Doctor Who is back with a bang. Well or so we hoped? It’s a nice enough story with some wonderful acting from Catherine Tate who seems to have “grown up” since we last saw her in “The Runaway Bride” and she surely is one of the best characters in the whole story. The scenes with Donna & her grandfather “Wilfred Mott” (who is played by the charismatic, full of life, Bernard Cribbins are charming and delightful.

David Tennant returns as the Doctor once again. David effortlessly returns as the Doctor, full of the energy and ready to fight more intergalactic monsters. He might have to wait a while because the only slightly scary monster in this story is Miss Foster, played by the delightful Sarah Lancashire. Miss Foster, equipped with her own sonic pen nicely fits the bill as the villain of the story if not a bit downplayed. As “FUN” as it must be to watch intergalactic nannies do their work it just seems her character is a bit of a joke really.

There are some funny moments in the story. The fact that the Doctor and Donna miss seeing each other a dozen or so times despite being practically in the same area. What really makes the story funny is how Russell T Davies parodied the idea of how concerned Britain is with British people being obese and how people would more or less do anything to lose weight easily and without changing their lifestyle. Slim fast anyone?

The Yeti in “The Abominable Snowmen” was accused of looking too cute. So, in “the Web Of Fear” the next story with the yeti, they are spiced up a bit and looked 10x more scary. However, the aliens in our story aren’t monsters like the Yeti and as hard as you try you can’t help but want to cuddle one just like the Yeti’s. The Adipose (named after a scientific name for body fat). The moments were the Adipose suck all of the fat out of that poor fat woman could have been 10x more scary.

The adipose were never that much of a threat, and the scenes with thousands of Adipose walking around the streets of London is no “Cybermen walking down St Paul Cathedral moment”.

The moment with Rose wasn’t expected and that was a nice added scene.

The story is incredibly downplayed and way too safe. We get our cheap thrills, but where is the behind the sofa action we come to expect from Doctor Who? Do we really need to watch fat people squirming on the floor, pretending to be eaten alive by the adipose to learn a lesson? I think not. However, you can certainly point out Russell’s many influences ranging from Close Encounters of the Third Kind to Mary Poppins. A weird range none the less.

If Russell took this story a little more seriously then it could have been barrels of fun. For lightweight Doctor Who it certainly fits the bill.

Welcome aboard Catherine Tate.

3/5

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