Love & Monsters by: Russell T. Davies and directed by: Dan Zeff - A Re-Review

 

“Love & Monsters” stars David Tennant as the Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler with Camille Coduri as Jackie Tyler, Marc Warren as Elton Pope, Shirley Henderson as Ursula Blake, and Peter Kay as the Abzorbaloff.  It was written by: Russell T. Davies and directed by: Dan Zeff 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 17 June 2006 on BBC One.

 

I’ve already reviewed this episode.  Way back in 2016 I wrote a review in an attempt to review the top and bottom stories in the latest Doctor Who Magazine poll and that was a review fueled pretty much by rage.  At the time Rose was my least favorite companion and David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor was my least favorite Doctor, but seven years have passed and I’ve matured as a person and Doctor Who fan (my fan ire actually being more towards Matt Smith’s later Eleventh Doctor appearances and Clara Oswald in terms of characters that I actively dislike in Doctor Who), so coming back to “Love & Monsters” is an interesting experience.

 

It was devised by Russell T. Davies primarily to fill in the issue of needing a fourteenth episode in the series due to the addition of the yearly Christmas special on the same production schedule and budget.  “I Love the Doctor” was devised with the premise that it would be filmed quickly and cheaply without a strain on David Tennant and Billie Piper who would essentially be shooting other episodes at the time.  From a production standpoint that’s actually a great way to save money and help worldbuild the revived Doctor Who since it relied less on the serial format of the original show.  Davies’ premise of focusing on fans of the Doctor of some sort also had an interesting potential, with the additional brief of including a fan made villain from the Blue Peter Design a Monster Competition.  The winner of that competition was Will Grantham, a nine year old who now runs his own YouTube channel and somehow hasn’t been negatively affected by the negative reception of his creation and the episode in general.  It was around this time where the episode was renamed “Love & Monsters” and set to be shot as the sixth production block of the second series.

 

“Love & Monsters” isn’t actually the worst episode of the show nor is it the worst episode of the second series, but it’s far from a good episode and much of that is perhaps not entirely down to Russell T. Davies’ script or Grantham’s Abzorbaloff, but it’s Dan Zeff’s direction.  The direction of the episode throughout parallels the direction of “Rose”, “Aliens of London”, and “World War Three” by Keith Boak, tonally inconsistent to the fault of the episodes themselves in places.  Russell T. Davies’ script is intentionally leading into the camp and social commentary of fandom, specifically the fandom of Doctor Who, with how certain people engrain themselves into communities to tear them apart in the guise of making them focus on their original purpose, creating stagnation.  The script is also textbook camp where none of the characters are written to be particularly real, each member of LINDA (the fan group searching for the Doctor) essentially has one characteristic: Bliss is a bit dumb, Mr. Skinner is old, Bridget cooks, and Ursula is the female love interest.  Elton Pope, played by Marc Warren, gets at least two dimensions due to having a backstory explored on screen with the death of his mother which is how he first encountered the Doctor as a child.  These performances should be heightened and exaggerated but they are not, Zeff shoots everything normally.  This is exemplified with the scenes with Jackie Tyler, Camille Coduri generally playing the character as a little over the top, but even her performance feels subdued.  This creates an emotional disconnect when the exploration of her emotions around being left alone by the Doctor, Rose, and Mickey should be a core of the episode.

 

Peter Kay as the Abzorbaloff is the only actor going full camp with the story, even through the episode’s final twelve minutes where he is under mountains of prosthetics.  It’s an admirable turn and clearly Kay understands what the script is going for, but because the rest of the actors are playing it straight the viewer just cannot buy that he is charming them and getting them to really search for the Doctor.  “Love & Monsters” has it’s strengths in the first act where time is spent with Elton and the rest of LINDA as they form a group and evolve to enjoy each other’s company, putting their search for the Doctor on the back burner.  It is framed, as is the entire episode, with a vlog from Elton that doesn’t quite work, partially because of Zeff’s direction is far too much like a polished episode of television and partially because Davies’ script of these sections attempts to make tangents and breaks but they’re also too much like a polished episode of television.  Once Victor Kennedy (the human guise of the Abzorbaloff) arrives the episode just begins to stutter, again everyone playing it straight not only makes you question why they’d listen to this man outside of being reminded of the Doctor but also why none of them notice their friends going missing until it is too late.

 

These moments are also poorly edited together, the screams of terror being played over footage of the rest of the characters leaving, implying they should be hearing the screams but just aren’t reacting to it.  Further exacerbating this are moments such as when Ursula, the love interest played by Shirley Henderson, is going to retaliate towards Kennedy for threatening Elton and is met with an obviously evil line from an obviously evil person.  While the script wants you to believe it is awkwardness stopping the characters from questioning Kennedy, it comes across as more stupidity.  The climax and alien reveal of the episode is where it gets closest to becoming camp but that is honestly too late.  This is where Billie Piper as Rose appears and sadly she is the least served from the episode, her admonishing of Elton, while justified, is delivered incredibly poorly and that has to be down to Zeff’s direction.  The scripted lines are fine, but Piper just delivers them almost awkwardly.  The prosthetics on the Abzorbaloff are actually quite well realized, but the design itself is a bit poor in general, mainly due to being designed by a child, though a child with a great idea for a monster.  Plus the ending of the episode just doesn’t tie everything together despite Davies’ attempts to use “Mr. Blue Sky” as a guiding theme, though sadly not quite realized.  In an attempt to rescue some sort of happy ending as Elton is left with all of his friends dead, Ursula is resurrected as a concrete slab and heavily implied to be immortal, though still in love and actively in a relationship with Elton.  It’s honestly a cruel fate for the sake of a joke that would only work if the episode was playing up the camp.

