Who Review: The Idiot's Lantern

I've been putting off this one for quite a while, mostly because to me it represents the nadir of Season 2/28. Note that I said "nadir." Not "the worst," because it's not. That dishonor goes to "Love and Monsters" and/or "Fear Her." I mean "nadir." See, I'm looking forward to "Love and Monsters" and "Fear Her" because those are so horribly bad. "The Idiot's Lantern" is just kind of dull. The constant tilted camera angles are incredibly annoying, the "television will rot your brain" shtick being sold on TV was a gimmick that worked last year in "The Long Game," but not so much this year. It's old. We've seen it.

So let's start. Rose should never say "Daddy-o." Ever. The Doctor riding around on a motorbike is funny, but that annoying Camera-tiltiness doesn't let us properly enjoy it. They're done just for the hell of it. They're just about acceptable to demonstrate that something is off, but we don't even have that here. Euros Lyn is better than this; that he ever got the change to prove it, though, boggles the mind.

The goofy camera angles continue as we go to the House of the Family We'll Follow This Time. And then they're still goofy when things get creepy.

The Doctor's nicely on form, going on about how nice 1953 is; we're going to see more of this from Tennant in later, better seasons.

There is a very slow chase full of tilted cameras, and then we go to the villan's lair, which is also full of tilted cameras. Except, hilariously, when the camera is right behind the television. Are we supposed to be seeing the alien's world as the norm and everything else as twisted and distorted? Because if so, we can dispense with the Family We'll Follow This Time, with the rediculously stereotypical abusive father and everything else. "I AM TALKING!!!!" It's fairly annoying when the Doctor bullies him, and it's even more so when Rose does it. Did Mark Gatiss have daddy issues? And frankly, the kid's surprisingly helpful: if my father was that much of a jackass, I guarantee I'd be introverted to the tenth degree.

So the Doctor tails the government guys to their super-secret hideout (apparently this is Stalin's Russia after all) and discovers a horde of faceless ones. Meanwhile Rose actually does some decent detective work for once, but she doesn't immediately go into panic mode when Magpie locks her in. You'd think she'd know better by now: the last time she wandered off, she got possessed!

The Doctor meets Faceless!Rose and goes berserk; it's our first glimpse of the darker version of Ten, a version some sections of fandom have started calling The Time Lord Victorious.

Anyway, there's a plot resolution that involves a giant transmitter, bringing to mind both "Rose" and Logopolis while being quite as entertaining as neither. And then at the end, the Doctor sends Tommy off with his abusive father. Um, right. Ooops, actually Rose does. (Fair enough, given her daddy issues.)

5 out of 10. This is bland, generic Doctor Who with silly camera angles and a dull B-plot.