Doctor Who: 1x07: "The Long Game"

DOCTOR WHO REWATCH: SERIES ONE, EPISODE SEVEN: “THE LONG GAME”

Doctor Who shows what sci-fi is made of with an episode long indictment of news corporations and the influence of big banks. 

Doctor Who: 1x07: “The Long Game” Written by Russell T Davis

The Summary:

The Doctor brings Rose and Adam to the year 200,000, the middle of the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire, onto a space station called Satellite Five, where the news for the entire empire is broadcast.  The Doctor helps Rose pretend to know way more than she actually does to impress Adam, and basically the entire episode is one adorable Doctor-Rose moment after another.  The Doctor quickly figures out that the empire is not nearly as great and bountiful as it’s supposed to be, and he quickly finds a couple of ambitious journalists to help him figure things out.  While Rose and the Doctor investigate, Adam plots with some very heavy handed foreshadowing.  The Editor figures out someone should not be on Satellite Five, and instead of immediately noticing the non-employees who are just sort of standing around, he discovers that Suki is actually Eva, a self-professed anarchist and freedom fighter.  He “promotes” Suki to the Floor 500 (the apparent executive level, that is actually where they murder the employees they promote and set them to work as super-computers).  Adam wanders off to be greedy to the point of stupidity, and the Doctor, Rose, and reluctantly Cathica investigate Floor 500 and why the empire is set-back so far.  They get their answers when the Editor realizes the Doctor and Rose don’t belong and brings them up to Floor 500.  The Editor, and by extension the entire civilization, work for the Jagrafess and its investors.  The Editor interrogates the Doctor and Rose while Cathica sneaks in and figures out how to stop the corruption of Satellite Five.  Meanwhile, Adam is an idiot and nearly gets them all killed by creating a temporal paradox because he lets the Editor get his hands on information on the TARDIS and the TARDIS key.  Cathica destroys the Jagrafess and Suki’s dead body holds the Editor down so he is killed as well.  The Doctor and Rose leave Cathica to get everything sorted and bring Adam back to his parents’ home in 2012 England.  This episode is the fifth instance of the Bad Wolf meme and the set-up for the meme’s arch.

The Women:

Rose Tyler, Cathica Santini Khadeni, Suki Mcrae Cantrell (Eva Saint Julienne)

The Conversations:

Plenty of conversations between women but none exclusively between women.

The Woman to Woman Quote of the Episode:

Nothing stand-out-ish… again.

The Tally:

Episode 1x07 Total: 0

Series 1 Total: 13.5

9^th Doctor Total: 13.5

Rose as Companion Total: 13.5

Russell T Davis Era Total: 13.5

For Further Discussion: What Science-Fiction is Good For

No spoilers beyond this episode

First, let me just say that although this is another episode without a single conversation to pass the Bechdel Test, it’s still stand-out with women.  The Doctor is more like a facilitator to the real plot-solvers in the episode – Suki and Cathica, women whose roles and characterization have nothing to do with their genders. 

This episode is a prime example of what makes sci-fi/fantasy so fantastic; it gives us a chance to discuss real issues in society without alerting those that would censor it.  The entire episode is about news as business with big banks behind it all, and the main villains are called the Editor and Editor-in-Chief, and I seriously cannot get over how in love with this episode, and return to the morality play structure, I am.  Although morality and philosophy are part of every episode of Doctor Who so far, it’s these stories that I love when it comes to all sci-fi/fantasy and these stories that I think are some of the best stand-alone stories in Doctor Who.