Exit Stage So Very Right

The Doctor: You know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek homeworld? The Oncoming Storm.

Surely there isn’t a wasted minute in “The Parting of the Ways”, Christopher Eccleston’s final stand as Doctor Who. Nor are there any missed opportunities at exploring the full range of emotions the season has been building toward. Action, suspense and Daleks? Yup, it’s all there. Maybe most remarkable is how all of these aspects gel together flawlessly.

The Doctor: That’s right! I sang a song and the Daleks ran away!

The sheer number of Daleks on display, and the sequences in space with the Dalek army swarming on Earth and the Game Station, are a fanboy’s wet dream. The last time this many Daleks were seen at once on Doctor Who was in the Patrick Troughton era, but that was in the 60s and they were a bunch of toy models, shot on a tiny set.

That story, “The Evil of the Daleks”, seems to be the direct inspiration for much of “The Parting”: It was the first and only appearance of the Emperor Dalek, who reappears here, and it also concerned the Daleks being corrupted by the “human factor” - that concept is given a fresh spin by Russell T Davies. Unfortunately, “Evil” is one of the classic stories that was scrapped by the BBC – only episode two still exists. I saw it for the first time recently when the “Lost in Time” DVD set was released and found it a heartbreaking viewing because it was outstanding 60s Who and yet I know I’ll likely never get to see the other six episodes that comprise the story.

Rose: That’s how good the Doctor is!

The Dalek factor aside, the highlights of the episode begin with the Doctor tricking Rose into going back to her time period on Earth. The hologram scene that follows is pure, magical magnificence. A shimmering image of the Doctor turns, looks directly at Rose and says, “Have a good life. Do that for me, Rose - have a fantastic life.” This goosebump-inducing moment must rank in the Top Five moments in the whole of Doctor Who. Rose’s reaction to realizing what he’s done to (for?) her – “You can’t do this to me. You can’t! Take me back…take me back!!” – reduces me to tears. Her subsequent scenes back in her own time with Jackie and Mickey pack equally strong punches - most notably when the trio sit in the café and Rose gives the “He showed me a better way of living your life” speech, and then later on in the TARDIS when Rose reveals to Jackie that she met her father and was with him when he died.

The Emperor Dalek: Then prove yourself, Doctor. What are you - coward or killer?

When the Doctor builds the Delta Wave, a device that will kill all life in its path, and it comes down to fuck or walk…he chooses to walk. This is certainly a noteworthy decision, as the events that add up to a saved day were outside his sphere of knowledge. He was willing to sacrifice humanity to the Daleks rather than destroy everything outright. It was a choice he'd made once before – and it led to him mistakenly believing he'd ended the Time War. It was a choice/mistake he wasn’t prepared to make a second time. Godlike though the Doctor may often appear, it’s a bizarre twist that brings his best friend to him, in a form that itself is godlike in both appearance and ability.

Rose: I looked into the TARDIS and the TARDIS looked into me…I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself.

Deus Ex Machina? Perhaps. Perhaps the Bad Wolf revelation is even the ultimate execution of the phrase. Does Rose’s “absorption of the time vortex” or her “looking into the heart of the TARDIS” make any sense? It does if you buy into a mythology that’s clearly a creation of the fantastic and you don’t dissect it too much. There’s something about the operatic way the whole thing is handled that makes any possible lack of logic ultimately forgivable.

One thing I’ve always wondered - did Rose bring everyone on the Game Station back to life, or just Captain Jack? It’s hard to believe she was feeling selective at the moment, and yet it’s equally difficult to believe she’d have brought Lynda with a Y back to life. (Catfight & ~snicker~!!!) Speaking of Jack, his goodbye kissing of both Rose and the Doctor near the beginning of the story, and his feeling that he was "much better off as a coward” is a beautifully executed moment. Back when I wrote an entire entry on Jack, this scene was hugely influential in my overall opinion of his character.

The Doctor: Before I go, I just want to tell you…you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic! And do you know what? So was I.

Regeneration. What can be said? Most notably – in the history of the series – this is the first time the Doctor has regenerated standing up. Usually he’s laying on the ground, next to death. I think I read somewhere that Davies very much wanted to do the first “vertical” regeneration. Well, he did and afterwards you got your first look at the 10th Doctor – David Tennant.

The Doctor: New teeth. That's weird. So where was I? Oh, that's right - Barcelona!

Bad Wolf (Part Two)

This may be the toughest Doctor Who entry I’ve yet to attempt.

