I still want to write a proper review but thought I’d share my main thoughts from my recent rewatch.
I really, really enjoyed this. A lot of people describe this as the epitome of a ‘mid’ episode but for me it came out of this rewatch as a 4/5.
The period detail and atmosphere is excellent. The living room of the Connellys, the street party, Magpie’s shop, the transmitter station, the cage where the faceless people are watched. It all feels so atmospheric. The dutch angles are maybe an odd choice but I really feel like they work in this story.
The opening scene with the Doctor and Rose. I know the smugness grates across this season for many - myself included - but when an episode is watched in isolation it actually isn’t too bad and this first scene with the Doctor emerging from the TARDIS on a moped and Rose in period costume is great fun. Not sure why it takes the Doctor so long to realise he’s not in New York but it’s still quite a fun gag.
The Wire is such a fun villain and impeccably played by Maureen Lipman who, bearing in mind she never goes beyond a head and shoulders on a screen, embues the character with proper menace. Yes, ‘Hungry!!’ doesn’t always work, especially as it continues but it works well enough at the start and the visual of people’s faces being sucked into the TV is pretty scary. As an example of Doctor Who making the ordinary scary it’s a good one and using an object that children would literally be watching the adventure on is a stroke of genius.
Ron Cook is great as Magpie too. A man trapped by his own inadequacies and desperate for a way out. In fact, typing that makes me realise he is mirrored in Eddie Connolly - another man who is trapped by his inadequacies and therefore traps those around him to hide it. His betrayal of the families in the street, and then his own mother-in-law is his way of protecting his tiny kingdom. He is a man with no sense of self, only defined by his role as the head of the family.
And that final scene which upsets so many. I think it is played right. Eddie is a monster but he is weak. You can see how easily he is shouted down by the Doctor, how easily he cowtows to Rose’s authority about the flag. Even Rita is able to stand up to him. I know people read him as an abusive father and that is definitely there, especially in how Tommy reacts to him, but both are able to stand up to him, even before the end of the story comes round. I think it is more written as a dominant father who wields his power through a lot of shouting and aggressiveness. He isn’t presented as irredeemable though. He is presented as someone who can, pretty easily, be shouted down and be told to sod off. Tommy going after him just adds to the fact that he can be given a second chance and that, after those events, he may be able to see the error of his ways and get a second chance. In a show where the Doctor even tries to give Davros and the Master, second chances, why would he not wish for a fallible human to be given a second chance. The power has shifted to Tommy - he now has the ability to choose how their family functions and relates. I think that’s actually a pretty important message.
Of course, if you read it as him being physically abusive (which I really don’t think is given any real evidence of) you’re going to find that final scene difficult to swallow, but for me, I don’t think the script is actually going down that route.
Yeah, I liked that one and think it deserves some element of reappraisal.
(Those sentences with the second chances should have been given a second chance because I’ve reread that bit and I do say second chances way too much! It’s late - sorry!)
