April 7, 2023

Whowatch Part 13

All of 20 seconds to work with - 40 if you count that the Youtube version and Twitter version for some reason have different soundtracks - but hey, they kept the trunks after all, even if I have a couple other design quibbles that's a win (and someone pointed out to me on Twitter the s-shield redesign seems Kirby-inspired). Plus the narrowing of the release window from 'this year' to 'this summer'! I remain as hopeful for this as can be, especially when it's already gotten the most important thing right: Clark has the slicked-down hair and Superman the natural hair. I'd call that an even more important 'but do they get it' than the spitcurl's presence or absence.

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The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe

Asylum of the Daleks

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

A Town Called Mercy

The Power of Three

The Angels Take Manhattan

The Snowmen

The Bells of Saint John

The Rings of Akhaten

Cold War

Hide

Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS

The Crimson Horror

Nightmare in Silver

David: After a bit of a hiatus - as you can see, there was quite a bit to get through this time around, plus a rather sizable post in-between - we’re back with a charming if not overly exciting series that I can understand you wanting to compress into a single Whowatch.

Sean: Look, Series 7 has about a handful of episodes that are worth talking about. It’s not a bad set of episodes per say, it’s just… I’d much rather speed things along and get to the Anniversary stories instead of having to pretend I have things to say about Chris Chibnall’s last Moffat era stories or Toby Whithouse being transphobic again. So if I lose my favorite Matt Smith era story to the pile, then so be it.

Now, let’s start with the introduction of the single greatest thing Doctor Who has ever done with Jenna (Louise) Coleman’s Clara.

David: Skipping over the introductory Christmas special - I mean, it’s fine, some decent kids’ movie fun in it - Asylum of the Daleks is…I’m gonna level with you. I didn’t really like Asylum of the Daleks.

Sean: That’s absolutely fair. I was having a conversation about this with either Eliza or Veronica shortly after the last one of these was pointed out, and they noted that it kinda falls flat on account of the whole ‘Amy and Rory divorce’ plot. Can’t say I disagree with them though. Especially since the impetus was, once again, an online exclusive.

David: The Amy and Rory divorce plot was a stunning, heartbreaking, killer hook for their final series together, and then, uh, wait the Doctor actually can fix their marriage and it was basically a fakeout. Gillan and Darvill sell it but it’s so deeply cheap.

Sean: Yeah, this isn’t the strongest of Moffat’s ‘I’m doing a story riffing on my divorce’ stories. Even Sherlock Series 4 was better than this.

David: Also? Didn’t like Clara’s introduction! Kinda grated! I GET what it was going for, her initial brand of mirroring the Doctor being ‘what if someone was as quirky and five-steps-ahead as him’ is arguably close to how River Song works and Alex Kingston did wonders with that. But it really didn’t click for me and while the larger adventure with the Daleks was enjoyable, this set me off on the wrong foot with her even if I think she worked better as the story went along in subsequent episodes. Felt a bit too much like the show consciously embracing the…Tumblr of it all.

Sean: The trick of introducing a new companion without telling anyone can work. But, it didn’t. A lot of people argue that Jenna doesn’t hit her stride until Day of the Doctor, if not Deep Breath.

The twilight of the Matt Smith era is, in many ways, a disorganized mess that doesn’t actually work as a cohesive whole. A lot of it is rough drafts that come across as being burnt out and needing to move on to other things. Fortunately, the Capaldi era goes in a much more interesting direction, involving things I will talk about when we get there.

Anything else about ‘Oops, All Daleks!’

David: “Perhaps that is why we have never been able to kill you.” was a quality line, but that’s about it. Dinosaurs on a Spaceship was back to the 42 type of inoffensive Chibnall, to the point that the initial DINOSAURS ON A SPACESHIP utterance paired with the title would’ve been funny if I hadn’t known that was the title and it wasn’t immediately driven into the ground. Do want you to know though that when Amy dramatically said “Silurian” I went “Fuck” in real life.

Sean: I honestly have nothing to say about the episodes in-between Moffat’s for the front half of the series. They certainly exist. Though we are introduced to something that would become a thing for Chibnall, mainly… Old Man is Part of the Team. We’ll get into that development in due time…

David: Nothing much about Dinosaurs, like I said it’s perfectly okay, at least compared to his worst. Rapid-fire for the next two then:

• I liked A Town Called Mercy pretty well! Not overly ingenious by Who standards but some quality Doctor Who righteous and guilt-ridden back-and-forth moralizing. Not sure I buy Rory being the one to suggest killing a guy, but whatever I guess.

