The Long Game

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

IMDb profile
166 - The Long Game
Doctor	Christopher Eccleston (Ninth Doctor)
Writer	Russell T. Davies
Director	Brian Grant
Script Editor	Elwen Rowlands
Producer	Phil Collinson
Executive producer(s)	Russell T. Davies Julie Gardner Mal Young
Production code	Series 1, Episode 7
Series	Series 1 (2005)
Length	1 episode, 45 mins
Transmission date	May 7, 2005
Preceded by	Dalek
Followed by	Father's Day

The Long Game is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that was first broadcast on May 7, 2005. This serial is the final appearance of Bruno Langley as the companion Adam Mitchell.

1 Synopsis
2 Plot
3 Cast
4 Trivia
5 References
6 External links
- 6.1 Reviews

[edit] Synopsis

Along with new companion Adam, the TARDIS deposits the Ninth Doctor and Rose on Satellite 5, a space station that broadcasts across the entire Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. However, those who are promoted to Floor 500 simply disappear; humanity might be being manipulated by the news — and who exactly is the sinister Editor working for?

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

"The last of the Time Lords... and his little human girl from long ago."

The Doctor, Rose and new companion Adam travel forward in time to the year 200,000 and land aboard Satellite 5, a space station orbiting Earth during the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Earth in this time period is at its height, covered with megacities, five moons and a population of 96 billion, the centre of a galactic domain that stretches across a million planets and species — or, at least, it is supposed to be.

They make their way around the station, the Doctor telling Adam that he will enjoy this period as human culture is at its peak, with fine manners and cuisine. When the station comes to life with junk food vendors and people pushing each other around — and no sign of species other than human — the Doctor is puzzled, as this does not quite fit with what he knows of this period's history. He decides to investigate, suggesting that Adam and Rose go get something to eat. He uses his sonic screwdriver on a cash point, retrieving a credit stick which he gives to Adam.

The Doctor meets Cathica and Suki, who are journalists aboard Satellite 5. The Doctor uses his psychic paper on them and poses as management to question them about the station. Cathica sees this as an opportunity to get promoted to management's "Floor 500", which is rumoured to have walls of gold. She answers the Doctor's questions, showing him that Satellite 5 is a news station, broadcasting 600 channels across the Empire. However, they are being observed suspiciously on security monitors by the Editor, a pale man standing in a dark, icy room. He orders a security check to be done.

Meanwhile, Adam seems overawed by everything around him and says that he misses his family. Rose lets him use her "superphone" to call his family in the past and he leaves a message for them on their answering machine. As the Doctor calls them over, Adam gets a thoughtful look on his face and pockets the superphone.

The Doctor, Rose and Adam are taken into a room where there are other reporters sit arranged in a circle around a chair. Cathica sits in the central chair, engages the safety protocols and snaps her fingers, opening a port in the centre of her forehead through which her brain is visible. On her cue, the others press their hands to the panels in front of them and an energy beam spikes down from a hub above, streaming information directly into her brain. Cathica is acting as a processor for the computer systems that broadcast all the news from Satellite 5, though she will not retain all that information once the link is severed. The Doctor explains that each reporter has a chip in their head as well, which receives the packaged information from Cathica and then transmits it to their separate channels. Adam is amazed at the technology, but the Doctor says that it is the wrong technology; there is trouble afoot.

The Editor's security check turns up nothing, but he is unconvinced. A second sweep reveals someone in the newsroom is having unauthorised access to the systems, and isolates the intruder as Suki. Her records have an encrypted, secondary biography attached to them. The Editor terminates the transmission abruptly, and reports obsequiously to something that growls unintelligibly from the ceiling of the control room. The Editor sends a message to the newsroom, saying that Suki has been promoted to Floor 500. Adam is still feeling a bit overwhelmed by all that he is seeing, and tells Rose he is going to "acclimatise" by himself on the observation deck. Suki says her goodbyes to Cathica and gets on the lift. Cathica does not expect to see her again. Once you go to Floor 500, you never come back.

Floor 500 appears deserted and everything is covered in frost and snow. Wandering around, she is shocked to find a newsroom populated by shrivelled corpses. Following the light streaming in from an open door, she finds the control room and is greeted by the Editor. He displays her records on a holographic screen, and immediately concludes that her life story as given in her job application is a lie — she is actually the last survivor of an anarchist underground group called the Freedom Fifteen. Suki points a gun at the Editor, demanding to know who controls Satellite 5. The Freedom Foundation has been monitoring the broadcasts and has discovered that the facts are being manipulated and that the system is corrupt. He introduces her to the Editor-in-Chief, up above. The unseen creature is impervious to Suki's gunfire, and she screams as it descends towards her.

