Day 721: Fear Her

Fear Her is relentlessly disliked. In a recent survey in Doctor Who magazine, ranking all Doctor Who episodes from worst to best up until The Time of the Doctor, Fear Her was ranked 240th out of 241. The only story that it was better than was The Twin Dilemma, which is arguably a story that helped to speed along the cancellation of Doctor Who. So that should give you some idea of how much this story is hated. But why is there so much vitriol for this story? It's a question that I've asked myself time and time again, because I honestly can't see it.

Granted, this story isn't particularly good. It's a cheap episode, and it clearly shows, given that the episode goes out of its way to avoid showing effects shots, at one point substitution the monster with a red light. Similarly, while the episode does have an interesting hook to it: being that a child can draw pictures that kidnap people, it doesn't quite work on screen because it never really follows up on the premise by looking at the people affected by it. Compare Fear Her with The Idiot's Lantern, for instance. The Idiot's Lantern quite clearly shows people distressed by the threat of people being taken away in vans to some undisclosed location, and that shows itself in some emotionally charged scenes peppered throughout the episode. For Fear Her, we get a few scenes of people looking worried, and that's that. It's a failure both in terms of the story, because it should have clearly thought about the emotional impact of what is happening and the acting, which never truly is able to convey the emotion of having children abducted on a regular basis from that street.

But the story does succeed in some areas. It does have an interesting undercurrent dealing with an abusive father, which is a very different area for the series to go into, and I feel that if this sub-plot were part of a better written story, then it would be more well regarded. Also, the 'love conquers all' ending, whilst relentlessly cheesy, is still rather fun, and whilst I may have been laughing at certain moments (the line "We did see a flash of lightning earlier that seemed to strike him" never fails to make me laugh by how understated it is) rather than laughing with certain moments, at least I'm enjoying the story. Overall, it's not as bad as its reputation suggests, and certainly not the second worst episode of Doctor Who ever (<cough> Warrriors of the Deep <cough>). It's just a bit of light relief as the calm before the storm...

Day 720: Love and Monsters

Love and Monsters is a fairly divisive episode. Some say that it's awful because it doesn't properly function as a Doctor Who story, given that the Doctor is only in it for 5 minutes, as well as insulting Doctor Who fans. Others like it for daring to do something different, as well as being affectionate to most Doctor Who fans, and only insulting a certain sect of fans such as one big name fan who had served on the programme as a continuity advisor. As for myself, I'm a bit 'meh' on this episode. I appreciate what it's trying to do, and I love that the story focuses itself on Doctor Who fans, but the story drags in certain places and the ending doesn't quite work in my opinion, notwithstanding the 'love life' joke which is amazing.

But ruminating on whether this story is any good or not doesn't feel particularly interesting to me, so I'll take a slightly different tack. Over the past couple of months, I've been catching up on some DVDs that I had lying around, including the complete set of a British comedy series called I'm Alan Partridge. It's very funny, with some excellent characters, including Michael, a fairly dimwitted and entertaining Geordie. What I wasn't quite expecting was to see the actor who plays Michael, Simon Greenall, pop up in Love and Monsters, playing an entirely different character, which distracted me slightly from the main event.

It's a common problem that I face, encountering actors across various TV series playing vastly different characters. I rushed through The Thick of It a couple of months ago, because I wanted to get it done before the new series of Doctor Who, lest the character of Malcolm Tucker would stick too clearly in the mind whilst watching Peter Capaldi's Doctor. Similarly, I'm holding back on watching the new Jessica Jones series, because David Tennant plays the villain and, whilst delivering an amazing performance, I'm afraid that all I'll see him as is the Doctor. And, of course, I can never forget seeing Guy Siner, the actor who played Lieutenant Gruber in 'Allo 'Allo, pop up in Genesis of the Daleks as one of the Kaleds, an entirely different Nazi analogue. It is for him that I name this problem, Gruber's Syndrome, where you see an actor appear in something that you recognise from somewhere else, and you can't quite disassociate yourself from the role that they previously portrayed. It's annoying, but I've learnt to live with it, and at the very least, it's meant that I have been able to develop a frighteningly large encyclopaedia of actors in my mind, just through seeing them in things elsewhere.

Day 719: The Satan Pit

The Satan Pit differs from The Impossible Planet in terms of action. The first 25 minutes or so of this episode are some of the most intense in any episode of Doctor Who. And whilst it may not seem from the outset to be intense as described, through strength of direction and writing, it becomes something truly marvellous.

