My Review of Wizards Vs. Aliens 1x06: "The Last Day"

Written by Phil Ford
Directed by Joss Agnew

Helen: "I've been so lucky, Tom, I had one more day with you. One day I should never have had and I'm so glad I did. I love you so much. I love you."

Okay, this episode was inevitable. Rarely do genre shows stick with established character deaths meaning that we're unable to see them again and I guess seeing Helen Clarke was bound to happen at some point. To be honest, the only thing that is really surprising about this story is that it happened in the first series but other than that, this is an excellent story.

The idea of Helen somewhat haunting Tom's dreams as he began to think about her death was a good way of leading us into the reunion between mother and son. I wasn't too shocked however that Helen was merely a clone and that the Nekross were setting up their own battery farm in order to keep themselves supplied with magic.

However as plans went though, it was probably one of the Nekross's  better (if monstrous) of ideas and had Helen not decided to do the heroic self-sacrifice thing (along with the fact that as a clone, she couldn't live for long either), it might have worked. Still a part of me was hoping this story would see the Nekross out of the show but I guess it was an inevitable conclusion.

I still enjoyed the family scenes between Tom/Helen/Michael/Ursula and though cheesy, it was a pretty good way for mother and son to stop the Nekross's overall plans and I guess it did give Tom more assertion to take down the Nekross next series as well giving both Michael and Ursula a chance to see Helen again, even if like Tom, they knew it wasn't meant to last.

- Tom went on a date with Katie in this episode. I guess that means she will get something of a bigger role next series.
- Loved Benny's attempts of trying to rationalise Helen's existence and is Randall's mother really over 1000 years old?
- Varg is still needling Lexi about her loyalty towards Tom. I guess that will play a bigger part in the second series.
- Helen was 35 when she died. Also, the actress who played her is another former Doctor Who guest star, having appeared in the episode, Gridlock.

The Last Day is a strong finale for a show that's actually improved nicely over the course of it's first series. That being said, for it's second run, it might want to expand on threats because the Nekross are running the risk of wearing thin. Overall, a wonderful finale.

Rating: 8 out of 10