 

Is ”Love & Monsters” an underrated masterpiece and brilliant piece of metatextual fiction on Doctor Who fans and fandom in general?  Not really.  Is it the worst episode of the series? Also no.  It’s an episode that’s polarizing for a reason, and on this watch in particular I noticed why people would perhaps enjoy watching it, but the disconnect and tonal issues start a cavalcade of little problems that add up.  It’s definitely an episode with potential and does set the precedent that Doctor lite episodes can at least be made, but it’s very half baked with its ideas and some of the weaker direction for the revival causes the snowball effect into an episode of Doctor Who that just isn’t very good.  3/10.

The Impossible Planet & The Satan Pit by: Matt Jones and directed by: James Strong

 

“The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit” stars David Tennant as the Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler with Danny Webb as John Maynard Jefferson, Shaun Parkes as Zachary Cross Flane, Claire Rushbrook as Ida Scott, Will Thorp as Toby Zed, Ronny Jhutti as Danny Bartock, Gabriel Wolf as the Voice of the Beast, and Silas Carson as the Voice of the Ood.  They were written by: Matt Jones and directed by: James Strong with Simon Winstone as Script Editor, Phil Collinson as Producer, and Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner as Executive Producers.  They were originally broadcast on Saturdays from 3 to 10 June 2006 on BBC One.

 

One of the major criticisms I have for the revival of Doctor Who is that with the absence of the Time Lords, the Doctor as a figure has this tendency to creep up to being the highest authority in the universe.  Part of the reason this happens is due to a lack of incomprehensible and unexplainable threats, something that the original run would present occasionally, reminding viewers what can happen when the Doctor is out of his depth.  This tradition goes all the way back to The Web Planet, a serial often maligned but even those that dislike cannot ignore the presence of the Animus representing a sinister unknowable force.  Serials like The Celestial Toymaker, The Web of Fear, Enlightenment, and The Curse of Fenric present individual figures as all-powerful threats.  It then becomes interesting that the highlight of the second series of the revival of Doctor Who devotes its second two part story to one of the very few times the Doctor and Rose have to face an incomprehensible threat.  Matt Jones, like Paul Cornell, Mark Gatiss, and Russell T. Davies, got his start in the New Adventures line of novels writing two incredibly emotional tales in Bad Therapy and Beyond the Sun.  Jones was approached by Davies to pen a two part tale specifically set on an alien planet in response to criticisms of the first series being set entirely on (or in the atmosphere of) Earth.  Jones immediately proposed “Satan Pit” as a two-part story set on a planet orbiting a black hole, a scientific impossibility, and a return from the Slitheen who in the future have become enslaved by humanity but are infiltrated by a malevolent entity known as the Beast.  This was also meant to be a set of episodes produced to save on the budget of the show, being bound to studio filming and reusing alien costumes with the Beast going through several potential appearances as finances around the filming of the episode changed.  Davies eventually found enough budget to create a new species of alien costumes in the Ood and the computer animation budget necessary to realize the Beast.  Davies’ rewrites integrated the Ood before direction was assigned to newcomer James Strong and the series order rearranged so “The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit” would be the fifth block in production to be double banked with the sixth block consisting of the true budget saving episode “Love & Monsters”.

 

“The Impossible Planet” as an episode is this second series’ only example of a perfect episode of Doctor Who, mainly because Matt Jones’ script is such a slow burn of exploration that it sets itself apart from much of the revival.  Jones has always been a writer focused on characterization, Bad Therapy being a novel primarily concerned with the fallout from the death of companion Roz Forrestor and Beyond the Sun’s supporting cast all being on paths of self-discovery.  The episode is a slow burn of ideas, dripping every scene in this horrific atmosphere as the planet Krop Tor being drilled upon makes for this hopeless setting.  There is this sense that the crew of this base, while primarily preoccupied with furthering scientific and archeological knowledge concerning the universe, are also having a crisis of their own as the implication is that they are eventually going to die on this planet.  There is an energy source of some sort ten miles below the surface of the planet which is the primary interest of this crew.  That’s the entire plot of “The Impossible Planet” in a nutshell as things slowly start to go wrong, the TARDIS is ejected into the black hole stranding the Doctor and Rose, and the Doctor eventually finds himself with scientist Ida Scott, played by Claire Rushbrook, going to the bowels of the planet to investigate further.  Despite this episode being produced in 2006, the pace of the episode and lack of advanced plot points just assists in the slow burn and dread.  There are moments showing the influence of the Beast, and members of the base are slowly being picked off one by one by Toby Zed, played by Will Thorp, which are genuinely terrifying.  Thorp’s performance is not playing the character as outright evil, just normal, with the Beast taking him over and his entire demeanor changing into this almost trickster figure with motives that are not entirely clear.

