Review: The Angels Take Manhattan

The Angels Take Manhattan Review

Immediate Reaction (After First Viewing)

And that’s that. Goodbye Amy and Rory. Steven Moffat’s Doctor Who has been criticised in some quarters for lacking the heart and soul that Russell T Davies’ iteration had in buckets. The Angels Take Manhattan sets that particular record straight. Amy’s departure at the hands of a Weeping Angel rivals Rose’s exit from the show, and I suspect resonated with a rapt audience in the same way. The Doctor’s heart-breaking reaction to her disappearance matches the tears he shed for the loss of Rose, showing that Amy meant just as much to him as she did. Matt Smith continues to extend his range as the Doctor, and makes the Doctor’s loss all too real. For the first time in the Eleventh Doctor’s era, I was properly moved. I might even have cried a bit. But don’t tell anyone.

The Angels Take Manhattan was a typical Moffat creation, in that it threw invention after invention onto the screen, seemingly without abandon, and managed to surprise and shock on a regular basis. Moffat seems to have settled down from overdoing the convoluted plot threads and time travel cheats that he used at first, and his two tales this year so far have had a pleasingly linear structure that has placed character higher than some of his recent stories. What it also had, with the knowledge that this was the story where Amy and Rory leave, was a sense of doom and death lingering over it. The threat felt real, because it was very possible one or both of them could die. That feeling doesn’t come along very often in Doctor Who and Moffat utilised it with his customary brilliance.

The use of detective imagery and tropes allowed Nick Hurran to show New York off to good effect, although I could have done without seeing River Song again. The shadowy backgrounds and darkened rooms were perfect environments for the Angels to inhabit, and there were one or two moments of sublime horror, such as the little girl in the window imitating the Angels gestures, and Rory’s descent into the cellar to meet the Cherubs.

The Weeping Angels themselves showed the law of diminishing returns in full effect. There were some nice wrinkles to their presentation, some more successful than others, but overall the fact is that they are no longer scary. The Weeping Cherubs were deeply disturbing, particularly that little child laugh they possessed. The Weeping Angel of Liberty was clearly an irresistible image, although it didn’t really seem to serve any purpose beyond its initial amusing appearance. Similarly the mother and son Angels seemed to only be there to provide Mike McShane’s mob boss with an off-screen death. However the main issue is that, with the whole don’t blink/ actually do blink issue raised in The Time of Angels/ Flesh and Stone has muddied the waters so much now that characters can go minutes at a time without actually looking at the Angels. Dramatic licence yes, but a severe weakening of a once terrifying villain. Leave the Angels alone now, Steven.

In a way it’s a pity Moffat chose 1938 rather than, say, 1965 for the past setting. It would have been nice to have imagined Amy and Rory finding little baby Melody in an alley, freshly regenerated, and raising her in the way that the events at Demons Run denied them in the first place. But then, I suppose life is not about completely happy endings and all threads tied up in a neat bow.

But the episode lives or dies on the strength of its main selling point; the departure of a companion, or in this case two. The inclusion of the Weeping Angels was a big clue about how the Ponds would leave us and so it came to pass. However, there was real power in their scenes in the graveyard, and also in the Ponds suicide pact to create the paradox. Whilst one Angel surviving and waiting in the graveyard was a bit convenient, it was the right exit for Amy and Rory. I agree with Steven when he says that companions shouldn’t die, and these days it seems that they have to leave in the most final way possible, short of death. The Ponds and the Doctor have reached the end of their book, and it’s sad to see them go, but also time. The show goes ever onward, and while we mourn the end of Amy and Rory, the post-credits mini-trailer promises new glories to come.

 

 

Written in memory of Rory Arthur Williams (Died aged 82) and his loving wife Amelia (Died aged 87).

And Remember...

And Remember...

 

Series Seven is seeing a very definite theme emerging at this point, and it is one that builds on a key Steven Moffat trope from his first two seasons as show-runner.

