31 Dec 2014
Flickr Highlights: 2014 in photos
'2014 in photos' sounds rather grander than this will be - I'll be honest, I haven't taken many this year, and I've put even fewer up online. But since I want to make a tradition of it, here's some of my better Photoshop work I did in the last twelve months along with a few snaps. Enjoy!
29 Oct 2014
Doctor Who: Who is Missy?
It's being billed as a mystery - not just what the hell is going on with Doctor Who's dead-people-coming-back arc, not even what the grand plan is. But there's something else promised, most likely a cherry on the cake for fans. Because "Missy", is...?
Well, everyone has their theories, and here are mine. One of them's probably true as they're a bit obvious, so if this spoils it for you, stop reading.
Missy is Clara!
Okay, this is a rather literal interpretation of the (possession?) scenes billed in the trailers. Of course Clara's good... isn't she? Whilst this is probably the safest option, I personally wouldn't want to see Clara's newfound personality explained away by having a dark secret.
Missy is the Doctor!
New Doctor, new bad guy, and they seem to be equals, so why not? It had precedent - an evil Doctor popped up in 1986, so maybe Missy is a side-effect of the new regeneration and linked to the new identity crisis. Is he a good man, or a good woman? A female future Doctor would be a good way to skirt around that issue. I wouldn't like to analyse her line about the Doctor being her boyfriend though!
Missy is the Master!
Which leads us onto this similar theory, only more out-and-out evil - the Doctor's arch nemesis, reborn. The last time we saw him, he was John Simm and probably trapped on Gallifrey. Now that's been saved, perhaps the Master had a new life cycle too? Would fans appreciate a bold new take on the character? (very bold, in places!)
Missy is The Rani! Or Romana! Or Susan!
Ones for the fans - the female Time Lords who haven't turned up yet in the series. Regenerating The Rani and Romana have been done recently in Big Finish, so anything's possible. But would they bring back characters last seen in the 80s?
Missy is the TARDIS!
No idea how that works, but it's appeared as a mad Victorian lady the other year.
Missy is River Song!
Oh come on, Alex Kingston only appeared last year.
Missy is somebody who was sneakily introduced only a few episodes ago!
You see that little girl who pops up in the middle of that episode you didn't like very much? That was her!!
Missy is God/Missy is the Devil!
Frankly, for Doctor Who, that would be a cop-out.
 |
| "You know who I am..." |
Well, everyone has their theories, and here are mine. One of them's probably true as they're a bit obvious, so if this spoils it for you, stop reading.
Missy is Clara!
Okay, this is a rather literal interpretation of the (possession?) scenes billed in the trailers. Of course Clara's good... isn't she? Whilst this is probably the safest option, I personally wouldn't want to see Clara's newfound personality explained away by having a dark secret.
Missy is the Doctor!
New Doctor, new bad guy, and they seem to be equals, so why not? It had precedent - an evil Doctor popped up in 1986, so maybe Missy is a side-effect of the new regeneration and linked to the new identity crisis. Is he a good man, or a good woman? A female future Doctor would be a good way to skirt around that issue. I wouldn't like to analyse her line about the Doctor being her boyfriend though!
Missy is the Master!
Which leads us onto this similar theory, only more out-and-out evil - the Doctor's arch nemesis, reborn. The last time we saw him, he was John Simm and probably trapped on Gallifrey. Now that's been saved, perhaps the Master had a new life cycle too? Would fans appreciate a bold new take on the character? (very bold, in places!)
Missy is The Rani! Or Romana! Or Susan!
Ones for the fans - the female Time Lords who haven't turned up yet in the series. Regenerating The Rani and Romana have been done recently in Big Finish, so anything's possible. But would they bring back characters last seen in the 80s?
Missy is the TARDIS!
No idea how that works, but it's appeared as a mad Victorian lady the other year.
Missy is River Song!
Oh come on, Alex Kingston only appeared last year.
Missy is somebody who was sneakily introduced only a few episodes ago!
You see that little girl who pops up in the middle of that episode you didn't like very much? That was her!!
Missy is God/Missy is the Devil!
Frankly, for Doctor Who, that would be a cop-out.
18 Oct 2014
Six Reasons Why I Love Wolfblood
Wolfblood is currently experiencing its third series run on CBBC and I think it's one of the best dramas on TV, genuinely doing solid and extraordinary things, full stop. I've written about it before on this blog, but two years on, it's clear to see why it's ahead of the opposition:
1. It's a serial show. With Wolfblood you get more out of it if you started watching from the start, discovering the main characters' special abilities in the first episode (super-powered werewolf-like humans), and the gradual layering of new characters and events. More than that, the characters properly develop and show new sides, almost every week too. I was genuinely surprised in the first series how much they probed into the character's lives - Maddy's best mate Shannon's monster-spotting obsession being properly addressed, or later on with the slow and subtle romantic and non-romantic friendships between characters. Plotlines have been introduced that pay off later on, and plot elements that have proved useful before are taken for granted.
2. It's a fast show. Big things happen every week - big for the young characters and audience, like falling out with friends. And more importantly, it doesn't patronise its audience by undoing things after each episode. The secret of Wolfbloods living among us must be kept secret, and that's always a danger. Those high-stakes moments - at the series finales, or the threat of doctors running tests - feel like the whole thing could suddenly come crashing down.
3. It's not a scary show, it's not horror. The creator, Debbie Moon, envisaged her "werewolves" as normal people with superpowers - superpowered hearing, smell, the ability to run really fast and dealing with becoming a wolf at every full moon. That's particularly present in the most recent two-parter when one of the characters gets to experience what it's like as a Wolfblood. Stripped from the horror tropes, it becomes pure character drama with cool fantasy moments. And whilst there's sometimes big angry wolves, the scariness comes from characters messing up or getting found out, rather than death or getting attacked.
