Last August, I decided to do several POINTS OF DEBATES in a row. It's a new style of essay so I wanted it to have a bit more presence in the blog. I also really enjoy the format of the whole thing. As much as I love expressing my blowhard opinions, it's a nice change of pace to just present the different sides of an argument and then let you decide.
I had intended to push through just one more essay in this vein before the month was over. It would have represented a sort of "climax" to all these points of debate. A question that has nagged at me greatly and, I think, eats away at the hearts of other fans too. But I just wasn't able to find the time to write it and I wanted September to move on to something new.
So, here it is, at last. While this would have been an enjoyable piece to finish out my August Run, it's also a fun way to begin the New Year.
PAUL McGANN'S FIRST AND ONLY TELEVISED STORY: NEW OR CLASSIC WHO?
I think I have legitimately lost sleep over Paul McGann's Doctor. For several different reasons. Firstly, even with a slightly troubled script, he showed tremendous promise. Doctor Eight was both written and performed in a very interesting manner. While both Colin Baker and, especially, Sylvester McCoy were making the character darker, McGann turned the Doctor back into the idealist he once was. Refusing to stoop to the level of his enemies, he was back to always trying to stay on that High Road. He was a romantic not just because of his sex-appeal, but also in the truer sense of the word. He held to lofty ideals and refused to break them. We got this kind of impression of him in less than 90 minutes of screentime.
I, for one, wanted to see more of him. And that's the first thing that causes me to lose sleep over Doctor Eight. I have, literally, stayed up at night yearning for more Eighth Doctor. I was so distraught over the fact that this will probably never happen that it was making it difficult for me to close my eyes and shut down for a bit. That's how pathetic of a fan I can be!
But something that affects my sleep pattern even worse is debate. If I can't make up my mind over something, I will get restless. And that is the other factor that keeps me tossing and turning over Doctor Eight. Do we consider him a Doctor from the Classic Series? Or is he, technically, a part of New Who canon? I can't decide!
POINT-BY-POINT
The best way to examine this argument is to break it down. So we're going to look at several key elements of the whole production and see whether they better resemble the style of the Classic Series or New Who. In some cases, things will be very clear (ie: the use of symphonic scoring). In other instances, the issue will be more cloudy. A certain aspect of the story might reflect traits from both versions of the show. I'll do my best to cover everything as comprehensively as possible and point out even the smallest of details that might get the episode to lean more towards New or Old Who.
THE EIGHTH DOCTOR, HIMSELF - PART ONE: THE OUTFIT
From a purely aesthetic perspective, Doctor Eight would lead us to believe that he is from the Classic Series. There is a fairly strong distinction between the Doctor's costume choices between the two eras of the show. And McGann's clothing has a definite leaning towards Old Who.
In Old Who, his outfits had a strong historical flare to them. Oftentimes borrowing heavily from either the Victorian or Edwardian periods. Lots of vests, frock coats and cravats. With the occasional hat, scarf and cape thrown in for good measure. The Old Series Doctor looks like a man from a more classical time period. There were slight exceptions to this rule. Sylvester McCoy looked a bit more modern with his blazer, pullover and tie during his proper run. But even when we first see him in The 96 Telemovie, he's switched to a vest (or waistcoat if you want to be more British about the whole thing!). Which definitely gives him a more Classic Doctor kind of feel.
Whereas New Who Doctors definitely tend to go with a more modern look. Particularly the first Doctor that we see in the series. It was almost shocking to witness Eccleston prancing around in a pullover, leather jacket and black jeans. But we came to accept that this would be the way of things for the Doctor from hereon in. And this is, generally, the case. There have also been exceptions to this rule. Matt Smith definitely looked a little more classical during his later period. Peter Capaldi's early outfit also had a more historical vibe to it. But he definitely dispelled that as he added in the hoodie and the sonic shades..
Paul McGann's costume is definitely in keeping with the styles of a Classic Who Doctor. A nice knee-length frock coat with a vest and cravat definitely all feels quite Victorian. In fact, some have complained that the whole outfit is just a bit too "generically Doctorish". As if more thought should have been put into making the costume feel more distinctive. Statements such as these are in reference to how the Doctor would dress from 1963 to 1989. Rather than alluding to the fashion tastes of Modern Who Doctors.
While I know this isn't part of the debate, if we bother to go to the Night of the Doctor minisode, he's still looking pretty Victorian. The costume does become a bit more individualized, but the same basic vest, frock coat and neckwear motif is there.He still looks more like a Classic Series Doctor than a modern one. Even though the story was made by a New Who production team
THE EIGHTH DOCTOR, HIMSELF - PART 2:. THE INTERPRETATION
Moving past aesthetics, the actual portrayal of the character leans more heavily in the direction of New Who. Again, there is a pretty clear division between how the role was handled in both periods.
During the Classic Days, the Doctor came across as much more emotionally distant. While lots of exciting and dangerous things were going on around him, he tended to be the stability in the story. Oftentimes keeping a much more calm outlook on things. This was done to make him seem more alien. Being from an advanced culture endowed him with a sort of superior intellect that allowed him to see a bigger picture. This made him less likely to be distracted by the perils going on immediately in front of him. This is not to say that the Doctor was completely unemotional or dispassionate. He had his moments where his back would get up a bit. More times than others, however, it manifested itself in moral outrage when dealing with the villain of the tale. If that villain suddenly locked him in a room with a bomb, however, the Doctor would go about calmly diffusing it before it blows him up. Other people that might be in that room with him would be showing the necessary panic and fear that the scene needed. This was often the formula with how the character was portrayed. A sense of urgency was created more through companions and supporting characters. The Doctor, himself, frequently came across as more aloof.
As usual, this concept is not written in stone. Troughton, Davison, and McCoy could all get quite excitable, sometimes, when tension presented itself in a story. But they also showed a lot of that same aloofness that I just described.
In New Who, the Doctor is very much more a part of the action. Getting just as swept up in things as the companions and supports are. Having a sort of frantic edge to his personality is now a core ingredient to the character. He/she displays much more greatly what the audience is meant to be experiencing in any given moment of an adventure. Particularly when things get exciting. The Doctor is far more easily agitated these days. In fact, we see very little of that calmer more reflective side that was so apparent in Old Who. Capaldi showed it a bit during those moments when he would strum away at his electric guitar in the console room. Eccleston and Tennant even displayed it a bit when they were facing up to some of their angst. But, more times than others, the Doctor is very much caught up in the emotions of his whirlwind adventures.
We first see this being displayed in Doctor Eight. Much of his introductory story is propelled by the sense of urgency that he specifically shows in his demeanor. There are several moments, in fact, where everyone else is sitting around quite calmly while he's being upset by the impending danger of things. The ambulance ride with the Master, Grace and Chang-Lee is a great example of this. "This planet's about to be destroyed and I'm stuck in a traffic jam!" he rants. Everyone else in the vehicle almost seems to be looking at him like he needs to calm down. Even though they're all riding in an emergency vehicle - something that should be cultivating a sense of urgency in everyone!
I am the first to admit that character interpretation is a pretty subjective thing and that I am painting in pretty broad strokes, here. But I'm still more prone to believing that much of how Doctor Eight's character is handled by McGann is more reflective of a New Who Doctor than one from the Classic Series.
THE DOCTOR, HIMSELF - PART THREE: HAVING A LOVE LIFE
This is a big one that definitely makes Doctor Eight a New Who Doctor. Aside from a brief misunderstanding in The Aztecs, the Doctor never really entertains a love life in the Classic Series. He is clearly an avuncular character who was not necessarily unattractive - but certainly wasn't some hot piece of eye-candy, either!
This, very much, changes in the modern series. Even Doctor Nine, who doesn't ooze sex appeal like Ten and Eleven did, ends up gettin' it on a bit with Rose at the end of his season (yes, he's kissing her to remove the Time Vortex from her body - but did it really have to be done that way?! Quite frankly, it seemed more like just an excuse to make out with Rose!). Ten, of course, was a rampaging slut by Classic Who standards. He snogs any number of women throughout his tenure and even gets one more kissing scene in 50th Anniversary Special. Eleven doesn't slow down much. Even Twelve makes out with Missy a bit. Oddly enough, Thirteen is the first Doctor in a while that doesn't ever seem to have a love life. That may change as the show progresses. But, if it doesn't, that's cool too. It's nice to see the Doctor just having adventures and enjoying science again. Rather than trying to get laid.
Just like in the last category, this trend of the Doctor developing a libido starts in The 96 Telemovie. In fact, it was almost shocking to see him kissing Grace against the tree. Our hero was forever changed after that moment. From that point onward, the Doctor had sexuality.
Of course, actually performing a romantic act was only the half of it. As I had mentioned in the first paragraph: the Classic Series Doctor wasn't hideous but he wasn't drop-dead gorgeous, either. This definitely changed with McGann. Like some of the New Who Doctors, his appearance could make the ladies swoon (and certain types of boys, too, for that matter!). I still love that there was a whole website in the 90s called: "It's 1999. The Master Wants the Doctor's Body. He's Not the Only One!".
This is definitely another point in favor of the "The 96 Telemovie is New Who" camp.
THE DOCTOR, HIMSELF - PART FOUR: HIS TASTES
As we wrap up character examination, one more point must go to the Classic Series.
While 21st Century Doctors still make some classic references, they are definitely much more into pop culture. In the Classic Series, the Doctor was often completely unfamiliar with the trendiness of the age the show was being shot in. He favored the things of bygone eras and enjoyed displaying a sense of culture and even sophistication.
Even the War Doctor, who is very much a representation of a Classic Series Doctor (who takes place after Doctor Eight and, therefore, encourages the idea that Eight is an Old Who Doctor) doesn't know what cup-a-soup is and is outraged that the Doctor now says things like: "Timey Whimey". He very clearly demonstrates this division between New and Classic Doctors.
Those console room scenes that bookend The 96 Telemovie are the best examples of the Doctor being much more Classic than New. He's listening to an old Torch Song while sipping tea and reading H.G. Wells. If that doesn't create a Classic Series vibe, I don't know what does!
STORY STRUCTURE - PART ONE: PACING
We've looked at how the Doctor was represented in The 96 Telemovie, now it's time to move on to the other traits of the backdoor pilot. The very structure of the story has several characteristics that point to either New or Classic Who.
The pacing of this particular story is very much in keeping with a New Who adventure. Old Who is well-known for being much more slow and ponderous, whereas the Modern Series moves at an almost frantic pace (something I've already discussed in my Capture-and-Escape Hall of Fame entry: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/11/complete-and-utter-silliness-capture.html).
The 96 Telemovie definitely tries to push things along as quickly as possible and not get bogged down with any more exposition than it needs to. Once again, this is really the first time we've seen a Doctor Who story play out in such a manner (with a notable exception or two - Earthshock, for instance, moves quite fast).
STORY STRUCTURE - PART TWO: THE PLOT
Another point for New Who! Classic Who is much more happy to indulge in subplots as its main storyline plays out. Various plot strands will move along together towards a conclusion. All of them get quite a bit of attention as they do so.
New Who is much more about a very strong focus on Plot A. It's not to say that there are no subplots at all, but they are, very much, pushed to the background.
Paul McGann's one-and-only televisual outing is mainly about trying to stop the Master from destroying the Earth as he tries to take over the Doctor's body. There are some very minor B and C stories (Grace breaking up with her boyfriend, Professor Wagg still trying to save the party even though his clock doesn't work), but they are painfully insignificant.
STORY STRUCTURE - PART THREE: THE CHARACTERS
This one is quite odd. I'm bringing it up on purpose to help introduce a premise I'll explore more deeply later.
Both New and Classic Who tend to like have a strong stable of supporting characters to help build the story. You'll have your main characters: the Doctor and a companion, a villain and, perhaps, a henchman. But then you'll have a series of other characters that, generally, only get seen in that particular adventure. The leads will build up some sort of relationship with them. Which gives the supports a suitable amount of screentime.
96 Telemovie treats its supports in a very different way. Aside from the Doctor, Grace, the Master and Chang Lee, everyone else is extremely incidental. They get a few brief scenes with only a handful of lines and then they get kicked out of the story. They might pop back briefly at a New Year's eve party - but they are, for the most part, harshly neglected.
This is, pretty much, the only time we've seen a Who Tale handle its supporting characters in such a manner. It almost causes us to feel like we're not actually watching real Doctor Who. This is, very much, the backdoor pilot doing its own thing.
GENERAL AESTHETICS:
There are a few vaguer points to this adventure that also help to get it to seem like it hails from a specific era:
The music of The 96 Telemovie definitely makes it feel New Who. The Classic Series relied heavily on electronic music (in the case of The Sea Devils, it may have relied on it too much!). But we switch to symphonic scoring as the Eighth Doctor makes his entrance. And this continues throughout the New Series.
Some might say that the way the whole thing was shot also makes it New Who. I could argue that point, though. Yes, Classic Who relies heavily on studio work using the three camera system. Whereas Modern Who is shot more in the style of a movie: single camera and largely on location. But if you look at the last two seasons of Sylvester McCoy, a lot of his stuff is also created in a filmic manner. So I'm more inclined to say that the show was evolving in this fashion even before we got to Doctor Eight. So, this is neither a point for New or Old. They both use this filming technique quite prominently.
A WILD THEORY:
If we're bothering to keep score, it does look like the New Series is winning, here. There does seem to be more points supporting the idea. But this still remains pretty subjective. You may feel that I've missed certain points or that the points that support Old Who are more significant even if they are fewer.
But there is but one more theory that we can explore. Could it be that The 96 Telemovie is neither New nor Classic Who? Or, perhaps, a hybrid of the two that causes it to sit in its own unique category? This idea, to me, has as much validity as classifying it as either New or Old Who. In many ways, I think it's the most accurate appraisal. It is its own special thing that doesn't fit anywhere but by itself.
It is entirely possible that Doctor Who gets put on extended hiatus again someday. That another one-off might be made several years after it ends that tries to resurrect it, but fails. Then, and only then, might The 96 Telemovie have something else that fits in its category with it.
Hopefully, that covers this debate comprehensively. I really did try to think of every little detail that categorizes the 96 Telemovie in some way. If I've missed anything, feel free to mention it in the comments.
Tuesday, 14 January 2020
Thursday, 26 December 2019
BOOK OF LISTS: CHRISTMAS SPECIALS - FROM WORST TO BEST: PART 5
At last, we have reached the conclusion of our latest end-of-year countdown. These last few stories are strong enough that I don't even view them with the sort of lowered standards that I have for most Christmas Specials. We've got some plots that are strong enough that they would've worked just fine as actual "proper" episodes. Number One, in fact, is such a strong story that I might almost label it a Classic.
PART FIVE: THE TRULY EXCEPTIONAL STUFF
These are the Christmas Specials that can truly stand on their own two feet. We don't need to say: "Well, it's Christmas - let's be a bit forgiving." They really are very strong stories that can be viewed with little or no context. They're just genuinely enjoyable.
The Christmas Invasion
One of the rare instances where RTD takes a genuine chance with a Christmas Special. For the most part, the Specials he wrote had little or no bearing on the general canon of the show. Most years, you can skip the Specials and it would have negligible effect on what was going on in the proper seasons. But Christmas Invasion introduces a new Doctor for the very first time in New Who. To do something at a time when casual viewers might be tuning in just for fun was quite bold. While I am only so happy with a lot of the output from his era, I must applaud him on this occasion.
Christmas Invasion does feel a lot like Castrovalva. Much of the story hangs on the point that the Doctor is very weak and can't really help out with what's happening. That, if anything, the companions must take care of him. I particularly enjoy this sort of reversal of the formula. Most of the time, the Doctor is in control and saving the day. The rare instances where he must rely upon the care and diligence of his companions makes for some interesting story-telling. It's nice when the show decides, once in a while, that he's genuinely ineffectual for a time and must rely on the tender mercies of his friends.
