Doctor Who Festival 2

After the Millennium FX talk we had three hours or so free for visiting the main exhibition area (we hadn't booked for any of the photo sessions).

I for once succumbed to the merchandising, buying a Pandorica scarf for £27. The day before I had been tempted by an Escher Metamorphosis scarf at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, but thought £75 was a bit steep, so I was an easy target.  I also bought a Dalek soft toy for my German colleague.  Yes, I did use the words 'Dalek soft toy'.  (The Dalek is now keeping up the grand tradition of adorning an office in a major university).  My husband dithered about buying a burgundy 4th Doctor scarf and eventually succumbed - with unfortunate consequences.

We caught the end of an ‘Act Like a Monster’ talk with Nick Briggs and Barnaby Edwards and later watched a ‘Director’s Class’ with Douglas Mackinnon, who took some volunteers through the Rupert Pink’s bedroom scene from Listen.  They did pretty well, considering the script had been thrust into their hands just a moment or two before, but having seen that, I appreciate the talent of the professionals all the more.

The prop and costume exhibition was all from the latest series.  It's difficult to get excited about Clara's costumes, which are just normal clothes. Missy, Osgood and Lady Me/Ashildr's costumes were much more interesting.  I probably wouldn't have recognised Leandro's costume without a label, as he really didn't make that much of an impression.  The exhibition also included a Zygon pod and the confession dial. I'm sure we haven't seen the last of that...

Zygon pod

Missy's new costume

Lady Me's costume

Osgood's costume

Props

Zygon Times

Sunday 1 November 2015

My German colleague (notable as the only German I have ever met who watches Doctor Who) has raised a question about The Woman Who Lived? Why didn't she use the repair chip to save one of her children?  Were none of them 'good enough'?

Oh well, moving on to this week's episode, The Zygon Invasion.  I like Zygons.  Their debut story, Terror of the Zygons is one of my favourites.  But I found The Zygon Invasion a bit tedious to be honest. 

In 2005, when we were all just so surprised and happy to have Doctor Who back on our screens, there was a two-part story Aliens of London/World War Three in which aliens disguised as politicians took over 10 Downing Street, and attempted to start a war, claiming that there were aliens with 'massive weapons of destruction' that could be deployed within 45 seconds. I was so amazed at the sheer cheek of this topical reference in the run up to a general election that I almost fell off the sofa.

Ten years later, and the (real) world is not a safer place.  The Zygon Invasion starts by reminding us of the small piece of unfinished business from  Day of the Doctor.  You know, the peace treaty between humans and Zygons that was to be negotiated with neither party knowing which side they were on. What with saving Gallifrey, and the Great Curator and everything, no one bothered to ask how it turned out.  Cue another flashback to the Tenth Doctor (and the Eleventh and the other one). Sadly, it all went downhill after that.

It turns out that the Zygons have been living among us, but now a faction among the young are being radicalised.  They are taking hostages, making videos and killing people. One of their bases is in a country ending in -stan.  It doesn't take a degree in Media Studies or Politics to see where this is going.

So we have heavy-handed political satire, locations that range from the amusingly-named Truth or Consequences in New Mexico to somewhere in (presumably) Central Asia, via a London estate; a regular who has been replaced by a Zygon, UNIT (run entirely by women now, it seems) and it somehow fails to gel.  It felt more like an episode of Torchwood  or The X-Files to me.

At least Osgood is back (for now). And it's always nice to see David Tennant.

Update: My aforementioned German colleague wants to know why the Doctor needed a Presidential Plane to get to the Zygon-istan.  He has a point.  I'm not sure where exactly this Zygon village is supposed to be, but it must be at least 6 hours flying time. Husband's response (as per Girl in the Fireplace) 'they can't use the TARDIS, they are part of events now.' 

Death in Heaven: Initial thoughts (spoilers)

So what did I do?  I turned off everything connected to the internet and sat down to enjoy Partners in Crime and Fires of Pompeii, of course, and to be honest, I enjoyed them both rather more than some of the more recent series.

When the husband finally reappeared, he announced that we would watch Death in Heaven  straight away. This may have affected my appreciation of it, as I was half asleep by then.  I'll need to watch again to confirm my impression of it.

First impressions though:

As with many season finales, there was too much going on. The action was rushed in places, whilst there were also pauses for emotional scenes that didn't always work, and the plot was somewhat hard to follow in places.

Positives:

• I like the Missy incarnation of the Master. She's totally bonkers, but also recognisably the same person as the John Simm version.

• Osgood was excellent, and her death was shocking, although it was clear that the writing was on the wall when the Doctor appeared to offer her a trip in the TARDIS. 

• The Cyber-Danny also worked well, and was a logical continuation from Doomsday where the converted Yvonne still performs her 'duty to Queen and Country.'

• The pre-credit wind-up with Clara pretending to be the Doctor (which carried over into the opening credits).  It was obviously done so that they could have a clip in the trailer of her saying that Clara Oswald never existed, so full marks for an excellent fan teaser.

Negatives:

•  Earth Force One and the Doctor-President. (I never cared much for the Valiant, either). The whole idea of a planet-wide response to anything is implausible, and UNIT really ought to know by now that the Doctor doesn't do positions of responsibility.

• I didn't really get the point of the cyber-pollen turning the dead into Cybermen.  The original point of Cybermen was that they had replaced parts of their bodies with cybernetics, so why would they need real skeletons, when they could easily use artificial ones? And why harvest human minds to populate the bodies, when they have to delete the emotions that make them human?

• The magic bracelet or whatever it was that allowed one person to 'cross back over' with a living body didn't make sense.  Yes, it worked as an emotional climax to the episode, but how was it possible, given that the bodies had been cyber-converted?

• The Cyber-Brig: I suppose it was a nice idea, but I find it somehow disrespectful.  And if any of UNIT had to survive, I would have preferred Osgood to the annoying Kate.

In retrospect, I suspect that the theme was designed to fit in with the broadcast on the weekend of Remembrance Day, but at the moment, I think Family of Blood addressed this far more effectively.