It’s Christmas time and the BBC have now decided to give us a bumper bundle of Doctor Who goodies. The season started with a short story for the Sunday Times by Paul Cornell and then onto Christmas Day for the now annual special.
Short Story: Deep and Dreamless Sleep
Available online here
Russell: Another wonderful little story from Cornell. The reasoning for the little boy’s appearance and repeated statement became clear almost before it was stated, but the story was still affecting enough to bring tears to your eyes (Well, mine anyway). The characterisation of the Tenth Doctor is spot-on, and bodes well for Cornell’s story next season. Fanboy points as well for describing the Tardis as arriving with a wheezing, groaning sound.
The Christmas Special: The Runaway Bride
General Thoughts
John: I thought the Christmas Special worked pretty well, hitting the right balance between pathos, comedy and adventure. David Tennant remains as the Doctor, which is a damned good thing - hopefully rumours of his quitting in series 4 will prove to be unfounded.
Mark: As a fun one off special this worked nicely due to the speed of events, especially compared to last year’s. This was about the Doctor up front and in the thick of it.
Mo: The story was alright but ‘another’ tale that takes place around Christmas? Anyway it had some good imagery and was tightly paced so it was acceptable. The Doctor is showing more of a darker side which is always good and quite surprising considering the audience of the show its made for, but all the better for it.
Russell:Russell T Davies (RTD) is insistent that Christmas specials should take place at Christmas. I think it’s a valid point.
Script
John: Reasonably fast paced, but perhaps at the expense of a bit of mystery. The villain reveals herself far too easily and there was too much expositional dialogue. I’m also a bit flummoxed by the idea that water from the Thames is somehow a more hazardous environment than the centre of the Earth.
Mark: You mean you’re thinking through the fact that spiders were killed by being washed down the plughole
Mo: I guess to keep things fast in some places required quite a bit of exposition in others. I liked the idea of the Earth being formed as a sort of disguise. I guess all the kids got the spider/plughole reference but I’ve only just worked it out now.
Russell:Yeah, I got that one straight away. I guess I’m a little more in touch with my inner brat.
John: Nice touch about the Thames being drained in the process, though that implies that the North Sea was also drained and helpful though that may be to those worried about global sea levels rising it may take some explaining! It would take 40 million cubic meters of water (80 cubic kilometres) to fill a circular hole 4 meters wide that went to the centre of the earth and the volume of water in the North Sea is around 54,000 cubic kilometres so perhaps it wouldn’t have made that much of a difference.
Mark: I figured there should have been a drop in levels, but this was more visually appealing to kids.
John: The riffing on last years Christmas show with the Santas and the Christmas Tree decorations was a nice touch. My only real concern about the number of events happening in the world is that they should affect people more than they do. London has been invaded by aliens three times in the last two years (Autons, Cybermen/Daleks and those things from last year’s Christmas show) but nothing has changed. I had the same problem with The Authority, events on that scale would have a profound effect on society. Artistically it is better if they don’t as that keeps the real world and the backdrop in Doctor Who as closely aligned as it can.
Mark: After making such a big deal of this in last year’s we’ve had Russell T Davies being unwilling to actually explore what this would mean to the world in both Doctor Who and Torchwood. Sure the old series did the same, but why did they even bother to mention it.
Russell: On the other hand, I loved Donna’s explanation as to why she didn’t know anything about them. Wasn’t there a bit of exposition in an early Torchwood episode suggesting that most people thought the events had been terrorist attacks with hallucinogens or something?
Mark:
Characters/Performances
John: Tennant was on form, portraying a mix of wit and sadness in a convincing and engaging way.
Catherine Tate was at least initially very annoying, delivering a one-note ‘Catherine Tate show’ performance as the grumpy Bride. It was only in the last few minutes that we saw beneath that veneer so that as the Doctor left, she was able to deliver a telling line with some conviction. The Doctor needs a companion to reel him in a little, without a humanising element he can be very dangerous (just ask the Daleks….)
Mark: The Doctor without the human factor reminded me so much of the New Adventures Seventh Doctor novels which started the connection to the series for people like Cornell, Gattis, and RTD. This is the Doctor who is ready to kill to save people and that bodes well for a bit of dramatic tension.
As for Catherine Tate there were moments that were not just her usual persona, but for the character I suppose it worked. Thank goodness she turned down his offer.
Russell: There were a few moments where she was a little bit too Catherine Tate, but overall she was perfectly acceptable. As for the Doctor’s dangerousness, let’s hope that’s not too big a part of the next series. A Doctor who will kill as a last resort is fine – as long as that last resort doesn’t come up every week.
