Review: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship Review

 

Immediate Reaction

Any story with that title couldn’t possibly be a total failure, but I must admit that I approached Dinosaurs on a Spaceship with slight trepidation. This was mainly because I wasn’t very impressed with writer Chris Chibnall’s last contribution to the series; The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood. When I say unimpressed, I actually mean they are my least favourite episodes of the Matt Smith era. So Chibnall’s return had me slightly worried.

It turns out that I was worrying unnecessarily. Dinosaurs, whilst not an out and out triumph, was certainly a qualified success. The storyline was well thought-out and moved along at a fair pace. I especially liked the fact that the titular spaceship was Silurian in origin, although you would have thought that if Homo Reptilia were capable of interstellar flight, they wouldn’t have sent their entire species underground. Still, Steven Moffat’s creative leadership is creating an admirably coherent and consistent universe and the Silurian’s presence here reinforces that.

The guest cast were uniformly good. David Bradley in particular gave Solomon with just the right level of slimy villainy that allowed Matt Smith to show his Doctor’s darker side at possibly its clearest since his regeneration. Solomon’s murder of poor old Tricey was the emotional heart of the episode, matching the death of the Face of Boe in making you feel sad for a large piece of rubber. Rupert Graves’ Riddell was very broadly painted but this matched the script. The same is true of Nefertiti; in a way I was a little disappointed she left with Riddell at the end of the episode. I quite liked the idea of the Doctor having a properly famous historical figure as a companion.

The robots were clearly included for the kids and as such their infantile banter can be forgiven, but there was an uncomfortably misogynistic approach to both Riddell and Solomon that Nefertiti and Amy’s strength of character couldn’t hide. There were far too many sexist lines and Solomon’s threat to Nefertiti was clearly sexual and not really appropriate to a family show. The same is true of the seam of innuendo that laced the script which at times pushed too far.

The inclusion of Rory’s dad was designed us a different facet to Rory, but again this was not a complete success. However his sequence with his flask of tea, hanging out of the TARDIS door and just staring at the Earth was quite magical and matched the fairytale imagery the series has adopted of late. The effects in this moment were lovely. Indeed the effects throughout the whole episode were excellent. The dinosaurs were well-presented and just like Asylum of the Daleks, there is a sense of a production team well aware of how to spend their budget for maximum impact.

Although not coming close to the excellence of Asylum of the Daleks, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship was an enjoyable enough romp. The aim of the series to show a movie a week is paying off. It’s good to have a Doctor Who that isn’t reliant on carrying a multitude of plot elements that may or may not matter, across a long stretch of episodes. I liked the cheeky redesign of the logo on a weekly basis too. This week’s reptilian style worked much better that last week’s Dalek ‘eggs’. So, a tentative thumbs up here; Dinosaurs in a Spaceship is a pretty good episode with some good moments and some bits that I need to mull over.

 

 

Considered Opinion (After second viewing)

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship is meant to be a romp. It’s designed to appeal to all elements of a family audience. From the magnificent CGI dinosaurs to the sharp and witty script to the comedy robots to the properly evil villain, Dinosaurs has been created with the express purpose of entertaining its audience. From the few reviews I have seen, and the reaction of my family, I’d say it succeeded in its aims.

I was entertained. I smiled at the sharp dialogue. I thought the effects were top-notch. I was very impressed by David Bradley’s vile Solomon. So why do I not rate it as highly as others?

 

'What sort of man doesn't carry a trowel?'

 

I think my main reason for thinking that Dinosaurs on a Spaceship is good rather than excellent is that, at its heart, it is an inconsequential and throwaway adventure. It’s meant to be lightweight and I tend to be less enamoured by the lighter episodes than most. Maybe this makes me a misery-guts who takes Doctor Who too seriously, I don’t know. But after last week’s Dalek epic that had me talking about it for days (still am, actually) Dinosaurs didn’t get my imagination going in the same way. I watched it. I enjoyed it. And then I went to do something else.

Don’t get me wrong. I thought Chris Chibnall’s script was very strong; his best for the series so far I reckon, and I was one of the few who thought 42 was excellent. After his atrocious Silurian two-parter a couple of years ago, the thought of more Chibnall filled me with horror. Now, after watching Dinosaurs on a Spaceship a couple of time, I’m now quite looking forward to Chibnall’s The Power of Three. That’s a major sea-change in my perception of his writing, so demonstrating how good I thought Dinosaurs was.