 

James Strong’s direction is particularly evocative, giving the exterior sequences of the planet this empty feeling.  That stark emptiness contributes to the atmosphere of the episode working so incredibly well towards making the viewer uncomfortable.  There is a moment where the Doctor and Ida are descending through the shaft and the visual sequence is so stark and barren.  The base itself is broken down and grungy, dialogue indicating that it was built from a kit which is a fascinating piece of worldbuilding where humanity has become so adept at space exploration that space bases are cheap and functional.  This adds this sense of tiredness to the episode and the story itself is building up towards something.  The relationship between the Doctor and Rose that’s explored in this first episode is fascinating, as this is the first time in the revival that the TARDIS is lost, the loss being played entirely straight and Rose has to contemplate adjusting to a completely future society.  Billie Piper perhaps has her best moments this series in this episode as she has to react, attempting to remain optimistic that perhaps the Doctor could build or grow a new TARDIS.  David Tennant as the Doctor is clearly attempting to distract himself rather than face the inevitability that he has essentially ruined Rose’s life as they have no prospects together.  They both attempt to help the crew where they can but this is an episode where they genuinely have to deal with this nihilistic outcome.  Jones’ script is also incredibly smart that when the bodies begin to pile up it isn’t the Doctor and Rose who are suspected of committing the murders and steps are taken to protect themselves, the Ood slaves being the primary suspects which as telepathic aliens they fall under the influence of the Beast first.  The cliffhanger of the episode is also one of the show’s best as the ancient evil is unleashed on the universe and our characters leaving viewers at the point of the most tension after Jones’ script has explored the idea that this Beast is the originator of the demonic goat imagery of the universe.  10/10.

 

“The Satan Pit” splits itself between the two parties of Rose and the rest of the scientists on the planet while the Doctor and Ida are in the depths of the planet facing the Beast.  Gabriel Woolf in both episodes is voicing the Beast while Silas Carson has been brought in to voice the Ood.  Woolf previously played the Osiran Sutekh in Pyramids of Mars, another alien above the Time Lords in terms of power and influence on the universe, and the casting choice of the Beast is in a similar vein.  His deep pitch resonates without the need for special effects enhancements to bring out the terror, so much so that when the physical Beast roars it just isn’t nearly as intimidating as Woolf’s performance.  Jones doesn’t make any attempts to humanize the Beast, it is a being of near infinite power that is only awakening because it is disturbed.  It sees into the minds of every character and get them to do its bidding quite easily.  In regard to the Beast, there is one large mishap at the climax of the episode with the Doctor defeating it’s body first and it’s consciousness second, instead of just recapturing it in a prison to sleep further which while meaning that there is a happy ending is an inferior ending to what the story overall is attempting to do.  Much of “The Satan Pit” owes itself to the work of H.P. Lovecraft as Woolf plays the Beast as unknowable horror despite its appearance as a giant demonic entity.  The definitive destruction amplifies the idea that the Doctor is the highest authority, literally the killer of gods, further shown by Tennant’s impassioned speech building up to the choice the Doctor makes to destroy the Beast.  The dilemma continues the fear from “The Impossible Planet” that the Doctor has left Rose in an impossible situation, destroying the final seals will release the physical embodiment of the Beast but it will destroy the gravity wells that allowed the planet to exist, plunging it into the black hole.

 

The Doctor being willing to sacrifice Rose’s life is a fascinating aspect of the episode, as it builds upon the previous aspects of their relationship yet feels a bit out of place as to how Series 2 has been working.  Series 2 is essentially a series of dates between the Doctor and Rose and Matt Jones decides that “The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit” is supposed to be completely outside of that relationship.  The way Jones’ characterizes Rose is actually much softer and more self-sufficient than she has become in surrounding episodes where her dependence on the Doctor is amplified due to the romance between the characters.  The plot on the base is equally as simple as the Doctor’s plot in the planet, it’s the crew attempting to escape, several crewmembers having to sacrifice their lives so any one of them could possibly escape.  The possession of Toby is one of those plot points from “The Impossible Planet” that actually gets revealed in the final moments of “The Satan Pit”, only the audience really being aware of it yet the audience still wants to see Toby live as he is equally a victim in the story.  The Ood themselves becoming the threat is also horrific, their humanoid design playing into a very uncanny valley feel as instead of mouths their tentacles fit in with the Lovecraftian tone of the episode.  Jones also makes the brilliant decision to keep the episode going past the destruction of the physical form of the Beast, an obvious decision to make, but it avoids the story ending on an anticlimax and making Rose and the crew’s place in this second episode actually have a point in being there.  If there is one aspect that does not come together, it’s the fact that the destruction of the Ood, presented as a slave race, isn’t actually questioned in a story that’s already stuffed with interesting examinations of the universe.  Luckily this is something future episodes would actually address, but it does reveal how last minute the Ood’s inclusion in the story actually was as if it were the Slitheen as aliens as the initial drafts proposed there would have to have been a reckoning with Rose’s side of the plot.  9/10.

 

Overall, “The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit” is a two part story from the revival of Doctor Who that in recent years has sadly become overlooked as it’s a story dealing with very intense themes and imagery.  It’s at its best when the Doctor is portrayed as being on the back foot and having terrible things happening to him and Rose throughout.  While the second half doesn’t work quite as well as the first half, it’s still absolutely brilliant with Matt Jones bringing his experience from the New Adventures into the revival in the best possible way.  Tennant and Piper lead a very strong supporting cast with distinct performances from Danny Webb, Shaun Parkes, and Ronny Jhutti while Claire Rushbrook as Ida Scott has companion material in her own right.  It’s Gabriel Woolf’s sinister vocal work that steals the show however as this two part story becomes the high point of the second series.  9.5/10.

