Gridlock (TV story)
Gridlock was the third episode of the third series of the revived series of Doctor Who. It marked the death of the Face of Boe and his final words to the Tenth Doctor and the first televised re-appearance of the Macra since 1967's The Macra Terror. The Doctor and Martha Jones were separated for most of the story.
Synopsis
The Tenth Doctor takes Martha Jones to New Earth, in the far future, only to find that an entire city has become a deadly trap.
Plot
Sally Calypso gives the daily travel news to all the cars. Ma and Pa are seated in one of the camper-vans. They call the police for help as they are apparently attacked by something from outside. They are placed on hold by the police computer system, and scream as their car is torn apart.
The Tenth Doctor offers Martha one trip into the future, to visit another planet. She asks if he can take her to his home planet, and speculates as to its beauty. He describes Gallifrey's Citadel, mountains, orange sky and other features as if they still existed, but claims he does not want to go home. Instead, he takes her to the year five billion and fifty three, into a dark alleyway where it is raining, and introduces her to New New York in New Earth. The Doctor repeats some things he told Rose the last time he had visited the planet. Martha becomes slightly upset when she realises she is being taken to the same place the Doctor took Rose, and mutters the word "rebound".
Meanwhile, the Face of Boe sits in a room with Novice Hame. He tells her to find the Doctor before it is too late. She takes out a gun and leaves. The Doctor and Martha are in a run-down street. Three pharmacists open their market stands and try to sell the Doctor and Martha patches that dispense "moods". The Doctor is angry, but intrigued when a young girl buys a Forget patch after losing her parents to "the Motorway".
Suddenly, a young couple armed with guns grab Martha and haul her away, subduing her with a patch inducing Sleep. The Doctor chases them but they escape in their car. The Doctor asks the pharmacists for directions to the Motorway; they comply, but warn him that he may never see Martha again. He tells them to find alternative employment as he promises to shut down their enterprises by that very evening.
Martha wakes up and grabs a gun, only to learn it is a fake. Her kidnappers introduce themselves as Milo and Cheen. Cheen says she is pregnant. Milo explains they only wanted her so they could get on the Fast Lane, which requires three adult passengers. They say they can drop her off when they reach their destination — in six years.
The Doctor arrives at the Motorway, where he discovers thousands of Volkswagen-like hover vans in a traffic jam. He starts to cough and choke from the fumes. A cat person invites him into his car, introducing himself as Thomas Kincade Brannigan and his human wife as Valerie. Their kittens, two months old, have never seen sunlight or trod on ground. The Brannigans themselves have been driving for twelve years, and have travelled only five miles.
As Milo, Cheen and Martha head for the Fast Lane, the Doctor calls the police but is put on hold. Brannigan speaks to some old friends, the Cassini "sisters" (a same-sex married couple), who identify the one car from Pharmacytown that has gone to the Fast Lane. The Doctor learns that some people haven't left their cars in upwards of twenty years. Milo, Cheen and Martha are dropping down to the Fast Lane, but there are strange noises. Cheen tells Martha of stories about cars disappearing but Milo insists they only hear the ventilation shafts.
Brannigan and Valerie refuse to go to the Fast Lane, fearing for the safety of their kittens. The Doctor asks whether they or the Cassinis have ever seen any authorities. The Cassinis reluctantly admit they have not seen any police or ambulances in 23 years of driving. The Doctor believes that the people have been trapped in the under-city and abandoned. Making his own way toward Martha, he opens the shaft on the floor of the car and drops down to the car below. He then moves through several cars, opening the roofs with his sonic screwdriver and continuing through the floor to the car below. In this fashion he meets several characters including hippies, a Bertie Wooster-like business man and a nudist couple.
Martha's car enters the Fast Lane, but the exits are all closed. A nearby cat driver tells him to escape to the slow lanes above, but Milo does not believe in the danger until he hears the other driver's screams. Meanwhile Novice Hame reaches Brannigan's car and demands to know where the Doctor is.
