World War Three

Again, this has its moments, but if you found the first part a bit silly and confused about its tone, you won't find your opinion changed here.

I think they should have just made a 1 hour special with this one and last weeks episode. Lots of filling done in here and dragged right out in order to get the full 40+ min show time.

Sorry the writers just went too far on this one.

I'm actually part of the small group of people who actually has a bit of a soft spot for this story but at the same time I fully understand any critiques. This is a very all over the place serial. All the crash landing stuff and news coverage make it feel gritty and "down to Earth" ironically, but on the other hand and at the same time the Slitheen themselves are portrayed in a very silly and slapstick manor and it just ends up... strange. That being said I think both parts still retain that mid 2000s charm that Ecclestone and most of Tennant's tenure brought with them. I'm going to give "Aliens of London/World War Three" a 7.2 to a 7.3

More of the same witty satire and dynamic Slitheen action. Presented as both intimidating and cruelly-comedic, they are delightful villains. Just as the previous part of this two-part-story began with frustration, this episode ends with it. Some rather un-satisfying conclusions plague the ending of this likeable two parter, but the high stakes for these mid-season episodes rather set the ending up to be the greatest downfall of the overall story.

I really don't see why this particular story was two whole episodes. They could've cut it all down to one and saved me the pain of sitting through more of the Slitheen. Harriet also isn't all that likeable to me, she's too one dimensional and idealistic in a very annoying did high school model UN way. Yet again, the only good parts are Mickey and Rose's mom teaming up to defend themselves and help Rose. They carried the entire episode's emotional appeal on their backs and made the whole storyline more interesting (even though it wasn't still). Them standing there showing how hard the Doctor's travels are on them is a really important beginning of showing the consequences of being a companion. I think there's more interesting episodes like these, that involve the entire world, in future seasons that are done really well. If I remember correctly, Matt Smith has several of those.