The Long Game (21 Apr. 2006)

The Doctor and Rose arrive in the year 200,000 to see The Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. But something has gone wrong - someone is holding back the development of mankind. Who could have done this? And why?

Director:

Brian Grant

Writer:

Russell T. Davies

Stars:

Christopher Eccleston, Billie Piper, Bruno Langley

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Christopher Eccleston	...	Doctor Who
Billie Piper	...	Rose Tyler
Bruno Langley	...	Adam Mitchell
Colin Prockter	...	Head Chef
Christine Adams	...	Cathica
Anna Maxwell Martin	...	Suki (as Anna Maxwell-Martin)
Simon Pegg	...	The Editor
Tamsin Greig	...	Nurse
Judy Holt	...	Adam's Mum

Storyline

The Doctor, Rose and Adam travel 200,000 years into the future and land on Satellite 5, a space station orbiting the Earth. From the moment they arrive, the Doctor feels that something is wrong but he can't quite put his finger on it. Satellite 5 provides 600 channels of news and information to everyone on Earth and the crew, all humans, have a chip implanted in them allowing their brains to work as computers. As they explore the station, the travelers learn of the mysterious Level 500 that some of them are promoted to but are never seen again. The Doctor and Rose go to that mysterious level to find out just who - or what - is up there. Adam meanwhile tries to access the computer banks with the view to taking advanced knowledge back to present day Earth.

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Plot Keywords:

journalist | fantasy episode

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Family | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 April 2006 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

BBC Wales, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

45 min 45 min (50 episodes)

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Time travel is like visiting Paris. The last time The Doctor was seen visiting Paris was in the fourth Doctor episode City of Death where he also fought against an alien playing a long game, this one over 400 million years, the similarly named but unrelated Jagaroth.

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Quotes

[first lines]
The Doctor: So, it's two-hundred thousand, it's a spaceship - no, wait a minute - space station, and, er... go and try that gate over there. Off you go.

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Connections

Featured in Doctor Who: Bad Wolf (2005)

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Soundtracks

"Doctor Who Theme"
(uncredited)
Written by Ron Grainer
Arranged by Murray Gold
Performed by BBC National Orchestra of Wales

User Reviews

The Long Yawn

Without doubt this is the weakest story of the first season of the DOCTOR WHO relaunch and it's all down to writer/executive producer . Like most episodes written by RTD it has a very good opening hook and a very good closing sequence but in between we have a fairly bad structured and paced story where nothing much happens

The opening revolves around new companion Adam experiencing his first trip into space with humorous results and it's at this point the audience are left rubbing their chins thinking hey this guy might be a really good addition to the Tardis crew but unfortunately as the story progresses it becomes obvious that he's only included to take up some running time and to set up a joke at the end . Likewise the inclusion of both Simon Pegg and Tamsin Grieg seems more like gimmick casting in order to make the episode more memorable than it really is and there's no way you'll believe this story was part of the Bad Wolf running theme . As always Ecclestone's performance as possibly the most callous incarnation of The Doctor is fantastic