My Favourite Peruvian Folk Band

Okay, okay, I know that I have missed a week and failed to post up a review of the Vampires of Venice. It is coming soon I promise, but first I wanted to get my thoughts about the latest episode that aired at the weekend, Amy’s Choice. And in the words of the Doctor himself… this is going to be a tricky one. Events kicked off with a very Jam and Jerusalem opening. There was rolling countryside, picture postcard cottages, free-range geese and sit-up-and-beg push bikes. There was even a distracting Miss Ellie-style soft focus shot of the very pregnant Amy, while she baked her cakes (which sounds like a euphamism but isn’t). It was interesting that there was no preamble to this story, no indication of why we had jumped in to the future Doctor and Amy’s relationship. It all made sense in hindsight but put me out of step and feeling quite uncomfortable with Simon Nye’s story from the offset. There was plenty of comment dating back to The Eleventh Hour that the village of Leadworth had a weird timelessness about it and here too, it was, if anything, even more to the fore. During the episode itself, the Dream Lord described it as “…the village that time forgot” and never a truer word was said. There is definitely more to this Gloucestershire (?) village than meets the eye. Other opinion is that this programme  is simply being Doctor Who and therefore everything appearing strange, or may be it is a stylistic choice and no more on behalf of the production team but I’m not so sure. When Rory and his anachronistic pony-tail was explaining that the village felt real to him, I was silently shouting “It’s anything but real” but my reverie was cut short by the fact we were suddenly beset by scary grannies

Of course, the creepy nature of Leadworth formed only half the story. It has been a long standing plea from certain elements of fandom to set a whole tale right inside the TARDIS and I can imagine it turning up in some fanfic or a comic strip but I never expected to see it unravel on the telly. However, after a fashion, that is exactly what we got. It seemed to be a perfect opportunity to explore some other hidden, off-screen spaces within the time machine but budgets, or some other necessity meant that the TARDIS action was limited to the (still rather wonderful) control room. The scene, or rather the two scenes, were then set. On the one hand, The Doctor in his TARDIS with promise of adventure and danger and an unimaginable life, and on the other hand, Rory in his chocolate box village and domestic security. Amy, on almost every level imaginable had to choose between them.

Simon Nye is a writer of some repute and I think it is fair to say that his most famous work is Men Behaving Badly, a series known at the time for bringing a more edgy, adult-themed comedy to prime-time BBC1. Some of that edginess came to the fore here as well. It’s hard to imagine any other show aimed primarily at children (and big kids like me) coming up with a line like “What do you do round here to stave off the self harm?” and then having the main character knock a granny off the roof after hitting her with a lamp-stand. All of this resulted in a very different feel to this episode and it was unlike any other post-2005 story that I can remember. And that is no bad thing at all. Although it meant that I, as a viewer, still couldn’t be entirely comfortable with it. The script was sparkling throughout though with a deluge of quotable lines: “Did I say it was a nightmare? No. just more of a really good… mare”.

Every good drama requires an interesting bad guy and Toby Jones’ Dream Lord was just suitably and spookily portrayed. As soon as it became clear that he and the Doctor had some kind of shared history, my mind began racing as to whether this was going to be the reintroduction of another classic villain. Toymaker, Master, Monk, all fleetingly crossed my mind and were soon dismissed but I never really made the leap to the truth before the reveal at the end of the episode. Perhaps the most significant line of the story was when the Doctor said to the Dream Lord. “There’s only person in the universe who hates me as much as you do” but I still didn’t get it after that either.

Anyway, the story ploughed on with dilemma’s presenting themselves in each reality. The TARDIS scenes seemed to have the most immediate sense of peril thanks to the inability of the crew to do anything about their fate other than bunging on a few ponchos and fashioning a wind-up power supply from a whisk and a bottle opener. I began to lose faith in the episode when we got to Rory’s death. As harrowing as it undoubtedly was, I couldn’t buy in to the fact that The Doctor and Amy so readily sacrificed themselves after their friend died. I could see Amy’s motivation but it seemed like a really out-of-character act for the Doctor.  Also, if the object of the exercise is to kill yourself, then driving a camper van through a garden wall and in to a cottage at no more that 20 mph would probably leave you badly bruised with a bit of whiplash. #suicidefail as they would say on Twitter. What could have been a Thelma and Louise moment turned a bit Ferris Bueller.

