Doctor Who (2005)

Gridlock

Season 3, Episode 3, Aired 4/14/07

Episode Summary

Location: New Earth
Date: The year 5,000,000,053
Enemies: Macra

The Doctor and Martha visit New Earth, and Martha gets kidnapped by two "car jackers" heading towards a motorway.

The Face of Boe tells his final words to the Doctor; his big secret...

8.8

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Cast & Crew

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David Tennant

The Tenth Doctor
Freema Agyeman

Martha Jones
Ardal O'Hanlon

Thomas Kincade Brannigan

Fan Episode Reviews (29)

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The Doctor takes Martha to New Earth/New New York, where she's kidnapped by a couple thinking she's from there to gain access to the fast lane, with the Doctor following after. Meanwhile the Face of Boe & Novice Ham have been waiting years for the Doctor.moreless

2.0

"Terrible"

By 10thdoctorfan, Jun 11, 2011 Report Abuse

Trully a terrible episode. there's not enough running or a true enemy for the doctor to face; all there is is a trapped undercity and macra living in the exhaust fumes. Geeze. Alright i'll admit that the Doctor talking once again about the lose of his home planet of gallefry is a bit interesting along wiht a bit of discription, but come on this was a very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very dry episodemoreless

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1 3
Although a good and watch able episode, it wasn't the greatest instalment of this series. In fact it was the weakest episode ever of Doctor Who.

8.6

"Great"

By brombi, May 30, 2011 Report Abuse

An important revelation is made by the Face of Boe during this episode and starts playing out with a bang in the last few episodes of this season.
The released Virus that everybody dies of has several weak points to the story.
First why are the shopkeepers still there, after all these years. Didn't they die? If they survived, they must be pretty stupid not to call for help, instead of going into the traffic jammed tunnels. What have all the left over humans done? Didn't anybody think of fixing the problems that where arising, due to everybody being in the tunnels?
The Face of Boe and the nurse could have easily called for help. If they wouldn't have had enough energy, how did the leftover humans on the outside survived. In my view, this was a filler episode with potential, but not very well thought through.moreless

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1 5
Terrible. There wasn't 5 minutes of that plot that made sense, the Macra, the face of Boe, the nurse, the idel threat that the doctor makes about shutting down the drugs. RTD's writing goes from bad to worse.moreless

1.4

"Abysmal"

By bondimonkey, Jul 21, 2010 Report Abuse

Terrible. There wasn't 5 minutes of that plot that made any coherent sense, the 'different' Macra to the originals (why bother), the face of Boe, the nurse, the idle threat that the doctor makes about shutting down the 'drug' peddlers.

Not to mention the ludicrous concept of sane people sitting in a traffic jam for 12 years, a woman who births cats and a bunch of English stereotypes in cars. It was highly weird but not in a good way.

There have been some classic episodes in the revitalised Who, this just wasn't one of them. I cringed throughout.

After last weeks okay Shakespeare ep, this was an unpleasant poorly plotted shock. If Dr Who keeps relying on poorly conceived Deus ex Machina plot devices and daleks, I can't see it lasting another 26 years. Or even 26 episodes.moreless

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4 17
a place where talking on your mobile phone at the wheel isn't considored dangerous

8.5

"Great"

By fgyjmyrjmetdgjh, Mar 27, 2008 Report Abuse

Call me crazy but I loved this episode, sure there were a couple of events involving dodgey scripting but I thouroughly enjoyed this.
Though that may have been down to the fact that I was over the moon about it being shown at all. That was the first football match I've watched since I was twelve, mainly because I find football such a dull game, here though I sat through the whole match hoping against hope that one side would score way ahead of the other. It was a stupid descision for the beeb to put the match on one then anyway, and doctor who gets just as much of the ratings as football and more so than the shows proceeding it.
Anyway, I'm not gonna slander the beeb or football any longer.
I thouroughly enjoyed this episode, traffic jams annoy the piss out of you, great to see some satire in there, last time I was on the M6 it felt like I was there for twenty seven years. You just get this sense of isolationism and claustrophobia when you're stuck in a car, granted this episode wasn't that scary but I liked the mood we had set for us, builds up for a great hover car chase sequence.
Being a classic who fan I was obviously gonna get on to this, the macra. It seems weird to me that RTD would bring them back despite the fact that the beeb holds no copies of the four episodes they appeared in, at least have a copy of the original before giving us a sequal. Nevertheless, the macra are great creatures and despite the fact they were kind of a pointless returning here I liked having them around. Sorta reminded the viewer that the doctor had a life before ol' big ears came along. Glad that even though RTD wrote this episode we didn't have any rose angst from the doctor (because that was just getting boring) but we did have some angst aboot the time war and the face of boe (too bad, I liked him, a big weird freaky face thing, what's not to like?). I guessed the message would be something like that since we all know that this year is the master's big comeback, looking forward to it.
Next weeks episode, like the idea, don't like the return of the pig peoplemoreless

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0 1
An ominous warning of things to come?

8.5

"Great"

By skaizun, Aug 05, 2007 Report Abuse

As a long-time viewer of the "Dr Who" series (having seen nearly every televised episode on PBS (a great reason to support your local PBS!!!)), this is, arguably, the fastest-paced episode I have ever seen!

