Human Nature & The Family of Blood by: Paul Cornell and directed by: Charles Palmer

 

“Human Nature” and “The Family of Blood” stars David Tennant as the Doctor and Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones with Jessica Hynes as Joan Redfern, Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Tim Latimer, Harry Lloyd as Jeremy Baines/Son of Mine, Rebekah Staton as Jenny/Mother of Mine, Gerard Horan as Mr. Clark/Father of Mine, and Lor Wilson as Lucy Cartwright/Daughter of Mine.  They were written by: Paul Cornell based on his novel Human Nature and directed by: Charles Palmer with Lindsey Alford as Script Editor, Susie Liggat as Producer, and Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner, and Phil Collinson as Executive Producers.  They were originally broadcast on Saturdays from 26 May to 2 June 2007 on BBC One.

 

Almost immediately after production wrapped on “Father’s Day”, with Russell T. Davies outlining the plots for the two next series of Doctor Who, Davies asked Paul Cornell to look back on Human Nature, a New Adventures novel published in 1995 for the pivotal two-part story in the third series.  Cornell regarded the novel as one of his best, something Davies heavily agreed with, both men wishing to explore in the new series the idea of the Doctor becoming human and setting up that aspect for the series overall.  Cornell initially wished to make a loose adaptation of the novel, though still in two parts with the title Human Nature, but Davies requested a more faithful adaptation, though not without integral changes to the plot and the characters so while the plot premise and structure are the same, there are plenty of differences between the television episodes and the novels.  From changing the characters at the school, eliminating much of the novel’s more expansive supporting cast (the deletion of Alexander Shuttleworth was always quite sad for my viewings), changing the villains from the Aubertides to the Family of Blood (“The Family of Blood” becoming the title of the second episode), and the plot resolution.  In preparation for this review, while I have written a review of the novel Human Nature and indeed reviewed the episodes immediately afterwards, I made the decision to avoid rereading the novel and just take the adaptation on its own.  The two-parter was assigned to director Charles Palmer, the second production block helmed by Palmer as the sixth production block, being made in parallel with the fifth production block (the Doctor-light production block of “Blink”).  Phil Collinson, who had served as producer for every episode of the revised series thus far, stepped into the role of executive producer to take a small break and was replaced for this production block by Susie Liggat.

 

The two-part story, perhaps because it is adapted from a New Adventures novel, feels very much like a classic Doctor Who four-part story constructed and presented as two.  The cliffhanger of “Human Nature” where the Family of Blood threaten companion Marhta Jones and lover of John Smith, Joan Redfern played by Jessica Hynes, is the point where the focus of the story turns and at approximately the halfway point of the episode there is a monster reveal of the family taking over Jeremy Baines played by Harry Lloyd, which would act as a traditional end of episode one cliffhanger.  Much of “Human Nature” works because of how much focus is placed on David Tennant’s portrayal of John Smith.  While his usual portrayal of the Doctor is generally a more human of the Doctor, Smith here becomes more of a man of the time which is a subtle change in the performance from Tennant, though something is sadly lost by the Tenth Doctor not being nearly as alien in mannerisms.  Tennant plays the romance between Smith and Joan Redfern incredibly well, however, several scenes being setup of that romance through discussions of Smith’s past and Redfern’s lost husband, musings on war and the fear of whatever the next war would be.  Smith had also been journaling his subconscious memories as the Doctor and because of this there is technically a premonition of the incoming Great War, a war only a year away, though not something that the Doctor experienced, himself.

 

John Smith’s outbursts at Martha, who is cast as one of Smith’s maids, are also fascinating but not as far out of character for the Tenth Doctor who has already treated Martha terribly with slightly more subtlety throughout the rest of the series.  Cornell frames this as something new that Martha is dealing with, though the Doctor not preparing for falling in love with Joan feels like a holdover from the novel where the Seventh Doctor wouldn’t prepare to fall in love.  The Tenth Doctor already has fallen in love and knows that it is very much a possibility for this particular Doctor.  “Human Nature” is also an episode that generally feels as if it’s an episode that underran slightly, the pre-credits sequence while being a good hook of establishing the Doctor and Martha on the run, however the same sequence is replayed later in the episode in flashback where it’s far more effective in conveying both the information and the danger the Doctor and Martha were in.   Harry Lloyd in this first episode is the main member of the Family of Blood as Son of Mine taking over the body of Jeremy Baines.  Baines is already a racist, insulting Martha explicitly for the color of her skin, and a general bully to those below him, he and the other boys bully Tim Latimer played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster, these cruelties being brought out in the performance once his body is taken over by Son of Mine.  There’s also this fascinating tick used in each of the members of the Family of exaggerated sniffs to try and smell the Doctor.  Palmer never shows what their natural forms are which is a perfect choice, leaving it up to the imagination of the viewer based on the way the sniffing shots are actually framed, from a very low angle exaggerating the noses and faces in an almost alien manner.  “Human Nature” is just a brilliant piece of setup despite underrunning and not quite making full use of the Doctor being human due to the nature of the Tenth Doctor.  9/10.

 

“The Family of Blood” actually does more to make John Smith feel more unlike the Doctor.  While “Human Nature” had a scene of Smith teaching the boys to arm themselves, the first action set piece of “The Family of Blood”, after the dance at the village hall is scattered, Smith and the headmaster arm the boys to essentially be slaughtered.  This is perhaps the one act that is completely out of character for the Doctor, and as such is one that makes Smith actually seem human.  That and his selfishness at the climax of the episode where he has to be convinced to open the watch and become the Doctor again, in a very heartfelt sequence that flashes forward to the potential future Smith would have had with Joan.  The flash forward is quick, but it’s a long and happy life with a traditional family.  Cornell accentuates this with the final moments of the Doctor asking Joan to travel with him and Martha, Joan refusing because the Doctor is not John Smith and never could be in a powerhouse performance from Tennant and Hynes.  Joan is also fascinating as she is allowed to be an incredibly flawed character, living in a very bigoted time and while on the surface being tolerant, she does tolerate Martha, but fully believes in much of the bigotry under the surface and is perfectly content in the societal privilege.  It makes her a fascinating character, and while the Doctor inviting her to travel in time and space is controversial, it’s hardly out of character for him, especially the Tenth Doctor who earlier this season believed fully that Martha could just walk around Elizabethan London as if she owned the place and would be fine.