Meanwhile, the Doctor is asking Cathica more questions. She finally realises that the Doctor is not really management and asks him not to get her involved, but the Doctor points out that she's a journalist. There have been various vague conflicts and threats from all over the Empire that have somehow resulted in a complete lack of alien immigration aboard, and she has not questioned enough to notice. The Doctor says the Empire is stunted, in both its attitudes and its technology. They should be more advanced and enlightened by now — something is holding it back, and has been for the last ninety-one years since Satellite 5 began broadcasting.

At the same time, Adam is on the Observation Deck accessing a station terminal and learning information about the future's technology. He calls back to the past on the superphone, wanting to leave a message on the answering machine about what he has learned, but after a point, the computer denies him access, directing him to the medical labs on Floor 16. There, a nurse informs him that he needs a chip to access the system. He can have a small, invisible Type I chip inserted that will give him basic access or the Type II port like Cathica's, which will link him fully to the archives. After some hesitation, Adam opts for the second option, using the credit stick the Doctor gave him earlier, which he learns has unlimited credit.

While the Doctor accesses the station mainframe, the Editor orders a further check on Rose and the Doctor, discovering that according to Satellite 5's records, neither of them exist. The Doctor and Rose try to convince Cathica that there is something suspicious going on in the station, but Cathica still wants nothing to do with this. The Doctor hacks into the computer, and discovers that something is venting a lot of hot air from the upper levels. The Editor secretly allows the Doctor to get the password key for Floor 500 from the systems and Rose and the Doctor travel up to 500. There, they find the Editor waiting for them and Suki's dead body slaved to the computer systems.

The Editor's men grab hold of the Doctor and Rose, and the Editor explains that the Empire is not really human — it is just where humans are allowed to live. For the past ninety years, humankind has been controlled and guided by his superior, the monstrous creature known as the Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe (or, as he calls it, "Max") and funded by a consortium of banks. By manipulating the news and creating a climate of fear, they have controlled the economy and kept the borders closed; the human race does not even know that it has been enslaved. Those who suspect the truth are detected because of the chips in their heads, and the Editor gets rid of them.

Meanwhile, Cathica has changed her mind, and uses the passkey to go to Floor 500, where, unseen, she watches the Editor question the Doctor and Rose. The Doctor notices Cathica watching, and audibly observes that the Jagrafess's metabolism generates a lot of heat, which is why it needs to be vented from the upper floors. The station is its life support system.

Down below, Adam, recovered from the surgery, enters the newsroom and activates his Type II port with the default command: snapping his fingers. He uses Rose's superphone to call his parents' house again, leaving another message which he says will sound like white noise but he will translate later. He calls for the information spike, and begins recording it. Suddenly, the Editor gains the knowledge of who the Doctor is: the last of the Time Lords, and Rose is his companion. The Doctor tries to deny it, but the Editor shows him Adam accessing the satellite's archives — when he did so, the Editor gained access to everything Adam knew. The Editor intends to gain the knowledge in the Doctor's head as well as his TARDIS, perhaps even rewriting history to prevent humankind from ever developing.

Having heard all this, Cathica goes to the newsroom on Floor 500, linking up, overriding the safety protocols and severing Adam's connection. She reverses the environmental systems, heating the floor up. The Editor tries to terminate Cathica's link but she fights back. The entire station shudders, and people start to run around in a panic. Rose gets free of her bonds, using the sonic screwdriver to release the Doctor. As the Jagrafess starts to overheat, the Editor tries to leave, but Suki's corpse somehow grabs hold of his foot, stopping him. The Editor screams as the Jagrafess expands above him and explodes. The Doctor and Rose find Cathica in the newsroom. He snaps his fingers and closes her connection port, smiling proudly at her — she used what she knew and what the Doctor told her to defeat the Jagrafess, proving that humans are not the sheep the Editor thought they were. The Empire's development can now get back on track.

The Doctor is, however, furious at Adam's actions, and returns him to his own time in the TARDIS, destroying the answering machine at his parents' house. The connection port in his head, however, is something Adam will have to live with for the rest of his life — and something he will have to be careful not to reveal lest he be dissected. It will have to be a quiet and ordinary life, as all it takes is a simple snap of the fingers. The Doctor and Rose leave in the TARDIS as Adam's mother comes home.

Adam's mother greets him happily as it has been six months since she saw him last. She muses on how time can pass just like that, snapping her fingers — and her expression changes to horror as the port in Adam's head opens.

