TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - The Name of the Doctor

As has been the case with many Moffat –led pivotal Doctor Who finales, ‘The Name of the Doctor’ promised not so much a titbit of information as a huge chunk of home-made baguette, complete with a side order of cheese board and assorted meats. Naturally, as has also frequently been the case, we received nothing of the sort, at least not in terms of the informational morsel we were anticipating. Happily, however, the televisual feast that we did receive, tasted much, much better.

Having received an ill-tasting piece of information herself, the episode opens on Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh) returning from visiting a convict, urgently needing to psychic link with Jenny (Catrin Stewart), Strax (Dan Starkey) and Clara (Jenna Louise Coleman). The informant told of ‘the Doctor’s biggest secret’, which transpires to be the co-ordinates of his final resting place- his grave at Trenzalore.  Naturally, then, given the magnitude of this information, it isn’t long before- after three everyone, SPOLIERS!- Professor River Song (Alex Kingston) is called upon, to join the psychic- link-anxious-worry-party. It seems the prophecy, "On the fields of Trenzalore, at the fall of the eleventh, when no living creature can speak falsely or fail to answer, a Question will be asked, a question that must never, ever be answered” is to come back to haunt The Doctor. Unfortunately for him, as a time traveller, is grave is somewhere he must never, ever go. Even more unfortunately, after his friends are attacked by the Great Intelligence’s whisper men (Richard E Grant), and with visiting said grave presented as the only way to buy their freedom, he has little choice.

Uncharacteristically, disarmingly frightened of the consequences of his actions, The Doctor must prepare to cross his own timeline, risking his own life, not to mention the majority of time and space, in order to save his friends. Not a bad little premise for a series finale. Add to that the revelation about what made Clara, ‘The Impossible Girl’, quite so impossible, a discovery revealed through a winning combination of poignant scenes and actual real-life, totally not usually how Doctor Who normally operates sense, and you’ve got the makings of a brilliant episode. A memorable performances from Jenna Louise Coleman as the self-sacrificing girl who discovers she was born to save The Doctor, as well as the palpable chemistry between Matt Smith and Alex Kingston in their characters’ final moments together really cemented it as one of the all-time, as it were, greats. They were simply two people saying goodbye, the fact that they are both time travellers on a bizarre unpredictable backwards trajectory didn’t matter a jot.

The whole episode was a welcome departure from the atmosphere of total bafflement usually created by a Doctor Who series finale, with the exception of course of the superb ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’, as everything slotted cosily into place.  That said, however, none of this was a patch on the show’s last 30 seconds, a clip allegedly removed from all press copies of the episode. In an introduction to November’s 50^th Anniversary special, we were treated to a sort of icing on the caked dessert, as we caught glimpses of various previous Doctor’s jogging around on their own timelines, going about their business being saved by Clara-Impossible.  Not only that, but a cherry on the top too, as we meet the one version of our beloved hero who broke the rules, the one who doesn’t go by the name of The Doctor, a version to be played by none other than John Hurt. John Hurt!

It seems the 50^th special will feature three versions of The Doctor, Matt Smith, David Tennant and John Hurt, as we traverse The Doctor’s timeline back to pre-Eccleston times. I haven’t the foggiest what this will be like, but I think my excitement is best demonstrated by the fact that I know it was exactly 6 months on Thursday, to the date, that we will be finding out.

For what we are about to receive, may we be truly thankful.

I have an inkling we will be.

Jen

Follow @AssortedBuffery on Twitter
Or like our Facebook page.

You can read my own blog here or follow me on twitter here

TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - The Crimson Horror

Lots of planets have a North, they told us several series ago, way back in the days when Christopher Eccleston carried the sonic screwdriver. And if lots of planets have a ‘North’, so too must this one. And it certainly does, as Matt Smith’s Doctor proved this week in ‘The Crimson Horror’, a Mark Gatiss penned episode that sent him up, as it were, to a Victorian factory in Yorkshire.

I’m not usually a fan of my home regions being referred to as “The North”, with implied capital letters and italics suggesting something other, and foreign to the cultural norm, but I found it surprisingly pleasingly to bear here, enjoyable, even.  Having heard about the rapid, and distinctly odd disappearance of most employees of Mrs Gillyflower’s (Diana Rigg) match factory, Sweetville, with several corpses discovered stained a bizarre and ominous crimson colour, The Doctor (Matt Smith) and my fellow northerner, Clara (Jenna Louise Coleman), naturally set out to investigate.  Soon lost to the darker side of the factory themselves, our heroes are joined by old friends Madam Vastra (Neve McIntosh’s) a green lizard woman for those unaware, her wife, Jenny (Catrin Stewart), and  Straxx (Dan Starkey), a battle hungry Sontaran. Mind you aren’t they all? Together they must work out what on earth* is going on at the factory- namely, why do people not come out alive and when they do come out at all they’ve turned red, and who, or rather what, is Mrs Gillyflower’s silent partner, Mr Sweet?