Mirror, Mirror by: Jerome Bixby and directed by: Marc Daniels

 

“Mirror, Mirror” is written by Jerome Bixby and is directed by Marc Daniels.  It was filmed under production code 39, was the 4^th episode of Star Trek Season 2, the 33^rd episode of Star Trek, and was broadcast on October 6, 1967.

 

It’s kind of funny that the evil goatee used to represent the evil alternate universe version of a good character originated in 1967.  Yes, the goatee to represent evil in general is much older due to its status symbol among the aristocracy, but “Mirror, Mirror” is the origin for the evil bearded double from a parallel world, as well as several other tropes about parallel worlds in fiction.  It also became a ubiquitous idea that only four years later across the Atlantic Ocean Doctor Who would subvert the trope by having their evil double of a good character explicitly clean shaven.  “Mirror, Mirror” is a simple episode designed to explore the question of what an evil parallel universe would look like, an ion storm sending Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura to the retroactively named mirror universe in a transporter malfunction.  Their goal in the alternate universe is simply to find a way back and survive this harsher reality, the mirror version of the Enterprise being in the same position above the planet Halkan.  While evil may come in all forms, but Jerome Bixby’s exploration of the alternate characters is mainly focused on Spock, Sulu, and Chekov, with episode guest star Lt. Marlena Moreau played by BarBara Luna being the only other character to get exploration.  There is exactly one scene with the mirror universe versions of Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura, which is mainly there to give William Shatner a chance to go completely over the top as the characters we know to be capable immediately capture and subdue them.  Playing the majority of the episode in the mirror universe is for the best as it allows Bixby’s script and especially the ideas of what the universe is meant to be to be realized by Marc Daniels’ direction.

 

Evil is honestly a difficult thing to quantify, though it is obvious that the “evil” of the mirror universe is systemic and baked into the environment the characters have lived in their entire lives.  Bixby is careful to keep the characters recognizable and their motivations entirely clear: Spock being perhaps the prime example.  Leonard Nimoy may be sporting the evil goatee but the mirror universe version of Spock is still completely logical and working towards what he believes to be the greater good.  This version of the greater good, a rebellion on Halkan is his ultimate goal to take down Starfleet’s Empire, but this rebellion will be hundreds of years in the future and Spock is not afraid to use harsh tactics to achieve this goal.  Nimoy and Shatner play off each other perfectly at the climax, Nimoy elevating the performance with nuance and charm.  Kirk is able to use reason to get through to Spock and it is implied that perhaps some of the universe may change sooner than Spock’s initial plans.  The environment has essentially compromised the morality of our characters to be incredibly cunning, advancement in rank is done through mutiny and both Chekov and Sulu have their sites on advancement.  Both attempt a revolt at points during the episode, Walter Koenig as Chekov has his best performance thus far as the failed revolt leads to punishment in the Agony Booth which is only a few shots, but they are terrifying shots.  Spock is also fascinating as while he easily could have taken Kirk down for advancement, he doesn’t actually desire it as he enjoys his position as First Officer and scientist.

 

Sex and sexuality is the other important aspect of the mirror universe that is explored in this episode, generally being used as power.  The costuming of the mirror universe is obviously made for the male gaze, with Nichelle Nichols’ Uhura being put in a costume designed to focus on her midriff and her general figure.  Interestingly, it isn’t just the female characters who get costuming differences, this episode being the debut of a green costume for Kirk that in the mirror universe loses it’s sleeves.  The rest of the main characters are essentially in uniform that has been altered for the insignia of the mirror universe, except the other female characters of course.  Nichelle Nichols actually gives one of her best performances, this episode giving her a larger part in the plan to get back to the universe proper.  There are moments where she is given the general female role of reacting to the danger and horror, but her part in the plan involves using the attraction mirror universe Sulu has towards her as a distraction.  George Takei as Sulu also gives a genuinely sinister and grounded performance throughout that may be his best so far.  The implication is that women in this universe have to use their sexuality for advancement, Moreau being the only other female character and the only character who doesn’t have a main universe counterpart that is known (she does appear for the final scene of the episode which is the fairly standard Star Trek button).  Moreau is essentially a concubine for the mirror universe’s version of Captain Kirk, but Bixby’s script doesn’t actually denigrate the sex work Moreau does: she keeps her agency and being unsatisfied with Kirk she is completely ready to move on to a better position.  Much of her plot does go down the route of being a love interest for Kirk, but she still has agency and power through the relationship, being willing to kill several crewmembers.  By the end she wants an out of the universe as it is heavily implied that despite the power she doesn’t have full autonomy in her position which is fascinating, but clearly reflecting 1960s attitudes.

 

Overall, “Mirror, Mirror” deserves to be the origin of several tropes involving parallel universe, it’s an episode that does them incredibly well.  Jerome Bixby’s simple plot is the perfect vehicle for exploring the differences and using them to further the familiar characters in tandem with the unfamiliar ones.  Some minor aspects have not aged particularly well, but the entire cast is on top form and really sinking their teeth into the script.  Marc Daniels’ direction and Fred Steiner’s music provide the perfect backdrop for the ideas and the camp elements assist in keeping the viewer in the action.  10/10.