Naturally enough, the Doctor does come back to consciousness at just the right moment. This is what earns this story a lot of its points. Even as he emerges from the TARDIS, it's quite exhilarating (thanks Murray Gold). The next twenty minutes or so might be the coolest introduction to a new Doctor, ever. Tennant is pretty damned amazing here. He jumps between dealing with the Syrorax Leader and various personal and/or vanity issues with such smoothness that we can't help but be amazed. RTD writes him a very tricky scene but he knocks it out of the ballpark. His fast-paced delivery is absolute perfection. The jokes are great fun too (love when he realizes he's quoting The Lion King!). His hand growing back after its been chopped off is sheer coolness. This really is all very solid. For the New Who fan that is experiencing regeneration for the first time, this scene must have put their worries to rest. Even if they did fall in love with Eccleston, this new guy seems pretty awesome.
Christmas Invasion's only real sore point is that it, perhaps, takes a bit too long to get to this magnificent sequence. It's that usual problem of not quite having enough story to fill the hour so we have to watch Rose keep pleading with the Doctor's unconscious form to wake up.It might have been better to just make the story 50 minutes long and have the Doctor wake up sooner.
Quite honestly, if this one problem had been corrected at the writing stage, it probably would have made it to Number One on this list.
Last Christmas
We could very easily dismiss this story as just being a hybrid of the movie Inception and the Aliens franchise but it is so much more than that. If anything, it's delightfully bizarre. Could an actual Doctor Who adventure starring Santa Claus be anything else?!
Well, if we want to be honest, it could be one other thing: it could have been really stupid. But Moff does this great job of keeping Santa fictional without actually admitting to the younger viewers that he might not be real. All the jokes with Santa and the elves all seem to land quite well and really add to the story. There is a lot of comedy to this Special because of this. But it never seems to get truly out-of-hand. There's also plenty of drama to counterpoint it all. Clara getting one more Christmas with Danny is especially touching. Danny explaining what Christmas is truly about is actually genuinely profound. The sleigh ride they take as they re-gain consciousness is another nice moment that tugs at the heartstrings. Discovering that one of the characters in the dreamscape is actually wheelchair-bound in real life really plays upon our emotions. I was both dismayed and impressed by Moffat's sadism as this revelation is made.
Of course, the real thrust of Last Christmas is the characters trying to escape from the shared dream they are trapped in. Like Inception, they get several layers deep and must struggle multiple times with determining whether or not they are finally back in the real world or still dreaming. The plot device does come perilously close to being abused but I do find it's just a bit shy of going too far with it. If the scene with Clara as an older woman had gone on any longer than it had, I might have gotten tired of the whole thing. But Santa popping in like he does and dispelling the dream happens at just the right moment. And it is kinda cool to watch the Doctor shrug off his face-hugger one more time and save Clara who is now at her normal age.
I suppose fans who weren't enjoying Clara as a companion were probably not happy with that last scene of her returning to the TARDIS - but I quite liked it. The end of Series Eight with both Clara and the Doctor fibbing to each other and parting ways was beautiful. I don't feel, however, that their reunion in the Christmas Special cheapens that moment. If anything, it would have been a bit of a shame if things had truly finished that way with them. Santa helping to bring them back together genuinely worked for me.
Most importantly, though, Last Christmas is a really solid story. It executes a great balance between comedy, absurdity, drama and creepiness. The plot doesn't become too complicated for a Christmas Special but we also feel like we're getting a real episode rather than a fluff-piece. This makes me happier than anything, really. There's enough content to fill the running time. Which is especially impressive since it does all move at a pretty damned brisk pace.
It would be a shame to conclude this without giving Nick Frost huge props for his portrayal as Santa.Claus. Not only does he have the perfect name for an actor to play Santa - but he really does magnificently with the role. Yes, he's very smarmy most of the time - but he still gives some softer edges to the character where it's needed. In many ways, he's the perfect interpretation of a modern-day Saint Nick. Everyone who has stopped believing in him because they think they've become too cool are made to feel uncool. In fact, throughout the entire episode, Santa is the coolest guy in the room.
And that's the way it should be.
A Christmas Carol
When Russell T. Davies brought Doctor Who back, he made a number of bold changes with the format. Perhaps the biggest one was to give certain episodes a lot more emotional resonance. Or, as we prefer to say, he gave the show more "feels". This met with limited success. We did have stories like Father's Day where I am still reduced to a quivering mess every time I watch it. But we also got stories like Fear Her - an episode that clearly seems to say: "We've run out of budget. Maybe, if we get everyone to cry, they won't notice!".
As Moff took over as Head Writer, he made sure to not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Doctor Who would still have emotional episodes, but they would be more carefully crafted. A Christmas Carol is an excellent example of this. This is a story that succeeds mainly on the premise that it plays a lot with our feelings. But, unlike some of the tales during the RTD era, it still makes sure to have a real plot on top of that. It's not an extremely complicated storyline, but it's still there. And it drives the episode along so that the more emotional aspects of the adventure can take center stage and work well.
As has been often pointed out by people who made the episode, the big difference between Kazran and other baddies in Who is displayed in that crucial moment where he stops himself from striking a child who has raised his ire. The Doctor realizes, when he sees that happen, that he is not dealing with a proper Who villain. Kazran is someone who is not beyond redemption and must, therefore, be handled in a new way. As he hears Christmas Carols a short while later, he is inspired with an outlandish strategy.
Re-writing Kazran's personal history is a great little ride. This is Matt Smith's first Christmas Special and he really has a great time with it. He is particularly enjoyable in the sequences with Kazran as a young boy. In fact, it's hard to determine who the actual child is! As their Christmas tradition continues, the Doctor takes on an almost Santa-like quality in the story. The tale becomes more and more tinged with sadness as Kazran does like we all do with Santa and outgrows him.
Like Last Christmas, much praise must be heaped on to the main guest actor. Michael Gambon does such a good double-role in this story that we forget that he is playing his own father in flashback sequences. His most impressive work in the story, however, is when he starts looking through the old pictures of a past he never had. This is an extremely abstract sequence for an actor to execute. He is a man who is, literally, getting a soul. But Gambon handles it with incredible talent and presence.
It's during those scenes where Kazran starts to get his past re-written that the Special starts to "turn on the waterworks", for me. While RTD tends to be a lot more "shmaltzy" when he tries to hit us in the feels, Moff really shows some genuine maturity. He appeals to the adult in all of us in those scenes. We think of our own moments where we may have lost a bit of our soul as we grew up and how, maybe, we also need to make similar efforts to restore ourselves. It's a sentiment I never expected to see expressed in a Doctor Who story. Which is part of what gets this Special to rank so highly for me.
And then we finally get to the story's climax. Moff cast a vocalist in a key role and takes full advantage of that choice. The Doctor fidgeting with the sound gear as Abigail starts singing and Kazran looks on sadly really is an iconic moment. To me, if this sequence doesn't reduce you to tears, then maybe you're suffering from the same problem Kazran had. Maybe you need a soul.
And... that's it. We made it through all the Christmas Specials and ranked them. I'm not sure how much you may have agreed with these choices, but I hope you enjoyed how I explained them.
It's Boxing Day as I wrap this up so I wish all off you a Happy New Year. Thanks, as always, for coming to this site. The hits I see always warm my heart!
Missed the other installments? Here's Part 1:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/11/book-of-lists-christmas-specials-from.html
Part 2:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/11/book-of-lists-christmas-specials-from_24.html
Part 3:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/12/book-of-lists-christmas-specials-from.html
Part 4:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/12/book-of-lists-christmas-specials-from_19.html
PART FIVE: THE TRULY EXCEPTIONAL STUFF
These are the Christmas Specials that can truly stand on their own two feet. We don't need to say: "Well, it's Christmas - let's be a bit forgiving." They really are very strong stories that can be viewed with little or no context. They're just genuinely enjoyable.
The Christmas Invasion
One of the rare instances where RTD takes a genuine chance with a Christmas Special. For the most part, the Specials he wrote had little or no bearing on the general canon of the show. Most years, you can skip the Specials and it would have negligible effect on what was going on in the proper seasons. But Christmas Invasion introduces a new Doctor for the very first time in New Who. To do something at a time when casual viewers might be tuning in just for fun was quite bold. While I am only so happy with a lot of the output from his era, I must applaud him on this occasion.
Christmas Invasion does feel a lot like Castrovalva. Much of the story hangs on the point that the Doctor is very weak and can't really help out with what's happening. That, if anything, the companions must take care of him. I particularly enjoy this sort of reversal of the formula. Most of the time, the Doctor is in control and saving the day. The rare instances where he must rely upon the care and diligence of his companions makes for some interesting story-telling. It's nice when the show decides, once in a while, that he's genuinely ineffectual for a time and must rely on the tender mercies of his friends.
Naturally enough, the Doctor does come back to consciousness at just the right moment. This is what earns this story a lot of its points. Even as he emerges from the TARDIS, it's quite exhilarating (thanks Murray Gold). The next twenty minutes or so might be the coolest introduction to a new Doctor, ever. Tennant is pretty damned amazing here. He jumps between dealing with the Syrorax Leader and various personal and/or vanity issues with such smoothness that we can't help but be amazed. RTD writes him a very tricky scene but he knocks it out of the ballpark. His fast-paced delivery is absolute perfection. The jokes are great fun too (love when he realizes he's quoting The Lion King!). His hand growing back after its been chopped off is sheer coolness. This really is all very solid. For the New Who fan that is experiencing regeneration for the first time, this scene must have put their worries to rest. Even if they did fall in love with Eccleston, this new guy seems pretty awesome.
Christmas Invasion's only real sore point is that it, perhaps, takes a bit too long to get to this magnificent sequence. It's that usual problem of not quite having enough story to fill the hour so we have to watch Rose keep pleading with the Doctor's unconscious form to wake up.It might have been better to just make the story 50 minutes long and have the Doctor wake up sooner.
Quite honestly, if this one problem had been corrected at the writing stage, it probably would have made it to Number One on this list.
Last Christmas
We could very easily dismiss this story as just being a hybrid of the movie Inception and the Aliens franchise but it is so much more than that. If anything, it's delightfully bizarre. Could an actual Doctor Who adventure starring Santa Claus be anything else?!
Well, if we want to be honest, it could be one other thing: it could have been really stupid. But Moff does this great job of keeping Santa fictional without actually admitting to the younger viewers that he might not be real. All the jokes with Santa and the elves all seem to land quite well and really add to the story. There is a lot of comedy to this Special because of this. But it never seems to get truly out-of-hand. There's also plenty of drama to counterpoint it all. Clara getting one more Christmas with Danny is especially touching. Danny explaining what Christmas is truly about is actually genuinely profound. The sleigh ride they take as they re-gain consciousness is another nice moment that tugs at the heartstrings. Discovering that one of the characters in the dreamscape is actually wheelchair-bound in real life really plays upon our emotions. I was both dismayed and impressed by Moffat's sadism as this revelation is made.
Of course, the real thrust of Last Christmas is the characters trying to escape from the shared dream they are trapped in. Like Inception, they get several layers deep and must struggle multiple times with determining whether or not they are finally back in the real world or still dreaming. The plot device does come perilously close to being abused but I do find it's just a bit shy of going too far with it. If the scene with Clara as an older woman had gone on any longer than it had, I might have gotten tired of the whole thing. But Santa popping in like he does and dispelling the dream happens at just the right moment. And it is kinda cool to watch the Doctor shrug off his face-hugger one more time and save Clara who is now at her normal age.
I suppose fans who weren't enjoying Clara as a companion were probably not happy with that last scene of her returning to the TARDIS - but I quite liked it. The end of Series Eight with both Clara and the Doctor fibbing to each other and parting ways was beautiful. I don't feel, however, that their reunion in the Christmas Special cheapens that moment. If anything, it would have been a bit of a shame if things had truly finished that way with them. Santa helping to bring them back together genuinely worked for me.
Most importantly, though, Last Christmas is a really solid story. It executes a great balance between comedy, absurdity, drama and creepiness. The plot doesn't become too complicated for a Christmas Special but we also feel like we're getting a real episode rather than a fluff-piece. This makes me happier than anything, really. There's enough content to fill the running time. Which is especially impressive since it does all move at a pretty damned brisk pace.
It would be a shame to conclude this without giving Nick Frost huge props for his portrayal as Santa.Claus. Not only does he have the perfect name for an actor to play Santa - but he really does magnificently with the role. Yes, he's very smarmy most of the time - but he still gives some softer edges to the character where it's needed. In many ways, he's the perfect interpretation of a modern-day Saint Nick. Everyone who has stopped believing in him because they think they've become too cool are made to feel uncool. In fact, throughout the entire episode, Santa is the coolest guy in the room.
And that's the way it should be.
A Christmas Carol
When Russell T. Davies brought Doctor Who back, he made a number of bold changes with the format. Perhaps the biggest one was to give certain episodes a lot more emotional resonance. Or, as we prefer to say, he gave the show more "feels". This met with limited success. We did have stories like Father's Day where I am still reduced to a quivering mess every time I watch it. But we also got stories like Fear Her - an episode that clearly seems to say: "We've run out of budget. Maybe, if we get everyone to cry, they won't notice!".
As Moff took over as Head Writer, he made sure to not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Doctor Who would still have emotional episodes, but they would be more carefully crafted. A Christmas Carol is an excellent example of this. This is a story that succeeds mainly on the premise that it plays a lot with our feelings. But, unlike some of the tales during the RTD era, it still makes sure to have a real plot on top of that. It's not an extremely complicated storyline, but it's still there. And it drives the episode along so that the more emotional aspects of the adventure can take center stage and work well.
As has been often pointed out by people who made the episode, the big difference between Kazran and other baddies in Who is displayed in that crucial moment where he stops himself from striking a child who has raised his ire. The Doctor realizes, when he sees that happen, that he is not dealing with a proper Who villain. Kazran is someone who is not beyond redemption and must, therefore, be handled in a new way. As he hears Christmas Carols a short while later, he is inspired with an outlandish strategy.
Re-writing Kazran's personal history is a great little ride. This is Matt Smith's first Christmas Special and he really has a great time with it. He is particularly enjoyable in the sequences with Kazran as a young boy. In fact, it's hard to determine who the actual child is! As their Christmas tradition continues, the Doctor takes on an almost Santa-like quality in the story. The tale becomes more and more tinged with sadness as Kazran does like we all do with Santa and outgrows him.
Like Last Christmas, much praise must be heaped on to the main guest actor. Michael Gambon does such a good double-role in this story that we forget that he is playing his own father in flashback sequences. His most impressive work in the story, however, is when he starts looking through the old pictures of a past he never had. This is an extremely abstract sequence for an actor to execute. He is a man who is, literally, getting a soul. But Gambon handles it with incredible talent and presence.
It's during those scenes where Kazran starts to get his past re-written that the Special starts to "turn on the waterworks", for me. While RTD tends to be a lot more "shmaltzy" when he tries to hit us in the feels, Moff really shows some genuine maturity. He appeals to the adult in all of us in those scenes. We think of our own moments where we may have lost a bit of our soul as we grew up and how, maybe, we also need to make similar efforts to restore ourselves. It's a sentiment I never expected to see expressed in a Doctor Who story. Which is part of what gets this Special to rank so highly for me.
And then we finally get to the story's climax. Moff cast a vocalist in a key role and takes full advantage of that choice. The Doctor fidgeting with the sound gear as Abigail starts singing and Kazran looks on sadly really is an iconic moment. To me, if this sequence doesn't reduce you to tears, then maybe you're suffering from the same problem Kazran had. Maybe you need a soul.
And... that's it. We made it through all the Christmas Specials and ranked them. I'm not sure how much you may have agreed with these choices, but I hope you enjoyed how I explained them.
It's Boxing Day as I wrap this up so I wish all off you a Happy New Year. Thanks, as always, for coming to this site. The hits I see always warm my heart!
Missed the other installments? Here's Part 1:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/11/book-of-lists-christmas-specials-from.html
Part 2:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/11/book-of-lists-christmas-specials-from_24.html
Part 3:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/12/book-of-lists-christmas-specials-from.html
Part 4:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/12/book-of-lists-christmas-specials-from_19.html
Thursday, 19 December 2019
BOOK OF LISTS: CHRISTMAS SPECIALS - FROM WORST TO BEST: PART 4
We're finally getting to some Christmas Specials that have assailed the more common pitfall that most of them fall into: there's actually enough plot to sustain the hour! Also, I think you'll notice a fairly obvious common theme between the next two stories that are listed.