That theme is memory.

Series Five’s main plot arc concerned the crack in time caused by the destruction of the TARDIS. The crack erased people from time and thus made all those who knew them forget they ever existed. This was illustrated most obviously by the heartbreaking (second) death of Rory, and Amy’s doomed attempts to hang onto her memories of him. When the Doctor himself was erased from time, it was only Amy’s memory of him, planted in her head by the Doctor when she was eleven years old, that brought him back.

 

The many deaths of Rory Williams (Part Two).

 

Series Six introduced the Silence, a race who had long-since invaded Earth, whose modus operandi involved making people forget they had ever seen them the moment they turned away from the freaky-fingered felons. Even the Doctor was unable to picture them the moment they left his sight. Only through a subliminal message could the Doctor order mankind to kill the Silents, an order that could well have caused the aliens’ genocide and started the Doctor down his current path of letting his foes die rather than offering them a way to save themselves. Fast forward to the end of the season, and we discover that Madame Kovarian’s eyepatch was in fact a way of externally storing her memories of the Silents. The only way to remember the Silence is to store them on a computer drive. Once all the drives are destroyed who will remember the Silence then? Yes, they and Madame Kovarian are eventually defeated, but only in a parallel reality where time has stopped. For all we know, they are still out there, waiting for their moment of revenge, forgotten by the Doctor and his friends.

 

The Silence often abused their powers by lurking in women's toilets.

 

The Silence were revealed to be a religious order devoted to the stopping of a question that must never be asked. Namely ‘Doctor Who?’ In the very final moments of Series Six, the Doctor made the decision to step back into the shadows and become a myth once more. Did this choice put the Doctor onto the path to where that question will be answered? The answer appears to be yes.

Series Seven has brought us three stories so far, and each one has in some way touched upon this theme of memory. Asylum of the Daleks has Oswin, a girl who has forgotten, or rather is suppressing the memory, that she had been converted into a Dalek. She is no longer the person she thinks she is, a condition which may or may not apply to the Doctor at this point. Certainly it is to the Doctor we need to look. Oswin wipes all knowledge of the Doctor from the Dalek pathweb, so that when he returns to the Dalek saucer at the end of the story, the Daleks have no idea who he is. And what do they ask? ‘Doctor Who?’ of course, a question repeated over and over and celebrated by the Doctor. But this is the question that, according to the Silence, must never be asked; a question that terrified them so much they attempted to kill him (and in the eyes of the universe succeeded). Oswin’s last words, said directly to the camera are ‘And remember...’ Remember what exactly? Has she manipulated the Doctor’s memory too? Is she aware of the Doctor having memory problems? After all, she did scan him earlier in the episode. Then we have the slightly odd line as the TARDIS team prepare to face the Parliament of the Daleks. ‘What do we do?’ Amy asks. ‘Make them remember you,’ the Doctor tells her. Amy’s puzzled expression shows that this line makes no more sense to her as it does to the audience. It’s too strange a line not to mean something further down the line as Moffat’s arc starts to reveal itself properly.

 

'And remember...'

 

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship teases us with the belief that Solomon knew who the Doctor was on three occasions. Firstly we hear him perk up when he hears the word ‘Doctor’, but this turns out to be because he has been badly wounded by velociraptors and is in need of medical attention to keep his mangled legs. The second moment is when Solomon has his computer scan the Doctor, only to discover that he doesn’t exist. We fully expect the Doctor’s identity to be revealed here, and that absence of information again causes Solomon to question who he is; although Solomon doesn’t actually ask the forbidden question in this instance, we can assume that he at least thought it. The third tease occurs when Solomon discovers something else on board more precious than the dinosaurs, something unique. All indications are that he is talking about the TARDIS, but in fact he means Nefertiti. The Doctor and the TARDIS have been forgotten by the universe, but not by everybody. Riddell, Amy and Rory clearly know who he is, and quite probably the Indian Space Agency, although it is equally likely that, after monitoring the space news service, the Doctor simply inveigles his way into their confidence in his usual manner.