4. It's a realistic show, even with the fantasy elements (no, especially because of the fantasy elements, because without them you wouldn't be able to broach some of the subjects so easily). Whilst a lot of children's telly has a school setting, this really feels like the characters go to school - they get told off for skipping lessons, they have parents, they hang out at school at lunch break or in the toilets. Perhaps in another show the mundanity of French class and school assemblies would ground the rest of the fantasy and provide a safe haven before they go out to fight monsters. In this show, the monsters come from inside you, and school life provides enough drama for some episodes. As it's telly, we only see one class of course (well it's a tiny rural village!), but all of British school life is represented here: the sporty boys, the mean girls, the geeks, the loners, and the people who fall into the gaps. And the teacher Mr Jeffries is a real teacher too - like all the other (often more wolflike!) antagonists, he's not evil, he has interests and humour and warmth. That's what I've liked about the wild Wolfbloods and urban Wolfbloods introduced in series 2 and 3 - whilst they pose a threat to our main characters, they're always painted in shades of grey. No out-and-out evil villainy, that wouldn't be interesting enough.
5. It's a funny show, especially as the writers and actors have stretched their wings as they've gone on. The supporting cast of fellow school pupils might on the surface be a bunch of archetypes, but the strong polarised characters allows for some amazing moments and realistically snarky remarks. Recently the girl gang of The Three Ks have had some brilliant hilarious scenes (plus some brilliant drama), the writing and acting now honed over the three series to pitch perfect levels. There's variety in the humour too (bad dad jokes and insults to slapstick and farce) and a lot of it is refreshingly honest and grown-up for a show like this.
6. It's an amazing looking show, with a visual style and sound that's unlike anything on CBBC or elsewhere, and feels very assured from the first episode. The music has a wild folky quality (topped off by the theme song), even if ultra-modern chart music sometimes intrudes. There's bright yellow eyes, a wild muddy forest, slow-mo and stunts and night shoots. It's very impressive work all round - this series there's been seriously impressive closeups, drone shots, split-screen, the works. All this and CGI wolves! Rightly, this looks and feels like shows that have ten times its budget.
So there's six reasons - and to be honest, I could easily come up with six more delving into the characters and the positive storylines. It's thrilling, it's fun, it's addictive to watch each week - I hope this has whetted your appetite if you haven't discovered it yet.
1. It's a serial show. With Wolfblood you get more out of it if you started watching from the start, discovering the main characters' special abilities in the first episode (super-powered werewolf-like humans), and the gradual layering of new characters and events. More than that, the characters properly develop and show new sides, almost every week too. I was genuinely surprised in the first series how much they probed into the character's lives - Maddy's best mate Shannon's monster-spotting obsession being properly addressed, or later on with the slow and subtle romantic and non-romantic friendships between characters. Plotlines have been introduced that pay off later on, and plot elements that have proved useful before are taken for granted.
2. It's a fast show. Big things happen every week - big for the young characters and audience, like falling out with friends. And more importantly, it doesn't patronise its audience by undoing things after each episode. The secret of Wolfbloods living among us must be kept secret, and that's always a danger. Those high-stakes moments - at the series finales, or the threat of doctors running tests - feel like the whole thing could suddenly come crashing down.
3. It's not a scary show, it's not horror. The creator, Debbie Moon, envisaged her "werewolves" as normal people with superpowers - superpowered hearing, smell, the ability to run really fast and dealing with becoming a wolf at every full moon. That's particularly present in the most recent two-parter when one of the characters gets to experience what it's like as a Wolfblood. Stripped from the horror tropes, it becomes pure character drama with cool fantasy moments. And whilst there's sometimes big angry wolves, the scariness comes from characters messing up or getting found out, rather than death or getting attacked.
4. It's a realistic show, even with the fantasy elements (no, especially because of the fantasy elements, because without them you wouldn't be able to broach some of the subjects so easily). Whilst a lot of children's telly has a school setting, this really feels like the characters go to school - they get told off for skipping lessons, they have parents, they hang out at school at lunch break or in the toilets. Perhaps in another show the mundanity of French class and school assemblies would ground the rest of the fantasy and provide a safe haven before they go out to fight monsters. In this show, the monsters come from inside you, and school life provides enough drama for some episodes. As it's telly, we only see one class of course (well it's a tiny rural village!), but all of British school life is represented here: the sporty boys, the mean girls, the geeks, the loners, and the people who fall into the gaps. And the teacher Mr Jeffries is a real teacher too - like all the other (often more wolflike!) antagonists, he's not evil, he has interests and humour and warmth. That's what I've liked about the wild Wolfbloods and urban Wolfbloods introduced in series 2 and 3 - whilst they pose a threat to our main characters, they're always painted in shades of grey. No out-and-out evil villainy, that wouldn't be interesting enough.
5. It's a funny show, especially as the writers and actors have stretched their wings as they've gone on. The supporting cast of fellow school pupils might on the surface be a bunch of archetypes, but the strong polarised characters allows for some amazing moments and realistically snarky remarks. Recently the girl gang of The Three Ks have had some brilliant hilarious scenes (plus some brilliant drama), the writing and acting now honed over the three series to pitch perfect levels. There's variety in the humour too (bad dad jokes and insults to slapstick and farce) and a lot of it is refreshingly honest and grown-up for a show like this.