PART FOUR: THE REGENERATION SPECIALS
Deciding to regenerate the Doctor during a Christmas Special is a pretty bold choice. As I've mentioned several times already, there's a certain amount of "fluff" that's required in these episodes. Plenty of people who don't follow the show consistently are suddenly tuning in to enjoy it on Christmas Day. They're watching because it's become a bit of a Christmas tradition rather than the fact they're legitimate fans of the show. So things have to be kept fairly accessible.
But regenerating a Doctor is all about fan service. We're saying goodbye to the latest incarnation and getting a glimpse of what the new one has to offer. Not a process you want to put in front of a casual viewer. And yet, Moffat took that risk twice with Christmas Specials.
Astoundingly enough, I'm very pleased with both his efforts. They were great send-offs that still maintained that basic appeal that all Christmas Specials must have. In both of these stories, he maintained an excellent balance between those two polarities.
Time of the Doctor
There's a lot riding on this particular Special. On a personal level, Matt Smith is my favorite New Series Doctor (thus far - read about my Eleventh Doctor Love here: http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/12/book-of-lists-doctors-from-worst-to_31.html). I needed to see him get the send-off that he deserved. For me, the story required some real weight. I was going to legitimately grieve his passing so I felt that there needed to be some solid gravitas going on as he took his final bow.
But, beyond my own personal predilections, there was a certain level of build-up that Moffat had created for fandom regarding the Eleventh Doctor's departure. His era was heavily influenced by events that were meant to take place during his final days. For three seasons, we had heard all sorts of foreshadowing concerning Cracks in Time, the Silence and Trenzalore. References made to these things had been enigmatic, at best. Time of the Doctor had to finally give us some answers.
It came as no surprise that Moff subverted expectations a bit. We were all presuming this final story would be huge and epic. In some ways, it was. We got appearances from some of the Doctor's greatest enemies, Gallifrey really was returning and all these great questions that had been teased out for several years were getting, more or less, answered (some got clearer answers than others).
But, rather than get too epic, Moff gives us a very different point of emphasis in this tale. Time of the Doctor, more than anything, is about the Doctor's simple choice to defend a small town for as long as he can. I'm quite glad that our Head Writer made this choice with this Doctor's departure. It proudly displays the core issues of the Doctor's ethos. He doesn't, necessarily, expect to save the entire universe all of the time. But if he can make a bit of a difference to even some people, if he just saves even a small handful of lives - that's reason enough for him to stay. The scene where he explains this ideology to Clara is truly beautiful. Quite possibly, one of the best moments Doctor Eleven gets during his entire reign.
Watching him legitimately stop and stay in one place was, in many ways, quite shocking. But, once more, there's a beauty to all this.We watch him age but he still seems content. He's living out the ideology he expressed to Clara and it's all quite moving. We see some interesting aspects to the character that are often concealed because of his endless wanderlust. For once, the Doctor doesn't just take off after the Big Mess is cleaned up. He's staying for good.
Which leads to what I probably love best about this Special. As much as I enjoy "the feels" of this episode, the fanboy in me is still what cries loudest. And Moff satisfies him in the most impressive of ways. Our Head Writer stares straight into the face of a major continuity issue and deals with it.
With the creation of a "secret incarnation" in the Time Wars and the very silly regeneration that RTD does in the Series Four finale, the Doctor was now on his final life. This needed to be addressed. Moff could've chickened his way out and said the Tennant regeneration didn't count. Or he could have just hoped none of us were keeping track. But he didn't. He came up with a solution to extend the Doctor's lives indefinitely (who knows, for sure, how many regenerations the Time Lords have given him?). More importantly, he wrote a story where the Doctor comes to terms with his mortality and makes a profound choice on how he'd like to spend his remaining days. He accepts his destiny for the sake of protecting a group of people in a terrible situation. Not only does this summarize the character in a wonderful way, but important canon gets taken care of at the same time. As a geek, I couldn't ask for anything better.
Is there anything about Time of the Doctor that rubs me the wrong way? Regeneration energy being able to take out a huge Dalek Mothership does seem a little on the improbable side. I suppose since it is a whole new regeneration cycle, I can - sort of - accept it. A new cycle might have a lot more energy, I guess. It still comes across as a bit ludicrous. But, how else do you get rid of a Dalek Mothership with only minutes left in the episode?!
But I'm still very happy with a lot of this Special. It is a very good send-off for my (so far) favorite New Series Doctor. His final speech is definitely way better than the intensely angsty: "I don't want to go."!
Twice Upon a Time
Another Special that had a lot riding on it. Not only does it send off Capaldi's Doctor, but it also says farewell to Steven Moffat and his entire production team. It's even the last story for Murray Gold. A lot is coming to a close, here. As the final tale in what I felt was a definite Golden Age for the show (others might argue, of course - but they always do!), I needed to see something glorious before it ends once and for all.
Twice Upon a Time steps up to the plate quite nicely and delivers what the end of an era needs. While it may have made the show a little inaccessible to the casual viewer (which seemed to reflect in the ratings), I do like that Moff really goes fanboy as his era wraps up. Not only do we get a multi-incarnation story in the last episode, but the two episodes before that feature a Genesis of the Cybermen stoyline with two incarnations of the Master also re-uniting. As someone who has a great love for the whole history of the show, I couldn't ask for much better.
Because I'm such a hardcore fanboy, I fall in love with this particular Special right from its opening sequence. The combination of original and re-created footage from Tenth Planet is, pretty much, a sheer work of art. The rest of the story could have been complete crap (and some would say it is!) and it would still probably rank pretty highly on this list just because of that opening!
I do enjoy what we get in the rest of the episode, though. Mark Bradley re-creates the First Doctor magnificently. Like Hurndall, he puts a bit of his own spin on the character but it still remains a loving tribute that would have made Grumpy Old Bill proud were he around to see it. I really liked the idea of having both incarnations making a conscious decision not to regenerate. It was a very interesting character nuance. I also think Capaldi delivered the best "final speech" a Doctor has ever given. The bit about children sometimes being able to hear his name was particularly beautiful. To me, it says so much about what Doctor Who is truly about. Most of us first encounter it when we're kids. Some of us "get it" and fall madly in love with it. It's a very clever piece of writing that Capaldi does a great job of bringing to life.
The fact that there isn't actually a proper villain in Twice Upon a Time, to me, was particularly brilliant. We've had stories where there were antagonists more than villains creating conflict (Inferno springs particularly to mind - Stalhman is an asshole but I wouldn't call him full-on evil), but we've never had something where there just isn't a true baddie at all. The whole plot is just a misunderstanding between good people. It does feel ever-so-slightly threadbare but the novelty of it all helps to make up for it.
There were quite a bit of complaints from fans about the first Doctor's sexism. The truth of the matter is, however, that he did have some pretty conservative views, sometimes. Moff using the "smacked bottom" threat was a good way of reminding us that he wasn't making this up. He had actually made a similar threat to Susan. If I was bothered by anything - it was how hard this trait was pushed to the forefront. Yes, Doctor One could be a bit narrow in his views from time-to-time - but he never made so many comments of that nature in so short of a time. This is where I find Moff's depiction to be inaccurate. In his actual era, this incarnation was a bit sexist. In the Special, he comes across as a huge chauvinist.
My only other complaint about this story is quite petty. I'm not particularly fond of the score, in places. I would have been happier if Murray Gold had tried harder to compose more original music and not tried so hard to give us a sort of "greatest hits" of his most popular themes. This feels especially poignant as Jodie's Doctor emerges. I would preferred something new and different in that moment rather than "Flavia's Lament". As I said, it's a pretty minor quibble.
In the end, though, Twice Upon a Time beats Time of the Doctor in this little competition because it feeds my inner fanboy just a little better. A regeneration is a spectacular thing to watch when you're in love with the show as much as I am. But a regeneration and a multi-Doctor adventure is even more enjoyable.
The final three Christmas Specials in this countdown will all be featured in one post. If you bother to work it out, of course, you know which stories still haven't been reviewed. The Big Question is: how do these three stories rank? You'll find out soon. Hopefully, just in time for Christmas....
Part One:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/11/book-of-lists-christmas-specials-from.html
Part Two:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/11/book-of-lists-christmas-specials-from_24.html
Part Three:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/12/book-of-lists-christmas-specials-from.html
But, beyond my own personal predilections, there was a certain level of build-up that Moffat had created for fandom regarding the Eleventh Doctor's departure. His era was heavily influenced by events that were meant to take place during his final days. For three seasons, we had heard all sorts of foreshadowing concerning Cracks in Time, the Silence and Trenzalore. References made to these things had been enigmatic, at best. Time of the Doctor had to finally give us some answers.
It came as no surprise that Moff subverted expectations a bit. We were all presuming this final story would be huge and epic. In some ways, it was. We got appearances from some of the Doctor's greatest enemies, Gallifrey really was returning and all these great questions that had been teased out for several years were getting, more or less, answered (some got clearer answers than others).
But, rather than get too epic, Moff gives us a very different point of emphasis in this tale. Time of the Doctor, more than anything, is about the Doctor's simple choice to defend a small town for as long as he can. I'm quite glad that our Head Writer made this choice with this Doctor's departure. It proudly displays the core issues of the Doctor's ethos. He doesn't, necessarily, expect to save the entire universe all of the time. But if he can make a bit of a difference to even some people, if he just saves even a small handful of lives - that's reason enough for him to stay. The scene where he explains this ideology to Clara is truly beautiful. Quite possibly, one of the best moments Doctor Eleven gets during his entire reign.
Watching him legitimately stop and stay in one place was, in many ways, quite shocking. But, once more, there's a beauty to all this.We watch him age but he still seems content. He's living out the ideology he expressed to Clara and it's all quite moving. We see some interesting aspects to the character that are often concealed because of his endless wanderlust. For once, the Doctor doesn't just take off after the Big Mess is cleaned up. He's staying for good.
Which leads to what I probably love best about this Special. As much as I enjoy "the feels" of this episode, the fanboy in me is still what cries loudest. And Moff satisfies him in the most impressive of ways. Our Head Writer stares straight into the face of a major continuity issue and deals with it.
With the creation of a "secret incarnation" in the Time Wars and the very silly regeneration that RTD does in the Series Four finale, the Doctor was now on his final life. This needed to be addressed. Moff could've chickened his way out and said the Tennant regeneration didn't count. Or he could have just hoped none of us were keeping track. But he didn't. He came up with a solution to extend the Doctor's lives indefinitely (who knows, for sure, how many regenerations the Time Lords have given him?). More importantly, he wrote a story where the Doctor comes to terms with his mortality and makes a profound choice on how he'd like to spend his remaining days. He accepts his destiny for the sake of protecting a group of people in a terrible situation. Not only does this summarize the character in a wonderful way, but important canon gets taken care of at the same time. As a geek, I couldn't ask for anything better.
Is there anything about Time of the Doctor that rubs me the wrong way? Regeneration energy being able to take out a huge Dalek Mothership does seem a little on the improbable side. I suppose since it is a whole new regeneration cycle, I can - sort of - accept it. A new cycle might have a lot more energy, I guess. It still comes across as a bit ludicrous. But, how else do you get rid of a Dalek Mothership with only minutes left in the episode?!
But I'm still very happy with a lot of this Special. It is a very good send-off for my (so far) favorite New Series Doctor. His final speech is definitely way better than the intensely angsty: "I don't want to go."!
Twice Upon a Time
Another Special that had a lot riding on it. Not only does it send off Capaldi's Doctor, but it also says farewell to Steven Moffat and his entire production team. It's even the last story for Murray Gold. A lot is coming to a close, here. As the final tale in what I felt was a definite Golden Age for the show (others might argue, of course - but they always do!), I needed to see something glorious before it ends once and for all.
Twice Upon a Time steps up to the plate quite nicely and delivers what the end of an era needs. While it may have made the show a little inaccessible to the casual viewer (which seemed to reflect in the ratings), I do like that Moff really goes fanboy as his era wraps up. Not only do we get a multi-incarnation story in the last episode, but the two episodes before that feature a Genesis of the Cybermen stoyline with two incarnations of the Master also re-uniting. As someone who has a great love for the whole history of the show, I couldn't ask for much better.
Because I'm such a hardcore fanboy, I fall in love with this particular Special right from its opening sequence. The combination of original and re-created footage from Tenth Planet is, pretty much, a sheer work of art. The rest of the story could have been complete crap (and some would say it is!) and it would still probably rank pretty highly on this list just because of that opening!
I do enjoy what we get in the rest of the episode, though. Mark Bradley re-creates the First Doctor magnificently. Like Hurndall, he puts a bit of his own spin on the character but it still remains a loving tribute that would have made Grumpy Old Bill proud were he around to see it. I really liked the idea of having both incarnations making a conscious decision not to regenerate. It was a very interesting character nuance. I also think Capaldi delivered the best "final speech" a Doctor has ever given. The bit about children sometimes being able to hear his name was particularly beautiful. To me, it says so much about what Doctor Who is truly about. Most of us first encounter it when we're kids. Some of us "get it" and fall madly in love with it. It's a very clever piece of writing that Capaldi does a great job of bringing to life.
The fact that there isn't actually a proper villain in Twice Upon a Time, to me, was particularly brilliant. We've had stories where there were antagonists more than villains creating conflict (Inferno springs particularly to mind - Stalhman is an asshole but I wouldn't call him full-on evil), but we've never had something where there just isn't a true baddie at all. The whole plot is just a misunderstanding between good people. It does feel ever-so-slightly threadbare but the novelty of it all helps to make up for it.
There were quite a bit of complaints from fans about the first Doctor's sexism. The truth of the matter is, however, that he did have some pretty conservative views, sometimes. Moff using the "smacked bottom" threat was a good way of reminding us that he wasn't making this up. He had actually made a similar threat to Susan. If I was bothered by anything - it was how hard this trait was pushed to the forefront. Yes, Doctor One could be a bit narrow in his views from time-to-time - but he never made so many comments of that nature in so short of a time. This is where I find Moff's depiction to be inaccurate. In his actual era, this incarnation was a bit sexist. In the Special, he comes across as a huge chauvinist.
My only other complaint about this story is quite petty. I'm not particularly fond of the score, in places. I would have been happier if Murray Gold had tried harder to compose more original music and not tried so hard to give us a sort of "greatest hits" of his most popular themes. This feels especially poignant as Jodie's Doctor emerges. I would preferred something new and different in that moment rather than "Flavia's Lament". As I said, it's a pretty minor quibble.
In the end, though, Twice Upon a Time beats Time of the Doctor in this little competition because it feeds my inner fanboy just a little better. A regeneration is a spectacular thing to watch when you're in love with the show as much as I am. But a regeneration and a multi-Doctor adventure is even more enjoyable.
The final three Christmas Specials in this countdown will all be featured in one post. If you bother to work it out, of course, you know which stories still haven't been reviewed. The Big Question is: how do these three stories rank? You'll find out soon. Hopefully, just in time for Christmas....
Part One:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/11/book-of-lists-christmas-specials-from.html
Part Two:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/11/book-of-lists-christmas-specials-from_24.html
Part Three:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/12/book-of-lists-christmas-specials-from.html
Sunday, 1 December 2019
BOOK OF LISTS: CHRISTMAS SPECIALS - FROM WORST TO BEST: PART 3
Our end-of-the-year countdown is well underway. We're just plowing through it. We are now moving into Christmas Specials that are, very much, middle-of-the-road. By no means are they breathtaking works of televisual art. But I wouldn't say they were bad, either. Pretty decent stories, overall.
PART 3: BECOMING HALF-DECENT
By virtue of their lightness, a Christmas Special will seem a bit "vanilla". They're meant to be more of a fun experience on Christmas Day rather than a valuable contribution to the series. In some ways, I do actually lower my standards for stories of this nature. Truthfully, if these were episodes in the actual season, they would get much more harshly criticized.
Taken in their context, however, I can find this particular set of adventures quite enjoyable. Nothing spectacular - but enjoyable, nonetheless.
The Return of Doctor Mysterio
In my opinion, Moff actually took a pretty big risk in the writing of this tale. As I said in my last entry, part of what works against Voyage of the Damned is the fact that it is trying to pay tribute to a cinematic genre that is, essentially, pretty awful. When the source material you're paying homage to is poor, you stand a good chance of also creating a poor episode of Doctor Who. Stephen Moffat, however, doesn't seem to learn from this lesson.