The Idiot's Lantern by: Mark Gatiss and directed by: Euros Lyn

 

“The Idiot’s Lantern” stars David Tennant as the Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler with Ron Cook as Mr. Magpie and Maureen Lipman as The Wire.  It was written by: Mark Gatiss and directed by: Euros Lyn 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 27 May 2006 on BBC One.

 

The following review will contain discussions of domestic violence and the historic persecution of LGBT people.  Reader discretion is advised.

 

Russell T. Davies was impressed with Mark Gatiss’ work on “The Unquiet Dead” and immediately asked him to return for the second series with a pseudo-historical episode set in the 1950s.  Gatiss took inspiration from the emergence of rock and roll and proposed “Mr. Sandman” where the titular song would be an alien contagion, it becoming “Sonic Doom” and taking on a rather dark tone.  This became a concern as the plan was to have it immediately preceded by the very dark “The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit”, so Gatiss went to the drawing board and came back with “The Idiot’s Lantern”, setting an episode around the coronation of Elizabeth II and the emergence of the television with a creature stealing people’s faces.  As a premise, this is great and plays to Gatiss’ strengths as a writer: the alien Wire, played by Maureen Lipman doing an impression of early children’s television presenter Annette Mills, is a being of energy that is stealing people’s faces through their brand new television sets, attempting to use the coronation, the first piece of event television, to feed on thousands across the United Kingdom and regain corporeal form.  It uses Mr. Magpie, a television salesman in debt played by Ron Cook, to get televisions in far more homes than would be expected for 1953 while inspectors from Scotland Yard can do nothing but take the victims and hide them away so it's up to the Doctor and Rose to investigate.  When “The Idiot’s Lantern” is playing the episode like a pulpy mystery episode, it’s at its absolute best, but that’s not what the majority of the episode is.

 

Mark Gatiss clearly has written this episode in an attempt to deconstruct the society that was 1950s Conservative Britain which is on the surface an admirable attempt, but one that falls apart with several key aspects making “The Idiot’s Lantern” an episode that fails.  First, and this is a minor point, the coronation itself is characterized as nothing but positive despite clear attempts to deconstruct a British Empire in the middle of no longer being an empire.  This is perhaps because Britain in 2006 (and 2023) still haven’t cast off the remnants of colonialism and imperialism, but also because of the general vibes towards the monarchy under Elizabeth II being positive, the Queen being thought of in general as a stalwart leader that guided the country for 70 years.  The post-war Britain of 1953 was deep in the throws of Conservatism, despite the establishment of the NHS and other social services that would be far more progressive than the United States of America during the post-war period.  The British are a people of putting on a number of fronts, directly from the resolution to World War II setting in stone the idea of the stiff upper lip and soldiering on through the great hardships of the war, but when there is no war to fight.  Society has a strict code of conduct and procedures where men are expected to be “real” men and women are expected to listen to their husbands and tend to their home.  Heterosexuality was enforced by law, homosexuality remaining a criminal offence, with a range of punishments historically including chemical castration.  “The Idiot’s Lantern” is set on a street with several seemingly normal families hiding the fact that their family members have lost their face and identities, putting on the face of normalcy as not to arise suspicion.  There is one man on the street acting as an informant to the police, selling out his mother-in-law early on in the episode.

 

The Connolly family has several skeletons in their closet and Mark Gatiss does not treat these skeletons with care.  Mr. Connolly, played by Jamie Foreman as almost darkly comic relief through the episode, verbally and physically abuses his wife (physical abuse happening off-screen) Rita, played by Debra Gillett.  Their son Tommy, played by Rory Jennings, is a gay teenager in the closet, Gatiss writing the character with nearly every explicit trope of coding that would be expected in the 1950s.  Tommy is not physically strong, has a larger attachment to the female members of his family, and is the archetypal sissy child who cannot stand up to his father.  The family unit is clearly in parallel with the larger plot of the episode of detectives taking the mysterious problems and just putting them out of sight rather than engage with something they don’t understand and fear.  The climax of the episode sees the Doctor and Tommy saving Rose (who outside of one brilliant early scene performed by Billie Piper is damseled for the majority of the episode) and it is directly paralleled with Rita Connolly kicking out her abusive husband and putting her family on the path for a brighter future, much as Britain essentially would begin throughout the 1950s (the decriminalization of homosexuality still a decade off but the necessary support would gain traction in the late 1950s).

 

On the surface, this should be genuinely brilliant drama, however, perhaps due to Davies’ demands for the episode to end on a lighter note, the Doctor and Rose direct Tommy to forgive his abusive father, effectively undoing all of the interesting elements of the last 45-minutes and leaving with a message that one should forgive their abusive family members because they are family.  Now, perhaps Gatiss was attempting to draw on his own experiences as a gay teenager as earlier drafts would indicate and there is an argument to be made about the complexities of family members and burning relationships, but the text lays it out as a victim of abuse being asked to connect with his abuser.  This is also an episode where Euros Lyn, one of the best directors of the era, sets up a majority of shots to be at Dutch angles which amplifies the tone to camp a la the 1960s Batman series, a tone that is almost too over the top and too bright for what Gatiss almost wants to go for.  Plus this is an episode where David Tennant’s performance becomes far too rage filled by shouting instead of the quiet rage he plays much better.

