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| New WHO, with Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) and The Doctor (Matt Smith). Images: BBC |
NOTE: To all viewers outside the UK and US, this review contains possible SPOILERS!
Steven Moffat has cleverly enthralled and entertained millions of DOCTOR WHO fans of all ages and genders worldwide, and TV audiences in general, with his singular, bold new take on the universe spanning adventures of the popular Time Lord ever since the official arrival of his acclaimed two part World War II/ horror hybrid story for Christopher Eccleston’s series re-start, “The Empty Child”, or, as its known to millions by the phrase of it’s popular gas-mask wearing, alien organism possessed titular character: “Are you my mummy?”
Following on from such populist chills would come a dip into MILLS & BOON fantasy for WHO love story THE GIRL IN THE FIREPLACE, followed by the time spanning evil of the blink and you die stone based creepies the Weeping Angels-which have now become a cemented group of iconic villains rivaling the popularity of the Daleks, Cybermen and Sonatarans in the category of All-Time best WHO monsters from the last forty-eight plus years. And with his now two season creative reign for the new Doctor of youthful eccentric, bow ties and fez’s are cool exclaimer Matt Smith, could things be any better for the writer/family man as his producing/writing skills are further unleashed with the ambitious enthusiasm of a rotund kid in a candy store, captivating and beguiling the fans with his new vision of the show like some kind of mystical Pied Piper of Gallifrey? On a series where his dedication and love for it has seemingly never been more clearly evident? Well, I’m sure many of you are caught up in this new renaissance. However, I personally have never quite been caught up in the same kind of love affair concerning Mister Moffat’s smugly mystical aura that has seemingly enraptured said legions of devotees. I’ve also never been as much of a critical realist as I have now with regards to the new series, and WHO in general, under his charge since its started to grow beyond its original format in its re-launched, re-imagined state, gaining controversial new ground at first with the mid David Tennant years, when it had been under the command of Russell T Davies, and now taken into even further climes, and possibly even more unusual extremes, too, with Moffat, who, with his creative washing machine, has given all things WHO a new in-and out rinse, re-working and re-stretching things format-wise at the same time. Though whether or not he actually needed to do it, and quite so severely, is another matter…
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| Howdy, partner! The Doc goes country and western out in Utah for the series opening two parter. |
There’s no denying that the show is at the top of it’s individual tree with regards to how the BBC can afford to make it, especially budget-wise, and its modern-ness has certainly never looked better with regards to the majority of its CGI effects. More importantly, it also has a fine Time Lord lead in the tweed jacket wearing shape of the aforementioned Smith, but that feeling of cold isolation beyond its lead star, and the tales the main characters bear themselves within, still leave me with depressed feelings of woe, frustration, a kind of “what are they doing to the show?” feeling and an overall sense of cold-heartedness. Perhaps I’m too old for WHO now and am simply “not getting it” as I should. Perhaps I’m not clever enough, or feel that its trying too hard to match its cinematic rivals, whom Moffat clearly admires, in the likes of Harry Potter and Tim Burton, when it shouldn’t be, and whom, for the most part, leave me with such similar emotionless compromise as this new WHO era.
With such a prior mixed quality first season of story-telling, I had hoped that a more confident Moffat would really put the series back on track in his sophomore year and lose the twee fantasy. Having reached the end of its mid-season cliff-hanger for the summer, Moffat WHO Year Two (Part One!) would from a behind the scenes standpoint, retain its visual sheen and seem more confidently made, whilst Smith has, for the most part, found his booted feet, and the companions, though still annoying, are slightly better (Arthur Darvill as Rory especially, though they’ve certainly had it in for him this year-poor Mister Pond has been hunted down, killed and drowned at the same time, poisoned, aged to death and suffered from some majorly cruel and hurtful verbiage from that cow of a wife of his! As for Amy, if I had been the Doctor and had to listen to her annoying bolshie prattle, I’d have certainly left her back on the Demon’s Run asteroid facility and never bothered to come back!). But enough about the gloss and regular series leads, what about the actual story and dramatic core of the episodes?