The very first Superman movie back in the 80s was one of the best of all the attempts to make the comic book hero into a movie franchise (Superman Two is better - But One does well, too). However, it's still a pretty cheesy piece of 80s cinema. Truth be told, I just don't think Superman translates well into film. There are far better movies the Head Writer could have referenced from that era if he really wanted to do a tribute like RTD did.
Having said that, Return of Doctor Mysterio manages to turn out pretty good. Mainly because it only tries so hard to emulate Superman and still remembers to be a Doctor Who story. Voyage probably pushed the disaster movie theme harder than it should. The main mission of Mysterio, however, is to have the Doctor defeat a sinister alien plot to take over the world. It just happens that there is a secondary adventure that involves a superman-like character going on at the same time. The emphasis in this particular tribute story is better skewed.
I also think the Doctor and Nardole work great together in this story. This constitutes the only adventure we see where it's just the two of them. Which is a great pity, really. I love Bill in Series Ten, but I do wish we had seen more of this duo before she joins the crew. Nardole is a greatly underrated companion, in my opinion. I love that he has a whole side adventure in the TARDIS that we never see before he shows up to rescue the Doctor. It's a really fun moment. And he looks great in that outfit!
Another really strong point to this episode is the contribution it makes to the show's canon. The Doctor is on the road to recovery from losing his wife. This is handled with far more maturity than the incredible angstiness we endured when he lost Rose. I also like that we learn more about the Winter of Harmony Shoal that we first saw in Husbands of River Song. It was great to see them get expanded upon a bit. The tease we get that they might return for a third appearance was very nicely ominous. I would like to see more of them. They're a fun alien species.
The Husbands of River Song
It's pretty evident that this Special and Return of Doctor Mysterio were written in that gap year where Moff was taking time off from Who to concentrate on Sherlock. Both tales are acceptable - but a bit below his standards
.
Husbands of River Song comes across as a bit of a tribute, too. Although it doesn't try as hard as Mysterio to imitate what it's referencing, it is still attempting to be a bit of a "caper movie". Perhaps, even, a second stab at doing something like Time Heist. It's just not so convoluted and focuses harder on rompiness.
I suppose your enjoyment of such a tale hinges greatly on how you feel about River Song, herself. There are quite a few fans out there who can't stand her. If you're one of those people, you're really going to hate this one. Some River Song stories put her more in the background. Husbands, however, really brings her to the forefront. In many ways, the plot really is all about her. The Doctor almost takes a back seat in the whole thing.
Since I quite like her, the story sits well with me. There's some nice dramatic irony going on throughout the better part of the adventure. River has never met this particular incarnation of the Doctor and he ends up having a bit of fun with that. The Doctor also discovers just how much River gets up to behind his back. This also makes for quite a bit of fun.
There is just a bit of Runaway Bride effect going on in places. The comedy does feel like it's being pushed a little too hard sometimes. Hydrofax is the biggest culprit, here. He's just a little too over-the-top in places. But it's hard not to go there when you're being asked to play an angry decapitated intergalactic tyrant. The role lends itself to campiness
.
Like Mysterio, this tale also earns extra points for what it does for the Greater Scheme of Things in the show. This one's a doozy. The famous last date of the Doctor and River is finally upon us. The Time Lord gifts her the sonic screwdriver that will save her (quite literally) during his first encounter with her. The cycle is finally complete.
It's a genuinely touching ending. Which makes it beat Mysterio in this particular ranking system. Up until that final scene, I consider the stories to be of about equal quality. But Husbands of River Song does get me to mist up ever-so-slightly as its reaches it conclusion. The fact that it plucks at my heartstrings gives it that extra edge and causes me to like it that little bit more.
The Snowmen
This one almost shouldn't be in this category. In fact, it is nearly strong enough to measure it by "normal episode standards".
The Snowmen has a cracking little pace with a lot of fun characters in it. Clara is magnificently introduced in this story and is made into a very colorful and interesting character. Doctor Simeon is a magnificently chilling villain. And, while it's sad that Sontarans are now more of a comedy act, Strax is a great laugh, too.
The story is also chocked full of really imaginative and amusing sequences. Clara discovering the Doctor's secret base in the clouds is quite enchanting. The Doctor failing miserably at being Sherlock Holmes is hilarious. But my favorite moment is, easily, the Doctor saving Clara and the kids through puppetry. I love how he even smacks the puppet for kissing him. It's one of those beautiful scenes that works almost exclusively for that particular incarnation of the Doctor. Matt Smith is an absolute delight during that sequence.
Again, we have the Doctor going through a grieving process. Broken by the fact that he has lost Amy and Rory, the Time Lord seems to have withdrawn completely from the Universe. Once more, it's the Doctor dealing with difficult feelings in a way that doesn't seem like complete histrionics. Thankyou Steven Moffat for handling a personal loss in the Doctor's life in a way that doesn't get us to cringe.
Then, finally, we have the wonderful surprises of The Snowmen. This was supposed to be the proper introductory story of Clara but it's not. This version of her dies at the end and it's revealed that another Clara, somehow, exists in our time period. It's quite the shock and we need to learn more....
But, for this fanboy, the even bigger shock was the revelation that the Great Intelligence was behind it all. There it was, under my nose the whole time, and I missed it. The "GI" logo. The actual title of the story! The clues were everywhere and I did not catch any of them. As far as I'm concerned, that's some really damned clever writing. I was genuinely impressed.
So why is The Snowmen only considered half-decent if I'm singing so much praise for it? There are probably two key factors that drag it down into this category:
Like most Christmas Specials, the plot is just a little too simple. The Great Intelligence is about to build an army that will take over the world. He needs to be stopped. There's also the Doctor grieving the loss of two beloved companions. That's all we really get for a story. It's just not quite enough to make it a genuinely solid episode.
The other big problem is how the Great Intelligence is finally dispatched. It's a bit over-contrived and even slightly confusing. I think the Doctor's trick with the memory worm should have been the proper solution. After Doctor Simeon is drained, the Great Intelligence becomes a disembodied consciousness that will eventually find its way into Padmasambhava. Clara can still die and we can head into the second half of Series Seven with her mystery to solve. I really do think this would have been the better way to conclude it. All the other stuff that does happen seems just a bit "off" - for lack of a better term. It's not a terrible ending. But when you can clearly see a better one it does weaken the whole adventure.
These two problems are just bad enough to bring what was otherwise a great story down to something not quite as amazing as it could have been. It's a bit of a harsh judgement, I know. There were still a lot of awesome aspects to this story. But, in the end, it's ranked where it is because of a few crucial mistakes. It was still pretty good. But I am forced to admit: it could have been so much better.
And thus concludes our reviews of the Half-Decent Stuff. We have two more tiers to tackle in this countdown. Both of them will deal with stories that I felt were genuinely strong. So, as we move on, there will be far more praise than criticism.
Part 1:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/11/book-of-lists-christmas-specials-from.html
Part 2:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/11/book-of-lists-christmas-specials-from_24.html
PART 3: BECOMING HALF-DECENT
By virtue of their lightness, a Christmas Special will seem a bit "vanilla". They're meant to be more of a fun experience on Christmas Day rather than a valuable contribution to the series. In some ways, I do actually lower my standards for stories of this nature. Truthfully, if these were episodes in the actual season, they would get much more harshly criticized.
Taken in their context, however, I can find this particular set of adventures quite enjoyable. Nothing spectacular - but enjoyable, nonetheless.
The Return of Doctor Mysterio
In my opinion, Moff actually took a pretty big risk in the writing of this tale. As I said in my last entry, part of what works against Voyage of the Damned is the fact that it is trying to pay tribute to a cinematic genre that is, essentially, pretty awful. When the source material you're paying homage to is poor, you stand a good chance of also creating a poor episode of Doctor Who. Stephen Moffat, however, doesn't seem to learn from this lesson.
The very first Superman movie back in the 80s was one of the best of all the attempts to make the comic book hero into a movie franchise (Superman Two is better - But One does well, too). However, it's still a pretty cheesy piece of 80s cinema. Truth be told, I just don't think Superman translates well into film. There are far better movies the Head Writer could have referenced from that era if he really wanted to do a tribute like RTD did.
Having said that, Return of Doctor Mysterio manages to turn out pretty good. Mainly because it only tries so hard to emulate Superman and still remembers to be a Doctor Who story. Voyage probably pushed the disaster movie theme harder than it should. The main mission of Mysterio, however, is to have the Doctor defeat a sinister alien plot to take over the world. It just happens that there is a secondary adventure that involves a superman-like character going on at the same time. The emphasis in this particular tribute story is better skewed.
I also think the Doctor and Nardole work great together in this story. This constitutes the only adventure we see where it's just the two of them. Which is a great pity, really. I love Bill in Series Ten, but I do wish we had seen more of this duo before she joins the crew. Nardole is a greatly underrated companion, in my opinion. I love that he has a whole side adventure in the TARDIS that we never see before he shows up to rescue the Doctor. It's a really fun moment. And he looks great in that outfit!
Another really strong point to this episode is the contribution it makes to the show's canon. The Doctor is on the road to recovery from losing his wife. This is handled with far more maturity than the incredible angstiness we endured when he lost Rose. I also like that we learn more about the Winter of Harmony Shoal that we first saw in Husbands of River Song. It was great to see them get expanded upon a bit. The tease we get that they might return for a third appearance was very nicely ominous. I would like to see more of them. They're a fun alien species.
The Husbands of River Song
It's pretty evident that this Special and Return of Doctor Mysterio were written in that gap year where Moff was taking time off from Who to concentrate on Sherlock. Both tales are acceptable - but a bit below his standards
.
Husbands of River Song comes across as a bit of a tribute, too. Although it doesn't try as hard as Mysterio to imitate what it's referencing, it is still attempting to be a bit of a "caper movie". Perhaps, even, a second stab at doing something like Time Heist. It's just not so convoluted and focuses harder on rompiness.
I suppose your enjoyment of such a tale hinges greatly on how you feel about River Song, herself. There are quite a few fans out there who can't stand her. If you're one of those people, you're really going to hate this one. Some River Song stories put her more in the background. Husbands, however, really brings her to the forefront. In many ways, the plot really is all about her. The Doctor almost takes a back seat in the whole thing.
Since I quite like her, the story sits well with me. There's some nice dramatic irony going on throughout the better part of the adventure. River has never met this particular incarnation of the Doctor and he ends up having a bit of fun with that. The Doctor also discovers just how much River gets up to behind his back. This also makes for quite a bit of fun.
There is just a bit of Runaway Bride effect going on in places. The comedy does feel like it's being pushed a little too hard sometimes. Hydrofax is the biggest culprit, here. He's just a little too over-the-top in places. But it's hard not to go there when you're being asked to play an angry decapitated intergalactic tyrant. The role lends itself to campiness
.
Like Mysterio, this tale also earns extra points for what it does for the Greater Scheme of Things in the show. This one's a doozy. The famous last date of the Doctor and River is finally upon us. The Time Lord gifts her the sonic screwdriver that will save her (quite literally) during his first encounter with her. The cycle is finally complete.
It's a genuinely touching ending. Which makes it beat Mysterio in this particular ranking system. Up until that final scene, I consider the stories to be of about equal quality. But Husbands of River Song does get me to mist up ever-so-slightly as its reaches it conclusion. The fact that it plucks at my heartstrings gives it that extra edge and causes me to like it that little bit more.
The Snowmen
This one almost shouldn't be in this category. In fact, it is nearly strong enough to measure it by "normal episode standards".
The Snowmen has a cracking little pace with a lot of fun characters in it. Clara is magnificently introduced in this story and is made into a very colorful and interesting character. Doctor Simeon is a magnificently chilling villain. And, while it's sad that Sontarans are now more of a comedy act, Strax is a great laugh, too.
The story is also chocked full of really imaginative and amusing sequences. Clara discovering the Doctor's secret base in the clouds is quite enchanting. The Doctor failing miserably at being Sherlock Holmes is hilarious. But my favorite moment is, easily, the Doctor saving Clara and the kids through puppetry. I love how he even smacks the puppet for kissing him. It's one of those beautiful scenes that works almost exclusively for that particular incarnation of the Doctor. Matt Smith is an absolute delight during that sequence.
Again, we have the Doctor going through a grieving process. Broken by the fact that he has lost Amy and Rory, the Time Lord seems to have withdrawn completely from the Universe. Once more, it's the Doctor dealing with difficult feelings in a way that doesn't seem like complete histrionics. Thankyou Steven Moffat for handling a personal loss in the Doctor's life in a way that doesn't get us to cringe.
Then, finally, we have the wonderful surprises of The Snowmen. This was supposed to be the proper introductory story of Clara but it's not. This version of her dies at the end and it's revealed that another Clara, somehow, exists in our time period. It's quite the shock and we need to learn more....
But, for this fanboy, the even bigger shock was the revelation that the Great Intelligence was behind it all. There it was, under my nose the whole time, and I missed it. The "GI" logo. The actual title of the story! The clues were everywhere and I did not catch any of them. As far as I'm concerned, that's some really damned clever writing. I was genuinely impressed.
So why is The Snowmen only considered half-decent if I'm singing so much praise for it? There are probably two key factors that drag it down into this category:
Like most Christmas Specials, the plot is just a little too simple. The Great Intelligence is about to build an army that will take over the world. He needs to be stopped. There's also the Doctor grieving the loss of two beloved companions. That's all we really get for a story. It's just not quite enough to make it a genuinely solid episode.
The other big problem is how the Great Intelligence is finally dispatched. It's a bit over-contrived and even slightly confusing. I think the Doctor's trick with the memory worm should have been the proper solution. After Doctor Simeon is drained, the Great Intelligence becomes a disembodied consciousness that will eventually find its way into Padmasambhava. Clara can still die and we can head into the second half of Series Seven with her mystery to solve. I really do think this would have been the better way to conclude it. All the other stuff that does happen seems just a bit "off" - for lack of a better term. It's not a terrible ending. But when you can clearly see a better one it does weaken the whole adventure.
These two problems are just bad enough to bring what was otherwise a great story down to something not quite as amazing as it could have been. It's a bit of a harsh judgement, I know. There were still a lot of awesome aspects to this story. But, in the end, it's ranked where it is because of a few crucial mistakes. It was still pretty good. But I am forced to admit: it could have been so much better.
And thus concludes our reviews of the Half-Decent Stuff. We have two more tiers to tackle in this countdown. Both of them will deal with stories that I felt were genuinely strong. So, as we move on, there will be far more praise than criticism.
Part 1:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/11/book-of-lists-christmas-specials-from.html
Part 2:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/11/book-of-lists-christmas-specials-from_24.html
Sunday, 24 November 2019
BOOK OF LISTS: CHRISTMAS SPECIALS FROM WORST TO BEST: PART 2
With Christmas Specials now a thing of the past, I've decided to list them all in order of preference. In the first entry,we tackled the Specials that weren't to my liking at all. That, in my opinion, were genuinely poor. I felt kinda bad for spewing such vitriol and am glad that I can list some stories that I like a bit better.
PART 2: WEAK, BUT STILL ENJOYABLE
There still won't be a lot of glowing praise for the next few stories I'm listing. But I am, for the most part, quite happy with them. They are problematic in places. But not so bad that they are completely ruined.
The Runaway Bride
I'm pretty sure a lot of you would have put this one in Part One. It did not garner a lot of admirers when it first came out and hasn't, necessarily, aged well either. I can even see why so many dislike it.
It's not so much the fact that Runaway Bride goes for a lot of laughs that makes it difficult to enjoy. I feel it's more the fact that it's trying too hard to go for a lot of laughs. A lot of the comedy - particularly in the first few minutes - seems a bit too forced. Tennant and Tate are pushing their delivery a little too hard to be funny. The loud farty music that Murray Gold is playing in the background doesn't help in the slightest. The score, like the acting, feels ridiculously overdone. The story is really off to a bad start because of this.
Admittedly, when Donna becomes more melancholy, she becomes more likeable. The interaction between her and the Doctor improves and we're no longer feeling annoyed by what we're seeing on the screen. We can even sense some of that chemistry emerging that will make them such a great duo during Series Four.
