Day 806: The Caretaker

Let's talk about Danny Pink, the new regular for Series 8. He's an interesting character to have as a regular because he's defined as someone who doesn't get on particularly well with the Doctor, mostly due to their difference of opinion about war and soldiering. And this difference of opinion is explored throughout The Caretaker, which proves to be quite an intriguing story.

As a story, The Caretaker sets itself up as the generic romp where Danny, as Clara's boyfriend, discovers that she can travel through time and space. So we get a fairly light hearted opening 20 minutes or so, leading up to the point where Danny discovers the truth. And when he does, he doesn't take it particularly well, in part because the Doctor has left a bad first impression on him due to their aforementioned difference in opinion over soldiers. And from this point onwards, the story changes to an argument between the two characters, with a generic romp happening in the background.

And the argument is great because neither character is put in a winning position by the story; instead on both a writing and directing front the episode is kept totally impartial. We continually see the Doctor put forward his beliefs that Danny is not someone to be particularly liked, because of his military nature and admiration of killing people who attack him, instead of searching for the peaceful solution. It's an opinion that's best read in a post-Day of the Doctor series, where we know that the Doctor had taken up arms and become a soldier, and that he has lived with that regret every day after that point. But the story doesn't dwell on that, preferring instead to dwell on Danny's argument, which it knows is the harder one to sell to the audience. And Danny's argument is that the Doctor is just as bad as he is, even defining him as an Army Officer. It's a cruel thing to do, and it's cruel of Danny to continually refer to the Doctor as 'Sir' throughout their first meeting specifically to irk him but it's entirely justified. And when the Doctor meets with Clara to discuss their plan to take down the Skovox Blitzer, it's done in such a way to emphasise that the Doctor is clearly giving Clara orders to follow, like a Sergeant ordering about his troops. It all makes for a very interesting argument to watch.

And that's what I really like about this episode, and Series 8 as a whole. From this point onwards, it's going to refuse to take sides, preferring instead to tell a story that has conflict and no clear winner. And we will, of course, see more of that in tomorrow's episode.

Day 782: Closing Time

Over the new series of Doctor Who, there's been a habit of generally having a nice, simple, low key story before the big and amazing series finale. Stories like Boom Town or The Lodger have been like the calm before the storm, one last chance to have fun with the characters before the traumatic events of the next week will take hold. And Closing Time fits squarely into that mould, providing something that's a basic comedy with Cybermen, a baby, and the return of Craig from last series' The Lodger. On the whole, I don't mind it. Gareth Roberts' script, whilst not as amazingly funny and heart-warming as The Lodger, still provides some very nice moments such as the Doctor's monologue to Alfie, or the scene where Craig discovers the Doctor in a toy shop, which is excellently played by both Matt Smith and James Corden.

But there's one moment that sticks out for me in this whole piece. Just after the Doctor explains to Craig that aliens attacking when they met again was a coincidence, out of nowhere we get a cameo from Amy and Rory. Amy and Rory left the TARDIS in The God Complex, and it's pretty much stated in this episode that it's been 200 years since the Doctor last saw them. But he sees them again and sees how their life turned out, before he goes off to face the astronaut at the bottom of Lake Silencio. I actually love this moment because of two very big reasons. One is that Matt Smith chooses to underplay the scene, quietly standing back as we look from afar at his two old friends. It gives the scene a sense of quiet dignity, as if the Doctor is recognising all the time that they spent together and he's recognising that they need to stay apart. Similarly, the story chooses to underplay the moment as well. Aside from the fact that the Doctor doesn't interact with Amy and Rory, he also never refers to the moment throughout the rest of the story. It reinforces the quiet dignity of the moment, representing that the Doctor has recognised that he needed to move on and that he did so, even if for a fleeting moment he was attracted towards them again.

That sense of moving on is also what drives the Doctor to the TARDIS at the end of the episode. He's a man who's ready to face his fate, as we'll find out in The Wedding of River Song.

Day 767: The Lodger

The Lodger's another highlight of Series 5 for me because it acts as the real showcase for the Doctor of Series 5. It's a simple character piece as we see the effect that the Doctor has on ordinary people, exposing what it's like to live with this fantastic magician of a man for better and for worse.

I think that, in order to best sum up how the story shows off the Doctor of Series 5, we should have a look at the simple scene where he convinces Sophie to follow her dream and work with monkeys. He deliberately antagonises Sophie into saying her feelings about working with animals, and how much she cares about them. Then, just as things start to get a little bit too unfriendly, the Doctor reveals the magic trick to Sophie and how he's helped her realise her inner feelings. This scene shows off the Doctor well by playing him as someone that can easily take control of the situation when he nees to, even if this is not obvious at first. The magic of the scene is thus created by the moment when we realise that the Doctor has been secretly taking control without us realising it, and so we get a small sense of wonder as we see how he did it. But not only that, there's also the magic of how he did it. Instead of using a simple method, he opted for a more complex but effective method that would change Sophie's mind. The fact that the Doctor is able to pull off such a complex trick from underneath our noses shows the degree of magic that is present within the character.

