Needlessly Recurring Monsters

Doctor Who is no stranger to the return of existing monsters. There have been quite a few monsters and enemies that have appeared multiple times, but when you've been running for as long as Doctor Who has, you need to expect to re-tread old ground at some point. How it is done, however, is a fine art. Sadly, to me it seems many recurrences of monsters are rather ham-fisted, ranging from simple fan service to forced inclusion that requires changes to established canon.

If a particular monster resonates with the fandom, there's a very good chance it will return, even if that means changing the background of the monster. The big danger here is diluting what was a great one-off monster by making it essentially over stay its welcome.

The prime example of this is the Weeping Angels. They were great in Blink, but continual appearances made them boring. Their nature also needed to be expanded, because we already knew how to counter the threat, meaning some of what made them scary was diminished. So the Angels get new and increasingly silly powers in each appearance until they are every statue on earth and can throw people back in time, as well as be colossal, hollow, and made of copper rather than stone.

No. Just no.

Asylum of the Daleks is another example of this one. Daleks were changed from hugely xenophobic creatures so certain of their genetic superiority that they simply exterminate anything non-Dalek, to suddenly being cool with using alien corpses to make pseudo Daleks. This simultaneously flies in the face of established Dalek background and steals one of the scariest aspects of the Cybermen, all for some new monster type that is essentially a person with a Dalek eyestalk.

Seriously now?

If you have to change or add to the established rules for a monster to make it fit or make it threatening, why are you using that monster? Could you not create some new monster that has the powers or motivation you require? On the other side of the coin, if you've been asked to do a story featuring a specific monster, can you not (aside from asking why) stick to the established canon for that monster?

This is also a rather selfish act, as it often strikes me that an attempt is being made to build a pantheon of New Who monsters over the old classics like Cybermen and Daleks. It's clear from the marketing materials that the focus is on these new monsters that often appear more than they should. Angels, Ood, Silence, all could have been left at a single appearance without subsequent outings.

I include the Ood tentatively, as out of all the returned monsters their subsequent appearances were best integrated without feeling too forced or piling on additional powers. What is helpful in that case is that the Ood in their natural state aren't threatening. They are just a fairly normal alien race that requires external forces to make them malicious.

Luckily they're easy to spot

Sometimes monsters reappear as nothing more than a self-referential nod to previous episodes. This can work well, such as some of the brief appearances of Judoon after their introduction in Smith and Jones. If it’s just a subtle “remember these things exist in a wider universe” kind of reference, it works, but it can easily turn into a farce, such as much of The Time of The Doctor.

It's a big universe out there, and unless a monster is part of some kind of galaxy-spanning empire out for conquest such as the Daleks, Sontarans or Cybermen, bringing them back every season limits the scope of the Whoniverse with the only benefit the fleeting feeling of familiarity for fans to find... felicitous.

Review - Fear Her

The Doctor and Rose pop off to the 2012 London Olympics and deal with a couple of  in the lower budget offering, Fear Her.

Season 2, Episode 11 - Fear Her

This episode was apparently written as a lighter episode for kids and as such it didn't get much praise from older viewers. I'm not really sure why, as I quite liked it. Maybe it was the lack of flashy effects or gribbly monsters. For me, neither of those really matter, and their absence forces a reliance on writing.

Consequently the pacing of this episode was spot on, with The Doctor and Rose teasing out clues well and key events happening at a nice rate. From the cold open the scene is immediately set. It's 2012, kids are going missing, and there's a creepy little girl involved. When The Doctor and Rose show up we get nice subtle hints about the temperature and stalling cars which is vital later on. The Doctor points out the evidence of ionic energy being used, and seems to fairly quickly know approximately what is happening, if not why and by whom.

The interplay between The Doctor and Rose is really good in this episode. There's no real hint of sexual tension, and the whole thing plays out as more a master and apprentice type relationship as The Doctor sort of teaches Rose more about his world. I feel like this dynamic gets missed a lot, with The Doctor just pulling the companions along and getting them to do menial tasks with no explanation whilst he shows everyone how clever he is. Here we see Rose picking up on hints and being an active part of the investigation phase of the story. Then Rose has to deal with one of the lowest budget monsters of New Who, The Scribble of Doooooom!

Not at all scary. 

Of course in an unfortunate little bit of Deus Ex Screwdriver, The Doctor is somehow able to "kill" the scribble by waving the Sonic at it. At least he had to take it back to the TARDIS to analyse it. According to some other episodes, he should have been able to determine what it was made of with a little swish and flick.

