The Empty Child & The Doctor Dances by: Steven Moffat and directed by: James Hawes

 

“The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances” star Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler with John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, Florence Hoath as Nancy, Richard Wilson as Dr. Constantine, Albert Valentine as the Child, and Noah Johnson as the Voice of the Child.  They were written by: Steven Moffat and directed by: James Hawes with Elwen Rowlands as Script Editor, Phil Collinson as Producer, and Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner, and Mal Young as Executive Producers.  They were originally broadcast on Saturdays from 21 to 28 May 2005 on BBC One.

 

Steven Moffat is a name who after Russell T. Davies has contributed to the success of the revival of Doctor Who.  Like Davies, Moffat got his start during the New Adventures line of novels, penning a short story for their third Decalog release, but in 1999 penning the Red Nose Day special The Curse of Fatal Death starring Rowan Atkinson and Julia Sawalha.  Davies had met and worked with Moffat in the 1990s and received an immediate congratulatory message on the announcement of the Doctor Who revival, taking over the showrunner position from Russell T. Davies in 2010, a role he would take until Chris Chibnall took over in 2017.  Davies in turn had already penciled in two episodes of the thirteen-episode order to be penned by Moffat, “World War II” and “Captain Jax”, with the only outlines to be set during World War II and to feature new companion Captain Jax Harkness, later renamed Jack Harkness.  Moffat in turn provided a script rather different from his previous work in comedy, a two-episode gothic horror story set during the London Blitz, the episodes becoming “The Empty Boy” and “The Empty Children”, then becoming “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances” shortly before filming began.  John Barrowman was cast to play Jack Harkness after being seen by executive producer Julie Gardner on stage, and James Hawes was assigned to direct both episodes.  Writing this review in 2023 means that the behind-the-scenes actions of John Barrowman, exposing himself on set to cast and crew without consent, a pattern of behavior he would continue through his appearances on Doctor Who and other television productions.  Something that has recently resurfaced also shows that Barrowman doesn’t regret this pattern of sexual harassment (and in certain cases borderline assault), joking and diminishing its effects.  Any praise given to Barrowman in this and future reviews should be understood to have taken this into account.

 

While Moffat’s tenure as showrunner is generally characterized as taking on a fairy tale tone, “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances” are two episodes squarely in the genre of gothic horror.  The pre-credits sequence establishes the tension of an alien object being flung through the time vortex transmitting an emergency alert before crashing in London.  This is establishing why the Doctor and Rose are going to London, the danger of this object also detonating hanging over the entire story, initially due to the unknown nature of the ship and once it’s revealed to be an ambulance, the potential for a German bomb to drop on it and cause more havoc is established.  The immediate scenes in London, all taking place through a single night, are set up by James Hawes to be terrifying.  After the TARDIS lands, the Doctor and Rose are separated by an air raid, but before this the scenes are shot to be almost eerily quiet.  When Rose first sees the figure of a child in a gas mask on a roof, quietly calling out for his mother, the off-putting nature of the imagery fills the viewer with a feeling of dread.

 

Before any of the questions of why a child would be on a roof in the middle of the London Blitz looking for his mother can be answered, the episode launches into the action sequence of Rose hanging from a ballast balloon and being picked up by Jack Harkness.  The Doctor eventually follows homeless children left on the streets before encountering the child, continually asking for his mother and controlling various radios and electronic equipment.  This first half is primarily focused with explaining the mystery on what happened to the Child, he was caught in an explosion that fused the gas mask to his face and killed him, until it didn’t.  Jack Harkness is responsible for the ship crash landing in this time period, it’s a warship that he is ready to sell to Rose, believing her to be a Time Agent coming after him.  Barrowman is utterly charming, being perfect to be paired opposite Billie Piper and Christopher Eccleston.  There is this uncertainty in the character, as Moffat sets him up to potentially being a villain, and Barrowman being disconcerting, almost comforting at points in the role.  Rose is immediately taken in, feeling that the Doctor’s carefree methods for ascertaining information just aren’t working throughout and Captain Jack adds this sense of protocol to discovery, something that will continue throughout the story.

 

The Doctor, meanwhile, is paired throughout this episode with Nancy, one of the homeless youths played by Florence Hoath.  Moffat has Nancy act as a parallel to the Doctor, an outsider who does her best to care for those society has forgotten, stealing food and finding shelter through war torn London.  He is eventually sent to Albion Hospital where the Child was sent after the explosion and it is revealed by Dr. Constantine, played by Richard Wilson, that the fused gas mask, collapsed chest cavity, and cut on the hand in a very specific shape are symptoms of a plague that is transmitted through touch, the entire hospital being infected.  The episode ends with the Doctor, Rose, and Jack meeting for the first time after Dr. Constantine is transformed to be like the child and other patients in a sequence of terrifying body horror that in this and “The Doctor Dances” are some of the most intense and off-putting the show has done.  While not graphic with blood outside of the red of the cut, the gas mask emerging from the throat and the eyes changing to those empty, black holes is horrific.  This episode is perfect setup and introduces Steven Moffat to Doctor Who proper with utter brilliance.  10/10.

 

“The Doctor Dances” as an episode is more concerned with investigation and actually unravelling the science fiction/alien explanation behind the child, though it does this without ever sacrificing the horrors of the setting or plot itself.  While it does repeat the scare of someone becoming like the child, it ups the stakes as the infection has become airborne so our main characters have even less time to investigate the ship and discover what the child, Jamie, had encountered tot make him that way.  As a plot this second episode is actually lighter in terms of what it has to do, so Moffat includes several scenes to build up the characters especially, pushing the Doctor and Rose’s relationship squarely into romance.  Dancing is used as a metaphor for sex throughout “The Doctor Dances”, the Doctor having to realize that he still can dance.  “Moonlight Serenade” by Glen Miller is used throughout these two episodes as dancing music, however, once the Doctor has discovered himself and his feelings for Rose are accepted by himself, the episode closes with “In the Mood” also by Miller, juxtaposing the tempos of the pieces with one another for a very upbeat ending that places Rose and the Doctor squarely in the category of being a couple.  Now I generally prefer the Doctor as a character to be portrayed as asexual and not in love with their companion, the way Russell T. Davies has set up this relationship, building to this moment which Steven Moffat actually excels at writing here is a very sweet moment and continues the theme of the Doctor coming to terms with his trauma throughout this first series.  It’s important to note that this first series was made with no guarantee of a second series, so Davies and company wrote it to be complete which is integral to note going forward as after this story there are only two other stories, both by Davies.