However, the right choice seemed to have been made after the Dream Lord conceded defeat and left the scene and the three friends cold but alive in the TARDIS. But I was feeling a little empty. I couldn’t for the life of me see the point of the last forty minutes. My despair was amplified when (after the Miss Ellie opening) we got the Bobby Ewing ending. It turns out that both halves of Amy’s Choice turned out to be dreams after all. Everything was quickly dismissed as being the fault of some “Psychic pollen from the Candle Meadows of Craston Slavva”. It was all a bloody dream! Who wrote this? A twelve year old?! I was on the verge of throwing a slipper at the plasma screen. But then, the stroke of genius. In an almost throwaway line, the Dream Lord was revealed as being the dark-side of the Doctor himself. Brought to “life” by a mind parasite that feeds on the darkness of one’s soul. Hang on. This was the Dark Doctor’s way of forcing Amy to make the choice between him and Rory. And what was all that about the only person in the universe who hates the Doctor as much as what turns out to be the Doctor? The Doctor, for all his wonderfulness, hates himself. And when we are back firmly in the real world and Amy has made her choice (Rory), then the events of the dream take on a serious milestone in the overall narrative of Amy’s story. Now that is really clever. It suddenly makes a second viewing an enormously more enjoyable experience than the first.

Good television should challenge the viewer, and I have rarely felt more challenged by Doctor Who than this one.

Someone Looking At You

So, where were we again? Oh, yes, everybody jump. The art of the cliffhanger in new Doctor Who is always a challenge but Steven Moffat has had a couple of cracks at it already (cracks… geddit?!). Firstly, in 2005’s Empty Child and secondly in the Silence In The Library, so it was with some anticipation that I tried to work out what the gun-firing thing was all about as I looked forward to last night’s Flesh And Stone. I have to admit the resolution was a really nice touch, even the little bit of technobabble about the updraft can be easily forgiven. It was the first of many nice touches in what might well become one of my favourite Who stories. It turned out that the escape from the cliffhanger was effectively the first of many cliffhanger escapes from the pursuing angels throughout the episode as The Doctor, River, Amy, Octavian and the four red shirts fled from the stone beasts. Turning the lights out in the tunnel, leaving through the oxygen farm and Eleven’s own escape from the clutches of the Angel in the control room were all built up wonderfully and executed to perfection.

One of my favourite elements was the inclusion of Angel Bob, his gently spoken and respectful Northern tones, contrasting wonderfully with the menace of his words. Clearly the angels have power way beyond what we have seen in either of three episodes to date, and wasn’t it cool when we finally go to see them moving? I suspect that we shall see them again, at least one more time, before Moffat’s era is consigned to history. But this was another Amy focussed episode, which is no bad thing in my book, and again, Karen Gillan was eminently watchable as she refused to take no for an answer from the start to the (very) end, but more on that later. Once the clever little countdown that the Angels forced her to make, for no better reason than it was “fun”, was coupled with the arrival of another “crack” meant that all the pieces of the puzzle were carefully in place and ready to be played.

And what fun it was when it played out. If there are any viewers still not convinced by the fairytale elements that have been promised to us, then look no further than Little Red Riding Hood lost in a forest. We even got a specific mention of fairytales in the final scene on the beach when River announced that she will see the Doctor next when the Pandorica opens. As arc stories go, following from Bad Wolf, Torchwood, You Are Not Alone and Rose’s return, I think that the crack theme along with the associated mysteries are probably the most considered and well thought out and certainly seem to be forming a stronger part of the narrative than previously. Whether or not they also become to be well realised is still up for grabs though, but here the time energy released from the crack was integral to proceedings. The tumbling of the Angels into the “void” when the gravity was switched off was visually reminiscent of the Doomsday conclusion but somehow even this was a little more satisfying.