Runaway Bride does still feel quite clumsy in places. It seems to misfire a lot. Moments of comedy happen when it might have been better to go serious. And it actually tends to become dramatic during times when it might have been better to go for a laugh. The writing does come across as very counter-intuitive, in places. This is definitely another big problem that makes me see why some fans are so displeased with it.
There are a lot of really enjoyable moments to the story, too. The kids cheering from the backseat as the Doctor saves Donna from the cab. The Doctor summoning the TARDIS just before evil robots pepper them with bullets. Donna telling the Doctor he shouldn't travel alone cause he needs someone to ground him. I find these moments are strong enough to drag Runaway Bride out of the Bad category and into something more passable.
Overall, it is a fun romp. It just tries a little too hard in places to be fun.
The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe
For the most part, I find Moff did a much better job with Christmas Specials than RTD. Oftentimes, he was much more careful about just how "Christmassy" the Specials would be. He tended to write something that just happened to involve Christmas a bit but still told a decent story. Many of RTD's scripts seemed to suffer at the expense of the Christmas theme. Runaway Bride is a good example of this. It would have been much easier to just have it be about a woman who is accidentally abducted from her wedding because of an alien plot gone wrong. Much of the Christmas stuff that's actually in it feels very shoe-horned. Which mars our enjoyment of the whole thing.
The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe is the one exception to this rule. Moff misfires quite a bit, here. It's difficult to determine what exactly hurts the story the most. The plot is, perhaps, a bit too threadbare. While the comedy in Bride feels forced, I find there are both funny and dramatic moments that come across as quite unnatural in this Special. And then, of course, there's "humany wumany". I wonder if Moff actually wishes he could travel back in time and stop himself from writing that line....
I also think the story suffers from a sort of Caves of Androzani/Twin Dilemma Effect. A Christmas Carol was a pretty damned amazing Christmas Special (you'll eventually see where it ranks on my list). Whatever had to follow it the next year was just going to tremble in its shadow. It's almost as if Moff tried too hard to write a script that was equally moving when, maybe, he should have just gone for something different, altogether. Maybe just make something light and fun that had a strong plot. Or maybe an action and/or horror piece. Basically, anything but what we actually got.
Who can say for sure what exactly makes this story fall so short. But I shouldn't harp on the problems too hard if I'm claiming the story is still enjoyable. Matt Smith does very well with what he's served. We like him just as much here as we did in Carol. He does a great job at being a big kid who is over-excited that it's Christmas. That does a lot to save the story.
Doctor, Widow, Wardrobe also does a similar thing that Hand of Fear did in the Classic Series. It has a really good ending that helps us to forget a lot of the problems that existed in the rest of the story. The Doctor making the decision to go back and find Amy and Rory was very touching. Particularly when he sheds that tear of happiness. We're also really damned happy that Amy and Rory have returned to the show. They were great companions that weren't quite ready to be written out. We needed just a bit more of them. This particular Christmas Special stands up a bit better because it brings them back into the TARDIS. It's definitely a saving grace.
Voyage of the Damned
Things are almost starting to get pretty half-decent on this list. Voyage of the Damned has a nice pace going on. There's just about enough plot, too. I know Christmas Specials are always trying to stay pretty light and uncomplicated - but they don't have to be pure spectacle. As we move up this list, we'll see more and more concentration actually being paid to the story. And that concentration does seem to start here.
The ending has some nice twists to it, too. Max Capricorn is certainly highlighted quite nicely throughout the tale - but I still didn't see it coming that he was the mastermind behind it all. I also like the courage RTD showed by killing off certain likeable characters and allowing nastier ones to survive.
Probably the biggest problem with Voyage is its dedication to pay tribute to a series of popular disaster movies that came out in the 70s and early 80s. It certainly does a good job of emulating them. My question is: do you want to imitate something that was really quite awful and cheesy? Just by virtue of this, the episode feels very "off". Even somewhat bad, in places. Its original source material could be quite crude and tasteless - so now Voyage of the Damned, itself, takes on that tone.
The camp sensibility of it all goes a little too far in places, too. Like a simple plot, another core element of any Christmas Special is to go a bit for the laughs. Some stories go for it a little too much, though. And we're left with something that we almost don't want to admit is a part of canon because it's just a bit too silly. There will be other Specials higher on this list that will also do this - but not to the extent that this particular adventure does.
There are some pretty vocal fans that detested this story, but I'm pretty happy with it. There's some good fun with the angel androids (that didn't turn out to be Axons!) and it is great that the Doctor found his Alonzo.
Well, that's three more off the list. There are quite a few Christmas Specials so we still have a ways to go. But my reviews will start sounding more and more favorable from hereon in. The Truly Bad and the Somewhat Weak are over with. Now we'll be moving into the Pretty Decent...
Here's Part One:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/11/book-of-lists-christmas-specials-from.html
PART 2: WEAK, BUT STILL ENJOYABLE
There still won't be a lot of glowing praise for the next few stories I'm listing. But I am, for the most part, quite happy with them. They are problematic in places. But not so bad that they are completely ruined.
The Runaway Bride
I'm pretty sure a lot of you would have put this one in Part One. It did not garner a lot of admirers when it first came out and hasn't, necessarily, aged well either. I can even see why so many dislike it.
It's not so much the fact that Runaway Bride goes for a lot of laughs that makes it difficult to enjoy. I feel it's more the fact that it's trying too hard to go for a lot of laughs. A lot of the comedy - particularly in the first few minutes - seems a bit too forced. Tennant and Tate are pushing their delivery a little too hard to be funny. The loud farty music that Murray Gold is playing in the background doesn't help in the slightest. The score, like the acting, feels ridiculously overdone. The story is really off to a bad start because of this.
Admittedly, when Donna becomes more melancholy, she becomes more likeable. The interaction between her and the Doctor improves and we're no longer feeling annoyed by what we're seeing on the screen. We can even sense some of that chemistry emerging that will make them such a great duo during Series Four.
Runaway Bride does still feel quite clumsy in places. It seems to misfire a lot. Moments of comedy happen when it might have been better to go serious. And it actually tends to become dramatic during times when it might have been better to go for a laugh. The writing does come across as very counter-intuitive, in places. This is definitely another big problem that makes me see why some fans are so displeased with it.
There are a lot of really enjoyable moments to the story, too. The kids cheering from the backseat as the Doctor saves Donna from the cab. The Doctor summoning the TARDIS just before evil robots pepper them with bullets. Donna telling the Doctor he shouldn't travel alone cause he needs someone to ground him. I find these moments are strong enough to drag Runaway Bride out of the Bad category and into something more passable.
Overall, it is a fun romp. It just tries a little too hard in places to be fun.
The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe
For the most part, I find Moff did a much better job with Christmas Specials than RTD. Oftentimes, he was much more careful about just how "Christmassy" the Specials would be. He tended to write something that just happened to involve Christmas a bit but still told a decent story. Many of RTD's scripts seemed to suffer at the expense of the Christmas theme. Runaway Bride is a good example of this. It would have been much easier to just have it be about a woman who is accidentally abducted from her wedding because of an alien plot gone wrong. Much of the Christmas stuff that's actually in it feels very shoe-horned. Which mars our enjoyment of the whole thing.
The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe is the one exception to this rule. Moff misfires quite a bit, here. It's difficult to determine what exactly hurts the story the most. The plot is, perhaps, a bit too threadbare. While the comedy in Bride feels forced, I find there are both funny and dramatic moments that come across as quite unnatural in this Special. And then, of course, there's "humany wumany". I wonder if Moff actually wishes he could travel back in time and stop himself from writing that line....
I also think the story suffers from a sort of Caves of Androzani/Twin Dilemma Effect. A Christmas Carol was a pretty damned amazing Christmas Special (you'll eventually see where it ranks on my list). Whatever had to follow it the next year was just going to tremble in its shadow. It's almost as if Moff tried too hard to write a script that was equally moving when, maybe, he should have just gone for something different, altogether. Maybe just make something light and fun that had a strong plot. Or maybe an action and/or horror piece. Basically, anything but what we actually got.
Who can say for sure what exactly makes this story fall so short. But I shouldn't harp on the problems too hard if I'm claiming the story is still enjoyable. Matt Smith does very well with what he's served. We like him just as much here as we did in Carol. He does a great job at being a big kid who is over-excited that it's Christmas. That does a lot to save the story.
Doctor, Widow, Wardrobe also does a similar thing that Hand of Fear did in the Classic Series. It has a really good ending that helps us to forget a lot of the problems that existed in the rest of the story. The Doctor making the decision to go back and find Amy and Rory was very touching. Particularly when he sheds that tear of happiness. We're also really damned happy that Amy and Rory have returned to the show. They were great companions that weren't quite ready to be written out. We needed just a bit more of them. This particular Christmas Special stands up a bit better because it brings them back into the TARDIS. It's definitely a saving grace.
Voyage of the Damned
Things are almost starting to get pretty half-decent on this list. Voyage of the Damned has a nice pace going on. There's just about enough plot, too. I know Christmas Specials are always trying to stay pretty light and uncomplicated - but they don't have to be pure spectacle. As we move up this list, we'll see more and more concentration actually being paid to the story. And that concentration does seem to start here.
The ending has some nice twists to it, too. Max Capricorn is certainly highlighted quite nicely throughout the tale - but I still didn't see it coming that he was the mastermind behind it all. I also like the courage RTD showed by killing off certain likeable characters and allowing nastier ones to survive.
Probably the biggest problem with Voyage is its dedication to pay tribute to a series of popular disaster movies that came out in the 70s and early 80s. It certainly does a good job of emulating them. My question is: do you want to imitate something that was really quite awful and cheesy? Just by virtue of this, the episode feels very "off". Even somewhat bad, in places. Its original source material could be quite crude and tasteless - so now Voyage of the Damned, itself, takes on that tone.
The camp sensibility of it all goes a little too far in places, too. Like a simple plot, another core element of any Christmas Special is to go a bit for the laughs. Some stories go for it a little too much, though. And we're left with something that we almost don't want to admit is a part of canon because it's just a bit too silly. There will be other Specials higher on this list that will also do this - but not to the extent that this particular adventure does.
There are some pretty vocal fans that detested this story, but I'm pretty happy with it. There's some good fun with the angel androids (that didn't turn out to be Axons!) and it is great that the Doctor found his Alonzo.
Well, that's three more off the list. There are quite a few Christmas Specials so we still have a ways to go. But my reviews will start sounding more and more favorable from hereon in. The Truly Bad and the Somewhat Weak are over with. Now we'll be moving into the Pretty Decent...
Here's Part One:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/11/book-of-lists-christmas-specials-from.html
Tuesday, 19 November 2019
BOOK OF LISTS: CHRISTMAS SPECIALS - FROM WORST TO BEST - PART 1
Well, it looks like the Age of Doctor Who Christmas Specials is well-and-truly over. At least this will probably be the case while Chibnall is in charge of things. I know some fans are outraged by this decision but I actually back it. The Doctor coincidentally having adventures in and around Christmas time over and over was starting to get just a bit ridiculous. He should have almost started having some sort of "Bad Wolf suspicion" about the whole thing. Like there should have been a moment where he started questioning why the TARDIS kept taking him to Christmas so much. Did another companion who really likes Christmas stare into the Heart of the TARDIS?!
With the Christmas Special now being a thing of the past, I thought it might be fun to make my end-of-year countdown about Christmas Specials. The era seems properly cemented in the past so I can safely document it and not worry about having to alter the list, someday, because of future Christmas Specials that have come out.
Now, there have been a lot of Christmas Specials. To try to give each of them its own entry might be just a bit too lengthy of a process. I had a similar problem when I counted down Doctors from Worst to Best a few years back. So I listed 2 to 5 incarnations per entry. I thought I would do the same thing with Christmas Specials.
PART 1: THE GENUINELY BAD
I'm going to get just a bit mean-spirited, here (call me a Grinch!). There were a few Christmas Specials that genuinely missed the mark. We're going to review them in this section. And we're not going to be that kind to them.
The Next Doctor
Not only the worst of all the Christmas Specials, I consider The Next Doctor the worst episode in the entire New Series (thus far - a new episode might come out someday that's actually worse. But Next Doctor is hard to beat). Its biggest problem being that it's built around a central premise that is just a bit stupid.
But before we get to that gripe, let's look at some other stuff that makes the story so bad for me. I have quite a bit of trouble with even the first few minutes of this episode. The Cybershades look and act in an embarrassingly stupid manner. They're meant to be a product of Cyber-technology. So they should be emotionless. Instead, they react in erratic and even savage ways. That seems a contradiction in terms. Add to the fact that they are, basically, men in masks and fun-fur suits crawling around on all fours and we've got something, here, that is Myrka-worthy. I can accept something like the Myrka in Classic Who because of the terrible budget limitations. We should not be seeing nonsense like this in the New Series.
Then we get to a chase sequence that seems to ignore a lot of basic physics. The Doctor and Jackson Lake get dragged across a wooden floor for quite some distance. They manage to stay on their butts for the whole ride (which is, sort of, impossible in itself - they should have fallen over onto their stomachs). When the ride is over. They are laughing at the whole jolly adventure and feeling a bit stiff. They should have been in endless pain. Their clothing and flesh being dragged along a wooden surface for so long and so quickly should have been torn to shreds from the friction and actual splinters that such a journey would have produced. While we point out such obvious inconsistencies, lets also mention that Rosita would have never had the time to make it to that window sill with the ax. The Cybershade had scaled the wall by the time she noticed the ax. He was running quickly across the floor while Rosita would've been running up several flights of stairs and then getting over to the far end of the building. No matter what sort of logistics you apply to this, she's just not able to get to that window anywhere near fast enough.
So, in just the first few minutes, we're ignoring important elements of aesthetics, logic and even basic physics. It's pretty hard to bounce back from this. But if the rest of the story had been amazing - I could've forgotten these problems.
Unfortunately, the plot is pretty uninteresting and even a bit preposterous. Why would the Cybermen build a giant mech to take over the world? It seems to me there's about a hundred more effective ways to convert a primitive human population. Slowly but surely just abducting people and converting them until you have the advantage of numbers would be the smartest most logical way to go about things. A big nasty dreadnought traipsing around seems almost kinda stupid. Humans everywhere will see the giant from miles away and flee. Is this really what you want when you want to zombify a species?
And then there's the whole central conceit of the story. Is Jackson Lake actually the Doctor? We don't know, at first, of course. But RTD had a track record, at this point, of teasing us and then revealing that the tease wasn't what it seemed. He had foreshadowed the death of both Rose and Donna during Series 2 and 4. But then, as the seasons ended, he gave us a big "Just kidding!" and arranged their departure from the show in a different manner that only seemed, sort of, like death. So when he's suddenly hinting that we're going to meet the next incarnation of the Doctor before the current one regenerates - we're pretty sure he's going to use the same tactic.
I might have been okay with any other tactic to dismiss the next Doctor except the one he uses. RTD could have actually made him a future incarnation - but from an alternative dimension or an aborted timeline. Or he's a special clone or even an android. Or maybe he's an alien superfan trying to assume the Doctor's identity. I would have been okay with any of these ideas. But an 18th Century human in a fugue state that somehow had an info stamp backfire into him seems over-contrived to the point of being ludicrous. It might have just been easier to just cast David Morrissey as the next Doctor and made this a proper multi-incarnation adventure. It would have been pretty awesome, actually, if RTD had not tried to subvert expectations and, for once, delivered on what he'd promised. But, instead, we got this mess.
Re-watching Doctor Who is one of my favorite pastimes. But Next Doctor ruins even this. The real central premise of the story is finding out whether or not this man that's claiming to be the Doctor is actually him. The Cybermen stuff is actually pretty peripheral to the whole thing. So, once it's revealed that this isn't the next Doctor, there's little appeal left to the story. With the mystery solved, there's not a lot of motivation to ever watch this again. This is the problem with giving a Doctor Who adventure a sort of tabloid appeal. Once we find out that the attention-grabbing headline isn't the truth, there's little purpose in wanting to re-visit the article. It was all just a dumb trick. Why remind ourselves that we fell for the sensationalism?
