Doctor Who Project - "Fear Her"

Well here it is, the moment I've been avoiding since I started re-watching New Who, the worst (in my humble opinion at least) Doctor Who story ever made (yes I'm including Classic Who too); 'Fear Her'.

Aside from the rubbish conclusion (Rose throws the pod into the Olympic flame and Chloe and her Mum sing to get rid of the scribble monster Dad), the crappy monster (the only real supposed threat other than some little brat with magic crayons is a 2D monster Dad coming to get her) and the cheese factor reaching extreme levels (The Doctor running with the Olympic flame and "no-one wants to stop him", come off it) the most annoying thing about this episode is the obnoxious Chloe. Ok she's playing a girl possessed by an alien being but she still comes across as rude and annoying, for such a vital part in the story they should've probably casted a better actress.

Rant over. When I was little my Mum always tried to get me and my brothers to come up with compliments for each other when we were constantly arguing, was always a challenge! As such I'm going to try (try being the optimal word here) to come up with 5 nice things to say about this episode.

1) The Olympic feel. Considering that this episode was broadcast 6 years before the actual London 2012 Olympics games the Doctor Who producers didn't do too bad of a job. There was the stadium (which is supposedly the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff but looked more like the Manchester Council stadium used for the Commonwealth Games), the torch carrier (funny thing is current Doctor Who star Matt Smith carried it too!) and the general hope and excitedness for the games which did mirror the real thing 6 years later (although most of us Brits half expected it to be crap). The fireworks at the end were not a patch on the real thing though. The Beeb might have been better off using footage from New Year's Eve!

2) The foreshadowing at the end of the episode. A storm is coming but nothing's going to split the Doctor and Rose up. ;)

3) The next time round trailer, Cybermen are back plus we get to see Torchwood after so many hints alluding to it. Oh and is that a Dalek death ray in action? ;)

4) The cat entering a cardboard box and disappearing. Reminded me so much of Neil Gaiman's 'Coraline'. Whether it was a deliberate reference or not doesn't matter to me as I love Gaiman's work (even his non Doctor Who work. lol).

5) Err it was only a one episode story. Told you I'd struggle.

Next time round Cybermen vs Daleks, the fall of Torchwood, Martha Smith (oh wait it's not her it's her cousin conveniently played by the Freema Agyeman) and the 'death' of Rose Tyler. Yay.

Doctor Who Project - "The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit"

The Doctor and Rose find themselves on a planet orbiting a black hole, the monster of the week is potentially the biggest (quite lierally) threat he's ever faced  and there's the introduction of the Ood, what's not to like about this story.

The story also features some genuinely scary scenes particularly the scene where Toby hears the voice of the Devil but isn't allowed to turn around. If I was much younger I'd have been hiding behind the couch!

Aside from being a tad scary these episodes have a moral point (slavery is bad), visual spectacles (the beast and the black hole), the mystery (The TARDIS can't translate the ancient writing), a cracking cliffhanger oh and there's the obligatory Torchwood reference.

Like so many of these re-watches I couldn't see what all the fuss was about, now I can see why this story is rated so highly.

Definitely the highlight of series 2 so far. To be fair though so far Tennant's debut series has been a bit below par, not a patch on series 1. The good thing is I know it's going to get much much better and this seems to be the start of it.

Doctor Who Project - "The Idiot's Lantern" (After)

"Are you sitting comfortably? Good then we'll begin". Loved how they worked that in.

If low expectations are anything to go by I can't wait til 'Love and Monsters' and 'Fear Her', easily two of the worst Doctor Who stories ever (and I'm including the 40+ years before them too!). As it turns out 'The Idiot's Lantern' wasn't as bad this time round. The TV as a villain is still crap and it still reeks of style foremost but I quite enjoyed the story of the Father (Derek Branning from Eastenders, yes I did have to look up his character's name) and Son. A misogynistic Father and is son's coming of age and taking over his Father's mantle is well played out and definitely the highlight of the story.

The resolution was a bit pants, climbing a TV aerial mast and reversing the signal, yawn. What puzzled me about this though was what happened to the Gran? Everyone's faces returned yet the Gran was nowhere to be seen by the end of the episode. Also in Magpie's shop The Wire knocks out The Doctor, Tommy and the Policeman but only the Policeman has been turned into one of the faceless creatures. WTF? Ok I can understand The Doctor not changing, higher intelligence and all that too great for The Wire's control, but Tommy?! Confused.

Like I said this was better on re-watch (though still a little bit crap) and had a few nice little sub-plots most notably the Father and Son struggle for dominance and the speech about how Mr Connelly (The Father) fought in the war against narrow minded facists yet he's becoming one himself.

Another highlight was the coming up next trailer! Lol it wasn't that bad of an episode really. Next time round we're getting Oods! I quite like the upcoming 2 parter but can't understand why it's so revered. Maybe the lesson I took from this story (ie go into it with expectations lowered) may help me to fall in love with it.

