In short:  Barely passes muster (see what I did there?)

When it comes to Doctor Who, I normally follow the consensus.  Of course, there’s the odd exception like Love and Monsters and Gridlock and Last of the Time Lords.  But in those case I’m usually defending the episode, whether it’s a battle of wits with Steven Kitson on the Jade Pagoda Forum or a well presented and balanced review (if I do say so myself) on the Anorak Zone, or a long, mostly hilarious argument with my mate Dave.

However, this Sontaran two-parter is the first time where I’ve thought the episode was a bit rubbish and the rest of fandom has lauded it for being so good.  And there’s nothing at all wrong with that.  I wouldn’t dare be so arrogant to think that anyone who liked Poison Sky was an idiot or had no taste at all.  I mean, I might think it to myself or whisper it in my dreams, but I would never say it out aloud, or mention it in a review.

But, at the end of the Day, Poison Sky as an episode, and the Sontaran two-parter as a whole, didn’t ring my Doctor Who bells.

For one, there was something cobbled together about the plot.  Things happens not out of logic but to move the plot onto the next set-piece.

Here’s a few examples (and please feel free to contradict me if I’ve missed a crucial piece of dialogue).

 — Why weren’t the ATMOS machines already set to maximum?  Why did Stahl need to order it once he realised that his plan had gone a bit awry.  I mean, the Sontarans knew the Doctor was on the planet and they also know that the device had only gone out to 400,000 cars, rather than 800,000.  So why not set the devices to full blast from the outset to mitigate these two issues?

— The Sontarans as soldiers were a bit rubbish, weren’t they?  It seems that you don’t just need to aim at the probic vent – a bullet will do just as fine.  It didn’t really make sense in the first place why the Sontarans did their copper trick to the guns in episode one (and that reminds me, why didn’t the guns explode when the trigger was pulled… I mean the gun powder in the bullet is still OK, yeah?) considering they wear armour and they make a point in TSS about how primitive human soldiers are.  So bullets should have had little effect.  And yet the UNIT soldiers had no problems mowing them down.   If you’re gonna have bullets kill the Sontarans, then it should be hard work.

—  I’m sure the maguffin the Doctor uses in the episode is mentioned in episode 4 (not that I remember it).  But that doesn’t explain why Ross and the Doctor don’t drive straight to the Rattigan Institute and collect the device the moment the gas starts spreading across the world.  At the very least if the Doctor had convinced Mace that there was this device that could burn off the gas, he might have stalled on the nuclear strike.   And even if the Doctor needed to be around to stop the UNIT soldiers getting up to too much trouble, he could have sent someone to fetch the parts.  Also, the Doctor didn’t need the teleport to work to get into Rattigan’s office.  He could have driven there in the non ATMOS car established earlier in the episode.  It all just seemed a bit too convenient for me.

— And anyway, how does the Macguffin actually solve the problem.  It burns off the gas, but the cars are still pumping it out.  All it should have done is buy the Doctor some time.  And yet the episode seems to imply that the problem has been solved.

I could go on.  I could mention how the Doctor knows that Martha’s a clone and yet stands around for twenty minutes being a bit useless before he decides to break into the factory and find the real clone.  And while I know he needed the distraction of the battle to achieve this, let’s remember that this was a battle he was against in the first place.

Putting the plot holes aside, it didn’t help that the episode followed a number of predictable beats.  I’d figured out earlier on that the gas was some sort of terraforming device – not that that’s a real issue, I was just hoping for something more interesting.  And the noble sacrifice, while a nice character moment, was a bit cliched.

The Martha clone was better in this episode, and while I found the American Genius still very annoying, the scene where his followers leave him was actually quite decent.

And yeah the episode did have some good moments.  Loved Donna wandering the decks of the Sontaran ship (though I did wonder why their was all confusion about her having to ring the Doctor).  And Martha’s talk with the clone was a nice touch.  In fact, the last 10 minutes probably saved this episode from being classed awful.  The fact that the Doctor has to sacrifice himself, and yet still struggles to press the button, was a telling moment.  Is this the Doctor as coward?  Or is this the Doctor not wanting to murder others to sort out a problem?  I’m sure it’s the latter… and yet, the scene could play both ways.  And I liked that sort of ambiguity. 

I also liked the geek moments – the Brig, the Rutans… all cool.

For me, Poison Sky just doesn’t seem to comes together as a coherent story.  I know it’s meant to be a bit of a runaround, full of flashes and bangs and the odd emotional moment.  But for me it was undermined by a script that sort of lurched from one plot point to another, without any consideration for the logic holes left behind.

Anyway, going by how fans have already reacted to next weeks trailer, I’m sure I’ll be back defending New Who next week.  Personally, I thought the trailer was rather wonderful.

So for me, it’s a 5/10 – and it’s get 5 mostly for that the last 10 minutes.