From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho.moderated
From Address: jphalt@aol.com
Subject: Re: jphalt's Doctor Who reviews

THE LONG GAME

1 episode. Approx. 44 minutes. Written by: Russell T. Davies. Directed
by: Brian Grant. Produced by: Phil Collinson.


THE PLOT

It's the year 200,000, the time of the Fourth Great and Bountiful
Human Empire. The human race at its height, the center of a vast
interspecies civilization.

Only things are wrong. The TARDIS materializes aboard Satellite 5, a
space station that transmits news an information to the hundreds of
channels on Earth. The reporters have technology implanted in their
heads, allowing their brains to be used to directly process the data.
It's incredible technology...

Which the Doctor also recognizes as wrong. "Something has set the
human race back about 90 years," he realizes. History is being
manipulated through the news, Satellite 5 being used to keep humanity
from advancing.

Perhaps the man known as "The Editor" (Simon Pegg) has the answers.
But The Editor sees all, and he is already tracking the Doctor's
progress!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Early in the episode, the Doctor bundles Rose and Adam off
while he investigates. He is extremely cheerful as he urges them:
"Throw yourself in, eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged
double, and end up kissing complete strangers." Then he turns away,
and the cheer drops from his face an instant, replaced by grim
determination. He knows history has been tampered with, and he pushes
until he discovers why. Even when captured, he keeps thinking. He
notices that Cathica (Christine Adams), the reporter he and Rose
befriended, is lurking outside the door as the Editor interrogates
him.  He makes sure to insert a few very well-chosen remarks in his
replies to the Editor, essentially telling Cathica what to do to save
him without tipping the villain off in the process.

Rose: The Doctor gives Rose enough information to "show off" to Adam,
letting her pretend to identify their new surroundings when they
arrive on Satellite 5. Rose enjoys being allowed to essentially
playact being the Doctor, though she happily hands things back off to
the Doctor when a more complex explanation is required. Here, it's
fairly charming, though in retrospect it's the first real sign of the
smugness that would mar the Doctor/Rose relationship the following
year. She is patient and sympathetic with Adam's culture shock, but
it's clear she wants to help the Doctor. Clear to Adam too, who
observes that "it will take a better man than (him) to get between"
her and the Doctor.

Adam: After what was very much a background role in Dalek, he gets
pushed forward in this episode. He mainly acts as a contrast with
Rose, and by extension with future companions. While Rose and later
companions will tend to act selflessly when presented with crises,
Adam sees the level of technology here and focuses on how to use it to
help himself. The Doctor responds decisively to Adam's transgression,
dumping him off at his home and leaving him there, doomed to an
average and quiet life.


THOUGHTS

The Long Game plays much better in retrospect than it did at the time.
On original broadcast, it seemed like an adequate bit of filler, a mid-
season runaround that was dwarfed by the episodes on either side of
it. But writer/executive producer Russell T. Davies pulled a deft
sleight of hand, making this apparently innocuous episode one of the
key building blocks of the season, an episode that would directly feed
the season finale.

Even disregarding that and just looking at The Long Game in isolation,
it holds up much better than its initial reception would indicate.
Like most single-part Who episodes, the story unfolds at a rapid pace.
Unlike too many episodes, though, it doesn't feel rushed or
overstuffed. The way in which the story is resolved is planted ahead
of time so that it makes sense and feels like an organic part of the
narrative. It's well-structured and holds together, with no sense of
things being skipped over to fit 70 or so minutes of material into 45.

Simon Pegg is effective as "The Editor," the most visible villain of
the piece. His performance mixes camp and menace in equal measure,
particularly when he faces down a would-be assassin with cries of
"Liar!" when she attempts to hide behind her cover story. It's a
disappointment that his confrontation with the Doctor is such a short
scene, as watching Pegg and Eccleston go at it is a prospect with much
more potential than their screentime here can capitalize on.

I wouldn't begin to argue against this being a second-tier episode.
The self-contained narrative is very simplistic, amounting to having
to defeat a monster on the Satellite's top level, and the attempts to
work in social commentary about media manipulation aren't nearly as
sharp as they should be. Still, this is well-made and highly
entertaining, with Eccleston in particularly good form. A solid
episode, in my view, far better than the "weak link" in the season it
generally is remembered as.


Rating: 7/10.

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