 

'You don't exist...'

 

In A Town Called Mercy, the Doctor reveals his age as 1200, indicating that a lot of time has passed since the events of Series Six, and in all that time the Time Lord has hidden in the shadows. We can imagine that he has used the better part of half a century proactively wiping himself from the history books rather than merely hiding away. Again the idea of memory comes to the fore when Isaac says of the Doctor (and Kahler-Jex): ‘You’re both good men. You just forget it sometimes.’ That’s a mighty perceptive comment from a man who has only just met the Doctor, so is it part of the theme? What leads Isaac to believe the Doctor has forgotten he is a good man?  At this time, we can’t be sure. However, it is Amy’s confrontation with her lifelong friend that is most revealing. ‘What have you turned into?’ she asks him at gunpoint, essentially asking ‘Doctor Who?’ If his most loyal companion doesn’t know who he is, then nobody does. The Doctor’s response is ambiguous; he appears for a moment not to know himself either.

 

'What have you turned into?'

 

The question has been asked three times now in three episodes. That isn’t coincidence. The signs are beginning to point to a future revelation that the Doctor has forgotten who he is as well. His merciless behaviour is at odds with his previous moral code. Could it be that two encounters in close order with memory-altering beings and space-time events have damaged his memory, as well as that of the universe as a whole? Could this be leading us into the anniversary year with the Doctor forgetting his identity and requiring the help of his former selves to restore it? Could this be a way of setting up a general reset of the series to allow it to continue for another fifty years? Are we leading to the forbidden question being asked by the Doctor himself?

One thing is clear; the imminent departure of Amy and Rory is only going to accelerate this process, as another two of the Doctor’s closest friends are lost to him and consigned to memory, and a new friend, already met, is remembered...

Review: Asylum of the Daleks

Asylum of the Daleks Review

 

Immediate Reaction

Well, Thank God I steered clear of any spoilers for this episode. Ladies and gentlemen, I am going to take a stand and say that spoilers are officially A BAD THING! In fact, if you’ve not seen Asylum of the Daleks, please don’t read any more of this review.

I mean it. Don’t.

Okay, they’ve gone. Where to begin? Has Doctor Who ever looked so good? Steven Moffat promised a mini-movie a week and that’s precisely what we got. From the fangasmic first images of Skaro since 1979 to the brilliant sequences in the snow, the whole story screamed quality. The effects were used sparingly and effectively and director Nick Hurran did another amazingly cinematic job.

I was expecting more Dalek action than we actually got, but like all New-Who, it was the relationships that were pushed to the forefront instead. There was a lovely little nod to the events at Demon’s Run in A Good Man Goes to War, and even with the happy ending for the Ponds, there is still a lot of mending to be done in their relationship. The Daleks were ancillary to the plot and to the main events in the story, which actually revolved around the character of Oswin.

For a series that purports to have no overriding story-arc, Moffat has provided one hell of a hook. Jenna-Louise Coleman’s appearance was a complete surprise and very well hidden. In fact, it’s possibly the biggest storyline surprise since they blew up Adric in Earthshock. (EDIT: Okay, in my excitement I forgot the aborted regeneration in The Stolen Earth and the little girl regenerating in Day of the Moon, both of which were properly gobsmacking moments). It’s a stroke of genius to set up the new companion way ahead of her eventual proper appearance and what a masterstroke. The new companion appears to be a Dalek! That’s genius. And Jenna-Louise is immediately likeable, with just a hint of vulnerability under her clever banter.

But it’s the Ponds who actually take centre-stage, and Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill are both excellent in conveying at first the pain and hostility of their separation and the moment where they admit their feelings for each other is the acting highlight of the episode.

