Little Storping-in-the-Swuff

In pleasant ignorance, I escaped the fact that it’s Children in Need night, until 5 minutes ago, when the first two minutes of The Next Doctor popped into my RSS feed.

A quick look at the costume that Mr Morrisey is wearing and I was convinced that he will be the new Doctor.

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The excellent Musical Motifs in New Who has been updated with all series 4 music including the songs in The Unicorn and the Wasp in which I previously identified the Cryin’ All Day by Frank Ricotti and his All Stars as being heard near the beginning.

However, it is identified on the site as the Beiderbecke version since William Gallagher phoned no less than Alan Plater himself having, like me, identified it as the title track to The Beiderbecke Trilogy and called to get information on the recording.

I am convinced I’m right (naturally), and am investigating the matter further.

With so much in it, The Stolen Earth had the potential to be unfocussed and messy, but it was taught, witty and exciting. Journey’s End, though, seemed to have been written by a different writer, perhaps a Mr Hyde to TSE’s Jekyll, rampaging through the script without regard for structure, suspense or sense. Ideas are thrown out all over the place with no direction, confusing the narrative and the pushing the pivotal final scenes into a rushed conclusion even with the extra 20 minutes run time.

There were a couple of things I liked, including Sarah-Jane’s exchange with Davros, and particularly Daleks speaking German.

There were also a couple of things I thought really cheapened previous developments, especially the cut-out-and-keep souvenir Doctor that Rose gets to keep. The healing without regeneration will reduce the impact when the Doctor does have to change (why wouldn’t he just keep a few toenail clippings about him so he could do this whenever he needs to?)

But mostly, the episode was just a series of wasted opportunities:

Regeneration
A great cliffhanger needs a great resolution. Here was an opportunity to prolong the tension, to make the episode really dangerous by having the Doctor midway through the regeneration and unable to complete into a new body, and to be at Davros’ mercy. I hated what RTD did with the Lazarus screwdriver thing in The Sound of Drums but I understand why he did it. If he’d put the Doctor out of action he’d have raised the stakes, and given the plethora of companions something to do while the Doctor faced off with Davros. Instead he effectively halved the peril by doubling the number of Doctors, losing focus and confusing the action in the process.

There’s something on Donna’s back
Lots of loose ends were tied up in the two-parter as predicted (Shadow Proclamation, Medusa Cascade, Bees, Planets, self sacrifice, etc. etc.) But Turn Left which initially seemed to be a setup for this story was left hanging. Why did the fortune teller try to change Donna and the Doctor’s history? I had expected the resolution to be connected to this, and believed there still to be something on her back. What was it that Lucius saw in The Fires of Pompeii? It can’t have been a reference to TL… TL was a satisfying episode, but in part this was because it seemed to foreshadow what was coming. I’d imagined that perhaps the timeline that saw the rise of Davros and the Daleks and also Donna’s adventures with the Doctor might have to be sacrificed with much the same effect for Donna that we saw at the end of JE.

Donna
She deserved a better final story after her limited but excellent run. I expected her to die, and at one point I fancifully suspected that she would end up with the Master’s ring to become possessed by him, Tremas-like, with the audience as bereft as Nyssa, though that might have been too dark (though I would have enjoyed Catherine Tate in the role!) I didn’t dislike her send off (and the scenes with Wilf and Sylvia were a highlight) but it felt rushed, and the same thing was done better in The Girl Who Never Was.

Rose
The Earth Defender’s return has been built up so series that she needed a big comeback - and putting her ‘in charge’ in TL was superb. But after saving Wilf in TSE (for which we’re all grateful - perhaps that was her destiny) she seems to have been relegated to standing around and pouting away when the Doctor appeared to be leaving her behind. Faced with topping the climactic parting in Doomsday RTD’s just given us an insipid imitation instead.

Davros:
Sequels to Genesis of the Daleks have failed to match Davros’ debut. This wasn’t even as good as Revelation of the Daleks (also directed by Graeme Harper). Having been carefully held back in the shadows during TSE, this should have been Davros’ big showdown with the doctor, but he was very underused. (I also have to admit that I think missing the opportunity to reuse Terry Malloy who played the part three times before would have been a thrill for those who remember those performances, which were generally better than the scripts!)

The Dalek’s Prisoner:
Davros is said to be in the Dalek’s dungeon, but nothing is made of it. It’s true, the friction between Davros and his creations has been used as his undoing before (several times) but it is a satisfying irony. Anyway, why mention this and not use it?

The king is dead. Long live the king.

Thank you, Russell T., saviour of Doctor Who. Hurrah for script writer Steven Moffatt, best Who scribe ever and now show runner elect.