Well, straight out I wanted to like this new season. I really, really did, especially as I always get suckered in by the early trailers (which the BBC’s editorial and marketing teams, along with the great photo-shoots, specially made trailers and Internet lead-ins, are done so well in the best Americana TV sweeps homages, firmly bringing WHO back into the public and fan consciousness year after year now, with creatively confident strides, since 2005), promising such an exciting variety of content- full of great monsters, locations and hopefully scares for kids young and old. But, once again, after I’ve finished seeing the episodes I realized I’ve been emotionally conned into watching them and finding myself deeply un-satisfied, especially as my spirits were raised by Moffat’s wanting to re-introduce more cliff-hanger elements to the series so as to keep the viewers interested over the year: an idea that felt re-assuringly good (hearkening back to the olden golden days of the series 25 minute episodes) and would hopefully keep people from straying away from the series, as had been previously happening with prior season runs going into the summer. Alas my expectations for a thoroughly engrossing Moffat season were to prove for naught as the nearly two months rolled by and I became disappointed and disenchanted by a lot of the story developments, cliffhangers and general air of creative smugness that the series has entered into in this new phase of its existence….
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| THE IMPOSSIBLE ASTRONAUT has its sight locked on the last of the Time Lords. |
I’ve rarely worn rose tinted spectacles and am aware, like many others, of all the perceived faults of previous seasons/eras of the show over the years, from poor acting to wobbly sets and creaky men in monster costumes, but the overall sheer pleasure of enjoying the show overrode such concerns and criticisms from journalists and demented TV critics back in the day, who just wanted to look clever in their barbings. Now, when I watch the modern series of WHO, my viewing concerns are far greater, coupled together with pure anger and frustration as to what they are doing to such a once finely crafted (despite its low budgets and lack of production time) and accessible format for a TV show, and why its degenerated into a soap-opera series of style and plot gimmicky to win over said audiences rather than showing actual depth and story strength, with tales that should have satisfying beginnings, middles and ends being mostly a thing of the past. At times, some of the adventures this year reminded me of the kind of weird and wacky things fans have been reading for years on in within the comic strip tales of the DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE, and that’s not necessarily a good thing, despite the reasonable money available to bring these types of grander stories to life. Some of the more recent modern tales in my opinion just do not pass muster in the script development phase, and certainly wouldn’t have stretched well within the framework of the four to six parters of the olden days.
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| Licensed to kill! But is River Song shooting at herself? |
And Season Two of the Smith/Moffat era should have gotten off to a promising start-the chilling pre-series launch trailer of one of the creepy aliens beings- The Silence- hovering behind President Nixon in the Oval Office offered great things to come, and this new enemy for the Doctor (only hinted at in the previous season), alongside a creepy faceless Astronaut, were being salivated over by the BBC and the WHO production team as the next great threat to the Time Lord and his companions during their trip to sixties America-on the birth of the Moon landings-and possibly the best new baddies since the Daleks in prior TV history. But, at the end of the day, despite looking good, they proved totally defeatable and easily wiped out in the finale by the almost bloodthirsty pairing of The Doctor (with that trusted and now damned annoying sonic screwdriver that can really do too much of everything these days!) and the gun waving, murder blasting River Song, played by that curly haired wonder Alex Kingston (more on her later…)
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| The debut of The Silence. But was it all style over substance? |
Alongside all the what the? moments and continuing twists, turns and promises from Moffat of events that will be, may be or already have been to ensnare audiences for future big stakes episodes, THE IMPOSSIBLE ASTRONAUT and DAY OF THE MOON, despite the aforementioned (again!) glossy look of it all and some good casting, really didn’t have enough story material to sustain themselves as a two parter, and numerous sections of the opener, in particular, seemed very padded out. I also have to bemoan the so-called “shocking” and “surprising” death of Matt Smith’s Doctor in the series opening- slain by someone in that NASA astronaut’s suit-another gimmick to get the viewers watching, but has Moffat thought of the consequences of his actions here? If this truly is the planned eventual demise of the Time Lord then, right up front, it robs Smith of a deservedly noble and heroic end to be-which pretty much all the previous Doctors have had in their final tales.