Another script masterclass was on show from The Moff with a barrage of one liners like these three … “That’s extremely very not good”; “I got him to say ‘comfy chairs’”; and “If I always told you the truth, I wouldn’t need you to trust me”, all becaming instantly quotable. It wasn’t all fun and games though as the script managed to flip-flop between tragedy, comedy, action, and mystery without missing a beat. In fact all the production values were incredibly noteworthy with Adam Smith’s direction, the SFX from The Mill, the lighting and cinematography and pretty much everything leading to an impressive overall look and feel to the episode, which contrasted well with part one. Murray Gold’s music, of which I am a big fan anyway, soared when it needed to and managed to blend perfectly with the scenes. It really is a golden age of Who at the moment – I am gushing, I know, but I make no apology.

There was lovely performance too from the actor playing Octavian, who, just as we thought he was going to survive with the rest of the gang, got caught by an Angel. The exchange between Matt Smith and Iain Glen was a small but beautiful moment as the futility of the situation was realised by both and brought a lump to the throat. This was explored in a little more detail during another excellent installment of Doctor Who Confidential. This week it included some great interviews with a plethora of new series writers singing the praises of the Moffat stories from the RTD era. It is certainly worth noting to anyone who has previously given up on DWC that it has really upped its game this season. (Still little to no classic coverage, nor in-depth analysis of themes but a great accompaniment to the main meal nonetheless… and they never turn up on DVD’s in their full length versions either).

As with everything, all good things must come to an end. But what an end! There is, in all likelihood, a fair smattering of controversy about the highly sexual scenes in Amy’s bedroom. They came as a surprise to me, I have to confess, but in the context of the kind of few days that Amy had just experienced with the Doctor it was perhaps a not too out of character moment. Nothing wrong with being a little bit risque either: Doctor Who is all grown up now and a true show of the 21st century. It also adds a nice new dimension to the relationship. As usual, I haven’t yet dared venture too deeply in to Gallifrey Base to see what fellow fans think of all this, bar a quick surf at lunchtime today to find out the viewing figures (another impressive showing with 6.9 million tuning in). Wish me luck as I go in and see you next week for Vampires in Venice.

Angels With Dirty Faces

Well, if last week’s return of the Daleks wasn’t quite the unmitigated success that everyone had hoped for, then this week’s installment saw two returns for the price of one but the question was, could they live up to the hype? The answer: a resounding “Yes” and the pre-credit sequence alone was worth the price of admission. First up, and making the most memorable of returns was Alex Kingston, clearly having a whale of a time repising her role as the Doctor’s bickering future “love interest”, River Song. Not qualified as a professor yet, this version of Song was obviously younger than the one we saw at the end of her real-world life in The Forest of the Dead two years ago. Devising an ingenious escape from a starliner by etching some ancient Gallifreyan on the ship’s black box in the knowledge that it would be found in a museum at some point in the future and that the Doctor would return to save her, was almost the perfect illustration of Steven Moffat’s promise that there would be a bit more playing about with time in his version of Doctor Who. There was even time for a cameo from The Streets’ Mike Skinner. The cleverness of such a five-minute scene reassured us that we were in safe hands.

The relationship portrayed by Kingston and Matt Smith was so beautifully observed, that it was a little jarring to watch some clips from Silence in the Library during Doctor Who Confidential later on when you had almost forgotten that it was David Tennant in one of those roles back then. Speaking of DWC, it is probably worth mention that that has really stepped up its game a level this year, proving itself to be a charming, if still slightly overlong companion to the main show. The cleverness of the writing continued to shine after the titles with an amusing little scene as the Doctor and River bickered back and forth over the controls of the TARDIS, with gags about the blue stabilisers and the hand brakes being thrown about with abandon. As an aside, I wasn’t sure whether River’s comments about being taught how to fly the ship “by the best” and that not being the Doctor, was a gentle dig at him, or some kind of hint that another Time Lord might yet appear.