The scribble leads them (thanks to Rose's insight) to Chloe Webber and her terrified mum Trish. There is strong implication Chloe was abused by her father, and this has clearly had some impact on her. Despite her Trish's assurance she is a "good girl' she has nightmares, and these nightmares are soon to become all too real.

Actually scary.

The Doctor soon finds out that Chloe is possessed by an Isolus, a creature he is familiar enough with to give us a full run-down on and get to the root of the problem. As The Doctor and Rose investigate, there's maybe a bit too much "telling" rather than "showing" particularly during the interrogation of the Isolus, but that's probably a result of the low-budget nature of the episode, as well as the difficulty of "showing" much of the information conveyed here.

Regardless of that, the story plays out well, and action resumes with The Doctor making some kind of doohicky (notice again, it's something the Sonic couldn't do). This gives some time for The Doctor and Rose to discuss the nature of the Isolus as a scared little kid. I liked the little "I was a dad once" reference there too, and Rose's reaction. Ultimately The Doctor's efforts are all for naught as Chloe and the Isolus vanish him, leaving Rose to figure out a solution on her own. Quite a refreshing change.

For all the talk of the Isolus needing and loving Chloe, and the implication these feelings were reciprocated, it seemed pretty quick to dump the kid once it could go home to it's family. This seemed a little off to me. Like some kind of fair-weather friendship. Its departure releases all of Chloe's drawings back to life, including the evil dad picture. And I've got to say, that looming shadow at the top of the stairs was scarier than many of the full-blown monsters of recent years. Perhaps it speaks to that child within that fears such half-seen and yet all-too-real terrors.

Scary as balls!

After everything is wrapped up, we get some nice foreshadowing of Rose's imminent departure. It's a little clumsy, but it plays nicely into the way the next episode opens.

All up, this is a fairly solid outing, even if it does have a slightly saccharine ending with the love-powered space pod and all.

7/10

Can we fix it?

There's not a great deal wrong here but I'd make a couple of tweaks. The departure of the Isolus needs some work and to do that I'd tweak the story in a few places.

Firstly, we would learn from Trish that not only was Chloe's dad abusive, but as a true bully he seemed to enjoy the fear he created. He lost interest in bullying his wife when she began standing up to him, but when Chloe came along, he found he could get more fear out of Trish when he threatened and hurt Chloe. She'd tried to leave. It didn't go well.

We also learn that Chloe isn't such a "good kid", but is in fact moody and resentful. Her behaviour in the episode isn't far removed from the every day, although since the Isolus' arrival, she has become more introverted and detached from reality, as she spends time sharing the Isolus' fantasies. More is made of her nightmares too. These are what drives her to draw her dad. Perhaps the wall around the drawing also shows damage, as though Chloe has been hitting the image. 

Next, when the Isolus leaves it wants to take Chloe with it by transplanting her into a fabricated reality. At this point Chloe feels alone and as though her mother failed her. The Isolus is offering a safe and fun life. After a heartfelt speech from Trish, the Isolus, having recently been separated from its family tells Chloe she should stay.

Whilst The Doctor is running with the Torch, Chloe argues with Trish. She wanted to go with the Isolus. The Isolus can keep bad things away. Keep her safe. At this point Chloe's heightened emotional state allows the drawing of her dad to fully break through. As the shadow appears Chloe goes catatonic with fear. Trish also shrinks away, as Rose is trapped outside, unable to help. Looking at Chloe and with her words fresh in her mind, Trish stands up to the phantom dad, showing Chloe she will always protect her.

I feel this would not only make a bit more sense in that the Isolus and Chloe's relationship isn't simply dissolved at a whim, but it's slightly more empowering to have Chloe's and her mum finally stand up to the dad and send him packing.

Review - Love & Monsters

The Doctor and Rose are virtually absent in the first of the now traditional "Doctor Light" episodes, Love & Monsters.

Season 2, Episode 10 - Love & Monsters

This episode is an odd one. The concept is actually quite sound, giving us some insight into those people The Doctor has touched and how they cope after he's gone. Not everyone is as impacted by him as companions are, but an impact he surely has. How does one go on after finding out there are aliens out there? Apparently one forms a support group.

When Elton Pope has a run in with The Doctor, he begins to realise many events in his life are somehow connected to this strange man and his blue box, including the mysterious death of his mother. Seeking out others with similar stories, he comes to form the hideously named London Investigation 'N' Detective Agency (LINDA) to find some answers. After a while the group focuses more on their friendship than finding The Doctor. It is at this point that the mysterious Victor Kennedy arrives to refocus their efforts.

Stylish and in no way shifty.

As Victor teaches the group new skills and gives them access to useful information to aid in their task, members start to disappear. Victor explains it away and everyone seems fairly quick to accept his stories. In fact, they seem to accept him into their midst far too readily. I'm a bit iffy about that bit. I try to explain it away to myself that these people are maybe not all the sharpest tools in the shed.

Elton is put to work getting close to Jackie Tyler in hopes of finding out more about Rose and The Doctor. Victor  reveals that Rose's Torchwood files were corrupted by a Bad Wolf virus, neatly explaining why they don't recognise her in the next story, and referencing two different season arc stories. In fact, this episode also contains the first reference to Mr Saxon, meaning it actually mentions three season arcs.

He's reading a story about a Crack in the Universe at Lake Silencio on Trenzalore

In the end, it is Elton's blunderous attempts at getting close to Jackie that save his life, with The Doctor and Rose showing up in the nick of time in order for Rose to give him a telling off. Victor, now revealed to be an... *sigh* ... Abzorbaloff, having absorbed the rest of LINDA, is attacking Elton when they arrive, and sets about trying to absorb The Doctor. The absorbed members of LINDA rebel against the Abzorbaloff, holding it's body back and giving away the secret of its defeat.

As the creature melts away, The Doctor sets up the ruination of the whole episode by saving the face of Elton's girlfriend Ursula on a paving stone. This in itself is not a huge issue, but someone decided it was a good idea to make a blow-job joke at this point. Totally unnecessary In-Who-Endo, especially considering the whole episode has its roots in competition on a kids TV show. If there's some sick-minded individual out there who wants to imagine what Elton and Ursula do for sexy-times, let them work it out for themselves. Nothing needed to be said about it. Without that line, this episode would have been interesting if slightly unremarkable. The fact that it is one of the last things we are left with drags this down so much it's not even funny.

5/10

Can we fix it?

A lot has been said about the fact that the monster for this episode was designed by a kid. In my opinion, the concept of the Abzorbaloff (if not it's name) is quite a sound one. It's actually quite scary to think of being absorbed into another creature and to maintain sentience for some time stuck on it's skin. No, I'm all for the monster here, although perhaps with a name change. 

Many people complain about the lack of Doctor and Rose, but again, this concept is sound. As I said, it's interesting to think about the people whose lives The Doctor touches as he whirls on through. We got a taste of it in the Season 1 opener Rose and seeing more of it is never a bad thing.

I think what irks me about this episode as a whole is the general unquestioning nature of the members of LINDA and the fact that Victor also begins absorbing them far too early. It's not really clear how frequently he needs to "feed", but I'd have thought he'd keep the LINDA members around as long as they were useful.

With this in mind, I'd have a little more dissent amongst the investigators before they started disappearing. Perhaps have one or two unrelated people go missing before that. A janitor, for example. The group could flag the disappearances with Victor, who offers to investigate them himself while the others stay on The Doctor. One of the group does some digging on the disappearances and takes this info to Victor who asks if they've shared it with the rest of the group. When they say they haven't, they then become the first of LINDA to be absorbed. Things start getting harder for the group and private complaints are met with more disappearances. This would then culminate in the mass walkout.

If we also remove that horrendous bit of sexual innuendo at the end, then I think all the loose ends would be tied up.

Review - The Satan Pit

We continue on with classic Sci-Fi survival horror as The Doctor opens The Satan Pit.

Season 2, Episode 9 - The Satan Pit

This episode picks up where The Impossible Planet leaves off, with The Doctor and Ida at the mouth of the pit and the rest of he company fleeing the newly possessed Ood. I think the crew's acceptance of Toby was a bit too quick though. It's a tough one, but I'd like to think I'd be wary of the guy. As it is we focus just on the physical threat of the Ood. The red-eyed menace starts off almost as another zombie horde, only with more tea-bagging.

I'll let you join the dots on that one.

As a threat, the Ood soon move past the "advance slowly and be creepy" phase and become a bit more of a fast swarm kind of threat. Once the group escapes into the tunnels, the parallels to Aliens really gel. Wave after wave of monsters scrambling unflinchingly forward through tight ducting into machine gun fire. I don't think I'm drawing a long bow there. I'm pretty sure the production team said they got inspiration for the base from the Nostromo too.

They're all around us, man!

The pit itself is just a flat black nothingness. There's something really awesome about this scene, The Doctor hanging there in the nothing, pontificating. I even liked the whole awkward message for Rose thing. It worked well.

"If you talk to Rose, just tell her... Just tell her... Oh she knows." 

Once The Doctor takes that leap of faith and lands in the lair of The Beast, we get some more exposition and a full look at our erstwhile enemy. After working out that The Beast is just an animalistic body lacking a mind, The Doctor chooses to destroy everyone rather than let it get free. Of course we get some rather convenient Deus Ex Machina as The Doctor stumbles across the TARDIS in time to escape and save the others from the now collapsing gravity well. We have to give The Doctor credit for making the hard choice here. He didn't know he had to live for the next episode.

Happy birthday to me... Wait, I'm only two?

The Doctor's lament at not being able to save The Ood seems a bit weak though. I know he can't cross his own time stream (unless he can) but surely he could have done something once he had the TARDIS. It somehow feels like a distinction was still made between the humans and the Ood, despite all of the equality subtext of this and the previous episode. I mean he managed to pick up Ida on the way. Why was she more important?

All up, the survival horror theme worked well, and this story is quite rewatchable for me.

8/10

Can we fix it?

Again, not really much to do here. It was a nice suspenseful episode that played out well. As I said, it was a bit talky, and the whole Doctor loves Rose thing could have not been there, but it wasn't as sappy or drawn out as it could have been.

The only minor tweaks I'd have made would be first to have the Ood all die when The Beast was destroyed. This would mean The Doctor wouldn't have had to drop a weak line about not being able to save them.

It would also have been good to bring in a bit of paranoia at the start when the team escaped into the ducts. This could either have been directed solely at Toby, or more broadly at the whole team. If The Beast had possessed Toby and the Ood, maybe he could take any one of them at any time. That would have made the escape through the tunnels just a bit more tense as they all worried about each other.

Not too much to add though because it's a solid episode.

Oh, and I just had to share this one. I did a double take at this point...

Vashta Nerada anyone?

Review - The Impossible Planet

We get set for a nice little trip to Hell in another top two-parter as The Doctor and Rose visit Krop Tor, The Impossible Planet.

Season 2, Episode 8 - The Impossible Planet

The cold open of this episode was quite delightfully handled, with the Ood set up as a monster in the cliffhanger before the opening titles, only to reveal it as a fake-out. The introductions after The Doctor and Rose's arrival were well handled, with the research crew filling all basic tropes nicely, and the basic exposition felt reasonably natural. In particular the Ood and their plot-integral empathic field. I suppose this is a benefit of the two-parter, in that you can take a little longer setting things up, thereby avoiding the whole Go, Go, Go, Geronimo! thing.

It's always fun when The Doctor loses the TARDIS, as he inevitably needs to do things a little differently. The unique situation had he and Rose assuming it was all over, which we, as the audience, know is not true (regardless of how contrived the scenario in which it eventually returns). But instead of lamenting her lost life on earth, Rose seems more interested in locking in a new one with The Doctor.

I think this episode is where we really start to see the solidification of the relationship between Rose and The Doctor. It wavered a lot until this point, most likely because Mickey was technically still around. Now that he's supposedly stuck in a parallel dimension, that frees Rose up to love The Doctor without guilt. You know, if she'd had any guilt to start with.

This story is essentially classic survival horror along the lines of Alien and The Thing. An isolated team being slowly picked off by an insidious threat from within. It could be part of why I quite liked this episode. Our resident archaeologist Toby doesn't take long to get himself possessed, and start wreaking havoc through the facility. You can tell he's possessed because he's got red eyes and crazy tattoos.

Damn it! I said one small butterfly on the neck!

We see possessed Toby fairly early, and he fits my profile of an Agent Boss, even though he's not consciously aware of his involvement with the Monster Boss. The real Big Bad is revealed in a neat series of flickering images on background monitors. As brief and subtle as the flashes are, it's pretty clear what we're dealing with.

Santa!

No... Wait... The other guy.

In a way, the possession of the Ood throws in what could almost be seen as an unnecessary extra monster type. Of course, the possessed Ood have a significant role in part two once the party is split, so we couldn't really drop them, could we?

Overall, this was a well paced opening to a good story. It used a tried and true horror structure and pulled it off nicely. This one's definitely up there.

8/10

Can we fix it?

Interestingly, I think this story could have worked reasonably well without the possessed Ood. The Beast would end up possessing different people. This would have provided some good tension, as the characters didn't know when they may turn on each other. Of course that could have been difficult to handle without it being an obvious "I win button" for The Beast.

That said, because of how the Ood fit into part 2, this would require more rewriting, and would probably just be change for change's sake.

Review - The Idiot's Lantern

We touch on themes of domestic violence and women's liberation in post-war Britain in The Idiot's Lantern.

Season 2, Episode 7 - The Idiot's Lantern

As I said above, this story touches some interesting topics beyond the main storyline of a parasitic energy being from outer space. Mr Connolly is clearly a nasty piece of work, mentally and physically abusive of his family, not to mention the kind of bloke who spies on and rats out his neighbours.