It begins slowly, with a brief action sequence to resolve the cliffhanger, but immediately, the tension begins to rise with the ever-present threat of the Ood banging on the door. And just as things begin to sort themselves out, problems start to arise. The Doctor is cut off from everyone else, so Rose is left to help guide the crew-members into a basic plan to escape the Ood. They do this by choosing to go into the maintenance shafts, which is left to the absolute last second. James Strong, the director, takes full advantage of this by having a disorienting series of quick cuts, varying from the cover of the maintenance shaft, the face of Mr Jefferson (the security chief) and one of the Ood slowly advancing. This leads to the impression for the audience that the Ood are closer than they appear to be, and that makes them even more of a threat.

Inside the maintenance shafts, claustrophobia begins to set in. Everything is kept tight, and the Ood are never allowed to be too far away, in a chase to take down the people in the Sanctuary Base. Murray Gold's music keeps rising in tension, only pausing for a brief moment to allow for the sacrifice of Mr Jefferson. This brief pause is well needed, and credit should clearly go to Matt Jones and Russell T Davies, who both did writing work on this story. His death both reminds viewers that the characters are more than capable of dying in this episode, as well as providing a brief moment of quiet in the otherwise intense scene. This allows for the audience to breathe, so that the episode feels real, and not just an extended action scene.

What the moment of quiet also allows for is a jolt to bring the action back to the story. The surprise appearance of an Ood kicks the story into overdrive, ensuring that attention is kept to the story. And then, as quickly as the Ood appears, the sequence is allowed to finish with the crew-members hitting the Ood with a psychic knock-out, leaving them safe, for the time being. And after that sequence, I personally had to pause the episode and go for a quick break to breathe and recover. It's a thoroughly worrying and exciting sequence, and one of my personal favourites in the story.

But that only describes half of this fantastic adventure. I've made no real mention of the Beast, and the work that has gone into that, with all of those fantastic ideas. Nor have I mentioned the Ood in any great detail, where arguably the story's greatest idea is thrown away, only to be picked up again in a couple of series' time. But that's just because there's so much to talk about in this two parter, and so little time to do it in. It's a truly fantastic story, and one that I've been quietly looking forward to over the past couple of days.

Day 718: The Impossible Planet

To be perfectly honest, this story is not only, in my opinion, the best story of Tennant's first series, it is also one of the best stories that I've covered on this blog. It's like a black hole of a story, grabbing your attention and never letting go until the credits start to roll. And it's easy to see why.

Take, for instance, the scene that I've put above, where we see Scooti die in a rather horrific way. The scene begins with her encountering the frightening appearance of Toby, the chief archaeologist, who has been possessed by the Beast. It's handled with a degree of quietness and serenity, acknowledging the perverse beauty of what we're seeing. Like Scooti, we are drawn to Toby and his appearance, but we ultimately reject it. Unfortunately, this is where the story shifts gears slightly, and we go into a more dangerous region. Scooti tries to escape, but she is stopped, as the glass breaks and she is left to go out into the vacuum of space. The music and direction changes abruptly, reflecting the intensity of what is happening, as Scooti's screams become more and more desperate. And whilst this is a ruthlessly tense scene, what makes it powerful, in my opinion, is what comes directly after it.

We eventually end up in one of the habitation zones on the sanctuary base, with the crew-members looking for Scooti. The Doctor finds her, floating beautifully in space, in what is a truly haunting image. We then pay respects to this character, before closing the window and leaving her to drift off into the black hole. And this is what makes the story so powerful. It's based around ordinary humans who have done something stupid, who have gone out to explore a region of space that should never have existed. And it's dangerous, and they're probably going to die, but these are ordinary, likeable people, who clearly have lives outside of the adventure. And the tension of the story is exacerbated because all of these people feel real, feel as if they could be part of your life. And when they die, they are mourned, just like any other person is.

But that's just the first half of how I think this story is so fantastic. Much of The Impossible Planet is based around tension, letting the horror build until it reaches a breaking point. And we'll see that breaking point in the next entry, when we look at The Satan Pit.

Day 717: The Idiot's Lantern

The Idiot's Lantern is, quite simply, a romp. It's a fun run-around in 1950's London with no major consequences for the series ahead. And whilst it generally succeeds in being watchable, it's mostly forgettable, aside from a few brief images and concepts. So what else is there to talk about with respect to this episode?

Well, there's Euros Lyn's direction, for a start. He has made the curious decision to shoot almost all of the episode on a Dutch angle, tilting the camera to one side so that everything looks slanted and slightly unnerving. And whilst this does create a certain amount of atmosphere in the episode, it is unfortunately over-used. This ended up taking me out of the story completely, because I became fixated on the angle that the camera was on, trying to figure out when it would go back to being normal again. So whilst Euros Lyn clearly had the best of intentions with this decision, I can't help but fault him for what he did.