 

Outside of this central character relationship, Steven Moffat’s conclusion is one which feels almost like an outlier when compared to many of the tropes and cliches he would become known for once he took over the showrunner position and on further shows such as Sherlock and Dracula.  This second half continues the theme of being an outsider from a society that is actively being torn apart.  Nancy has been claiming Jamie is her brother and the emotional climax of the episode is her acceptance of the child as her son, something that allows the nanogenes which malfunctioned when attempting to heal the child, a human being something these untrained robots would not have encountered.  Before this climax there is this small scene between Rose and Nancy, Rose providing this human touch in reassuring her that in the end the Germans don’t win the war.  The way Moffat portrays this horror of war is apparent here, done subtly, not by showing blood or gore, but showing people terrified that the world around them is ending and there isn’t anything they can do with it.  Nancy helps the other homeless kids because it's all that she can think of doing with the way the war has been going, Dr. Constantine only makes the patients infected by the child comfortable as he has no way of treating them and has lost his own family, and the Doctor can only be elated when just this once everybody lives.  Okay, so Jack takes the bomb that’s going to drop on the ambulance and is willing to sacrifice himself, but the final scene has the Doctor and Rose save him one last time.  It also helps that the previous eight episodes of Doctor Who have been full of death and this genuinely feels like the one time there will be no casualties, though sadly this is something that Moffat will continually return to in his time as showrunner, a large criticism being his inability to kill off characters while the social media representation between 2010 and 2015 being how he rips your heart out with character deaths.  While “The Doctor Dances” doesn’t quite live up to the setup, it still manages to be a great conclusion to the story as well as providing some great scares and maintaining the gothic horror tone, doing the same scare twice and managing to still pull it off.  8/10.

 

Overall, “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances” is perhaps best described as the emotional climax of the first series of Doctor Who.  While not the finale and while there is still a ways to go for the characters, it’s the story that cements a new dynamic for the Doctor in particular, giving the character a sense of hope.  The child itself is a terrifying concept for a monster, with the tension building as the infection spreads and the story turns into essentially a zombie narrative with a twist.  The performances are great while James Hawes shows just how suited he is to directing horror making it one of the high points of early Doctor Who.  9/10.

The Alternative Factor by: Don Ingalls and directed by: Gerd Oswald

 

“The Alternative Factor” is written by Don Ingalls and is directed by Gerd Oswald.  It was filmed under production code 20, was the 27^th episode of Star Trek Season 1, and was broadcast on March 30, 1967.

 

With these weekly reviews going through Star Trek for the first time, I have been genuinely surprised with the high quality the show has had to offer after some early episodes that while occasionally rocky, only really had a couple of dud episodes, but after the first ten episodes or so a standard of quality had been met and established.  “The Alternative Factor” is the episode to break the genuinely great streak of episodes, though not for lack of trying to tell an interesting story.  First and foremost the issues with the episode are apparent from the off, the performances are immediately stiff and stilted, Leonard Nimoy especially giving this very oddly clipped performance as Spock and the script deciding that Kirk and Spock need to have this unspoken tension as if they do not trust each other.  This dynamic of mistrust is something that fuels the actions of every character for this episode, and while that perhaps could have made for a story where some influence has infiltrated the Enterprise and sowed discord, this isn’t that type of episode.  The setup of the episode should work, Ingalls sets up some sort of break in the space time continuum of the galaxy as the Enterprise is orbiting a planet that’s at its center.  This causes a human life form to appear, Lazarus played by Robert Brown.

 

When Kirk, Spock, and a team of redshirts transport down, they find a ship designed to look almost like a classic UFO and Lazarus just falls off a cliff.  Lazarus falling down will become a major recurrence of the episode, not really a running gag or anything, just something as the audience is privy to a recurring effects sequence indicating Lazarus and his double transporting into and out of the prime universe.  Doing a story about a parallel universe sounds right up Star Trek’s alley, but this is an episode that only reveals this particular concept in the last five minutes of the episode when Kirk is accidentally transported there so the alternate Lazarus, also played by Brown, can explain what has happened and the episode can almost immediately be wrapped up.  The other 45 minutes are full of characters going from the bridge, to engineering, down to the planet, and back to the Enterprise, Lazarus ranting about his enemy and attempting to steal dilithium crystals to power the portal back to his universe.  While there are moments where this runaround cycle works, especially when Kirk is actually able to confront Lazarus and the danger sequences in engineering which Gerd Oswald directs incredibly well, much of this runaround plot just does not work.  There isn’t enough information revealed in nearly any of the scenes to make for an intriguing mystery or really a plot that would really make “The Alternative Factor” work as a concept.  The issues with characterization are really only compounding, though Robert Brown’s over the top performance is perhaps due to the fact that he was not the original intended actor for the role.  Gerd Oswald’s direction is also just less interesting than his other episode, “The Conscience of the King”, barely feeling any of the suspense that made that episode work so well.

 

Overall, “The Alternative Factor” is an episode that on many levels should work.  Parallel universes are a staple of science fiction storytelling, and even doing one without showing alternative versions of the established characters can work, but this is an episode that just uses it for a climax.  Our three main characters of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are also just not really recognizable as even parodies of themselves, Kirk being the closest to the character we know and McCoy barely having a presence.  There is something very standoffish about the episode as well while the direction from Gerd Oswald attempts to have some interesting visuals but ultimately feels uninspired.  Don Ingalls’ script can be compressed into people going from one room to another without progressing any sense of the plot until a few bits of pretty good action leading “The Alternative Factor” to be quite weak.  3/10.

Assassin's Apprentice by: Robin Hobb

 

Sometimes what you need to be reading is something that despite not having much of a plot, still deserves a long page count.  This is what happened with reading Assassin’s Apprentice, the first book published by Robin Hobb in The Realm of the Elderlings and had the book taken any faster of a pace, much of the charm would be lost.  The novel is essentially a coming of age story where the title is both incredibly fitting yet somewhat misleading, assassination, while playing a role in the story and the climax, takes a backseat to the apprentice portion of the title.  As this is the first novel in a trilogy this becomes far less of an issue, as there will clearly be more assassination in the following installments, as well as the several sequels that are set after the trilogy’s conclusion.  It also is important to note that the novel was written under the working title Chivalry’s Bastard, rejected due to the profanity in the title and the difficulty that would make marketing the book.  Assassin’s Apprentice is also just a far catchier title for marketing purposes and encapsulating what Robin Hobb is doing in the novel itself while the working title is perhaps better suited to the trilogy as a whole.

 

This is due to Assassin’s Apprentice following the early life and training of Fitz, the bastard of King-in-Waiting Chivalry, from his childhood working in the king’s stables, to his training in combat before being taught in secret to be an assassin.  This is essentially the plot, one of mentorship and forming a sense of identity in the world through a series of heavily connected vignettes.  This is enhanced by Hobb’s prose which is often beautiful, taking the reader by the hand and exploring this fantastical world from the perspective of someone who has already experienced much of what it has to offer.  If Ursula K. LeGuin in Earthsea evolved from Tolkein’s prose, Hobb is the natural continuation and evolution of LeGuin’s already wonderful prose.  Hobb is easy for the reader to get lost in, devouring the novel before you realize how far you have gotten, yet upon reflection the plot itself isn’t progressing as far as the page count may have you believe.  It’s essentially a balancing act of not making the prose feel as if the word choice and sheer amount of words are covering up whatever the plot and characters are lacking that Hobb succeeds at.  Every page is imbued with so much character that the Six Duchies feel living and changing day by day, especially as this is a novel with several time jumps as Fitz begins the novel as a six year old and ends with Fitz as a young adult.  There’s never a sense that the gaps in time are wasted, the world is changing and the reader can tell almost exactly as to what has occurred in between these gaps.