My main problem with his scripting was the odd mix of puerile comedy and risqué innuendo. By aiming for all demographics, this mixture of adult tone and toilet humour was unbalanced. You can either have one or the other, but both in the same story lend it a schizophrenic tone.

 

'Is that a kestrel?'

 

The characters were broadly drawn. I can see why both Rupert Graves (Riddell) and Riann Steele (Nefertiti) described the story as a comedy in various interviews. Riddell is a casual mix of misjudged sexism and big game hunter arrogance with little redeeming conscience. It’s difficult to see why the Doctor befriended him at all, let alone selected him as part of the team. Nefertiti is all about girl-power and noble self-sacrifice, the diametric opposite of Riddell. Clearly the meeting of these two opposing poles was deliberately designed to mine the comedy, but in reality neither character makes us feel anything.

On the other hand, Mark Williams as Brian is outstanding. From his bewildered acceptance of the TARDIS to his tentative suggestions as he gains confidence, Brian is a fully-rounded character from his first scene. Williams plays him with a twinkle in his eye, bringing to mind Bernard Cribbins’ much-missed and completely brilliant Wilf. It’s a pity in a way that Brian’s debut is this late in the Ponds’ time with the Doctor. His regular returns would have been something to savour. It’s only with the inclusion of a family member that we appreciate just how little we actually know about Amy and Rory’s backgrounds. Brian’s inclusion helps us find a satisfactory middle ground between the strong family presence in the Russell T Davies years and the companions with no real backgrounds of classic era Doctor Who.

Williams’ Harry Potter co-star, David Bradley, was also quite wonderful. Solomon’s introduction, injured by raptors and close to losing his legs, allowed a neat bit of misdirection as he had been waiting for a doctor rather than the Doctor. This little frisson as we thought he knew the Time Lord was a rewarding moment for long-term viewers. Solomon’s casual violence and disregard for anything and anyone gave the character a darker edge than we are used to seeing in modern Doctor Who. Although his darkness gave the story a real sense of threat, his threat of sexual violence to Nefertiti was a misjudged piece of dialogue and had no place in the story or Doctor Who for that matter.

 

'Look at the missiles. see them shine.'

 

The other major guest stars, David Mitchell and Robert Webb as the voices of the robots, were given the occasional amusing line amid the wee and tantrum jokes. Their banter diminished Solomon’s threat somewhat, and by the time we saw how nasty they could be it was too late. That said, this was probably very powerful for the younger viewers as they saw the robots they had laughed at brutally murder a defenceless dinosaur with prolonged laser fire that went on for much longer than it needed to, suggesting an interestingly sadistic side to the comical robots. The robots were obviously popular with the general viewing public, but they left me cold even though I love Mitchell and Webb’s Peep Show.

The regulars were well-served by a script that played to their strengths. Rory got to do some nursing and proved his worth to his father. Amy was allowed to show her intelligence and her knowledge and was the one who unpicked the central mystery of the story. The Doctor, on the other hand, started to reveal an edgier side to his personality – a product of travelling alone – and a growing sadness that his time with the Ponds is coming to an end. Although the line foreshadowing the departure of Amy and Rory was clumsy, hinting at their deaths, it’s in Smith’s lonely eyes that we see where the drama and tears are going to come from.

 

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship’s ten brilliant bits

1.       The Doctor, Rory and Brian have been teleported to what appears to be a beach that rather resembles Bad Wolf Bay. ‘Somebody tell me where we are. Now!?’ demands an exasperated Brian. In response, the Doctor sticks out his tongue. ‘It doesn’t taste like Earth,’ he replies. What further proof do we need? Matt Smith gets the Doctor. Matt Smith is the Doctor.

 

2.       David Bradley as Solomon is as slimy and as malevolent a villain as Doctor Who has offered us since its return in 2005. It makes a refreshing change for the Doctor to be able to face off against a human adversary instead of a broken computer system. Bradley gives Solomon enough of a sinister edge that you really believe he will carry out his threats against the Doctor’s friends. I imagine that there were quite a few kids over the weekend who nicked their grandparents’ walking sticks and used them as swords like Solomon’s weapons.

