Smile!

22 April 2017

Smile  is another one of those episodes where perfectly normal behaviour suddenly becomes perilous, as in don't blink!, don't breathe!, stay out of the shadows! but to my mind is rather less successful than such stories as Blink and Silence in the Library.  I may be rather biased, as unlike Bill,  whose face is always 'doing expressions' when she doesn't want it to, my face tends to look naturally glum, whatever I am thinking.  Often what I am thinking is homicidal thoughts about the passing strangers who interrupt my perfectly happy thoughts by calling out "cheer up love, it might never happen!" so a world in which you have to smile or face being composted was hardly likely to appeal much.

It started well, with the Doctor sneaking off in the TARDIS with Bill whilst Nardole was making the tea, and the futuristic city looked fantastic.  However, there was something not quite right about the pacing.  A large chunk of the episode involved Bill  and  the Doctor exploring on their own, without all that much happening, and then the ending,  once the colonists awoke, seemed oddly rushed.

It seemed rather out of character to me for the Doctor's first instinct to be to blow the city up, rather than to fix the robotic malfunction.  Even if he believed that the colonists were arriving in a separate ship, what did he think would happen to them when the colony ship arrived to find a bomb site rather than a functioning city?

My biggest problem though was with the whole 'smile' thing.  The mood badges were placed on the back.  The implications is that they sensed mood (like those mood rings that used to be popular), so how would a faked forced grin make any difference?

Overall,  some nice ideas, but could have been so much better.

The Pilot

Saturday 15 April 2017

After a long break from our screens, the Doctor has returned in an episode that is in many ways reminiscent of Rose. It was very much about introducing the new companion, Bill.  If first impressions are anything to go by, she will be good. Her initial reaction to the TARDIS ('like a posh kitchen') was hilarious. But it occurs to me that I need a new kitchen soon.  I wonder whether the other half would be more convinced if we went for a TARDIS look?*

The episode is called The Pilot.  It turns out that there is something lurking in the university that needs a pilot, and Bill inadvertently becomes involved.  But the title has a double meaning. The episode is a sort of reboot, and the focus is on Bill's initiation into the TARDIS rather than the wider peril.

It turns out that the Doctor has been hiding out in a university, rather like Professor Chronotis in Shada. As a university administrator, I'm glad he didn't choose mine.  I bet he never gets paperwork in on time and is really annoying in meetings (if he turns up at all.)  I wonder if he is research active for REF purposes? What sort of feedback does he get in the NSS? 

As a  Doctor Who fan, I am disappointed that he didn't choose my university.  After all we have a Cruciform, the inventor of the Panopticon and I could have loaned them a spare Dalek if they needed one...

*Edit: he has now seen this post and says he wouldn't.  But I bet he would really.

Let the speculation begin...

Sunday 5 February 2017

So Peter Capaldi will be leaving at the end of the next series. 

Cue the usual speculation about the casting of the next Doctor, and the possibility that it might be a woman this time. Well, I'm sorry if I'm a traitor to my sex, but I think the Doctor is a role that should be played by a male actor.

I mean, we don't have a female James Bond, Sherlock Holmes or Batman, do we.

It isn't as if the series doesn't have strong female roles now.  River Song and Missy can both give the Doctor a run for his money, and female companions have moved on  a bit from twisting their ankle in a quarry and screaming a lot.

St George's Day

23 April 2016

It is St George's Day, and the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death (or at least the 400th anniversary is being celebrated today.)

To honour the occasion, the BBC have decided to announce the new Doctor Who companion at half time of a football match.  Do Doctor Who fans watch football?  The new companion turns out not to be David Tennant as Doctor 10.2 (my ideal choice), or Frank Skinner (my second choice, after his performance in Mummy on the Orient Express), but then Peter Capaldi is on record as saying that he didn't want a male companion, in case he got to do all the action stuff. It is actually a girl named Bill, played by Pearl Mackie.

This will naturally led itself to some great puns and headlines in Doctor Who Magazine. How long before they run with 'Kill Bill!'

Meanwhile in Stratford-upon-Avon, the DoctorDonna (i.e. David Tennant and Catherine Tate) are hosting the Shakespeare Live! gala at the RSC. The start was a bit shaky, and there was rather too much music and not enough Shakespeare but it cheered up no end after the Nine Hamlets sketch with David Tennant, Tim Minchin, Paapa Essiedu, Harriet Walter, Ian McKellen, Rory Kinnear, Benedict Cumberbatch, Judi Dench and, er... Prince Charles.

I was left a little disappointed though that it didn't start with Dean Lennox Kelly coming on and saying 'Shut your mouths'

Doctor Who Festival 3

After lunch, we were back in the main theatre for the Writers’ Panel with Steven Moffat, Toby Whithouse and Jamie Mathieson, introduced by Matthew Sweet.  Someone beat me to it and asked about the sonic screwdriver. Steven Moffat replied that it would definitely be coming back at some point. (Though Moffat, like the Doctor, often lies, I think this is a pretty safe bet. The question is how soon.)

