TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS

Despite the Jules Verne-y title, Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS was actually more of an Alien type affair, much like the earlier episode Cold War, albeit in a place much cooler than a Russian submarine (sorry about the terrible pun... again). Long have we been teased about the swimming pool and the library and we finally got to see them in all their wonderful eccentricity though the swimming pool was glimpsed but briefly. The production design team worked a treat with the TARDIS sets, giving off a real sense of enormity with just a small budget. Clara's run through the corridors and discovering everything was easily the most fun part of the episode.

The episode built the tension well through the use of the creepy, smouldering zombie things and succeeded for a large part where the Ice Warrior did not. Through the simple technique of blurring their appearances, or only showing glimpses of them, they become a really quite creepy foes with added juddery movement that I found unsettling. Of course, the eventual truth of who they actually are dampened the matter somewhat though the fate of the Van Baalen brothers was most satisfying. Quite what they were doing there other than as a plot device for a fake countdown, I'm not entirely sure.

For this episode belonged, as most of them tend to do, to the central partnership of Clara and the Doctor. Jenna-Louise Coleman has now settled into the role so completely that it feels like she's been there forever. Her scene where she is forced to defend herself and yell at the Doctor was emotional stuff and proved that she is just as capable of the drama as she is dropping a one-liner. I've been a Matt Smith advocate from the moment his casting was announced (based solely on his performance in under-seen, underrated drama Party Animals - also starring Andrew Buchan of Broadchurch), but he really has excelled as everyone's favourite Gallifreyan. Capable of being young and giddy whilst at the same time feeling every bit of the Doctor's 900 years, he's proven himself to be a solid centre at the heart of the TARDIS.
And so we get to the ending. Now Doctor Who, as we have observed on many occasion (especially this series), has always had an issue wrapping everything up with a neat bow. The first two acts are generally great build-ups to what always seems to be a momentous finale. And then the third act amounts to five minutes of concluding before a brief epilogue that just feels unsatisfactory. Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS was one such episode in which a nice handy 'big friendly' reset button to restore normality and give each of our principle players a nice happy-ish ending. Time is rewritten and the events of the previous forty minutes happened only for the audience and the Doctor.

Now I have a problem with such endings in a variety of contexts because it nearly always means that any character development that took place outside of the main character no longer happened. I find that incredibly frustrating, especially with a character like Clara who is currently vying with Rory for the title of Favourite Companion in the new Who. This episode gave her a chance to strike out on her own and to learn things about herself and her past, before it all gets erased and we're back where the episode started.
Clara found it within herself to stand up to the Doctor and get out of him the truth that he had been hiding whilst realising that he is definitely the scariest thing that had ever happened to her. 

It was great to see one of the more recent companions actually realise this and not just gaze at the Doctor in a bubble of admiration like Rose and Martha used to. Here was someone who openly declared the Doctor saved her and learned that she was a very special kind of mystery, one which is yet to be solved, only to have that moment taken away from her again. Of course, I am not writing this with the benefit of knowing the future (sadly all of my attempts at psychic ability have so far failed) and Clara may actually remember these events or come to remember them in the future. By declaring that she felt safe with the Doctor when pressed at the end of the episode certainly hints strongly that she cannot recall these important events.

It's a shame I disliked the ending so much because up until the last few scenes, it could have been a cracker of an episode, full of tension and impressive visuals. Especially the library, that looked fantastic. However, the final scenes left a bitter taste. Next week sees a return to Victorian London with Jenny and Madam Vestra returning along with Strax. It also boasts what is surely to be the most awesome mother-daughter team to grace the screens in a long while with Dame Diana Rigg appearing alongside Rachel Stirling. Find out what Jen thinks next week.

- Becky

You can read Jen's review of previous episode Hide here.

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TV REVIEW: The Village - Episode Four

 Apologies for the slight delay in posting this review. However, as is often the case with The Village, I’ve only just managed to pull myself out from the depths of misery and despair long enough to have the energy to type.

