Films Within Films: Doctor Who and the Sluggish Invasion

Or in this case, TV Shows Within TV Shows. Dimension X has its own television, you know, and I think their BBC's version of Doctor Who is really what this blog likes to call Whoniverse-B. What if we were able to get cable from across the Multiverse?

Doctor Who and the Sluggish Invasion
Directors: Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant
Stars: David Tennant, Liza Tarbuk, Andy Millman
Genre: Science-fiction
Precis: The 10th Doctor and Rita fight the slug-like Shlong.
Review from Dimension X/Whoniverse-B: Forget Fear Her and the last 15 minutes of Love & Monsters, The Sluggish Invasion is Tennant's Doctor Who REALLY scraping the bottom of the barrel. Not only did short-term companion Rita NEVER work - she was written to be dumber than Peri and Dodo added together; maybe it would have been better if she'd just reprised her role as Captain Kaliko after The Infinite Quest - but the script was peppered (or rather salted) with obnoxious bafflegab as well. But all of that could be forgiven if the episode had had a good villain. Unfortunately, Shlong is joylessly played by catch-phrase spewer Andy Millman (off the Titanic of a sitcom, When the Whistle Blows, which makes America's Two and a Half Men feel like high art) who looks more like a turd than a slug, looking like he's squeezing one out every time he uses his powers. Well the turd is actually the episode.

Even the production values are suspect. Even the classic program would have been ashamed of the Shlong costumes... and they made things like the Creature from the Pit which was just a green weather balloon somehow made to look like a giant haunted condom! Well, I wish Shlong had as much personality. Maybe they should have just run a clip show that week. Critics would have panned it anyway, but at least we could have sit through some of the show's best moments, even if it were in a pointless montage. We've lost Fury from the Deep, but this is forever available. That's the only real horror here.

Watch what clips have filtered through to our universe (courtesy of Extras' Christmas special):

Final rating: 1 ou 5 police boxes
Would see if it were made: I've seen every Doctor Who episode ever, even the lost ones (as ugly reconstructions), so yes. Where do I think it would rank? Maybe just under The Twin Dilemma?

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