 

Overall, “The Idiot’s Lantern” is an episode that on the surface seems inoffensive: if you watch it as a child you’ll probably enjoy the interesting villain and some of the action sequences, but once you look at it with a critical eye you see an attempt to deconstruct British society, culture, and bigotry that at the last moment undoes any good will.  Coupling that with a script that doesn’t treat Rose well outside of one scene, instead playing her as the Doctor’s date and then a damsel, plus some odd directorial choices, you have one of the major missteps of Doctor Who.  2/10.

Assassin's Quest by: Robin Hobb

 

Endings are difficult to pull off.  Beginnings and middles are written with the sense that there is somewhere to go, a journey to take, but actually allowing that journey to end is a difficult feat.  This becomes especially true in cases where the highpoint before you get to the ending is some of the most satisfying prose and revelations to bring our heroes to their lowest point as is the case in Royal Assassin.  The book ends with the hero, Fitz Chivalry Farseer, dead and his soul in the body of the wolf Nighteyes on the verge of resurrection, Robin Hobb brilliantly capturing a character losing their life and humanity and the grief of others leading to his resurrection.  Assassin’s Quest is the ending of the Farseer Trilogy but by far from the ending of Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings, though it was written as a possible end to the series in general and is clearly intended to be the end of Fitz’s story (though this would not be the case).  It is also the longest installment in the trilogy, by page count coming in at double of what Assassin’s Apprentice was and with this added length comes the sense that Hobb was writing more to a page count than to a story that she wishes to tell.

 

The middle of Assassin’s Quest has Fitz searching for Verity who is still alive in a series of story loops that to their credit do hit on the idea of Fitz attempting to pull his life together as a fugitive and find his purpose once again as an outcast of society.  The introspection and time he is forced away from Nighteyes is fascinating, but Hobb’s issues with the portrayal of the relationship between Fitz and Molly in Royal Assassin become even more apparent in Assassin’s Quest as there are several other female suitors for Fitz that assist in bloating the page count of the novel.  These suitors vary from barely being a presence to being a better match for Fitz with Starling, but once again the romance is Hobb’s weakest aspect of writing.  This is especially apparent with the continued subtext of Fitz being an outsider in a world that fears him and Hobb’s writing emphasizing Fitz’s relationships with Burrich, Nighteyes, and Verity, all male characters, over the female characters.

 

The opening and conclusion of Assassin’s Quest, however, make this a more conflicted read as they contain some of Hobb’s best material from the entire trilogy.  The opening chapters chronicling Fitz relearning how to be human and reflecting if it will even be possible for him to be truly human again.  Hobb doesn’t ever diverge from Fitz’s point of view throughout the book, even when he uses the Skill and Wit to make connections and see through other’s eyes, so the reader gets to experience this animalistic entity that was once FitzChivalry Farseer.  Burrich and Chade attempt to rehabilitate him but in the end of the sequence while he has regained a sense of self, it certainly is not the sense of self that he had before dying in Royal Assassin.  Burrich’s tragedy throughout this is the fact that he has to take care of Molly and Fitz’s own bastard, the pair falling in love almost entirely off-page that somehow Hobb writes more convincingly than the relationship between Fitz and Molly ever was.  The conclusion of the novel once Verity and Fitz begin to understand what the Elderlings actually are and what they can do to defeat the Red Ship Raiders who are still a problem, Regal not being fit to be king.  The Fool is also present at the climax which is integral for a lot of Hobb’s themes in Assassin’s Quest to work, the outsiders being the ones to save the Six Duchies.  Dragons also representing the outsider and the power of these particular outsiders is something that just resonates with the current sociopolitical situation, much of the outsider theming from Hobb being clearly laid out as LGBT coding, though never queerbaiting as it were as it remains largely subtext, though Fitz ending the book as a hermit on his own with a child that may or may not be his is certainly a choice.

 

Overall, Assassin’s Quest has a great first and final act, but the act in the middle is what really stops Robin Hobb from sticking the landing.  The middle is far to repetitive, while her theming being some of the best that it has been to this point.  The characters shine, the emotions are there, but that middle makes it impossible to really work.  5/10.

Rise of the Cybermen & The Age of Steel by: Tom MacRae and directed by: Graeme Harper

 

“Rise of the Cybermen” and “The Age of Steel” stars David Tennant as the Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler with Noel Clarke as Mickey Smith, Camille Coduri as Jackie Tyler, Shaun Dingwall as Pete Tyler, Roger Lloyd-Pack as John Lumic, Andrew Hayden-Smith as Jake, Hellen Griffin as Mrs. Moore, Paul Kasey as the Cyber-Leader, and Nicholas Briggs as the Cyber-Voices.  They were written by: Tom MacRae and directed by: Graeme Harper with Helen Raynor as Script Editor, Phil Collinson as Producer, and Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner as Executive Producers.  They were originally broadcast on Saturdays from 13-20 May 2006 on BBC One.