I’ve made no bones so far about the fact I find the show rather misery ridden, but this week took matters about seventeen steps further. Mary, the daughter of John (John Simm) and Grace’s (Maxine Peake) develops scarlet fever, a terrifying and life threatening disease at the time, especially for such a small child. Margaret (Annabelle Apsion), the mother of a soldier killed in battle receives unfair hostility from certain village members regarding her inability to accept the circumstances of her son’s death.  Meanwhile John is, we suspect, wrongfully imprisoned for fatally injuring a cow when ‘borrowing’ medicine kept in the big house’s cowshed, leaving Assorted Buffery favourite, George (Augustus Prew) very upset about the cow, and Grace very upset about John. Understandably.  All this whilst their young son Bert Bert (Bill Jones), paralysed with fear about elder brother Joe (Nico Mirallegro) 's fate in a rumoured battle, determines to win the annual village wheelbarrow race in a bizarre yet sweet attempt to somehow keep his brother safe.

None of these storylines, however, felt like contenders for the episode’s main focal point, as this accolade undoubtedly went to the plight of Caro Allingham (Emily Beecham). Having had her child taken away from her to protect the family reputation, poor Caro is now being treated for hysterics- that uniquely ‘female’ disease seen at the time as simply a combination of attention seeking, self- pity and a lack of appropriate response to male authority. Or that’s how her doctor, Doctor Wylie (Jonny Phillips) describes it, anyway. Making the family hand full authority over to him, Wylie decrees that Caro be bed bound, allowed to do nothing but simply lie there unless he says otherwise, forbidden from talking to anyone and being fed a mixture of veal and milk seven times a day, finishing all of it without fail. This results in a truly harrowing scene in which the distraught woman is force fed through a tube, with Wylie seeming to enjoy breaking her spirit just a little too much, particularly relishing informing the haplessly well-intentioned George that it was his poetry about his sister’s diet which revealed to the doctor that she had been talking to him. 

This enjoyment seemed particularly, disturbingly apparent in what looked to be a scene of suggested rape, with Wylie seen locking the door and unbuckling his belt, whilst the broken Caro looked on in a terrifying, apathetic sort of fear. We do not know this for sure as yet, but given the echo in the episode’s other sexually brutal scenes involving Detective Bairstow (Joe Armstrong) – another male authority figure, and that this is The Village, a show where everything is every bit as nasty as it appears – it certainly seems likely.

The show’s commitment to a lack of sentimentality towards life in the time of its setting 

is certainly to be admired, particularly as we live in a world in which we’re frequently encouraged to look back through the nostalgic lens of ‘things were better, back then’. Well no, says The Village, they weren’t. Young men were sent to war, we had fewer cures for diseases, families and older men had absolute authority over vulnerable young women and lower class people had to face the wall when passed in the street by one of their betters. Oh and there were a lot of grey skies and mud. Admirable, in concept though this is, it doesn’t half make for a bleak hour of television. I’m all for Naturalism, and think the show has taken a good deal of inspiration from the likes of Emile Zola, ‘Germinal’, in particular, however I’m no longer convinced that the relentless misery, without much of a let-up, ever, is especially realistic.

Surely things weren’t this bad, all the time back then? Perhaps they were, perhaps they weren’t. Either way, we’ll find out soon enough in the next episode.

The Village is next on tonight, BBC One, 9pm.

  Jen

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TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - Hide

On first look, it was easy to mistake this week’s episode of Doctor Who as something more in the way of supernatural than scientific. Whilst this isn’t necessarily a new theme for the show, it is the first of its kind in rather a while.

‘Hide’ told the story of the creepy Caliburn House, dwelled in by Professor Alec Palmer (Dougray Scott), his assistant Emma Grayling (Jessica Raine), oh and their friendly neighbourhood ghost. Only, it doesn’t seem quite so friendly. Naturally, The Doctor (Matt Smith) and plucky Clara (Jenna Louise Coleman) wade in to investigate, finding bits of the house that are colder than others, hearing odd voices and having their hands held by unseen beings. It’s worth mentioning at this point that Grayling is psychic, and is consequently picking up on a disembodied voice crying for help, in a rather nice twist on the usual scenario of The Doctor himself hearing said pleas before racing to anybody and everybody’s assistance. This being an episode of Doctor Who, however, naturally the ghost, or ‘ghast’ as everybody insisted upon calling it for reasons I never quite understood, was SPOILER ALERT not a ghost (or ghast) at all, but a time travelling lady caught in a shrinking ‘pocket universe’ whilst simultaneously being chased by what is quite possibly the ugliest alien in the show’s lengthy history.