With the exception of the first and last five minutes (the former as an excuse to show the nun being sent to find the Doctor, and the latter for an unnecessary, IMHO, "bonding" between the Dr and current companion, Martha, both of which were the only reason I didn't give this episode a 9 or 9.5), the episode raced along at a pace totally opposite that of its title! From a kidnapping, to being stuck in a traffic jam that could cost drivers their lives (hence my "Summary" question), to the Dr literally leaping into action, with little need for exposition or character development (most of the characters were caricatures, so it was obvious who or what they were), and then a nearly welcome relief to be able to take a breath at the expense of the demise of the Dr's friend, who, with his last breath cryptically tells the Dr that he is not alone, this episode would have given NASCAR a run for its money!

I'm not saying that I'd want every episode to go this way, but it certainly was a nice change of pace (no pun intended!).moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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Trivia
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- The Doctor hitches a ride with a Cat Man and a Human Woman and they tell him about their children. The children being a litter of kittens, he smiles happily as he sees the kittens and even picks one up and starts petting it. This is strange since in Series 2, Episode 11 Fear Her, Rose goes to pet a cat and she notices the not so happy look on The Doctor's face... Rose: What? The Doctor: No I'm not really a cat person. Once you've been threatened by one in a nuns wimple it kinda takes the joy out of it. Edit
- Frank Cox the husband of Bridget Turner (who played Alice) once directed Doctor Who. he directed The Edge of Destruction episode 2 and The Sensorites episodes 5 and 6. Then many years later he turned down David Tennant for a job in Take the High Road. Edit
- The Cat Nun prosthetic masks took 4 days to make and could only be worn once, so a new one was needed every day. Edit
Notes
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- International Air Dates: Australia: 14 July 2007 Canada: 1 July 2007 New Zealand: 9 August 2007 on Prime United States: 20 July 2007 Thailand: 28 October 2008 on BBC Entertainment Turkey: 31 October, 2010 on CNBC-e Edit
- On the Sci-Fi Channel in America, several times throughout the episode, when people say "The Face of Boe", the closed captioning inaccurately reads it as "Professor Boe". Edit
- Overnight viewing figures for this episode were 8 million, with a final viewing figure of 8.41 million. Edit
Quotes
ADD QUOTES
- (After the Doctor refuses to answer Martha's questions, she takes a chair and sits down) The Doctor: Alright. Are you staying? Martha: Until you talk to me properly, yes. He said 'last of your kind'. What does that mean? The Doctor: It really doesn't matter. Martha: You don't talk! You never say! Why not? (Quietly, the hymn 'Abide With Me' begins to be sung) Martha: It's the city. They're singing. (The Doctor and Martha listen to the singing for a moment) The Doctor: I lied to you, cos I liked it. I could pretend, just for a bit, I could imagine they were still alive underneath the burnt orange sky. (pause) I'm not just a Time Lord. I'm the last of the Time Lords. The Face of Boe was wrong, there's no one else. Martha: What happened? (As the singing continues, the Doctor takes a chair and sits opposite Martha) The Doctor: There was a war, a time war. The Last Great Time War. My people fought a race called the Daleks for the sake of all creation, and they lost. We lost. Everyone lost. They're all gone now, my family, my friends, even that sky. (pause; the Doctor begins to well up as he speaks) Oh, you should have seen it, that old planet. The second sun would rise in the south and the mountains would shine. The leaves on the trees were silver and when they caught the light every morning, it looked like a forest on fire... Edit
- The Doctor: New New York can start again. And they've got Novice Hame. Just what every city needs, cats in charge. Edit
- Novice Hame: My lord gave his life to save the city and now he's dying. The Doctor: No, don't say that. Not old Boe. Plenty of life left. The Face of Boe: It's good to breathe the air once more. Martha: Who is he? The Doctor: I don't even know. Legend says the Face of Boe has lived for billions of years. Isn't that right? And you're not about to give up now. The Face of Boe: Everything has its time. You know that, old friend, better than most. Novice Hame: The legend says more… The Doctor: Don't. There's no need for that. Novice Hame: It says that the Face of Boe will speak his final secret to a traveller. The Doctor: Yeah, but not yet. Who needs secrets, eh? The Face of Boe: I have seen so much, perhaps too much. I am the last of my kind. As you are the last of yours, Doctor. The Doctor: That's why we have to survive. Both of us. Don't go. Edit
Allusions
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- Man and Woman's clothing: The couple is dressed like the couple in American Gothic, the famous painting of Grant Wood, which is now in the Art Institute of Chicago. Wood painted it in 1930, when he was inspired by a Gothic Revival style building that he pictured in the background, placing a couple in front looking like the people he imagined lived in a house like this. Edit
- Traffic reporter Sally Calypso is a deliberate homage to Swifty Frisko the automated newsreader in the 2000AD comic story The Ballad of Halo Jones. Edit
- The roof of the motorway openning as the character, The Face of Boe, dies, is an apparently unintended allusion to a "prediction" written in the 2005 Doctor Who book, "Monsters and Villains", in which Doctor Who producer, Russell T. Davies, wrote that, "When The Face of Boe dies, the sky will crack asunder". Davies freely admitted he had forgotten what he had written in the book while devising this episode. Edit