Luke has a vivid nightmare involving the return of Mrs. Wormwood, the alien who genetically engineered him as an archetype for a new evolutionary stage of the Bane species. Sarah dismisses it as a normal childhood nightmare, but then more disturbing news arrives: Rani’s mother has vanished from her flower shop. Sarah finds a clue at the shop that leads her to a meeting with Mrs. Wormwood in person. Outcast from the Bane, she’s searching for an alien artifact called the Tunguska Scroll, which is one of many alien artifacts contained in UNIT’s Black Archive. She claims that this item will help her stop the Bane’s advance across the galaxy – it will save Earth and many other worlds, and will help her get her revenge. Sarah reluctantly agrees to help, and goes to see Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, retired from UNIT (but still subject to being pressed into duty as an advisor or “special envoy”). Rather than alerting UNIT to the Bane’s approach – which would draw unwelcome attention to Luke’s alien nature – he helps to sneak Sarah into the Black Archive to “borrow” the Tunguska Scroll. But while Sarah is doing that, Mrs. Wormwood’s true agenda – and her real allies – are revealed.

written by Phil Ford
directed by Graeme Harper
music by Sam Watts / title music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Mina Anwar (Gita Chandra), Ace Bhatti (Haresh Chandra), Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith), Samantha Bond (Mrs. Wormwood), Nicholas Courtney (Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart), Anthony O’Donnell (Kaagh), Simon Chadwick (Major Cal Kilburne)

Notes: Aside from the generally-discounted-from-canon Dimensions In Time and an appearance in the 1995 fan-produced video Downtime – which also starred Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah – this marks Nicholas Courtney’s first on-screen appearance as (now retired) Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart since the opening story of classic Doctor Who’s final season, Battlefield (1989). His first appearance in the role was 40 years before this episode’s premiere in The Web Of Fear (1968)). Even after the end of the original television series, Courtney reprised the role of the Brigadier in productions like Downtime, BBC Radio’s two Jon Pertwee plays, and Big Finish audio stories such as The Spectre Of Lanyon Moor, Minuet In Hell, and even a UNIT-centered audio miniseries. Lethbridge Stewart’s visit to Peru – mentioned in the Doctor Who episode The Poison Sky – is something for which he’s only just now being debriefed by UNIT. Kaagh, last seen in The Last Sontaran, returns here, as well as Mrs. Wormwood, who was seen in the Sarah Jane Adventures pilot, Invasion Of The Bane.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Ahsoka is assigned to accompany Jedi Master Luminara Unduli on her mission to bring Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray in to face trial. Meanwhile, Count Dooku has tasked Asajj Ventress with the job of freeing the Viceroy…or silencing him. Darth Sidious has made it clear that another failure by Ventress will not be tolerated. While Luminara and Ahsoka butt heads over their differing approaches to interrogating the Viceroy, Ventress puts her plan into action.

written by Paul Dini
directed by Dave Filoni
music by Kevin Kiner / original Star Wars themes by John Williams

Cast: Olivia d’Abo (Luminara Unduli), James Marsters (Captain Argyus), Tom Kenny (Nute Gunray), Dee Bradley Baker (Commander Gree), Ashley Echstein (Ahsoka Tano), Ian Abercrombie (Darth Sidious), Corey Burton (Count Dooku / Senate Guard), Nika Futterman (Asajj Ventress),

LogBook entry by Philip R. Frey

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Sarah, Luke, Rani, Clyde and the Brigadier – with Mrs. Wormwood in tow – hide from UNIT at the flower shop. But, as Sarah suspects, it’s all a double-cross: Mrs. Wormwood has allied with Kaagh the Sontaran, and their plans for the Tunguska Scroll have nothing to do with saving Earth. Luke agrees to go with Mrs. Wormwood to keep Sarah and the others alive, but while he is her hostage, he learns that the Scroll will summon a cybernetic organism called Horath, furthering Mrs. Wormwood’s plans for conquest and revenge. When Mrs. Wormwood tries to tempt Luke with the Scroll, he takes it and makes a run for it until Kaagh stops him. At Sarah’s home, Major Cal Kilburne of UNIT is waiting to reclaim the Scroll as well, but the Brigadier discovers that Klburne’s mission isn’t exactly part of UNIT’s charter. Still held hostage by Kaagh and Mrs. Wormwood, Luke is taken to an ancient burial site that hides a dimensional portal leading to Horath – and he has no choice but to open it for them.