6. It's an amazing looking show, with a visual style and sound that's unlike anything on CBBC or elsewhere, and feels very assured from the first episode. The music has a wild folky quality (topped off by the theme song), even if ultra-modern chart music sometimes intrudes. There's bright yellow eyes, a wild muddy forest, slow-mo and stunts and night shoots. It's very impressive work all round - this series there's been seriously impressive closeups, drone shots, split-screen, the works. All this and CGI wolves! Rightly, this looks and feels like shows that have ten times its budget.
 |
| And these are just the shots that stood out! |
So there's six reasons - and to be honest, I could easily come up with six more delving into the characters and the positive storylines. It's thrilling, it's fun, it's addictive to watch each week - I hope this has whetted your appetite if you haven't discovered it yet.
21 Sept 2014
Time Heist - almost a review
Today I'm wondering how they could have improved Time Heist. Don't know why, but bear with me - it's probably because I didn't quite know what to think of it when I saw it, in a bad way.
Don't get me wrong - it fits the Saturday night bill perfectly. The show needs at least one episode every year which throws everything at the screen, rips off a bunch of favourite movies and genres, and everything ends happily. It's a formula for fun lightweight telly that has produced the likes of Dinosaurs in a Spaceship, Curse of the Black Spot, Planet of the Dead, and it's not a bad thing. We can't have Listen every week.
And there were some terrific elements to it - the Teller, Keeley Hawes as Miss Delphox, the gang, the look and style, the ending - pretty much all of it, on paper. Except for me it's less than the sum of its parts, and I'd say it's in the writing. Not that the writers haven't put a ton of work into the often labyrinthine plot, just that it could do with a few more solid character scenes, or explain things away easier.
Loved the opening: the Doctor and Clara, definitely how to open a story, even if it's very close to their first scenes together in Listen. And then the Memory Worm (a nice return of this plot device/joke machine creature), fast but wordy introductions to our new gang and why we're here. Guards banging on the outside and we realise it's going to be quicker than we thought. No time for questions now, let's go - straight into the plot and sneaking into the bank. In the most part, it works, I'll give them that, but I'd have liked another (possibly filmed but cut) scene outside the bank with the gang. Or for them to go the whole hog with the genre, and have a montage of security guards with a voiceover telling them exactly what the plan is.
I'm only saying this because the frantic pace of the opening, helped by the sudden jump in plot via a memory wipe, goes straight away once they get into the inner corridors of the bank. There's little in the way of geography - Into the Dalek had that in a similar setup, simply because it was inside a recognisable structure, though Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS didn't - or really threat, because the bank's so huge and devoid of guards and the Teller's slow and only used a few times. But I'm jumping ahead here - before the gang break in, there's a very fine scene where the Teller is introduced, a completely faceless character meets a grim fate, and Miss Delphox has a way with words. The direction and slow mo works a treat, and I love all the dry bleak hyperbole of the bank protocol in the script (reminiscent to Doctor Who fans especially from Robert Holmes's The Sun Makers): "open up and you'll be humanely disposed of", "fired with pain". And especially the dark "that's not tears, that's soup", which you can imagine Peter Capaldi relishing.
It's a shame then the plot dries up after this - it's often been wordy so far and full of unwieldy explanations and get-out clauses, but saved by the pace. Couldn't they think of a couple more (cheap!) set-pieces to fill the middle act? But the new 'companions' in the Doctor's gang get things to do, and become slightly more than just their stock characters (clever updating, but they're still undoubtedly cliches - a lot of thanks go to the actors and costumers as well as the writers). Psi and Saibra are great additions to the ever growing list of the Doctor's casual acquaintances, so it's good to see them survive for another adventure. Though with an obvious teleporting effect, their 'deaths' were undermined from the start, even with the muddled explanation of the importance of yet another mysterious gadget in a case put there by a mysterious... zzz...
Still, we've got some creepy scenes with the Teller being let loose, like a more colourful, lighter-toned version of The God Complex from a few years back (though what's up with the editing between scenes? again, geography). 'Don't think' resembles all too many monster weaknesses these days, and Clara alone comes almost too soon after Deep Breath, unless they're trying to make a running theme of it. And then by the time we're left with the Doctor and Clara, everything ties up a bit too early into an anti-climax and we're left wanting answers - and then we get them.
Peter Capaldi's Doctor needs more scenes with villains, including in this story. Karabraxos was a surprise to me (come on, the Architect figure was obvious, which distracted me a bit) but she's handled surprisingly by the Doctor - little time for any contempt, no punishment, because he's bound by the laws of time and trying to work out the plot.
And what is the plot? I think they fudged the explanation a little bit by explaining it in the wrong order (though working things out in your own time isn't a bad thing - just look at Listen) but here's my take:
Decades after having received the Doctor's phone number and then left, Karabraxos on her deathbed has a change of heart and wants to put things right by saving The Teller - right up the Doctor's street - but can only do so in the moment when she left it just before the solar storm hit or else she'd change time. She doesn't come up with the plan - the Doctor does, recruiting the best people to help him do it, and placing the gadgets and everything beforehand.
It's not much of a time loop really, just a bit of prior knowledge as to the moment, because the magical destroying solar storm means it had to be this moment for them to be able to break in (as explained halfway through) and they couldn't go by TARDIS, or just jump straight to the private vault... for some reason.
And finally, memory wiping had to be done for them to get past The Teller (as explained at the start when it's introduced) and to stop the younger Karabraxos finding the whole thing out. It's a rescue mission for the creature that would have been killed otherwise.