Until next time, "Alons-y!"

Doctor Who Project "The Idiot's Lantern" (Before)

Ok for this review I'm thinking of a before and after review.

From memory this episode is set in the 50s with The Doctor and Rose investigating a mysterious electrics company and a clipped English accent TV presenter literally stealing the faces of her viewers. I'm sure there's supposed to be a comment on how people waste their lives in front of the TV, hammered home of course with the episode's title (strange point to make when Doctor Who is predominately a TV show).

From the few times I've seen this episode I can't remember being blown away. The story is very meh, the point being made is redundant and the overall feel of the story is (retro chic) style over substance, The 10th Doctor on a scooter anyone?! It's like a half arsed version of 'The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances' from the year before. I hope that there's no truth in the rumours that writer Mark Gatiss is going to take over from Steven Moffat as show runner. Based on this story and his other efforts (Victory of the Daleks, Night Terrors, The Unquiet Dead) it doesn't look too promising for the future of Who post Moffat. To be fair though 'The Unquiet Dead' wasn't too bad and he has co-produced Sherlock with Moffat so I guess you never know what he'd really be like as a producer. As far as this story goes I'm going into the re-watch with low expectations, I'll prob think it's amazing now!

Oh well I guess I'll see you on the otherside.

Doctor Who Project "Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel"

Several episodes and a series after we first see a Cyberman referenced in "Dalek" we finally get a Cyberman story and on top of that we get a whole new Cyberman design. It's this new design that has come into all sorts of  criticism amongst fandom. The Cybermen are now 'robot-like', 'slow', the way they move is 'stompy' and 'deafening'. I however quite like the way they look.

I like the art deco styling and the way they move reflects their new bodies ie all heavy metal and moving parts. Ok there's less human parts on show. In the classic series you could see the jaw moving behind the mouthpiece which was cool as it showed that there was a human body that formed part of the Cyberman skeleton. There was also the suit they wore, in the Troughton story "The Invasion" which was basically a scuba diving suit with bits and bobs glued on. OK costume design and budgets have improved in the years to come but this scuba outfit design was kinda endearing and worked as it allowed the Cybermen to move quite easily as well as covering up the delicate human flesh. In fact you could argue that this material could be a more sophisticated soft metal that allows the Cybermen to move more freely. Anyhoo this new Cyberman has 2 handy get out clauses. Firstly The Doctor points out to Mrs Moore that the Cyberman body has an organic as well as a human brain and mostly importantly an emotion inhibitor which prohibits the Cybermen from feelings (not sure how that also stops them thinking freely?). Secondly these Cybermen were created in a parallel universe.

This last point is quite interesting as the new look Cybermen have cropped up again in the Steven Moffat era minus the Cybus Industries chest logo. Can't really get around that unless you were to say they sneaked through the cracks in the universe and fancied a re-brand. Should be interesting when the next design arrives in the Neil Gaiman penned episode sometime this year. I'm also really looking forward to seeing this episode as Neil Gaiman is one of my favourite authors although I would like to see Moffat tackle a Cyberman story. I want them to become scary villains again not comedy villains that they've been since the 70s/80s. Try as he might and to be fair this isn't a bad stab at trying to rectify that RTD fails in trying to make them a serious threat. This isn't a bad story and for the majority of it they are a credible threat, it's the series finale that dooms them to the fate of being comedy villains. An army of Cybermen put to waste by just 4 Daleks, it's not hard to see which bad guy Davies prefers. I'm surprised the Cyber Leader doesn't fist pump and say "Excellent!". Speaking of Cyber Leaders, what's the point in them? Cybermen are supposed to be uniform, why would they need someone commanding them if they all think the same? Oh well cyber rant over.

Anyway back to the story. I like how this story is set in an alternate universe. It reminds me so much of the Pertwee story "Inferno" although in this story there isn't a parallel threat to our world. It does however play with the idea of a parallel world via the support cast: Mickey/Ricky, Pete Tyler still being alive, Rose never being born and Mickey's gran (who hasn't even been mentioned until now) is still alive. The story also has a (not so) subtle sub-plot of how media communications controls our life. On top of that there's the point of clinging onto life via surgery or upgrades in this case.

I also like how this story gives Mickey something to do, he outgrows the 'Mickey the idiot' and becomes an integral part of the story, effectively saving The Doctor and Rose as well as destroying the Cyberman threat. This sudden character development seems a bit out of the blue but it allows Mickey to leave the TARDIS crew and have a happily ever after, fighting Cybermen and being able to see his beloved old gran.

Mickey drives off to Paris in a white van with his new best mate (RTD's gay agenda?) never to be seen again. Or is he? I'm sure that's not the last we'll see of Mickey the Idiot.