Well-paced and cleverly written, this episode contained much of what has been lacking from the show of late- some truly stand out moments. The ones which, when done well, are later preceded by ‘oh and that bit when…’ in pub conversations up and down the land. Gatiss certainly brought plenty of these to the table. Franken-Doctor (you’ll know what I mean if you’ve seen it), ‘attack of the supermodels’, Matt Smith’s Yorkshire accent and Jenny battling said supermodels in that costume were all particularly worthy of this accolade. Some will have loved the tom-tom joke, some will have hated it, but it certainly stood out too- and creating memorable moments, monsters, characters and even planets is something which has always been important to the world of Doctor Who. With plenty of these to hang your fez on, this was a very tidy and complete episode.

Whilst The Doctor and Clara continue to go from strength to strength as a partnership, it was good to see some old faces. Clever with just enough of a sense of fun, the sharp tongued Madam Vastra and slightly saucy Jenny are always a joy. So too is Strax who, funnily enough given he’s arguably the most alien looking out of the lot of them, gave the episode an oddly human edge, with his, to him, at least, common sense attitudes and sense of sheer confusion at some of the goings on providing a window for the audience. Which isn’t a bad achievement for a sci-fi show, if you ask me.

This was certainly one of the better episodes in recent months, if not the best. Which, naturally, makes it very hard to top. Becky will tell you how next week goes so keep your eyes peeled.

*every time!!

Jen

Follow @AssortedBuffery on Twitter
Or like our Facebook page.

You can read my own blog here or follow me on twitter here

TV REVIEW: Doctor Who Christmas Special: The Snowmen

For those of us not overly enamoured with the idea of The Snowman and the Snowdog, there were other snow creatures afoot (adrift?) this Christmas. ‘The Snowmen’, this year’s festive Doctor Who episode, had it all. Scary Christmas monsters, fantastic guest stars, at least half of a sensible plot and it was set in the heart of all things considered by TV land to be appropriately festive – Victorian London.

After an unusual introductory sequence involving a small boy talking to some snow, The Doctor descends on the snowy streets of London, moping about on his own and generally being very Scrooge like, barely showing a cursory interest in Richard E Grant's Dr Simeon and his Great Intelligence institute. Naturally, of all the gin joints in all the world, he happens to walk past the tavern worked in by Jenna Louise Coleman’s Clara, who would have ‘new companion material’ written all over her frock even if we hadn’t already seen her in ‘Asylum of the Daleks’. The two deduce that a nearby snowman has somehow managed to build itself, and must consequently have some sort of intelligent mind. Utterly disinterested in all matters timey-wimey as The Doctor is at this point, he attempts to run away, pursued back to the cloud on which he’s parked the TARDIS by the feisty Clara, who then runs away herself after knocking on his door.

Eventually, and all in the nick of time as usual, The Doctor realises that the Earth is in grave danger from the evil snowmen, and arrives at the house Clara works in as a governess just in time to save the family from a huge, walking ice-cube in the shape of a woman emerging from the garden pond. Battle then ensues, with Clara injured and the Doctor fighting for her, the planet, and above all – Christmas.

Speaking of Clara, I cannot heap enough praise onto Jenna Louise Coleman, and believe me I’ve been trying to for the last couple of days. She’s every bit as fiery as Amy, although without a Rory equivalent in tow, she’s a lot freer to be her own person, a character in her own right rather than a part of a whole. Mind you, the whole itself is worth a mention. The return of Madame Vestra and her wife Jenny not only provides us with some gloriously, hilariously simple Moffat-ian lines such as “Good evening. I am a lizard woman from the dawn of time and this is my wife”, but gives a modern, relevant angle to the story. In fact the theme of old and new ran throughout, with new companion Clara innocently quoting ‘Pond’ as the reason The Doctor should get down from his cloud and save the world, as well as a re-vamped looking Tardis and theme tune managing to look cheerfully retro.

Sad as I am that the flirty Clara doesn’t seem likely to star alongside the equally sexually charged Captain Jack Harkness anytime soon, the chemistry between her and Matt Smith’s Doctor is plenty enough to be going along with. Not since the days of Rose has there been such an obvious attraction between the two characters, and it’s a lot of fun to watch. Now on to his second lot of companions, Smith seems to be more at home in the role than before. Having gone through the rite of passage that all Doctors must, the loss of a companion, the part is now truly his.

That said, The Doctor’s moping at the start of the episode did begin to feel a little too routine. We’ve seen it all before with David Tennant’s Doctor. We know the format. It certainly makes for a good ‘will he step in or won’t he’ plotline, but in terms of character, might it be nice if he coped with things slightly differently for a change? Perhaps The Doctor on the rebound could work? He jumps straight into the TARDIS with another companion and then has a hissy fit and breaks down a few episodes later? Unlikely to catch on as a plot but I thought it worth suggesting.

