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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