 

3.       Mark Williams as Rory’s dad Brian finally gave us a well-rounded family member for the Doctor’s current (but not for much longer) travelling companions. His slightly spiky and curt interactions with Arthur Darvill quickly convinced that the two were related. Williams made Brian instantly likeable and not without a degree of heroism. It’s easy to see where Rory gets it from.

 

4.       Williams also gets the best moment in the episode towards the end, as he sits in the TARDIS door with a flask of tea and a sandwich, feet dangling in space, staring down at the Earth far below them. This is as lyrical an image as the series has ever shown us and fits perfectly into the fairytale stylings of current Who. The effects here are wonderful.

 

 

'Well thank you, Arthur C. Clarke!'

 

5.       Ah, Tricey the Triceratops. How can a part CGI and part rubber creation make you fall in love with it so quickly? It’s the mannerisms that make Tricey such an instantly adorable creation. From his dog-like sniffing of Brian’s pockets to the way he (she?) settles down after his exertions like a cat or a rabbit, Tricey mirrors the interactions we all have with our pets. The Doctor is clearly utterly smitten and so are we. How long before Character Options release a Doctor on a Tricey action figure or a Tricey plush? I know my daughter would want one.

 

6.       Chris Chibnall is an evil swine though. He makes us fall in love with Tricey and then has him murdered in the most horrible and callous manner that I can remember seeing in modern Doctor Who. In one scene Solomon breaks a million hearts and cements his place at the top table in the pantheon of hissable human villains. Tricey’s final moments are sold completely by the cast, and their horror at what Solomon has done is palpable.

 

7.       The pterodactyl attack is superbly done with some excellent swooping camera-work and a cavalcade of witty one-liners. The dinosaurs on a whole are brilliantly visualised. Whilst only Tricey feels solid and three-dimensional, the triceratops is the only one the characters fully interact with. The sleeping baby T-Rex is also a fantastically realised dinosaur. Who could ever have imagined that Doctor Who would ever match the effects in Jurassic Park?

 

8.       The return of the vengeful Doctor is a grim reminder of just how far the Time Lord will go if nobody stops him. It’s a reminder of the Tenth Doctor’s fall into the Time Lord Victorious and seems set up to indicate that the Eleventh is now also beginning to skate on the same thin ice as his predecessor. This path can only lead to the death of yet another Doctor...

 

9.       The Silurian ship is a thing of beauty. At no point until the reveal did I ever cotton onto the fact that the vessel was a Silurian Ark. This makes perfect sense in what we know about the Silurians, although I still wonder if giving the Silurians space travel inches them one step closer to becoming just another generic space-faring race. Still, it sets up the possibility of Silurian colonies on other planets which opens up more story possibilities for them than the single one they currently have (Man wakes up Silurian colony, the two races fight because  no common ground can be agreed, the Doctor is caught in the middle).

 

10.   Although the two robots irritated as much as they amused, their eventual deactivation by the Doctor was clever as they sang ‘Daisy, Daisy’ whilst they powered down. A lovely little 2001 in-joke, and better than that entire Kubrick snore-fest.

 

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship is a likeable romp. With the amount of balls it is juggling for so many different audience elements, it is unsurprising that one or two are not to my taste. The central hook was superb and once more Doctor Who delivered on its movie-a-week promise. That’s two good episodes in a row; can next week’s A Town Called Mercy continue that run?

 

'How do you start a dinosaur?'

 

Overall Rating: 7 ½ / 10 (Yeah, I work in halves- that's how I roll!)



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.

Masterpiece Theatre: The Long Game

Masterpiece Theatre

Number 11: The Long Game

The Long Game is an odd beast. It comes at the midway point of Christopher Eccleston’s sole season as the Doctor, before the misery-guts decided that playing a character who occasionally smiles was not for him. Written by Russell T. Davies, the story exists for one purpose; to show us that the Doctor only takes the best as his companion. This message comes at the expense of the story somewhat, which is a fairly perfunctory mystery that the Doctor solves without really breaking a sweat...

In the Doctor Who Magazine Mighty 200 survey of all the stories up to Planet of the Dead, The Long Game places at number 165. It trails in last of the Eccleston adventures, a long way behind Boom Town and Aliens of London/ World War Three for reasons that totally escape me, but which I will attempt to unravel.

