Doctor Who, "The Poison Sky": Are you my Martha?

Brief "Doctor Who" spoilers coming up just as soon as I do something really clever...

Under Russell T. Davies, every season of "Doctor Who" has to hit certain signposts, and one of my least favorite is the early season two-parter, which tends to be loud and busy and not that memorable. The Slitheen two-parter in season one and the Dalek two-parter last season were arguably each season's respective low point. (The first Cyberman story from season two was slightly better, owing mostly to the personal connection for Rose with the parallel versions of her parents and Mickey.)

We still have quite a lot of season four to go, but I'm hopeful that when it's over I'll be able to look back on this Sontaran storyline as the low point. Because other than a few isolated moments with Donna and Martha, these episodes left me very cold. I know that "Doctor Who" is a show that's designed for children, but it's only when the farting aliens or these guys show up that it feels like it's only for children.

Since we're now a couple of days away from the broadcast and I'm otherwise in a good mood, I'll just rattle off the few bits that I felt worked:

• Though Donna wasn't featured as much here as she was in the season's first few episodes, the moments that she had were choice, notably her absolute terror of leaving the TARDIS to walk through the Sontaran ship ("But he'll kill me!") and, while Martha's being all lovey-dovey about The Doctor's survival, Donna punches him in the arm out of frustration for the emotional wringer he put her through. (I also liked her reaction to getting the TARDIS key.)
• I quite liked Martha during her stint on "Torchwood," and continue to like her here, as a companion who's managed, quite quickly, to accept, and even embrace, her post-Doctor existence. I'm glad to see she'll be around for at least one more episode -- and, in sticking to her new character arc, is being dragged along against her will.
• Someone had to point this out to me, but when The Doctor is first trying to speak to Donna while pretending to speak to the Sontarans, you can see Rose on the TARDIS monitor for a second or two, and she appears to be screaming out "Doctor!!!!"
• Tennant putting on a gas mask and saying "Are you my mummy?," a reference to the high point of the Christopher Eccleston season (the London Blitz two-parter, which was written by Steven Moffat and therefore exempt from the series' usual two-parter issues), cracked me up.
• I liked The Doctor's brief bonding with Ross from UNIT in the first part of the story, which made his reaction to Ross' death feel like one of the few genuine moments of the second part. As I've mentioned often in the past, the series is (usually) very good at establishing the guest stars, particularly those destined to die, with minimal effort and screen time.

What did everybody else think?