Daleks in Manhattan
Wednesday April 25, 2007 in television | doctor who
When I was my daughter’s age, Tom Baker as Doctor Who witnessed the The Genesis of The Daleks. Thirty or so years on, I’m sitting down with my family to watch further revelations about them with David Tennant as the Time Lord. Time really does fly.
For me, the new Doctor Who is somehow beyond criticism; how can I possibly be unkind about a programme I missed from our TV screens for so many years? (and one that was so bad for about the last ten years that it was on). There have been hits and misses (the comedy episode last year with Peter Kay didn’t really work for me, for example), although I’ve found both Christopher Ecclestone and David Tennant excellent. People tend to fondly remember the Doctor Whos from their childhood; for me it was Jon Pertwee and Baker. Watching some early episodes from the 1970s when they were recently repeated I did think they were sadly dated. It wasn’t just the obviously overtight budgets and laughable special effects; I found the acting wooden with Baker in particular hammy and irritating. Time to move on.
So I now act as a reference point for my daughter concerning anything about the old Doctor Who. The history of the Daleks and the Cybermen, all about the Tardis, all about the Time Lords. Why The Face of Bo, although an alien, is an okay guy. I try not to bore her. Mostly she doesn’t need to know this stuff. The most it does do is somehow convince her that she’s watching an adult programme (because Dad likes it) – although it does have its drawbacks; when she’s refusing to go to bed and complaining about monsters it’s difficult to always reason with her. Especially when even the Radio Times decides to put monsters on its front cover every other week. Whatever next.
The third series of the new Doctor Who is now already about a third of the way in. Tennant has comfortably settled into the role and there is a new companion for The Doctor, Martha Jones. I enjoyed the first episode, which introduced us to Martha and featured some aliens transporting a hospital to the moon, which included some deadly motorcycle couriers and an even deadlier little old lady. I really enjoyed it, although I didn’t enjoy the next two episodes nearly as much. In the second episode The Doctor meets William Shakespeare and, apart from one or two nice touches (setting up a future encounter with Elizabeth 1, Shakespeare getting the name Sycorax for The Tempest), it wasn’t that memorable. The third episode, involving another trip to the tedious New Earth , was only worth watching for The Face of Bo delivering his enigmatic message to The Doctor: “you are not alone”.
You know what? I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some more Time Lords knocking about somewhere.
But I’ve already said I’m not doing any criticism. The fourth episode of Season Three was the one I’ve been waiting for. The one with Daleks in it, with them now turning up in 1930s New York. The BBC are obviously spending a lot of money on the new Doctor Who; there’s something very cinematic about it in the production quality, and they are at the same time being very careful with their cash. Some clever placing of shots of the Empire State Building is enough to make New York spring to life, having most of the action take place either underground or inside a theatre saves on location, and creating only four Daleks (The Cult of Skaro, God bless ‘em) to terrorise the poor Americans helps to restrict the budget enough to cater for the big go for it action scenes that come briefly in the series.
This was one of the best episodes I’ve seen so far in all three seasons. I liked the elements of Frankenstein and The Island of Dr Moreau. I liked how our expectations of the Daleks are satisfied fully; the unmistakeable Dalek shadow on the subterranean wall, the occasional switch to the monovision Dalek point of view, the moral that nobody seems to remember – never try to strike a deal with a Dalek. Most of all I liked David Tennant as the Doctor, who did his best acting in dumbshow – the silent reaction to the evil Daleks up to no good again. Horror, familiarity, disgust, grim and morbid curiosity. Forget those childhood Doctors – he’s my favourite.
My daughter was terrified. But only just enough – she’ll be glued again next Saturday.