 

As a fantasy novel, Assassin’s Apprentice also presents a fascinating magic system: those with the Skill can communicate telepathically with one another and those with the Wit can use the Skill to communicate and bond with animals, Hobb drawing on mythic ideas for her magic system.  This magic system is quite unique in how it is presented in Assassin’s Apprentice as while it is clearly a deep part of the world, it is something that is generally feared by the populous.  Early in the novel a dog Fitz has bonded with through childhood is taken from him to discourage getting lost in the Wit or even showing that he has these abilities for fear of being an outcast.  This is the second chapter of the book, and by this point the reader is already sharing Fitz’s emotions.  Now the magic itself then takes a backseat for much of the rest of the novel before the Skill is introduced at around the halfway point which is kind of a shame and is personally not exactly my cup of tea when it comes to fantasy, I much prefer magic to be part of the system.

 

Overall, Assassin’s Apprentice is a novel that surprised me, while not Hobb’s first novel, it was the first published under that particular name which may be why there is such a grasp of fantasy as a genre and how to elevate what fantasy was doing in the mid-1990s.  It’s a great read despite the plot being a little thin in places, the characters being wonderful at diverting from that.  8/10.

Father's Day by: Paul Cornell and directed by: Joe Ahearne

 

“Father’s Day” stars Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler with Shaun Dingwall as Pete Tyler and Camille Coduri as Jackie Tyler.  It was written by: Paul Cornell and directed by: Joe Ahearne with Helen Raynor as Script Editor, Phil Collinson as Producer, and Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner, and Mal Young as Executive Producers.  It was originally broadcast on Saturday 14 May 2005 on BBC One.

 

With the cancellation of Doctor Who in 1989 it only took two years before the continuation came in the form of original novels, the New Adventures, continuing Andrew Cartmel’s push for bringing new writers into the show and subsequent franchise.  It is with these novels that Russell T. Davies got his start in Doctor Who long before the revival came along, but among the now prolific Doctor Who authors who got their start in these books, among them Kate Orman, Jonathan Blum, and one of the few to make the leap to television Paul Cornell.  The eighth episode of the revival was always meant to be a story about the death of Rose’s father, however, it didn’t really take shape until Cornell was assigned to write “Broken Time” with the premise that Rose would in the spur of the moment decision save her father from the car crash that would claim his life.  Time would then start breaking down with several eras blending into one another.  This pitch would be refined into “Wounded Time”, eventually placing the setting in a church before a wedding and the refinement of the monsters into flying creatures come to sterilize the wound, before further refinement led to the broadcast title “Father’s Day”, again a few months before broadcast.

 

The consequences of changing history is something that Doctor Who had toyed with throughout the classic series with serials like The Aztecs and The Reign of Terror having established historical events with the potential to be altered as something that cannot happen.  Pyramids of Mars showed time in a state of flux in the middle of the events that would have seen the villain succeed, however, rarely was anything concrete concerning what would happen when history changed.  “Father’s Day” attempts to rectify this with the concept of the Reapers, extratemporal beings which rip people’s lives out of the timestream throughout the episode.  This actually poses a problem for Doctor Who going forward since there are several examples of other stories where history is significantly changed, however, the Reapers do not appear again.  They are also a classic example of a Doctor Who story having some sort of monster added for tension which this story honestly doesn’t need, at least not concretely.  Giving the Reapers a physical form actually hurts the episode as they could have been fairly unseen which would have assisted the original intent of this episode to be a budget episode with less need for special effects.  The Reapers just have an identity and easily recognizable form when the episode does want them to be a recognizable villain.

 

Outside of the villain that doesn’t need to be there, Cornell does what he does best with this episode: using some aspect of science fiction to explore our characters and what makes them tick.  The episode is framed by this little frame story of Jackie Tyler telling a young Rose stories about her father, romanticizing the man to have been the perfect father and husband.  Camille Coduri as an actress is often underestimated for the more comedic relief portrayals of Jackie Tyler in Doctor Who but this episode may just be her best performance in the show.  The frame story shows Jackie as someone who while having come to terms with being a single mother and losing her husband by romanticizing it, her love being the way she remembers him.  This is an immediate contrast with the reality of the situation, Jackie and Pete had a fairly normal marriage that at the point where Pete dies it was in a rough patch.  Pete Tyler, played by Shaun Dingwall, is a mediocre man with very few prospects, business schemes piling up in their flat and a genuine fear that there won’t be enough for food.  Jackie has also become paranoid that Pete is being unfaithful and all these little things boil over into Coduri’s performance which is fueled by frustration and anger.  Cornell’s script and Joe Ahearne’s direction is also very careful to not boil over this relationship into hatred.

 

Pete is also just a mediocre man and that comes through in Dingwall’s performance.  He probably would have been a good father to Rose, but what really shows this are his final acts in the episode.  Pete sacrifices himself so time is corrected after the Doctor’s plan to fix things goes awry due to the Blinovitch Limitation Effect allowing the Reapers inside the church.  Billie Piper as Rose is also great throughout, Rose making the mistake of changing time in such a way that the Doctor should kick her out of the TARDIS for failing, but he doesn’t.  Mainly because Rose genuinely just wanted to be with her dad when he died alone in the road after being hit by a car.  Eccleston as the Doctor also has this great rage and sadness throughout, thinking he’s finally found a companion who won’t ruin the web of time, hinting at regret at his own actions and perhaps some previous companion who wasn’t so good.  His best scene, however, is one seeing the bride and groom, friends of the Tyler’s, and hearing about how they met and why they’re getting married.  It’s a small little scene, but it’s the little moments of human joy that keep the Doctor going through times like these, something that while recurring perhaps a bit too much in the revival, really works here because of proximity to the Time War.

 

Overall, “Father’s Day” is an excellent example of what Paul Cornell does at his best.  Yes, the monsters don’t need to be there, but this is a necessary episode to really see what happens when history is changed, moving Doctor Who into new territory as well as progressing the Doctor and Rose’s relationship with revelations about a romanticized past just being human.  And being human is sometimes the best thing in the world.  9/10.

Errand of Mercy by: Gene L. Coon and directed by: John Newland

 

“Errand of Mercy” is written by Gene L. Coon and is directed by John Newland.  It was filmed under production code 27, was the 26^th episode of Star Trek Season 1, and was broadcast on March 23, 1967.

 

It’s quite fascinating to sit down and watch “Errand of Mercy” with the pop cultural knowledge that the Klingons are one of two Star Trek creations that have entered public consciousness along with the Vulcans.  Gene L. Coon’s script is not an episode made with the intent of creating a species to return in the future, the Klingons being introduced as being at the end of a conflict with the Federation that this episode is getting us to, so it becomes fascinating to see that they took off instead of say the Romulans as they are presented here as an almost standard war minded space empire.  They only appear in the second half of the episode and their characterization is perhaps one of the weaker aspects of the episode.  The invading force is led by Commander Kor, played by John Colicos, and while Colicos’ portrayal is good, it does not stand out in terms of complexity being a very simple military dictator character.  Kor is motivated by ruthless conquest, being willing to kill scores of the native Organians to gain the territory and expects the military regulations to be followed, but outside of that he is not so much a deep character.  The Klingons themselves are portrayed on screen as racist caricatures of Asians in terms of makeup, something that came from Coon’s script implying an “Oriental, hard-faced” look and John Colicos and makeup artist Fred Philips designing the physically darkened skin.  Luckily director John Newland did not direct Colicos to use any sort of accent so there is at least an illusion of attempting to just be alien.  Perhaps if Kor’s makeup did not include a style of facial hair that is read in connection with Asians and yellow peril in fiction it would have aged at least a little less poorly with the bronzed skin meaning to be alien, and luckily I am aware of how the Klingons are designed in the majority of other Star Trek fiction, but it is a shame to have such an explicit piece of racism on display in a show that’s usually more progressive with its messaging.

