I liked this episode for several reasons. Not least of which is how it begins with Donna (Catherine Tate) having spilled coffee again and they end up in 1666 and having to ask Isaac Newton the year they're in. As well as pointing out the word "gravity" to him, which he completely misses as "maverty" oh dear. They even use it themselves in the episode. Then ending up in a spaceship as the TARDIS gets damaged and buzzes off as it needs time to repair itself, with the Sonic attached. As the Doctor (David Tennent) recalls the HATS (Hostile Activation Displacement System) system whereby the TARDIS leaves when there's a hostile situation. But it wasn't just for these reasons. As they get closer to finding out that whatever landed here when the airlock was opened three years ago, as they try to assimilate themselves into the Doctor and Donna. But dang those long arms. It was a good scene where they were hot and cold and realized they had 'doubles.' Lots of added banter too and some emotional scenes when Donna says she knows what he went through with the Flux and how she read his mind. What happened to all those people wasn't his fault. Also how the Wild Blue Yonder is a war song, but when she sung it she was told it was full of fun and joy. he says it's an Air Force song and not Army.
I think that keeping this episode secret, as Russell T Davis did, worked, if the plot was revealed it would've given too much away and there wouldn't be any surprises if we knew from the start that they'd come across 'monstrous' versions of themselves in a bid to escape the ship they were stuck on. What was interesting was how the 'aliens' could've mimicked anyone on the ship, but were both fortuitous and at the same experiencing bad luck, in having these two here. Knowing they'd have no hope to get off the ship. Loved the references to being brilliant and idiotic at the same time. It was akin to a screwball comedy with some dark-ish elements thrown in.
Having crashed into the ship, they hear a voice which the Doctor doesn't understand the language of, since well he speaks over billions and this one isn't one of them. Sufficied to say, whenever this voice is heard, the ship alters its shape inside. They pass a very old robot (sloth-like) in the never ending corridor and the Doctor calls him Jimbo. Have no idea why. He opens up the floor to find a ride which they use to drive down the corridor. getting to the front of the ship, Donna comments there's no stars and he says they're at the edge of the universe. Light hasn't caught up with them yet and in a few billion years she can get home to see her family. Noises are heard throughout, which sound like something's colliding or moving about on the ship.
So as the Doctor gets Donna to move the plastic gadgets in the large drawers, they show them as if they're in an alternate universe and we don't know they have doubles, until their arms grow long. They find out they're aliens as they shift and alter their body parts to fit in place. Then get chased by them. As they do give chase, the imposter aliens suddenly find themselves growing at massive size and speed and get stuck in the corridor. Thus giving them time to escape for a bit. The salt scene does suggest they could be vampires and even having large teeth, but this wasn't to be. They soon realize that they know their thoughts as they are morphing into them. So the real pair suggest they don't think anything. Which finally the Doctor finds is too difficult to do. Donna saying that they didn't get into the airlock, but the Captain of the ship got out, to save the ship and the universe from these monsters getting to reach civilization. Then she killed herself, but the aliens don't know why.
Donna saying the voice is a countdown as the Doctor realizes what the words mean. He says that's what he thought from the beginning. As they race to stop it, he gives up and the TARDIS returns. Though he picks up the wrong Donna as he questions her on her choir teacher, Miss Bean. But returns in the nick of time as he realizes the imposter's arm was too long. The ship explodes after the countdown is sped up. They return home and to Wilf (Bernard Cribbens) waiting for her, only to find that the people on Earth are going crazy out of their minds and chaos.
The Doctor has a foreboding about the salt. As he told them they can't cross it until they count each grain, or if they're not afraid and not vampires etc, they should cross it. Which does come back to haunt him in the final Specials ep.
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