45 minutes of sustained tension and mystery. Problem solving. I love problem solving! But especially for this show, especially in a show about a travelling alien supergenius - and more broadly, a show about inquiry, endeavor and discovery.
When I saw the trailer for this, I rolled my eyes because it was clearly the series clunker. A crew picked off one by one by poorly animated villains. On a seabase! How very lazy. This episode excels because "who dies next" is only half of the tension. Most of the suspense came from wanting to know *what* they were. And the brilliant thing about that, is that we're following the Doctor's emotional journey - because nothing gets this Doc excited like knowledge.I know who he is now. He's the discovery Doc. This episode tied together a lot of things for me, and I know what to look for going forward. The Doctor has always been the same twelve or so qualities mixed in different combinations, and this is his thirst for knowledge come right to the fore. He really means it, about wanting to know what death is - and that is his top priority.
He's otherworldly. He's tuned into the TARDIS when she's unhappy, and more clearly alien - more clearly struggling with passing as a human among humans. "He was our friend", the translator interrupts the Doctor's delight at investigating the ghosts. Clara's cue cards are an obvious plot device, perhaps, but it fits in with the "no hugs!". I loved the scene where the Doctor has identified that Clara maybe is thrill-seeking in an unsafe way, and struggles to put it into words. Beyond that, his bitchy comments are, often as not, his attempt to parse bizzare human foibles - like having a peanut allergy, or communicating via semaphore. (The semaphore gag - that the Doctor has forgotten BSL in favour of semaphore - was this episode's one crushing dud note. A++ for Deaf representation, having a signing character on the show! It's less cool to turn that into a gag about weird communication methods, and were I a Deaf viewer, I would have felt hurt that the Doctor did not know how to communicate with me.)
Despite his rather hamfisted understanding of human nature, manipulation he does know. He knows exactly how to get to his fan O'Donnell and ask her to switch off the lights, by praising her skills. Clara knows that he's guiltripping the crew into staying, but lets it go with a smile. Smiling less, of coure, when the Doctor is separated from them and leaves in the TARDIS. She's thinking exactly what I was thinking last week, which is - I don't trust this Doctor to save me. But all the same - when he talks to the crew about "choosing an anonymous and selfish life", that's real enough.
Clara and the Doc seem sweeter this week. I liked Clara a lot, but in previous episodes I've loved her because she was being the hero and main character in a way the Doctor wasn't. No problem with that this week - he had agency, ideas, drove the plot. Ahhhhhh the problem solving. Little touches like - they kill the money-grabbing moron (rich morons never live long in Who - a perennial baddie), but not the translator or the Doctor; they can't get into the Faraday cage or come out at night; they can interact with objects, but they do struggle to, say, lift the axe so they're not entirely corporeal either; they whisper, but what?
OK, so it lost it in the last ten minutes for me. I didn't quite buy the "dark sword forsaken temple" puzzle, nor the idea that the words somehow memetically rewrite your brain, nor the sudden "There's a flood! On the seabase! With the nuclear reactor!" - BUT, this was somewhat redeemed because it was the cliffhanger, merely setting up for part 2. I didn't know there was a part 2!
BRING ON PART 2.
Also.
Toby Whithouse for showrunner please.
Whithouse has written a number of stunning episodes. School Reunion handled the return of Sarah Jane with heartbreaking delicacy, and was a highlight of S2. The God Complex was a standout, scary, moving thing: there will never be another episode like it. A Town Called Mercy too was the best of its series. He has show-run Being Human, and I think he would be an excellent candidate to take on the top job when Moff leaves.
Other thoughts
- I don't understand the TARDIS logic. If they can't use it to pop over and grab Clara, because they're already involved in events etc, then why are they able to go back in time to when it all began? Surely that's also interference?
- I love the submarine controler.
- Unusual level of violence for Who! You get to see the floating body, and the methods of murder are all very real - a gun, a knife, an axe and a spanner. We noted that due to Strictly, the last 15 mins of this show was actually post-Watershed.
- Has there been a chat about the women problem at HQ? It's been three episodes so far, and I've yet to feel uncomfortable. Also, there are two women writing and two women directing this season.
- The Portreve, who watched the episode with me, has already worked out why the ghosts didn't kill the translator. Have you? I didn't ^_^
2 comments:
"The Portreve, who watched the episode with me, has already worked out why the ghosts didn't kill the translator. Have you? I didn't ^_^"
I assumed because his translatee hadn't allowed him in the spaceship, so he'd never seen the words and wasn't worth killing cos he'd never be a beacon like the other ghosts. Am I right??
Great review. I liked the puzzle-solving elements too, and Who is always best when trying to solve an intimate crisis rather than a global invasion. Thought the crew characters were swiftly and effectively established, although one day I'd like to see the Doc save the whole lot rather than have them die one-by-one as if in an Agatha Christie Cosy.
Post a Comment