Confession time… I bloody love Gareth Roberts. Like with Mark Gatiss, as soon as I hear that he’s written an episode, I’m chomping at the bit to watch it. As a writer on Doctor Who, he has never let me down. And it’s at this point I’m supposed to write, ‘until now’ but I won’t because once again he knocked it out of the park with The Doctor going undercover at Coal Hill School to hunt down a murderous robot. Of course, much like the Lodger, his attempts to play human go awry to humorous effect; Capaldi reminding me of a certain Northern regeneration as he blustered around the school insulting anyone in his path.
Except that wasn’t really the plot was it? No, it wasn’t. Well done. Have a biscuit.
Indeed, The Caretaker was really about The Doctor meeting the new love in Clara’s life, Danny Pink. And boy did it fail to run smoothly. Danny, sensing when someone is looking down their nose at them, undermined The Doctor at any given opportunity. Whilst the Doctor seemed to be bruising from the fact that Danny was a sign of Clara destined to leave him. For a soldier no less! Strange behavior for a man who sent Martha Jones to work for UNIT. Or maybe, it was because Clara wasn’t attracted to her floppy-haired, bowtie wearing colleague. Maybe not. Either way, the episode ended with begrudging acceptance from both men; the likes of which we haven’t really seen since The Doctor first met Mickey Smith all those moons ago.
I’d like to think that Danny isn’t going to make her choose, but that’s mostly because I don’t want to think Clara could be told what to do. And the only reason I haven’t suggested the Doctor might make her choose is because I don’t think he’d bloody dare. What happens from this point on is hard to judge. Will Danny step on board the TARDIS? I don’t think so now. His mistrust in the Doctor is two great. Though by the end of the season, he could be in a big yellow truck trying to open the heart of the TARDIS. Hmmm, that would make a good episode.
About The Author
My name is John Noonan. I’m a freelance writer that specialises in arts and entertainment. From genre flicks to chick flicks, I love the stuff. So much so, I started a film review blog at earlybirdfilm.wordpress.com. I also contribute to online and hard copy press, including FilmInk magazine.
If you like what you see, I am available for hire. You can contact me via the social media channels above or the form on my home page.
What’s been refreshing about this season of Doctor Who is the absence of unwieldy arcs. Patient Zero, The Silence, the ‘mystery’ of River Song… They never really convinced, did they? Instead of enticing, they sort of weighed things down like the Doctor was swimming through treacle. I think I realized this when I was asked by my sister, who was returning to show after an absence, to briefly explain the backstory of the aforementioned Song and the Silence. It was impossible. Like trying to a do a join the dots puzzle without numbers on the dots. Or dots. Or a pen.
This time, Moffat seems to have taken a leaf from RTD’s book, giving us something to look out for each episode without it staining the episode too much. As the Ninth Doctor had Bad Wolf and the Tenth danced with Saxon, we’ve been meeting Missy, who seems to be gathering a nice collection of collateral damage from the Doctor’s adventures. Yep, we’ve had no throwbacks to two year old storylines whatsoever… Until now, when Twelvy rather rudely reminded us that he never did clear up the mystery of the woman in the shop was who gave Clara his private number. Sneaky Moffat.
And then, and then! He and Stephen Thompson, who wrote this episode with him, led us to a plot resolution that cruelly suggested it was going to tell all, before skirting off into another direction. Confound you men!
But what of the rest of Time Heist.
Well, it was okay.
The Doctor and Clara are seemingly kidnapped with their memories wiped and encouraged to rob a bank with two other people to get the TARDIS back. All in all, it was a perfectly watchable episode of Doctor Who that was only ruined because of my constant need to second guess everything. By the time, the Doctor had dropped several elephant sized clues as to who the ‘Architect’ of the bank heist was and the fact the episode has the rather spoilerific title of Time Heist, I was waiting for everybody else at the finishing line to hear him confirm my suspicions that he was the number one suspect. And I’m sure I wasn’t the only one.