 

It is clear that Gene L. Coon is more interested in criticizing the American imperialism represented by Captain Kirk, spending much of the episode aggressive against the Organians who are staunch pacifists despite the threat of invasion which comes to pass.  This pacifism is fascinating, something that the episode drops the ball on in places by not having Kirk or Spock question the fairly obvious psychic powers the Organians express.  At least, Spock not noticing the psychic powers and contradictions apparent in the society feels incredibly off for the character, Kirk is having his passioned plea to stand up and fight the Klingons as the Enterprise brings a Federation fleet for what may be mutually assured destruction.  The first half of the episode does struggle a bit as the final twist about the Organians being a gestalt of entities having moved past the need for bodies and displaying terrifying god like powers clearly marks “Errand of Mercy” as an episode about the need of humanity to rise above the need for war.  It’s a fascinating message especially when you compare it with other anti-war media from the time, especially those from the UK like Doctor Who’s The Daleks from 1963-1964.  “Errand of Mercy” feels like it misunderstands why war may break out, Coon including genuine grievances for territory disputes, something that may be an attempt to examine the concept of manmade borders, but this does mean the clear authoritarian Klingons are going to be integrated into a society that is anti-authoritarian.

 

Overall, “Errand of Mercy” is an episode that is actually quite messy when you examine what it was attempting to do.  Guest star John Abbott is perhaps the standout as the leader of the council of Organians, Ayelborne, playing calmly off of William Shatner’s passionate plea and desperation to protect from an incoming war.  The Klingons are generally a problem since they aren’t that deep of a species, something future appearances will have to address and deepen while the episode’s message is messy.  It is not a bad episode by any means, but it does feel like a come down after ten very standout episodes.  6/10.

The Long Game by: Russell T. Davies and directed by: Brian Grant

 

“The Long Game” stars Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler with Bruno Langley as Adam Mitchell, Christine Adams as Cathica, Anna Maxwell-Martin as Suki, and Simon Pegg as the Editor.  It was written by: Russell T. Davies and directed by: Brian Grant with Elwen Rowlands as Script Editor, Phil Collinson as Producer, and Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner, and Mal Young as Executive Producers.  It was originally broadcast on Saturday 7 May 2005 on BBC One.

 

Long before breaking into the television landscape in the 1990s, Russell T. Davies had several scripts and ideas that he submitted to the Doctor Who production office.  Among these ideas was one about a space station that controlled the news that potentially would have featured the return of the Celestial Toymaker in charge of using the media as a game, submitted in the 1980s.  This would actually have been incredibly fitting with the rise of the 24 hour news cycle in 1980 as CNN first broadcast their 24 hour news coverage.  While it is unknown if producer John Nathan-Turner ever actually read the pitch, although another of Davies’ pitches survives and was produced in 2022 by Big Finish Productions as Mind of the Hodiac, this commentary on the news media would be revived in the original pitch document for the revival of Doctor Who, adapted into a single 45-minute episode script.  This begun with the tentative title of “The Companion That Couldn’t”, Davies knowing that this would be the episode that shows the downfall of Adam Mitchell, introduced in “Dalek” and taken aboard the TARDIS in the final scene of that episode.  Adam’s downfall was a given to show partially a darker side to the Doctor as well as what happens if a selfish man was taken through time, with Davies floating the idea of following the format of “Rose” and showing the episode through Adam’s eyes.  This even would have given the episode the name “Adam”, however writing made this difficult so Davies reverted to the title “The Long Game” which was floating in his head in the 1980s when it still featured the Toymaker.

 

“The Long Game” as an episode is one that you can tell came from a much younger Davies and was adapted into a modern format.  The human villain of the episode, Simon Pegg’s Editor, is the sort of camp 1980s Doctor Who villain that would easily be slotted as a Margaret Thatcher insert.  The biggest issue is that there are almost too many ideas for political satire that Davies wishes to include, and as a result the point is dulled quite a bit.  Much is made of the setting of the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire, already a very imperialistic title for this time period which Davies doesn’t examine in the slightest but he does attempt to examine capitalism and the way it treats workers through the lens of journalism and technology.  Barely even mentioning imperialism feels weird as there are also moments written attempting to examine the role of media in bigotry, Fox News and the empire of Rupert Murdoch clearly being in Davies’ mind with this episode.  Fearmongering on technology is also a clear fear, the internet being injected through microchips and openings in the brains feel like Davies wants to say something on how capitalism can often lead to stagnation in technology, but it comes across as rather short sighted.  Some of this is simply due to aging, “The Long Game” being produced before the rise of smartphones and having the internet in one’s pocket.  The journalists are too reliant on technology and don’t ask questions, just being motivated by making money and moving up in the world, not the story.  Again something that could easily make an episode on its own but it’s stuffed with other ideas that drag the episode down.

 

The episode is also limited to studio sets on Satellite Five meaning that the worldbuilding has to be done in one location.  The audience doesn’t get to see what the planet Earth is like outside of a special effects shot which is fine, though it means the supporting cast who are not the villainous Editor have to represent the world and sadly that is a mixed bag.  Tamsin Greig has a small role as a sinister nurse which allows you to see healthcare motivated by money which is great and Christine Adams’ Cathica gets a serviceable story arc of beginning to ask questions, but Anna Maxwell-Martin’s Suki sadly only gets interesting just before she is killed at the end of the first act.  The alien villain, the Jagrafess, is also the definition of a monster just added in because it’s Doctor Who, there have to be monsters.  This episode honestly would have worked better if the climax was rewritten and Simon Pegg was allowed to just be the villain overall, perhaps destroying a computer that must be kept cool to keep that particular part of the climax.  Brian Grant’s direction also deserves a mention for making the effects heavy climax at least work despite some dated CGI.

 

The final scene with the Doctor taking Adam home and destroying the message Adam sent in an attempt to catapult technology and himself forward is great, even with Bruno Langley’s Adam throughout the episode being the highlight.  Langley’s performance is honestly a bit bland, Eccleston, Piper, and the supporting cast are all acting circles around him.  Adam as a character has the entire point of being unable to take it, his selfishness giving him a data chip implant in his head to connect to the Satellite Five computers.  The idea Davies goes for is Adam falling for the temptation of future technology, but his eventual fate feels a bit out of character for the Doctor, especially with what the very next episode is about the consequences of changing time.  Adam is just framed as unlikable by the script and bland in portrayal.  While he gets the most focus which means the episode succeeds in its primary goal, it does contribute to the overstuffing.

