Welcome Jodie -- But Where's Your Theme Song?
I'm a fan of Doctor Who, the iconic British television series that dates back over 50 years. I started watching in the Tom Baker Years, lost track during the Colin Baker years, but have managed to watch every episode currently available, read dozens of novelization and am now discovering the audio adventures.
I am such a fanboy that I would watch any Doctor playing Checkers with an ottoman for an hour and proclaim it an instant classic. I liked Christopher Eccleston mostly because he brought my beloved Time Lord back to the screen. But to be honest, I didn't like him as much as I did David Tenant who I liked slightly more than Matt Smith, with Peter Capaldi coming in a close third of the new batch.
Then there's Jodie Whittaker. I liked her in "Broadchurch" (which I confess I only watched because it had David Tenant in it and because I also watched him in "Grace Point," the American version of "Broadchurch"), and thought she was great in the episode of "Black Mirror" I saw her in. She's fantastic! She is The Doctor. Wonderfully quirky, frenetic, confident though often confused, and I kinda like her style. It is completely original with faint echoes of previous Doctors. (On the New York Comicon Panel she promised to reveal the hidden meanings in her wardrobe at some point in the future. I am, of course, very curious indeed!)
So, let me get on to the episode. I understand that there are two big shifts that are occurring in this season. (I don't see casting Jodie as one of them, that was inevitable) in that there allegedly won't be any "classic" monsters, and the entire season is essentially one long episode. More like a mini-series. True, many seasons in the past have had an overall arc to them, but still many of the stories were written as stand-alone episodes. No problem with that. And certainly, new monsters are always welcome. The story, viewed as the setup for the season, works fine for me. I like the new companions. It will be an interesting mix of viewpoints. Especially with Graham being the voice of reason ("Why is she running toward the new alien?") I'm going to like him! But I also like Yaz, too. She's very Rose (sorry, comparisons to previous companions are unavoidable.)
The writing was good, but it seemed a little less clever than it should have been. (SPOILER ALERT!) For example, the DNA bombs. Apparently, they are a "very clever" way to neutralize witnesses to the activities of the observer coils. I must confess, I fail to see how they are so clever, when they were so easily turned against the alien who used them (who was supposed barred from having any weapons with him on his test. Isn't a DNA bomb a weapon?) If the purpose was to neutralize witnesses, why not just kill the witnesses outright? Or detonate the DNA bombs immediately. And why did they produce a glowing light on their collarbones? Why would a DNA bomb advertise itself in such a fashion?
Okay, DNA bomb rant over. I'm still a little puzzled as to why Grace felt it necessary to go after the coils, but I have a feeling that ties into something coming up in the season. The Doctor has asked Graham about his extra lease on life, and Grace played a role in that. Is there something he needs to be around to do? Curious!
Now, a general note, Doctor Who is a science fiction show. Two of the things science fiction does very well are: project the past onto the future to provide commentary on where we've come from, and extrapolate current events to see what might be. Doctor Who has always done this brilliantly as well as taking us on adventures throughout our own history.
But you can't use science fiction to cover up plot holes. I'll give you a robot dog to serve as a recurring deus ex machina, but that's it!
When your alien leaves the only method of returning home behind in a warehouse when he goes off hunting, hoping it will still be there when he's done (after it's already been moved once, and oh, by the way, turns out he only needs a small part of it to do the trans-galactic travel) that's not clever, that's lazy.
Why did the shapes in the air appear where they did? If Ryan hadn't thrown his bike down the hill, would anyone have seen them? Why not have them appear in a place where there is more a greater likelihood of there being people, or at least more than one person. As they clearly established, if it had been Graham in the woods, he would not have touched strange shapes in the air!
How did the doctor survive atmospheric re-entry let alone the impact after falling from orbit? Time Lords are resilient, but seriously. Did no one wonder how that worked? (I like that how is an anagram for who, just throwing that in to blow your mind a little.) Why didn't she burn to a crisp before she reached the surface? Or leave a crater ten meters wide when she landed? Will we ever get an explanation?
Was the drunk guy picking tomatoes out of his salad some kind of inside joke? Leave those inside the writers' room.
So, those are things that bugged me the most. The rest I chalk up to style and that doesn't bother me at all. Tell me a good story is all I ask.
But, this in unforgivable. Where the hell were the opening credits? Hell, what about closing credits? With a proper theme song! We got a couple bars of the classic double-heartbeat riff when Jodie first "dropped" in, but that was all. If there hadn't been so much hype around the show, how would anyone know they were watching Doctor Who?
