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"Doctor Who" The Poison Sky (2008)



IMDb Holiday Movie Guide

Overview

User Rating:
7.6/10   418 votes
Director:
Writers:
Helen Raynor (written by)
Robert Holmes (character: "The Sontarans")
Contact:
View company contact information for The Poison Sky on IMDbPro.
TV Series:
Original Air Date:
3 May 2008 (Season 4, Episode 5)
Genre:
Plot:
With planet Earth choking under the poison sky, the Doctor must stop the Sontarans' threat to the planet. | full synopsis
Plot Keywords:
User Comments:
It's the scale of it more (4 total)

Cast

  (Episode Cast overview, first billed only)
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Additional Details

Runtime:
45 min (50 episodes)
Certification:
UK:PG (DVD rating)
Company:

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
When preparing for the nuclear strike, all countries with known nuclear capabilities check in, except for Russia. The very last to check in is North Korea, of which it is disputed they have nuclear weapons, at which point the Colonel looks very surprised. more
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes: At the beginning of the episode, Donna's mom smashes the front window of their car. However, car's windows are triplexes: 2 layers of glass, glued to a single layer of plastic, so they don't simply collapse, as shown. (The whole point is to prevent the crash and minimize injury from glass cuts.) more
Quotes:
[looking at the Sontaran Clone version of herself]
Martha Jones: Oh, my God. That's me!
more
Movie Connections:
Features "Tommy Zoom" (2007) more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
12 out of 17 people found the following comment useful.
It's the scale of it, 3 May 2008
Author: AdnanZ

"It's the scale of it". This quote from Wilf, who is fast becoming my favorite character of the new series who isn't an alien who hops around time and space in a police phone box, perfectly describes my problem with this episode and with much of the new series. Perhaps for lack of a budget, the classic episodes rarely if ever dared set up a catastrophe on this scale. I really hate the idea of humanity being threatened every couple of weeks while the Doctor saves them. It's better if he's stopping plans that are being laid early or something of the sort. It's like the Pertwee era on steroids or something. At least the aliens didn't hover over London with nobody noticing them again.

However, there was much to love in "The Poison Sky" with the Sontarans getting their butts kicked, more Wilf action (the only reason I'll be in favor of more Earth stories this season is seeing Bernard Cribbins in the role again), and some fine action scenes and special effects.

The best part of the episode though, was what some would term 'fanwank' and those were the references. They weren't too obvious, after all, why WOULDN'T the Doctor mention the Brigadier?! (Stranded in Peru? Could we be seeing the return of the Brigadier sometime?) The rest of the references were pretty funny too, in particular "Are you my mummy?" If you didn't laugh at that you're either not a fan or you just don't have a sense of humor.

I liked this episode quite a bit, and this story as a whole. It is definitely the weakest Sontaran story but the competition is strong so I'm not complaining. Good stuff, just wish we could have fewer stories where the entire universe is in peril (just Earth, eh? Still too big a scale).

7/10

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