 

Overall, “The Long Game” is perhaps the weakest episode from the first year of the revived series of Doctor Who.  There are plenty of good ideas, with the strongest being what Russell T. Davies does best but those are obfuscated by mixed messages and just too many ideas.  The direction is perfectly fine, especially since this is a studio bound episode, and most of the performances are great, the episode setting up where this first series is going.  “The Long Game” being such a mess means that what could have been a very good story just loses much of its potential.  4/10.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by: Taylor Jenkins Reid

 

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a confounding book, at least in terms of how it works.  Told in seven sections, it is its ending which is what makes the novel work.  Taylor Jenkins Reid spends over 350 pages telling the story of Evelyn Hugo’s life divided between her seven husbands, in an interview format with Monique Grant.  This is perhaps all I can reasonably say about the novel without really delving into spoilers of the novel.  It’s especially odd since it’s the ending of the novel that elevates Reid’s work into something great, the rope that really binds everything together.  Instead of a typical review, I have elected to discuss the major ideas and themes of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, starting with one of its final twists.  Evelyn Hugo is going to end her life.  Monique Grant has been chosen as biographer because of a piece on the right to death, one final secret from Evelyn being almost secondary to this fact.  It is this ending which somehow pulls everything together, Reid’s point being about being in control of one’s life in a system that stacks the deck against you.  This is the central thesis of the novel, told through the flawed lens of Evelyn Hugo, a woman with seven husbands, sex appeal, and glamor.  Evelyn as a character is intriguing, witty, and genuinely fun to follow as she grows from her naïve childhood as a Cuban immigrant to a powerful Hollywood star to a mother who is just trying to find some peace.

 

Taylor Jenkins Reid in characterizing Evelyn attempts to pull a twist about 100 pages in, something that is now discussed whenever this novel is brought up, Evelyn’s bisexuality.  Now since this was not a book I intended to read because of reviews, instead the blind recommendation of a friend, I didn’t know this as a twist and the prose in the sequence feels like it’s meant to be a twist.  It doesn’t work since it’s clear from their first interactions, Evelyn Hugo’s true soulmate (though not love) is Celia St. James.  Evelyn Hugo is bisexual and perhaps the twist is an attempt by Reid to examine biphobia, Monique immediately assuming Hugo is a lesbian, but it isn’t really examined outside of the fact that exists.  At least not in the larger context of the modern day, much of the novel is an examination of the discrimination of LGBT people faced in Hollywood specifically through the fictional lens of the story.  While by no means comprehensive, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo could easily be seen as a way to pique the reader’s interest in the history of Hollywood in general though with someone like me who’s studied the history of film, though not extensively, Reid’s inspirations become clear.  Interestingly, while Evelyn Hugo being a lighter skinned person of color is brought up, racism and its interception with homophobia aren’t really examined throughout the novel.

 

The way Reid splits the seven husbands up is also interesting, each acquiring an adjective (or in the case of Harry Cameron three) descriptor to summarize Hugo’s memory of each of them.  Evelyn Hugo as a woman was highly flawed, her career ambitions admirable and personality causes the reader to gravitate towards her, but she also would be cold and calculating.  Her influence on those around her is fascinating, Reid almost invoking characters like Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada at points, though more outwardly human.  Of her husbands, there are only really two whom she actively hurts perhaps unfairly, both to advance her career.  Her first, Poor Ernie Diaz, whom she divorces to enter the dating scene of Hollywood stars (think studio approved paparazzi but much worse) and Gullible Mick Riva, whom she seduces and elopes with in a devious plan to keep herself and Celia closeted.  Reid examines the fact that screwing over Diaz genuinely hurt since she did care for him, even if she did not love him.  Love is complicated, her second husband proved that, though the care for Diaz was much less than Harry Cameron, their marriage being a pair of beards perceived as swingers by the general public.

 

Overall, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was a surprise.  The last twenty pages or so are what really punch you in the face and then the gut, elevating what had been a fairly enjoyable novel into something genuinely fascinating.  It’s a book I am likely to return to in the future with fresh eyes to at least see if the context of the conclusion changes anything.  9/10.

Dalek by: Robert Shearman

 

Dalek was written by Rob Shearman, based on his story of the same name.  It was the 176^th story to be novelized by BBC Books.

 

When watching the television episode “Dalek” while the script is clearly from Robert Shearman, you can tell that Shearman’s more esoteric tendencies had been pulled back for a 2005 television audience.  Giving Shearman a chance to novelize his script as part of the second wave of revival novelizations is perhaps the best reason to read Dalek over the television episode.  Shearman does adapt the television episode in an almost Terrance Dicks style fashion when it is events of the episode.  Much of the dialogue remains in tact and the sequence of events themselves are not actually expanded upon for the novel format, the plot points occur in the exact sequence bar some minor alterations with Van Statten’s introductory sequence being placed near the end of the novel as Shearman excels at adding events outside of the story to really make Dalek its own distinct Robert Shearman entity.  Perhaps invoking Terrance Dicks when discussing the events of the episode does Shearman a disservice, as while Dicks could be rather plain in his prose, Shearman while not particularly flowery in the sections from the episode, is deliberately simple which creates this sense of realism throughout the novel.  As an author, Shearman’s realism contributes to this atmosphere of almost magical realism, especially for Dalek becoming apparent when you examine the additions to the script from Shearman.

 

The novel opens with a prologue about a child flying a kite, imagery intent on evoking the perfect childhood innocence.  The prologue doesn’t reveal who the child represents, yet throughout the novel there are multiple candidates.  Readers may have the first impression be the Doctor, the Ninth Doctor featured in the rest of the novel is clearly scarred by the Time War, but there are several added interludes to provide background information for the supporting characters.  This leads the reader to believe the child with the kite could be perhaps any of them, until the eventual reveal that this child is the fleeting memories of the Dalek itself.  Shearman in flashback shows the mutilation of a Kaled child into becoming a Dalek, mutated and mutilated from birth, fascist conditioning being a fascinating concept for Shearman to explore in this particular flashback.  Shearman proposes the more ‘human’ range of emotions outside of hate and fear are allowed to be felt at the beginning of the process before the creature can be broken, leaving some sense of ambition to play its part in Dalek society.  It’s a genuinely revolting chapter to read which of course is what makes it work.

 

The dark edge also permeates the backstories of the rest of the characters in some way.  For instance, Simmons, the Dalek’s torturer, is a psychotic man who had assumed the identity of Simmons after murdering him and entering van Staten’s employ, showing the breadth of van Staten’s power and ability.  Or take van Staten himself, neglected by his father and obsessed with capital in all of its forms, though the abuse giving him an equal obsession with space, plus an added breakdown at the end.  While characters like Adam and Goddard are made more sympathetic by their interludes, Goddard being revealed as working undercover for the United States government and Adam revealed to being a bit more misunderstood, if still unworthy to travel in the TARDIS.  Adam joining the TARDIS at the end also has this great moment for the Doctor added, scarred by the experience with the Dalek only offers to bring him aboard as a way to induce change and growth in himself.

 

Overall, Dalek is a fascinating little novelization that doesn’t try to put back in scenes cut for time, instead spending its time making the tone of the story vastly different from the television episode and deepening the side characters for the best.  This depth also allows the Doctor and Rose’s characterizations to deepen as well, making it just as enjoyable as the television story and a triumph of adaptation.  10/10.

The Devil in the Dark by: Gene L. Coon and directed by: Joseph Pevney

 

“The Devil in the Dark” is written by Gene L. Coon and is directed by Joseph Pevney.  It was filmed under production code 26, was the 25^th episode of Star Trek Season 1, and was broadcast on March 9, 1967.

