Doctor Who: The Long Game

You just have to watch Spaced or Shaun of The Dead to see that Simon Pegg is a great actor who knows his science-fiction, so how come his appearance in the first season of Doctor Who was so disappointing?

Pegg stars as "The Editor" in The Long Game, by Russell T Davies. The story is an attempt to satirise our blind faith in the news media in a Blade Runner/cyberpunk style, but even for Russell this is a very verbose script that lectures more than anything else. On top of that, the story's Big Bad, the Jagrafess, is a very static, impotent antagonist, whose ability to control the Editor, let alone the entire human race, is never explained in the slightest.

Sadly, this is one of the most forgettable episodes of the season, being neither all bad or all good. It's just rather bland and mediocre. The addition of Adam (from Dalek) to the TARDIS crew, and then his betrayal of the Doctor's trust, adds little to the drama because we haven't had chance to get to know him.

Even an appearance by Tamsin Greig (of Green Wing fame) fails to raise the level of interest in this disposable story.