What (DW) are you currently watching? (Part 2)

Television
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1783

I keep forgetting to post, but we’re continuing on in order with the 4th Doctor era, we’re up to the S13 Collection set (& special features!). The AI stuff seems most egregious on Zygons, it’s intermittently noticeable after that or maybe I’m just more used to the look.

Terror Of The Zygons - it’s a sensational story, Douglas Camfield’s direction is just top notch. The Zygons are so instantly interesting and different (and so slimy lol!), and Angus is a very entertaining side character (plus Brig in kilt). This is a real favorite. 4.5/5

Planet Of Evil - this one looks great, and there are a few cool moments, but it’s kind of a frustrating story. It actively chooses not to do the most dramatic or interesting of its own ideas, like when The Doctor falls into an alternate dimension and floats in it for about nine seconds before just climbing right back out again, or when Sarah is kidnapped and taken to an orbiting ship only for them to immediately land, capture The Doctor and lock them up together, reunited. It feels like Robert Holmes simply didn’t have the time to rewrite every story this season from head to toe, and this one comes off like an early draft with a great set and some very fine Tom Bakering. 3.5/5

Pyramids Of Mars - It’s just so good, the plot is so simple! That leaves maximum room for wonderfully rich language, great performances, lots of location footage, and little Marx Brothers sight gags. Sutekh is so great here, and so creepy and powerful even when completely motionless! The mask is so effective! The voice is so good! All side characters are really well-played, the music is great. Sincerely adore the disco time tunnel. 4.5/5

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1784

Arachnids in the UK

OK, so this one consistently has a poor reputation but, do you know what? I’ve always enjoyed it as a bit of knockabout fun.

Graham’s grief is actually really nicely done. Those quiet scenes with him sitting alone in the house, imagining Grace talking to him. Quite lovely. It’s worth taking a moment to appreciate how seldom we get anything like this in Doctor Who, and yet here it is right slap bang in the middle of a crazy story about giant spiders. This also ties in beautifully to Graham’s request to keep travelling at the end.

And… people frequently complain that Robertson is actually more merciful than the Doctor when he shoots the spider mother. Let’s be clear on this. No, he really isn’t. There’s this assumption that the Doctor’s whole plan is to trap the spiders in the panic room and leave them to starve/suffocate. The thing is, she never actually says this. She does plan to isolate the spiders in there, thus containing the very real threat that they pose but we never see beyond this.

I don’t buy for a minute that this is where the Doctor’s plan ended. She frequently makes it up as she goes along and we only see as far as her thought process has got at that stage (or as far as she wants us to see, in some cases, where she’s keeping secrets). It would be entirely like her to then bring the TARDIS and materialise round them to take them somewhere else and to come up with a more humane solution. Robertson took that option away from her by killing the spider mother. That’s what guns do. They end the conversation. They don’t provide new options. They close off options. This is a wrong. Robertson can’t be bothered to look for a better option. He simply doesn’t care.

Granted, we don’t see what the Doctor does to the spiders in the panic room at the end as the story kind of stops and skips to the epilogue when Robertson kills the mother spider. This could have been remedied with a single line of dialogue, however. As a general rule, if an apparent plot hole or problem can be so easily resolved by imagining a single line of dialogue, then it really isn’t worth getting flustered over. There’s nothing to contradict such a reading. Could it have been tidier? Sure. Is it still a fun story? Heck, yes!

Finally, the issue of Thasmin. OK, so I understand that it wasn’t originally planned but it doesn’t come out of nowhere. Indeed, we can see clear seeds right here. In both the writing and Mandip Gill’s performance we see the question very much raised. Graham wants to keep travelling as a salve for his grief, Ryan hates his job and Yaz?

“I want more… More time with you. You’re like the best person I’ve ever met.”

It’s a fun, throwaway story and was probably never intended to be anything more than a bit of fun. It’s not supposed to be a classic or a big plot point. Seen through such a lens, I find it tremendously entertaining. There are many better stories out there, sure, but it makes me smile. Would I enjoy watching it again?

DOCTOR: Definitely! Yes, I would. Thanks. I love tea. Tea at Yaz’s? Amazing. Are you coming? Are we all going for tea at Yaz’s?

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1785

Even though I do not think this episode is very good, this is something that seems to go ignored. Thirteen never says anything about the way of disposing of the spiders, the person who says that the spiders deserve natural deaths is a completely different character.

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1786

Exactly! Moreover, containing them in a location until she can come up with a better solution is extremely sensible and very much in keeping with the Doctor. All we see during the episode is a half plan, which is then truncated by Robertson’s thoughtless and violent response.