The only other thing potentially throwing snowy spanners into the works of this Christmas special were the references to Moffat’s other TV franchise, Sherlock. I for one enjoyed The Doctor’s useless attempts at deduction, as well as the suggestion that Vestra and Jenny were the true inspiration for Conan Doyle’s Holmes and Watson, but both references felt a little shoe-horned in. Not necessarily an issue, but when you find yourself wondering whether or not Moffat has linked Sherlock to strong female leads in another show in order to dispel the vicious whisperings that he in fact can’t write strong female leads at all – you realise that you’ve been taken out of the immediacy of the story in front of you. You’ve escaped the escapism. And funny as the references were- that’s not good.

All concerns aside though, this was a fantastically funny and pleasantly scary episode- perfectly placed in the schedules for post-lunch sofa collapse. There’s fun to be had guessing which high profile actor played the part of the snow itself, which took me far longer than it should have to figure out, and Richard E Grant is as much of a joy as ever, especially when he’s being evil. The episode continued the tradition of festive themed monsters, the beasts behind the baubles, as well as setting up the next series’ on going mystery arc, namely, who on Earth or otherwise is Clara/Oswin?

Several critics have pointed out that this episode was unlikely to appeal to the casual Who viewer. Fair point, but I think it more important that it managed to satisfy the dedicated fans whilst still leaving them hungry for more.

Which is not bad going really, considering the majority of the audience were still stuffed full of turkey and roast potatoes at the time.

- Jen

You can read more of Jen's writing here: https://memyselfandtheothers.wordpress.com/

Or you can follow her on twitter here: https://twitter.com/jenniferklarge

TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - Asylum Of The Daleks

It’s back.

Doctor Who time has come around once again. Don’t worry- we’ve utterly no idea of when to expect it anymore, either.

On the plus side, the first episode of the next 5, Asylum of the Daleks, gave an altogether welcome departure from the norm. For starters, we were presented with the Daleks from the get go- in the first five minutes of the first episode, in fact. A lovely change from the usual practice of everybody carrying on in the vague pretence that the Daleks might not appear for six weeks. Look- it’s right there in the title: Daleks. Thankfully, this meant that Writer and Executive Producer Steven Moffat could stop worrying about hiding them until the last possible appropriate second and get on with the rest of the show.

And boy did it make a big difference.

The pre-titles sequence jumped straight in, with our beloved hero caught in the trap of a woman/Dalek tragically clueless as to the damage she’s about to cause in asking the Doctor (Matt Smith) to help rescue her daughter from a nearby prison ship. Meanwhile, as they say, back on Earth, a separated Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill) are in the process of signing their divorce papers. However it isn’t long before they too find themselves whisked off (apologies) to join The Doctor over on the Good Ship Dalek.

So far, so same old. However we get another tweak to the blueprint here in that this time, the Daleks want The Doctor, their ‘Predator’, to save them. Sure, they’re probably up to no good and have evil ulterior motives, they wouldn’t be Daleks and it wouldn’t be Doctor Who if they didn’t, but to essentially open the show not so much with a character twist but a complete species twist, is undeniably interesting. Add to this the fact that they want to be saved from themselves, from their own insane and defunct kind on the icy hospital planet down below, and you’ve got the makings of a strong episode.

The script’s as sparky as ever, and we know the character formulae well enough now for the actors to have some fun with it. Smith and Darvill consistently perform well, but Gillan in particular stands out here. We’re treated to a competent spot of character development and a rare insight into the realities of life with Rory post Demon’s Run . The slow introduction to Jenna Lousie Coleman’s character was well thought out, too. Fun, flirty and clever, she didn’t reveal too much, but just enough to pique our interest for future episodes. There’s also a classic Whovian ‘focus on a tiny seemingly insignificant detail and then reveal it to be crucially important in the last thirty seconds’ angle, but I won’t give it away here.

If there are criticisms to be had, and regrettably there are a few, they are very much the usual suspects. Doctor Who often falls foul of the length of its time slot, and Asylum is no exception. Overall, it feels every bit the well-crafted show, but the last five minutes are rushed, and we do get the impression that interesting areas for exploration have been dropped or completely ignored. A more thorough investigation into what exactly makes a ‘broken’ Dalek, to pick one example, might have made for an even more engaging episode. It seems ironic to be asking for more time for an episode when talking about Doctor Who, but that's often exactly what it seems in need of.

Other than a slight case of runaway plotline, this was a big idea for the show’s and ground is covered well. For me, Moffat really excels in the stand -alone episodes. They allow him to showcase his best jolting plot twists, and to juxtapose his sharpened dialogue with touching character relationships, without the complications of a narrative arc. Despite Asylum ‘s introduction of several big ideas, as well as a brand new series, this opening episode really does show him at his best with all of the above.

Pun intended, we might be in for a good time here.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00wqr14/Doctor_Who_Series_7_Asylum_of_the_Daleks/


- Jen




  
You can read more of Jen's writing here: https://memyselfandtheothers.wordpress.com
Or you can follow her on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/jenniferklarge