The shades were specifically for the Magician’s Apprentice, where the Doctor needed to have a device in Davros’ sick room, which couldn’t be the screwdriver, because Davros would recognise it. He kept them for a while to annoy Clara. Apparently.

A writing tip from Jamie Mathieson is to just keep writing things down.  Eight out of nine times it will be rubbish, but the ninth time makes up for it.  (Readers of this blog may feel that he has underestimated the amount of rubbish that can be generated.)  As with the 50^th , there was a signer on stage, though fortunately no one had cause to mention Nicola Bryant’s cleavage this time.

A deaf member of the audience made a point of thanking Toby Whithouse for including a deaf character in Under the Lake/Before the Flood.  I think the great thing about this was that it wasn't just tokenism - the scene where Cass was being followed up the corridor by a ghost dragging an axe was the creepiest part of an otherwise creepy story.

The final panel was the highlight of the event: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Michelle Gomez in a brilliant Doctor Who Fair Isle sweater, Ingrid Oliver and Steven Moffat (presumably to keep an eye on them), introduced by Toby Hadoke.  

Peter Capaldi was asked about the question mark underpants (as I believe he had been asked at previous sessions). He claimed that the costume department provided question mark boxer shorts for him that day, but wouldn’t say whether he wore them.  I didn’t believe a word of it.  Michelle Gomez was just as mad in real life as the roles she plays in Green Wing and Doctor Who.

Some of the questioners from the audience took the opportunity to deliver a speech rather than ask a question. I have noticed this 'ego trip' type of question at academic conferences as well.  I find it annoying.

At the end, Peter Capaldi presented Jenna with a huge bouquet.

 

Truth or Consequences

7 November 2015

The Zygon Inversion

Well, in the words of the great game show host Bruce Forsyth, that was 'so much better than last week.' 

Game shows were something of a theme for tonight's episode. I should have realised that the repeated references to 'truth or consequences' last week were more significant than a simple reference to the town that renamed itself after a game show.

After last week's sub X-Files dashing about the planet, this week we were back in more familiar territory, even down to the police officers who were not quite what they seemed.

As the episode drew to a conclusion the real meaning of 'truth or consequences' became clear, referring back to the circumstances under which the original peace treaty was negotiated in The Day of the Doctor.  It all made sense, and gave Peter Capaldi the opportunity both to do a wicked Hughie Green impersonation and prove his worth as the Doctor with a truly impassioned speech.

So what if the final twist could be seen a mile off. It was a most enjoyable episode. (And I mean that most sincerely, folks!)

Och Aye the Doctor!

14 November 2014

Tonight I went to a lecture for alumni of my former university history department. With the aim of giving the event some topical relevance, it was on ‘Making the Union Work, 1707-2014’.  Although wine and canapes were provided, we could tell that it was a serious academic event.  There was even a handout, giving an ‘illustrative chronology’, starting with the union of the crowns in 1603 and proceeding via various political and cultural landmarks such as the abolition of the Scottish privy council in 1708 and the publication of the first of Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley novels in 1814.  The distinguished professor explained that this was intended to give us something to look at if our attention wandered during his lecture.

Somewhere around Adam Smith, I found my attention wandering and  turned over the sheet to read ‘2013 – Peter Capaldi as Dr Who; the third Scot to play the role, out of 12 – is that right Helen and Neil? Towards the end of the talk, the DP, making a point about Scotland’s place in ‘British’ culture duly referred to Peter Capaldi as the third Scottish Doctor out of 12, at least according to Wikipedia, and turned to us for corroboration. My other half agreed that this was correct (it wasn’t the time or place to get into Steven Moffat’s messing with the incarnations) and mentioned the ‘I’m Scottish, I can complain about things’ line from Peter Capaldi’s  first episode. I was far too shocked at the Astor Professor of British History using  Wikipedia  to be able to comment.*

But it got me thinking about Scottishness in Doctor Who. 

I am too young to have seen The Highlanders (though we do have the Target novelisation), but it seems to be based on the romanticised view of Scottish history purveyed by Sir Walter Scott.  (Distinguished Professor is not a fan of the Waverley novels.) It also introduced Jamie McCrimmon, the kilt-wearing companion.

The romanticised view of Scotland was still somewhat in evidence with gratuitous tartan-wearing in Terror of the Zygons in which the Brigadier suddenly seems to remember that his name is Lethbridge-Stewart, and even Nessie makes an appearance (though it turns out she’s an alien creature).

Tooth and Claw is rather less self-consciously Scottish.  Although it gives David Tennant a brief opportunity to use his own accent instead of the Tenth Doctor’s terrible estuary accent, there is rather less of the tartan, bagpipes and Bonnie Prince Charlie in evidence.  They have Kung-fu monks instead for reasons which still escape me.

Steven Moffat’s Scottish stereotyping has been of a rather more modern kind.  As a Scot himself, he can get away with writing  lines such as ‘you’re Scottish – fry something!’

*I should point out that Professor in question does not watch Doctor Who, but was the Head of Department whose meeting was once crashed by Derek the Departmental Dalek. It was clearly a traumatic experience.