Sabrina: Catherine Tate wasn’t quite as annoying as I thought she would be, I’ve not seen much of her work but she does come off as someone who given long enough anyone would either punch her or duct tape her mouth shut. Could have been the few glasses of wine that I had but I found her not that annoying.
David Tennant was brilliant as always.
John: The groom was far from convincing and the reval that he was in fact a bad guy just didn’t ring true at all. How was he contacted by the Rakni? How did he have acccess to Torchwood?
Mark: He worked for Torchwood, but it was never explained how the Queen had contacted him to make him the offer. It does fit that you just cannot trust HR.
John: The Rakni was a Class B villain, all threats and sneers, but with little in the way of a real sense of threat.
Mark: For the pantomine of a show it did work. The costume was good, but not a villain that we need to see back. Good performance by Sarah Parish. I didn’t expect it at all as I was expecting a different type of villain with her casting.
Russell: I don’t think I’ve ever seen her in anything else, so I had no preconceptions. I thought that she was wonderfully over-the-top as the Empress of Raknoss.
Sets & Effects
John: Routinely good and in that sense hardly noticeable. No bad thing at all.
Mark: Good costume for the villain, and better design for the Santas. The chase sequence in the Tardis was perfectly good. I’m impressed we’re getting to see the Tardis do more these days. I’d just like to see more inside it.
Russell: After the Doctor’s directions to Rose in The Unquiet Dead (“past the bins, fifth door on your left”), and last year’s wonderful walk-in wardrobe, it’s about time.
James: I thought the fact they managed to get a car chase into Doctor Who was particulary good, it was probably may favourite part of the whole episode. Seeing the TARDIS bounce down a motorway whilst the Doctor controlled it with a piece of string was great.
Sabrina: I loved watching the TARDIS on a highway (um, there’s an English term for it I’m sure but I’ve forgotten it). One of the first times watching Doctor Who I had my hands over my eyes.
John: Overall, fairly entertaining as a bit of meaningless fun for a Christmas day family event.
Mark: Better than last year, but that was because of more from Tennant. Let’s keep the darkness in the Doctor and not back to the chummy self important Rose days. Darkness good, Rose bad.
Russell: Rose was great, but you’re right, things did get a little too chummy at times. Let’s hope Martha is a bit more traditional in that respect. The special was fun, and the teaser for season three gives me a lot of hope for the future.
The song this year, Love Don’t Roam (as sung by Neil Hannon) was pretty good, very Northern Soul-sounding, almost a rewrite of Al Wilson’s classic The Snake, but not quite as good as last year’s wonderful Song For Ten. A word of advice to those who may be tempted to buy the Doctor Who soundtrack just to hear Neil Hannon’s take on Song For Ten: Don’t. It’s nowhere near as good as the onscreen version.
BBC Radio 7 Doctor Who: Blood of the Daleks
Coming out of the Big Finish this 8 part radio series intends to fill in one of the gaps that the new Television version left in its wake when it started. Here we are once again following the 8th Doctor, whose television appearances amounted to the single American produced Tv movie in the Nineties, played by Paul McGann. For a while Big Finish have been putting out series of CD dramas with McGann in them, but this brand new series for BBC Radio 7 is intended to show what happened to lead to the regeneration of McGann into Christopher Eccleston. No idea yet whether it will have any connection to the Time War, but I think that will probably be left for Russell T Davies to do whatever he wants with. The first two parter is a Dalek story dealing with the Daleks coming to a world in the aftermath of a meteor hit, whilst the Doctor deals with a new companion forced upon him by his fellow Timelords.
Mark: Big Finish have taken the new 45 minute format from the television revamp to use for these new stories, so we get more time to develop the situation and characters before we are forced to deal with a cliffhanger. In the old days we’d have probably had a cliffhanger when the Daleks first show up in this story, but now that would seem a little silly given we know they are in it.
Russell: Not the strongest of starts, although I think that next week’s episode will have a bit more hot Dalek action.
Sabrina: I wasn’t really interested in listening to this, it’s not either of the Doctors I’m truly familiar with so why exactly should I pay attention?
In between playing Tetris and cursing as I lost at it I did catch quite a bit of what was going on. The main problem for me was telling people apart, until the females mentioned names I had no idea who was talking which left me quite confused.