Then there was the two ne’er-do-wells also caught up in the action: Psi (Jonathan Bailey) and Saibra (Pippa Bennett-Warner). Painted in angst and black, this duo of cybertech and mutant felt like they’d been ripped out of the pages of The New Doctor Who Adventures Novel from the 90s. Oh, but I’m being mean. Maybe after all the character development we’ve had between Twelvy and Clara, I was so hungry for more I was left unsatisfied with what was essentially a rompless romp. It’s certainly not the worst episode of Doctor Who, but I won’t be reaching for it in the future when I’ve got an hour to spare.
About The Author
My name is John Noonan. I’m a freelance writer that specialises in arts and entertainment. From genre flicks to chick flicks, I love the stuff. So much so, I started a film review blog at earlybirdfilm.wordpress.com. I also contribute to online and hard copy press, including FilmInk magazine.
If you like what you see, I am available for hire. You can contact me via the social media channels above or the form on my home page.
A few years back, in the early part of my relationship with the woman I proudly call my best friend/wife/listener to the worst of my pop culture rants, I used to have a terrible time shutting my brain off. I’d start thinking about little things that bugged me. Really pointless inconsequential things. These little ticks would snowball and before I knew it, I’d be turning to my best friend/wife/person who makes a cracking stir fry and cry, ‘I’ve done it again. I’ve thought too much.’ I could construct monuments to paranoia and anger; the biggest ball of introspection in the west. After a while, I managed to sort it out and can get through the day quite reasonably without starting a fight with myself…
I’m sure everyone has a similar story, which is why the latest episode of Doctor Who, Listen, worked so well. We’ve all talked to ourselves, we’ve all debated ourselves into a knot and we’ve all thought about the worst case scenario. And that’s where we find the Doctor; talked into a corner by himself and trying to find out whose fault it is.
Grabbing an almost unwilling Clara, The Doctor bounces around time trying to work out why we all talk to ourselves and why we sometimes have that sense of dread that we’re not alone. The genius of this episode is how Steve Moffatt manages to lay out two co-existing plots here, and I’m not just talking about the sub-plot with Danny Pink, but we’ll get to that. No, I’m referring to the following:
Storyline 1: The Doctor believes there is a creature out there with a terrific ability to hide. You can feel it just behind when you’re in the dark. It plays with you by moving things around. Everyone at some point in time will meet it. The Doctor pieces together the clues to hunt it down.
Storyline 2: Lost in thought he recalls a time in his childhood when he felt most terrified. The Doctor begins to overthink things, which leads him into failing to see the woods for the trees. He turns a molehill of a memory into a mountain of misunderstanding, corrupting the facts to fit his hypothesis.
Look on the internet and you’ll see that people are divided as to whether there was anything out there. Even when there’s other witnesses, such as a young Danny Pink and his descendent Orson Pink, the story is written to fit a number of conclusions. Young Danny could be the victim of a practical joke, whilst Orson has been on his own for so long his mind is playing tricks on him. Or maybe not?
Staying focused on Danny for a moment; He is, for me, fast becoming our sense of reality on Doctor Who. He’s Wilfred. He’s Jackie Tyler and Mickey Smith. Suffering from PTSD, part of me feel he’s a reason for Clara to stay in the present should the opportunity arise. But then, Orson did mention that one of his great-grandparents used to tell him stories about time travel… Why must we assume that it’s Clara? To assume that is to assume everything works out for Danny and her in the end. I don’t think Moffat works like that. Danny may step on board the TARDIS one day, but I’m not sure he’ll be with Clara forever. Especially if she continues to put in her foot in her mouth. She may very well be able to stand up to alien creatures and overlords, but she is not so good on a first date.
And then there’s that scene in the barn and a young weeping time lord. Some will, or already have, cried foul. Ooh, Moffat is messing with Doctor Who canon, blah, blah! But then those people, politely, need to get over themselves. Not to sound dismissive, but as the last 50 years of Doctor Who have been built on chopping and changing the show’s canon, I couldn’t care less. Whenever you get really angry about someone changing something in the show you hold dear, just remember that a long time ago, Doctor Who was about an old man with a time machine and one heart. Psychic paper, time lords, Adric and regeneration limits were the stuff of fancy. Times change and so must we.
Anyway, yes, it all turns out that the Doctor was comforted back to sleep by Clara, who soothed him with words she learnt from the older him only hours earlier. And then, and THEN! She ends up telling him something that he’ll end up saying when he kidnaps a couple of teachers in his future. It turned my brain in to a pretzel, but I loved it and, honestly, it brought a tear to my eye.
Listen was a brilliant episode and possibly one of Moffat’s best since Blink. Since the problematic sixth season, he has been upping his game and if this is the kind of thing he can do, then I look forward to more of the same. Come on Moffat. I know you’ve got it in you.
And then I began to think… How do we actually know that it was the Doctor Clara was talking to? Who’s to say that it wasn’t a young boy who had stared into the time vortex and was driven mad? Who’s to say that Clara’s soothing words weren’t accidental encouragement for a pre-destined goateed maniac who will try and conquer 1970s UK and then the world? Look, I’m not saying it WAS the Master, but it could have been. But it probably wasn’t. But it could have been. Though it’s doubtful. But it might not be. I’m drifting. Have I ever told you I over think things?
Isn’t this where…
About The Author
My name is John Noonan. I’m a freelance writer that specialises in arts and entertainment. From genre flicks to chick flicks, I love the stuff. So much so, I started a film review blog at earlybirdfilm.wordpress.com. I also contribute to online and hard copy press, including FilmInk magazine.
If you like what you see, I am available for hire. You can contact me via the social media channels above or the form on my home page.
After the previous two excellent and, let’s be honest, frankly dark episodes, a sense of frivolity returns in Mark Gatiss’ Robot of Sherwood. Fulfilling a promise to Clara, the Doctor whisks off to Sherwood and straight in front of the tights of Robin Hood and his Merry Men. Which for Clara, as a huge fan of the legend, is a dream come true and an excuse to dress up. For the Doctor though, it’s a troubling matter because as far as he’s concerned, the Earl of Loxley never existed. Then there’s the problem of the knight robots who work under the say so of the Sherriff of Nottingham. What is a time lord to do?
Series 8 of Doctor Who, and in particular Peter Capaldi’s interpretation of the Doctor, needed this episode before the glumness set in. We know he’s moody, we know he’s arrogant. But let’s step out of the shadows, shall we? Whilst Twelvy doesn’t look like he’s going to be cracking a smile too much, Gatiss manages to bring out enough awkwardness in him that suggests the twinkle in his predecessors’ eye is still there. Working out complicated sums whilst eating some kind of desert behind Clara’s back? Done. Using a spoon to attack to Robin Hood? Check. Failing to recognize a real sandal when he sees one? We’ve all been there.
Everybody was on fine form, with Jenna Coleman getting more to do than she ever did as a plot device last season (And I mean that with the greatest respect, I bloody love Clara) Standing up to the Sherriff of Nottingham, played with Alan Rickman familiarity by Ben Miller, she was just a bad ass. Okay, she went a bit squiffy when she met Robin Hood, but come on, who hasn’t gone a bit weak at the knees when they meet a hero?
Whilst there was no Missy to be seen, Gatiss’ episode carried on what I suspect is Season 8’s key theme of breaking down the Doctor into little bite sized chunks of psychology. After badmouthing the very existence of Robin Hood, the Doctor discovered that he shared a lot in common with the green tighted vigilante; inspiring future generations to do good and stand up for they believe in. The Doctor may have lost his oversized fringe and buried his head in calculus, but he knows his right from his left.