The Doctor reaches the lower levels, just above the Fast Lane. He clears the fog to discover what's down there: the Macra. The Doctor explains to the car's driver that the Macra feed upon toxic gas and once in history built an empire using human slaves to mine gas to feed them, but have since devolved into hungry non-sentient beasts. As Martha's van races along the Fast Lane, the Macras' huge claws attempt to crush it. Reasoning that the light and motion of the vehicle attract the Macra, Martha has Milo turn off the power. It works, but they only have eight minutes of air.
Novice Hame makes it to the car that the Doctor is in. She tells him how she has repented her sins under "his" guidance, and teleports the Doctor against his will to the upper city. She explains that everyone in the upper city, and indeed the whole surface level of New Earth, died because of a virus in the Pharmacists' Bliss drug, but the under city was sealed off and Hame was protected by "him". The citizens in the undercity have not been betrayed and abandoned; they have been saved. Hearing a familiar telepathic voice, the Doctor runs to meet the Face of Boe. Hame says the Face has wired himself to the system to keep the lower levels functioning, but they are unable to free the people there. The Face of Boe asks the Doctor to save the people of the Motorway.
Milo's car is running out of air and, despite Milo and Cheen's doubts, Martha says the Doctor will think of something. Milo starts the power up again, giving them air but exposing them to the Macras' grasp. As the car races along, they are briefly caught by one of the claws, but break free.
The Doctor asks Hame to help him restore power, but there is not enough. The Face of Boe, in one last act of self-sacrifice, gives even more of his "life force" to power the equipment. The Doctor pulls a lever, opening the seal at the top of the motorway. The sunlight beams in, and the Doctor broadcasts to the motorists, telling them to drive upwards and out. This clears the way for Milo's car to escape from the Macra. Meanwhile Hame cries out as the Face of Boe's glass begins to shatter.
Martha arrives at the Senate building where she sees human skeletons, and meets the dying Face of Boe, sprawled out on the ground. The Doctor urges him to live, since (as Boe says) the two of them are each the last of their kind; but the Face responds, "Everything has its time". As promised, he whispers his great secret to the Doctor — "Know this, Time Lord; You are not alone" — before passing away. An expression of shock and disbelief crosses the Doctor's face as Hame weeps.
Martha and the Doctor arrive back at the alleyway. The Pharmacists are gone. Martha asks what the Face meant, and whether she is why the Doctor is not alone. The Doctor shakes his head; he does not want to talk about Boe's words, but Martha refuses to move until the Doctor tells her the truth. The Doctor admits he is the last of his kind, explains about the Last Great Time War and the Daleks, and then goes on to describe Gallifrey. Far above the slums, the over-city thrives with the newly freed motorists. The sun sets orange over New New York.
Cast
- The Doctor — David Tennant
- Martha Jones — Freema Agyeman
- Thomas Kincade Brannigan — Ardal O'Hanlon
- Novice Hame — Anna Hope
- Milo — Travis Oliver
- Cheen — Lenora Crichlow
- Valerie — Jennifer Hennessy
- Alice Cassini — Bridget Turner
- May Cassini — Georgine Anderson
- Whitey — Simon Pearsall
- Javit — Daisy Lewis
- Businessman — Nicholas Bolton
- Sally Calypso — Erika Macleod
- Ma — Judy Norman
- Pa — Graham Padden
- Pale Woman — Lucy Davenport
- Pharmacist #1 — Tom Edden
- Pharmacist #2 — Natasha Williams
- Pharmacist #3 — Gayle Telfer Stevens
- The Face of Boe — Struan Rodger
Crew
| Executive Producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner |
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| Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources. |
References
Culture
- The Japanese kanji for "Bad Wolf" appear on a poster on the wall of the Japanese hippies' car.
- The travellers of the motorway sing the hymn "The Old Rugged Cross".
- The hymn playing over the rebirth of the city is "Abide with Me".
- Ma and Pa resemble the couple on Grant Wood's painting American Gothic.
The Doctor's items
- The Doctor says that Janis Joplin gave him his coat.
Individuals
- The Face of Boe meets the Doctor once more as he promised on his previous meeting with the Doctor. He later expends all his energy to open up the motorway exit and dies, imparting the Doctor with his last words, "You are not alone."