[edit] Cast

Doctor Who — Christopher Eccleston
Rose Tyler — Billie Piper
Adam — Bruno Langley
Head Chef — Colin Prockter
Cathica — Christine Adams
Suki — Anna Maxwell-Martin
The Editor — Simon Pegg
Nurse — Tamsin Greig
Adam's mother — Judy Holt

[edit] Trivia

According to the reproduction of the original series outline in Doctor Who Magazine's Series One Special, the working title for this story was The Companion Who Couldn't.
This is the time period of the "Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire". The first Earth Empire was featured in several Third Doctor stories in the 1970s. It lasted from around the mid-26th century (Frontier in Space) to the early 31st century (The Mutants).
Satellite 5 is shown to be rotating around its vertical axis, but this cannot be to provide artificial gravity, as the floors are laid out from top to bottom.
The Doctor tells Adam that time travel is about jumping into unfamiliar situations and making mistakes, including "kissing complete strangers... or is that just me?" — a possible reference to the controversial kiss between the Eighth Doctor and Grace Holloway in the 1996 Doctor Who television movie.
The junk food vendor on board Satellite 5 is selling "kronkburgers". Kronkburgers were consumed by the guards of an alternate Roman Empire that had conquered the galaxy in the Doctor Who comic strip story, Doctor Who and the Iron Legion, that ran in Doctor Who Weekly #1-#8. They are also mentioned in the New Series Adventures novel The Resurrection Casket.
Following the "bad wolf" theme begun in earlier episodes of the season, one of the broadcast channels featuring the Face of Boe (from The End of the World) is named "BAD WOLFTV". See Bad Wolf references in Doctor Who.
All of the logos of news channels shown in the corners of the television screens feature a symbol consisting of three concentric circles with the first two divided by six lines,^[1] possibly Satellite 5's logo. Many of the signs and documents on Satellite 5 also appear to contain a stylised script resembling Hebrew.^[2]
Rose's "superphone", which the Doctor modified to allow her to call back to her own time (c. 2005) in The End of the World appears to be intelligent enough to realise who is using it, as it allows Adam to call back to his own time period of 2012 as well as back to Earth without the need for an area code.
In finance, "playing a long game" refers to implementing a long-term strategy rather than focusing on short-term gains. This refers to the subtle scheme to enslave the human race without its knowledge over a period of decades, or even centuries, implemented by the Jagrafess. The Doctor says that "someone's been playing a long game" during the events of Bad Wolf — a reference to this episode — as he realises that the Jagrafess was just another pawn in this overall plan.
According to Russell T. Davies in his Production Notes column in Doctor Who Magazine #350 and later in the official preview for the story in #356, The Long Game was originally written in the early 1980s and submitted to the Doctor Who production office. Whether it was ever read by the production team of the time is unclear, as Davies received a rejection from the BBC Script Unit, who advised him to write more realistic television about "a man and his mortgage" instead. Davies reworked the story for the new series.
When Adam first calls back to the 21st century, the establishing shot for his parents' home uses the same house that Mickey was in front of when he was captured by the Nestene-animated dustbin in Rose.
When the Editor announces the Jagrafess's name to the Doctor and Rose, he pronounces it as "The Mighty Jagrafress of the Holy Hadrajassic Maxaraddenfoe". Actor Simon Pegg has admitted during interviews that he found this an extremely difficult line to say; so to avoid inconsistencies, the Jagrafess roars throughout the announcement (although the subtitles spell the name with the most common spelling). However, during the pre-credits sequence of Bad Wolf, Pegg's "wrong" pronunciation can be clearly heard.
While this is not the first time that a companion has tried to change history (that distinction belongs to Barbara in The Aztecs), Adam is the first to try and exploit the future for personal gain. The issue of changing history would be dealt with more directly in the next episode, Father's Day.
Adam is the first on-screen companion in Doctor Who history to be evicted from the TARDIS for bad behaviour.
Adam's mother, though not given a name on screen or in the credits, is named Sandra.
This week's edition of Mickey's "Who is Doctor Who?" website has an essay from a 14-year-old Adam Mitchell.^[3]
In the two-part finale of the 2005 series (Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways) the "people" behind the Jagrafess showed themselves. The finale is set on Satellite 5, now named the Game Station, a century after The Long Game.
In the book The Shooting Scripts, Russell T. Davies claims that he had originally set out to write this episode from Adam's perspective, watching the adventure unfolding from his point of view (exactly as Rose did in Rose) and seeing both the Doctor and Rose as enigmatic, frightening characters. He even gave this outline a working title: Adam.
In the DVD commentary for this episode, director Brian Grant and actor Bruno Langley refer to an additional motivation for Adam's actions. Apparently, in earlier drafts of the script, Adam's father suffered from a disease that was incurable in his time (2012) and he hoped to learn about a cure which had been discovered between that year and 200,000 (in the shooting script the condition is arthritis). No trace of this motivation remains in the finished programme, although Grant discusses it as if it were still present.
Langley and Grant also reveal in the DVD commentary that the "frozen vomit" that Adam spits out in one scene was in fact a "kiwi and orange ice cube".
Features guest appearances by Bruno Langley, Simon Pegg and Tamsin Greig. See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who.
Voice artist Nicholas Briggs mentions on the DVD commentary for the episode Dalek that he recorded voice work for the Jagrafess, but his contribution was not used because it sounded too similar to the Nestene Consciousness (which Briggs had voiced in Rose).