 

Genre is fluid.  It is something that can contain multitudes for a single piece of media and is generally just meant for a marketing term.  However, Star Trek up to this point has been squarely in science fiction, generally following ideas of speculative fiction morality plays, so imagine the surprise when “The Devil in the Dark” comes right along and plays out like a horror play.  Gene L. Coon’s first original script for the program, Coon had been serving as script editor and adapted teleplays and one short story, this is an episode that opens with a tense pre-credits sequence where a miner is killed by a point of view shot of a creature.  Now, the point of view shot is just a normal television camera, but the pacing of the sequence is incredibly tight and choreographed to build tension.  This is also odd for an episode of Star Trek since we aren’t opening with familiar characters beaming down to the planet, instead with these miners who immediately come across as sympathetic.  Coon’s script here quickly lays out that there have already been 50 casualties due to this creature, causing a near complete destruction of the bodies bar some charred bone fragments as if corroded by a particularly strong acid.  The actual bodies are never shown, though throughout the episode as redshirts and miners are shown killed leaving scorch marks.  The scorch mark effect easily could have come across as comedic but the way Joseph Pevney shoots it makes it incredibly effective.

 

It doesn’t take long for Kirk, Spock, and McCoy to arrive, immediately after the opening credits in fact, but continuing the odd setting is that the Enterprise sets don’t really appear in the episode except for some minor sequences with Scotty and the final scene.  This has a knock on effect of making the first half of the episode also feel like a stageplay, confining the action to an office set in this planet’s caves for a decent chunk of time.  This does make the cutaway to the creature making its way into the colony’s reactor room feel awkward, despite once again being shot so the audience doesn’t see what the creature really looks like.  This sequence is also there so there is a ticking clock of the reactor going critical, being extended by Scotty rigging up a quick replacement which allows James Doohan a few very fun scenes to himself, despite not really being necessary.  The creature itself provides enough tension since it is already a danger to our characters.

 

Approximately two thirds into the episode, Kirk and Spock split up with Kirk coming across the creature and this is where “The Devil in the Dark” shifts away from the horror elements as the viewer gets to almost immediately sympathetic to the creature.  The twist of the episode is fairly obvious, the creature is silicon based, the silicon nodules scattered throughout the episode are examples of its eggs and the colonists have accidentally been destroying them.  This is setup early on in the episode with Spock taking particular interest in the nodule, but that doesn’t diminish much of what the episode is doing.  Kirk and Spock have to find a way to communicate with the creature, called a Horta, and come to a mutually beneficial resolution to the episode.  Coon’s script may be predictable when you realize where it’s going, but it means Kirk has to be reserved in dealing with the Horta, Spock eventually opening his mind to the creature to begin the communication.  By this point the episode also switches the tension to the colonists being the ones who are dangerous, the Horta being injured and McCoy brought in to attempt to heal it despite his objections that he’s a doctor, not a bricklayer.  The tension from the colonists is always there, it’s played subtly because of the deaths, but it only becomes really apparent when it is about to boil over and violence can break out.  It really makes the predictable storyline work better.

 

Overall, “The Devil in the Dark” is always going to stand out as something different in terms of the genre that it tackles.  The horror really works despite the Horta itself having aged poorly, the costume itself is a brilliant attempt at a non-human life form and it genuinely is trying.  There’s also a moment that adds this moment of the miners wanting more profit as a motivator which just doesn’t feel right for Star Trek somehow.  Outside of these tiny two points and the odd sequences that jar the tone slightly, this is a near perfect episode from start to finish.  9/10.

Starsight by: Brandon Sanderson

 

It’s always funny when you review a book with a very specific complaint as to why it didn’t perhaps work as well as you thought it would and then the sequel comes along and you actually get exactly what you’re asking for.  One of my big issues with Skyward by Brandon Sanderson was that the worldbuilding was incredibly limited for a series which has an entire universe to explore, but the sequel Starsight almost immediately expands from the planet Detritus to fill out the universe and planets.  Sanderson has clear delight in creating several species of aliens, all living under the Superiority, a sort of evil Federation subjugating the galaxy and expanding their technological and imperial power.  The main thrust of Starsight is Spensa impersonating an alien emissary to the Superiority using M-Bot’s hologram technology to disguise herself and her voice.  This is especially fascinating since Spensa is still a teenager and she’s being forced into an intricate political situation where she knows she is going to be revealed as a liar.  The eventual reveal is far more tactical from Spensa than I would have expected, coming across as a moment of both genius and desperation due to being cornered by a superior who has clearly been spying on her.

 

Sanderson excels at having Spensa make mistakes, the banter between her and M-Bot still being one of the highlights of Starsight.  M-Bot has his own plot philosophically debating whether he is alive, while Spensa ends up unravelling one of the reasons why his orders involved looking for mushrooms, something that has almost become a running joke at this point.  Sanderson implies three parameters for life, even artificial life, as this is a world where artificial intelligence is essentially advanced enough to pass the Turing test and be considered alive.  M-Bot is also kind of relegated to an almost background player for much of the middle of the novel, with this recurring upgrade motif of several clicks indicating almost changes in his systems.  Alanik, the alien Spensa is masquerading as, is also a fascinating character who deserves way more scenes than just being a minor supporting character, crashing to Detritus essentially to kick start the plot of the book.  Sanderson does some excellent worldbuilding here with exploring what it means to be cytonic and the fact that multiple species have the capacity for cytonic awareness.  The team Spensa has to integrate herself with is fascinating, if the plot itself feels a bit close in places to Skyward.

 

There is this fascinating look at what humanity has become in the eyes of the rest of the universe, a savage and angry race that cannot be trusted.  There is one human member of Spensa’s team here and she has been brainwashed into believing that she’s genetically more aggressive.  Sanderson seems more interested in having a villain who wants power over the galaxy, essentially pulling what might be a young adult trope than perfectly examining the discrimination, fear, and bigotry that humans face in this world.  It could be an interesting exploration of how bigotry would evolve in a society with aliens as well as a deconstruction of the effects of imperialism, however, Sanderson writes this at a younger audience and doesn’t quite fulfill these themes.  There is also the struggling with romance, Spensa has a love interest in Jorgen who may also be cytonic, and while he gets a great interlude about having to learn to relax and live, the relationship honestly just isn’t there.

 

Overall, Starsight’s significant improvements on the worldbuilding kick things up a notch, however, there are several elements that come up here that don’t quite work.  There are sections which become a bit too repetitive, especially if you have just read Skyward and especially Sanderson’s romance here leaves something to be desired.  It’s also just very nice to see Sanderson do some explicit science fiction once again and the young adult audience is never dumbed down enough despite some moments that feel tonally limited.  8/10.

Dalek by: Robert Shearman and directed by: Joe Ahearne

 

“Dalek” stars Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler with Corey Johnson as Henry van Statten, Anna-Louise Plowman as Diana Goddard, Bruno Langley as Adam Mitchell, Barnaby Edwards as the Dalek Operator, and Nicholas Briggs as the Voice of the Dalek.  It was written by: Robert Shearman and directed by: Joe Ahearne with Helen Raynor as Script Editor, Phil Collinson as Producer, and Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner, and Mal Young as Executive Producers.  It was originally broadcast on Saturday 30 April 2005 on BBC One.