 

 

Of all the stories broadcast during Doctor Who’s triumphant return to the television screens in 2005, The Long Game is the one that resembles old-school Who the most. This is quite understandable as the concept comes from a story Russell T. Davies submitted to the Doctor Who production team in the eighties at the tender age of seventeen. It was summarily rejected, which in hindsight is a blessing for us all as Russell may well have been put off Doctor Who for life if he had actually worked for the Eric Saward/ John Nathan-Turner regime with all its inconsistency and in-house fighting. Granted, the initial idea was probably substantially different from the version that was dusted down and presented onscreen, but there is certainly an eighties feel about The Long Game. Perhaps this is some of the problem; long-time Doctor Who fans were desperate to see the programme succeed. The infant reboot did not need to remind viewers and by association the BBC paymasters of the dark times of the mid- to late-eighties, when the show was breathing its last and the casual audience had long-since departed. But to look at The Long Game merely as a reheated Peter Davison or Colin Baker story misses the point completely.

Whilst pitching the idea of Doctor Who’s return to the BBC hierarchy, Russell T. Davies wrote a series document mapping out how the series was going to develop. The Long Game was pitched as The Companion Who Couldn’t, demonstrating that right from the word go it was designed as an episode that generated character development rather than a plot-led behemoth. The character of Adam was created with the single intention to showcase the relationship between the Doctor and Rose and to deepen it into something more than friendship. He was never intended to be anything more than a pale reflection of Rose. Adam’s selfishness and cowardice nearly cost the Doctor at a time when the villain in the story is struggling to gain any sort of advantage. He reacts in ways that many of us would if placed in the same circumstances. He freaks out and gets into trouble through his own stupidity. He skirts around the edges of the adventure, never in any real danger, and fails to engage in the mystery at the heart (top?) of Satellite Five. He abjectly fails where Rose succeeded; when the Doctor is trapped and needs his help, Adam is busy helping himself. There is a direct link between the Doctor being captured by the Autons in Rose and his imprisonment by the Editor in The Long Game. Whilst Rose swings improbably to his rescue in the former, Adam isn’t even aware that his fellow travellers are in trouble.

But his failure allows the Doctor to see how important Rose has become to him. He takes another step back from the brink and moves away from the damaged individual he was at the start of the season. The Ninth Doctor has the best character development of any of his incarnations, and The Long Game is pivotal in his growth. He has let someone in for the first time since the Time War, and by this point needs Rose as much as she needs him. He is lonely, but will not ease that emptiness in his hearts with just anyone. He has to have an equal, and Rose is that person. Adam, on the other hand, is not. It’s telling when, just two stories later, in The Empty Child/ The Doctor Dances, the Doctor allows Captain Jack on board the TARDIS after the Time Agent has seemingly sacrificed himself while saving his friends and countless innocents from a falling bomb. In his actions, Jack proves his heroic credentials, and redeems his earlier selfish mistakes in the eyes of the Doctor, just as Mickey does in World War Three. The Doctor is willing to forgive the brave; self-serving cowards like Adam can go home. By the time we reach Boom Town, the Doctor’s rehabilitation is complete. He surrounds himself with the three humans he has let behind his barrier and he feels more at ease with himself once more.

Yet despite The Long Game’s undeniable status as a pivotal episode in Series One, it is a story that is not loved by many. So why is this? We’ve already touched on the eighties vibe it exudes, but at the same time it is impossible to imagine The Long Game being broadcast back then. In the original run of Doctor Who, each Doctor was unchanging. In reality the lead character was just a narrative function rather than a person in the truest sense. He was never affected long-term by events or people. His actions were all responses to events and there was never any lasting development in his personality after the seismic shift of a regeneration. The Long Game, and indeed Series One, is unique in Doctor Who storytelling. For the first time we see the lead character changing in response to an external force, in this case Rose. We see him come to terms with the events of the Time War and finally begin to let go of his guilt. It never entirely leaves him – even now as Series Seven is about to begin, the Doctor is still haunted by the Time War to some degree. Russell T. Davies had obviously taken on board the lessons that American TV was providing at the time. One of his admitted inspirations was Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with its constantly evolving characters and season-long plot arcs. But the main difference between the two series is that Buffy had twenty-two episodes to play with in a season, so could afford one or two stories with a primary focus on moving characters and relationships in new directions at the expense of a more thrilling plot. With only thirteen episodes, it is much harder for Doctor Who to do the same. That’s why The Long Game is something of a disappointment. Its intentions are noble, but it is definitely weak Doctor Who, and in a lot of ways it breaks the template. This is not a bad thing; that a programme nearing fifty years of age can continue to change and adapt is nothing short of amazing. But it is telling that after Series One, there would be no more stories focussed solely on character development. Those that moved the lead characters on were given stronger enemies to bolster them, like the Krillitanes in School Reunion or The Dream Lord in Amy’s Choice.

