Review - Dalek

A classic and much loved foe returns in Dalek, an exemplary episode from season one which is, not to put too fine a point on it, everything Doctor Who should be.

Season 1, Episode 6 - Dalek

Here we have the first real attempt to globalise the New Who, bringing the setting out of England to a "near future" (at least then) America in the year 2012. The episode ticks along nicely with well constructed plot exposition. We learn that Henry van Statten is the typical eccentric billionaire genius who views people as disposable tools for him to use towards his goals. His torturous examination of The Doctor seemed a little unnecessary considering all he did was scan his chest and see he has two hearts, but hey, maybe that's just how he rolls.

"No, it doesn't HAVE to hurt, but where's the fun in that?"

The Doctor's initial contact with the Dalek in the cage was one of the finest moments in the history of the show. Eccleston shifts fluidly from concern upon his initial contact with the as yet unidentified creature, to sheer, abject brown-trousers-time terror upon discovering what it was, and then to seething hatred when he realises it is harmless. This scene is not just testament to great writing by Robert Shearman, but to Eccleston's totally under-rated portrayal of The Doctor as a broken man still haunted by untold horrors.

The Dalek is a fantastic enemy because it is quite clearly a real danger. First of all, if The Doctor is that scared, we should be too. Then we see it absolutely destroy a small private army with zero damage. Of course then we get a nice little play on the old stairs gag where we think a weakness is found, only to have our hopes dashed with a single word.

E-LE-VATE!

Of course in the end the unstoppable killing machine is destroyed by itself. Or more precisely, by absorbing those weaknesses Davros had tried so hard to remove. There was something a little bit War of the Worlds about it.

After all the previous deaths caused or at least not prevented by The Doctor in the past five episodes, here's one we can understand him pushing for. And yet, here we finally see Rose stand up in moral outrage at The Doctor's behaviour. She had a couple of halfhearted attempts to stand up to him in The End of the World and The Unquiet Dead, but here she finally manages to turn the mirror on The Doctor and let him see what he's become. I think this becomes a turning point in their relationship.

Rose finally gets some hand.

The Doctor and Rose seem now to have decided that they are not romantically attached, but sadly Rose immediately latches on to a new bloke. Poor Mickey. Again.

I can't praise this episode enough. It has all of the classic elements of a good story with none of my usual gripes. If I wanted to get really picky I could complain that the Bad Wolf reference was a bit ham-fisted but hey, I can totally ignore that.

10/10

Can we fix it?

No. There is nothing to fix.

Review - World War Three

Following on from Aliens of London is the second installment of the Slitheen saga, World War Three.

Season 1, Episode 5 - World War Three

Being part two of a story, this episode launches into things quickly. In classic Doctor Who fashion, we were left with the ominously menacing aliens fresh from the full reveal bearing down on The Doctor and friends. Of course The Doctor manages to do something not fully explained to subdue them all and allow everyone to get away.

There was a good attempt at drawing out plot exposition, delivering new information in dribs and drabs, but it does drag a bit in places. Where the first part of this story chugged along reasonably well, this one feels a little padded out. A prime example was the initial chase scene in Number 10. It just seemed to go on a little long.

<Insert Benny Hill Theme here>

On that note the juxtaposition of the Slitheen suit and the computer generated version was quite jarring. Where the CG looked like the agile, swift hunters they are clearly supposed to be, the suit continued to look like Barney the Dinosaur.

Killer huntress from beyond the stars.

Fast food mascot.

The Slitheen's motivation was well rounded and their scheme was exposed nicely, but I'm unsure on the science of irradiating the earth and then using it as fuel. That said, I'm happy to suspend disbelief on that front.

The Doctor's threat to triplicate the flammability of the alcohol was a good use of the Sonic Screwdriver as a bluff. Strangely enough, something tells me that wouldn't have been a bluff with the Eleventh Doctor's Sonic. The eventual solution itself was well executed, with the Doctor requiring outside help to get things done, but that makes four out of four enemies defeated by killing them or at least allowing them to die. The Doctor's racking up a fair body count already.

I think Aliens of London kept things moving with the character development. Sadly that was a little light on in this installment. What we did see between The Doctor and Rose felt almost like an abusive relationship. He pigheadedly refused to do what Rose wanted and have dinner with Jackie, and then essentially laid down an ultimatum. Come with me now, or I'm gone.

And of course she drops everything and runs to heed his call despite the protestations of her loved ones. Jackie pretty much begs Rose not to go, saying she'll change all sorts of things about herself if it will mean she'll stay. Rose doesn't care. It's really quite harsh.

Now get back here and make me a sandwich!

Finally we get an invite for Mickey to come along, but why does The Doctor hate him so much? There's no reason for it except for jealousy. Of course The Doctor has softened towards him by the end of this episode, and is actually quite nice when he protects Mickey's honour.

All up, slightly disappointing after the stronger start of Aliens of London, particularly on the character development front, but still a solid episode.

7/10

Can we fix it?

Most of the issues here are the same as with Aliens of London, chiefly the design of the Slitheen. As we get more of a feel for them being hunters, their weird baby faces are particularly odd. Yes, the huge claws indicate predator, but they have tiny mouths with no visible teeth. The overall body shape could work as a speedy predator despite the belly, but the head seems out of place.

I'd have liked for The Doctor to explain why electrocuting one Slitheen's compression device shorted all of them, but I can live without that. Mostly I'd have liked for Rose to put more of a fight up with The Doctor about him not coming to dinner. Even if he didn't end up going, some more explanation as to why he didn't want to would have been good. Anything to make him seem less of a jerk at that point.

Review - Aliens of London

We get to break free of the constraints of the 45 minute format for the first time since the re-boot with Aliens of London. Because this is the first episode of a two-parter, it has a longer build-up than other episodes, which is quite refreshing.

Season 1 Episode 4 - Aliens of London

The effects were reasonably good except for the electrocution effect at the end, which just looked kinda flat. The Slitheen suits were a bit average, looking very much like something from Yo Gabba Gabba, but I'm still happy to overlook these things if they're not too jarring. They're still not as bad as the Wheelie Bin of Death, which will forever be my yardstick for crappy CGI in this series. I suspect the ship impacting with Big Ben was a good old-fashioned model shot though, which was nice.

Old-timey effects. Get it?

I liked the clever use of TV reports to progress the story early on. It was no doubt a nice cheap way of doing it and it felt quite natural. There was a good use of stock footage too, which helped give a global feel to the incident without a silly montage showing people in national dress in front of famous landmarks.

The main monster reveal was done quite well. We get an earlier tease with the unzipping of the forehead, but the full reveal doesn't happen until the end of the episode. I suppose this is a benefit of the two-part structure. The Pig-Alien was a great red herring villain, because it allowed us some tension and cheap scares in the morgue scene and kept The Doctor distracted for a while, even if we audience members could see the Slitheen doing their thing.

The fart jokes may be a little grating for some, but I think it fits reasonably well in the context of Doctor Who being a family show. It's something for the kids, really. Contrast that with the political satire in the form of Rose saying she has no idea who is Prime Minister because she's missed a year (a year is a long time in politics), and the jab at politician's private lives, which I'm going to call the first instance of In-Who-Endo.

"I quite liked being Oliver. He had a wife, a mistress and a young farmer. God, I was busy."

Again, I am left with nothing but sympathy for poor Mickey. He's been harassed and persecuted for a year and nobody seems particularly sorry about it. Rose and The Doctor continue to act as though they have been told they are boyfriend and girlfriend, and are still trying to work out why. At least there appeared to be some residual feelings for Mickey. I liked that he made it clear that the main reason he hadn't moved on was because people thought he'd murdered Rose, rather than that he'd just spend a whole year pining for Rose. He did, however, spend the year extensively researching the man who stole her away, which may as well be the same thing.

So, a solid outing and really highlights how a two-parter can effectively achieve a slow-burn on the build-up and monster reveal.

8/10

Can we fix it?

Like most of these early episodes, there's little to be done. They may not be masterworks, but they are solid episodes.

Perhaps a better design for the Slitheen would have helped, something that translated better to what they could produce as a suit, but that's just being picky. Most of the episode was exposition, as it's a two-parter, but I think the pacing worked well and the episode didn't drag.

Harriet Jones is somewhat annoying, but I suspect she was supposed to be. That said, she gets worse in later appearances, so I shouldn't complain. easing up on that Gods-awful catch phrase when she introduces herself would be nice, but again, I mostly say that with hindsight of how it gets flogged again in future appearances.

It all needs to be taken in the context of the story as a whole I suppose, so we'll see what the next review yields, shall we?

Review - The Unquiet Dead

After action in the present and the future, we complete the time travel triumvirate with a trip to the past; specifically Victorian Cardiff in the delightful Dickensian romp, The Unquiet Dead.

Season 1, Episode 3 - The Unquiet Dead

Right from the cold open, this episode ticked along at a reasonable pace. We're immediately confronted with a murderous zombie and an undertaker for whom this is all just an annoyance. What is going on? Then we get smacked up side the head with Charles Dickens, show-stealingly played by Simon Callow. Seriously, Dickens owns this episode.

What the Shakespeare?

Gwyneth was an interesting character, and helped to draw out some of the season arc hints without being too obvious. I think this was the first "Bad Wolf" reference of the season, and it was subtle enough to leave you wondering what it meant without taking over from the current story. Eve Myles played that scene really well.

I was pleased to see The Doctor kick a door in rather than use the Sonic Screwdriver. Much quicker and certainly much more manly. In fact, I don't recall the Sonic coming out at all this episode.

The Gelth were a reasonable foe, highlighting more of the impact of the Time War. Of course even on my first viewing of this I knew The Gelth would turn out to be evil, but The Doctor was blinded by his own guilt about their predicament.

They're evil? How can you tell?

The Doctor and Rose had their first real lover's tiff here too, when Rose demanded The Gelth not use corpses, and The Doctor essentially told her to STFU. Coming on the back of The Doctor's treatment of Cassandra in The End of the World, it's hard to see why Rose wanted to stick around.

Overall though, I feel like not a lot actually happened in this episode. We had a couple of zombie attacks and a séance, with everything culminating in a big climactic confrontation of sorts, but it seems in retrospect to be more of an exposition piece, revealing more of the Time War and setting up the season arc. The talking was broken up with action at appropriate moments though, so it never got bogged down.

7/10

Can we fix it?

Not really. The Unquiet Dead is just an example of a wordier, less tense episode. It's structure reasonably well, but The Gelth never really felt like much of a threat. Perhaps if some zombies had escaped the morgue and started killing and possessing more people it would have been more tense, but that would have required a different solution.

I'd probably just leave it alone.

Review - The End of the World

Continuing on with the retro reviews, we move on to The End of the World, or as I like to think of it, Let's See How Far This BBC Budget Will Stretch.

Season 1, Episode 2 - The End of the World

After the solid, if Companion-heavy relaunch episode Rose, we see the sow start to find it's feet in more ways than one. There is clearly more money invested here, with lots of costumes and better CG effects. The aliens in this episode seemed reasonably well thought out; a definite step up from some of the ones seen later in The Rings of Akhaten. The effects on both the Spiders and Cassandra were certainly much better than the old Wheelie Bin of Death from Rose.

We saw a bit of Hunka hunka burning Doc with Jabe, but it was expressed that he had been "intimate" by giving her air from his lungs, so maybe we can let that slide. Rose didn't seem to know whether to treat The Doctor as a boyfriend or a boy friend. At one point she's ribbing him over his kind-of-sort-of-flirting with Jabe, the next she's referring to him as a bad date. I think I'll put the latter down to just playful joking.

The scene where Rose essentially takes a step back and realises she's run off with a stranger was good, and set up the later argument and The Doctor's eventual sharing of his past. Whilst a good development of their relationship, I still feel this was a bit glossed over or rushed though. Sure, The Doctor shared some hints at his past, but he's still a virtual stranger to Rose.

There was a nice "Red-shirt" moment with Raffalo the plumber. The only way it could have been better was if she mentioned being two weeks from retirement. Still, you need someone to die to show things have just gotten serious, and it's better if they are a bit more of a fully fledged character.

When things did get serious though, we hit one of my pet hates. Why does the computer have to repeat everything multiple times? We don't need an audio cue that the sun filter is descending every five seconds. The burning line of sunlight moving down from the top of the screen does well enough. It would have been better said once each time something changed. If it had to be repeated a warning to exit the room would have made more sense. A tad picky, yes, but it's one of those things that annoys me.

The Sonic Screwdriver was again mostly only used to open doors or panels. The Doctor actually shoved it into the guts of the machinery at one point, which I liked. It makes it feel much more like a tool than just randomly waving it over the panel, which makes it feel like a magic wand. Even when he upgraded Rose's phone he actually put something into it, rather than just wave the Screwdriver at it.

The spiders had a great design. They had a real Golden Age Sci-Fi look to them. You'll note The Doctor didn't use the Sonic Screwdriver to disable or reprogram them, which I suspect he would have done had this episode been made in recent years. The spiders were a solid Monster Goon; numerous, clearly threatening, but easily dealt with in themselves.

That awesome retro-futuristic look

The Adherents of the Repeated Meme were a good red-herring villain and the reveal of Cassandra as the big bad was reasonably well executed. Having seen this episode before, it's hard to judge objectively though, as of course I already knew the twist, but I don't think it was telegraphed too badly.

The Doctor's callousness in letting Cassandra dry out and explode (why explode?) was out of place. At the very least I could see him preferring to have Cassandra tied up in court and disgraced (if possible) than let her die quite horribly, no matter how many trees she inadvertently caused to catch fire.

Rose's emotional turmoil when essentially faced with her own mortality was well played. The ending was sweet, even if there was maybe a bit too much intimacy between The Doctor and Rose for people who had effectively known each other a few hours. There had been a lot of sharing, so I suppose some closeness is to be expected, but in the end I was left feeling sorry for poor Mickey again.

Overall, a better balance between Doctor and Companion than the previous outing, but in the end felt a bit boring. Perhaps there was too much focus on developing that relationship between The Doctor and Rose than telling the story at hand.

7/10

Can we fix it?

Again, not a lot to fix here, and what I'm about to say will just be slight niggles. First and foremost, The Doctor should have listened to Rose when she asked him to help Cassandra. Having him come to his senses and save her would be much more Doctor-like that essentially torturing her to death with the throwaway line, "Everything has to end". It also would have made her return in New Earth easier.

This would also mean that Cassandra wouldn't explode. I mean, why? Why does drying out cause her to explode? And it was a sloppy explosion too. When she was drying out. How does that even work?

Why?

I'd have liked to have seen Rose still be a little wary of The Doctor at the end. She'd heard about his past, and seen his ability to do good, but she'd also glimpsed his darker side when he was prepared to let Cassandra dry out, and was frankly a bit of a jerk about it. After he revealed his past, Rose should be feeling more open to him, but not to the point of walking off arm-in-arm to get chips.

Other than that, yeah, it's a weaker story, but still entertaining.

Review - Rose

Let me take you on a journey back through time to the mystical year 2005 when Doctor Who was jump-started for the new millennium with Rose.

Season 1, Episode 1 - Rose

There really is a lot to love about Eccleston's Doctor. He is outwardly kooky but with a subtle depth that really works. The kookiness seems forced on parts, but I'm left feeling that that is intentional. It's a facade The Doctor is putting on to mask his mourning over his recent experiences. His initial contact with Rose is particularly poignant as we see him almost manic as he casually talks about possibly dying.