 

Bringing the Daleks back into Doctor Who was something that Russell T. Davies always envisioned as an episode to occur in the middle of the series.  While it was only the second serial of the original thirteen episode order, The Daleks provided the show with the ratings boost to allow the BBC to extend its run to first 26 and then a full first season.  Whenever the Daleks reappeared in the original run, the ratings would take a significant increase which would ride the popularity, something Davies was keenly aware of when pitching the revival for Doctor Who.  “Return of the Daleks” was the original pitch, taking inspiration from the 2003 Big Finish audio play Jubilee by Robert Shearman.  Davies almost immediately approached Shearman for penning the adaptation, hoping it would skew fairly close to the original audio play with the addition of a male companion to join at the end of the episode.  Shearman, however, had different plans, only leaving the setup of a Dalek which has been captured and tortured by a madman that the Doctor is left alone with early in the episode.  This was through several drafts, initially being “Creature of Lies” before becoming “The Sphere” and “Absence of the Daleks” when negotiations with the Terry Nation estate saw the possibility of the Daleks being unable to be used in the revived Doctor Who.  Luckily, these issues would be resolved in the nick of time for Shearman, after several drafts, to reinstate the Dalek for the episode which would be filmed and aired under the title “Dalek”.

 

“Dalek” offers a unique opportunity: while certainly the audience in the UK would have been familiar with the Daleks, they would have several cliches going into the episode and Shearman is ready from the beginning of the episode to actively subvert those expectations.  The episode takes its time before introducing the Dalek, about ten minutes in total are spent first establishing the Doctor and Rose’s arrival, Henry van Statten and his collection, and the tortuous conditions the Metaltron (as van Statten has named it) is undergoing.  The Metaltron is shown through a point of view shot and its screams, with Nicholas Briggs giving an organic performance for these screams.  This makes the audience predisposed to sympathize with the Dalek, especially if you are new to Doctor Who and perhaps hadn’t heard of the Daleks before.  That certainly was what occurred when I first watched the episode over a decade ago.  Shearman also makes the decision to have the Dalek not show any real danger until the halfway point of the episode, the reveal of the Dalek being beautifully shot by Joe Ahearne, but its revival and restoration could have acted as an end of Part One cliffhanger.  Ahearne also shoots the destruction the Dalek wreaks perfectly, only showing a couple of on-screen deaths despite a high death count.  Cutaways from the deaths are strategic, using screams and the right moment to cut so the viewer can extrapolate the horror.  The Dalek is shot from low angles and treated like the unstoppable and powerful force that it is.  Letting the Dalek essentially be a background player helps lull the audience and the characters into a false sense of security, the Doctor revealing himself to be an alien and being tortured in turn.  Eccleston sadly was uncomfortable with shooting this scene in particular which is a shame as it is genuinely some of his best material.  The episode itself builds the rage of the Doctor, a man who has seen the extermination of his people and the responsible party will not be brought to justice in his mind until they are equally exterminated.

 

Billie Piper as Rose Tyler has to bring the humanity back to the episode and the Doctor.  As Rose would have no exposure to the Daleks, and when the Doctor is first in the cage she is with Adam Mitchell, played by Bruno Langley, so she doesn’t see his outbursts until the climax of the episode where the Dalek, revealing the mutant inside, has a gun to its tentacles wielded by the Doctor.  Rose shows the creature nothing but sympathy until the killing starts, yet once the killing starts and she has to survive, she and Adam run.  It’s also technically her fault for letting the Dalek out, the sympathy leading her to touch it exchanging the DNA of a time traveler, Piper’s performance as Rose has this subtle guilt culminating in self-sacrifice when the Doctor has to close van Statten’s bunker down, leaving her inside it with the Dalek.  There is this visual connection between Rose and the Dalek, the casing being designed by Mike Tucker, who had worked on Remembrance of the Daleks in 1988, to match Piper’s height.  Rose also makes one final plea to the Doctor to let the Dalek essentially live as it just wants to see the sun, the infection of Rose’s DNA adding humanity to the creature.  It’s a beautiful conclusion to a perfect episode only enhanced by Shearman’s charming side characters.  Corey Johnson as van Statten represents every billionaire (especially those that take root in American pop culture), owning the internet and cure for the common cold, but like an obsessed fanboy he bottles them up behind glass not to be used.  Anna-Louise Plowman as van Statten’s newest assistant Diana Goddard, the previous one being fired immediately after being introduced, is a very small part, but nevertheless memorable in her clipped delivery.  She provides a human element to van Statten’s operation subtly as van Statten is an over the top villain and Adam is a lackey.

 

Overall, “Dalek” is the episode of the first series of Doctor Who that becomes the standard for the revival to top.  It is a perfect 45-minute adventure that may borrow its premise from an earlier audio drama, but it clearly understands the Daleks allowing Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper to have tour de force performances.  This is the episode that names the Time War and the fact that the Daleks were who the Time Lords were fighting.  It quickly and deservedly takes its place among the best of both the revival and Doctor Who in its entirety.  10/10.

Aliens of London & World War Three by: Russell T. Davies and directed by: Keith Boak

 

“Aliens of London” and “World War Three” star Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler with Noel Clarke as Mickey Smith, Camille Coduri as Jackie Tyler, Penelope Wilton as Harriet Jones, Annette Badland as Margaret Blaine, Rupert Vansittart as General Asquith, David Verrey as Joseph Green, and Eliizabeth Fost, Paul Kasey, and Alan Ruscoe as the Slitheen.  They were written by: Russell T. Davies and directed by: Keith Boak with Elwen Rowlands as Script Editor, Phil Collinson as Producer, and Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner, and Mal Young as Executive Producers.  They were originally broadcast on Saturdays from 16 to 23 April 2005 on BBC One.

 

“Aliens of London” and “World War Three” sit in a very important spot for the revived series of Doctor Who for two reasons.  First and foremost, they are the episodes by design where companion Rose Tyler is brought back home for the first time, meaning that there must be a reckoning of some sort with the fact that she has been travelling through time and space.  This is something the classic series only did very occasionally, and rarely with consistency.  The first two companions, Ian and Barbara, were displaced by two years when the audience last sees them on television and it would not be until 1976’s The Hand of Fear where companion Sarah Jane Smith’s exit would get (a barely existent) minor follow up in 1983’s The Five Doctors.  In the interim several companions would either be outcasts in the case of Leela, Nyssa, and Adric, or a Time Lord.  Tegan Jovanka had a mid-travel exit in Time-Flight which at least saw her partially reintegrate into normal life when returning to Earth.  Only Ace in 1989’s Survival would have time spent exploring the fact she disappeared from Earth for a number of years at this point which Davies clearly took partial inspiration from for Rose’s return.  Second, this is the first two-part serial the revival would have, Davies believing that these types of episodes can serve as a tentpole event for audiences to tune in for larger stories as well as genuinely loving the longer stories of the original series.  This first two-parter in the pitch document established that despite being a two episode serial, each episode would have an individual episode title, being originally “Aliens of London” and “10 Downing Street,” with a plot synopsis quite similar to what occurred on screen, with the second episode changing titles to “World War Three” only two short months before the revival premiered in late March 2005.