 

 

Talking of enemies, the Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe is an undercooked creation. It looks suitably nasty, but how the hell did it take over the Earth? It just hangs there and roars. There’s no sense of any intelligence to the Jagrafess. There’s no attempt by the script to explain how it got there in the first place and how it manages to control and subvert the news. It is simply a monster that’s there because the story needs some sort of threat. It is never revealed how and why the Daleks used it in the first place, only that they wanted to set Earth’s progress back by ninety years and somehow pave the way for the Gamestation and its unnecessarily complex method of capturing people for the Daleks to harvest. Perhaps the Jagrafess is a cousin to the Slyther, that unholy walking bag in The Dalek Invasion of Earth (See the video below for the full shambling horror)? It would make sense for the Daleks to keep on using the same old madcap monsters in their plans of conquest.  But the episode is there to set up the events of the season finale, when the Doctor revisits the same location one hundred years later. Even The Long Game’s title is a reference to the Dalek’s plan in the final two-parter, although it makes no sense in the context provided in this episode.

 

 

It is worth referring back to the original pitching document prepared by Russell T. Davies to sell the series. It states very early on that each story should be able to grab the headlines: Rose sees the end of the world, The Doctor meets Charles Dickens, Aliens invade Downing Street, Return of the Daleks. It is very difficult to summarise The Long Game in the same way. A giant space leech controls the Earth, maybe. Or, Adam shows why the Doctor picked Rose. Not exactly attention-grabbing headlines... In a similar vein, Davies states that each story should be strong, but The Long Game is not a strong story. It does not exist to be a strong story. But it is a fascinating insight into the Doctor’s psyche and the criteria he has for choosing his companions.

For all the series’ fundamental optimism about the future of the human race, the reboot has occasionally skewed towards the dark side, and The Long Game is quite a dark concept. It is an enjoyable enough story, but perhaps it veers too far from the purity of the concept too soon for the audience to accept. However, it should never be dismissed as a poor story, because it patently is not. So let’s look at all the good things The Long Game has to offer.

 

 

Ten Reasons The Long Game has walls made of gold

1.       Arriving on Satellite Five, the Doctor immediately senses that something is wrong, but to investigate he needs to get rid of Adam. So he uses his sonic screwdriver to access some credit and gives it to Adam. His exchange with his unwanted companion perfectly sums up the joy of time travel. ‘There you go, pocket money. Don’t spend it all on sweets,’ he tells Adam. ‘How does it work?’ says the bewildered boy. ‘Go and find out,’ says the Doctor. ‘Stop nagging me! The thing is, Adam – time travel’s like visiting Paris. You can’t just read the guide-book. You’ve got to throw yourself in, eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers, or is that just me? Stop asking questions, go and do it!’ He smiles at Adam and Rose as they head off, but the next second the smile is gone. The Doctor is in business mode.

 

2.       Doctor Who has a grand history of gloriously left-field guest appearances. When Adam goes in search of technical support to access Satellite Five’s computers, we get another one. Tamsin Grieg, as the unnamed nurse who talks Adam into having the Type 2 Port inserted into his head, is simply wonderful. Her slightly snarky and sarcastic tone is at odds with the written material and she brings a very minor character to life brilliantly. She’s worth watching just for the slightly confused way in which she says ‘Oh Danny Boy’.