Sadly, there's more that I could go on about. But this review is already getting long enough. So I'll try to find a positive point in my final paragraph:
Is there anything I enjoyed about Next Doctor? It's the first story to use a flashback sequence showing all of the Doctor's previous incarnations. That was nice.
Other than that, I got nothing.
The End of Time - Parts One and Two
During my Top Doctor Who Story Countdown from Days Gone By, I wrote an extensive entry on why I love Logopolis so much. To help illustrate its effectiveness, I compared it to The End of Time - a story that had to accomplish the similar task of writing out an extremely popular incarnation of the Doctor. You can read what I said here: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/12/book-of-lists-top-ten-who-stories-10.html..
Just in case you bother to read it, I'll try not to do to much of a re-tread, here. I will also include both parts - even though the second episode was, technically, a new year's special.
The End of Time, for me, was probably the weakest of all the "swansong stories" for an incarnation of the Doctor. As I did mention in the review of Logopolis, it relies too heavily on just being a big sentimental event and doesn't give us enough plot. We're just meant to be content with watching the Doctor run around and be angsty. We're not supposed to notice that there's really not much of anything going on. Gallifrey is trying to return and the Master wants to take over the world. Both end up failing when there's still a good twenty minutes left in Part Two. So we end the story with just a series of pained expressions on the Doctor's face as he visits different people from his past but doesn't say much to them.
The story handles the Master in a pretty horrible way, too (something I go on about in my Ranking the Master series - https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2017/11/book-of-lists-ranking-masters-part-2.html. Again, I'll try not to re-tread too much). Flying through the air as the Renegade Time Lord shoots power beams from his hands just doesn't seem like the sort of thing you're supposed to have in a Doctor Who story. It all feels really out of place. I don't even blame John Simm for going so OTT in the story. How else can you perform that sort of material?
There are other little nitpicks I have. Donna being able to produce what appears to be a wave of regeneration energy that knocks all the approaching Masters on their asses requires more explanation than it gets. Time Lords being able to smell each other also seems really silly. Even Part One seems to lack enough content to fill the episode and we have to stare at endless shots of carbon-copy Masters overtaking the world.
Was there anything I enjoyed? The scenes with the Doctor and Wilf chatting were brilliantly performed. The Doctor's mother getting him not to make the wrong choice with Wilf's gun was very moving. The final revelation of what "He will knock four times" means was quite clever too.
And this is why End of Time ranks a bit higher than Next Doctor. It does have a few strong moments in it. Not enough to redeem it. But at least I can enjoy certain sequences.
As you can see: those Specials in 2009 didn't, necessarily, sit too well with me!
In the next entry, however, I will become a bit kinder. I'll be listing some Christmas stories that I consider fairly weak but are still, overall, enjoyable. Naturally enough, as we get closer to the top rankings, my praise will get stronger....
With the Christmas Special now being a thing of the past, I thought it might be fun to make my end-of-year countdown about Christmas Specials. The era seems properly cemented in the past so I can safely document it and not worry about having to alter the list, someday, because of future Christmas Specials that have come out.
Now, there have been a lot of Christmas Specials. To try to give each of them its own entry might be just a bit too lengthy of a process. I had a similar problem when I counted down Doctors from Worst to Best a few years back. So I listed 2 to 5 incarnations per entry. I thought I would do the same thing with Christmas Specials.
PART 1: THE GENUINELY BAD
I'm going to get just a bit mean-spirited, here (call me a Grinch!). There were a few Christmas Specials that genuinely missed the mark. We're going to review them in this section. And we're not going to be that kind to them.
The Next Doctor
Not only the worst of all the Christmas Specials, I consider The Next Doctor the worst episode in the entire New Series (thus far - a new episode might come out someday that's actually worse. But Next Doctor is hard to beat). Its biggest problem being that it's built around a central premise that is just a bit stupid.
But before we get to that gripe, let's look at some other stuff that makes the story so bad for me. I have quite a bit of trouble with even the first few minutes of this episode. The Cybershades look and act in an embarrassingly stupid manner. They're meant to be a product of Cyber-technology. So they should be emotionless. Instead, they react in erratic and even savage ways. That seems a contradiction in terms. Add to the fact that they are, basically, men in masks and fun-fur suits crawling around on all fours and we've got something, here, that is Myrka-worthy. I can accept something like the Myrka in Classic Who because of the terrible budget limitations. We should not be seeing nonsense like this in the New Series.
Then we get to a chase sequence that seems to ignore a lot of basic physics. The Doctor and Jackson Lake get dragged across a wooden floor for quite some distance. They manage to stay on their butts for the whole ride (which is, sort of, impossible in itself - they should have fallen over onto their stomachs). When the ride is over. They are laughing at the whole jolly adventure and feeling a bit stiff. They should have been in endless pain. Their clothing and flesh being dragged along a wooden surface for so long and so quickly should have been torn to shreds from the friction and actual splinters that such a journey would have produced. While we point out such obvious inconsistencies, lets also mention that Rosita would have never had the time to make it to that window sill with the ax. The Cybershade had scaled the wall by the time she noticed the ax. He was running quickly across the floor while Rosita would've been running up several flights of stairs and then getting over to the far end of the building. No matter what sort of logistics you apply to this, she's just not able to get to that window anywhere near fast enough.
So, in just the first few minutes, we're ignoring important elements of aesthetics, logic and even basic physics. It's pretty hard to bounce back from this. But if the rest of the story had been amazing - I could've forgotten these problems.
Unfortunately, the plot is pretty uninteresting and even a bit preposterous. Why would the Cybermen build a giant mech to take over the world? It seems to me there's about a hundred more effective ways to convert a primitive human population. Slowly but surely just abducting people and converting them until you have the advantage of numbers would be the smartest most logical way to go about things. A big nasty dreadnought traipsing around seems almost kinda stupid. Humans everywhere will see the giant from miles away and flee. Is this really what you want when you want to zombify a species?
And then there's the whole central conceit of the story. Is Jackson Lake actually the Doctor? We don't know, at first, of course. But RTD had a track record, at this point, of teasing us and then revealing that the tease wasn't what it seemed. He had foreshadowed the death of both Rose and Donna during Series 2 and 4. But then, as the seasons ended, he gave us a big "Just kidding!" and arranged their departure from the show in a different manner that only seemed, sort of, like death. So when he's suddenly hinting that we're going to meet the next incarnation of the Doctor before the current one regenerates - we're pretty sure he's going to use the same tactic.
I might have been okay with any other tactic to dismiss the next Doctor except the one he uses. RTD could have actually made him a future incarnation - but from an alternative dimension or an aborted timeline. Or he's a special clone or even an android. Or maybe he's an alien superfan trying to assume the Doctor's identity. I would have been okay with any of these ideas. But an 18th Century human in a fugue state that somehow had an info stamp backfire into him seems over-contrived to the point of being ludicrous. It might have just been easier to just cast David Morrissey as the next Doctor and made this a proper multi-incarnation adventure. It would have been pretty awesome, actually, if RTD had not tried to subvert expectations and, for once, delivered on what he'd promised. But, instead, we got this mess.
Re-watching Doctor Who is one of my favorite pastimes. But Next Doctor ruins even this. The real central premise of the story is finding out whether or not this man that's claiming to be the Doctor is actually him. The Cybermen stuff is actually pretty peripheral to the whole thing. So, once it's revealed that this isn't the next Doctor, there's little appeal left to the story. With the mystery solved, there's not a lot of motivation to ever watch this again. This is the problem with giving a Doctor Who adventure a sort of tabloid appeal. Once we find out that the attention-grabbing headline isn't the truth, there's little purpose in wanting to re-visit the article. It was all just a dumb trick. Why remind ourselves that we fell for the sensationalism?
Sadly, there's more that I could go on about. But this review is already getting long enough. So I'll try to find a positive point in my final paragraph:
Is there anything I enjoyed about Next Doctor? It's the first story to use a flashback sequence showing all of the Doctor's previous incarnations. That was nice.
Other than that, I got nothing.
The End of Time - Parts One and Two
During my Top Doctor Who Story Countdown from Days Gone By, I wrote an extensive entry on why I love Logopolis so much. To help illustrate its effectiveness, I compared it to The End of Time - a story that had to accomplish the similar task of writing out an extremely popular incarnation of the Doctor. You can read what I said here: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/12/book-of-lists-top-ten-who-stories-10.html..
Just in case you bother to read it, I'll try not to do to much of a re-tread, here. I will also include both parts - even though the second episode was, technically, a new year's special.
The End of Time, for me, was probably the weakest of all the "swansong stories" for an incarnation of the Doctor. As I did mention in the review of Logopolis, it relies too heavily on just being a big sentimental event and doesn't give us enough plot. We're just meant to be content with watching the Doctor run around and be angsty. We're not supposed to notice that there's really not much of anything going on. Gallifrey is trying to return and the Master wants to take over the world. Both end up failing when there's still a good twenty minutes left in Part Two. So we end the story with just a series of pained expressions on the Doctor's face as he visits different people from his past but doesn't say much to them.
The story handles the Master in a pretty horrible way, too (something I go on about in my Ranking the Master series - https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2017/11/book-of-lists-ranking-masters-part-2.html. Again, I'll try not to re-tread too much). Flying through the air as the Renegade Time Lord shoots power beams from his hands just doesn't seem like the sort of thing you're supposed to have in a Doctor Who story. It all feels really out of place. I don't even blame John Simm for going so OTT in the story. How else can you perform that sort of material?
There are other little nitpicks I have. Donna being able to produce what appears to be a wave of regeneration energy that knocks all the approaching Masters on their asses requires more explanation than it gets. Time Lords being able to smell each other also seems really silly. Even Part One seems to lack enough content to fill the episode and we have to stare at endless shots of carbon-copy Masters overtaking the world.
Was there anything I enjoyed? The scenes with the Doctor and Wilf chatting were brilliantly performed. The Doctor's mother getting him not to make the wrong choice with Wilf's gun was very moving. The final revelation of what "He will knock four times" means was quite clever too.
And this is why End of Time ranks a bit higher than Next Doctor. It does have a few strong moments in it. Not enough to redeem it. But at least I can enjoy certain sequences.
As you can see: those Specials in 2009 didn't, necessarily, sit too well with me!
In the next entry, however, I will become a bit kinder. I'll be listing some Christmas stories that I consider fairly weak but are still, overall, enjoyable. Naturally enough, as we get closer to the top rankings, my praise will get stronger....
Thursday, 14 November 2019
COMPLETE AND UTTER SILLINESS: THE CAPTURE-AND-ESCAPE HALL OF FAME
POINTS OF DEBATE is not the only new entry that I have introduced over the last year. COMPLETE AND UTTER SILLINESS was premiered on my latest Anniversary Special. After introducing fans to the concept of a frotnok. (don't try to look it up - it's my own special creation. Although, really, it should start turning up in fan reference material), I felt it was time to have some more fun with my favorite show. Rather than always just taking it way too seriously all the time!
I'm not presenting another outlandish theory, this time. Instead, I'm going to look at a somewhat over-abused writing device that was used in the Classic Series and assign fictitious awards to the grossest examples of it. We'll even have specific categories.
CAPTURE-AND-ESCAPE: THE ULTIMATE PLOT FILLER
New Who tends to move very quickly, these days (some might even say too quickly). Many stories are resolved within the same episode they started in. We get the occasional two-parter, or even three-parter (or are they really three parters? - read about the debate here: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/09/points-of-debate-what-constitutes-three.html), but even they tend to fly along at breakneck speed. Our "ADHD Culture" that loves YouTube clips that don't last longer than 5 minutes can't tolerate a story with any kind of real sag in it. Our interests must be constantly held or we turn our attention elsewhere.
Keeping us focused in New Who has sometimes occurred at the expense of good writing. Points in a script that should have been better explored get brushed aside in the name of Maintaining Momentum. In some cases, actual plot holes have been glossed over because the author wanted to keep the story moving. Perhaps they could have fixed the issue with the story if they had been allowed to examine things a bit more closely. But, again, Momentum wouldn't let them. They had to maintain a flow. This seems to be the priority in modern-day television.
Classic Who, of course, frequently did the exact opposite. Classic Who could contemplate its navel all day. Especially when you consider that it frequently indulged in longer stories that ran for six episodes. It also dipped its toe into seven parters - or even longer!
Doing the reverse of New Who does not mean all problems were eliminated. Instead, we were introduced to all new set of writing obstacles. On certain occasions, a writer was assigned more episodes than they had story for. Rather than ask for less episodes (and, subsequently, less pay), they tried to come up with "filler" or "padding". These were tricks an author might use to intentionally slow the plot down so that it would properly fill the assigned episodes.
One of the most obvious devices used by the writers in Classic Who was the "capture-and-escape" technique. Your protagonists could easily get from Point A in a plot to Point B - but that would not eat up enough time to fill your episode count. So you have them get caught and imprisoned in some way by the antagonists of the story. The main characters now have to spend some time trying to figure a way out of their jail cell. Time gets wasted and episodes get filled.
In a lot of cases, "capture-and-escape" should actually be called "capture-and-escape-and-re-captured" - but that it is too much of a mouthful. It is what most frequently occurs with this device. After some great struggle is spent getting out of jail, the protagonists then get re-captured a short while later and are thrown back in their cell with increased security now being used against them. This is, of course, the ultimate filler. For several long minutes, absolutely nothing was really achieved in the story. But the writer goes to bed that night happy to have gotten a nice paycheque for their efforts.
TECHNICAL DEFINITION?
I was going to go for one of my big, wordy definitions where I make totally sure that we're all clear on what a capture-and-escape is. And then I was like: "Rob! Lighten up! This is supposed to be something funnier. Take a chill pill, dude!"
So, yeah. Pretty straightforward. If the Doctor or a companion (or the entire TARDIS crew) gets caught and then has to spend a bunch of time getting out of their trap rather than propelling the plot forward - that's a capture-and-escape. The escape can even include a rescue rather than them completely getting out of it on their own. Although, probably at least a few minutes get wasted with them trying to escape of their own volition. After all, the whole point of the process is to eat up time.
WARNING!!
I will admit, outright, I consider this a really cheap device. The author should have created more subplots or character conflicts to mark the minutes. To just incarcerate the main characters and then have them struggle to find freedom is very lazy writing.
I will be discussing certain well-loved stories that exploit this technique quite a bit. Because of this, they're not so well-loved by me. So, brace yourselves, I may be taking the piss out of a few stories you really like.
Okay then, with all that out of the way. Let's get to the awards:
Most Blatant Use of the Device
There are two stories that use this device so obviously that I have to say they tie. So I will list both:
The Three Doctors
During Part Two of the Tenth Anniversary Special, the Doctor, Jo and a Professor Dude Who Got Accidentally Embroiled Into the Story (who is played by an actor who will play yet another Professor Dude Who Got Accidentally Embroiled Into the Story during Hand of Fear - he must love Doctor Who's casting director!) are being marched through the strange, alien-looking palace of Omega. There seems to be a few minutes that need filling as the episode nears its end. Professor Dude suggests they try to make a break for it. The Doctor argues against the idea. The debate, itself, eats up a good minute or so. Finally, Professor Dude pretends to submit. Then, suddenly, makes a break for it! Another minute or so gets wasted as he charges around the palace and gets intercepted by the giant jelly monsters that are roaming about. Slowly but surely, they press him back towards the Doctor and Jo. "Well, that was a waste of time!" he woefully admits as he re-joins them.
Yes it was Professor Tyler. Which was the whole point of the exercise. Nice of you to be obvious about it!
Talons of Weng-Chiang
A very popular story among fans. This is one of those tales, however, that I've never really seen why it's got such mass appeal. Making up a white guy to look Asian certainly gets it to look very offensive by modern-day standards. Although, really, even in the era it was made - it seemed pretty offensive!
But, rather than ruffle too many feathers with my many objections to this story, let's get to the real topic. As we're nearing the end of this Six Parter (that really only needed to be four parts), Bob Holmes seems to be getting desperate to mark time. He has his latest double act incarcerated in a manor of some sort by the evil Magnus Greel. Jago and Lightfoot spend a good few minutes investigating a dumb waiter and debating whether or not they could employ it as a form of egress. At last, we watch them awkwardly climb in and descend together to another level of the building. Clumsily, they climb back out - consuming as much time as possible in the process. Just when freedom seems apparent, a whole gang of actual Asians (as opposed to white people pretending to be Asians) descend upon them and force them back into their prison.
