Day 526: The Leisure Hive Part 1

The Leisure Hive is the start of a new era. New producer, new script editor, new director, new music, new title sequence, everything feels new. And it certainly shows on camera. The director, Lovett Bickford, instantly sets himself apart from virtually every single director before him, mainly through his innovative use of scene transitions. We have one corridor scene that is spiced up by having the characters walk towards the camera, before their bodies obstruct the camera's view, such that when we can see again, the camera has switched positions and we are now seeing them walk away from the camera. It's a simple camera trick, but effective. Similarly effective is the cliffhanger, where the Doctor appears to have been dismembered. We watch this on a screen, and as the cliffhanger approaches, the screen zooms in on the Doctor's face. This is all fairly normal, however what makes it interesting is the fact that the camera also zooms in on the screen at the same time, making the zoom appear quicker and more violent as we zoom in on the Doctor's face. We then immediately cut to the credits, with a harshness that leaves the viewer shocked and slightly disoriented. It's one of a number of things that feels new about the series, now that a breath of fresh air has been blown into it, giving us something truly memorable as a result.