 

The Family of Blood gets the most time to shine in this second episode where their actual danger is revealed.  The idea of them animating scarecrows as essentially immortal soldiers makes the danger come further into clarity and the way Palmer shoots the scarecrows, performed to walk with an unnatural swinging gait, is fascinating.  Scarecrows already have their place in horror due to the uncanny valley of being a facsimile of a man, but these are designed to be in this very dark blue while the heads have these stitched on smiles and eyes which add to the general creep factor.  Palmer also shoots the chaos of the school being scattered and taken over incredibly well even if the sequence is one of the shorter sequences of the episode.  Lor Wilson (credited under a deadname) as Daughter of Mine is already an incredibly creepy performance, the design being taken straight out of the original novel of a little girl in pink clinging onto a red balloon.  It plays on the automatic innocence people ascribe to little girls that has been warped by these aliens as she is also deadly with her own ray gun.  Rebekah Staton as Mother of Mine, inhabiting the body of Martha’s only friend Jenny leads to one of Martha’s best moments in the first episode, and in “The Family of Blood” while she is mainly there to be part of the family still gives a fascinating performance.  Freema Agyeman as Martha is also just excellent here, Agyeman working through Martha’s general love of the Doctor to become fiercely protective of John Smith throughout the two-parter.  It’s perhaps her best performance as she has to navigate the time period on her own and Agyeman plays it so incredibly well that even the romance becomes compelling.

 

The resolution of the episode has the Doctor tricking the Family into putting their spaceship into self-destruct by a ploy to give them the fob watch Chameleon Arch which had already given back his Time Lord essence, but what really becomes the crowning achievement of the episode are the punishments for the Family.  The Family wanted immortality and that’s exactly what the Doctor gives them, all fates exclusive to the episodes which are incredibly dark for the Doctor, but fitting.  Cornell’s work on Doctor Who has generally run a theme of immortality being a curse and the necessity of death, especially since introducing the Eternal Death in Timewyrm: Revelation and his first television story “Father’s Day” being all about what happens when a death is avoided.  The Family only wish immortality because of an unstated greed and fear of Death, but their fates of being frozen in time in some way, able to observe the universe from a distance is partially a commentary on the Doctor, especially in the revival where he is portrayed often explicitly as the last immortal in the universe.  For “The Family of Blood” in particular it especially works because of Cornell’s script explicitly framing the Doctor in the wrong and as harsh, reflecting in places on the rest of his life.  This is especially apparent in the character of Tim Latimer, who takes the watch in “Human Nature” hearing it due to latent psychic wavelengths.  Thomas Brodie-Sangster understates how he plays Tim, generally playing him as quiet and caring, destined to save his comrades in the Great War due to a premotion the watch gives him as well as a general acceptance of the world.  Cornell uses Tim as a critique on masculinity ideals of the world through both episodes, he is bullied for not being strong and aggressive but is not portrayed as sensitive or particularly weak.  He is intelligent and capable, spending much of his time at the school in a mode of self-preservation in a world that often beats on him.  While Tim is toned down from the original novel, there the other boys hang him which he manages to survive due to Death and the Doctor’s essence giving him a respiratory bypass system, Brodie-Sangster’s almost background performance is perhaps one of the highlights.  10/10.

 

Overall, while “Human Nature” and “The Family of Blood” don’t manage to be perfect and for some odd reason has started some odd internet discourse in recent years, Russell T. Davies’ decision to have Cornell adapt his novel makes it the near perfect pivotal moment for the third series of Doctor Who.  David Tennant and Freema Agyeman give some of their absolute best performances while they are bolstered by an excellent supporting cast.  Charles Palmer’s direction is almost film like in places in a series which looks very much like mid-2000s television, while Murray Gold provides some of his subtlest underscoring especially in the first episode.  It’s a fascinating exploration of history and immortality with war looming over every scene.  9.5/10.

Friday's Child by: D.C. Fontana and directed by: Joseph Pevney

“Friday’s Child” is written by D.C. Fontana and is directed by Joseph Pevney.  It was filmed under production code 32, was the 11^th episode of Star Trek Season 2, the 40^th episode of Star Trek, and was broadcast on December 1, 1967.

 

For its first year of production and well into its second, D.C. Fontana remained the only female scriptwriter on Star Trek and “Friday’s Child” feels as if it is her attempt to write an episode of Star Trek from that female perspective to interesting results.  The setup is standard Star Trek, the Enterprise is in orbit around the planet Capella IV to negotiate a mining contract for the Federation with the very patriarchal inhabitants of the planet before things start to go wrong.  McCoy has spent time learning the customs of these people to act as an ambassador and to avoid any problems, but before any deal can be made a Klingon, Kras played by Tige Andrews, appears and is also attempting to make a similar deal.  There is also a Klingon plot to lure the Enterprise away with a false distress message sent by the Klingons which keeps Scotty, Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura occupied while Kirk, Spock, and McCoy deal with a coup on the planet leaving the pregnant partner of the dead chief in peril.

 

While much of the meat of the episode takes place on the planet, the Enterprise sequence acts as a fascinating B-plot to look at the evolution of the Klingons since their first appearance in “Errand of Mercy”.  It has become clear that tensions between the Federation and the Klingons has actually escalated quite a bit, the Klingon appearing on the planet in the pre-credits sequence leads the redshirt of the episode to immediately fire, and Fontana’s script casts the Klingons as honorable but still deadly enemies.  The distress signal the Enterprise gets allows James Doohan and Walter Koenig in particular to really show their acting abilities as Scotty and Chekov are the ones to handle the crisis, which is fascinating to watch.  The distress signal in hindsight is obviously a ruse, but when you’re watching you don’t really see the ruse until things start to go wrong, the ship in distress isn’t actually there and it is meant to get the Enterprise away in the hopes of destroying a Federation ship and starting a war.  This is a plotline that reflects a general framing of the Cold War of the United States as positive and the Soviet Union as negative if you look into this specifically, Capella IV representing the Global South and general interference.  The episode builds up to framing western interference as good, the mining agreement does go to the Federation in the end, while the east is framed as bad, the Klingon being killed at the climax of the episode.  This is an interesting framing and actually feels in places a little bit outside of Star Trek’s normal philosophy, other episodes tackling the Cold War up to this point had generally explored the similarities of the United States/Soviet Union power structures in episodes like “Balance of Terror”.

 

The A-plot involving Eleen, played by Julie Newmar, and Kirk, Spock, and McCoy attempting to save this civilization is also fascinating for different reasons.  Fontana takes cultural cues from Dune which would have been published two years prior, the planet’s fashions being close to the descriptions of Herbert’s novel.  Fontana is also heavily exploring themes of motherhood and choice.  While Star Trek certainly couldn’t outright mention abortion nor endorse it in 1967, Eleen’s pregnancy is framed as an unwanted one and one that is too far along to abort.  Newmar’s performance is a fascinating one tot watch as she is the victim of a heavily patriarchal society that has just used her body to create an heir, most likely against her will.  Eleen latches onto McCoy who is there to provide the best healthcare, deliver and protect the baby in the best way that he can, though not take responsibility for a child that is not his.  There is some interesting interference as this culture does not permit women to be touched by those who are not their husbands, McCoy having to break and ignore those cultural practices actively which is a fascinatingly 1960s look at cultural interaction, though McCoy is also in the right for doing so, if he didn’t both child and mother would likely die.  DeForest Kelley’s performance is honestly one of his best of the series thus far, giving a nuanced portrayal while Shatner and Nimoy get to be in the backseat for much of the episode which is nice.  Even the final joke of the episode serves to show how McCoy works as a character which is wonderful.