In many ways it feels as if Mark Gatiss is speaking to his own father with many of the lines here. It certainly seems to have it's basis in reality. Or maybe I'm just relating to it on some deep level. Either way, these kind of smaller, human problems intermingling with the larger intergalactic menaces make for far more engaging stories in my opinion. They show The Doctor doesn't just fix the big problems, but helps fix people too.

He does this by getting angry

This particular intergalactic menace is The Wire, a very hungry creature who is giving people cheap TV in order to suck their faces off and create a new body during the Queen's coronation. The Doctor first realises something is wrong when he notices all the TV antennae around. I'm not sure if the shape of the aerials was symbolic, but if it was I can't think what they could be getting at.

Something about license fees, maybe.

The Wire is a nicely creepy Big Boss, and its evil plot is solid, but the goons are yet another zombie style monster. The one thing that saves it is the fact that whilst the faceless people are slowly revealed in the same manner as a monster, they are in fact the harmless victims of the real monster. It's actually quite a nice red herring for The Doctor to follow, and plays out well.

Good thing these suit trousers are brown.

Interestingly, the basic premise of a disembodied entity stealing people's essences was recycled in the much poorer episode The Bells of Saint John. Having re-watched this episode, it further highlights the deficiencies in that story, which suffered major pacing issues as well as from having a stupid monster.

None of my usual gripes appeared in this episode, apart from a hint of Deus Ex Screwdriver when The Doctor uses it to scan for brainwaves. It's a bit sad that I'm desensitised to the Sonic being used like this now. Ah well.

So yeah, this is a solid episode that offers a multifaceted story. The Torchwood reference was subtle, and the whole thing moved along nicely to a happy ending for most of those involved.

8/10

Can we fix it?

No, not really. It's not going to be a fan favourite, but this is a solid plot with no major weaknesses. I'd probably leave it as is.

Review - Age of Steel

Continuing on from Rise of the Cybermen, we wrap up the return of this classic enemy with Age of Steel.

Season 2, Episode 6 - Age of Steel

We rejoin the chaos of the Cybermen uprising as the shiny suited monsters assault the Tyler mansion and humanity is rounded up for the final upgrade. With an army of Cybermen on the loose it is only a matter of time before that giant tree of foreshadowing from last episode bears fruit in the form of a brand new Ricky-shaped hole in the alternate dimension. And who was recently established to have nothing left for him in the regular dimension? A pity really, as I thought Mickey added to the group dynamic really well in the past two outings. He deported himself really well in The Girl in the Fireplace, and I think he could have been very interesting if he stayed for a bit longer.

DELETED!!!

The great factories of Cybus industries begin churning out masses of Cybermen, as the mind-controlled citizens of Earth march themselves to the upgrade chambers. Of course Lumic gets shafted by his henchman and is forced to upgrade into the Cyber Controller. I'm a bit mystified as to why the Cyber Controller sits in a cyber wheelchair. Surely with his weak flesh gone, he can ambulate for himself? Maybe it's just a status thing, like the little brain window.

And with a brain like that, why wouldn't you show it off?

Our intrepid group of freedom fighters plan their assault on the Cybus factory. In the belly of the beast they start to see the full horror of what's going on. We get some nice tension as the Cybermen in the tunnels begin waking up, as well as some emotional kicks to the guts when we have a run in with a converted bride and a newly made over Jackie Tyler.

Pictured: Jackie Tyler (probably)

Mickey ends up being crucial, which I was quite happy about. That guy got the rough end of the stick for a long time. He deserved to have a moment in the sun. Why is it that messing with any kind of robotic humanoid's programming makes their heads explode? A question for the ages, I suppose.

Overall this was a solid conclusion to an entertaining story.

8/10

Can we fix it?

As I've said before, the only real gripe I have with this story is the dual-origins of the Cybermen. With the changes I outlined for part one of this story, we can build a clearer picture on how these Cybers connect with the Mondas ones.

My proposed conversation between Rose and Pete towards the end of part one would have shown us the potential for the Cybus tech to take over the conscious mind. It is because of this potential for the computer to take control that Lumic has always been reluctant to use the technology himself, something we would see during his eventual transformation into the Cyber Controller.

Lumic - I can't be sure I will retain control. 

Cyberman - You will control all.

Once Lumic becomes the Cyber Controller, we can get some hints that he is now channelling some kind of overarching cyber network. His rhetoric swiftly changes from strengthening humanity to galactic conquest, maybe even with some hints at traversing dimensions.

The rest of the story could play out the same way, but these couple of changes just tidy up the dual origins situation a bit.