 

Before going into production for the second series of Doctor Who, Billie Piper made it known to executive producers Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner that she would be leaving the show after its second year.  Davies, as a fan of the show, knew that the classic series would often just attach a companion exit to the end of a serial once the actor’s contract was up, wished the first long term companion exit to set a new standard for the show.  Davies understood that physical separation would be important for Rose to actually leave the Doctor, the underlying romance being heavily woven through the first series and the second series already having established itself as a series of dates between the Doctor and Rose and was inspired by the classic serial Inferno with its parallel world.  “Parallel World” became the working title for the story that would sow the seeds of Rose’s exit in the series finale, as well as writing out Mickey Smith as a companion.  This would also be the first two part story of the second series, and in line with Davies’ desire to not write the majority of the scripts, Tom MacRae was approached to write and in addition Davies requested the villains of the episode would be a reworking of the Cybermen from the classic series, doing a Cybermen origin story on this parallel Earth.  One of the issues of the serial arises here, not because of the desire to show the origins of the Cybermen, but Davies specifically requested MacRae take inspiration from the 2002 audio drama, Spare Parts by Marc Platt.  Enough inspiration was taken that Platt was given a special thanks credit for the episodes yet was never actually approached to write these episodes like Robert Shearman was in the first series with “Dalek”.  This is not an issue with MacRae, who went through several lengths to make “Rise of the Cybermen” and “The Age of Steel” his own, but familiarity with Spare Parts will make it incredibly obvious what was lifted from that story.

 

“Rise of the Cybermen” is an episode that actually takes great lengths to explore the setting of the parallel universe and the changes that directly affect Rose and Mickey as characters.  In this universe, Rose doesn’t exist, but her father is alive and married to Jackie while Mickey in this universe is Rickey Smith and his grandmother who raised him is still alive.  Mickey is tempted by the fact that the woman who raised him would want him, and her being blind means she wouldn’t see any differences, though this temptation is actually more setup for Mickey meeting his parallel world counterpart, Rickey, working to take down the corporations of John Lumic, played by Roger Lloyd-Pack, with a ragtag group of outlaws, mainly Jake and Mrs. Moore, played by Andrew Hayden-Smith and Helen Griffin respectively.  This plotline for Mickey is meant to be the final steps of a transformation from coward to hero, however the way that MacRae (and more likely Davies’ rewrites and final polish of the scripts) feel like once again a step backwards.  Mickey throughout the first series already showed he could be a hero and earned the Doctor’s respect, so it is quite the shame the episode proper opens with a TARDIS scene where Mickey is forgotten about by the Doctor and Rose, being asked to hold a button down for a half hour, and releasing it is heavily implied to be the reason the team are stuck in the parallel world.  The episode has Mickey become a gibbering wreck while Clarke plays Rickey as incredibly confident and a natural born leader, the dichotomy of the characters just not working as well as MacRae and Davies are clearly hoping it will.

 

Rose’s temptation, and the plot the Doctor follows suit furthering the idea of their romance and this being just another date once the hope of the TARDIS not being dead is established early on, is of course her father.  Pete and Jackie, played once again by Shaun Dingwall and Camille Coduri, give incredibly distinct performances in the episode, their marriage quietly failing though outward appearances of success suggest otherwise to the general public.  Pete in this world is a success, something that Rose loves to see, but because of the success Jackie has become more selfish and less caring of others, a far less nuanced version of the character than the main universe’s version.  Coduri’s subtleties in the performance, especially in her scene acting against Billie Piper as Rose where there are flashes of a deeper person wishing to make genuine connections, but throwing those connections away when her public persona is called into the slightest question.  David Tennant as the Doctor is used incredibly well as a background figure in the episode, attempting to understand the technology of this world with its interconnectivity through ear pods and an expanded internet.  The idea of technology being an easy way to bring the Cybermen into existence is fascinating, MacRae being very aware of the dangers of cybersecurity breaches throughout the episode.  John Lumic as the originator of the Cybermen is already a commentary on corporations and Lloyd-Pack’s performance is on the surface sympathetic, but immediately that sympathy is turned away as you realize that as a capitalist and owner of such a large corporation, he literally gets away with murder.  This type of power exploration is fascinating as MacRae explores how people are willing to ignore their morals for convenience.  Lumic’s disability is a point against him, continuing the issues the show generally has had in portraying disabled characters as villains, but it’s also necessary for the desperation of someone who would create the Cybermen.  7/10.

 

“Rise of the Cybermen” is just that, the rise, so it is “The Age of Steel” that really explores the horror of their existence.  Unlike the Daleks, the Cybermen are a classic Doctor Who villain that doesn’t have one set look so the production team had a lot of freedom in terms of design, and honestly the design itself is great for what “The Age of Steel” establishes.  It’s just the brain and nervous system in the Cybermen suits in this version of the tale so there is more of a reliance on them being robotic and not converted humans.  This does mean that the body horror in the episode is actually shown through the conversion sequences and the moments where the Cybermen regain their emotions.  The design works specifically for this story, but not necessarily as a design for the entire new series as it is a design that remained stagnant until 2013’s “Nightmare in Silver” which introduced the first redesign.  The voices by Nicholas Briggs having that synthetic quality also work especially well, with Briggs being able to give them emotions once the inhibitor chips are broken for the infiltration sequence of Cybus Industries that makes up the bulk of the episode.  The only thing that doesn’t work across both episodes are the stomping sound effects that are used for each and every Cyberman, meaning that you always hear them coming and that repetitive noise just becomes a staccato annoyance when watching the episode.  While it is not a necessarily bad idea, the specific sound effect is the issue here, mixed into the episodes at an incredibly loud volume making it louder than some of the dialogue at points.  Now the main thrust of “The Age of Steel” being that infiltration means the stomping feels like an indicator of where the stealth is going wrong as well as the uniformity of the Cybermen, but a suitable sound effect could have been used without making it so difficult to listen to.  The episode and “Rise of the Cybermen” were directed by Graeme Harper, one of the few directors from the classic series who has returned for this and several other episodes.  His directorial style is already a progression of classic directors like Douglas Camfield and David Maloney, while fitting into the modern television landscape.