Well, that horrible deficiency aside, I still love Doctor Who and always will no matter how many sharks they may or may not jump in the future, I will watch every episode and love every minute of it.
I just want that theme song playing in my head afterward!
I am such a fanboy that I would watch any Doctor playing Checkers with an ottoman for an hour and proclaim it an instant classic. I liked Christopher Eccleston mostly because he brought my beloved Time Lord back to the screen. But to be honest, I didn't like him as much as I did David Tenant who I liked slightly more than Matt Smith, with Peter Capaldi coming in a close third of the new batch.
Then there's Jodie Whittaker. I liked her in "Broadchurch" (which I confess I only watched because it had David Tenant in it and because I also watched him in "Grace Point," the American version of "Broadchurch"), and thought she was great in the episode of "Black Mirror" I saw her in. She's fantastic! She is The Doctor. Wonderfully quirky, frenetic, confident though often confused, and I kinda like her style. It is completely original with faint echoes of previous Doctors. (On the New York Comicon Panel she promised to reveal the hidden meanings in her wardrobe at some point in the future. I am, of course, very curious indeed!)
So, let me get on to the episode. I understand that there are two big shifts that are occurring in this season. (I don't see casting Jodie as one of them, that was inevitable) in that there allegedly won't be any "classic" monsters, and the entire season is essentially one long episode. More like a mini-series. True, many seasons in the past have had an overall arc to them, but still many of the stories were written as stand-alone episodes. No problem with that. And certainly, new monsters are always welcome. The story, viewed as the setup for the season, works fine for me. I like the new companions. It will be an interesting mix of viewpoints. Especially with Graham being the voice of reason ("Why is she running toward the new alien?") I'm going to like him! But I also like Yaz, too. She's very Rose (sorry, comparisons to previous companions are unavoidable.)
The writing was good, but it seemed a little less clever than it should have been. (SPOILER ALERT!) For example, the DNA bombs. Apparently, they are a "very clever" way to neutralize witnesses to the activities of the observer coils. I must confess, I fail to see how they are so clever, when they were so easily turned against the alien who used them (who was supposed barred from having any weapons with him on his test. Isn't a DNA bomb a weapon?) If the purpose was to neutralize witnesses, why not just kill the witnesses outright? Or detonate the DNA bombs immediately. And why did they produce a glowing light on their collarbones? Why would a DNA bomb advertise itself in such a fashion?
Okay, DNA bomb rant over. I'm still a little puzzled as to why Grace felt it necessary to go after the coils, but I have a feeling that ties into something coming up in the season. The Doctor has asked Graham about his extra lease on life, and Grace played a role in that. Is there something he needs to be around to do? Curious!
Now, a general note, Doctor Who is a science fiction show. Two of the things science fiction does very well are: project the past onto the future to provide commentary on where we've come from, and extrapolate current events to see what might be. Doctor Who has always done this brilliantly as well as taking us on adventures throughout our own history.
But you can't use science fiction to cover up plot holes. I'll give you a robot dog to serve as a recurring deus ex machina, but that's it!
When your alien leaves the only method of returning home behind in a warehouse when he goes off hunting, hoping it will still be there when he's done (after it's already been moved once, and oh, by the way, turns out he only needs a small part of it to do the trans-galactic travel) that's not clever, that's lazy.
Why did the shapes in the air appear where they did? If Ryan hadn't thrown his bike down the hill, would anyone have seen them? Why not have them appear in a place where there is more a greater likelihood of there being people, or at least more than one person. As they clearly established, if it had been Graham in the woods, he would not have touched strange shapes in the air!
How did the doctor survive atmospheric re-entry let alone the impact after falling from orbit? Time Lords are resilient, but seriously. Did no one wonder how that worked? (I like that how is an anagram for who, just throwing that in to blow your mind a little.) Why didn't she burn to a crisp before she reached the surface? Or leave a crater ten meters wide when she landed? Will we ever get an explanation?
Was the drunk guy picking tomatoes out of his salad some kind of inside joke? Leave those inside the writers' room.
So, those are things that bugged me the most. The rest I chalk up to style and that doesn't bother me at all. Tell me a good story is all I ask.
But, this in unforgivable. Where the hell were the opening credits? Hell, what about closing credits? With a proper theme song! We got a couple bars of the classic double-heartbeat riff when Jodie first "dropped" in, but that was all. If there hadn't been so much hype around the show, how would anyone know they were watching Doctor Who?
Well, that horrible deficiency aside, I still love Doctor Who and always will no matter how many sharks they may or may not jump in the future, I will watch every episode and love every minute of it.
I just want that theme song playing in my head afterward!
Comments
Post a Comment