 

3.       Simon Pegg is excellent as the Editor, so much so that it is nigh-on impossible to think of another actor who would have done so much with a villain who is in essence nothing more than a glorified middle-manager. He brings charm to the role, underpinned by a definite sense of menace. He is the first truly villainous human the Doctor encounters in the rebooted series and he sets the bar high for all who follow. He reins in his usual comedy routines in a way that Peter Kay fails to do in Love & Monsters, and you can see why Hollywood came calling not long afterwards.

 

 

 

4.       Anna Maxwell-Martin manages to convince us all that Suki MacCrae Cantrell is simply a naive and happy character, until her abrupt about-face into a member of the Freedom Fifteen terrorist organisation. Her act has everyone fooled, the Doctor included, and she very nearly manages to stop the Jagrafess without the Time Lord’s help. The story leads us to believe that she will be the Doctor’s surrogate companion, so when her true identity is revealed and she is killed and zombified, it’s quite a shock and a loss to the rest of the story.

 

5.       Ice-zombies are quite a sore subject in this blog. It wasn’t so long ago I was suffering through Dragonfire and its icicle mercenaries. Luckily The Long Game shows the old series how to do it. They have an eerie quality, helped enormously by the blue ambient lighting and when the dead Suki grabs the Editor’s leg to stop him from escaping you get a chilling (sorry) hint that there is still a conscience trapped in there somewhere.

 

6.       The Doctor is furious with Adam. He summarily takes him home and literally chucks him out of the TARDIS. The righteous anger of a Time Lord is scary to behold. And yet he can’t resist clicking his fingers to open Adam’s new forehead orifice. And neither can Rose. And when Adam’s mum arrives home unexpectedly you can see the punchline coming. Once she clicks her fingers and the episode ends, you wonder what happened to poor old Adam. Was he dissected in a slapstick manner by Lee Evans in some UNIT Guantanemo Bay facility, or was he taken to Torchwood and touched up chopped up by Captain Jack instead? I remember the stupid theories people had at the time that he would turn up as Davros in the final episodes of the season. Looking back, that’s laughable, but at the time we all felt like anything could happen.

 

7.       Frozen vomit in a cube. As an added extra to the surgery Adam has just undergone, nanobots have been inserted into the lining of his throat to instantly freeze his vomit. So instead of a full-on Exorcist moment, Adam merely coughs up a small cube of coloured ice whilst Tamsin Grieg delicately holds out a receptacle for it. That should be compulsory on the NHS, I say.

 

8.       Adam’s opening scene sets up his subsequent failure to cut it as a companion. The scene is deliberately reminiscent of the one in The End of the World when Rose realises she is on a space station and looks down on Earth. Although initially disbelieving, she swiftly accepts it and asks the right sort of questions. When placed in the same situation five episodes later, Adam simply faints. ‘He’s your boyfriend,’ says the Doctor, not even sparing him a look. ‘Not anymore,’ replies Rose, not looking down either. It’s a fantastically clever inversion of the scene in the earlier episode.

 

9.       Cathica’s is a closed mind. She accepts the status quo without question. She purports to be a journalist and yet she has no sense that there is something wrong with Satellite Five. She just blithely goes about her business, never thinking of anybody else but herself. So when she meets the Doctor and has her world view fundamentally altered by him, we watch her grow and become a hero, just like so many that the Doctor influences. We see his effect on people never more clearly than here; he is a man whose goodness and bravery inspires others to grow and become more than they ever would have been. And she saves the day, taking the role of companion that should have been Adam’s.

 

10.   Entering the elevator, about to go up to Floor 500, where the walls are made of gold and monsters and danger await, the Doctor reaches for Rose’s hand. As the elevator door closes, they are holding hands like lovers. It’s a simple and powerful indication of the Doctor’s reintegration back into life and companionship. He’s moving on from being alone and guilty. He’s the one reaching out when before he tried to push her away. It’s the theme of the season in a moment.

 
 

So it is very obvious that The Long Game is a necessary step in the progression of Series One, but not necessarily a good story in its own right. It does its job well in the middle of the season and sets up the finale nicely. But the viewers who were watching for thrills and spills and a decent monster were probably disappointed. The Long Game is cleverer than that, but doesn’t linger long in the mind after a viewing. As I said earlier, chalk this one up as a noble failure.

