This time on the Doctor Who roundtable our intrepid band is confronted by the sublime and the…well, we’re not very complimentary on the second episode…
The Girl in the Fireplace
Arriving on a seemingly empty spaceship 3000 years from now, our intrepid trio try to work out what connects the ship to a little girl in 18th century France. The answer leads the Doctor to discover more than he bargained for, whilst also costing him more than he could ever imagine.
Matt Kamen (MK): This is unusual. In fact, I’m somewhat scared. I can’t think of anything negative about this episode. As I was watching it, I kept thinking that the robots’ insistence on getting Madame Du Pompadour’s brain would remain a mystery, a forced plot point used to justify The Doctor meeting another historical figure. I thought that would be the one element that would annoy me in an otherwise stellar episode but no; Moffat ensured that everything was accounted for with that tiny yet oh-so-satisfying denouement on the side of the ship. I’d go so far as to say that this is likely to end up as my favourite episode of the season.
Mark Peyton (MP): I think this sums up for me why I think Russell T Davies has been a great showrunner coming up with these story beats, but why I’m less enamoured with him on the writing side. This was a beautiful piece about loss and really played with the time travel side of things in a way I cannot remember the television show ever doing before.
MK: The use of static point time travel was very well implemented. I know I’ve seen it somewhere before but I can’t remember where though. On another time travel pseudo-physics point, credit again to Moffat - he even addressed why the Doctor, Rose and Mickey couldn’t just go back to 18th Century France in the TARDIS.
MP: We really are now into the big beats of the series. We have switched from Rose being the perspective character before to it being firmly on the Doctor’s shoulders. In New Earth we had the reference to the Lonely God and in this Renette called him her Lonely Angel. We are so very much on course for the Doctor to lose someone (probably Rose) by the end of the series. Even Rose in this episode realised that this new woman meant so much to the Doctor that he risked being forever stranded to try and rescue her.
The final twist was just wonderful. It’s one of those things that didn’t need to be batted around the head of the audience to work. Much more of a nod to the adults in the audience than the kids.
Ali: Is it just me or is all this Lonely God/Lonely Angel stuff being over-emphasized? Could be related to the Face of Boe’s final revelation…maybe the Doctor isn’t the last surviving son of Gallifrey? Time will tell… (sorry)
MP: Steven Moffat is just a god and if they are after a new showrunner in the future when RTD leaves then Moffat is in my top two choices.
Sabrina Peyton (SP): I really loved this episode story wise as the episodes just keep getting better. Last week made me get a bit teary eyed over Sarah Jane Smith getting her proper goodbye but this week if I hadn’t been wearing mascara and getting ready to go out I would have needed the full box of tissues. Moffat manages to make you really feel for the Doctor, you get an insight to how lonely he is and though it was touched upon last week, this time it’s much more pronounced.
Russell Hillman (RH): Steven Moffat – your guarantee of quality.
James Dodsworth (JD): I’m not going to say a lot about this episode, other than I really, really loved it. Might be my favourite so far, and that’s saying something. The plot of the spaceship needing repairing is almost inconsequential; the real story here is the Doctor and who wonderful and horrible it must be to be him. In Renette, the Doctor finds someone who is capable of understanding who he is, and yet it is a futile straw to have thrust at him. At least he took hold of it, however brief it was.
Moffat is a genius able of cramming so much into his episodes; humour, creepiness, joy, resolution, bitterness and sorrow. Sigh. The perfect episode before we hit the grand story coming in the next two episodes.
RH: Steven Moffat is an evil evil man. Last year he made “Are you my Mummy” scary. This year – the ticking of a clock.
Sheila Hillman (SH): I like Mickey’s response when told that the TARDIS translates all languages – “Even French?”
RH: I’m confused as to why it translates everything except titles. Monsieur and Mademoiselle were both still in French.
SP: Let’s not forget the horse, a horse on a space ship I’m not sure even Joss Whedon would have thought of that one.
Ali: They certainly topped School Reunion in terms of emotion with this one….enjoyable to say the least, with a nice twist at the end - loved the clockwork men too…very retro and helped to bridge the 18thC/51stC divide…
SH: The clockwork men were very effective. I felt that you could see the emotion registering on their “faces” during the final confrontation with the Doctor. Must have been the effect of the mechanical noise and the head bowing down.