 

This is a two-part episode that I have always had some difficulties with due to how much of the two episodes genuinely work while certain elements have always been near breaking issues by injecting sophomoric comedy to proceedings which outside of the “comedy” scenes are a genuinely tense political alien invasion thriller.  “Aliens of London” opens brilliantly, the Doctor landing the TARDIS on the Powell Estate on what he believes to be the day after the events of “Rose”.  Because he cannot steer the TARDIS, it is not the 12-hour gap between their time on Earth, but 12 months.  This places the revived series from this point forward one year ahead of the airdates.  In this gap, Rose has been reported as missing with Mickey Smith being the prime suspect, ostracizing him for an entire year.  Rose appearing brings out a tearful and heart wrenching performance throughout this episode from Camille Coduri as Jackie Tyler, initially done through dropping a pitcher.  Jackie has been put through hell and so much of the episode is dedicated to how Rose has destroyed Jackie mentally and emotionally.  There is a moment near the end of the episode, once an alien spaceship has crashed into Big Ben and the Thames, that Jackie calls the Doctor into the authorities, tears in her eyes.

 

The alien invasion also allows Davies to flex ideas on what a mid-2000s United Kingdom and the world at large would react to such a public alien invasion.  Yes, UNIT is called in bringing the organization into the modern series though without any references to characters as not to alienate the new audience, but for the general public this is treated as the first time an alien incursion has happened.  There are several cutaways to local and international news including excellent appearances from Jack Tarlton and Lachele Carl (Carl as Trinity Wells will make several appearances in the first four series of the revival) adding the on the ground element.  While Rose is left at home with a TARDIS key of her own, the Doctor investigates the body found in the spaceship and Eccleston shines throughout this sequence.  There is this jovial quality as the Doctor is so curious, quickly shifting to authority as the doctor Sato examining the body, played by Naoko Mori, finds the creature alive and UNIT soldiers just follow his orders, and finally rage as the alien is shot dead by a soldier.  Eccleston also shines through his third of the cliffhanger where the group of aliens who have infiltrated the British government gather all alien experts into one room and electrocutes them.

 

The aliens themselves are perhaps the big problem.  Throughout the crash landing plot, the UK’s government is in chaos: the prime minister is missing with MP Joseph Green, played by David Verrey, in the position of acting prime minister.  Advising Green are Margaret Blaine, Oliver Charles, and General Asquith, played by Annette Badland, Eric Potts, and Rupert Vansittart respectively, and a backbench MP, Penelope Wilton’s Harriet Jones, is just attempting to help out wherever she can.  It is revealed that Green, Blaine, and Charles are aliens themselves, compressing themselves into skin suits and their reveal should be a scene of great horror as Asquith is killed and Charles takes his place while Harriet Jones watches from the closet.  The issue here is that this genuinely serious scene and much of this genuinely serious episode is just stuffed with really bad fart jokes.  Now, a good fart joke can work really well, just look at Blazing Saddles, but “Aliens of London” has them coming and director Keith Boak frames them as just hilarious and over the top with no regard for the tone of the scene it should have been in.  This death scene and the cliffhanger of “Aliens of London”, which is a great three part cliffhanger where Mickey Smith, played by Noel Clarke, and Jackie in her flat and Rose and Harriet at 10 Downing Street are both menaced by these aliens, called the Slitheen, while the Doctor is shocked.  5/10.

 

“World War Three” luckily is a script that has much less of the fart jokes, which is great since for much of it the Doctor, Rose, and Harriet Jones are trapped in the Cabinet Room while the Slitheen have taken complete control of the UK government.  Penelope Wilton was genuinely a great presence in “Aliens of London” and in “World War Three” she is mainly used just to bounce ideas off while not compromising her intelligence.  Her fate in the episode is also revealed to be responsible for rebuilding the UK government as Prime Minister.  “World War Three” is also the episode where the Slitheen are allowed to be far more menacing with the fart jokes toned down.  Annette Badland shines, being kept in her human guise of Margaret Blaine throughout much of the episode which is a blessing.  Badland as a performer has this intensity and gives this truly alien performance in these quick speaking scenes to the Doctor, Rose, and Harriet.  There is a very early chase scene where for the first time in the revival, the computer generated imagery causes quite an issue.  There is this disconnect between how the Slitheen costumes are portrayed with the team at the Mill, making them these fast hunters while the actors can only go so fast in the physical costumes.  Cutting the CGI sequences genuinely would have helped improve the episode as the immersion breaks in a way that is unique to the revival, due to CGI effects also suffering from the fact that it is not something the physical actors can truly react to, especially under a poor director.

 

It almost feels as if Boak as a director was unsure of what direction “World War Three” should really be taking.  “World War Three” as an episode has far more explicit political commentary at its core.  The Slitheen are revealed to be a family of aliens who have come to Earth to destroy it and sell the ruins for money.  Already this is a minor commentary on companies that already destroy the environment, but more pointing from Russell T. Davies are the direct parallels to the lies told by the United States (and the United Kingdom) in the wake of 9/11 to push the world into the Iraq War.  Massive weapons of destruction is a phrase used in the episode to describe the “alien threat” hovering over the world that only the UK government, led by the Slitheen, can detect.  Davies is biting in his commentary, something that he never loses touch with throughout his time as showrunner, even if an episode like “Aliens of London” falls flat in several aspects.

 

“World War Three” is one of the few episodes that as a back half of a two-part story for the revival improves on the first half.  The script itself is much more difficult for Boak to play for comedy, the fart jokes being much less prominent, though humor is there that doesn’t work, jabs at the Slitheen being gathered has aged quite badly especially.  There is an emotional heart, and much of that has its roots in “Aliens of London” with the Doctor wishing to promise Jackie that Rose would be safe.  It becomes apparent that once deducing what can kill the Slitheen, they are from Raxacoricofallapatorius and can be dispatched with acetic acid, though the climax involves commandeering a missile from the United Nations (Mickey being the one to hack into the military) to bomb 10 Downing Street.  Billie Piper as Rose is luckily proactive in the story, she’s makes it known that she is fine with the Doctor destroying the three of them, although it is Harriet Jones who gives the final order as an elected representative.  Mickey Smith throughout both episodes, but “World War Three” in particular has a minor arc about proving himself worthy, almost to himself.  He is the one who is able to save Jackie at the cliffhanger resolution, he is the one to defend her while she mixes as much vinegar containing foods together, and he is the one to earn the respect of the Doctor in the end, being asked to travel in the TARDIS.  Note this as you are watching, especially the last point as this is an element that Davies will quickly forget after the first series is over, later episodes denigrating Mickey further as a character while this clearly establishes a respect between him and the Doctor.  6/10.

 

Overall, “Aliens of London” and “World War Three” as the first actual serial of the revived Doctor Who is one that had a lot of potential to match “Rose”, and perhaps even surpass it.  However, there are directorial issues throughout especially the first episode, giving the actors choices to make that cause this inconsistent tone.  The second half fairs quite a bit better, but it does take just a little too long to get to the climax, following scenes added to both episodes due to the scripts underrunning.  Still, it does succeed on moving our characters forward and the scenes that shine, really shine as among some of the best scenes in this first series, from emotional character moments to the very subtle moments.  “Aliens of London” and “World War Three” may not be bad, but the whole is sadly not the sum of its parts, this first serial of the revival coming to be just above average.  5.5/10.