Mark: It’s quite an impressive (well maybe) cast for this production. The new companion is played by Sheridan Smith of 2 Pints of Lager and Grownups and apart from her mysterious connection to the Timelords she does seem to be in the old school of Companions. A not too bright girl from 2006, who based on the descriptions given in the show would probably have appealed to the Dads in the audience if this was on television. I’m hoping that she stops being quite so loud later on and develops a little more common sense.
Russell: It does seem a bit of a coincidence that within the space of about a week we get two stories where a belligerent young woman turns up in the Tardis. I’m not quite sure how the Time Lord barrier over the north of England is meant to stop anyone getting in – sure it will deflect a Tardis, but what effect will it have on road and rail travel? What’s to stop the Doctor dropping her off in London and splashing out on a train ticket?
Sabrina: The two stories that a woman turns up in the TARDIS could have been better spaced, as I started to ignore the story line in Blood of the Daleks because I had watched the Christmas Special.
The companion did have a few good lines I do wish they would pick better names for them though.
Mark: Other cast members include Anita Dobson and Kenneth Cranham. Cranham almost sounds like Timothy West on this (and West is going to be in a later story in this series) and Dobson was much stronger than I expected.
Russell: I didn’t recognise either of their voices at first, unlike Sheridan Smith who sounds exactly the same as she did in Two Pints of Lager.
Mark: The finale for this series will be a two part Cybermen story. It’ll be the real Cybermen though, not those wannabes from the current series.
Sabrina: The I’m also probably the only one who’s a bit sick of the Daleks, aren’t there more evil robot thingies in the universe for the Doctor to go up against?
Russell: The next story is the one I’m really looking forward to, based on the title alone – the wonderfully geeky pun Horror of Glam Rock.
The Sarah Jane Adventures
Having met the Doctor again, Sarah Jane Smith has taken on investigating the strange and unusual again. A new drink is on the market, offering free trips to its factory and seems to be addictive despite just having natural ingredients. Sarah Jane and a pair of teenagers become involved in what is happening under the watch of the mysterious Mrs Wormwood.
Sabrina: I didn’t really know what to expect with the Sarah-Jane Adventures as it was another Doctor Who spin off and with Torchwood being iffy I just didn’t know what to expect.
Thankfully I wasn’t disappointed; in fact the first episode was better than 95% of the Torchwood episodes so if it keeps up then I’ll enjoy watching it.
Mark: I’d approached this expecting a fairly simplistic series, but this was quite an effective opening, with even the child actors holding their own well.
Russell: The young actors were quite impressive, especially Porsha Lawrence Mavour as Kelsey. I loved the little fannish touches - the photos of the Brigadier and of Sarah-Jane with K-9, Alistair and Harry among the suggested names for the Archetype, and (saddest and geekiest of all) Artron Energy.
Mark: The room looks like it could be a lot of fun. Her computer being called Mr Smith has potential. I’m guessing one John Smith made it for her.
Russell: Sarah-Jane’s Sonic Lipstick brings up several interesting questions, not all of which are suitable topics for a discussion about a children’s programme. Suffice it to say, it’s not the first time I’ve seen a woman holding a buzzing object disguised as a lipstick.
Sabrina: I missed quite a lot of the in jokes that were from Doctor Who but I did recognise the alien at the beginning from that one episode of Torchwood.
Mark: The alien at the start is one of those that was in Greeks Bearing Gifts in Torchwood. I’ll resist doing a lesbian joke at this point.
Russell: I’ll avoid mentioning Sarah-Jane never having married and her buzzing lipstick again then.
(Although in the novels Interference and Christmas on a Rational Planet she was married to someone named Paul Morley. Whether it was the Paul Morley is unclear.)
The monster effects were wonderful, well designed and executed. The idea of a monster in the ceiling seems to be a favourite of RTD, although the name Bane Mother is a little easier to remember than the Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe.
Sabrina: The monsters were fun, as I think they were supposed to be, remember it is a kids show. So the giant squid thing is just silly fun. The set designers must love Ikea. They had our bedroom set in the Sarah Jane Smith thing.
Mark: As a setup episode it worked very well. The Archetype has the potential to be an Anya from Buffy character for the series and only one of the cast indulged in any sort of screaming which is a huge positive. Decent stories and this will go nicely as an all ages series.
So as we start 2007 Doctor Who is being represented by the 7 remaining episodes of the BBC 7 Radio show, with the new Tv series scheduled to start sometime before the summer. Torchwood has now finished with the familiar whirrs of someone’s time machine coming for Captain Jack so we will see him later on in Season 3 of Doctor Who. The Sarah Jane Adventures will start shortly on the BBC’s Children’s channels.