A huge screeching halt that we could, easily, fast forward through without causing any real damage to the story. It's almost embarrassing, really.
Talons ranks so highly because it is such a well-regarded story so it almost makes the capture-and-escape more famous. Three Doctors ties with Talons because it, outright, announces that it was a waste of time!
Story That Abuses this Device the Most
Without a doubt, this particular category goes to the notorious Frontier In Space. There's a lot of things I like about the writing of Malcolm Hulke - Frontier In Space, however, is not one of them!
Yup, he's given us another alien species that is not completely good or evil. They're just like us. Yup, their masks look really good/ Even by modern-day standards, it's a fairly good costume. If they returned in the New Series, there would be little need to alter the original version. It's also a bit cool that the Master teams up with the Daleks. Although the team-up is woefully short.
Otherwise, that's really about it for the qualities of Frontier In Space. I would say there's enough plot for about two episodes. But Hulke needed to give us six. So it is capture-and-escape after capture-and-escape after capture-and-escape.
I bothered to re-watch the story and actually count all the times the device is used. I had actually expected one capture-and-escape per episode (which, when you think about it, is still pretty bad!). I was wrong. Part One has two capture-and-escapes. The Doctor and Jo get imprisoned by the pilot and co-pilot of the bulk freighter they land on (are they really shipping flour to a colony world?! There really is no way for the colony world to just make its own flour - it needs to be imported?!). They escape only to have Jo imprisoned again by the Ogrons. We'll be merciful and include the cliffhanger of Part One (the Doctor and Jo now being captured by Earth Authorities) as the capture-and-escape for Part Two. In Part Two, the Doctor escapes Earth Authorities only to be captured by the Draconians. Who he escapes a short while later (in one of the most ridiculous methods of egress I've ever seen. Did you really need to flip over backwards in an art-deco chair, Jon?!). The Doctor is then re-captured by Earth Authorities only to escape again into the hands of the Ogrons at the cliffhanger. So, yeah, that's right. Three capture-and-escapes in Part Two. So, in just two parts, that's five capture-and-escapes!
Things slow down in Parts Three and Four. Only one capture-and-escape per episode. The Doctor tries to escape from the Lunar Penal Colony (woah! That gets referenced in Bad Wolf! Except that Bad Wolf takes place a good 100 000 years or so after Frontier In Space. Was the Moon a prison that whole time?!) in Part Three. He is delivered to the Master and tries to escape from him during Part Four. Now, if you thought the chair flip was silly in Part Two, the escape attempt in Part Four is way more ridiculous! Why did he need to do a space walk?! Couldn't he have just gone down the hallway and snuck up on the Master that way? The door between the room with the cage and the bridge didn't seem to be locked. And wouldn't some kind of instrumentation on the bridge register that airlocks are being opened and closed all over the place? Was the War of the Worlds book so engrossing that the Master just wasn't registering these notifications?!
Herein lies the problem of an endless array of captures-and-escapes. In order to keep things varied and interesting, the escapes need to become more and more outlandish. Frontier In Space definitely illustrates this problem quite clearly.
Part Five, amazingly enough, has no true captures-and-escapes. I say "true" because my definition stated it had to be a main character who tries to escape incarceration. There is a capture-and-escape of an Ogron - but I won't count it. Just as I didn't count the capture-and-escape from the Ogrons at the beginning of Part Three because it happens so quickly that it doesn't truly mark any time. It was there, moreso, to create a cliffhanger and give us a little bit of suspense. Even though it really just came across as Micheal Kilgarriff (or, quite possibly, Stephen Thorne - it's hard to tell!) running around in his Ogron costume as he smashes his way through bulsa wood doors that are meant to be metal.
Part Six, makes up for the absence of true capture-and-escapes in Episode Five by giving us two. Jo does one from her prison cell but is tricked by the Master and re-captured. The Doctor then gets captured and escapes a short while later by using the "mini-Keller Machine" that Jo stole (does no one check a prisoner's pockets before throwing them back in jail?!). There is, again, a super-short capture-and-escape right at the very end of the episode. But I'll let it slide. Again, it doesn't really mark time. If I was giving out awards, however, for most poorly edited scenes in a Doctor Who story, the last couple minutes of Frontier In Space would get first prize. You almost can't tell what happened at the end of that adventure because the editing is just that bad!
So, if I'm being nice, Frontier In Space has a total of nine capture-and-escapes. If I want to include the super-short ones and the Ogron capture-and-escape - we're up to twelve! There is no story in the history of the show that abuses this device more. Which is why I rarely watch Frontier. In fact, this was the first time in years. I only put it on to do this count. And to laugh at the super-obvious strings that hold up Jon Pertwee during his space walks!!
Story That Abuses This Device But We Tend To Ignore It Because It's A "Classic"
Now, I gave a warning that my opinions in this essay might offend some of you. I'm sure a few of you are already upset about what I've said about Frontier In Space. It does seem to hold a special place in the hearts of certain sectors of Fandom. You might have even gotten a bit mad at me for the things I said about Talons of Weng Chiang. This is a greatly-adored racially-offensive tale and no one should ever say anything ill of it.
But now you're going to get really mad at me!
For many, Genesis of the Daleks is their all-time favorite story. I had heard legend of it before watching it. Perhaps my expectations were just a bit too high because of it. When I was finally able to view it, I was pretty disappointed. I didn't think it was absolutely horrible, of course. But I definitely don't consider it the best story ever.
There were a couple of things about it that I found downright silly. Can you really escape a landmine like that? Pretty sure once you step on it, you're done for. Sarah Jane falling off the scaffholding only to fall back on it, pretty much, constitutes the worst cliffhanger resolution ever. Yup, the end of Part One of Dragonfire is pretty bad, too - but this one might be worse. I also think the famous monologue about Davros contemplating releasing a virus is pretty silly. Would someone really get that over-excited about cracking open a vial?! It's just a little too OTT for my liking. But it's funny how we never seem to talk about how bad certain elements of Genesis of the Daleks are. Almost as if we're not allowed to because the story is so highly regarded. Genesis almost reminds me of a dysfunctional family where a parent is a severe alcoholic but we're not allowed to talk about it because they're also a prominent figure in the community!
But the thing that really made me lose respect for Genesis of the Daleks is its abuse of the capture-and-escape device. While not as bad as Frontier In Space, there is still not enough story here for a Six Parter. At best, Terry Nation could have comfortably filled four episodes.
We know we're in trouble when Harry and the Doctor do a full capture-and-escape-and-recaptured with the Kaleds in Part One. We're not even through the first episode and there's a need for padding. Things continue to go bad when Sarah Jane gets captured by Thals in later episodes. The failed attempt to climb to the top of the dome is as painful to sit through as the Third Doctor's space walk in Frontier. There's still a bit more capture-and-escaping in the last few episodes when the TARDIS crew return to the Kaled bunker. To his credit, though, Nation does find other ways to pad things out in the latter half of the story. Davros delivering an impassioned-yet-boring speech to a group of Kaled scientists and soldiers we don't give a rat's ass about that we know will become gunstick fodder in just a few short minutes was an interesting alternative to just one more capture-and-escape.
Again, the tallying of capture-and-escapes is a fairly subjective process. But it does look like there's about five of them in Genesis of the Daleks. As I've said, though, we never acknowledge this flaw in the story. Or any other problem, for that matter. Because we're not allowed to. It's Genesis of the Daleks, damn it. The best Doctor Who story ever. Supposedly.
Earliest Example of a Capture-and-Escape
The capture-and-escape device seems to have a long history with the show. But just how far back does it truly go?
Believe it or not, we can trace it all the way back to its most humble of beginnings. Even Unearthly Child (or 1 000 000 BC - or whatever you want to call it!) takes advantage of it a bit.
Some of you older fans are, no doubt, familiar with the works of Dicky Howett. A great little comic strip artist who was, obviously, a big fan of the show. Dicky drew some great strips involving Who that were clearly geared at people who knew the show inside and out. While other comic strip artists might make a bit of fun here and there by drawing pictures of Daleks that can't climb stairs or other easy jokes like that, Dicky went for the more obscure stuff. It's great to see that a T-shirt company has used some of his images and I catch the occasional New Who fan wearing them. Howett's legacy lives on.
At one point, Dicky released an extended strip that was his own version of Unearthly Child. It had some great jokes in it. One of the ones I liked the best was his own acknowledgement of the capture-and-escape device. The basic gist of the gag is that Howett suddenly inserts a panel near the end of the strip that proclaims something to the nature of: "Six Capture-and-Escapes Later...". In the next panel, the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara are racing towards the TARDIS with cavemen chasing them.
It's an exaggeration, of course. But then, comedy will do that for effect. But Part Three of the story is one big capture-and-escape-and-recaptured. It's just difficult to notice because it's still, actually, a pretty well-written episode. The scene where Ian, Susan and Barbara teach compassion to Za and his girlfriend is quite compelling. That is the same scene, of course, where Ian stops the Doctor from attempting to kill Za. Which is a crazy moment to watch retrospectively. To see someone who is your hero be that heartless in his earliest days can really throw you off.
And that's the thing about capture-and-escape: if it's well done, we're not bothered by its attempt to mark time. There are some other problems with Unearthly Child. But I don't believe its use of capture-and-escape is one of them.
Which leads us to our next award:
A Story That Creates Such a Compelling Capture-and-Escape That We Don't Mind It
As I just tried to illustrate in the last award, there are times when a capture-and-escape doesn't actually drag the story down. If done cleverly, it can really lift the story and create some legitimate tension.
I picked pretty hard on Terry Nation for Genesis of the Daleks - so now I will sing his praise. While Planet of the Daleks is a bit of a Daleks (or The Dead Planet - or whatever you want to call it!) re-tread, it also does do a good job of doing a huge capture-and-escape that we don't mind at all because it is really well-conceived. The Doctor getting captured by the Daleks and being hauled off to their base on Spiridon starts feeling like that stereotypical: "Oh boy! It's a six parter and we only have story for four!" moment. But I find it really fleshes out nicely. So much so, that some of it even gets referenced in Remembrance of the Daleks.
Getting out of his cell and running into some other Thals that are stuck in an ice vent keeps the pace going nicely. The "ice slime", in fact, is a pretty nice effect. As they figure out a way to use the hot air rising through the refrigeration vent to their advantage, I really find myself impressed by the cleverness of the whole thing.
For years, the episode that featured all this capture-and-escaping was cut out from the story because it only existed in black-and-white. They finally colorized it and put into the DVD release. It is interesting to note that the story does do pretty well without the episode in it. Which shows off quite nicely that it was meant to just eat up some minutes. But, with the episode back in, I find myself enjoying the action that takes place within it. Yes, it's largely superfluous to the overall plot - but it's still a damned good episode!
The TARDIS being able to run out of oxygen, however, is still pretty weird. Not sure what that was all about!
Story That Could Have Abused Capture-and-Escape But Didn't
Obviously, a longer story is far more likely to take advantage of the capture-and-escape motif than, say, a two-parter. Totally awesome Classics like Inferno had seven parts to fill. So the Doctor does end up breaking in and out of captivity a few times when he's trapped in a fascist parallel universe.
With this in mind, a story like The War Games would be more-than-justified to be peppered with capture-and-escapes to fill up its ten episodes. Amazingly enough, it doesn't seem to resort to this tactic half as much as it could have. Parts One and Two do use this device a fair amount. But then it actually settles down and finds other ways to fill up the bountiful episode count. Some of these devices work better than others. The subplot of David Troughton having to guard a War Lord, for instance, is a fairly decent piece of drama. The Doctor and Jamie trying to blow open a safe while Carstairs deals with a surprise visit is another very enjoyable moment. These are storylines that do little to advance the main plot but still provide us with lovely distractions. Other moments, like trying to explain to a converted French soldier that he's being exploited by an evil alien race, don't necessarily work as well. But they are still far more effective than just chucking the Doctor and/or his companions in another jail cell and letting them try to find a way out. It's almost like Terrance Dicks and Malcolme Hulke sat down and said: "Let's try to find as many other ways to pad this out than just capture-and-escape."
War Games is still longer than it needs to be. And it does abuse capture-and-escape a bit. But I do recognize it as a story that could have used the device a whole lot more. Because of some of the creative choices that get made by the authors, the story ends up working quite well. It could have plodded along horribly and made Troughton's send-off absolutely tedious. But it gives us something quite masterful, instead. And I think some of that is due to the fact that Dicks and Hulke decide not to be lazy writers.
If only Hulke had maintained that same level integrity for Frontier In Space!
An Actual Example of Capture-and-Escape in the New Series
I did say in those introductory paragraphs that New Who tends to move really fast and doesn't use this device anymore. But we are a good eleven seasons into the show, now. That's a lot of stories. Couldn't just one of them have used that device somewhere?
Truthfully, it's probably happened a few times. But the one that seems to stand out the most would be the "three Doctors in one jail" scene from Day of the Doctor. It's almost as if Moffat is using the anniversary special to pay tribute to the great capture-and-escapes of yesteryear. While Clara's plotline does continue to move and develop, the Doctors' is brought to a grinding halt as they are thrown into a medieval cell by the Queen. There's much discussion and debate about where the Doctor has been going since the Time Wars and two different escape plans get hatched at once. And then we find out the door was unlocked the whole time!
To all intents and purposes, this does sound like a bit of a time-eater. Just like the old capture-and-escapes were. But, upon closer inspection, we see that Moff is setting up some crucial character development that will affect the Doctor as the story reaches its climax. Some of what gets covered in the prison cell will even bleed into Time of the Doctor a bit (the scene does start to foreshadow what's waiting for him on Trenzalore). It also sets up the basic premise of what will stop the Doctor from destroying Gallifrey in the Time Wars. So, on the surface, this may actually seem like yet another capture-and-escape. But there's quite a bit more going on there than you think. It is actually a very important scene on several levels.
Well, I have to admit, I enjoyed doing that. There's a few other conventions the show has used that I find quite silly that I might set up award ceremonies for, too. I definitely want to tackle the Cast Slaughterfests of Seasons 21 and 22. I could have some fun with that one!
I do hope some of my opinions on certain stories that I know are greatly loved didn't offend you too much. Some fans get very distressed by the fact that I don't think Genesis of the Daleks is that great! I also hope you noticed that I didn't just take the piss out of my favorite show for the entire entry. I intentionally pointed out some good stuff, too. Certain stories do resort to this tactic to mark time but end up doing it in a very effective way. I wanted to highlight that a bit too.
Like COMPLETE AND UTTER SILLINESS? Here's the first entry in the Series. Learn all about the frotnok:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/03/complete-and-utter-silliness-was.html
I was going to go for one of my big, wordy definitions where I make totally sure that we're all clear on what a capture-and-escape is. And then I was like: "Rob! Lighten up! This is supposed to be something funnier. Take a chill pill, dude!"
So, yeah. Pretty straightforward. If the Doctor or a companion (or the entire TARDIS crew) gets caught and then has to spend a bunch of time getting out of their trap rather than propelling the plot forward - that's a capture-and-escape. The escape can even include a rescue rather than them completely getting out of it on their own. Although, probably at least a few minutes get wasted with them trying to escape of their own volition. After all, the whole point of the process is to eat up time.
WARNING!!
I will admit, outright, I consider this a really cheap device. The author should have created more subplots or character conflicts to mark the minutes. To just incarcerate the main characters and then have them struggle to find freedom is very lazy writing.
I will be discussing certain well-loved stories that exploit this technique quite a bit. Because of this, they're not so well-loved by me. So, brace yourselves, I may be taking the piss out of a few stories you really like.