RH: It’s also not the first time we’ve seen the Doctor effectively talking a monster to death. Several thousand cool points must also be awarded for the line “I’m not winding you up”.
The line about the Doctor being the thing the monsters have nightmares about seems very familiar.
SH: Didn’t Buffy say something similar?
RH: The commentary reminded me - it’s from Paul Cornell’s Seventh Doctor novel Love and War.
It’s amazing how easily I’ve adjusted to a Doctor that kisses and is kissed.
SH: I don’t see why there would be a problem with the Doctor getting a bit of passion. Yes, I appreciate that, as he is not human, but I suspect that he has evolved past caring about that. The attraction was clearly strong, so why not express it? After all, he was prepared to abandon Rose, and more importantly, the TARDIS, to save Reinette.
MP: Well you have to understand some Who fans will not like their Doctor kissing again. It was bad enough for them last time.
RH: A lot of discussion with Reinette about dancing… referring back to last series, or just talking about dancing?
SH: Rose has had a few things come crashing down around her in the past few episodes, and I think it is beginning to take its toll. I think she realises now that this life, travelling with the Doctor, will not be forever.
JD: Great scene switching between a spaceship 3000 years in the future and various 18th century French rooms, and I really liked the revolving fireplace. The whole idea of other rooms, or worlds behind your walls at home makes me feel like an 8 year old again. Remember imagination? The Doctor Who people do.
Treading the Boards…
MP: This whole episode was just beautifully played. An absolutely brilliant job from David Tennant - veering from the big heroic moments to silent grief.
Mickey got a little awe in as he finally got off world. He didn’t get that much of a look-in in the episode, but neither did Rose really. Though we know Noel Clarke is front and centre on the next two episodes.
JD: Wonderful, Tennant absolutely nailed it this episode. The quick fire humour to the soul-crushing emptiness of being the Doctor, this was a performance and a half. I take my hat off to you, Dr. Well, if I had a hat. You get the point. Sophia Miles was brilliant as well, perfectly measured and in control at all times, yet with so much humanity to give. Beautiful.
MK: Sophia Miles really did have an air of elegance to her, didn’t she. I suppose I should expect no less from Lady Penelope. Once again, the whole cast was on top form - loved the little spat between Rose and the Doctor over the horse. “I let you keep Mickey!” - genius!
JD: Even Mickey managed to act his way out of a paper bag with what he was given, I think he’ll do fine in the next couple of episodes. And then Rose, poor Rose, forced to watch as she sees that the Doctor is the tragic hero for someone else. You can almost see her heart breaking again.
Ali: The chemistry between the Doctor and Madame de-P was perfect and handled well…
Commentary
SP: Very enjoyable, I wasn’t thrilled when I realised it was Noel Clarke along with Steven Moffat but after a few minutes of listening I did enjoy it. 10 minutes conversation about hair on the show from Billy Pipers wavy locks to Noel’s hair continuity between the Christmas Invasion and the next episode. A lot of fun and it shows that some folks know how to do a commentary properly, and not just give you a rundown of what is going on with the show.
MP: Coming back to the kissing thing and Steven Moffat puts it brilliantly when he apologises to Madame de Pompadour fans for messing with their canon and having her mess around with an alien.
An excellent commentary. Still backslapping, but a lot more to say than some of the more recent ones.
On CGI…
JD: Not too much needed, spaceship floats about, man and horse jump through mirror into 18th Century Versailles ballroom. The latter looked ropey but who cares. What was more impressive was the lack of CGI with the clockwork repair droids. That model skull with its clockwork insides was gorgeous. Well done whoever spent hours building it.
Ali: The Doctor leaping through the mirror on a horse was near-flawless and an iconic moment (that and the horse on the spaceship).
RH: The stunt with the horse was very well done, although a couple of the shots lingered a second or two after they should have. I’m prepared to overlook those – mostly due to the coolness of the concept, but also because of David Tennant’s wink.
MK: I thought the CGI was a touch ropey with the mirror scene. Not so much the modelling but the compositing of the shattered glass with the real actors and scenery. Not really a negative point as it was such a small usage.
Tardisode 5:
Ali: an info-news type thing…sets up the whole Cybus Corporation stuff…not sure if they should’ve showed the marching Cybermen so early but its been publicised a lot already so….and Mickey looking more serious with his new haircut….
