TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - The Husbands of River Song

So, it's the year 5000 and something, it's snowing, River is back and Greg Davies is giving it his all as a disembodied head. It can only be the Doctor Who Christmas special!

Set on an Earth colony three thousand years into the future on which, naturally, it’s Christmas Day, a case of mistaken identity leads The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) to the bed-side of robot King Hydroflax (Greg Davies), who, rather unfortunately for him, has a priceless diamond lodged in his brain. Giving a whole new meaning to the term gold-digger, the King’s wife, half archaeologist half burglar, turns out to be none other than River Song (Alex Kingston). Believing her real husband to be out of regeneration cycles, (reasonably enough given that the last time she saw him, he had indeed run out) she fails to recognise the man behind the new face for the majority of the episode. Cue hilarity and high-jinks.

Definitely a much lighter episode of Who than we’ve seen all series, 'The Husbands of River Song' is never going to be lauded as one of the better episodes of this year, but there’s certainly a case for it being one of the better Christmas specials. It gave Capaldi the chance to flex his comedy muscles once again after the tragic loss of Clara (Jenna Coleman) at the end of Series 9, sharing the screen with The Doctor’s most accomplished verbal sparring partner. Steven Moffat’s dialogue, was positively fizzing, with a particular highlight being the moment The Doctor got to have a turn at the whole ‘it’s bigger on the inside’ gig. 

Despite never being the biggest fan of River Song, even I enjoyed seeing her in a welcome return to form as a self-proclaimed ‘archaeologist from the future.’ Whether this really is the last we’ll see of her remains to be seen, although given the obvious on-screen chemistry between her and Capaldi, I’d be very surprised if that really was her final bow.

The two had decent support from Greg Davies and Matt Lucas, although it was a shame the latter wasn’t given more to do, so well did he slot into the Whoniverse. Visually, there was plenty to look at as we went from a festive human colony, to a luxury cruise ship for war criminals, to the famed Singing Towers of Darillium, meeting a host of new and intriguing life forms en route. The whole diamond heist plot wasn’t particularly inspiring, but in the Christmas context that hardly seemed to matter. 

The narrative kept things simple yet entertaining, exactly what you need when you’re approximately seven eighths full of turkey and roast potatoes.

On the whole, it doesn’t seem these days that Doctor Who can go far wrong. Bring on Series 10, we say.

Jen

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TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - Hell Bent

Following Heaven Sent feels like an enormous task; it's one of the best episodes of Who we've had in recent series and it's been one of the best and most consistently good runs in New-Who history so the series finale had quite a bit of work to do. There's lots to like about this episode and there's also a few bits that didn't quite work. As you'd expect, it's all very clever and brilliant in parts and falls into the "I'm not entirely sure what's going on or why now" trap as well.

Hell Bent starts itself of as a kind of space western/space Glasgow as the Doctor strides into a diner where Clara is behind the counter. She doesn't recognise him, but he tells her the story of his return to Gallifrey. It pits the Doctor as some kind of gunslinger returning home with a bounty on his head; "They'll kill you" one of the residents warns him. Capaldi plays the part well throughout the first ten minutes, nearly silent but ever expressive as increasingly higher Gallifreyan ranks come to greet him, only for him to turn away until the person he actually wants to see makes an appearance. It's a High Noon like stand-off and there's even a clever piece of musical comedy as a bell sounds in the score as the Doctor and the President meet.

It then switches up into a horror movie as a time-looped not-dead Clara and the Doctor head into the "Time Lord hell," full of foes neutralised but still very creepy. From the oozing Dalek to the scariest Who creatures ever, the Weeping Angels, the decaying, smoky figures are still pretty creepy and brief glimpses allow them to be used for maximum effect. The production design in the last two episodes have been exemplary, creating worlds that feel tangible but still with that glorious Doctor Who sheen of special effects. Gallifrey looks magnificent.