And this magic applies throughout Series 5. We saw it in the capture of Prisoner Zero in The Eleventh Hour, as well as the defeat of the Angels in Flesh and Stone and the ending of Amy's Choice. It's also inverted very well in the next episode, but that's another time. And speaking of the future, we begin to get a sense in this episode that the Doctor may not be as nice as he seems. Because even though he helped Craig and Sophie in the end, he still put Craig through a small amount of emotional trauma in order to reach his end goal. And that's just the start of the slippery slope that will lead to the darker Doctor that we'll meet in the next series. But, for now, we've got work to do as the Pandorica is due to open.

Day 753: Planet of the Dead

Planet of the Dead, like The Next Doctor, is another one of the specials that doesn't really feel that huge. Yes, there's been some foreign location filming in Dubai, which does look impressive, and there's also a sense that more money has been spent on this episode than on normal episodes, which makes the episode feel a little bit more special, but other than that it's an average science fiction romp of an episode. Which is what makes the episode rather interesting, in my opinion.

You see, this is a story in the mould of something like Partners in Crime or Smith and Jones. It features the Doctor having fun in a story that simply provides a fun adventure for the Doctor to have with his new companion. But, after the events of Journey's End, the Doctor has been travelling alone and he fully intends to stay that way, which eventuates in him rejecting Lady Christina's request to travel on the TARDIS with him. So what this episode becomes is an example of how the events of Journey's End have affected him. He's made the decision not to travel with anyone, even when he can see their clear potential as a companion. And the story quite obviously looks towards setting this moment of rejection up as quite an important moment.

Lady Christina is set up to be a basic concept for a companion. Not only does she have the physical and mental prowess required to become a companion, she's also a character that has just enough of an edge to make her stand out against the rest of the supporting cast. She's the only one with any sizeable back story, as well as the one that takes charge when events get out of hand. She's also able to build up a good relationship with the Doctor, gleefully disregarding his orders in much the same way that he gleefully disregards hers. She could have clearly been a companion, were it not for the fact that the Doctor was always going to reject her because he doesn't want someone else on the TARDIS. This simple rejection should be seen as important because the story itself is pointing out that she's perfect for the Doctor and yet he still decides to walk the lonely path.

All of this goes as an example to show how the events of Donna's departure affected this Doctor, and marks a nice example of character development for the Doctor, which will be explored tomorrow, with fairly larger consequences...

Day 745: The Unicorn and the Wasp

As I approach the end of the blog, I'm looking forward to the luxury of being able to watch episodes of Doctor Who without any sort of structure attached to how I watch them. Indeed, I think that I'll mark my freedom by watching some relaxing and fun episodes, like The Unicorn and the Wasp, one of my favourite episodes in the history of Doctor Who.

The Unicorn and the Wasp doesn't set out to be a particularly deep and meaningful story, instead it just wants to be a lot of fun in 1920's England with Agatha Christie. And it succeeds at that point, with some excellent writing from Gareth Roberts and some very interesting directorial choices from Graeme Harper. Roberts' writing is perfectly light, with any real moments of danger being underpinned with comedy, leading to a lighter story overall. The scene where the Doctor is poisoned, for instance, whilst the music and camera suggests that this is a stressful and dangerous moment, Roberts' script calls for it to descend into a farcical game of charades that is excellently played by the actors. It creates a memorable scene as it brings fun and joy back into the dangerous adventures that normally plague a Doctor Who story.

And it's moments like the scene above that remind me how much I love Doctor Who, because it can be perfectly fun and light whilst still being a remarkably exciting programme.

Day 726: The Shakespeare Code

Watching The Shakespeare Code, by Gareth Roberts, my mind is immediately drawn to another piece by Roberts, The Plotters, a Doctor Who spin-off novel written in the 1990's, where the First Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki have an adventure with King James I and Guy Fawkes. What makes these stories so similar, beyond their time periods, is the way in which they depict history.

Roberts' attitude to historical stories is to make them feel modern. He doesn't treat the past as some collection of people talking in iambic pentameter and wandering around in robes, instead he writes the characters, and by extension the world, as if they exist today, except with a few dialogue changes here and there. This can be seen, for instance, in the characters of Firking and Hodge in The Plotters. Both are simple cobblers, and their lives feel perfectly normal. They worry about normal things, like what work they want to be doing, making the book breathe with life, instead of just being a collection of words on a page. You can also see this in one of the opening scenes of The Shakespeare Code, where the Doctor guides Martha around Elizabethan England, points out analogues to various modern day concepts including, in what later becomes the story's best joke, global warming. This all helps the world feel alive, and turns the world of Shakespeare's London from an abstract concept that you read about in books to something that you can step into and live in.

It's a fun story, all in all, and acts as an excellent example of a historical adventure done well, where the world feels real, as if the TARDIS has really taken you back in time.