What is there to write about? The skewering of reality TV? I already kinda did that this week in the Coyote Ugly entry. The three series (Big Brother, The Weakest Link & What Not to Wear) our trio of time travelers are each dropped into are sent up with equal amounts of affection and ridicule. That the hosts of each series (Davina McCall, Anne Robinson and Trinny Woodall & Susannah Constantine, respectively) agreed to join in the fun by providing their vocal talents is an indication, I guess, that the whole thing is played for laughs more than as a serious condemnation of reality TV. Or maybe it goes to show the kind of respect the Doctor commands over in the UK - actors, celebrities and presenters are all eager to be on the show and work for Russ Davies & Co.

Mostly “Bad Wolf” is a vague indictment of the Doctor’s haphazard, devil-may-care lifestyle, as was pointed out to him by Margaret in “Boom Town”. Upon his exit from Satellite V at the end of “The Long Game”, his attitude was as if his work there was finished and humanity could & would take care of itself. As the events of “Bad Wolf” reveal, this wasn’t the case – humanity was so frail, and had for so long been unable to think for itself, that it fell deeper into a cheap lifestyle which allowed a force greater and more insidious than the Mighty Jagrafess to take control. (There may be some very subtle themes at work here – stuff I’m realizing even as I type – for which I previously failed to give the episode credit.)

It’s also the first half of a two-parter, and a peculiar first half at that. This is a case of the buildup having little to do with the events of the finale. The two episodes almost exist independent of each other, married only by the characters, the location, and the final five minutes of the episode. Don’t expect any more reality TV jabs next week (well maybe one…), because it's going to be all about…

DALEKS! You silly Daleks. Oh you goofy little Daleks. If you’re new to Who, then the lone Dalek from earlier in the season ended up a bit of a wimp compared to what we get next week. These are the real, badass, mutha' fuckin' snakes-on-a-space station deal. You'll get no tentacles-reaching-for-sunlight in next week's installment - that I will gleefully toss out as a spoiler.

“Bad Wolf” is not a perfect episode, but it is a fantastic buildup to the season finale. It begins tying together numerous other themes and stories which have been constructed throughout the season, all leading toward next week's operatic big finish. It likely could have done whatever it wanted to do and I’d have forgiven it based on the final moments alone, which are some damn fine Chris Eccleston & Dalek-driven Doctor Who:

Dalek: WE HAVE YOUR AS-SO-CI-ATE! YOU WILL O-BEY OR SHE WILL BE EX-TERM-I-NATED!

The Doctor: No.

Dalek: EX-PLAIN YOUR-SELF!

The Doctor: I said no.

Dalek: WHAT IS THE MEA-NING OF THIS NEG-A-TIVE?

The Doctor: It means “no”.

Dalek: BUT SHE WILL BE DE-STROYED!

The Doctor: No! ‘Cause this is what I’m gonna do: I’m gonna rescue her. I’m gonna save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek fleet. And then I’m gonna save the Earth and then – just to finish off – I’m gonna wipe every last STINKING Dalek out of the sky!!!!

Dalek: BUT YOU HAVE NO WEA-PONS! NO DE-FEN-SES!! NO PLAN!!!

The Doctor: Yeah! And doesn’t that scare you to death? (beat) Rose?

Rose: Yes, Doctor?

The Doctor: I’m coming to get you.

Bad Wolf (Part One)

One aspect of the first season of Doctor Who the Morgue has avoided discussing is the Bad Wolf. Now seems an appropriate time to bring it up, as this week’s episode is entitled “Bad Wolf”. Since “The End of the World”, the phrase “Bad Wolf” has been worked into each story in some way, shape or form. Some have beaten you over the head (“The Unquiet Dead”) while others were barely noticeable (“The Doctor Dances”). Upon the transmission of the first season in the UK, it drove fans batty for 13 weeks. The theories were endless.

One of the more stimulating postulated the Doctor wasn’t the Doctor at all; that he was an imposter using the Doctor’s identity and place in the universe to his own benefit – a bad wolf in sheep’s clothing. The true Doctor would return in the season finale to banish the false Doctor. This idea probably arose from the fact that Chris Eccleston’s impending departure was leaked early on in the season. High concept to be sure - there was a big part of me that wanted this to be true on some level as it would have been such a mind screw.

Here is a list of the Bad Wolves thus far...

1) Ep. 2: "The End of the World":
The Moxx of Balhoon tells the Face of Boe that being trapped on the exploding Platform One is "the classic Bad Wolf scenario..."

2) Ep. 3: "The Unquiet Dead" :
Gwyneth the parlour maid looks into Rose's mind and sees "The Big Bad Wolf".

3) Eps. 4/5: "Aliens of London/World War III":
A child graffiti's "Bad Wolf" onto the side of the TARDIS.

4) Ep. 6: "Dalek":
Eccentric billionaire Henry van Statten’s helicopter has the security call sign "Bad Wolf One".

