueline King) smashing the windscreen with an axe.Unfortunately, The Doctor seems to be treating Donna with kid gloves (unlikeRose and Martha), and orders her to hideout in the TARDIS where the gas can’treach. Soon after, Sontaran-controlled UNIT soldiers attach beacons to theTARDIS and General Staal (Christopher Ryan) is able to teleport theTARDIS aboard his ship relishing the capture of a Time Lord’s vessel (right).
The Doctor tries to prevent UNIT engaging the Sontarans in battle, even afterthey arrive at the ATMOS factory with Commander Skorr (Dan Starkey),as they can neutralize conventional weapons. Using a phone with a connectionto the TARDIS, he also has to talk Donna through disengaging the teleportationfield so he can rescue her and retrieve his TARDIS, while working out a wayto clear the skies of the ATMOS poison. Phew!
Despite some niggling problems (episodes are rarely cast-iron), The PoisonSky generally provides the thrills and spills you expect, and it’s alwaysa pleasure whenever a story has The Doctor at the centre of the action. He’sbeen quite passive this season (particularly in Partners In Crime andPlanet Of The Ood), so seeing him in the thick of things, plausiblythwarting the Sontaran plan is great fun. It was also nice to see his moralside come out, as he amusingly grumbles about guns again, and eventually decideson a suicide mission purely because it would give the Sontarans a choice intheir fate. How selfless is that? I know he has regenerations, but still.
In fact, the emphasis on The Doctor pushes both companions even further intothe background. The real Martha is absent until her inevitable rescue, theevil “Martha Clones” doesn’t have much baring on events, and Donna’s roleis once again relatively minor. Catherine Tate is getting more agreeable asthe weeks pass by, but does every episode have to involve her crying? It’sgetting a bit tiresome. Still, her reactions to events are being written morerealistically (loved how nervous and scared she was in the TARDIS aboard theSontaran ship) and she’s offering audiences something different with TheDoctor/companion dynamic.
And I must say that Donna’s Gramps is already my favourite companion familymember; someone with a twinkle in his eye who wants his granddaughter to grablife’s opportunities. Unlike Donna’s grumbling mother, nicely placed byJacqueline King. Rupert Holliday Evans didn’t have much to do in part 2 asColonel Mace, but Christopher Ryan was once again very memorable as GeneralStaal. It was just a pity his character remained stuck on his spaceship andonly got one brief scene with The Doctor. A missed opportunity for such agreat character, blessed with the perfect voice for cartoon villainy.
Overall, The Poison Sky marked the end of a two-part adventure that wasvery enjoyable, with enough incident and amusements to keep you glued. Itdidn’t fit together as snugly as it could have (with Rattigan quite pointless,Martha – right – wasted in part 2, and Donna underused throughout), but it was stillfar from boring and the sweep of the story pushed things along nicely.
Most impressively, it was a strong revival for the Sontarans, had some greatwriting for Tennant’s hyperactive Doctor, contained several exciting moments,and a few welcome in-jokes for old fans to grin at. I particularly liked thenod at the Brigadier’s existence (“stranded in Peru”), The Doctorwearing a gas-mask and quoting “are you my mummy?”(see The Empty Child),the return of the Valiant airborne aircraft carrier (seeLast Of The Time Lords)and a subliminal flash of Rose Tyler on the TARDIS view-screen. How curious…
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.