It's better than The Lazarus Experiment, Stephen Greenhorn's last Who episode, but not by much - and suffers from just not being as good as the rest of Series 4, which - because it's so good, makes the weaker episodes stand out all the more - put this in Series 3 and it's a solid middle of the road episode. It'd probably be one of the better ones of 2 or 7. Jenny needed a bit more development as the show never gives her any room to breath and it struggles to quite get the Doctor/Donna/Martha/Jenny/both factions balance right in this episode, even if I like the dynamic between Donna & Martha (which is refreshingly not combative in the way that Rose/Sarah Jane was) and the reveal about the war only lasting 7 days, 7 days being "generations" to the clones was a pretty effective moment - the emotional beats in this episode did a good job at landing, thanks in no small part due to Tennant's brilliance which makes up for the revelation about The Doctor's daughter being a clone being something of a copout - I remember the days of the speculation back in the runup to this episode as it aired! Not sure all of it stuck the landing.
On the plus side, this is the last (and only) not-as-good episode of Series 4! There's nothing but great episodes from here on out.
Review by Milo123BlockedParent2021-02-13T12:41:31Z
I'm not too keen on this one.
It's better than The Lazarus Experiment, Stephen Greenhorn's last Who episode, but not by much - and suffers from just not being as good as the rest of Series 4, which - because it's so good, makes the weaker episodes stand out all the more - put this in Series 3 and it's a solid middle of the road episode. It'd probably be one of the better ones of 2 or 7. Jenny needed a bit more development as the show never gives her any room to breath and it struggles to quite get the Doctor/Donna/Martha/Jenny/both factions balance right in this episode, even if I like the dynamic between Donna & Martha (which is refreshingly not combative in the way that Rose/Sarah Jane was) and the reveal about the war only lasting 7 days, 7 days being "generations" to the clones was a pretty effective moment - the emotional beats in this episode did a good job at landing, thanks in no small part due to Tennant's brilliance which makes up for the revelation about The Doctor's daughter being a clone being something of a copout - I remember the days of the speculation back in the runup to this episode as it aired! Not sure all of it stuck the landing.
On the plus side, this is the last (and only) not-as-good episode of Series 4! There's nothing but great episodes from here on out.