 

Overall, “Friday’s Child” is an episode with some very outdated sexual politics but D.C. Fontana and Joseph Pevney should be praised for their attempts to write a pro-choice episode though still falling into some issues of objectification.  Julie Newmar and DeForest Kelley give the best performances and the integration of the B-plot with the Klingons is fascinating, beginning the long process of developing them into a fuller species if it is left in some largely of the time tropes involving the Cold War.  A solid time.  7/10.

Titus Alone by: Mervyn Peake

 

Titus Alone was one of the final works of Mervyn Peake to be published within his lifetime.  Published in 1959, the last decade of Peake’s life was one of illness and hardship.  He showed signs of early onset dementia and received rounds of electroconvulsive therapy and in the late years of his life lost his ability to draw which is a shame in and of itself.  It’s almost important to understand this if you’re going to approach Titus Alone, because as a novel it feels almost unfinished.  Gone are the lengthy descriptions and surreal prose, and in its place the novel is an incredibly short, nightmarish fever dream of a book following Titus outside of Gormenghast.  It’s only about 220 pages in length, making it the shortest of the trilogy and as such there is something about the book that feels thin.  Peake’s usually expansive prose is stripped down to several short sequences exploring several ideas of Titus’ futile journey of self-discovery now that he has gotten what he wants.  He is out of Gormenghast, the people outside of the castle have never heard of the place and don’t believe this delirious boy could possibly have such an archaic title as an Earl.  Much of the novel is delirious wanderings on the part of Titus as the stark medieval fantasy gives way to a technological fantasy in such an odd way, Peake clearly wishing to comment on the then modern, industrialized society, butt sadly the meandering doesn’t really allow for this to work.

The meandering really means that the general characterization of Titus Awakes suffers greatly, despite being short it becomes a nearly incomprehensible book.  It feels as if Peake turned in a first draft in places, his naming convention of characters is still there but of the new characters only Muzzlehatch and Cheeta are the two that stick in my mind as memorable, and even then there isn’t much physical description of what they look like.  The industrialization commentary feels as if Peake saw Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings anti-industrialization and decided to write something showing a more positive, progressive side of society: Titus Alone attempts to continue the takedown of tradition and rituals which were part of what made Titus Groan and Gormenghast so fascinating, but the ideas are just not thought out nearly as well as they could be and because it is so short it’s a difficult book for me to really discuss.  It’s not a bad book, whenever Titus is allowed to be the focal point the book is brilliant and has some of Peake’s most interesting work of the trilogy and it is such a shame that he was unable to continue with Titus Awakes (there is a fragment that his wife completed after his death and was eventually published in 2011).  It’s an underwhelming but perfectly fine final installment despite Peake’s health clearly interfering with the ability to make it as rich as the previous two installments.  5/10.

42 by: Chris Chibnall and directed by: Graeme Harper

 

“42” stars David Tennant as the Doctor and Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones with Adjoa Andoh as Francine Jones, Michelle Collins as Kath McDonnell, William Ash as Riley Vashtee, and Vinette Robinson as Abi Lerner.  It was written by: Chris Chibnall and directed by: Graeme Harper with Simon Winstone as Script Editor, Phil Collinson as Producer, and Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner as Executive Producers.  It was originally broadcast on Saturday 19 May 2007 on BBC One.

 

Chris Chibnall’s first association with Doctor Who came as head writer of the spin-off Torchwood, Russell T. Davies being impressed with his work on the first series of that show.  As such, Davies asked Chibnall to submit a script for the third series of Doctor Who, pitching a far future adventure sequel to “The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit”.  Chibnall was still head writer of Torchwood and as a result Davies slotted it into the seventh production block, the penultimate block with the eleventh episode under the direction of Graeme Harper, despite airing as the seventh episode of the series.  Davies also requested Chibnall pair down his narrative when it became clear that the budget of the series needed at least one more episode limited to a few sets and minimal special effects, suggesting Chibnall change the premise of a crew stationed around and in a sun to a spaceship that is being pulled towards the sun, also proposing the episode take place in real time across forty-two minutes, hence the title “42”.  With these changes the explicit elements of “42” as a sequel to “The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit” would be dropped, however the production design of the SS Pentallion, named after a drive from Revenge of the Cybermen, would skew close to that earlier story in terms of style.  Scheduling production for “42” was also hectic as the other episode placed in the seventh block, “Utopia”, suffered revisions due to a guest star’s availability.  Much of production was filmed in studio with only one major location, St. Regis Paper Company, being used.  A central corridor of the spaceship was redressed several times through production to make efficient use of the sets.

 

Graeme Harper as director is no stranger to directing tense disaster stories, The Caves of Androzani was his first Doctor Who assignment in 1984 and “42” is an episode whose major strengths should be the tension of the spaceship getting ever closer to the sun and its inevitable destruction.  There’s even a sequence where companion Martha Jones is separated from the Doctor and hurtling towards the sun which should be peak tension, however, “42” ultimately falls flat due to a couple of key factors.  First, there is this inconsistency in the tone of the script that undercuts much of the urgency.  Chris Chibnall devised the idea that the switch to get power back to the ship is behind a series of locked doors whose passwords are all trivia questions that must be answered, and if we’re being honest a potentially deadly trivia game should be an excellent idea.  It’s one that “Bad Wolf” used in an explicitly game show style format, but using it to progress through a series of doors could be great used in a different story, a story where that is the central thrust and not just one idea fighting for attention.  “42” also has the drama aspect of the crew of this spaceship being revealed to have illegally drawn energy from the sun for fuel and the sun infecting the crew as it is alive, turning them into killers that burn their compatriots.  While the sun being alive is an interesting concept, the budget of the episode really doesn’t do it justice and the monster element feels added at the last minute in classic Doctor Who fashion, something that is surprising since Chibnall included the idea in his original pitch for the episode.

 

The episode also just suffers greatly with the characterization of the supporting cast, while being portrayed by a great cast, there really isn’t much to distinguish much of the crew.  This is just a paint by numbers crew, several of which are meant to be killed to prove the danger which is a shame.  Stories where a human is turned into a creature often play around with the body horror aspect, and due to the more limited budget this is paired down to effects on the eyes and sweat which is at least effective.  The Doctor is infected at the climax of the episode and David Tennant does give a chilling performance even if the villainy is just lashing out in brutal anger and not a more complex evil, but that’s okay, the sun is just trying to survive after all.  “42” is notable for furthering “The Lazarus Experiment” setting up Martha Jones as a full time companion and a small sequence featuring Adjoa Andoh as Francine Jones does some excellent setup about the politician Mr. Saxon and her maternal instincts, but it also interrupts the episode in general.

 

Overall, “42” is the definition of an episode that’s perfectly fine on its own.  It does a couple of things to further the arc of the third series and there’s a very interesting idea at the core of the episode, but Chris Chibnall’s script is split as to what the tone is supposed to be.  It does not work at being a thriller despite a director who can certainly direct a thriller, and there is an underlying comedy that just feels a bit out of place, while the supporting characters are especially let down by the material.  It’s a middle of the road episode in the exact middle of the series.  5/10.