There was so much that referenced previous successes, from the list of planets where the Daleks came from to the familiar throbbing sound effect as the insane Daleks woke up. The scenes in the intensive care unit reminded me of the incubator room in Genesis, with the same sickly green lighting. And a glass Dalek at last! Who’s been reading their copy of David Whitaker’s Doctor Who in an exciting adventure with the Daleks?

I’ve not even mentioned Matt Smith yet. He is close to becoming the Doctor now, with every little nuance of his portrayal finding new facets of the character. The Doctor’s exhilaration at successfully slipping back into the shadows even with his most implacable foes was positively infectious. Freed from all that convoluted River Song backstory, the lead characters all shone.

It’s a brilliant start for the new series; Asylum is probably the best season-opener since Smith and Jones on initial watch. It’s also Moffat’s best story since The Time of Angels/ Flesh and Stone.

 

 

Considered Opinion (After a second watch)

 

Okay, Steven Moffat is a sneaky Scottish genius. I doubt anybody would have expected the first appearance of Jenna-Louise Coleman in Asylum of the Daleks. In retrospect though, the signs were all there beforehand. I remember reading the opinion of the production team that Jenna’s performance was quick-witted and quick-mouthed several months ago when she was first cast and long before the Christmas special was filmed. Now we know that opinion was based on this first appearance in Asylum rather than her audition piece. Her character is called Oswin here instead of Clara, although presumably, given the Eleventh Doctor’s habit of calling his companions by their last name, she will eventually be called Oswin on a regular basis. Coleman makes a positive impact, playing both saucy and intelligent with an undercurrent of pathos. She’s more immediately likeable than Amy Pond in The Eleventh Hour. The fact that she only interacts with the regular characters through a scanner that resembles the Dalek eyestalk she actually possesses is a subtly brilliant concept that I didn’t notice on initial viewing. Her story is already compelling; I can’t wait to see where it goes.

 

'Making Souffles? Against the Daleks?'

 

Director Nick Hurran deserves massive praise. I loved his work in The God Complex and The Girl Who Waited, but Hurran really ups his game here to provide Asylum of the Daleks with a true sense of the epic. From the opening moments on Skaro with the magnificent pan up the calcified Dalek to the scenes in the snowy wastes, Hurran knows instinctively how to frame the money shots and mix them perfectly with the character beats. He is one of the best directors Doctor Who has ever used. Bring the man back for more!

As far as Dalek stories go, Asylum is the best since Dalek in giving the tyrannical pepperpots a proper sense of menace. It slightly wastes the concept of the asylum in favour of the Oswin storyline, and it’s a shame that they promoted the story with all those old Daleks as the only one I recognised was the Special Weapons Dalek, who didn’t even get to fire his oversized cannon. It’s difficult to see exactly what the Daleks were afraid of on the asylum planet. All the insane Daleks seemed to be dormant. Why did the Daleks actually need saving?  The Parliament of the Daleks was truly impressive and I am glad they reversed the creative decisions of Victory of the Daleks and used the bronze Daleks as footsoldiers and the Paradigm Daleks as leaders. The darker sheen to the Paradigm models was much more effective than their previous Lego/ iPod look. I especially liked the Prime Minister in his glass tank – a nod to the Emperor and to the glass Dalek in the David Whitaker novelisation of The Daleks.

 

'Wrong way up! Wrong way up!'

 

The scenes in the asylum were incredibly creepy, particularly in the Intensive Care section, where the survivors of the Doctor’s adventures allowed Matt Smith to show the Doctor’s mortal terror of his arch-enemies. That these particular Daleks are the ones who have to be hidden away in the deepest recesses of the asylum shows a ramification to the Doctor’s actions that I had never really considered seriously; the effect he has on his enemies is quite a nasty one.