JD: This lays the groundwork for Cybus Industries, which also explains the lovely “C” emblazoned on the Cybermens chests. Not sure what a Preacher is in this alternate Earth, although I think we can assume they are anarchists against the “Ultimate Upgrade”. One thing that strikes me about these upcoming episodes is how this version of the Cybermen seem to resemble the Davros/Dalek set-up. Strange man in wheelchair aims to “improve” things. Interesting.
And then we came to the ridiculous. Amazing how things change so quickly.
Rise of the Cybermen
The Doctor and his companions encounter some in-flight turbulence while aboard the TARDIS and are shunted to a parallel universe as a result. Landing in an alternate London where zeppelins fill the sky and everyone wears bluetooth-like earpieces, Rose and Mickey are tempted to investigate their alternate lives but are dragged into danger again as a dying industrialist creates this universe’s version of the Cybermen.
MP: This two-parter has been set up as the big showpiece for the start of the season and it’s the first big misstep by the new Who. They needed to make this special given how much they pimped it and they really didn’t achieve that.
New viewers were given very little of interest to go with. The Cybermen needed to sell themselves like Dalek did for the Daleks. Establish them as something to ooh and aah at and instead they came across as quite dull and Borg clones. Yes I know the Borg came after the Cybermen, but the Cybermen really had to have some wow factor to get them sold.
JD: Hmm, the most disappointing episode of the new Who adventures may have just passed before my eyes. What should be a sinister, menacing enemy is reduced to a parallel world Dalek reinvention, complete with world-class inappropriate acting.
Even the way the TARDIS is booted into the parallel universe is old-school Who, the Doctor proclaiming it as an accident. And the TARDIS also “dies” so they can’t go anywhere for at least 24 hours.
I hope the second part is a lot stronger than the first. Whether the second half will contain any sort of twists that validate the naffness of this first instalment remains to be seen.
Ali: I was looking forward to this episode, but for some reason I have conflicting feelings having watched it. The directing and the plot itself are fine and it’s a new twist that allows the Cybermen to be born again on an Earth where airships and ear-pods are commonplace. Perhaps it’s the Doctor being, well, ‘unfocused’ I think, or uninteresting until the last third of the episode, the ‘we surrender’ moment being the best bit.
There’s also a deja-vu feeling of the ‘Lumic’ character creating the Cybermen (if you’re familiar with who created the Dalek race that is)….
MP: For older viewers I’m sure they are left like me going “well that’s not how they used to be and why precisely have they been changed”. They appear to have been turned into poor relations of the Daleks with a Davros impersonator being played by Trigger from Only Fools and Horses. The Cybermen really didn’t need an exterminate catchphrase of their own with “Delete”.
This episode seemed to suffer from the Old Doctor Who’s need to fill the time it had been allocated - things such as the President’s speech to the Cybermen was a section in desperate need of editing as it accomplished nothing that a tighter section could not have done better.
The Cybermen are left with a desperate need in the next episode to find something special. They need a purpose and something that will make them a villain that can get off this alternate earth and go somewhere. Not keen on the new voice which sounded OK on Doctor Who Confidential before they started messing about with it more.
After the last few weeks of brilliance this was an absolute mess.
MK: Something about the pacing of this episode seemed off. I’m not sure if it was the constant switching between Mickey and Rose’s parallel lives or the slow build up to the reveal of the Cybermen but I felt anxious watching it, wishing it’d get to the point. A point. Any point.
There were some great character moments here though, especially for Mickey. He continues to be the “tin dog”, holding a button for half an hour while the Doctor and Rose chat with each other, having completely forgotten him. This and a couple of clashes with the Doctor really help develop his character - he’s so desperate to please but The Doctor and Rose barely even acknowledge his presence. Mickey’s ultimatum of sorts to the Doctor, of chasing him or Rose indicates he may be regretting coming along for the ride, as “it’ll never be him”. Of course, that line could have something of a homoerotic sub context……
It is nice to finally get some background on Mickey as well, from his reaction to his grandmother and his actually having an idea of what had happened and what a parallel universe was. Do people in other sci-fi shows not watch TV or something?