Journey to Babel by: D.C. Fontana and directed by: Joseph Pevney

 

“Journey to Babel” is written by D.C. Fontana and is directed by Joseph Pevney.  It was filmed under production code 44, was the 10^th episode of Star Trek Season 2, the 39^th episode of Star Trek, and was broadcast on November 17, 1967.

 

“Journey to Babel” is an incredibly ambitious episode of Star Trek and giving an ambitious script from D.C. Fontana to Joseph Pevney for direction means that it’s going to meet that ambition head on.  The premise of the episode is another to show Fontana’s deep care and understanding of the appeal of Star Trek: the Enterprise is transporting alien ambassadors from the Federation to the planet Babel for an emergency conference on whether to admit Coridan to their ranks.  Coridan is a planet with several natural resources but a small population and so it is the target for invaders and those that would take advantage of their strategic position.  It’s the backbone of a ship only episode in the best way, much of the budget clearly went to designing and executing the alien costumes.  While Star Trek was limited to just humanoid aliens and there isn’t much exploration of any species in particular outside of a few singular traits, the designs of “Journey to Babel” are excellent, from the simple people under a lot of body paint to be a different color to Tellarites being pig men in rather effective masks to the Andorian antennae just being visually interesting to look at.  D.C. Fontana’s script also does an excellent job of setting up the differences of opinion of the different delegates as whether to admit Coridan to the Federation while slowly shifting into the background of the episode so the main focus of exploring Spock’s heritage can come to the foreground.  Meanwhile, Joseph Pevney’s direction, while only having a couple of action sequences, does a wonderful job of being dynamic in an episode made of entirely reused sets and with so many performers under heavy makeup.  It does also provide William Shatner as Kirk with a suitable B-plot intersected very nicely with the A-plot in a way that doesn’t allow Shatner to take away from Nimoy’s performance as Spock.  Kirk is preoccupied as captain with the delegates and later investigating the murder of the Tellarite ambassador, played by John Wheeler, which gets him critically injured and places Spock’s father, Sarek played by Mark Lenard, in the crossfires.  Kirk’s entire plot is investigate and get out of the way for drama which is a perfect use of the character in an episode like this.

 

From the moment they are introduced Sarek and his wife Amanda, played by Jane Wyatt, have this fascinating dynamic of people from two different worlds that have found each other despite all the odds being against them.  The love there is subtle and their personalities are completely different, Wyatt being the compassionate mother while Sarek is a distant but proud father of Spock, and these dynamics have estranged Spock from his parents.  Fontana covering a topic like being estranged from one’s parents in 1967 is a bold move, and she firmly comes down on it being Sarek’s fault for pushing Spock away and when Sarek is out of commission due to a heart commission it becomes the breakthrough he needed in the end was for Spock to save him.  The actual conflict came from Spock enlisting in Starfleet and not becoming a purely Vulcan scientist, a fascinating conflict and look at Vulcan isolationism reflecting intergenerational conflicts of the era and reflecting down to today in a fascinating way.  Spock as a man is tied to his duty, coming up with the logical solution to save his father before initially being unable to donate his blood due to being in command of the Enterprise.  Leonard Nimoy’s performance is once again subtle but the range of emotion is there from the start, with some incredibly uncomfortable body language as Sarek and Amanda arrive, to several of his quips being made more wry by the episode, and even in the final moments when Sarek is saved and Spock and Kirk are out of commission.  Jane Wyatt as Amanda also brings the emotional center of the episode to the forefront, she’s a human that charmed a Vulcan and perhaps because she is a maternal figure is allowed to have a fuller sense of characterization than many of Star Trek’s female guest stars.  DeForrest Kelley and Majel Barrett as McCoy and Nurse Chapel also have some very good moments, McCoy’s ending quip of the episode and reaction to Spock’s parents are both priceless and really sell the relationship while Barrett’s few lines are given such a cold delivery that really sells the severity of the situation.

 

Overall, “Journey to Babel” is an episode that knocks it out of the park from start to finish, taking the limitations of its lower budget to explore an avenue of the Enterprise as facilitator of peace in a way that is surprising it took until the second season of the show to really do.  D.C. Fontana’s script is on top form and Joseph Pevney gets some of the best performances possible out of his actors, while our principal trio each have their part to play in another brilliant Spock centered episode.  9/10.

Thief of Time by: Terry Pratchett

 

Terry Pratchett and the end of the world seem to go hand in hand.  Good Omens was his and Neil Gaiman’s humanist take on the apocalypse, but over a decade later Pratchett published his final Discworld novel to feature Death and Susan as major protagonists in Thief of Time.  The Auditors of Reality hire clockmaker Jeremy Clockson to build a clock to stop time and kickstart the Discworld apocalypse, three of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse refuse to ride out, the fifth horseman is a milkman, and there’s an upper class Lady LeJean which is secretly one of the Auditors gaining sentience so Pratchett can explore what it means to be alive.  This latter point is the most interesting philosophical thrust of Thief of Time, Pratchett being staunchly against groupthink which leads to the narrow, authoritarian viewpoints of the Auditors.  The novel essentially becomes a book of characters discovering their purpose sense of individuality, often tying it to the unique sense of identity that sets the individual apart from others while giving them purpose to help others and society in general.  What’s fascinating about Thief of Time, is that unlike the preceding Discworld novels, this is less of a satire on one of the evils of society (that is more of a background detail on how society isolates the mentally ill) and more of Pratchett demanding people to pursue what makes them happy with who they are.  Lady LeJean eventually choses the name Unity and has a heel turn despite being the one to stop time and get Jeremy Clockson isolated and building the clock.  The rest of the Auditors to take human form also begin to take on parodies of individual identities, all based on colors in what I believe is doing a parody of Clue.

 

Susan also essentially completes her arc of finding belonging and a sense of purpose, something that has been developing since Soul Music and Hogfather, each adding a piece to the puzzle of who Susan is.  Soul Music allowed her to strike out on her own, Hogfather showed her ability to guide the young through her own sensibilities, and Thief of Time pushes that further by making her a schoolteacher and looking for someone who understands.  Thief of Time subtly becomes a love story built on mutual friendship and appreciation in only the way that Pratchett can do, ending on the exact moment where our two characters realize they are in love with one another on the final page but in the best way.  If there was anything that does not work in Thief of Time it is Pratchett’s handling of the monastic characters of the novel, not in a way that is offensive, but in a way that just does not work for me personally.   Perhaps it is not having the cultural reference point of what is being parodied, nor a knowledge of the faiths that are being referenced, but this was one significant plotline that just dragged what could have been another perfect Pratchett down.  There is an extended cameo from Nanny Ogg who is always a fun character and the exploration of her past in this novel while simple is actually really fun and feels especially as if it belongs here and not in one of the witches books.  The character and use of Time is also especially strong from Pratchett, beginning what I assume is a series of reflections from the author on the passage of time and his own life.