What I originally thought in Deep Breathand Into the Dalek, was a way of breaking the new Doctor to the kiddies seems to be more complex than that. The Doctor has gone through a belief shattering experience. After coming to terms with his life ending, he was rather surprisingly given a whole new regeneration cycle. That’s a whole new life! If any one of us were to die right now having accepted our fate, only to rise like Lazarus, how do we think it would affect us? Would we begin to cherish every new day and find the beauty in everything? If we looked back on our life, would we scrutinize the bad things we’d done and try to better ourselves? Maybe we would.
Now imagine having over 2000 years to look back on. Wouldn’t you feel pretty small and humble when stood next to your mistakes?
If the Doctor is asking if he’s a Good Man, I think he’s hoping whatever he achieved at the end of his first life cycle justified the means.
Obviously this is a bit deep for an episode that was a wonderful bit of history and nonsense, but I’m putting it out there nonetheless. I’ll be interested to see where they go with this.
About The Author
My name is John Noonan. I’m a freelance writer that specialises in arts and entertainment. From genre flicks to chick flicks, I love the stuff. So much so, I started a film review blog at earlybirdfilm.wordpress.com. I also contribute to online and hard copy press, including FilmInk magazine.
If you like what you see, I am available for hire. You can contact me via the social media channels above or the form on my home page.
Second episode in and the Twelfth Doctor is playing with the big dogs as he goes toe to toe with the Daleks. Hell, some don’t even get to do that till their third at best. Am I right, Eleven?
After saving a young soldier, Journey (Zawe Ashton) from certain death, the Doctor returns her to her space station and ends up having to give psychoanalysis to a war-torn Dalek to find out why its suddenly developed the desire to destroy his own race. Rather than sticking it on a couch and getting it to weep buckets about its dad, the Doctor and Clara, along with Journey are shrunk down to a size appropriate to climbing inside a Dalek’s head. ‘Fantastic idea for a movie. Terrible idea for a proctologist.’ The Doctor notes.
This could have easily been a retread of the classic episode of Dalek, but instead it does the same job as the Beast Below; allowing Clara an opportunity – and us – to peel another layer off this latest incarnation of the Timelord. Whilst clearly still wanting to do right, the Doctor has developed a tenacity to set up camp in his own head. Note the books and equations on the chalkboard in the TARDIS, and his admission that he switches off during conversations unless he’s the one who’s talking. ‘I think he’s probably her uncle but I may have made it up to pass the time when they were talking.’ He says.
In the Tenth and Eleventh Doctor this would have been played as an amusing quirk, like a fez or 3D glasses. However, there’s the distinct impression that the Doctor is troubled as if trying to formulate an answer to a question that no one asked. Yet. In time, we may become privy to what’s going on behind those angry eyebrows, but for now it’s another mystery. As is the reappearance of Missy. Yes, there’s only been two episodes, but I’m happy to stick my neck out and say she’s the Master looking to exploit some facet of the Doctor’s personality. To what ends? We’ll see.
Outside of the Doctor, we continue to progress in leaps and bounds with regards to Clara, who appears to be growing as a character who has a life off screen. Look, she even reads the Guardian. It’s clear she wants to still be able to trust the Doctor, but there’s a definitely a kernel of mistrust in her heart. Hopefully, she’ll have Danny Pink (Samuel Anderson) to turn to. It’s too early to say how much of an impact he’ll have on the show. Whilst his struggles with his life as a soldier are surely going to return, it’s hard to shake the feeling he’s destined to be a Rory substitute.
Overall, this was a cracking episode that’s going to be a tough one to beat. Something happened at Camp Moffat. Something that made him want to change the way he approaches his work as showrunner. Whatever, it was, I couldn’t be happier.
About The Author
My name is John Noonan. I’m a freelance writer that specialises in arts and entertainment. From genre flicks to chick flicks, I love the stuff. So much so, I started a film review blog at earlybirdfilm.wordpress.com. I also contribute to online and hard copy press, including FilmInk magazine.
If you like what you see, I am available for hire. You can contact me via the social media channels above or the form on my home page.
John Noonan 