5) Ep. 7: "The Long Game":
In the year 200,000 there's a TV channel called BadwolfTV.

6) Ep. 8: "Father's Day":
"Bad Wolf" is scrawled across a 1980s club poster.

7) Eps. 9/10: "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances":
The missile about to land on the Chula spaceship has "Schlechter Wolf" (which roughly translates to Bad Wolf in German) written on it.

8) Ep. 11: "Boom Town":
The nuclear power station about to destroy Cardiff is called "Blaidd Drwg"...a Welsh translation of the phrase.


In “Boomtown”, the Doctor finally picked up on it. Upon seeing the name “The Blaidd Drwg Project” (which, incidentally, would be a fantastic name for a Welsh band…especially if Alan Parsons engineered their albums), something snapped. He processed the info, appeared boggled, and then promptly moved on to the Slitheen business at hand.

As this is the Internets, the solution is out there and you can find it without too much trouble - although the Morgue highly recommends you not do that. Discover the mystery of the Bad Wolf with the rest of the Sci Fi viewing audience.

(To be continued...)

Ridiculous 2: The Sublime

Doctor Who’s Slitheen two-parter (“Aliens of London” & “World War III”) was, for me, the first season’s low point and it was the only story I never even bothered writing about here at the Morgue. Most of my dislike stemmed from the Slitheen themselves, who - as the series’ most touted “new” creations – weren’t exactly my idea of cool villains. They looked pretty silly, which was maybe the idea, but particularly annoying was how they alternated back and forth between stealthy CGI monsters and men in rubber suits. Pick one or the other - but don’t display that sort of inconsistency. That was the deal-breaker for me buying into the Slitheen, which is noteworthy for a story that featured farting bad guys.

In the weeks preceding the transmission of “Boom Town”, the sole tagline attached to the story was something like “The Doctor meets an old enemy he’d long since thought dead.” Fan speculation ran rampant. Who could it be? The Master? More Daleks? When “The Doctor Dances” ended and “Next Time On…” played, there must have been a collective groan heard across the UK. (Except for the kids in the audience – British pre-teens loved the Slitheen.)

“Only three episodes left and one of them is a Slitheen story!?!?! Argh!!!”

At least it starred the one Slitheen I liked - Margaret Blaine (Annette Badland). Badland is one of those quirky, reliable actresses you’ve seen here and there over the years if you’ve watched enough British film & TV. I recognized her instantly from Angels and Insects, but perhaps her most noteworthy role is also one of her earliest: Michael Palin’s one true “love”, Griselda Fishfinger, in Terry Gilliam’s Jabberwocky - she who threw the potato at Dennis Cooper. Badland also recently scored a small role in Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

“Boom Town” has much working against it, couched as it is between two mammoth two-parters, designed as an intimate character piece and well, the Slitheen. Upon my initial viewing, I wasn’t annoyed by it as I was by the previous Slitheen storyline – quite the contrary. It got me to actually like the Slitheen concept, which was a triumph and due in no small part to Badland's perfect portrayal of an alien stranded on a planet it detests.

However it also seemed bogged down in the soapier aspects of the season, notably Rose and Mickey’s ongoing story and for the first time, we’re given some straight-up social debate - the death penalty, and who has the right to enforce it. Wasn’t sure I was comfortable with that, either. The resolution felt pat which was the polar opposite of the story I’d just seen. It mostly seemed a throwaway “let’s save some money and catch our breath before the big finish” episode.

Multiple viewings & hindsight have proven me wrong. “Boom Town” is arguably Russell T Davies’ tightest DW work. It’s the one script of his that directly plays on what he does best, which is write engaging characters, at odds with one another, finding a way to work it out. Davies could pen an entire episode with just the Doctor and Rose sitting in the TARDIS talking to each other, and it’d be one of the highlights of a given Doctor Who season (actually, I’d love to see him do this).

The death penalty debate is the tale’s crux, and what sells it is that the argument is leveled squarely against the Doctor. Anyone familiar with the classic Tom Baker story “Genesis of the Daleks” will recognize “Boom Town” is Davies’ answer to the Doctor’s moral “Do I have the right?” dilemma for which that story is so famous. He has changed since wearing the scarf. He now feels he has the right, and that’s not the most reassuring notion about our hero. In this episode, more than any other, we see exactly what the Doctor has become in light of the many tragedies he’s endured and Margaret’s accusations against him will have a deeper resonance sooner than you think.

What initially bothered me in the soapsuds arena, I’ve also come to appreciate. The two “dates” that occur in the story are well conceived, played and executed (no pun intended). Rose and Mickey share quiet, personal drama that tells much about both, provided one bothers to listen. It’s a great piece for Noel Clarke who’s finally given some meat to chew – stuff set up here with Mickey is still playing out in the current season.