Contrived as heck, but then it's ridiculously high concept to begin with (the bit with the two aliens as the end is also quite similar to - and an improvement on - the ending of last year's Hide). I just hope Clara's "there has to be some logic behind all this" isn't the stick that people use to beat it with - once everything's explained and you've got your head around the oddness, it's a good story.
As the end shows, this is lightweight fare, even with a couple of grim bits. Our heroes made it out alive, everything's back to normal with Clara, job done. There's no final shot of the Doctor being dour, or prophetic about his own death, or realising something about the story arc. Nope, this is as Saturday night as they come.
(What's this? A phone call from somebody in the future: "I want you to write an article on how to improve Time Heist". Sounds contrived as heck, but why not...)
Don't get me wrong - it fits the Saturday night bill perfectly. The show needs at least one episode every year which throws everything at the screen, rips off a bunch of favourite movies and genres, and everything ends happily. It's a formula for fun lightweight telly that has produced the likes of Dinosaurs in a Spaceship, Curse of the Black Spot, Planet of the Dead, and it's not a bad thing. We can't have Listen every week.
And there were some terrific elements to it - the Teller, Keeley Hawes as Miss Delphox, the gang, the look and style, the ending - pretty much all of it, on paper. Except for me it's less than the sum of its parts, and I'd say it's in the writing. Not that the writers haven't put a ton of work into the often labyrinthine plot, just that it could do with a few more solid character scenes, or explain things away easier.
Loved the opening: the Doctor and Clara, definitely how to open a story, even if it's very close to their first scenes together in Listen. And then the Memory Worm (a nice return of this plot device/joke machine creature), fast but wordy introductions to our new gang and why we're here. Guards banging on the outside and we realise it's going to be quicker than we thought. No time for questions now, let's go - straight into the plot and sneaking into the bank. In the most part, it works, I'll give them that, but I'd have liked another (possibly filmed but cut) scene outside the bank with the gang. Or for them to go the whole hog with the genre, and have a montage of security guards with a voiceover telling them exactly what the plan is.
I'm only saying this because the frantic pace of the opening, helped by the sudden jump in plot via a memory wipe, goes straight away once they get into the inner corridors of the bank. There's little in the way of geography - Into the Dalek had that in a similar setup, simply because it was inside a recognisable structure, though Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS didn't - or really threat, because the bank's so huge and devoid of guards and the Teller's slow and only used a few times. But I'm jumping ahead here - before the gang break in, there's a very fine scene where the Teller is introduced, a completely faceless character meets a grim fate, and Miss Delphox has a way with words. The direction and slow mo works a treat, and I love all the dry bleak hyperbole of the bank protocol in the script (reminiscent to Doctor Who fans especially from Robert Holmes's The Sun Makers): "open up and you'll be humanely disposed of", "fired with pain". And especially the dark "that's not tears, that's soup", which you can imagine Peter Capaldi relishing.
It's a shame then the plot dries up after this - it's often been wordy so far and full of unwieldy explanations and get-out clauses, but saved by the pace. Couldn't they think of a couple more (cheap!) set-pieces to fill the middle act? But the new 'companions' in the Doctor's gang get things to do, and become slightly more than just their stock characters (clever updating, but they're still undoubtedly cliches - a lot of thanks go to the actors and costumers as well as the writers). Psi and Saibra are great additions to the ever growing list of the Doctor's casual acquaintances, so it's good to see them survive for another adventure. Though with an obvious teleporting effect, their 'deaths' were undermined from the start, even with the muddled explanation of the importance of yet another mysterious gadget in a case put there by a mysterious... zzz...
Still, we've got some creepy scenes with the Teller being let loose, like a more colourful, lighter-toned version of The God Complex from a few years back (though what's up with the editing between scenes? again, geography). 'Don't think' resembles all too many monster weaknesses these days, and Clara alone comes almost too soon after Deep Breath, unless they're trying to make a running theme of it. And then by the time we're left with the Doctor and Clara, everything ties up a bit too early into an anti-climax and we're left wanting answers - and then we get them.
Peter Capaldi's Doctor needs more scenes with villains, including in this story. Karabraxos was a surprise to me (come on, the Architect figure was obvious, which distracted me a bit) but she's handled surprisingly by the Doctor - little time for any contempt, no punishment, because he's bound by the laws of time and trying to work out the plot.
And what is the plot? I think they fudged the explanation a little bit by explaining it in the wrong order (though working things out in your own time isn't a bad thing - just look at Listen) but here's my take:
Decades after having received the Doctor's phone number and then left, Karabraxos on her deathbed has a change of heart and wants to put things right by saving The Teller - right up the Doctor's street - but can only do so in the moment when she left it just before the solar storm hit or else she'd change time. She doesn't come up with the plan - the Doctor does, recruiting the best people to help him do it, and placing the gadgets and everything beforehand.
It's not much of a time loop really, just a bit of prior knowledge as to the moment, because the magical destroying solar storm means it had to be this moment for them to be able to break in (as explained halfway through) and they couldn't go by TARDIS, or just jump straight to the private vault... for some reason.
And finally, memory wiping had to be done for them to get past The Teller (as explained at the start when it's introduced) and to stop the younger Karabraxos finding the whole thing out. It's a rescue mission for the creature that would have been killed otherwise.
Contrived as heck, but then it's ridiculously high concept to begin with (the bit with the two aliens as the end is also quite similar to - and an improvement on - the ending of last year's Hide). I just hope Clara's "there has to be some logic behind all this" isn't the stick that people use to beat it with - once everything's explained and you've got your head around the oddness, it's a good story.
