All entries for Friday 28 July 2006

Doctor?

So yes, I finished watching the latest series of Doctor Who last night, which due to it's UK–based nature, puts me in the interesting position of actually being behind the rest of the general public and my peers in the watching of a TV show. However, it also means that for once I can blog at length about a TV show I watch and have more than Lewis and Jimmy understand what I'm going on about (a study of the finer points of a show that never aired in the UK such as Entourage may be fun to write, but it's less fun if people don't read it).

So without further ado…

1) New Earth
So, David Tennant eh? The first episode in which he's concious for the majority of it and puts in a good performance. Gurning not as bad as Ecclescake but still there. A typical sci–fi story gives us the backdrop but it's no great shakes and has been done before. Not bad though.
2/5

2) Tooth and Claw
This is more like it! Victorian Scotland crossed with werewolves. See that's the show at it's best – crossing some historical setting with a fantastical element. And some left over extras from The Matrix too. How twee. Before I go on now would be a good time for a digression on the subject of Torchwood, since this is where the theme makes it's most obvious early occurrence. Like last years Bad Wolf, references to Torchwood are weaved into the series throughout. Unlike last years Bad Wolf they're not subtle or mysterious however. See, the whole Torchwood thing could be interesting, keep us guessing, trying to figure out what it is and how it all fits in. Except we already know what it is as the BBC have released a ton of press releases for the spin–off series focused on it. Now if they could have kept it under–wraps and announced the spin–off via trailer at the end of the last episode the whole Torchwood hint–dropping thing would have been great. But no, it doesn't work like that and as such just feels like they're reminding you to watch the spin–off when it launches.
But yes, back to Tooth and Claw:
4/5

3) School Reunion
Yay, Tony Head! And the return of two old characters the majority of the TV audience won't know about. But nevertheless they're used to raise a point to Rose about the ultimate fate of the Doctor's companions or something, but frankly it all goes a bit to soapish for me. And the computer hacking with school kids thing was right out of Demon Headmaster sequel The Prime–Minister's Brain. Even down to the glowy green screens. But that plot was never the point. The point of the episode was to hit us around the head with a big Sarah Jane Smith–shaped hammer that says "The Doctor will leave Rose eventually". But it just doesn't work, it's an attempt to put in foreshadowing and character development but it's just clumsy and it's clear Russel T Davis still hasn't got the hang of how to develop an on–going arc, either plot–wise (Torchwood) or character–wise. There's more evidence for this to come.
If the plot weren’t so clichéd and obvious it might get away with it but it doesn't.
2/5

4) The Girl in the Fireplace
Now this is high concept – a ship with windows onto different times in a person's life. And here we finally have a good character driven story, as the love story lasts only forty–five minutes for us, but is a lifetime in Reinette's reality. High concept sci–fi, Renaissance Paris, and an utterly charming love story.
5/5

5) Rise of the Cybermen and the 6) Age of Steel
Well if you didn't know who was appearing in these two episodes the title spoils it for you right off the bat so that's okay then. Makes you wonder why they spend so long building up to a dramatic Cybermen reveal really. So steampunk London and a real hard sci–fi story. Also the first time that Tennant saying "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" really starts to grate. The plot itself is ace, the return of Rose's dad a good idea but remember what I was saying about character arcs earlier? Many people have said this is the episode that redeems the Mickey character from being the bumbling idiot and turns him into a hero. Well I guess it does but again, it's so clumsy. Mickey was never the robot dog – he was far more one–dimensional than K9 ever was. But it's like the producers saw he was getting a negative reaction and decided to get rid of him, and in doing so wrote in some back–story about his parents and gran that shoved in to add some depth, and then have him save the day then opt to stay behind. Obviously you have to redeem the character somewhat to make us care about his sacrifice but it's just so obvious. The fact that they even bother to fill in the back–story to an otherwise neglected character sets off warning bells that he's not long for this earth – quite literally. And don't forget now he's in that other universe, he can never come back, as travel is not possible. That'll be important later.
Still, it was a good story so can't be too harsh.
3/5

7) The Idiot's Lantern
Not much to say on this one really. A good solid tale, that's pretty freaky (people losing their faces, and talking TV sets), a solid episode but utterly unremarkable.
3/5

8) The Impossible Planet and 9) The Satan Pit
The first of these episodes was scary. Really, really tense and a tad disturbing. 'Stuck on a moonbase with something unknown beneath' may be a tad cliché for horror films but it's not something you see in Doctor Who much. The conclusion is a tad less interesting but the TARDIS coming to the rescue was a nice touch. Think I'll split the score into two:
5/5 and 3/5

10) Love and Monsters
Ahh, this one was controversial but I loved it. It might be structured very differently but it's still Doctor Who. It'd probably get five stars if it wasn't for two things. Firstly Peter Kay. Just don't let him near your show, ever. He's awful. He might not be at his worst here but the man still annoys me. Secondly the ending. You craft this amazingly beautiful love story between Elton and Ursula, that really has you feeling for them. And all their friends get killed throughout the episode – was it really too much to ask that The Doctor bring her back fully at the end and they both live happily ever after? I'm not normally a fan of sugary sweet happy endings but since they sort of bought her back anyways, why not go the whole way? It would just have felt more right. But then I guess if they had done that, they wouldn't have been able to fit in the blow–job joke….
4/5

11) Fear Her
Many Doctor Who episodes take the fantastical elements to the extreme but this one really stretches credibility: the London Olympic Stadium actually being finished on time?! Clearly the Torchwood institute had something to do with that one…
Still, it's an interesting concept for an episode, albeit one that doesn't make much sense (where do the kids that are drawn go? and why does the thing controlling the girl want them there, when she exists inside the girl and is hence living in our reality, but is apparently lonely. But by drawing them they get removed from our reality surely making her even more lonely?).
Another average episode.
2/5

12) Army of Ghosts and 13) Doomsday
We all knew that Billie was leaving anyways, so rather than make it a surprise they opted to go with a framing story where Rose makes it perfectly clear that she dies. The twist of course, is that she doesn't.
And so we get cybermen invading, and then we get daleks invading, then we get cybermen and daleks trash–talking each other in the funniest scene I have ever seen on the show. Then we get the daleks totally wtfpwning the cybermen which is very cool, and the Doctor outsmarting them all (yeah, like we've really seen the last of the daleks). It's just brilliant. Oh and Mickey comes back and shoots guns 'cause he's all cool now and gone all Wesley season 4.
But really I should be talking about the ending. Rose gets left behind, permanently trapped away from The Doctor but with the Tyler family back together. It's sad, it's touching, but it doesn't answer the most important question of all: What happened to Rose the dog and how will they deal with differentiating between the two when they're calling them in for dinner?
On a more serious note it was probably the best way to write out Rose – killing her off would have perhaps been too harsh (though led to some more interesting character development for The Doctor next season) and eventually Rose controls her own fate – makes the choice to save the world knowing what it will cost her.
Only one thing nags, and that's that this dimensional rift was meant to be closed up last time and the daleks opened it again – despite protestations to the contrary it will certainly be possible for them to revisit Rose and the Tyler family in a future episode should they so wish…
5/5

(could have ended like this though)

So overall, the season was a little different to season 1 but I think on par. The single episodes were perhaps generally not as strong, and Tennant not being quite as good as Ecclescake – but the two–parters were generally stronger.

I remain sceptical about the upcoming Christmas special, as it has Catherine Tate in it.

Dean Love : 28 Jul 2006 17:06 |  Tags: Doctor TV |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem