It's all about expectation.
For example, Attack of the Cybermen is a much maligned episode, by which token I figured I was going to enjoy it. I can't bring myself to truly loathe any Doctor Who episode - even Doctor's Daughter has it's moments. The very fact of the Doctor turning up instantly makes it superior to any other episode of any other show.
What I did not expect was, well...look, blood! Blood, from hands, leaking onto the floor. I mean, what?
I've always said that Six is the regeneration I'd like to come and rescue me. You really know what his agenda is (disqualifying One, Two and Seven immediately), and he doesn't have a reputatuion for appalling collateral damage (Four, Five). He's unhinged in a good way (unlike, say, 9), and while he's dedicated, he's not going to suddenly turn around and condemn people to the Pit of Eternal Night the way Eight or Ten tend to do when they get hardcore. I haven't mentioned Doctor Three - yes, I'd be pretty happy if I saw him show up (unless I was a UNIT grunt...)
In any case, he's efficient. He's tidy. He's good at saving the world, right? I certainly wasn't expecting it to go all Season 21 on me. At all. I can just about see the production meeting now - you'll have to imagine them discussing their evil machinations in cold, electronic voices.
"Stage one complete, Script Leader."It's too obvious to work properly, which is a shame because there's a great little plot going on here, and I'd have enjoyed this episode a lot more were I not playing "spot the debt". Oooh, it's the shiny hidden door underground from Arc of Infinity. Ooh, the marked-for-death extras wandering around in the opening sequence of Earthshock. Let's visit Tomb of the Cybermen, trap Peri on the set of Androzani Minor, go via Unearthly Child and throw Tenth Planet in for good measure. The point of those three references in particular is that they tell stories about botch-ups. One contains the only permenant death of a longtime companion ever, one holds the record for the highest death toll, and the third merely wipes out every named male cast member. All three are gloomy and downbeat, and frankly I thought the Sixth Doctor was too sensible to let something like that happen on his watch. More fool me.
"Have you combined Earthshock and Resurrection of the Daleks as I instructed?"
"Yes, Script Leader."
"Excellent. Take the hybrid for Androzanification...then nothing will stand in our way of THE MOST HIGHLY RATED EPISODE OF ALL TIME mwahahahahaha"
It's not that he does anything no other Doc would do (except encouraging his companion to shoot things...) - it's the way he does it. Yes, folks, its that part of the review where I declare whichever Doctor is my absolute favourite (always has been, always will be) for the next hour or so. Oh, I do love the Sixth Doctor. He's just great. "I'm a man of science! Temperament! Passion!" That enormous ego, but he justifies it through being brilliant. I mean, spotting an armed man and diving straight at him. Oh yes. When I said he's efficient, I meant it. "I can do something about it!" he gleefully plunges into danger, all confidence and charm. No screwdriver? I'll get a sonic lance! Hmmm, chamelion circuit? I'll fix that! It's obvious the Doctor hasn't even considered it before. Prisoner causing trouble? "Shoot him, Peri." WHAT?! Sure, he's bluffing, but maybe I've finally discovered why people accuse this era of being too violent - because the Doctor beats up at least two people within a single episode, carries a rather nasty gun and wipes out half the Cyber-Force single handedly. And he's not Jon Pertwee, so he can't get away with it. I can buy it as a progression of his character, however. It's not just a reaction against the softly, softly approach of his predecessor: it's all about efficiency. The Sixth Doctor is about getting results. He's not quite up to the Seventh Doctor's level, but he's getting there, and he's worked out using a bit of muscle is sometimes required.
Not letting things bother him, that's another thing Six is great at. Look at his first reaction to discovering the Valeyard's identity: "Madam, this revelation should halt this Trial immediately."
Doubtless, he is like the rest of the country, bricking it - but he remains cool, clear and very calm. I was hoping for maybe a little Earthshock angst, and got it in abundance. Nothing is said, but the man clearly has issues. He is cool, and he is calm, and - oh, he's stabbing it to death with a sonic lance. Oh, well. Back to therepy now, Doctor. Let's just hope you don't, y'know, end up in a room full of Cybermen with a blaster to hand - it could put your treatment back for centuries. I don't really mind this. Can you blame him for taking no chances this time around? I was also intrigued by his movement towards the cat badge. Initially, I thought it was going to be made of gold - turns out not, because these Cybermen can be beaten by a rubber duckie, a pinch of salt, well, anything really. Maybe it was for luck? Or maybe it was, as my inner-fangirl presumes, really an Earthshock thing after all.
You can always rely on the Doctor to be great, and in case it needed saying twice, you can almost certainly rely on Colin Baker to be the best thing in his episode. Not only because his episodes are reputedly shite either. More because he's awesome (see: favourite Doctor for 60 minutes, above). It's the range. He can do sensitive, and poetic, and curious, and then he can turn around and do great vengeance and furious anger, and all of them perfectly. I've also got a glorious idea about what might have happened to Mondas...I'd say "I really want to watch Tenth Planet" now, but I suspect that'd be a case of "get in line!"
I'm also interested in what we'll call, for want of something better, Trial of a Timelord foreshadowing. Season 22 is packed with Gallifrey references, and here is no different. He considers informing the Timelords, he uses it to bludgeon a captive with, the Cybermen point out they would have him "destroyed" for tampering with time, and discovering that they've dumped him there a la Brain of Morbius.
Right. Lytton.
Oh my. He always was a little bit too cool for Doctor Who. Lucky he never met the Master, really, they might have got along. Before attempting to double cross one another. Last time, he simply played second fiddle to the Daleks - though he did it with wonderful style. In particular, I love his cold murder of the only other surviving Dalek Trooper. Here, he pinches all the best dialogue, gets to be badass and enigmatic and goes out a hero. Lytton and the Doc bounce off each other very well, so well it almost prevented me noticing a little problem. Lytton and the Doctor don't actually meet in Resurrection of the Daleks. I suppose Lyt knows the Doc by reputation, but there is no good reason the Doctor should know of him at all. Probably good for the Doc, actually, as Lytton would doubtless have taken him to pieces in under three minutes had they met last time around...I think there's room for a Missing Adventure here. I like Lytton because he's more complex than simply what you see on screen - he appears to have a life outside it. It explains his motives for hanging around with the Daleks last time. Some people have criticised the "change of heart" element, which I disagree with. It implies that we knew what his agenda was all along - which we don't. It also risks breaking him down from "bad guy" to "good guy", two oversimplistic characterisations Doctor Who uses far too often. Helping the Cryons does not instantly redeem him, but it does give us a better oppertunity to admire his good qualities. I can't blame the Doctor for going to rescue him either: we're talking about the guy who's stuck his head out for the Master countless times. He's not going to abandon someone to Cyber-mercy, not if he has even the smallest excuse.
Speaking of Cyber-mercy, man, are these not the lamest Cybermen of all time? The fancy Classic Series Snob complaint is that the new series Cybs are worse than the old ones. Um, like these? They are very, very easy to kill, and have learnt nothing since Earthshock. They're sadistic bastards, who plan to throw something very large at Earth in a complex plan involving time travel, and their conversation is appalling. Looks like this is the beginning of Cyber-conversion, as embraced by the new series - this was more interesting. I do like that they make more of the Cybermen's "I'm all made of metal" strength: ignoring the obvious moment, when someone gets hit by a Cyberman they're bunched up for five minutes or sent flying across the room. This still doesn't make them anything other than rubbish.
Peri, well, she's whiny and useless but with good reason. "Don't patronise me!" she snipes. "I wouldn't dare," he replies with amusement, although also genuine pride. I like the antagonism, you can almost see Peri thinking "please, someone give me Peter Davison back! He wasn't nuts!" But I do sympathise. Frankly, I think few of us would be any more pleasant. I loved Griffiths too, great double act thing he had going on.
And I loved the Cryons. Watch the Doctor and Flast, then tell me Six was obnoxious.
Some random thoughts that don't fit into my essay:
1. Is that the same road from Rose where Clive lives?
2. Time distortion! Since listening to Sirens of Time, I get excited every time someone mentions time distortion...
3. It's written by a woman! Unless Paula's become a guy's name without me knowing.
4. When the Doctor was ambling around Foreman's junkyard, trying to remember what he'd forgotten, was it just me thinking Hand of Omega?
5. The music! Ew, nasty - although is one of the themes based on Earthshock?
6. "No one'd been down here for years" = classic dialogue. Somehow, I wouldn't bet on it...
7. Someone suggested "masculinity" of the Cybermen vs. the "femininity" of the Cryons. I like this.
8. "How thick is it?" "Less than you"
9. "Suddenly, I feel conspicuous"
10. "I say, are you looking for me? Well hurry up, I don't have all day!" in the grand old Doctor Who tradition of putting heroic Englishmen in space.
11. My notes also read "Then we'll destroy it" and "mocking the Cybs". I have no idea what either of these mean.
12. "Vindictive..."
13. "Really?"
14. I'm pleased to see the Doctor has a self destruct function with a huge counter. I'm tempted to think it is just a bluff - that'd be just like him.
Any proper criticisms? The Baines and Stratton subplot is going nowhere and should have been cut in favour of something else. More Cryons. More Earthshock angst. More paint drying. Even though a massacre is good sometimes, killing off them and Griffiths off at the end just seems mean - they could have, t'know, escaped at that point! It would have been nice for the three of them to get out.
Right, got all that out of the way. As mentioned above, I did like the story. I've got several pages worth of comments: that says something. It's going to be a key point in my Huge Essay With Everything I've Ever Thought About The Doctor, which currently exists in fragments. I liked it too, it's just made me angry. Suddenly, I was watching a whole host of nasty deaths I did not want to see. By the time we hit the last ten minutes, I was already in "God no!" territory. It got to shutting my eyes point, which is something Doctor Who has never done. And as a comparison, neither has Tarantino.
Was Season 22 too violent? It's about expectation - Season 22 is more violent than we expect, but does it go too far? From an in-universe perspective, I can always find an excuse for the Doctor. He's definitely within his rights to start gunning down the Cybermen after Earthshock - he's not taking any chances. The Third Doc would have beaten up policemen too. After being threatened with a gun, it's OK to threaten back if only briefly. None of these are as questionable as Shockeye's death in The Two Doctors. But it's about tone. The question is, should this be shown? I'm not actually sure it should be. Nasty things happen in Doctor Who every week, they have to. The BBFC rank episodes more highly for "dwelling on the influction of injury". Now I'm sorry, but that's what this episode does. Evidence for the prosecution, item A) Flast. It's not what happens, nor exactly how it's done - people get killed in nasty ways all the time. But the camera really dwells on it. Item B) blood. Not something that happens in Doctor Who, except Deadly Assassin, Unearthly Child and Caves of Androzani, three episodes we can all agree are very intense. But it's the way it's used here. The scene has been compared to a similar one in Caves, but then you don't actually get to see the Doctor's arms ripped off. It's too much. Jesu, poor old Lytton...
Yes, maybe I've finally got ahang of those complaints leveled at this era - the violence, the nihilism, the trying to replicate Earthshock and defining the adjective "Saward-y". I understand them, if not wholly sympathising. Because I do enjoy the vicious episodes, even though my maternal instinct frets about the Classification System, and I do like the angsty ones too, even if they upset me. Right now this is simply the shock of sitting down to watch what I thought was a regular episode, and ending up with a bloodbath on my hands. It's about expectation.
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