“Boom Town” is the type of affair only a show runner could write. It comes from a mind that knows the bigger Doctor Who picture and wants to plant seeds for the future. It’s easily the most underrated episode of the first season, and the one I find myself loving more and more upon each subsequent viewing.

Note to Viewers: It appears Sci Fi is taking a week off from Doctor Who and are having some kind of all day movie marathon next Friday. Oddly, one of the films they're playing is Shark Attack 3: Megalodon, starring Captain Jack himself, John Barrowman. (My friend Lee tells me this film has one of the greatest bits of atrocious dialogue ever written.)

The Doctor and Rose will return on June 2nd in "Bad Wolf"!

In the Mood

Rose: Doesn't the universe implode or something if you dance?

The Doctor: Well, I've got the moves, but I wouldn't want to boast.

There are numerous aspects of “The Doctor Dances” that elevate it above not only other Doctor Who, but other television sci-fi fare as well. Perhaps the most noteworthy is the resolution of the plot, which, if you’re an avid watcher of sci-fi TV, is such a refreshing surprise that you likely never saw it coming.

I’ve become accustomed to sci-fi shows falling back on MacGuffins and technobabble to escape sticky situations. Viewing “The Empty Child”, when the gas mask zombies were initially unveiled, I took for granted it would all be explained in a way that was wholly unremarkable. When it was revealed that the gas masks were made of flesh and bone, and were actually part of the heads of these creatures, I assumed that it was some sort of “weird Doctor Who thing” I’d come to accept by the end – hey, the imagery was cool enough that I’d have accepted most any explanation without balking too loudly.

The nanogenes hovered covertly above every other aspect of the story and were quietly set up early in Part One. The answers were there all along, and writer Steven Moffat's seeding of the affair is so expertly handled, the viewer wants to kick himself for not seeing it coming. The resulting dramatic effect engages on levels that sci-fi television rarely achieves, and the viewer feels the Doctor’s euphoric reaction as well.

“Everybody lives, Rose! Just this once, everybody lives!” – The Doctor

Could the nanogenes fall under the heading of “technobabble”? Since the premise makes perfect sense within the context of the story, I’d argue no. Technobabble typically falls under the “don’t ask, just deal with it” category, and the nanogenes are so deftly explained, that the viewer, provided they’ve paid attention, should have few - if any - questions about them by the conclusion.

Together, “The Empty Child” & “The Doctor Dances” form perhaps the greatest Doctor Who “movie” ever created: History, sci-fi, romance, action, scares, humor, double-entendre, social commentary, dancing and Glenn Miller all come together, delivering exactly what the Doctor ordered. They are a perfect argument that all stories in the new series should be two-parters, if not for the fact that few writers would likely be able to achieve what Moffat does, were they given twice the amount of time.

All from a man whose greatest prior accomplishment was the Britcom Coupling, which often redefined the sitcom format. I’ve got massive love for Coupling, but even as well written as the series is, I’d never have guessed that based on it Moffat could pen sci-fi drama so well. (He proved himself no one-hit wonder with the recent Series Two DW installment “The Girl in the Fireplace”.) Up next for Moffat? Something called Jekyll starring James Nesbitt. Don’t know much about it, but between Moffat and Nesbitt it’s gotta be a winner.

“Rose! I just remembered…I can dance!” – The Doctor

Anyone not sold on Christopher Eccleston by this point in the series may as well give up. By the time the Doctor dances, he’s proven that he gets exactly where the character is coming from. The Doctor and Rose’s relationship is taken to yet another level and the arrival of Captain Jack is a wake-up call for the Doctor to appreciate her in areas where he’s thus far been negligent. Eccles plays the notes perfectly, and it's fitting that the story ends with a class act like Glenn Miller.

My overview hasn't done this story justice. I could write 20 pages on it and maybe still feel I hadn't paid it proper tribute. (I never even got around to praising the outstanding special effects work both episodes feature - perhaps the high point of which are the sequences in "The Empty Child" with Rose dangling from the barrage balloon, high above London, in the midst of an air raid.) I would never say that this is as good as Doctor Who gets, because that might imply it's all downhill from here, which isn't the case. But the story was a bold, risky experiment (it doesn't even feature a "normal" monster of the week) that paid off on every level. It may not be as good as Doctor Who gets, but it's certainly better than I, as a long-term fan, ever imagined it would be.

Rose: Actually, Doctor, I thought Jack might like this dance.

The Doctor: I'm sure he would, Rose, I'm absolutely certain. But who with?

Meet Captain Jack

UPDATED!