However, as the episode continues, it becomes more troublesome. As Jen pointed out last week, Heaven Sent afforded us a fairly unique opportunity in Who; to witness the Doctor's grieving process after losing his companion. I love that he works for four and a half billion years to get back to her again and the torture he puts himself through to get to the Time Lords. It's only once he gets Clara back that the episode starts to lose it a bit. 

Face The Raven was a cracking sendoff for Clara. It was reckless, stupid, noble and in the service of others, everything that she has embodied in her role as a companion, particularly over the course of the last series. Hell Bent kind of feels like we've overwritten both of those episodes by having a collaborative grieving process that simply involves the Doctor forgetting, rather than learning from his recurring mania to put himself first every now and again, something we also saw with Ten. 

The evolution of the Doctor and Clara into the Hybrid, ending with one of them forgetting, also felt like a complete retread of the Doctor-Donna, only with the forgetfulness reversed in this instance. For a partnership that's been as wonderful and fairly New Who unique in the Doctor and Clara, it's a shame that their ending feels cribbed from somewhere else. Capaldi and Coleman sell it well and remain true to their iterations right to the end, but it lacked the same emotional weight that Face the Raven had or the trauma of seeing Donna forget everything that had made her so wonderful during her time with the Doctor.

The constant repetition of their goodbyes to each other also felt somewhat staid and the episode falls prey to something Who doesn't tend to do too often; it feels drawn out. The pacing is a little too languid for the story that it's telling and for an audience who already knows that the outcome results in Clara leaving because Jenna Coleman is leaving the series.

There's lots of neat touches elsewhere like the "I had a duty of care" line that sums up Clara and the Doctor's relationship perfectly. The return of the round things ("I love the round things!") is very welcome. There's also the General's regeneration into a woman, once again confirming that Time Lords can switch genders in the regeneration process. He's a sly one is that Moffat. But this doesn't make up for the fact that it feels like a Return of the King style "we're not ready to finish this just yet" ending.

A mixed bag of an episode that starts well but ends a little off, Hell Bent may be towards the more negative end of the quality spectrum for this series, but that's not unexpected, given some of the heights we've reached. We're also promised what could be sheer joy in a Capaldi's Doctor team-up with River Song for the Christmas Special and Jen will be back to review that one for you all. 

- Becky

You can read Jen's review of previous episode, Heaven Sent, here.

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TV Review: Doctor Who - Heaven Sent

The penultimate episode of Doctor Who this week wasn’t so much a television programme as a barn-storming showcase of BBC talent. Picking up where last week’s episode left off, after the tragic death of companion Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman), Heaven Sent saw Peter Capaldi’s Doctor tele-ported to a mysterious prison castle.

Pursued by a terrifying yet slow-moving cloaked monster, known as The Veil, The Doctor’s only escape is to confess truths to the beast just before it kills him, although this only really serves to buy him more time to try to solve the mystery of his surroundings. Heartbreakingly, in between run-ins with the creature and the discovery of clues, he imagines himself back in the TARDIS, telling Clara about his adventures whilst she kept her back to him, writing questions on the blackboard, in a fitting tribute to what had been her day job. Despite the fact that this was a solo Capaldi episode, Heaven Sent was as much about Clara as it was about The Doctor. 

As a companion, her character came across as quite two dimensional at the start, but her final series with the show has been no less than a tour de force. Coleman and Capaldi created something very special together, in a welcome move from the slightly-almost-romantic-but-not-quite relationship of previous Doctors and travelling partners. This episode allowed us to see The Doctor grieve – something we’re not always privy to as an audience, as companions have often departed in the final episode, with The Doctor returning a series later damaged, but very much on the mend. Heaven Sent showed us the anguish and mental torment usually glossed over.

Steven Moffat always writes his best work in single setting, claustrophobic environments, and this fantastically imaginative personalised hell allowed him to fully explore The Doctor’s emotional instability, as well as being one of the most inventive plotlines I think we’ve seen a while. As it slowly dawned on us as an audience that The Doctor has been stuck in this loop for a very long time, and the skulls at the bottom of the sea took on an eerie new significance, watching the Time Lord forced to take ‘the long way round’ to such an extreme gave the show a scale and emotional depth beyond compare.