 

“The Age of Steel” is honestly the episode of the two parter where the Doctor is allowed to take center stage and the way that MacRae portrays the Doctor here is excellent.  Outside of the cliffhanger resolution which pulls itself out like magic of the power cell of the TARDIS being used to make a quick escape from the Cybermen, there is a real sense of the Doctor and company being the underdog.  Since this episode is largely separate from the baggage of Rose and Mickey’s connections to their dead loved ones, David Tennant as the Doctor is just able to really connect with Jake and Mrs. Moore, especially after Rickey is killed by the Cybermen while trying to escape.  The Doctor is allowed to be sarcastic and funny and put the Cyber Controller, a John Lumic converted against his will, at this point of threat while using a clever plan to get Mickey to save the day.  Mrs. Moore is also paired with the Doctor for the infiltration from below, Jake and Mickey going from above while Rose and Pete go in from the ground level through the conversion lines which I’m certain is an unintentional reflection of The Five Doctors.  Mrs. Moore’s backstory is fascinating as she is a normal person brought against Lumic and Cybus Industries as they targeted her and her family.

 

This is also where we get to see a Cyberman with emotions, a very small scene but one that truly sells the horror of losing one’s humanity to the Cybermen while the physical horror of being surgically operated on is done in suggestive sequences.  This is an episode that doesn’t show any of the blood or gore of the conversion, but like the costumes in The Tenth Planet and Earthshock and fluids in The Tomb of the Cybermen, it’s the little details that cause the viewer’s brain to fill in the horror.  MacRae also gives the episode time to breath after the Cybermen are defeated, an action sequence of everyone escaping and scenes of the TARDIS leaving in particular helping draw to the close character arcs of the two episodes.  These are scenes that would never be fully fleshed out in a single episode version of the story, something that clearly shows MacRae’s strengths as a character writer.  The human element is what really sells the horror of the situation and Mickey deciding to stay behind becomes one of Noel Clarke’s best scenes in the show, especially nice after the first episode framed him as such a coward.  8/10.

 

Overall, “Rise of the Cybermen” and “The Age of Steel” manages to do an excellent job of retelling the origins of a classic villain and the first time there was a necessary update for the villains for the modern era.  While classic Cybermen will eventually return, this first appearance being set up as a one off introduction really works as an examination of choice and what the characters’ lives would be like if different choices were made.  The performances are all excellent and having Tom MacRae’s flair for character work at the helm is what makes this work so well despite being lifted quite heavily from a different writer’s work.  7.5/10.

Changes by: Grant Morrison with art by: John Ridgway and letters by: Annie Halfacree

 

Changes is written by Grant Morrison with art by John Ridgway and lettering by Annie Halfacree.  It was released in Doctor Who Magazine issues 118-119 (October-November 1986) and is reprinted in its original form in Doctor Who: The World Shapers by Panini Books.

 

Grant Morrison is a legendary comic book writer and like many legends that came out of the United Kingdom, they had some of their early work in Doctor Who Magazine.  Changes is the first of three comic stories provided by Morrison and you can immediately tell it is from their style.  This is a simple, two issue story set entirely in the TARDIS and it’s clear from the offset that Morrison has given artist John Ridgway the freedom to explore what the interior of the TARDIS looks like in more detail and an almost surreal nature.  None of the corridors actually look the same and there are several different styles, historic, futuristic, and the just plain weird that makes these two issues so very fun to look at.  Morrison wastes no time in getting a plot going, the Doctor tells Peri and Frobisher that there is an intruder aboard the TARDIS and not to follow him.  Of course, they both do and it’s eventually revealed to the audience that the intruder is a monstrous shapeshifter taking first the form of the Doctor and then Peri, before the story ends with a big battle between the Chimera and Frobisher.

 

What’s fascinating about Changes is the way that Morrison characterizes the Doctor: here he is far more whimsical and mischievous than he has been portrayed previously while still feeling this is meant to be the Sixth Doctor.  Gone are many of the outbursts and in their place is a stern sense of caring for his two companions.  Peri actually is allowed to be proactive in the plot of the story, she’s the one who gets Frobisher to come with her and try to find the creature while questioning the Doctor’s habits of collecting artwork and plays from the famous artists of Earth’s history.  It’s fascinating to read this immediately after Salad Daze where she was basically Mel, but here having Frobisher as her reluctant companion adds this nice little layer of friendship.  Frobisher as a character is by no means a deep character, he’s essentially a joke character and while Morrison brings his shapeshifting back so the story can have a climax, it’s a unique aspect to the character that makes Frobisher work.  They’re also clearly having fun writing this little story, despite it just being like any other job for them.  There is a sense of Morrison wanting to shift the strip to something greater which makes me wonder what it would had been like if Morrison had a full run of Doctor Who Magazine comics and not just three stories.

 

Overall, Changes brings the strip back to many of the fun storytelling days gone by for the strip.  While it does not attempt to set up any sort of new arc as the strip continues its rotation of authors from this point, the title is one that genuinely calls into question how Doctor Who was changing at this point as the end of 1986 approaches and the news of Colin Baker being fired from the role would be breaking.  Morrison’s whimsy and surrealism melds perfectly with John Ridgway’s art to create the first genuinely great strip in a while, reenergizing a run of strips.  8/10.