Rate and Discuss: The Long Game

[SiHart]

Satellite 5- the home of the news. But who's really behind the headlines? What's on Floor 500? and how will Adam take his first trip into time and space?

What do you think of The Long Game?

[Rob McCow]

A story that meanders off in all kinds of interesting directions before finding a giant mouth on the ceiling.

For me it's mainly memorable for it's treatment and eventual dumping of Adam. He got exactly what he deserved, no more and no less. He wasn't evil, merely very selfish. The thought of him having to hide from anyone clicking their fingers is very satisfying. And this is also the story that gave us the TARDIS landing in someone's living room!

Simon Pegg is delightful as the slimy villain, very different from his usual lovable-loser style roles. It's a prime example of a story that didn't really need a monster, although the Jagrafess is quite a cool idea in principle. And I think it would have looked a lot better as a model superimposed on the ceiling rather than a CGI beastie!

[Larry]

not sure what to make of this one it's not one of my favourite episodes of the new series and after thr brilliance of Dalek, this all felt like a bit of a damp squid . I suppose you could say that this episode was the calm befor the storm of the final half of series 1. On first viewing I didn't really like it and it's taken a good few viewings for me to start liking it not the best episode of series 1 but by no means the worst.

[Andrew Curnow]

I think at the time I said it was probably the first story that wasn't an event - up till then we'd had The First Episode, the First Future Episode, the First Historical Episode, the First 2-parter, the DALEK story... somehow The Long Game doesn't really have a 'tag' to make it memorable.

That said, I love the opening pre-credits bit (particularly "He's your boyfriend") and there is something rather cosy about the slightly traditional 'arrive - spot mystery - investigate - confront the enemy' plotline. It's all a bit inconsequential, but thankfully Simon Pegg livens it up.

It's hard to love, but there's nothing not to like!!

[Rob McCow]

It's the first 'Normal' episode!

[SiHart]

I always thought that The Long Game would be one of those stories that in later years would undergo a bit of a rediscovery and everyone would suddenly agree it was actually rather brilliant.

I think I was wrong.

There's nothing much wrong with it, but on the other hand there's nothing particularly outstanding about it (aside from Simon Pegg who's fab). It's just an average story enlivened by the performances from everyone in it.

[J.R. Southall]

Hard to disagree with anything anyone's said already!

I think The Long Game is the first time (and probably the first casualty, too) we get to see "production line" Doctor Who, that mid-series dip when everybody's moving onto auto-pilot before finding their mojo again when the slightly meatier episodes of the latter part of the series kick in. It's worth pointing out that maybe Russell knew this, and deliberately used the episode as a sort of Dalek "prologue" (the noughties version of Mission to the Unknown, in a way) so that it wouldn't be forgotten entirely or dismissed as an episode of no real consequence whatsoever.

Adam's much better in this (perhaps because he's not required to be "good"?), and it's a shame that Brian Grant hasn't been invited back to direct more Doctor Who, because the casting, acting and a fair bit of the visuals are a lot better than you probably remember. I'd have liked to have seen Grant directing the finale instead of Joe Ahearne, in fact.

[Larry]

I
There's nothing much wrong with it, but on the other hand there's nothing particularly outstanding .

one of those few episodes where the coming soon trailer was far better than the actual episode.

[Perry Vale]

This, for me, falls just between a 7 and an 8, but plumped for an 8/10 as I feel it gets an unfair response in general.

I liked it on first viewing, and numerous rewatches haven't done anything to dampen that enjoyment. Simon Pegg is great fun, and quite probably the best thing about it, but I really like the story as a whole. It remains one of my favourite RTD stories, and it never surprised me to read it came from an idea he'd had as a child. Someone said upthread it was the first "normal" story and that's probably true, it's also the first story that felt like OldWho.

Some nice dialogue too (love the "He's your boyfriend" as well ), especially the "they are no-one" - which gets reused well when they return to the space station in TPotW/BW.

Disappointed that Adam didn't turn out to be Davros. Yet.

[MacNimon]

Not my favourite story. There's not really much wrong with it, but it just feels a bit flat...it should have been much more exciting than it actually was. It suffers from being wedged between two much stronger stories which make it seem weaker when watching the series in order. I find this story more enjoyable to watch as a stand-alone episode.

6/10