Either way we were soon on the planet and assessing the damage to the Byzantium, along with the revelation that the cause of the crash (and the aforementioned “second return”) was the Weeping Angel (last seen in the award winning episode, Blink) that was being carried in the hold of the ship. I get the impression that this two-parter might be in the running for an award or two itself. It was at this point that everything became a little Alien-esque. After the Star Wars references of previous stories, we moved in to epic territory here albeit with a different movie reference at it’s source. Assisted by Bishop (you see!), leader of an ill-defined quasi-religeous/military organisation who were enlisted by River to help in the capture, a camp was set up, there was a bit of necessary yet still entertaining exposition for a minute or so before the next great scene is played out for us. Amy gets herself trapped inside and air-locked, dead-locked (for want of a better word) Portkabin, where an image of an angel becomes dangerously real. Again, Amy demonstrates ingenuity and common sense in the face of extreme adversity, even to the extent of employing the “dont-blink-but-wink” solution that those incredibly few critics of Blink cited as a reason to dislike that, now classic, tale.

Throughout this the dialogue sparkles…

The Doctor :“River, hug Amy!”
Amy: “Why?”
The Doctor: “Cos I’m busy”

… and still we’re only twenty minutes in. We then find ourselves with The Maze Of The Dead, the perfect hiding place for a Weeping Angel being this cavern full of statues. The creepy factor kicks into overdrive at this point and mention needs to be made of Adam Smith, who has directed another cracking episode following the Eleventh Hour, although, in a real-life wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey way, this was actually filmed before that one. The lighting and varying effects shots looked sumptuous, especially in HD, which also happily avoided the unnecessary inconvenience of a second Norton Invasion, as Graham Norton once more inadvertantly interrupted the Doctor, this time with one of those extraordinarioy annoying digital “Coming Next” banners to advertise the BBC show that follows. Facebook groups, Twitter outrage and strongly worded emails from a number of the 6.8 million who tuned in, have already elicited an apology from the Beeb.

There’s another little moment, in which River Song drops some hints about her true relationship with the Doctor when she says that it is too early in his time-stream for him to know who and what she is and that she does not want to go back to prison. We are assured, again from The Moff himself during DWC, that there is a whole story planned out here. I am convinced that there are plenty more stories beyond this pair to play out before this little arc is concluded and I would not be at all surprised if we had a River Song episode in every year of Moffat’s Who… and that would be a wonderful thing indeed. As the group work their way through the maze, some of the soldier/clerics are bumped off by the Angel in a Star Trek redshirt way, although the use of Bob as the voice of the angel is another wonderful conceit, before which they suddenly realise that this is not a cavern full of statues but, in fact, a cavern full of Angels, hiding in plain sight like all the best movie twists.

Then we arrive at the cliffhanger, the Angels trap is set,  the group surrounded and seemingly nowhere to run to. The Doctor grabs a gun gives a wonderful little speech and fires upwards. Do I really have to wait a week for the next part?

Prime Minister In His Sights

Our heroes are summoned to blitz-torn London by none other than Winston Churchill who, concerned about his new found “Ironsides” that were helping the war effort, decided to call upon his old friend, the Doctor to give a little support. I loved the way that Churchill and the Doctor had the bond formed already off-screen and the way that the PM had the ability to call the TARDIS directly. It was a clever little device that allowed the rather wonderful Ian McNiece and Matt Smith to side-step a whole bunch of exposition and get straight down to buiness. However, after the phone call and in another example of the Doctor not quite getting his timing right, he arrives a whole month later, by which time Churchill has put aside all concerns about these Ironsides and happily demonstrates to the Doctor and Amy an anihilation of an attacking Luftwaffa squadron by zapping them out of the sky. His “allies” of course are the Daleks, clad in khaki, eblazoned with a Union flag and subserviently helping out with tea and crumpets for the hard-working folk in the bunker. Something is very wrong.

The Doctor of course starts to appeal to the all those around him because he knows that the pepperpots are up to something. The scientist at the heart of events, who supposedly invented these things, as well as gravity bubbles and hypersonic travel, is a guy called Bracewell, played by Bill Patterson. After everyone seems to tell him not to be such a big sissy, Eleven reverts to hitting Skaro’s finest with a wrench and screaming at them to kill him, anything to try and provoke them in to doing something, eventually telling them in no uncertain terms that “I am the Doctor and you are the Daleks”. Everyone is on the brink of thinking that the Doctor has lost the plot until the Dalek fesses up with a single word “Correct”.