The episode moved neatly from old school ghost story to quirky science fiction tale, a transition foreshadowed from the off by Clara introducing the two of them as ‘the Ghostbusters’ at the start of the show. There were also a couple of surprisingly touching stories of the ol’ romance genre running through ‘Hide’, the first, between Professor Palmer and his sweet yet talented assistant, and the second of a much more, er, ugly alien nature. Whilst heart-warming storylines in their own right, the romantic threads of the episode gave us all a well-earned break from our perpetual analysis and wonderment along the lines of WHO ON EARTH (nearly got through the review with that pun, then)  IS CLARA? WHAT is Clara? WHEN will we find out? Do you even KNOW, Moffat?  Which was nice, as all that shouting at your screen can become tiresome. Not least for your neighbours.

Performance of the week award goes to Jessica Raine as Emma Grayling, convincingly portraying both the doting assistant and tortured psychic elements of her character. Smith and Coleman were on form too, with the latter really settling into her sparky, quick witted role, and developing a charming relationship with the haughty TARDIS, despite this episode allegedly being the first one she actually filmed as the companion. Dougray Scott was also on hand to provide a brooding, almost Gothic sort of hero, initially appearing oblivious to both his own feelings and those of his assistant, but turning out to be something of a sweetie pie the second Grayling was in danger. 

If I have a criticism of the show, and what would an Assorted Buffery review be without a niggle of sorts, it’s that there was a little too much going on for me personally. Neil Cross’ plot had just a few too many lines, any one of which could have provided the crux of the episode. To name a few, we had the Professor’s role in WWII and The Doctor’s awareness of the two of them, the ghost-ghast, the time travelling lady, the pocket universe itself, the fact that it was shrinking, the monster, the second monster, the monster love story AND the family connections at the end. Phew. It all flowed nicely enough and didn’t feel jumpy, unlike several other Doctor Who episodes I could mention, but and call me boring if you will, the time traveller being stuck in a pocket universe which can only be accessed by a psychic was plot enough, thank you very much, especially with it shrinking. The presence of the monster as well felt a little overkill in places, even though the overall arc of the show did work very well.

All in all, however, a really rather nice, fun episode.  Particularly enjoyable as we suspect that it won’t be long until the questions start to be answered, and things all get a trifle serious again…

Doctor Who is next on tonight, 6.30pm. Look out for Becky’s review.

      Jen

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FEATURE: Top Five Worst Holiday Destinations According to Shakespeare

It's that time of year again as theatre-types and general lovers of literature celebrate the birth of the Bard, William Shakespeare, this year reaching the ripe old age of 449. Last year Assorted Buffery took part in the Happy Birthday Shakespeare blogging project and we are delighted to be doing it again this year for www.happybirthdayshakespeare.com. The project aims to share what Shakespeare means to various people across the world and as you've probably noticed, we're rather large fans of the man from Stratford. Last year, we decided to celebrate the Unsung Heroes of the Shakespearian canon and we're approaching the proceedings from another odd angle this time around.

Famously, Shakespeare used a wide variety of locations in his plays to offer his audiences a little bit of escapism. From the African continent to muddy East Cheep, there are a lot of places that can call themselves Shakespearian locations. Now the 23rd April was an absolutely gorgeous day in Stratford-Upon-Avon (I happen to be lucky enough to work there) and we are fast approaching the time of year in which people decide to go gallivanting off to exotic locations to enjoy a nice, relaxing holiday. So if you decided to take a nice Shakespearian themed vacation, there are a whole host of places you should avoid because 'relaxing' would not exactly be the term used to describe them. Because we care for our readers' well-being, and because the thought of writing a Bard-themed holiday guide was just too much fun, we now present to you a tour of the Top Five Worst Holiday Destinations According to Shakespeare. 

Disclaimer - we're positive that in reality, these places are really quite lovely - we've actually been to some of them - we're just looking at the Shakespearian versions.

