Fazzinchi

Ssshhhhhhh!

The penultimate story of Series Two, before the much anticipated two-part finale, was the enigmatically titled Fear Her (although I rather enjoyed the title proposed earlier in production: Chloe Webber Destroys The Earth). Coming off the back of the Abzorbaloff turkey/masterpiece* (* = delete as applicable) and suffering from a slightly disappointing “Next Time” trailer we find our dynamic duo arriving at the 2012 Olympics. However, rather than heading to the Beach Voleyball or Greco-Roman Wrestling, they wander into a suburban street and stumble upon a mystery surrounding some children that have been disappearing. Obviously, there is a suitably Who-ish twist to the events as it turns out that 8-year-old Chloe Webber has been drawing pictures of the children, which manage to pull them out of reality and into the images themselves.

The scary aspect to the story was the juxtaposition of the frightening (the possessed, monsters in cupboards, disappearing kids) against the mundane (suburbia). Everything looked utterly ordinary on the surface, and I think that this may be the reason why the story failed to entirely capture the imagination of this particular viewer. It was the visual impact of episodes such as Tooth and Claw and The Impossible Planet that gave me a certain satisfaction that I was watching something truly special. Here, it looked (whisper it) a little bit Hollyoaks. However, it has to be said that Abisola Agbaje did a sterling job as Chloe, in a role that demanded two personalities and lots of screen-time. All in all I’d have to say that this was a fair to middling story but it served well as an entree to the Army of Ghosts.

We love Jeff Lynne too

Love & Monsters was not your run-of-the-mill Who episode by anyone’s stretch of the imagination. The Doctor and Rose were sidelined for much of the episode (intense shooting schedules and double banked production being the cause), which gave Russell T the opportunity to stretch his creative wings. What he dreamt up was a natural extension to the character of Clive (as played by Mark Benton in Rose). Here we find a group of people who have become intrigued by the mysterious Doctor, they meet up on a regular basis, share their mutual interest and finally, this disparate collection of souls become friends. Any resemblence to the concept of Doctor Who fandom at large is purely intentional. At the heart of this collective is Elton Pope, a hugely likeable chap played on right of geekiness by Marc Warren, but it is the arrival of Peter Kay’s character, Victor Kennedy, that sees the story develop.

So far, so odd. Where then did it all go wrong? Well the monster, for that is what Victor turns out to be, looks like it was designed by an 8-year old (in actual fact it was designed by an 8-year old, but shouldn’t we get better from our favourite programme?), there is a decidely left-field ending regarding a living paving slab, and the viewer is probably left somewhat bewildered. It suffers, like James Blunt, from being easy to hate. You can see what it’s trying to achieve, it’s not without merit, but it’s a little… whiny. However, some of us like James Blunt because it’s catchy, easy to absorb (ha!), and requires little in the way of thought. This is the marmite of Doctor Who episodes…. you’ll either love it or hate.

What are you lookin’ at?

Since the relaunch of Doctor Who last year, some fans have been asking why the stories were so Earth-centric in their settings. The rationale was compelling, i.e. (i) an anchor for the new fans to relate to, (ii) a focus on the companion and how travelling with the Doctor affects her and her home life, and (iii) a simple structural format that limits exposition to a minumum thus allowing the 45-minute format to work. However, it was still getting a little frustrating. So, we arrive at “The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit” double parter with a even more anticipation than usual. The happy travellers arrive on a Sanctuary Base, built on a planet that is, impossibly, orbiting a black hole. They meet the crew and their Ood workforce and, of course, things start to go wrong pretty soon. The power source that’s keeping them in orbit is buried 10 miles beneath the surface, the crew are drilling down to find it, and they have awoken an ancient evil…. the devil himself.

Tattooed Man

Hands down, this has to be the best example of Doctor Who, in the world, ever. Not one but two fantastic monsters, a rollicking good adventure yarn, brilliantly realised supporting characters, an engaging storyline, genuine peril, super cliffhanger, and an opportunity for the main characters to question and think about some of the larger issues of faith without ever once patronising the family audience. I could, and no doubt will, watch this over and over again and keep on discovering more facets of this wonderful tale to enjoy each time.

“The Rise Of The Cybermen”

The first two-part story of the season gave us the return of the Doctor’s second most memorable bad guys, the Cybermen. However, rather than trying to weave in some complicated back-story that gave the new viewers a brief history of Mondas and Telos and the why these silver giants were so upset in the first place, new Who writer, Tom MacRea set the story in that old sci-fi stalwart of a parallel world. This allowed a new, menacing design, and a new reason for taking over the world that really worked rather well and (if rumours are to be believed) set up some interesting story development for the series’ end. Legendary Doctor Who director, Graeme Harper, also returned and paced and structured these 90 minutes with aplomb. So why wasn’t this as good as it might have been?