- Novice Hame has been taking care of the Face of Boe.
- Alice and May began their journey twenty-three years ago.
Planets
- The Doctor takes Martha to New Earth.
- New Earth suffered a pandemic from the man-made drug Bliss, which mutated into a lethal airborne virus, killed the entirety of the surface-dwelling population and forced the survivors into the motorway, sealed off from the killer agent. The virus went extinct after running out of hosts to feed on, but the motorway was never reopened despite New Earth becoming safe to inhabit again. No one was left to perform the deed, and the power systems used to unlock the motorway exit gradually deteriorated from lack of maintenance.
Religion
- A word that the people of New Earth used was "Jehovah," which is, according to the Bible, the name of God.
Species
- There are Macra under the city of New New York. However, the species has devolved over billions of years into larger, unintelligent feral predators.
Story notes
- The Face of Boe's secret is revealed in this episode to the Doctor: "You are not alone." The meaning behind this statement is revealed in TV: Utopia.
- This episode formed the final chapter in a loose trilogy about the fate of the human race after the expansion of the sun destroys the Earth in the year 5,000,000,000. The previous two episodes in this trilogy were TV: The End of the World and TV: New Earth.
- Gridlock is the 727th broadcast episode of Doctor Who, surpassing the 726 instalments accumulated by the Star Trek franchise, although Trek's record was set through the broadcasts of six series. Taken on its own merits, Doctor Who has held the record for greatest number of episodes for an individual science fiction series since the 1970s, and the count of 727 doesn't include Torchwood and other spin-offs aired to this point.
- The Macra appear for the first time in 40 years (they last appeared in TV: The Macra Terror).
- Gridlock aired 40 minutes late due to the BBC's coverage of the FA cup.
- This episode had a working title of Chasing Fumes.
Ratings
- 8.41 million viewers - BARB final ratings
- 8.0 million viewers - Overnight ratings
- 0.83 million viewers - BBC3 repeat ratings
Myths
- Due to Milo's similar hairstyle, his appearance in the Series 3 Coming Soon trailer led many people to believe that the Ninth Doctor would return in this episode.
Filming locations
The scenes between the Face of Boe, Novice Hame and the Doctor were filmed at the Temple of Peace in Wales.
Production errors
to be added
Continuity
- The Face of Boe previously appeared in TV: The End of the World and New Earth, with a cameo appearance in The Long Game.
- Novice Hame previously appeared in TV: New Earth.
- The mood drugs had the emblem of the Sisters of Plentitude from TV: New Earth on them.
- The Doctor's description of his home planet (Gallifrey) matches Susan's in TV: The Sensorites as well as the overall appearance in PROSE: Lungbarrow.
- Martha convinced Cheen and Milo to have faith in the Doctor, foreshadowing her job between TV: The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords, spreading faith in the Doctor to save them from the rule of the Master.
- Martha said that she comes from "a long way away" and that she barely even knows the Doctor, having joined him without thinking, echoing Rose's words in TV: The End of the World. That adventure was also Rose's first trip into the future with the Doctor, just as this one is Martha's.
- The Doctor previously visited New New York with Rose in TV: New Earth — a fact Martha comments on when she learns it, irritated that the Doctor is taking her to all the "same places" as he took Rose.
- At the beginning, the Doctor removed the arrow fired at the TARDIS in The Shakespeare Code.
- Cheen said the air smells like apple grass. In New Earth, the TARDIS landed in apple grass.
- The Face of Boe saved Hame by shrouding her in his "smoke". In TV: New Earth, Hame said that the only thing she could do for the Face was maintain his smoke. Small cracks can also be seen on the Face's tank during the events of New Earth and get larger in this episode, until the tank shatters.
Home video releases
- This story was released with Smith and Jones and The Shakespeare Code on the Series 3 Volume 1 DVD.
- It is also included in the Series 3 DVD box set.
External links
- Official BBC Website - Episode Guide: Gridlock
- The Discontinuity Guide to: Gridlock at The Whoniverse
- Gridlock at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