England - 'This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle' (Richard II - A2.S1)

As seen in: The History Plays, King Lear

It's fair to say that according to Shakespeare, this green and 'sceptred isle' is not the best place to go a'roving at pretty much any period in history from your early mediaeval kings right up until the Tudors. If the country isn't in the middle of a civil war, it's in the grip of a tyrannical King going bonkers because one of his daughters answered a tough question perfectly logically. It's torn apart in Richard II, sort-of rebuilt again briefly in the Henry IVs before the Percys and Glendower decide to muck it all up. Henry V makes a decent stab of putting it back together again by buggering off to France and much later on Richard III seizes power and kills a bunch of people. If you're in the Royal Court and on the wrong side, it won't be too long before you find yourself locked up or missing your head. If you're in the peasantry and capable of wielding a pike, it's a good chance you'll find yourself up to your knees in mud whilst people poetically die around you. Put simply, it's probably best not to stick around. 

So the solution is to head up north to Scotland then is it? 

Scotland - 'Now o'er the one half world/Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse' (Macbeth A2.S1)

As seen in: Macbeth

Probably not actually. The above quote may not refer directly to the Scotland of Macbeth, more the general landscape itself, but there's no denying that it pretty much sums up the location of the play that must not be named. Whilst it may seem like an ideal idyll away from the tumult of England, it's not something that lasts. Witches lurk around dark and foreboding corners waiting to pounce on the nearest ambitious general and promise him the throne and it goes on to be ruled by a man with a delicate grip on the throne whose wife may be a little more than completely and utterly mental. Then of course, there's all of the ghosts wandering around the place, prophecies coming true left, right and centre and the small matter that trees develop a habit of moving about. Granted, this does tend to be if you're holed up in the Royal residence, but given that a lot of violence also takes place on the road (poor Banquo), it's probably not best to stay put.

Therefore, the solution must be in foreign climes.

Athens - 'May all to Athens back again repair / And think no more of this night's accidents' (A Midsummer Night's Dream A4.S1)

As seen in: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Timon of Athens

One of Shakespeare's many inventions, amongst his many contributions to the English language, was the discovery of woods outside Athens which, as far as I'm aware, don't actually exist (Athenians, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). Athens itself is pretty bad; if you want to marry someone who your father doesn't like, you might end up as a nun, or worse, dead. If you love someone who doesn't love you back, you'll end up outside of the city and later on wrestling against your former best friend who everyone seems to have inexplicably fallen in love with. Timon hated Athens that much, he actually preferred to live on his own in the wild. Then of course once you make it into the woods, you may find yourself at the behest of the fairy-folk who aren't exactly kind to city dwellers. They have a tendency to give you the head of a donkey and make you sleep with a fairy queen. Of course you may like that sort of thing...

Let's move swiftly on eh?

Bohemia - 'Our ship hath touch'd upon/The deserts of Bohemia?' (The Winter's Tale A3.S3)

As seen in: The Winter's Tale

For the majority of the play, Bohemia is largely a nice friendly place, full of shepherds, bawdy lasses and the odd comedy peddler. Indeed, if one of the most recent productions is anything to go by, it's a world where endless morris dances take place and people in disguise get up to all sorts of hijinks. So in that case, you may be wondering what it is doing on this list. You see, the key to unlocking Bohemia's rich treasure of sheep and jingling anklets is to actually survive that long to see it because the country is going to throw all sorts of things in your way to try and stop you getting there. Much like Shakespeare's fictional Athenian woods, Bohemia in this play is actually on the sea, so finding the real landlocked region whilst on a boat is your first task. Then there is a massive storm that kills your entire crew and smashes up on the rocks on a shore that doesn't technically exist. If you've managed to survive all that then there is the small issue of a great big bloody bear ready to chase you offstage and then eat you.

Let us not stop there. It is a silly place.