Well, Roger Lloyd-Pack chewed up the scenery as the evil mastermind, John Lumic in a performance that brought back lots of memories of old Doctor Who for all the wrong reasons; the cliffhanger was resolved in a clever but oddly unsatisfactory way; and, in previous weeks, we had been treated to three of the greatest Who episodes I’ve ever seen and it was probably too much to ask for another. Despite the fact that there seems to have been another mid-season lull, these criticisms are really small beer… view the episode as a ninety minute movie and I promise you a thoroughly entertaining time. However, final word has to go to Noel Clarke, as Micky. Way back when “Rose” first aired, the guy took a lot of stick (even though we may try, how can we forget the wheelie bin scene?), but he’s come a long way and his performance
in this showed some real depth. If this is his final bow, I think I’m gonna miss him.

“The Girl In The Fireplace”…. on the wall

Episode 4 of this series sees the Doctor take a wander down the road less travelled, well at least as far as he’s concerned, and that is the road to love. This may not be the premise that would attract your “traditional” Doctor Who fan, but these days the traditional fans are hugely outnumbered by the nouveau Whovians, a fact to which the truly astonishing viewing figures would testify (7.9million tuned in to this). So, Mickey’s first trip aboard the TARDIS sees him and his two travelling companions land on a spaceship in the far future with the animosity of Rose, exhibited at the end of School Reunion, having strangely disappeared. A little investigation and the viewers find this sci-fi staple is not as simple as it first appears because the deserted spaceship is curiously juxtaposed against 18th century France, via a series of “holes punched in the universe”. It is through these “holes” that the Doctor first sees and then travels to meet a young Reinette, who will grow up to be Madame de Pompador. Trips back and forth see the Doctor appear at various stages of the courtisan’s life, and as the script cleverly points out, she takes the slow road through life as he spends no more than a day falling in love with her.

So, this 21st century Doctor feels a little love tug at the strings of his hearts, but the question is, “Does it work?”. Kind of depends who you listen to (especially if you are moved to read the ramblings of a few of those “traditional fans”) but as you’re reading this, I can tell you that the unequivocal answer is “Yes!”. Even if the love story was not to your taste, I haven’t even mentioned the beautiful clockwork droids that are the main villains of the piece, the witty yet moving script penned by the magnificent Stephen Moffatt, or the acting of Sophia Miles that was marvellous to behold. It wasn’t without its faults, of course, but then what is, and anything I mention here would only do a disservice to a great episode. Certainly vying with “Tooth and Claw” as the best of the series, even vying with “The Doctor Dances” as the best of the revised series and, just in case that’s all not quite enough, it has the best twist at the end I ever did see.

“I think I’m going back to the things I loved so well in my youth”

When I first heard that Liz Sladen was to reprise her role as Sarah Jane Smith I have to confess that I doubted the wisdom of the decision. It’s been 30 years since she was regularly on our screens and travelling with Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker’s 3rd and 4th Doctors, so who was going to remember her and what kind of relevance would her presence bring to the story other than to kow-tow to us die hard fans. It was that kind of indulgent, self-reverencial attitude that some argue led to the show being put on ice all those years ago. My recollection of her character was from the exact time I fell in love with Doctor Who, from all those years ago when the fan in me was born, from another time. Fine, bring back Doctor Who for a new generation, speed it up, smarten it up, sharpen it up and make it a 21st century success story, but don’t go messing with it and especially don’t go messing with the bits from my childhood.

I should never have doubted. Here we start with a simple coincidence, the Doctor and Rose were called by Mickey to investigate the strange goings on at Deffry Vale High School, the same strange goings on also attracted the attention of investigative journalist, Sarah-Jane (so simple, I’m surprised they haven’t bumped into each other before). And just for good measure she brough K9 along for the ride. Just in case this five-strong Scooby gang wasn’t enough, we also got the sinister Mr Finch portrayed by Anthony Head in a role that oozed malevolence. So the ensemble was in place, could they deliver?

Of course they could, and they delivered one of the great Doctor Who stories. The plot was, to put it mildly, simple… alien bat people take over a school to use the childrens’ brains to solve a mathmatical problem that will give them great power. They are thwarted and blown up. Told you it was simple. However, this was merely a backdrop to the emotional development and interplay of the five main characters. A witty and quotable script from Toby Whitehouse flowed seamlessly between action and fun, sorrow and loss, jealousy and anger, and good and evil. Sarah-Jane got closure, Mickey came to realise a little more about himself, Rose got a glimpse of the future, The Doctor got a glimpse of the past, and even K-9 got an overhaul in the end.

I will remember “School Reunion” for a long time: the confrontation between Mr Finch and The Doctor by the swimming pool; the cracking dialogue (”You can spend the rest of your life with me, but I can’t spend the rest of mine with you.”); finally realising that K-9 is not so useless after all; the feeling that we’ve got to the middle of Rose’s journey now that she’s seen where her relationship with the Doctor may end. But it’s not those things that I will remember most of all…. it was Lis Sladen’s return, it was, after all, the nod to all of us die-hard fans, it was “My, Sarah-Jane”.