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| High sea escapades for the cast of THE CURSE OF THE BLACK SPOT. |
Straying some watery distance away from the epic ambitions of the Moffat opener, the change of pace, and smaller but no less glossy flavor of THE CURSE OF THE BLACK SPOT proved to be equally flawed but in different ways, with a story that, despite a good start (with its air of mystery and the unknown assailant at work on the ship killing its crew), and more solid guest star support (Lily Cole made an impression, though the enthusiastic to appear name value of Hugh Bonneville was probably miscast), I don’t think Steve Thompson’s script ultimately knew what it wanted to be- fun historical, sci-fi or what, and its hybrid end results, with a lame medical space ship explanation for what was going on, proved more a case of the so-so-so’s rather than the wanted and much needed yo-ho-ho’s! It was probably the biggest disappointment of a pseudo historical sci-fi tale since the equally weak David Tennant Season Three episode THE SHAKESPEARE CODE. Though, on the plus side, CURSE was slightly better than Tennant’s also ropey Agatha Christie episode from Season Four.
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| A charming relationship between the TARDIS (Suranne Jones) and her Doctor in THE DOCTOR'S WIFE. |
Fortunately, things picked up for a brief period with the ultimate classic series love letter to long term WHO fans, with popular fantasy writer Neil Gaiman’s THE DOCTOR’S WIFE-surely the episode with the most mis-leading title of all time! – giving the audience much to enjoy, including some very strong characterizations (even with the smaller roles), snappy dialogue and a plot mostly followable to the average Joe public if they listened hard enough, that didn’t have too many gimmicks and relied purely on telling an enjoyable and even emotional story that didn’t border on soap, alongside the odd creepy moments that WHO can do so well when it wants to.
The story and the way it was scripted was an example to me of everything Moffat wants to do himself in his own stories but can’t lock onto with the same kind of skill: THE DOCTOR’S WIFE seemed so naturally developed and flowing that it looked as if Gaiman had seemingly put it together without really trying! And what I’ve said there is not meant as anything derogatory! Regarded by many as the ultimate UK children’s/family fantasy author, Gaiman’s inclusion in the WHO scripters pantheon was a necessary and much desired choice for Moffat, and easily one of the best production decisions he’s made for the show so far, what with the tale’s charmingly presenting an intriguing and sweet exploration of the Doctors unique relationship/love affair with his TARDIS over the years, and vice versa, alongside a sneakily clever referencing to WHO’s original 1963 pilot episode, AN UNEARTHLY CHILD, what with this new sci-fi take set in a similar kind of abandoned junk yard, if in a bigger scope, and at the backwaters end of the universe, rather than 76 Totter’s Lane.
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| Going green! An Ood makes a welcome re-appearance in THE DOCTOR'S WIFE. |
The idea of a creature (voiced by Michael Sheen-who else! He’s been in every other film and TV series!) that has spent its lifetime devouring Time Lords and their TARDIS (or should that be TARDI?) was very intriguing, as was the idea of the Doctor’s time and place spanning vehicle getting sentient life, well played by Suranne Jones, finally escaping so much of the kitchen sink/detective “drama”/tosh ITV has saddled her with over the years, in a part surely written by Gaiman for Helena Bonham Carter-now she’s an actress I’d love to see work with Smith in a WHO episode- what an incredible screen partnership they could be. Perhaps one day such an exciting union might happen- even if it’s not in WHO.
On the impressive visual side of the storytelling, we even finally got to see a bit more of the TARDIS interior, even if it was a few corridors, and the return of the Eccleston/Tennant era coral patterned TARDIS control room, as well as a separate version, created by a very talented young BLUE PETER viewer no less!, reminiscent of what was seen in the late 1970’s. The return of the T Davies era Ood was also a good idea (possibly a cost effective measure?), but my only complaint for the tale was that they could have amped up some of the episodes aforementioned scarier moments even more.