Tonight Sci Fi hits the final stretch of the first season of Doctor Who. Of thirteen episodes, we’ve got five more to go, but these final five fly by with such effortless grace that before you know it, it’ll all be over.

Since tonight’s installment, “The Empty Child”, is part one of two, I’m not going to write much about it. Part Two, “The Doctor Dances”, is as perfect a sci-fi resolution to what’s set up tonight as anything I’ve ever seen. I wrote last week that “Father’s Day” was my favorite of the season with the possible exception of these episodes. After giving it thought, these, taken as a whole, must surely be superior. I had some minor niggles with “Father’s Day”, but I have no complaints whatsoever with “The Empty Child” & “The Doctor Dances”.

After next week's episode, I'll write more about the pair, but right now I’d like to focus on Captain Jack Harkness, who is certainly one of the most coolly scripted characters ever written for a family sci-fi fantasy series.

Jack (John Barrowman), a con artist & ex-“Time Agent” from the 51st century, crosses paths with the Doctor and Rose amidst the madness of the London Blitz in 1941. Jack has frequently been written about as being bisexual. While that’s an easy label to apply to him, it’s also somewhat incorrect.

In a speech the Doctor gives Rose in “The Doctor Dances”, he explains that by the 51st century, human beings have surpassed thinking of their sexuality in such limited terms and have in fact “danced” with all manner of lifeforms across the universe; in other words, in the 51st century, sexual identity has gone beyond the archaic terms in which it’s thought of today. Two human men gettin' jiggy isn't out of place in a time when humans are doing it with other species, whose sexual organs are likely far different than mere penises and vaginas. If you go back to the second episode of the season, "The End of the World", you'll notice that some groundwork had already been laid for this idea.

Lest it be perceived that you’re in for some sort of sexual romp tonight or even next week, that’s simply not the case. I’ve expanded here upon ideas that are nonchalantly worked into and presented on the show. We never even see Jack romancing anyone except for Rose. Numerous sci-fi series have approached these ideas (Farscape, even Star Trek to a degree), but I don’t think any have succeeded in putting them across in a way as effectively and subtly as what’s done with Jack Harkness.

Another accomplishment here is that it’s done on a family TV series. When it played in Britain, there were no protests and people didn’t start tuning out. Part of the achievement is the ease with which the ideas are presented. Sure, a small but vocal minority of hardcore Doctor Who fans have accused Russell T. Davies of having some sort of liberal “gay” agenda. For all I know he does - but if that agenda works in tandem with presenting the concepts under a sci-fi banner, in such a way that it’s a logical extension of the story, I call it “doing his job”. Science fiction is supposed to give us radical thoughts about what our future may hold.

It’s also a minor triumph that Jack is played by an openly homosexual actor. Had Jack been written as “straight”, would audiences be as accepting of Barrowman in the part? Is it because of the character’s fluid sexuality that people accepted a gay actor trying to seduce Billie Piper? Or is it just that the Brits in general are more accepting of these sorts of things? How will uptight Americans react to Jack Harkness?

Regardless, he’s with us until the end of the season and Barrowman rocks in the role. He’s charismatic, good-looking, wittily charming, and brings an “American” sensibility to the program. Jack was such a huge success with British viewers that he’s even being spun off into his own series, Torchwood, this fall. (Rearrange the letters in "Torchwood" and what do you get?) He brings an immense amount to the table as the season heads toward the finish line and perhaps becomes the greatest male traveling companion ever to grace the series.

UPDATE: The first season of Doctor Who took several honors at the BAFTA Television Awards, including Best Drama series. For a full list of the winners click here.

Father's Day

In light of the tragedy that recently befell Matt and his family, it seems strange writing about the latest Doctor Who episode, "Father’s Day", which ranked very high on my list of the season one episodes. It’s most certainly my favorite standalone installment of the season, topped only (possibly) by the forthcoming two-parter.

My sci-fi buddy Tom (Teafran) is a big fan of the Farscape episode “...Different Destinations” and it’s possible “Father’s Day” is the DW equivalent of that benchmark sci-fi installment: The problems associated with time travel, and what happens when a time traveler makes what appears, at first, to be a simple mistake, and the disastrous consequences that follow when trying to fix the mistake.

In all fairness to Farscape, “...Different Destinations” is likely the more compelling piece, because the problems are only exacerbated through the attempted fix, whereas “Father’s Day” offers up a fairly tidy solution – but not without putting its characters through hell first.

You would think that throughout 26 years of TV time travel, Doctor Who would have done this sort of thing before, and on certain levels it has, but never as emotionally as what we’re shown here. In many ways, this is the Doctor Who episode I waited my entire life to see.