• The Power of Three is another perfectly okay Chibnall episode, way to go fella, on a hot streak here.

Sean: Now then, The Angels Take Manhattan. This episode is, among typical Doctor Who fans, derided as being quite bad. Having a nonsense plot that ruins the Weeping Angels forever with the leads acting like complete idiots without any coherent logic for their actions, such that the supposed emotional pay off for the story doesn’t work in the slightest.

This is my favorite Matt Smith era story.

David: Wow! I’m shocked to hear that, especially coming from you when you tend to come down harder than me. I definitely liked Angels just fine, even if I thought it was a letdown as a sendoff for Amy and Rory to the point I had to check in with Eliza to learn if there had been some kind of behind-the-scenes kerfuffle necessitating an early changeoff (it didn’t help that when scrolling through upcoming episodes to see who was gonna write how much I learned they’d be leaving partway through). Still, solid episode with a brutally effective central mechanic and all involved put in the work to sell how it goes. Excited to hear your take on it though.

Sean: As we’ve discussed previously, oftentimes, Moffat will write a story that can be best described as ‘Chamber piece staring the most fucked up TARDIS Crew ever.’ This is the peak of that for this crew. A story about four people who truly care for one another falling apart at the seams. The scene where River recalls Doctor Who’s own words from The Wedding of River Song back to him for the act of impulsively giving her regeneration energy is marvelous. As is the central conceit of our four leads being trapped in a Weeping Angel ploy.

But more than that is the true nature of the plan. It’s not that they are being menaced by the Weeping Angels. Recall that the Angels are creatures of image and, subsequently, narrative. The trap is the book they are in. They are trapped in a story that has already been written, published, and sold in mass market paperback. And when it came out, we knew Amy and Rory were leaving mid-way through. We knew this would be their last story. There would be no exit save for this.

As El once put it, “A story works exactly the opposite of a Weeping Angel - as long as you never look at it, it can’t hurt you.”

David: Okay, it being a publicly-known sudden last episode for a pair of companions ABOUT them knowing this is suddenly going to be their last episode when you put it like that is pretty great. 

(And being me, I’m sure if I sat on it long enough I could come up with something RE: Doctor Who being forever barred from April 1938.)

Sean: Also, I love that the Statue of Liberty is a Weeping Angel. Fight me, boring people.

David: That’s a good bit! I wish they’d waited until the end to deploy it instead of pulling that twice, but absolutely a good bit.

Do we have more, or are we hopping to Smith’s Scrooge era?

Sean: Given my disdain for most trad Film Noir, I found myself invigorated by the vibe of the 1930s here. With its femme fatale detective, the mob boss in over his head, the grizzled gumshoe. Just the whole vibe is delightful.

But moving on to The Snowmen, can I just say I love David Bowie’s presence as the narrator? He just gives off an air of nostalgic wonder and curiosity about the story where a young boy flies in the sky with a living snowman.

Oh, wait no. That’s the wrong tape.

David: I didn’t know there were different versions until now! The one I grew up with I don’t seem to recall having any narration.

First off: love the new opening! It loses a little something of the ‘this is what’s happening immediately prior to any given episode’ effect they tried before, even if it was leveraged too rarely for my personal liking, but the new cosmic jaunt visuals are really invigorating. Anyway, while the central ‘The Doctor’s feeling bummed out about being The Doctor’ conceit already feels done to death (though there’s something to be said for the tragedy of regeneration that every loss feels like the first, that The Doctor is trapped in a cycle of naive hope and subsequent despair crushing him anew), the adventure itself and how it went about that character arc was aces. The staircase bit was magical, the back-in-action neck crack was perfect, and bringing back Vastra, Jenny, and Strax was delightful. Not nearly a perfect Doctor Who, but a darn good one.

Sean: Strax is a delightful murder potato who I will die for. Everything he says is hilarious. The memory worm gag is delightful. Not to mention the bit where Madame Vastra introduces herself and Jenny as being married, and the scullery maid freaks out. This episode had a bit of outrage aimed towards it by Doctor Who fans, who are much like Wally West fans in that they always assume the show is dying and hate what’s going on right now. In this case, it was over the voice of the Great Intelligence not being as major a player in the story as he should have been for giving such a bit role to Iam McKellen.