 

Overall, Thief of Time is another stellar entry in the Discworld.  While not quite as strong as some of the other Death entries, it does wrap Death and Susan’s story up quite nicely and there’s this subtle way of rewriting the inconsistencies now that in the 21^st century Pratchett has the internet to keep continuity straight.  The plot and characters are wonderful and it’s just classic Pratchett at this point.  9/10.

The Lazarus Experiment by: Stephen Greenhorn and directed by: Richard Clark

 

“The Lazarus Experiment” stars David Tennant as the Doctor and Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones with Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Tish Jones, Reggie Yates as Leo Jones, Adjoa Andoh as Francine Jones, Mark Gatiss as Professor Lazarus, and Thelma Barlow as Lady Thaw.  It was written by: Stephen Greenhorn and directed by: Richard Clark with Simon Winstone as Script Editor, Phil Collinson as Producer, and Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner as Executive Producers.  It was originally broadcast on Saturday 5 May 2007 on BBC One.

 

Stephen Greenhorn was a writer on the radar of Russell T. Davies after Greenhorn showed a desire to write for the program when the first series aired, meeting with Simon Winstone in 2006 to discuss the possibility, something Davies was keen to make happen.  Davies wished to do a proper mad scientist episode assigning the idea to Greenhorn requesting it would be set in the modern day and perhaps take inspiration from Marvel Comics villains such as Doc Ock.  Greenhorn’s idea went through several iterations due to being initially similar to “The Runaway Bride” and then potentially being too close to the Venom plotline in the soon to be released Spider-Man 3, finally settling on “The Madness of Professor Lazarus” which would be amended into “The Lazarus Experiment” by Davies shortly before filming as the second episode of the third production block by Richard Clark.  This would be one of the heavier episodes in terms of computer-generated effects, Professor Lazarus’s experiment to reverse the aging process as a pilot for commercial ventures to sell immortality to the world causing rapid mutations that without sufficient life energy causes his body to become this massive scorpion like creature from dormant genes.  Obviously, the science behind this is ludicrous as Lazarus’ body would rapidly mutate to his death in a horrific, cancerous way, but it does embody the mad science of the 1950s and 1960s B movies that clearly inspire “The Lazarus Experiment”, however the realization of the creature is entirely computer generated with actor Mark Gatiss’ face grafted on and Gatiss’ silly scary voice not quite being effective.  While there is an argument to be made that the creature is meant to reflect the cultural osmosis bad effects of B-movies, it’s honestly just difficult to look at throughout the runtime.

 

The episode also suffers from having a false climax 15 minutes before the end while Greenhorn pivots to the creature finding its way into Southwork Cathedral in the true climax that vaguely draws inspiration from the seminal 1953 Nigel Kneale serial The Quatermass Experiment.  While the climax allows Freema Agyeman and Gugu Mbatha-Raw to have a climax together as Martha and Tish Jones respectively, further bonding them as sisters, getting to the church is incredibly choppy and takes more time than necessary, time that could have fleshed out more of the first and second acts of the episode.  The first act, with the Doctor bringing Martha back to her flat the morning after “Smith and Jones” and being tempted by Tish as head of Lazarus’ PR department on television to stay and investigate, is excellently setup.  The Doctor and Martha’s relationship is perhaps explored the best with Greenhorn’s script really selling Martha’s attachment to the Doctor as toxic, though still placing that blame on Martha throughout the series is an issue as it should be squarely on the Doctor.  Mark Gatiss under the old age makeup is genuinely a triumph, the team excelling at making him unrecognizable and Gatiss’ best moments of the episode being here as a lecherous old man.  The younger Lazarus is somewhat weaker as Gatiss feels directed to go in several directions without any real sense of progression of becoming the creature, he is transformed back and forth with the energy it absorbs which doesn’t quite work.  Lazarus’ partner in Lady Thaw, played by Thelma Barlow, is also a welcome presence of levity before her demise by the mutated Lazarus, though she is quite the one note character meant to make explicit the first real mention of Mr. Saxon, the subject of the series arc which is expanded on in scenes not featuring Thaw.  The musings on the nature of life and how it isn’t time lived but what you do with it are also excellent, David Tennant giving this very subdued speech about it in one of his absolute best moments as the Doctor in an episode that isn’t fondly remembered by fans.

 

While Mr. Saxon is the crux of the series arc, what really is driving it forward is the notion of Martha’s family being worried for her.  Her mother and brother are at the experiment of the episode and are directly put in dangers way with Adjoa Andoh as Francine Jones having some of her best character moments.  Francine is introduced to the Doctor and is immediately distrustful, being motivated by her need to keep an already fractured family together as established in “Smith and Jones”, opening herself up to manipulation by a man working for Mr. Saxon, played by Bertie Carvel, who convinces her the Doctor is the cause of the danger around them and not the effect.  This is something that plays out through the episode to the end with an answering machine message as Martha leaves about how the Doctor is not safe and will get her killed, that death and destruction.  Tish is attracted to power which is why she has this almost affection for Lazarus at points, but is deemed safe because she stays on Earth, while Leo attempts to be disaffected.  The Jones family dynamic that is explored here are contenders for the episode’s best moments and plotlines, elevating a rather plane script slightly above mediocrity.

 

Overall, “The Lazarus Experiment” is an episode partially let down by an overambitious monster and mainly let down by attempting to have two climaxes.  The performances from the regular and recurring cast are all excellent, with some of the series best moments coming to the forefront in an episode that would otherwise be filler.  The monster movie aspect of the episode is also incredibly fun, something that fans for whatever reason malign the episode when it is coming off a two-parter that also attempted a monster movie effect but failed utterly in places.  While not the best episode of the series, it’s still a fun enough time and sometimes that’s what you need.  6/10.

Gormenghast by: Mervyn Peake

 

If Titus Groan was the story of the rise of Steerpike and forced the audience to sympathize with him, Gormenghast is the fall from both power and grace, only coming after attaining his highest level of power.  Titus Groan was set around the first two years of the 77^th Earl of Gormenghast’s life while Gormenghast covers the much larger period of Titus’ adolescence as he grows into adulthood and usurps his father’s murderer.  While this is the main thrust of the novel, Mervyn Peake once again makes much of the novel weave in and out of several subplots and explorations of the castle of Gormenghast itself.  Be it Irma Prunesquallor’s wishes to find a husband among the schoolteachers of Gormenghast, Titus’ foster sister inspiring Titus through her feral ways, or the normal goings on of the castle, Peake’s prose is beautiful from the first page and the insanity of the characterization has only increased since the first novel.  Titus as a character is allowed to have far more focus in this second installment, mainly because he is no longer a baby, although Peake does spend plenty of time around Titus.  Titus grows to be a generally isolated child, the only one of his family to truly see the world for what it is and the possibility of life outside of it.  He comes into conflict with his schoolmasters and family at several points, and his focus is largely on unmasking Steerpike before it is too late.  Peake also keeps going after Steerpike’s life is ended, if only briefly to bring into focus Titus’s isolation and longing to leave the castle and see the world.  The novel ends with Titus’ exit with one final installment to follow that thread in particular.