As the end shows, this is lightweight fare, even with a couple of grim bits. Our heroes made it out alive, everything's back to normal with Clara, job done. There's no final shot of the Doctor being dour, or prophetic about his own death, or realising something about the story arc. Nope, this is as Saturday night as they come.
(What's this? A phone call from somebody in the future: "I want you to write an article on how to improve Time Heist". Sounds contrived as heck, but why not...)
30 Aug 2014
Deep Breath - almost a review
Doctor Who and the Deep Breath - and Peter Capaldi's debut, and I really enjoyed it. A Victorian setting with some familiar faces, tackling big old themes of the show in a fresh and dramatic way, and all pointing towards a bright new future.
(I'm saying 'almost a review', because I'm not trying to cover everything. Rather, here's some bits that jumped out at me when I watched it, or have been floating around in my head ever since.)
Peter Capaldi first... well, he's amazing. He has tons to do - high comedy and high drama - he plays a million different facets of the same character. And he does it all brilliantly. There's not much more I can say.
Then there's Clara. I've heard other, cleverer, people talk about how this is the show through the companion's eyes again, not the Doctor's as it has been with Matt Smith. This probably explains why suddenly we're noticing Clara having character - not that she never had one, but that the Doctor was the one who did everything. Here, she's reacting to plot of the Doctor changing, coming to terms with who this man is, and being angry with him - it's wonderful to watch. She holds her own for long scenes where the Doctor is missing (and Jenna Coleman can definitely act it) especially in some very dramatic scenes with Madame Vastra and the villain, the Half-Faced Man. The first one is pure drama especially, verbal sparring between two, an argument we can see both sides and relate to both characters. It feels almost unique in the show to have the companion being in such a strong scene, and the Doctor absent. I loved it. Clara suddenly shoots up to the pantheon of great Doctor Who companions, as similar moments with Rose and Sarah Jane spring to mind.
Viewers of the last series, however, might have noticed a change. Madame Vastra got on quite happily with Clara in the previous two or three times that they met (if they met at all in some scenes), although she was a little bit frosty and protective in The Snowmen. Clara's met many incarnations of the Doctor onscreen beforehand, so shouldn't be quite so stressed that her Doctor has changed (that's another kettle of fish), and her defensive comments about how she's never been swayed by the Doctor's youthful looks hasn't really been explored either way. And has Clara been such a control freak? There's hints - she fits in her TARDIS travels around her own weekly schedule, she masterminds the Doctor to accompany her to the family Christmas dinner - but it's never been stated outright as in this episode. I admire that they're finally giving her a proper character now, and giving her things to do, and I admire that they're sticking to the same character brief from before, even if I've probably only read it in interviews. I'm just not sure the qualities we're banged over the head with here are especially realistic, or make a good character on their own.
But still, the second is notable - it seems like we've had few of these scenes lately, not least because there's been a lack of proper villains. Clara can be strong and terrified and still showing her character. The robotic monsters work extremely well too: it's that mix of tangible real world scary things (clockwork sounds, robotic zombie people), cool design, and a villain who's played absolutely straight and absolutely perfectly. With the cherry on the cake of a Doctor Who monster - something that can be imitated in the playground. That's not to say they have what it takes to become a regular popular feature, just that they work especially well here, as a particularly big, well oiled cog in a wider machine - and cleverly (very Steven Moffat) reflecting the Doctor's character and the core themes of change and renewal and humanity.
Let's not forget it's the first story of the new Doctor - one of those rare, pivotal 'regeneration stories' - and many of the hallmarks are here, even if you have to look harder for some of them. There's the worry that the Doctor's regeneration might have 'gone wrong', with scenes of him breaking normal rules of etiquette (always more so than in later episodes when he 'calms down'). The companion doesn't quite know what has happened, and there's familiar characters to reassure us it's the same show, including a first - a cameo acting appearance from the previous man telling us to trust him. It reminded me of an old address to camera from Patrick Troughton: "this time I'm just a little bit more frightening than last time. If your mummy or daddy are scared, just hold their hand." Of course, this came at the end of the story, after plenty of scares and bewildering moments, so it was less of a warning, more of a straightforward cameo.
And then there's the - arguably - traditional moment, just after the plot kicks in, where the Doctor as we know him is back with us. He might be suited up already, or he might not. But, like here, we finally see the glimmer of the new character away from the post-regenerative madness. In The Christmas Invasion, David Tennant finally woke and stepped out of the TARDIS to face the Sycorax. In The Eleventh Hour, the moment came earlier, when Matt Smith was asking Amy to trust him, or perhaps when he was investigating the crack in her wall. In Deep Breath, Peter Capaldi rips his face off to reveal the Doctor underneath. That's where I see the Doctor stepping in, even with the T-Rex and the lovely restaurant business beforehand - he's finally found some clothes that don't smell, he's facing the villain for the first time, and he definitely hasn't abandoned Clara. Even then, as this leads into an excellent face-off (pun intended) upstairs against the Half Faced Man, we're not sure of who the Doctor is, of how far he can go. We're still not really sure after the credits have rolled. But we trust him - and we certainly trust in Peter Capaldi.
If the familiar elements are hard to find, I put that down to the new tone and style, orchestrated by Ben Wheatley. It would be more straightforward to play this story as one of the last few years, chewing up the meaty character scenes into bitesize quips. It's a brave opening gambit - the show will be more thoughtful, more weighty (rather than any of the now meaningless terms like 'dark', or even more meaningless here, 'adult'). Events will have consequences and take time to recover from, supporting characters will have their own motivations, the companion can be terrified of the monster and still stand up to them. Nothing here in the direction, either, is flashy for being flashy. I've seen relatively little of Ben Wheatley's output - only A Field in England - but it doesn't surprise me that there's few moments of extravagance in editing or the music or the effects. Not that his flourishes aren't there, but they feel natural and earned. It's the anti-Sherlock, from the writer of Sherlock. No wonder it all feels different.