The concept of the nanocloud rewriting human biology and systematically eradicating humanity until only Dalek remains is a chilling one. The sight of the Dalek eyestalks erupting from foreheads was the correct mixture of grisly and cool to impress the kids, and reminded me of Lytton’s Dalek eyestalk hat in Resurrection, but it is the internal changes that the process inflicts that give a great new spin on the Daleks. The fact that microscopic machines can effectively rewrite the DNA of an entire planet into Dalek is a chilling new development, and poor Dalek Sec must be kicking himself with his new feet that his human Daleks were just glassy-eyed people with tommy guns.

'I forgot about dying.'

 

Also the scenes where we see Oswin being converted were uncomfortably close to the horrific images of Stengos’ partially converted head in Revelation of the Daleks. Indeed, the story was seamed all the way through with appropriately nightmarish imagery that at times seemed to channel horror film iconography. The Daleks have been given a scary new edge again, which Steven Moffat is on record as saying he wanted. If only he will now give the same consideration to the Cybermen...

The three regulars were uniformly brilliant, freed from the stifling shadow of the River Song arc. I was surprised how relieved I was when Alex Kingston didn’t turn up, although I enjoyed last series greatly. Asylum of the Daleks was much better storytelling than anything Moffat wrote last year. His trademark twists and moments of misinformation were better channelled and contained in a full story for what seems like the first time in ages. The declaration that the five stories to be shown this month are almost free from a plot arc is good news indeed. Hopefully the audience will come flocking back to Tennant levels, although in truth it never went away did it?

 

'A Dalek without a gun? You're a tricycle with a roof!'

 

Asylum of the Daleks’ Ten Brilliant Bits

1.       For the first time since 1979, we get to see Skaro! It’s been given a Gallifrey-style makeover, although how it still exists is a mystery since the Doctor was supposed to have destroyed it in Remembrance of the Daleks. The opening pan up the Dalek into its eyestalk was sensational, lending the series a real mythic quality. The only disappointment I had was that Darla wasn’t a Thal, but that’s probably a fanboy concept too far at this point.

 

2.       Jenna-Louise Coleman’s reveal after the opening credits, cooking a soufflé (badly) was one of those ‘Is that actually who I think it is?’ moments. Oswin’s introduction was clever and unexpected, and allowed us to get to know the character in seconds. Just when did they film Coleman’s sections? Yet again, Doctor Who shows its never-ending ability to surprise.

 

3.       The scenes with the crew of the Alaska were almost casually sinister and scary. They only existed to show the devastating effects of the nanocloud and Amy’s probable fate (as well as Oswin’s actual fate) yet they were the most terrifying thing in teh story. The sight of the Dalek eyestalks bursting out of the dead was Doctor Who at its most macabre. Combine that with Harvey’s almost casual realisation that he had died outside and his body had been preserved and we are given one of the most effective bits of body horror Doctor Who has ever provided.

 

4.       Rory’s scenes in the asylum were beautifully shot. The Daleks were suddenly creepy again. Like all good horror films, you found yourself scanning the back of the screen for any signs of movement. The bit where Rory almost casually moves the eyestalk and it moves back was powerful, as was Rory’s realisation of why the Dalek was talking about eggs.

 

5.       The best segment of the episode was Amy’s hallucination that the Daleks were people. It reminded me of one of my favourite sequences in the Bioshock 2 game, where we finally witness the Little Sisters’ dreamlike version of the monster-infested hell in which they live. The little ballerina girl spinning was an hauntingly beautiful image, because at the back of your mind you knew what she reallydb was. Plus the scene sets up the revelation about Oswin perfectly. One of the all-time best moments in Doctor Who.

 

 

 

 

6.       Oswin only ever sees the other characters through a Dalek eyestalk lens. We see it poke up through the snow and focus just as Oswin focuses. That’s such a subtle and clever idea. I imagine that most viewers missed it, but once again Steven Moffat gives us all the clues but still pulls out a surprise. I didn’t cotton on to Oswin’s identity until the moment she said she was at the far side of the Intensive Care section, but my family only realised the second before the reveal. That’s perfect storytelling.