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| Team TARDIS encounter the Gangers in THE REBEL FLESH. |
Despite more promising trailers, the penultimate two-parter THE REBEL FLESH/THE ALMOST PEOPLE, from LIFE ON MARS creator Matthew Graham, an attempt to do something new with the old doppelgangers idea, was a marginally better tale than what had been provided by Steve Thompson, and a slight improvement over Graham’s own previously terrible tale for Tennant’s premiere season, but it wasn't as clever and scary as it liked to think it was, and the plot was once more very thinly stretched over its duration. Despite some intriguing moments-both scripted and visually from its director-the use of a castle may have been an attempt to have Gothic surroundings around the sci-fi trappings, so as to kind of create a more horror based atmosphere, but all it ultimately reminded me of was the sad fact that the BBC can no longer do incredible futuristic sets anymore and now have to use exterior locations three quarters of the time as part of their “We have to match HARRY POTTER” criteria!
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| The duplicate Doctor enjoys his new wardrobe. |
It was also poorly cast (Sarah Smart, much liked in the industry, was particularly weak here, I felt, as was her CGI finale creature appearance, which looked awful and unrealistic) and there was never any real sense of threat and danger if the Gangers ultimately got out of their restricted environment and led a full rebellion against their enslavers, though the final sequence with the reveal of the duplicate Amy having been kidnapped for her about to be born baby was well done. Shame that, with such a good build up here, actually giving the end of the tale some deserved weight in its last few minutes, the planned spectacular to follow would prove such a waste of time and not even be very thrilling…
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| The evil Madame Kovarian (Frances Barber) is fully revealed in A GOOD MAN GOES TO WAR. |
Yeah, the finale: the promise of a major league rescue for the aggravating positive/negative form of Miss Pond-and now even more annoying as a mum! How long before someone gives her an ASBO?! Plus, what was promised as some serious game-changing shocks to come for part deux of the season later in the year, but what we were ultimately left with was a waste of Matt Smith, who should have been on total fire by episode’s end, and what was basically just a big, brassy, noisy and ultimately shallow mess- one big cliff-hanger to a cliff-hanger anyway- no better or worse than the opening two-parter, put together like a badly written, gimmick laden NEW ADVENTURES novel from the early nineties. It also bore a mixture of Quentin Tarantino, Alan Moore’s LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN, the MAGNIFICENT SEVEN and BLAKE’S 7 (but not in a good way for the latter) thrown in like one big giant soap-opera sci-fi hybrid. Chuck in a lesbian take on THE AVENGERS (one of the partnership being a Silurian, of course!) as well as a camp LITTLE BRITAIN Sontaran officer and you’ve got all the audience bases covered! And just what were the Jedi Knights doing there…?
The long awaited revelation of just who River Song was-Alex Kingston being one of the best things to happen to WHO in a very long time- proved equally disappointing and ultimately robbed the mystique of the character in a build up and continuation that sent the show into even more undesired soapy waters…
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| How to waste the Cybermen, Steven Moffat style! |
Moffat’s aforementioned love, enthusiasm and dedication to WHO and to do new things is truly commendable but what was on-screen with A GOOD MAN GOES TO WAR proved story and character over-kill in my book, and far too much for this jaded old fan’s eyes to behold. It was like an anniversary special for WHO but with no emotion to cheer the viewer on as it proceeded with its also too ambitious STAR WARS-y galaxy and time spanning action meets wannabe BUFFY kick-ass heroics, with everything packed into a giant kitchen sink story that really did need help from a skilled plumber! And, once again, another classic WHO alien was totally wasted in proceedings-this time the Cybermen, blown up like a bunch of wallies in the opening minutes. If Moffat is going to denigrate and unleash such atrocities towards the shows biggest monster icons, the Daleks, in such similar ways in the future, then please don’t bring them back!
There’s also the also the question I have to ask of just much cheese did Moffat eat the night before he fixated himself on his word processor to spring this tale from his imagination? Is it possible that some E tablets may have somehow accidentally strayed into his Mentos mint tray as he munched and sucked happily whilst his trigger fingers typed across the keypad?
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| Do you like my cot? Important revelations for Amy and Rory from River Song. |
The dark fairytale storytelling has been truly taken up a notch from its previous season, but its over the top in its ambitions to the point where it now seems dazed and confused. Having used similar plot devices and shocks in his previous stories, Mofatt is starting to look like a one trick pony at times, often overcomplicating things when he doesn’t need to-he just has a tell a strong and effective story, without all the over-done bells and whistles. A good story will take of itself, believe me. THE DOCTOR’S WIFE stands out like a beacon in such respects and proves far more enjoyable and immersive to watch than the coldly showy story arcs of DAY OF THE MOON and A GOOD MAN GOES TO WAR?