Next Time: Four to Doomsday

 

Carnival of Monsters: Dalek Sec Hybrid and the Pig-Slaves

Carnival of Monsters

Number 7: Daaaalek SEC and his Pig Slave minions

Let’s be honest here. There are many successes in Doctor Who and there are a fair few failures too. Some of these can best be described as noble failures, where the cleverness of the concept or the story is lost somewhere in transition from script to screen and nobody can quite work out where it all went wrong.

The Dalek Sec Hybrid is one such noble failure.

It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what went awry in his design. After all, he looks superb in photographs, to the point where Russell T Davies and the editors of the Radio Times felt confident enough to put him on the magazine’s cover. This decision caused the ‘Sec-gate’ scandal, as it effectively destroyed the climax to Daleks in Manhattan. Sec was compromised by his publicity before he even had his moment in the sun. Like the Moxx of Balhoon, who was also prematurely revealed, Sec’s sixty seconds of fame came before he actually appeared in Doctor Who. His emergence from the destroyed remains of his Dalek casing should have been one of the most memorable cliffhangers ever, but we all knew what was coming. It was like a surprise party inadvertently announced a week early and Sec was the main guest.

But we can’t hold that against the poor Hybrid. Daleks in Manhattan/ Evolution of the Daleks was conceived as a way of showing just how clever and creative the Daleks could be in ensuring their continuing survival. To remain a viable threat for the Doctor, they needed to prove how dangerously intelligent they were, and in that respect Dalek Sec and his Cult of Skaro are good value for money.

His grand entrance ruined, Dalek Sec is then poorly served by the story as he is immediately redundant to the Cult of Skaro. The Daleks waste no time in declaring him a failure and removing him from power. Sec may be the most intelligent Dalek ever, but he has nothing to offer beyond his odd appearance. He is ineffectual in his command decisions, questioning the Dalek reason to exist in the most inane manner. He pleads with the Doctor, the man who has only just succeeded in wiping the Daleks from existence, to help him in his truly insane plan to reinvent the evil pepperpots. We know from the outset is doomed to failure. After all, the Daleks are not going to be fundamentally altered, not after nearly fifty years. It just wouldn’t work, and the audience know this. Finally, Sec ends up chained to a wall and made to crawl on a leash in front of Dalek Thay and Dalek Jast in a disturbingly mid-boggling sadomasochistic image completely at odds with Doctor Who’s place as a family show. When he is exterminated it is almost a relief to realise that they aren’t intending to bring him back again.

Sec is not helped by a strange performance from Eric Loren. Granted the man is almost blind and deaf behind the mask and the servos operating his fake-looking tentacles. But a poor Dalek impersonator with an American accent just adds to the bizarre realisation of such a pivotal creation in Dalek history. Unfortunately he brings to mind another failed American incarnation of a loved Doctor Who baddie, and I don’t know about you, but the less I am reminded of Eric Roberts as the Master, the better. I wonder if Eric Loren ever sat down with Voice of the Daleks™ Nick Briggs and discussed Dalek inflections. Kids in the playground with their arms outstretched as plungers and gun-sticks do a better job than he managed.

Daleks in Manhattan/ Evolution of the Daleks is bad enough with one daft mutant, but unfortunately we also have the Pig-Slaves. What possible purpose could the Daleks have in converting people into porkers? We have seen before that the Daleks are quite happy to use slave labour to fulfil their nefarious plans, as they can replenish their supply of humans at any time. So what is the point in having Pig-slaves? We never see them do anything useful, apart from chase people and snort. The main stages to the Dalek plan, such as attaching the Dalekanium to the mast of the Empire State Building are carried out by human workers who are not even slaves. The Pig-Slaves don’t even last very long. And just how long does it take to convert a person into a pig? I’d imagine it is a fairly substantial drain on the Daleks’ already limited resources to alter physiology and rewrite DNA. For an alien race trapped on Earth during the Great Depression, the Daleks have an ironically poor understanding of cost-effectiveness.

 

 

It’s a testament to just how little regard there is for Dalek Sec when Doctor Who Magazine started to use him to advertise for subscriptions and the poor blighter ended up in some very poor company in this Doctor Whoah! Cartoon by Baxter from DWM 388, about eight months after his appearance on the screen.

 

(Baxter cartoon and subscription picture reproduced from Doctor Who Magazine).