Anywhere in the Roman Empire - 'Shall Rome stand under one man's awe?' (Julius Caesar A2.S1)

As seen in: Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, Antony and Cleopatra, Titus Andronicus

A lot of bad stuff goes on in the Roman Empire according to Shakespeare; there's maiming  mutinies, betrayals, wars, sieges and the odd death by snake. Much like the England of the History Plays, the Roman Empire of the tragedies just isn't all that fun for any member of the strictly hierarchical society. A celebrated general who can't talk to the people will find himself exiled, any member of the proletariat is probably starving, a woman in the knowledge of a vicious murder will be raped and mutilated, a leader who just wants to show Rome a good time (sort of) will be assassinated by his closest friend and if you happen to be a queen across the sea in love with a Roman general? Yeah, you're probably not going to survive all that long either.

Well that's exhausted most of Shakespeare's known world... How about instead we all take one of those staycations people are talking about these days? Let's just lock the doors, ignore any calls to arms and just play a board game. It's probably for the best.

- Becky

You can read our previous Happy Birthday Shakespeare post here and find out more about the project here.

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TV REVIEW: Broadchurch - Episode Eight

Did you figure out who the murderer was, then?  Before Episode 8? At what point exactly?  I knew all along, didn’t you? Nope, didn’t have a clue. How could you not? Etc etc…

You couldn’t go anywhere on Tuesday morning without overhearing conversations like these about the series finale of ITV’s Broadchurch. In fact, I myself made completely sure I was able to watch the final episode on the day of broadcast, a seriously rare occurrence, as I knew I wouldn’t have a cat in hell’s chance of making it to the end of the day without finding out who the murderer was otherwise. Certainly not once I’d been in the office longer than 30 seconds, anyway.

For a show always very much a whodunit, but one that built up momentum so slowly in parts that you almost forgot that it was, the final episodes of Broadchurch were wholly focused on exactly who killed Danny Lattimer.  Normally at this point I would yell ‘spolier alert!” in big capital letters lest anyone should unwittingly ruin the ending for themselves, but I reckon if you haven’t found time to watch it and see by this point in time, then you probably don’t care.  So, as it turns out, the killer was none other than copper’s husband Joe Miller (Matthew Gravelle), in an act of desperate guilt.  A revelation which came totally out of the blue. Or did it?

Looking back, there were quite a few warning signs flashing dangerously in his direction from the start. For one thing, and this is nothing more than traditional murder mystery fare, up until the final episode he was pretty well the only character in the ill-fated town who hadn’t been hauled in for questioning. And that’s including the vicar. He did, however, begin to act distinctly strangely towards the latter half of the series. Clues were definitely in the air. Particular stand out moments for me included his jokingly volunteering to be questioned by his wife if they were running out of suspects, the parallel thread with shifty Susan (Pauline Quirke), namely Ellie’s amazement that the former didn’t know what was going on under her own roof, and finally her nagging at him about all the household jobs he hadn’t finished lately. He was also just a little wholesome to be true, let’s face it. He even got along with Hardy which can hardly be taken as a good thing.

 Despite the fact that we found out pretty early on in the final episode that Joe was the murderer, the hour still had plenty to offer.  David Tennant performed admirably as hard as nails DI Hardy caught between his ingrained attitudes and the need to comfort the colleague he’s rubbed up the wrong way since day one, and Jodie Whittaker was fantastic as the grieving mother finally being given some semblance of closure. Andrew Buchan was pretty great as Mark Lattimer, too, particularly when visiting his son’s killer in his cell, who in turn was suitably guilt stricken and desperate. The absolute front runner in terms of outstanding performances, however, was without a flicker of doubt Olivia ‘give the woman a Bafta’ Colman, who’s desperation, grief and anger unleashed upon her husband was not only perfectly judged but genuinely distressing to watch.  The timing of the big reveal also meant we had plenty of time to watch her deal with the news, including the agonising moment when she had to tell her children.

In fact the only real issue to worry about is what on earth they’re going to do with Series 2 next year. Surely not another whodunit, in the same place? And surely not with the same detectives given that one wasn’t expected to live much longer than the murder victim and another was leaving town? The jury is still out on that one, but one thing we can be sure of- with 8.9 million people tuning in to the show’s final episode, Broadchurch, Series 1 at least, has been a reasonably massive victory for the ITV Drama department.  

And a very well done to them, too.

-          Jen

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