David: YOU’LL TAKE ANY IAN MCKELLEN YOU’RE GIVEN AND YOU’LL BE GRATEFUL FOR IT.

Sean: Ian McKellen was in here, in part, due to it being every English person’s duty to do some Doctor Who at some point in their lives. (That Christopher Lee never did is a tragedy.) He was also, at the time, staring in a set of Hobbit movies with former Doctor Who Sylvester McCoy, who roped him into cameoing in the delightful “The Old Guard is Butthurt Over Not Being in The 50th Special, Let’s Take The Piss Out of Everyone Tangentially Related, But Not In It” The Five(ish) Doctors.

More notable is the actor who played Dr. Simeon, Richard E Grant. A notable actor for a number of reasons, within the context of Doctor Who, he actually played Doctor Who. Twice. Once in a Red Nose Day special I’m sure we’ll talk about at some point, but more importantly as the Ninth Doctor Who in The Scream of the Shalka. Prior to the new series being a thing, there was an attempt to revive the show in animation with a script by Paul Cornell and featuring a cameo from some scottish nobody by the name of David Tennant.

David: Utterly wild I’ve never heard about this! It might go on the list with The Curse of Fatal Death as one I’ll have to check out at some point.

Sean: Anyways, The Snowmen without David Bowie is perfectly fine. It’s not the Christmas special I revisit enough, but it’s fine.

Now, Doctor Who vs Capitalism. There’s something to behold.

David: This was the one where Clara started to click for me; there’s a sense that if a lot of the previous companions mirrored aspects of The Doctor’s darker sides, she represents what’s best in them. Which brings about a whole different kind of tension when The Doctor, god bless ‘em, sucks and is specifically aiming so many of his worst attributes at the moment squarely at her now that she’s his latest mysterious fixation.

Sean: I am laughing my ass off about this for reasons that won’t become apparent until we are neck deep in the Capaldi era.

David: As ever in this series, looking forward to future context! Anyway The Doctor vs. The Internet was definitely better than you’d expect from that description, and the last reveal with Miss Kizlet was WILDLY disturbing and I have to give it a thumbs-up. I don’t know that I have a ton to say about it, but Bells of Saint John got me a bit back into the swing of things.

Sean: It’s an extremely fucked up episode about how data mining people is horrible and the only solution is to overthrow the government. Which is really what Doctor Who’s stance often is (when dealing with fictional things. Real things, Doctor Who often avoids. Doctor Who has snogged too many members of Queen Elizabeth’s family not to have that issue.) But anyways, Luther’s Neil Cross has Doctor Who fight a sun in what is arguably the most memorable story in the Matt Smith era.

David: I do feel a need to preface: there’s something to be said for this as an episode about The Doctor and his companion unraveling a native culture’s superstitions with the big science truth reveal. It’s at least there to be picked at.

Sean: There’s actually a book that does that by friend of the newsletter Will Shaw. It also goes into other areas of the episode like its engagement with New Atheism, the implications of Clara being the one who saves the day, and an interview with the episode’s director.

David: Marvelous! Might have to check that out. But that being said, oh my god Rings of Akhaten is so good. Neil Cross in here and Hide might not put on a show of the kind of hyper-dense layering of twists and counter-twists that mark a lot of Doctor Who’s best adventures, but for raw high concept and emotional engagement and sweeping romantic grandeur he might be able to go toe-to-toe with Moffat at his best and it kinda breaks my heart these two are his only Who episodes. What a spectacle! What a great bunch of character moments! What a grand absurd operatic Doctor Who-ass speech, and then what turns out to really save the day when that fails! Just utterly terrific.

Sean: I think my favorite part of this episode is the opening montage that shows Clara’s entire life in small parts. From her parents meeting to her birth to her mom’s death (heavily implied to have happened in Rose). Just a wonderful sequence of humanity that calls back to the taxi cab speech in Father’s Day.

David: Completely missed the Rose connection!

Sean: Yeah, it’s on the gravestone. There were a lot of call backs for the fiftieth anniversary (gobby Australian and Braveheart Clara being another notable one for… reasons.)