Okay then, with all that out of the way. Let's get to the awards:
Most Blatant Use of the Device
There are two stories that use this device so obviously that I have to say they tie. So I will list both:
The Three Doctors
During Part Two of the Tenth Anniversary Special, the Doctor, Jo and a Professor Dude Who Got Accidentally Embroiled Into the Story (who is played by an actor who will play yet another Professor Dude Who Got Accidentally Embroiled Into the Story during Hand of Fear - he must love Doctor Who's casting director!) are being marched through the strange, alien-looking palace of Omega. There seems to be a few minutes that need filling as the episode nears its end. Professor Dude suggests they try to make a break for it. The Doctor argues against the idea. The debate, itself, eats up a good minute or so. Finally, Professor Dude pretends to submit. Then, suddenly, makes a break for it! Another minute or so gets wasted as he charges around the palace and gets intercepted by the giant jelly monsters that are roaming about. Slowly but surely, they press him back towards the Doctor and Jo. "Well, that was a waste of time!" he woefully admits as he re-joins them.
Yes it was Professor Tyler. Which was the whole point of the exercise. Nice of you to be obvious about it!
Talons of Weng-Chiang
A very popular story among fans. This is one of those tales, however, that I've never really seen why it's got such mass appeal. Making up a white guy to look Asian certainly gets it to look very offensive by modern-day standards. Although, really, even in the era it was made - it seemed pretty offensive!
But, rather than ruffle too many feathers with my many objections to this story, let's get to the real topic. As we're nearing the end of this Six Parter (that really only needed to be four parts), Bob Holmes seems to be getting desperate to mark time. He has his latest double act incarcerated in a manor of some sort by the evil Magnus Greel. Jago and Lightfoot spend a good few minutes investigating a dumb waiter and debating whether or not they could employ it as a form of egress. At last, we watch them awkwardly climb in and descend together to another level of the building. Clumsily, they climb back out - consuming as much time as possible in the process. Just when freedom seems apparent, a whole gang of actual Asians (as opposed to white people pretending to be Asians) descend upon them and force them back into their prison.
A huge screeching halt that we could, easily, fast forward through without causing any real damage to the story. It's almost embarrassing, really.
Talons ranks so highly because it is such a well-regarded story so it almost makes the capture-and-escape more famous. Three Doctors ties with Talons because it, outright, announces that it was a waste of time!
Story That Abuses this Device the Most
Without a doubt, this particular category goes to the notorious Frontier In Space. There's a lot of things I like about the writing of Malcolm Hulke - Frontier In Space, however, is not one of them!
Yup, he's given us another alien species that is not completely good or evil. They're just like us. Yup, their masks look really good/ Even by modern-day standards, it's a fairly good costume. If they returned in the New Series, there would be little need to alter the original version. It's also a bit cool that the Master teams up with the Daleks. Although the team-up is woefully short.
Otherwise, that's really about it for the qualities of Frontier In Space. I would say there's enough plot for about two episodes. But Hulke needed to give us six. So it is capture-and-escape after capture-and-escape after capture-and-escape.
I bothered to re-watch the story and actually count all the times the device is used. I had actually expected one capture-and-escape per episode (which, when you think about it, is still pretty bad!). I was wrong. Part One has two capture-and-escapes. The Doctor and Jo get imprisoned by the pilot and co-pilot of the bulk freighter they land on (are they really shipping flour to a colony world?! There really is no way for the colony world to just make its own flour - it needs to be imported?!). They escape only to have Jo imprisoned again by the Ogrons. We'll be merciful and include the cliffhanger of Part One (the Doctor and Jo now being captured by Earth Authorities) as the capture-and-escape for Part Two. In Part Two, the Doctor escapes Earth Authorities only to be captured by the Draconians. Who he escapes a short while later (in one of the most ridiculous methods of egress I've ever seen. Did you really need to flip over backwards in an art-deco chair, Jon?!). The Doctor is then re-captured by Earth Authorities only to escape again into the hands of the Ogrons at the cliffhanger. So, yeah, that's right. Three capture-and-escapes in Part Two. So, in just two parts, that's five capture-and-escapes!
Things slow down in Parts Three and Four. Only one capture-and-escape per episode. The Doctor tries to escape from the Lunar Penal Colony (woah! That gets referenced in Bad Wolf! Except that Bad Wolf takes place a good 100 000 years or so after Frontier In Space. Was the Moon a prison that whole time?!) in Part Three. He is delivered to the Master and tries to escape from him during Part Four. Now, if you thought the chair flip was silly in Part Two, the escape attempt in Part Four is way more ridiculous! Why did he need to do a space walk?! Couldn't he have just gone down the hallway and snuck up on the Master that way? The door between the room with the cage and the bridge didn't seem to be locked. And wouldn't some kind of instrumentation on the bridge register that airlocks are being opened and closed all over the place? Was the War of the Worlds book so engrossing that the Master just wasn't registering these notifications?!
Herein lies the problem of an endless array of captures-and-escapes. In order to keep things varied and interesting, the escapes need to become more and more outlandish. Frontier In Space definitely illustrates this problem quite clearly.
Part Five, amazingly enough, has no true captures-and-escapes. I say "true" because my definition stated it had to be a main character who tries to escape incarceration. There is a capture-and-escape of an Ogron - but I won't count it. Just as I didn't count the capture-and-escape from the Ogrons at the beginning of Part Three because it happens so quickly that it doesn't truly mark any time. It was there, moreso, to create a cliffhanger and give us a little bit of suspense. Even though it really just came across as Micheal Kilgarriff (or, quite possibly, Stephen Thorne - it's hard to tell!) running around in his Ogron costume as he smashes his way through bulsa wood doors that are meant to be metal.
Part Six, makes up for the absence of true capture-and-escapes in Episode Five by giving us two. Jo does one from her prison cell but is tricked by the Master and re-captured. The Doctor then gets captured and escapes a short while later by using the "mini-Keller Machine" that Jo stole (does no one check a prisoner's pockets before throwing them back in jail?!). There is, again, a super-short capture-and-escape right at the very end of the episode. But I'll let it slide. Again, it doesn't really mark time. If I was giving out awards, however, for most poorly edited scenes in a Doctor Who story, the last couple minutes of Frontier In Space would get first prize. You almost can't tell what happened at the end of that adventure because the editing is just that bad!
So, if I'm being nice, Frontier In Space has a total of nine capture-and-escapes. If I want to include the super-short ones and the Ogron capture-and-escape - we're up to twelve! There is no story in the history of the show that abuses this device more. Which is why I rarely watch Frontier. In fact, this was the first time in years. I only put it on to do this count. And to laugh at the super-obvious strings that hold up Jon Pertwee during his space walks!!
Story That Abuses This Device But We Tend To Ignore It Because It's A "Classic"
Now, I gave a warning that my opinions in this essay might offend some of you. I'm sure a few of you are already upset about what I've said about Frontier In Space. It does seem to hold a special place in the hearts of certain sectors of Fandom. You might have even gotten a bit mad at me for the things I said about Talons of Weng Chiang. This is a greatly-adored racially-offensive tale and no one should ever say anything ill of it.
But now you're going to get really mad at me!
For many, Genesis of the Daleks is their all-time favorite story. I had heard legend of it before watching it. Perhaps my expectations were just a bit too high because of it. When I was finally able to view it, I was pretty disappointed. I didn't think it was absolutely horrible, of course. But I definitely don't consider it the best story ever.
There were a couple of things about it that I found downright silly. Can you really escape a landmine like that? Pretty sure once you step on it, you're done for. Sarah Jane falling off the scaffholding only to fall back on it, pretty much, constitutes the worst cliffhanger resolution ever. Yup, the end of Part One of Dragonfire is pretty bad, too - but this one might be worse. I also think the famous monologue about Davros contemplating releasing a virus is pretty silly. Would someone really get that over-excited about cracking open a vial?! It's just a little too OTT for my liking. But it's funny how we never seem to talk about how bad certain elements of Genesis of the Daleks are. Almost as if we're not allowed to because the story is so highly regarded. Genesis almost reminds me of a dysfunctional family where a parent is a severe alcoholic but we're not allowed to talk about it because they're also a prominent figure in the community!
But the thing that really made me lose respect for Genesis of the Daleks is its abuse of the capture-and-escape device. While not as bad as Frontier In Space, there is still not enough story here for a Six Parter. At best, Terry Nation could have comfortably filled four episodes.
We know we're in trouble when Harry and the Doctor do a full capture-and-escape-and-recaptured with the Kaleds in Part One. We're not even through the first episode and there's a need for padding. Things continue to go bad when Sarah Jane gets captured by Thals in later episodes. The failed attempt to climb to the top of the dome is as painful to sit through as the Third Doctor's space walk in Frontier. There's still a bit more capture-and-escaping in the last few episodes when the TARDIS crew return to the Kaled bunker. To his credit, though, Nation does find other ways to pad things out in the latter half of the story. Davros delivering an impassioned-yet-boring speech to a group of Kaled scientists and soldiers we don't give a rat's ass about that we know will become gunstick fodder in just a few short minutes was an interesting alternative to just one more capture-and-escape.
Again, the tallying of capture-and-escapes is a fairly subjective process. But it does look like there's about five of them in Genesis of the Daleks. As I've said, though, we never acknowledge this flaw in the story. Or any other problem, for that matter. Because we're not allowed to. It's Genesis of the Daleks, damn it. The best Doctor Who story ever. Supposedly.
Earliest Example of a Capture-and-Escape
The capture-and-escape device seems to have a long history with the show. But just how far back does it truly go?
Believe it or not, we can trace it all the way back to its most humble of beginnings. Even Unearthly Child (or 1 000 000 BC - or whatever you want to call it!) takes advantage of it a bit.
Some of you older fans are, no doubt, familiar with the works of Dicky Howett. A great little comic strip artist who was, obviously, a big fan of the show. Dicky drew some great strips involving Who that were clearly geared at people who knew the show inside and out. While other comic strip artists might make a bit of fun here and there by drawing pictures of Daleks that can't climb stairs or other easy jokes like that, Dicky went for the more obscure stuff. It's great to see that a T-shirt company has used some of his images and I catch the occasional New Who fan wearing them. Howett's legacy lives on.
At one point, Dicky released an extended strip that was his own version of Unearthly Child. It had some great jokes in it. One of the ones I liked the best was his own acknowledgement of the capture-and-escape device. The basic gist of the gag is that Howett suddenly inserts a panel near the end of the strip that proclaims something to the nature of: "Six Capture-and-Escapes Later...". In the next panel, the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara are racing towards the TARDIS with cavemen chasing them.
It's an exaggeration, of course. But then, comedy will do that for effect. But Part Three of the story is one big capture-and-escape-and-recaptured. It's just difficult to notice because it's still, actually, a pretty well-written episode. The scene where Ian, Susan and Barbara teach compassion to Za and his girlfriend is quite compelling. That is the same scene, of course, where Ian stops the Doctor from attempting to kill Za. Which is a crazy moment to watch retrospectively. To see someone who is your hero be that heartless in his earliest days can really throw you off.
And that's the thing about capture-and-escape: if it's well done, we're not bothered by its attempt to mark time. There are some other problems with Unearthly Child. But I don't believe its use of capture-and-escape is one of them.
Which leads us to our next award:
A Story That Creates Such a Compelling Capture-and-Escape That We Don't Mind It
As I just tried to illustrate in the last award, there are times when a capture-and-escape doesn't actually drag the story down. If done cleverly, it can really lift the story and create some legitimate tension.
I picked pretty hard on Terry Nation for Genesis of the Daleks - so now I will sing his praise. While Planet of the Daleks is a bit of a Daleks (or The Dead Planet - or whatever you want to call it!) re-tread, it also does do a good job of doing a huge capture-and-escape that we don't mind at all because it is really well-conceived. The Doctor getting captured by the Daleks and being hauled off to their base on Spiridon starts feeling like that stereotypical: "Oh boy! It's a six parter and we only have story for four!" moment. But I find it really fleshes out nicely. So much so, that some of it even gets referenced in Remembrance of the Daleks.
Getting out of his cell and running into some other Thals that are stuck in an ice vent keeps the pace going nicely. The "ice slime", in fact, is a pretty nice effect. As they figure out a way to use the hot air rising through the refrigeration vent to their advantage, I really find myself impressed by the cleverness of the whole thing.
For years, the episode that featured all this capture-and-escaping was cut out from the story because it only existed in black-and-white. They finally colorized it and put into the DVD release. It is interesting to note that the story does do pretty well without the episode in it. Which shows off quite nicely that it was meant to just eat up some minutes. But, with the episode back in, I find myself enjoying the action that takes place within it. Yes, it's largely superfluous to the overall plot - but it's still a damned good episode!
The TARDIS being able to run out of oxygen, however, is still pretty weird. Not sure what that was all about!
Story That Could Have Abused Capture-and-Escape But Didn't
Obviously, a longer story is far more likely to take advantage of the capture-and-escape motif than, say, a two-parter. Totally awesome Classics like Inferno had seven parts to fill. So the Doctor does end up breaking in and out of captivity a few times when he's trapped in a fascist parallel universe.
With this in mind, a story like The War Games would be more-than-justified to be peppered with capture-and-escapes to fill up its ten episodes. Amazingly enough, it doesn't seem to resort to this tactic half as much as it could have. Parts One and Two do use this device a fair amount. But then it actually settles down and finds other ways to fill up the bountiful episode count. Some of these devices work better than others. The subplot of David Troughton having to guard a War Lord, for instance, is a fairly decent piece of drama. The Doctor and Jamie trying to blow open a safe while Carstairs deals with a surprise visit is another very enjoyable moment. These are storylines that do little to advance the main plot but still provide us with lovely distractions. Other moments, like trying to explain to a converted French soldier that he's being exploited by an evil alien race, don't necessarily work as well. But they are still far more effective than just chucking the Doctor and/or his companions in another jail cell and letting them try to find a way out. It's almost like Terrance Dicks and Malcolme Hulke sat down and said: "Let's try to find as many other ways to pad this out than just capture-and-escape."
War Games is still longer than it needs to be. And it does abuse capture-and-escape a bit. But I do recognize it as a story that could have used the device a whole lot more. Because of some of the creative choices that get made by the authors, the story ends up working quite well. It could have plodded along horribly and made Troughton's send-off absolutely tedious. But it gives us something quite masterful, instead. And I think some of that is due to the fact that Dicks and Hulke decide not to be lazy writers.
If only Hulke had maintained that same level integrity for Frontier In Space!
An Actual Example of Capture-and-Escape in the New Series
I did say in those introductory paragraphs that New Who tends to move really fast and doesn't use this device anymore. But we are a good eleven seasons into the show, now. That's a lot of stories. Couldn't just one of them have used that device somewhere?
Truthfully, it's probably happened a few times. But the one that seems to stand out the most would be the "three Doctors in one jail" scene from Day of the Doctor. It's almost as if Moffat is using the anniversary special to pay tribute to the great capture-and-escapes of yesteryear. While Clara's plotline does continue to move and develop, the Doctors' is brought to a grinding halt as they are thrown into a medieval cell by the Queen. There's much discussion and debate about where the Doctor has been going since the Time Wars and two different escape plans get hatched at once. And then we find out the door was unlocked the whole time!
To all intents and purposes, this does sound like a bit of a time-eater. Just like the old capture-and-escapes were. But, upon closer inspection, we see that Moff is setting up some crucial character development that will affect the Doctor as the story reaches its climax. Some of what gets covered in the prison cell will even bleed into Time of the Doctor a bit (the scene does start to foreshadow what's waiting for him on Trenzalore). It also sets up the basic premise of what will stop the Doctor from destroying Gallifrey in the Time Wars. So, on the surface, this may actually seem like yet another capture-and-escape. But there's quite a bit more going on there than you think. It is actually a very important scene on several levels.
Well, I have to admit, I enjoyed doing that. There's a few other conventions the show has used that I find quite silly that I might set up award ceremonies for, too. I definitely want to tackle the Cast Slaughterfests of Seasons 21 and 22. I could have some fun with that one!
I do hope some of my opinions on certain stories that I know are greatly loved didn't offend you too much. Some fans get very distressed by the fact that I don't think Genesis of the Daleks is that great! I also hope you noticed that I didn't just take the piss out of my favorite show for the entire entry. I intentionally pointed out some good stuff, too. Certain stories do resort to this tactic to mark time but end up doing it in a very effective way. I wanted to highlight that a bit too.
Like COMPLETE AND UTTER SILLINESS? Here's the first entry in the Series. Learn all about the frotnok:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/03/complete-and-utter-silliness-was.html
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