At this point everything was going well. Two great cameo performances, evocative scenes of London in the war, a mystery, the Doctor’s oldest enemy up to something devious and Matt and Karen continuing to shine and engage in their still new leading roles. By the way, at this point did anyone pick up on the Star Wars thing again? When Bracewell exclaims “You are my ironsides. I created you”, the khaki Dalek blasts his hand off and replies “No. We created you”. Anyone else think of Darth Vader standing over Luke (also without a hand) and giving him the “I am your father” line?! Just me then. However, if you were in any doubt over the Star Wars thing, check out the way the Dalek ship went through the time tunnel at the end… pure Millenium Falcon! Anyway, back to the action, the Daleks pop off back to their ship, again not choosing to simply exterminate the Doctor while he is stood helpless and unarmed, but instead to check on the progress of their progenitor device that seems to be at the heart of the evil plan.

Then it all starts to get a somewhat messy. The Doctor pops off up to the Dalek ship to have a little eye-to-eyestalk time to get to the bottom of the nefarious plan, leaving Amy and Winston back in the bunker to twiddle their thumbs. Quick as a flash the progenitor device on the Dalek ship has built five of the much talked about, new-design Daleks. Seemingly having channelled the spirit of Steve Jobs, Daleks are now available with smooth edges in a series of primary colours: iDaleks if you will. Bigger than their predecessors both in terms of their height and, to be frank, their fat arses. The three RTD-era Daleks are quickly exterminated by the new big bads, in a none too subtle metaphorical statement that possibly more than any other Moffat-era moment in the three episodes so far, attempts to underscore the fact that we are in new territory here and Russell T Davies’ influence is well and truly over. However uncomfortable this made me feel (due to the fact that I don’t like these new chaps as much as I like the old, tank-like, rivetted ones), there was still time for Matt Smith armed with a Jammie Dodger, to deliver his best line so far… “Don’t mess with me… sweetheart!”

Back in London, my disbelief became suspended for a while as the girl who seemed to be very important but wasn’t (I think the credits called her Blanche, she exchanged a knowing glance with Amy early on, and found out that her husband, Reg had perished in the attacks. And after going through all of this, none of it was followed up during the episode and she was just left with her grief and expected to keep Keep Calm And Carry On). Anyway, her. She delivered a message to Churchill that more Nazi bombers were in the channel and just ten minutes from London, which was now inconviently lit up like a Christmas tree thanks to the Dalek energy pulse thingy. In that 10 minutes, Amy and Winston persuaded Bracewell to help out, to come up with an idea to help them, equip three Spitfires with the technology to allow the RAF to launch them in to space, locate the Dalek ship on the far side of the moon, engage it in a battle and help destroy the beam. Now, is it just me or did that seem like quite an achievement in such a short time period?

Ignoring that for a moment, we then enter the final scenes, which presented Amy and the Doctor with a dilemma, to destroy the Daleks or save the Earth from the bomb inside Bracewell. Of course we got a typical nu-Who finish, with the companion saving the day with her humanity. Perhaps the bigger question is: What is this episode for? The Eleventh Hour accomplished the introduction of both new Doctor and the new companion, The Beast Below then served to cement their relationship, I wonder was this episode intened to re-introduce the Daleks while simultaneously expanding the mystery by highlighting Amy’s lack of knowledge of the Daleks: this certainly makes the events of The Eleventh Hour worthy of revisiting. For example, I’ve always thought that the small child in the Eleventh Hour who runs along past the Doctor and Amy with his toy helicopter was somehow important but I can’t put my finger on why that might be. And here again, we get a fairly blatent crack appearing in the final scene.

