N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!

The satire in the The Long Game may not exactly be subtle but, sadly, its points are still relevant. If anything, Russell T Davies’ swipe at the media seems even more pertinent in these days of smartphones, social media and “fake news”.

“Compressed information, streaming into her. Reports from every city, every country, every planet, and they all get packaged inside her head.”

The Doctor, The Long Game

Satellite Five shows us a human future in which ‘the facts are being manipulated’ — where if you ‘create a climate of fear … it’s easy to keep the borders closed’.

Observations about the media’s influence on geopolitics aside, perhaps the line that resonates the most two decades into the twenty-first century comes from Simon Pegg’s Editor. Once new (soon-to-be-ex-) companion Adam has plugged himself into the data stream, the Editor is able to determine exactly who the Doctor and Rose are.

“Every piece of information in his head is now mine.”

Even 200,000 years into the future, I guess nobody reads the T’s and C’s. You may well be getting some great tech free or cheap, but what are you giving up in return?

(On a side note, I had also completely forgotten that Tamsin Greig played the nurse in this. It is perhaps a display of the confidence the show was feeling that they could cast such a fine actress in such a small, supporting role.)

It might seem a little light emotionally given the episodes that immediately precede and follow it, but while The Long Game may never win any Doctor Who ‘best-of’ polls, it’s still a considerable amount of fun, and its satire, for this viewer at least, has aged rather well.