Also, apart from Frances Barber as the ultimate Nursemaid/Nanny from hell, Madame Kovarian, with the kind of dominatrix eye patch normally reserved for Travis from BLAKE’S 7, where have all the great and memorable DOCTOR WHO villains gone? Why has the series lost so much of its strong menace and atmosphere in this new fairy-tale vision, at a time when it should also be incorporating more horror and suspense- a new kid-friendly take on classic HAMMER, perhaps- previously well imagined within WHO’s past in a way that would make its stand out as an integral part of the show with long-term viewers, in and out of its many eras, right up to its first incarnation’s end in 1989…
In general, WHO has become far more touchy feely now, too, and it seems to me that, to keep the general audience involved, and afraid that he’ll lose them if the show becomes too sci-fi, Moffat has taken the development of human companions to the limit now that we have a TARDIS couple that are married and with a child. Alongside some smug humour that wouldn’t have been out of place in Moffat’s previous COUPLING, the shows format has been seriously tampered with enough in my books.
On the plus side, however, I’m still very impressed by the multi talented Matt Smith-just check out his work playing two Doctors in THE ALMOST PEOPLE- but he doesn’t command the screen as much as he did in his earlier episodes of the previous season –perhaps because there’s just too many characters and companions around him taking away or diluting his valuable screen time and presence, especially in these blockbuster wannabe tales. I’d also like to see him take on a really good villain-a worthy adversary- in the future. Perhaps a regenerated Master, one far away from the over the top excesses of John Simm’s portrayal in the final two Xmas-time Tennant specials.
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| "Nazi's! I hate these guys!" |
With the vaguely funny, and Tarantino-esque title of “Let’s Kill Hitler”, will the seasons resumption next September end up being a re-tread of ENTERPRISE’s two-part season four opener STORM FRONT, which saw aliens changing Earth’s past and mixing with Nazi’s? Or, at the very worst, will it be a hybrid shambles resembling a poor mans Mel Brooks, with a singing and dancing Matt Smith jumping on stage in his jack boots for a new version of Springtime for Hitler, alongside Karen Gillan leading a procession of stocking and suspender clad dancing girls? With WHO these days, you just don’t know what to expect, but we’re sure to soon find out!
Die-hard WHO fans reading this blog review, especially those who are more recent converts to the WHOniverse with Tennant and Smith’s incarnations, will surely shake their heads in horror and profound disbelief at what I’ve written about their favourite show. But no fears, my words mean absolutely little or nothing to the BBC or the shows producers. I’m in a LAND OF THE GIANTS small size minority in my viewpoint and the show rightly remains loved by millions, with Moffat’s long-term plans for the series clearly proving correct for the modern masses clearly lapping it all up and enjoying it every Saturday evening. And that can’t be bad. In my book, as long as the series remains popular with the public, and all despite upcoming budget cuts affecting the way it will transmit over the next two years, brand WHO at the BBC will continue to remain a force to be reckoned with as it nears its incredible 50th Anniversary. At the end of the day, I’m glad the series is still around and enjoying such popularity, especially with younger audiences, but I wish I could be just as enthused by it as much as they are, which I’m sadly not. I now watch it out of long-term viewer loyalty rather than any kind of appreciation. I'd love to say I’m excited about the next half of WHO but I can wait more than patiently for its return…
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| Is time running out for our hero? It certainly seems so from this teasing image. |
Perhaps I’m just too proprietorial about the series, but until it regains what I feel is its lost mojo with regards to storytelling and character, the magical aura of adventures in time and space currently being seen on TV remain personally sparkle-less.
KOOL TV RATING: A just about 3 out of 5 (It should be 2.5 but the extra point goes to Matt Smith for his always enjoyable performances).
DOCTOR WHO Series Six: Part One is out next week from 2ENTERTAIN.
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