Doctor Who - Easter Special 2009

The fantastic Easter special of Doctor Who is just over - and what a feast of television it was! The only sad thing was seeing the gorgeously nice David Tennant reminded me his days as the Doctor are so very sadly limited. What a bloody pity!

The Doctor and a group of unwitting, accidental travellers were on the Number 200 bus, heading to Brixton. In reality, they were in Cardiff Bay heading for the Bute tunnels which constantly close due to maintenance requirements. But let's not dwell on detail! How I kicked myself for not seeing that being filmed. I use the Bute tunnels every day, and can remember an odd closure, but never guessed what was happening!

As if by magic, and the immense special effects trickery of BBC Cymru / Wales and The Mill, the bus is dragged thru a wormhole and ends up on a planet on the far side of the universe, otherwise known as Dubai. The planet is made totally of sand, an odd sort of sand, but sand non the less.

Strange fly-like creatures soon emerge from the sand, but they're not the baddies: these are a swarm of rayfish-like creatures which roam from planet to planet, stripping things bare and taking the minerals, etc with them. It turns out that when they've finished with a planet - they leave it as desert, create a wormhole & head off to wreak havoc elsewhere.

Michelle Ryan plays a fanatastic role as a jewel thief, caught accidentally on the bus. Would be nice to see her as a companion, but who knows! In the end, she escapes into space on the Number 200, turbo-charged with anti-gravity clamps. I think she'll be making a return. Hope so!

Lee Evans plays Malcolm, a mad scientist with UNIT who helps the doctor to save the day. Great to see  Lee in the show, shame his Welslh accent was so awful! It was good to to see him professing undying love for the doctor at the end of the action! Also good to see UNIT for the first time in Doctor Who or Torchwood since the original show went off air in the 1980s. They'll be back in Torchwood later this year too.

The ending was a bit bleak - with a gifted soothsayer warning the Doctor his days are numbered, and 'his song is nearly over' David looks worried. Indeed, David Tennant will appear in three more shows in 2009, ending with this year's Christmas special. Filming continues in Cardiff throughout July with David working on the rest of the specials.

The uninspiring and sexually-unattractive Matt Smith takes over as the 11th Time Lord in Series 5, which films this summer, and which airs in 13 parts in the UK during 2010. Can't wait. Meh.

Overall, a GREAT show today. More familiar faces & stars than you can shake a stick at, a fantastic musical score written as ever by Murray Gold and performed by the National Orchestra of Wales, loads of fun, a number of in-jokes, a few thrills and quite a clever plot, co-written by the lovely Russell T. Davies.

I really loved it - and it was AWESOME to watch the show in FULL 1080 HD! Wow.. what a difference full high definition made!!