"I'm going to go upstairs and blow it up, and I might well die in the process,
but don't worry about me, no. You go on. Go on.
Go and have your lovely beans on toast."

This is a grieving man struggling to deal with his new place in the universe.

We're falling through space, you and me. Clinging to the skin of this tiny little world. And if we let go...

This gives us some great hints at the Time War and The Doctor's ordeal, without having to drop a bunch of elaborate back-story. Clive was a great mechanic to help catch people up on the basic premise of The Doctor, although the PhotoShopping of Eccleston's head into the Dallas crowd shot was horrendous.

The pacing was good, even though there was lots of running towards the end. This is probably just a symptom of it being a Companion origin story rather than any kind of Go, go, go, Geronimo! We can also forgive this episode being a bit Companion Show Featuring The Doctor (or at least quite Doctor light) because it's not only reintroducing the Doctor Who universe, but introducing a new companion too.

There was no instances of Deus Ex Screwdriver in this episode. In fact it was only used I think twice, once to disable the attacking Auton hand (after a decent fight), and once to lock a door. The solution to this episode's problem is still a bit Deus Ex Machina, but as we are dropped into this adventure half-way through The Doctor's involvement, there was plenty of time for him to have prepared the anti-plastic. In the end it was Rose who saved the day, which is nice.

We saw a slight Hunka hunka burning Doc with Jackie (because only an older lady could want Eccleston) but that's more of a reflection of Jackie's character in this case. In this episode we see Hunka Hunka Burning Doc turned on its head, with The Doctor aggressively perusing Rose in front of her boyfriend, even going so far as to dismissively say, "He's not invited."

Hey! Is this guy boring you? Why don't you come talk to me instead?
I'm from a different planet. Seriously! You want to see my spaceship?

I've gotta say that I love Mickey, and the show totally needed more of him. Noel Clarke is a standout talent in this episode. His portrayal of the Auton Mickey was awesome. I feel bad for Mickey because his and Rose's relationship appears happy, affectionate and stable, but for some reason not only does Rose not seem particularly upset when she thinks he's dead (although we could pass that off as shock) but she dumps him with little hesitation, implying that his inability to help with the Autons and the Nestene Consciousness may be a reason. This mystifies me as The Doctor was almost as useless in that final confrontation. Poor Mickey.

"Thanks"

"For What?"

"Exactly"

There was a delightful cheapness to the whole episode that has been lost with the inclusion of American money. The CG effects are really quite poor, particularly when Mickey gets stuck to the Wheelie bin of death. Just having a bin as a monster is a wonderfully cheap move. But, you know what? I really didn't mind any of it. As has been true of Doctor Who since An Unearthly Child, cheap production is easily overlooked with solid writing. Perhaps Steven Moffat could save a bit of cash in post production and spend it on the writers. Then again you can't blame the sailors if the Captain can't steer.

8/10

Can we fix it?

Not much to fix here, to be honest. If anything, Rose's farewell needed to be handled differently. Either Mickey needed to be a bit of a dud boyfriend, or The Doctor shouldn't have excluded him from the invitation to join him, with Mickey then declining.

If the former route was taken, Rose would seem less heartless for leaving her clearly traumatised boyfriend to go travelling with a man she'd just met. The guy was a jerk, and she deserved better. She was looking for a reason to leave him, and here it is.

The latter is probably the better way of handling it though. Mickey could have been slightly less traumatised  by his experience, but clearly still too frightened to go with The Doctor. Rose would attempt to convince him, and while he refuses, he lets her go on the understanding she would return shortly.

Yes, the VFX haven't really stood the test of time, but all up a great episode, and I very much enjoyed revisiting it.

Still alive!

Yes, I am still alive. I've had a touch of that horrible condition "real life", but with the ABC starting another run of New Who with Rose tonight, I'm going to try to smash out a retro-review. It'll be interesting to revisit earlier episodes to see if they also suffer the same issues I've been whinging about from more recent episodes.

More to come.