As for Hide, while it’s the lesser of the two episodes, it’s nevertheless extremely charming. Essentially Doctor Who teaming up with Doctor Quatermass in a haunted house that uses the term Psychochronograph (a word that should have certain members of our audience pricking their ears. It’s never been confirmed one way or the other). It’s a lovely romance and a haunting ghost story featuring an absolutely subtle speech from Doctor Who about humanity. The whole of history, and we’re the only mystery worth solving.

It calls to mind Chibnall’s speech in The Power of Three, which was probably some better writing from the old sport. But this just knocks it out of the park. It says so much with a lot less.

David: My favorite bit of the whole episode is it ending how it does. I don’t even mean the broader thematic reframing, good as that is; I mean ending at that exact second. It’s an ending that understands what we can take as a given about these kinds of stories and uses it for a whole different kind of excitement and satisfaction than the typical wrap-up. It knows to the moment how much it needs to show, no more, and it’s a little display of confidence and artistry that had me smiling ear-to-ear.

Worth noting as well “Doctor what?” “If you like.”, and that “You see?! The Witch of the Well! It’s a wormhole, a reality well! A door to the echo universe! Ready?!” is one of the most Morrisonian snatches of dialogue in the history of broadcast television.

Sean: So, since we really don’t have to talk about ‘Oops, accidental racism’ and ‘David Warner is a Russian, your argument is invalid. Also Game of Thrones guy,’ let’s move on to the last good episode of the set: The Crimson Horror, which is ABSOLUTELY BETTER THAN THE NEXT DOCTOR!

David: David Warner! What a treat, easily one of my favorite guest-stars, and translating the mechanics of Alien onto an actual submarine was an inspired bit, not a standout episode but one I enjoyed. And yeah Journey to the Center was eh. But The Crimson Horror was for sure a highlight! The return to our 19th century detective trio as the leads of the first half was inspired, I’d watch a whole show about those dorks. 

Sean: “Do you know what these are? THE WRONG HANDS!” Gah, Diana Rigg is such a delight playing a devilishly evil woman out to conquer the world. Strax has some of his best gags like when he threatens to kill his horse or his pouting over not being allowed to be his most deadly self. It’s so much fun!

David: Not kidding. A whole spinoff, I’m there. And the flashback with the different types of film quality, from the initial ‘we’ve just developed the medium’ look to the sort of 80s horror visual by the time 11 has become “(her) monster”?

Sean: That is absolutely a Mark Gattis move, as he’s the sort to do Victorian Mystery straight with a love of old cinema. Indeed, Gattis, as a creator, is often overlooked by most audiences for, essentially, being next to Steven Moffat, who is the more interesting creator.

David: Both Riggs’ rock it as well. Plus the rocketship with the controls behind a false piano! The lack of a real throughline has me scrambling for much to say about a bunch of these episodes, and I could feel myself fading for chunks of the series, but a lot of these on reflection were really quality entertainment.

That being said no way do I like this as much as The Next Doctor. Sorry!

Sean: It’s ok to be wrong. Do we have anything to say about Neil Gaiman failing to make the Cybermen work?

David: Between this and, hey, The Next Doctor, it’s clear to me the key to The Cybermen is you need to have a more interesting ‘headman’ figure there to draw all the attention away from how boring they are themselves.

Sean: Ahahahahaha!!!

David: I guess this was probably a better The Doctor vs. The Master story than most just by virtue of ‘okay but they’re kinda just the same dude’ working when they’re literally the same dude. Honestly I was out of it for a good chunk of Nightmare in Silver, though that’s less its own fault so much as that I was really, really sleepy by the point in the evening I was watching it.

Sean: No, it’s absolutely it’s own fault. The episode is a bore.

David: I thought it was okay! It definitely felt fairly Neil Gaiman-ey at points, but y’know, that’s not necessarily an issue. Not a standout, the kids sorta sucked, but Smith gets to ham it up and there’s a big robots vs. soldiers fight in a space amusement park, there are strictly worse ways to spend 40 minutes.

Sean: Trust me, the next three episodes are going to be… a lot to talk about.

I’ll explain later.

David: So an early, sorta abrupt wrapup this time, but the next one’ll be on its way very soon to compensate!

Next Time: Let’s be honest, most history is boring and inaccurate. I wish he'd never discovered that place. Well, it would be so wonderfully normal. Bring me knitting. What is cup-a-soup? Hey.