 

7.       The sequences in the snow were filmed in Spain alongside the upcoming western episode. Alongside the Dubai-filmed desert planet of San Helios in Planet of the Dead, the asylum world was the most alien-looking planet the Doctor has ever visited. It was only a couple of scenes at most, but this level of care and attention is lifting Doctor Who way beyond what it used to be capable of showing.

 

8.       Arthur Darvill and Karen Gillan get the man-of-the match awards for their heartbreakingly well-acted exchange in the teleport area. It was good to see the events of Demon’s Run actually had a lasting impact on Amy. I was beginning to wonder after she seemed to brush off the loss of a baby without too much thought. Her tear-streaked revelation that she didn’t kick Rory out but gave him up, followed by the one-two punch of two thousand years of solitary centurion duty outside of the Pandorica was nothing compared with giving up Rory redefines their relationship. Finally you actually believe that Amy loves Rory. It’s been too long in coming.

 

9.       The Intensive Care sequence was masterful. The eerie green light that filled the room was a clear echo of the terrifying incubator room from Genesis. That the most insane Daleks in the asylum are those that encountered the Doctor is a horrifying thought. The fan-pleasing references to Spiridon, Kembel, Aridius, Vulcan and Exxilon were a nice touch. Does that mean that one of those Daleks was the one who hid himself under the sand in The Chase? Always knew he was a nutter. But the scene existed to prove just how terrified of the Daleks the Doctor truly is. It makes him more of a hero because he faces the things that scare him the most, but more importantly in a way it makes the Daleks genuinely scary because they terrify him. When they surround him with their suckers, their guns removed, we know the threat because by now we all know what the suckers can do. Thank you, Rob Shearman!

 

10.   The Oswin-Dalek reveal is sublime. The clues are all there, from the ladder to the lack of milk and eggs, but it is a genius conceal. I wouldn’t like to play Steven Moffat at poker a) because he is Scottish and wouldn’t risk his money anyway and b) because he hides things in plain sight so effortlessly.

'And remember...'

Asylum of the Daleks is the best series-opener since 2005. It is Doctor Who on form, and when Who is on form, nothing else comes remotely close. It manages to balance the darker moments with the humour, fulfilling its remit as a family show perfectly. Hopefully this level of quality can continue into next week with Dinosaurs on a Spaceship.

 

Overall rating: 9/10

 

 

 

'Twas the night before New Who

After some thought I’ve decided how my reviews of the new series are going to work. I’m going to post as soon after the episode has aired as I possibly can. This initial review will cater for the child in me who is overjoyed at seeing new Doctor Who and will probably end up being polarised at either extreme of enjoyment or annoyance. Then, a few days later, after a re-watch and some time for reflection, I will update that review with a more considered opinion, in the same style as my Masterpiece Theatre pieces. The initial post will remain because I think it’s valuable for me to see just how my views have changed after my inevitable over-excitement or intense disappointment.

So we’ll start tomorrow with Asylum of the Daleks. The story sounds good and it looks good, and I’ve managed (I think) to avoid any sniff of a spoiler. But more importantly it signals the return of Doctor Who to our screens. He’s been away too long.

New Series Trailer!!!

After nearly thirty years of being a fan, the sight and sound of new Doctor Who never fails to get me over-excited. It's like being a kid again. None of the magic has gone. This looks just brilliant. The new series will be broadcast on 25^th August or 1^st September, according to t'interweb. Whichever date it is, it can’t come soon enough!

I’m not sure which image excites me more; the weeping cherub blowing out Rory’s torch or the thousands of Daleks in the amphitheatre. I also like the Doctor riding a Triceratops in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. Almost forty years after the rubber T-Rex, Doctor Who finally gets dinosaurs right. And that exploding planet is fantastic! The trailer is just bursting with possibilities and moments that send the imagination into overdrive.

Doctor Who: nearly fifty years old and still got it. Excuse me; I need to watch it all over again.