If Peter Capaldi doesn’t win some sort of award for his performance in this episode, let alone this series as a whole, we’ll eat our collective hat. Equal parts angry, resigned, guilt-ridden and defiant, Capaldi’s performance here was an intense emotional journey, carried off with trademark ease. Between his extraordinary talent, Rachel Talalay’s able direction and Moffat’s stunning concept, all supported by a gorgeous score and fantastic set design, this episode could happily have been feature length.

Series 9 of Doctor Who has been one of the best in a while, with Capaldi settled into the role, and his companionship with Clara going from strength to strength. The two-parter structure has really helped, and I for one hope that it continues into the next series.

Although past follies remain unforgotten, the show seems to be on a role at the moment.

And frankly, te fact that television of this calibre is available as regular Saturday night entertainment serves as an excellent two fingers up to recent criticism of the BBC licence fee, and is reason enough to keep the Beeb going for many years to come. 

This is me signing off on Series 9, as Becky will be here with you next week for Hell Bent – it looks like it’s going to be a cracker.

Jen

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TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - Face the Raven

After one of their seemingly never-ending in-between-episode adventures, Clara and the Doctor receive a call on the emergency phone from Rigsy. He's had his memory wiped and there appears to be a tattoo on his neck counting down to something. Naturally, the Doctor and Clara arrive to investigate, finding themselves in an alien refugee camp in the middle of London (part Diagon Alley, part London Below). It's led by the returning Me, now styling herself as Mayor, and she's responsible for Rigsy's tattoo; it's a countdown to his execution for a murder he's not at all sure he committed. 

The idea of consequences has been threaded throughout the series, focused mainly on the Doctor. It's been a neat bit of misdirection because we all knew we should be worried about Clara (knowing Coleman was to leave the series), but we sort of forgot in the grand scheme of things. She's been increasingly reckless since the first episode, something that's been commented on by a lot of people she's met on the way. That she is entirely the engineer of her own downfall feels right for the character; one thing Clara has always been is in control, even when the Zygons tried to take her out. 

Clara's always been quite a divisive companion, even amongst myself and Jen. I've been on board with Coleman's performance from the start, her forthrightness and lack of mooning refreshing after the marital combination of the Ponds. She's also exerted an increasing amount of influence over the Doctor's life from weaving back through his timeline to her role in the Time War itself. I like that her final moments are spent doing exactly the same thing; keeping the Doctor on the right path and making sure he continues caring. Her final moments of accepting responsibility and commanding the Doctor to continue caring rather than avenging her was dignified to the last and beautifully performed by both Jenna Coleman and Peter Capaldi.

The structure of the episode is not as assured as it has been in the leading episodes, perhaps suffering slightly from acting as the build-up to Clara's departure (not helped by Peter Capaldi telling everyone it was going to happen either). The revelation that Me is preparing to send the Doctor somewhere in order to protect the refugee camp gets a little lost amidst those final moments and, given it's the impetus for the episode's events, feels a little clumsy. I did enjoy Capaldi's imposing dress-down of Me though. He's really quite terrifying when he wants to be.

Elsewhere in the episode, there's a lot of nice ideas floating around. After the pertinent Zygon two-parter, having a nod to alien refugees residing in London and not causing any harm was a neat touch. I always like the idea of worlds residing in worlds and trap streets are cool, the kind of places you see without seeing them. The timelessness of the trap street on which most of the action took place also added to the more universal themes of the episode. With its Tudor buildings, apparent gas lighting and assortment of individuals, the Doctor and Clara could really have been anywhere, allowing the focus to remain solely on the characters' actions throughout the episode.

