"The Long Game" is the seventh episode of the first series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who that was first broadcast on 7 May 2005 on BBC One.

In the episode, the alien time traveller the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and his companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper), having been joined by near-future genius Adam Mitchell (Bruno Langley), land on Satellite 5 in the year 200,000.

This episode's mention of the series wide arc of "Bad Wolf" comes in the form of the title of one of the several TV channels being broadcast from Satellite 5.

The Doctor meets a woman named Cathica, a reporter who tells him that the station is a giant broadcast tower transmitting news across Earth.

He has an information port installed in his brain and uses Rose's phone to call his answering machine at home and transfer data to it.

The Doctor, aware of Cathica's presence outside the room, loudly comments on how altering the environmental systems will likely kill the Jagrafess.

Whether it was ever read by the production team of the time is unclear, as Davies received a rejection from the BBC Script Unit, who advised him to write more realistic television about "a man and his mortgage" instead.

[3] In the DVD commentary for this episode, director Brian Grant and actor Bruno Langley refer to an additional motivation for Adam's actions.

Apparently, in earlier drafts of the script, Adam's father suffered from a disease that was incurable in his time (2012) and he hoped to learn about a cure which had been discovered between that year and 200,000.

[4] Langley and Grant also reveal that the "frozen vomit" that Adam spits out in one scene was in fact a "kiwi and orange ice cube".

[5][6] When the Editor announces the Jagrafess's name to the Doctor and Rose, he pronounces it as "The Mighty Jagrafress of the Holy Hadrajassic Maxaraddenfoe."

[17] "The Long Game" was released on DVD in Region 2 alongside the following episodes "Father's Day", "The Empty Child", and "The Doctor Dances" on 1 August 2005.

Despite praising Pegg, the theme of "media control," and the Jagrafess, they criticised it for "[failing] to capture the imagination" because there was "no real palpable sense of threat" and that human culture looked identical to modern day.

"[21] Arnold T Blumburg of Now Playing gave "The Long Game" a grade of B−, describing it as "entertaining" and a welcome throwback to the classic series.

[22] Reviewing the episode in 2013, Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times was more positive, writing that it "acts brilliantly as a satire of the media."

[23] In 2011, Den of Geek's Mark Harrison wrote that "In retrospect, 'The Long Game' is an underrated and perfectly enjoyable mid-series episode," praising Adam's departure.

"[26] He called Pegg the best guest star so far, and stated that Langley did a "superb job" at conveying Adam, but he felt that the episode did not have much else beside the failed companion storyline.