But I'd also add that with this drawn out, more serious style came an underlying sense of bewilderment expressed by me and many other viewers. (AI: 82, say no more) I've nothing against the second half of the story which is traditional as anything and pure Doctor Who. And it's not the pacing - which wasn't particular bad or slow even when the plot hadn't kicked in yet. No, I find fault with the opening sequence, in the same way that Cold War left me, well, cold. In that story and this, everything's introduced in a blur, with the Doctor and Clara arriving in the middle of the action, so we and they don't quite know what's going on. Then there's jumps in time - Clara or the Doctor falling unconscious - a general lack of exposition/characters being filled in off-screen, and finally the whole episode takes a shift into a completely different style to what you were expecting (in Cold War, the Ice Warrior coming out of its casing). If the opening left me breathless, that change bewildered me.
You could make the case that it's about the format - forty five minutes is a short amount of time when having to introduce things - but Deep Breath has that extra time. And it's hardly an action packed opening either, people just talk! It's a storytelling problem, even if it could have been ironed out in editing. That first scene is a great scene, but I only noticed how great it was on the second viewing, when I had the right expectations of how it would play out. The trouble is with Doctor Who, more so than most dramas, a good chunk of the audience will only watch the show once, on a Saturday night, some of them too young to take in all of it. It needs to be accessible, and not just in continuity, something I think this lacks slightly. (for an opening sequence I think works, well, take your pick - though The Christmas Invasion works because it's short, and The Runaway Bride works because it picks up on crazy things shown months ago, and establishes them proper. No sudden dinosaurs here!) And an audience that is bewildered to begin with, with no Doctor to latch onto (and when he is there, he's behaving very oddly), could find themselves lost before the familiar, safer elements kick in, before Matt Smith reminds the viewers that this man is still him. It could have been their intention to alienate the audience a little, not making them comfortable with the new show (let alone the new Doctor), but I think a more accessible, or perhaps traditional, first half would have made this perfect.
(I'm saying 'almost a review', because I'm not trying to cover everything. Rather, here's some bits that jumped out at me when I watched it, or have been floating around in my head ever since.)
Peter Capaldi first... well, he's amazing. He has tons to do - high comedy and high drama - he plays a million different facets of the same character. And he does it all brilliantly. There's not much more I can say.
Then there's Clara. I've heard other, cleverer, people talk about how this is the show through the companion's eyes again, not the Doctor's as it has been with Matt Smith. This probably explains why suddenly we're noticing Clara having character - not that she never had one, but that the Doctor was the one who did everything. Here, she's reacting to plot of the Doctor changing, coming to terms with who this man is, and being angry with him - it's wonderful to watch. She holds her own for long scenes where the Doctor is missing (and Jenna Coleman can definitely act it) especially in some very dramatic scenes with Madame Vastra and the villain, the Half-Faced Man. The first one is pure drama especially, verbal sparring between two, an argument we can see both sides and relate to both characters. It feels almost unique in the show to have the companion being in such a strong scene, and the Doctor absent. I loved it. Clara suddenly shoots up to the pantheon of great Doctor Who companions, as similar moments with Rose and Sarah Jane spring to mind.
Viewers of the last series, however, might have noticed a change. Madame Vastra got on quite happily with Clara in the previous two or three times that they met (if they met at all in some scenes), although she was a little bit frosty and protective in The Snowmen. Clara's met many incarnations of the Doctor onscreen beforehand, so shouldn't be quite so stressed that her Doctor has changed (that's another kettle of fish), and her defensive comments about how she's never been swayed by the Doctor's youthful looks hasn't really been explored either way. And has Clara been such a control freak? There's hints - she fits in her TARDIS travels around her own weekly schedule, she masterminds the Doctor to accompany her to the family Christmas dinner - but it's never been stated outright as in this episode. I admire that they're finally giving her a proper character now, and giving her things to do, and I admire that they're sticking to the same character brief from before, even if I've probably only read it in interviews. I'm just not sure the qualities we're banged over the head with here are especially realistic, or make a good character on their own.
But still, the second is notable - it seems like we've had few of these scenes lately, not least because there's been a lack of proper villains. Clara can be strong and terrified and still showing her character. The robotic monsters work extremely well too: it's that mix of tangible real world scary things (clockwork sounds, robotic zombie people), cool design, and a villain who's played absolutely straight and absolutely perfectly. With the cherry on the cake of a Doctor Who monster - something that can be imitated in the playground. That's not to say they have what it takes to become a regular popular feature, just that they work especially well here, as a particularly big, well oiled cog in a wider machine - and cleverly (very Steven Moffat) reflecting the Doctor's character and the core themes of change and renewal and humanity.
Let's not forget it's the first story of the new Doctor - one of those rare, pivotal 'regeneration stories' - and many of the hallmarks are here, even if you have to look harder for some of them. There's the worry that the Doctor's regeneration might have 'gone wrong', with scenes of him breaking normal rules of etiquette (always more so than in later episodes when he 'calms down'). The companion doesn't quite know what has happened, and there's familiar characters to reassure us it's the same show, including a first - a cameo acting appearance from the previous man telling us to trust him. It reminded me of an old address to camera from Patrick Troughton: "this time I'm just a little bit more frightening than last time. If your mummy or daddy are scared, just hold their hand." Of course, this came at the end of the story, after plenty of scares and bewildering moments, so it was less of a warning, more of a straightforward cameo.
