From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho.moderated   
   From Address: jphalt@aol.com   
   Subject: Re: jphalt's Doctor Who reviews   
      
   THE IDIOT'S LANTERN   
      
   1 episode. Approx. 45 minutes. Written by: Mark Gatiss. Directed by:   
   Euros Lyn. Produced by: Phil Collinson.   
      
      
   THE PLOT   
      
   The TARDIS materializes in London, 1953, on the eve of Queen   
   Elizabeth's coronation. The Doctor and Rose have only barely stepped   
   outside before they witness a bizarre scene: Mysterious men in black,   
   taking a man away from his home while his relatives protest. It's a   
   scene that's become common in this small neighborhood, as men and   
   women have been transformed by their brand new television sets,   
   purchased cheap from local electronics dealer Mr. Magpie (Ron Cook).   
      
   The transformations are effectively appetizers, feeding The Wire   
   (Maureen Lipman), a presence that lives within the television signal.   
   The Wire is preparing for a feast: The coronation, when for the first   
   time in British history millions of people gathered around television   
   sets. The Doctor is determined to stop the creature from its feast,   
   and he's been given one added piece of incentive.   
      
   The Wire's most recent victim is Rose!   
      
      
   CHARACTERS   
      
   The Doctor: "Start from the beginning. Tell me everything you know."   
   The Doctor deals with two different figures, both of whom initially   
   oppose him: Detective Inspector Bishop (Sam Cox) and Eddie Connolly   
   (Jamie Foreman). Bishop is a career detective in over his head. His   
   interrogation of the Doctor quickly turns into a confession that he   
   just doesn't know how to deal with this situation. The Doctor quickly   
   sizes him up as a good man and offers his help. By contrast, Eddie   
   Connolly is a fool, a blowhard in love with the sound of his own   
   voice. The Doctor sizes him up quickly as well, and dismisses him as   
   an obstacle.   
      
   Rose: The smugness the character sometimes displays in Series Two is   
   at its worst here since Tooth & Claw.  There's a scene in which she   
   observes the Doctor's dismissal of Eddie Connolly, then chips in by   
   embarrassing the man further. The Doctor's act serves a purpose,   
   getting the blowhard out of the way so that he can talk to his more   
   reasonable wife and son. Rose's followup is just spite. Combined with   
   her being all too obviously all too pleased with herself about it, her   
   actions actually serve to make me feel a little sympathy for Eddie -   
   or at least, it might have done, had Eddie been portrayed as having   
   even a single redeeming quality.   
      
      
   THOUGHTS   
      
   The Idiot's Lantern was one of the worst-received episodes of Series   
   Two, and it's easy enough to see why. The Doctor/Rose teaming is at   
   its most smug, their mutual admiration of each other's general   
   awesomeness making their interactions quite grating. The Connolly   
   family are drawn in broadstrokes, with Eddie in particular a one note   
   imbecile, making it hard to connect with them as real people. On top   
   of all this, Gatiss' script tilts toward the preachy in a ham-fisted   
   scene that gives Eddie Connolly his comeuppance.   
      
   In fairness, Tooth & Claw shared some of the same flaws, particularly   
   in the Doctor/Rose characterization. But while that episode made up   
   for it with a relentless pace, The Idiot's Lantern lacks anything   
   visceral or compelling. From start to finish, this episode feels   
   exactly like what it is: Filler.   
      
   With all that said, it's not bad filler, and probably does represent   
   writer Mark Gatiss' best television Who script (admittedly, damning it   
   with faint praise). It's better-paced than The Unquiet Dead, which   
   left most of its plot for the final ten minutes. And though Euros   
   Lyn's direction goes overboard in trying to be visually stylish, with   
   so many tilted camera angles that it gets distracting after a while,   
   it does at least add a bit of atmosphere to the proceedings...   
   something which can't be said of Gatiss' later, Moffat-era offerings.   
      
   There are a few nice visual beats, with a particularly good bit in   
   Magpie's shop as the Doctor sees the faces of all The Wire's victims   
   on the television screens. The Wire herself isn't a fully successful   
   creation. The idea is interesting, and Maureen Lipman is effective in   
   the scenes in which she's talking quietly in kindly tones. But when   
   The Wire is reduced to shouting, "Hungry!" and cackling evilly, she   
   comes across more like a Scooby Doo villain than anything else.   
      
   Overall, this isn't a bad episode, but it also isn't a good one. It   
   sort of sits in the middle, watchable but unmemorable. The sort of   
   show for which the term, "Meh," was created.   
      
      
   Overall Rating: 5/10.   
      
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