The Long Game by: Russell T. Davies and directed by: Brian Grant

 

“The Long Game” stars Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler with Bruno Langley as Adam Mitchell, Christine Adams as Cathica, Anna Maxwell-Martin as Suki, and Simon Pegg as the Editor.  It was written by: Russell T. Davies and directed by: Brian Grant with Elwen Rowlands as Script Editor, Phil Collinson as Producer, and Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner, and Mal Young as Executive Producers.  It was originally broadcast on Saturday 7 May 2005 on BBC One.

 

Long before breaking into the television landscape in the 1990s, Russell T. Davies had several scripts and ideas that he submitted to the Doctor Who production office.  Among these ideas was one about a space station that controlled the news that potentially would have featured the return of the Celestial Toymaker in charge of using the media as a game, submitted in the 1980s.  This would actually have been incredibly fitting with the rise of the 24 hour news cycle in 1980 as CNN first broadcast their 24 hour news coverage.  While it is unknown if producer John Nathan-Turner ever actually read the pitch, although another of Davies’ pitches survives and was produced in 2022 by Big Finish Productions as Mind of the Hodiac, this commentary on the news media would be revived in the original pitch document for the revival of Doctor Who, adapted into a single 45-minute episode script.  This begun with the tentative title of “The Companion That Couldn’t”, Davies knowing that this would be the episode that shows the downfall of Adam Mitchell, introduced in “Dalek” and taken aboard the TARDIS in the final scene of that episode.  Adam’s downfall was a given to show partially a darker side to the Doctor as well as what happens if a selfish man was taken through time, with Davies floating the idea of following the format of “Rose” and showing the episode through Adam’s eyes.  This even would have given the episode the name “Adam”, however writing made this difficult so Davies reverted to the title “The Long Game” which was floating in his head in the 1980s when it still featured the Toymaker.

 

“The Long Game” as an episode is one that you can tell came from a much younger Davies and was adapted into a modern format.  The human villain of the episode, Simon Pegg’s Editor, is the sort of camp 1980s Doctor Who villain that would easily be slotted as a Margaret Thatcher insert.  The biggest issue is that there are almost too many ideas for political satire that Davies wishes to include, and as a result the point is dulled quite a bit.  Much is made of the setting of the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire, already a very imperialistic title for this time period which Davies doesn’t examine in the slightest but he does attempt to examine capitalism and the way it treats workers through the lens of journalism and technology.  Barely even mentioning imperialism feels weird as there are also moments written attempting to examine the role of media in bigotry, Fox News and the empire of Rupert Murdoch clearly being in Davies’ mind with this episode.  Fearmongering on technology is also a clear fear, the internet being injected through microchips and openings in the brains feel like Davies wants to say something on how capitalism can often lead to stagnation in technology, but it comes across as rather short sighted.  Some of this is simply due to aging, “The Long Game” being produced before the rise of smartphones and having the internet in one’s pocket.  The journalists are too reliant on technology and don’t ask questions, just being motivated by making money and moving up in the world, not the story.  Again something that could easily make an episode on its own but it’s stuffed with other ideas that drag the episode down.

 

The episode is also limited to studio sets on Satellite Five meaning that the worldbuilding has to be done in one location.  The audience doesn’t get to see what the planet Earth is like outside of a special effects shot which is fine, though it means the supporting cast who are not the villainous Editor have to represent the world and sadly that is a mixed bag.  Tamsin Greig has a small role as a sinister nurse which allows you to see healthcare motivated by money which is great and Christine Adams’ Cathica gets a serviceable story arc of beginning to ask questions, but Anna Maxwell-Martin’s Suki sadly only gets interesting just before she is killed at the end of the first act.  The alien villain, the Jagrafess, is also the definition of a monster just added in because it’s Doctor Who, there have to be monsters.  This episode honestly would have worked better if the climax was rewritten and Simon Pegg was allowed to just be the villain overall, perhaps destroying a computer that must be kept cool to keep that particular part of the climax.  Brian Grant’s direction also deserves a mention for making the effects heavy climax at least work despite some dated CGI.

 

The final scene with the Doctor taking Adam home and destroying the message Adam sent in an attempt to catapult technology and himself forward is great, even with Bruno Langley’s Adam throughout the episode being the highlight.  Langley’s performance is honestly a bit bland, Eccleston, Piper, and the supporting cast are all acting circles around him.  Adam as a character has the entire point of being unable to take it, his selfishness giving him a data chip implant in his head to connect to the Satellite Five computers.  The idea Davies goes for is Adam falling for the temptation of future technology, but his eventual fate feels a bit out of character for the Doctor, especially with what the very next episode is about the consequences of changing time.  Adam is just framed as unlikable by the script and bland in portrayal.  While he gets the most focus which means the episode succeeds in its primary goal, it does contribute to the overstuffing.

 

Overall, “The Long Game” is perhaps the weakest episode from the first year of the revived series of Doctor Who.  There are plenty of good ideas, with the strongest being what Russell T. Davies does best but those are obfuscated by mixed messages and just too many ideas.  The direction is perfectly fine, especially since this is a studio bound episode, and most of the performances are great, the episode setting up where this first series is going.  “The Long Game” being such a mess means that what could have been a very good story just loses much of its potential.  4/10.