 

Gormenghast castle as a setting is once again fascinating as it has expanded since Titus Groan, the reason Gormenghast is named after the castle is because it is also a central character with its own quirks and wishes.  Its inhabitants continue their routines and rituals, one of the most engrossing sequences of the book is a ritual during Titus’ tenth birthday where Titus is constantly questioning the need for these rituals, why Sepulcrave would have left the Earl alone, and just what it means to really hold power.  Steerpike’s ambition is representative of unchecked power, he has committed five murders and is responsible for a sixth death, the death of Fuschia.  An early death is of Nanny Slagg, part of his plan to isolate Fuschia and take advantage of her in more ways than one so he can drive a wedge between her and the family.  While Titus Groan established Fuschia as especially naïve, Peake develops her character further in Gormenghast, exploring her relationship with Titus and their mother, Countess Gertrude, to great effect.  The death of Nanny Slagg is actually only a minor sequence in the novel, but it is still one of the integral sequences to what makes Gormenghast work as a novel.  Steerpike isolates Fuschia, kills her aunts after isolating and hiding them away from the rest of the castle, and is only brought down when a delirious Fuschia ends up dead.  Steerpike is also prone to the madness of the castle, amplifying his villainy with his own madness.  Peake is careful to show us Steerpike’s actions outside of his mental processes in Gormenghast so the fall is put in sharp contrast with the ambitious man who wished to change the castle with his power out of stagnation, something despite everything he manages to do just not in the way that he expected.  Titus is the Earl that can affect change and that’s the brilliant thing about the novel, that it’s all really about this mad castle.

 

Overall, Gormenghast despite being longer and equally as dense as Titus Groan it excels far more than the first with Mervyn Peake bringing together a far more interesting plot and adding more over the top characters into the mix.  It’s a mad ride of a novel from start to finish that weaves in and out of the madness of the isolated upper class of a world that makes no sense while one boy tries to find his place and meaning into it.  9/10.

Daleks in Manhattan & Evolution of the Daleks by: Helen Raynor and directed by: James Strong

 

“Daleks in Manhattan” and “Evolution of the Daleks” stars David Tennant as the Doctor and Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones with Miranda Raison as Tallulah, Ryan Carnes as Laszlo, Hugh Quarshie as Solomon, Andrew Garfield as Frank, and Eric Loren as Mr. Diagoras.  Dalek Operators were Barnaby Edwards, Nicholas Pegg, Anthony Spargo, and David Hankinson while Dalek Voices were Nicholas Briggs.  They were written by: Helen Raynor and directed by: James Strong with Lindsey Alford as Script Editor, Phil Collinson as Producer, and Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner as Executive Producers.  It was originally broadcast on Saturdays from 21 to 28 April 2007 on BBC One.

 

Helen Raynor is one of many Doctor Who writers who have spoken against the rights of transgender people.  While I am unsure of if she is a TERF specifically, she is a writer who has campaigned against unisex bathrooms and the general right against trans people (and children) using the bathroom of their gender.  As with other bigoted actors still alive and working this especially will color any piece of media being reviewed.  Trans rights are human rights.

 

There is an unconfirmed rumor amongst Doctor Who fans that the Terry Nation estate’s deal with the BBC, made when the show returned in 2005, was that for every production cycle the Daleks would appear at least once.  Indeed they have appeared in every production cycle at least once through the entirety of the revived series in Dalek focused stories and in the years without a singular Dalek story there would be a cameo appearance.  In designing the third series of Doctor Who, Russell T. Davies decided that after Dalek appearances in the present and future, going to the past would be the next logical step, approaching Steven Moffat to pen a two-part story set in New York City during the Great Depression, focusing on Daleks genetically engineering human-pig hybrid slaves.  Moffat declined, finding himself too busy to tackle a story of this length and agreeing to a single episode adventure to be produced later in the series, so Davies, impressed with script editor Helen Raynor’s work on the first two series and in penning an episode of Torchwood, commissioned Raynor for the slot.  Raynor was still working as script editor on Doctor Who and as such had a limited time for writing the two episodes, titled “Daleks in Manhattan” and “Evolution of the Daleks”, drawing on classic horror films including Frankenstein and King Kong.  Davies provided several rewrites to bring the story in line with his view on Doctor Who’s ethos, including allowing some characters to survive and omitting a steampunk Dalek subplot before assigning the two episodes to director James Strong as the fourth production block of the third series.  Strong was able to get some footage of New York City for believability, using a skeleton crew sent by producer Phil Collinson.

 

Both episodes comprise a story that is one of this third series’ large failures.  “Daleks in Manhattan” is the superior episode, at least in terms of originality.  The premise is genuinely quite solid: it’s the Great Depression, the Empire State Building is nearing completion, and the people of Hooverville are disappearing.  If it wasn’t for the fact that the Daleks are in the title, their appearance actually coming approximately 15 minutes into the episode, it would be perfect for a surprise appearance of the four surviving Daleks.  Strong still plays the Dalek reveal as a reveal with a Murray Gold music cue and a genuinely great shot of elevator doors opening, complete with Dalek-esque set design priming the audience for their appearance.  The Doctor and Martha arriving in Hooverville should immediately set the episode up for a critique of the treatment of the homeless under capitalism, and the seed of the idea is a brilliant one as time is spent establishing the poverty and how the police will not care if the lower classes go missing.  The Daleks have genetically engineered people into being their pig slaves, the image of a man as a pig generally being used as a parody of the rich and powerful.  Raynor, however, is clearly just the image of the pig men to be a scary humanoid monster to be slaves for the Daleks to operate above ground and add to the genetic engineering theme of the story.  This accidentally gives “Daleks in Manhattan”, which in places critiques the response to the Great Depression skyrocketing unemployment and poverty while rich capitalists can still build the Empire State Building off the backs of laborers working for a pittance.  The inclusion of Hooverville and a theater in New York as two major settings for the episode which includes an over the top musical number, genuinely just feel like set dressing without any real exploration of poverty or the characters.  Tallulah and Laszlo, played by Miranda Raison and Ryan Carnes, have a love story explored in the pre-credits sequence before the latter is turned into a pig slave gone wrong.