It’s an important episode for Rose on many obvious levels, but mostly it’s important because up until now she’s been unable to truly conceive of precisely the sort of life she’s been leading with the Doctor - here's where the fun and games come to a screeching halt. “Father’s Day” not only introduces her to the father she never knew, but it also allows her to save him from a death she’d grown up knowing as finality, and then forces her to watch him die that death not once, but two different times, under two different circumstances.

Writer Paul Cornell is no stranger to Doctor Who. He’s been responsible for what are widely considered the most lauded DW novels over the past decade, and given the chance to finally make a go of it onscreen, he passes the test with flying reapers...I mean colors.

This is not to say it’s without a few faults. The Reapers seem somewhat shoehorned into the storyline, as if they’re there because the series must always have a monster of the week. The story could likely have been told more or less the same way without the creatures. Also, the various supporting players and extras reacted rather laconically to the entire situation – frankly, there just wasn’t enough freaking out. I don’t think the story would necessarily have worked better had there been, but it seems a bit odd to have people practically falling asleep in the pews of a church as their world caves in around them.

Lastly, how is it that Jackie Tyler actually looks older in 1987 than she does in 2005? Bad, bad make-up people! This would be less bothersome had I not been rather lusty towards actress Camille Coduri back in the early 90’s when she smoked the hell out of the movie screen in both Nuns on the Run and King Ralph and she was much closer to the age she's supposed to be in the story.

But in the grand scheme, these complaints are minor. It’s an emotional ringer that grants its viewers a simple notion we all think at some point in our lives: If I could save the life of someone I knew was going to die, I would do it, and the world would be a better and more right place for it.

And that person, in "Father’s Day", is Pete Tyler (Shaun Dingwall) - the writing of whom is a major high point in this episode. What I primarily love about Pete is that he’s no idiot. Pete figures out what’s going on long before anyone else, save for Rose and the Doctor. In most other sci-fi fare, he’d drift through being none the wiser until it came time for him to be sacrificed. The writing of the character justifies the entire story, as we too see that Pete Tyler was a father worth saving and risking the world over. In the end, he was in fact such a good man, that he was willing to save the world and his daughter by simply doing the right thing, and in the process, he does indeed become the most important person in Rose's life.

The Long Game

“The Long Game” is the kind of Doctor Who episode you’d almost, maybe-sort-of come to expect from the middle of a season of a TV series. Or maybe not. Maybe since it’s episode #7 of a 13-episode season, you would expect some sort of heavy hitting here’s-where-we-shift-gears affair. Well, that honor largely goes to last week’s episode, “Dalek”.

What “The Long Game” really does is set up some character development for next week’s episode and even more importantly, sets the stage for some serious plotting further on down the road. Don’t try and guess, because you’re unlikely to figure it out.

Many fans consider it the weak point of the season. I didn’t see it as such, but it didn’t blow me away either. Subsequent viewings revealed it a very watchable piece of TV. There is nothing in it to bore and yet little to excite. The episode is squarely placed where it belongs: Smack in the middle.

Russell T. Davies’ scripts are often lambasted by many fans as the “weak” ones. While I won’t say his are always the cream of the crop, it seems harsh to point fingers at the guy in charge of overseeing the entire revival, and claim he doesn’t know how to write for or understand Doctor Who. He lays the groundwork for everyone else and I believe challenges the other writers to go in directions that he is unable to script. The man is the master of the parody and parable and seems more interested than the show’s other writers in skewering current, topical issues through the kaleidoscope of sci-fi exploration and good old-fashioned fun.

Now it’s possible (or perhaps even probable) that some of Davies’ scripts won’t stand the test of time as well many of the others. They may date themselves sooner than the rest, but maybe not. He does tend to choose topics that are pretty broad. In the case of “The Long Game” he stabs at news and journalism and the delivery of both to the masses.

What I liked best about the episode is it seems to be the first in which the Doctor and Rose are working as total equals, as opposed to mentor/student. Things have gelled. They’re shooting from the same hip. By this point, Eccleston and Piper have developed ideal chemistry, and it shows in every moment they’re onscreen together.

Which is the best reason to keep viewing, and it’s exactly why I’ve seen all the Doctor Who ever made. I’ve always been taken by the various leads of the series, in every era of the show (well, except for one, maybe), and when the Doctor/companion relationship is ticking, the show can serve up the crummiest scripts and you simply don’t care.

Now next week’s installment, “Father’s Day”, is another case altogether; it’s the one where I broke down...

Dalek

I never really cared for the Daleks, which I suppose makes my giddiness over this week's SciFi Doctor Who broadcast (Friday at 8PM [CST]) all the stranger.