There's an unevenness to Face The Raven that stems from its aim of getting rid of Clara and an event like that was always going to overshadow the proceedings somewhat. But, it was a fitting ending to one of the more influential companions in recent years and I don't know about you lot, but that last shot of the TARDIS painted by Rigsy as a tribute just about finished me off.

- Becky

You can read Becky's review of previous episode, Sleep No More, here.

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TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - Sleep No More

The Doctor and Clara find themselves on the abandoned Le Verrier Space Station, a research lab orbiting Neptune and run by the scientist Rassmussen. They meet up with a rescue crew that has been sent to the station to find out what happened and soon find themselves 

The current series of Doctor Who has been so good that the first slight misstep registers a bit more than it would in a run of mediocre episodes. Coming after the amazing Zygon two-parter was always going to be tricky so relying on the usually excellent Mark Gatiss should've been a wise move. Sleep No More is another episode that relies on something creepy stalking an abandoned location and picking off crew one by one. Had we not already had Under The Lake, this episode might have been given more of a break. Alas, Sleep No More is a hodge-podge of ideas that never quite come together to form one big sandman of an episode, but should be admired in its ambition to try something different. 

Gatiss is a man extremely well-versed in its genre history and it shows here. The found footage format is one of horror's most prolific sub-genres in recent years, stemming back The Blair With Project. Likewise, these episodes always call to mind films like Alien with its dark corridors and stalking menaces; we even get an Ash style character in Rassmussen (played by Reece Shearsmith, who is easily the best thing in this episode), attempting to preserve the Sandmen. 

We get just glimpses of the creatures, flashes down corridors in night vision or lurking out of the shadows. It's probably the most satisfying element of the episode, one which allows our imaginations to take over, filling in blanks that we know are there. The revelation that the footage is coming from the dust in the air, rather than any cameras, is a neat one, but also feels like a bit of a get out clause so that the episode never fully commits to the found footage idea.

The episode is framed by Rassmussen, functioning as both a narrator and creepy space station overlord, but it also strips away some of the tension of the episode. We realise Rassmussen makes it to at least string together the footage from various cameras across the station and that he's the bad guy doesn't really come as a shock. We also know Clara and the Doctor aren't going to die, at least not yet in Clara's case. The rest of the rescue crew aren't drawn well enough for the audience to care as they fight for their life. Again, going back to Under the Lake, each crew member was recognisably individual and their personalities came across. Aside from Chopra, the others barely get a look at any kind of development over the episode, and his is only brief.

The Zygon Invasion and Inversion took on the War on Terror as its central allegory, using its narrative to comment on events that have shaped our reality, sadly proving ultimately quite timely in its broadcast. At its heart, Sleep No More is attempting to do something similar, but with a criticism of capitalism and exploitation at its heart. The grunts, bred to do the dirty work without the brain capacity for any selfish realisation are pure Brave New World, a creation of humanity at its most basic working level to preserve higher human intelligence. The Morpheus machine is designed to monetise sleep and thus allow employees to now work through the night instead of wasting their time on sleep. The episode pays mere lip service to this rather than really flying with it. 

It's the first single episode story we've had so far and it shows. Too much is thrown together in the shorter episode runtime and the breathing space that other episodes benefitted from is lost. The most frustrating part of this episode though is that its cleverest idea appears right at the very end as a coda to the rushed ending. Rassmussen revealing that he has been a Sandman all along and that he is using the video to transmit signals and turn any viewer into a Sandman should have been a story in itself. A found footage horror movie that transforms you into the horror monster? A much cooler idea than anything presented in the preceding runtime.

I suppose we were due a bit of a duff episode given the quality of the rest of the season, but that doesn't stop Sleep No More being such a disappointment. It's ambitious in a shift of form as well as the amount of ideas that it tries to pack in, but it never allows any of them to take centre stage and leaves the whole episode feeling like a patchwork of references and loose narrative threads. Look, it's even made me mix metaphors.

- Becky

You can read Jen's review of previous episode, The Zygon Inversion, here.

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