 

Mr. Diagoras, played by Eric Loren, is the episode’s main critique of the laboring class, however, his performance just does not work and the material is not there as Raynor has him working with the Daleks for money and doesn’t actually make it about any sort of class traitor.  Loren plays Diagoras with a heavy New York accent, and there is a line that implies that he may be an immigrant himself, but these ideas are not explored before the character is used in a Dalek experiment.  By used in an experiment, Diagoras is forced up the rectum of Dalek Sec to become a Dalek/human hybrid, the cliffhanger of this episode being the result of the experiment.  There is a human/hybrid Dalek with tentacles coming off its head, one single eye, and a pinstripe suit.  The design is at least only in the final moments of “Daleks in Manhattan” but as a design misguided would be putting it lightly.  The Daleks themselves are in the place of the capitalist ruling class, discarding the brains of failed experiments in the sewers which again feels as if Raynor is going to make a statement on the waste of the economic system, but instead knowing Raynor’s influence makes the viewer realize that it was just window dressing because those other stories had villains do that sort of things.  Raynor also just doesn’t seem to know how to write Martha Jones as an intelligent character in this episode, reducing much of Freema Agyeman’s acting talents to asking standard companion questions, have slight rapport with Tallulah, and be captured by the Daleks after chasing the modified Laszlo off the stage during the middle of a performance (in front of the curtain).  David Tennant’s Doctor is also just there to investigate and eventually find the Daleks are there by the end of the episode, though the investigation is fun.  There’s also an appearance by Andrew Garfield as Frank and Solomon played by Hugh Quarshie are essentially Raynor’s attempt at showing the hardship, the former with a standard runaway story and the latter with a Biblical allusion.  James Strong’s direction is one of the few positives of the episode, doing an excellent job of turning the filming locations into a believable New York setting in the 1930s.  3/10.

 

“Evolution of the Daleks” then takes a nosedive in terms of quality as the second half of the story immediately drops any of the interesting commentary on the Great Depression and the workers building the Empire State Building, something the Daleks have been interfering with by grafting their own metal onto the spire which will be hit by lightning to power their ultimate plan in this episode.   Somehow this final development is through using gamma radiation, which is not lightning, to create an army of Dalek/human hybrids taken by the people abducted from Hooverville to conquer the world and universe.  Dalek Sec, still played by Loren, slowly gains a sense of humanity to create a more human Dalek race from the same corpses, but the rest of the Cult of Skaro turn on him, literally putting him in chains (mainly so he can save the Doctor with his life at the climax of the episode) instead of killing him.  The plotting of the episode is a messy grafting of some of the major plot beats of The Evil of the Daleks, a 1967 Patrick Troughton serial that largely works by setting itself up as living in the world of mysticism and alchemy, while “Evolution of the Daleks” wants to be a serious science fiction episode setup by a campy “Daleks in Manhattan”.  Helen Raynor’s script also just doesn’t have the punch of a David Whitaker script nor a Russell T. Davies script: it’s a script whose climax visually screams references to James Whale’s interpretation of Frankenstein without really using the references any deeper than superficial ideas.

 

David Tennant as the Doctor gets the opportunity to play a good Dalek story, but like Martha in the previous and this episode, is not served by the material.  The script itself has issues with repetition, indicating that new to Doctor Who script editor Linsey Alford did not tighten up the script as was her duty.  It’s slightly humorous due to Raynor’s general history as script editor of the program.  Dalek Sec is still a Dalek who has killed countless beings, kidnapped human beings to experiment on them unethically, and forced a human up its own rectum to take over his body ending his life.  Both The Evil of the Daleks and “Dalek” grappled with the question of a good Dalek with more clarity and understanding, the former using three Daleks who are just born and haven’t caused many atrocities while the latter uses the idea of a Dalek changing gradually through an episode and to parallel the Doctor’s darker side.  The Doctor in “Evolution of the Daleks” is just immediately willing to help Dalek Sec and the inevitable betrayal from the other members of the Cult of Skaro is entirely predictable in a terrible way.  The design of Dalek Sec in human form is also just difficult to look at, the entire facial mask and makeup looking like various parts of genitalia, complete with their own pulsating that only adds to the description of this two-part story by some crass reviewers as Dalek hentai.

 

Eric Loren as Dalek Sec also just does not have the chops to pull off the character, his performance even with the poor script feeling incredibly strained.  Loren feels as if he is fighting with the makeup to get the words out and the diction of his line delivery is incredibly stilted with these slight pauses inconsistently placed between syllables.  It’s clearly meant to indicate this is the Dalek in Sec coming out, but it is inconsistent.  Loren is clearly also attempting to emote as a human and not a Dalek.  Perhaps giving the human voice to Nicholas Briggs or allowing Loren to spend time with Briggs as he recorded Dalek dialogue could have helped make the performance consistent, or at least feel as it is growing the character into humanity.  The climax of the episode is also quite weak.  Martha at least is allowed to deduce the purpose of the Empire State Building in the Daleks’ plan, but the Doctor being struck by lightning causing a genetic transfer to the Dalek/human soldiers leads to a climax that is decidedly anti-climactic.  Some of this may be down to James Strong’s direction which drops off heavily in the second half, feeling as if he is working with a strained budget in the climax and Dalek attack on Hooverville especially.  There’s almost a repeat of the ending of “Love & Monsters” with our pair of lovers saved at the last moment by the Doctor (the pig slaves only have a lifespan of three weeks) but in saving them the Doctor is condemning them to a difficult life as Laszlo is still a pig man, a decision added at the last minute by Davies which honestly leaves an already bad episode ending on a sour note.  1/10.

 

Overall, “Daleks in Manhattan” and “Evolution of the Daleks” is genuinely one of the weakest Dalek stories in the history of Doctor Who.  The first half has the seeds of a brilliant story that aren’t allowed to even begin to germinate even in that episode, failing to properly critique the systems of capitalism that led to the Great Depression even with the Daleks’ fascist origins being able to dovetail nicely into these ideas.  The second half suffers from some terrible production design on the human/Dalek hybrid and apes from much better previous Dalek stories throughout Doctor Who’s history.  Both parts also suffer from a script that doesn’t feel as if it has been edited by a script editor adding to the irony of how the serial fails almost completely.  2/10.

Metamorphosis by: Gene L. Coon and directed by: Ralph Senensky

“Metamorphosis” is written by Gene L. Coon and is directed by Ralph Senensky.  It was filmed under production code 31, was the 9^th episode of Star Trek Season 2, the 38^th episode of Star Trek, and was broadcast on November 10, 1967.

 

“Metamorphosis” is an odd episode, at least when you look back on it with modern eyes.  It is an episode that is wrapped in the traditional gender roles of the 1960s with slight variation, telling a love story where neither party really have agency in the relationship.  This is portrayed as saccharine in the end, the pair of displaced travelers being framed as perfect for each other, and by necessity straight.  It’s an episode that directly addresses in dialogue a human need for love and companionship specifically with the opposite sex, and further than just human but all intelligent life needs this monogamous heterosexuality.  This makes “Metamorphosis” feel very far in the past, however, there is an argument to make that Gene L. Coon is actually subverting this by the relationship is between a human and an entity, called the Companion, that in any other story would fall into the trope of the non-binary alien, but Coon at almost the last minute decides it must have a sex despite the way it is described biologically wouldn’t fit into the then current understanding of sex from a human perspective.  Biology already understood there were ways of reproduction that would not have followed the human paradigm, even those that reproduced sexually.  The Companion being revealed to be female is played as a shocking twist and adds to some of the regressive gender politics of the episode.