The Daleks made their first appearance on the series in late December of 1963 and Doctor Who never looked back. Had they never appeared, I highly doubt I'd be sitting here writing about the Doctor today. The Daleks made Doctor Who far more than Doctor Who made the Daleks. The series initially was to feature no "bug-eyed monsters" and was intended as more of a romp through history. Good thing somebody altered that edict.

It was always assumed that when Doctor Who returned to TV, the Daleks would be given some sort of massive overhaul, especially to their appearance. There's no reason that goofy design should still work 43 years down the road and yet the new series' production team have somehow managed to make it work better than ever.

Daleks were originally intended to be an allegorical spin on the Nazis; a race of beings all about racial purity and the utter annihilation of the "not we". That formula works so well that it's still more or less what the episode "Dalek" is based around, although writer Rob Shearman gives it a number of intense twists and turns.

The Dalek creature in the episode, while on the outside looking basically the same, has had his ante upped and been given a number of special surprises (well, they're special to anyone familiar with Daleks, anyway). My personal favorite? Some good use finally being made out of that damn plunger.

I'm still not a huge fan of the Daleks, but like the series itself, they're in better shape now than they've ever been. The episode itself is where the new series really takes off and begins to soar. It's also the first episode where Christopher Eccleston finally outshines and outacts his co-star, Billie Piper which, upon originally viewing the episodes, I was beginning to wonder would ever happen.

The Doctor is finally front and center when he's forced to deal with a creature whose race has caused him more misery and heartbreak than any other. The idea of him brandishing a weapon with glee isn't the most comforting to a long-term fan, but Eccleston sold me in two heartbeats. Suddenly the Doctor is transformed into a one-Time Lord killing machine, and you can't blame the guy.

But his mortal enemy one-ups the Doctor in a pivotal moment by proclaiming, "YOU-WOULD-MAKE-A-GOOD-DA-LEK!"

Pure Doctor Who brilliance.

"Dead" Ahead

This week’s episode of Doctor Who, “The Unquiet Dead”, is the installment that many old school fans felt was the first of the new series to really “get it right”. Odd that. I’m an old school Who fan and of the first three eps (which form a sort of time travel mini arc ("Rose" – the present, "The End of the World" – the future, "The Unquiet Dead" – the past), it was actually my least favorite, which is not to say it isn’t any good because it is a "cracking-good" yarn. I can see why people would be stoked by the piece. It cranks up and turns out the kind of story old Who often did so well: period pieces.

I recently read something from Russ Davies that struck me as noteworthy about new Who: much of it is shot on location - far more so than most sci-fi series, which are largely studio-bound works. Take Galactica for instance. Aside from the stuff on Caprica or Kobol, basically the entire show is made on a handful of sets, and often times the same set.

This trend seems to have started largely with Star Trek: The Next Generation. So much of that series took place aboard The Enterprise. A big difference between old Trek and new is that you can tune in to any TOS episode and say within seconds, “This is the one where…!” That isn’t always the case with TNG. If you stumble across it on TV, you’ve got to keep watching for a few minutes to figure out which episode you’re viewing, because they all look the same!

The mold of frequently setting sci-fi shows aboard a ship or an ongoing location has afflicted many series, even my beloved Farscape, which frequently fell back on Moya-bound episodes as a means of saving a few bucks. (In all fairness to Farscape, some of their very best episodes resulted from having to “get creative” on the ship; the eps “Out of Their Minds” and "Crackers Don’t Matter" both leap to mind.)

While a TARDIS-bound episode wouldn’t be impossible to do on Doctor Who (in the old series, it occurred a couple times), it’s something that’s highly unlikely to happen any time soon. In fact, setting a story entirely within the confines of the TARDIS might be one of the biggest risks the creative team could take, as it’d be anything but the norm.

But back to “The Unquiet Dead”. With this episode, the creative team had the challenge of designing a location that represented Victorian Cardiff, smack in the middle of Christmastime, snow and everything. Since the show premiered here in the States last week, I’ve seen numerous people across the ‘net bagging on the effects work or saying the show looks "cheap". There are so many aspects of new Who that buck typical sci-fi trends, that only the most unimaginative (or perhaps uninformed) of viewers would fall back on, “But that ship didn’t look 100% real!” Maybe, maybe – but in the next episode they perfectly recreate Victorian Wales! I’d like to see the Galactica set designers tackle that one. (For the record, I'm a big fan of the new BSG.)

In reading bits and pieces of interviews with David Tennant (the new new Doctor) and also the tidbits that have dribbled out from Chris Eccleston concerning his departure, Doctor Who sounds like an exhausting series to make. In addition to all the location work, the series, also unlike most other sci-fi fare, relies squarely on two lead actors. There is no ensemble cast to go back and forth between and the leads are almost always on the go and I gather get very few days off. This is a series made with a huge amount of dedication and perseverance from all parties involved. And if you think the effects work is subpar, I invite you to blow me…or develop an imagination, whichever you prefer.

