A Time Lord's Life
Thursday July 5, 2007 in television | doctor who
A big chunk of our home life disappeared last Saturday. Zap and it was gone. Or, more appropriately, it dematerialised whilst accompanied by a familiar high pitched whirring.
For 13 weeks my family have been glued to Doctor Who, witnessing encounters with William Shakespeare, Daleks and pig men, terrifying stone statues, menacing scarecrows and the return of The Master. All in all it’s been an excellent ride, and although the two part finale has received some criticism for being too ridiculous I’m refusing to knock the series. The period between 1989 and 2005 was a fallow one for TV sci-fi, wasn’t it?
Most enjoyable for me has been the opportunity to enjoy this with my daughter. With perfect timing, the BBC decide to bring back Doctor Who just when she is at the right age to enjoy it, understand it and be scared by it. Our favourite episode of this last series by far was called Blink. It was inventive, unusual and – oh yes – quite scary. I’ve watched it three times now and it improves with viewing; the plot is quite complex and it includes an excellent one-off character called Sally Sparrow (who many Who fans have been demanding to be picked as the Time Lord’s next companion – although this is not (yet) to be).
Blink was this year’s Doctor Who lite episode, where The Doctor doesn’t actually feature much in the action. He’s on the periphery, appearing only briefly (mostly as a mysterious extra feature on a DVD) whilst others (namely Miss Sparrow) have to sort everything out instead. The Weeping Angels, the terrifying stone statues, do terrible things to people who happen to avert their gaze from them. Hence the DVD Doctor’s warning don’t blink. Despite this, my daughter was unable to look at all on first viewing.
Other highlights for me have included the excellent Human Nature episode, where we meet a man called John Smith, a teacher in 1913 who looks just like … well, you know who. Cue a very clever story about a Time Lord’s ability to disguise himself as a human, all with the aid of a pocket watch. This paved the way to another series highlight, where a bumbling professor played by Derek Jacobi is plagued by voices and dizzy spells … something to do with a pocket watch and a twist I didn’t see coming…
This series has been controversial partly because of the new assistant Martha Jones (to some an unpolular choice), and partly because of the two part finale already mentioned, which has led to accusations that head writer Russell T. Davies might not be able to hack it as a sci-fi scribe. Many tabloids were claiming that the actress who plays Martha had been sacked; the final scenes left it open whether she would return for Series Four. In the last week announcements regarding the future of Doctor Who have come with a regularity that’s as exciting as the series itself. Martha will be coming back at some point but only after a spell in Torchwood, Kylie Minogue will be guesting in this year’s Christmas special, Catherine Tate will become the Doctor’s new companion. A surprising choice but I still can’t wait, and I’m not going to use her famous catchphrase as part of this post.
A friend of mine was enthusing about the new Who the other day, saying he thought it had captured everyone’s imagination. He’s right. The ratings are high, and the Minogue story is deemed worthy of a BBC News item. The best thing about Doctor Who is being able to talk about it without it seeming childish. I feel (within reason) that I can go up to people and ask “did you realise that Captain Jack was the face of Bo?” or “is The Master really dead now?” But I hope I can still take it all with a pinch of salt.
“If Jack went back in time to 1869, how come he didn’t meet any other incarnations of The Doctor..?”
“At the end, the Prime Minister had still murdered his entire cabinet, so what happens about that..?”
““Who picked up the ring at the end, was it The Master’s wife..?”
“Was it Catherine Tate..?”
Okay, I’ll stop now…