 

“Metamorphosis” features one major female character in Commissioner Nancy Hedford played by Elinor Donahue, who is stranded with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy as the Galileo shuttlecraft is dragged through a warp to the planet where the inventor of warp drive Zefram Cochrane, played by Glenn Corbett, has been stranded for a century and a half.  Hedford, on a peace mission with the Enterprise, has contracted a deadly disease so her literal purpose in the episode is to deteriorate into hysterics and then just die by merging with the Companion to provide an immortal partner for Cochrane.  Hedford, while shot to be shown as physically attractive to Cochrane, doesn’t actually reciprocate any of his feelings which means that the romance aspect of the episode reads as if consent is being violated and the ethical questions of the Hedford’s corpse being reanimated as a companion.  This is made incredibly clear by the score from George Duning and Ralph Senensky’s direction both being explicit in framing this as a positive romance, Senensky also directing the romantic “This Side of Paradise” but that episode worked due to all parties consenting so the tragic elementst are not underecut.  Senensky frames Hedford and Cochrane as especially soft to accent the romantic ideas and the visual effect for the Companion, a fairly simple overlay effect, is quite effective for the alien version of the creature.

 

Senensky’s direction is actually one of the very effective aspects of the episode, as the first half of “Metamorphosis” is genuinely brilliant.  Glenn Corbett gives this great and nuanced performance as a man who is wracked with the guilt of dragging four innocents, one of them dying, into his situation: he demanded companionship from the Companion believing the only course of action would be to bring other humans into the pocket dimension.  Kirk, Spock, and McCoy questioning Cochrane and the equipment he used to build his shelter and playing it as a slight mystery if Cochrane is responsible for their situation and harbors any malice is also excellent.  There are also some small cutaways to the Enterprise which are genuinely great for Scotty who is in command, even if he doesn’t actually do much in command and it is there to fill time, but James Doohan is quite fun to watch.  There is also just this general sweet quality to the episode that if you can just turn off your brain to the blatant sexism and misogyny on display that feels among some of the regressive, and because of the music you almost can, there’s at least some interesting ideas to be had.

 

Overall, “Metamorphosis” is probably one of those episodes that is going to make Star Trek fans reading these reviews angry.  It’s got a solid idea at its center and the first half is brilliant, but the second half falls down this terrible rabbit hole of sexism that feels regressive even for the 1960s.  The sex/gender essentialism also feels incredibly aged even for an episode that aired in 1967 since biology was already understanding more than just sexual reproduction as a possibility, so establishing every alien species being divided into binary sexes just feels unscientific and of course wrong.  A true episode of two halves.  5/10.

Gridlock by: Russell T. Davies and directed by: Richard Clark

 

“Gridlock” stars David Tennant as the Doctor and Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones with Ardal O’Hanlon as Thomas Kincade Brannigan, Travis Oliver as Milo, Lenora Crichlow as Cheen, Anna Hope as Novice Hame, and Struan Rodger as the Face of Boe.  It was written by: Russell T. Davies and directed by: Richard Clark with Simon Winstone as Script Editor, Phil Collinson as Producer, and Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner as Executive Producers.  It was originally broadcast on Saturday 14 April 2007 on BBC One.

 

The third production block of Doctor Who’s third series saw Russell T. Davies conclude what would be his New Earth/5,000,000,000 trilogy of episodes that begun with “The End of the World” and continued in “New Earth”.  Davies was particularly interested in peeling back the final mystery of the Doctor’s fate as the Last of the Time Lords, that he was in fact not alone in the universe after all.  This fact was originally meant to be revealed at the end of “New Earth” by the Face of Boe, the Doctor being summoned to his side, however perhaps due to the tumultuous production schedule of the second series, it was decided to hold it off for a third adventure to feature the Face of Boe.  Once again a time jump of approximately thirty years into the future allowed Davies to avoid doing a direct follow-up to “New Earth”, “Gridlock” only going through minor revisions before it was to be sent into production.  The large revision was shifting the setting of the Motorway, Davies always intending the claustrophobic setting but originally involving an underwater Motorway with aquatic monsters, to a standard science fiction undercity setting, shifting the unformed potentially eel-like monsters to a “evolved” form of the Macra from The Macra Terror.  The inclusion of the Macra is perhaps the biggest flaw in the episode, mainly from the perspective of a fan of the classic series as The Macra Terror is a serial where the Macra are giant intelligent overlord crabs and “Gridlock” just turns them into a generic monster that destroys the cars.  Direction of “Gridlock” and the other episode of the third production block was given to another newcomer to the series, Richard Clark, who does an excellent job with the redressed sets and fairly minimal location work (the New Earth senate briefly shows all the dead bodies), the redressing of the sets being incredibly effective at giving the very minor details to very minor characters.

 

Davies’ script also has moments at the very beginning where once again Martha Jones is confronted with being the rebound companion, once again being part of the point of the relationship between the Doctor and Martha, all while the Doctor should have moved on to at the very least respecting the woman he is currently traveling with.  It’s unnecessarily cruel and just out of character for the Doctor in general at this point, reflected especially when his motivation throughout “Gridlock” is rescuing Martha who has been kidnapped by carjackers, played by Travis Oliver and Lenora Crichlow, who wish to use her as an excuse to use the carpool lane.  The plot of the episode is really an exercise in worldbuilding as the Doctor has to be the one to unravel why there are Macra at the bottom of the Motorway and why the Motorway has been cut off from the rest of New New York.  The reveal is seeded early on with street vendors selling emotions, Bliss mutated into an addictive virus that wiped out the Overcity.  The runtime is filled nicely with the quirky characters, all having lived their lives on the Motorway, and slowly realize that nobody is coming, they are completely cutoff, so when the Motorway is open at the climax of the episode seeing the sun feels like an actual event.  This is all paired with the Doctor actually speaking of Gallifrey by name for the first time in the revival, Davies’ script pulling directly from the description in The Sensorites.  David Tennant plays the episode perfectly in these scenes, and the final sequence of saving the day and finding Novice Hame, played once again by Anna Hope, and the Face of Boe just seeds what the rest of the series with the message of “you are not alone”.  The episode in general is also a little difficult to discuss since the plot is simple but effective, Davies’ quirks as a writer allows some very fun character designs, and the occasional very odd one.  It’s the episode that also allows Martha Jones to be a full time companion and be in the Doctor’s full trust which is a very nice moment that sadly in future episodes will not drop Martha Jones as the rebound companion, not making full use of the wonderful Freema Agyeman.

 

Overall, “Gridlock” is a solid episode that misuses a classic monster, something most fans overlook since it’s a rather overlooked classic monster.  The character work, whenever the Doctor is not pining after Rose and underutilizing Martha, is wonderful for the Doctor’s character development after the Time War.  Richard Clark’s direction is wonderful while being a budget saver and the atmosphere of the episode just works from start to finish making this a highlight of early Series 3.  8/10.