It was, I confess, probably the weakest episode of this series and I suspect, when I hit the other blogs’ reviews this afternoon and venture in to the Gallifrey Base forums for the first time since the episode, I will see a lot of uproar at some of the elements, but, as Amy herself concluded, it was not too shabby at all. KBO, Who fans, KBO!

Basically, I Rule!

So, The Beast Below should have been The Moff’s difficult second album. We appear superficially at any rate to be following a familiar formula. Like “Rose”, “End Of The World” and “The Unquiet Dead” at the start of the RTD era, here we get “Eleventh Hour” as the contemporary companion introduction, “The Beast Below” as the trip in to the far future, and next week’s “Victory of the Daleks” as the trip in to the past, this time set in WWII (and, I think coincidentally, penned by Mark Gatiss too). On the principles that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery coupled with the fact that if ain’t broke don’t fix it, I think it’s a perfectly fine path to tread. However, other than a gentle nod to the penultimate scene in The End of the World, the similarities between this tale and RTD’s second story soon end. Visually, I was more reminded of The Long Game than anything else as our time travellers find themselves aboard a space ship cluttered with contemporary paraphenalia: lollypop ladies, cafe’s, school kids with satchels, and old fashioned red phone boxes. Although, as it’s Doctor Who, all is not quite right or as it appears.

The story, though, is an exceptionally simple one. The unpallatable truth behind the escaping British spaceship is kept from the majority of its resident’s who wander about in blissfull ignorance. The secret is gradually uncovered and there is a dilemma as to how to resolve it. However, a clever “third way” is discovered and everyone lives happily ever after. This is after all, a fairy-tale as Steven Moffat & Co. are readily on hand to remind us whenever a camera goes anywhere near the production team. However, the Beast Below as a stand alone story, is not so easily dismissed. It has layers and depth and magic and as memorable a one-off character in Liz 10 as we’ve seen for a while. I adored Sophie Okenedo’s turn as the gun-toting, down-to-earth, Eliza Doolittle style monarch. Her pre-knowledge of the Doctor was also a nice touch, revisiting some of Ten’s on and off screen encounters with her regal predecessors. The episode also serves as a relationship defining moment between Amy and the Doctor.

Amy is given almost no time to adapt to her new life, not even enough time to change from her night-clothes before being thrust into the wacky world of Starship UK. The Doctor deliberately leaves her on her own shortly after arrival as if challenging her to demostrate her worthiness. From there Amy moves to quickly discover some secrets of the ship with an assuredness and an admirably keen sense of discovery. Without hesitation she investigates the nature of the “hole” despite the protestations of the local girl and despite the knowledge that she is operating in, what Eleven described as a police state. Finally, after being captured by the mysterious black-hooded figures and upon awaking in a chair in a Big Brotheresque video room, she learns the truth and then immediately chooses to “forget” it, a decision that later causes the Doctor some concern. However, redemption is soon forthcoming after Amy and the Doctor are reunited along with the Liz 10 and the young girl Amy befriended. The key scene within the episode was the scene where the revelation about the nature of Spaceship UK and the Pratchett-like space whale that was being tortured beneath. The Doctor jumped through to his conlusions with a rapid, scatter gun approach as he put together the pieces of the puzzle that led Liz 10 to understand her role in what had happened. However, this is a different Doctor, he is a little more vulnerable and significantly he had missed an important element. Step up, Amy. Putting everything at risk, she forced the queen to abdicate, but her insight into being able to see the true nature of the space whale (and to then compare it the Doctor’s own situation) was masterful. Suddenly, role of Doctor and companion were temporarily reversed and it is the Doctor who is left to ponder his own shortcomings, while Amy has the saitisfaction of having proved herself. Clever. And I like this awkward and imperfect Doctor – he promises much.

In Case You Missed My Radio Debut

Thanks to Martin for providing the file. An excerpt from the mighty Victoria Derbyshire’s BBC Radio 5Live show, in which I phone in to give them my two cents about the debut of Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Steven Moffat’s “Eleventh Hour”. [P.S. Hope this works, never uploaded an audio file before]

Reviewing Doctor Who

As if you needed reminding, episode 2, “Beast Below”, is on in a couple of hour’s time.