Check out this song "Android Men" by McAllister. It’s a great little tune by another dedicated artist. Imagine Angelo Badalamenti producing David Bowie and you'll groove with it. Hopefully it pleases.

UPDATED!: This has nothing to do with Doctor Who, but I didn't want to create a whole new entry for it. I updated the old Blue Velvet entry so it links to this trailer for a "movie" called "Something Blue". I'm fairly certain David Lynch would approve.

The Second Coming

The U.S. SciFi Channel premiere of the new Doctor Who series is one week from tonight. On March 17th at 8PM (CST), you can catch the first two episodes, “Rose” & “The End of the World”, back to back. And if you miss them, they’ll be on again from 10-Midnight. And if you miss those showings, there’ll be others throughout the week. Check the SciFi Schedulebot and type in “Doctor Who” (Times are Eastern) or just set your Tivo.

Since this “new” series is actually a year old (it premiered on the BBC last spring), most die-hard Who-fans (myself included) have already seen all thirteen episodes. The point here is not to get the die-hards to tune in, but to get those of you who’ve never watched or even heard of Doctor Who to check it out and experience the latest incarnation of the greatest science-fiction-fantasy TV series ever created. Um, obviously…your mileage may vary.

To many people weaned on the FX work of Star Wars and beyond, old Doctor Who can look kind of silly, and objectively speaking, it often is…but if you look past the dodgy effects, frequent use of videotape and sometimes campy overacting, there are more often than not some incredible ideas on display in the series. As a fan since the age of 13, it was always difficult (impossible?) for the young me to show people what it was about the show that made it so great. It required some patience, an attention span and a huge imagination. These qualities were in short supply back in the 80s.

Enter the 2005 version of Who, which is a straight-up continuation of the old series. But you never watched the old series, right? You needn’t have. A huge strength of the new is that it requires absolutely no knowledge of the old to get what’s going on. Everything you need to understand the concept of Doctor Who is set up in the first 45-minute episode, “Rose”, and much like yourself, the setup is seen through the eyes of an outsider: 19 year-old Rose Tyler (Billie Piper).

Rose enters the world of the Doctor (Christopher Eccleston), in a way not dissimilar to how many have: by being in the wrong place at the right time. She’s in the basement of the department store where she works and without any warning, the mannequins around her spring to life and menacingly begin moving in her direction. A stranger suddenly appears, grabs her hand, and issues the most simple of commands: “Run!”

And they do run…for 13 episodes there’s quite the diverse collection of aliens and creatures to keep running from. But lest you think this is just a collection of action set pieces and special effects (the effects work is now as good as most any other TV sci-fi), Doctor Who has an immense amount of heart, wit, humor and class. It’s an adventure, it’s got some minor social commentary and due to the show’s flexible format (an alien with the ability to travel anywhere in time and space), it’s anyone’s guess what’s coming next.

Doctor Who isn’t like much other recent sci-fi TV. It’s bears no resemblance to Star Trek in any if its incarnations. It lacks the seriousness of the new Battlestar Galactica. It doesn’t have the politics of Babylon 5. It isn’t as complicated or weird as Farscape. My friend Bart put it best after viewing “Rose” for the first time: “Above all, this series is fun.”

It’s been suggested that Buffy was a major influence on the new Who, but that’s a call I can’t make. I’ve seen only a handful of Buffy episodes, so I’m hardly an authority. It is interesting to note, however, that an episode of the second season of Doctor Who (which is set to begin on the BBC shortly) guest stars Buffy alum Anthony Stewart Head (Giles). Take that for what it may or may not be worth.

It also seems to have taken a few cues from the Harry Potter movies, if for no other reason than it plays to a very wide audience. In England, the premiere episode captured a whopping 40% of the viewing audience and the numbers for subsequent episodes indicated only very insignificant drops. After the first two episodes played, the BBC commissioned two further seasons and two Christmas specials. Kids are watching it for the first time and adults who grew up on the old series are watching it alongside the kids. It’s become a true family-viewing experience, which is outstanding, because on broadcast TV, that's become the rarest commodity of all.

For the first time in my life, I don’t feel “embarrassed” to be a Doctor Who fan. I don’t feel as if it’s a tough sell to someone who’s never seen it. I don’t feel the need to apologize or preface a viewing upfront with, “Well, you have to take into account…” The only thing a new viewer needs to take into account is the possible withdrawal they’ll feel at the end of Episode 13.