Last season, Helen Raynor wrote "Daleks in Manhattan" and "Evolution of the Daleks," an absolute failboat of a two-parter which very nearly destroyed (in every sense of the word) the classic series villains. This season, Russell T. Davies got the bright idea to let her do the same for yet another set of classic series villains. So, what was the result?

Surprisingly, really quite good, in a way that illustrates one of the central differences between the Daleks and the Sontarans. Both sets of episodes paired off a classic series alien villain with a human ally of dubious character, but while the comparison in the earlier two-parter fell flat, between the survival instinct of the remaining Daleks in the Cult of Skaro and the self-serving exploitation of the working class practiced by Mr. Diagoras, the connection of the latter two-parter produced unexpected parallels, between the blood-thirsty bloodsport of the Sontarans and the yearning for ascension of Luke Rattigan.

Granted, it helped that it's in the Sontarans' nature to be more receptive to such partnerships with outsiders, since the Daleks wage war to carry out genocide, whereas the Sontarans wage war simply for its own sake. But what really sold the Sontarans' team-up with Rattigan was the character of Rattigan himself, who was not only light years more realized than Mr. Diagoras, but also did a better job of revealing the real reasons for the Doctor and Master's anti-friendship than Davies' version of the Master himself did.

The verbal sparring match between Rattigan and the Doctor was fascinating to behold, because you could see what the Doctor saw; Rattigan was a young man on the cusp between becoming either the Doctor or the Master, and in both cases, it was because he suffered from the Genius' Lament. Rattigan so desperately wants to belong to something bigger than himself, but because he's so far beyond everyone else on Earth, the only way he can do that is by reaching beyond Earth, literally.

You want funny, pathetic and chilling, all at once? Check out Rattigan's weird, creepy, clumsily adolescent attempts to BOND with the Sontarans, first by enthusing about their shared plans of world conquest as though they've designed a video game together (the awkward silence that follows the Sontarans asking him, "Is the temperature significant?" is fucking hilarious), then by joining in the Sontaran battle-chant (as with the NuCybermen's "Delete!" and the Bane-possessed humans' "Drink it," "Sontar-HA!" shows Davies' knack for inserting "play-phrases" for children to repeat on the playground).

And on the other end of the spectrum, we have the debut of the first enlisted man from UNIT since the classic series - Private Ross Jenkins, the minor supporting character who's already launched a thousand slashfics, including this one from yours truly.

I attribute Ross' remarkable popularity in fandom to three points:

1. He is an attractive young man, at a time when Doctor Who arguably boasts more young female fans than ever before.
   
   
2. He was the only member of UNIT, aside from Martha (and a certain classic series character mentioned in next week's episode), about whom the Doctor expressed completely positive sentiments in this two-parter. Whether you're a fan of the current or classic series, this puts him in commendably good company.
   
   
3. The actor playing Ross only shared a few scenes with David Tennant, but they demonstrated an endearingly easy and fun chemistry ("Don't call Ross a grunt!" the Doctor objects defensively, cementing the slashy subtext in the two characters' flirting banter. "We like Ross."). It reminded a lot of old-school Whovians how much they missed the camaraderie between the Third Doctor and Benton, and it made a lot of the current fangirls think OMG TEN AND ROSS ARE SO CUTE TOGETHER THEY MUST HAVE SEX (to be fair, Tennant reminds me a lot of Peter Davison and Jon Pertwee on this score, since they both had a subtle knack for playing the role as though they were sexually intimate with everyone who shared a screen with them).

And my fanfic seems to have touched a nerve. I normally get anywhere between a dozen to three-dozen replies to one of my NuWho fics, when I post them here on LJ. This one has generated 96 replies so far.

Aside from the OMG WE DO LOVE ROSS I'M GOING TO PRETEND YOUR STORY IS CANON BECAUSE I WANT HIM BACK replies, I got a LOT of praise for my portrayal of Donna, whom I must admit has become my favorite NuWho companion to date, as I suspected she might (Sarah Jane is a special case - she will always be my MILF Queen of All Things Who, but Donna can be her BBW Princess).

And Jesus Christ, what ABOUT Donna in this episode? Just as "The Fires of Pompeii" and "Planet of the Ood" cemented her role as the stubbornly humane carrier of a conscience for the Doctor, so too did this episode showcase her practical, down-to-earth skills, as the working-class girl who pays attention to details that might seem minor at first glance. She'd make a great detective, if only because she's so ideally suited to all of the decidedly non-glamorous clerical error checking that most actual detective work revolves around.

Once again, though, Martha got short-shrift. She's safely paired off with Dr. Tom Milligan from "Last of the Time Lords" - or as persiflage_1 calls him, "the Invisible Fiance of Invisibleness" - she doesn't get to hear any of the pleasantly penitent compliments that the Doctor paid her when talking to Donna in "Partners in Crime," and she gets sidelined, what, halfway through the episode? (Shades of "Dead Man Walking" on Torchwood.) At least she got better treatment from the Doctor than UNIT did, though, since the Doctor seems to be channeling his survivor's guilt into a rather hypocritical condemnation of his former allies. Then again, it did take the Third Doctor a long while to warm up to the Brigadier, who since became (and surely remains) his best human friend this side of Sarah Jane, so there's arguably precedent for his prickliness.

Nice to see Martha's toughness, though, as well as Donna's reaction to it ("Is that what you did?" Donna asks the Doctor, in a tone of unnerved recrimination. "Turned her into a soldier?"). I'm also amazed they managed to preserve the continuity about the Sontarans' probic vents, without making it seem ludicrous. Oh, and to any classic series fans who are about to complain about the NuSontarans' exaggerated lack of height? You're forgetting the fact that the Sontarans were always meant to be short and stocky, as a result of coming from a high-gravity planet.

And Bernard Cribbins continues to charm as Donna's grandfather Wilf. He and Maria's dad Alan, from The Sarah Jane Adventures, are easily the best parents in the NuWhoniverse.

And this week's sledgehammer-subtle hint of things to come? The Medusa Cascade, mentioned YET AGAIN. Gee, I wonder if that might be significant.