Doctor Who series 4 (Spoiler warning) July 7, 2008
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Reviews , trackbackOver the last three months, I’ve developed a routine for Saturday nights. Go out, do whatever, come home and watch Dr Who on the BBC’s iplayer. It being Saturday night, this wasn’t me at my most sober, and was rarely at 6.30 or whatever random but early time Auntie decided to broadcast.
And, I have to admit it, I’ve also developed a slightly unhealthy obsession. I remember watching Dr Who as a child, in the Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker years, and enjoying it, but details are long gone. When it reappeared in 2005, I saw the occasional episode at friend’s houses, but as my only TV is an unreliable freeview usb-card and recording doesn’t work I missed most. And then, about a year ago, the iplayer was launched and BBC3 reran all the David Tennant episodes. I was hooked.
I realised just how hooked when I came back from holiday the other week to discover that the previous episode, Turn Left, wasn’t on the iplayer and, to make matter’s worse, a well-meaning but foolish friend managed to tell me about the cliffhanger in The Stolen Earth before I had a chance to see it. Not good.
And, as with all the new series, I’ve loved this one. Sometimes it’s wildly silly (the giant wasp), sometimes it’s funny (the miming when the Doctor and Donna meet again in Partners in Crime), sometimes I wonder if it really is family viewing (bondage references in Forest of the Dead), sometimes its just plain sad (the death of River Song and, far worse, the not-death of Donna). We’ve had tight theatrical drama in Midnight, and a mega-effect space romp in the finale, with romance, comedy, and bleak post-holocaust drama in between.
Catherine Tate was so much better than I’d expected. Her comedy show didn’t do it for me, and the character in the Christmas Special was a bit too brash for my taste, but by the second episode, she’d settled down into something far more interesting. What forty-something single woman could fail to identify with Donna? Okay, I have a much better job and my mother is a LOT nicer, but the idea of finding yourself exploring the universe, saving planets and doing something useful for a change, all in the company of a bloke like that has a definite appeal and its nice to see that its not only open to athletic teenagers. Unlike Rose and Martha who always seemed out to impress, she kept a human frailty. She couldn’t cope with the tragic song of the Ood, was scared silly at the idea of whacking a Sontaran, doesn’t always say the right thing, but somehow finds it in herself to keep up with the Doctor. Catherine Tate’s ability to get all that together, and handle the outrageous amounts of running, wins her a place as the best companion of the new series.
Among his many talents, David Tennant is a master of the closeup which tells an unspoken story. As Davros torments him with his record of sending people he meets to their deaths, or in Midnight when he is rendered speechless by the alien and threatened with being thrown out of the spaceship, all the regret or fear is there, without being melodramatic. Perhaps its in keeping with the idea of his character getting over the trauma of the time war, but he too seems to have settled down, at least in his negative emotions, to something more subtle and appealing.
Most of all the series is just stonking good fun. It may not always be consistent, the technobabble is just babble, and sometimes the dei ex machinis are just a bit too unlikely, but who cares? Without being preachy or too perfect, it manages to uplift, entertain, and look fabulous.
Now, we’re faced with an hiatus next year, with a series of four specials as well as the one at Christmas where we’re promised David Morrissey and Cybermen. I’m sure Russell T Davies has far better ideas than I do, but, just in case he’s scrounging around, here’s what I’d like to see:
- A companion who lasts, perhaps introduced in the specials and carried through to series 5. Or at least once Steve Moffat takes over, someone signed up for both series 5 and 6. I can’t take any more endings with a melancholy Doctor alone in the Tardis.
- Time tourism somewhere English children don’t study in school. Perhaps ancient China, or ancient India. Or visit Byzantium during the reign of one of the Empresses (I bet they’re brilliant!)
- New monsters, rather than so many recycled ones. I love Daleks. Especially Dalek Caan. I want a remote control one, with a real gun that can fly but they’ve been done to death now - literally, at least twice. Cybermen are okay, but have been overused as well. The Sontarans were probably this series weakest episodes.
- Rather than aliens, how about tackling our own threats to the Earth, particularly climate change, and without the Doctor just sucking all the carbon gases out of the atmosphere or something. The Doctor could save the planet by really showing everyone the consequences of it all, and then giving us a device that will create power, but only about 40% of what we use now. Maybe that really is the only hope left for the planet.
- More characters of the calibre of River Song and Wilfred. Interesting, slightly eccentric characters as foils to the interesting, slighty eccentric Doctor. Either of them would be wonderful companions.
- Bill Nighy as the next Doctor. I fancy an urbane, slightly louche Doctor, but Trainspotting’s Robert Carlyle would be taking it too far.
Finally, this obsession has led me to a couple of good Dr Who blogs, if you’d like to indulge a little more. Behind the Sofa reviews every episode very thoroughly, sometimes pulling in continental philosophy and often quite ready to point out flaws. Flickfilosopher is a science-fiction oriented film-review blog, who’s author is considerably more obsessed than I, and her Dr Who postings are selfconfessed love-fests.
Comments»
Well, it’s good to know that your mother is a LOT nicer than Donna’s. I might remind you that it was your lovely mother who relented and bought a TV back in the mid 1970’s specifically because you kept telling her how deprived you were not being able to watch Dr Who!
Yes, I’ve read the post despite the spoiler warning, secure in the knowledge that my over-full brain won’t retain the details long enought for it to spoil my enjoyment of the new series - starting here next Sunday - yippee!
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