And then there's the - arguably - traditional moment, just after the plot kicks in, where the Doctor as we know him is back with us. He might be suited up already, or he might not. But, like here, we finally see the glimmer of the new character away from the post-regenerative madness. In The Christmas Invasion, David Tennant finally woke and stepped out of the TARDIS to face the Sycorax. In The Eleventh Hour, the moment came earlier, when Matt Smith was asking Amy to trust him, or perhaps when he was investigating the crack in her wall. In Deep Breath, Peter Capaldi rips his face off to reveal the Doctor underneath. That's where I see the Doctor stepping in, even with the T-Rex and the lovely restaurant business beforehand - he's finally found some clothes that don't smell, he's facing the villain for the first time, and he definitely hasn't abandoned Clara. Even then, as this leads into an excellent face-off (pun intended) upstairs against the Half Faced Man, we're not sure of who the Doctor is, of how far he can go. We're still not really sure after the credits have rolled. But we trust him - and we certainly trust in Peter Capaldi.
If the familiar elements are hard to find, I put that down to the new tone and style, orchestrated by Ben Wheatley. It would be more straightforward to play this story as one of the last few years, chewing up the meaty character scenes into bitesize quips. It's a brave opening gambit - the show will be more thoughtful, more weighty (rather than any of the now meaningless terms like 'dark', or even more meaningless here, 'adult'). Events will have consequences and take time to recover from, supporting characters will have their own motivations, the companion can be terrified of the monster and still stand up to them. Nothing here in the direction, either, is flashy for being flashy. I've seen relatively little of Ben Wheatley's output - only A Field in England - but it doesn't surprise me that there's few moments of extravagance in editing or the music or the effects. Not that his flourishes aren't there, but they feel natural and earned. It's the anti-Sherlock, from the writer of Sherlock. No wonder it all feels different.
But I'd also add that with this drawn out, more serious style came an underlying sense of bewilderment expressed by me and many other viewers. (AI: 82, say no more) I've nothing against the second half of the story which is traditional as anything and pure Doctor Who. And it's not the pacing - which wasn't particular bad or slow even when the plot hadn't kicked in yet. No, I find fault with the opening sequence, in the same way that Cold War left me, well, cold. In that story and this, everything's introduced in a blur, with the Doctor and Clara arriving in the middle of the action, so we and they don't quite know what's going on. Then there's jumps in time - Clara or the Doctor falling unconscious - a general lack of exposition/characters being filled in off-screen, and finally the whole episode takes a shift into a completely different style to what you were expecting (in Cold War, the Ice Warrior coming out of its casing). If the opening left me breathless, that change bewildered me.
You could make the case that it's about the format - forty five minutes is a short amount of time when having to introduce things - but Deep Breath has that extra time. And it's hardly an action packed opening either, people just talk! It's a storytelling problem, even if it could have been ironed out in editing. That first scene is a great scene, but I only noticed how great it was on the second viewing, when I had the right expectations of how it would play out. The trouble is with Doctor Who, more so than most dramas, a good chunk of the audience will only watch the show once, on a Saturday night, some of them too young to take in all of it. It needs to be accessible, and not just in continuity, something I think this lacks slightly. (for an opening sequence I think works, well, take your pick - though The Christmas Invasion works because it's short, and The Runaway Bride works because it picks up on crazy things shown months ago, and establishes them proper. No sudden dinosaurs here!) And an audience that is bewildered to begin with, with no Doctor to latch onto (and when he is there, he's behaving very oddly), could find themselves lost before the familiar, safer elements kick in, before Matt Smith reminds the viewers that this man is still him. It could have been their intention to alienate the audience a little, not making them comfortable with the new show (let alone the new Doctor), but I think a more accessible, or perhaps traditional, first half would have made this perfect.
1 Aug 2014
Doctor Who and the Terminator: an observation
When Doctor Who eventually came back on our screens, it had style. The past was still there, it was still the Doctor and his companion running towards danger and old, familiar monsters. But there was a new, perhaps American style, admittedly cribbed from wildly popular and influential shows like Buffy.
And it also pays lip service to Terminator 2: Judgement Day I noticed, after seeing the wildly popular and influential sequel the other day (I know, what kept me so long?). Both have mysterious leather jacketed time travellers going on the run with the girl, who's been noticed and death follows in their wake. And it steals the imagery when the plastic duplicate of Mickey develops flat blades for hands (no gory stabbings at 7pm) and destroys a restaurant, an unstoppable figure chasing after the Doctor and Rose. And upon seeing the finale of the film set in a steel factory, I finally saw the direct reference in the Nestene Consciousness's underground lair, lit up red and embodied in the lava. I still think the episode owes more to the Hollywood film than it does to Spearhead from Space, barring the Auton Invasion near the end.
Released in 1991, the film - hailed in places as the greatest science fiction film of all time - was too late to influence the TV series itself. But then I thought back to the TV Movie in 1996, set in America with the same brief to update this dated time traveller for a new audience, with movie style effects and not so many bug eyed monsters. Heere's the other half of Terminator 2, as it almost cribs the plot: two time travellers, one good and one bad, one out to change history and one who's trying to stop them, though the heroine doesn't know that yet. There's cool motorbikes and hospitals and nighttime chases to a scientific establishment and outwitting cops and a streetwise kid and body swapping and everything, followed by a fight in which both hero and villain are dangling over the edge, with an ominous destruction of the world hanging over them all. It's very T2.
