Doctor Who: Every Series 1 Episode Ranked Worst To Best
9. The Long Game
Simon Pegg starring in Doctor Who seems like a nerdy dream come true, which makes it all the sadder that his sole episode is pretty drab.
Pegg is as magnetic as always in The Long Game, but his performance is sadly lost in a poor story with too many other moving parts.
The episode takes the Doctor, Rose, and temporary companion Adam to a space station in the distant future. Here, it’s revealed that human progress has stalled due to an intervention in information sharing by a gigantic, angry blob called the Jagrafess, which, in 2023, is worryingly relatable.
The B-story shows Adam immediately disregarding what all common sense (and movies) has told us about time travel, by trying to deliver his past self some valuable information about the future. This takes too much time away from an undercooked showdown between the Doctor and Pegg’s character, the Editor.
Like Boom Town, The Long Game serves a purpose in setting up Satellite 5 as a key location for the finale, but beyond that, it's mostly a forgettable affair.