Besides enjoying Murray Gold’s original score for Doctor Who, I’m quite a fan of the recorded music used in the soundtrack. I’ve made myself an iTunes playlist, and I use these two excellent websites to track down the records featured, right back to ‘63.

I’m quite thrilled to have recognised, before it appears on either of these sites, a track used immediately after the credits in The Unicorn and the Wasp. That’s Kenny Baker’s terrific cornet playing you can hear wrapping up Cryin’ All Day with Frank Ricotti and his All Stars. Bizarrely, it’s from another soundtrack, for excellent ITV series The Beiderbecke Affair by Alan Plater, with James Bolam and Barbara Flynn, and used as the theme for that series and its two sequels.

And now we’ve enjoyed Felicity Kendall, isn’t it time Barbara Flynn did (a TV) Doctor Who?

For the first time since the new series came on, we’ve had references that in no way advance the plot or could possibly mean anything the viewers unfamiliar with the old series. I love them.

The curse of the first two parter also seems to have been broken. Perhaps its time for a return to the old new Who contest…

Round one: The New Person
Rose vs. The Christmas Invasion vs. Smith and Jones vs. Partners In Crime
Result: I particularly enjoyed The Christmas Invasion though all of these are stories I like. One point to series 2.

Round two: This is the Future
The End of the World vs. New Earth vs. Gridlock vs. Planet of the Ood
Result: I adored Planet of the Ood and The End of the World, but Gridlock is a truely outstanding episode. Indeed, the only one here that I don’t care for is New Earth. That’s one point to series 3.

Round three: Earth History
The Unquiet Dead vs. Tooth and Claw vs. The Shakespeare Code vs. The Fires of Pompeii
Result: Pompeii was weak, the other stories are good, but only the Unquiet Dead really stands out. One point to series 1.

Round four: The First Two-Parter
Aliens of London/World War Three vs. Rise of the Cybermen/The Age Of Steel vs. Daleks in Manhatten/Evolution of the Daleks vs. The Stonaren Statagem/Poison Sky
Result: The first double of the new series was the first real let-down. With series two it became clear that this double was going to suck, and series three confirmed it. Perhaps I’ve been brainwashed to have low expectations, but I loved the first double of series four. I’m not a Sontaran fan (I prefer stories with the Rutans, me) and the story was full of holes but all the same I loved it. Kudos to Helen Raynor (author of the previous’ series Dalek dud) for writing an all out brilliant double. Bernard Cribbins and Catherine Tate are great. The curse is broken. One point to series 4.

So, there we have it. One all, to each series, and all to play for…

I didn’t think Torchwood would ever be really good without a radical overhaul. Turns out I was wrong. Here’s why Reset (Torchwood with Martha) works.

1. J.C.Wilsher. Creator of Between The Lines, one of my favorite dramas, I had high hopes for his episode and, indeed, the writing is great. Inter-agency friction, with the trademark Wilsher phrase “fireproof” making an appearance, in an intelligent, consistent, thought-through human-led alien conspiracy plot touching on major medical/ethical issues without ever pausing for breath.
2. J.C.Wilsher. And the bit that even surprised me was that he was able to touch on every ludicrous “romanic” subplot and add something, even each of them seem like they work.
3. J.C.Wilsher. Did I mention the writer? Continuity can be a milstone, so to bring together the strands not just from the inconsistent preceding Torchwood episodes but also the Jack/Martha Doctor who arc (two thirds of which was dire) not to mention a spot of classic Who (UNIT!) and making it feel like it added to the whole seems to me a bit of an achievement.
4. Martha Jones. Torchwood works so much better when there’s a likeable, competent lead who you can believe could actually face up to the alien threat. Martha’s presence seems to bring out the best in the team who seem to raise their game when she’s around (thanks to an excellent script - did I mention J.C.Wilsher?).
5. Freema Agyeman. Now she’s stepped out of Tennant’s shadow I’ve realised just how good she is. She’ll be worth watching Torchwood for even when it falls back into the hands of inferior writers.
6. Great Gadgets. Both of them, but especially the contact lenses. What’s the point of nicking alien technology if it’s not spectacularly advanced? Though it wasn’t conceptually flawless (bypasses the auditory circuits?) I loved it.
7. Editing. This episode was really slick.
8. The Score. Dramatic, tense, and best of all featuring Murray Gold’s Martha’s Theme from Doctor Who.

Let’s hope Torchwood with Martha can stay this good.
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Doctor Who episode Gridlock has been nominated for an Epiphany Prize for increasing “man’s love and understanding of God”.