And as such, it didn't really work as Doctor Who. Sure, the show had mined plenty of science fiction in the past, and there were plenty of Hammer ripoffs in the 70s. The series had both predated hits (The Ark in Space is the same idea as Alien, infamously, but a few years earlier) and mined them (the bit in Dragonfire that goes all Aliens, but with nothing like the production values), and that's fine. Indeed, if you're looking for accessible modern science fiction, T2 would be in the back of your mind.
I think one of the reasons Rose worked is it only used different imagery, but built it around the Doctor Who formula. The strength of Rose was the story enabled it to go straight into thwarting an alien invasion rather than dealing with regeneration, Time Lords and other 'core concepts', irrelevant to a new audience. The TV Movie was criticised for straying too far away from the show, even with these references, but that's probably because the plot's thin. What makes T2 thrilling is the drama and the danger: it had Arnie protecting Sarah and John Connor from the other, unstoppable Terminator. Here, the Master doesn't have much of a plan at first other than to survive, and so the Doctor has to go on a wild goose chase involving shutting the Eye of Harmony. Perhaps they should have stuck to what the Doctor does best - fighting monsters and villains.
And it also pays lip service to Terminator 2: Judgement Day I noticed, after seeing the wildly popular and influential sequel the other day (I know, what kept me so long?). Both have mysterious leather jacketed time travellers going on the run with the girl, who's been noticed and death follows in their wake. And it steals the imagery when the plastic duplicate of Mickey develops flat blades for hands (no gory stabbings at 7pm) and destroys a restaurant, an unstoppable figure chasing after the Doctor and Rose. And upon seeing the finale of the film set in a steel factory, I finally saw the direct reference in the Nestene Consciousness's underground lair, lit up red and embodied in the lava. I still think the episode owes more to the Hollywood film than it does to Spearhead from Space, barring the Auton Invasion near the end.
Released in 1991, the film - hailed in places as the greatest science fiction film of all time - was too late to influence the TV series itself. But then I thought back to the TV Movie in 1996, set in America with the same brief to update this dated time traveller for a new audience, with movie style effects and not so many bug eyed monsters. Heere's the other half of Terminator 2, as it almost cribs the plot: two time travellers, one good and one bad, one out to change history and one who's trying to stop them, though the heroine doesn't know that yet. There's cool motorbikes and hospitals and nighttime chases to a scientific establishment and outwitting cops and a streetwise kid and body swapping and everything, followed by a fight in which both hero and villain are dangling over the edge, with an ominous destruction of the world hanging over them all. It's very T2.
And as such, it didn't really work as Doctor Who. Sure, the show had mined plenty of science fiction in the past, and there were plenty of Hammer ripoffs in the 70s. The series had both predated hits (The Ark in Space is the same idea as Alien, infamously, but a few years earlier) and mined them (the bit in Dragonfire that goes all Aliens, but with nothing like the production values), and that's fine. Indeed, if you're looking for accessible modern science fiction, T2 would be in the back of your mind.
I think one of the reasons Rose worked is it only used different imagery, but built it around the Doctor Who formula. The strength of Rose was the story enabled it to go straight into thwarting an alien invasion rather than dealing with regeneration, Time Lords and other 'core concepts', irrelevant to a new audience. The TV Movie was criticised for straying too far away from the show, even with these references, but that's probably because the plot's thin. What makes T2 thrilling is the drama and the danger: it had Arnie protecting Sarah and John Connor from the other, unstoppable Terminator. Here, the Master doesn't have much of a plan at first other than to survive, and so the Doctor has to go on a wild goose chase involving shutting the Eye of Harmony. Perhaps they should have stuck to what the Doctor does best - fighting monsters and villains.
24 Jul 2014
Armageddon Outta Here! - the Skulduggery Pleasant short stories
Open up this improbably titled book - after staring at the gorgeous wraparound cover with all the characters brought to life - and you'll see a contents page, or rather, a timeline. Unlike the main (nine or ten) novels, this are the stories inbetween those blockbusting adventures. Short stories!That's not to say these are small stories. Some of the most memorable deal with the 'gaps' in the series: an unseen first meeting in Friday Night Fights; a story that has fun with the Western genre set back in the Dead Men's heyday; a longer novella in a very different - but no less Derek Landy - style; another very enjoyable (and slightly self-referential) appearance from horror writer Gordon Edgely
These are billed as the 'new' stories, although only the most adventurous fans will have tracked down and read all of the others (I'd only read one before). A lot of the existing stories introduce brand new characters created by readers as part of competitions - not as gimmicky as you'd think, and these stories have more significance after the author crammed in practically every character in the penultimate book last year, Last Stand of Dead Men. And it's also introduced me to The Lost Art of World Domination, a very impressive, hilarious exchange of dialogue, which is set in that odd continuity-sparse hinterland, the 'early days'.
Is the book accessible for new readers then, or ones that haven't read all of the books in the series? I'd say probably yes, as the stories are self contained and introduce people themselves, although you'd miss out a lot of injokes (more than references) back to characters, plots and later twists. It's great for fans then - really enriching the wider edges of the world of the books, or as extra stories on par with the great set-pieces of the bigger novels, or just containing more action with their favourite characters - Skulduggery or Valkrie feature in almost all of them.
Then you get to the last section, the advertised 'exclusive chapter from the final book'. I'm not normally swayed by these things - especially as they're normally a tiny peek compared with sitting down with the full tome when it's published. But I did enjoy this one - action, scares, fun, just like the previous short stories in fact.
Only this one has a shadow over it, as it's set after the really very game-changing events of the penultimate book. Some of the fun might be over, which makes this book - containing references to all the books, thanks to the final chapter - a last chance before we say goodbye. It's extra special.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)