Rose’s interaction with her not-parents was equal parts heart wrenching and humorous, especially so with Jackie’s dog and the Doctor’s reaction. Besides those parts, she didn’t have a great deal to do in this episode – it really was Mickey’s spotlight.
The Doctor was once again a bit of a walking plot device. “The TARDIS is dead? Oh, I’ll just breathe on a power cell and wait a day or so.” Over in comicbookville, Marvel Comics’ editor in chief Joe Quesada keeps commenting on how magical characters such as Doctor Strange become boring because there’s no boundaries to or definition of their abilities. The reader never really gets any sense of threat because the characters in question can just wave their hand, flash some lights or utter some mystical nonsense and all is well again. It seems The Doctor has the same problem - he can do anything the plot demands, simply because the plot demands it. Maybe I’m just being crotchety but it really pulls me out of the show when something like that happens.
MP: The parallel dimension stuff I didn’t mind. It was potentially interesting, but then turned into an obvious plot device in no time flat. God it was like watching Sliders for a moment there. That would have been good to work as a bottle episode with characters talking to one another, but sadly wasted.
All in all this felt like an episode which was written by someone who had seen the series, but really couldn’t tell you about what the heart of the show was.
Ali: Also, there’s no ‘Next Time on Doctor Who’ which is a good thing, no point in having a cliff-hanger if you know what happens next immediately…
MK: Does Doctor Who really need boy band cast offs for supporting roles? Especially ones with perfect hair and cheeky grins when they’re supposed to be hardened freedom fighters.
The scene where Mickey is grabbed off his grandmother’s doorstep bothered me on second viewing. After seeing how commanding and authoritarian Ricky is, surely the other two Preachers wouldn’t talk to or treat Mickey like that if they thought he was Ricky?
CGI and Design
Ali: The cgi is good and the new look to the Cybermen also works, they actually have a more substantial and menacing look to them….
Mickey has a new side to him and some more background that helps to flesh him out a bit, especially the ‘Ricky’ counterpart whose sneer would give even the Cybermen pause for thought…
JD: I liked the parallel London set-up, all airships for no apparent reason other than posh people like to live in the sky. A shame a bit more detail wasn’t given as to why things were like the way they were, curfews and all.
Also liked that Rose’s dad had gone bald – one of his concerns back in Fathers Day.
JD: Average showing for the CGI this time around, I thought. I liked all the airships and the emergence of the TARDIS from a huge cloud when it was knocked into the parallel universe. On the downside, the scene with Mickey and Ricky looked like a bad cut n’ paste job.
MK: Effects - not bad but not great either. The zeppelins don’t quite look like they’re really there and the Cybermen themselves looked a bit too bulky for my liking, particularly around the shoulders. The nerve pinch/lightning was a bit dodgy too.
Acting. Or something resembling it…
JD: Having Trigger from Only Fools and Horses as your maniacal evil Bill Gates character just didn’t work for me. Never has scenery been chewed so long and so hard since the old Who series. Completely over the top and not in a good way, Davros-lite wasn’t what I’d expected. The Cybermen were good apart from the awful “Delete” nonsense essentially meaning everyone watching immediately associated them as Dalek knock-offs.
Tennant was adequate, really only shining in the closing scenes. I’m still not convinced by his “angry” face though, Eccleston was a lot more commanding. Mickey/Rickey was a marked improvement in acting, from the opening button holding to the perpetually snarling Preacher role.
MP: The acting was pantomime at best, with the exception of Mickey who did a nice turn with his Grandma. Shame he messed it all up with the sneering Ricky performance.
I’ll admit to becoming sick and tired of Rose. She is rapidly becoming a spoilt little girl so if something nasty does happen to her I won’t miss her.
Tardisode 6:
Ali: Another info-news type teaser, showing the beginning of the end for the parallel Earth as the Cybus corporation begins to take over…not saying much but then thats why its a teaser…
MK: The Tardisode for next week’s episode doesn’t give much away but I guess it can’t without massive spoilers. I am left wondering who ‘Gemini’ will be though. This universe’s Doctor perhaps? Or maybe a Rose that somehow came to exist despite her parents? Gemini does mean twin after all and Rose is the only one on the this Earth that doesn’t have a duplicate……
I guess the lack of general chatter back and forth on this episode just goes to show how lacklustre it was……
Next time: We see if the Cybermen manage to convert us and then deal with The Idiot’s Lantern.