There's also the basic design of the episode, which feels as if it has been based on the Quatermass serials in the 1950's. Now, these are actually some rather fantastic pieces of television, filled with paranoia. But while the design of the story feels as if it wants to be part of that, having men in suits, and dark rooms with mysterious goings-on, it never quite works because the story just doesn't have the tension of the original serials, leaving this to feel like a pale pastiche of a better story.

But, despite the fact that I've been reasonably harsh on this story, I did enjoy it, and it has gone to further cement Tennant in the role of the Doctor, giving him a story where he can be the complete hero. He runs about, drops witty remarks, and saves the day whilst praising ordinary people. It's a fun performance to watch, and clearly part of why Tennant was so loved in the role, even if some of his stories weren't particularly good.

Day 716: The Age of Steel

The Age of Steel is, in my opinion, one of the few good Cybermen stories. To clarify what I mean by this, I'll just give a quick run-down of what I think of the previous Cybermen stories, in reverse order.

Silver Nemesis is very fun to watch, but the story lacks a certain depth to it. The same can be said of Attack of the Cybermen, although it is somewhat lacking in fun, but it has just a bit more depth. Earthshock is very well produced, and whilst I may not necessarily like it, I'm more than willing to give it a second chance sometime in the future. Revenge of the Cybermen is forgettable, but not bad. The Invasion is excellent, and what I would say is, up until The Age of Steel, the most recent good Cyberman story. The Wheel in Space isn't very engaging, which I can claim by virtue of the fact that I can barely remember what happens in it, a year and a half after first watching it. The Tomb of the Cybermen is a bit overrated in my opinion, but it means well, and The Moonbase is enjoyable, but not much else.

And the one story missing from that list is The Tenth Planet, the first Cyberman story. This is where we get introduced to the inner horror that is the Cybermen, that they are essentially human beings who have been converted into machines, and that their modus operandi is to go around the Universe and convert other people into Cybermen. "You will become like us" is their mantra, a frightening phrase on a certain level, provoking fear that one might lose their humanity, but still live. Naturally, this entire line of thought is barely touched upon in later stories featuring the Cybermen, and it take The Age of Steel to realise that there is potential in the original concept.

So The Age of Steel is good because it does something interesting with the Cybermen. It doesn't just make them into faceless monsters, instead it makes them into faceless monsters that used to have faces. There's heartbreaking scenes as we see ordinary people get converted into Cybermen, including the incredibly haunting scene of the bride who has become a Cyberman, and gets her emotions turned back on again, reminding us of the human trapped within that skin of metal. Indeed, the entire climax to the story is based around giving the Cybermen back their emotions, such that they realise what they have become and breakdown out of fear. In fact, to quote The Tomb of the Cybermen, you might say that they've had a complete metal breakdown.

And this all is a hallmark of what Russell T Davies is doing with the programme. He's reminding people that Doctor Who can be at its best when it is about people. It's not looking at Cybermen as scary because they're going to kill you, it's making Cybermen scary because they can be you. By taking this approach, he makes the Cybermen into a far more dangerous force, and not just second tier villains compared to the Daleks. What this all means is that through Davies and Tom MacRae's writing, and Graeme Harper's excellent direction, we have what is a Cyberman story that is actually and legitimately good.

Day 715: Rise of the Cybermen

It might be easiest to start talking about this episode by talking about something else entirely. One day I was particularly bored, with the new series of Doctor Who not airing in Australia for a couple of months, so I went on the internet and had a wander. Across my travels, I encountered a website that had a section that had a couple of links to what I thought were episode synopses of Tennant's first series. I clicked on one, and my mouth dropped open. These weren't synopses, these were the actual episodes themselves.

To put this into context, waiting for Doctor Who in Australia was a test of patience. Unlike today where simulcasts of Doctor Who episodes occur every Sunday morning, back in 2006 we had to wait around three months for the episodes to arrive here. In that three months, I'd spoil myself mightily by reading synopses, watching clips, and playing online games based on the episode. So to come across new episodes of Doctor Who, available online for my viewing pleasure, was perhaps the most shocking discovery I ever made. In the spur of the moment, I watched New Earth first, which I enjoyed. I also watched School Reunion, and Rise of the Cybermen, before guilt got the better of me and I stopped watching online, preferring to wait for the broadcast (incidentally, guilt did not prevent me from looking up spoilers, and it would take around four more years for me to watch an episode without being spoiled beforehand. But that's a story for another day.)

So when I think of Rise of the Cybermen, my thoughts don't necessarily drift towards thinking about parallel worlds, or the fact that the cliffhanger reveal of the Cybermen is rendered weak by the fact that Cybermen had been a fairly large part of the marketing for that year. Instead, I think about sitting down in a chair in front of a computer and gleefully watching a new episode of Doctor Who. Nothing can take that thrill away from me, and I'm glad that I can still have it every time I sit down for something new.