written by Phil Ford
directed by Graeme Harper
music by Sam Watts / title music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Mina Anwar (Gita Chandra), Ace Bhatti (Haresh Chandra), Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith), Samantha Bond (Mrs. Wormwood), Nicholas Courtney (Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart), Anthony O’Donnell (Kaagh), Simon Chadwick (Major Cal Kilburne)

Notes: The White Barrow site at the episode’s climax is real, though there isn’t actually a Stonehenge-style stone circle there. The end credits of both parts of Enemy Of The Bane give credit to writers Robert Holmes (creator of the Sontarans) and Henry Lincoln & Mervyn Haisman (creators of the Brigadier).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

On the trail of the escaped Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray, Jedi Master Kit Fisto and his former padawan Nahdar Vebb find themselves not in the Viceroy’s hiding place, but the home of the leader of the droid army, General Grievous. While Vebb is eager to take down the General, Fisto realizes that the best outcome they can likely hope for is escaping alive.

written by Henry Gilroy
directed by Atsushi Takeuchi
music by Kevin Kiner / original Star Wars themes by John Williams

Cast: Phil LaMarr (Kit Fisto), Olivia d’Abo (Luminara Unduli), Ashley Eckstein (Ahsoka Tano), Tom Kenny (Nahdar Vebb / Nute Gunray), Dee Bradley Baker (Fil / Niner / Bel), Corey Burton (Count Dooku), Matthew Wood (General Grievous / Battle Droids), David Acord (A-4D), Terrence “TC” Carson (Mace Windu), Tom Kane (Yoda / Narrator)

LogBook entry by Philip R. Frey

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The TARDIS lands in London, 1851, at Christmastime, but before the Doctor can even be serenaded by carolers, someone is calling his name. He discovers a woman in an alleyway, but even though he’s arrived to save the day, she doesn’t stop calling for help until another man shows up – another man claiming that he is the Doctor. Some sort of Cyber-converted creature bursts out of a building, leading both Doctors on a wild goose chase until they lose track of it, but then the Doctor – and the Doctor who was already on the case in 1851 – encounter real Cybermen, apparently escaped from the Void. Curiously, this other Doctor remembers nothing of his tenth incarnation, who then discovers why: this Doctor isn’t the man he says he is. But why does he think he’s another incarnation of the Doctor, and what monstrous plans are afoot that involve the Cybermen enslaving the children of London?

written by Russell T. Davies
directed by Andy Goddard
music by Murray Gold

Cast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Davis Morrissey (Jackson Lake), Dervia Kirwan (Miss Hartigan), Velile Tshabalala (Rosita), Rauri Mears (Cybershade), Paul Kasey (Cyberleader), Edmund Kenie (Mr. Scoones), Michael Bertenshaw (Mr. Cole), Jason Morell (Vicar), Neil McDermott (Jed), Ashley Horne (Lad), Tom Langford (Frederic), Jordan Southwell (Urchin), Matthew Allick (Docker), Nicholas Briggs (Cyber voices)

Notes: While Peter Davison reappeared as the fifth Doctor in Time Crash, and Human Nature’s Journal of Impossible Things showed sketches of all of David Tennant’s predecessors in the role of the Doctor, The Next Doctor marks the first time that actual footage from the original series or the 1996 TV movie have been incorporated into the new series, with a brief clip of each Doctor. The potential inconsistency of the alternate universe/”Cybus” Cybermen having information about the Doctor’s prior regenerations is avoided with the Doctor’s conjecture that these Cybermen stole the information from the Daleks in the Void, which also explains why few if any of the clips are from Cybermen stories (though they’re not necessarily from Dalek stories either).

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green (more…)