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1787

How do you continually manage to do this @realdoctor? You did it for Orphan 55 and now for this. A fully reasoned, sensible, non-confrontational counterargument which I can’t help but agree with and admire. You are truly a marvel.

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1788

Thank you. That means a lot. Let me be clear that I wouldn’t propose either Orphan 55 or Arachnids are particularly great stories, but I do maintain that both have their merits and both are subject to unfair criticism on a regular basis. They entertain me and many of the so-called issues aren’t really issues at all if you think about it.

Not every story can be a top tier story and, you know what? That’s fine. The thing is that I typically find even the weaker stories in DW generally do more for me than 99.9% of everything else on TV. Critique cuts both ways. It’s easy to grab hold of the negatives and bash, but sometimes when we allow ourselves to look and to simply enjoy, we see there may be merits that get overlooked.

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1789

This is precisely the way I try to watch Doctor Who.

Now go and do Kerblam! and I’ll be eternally impressed… :wink:

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1790

We shall see. I have written about Kerblam! before, but never just as an episode- always as part of a larger point. Let’s see what I make of it this time? It’s a week or two away yet, but I’ll get there. :grin:

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1791

Started to watch The Ambassadors of Death

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1792

And continuing on with my Tenth Doctor era thoughts with The Doctor’s Daughter. I don’t care for this episode. The big thing is I just can’t accept the premise. You’re telling me this war was only a week long? There’s always officers not on the front lines directing everything that aren’t in active combat, and you’re telling me there’s not a single soldier who’s lived that long from being created by the machine who could remember that whole time? Why is General Cobb old? Did the machine just make him old for some reason? The time span given is just way too short for any of this to be believable. 7 months, maybe that could work. And honestly, I don’t think they do enough to explain why the humans and hath are fighting each other, or convincingly do an “over the years we don’t even know why we’re fighting” similar to the Kaled-Thal War. It’s just in an unsatisfying and underdeveloped middle ground.

I don’t like how quickly and strongly Ten is to just directly reject Jenny for most of this. While to an extent I agree with his assessment that she isn’t really his daughter beyond genetics, she still deserved more respect from him in the way he treated her. Also, he’s the last of the Time Lords, always so affected by that, so you’d think he’d be jumping for joy at the prospect of even if not culturally a Time Lord, a new biological Gallifreyan at the very least. And a big part of it is him rejecting her because she’s a soldier, just like 12 will do with Journey Blue or Danny Pink, it’s stupid here too, but arguably worse to do to someone being framed by the story as your own daughter. And fine, maybe the Doctor lost all his family in the Time War, but it’s not like he kept in touch with them even before then, he didn’t seem to give the slightest thought to his children and grandchildren since The Dalek Invasion of Earth so the idea that Jenny is just something he couldn’t go through again because of the loss of his “real” family just doesn’t ring true to me.

Also about the Doctor. “The man who never would” who has in fact killed so many in his many lifetimes, both directly and indirectly and compounded with some of the stuff we’ve seen this Doctor himself do and will see this Doctor do is just a laughably stupid moment in this episode. I understand the principle of don’t be a society built on someone killing another, but when he’s a man who absolutely “would” and has, it’s just eye-roll inducing.

What was the point of having Martha join them in this one if they were just going to separate her from the Doctor and Donna and not have her do all that much? The map scene was the Doctor activating the map, Martha just happened to be there. She did help the one Hath with his dislocated shoulder, but her whole thing with walking through the wasteland to find the Doctor was just that, there was little other point to it, her side story line is just superfluous and the episode would have been no better or worse without it. Her losing her Hath friend is a bit sad, but I didn’t feel enough of the attachment needed to really care, and I’m not sure if Agyeman really sold it either. The Hath are a neat looking alien I guess.

Jenny herself is all right I guess, but I don’t know how much of that is I find her an interestingly written character or just attractive. Moffett’s performance is fine, I don’t want to imply that she has nothing going for her but looks, since that’s simply untrue, but I don’t think the material is all that interesting for her. Soldier learning that she doesn’t actually have to kill isn’t that shocking of a revelation like the episode wants you to think it is. I definitely don’t see why so many were clamoring for a Jenny spinoff after this, other than simply the fact that this episode sort of creates a loose end that they may want resolved. It’s even a bit unclear if she can regenerate or if it’s just the Source restoring her (I lean toward the latter, since the effect was more consistent with the Source than regeneration). It feels like her existence was for the next time trailer moment of “what, the Doctor has a daughter now?” with very little additional thought to the character. Also, it’s kinda hilarious that the machine goes to the effort of giving her make-up when it spits her out.

Donna of course has the rather cool moment of figuring out that everything was the dates, the war only having been going on for seven. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t at this point want Donna to figure something out for a reason other than “because she’s a secretary.” I think they’ve done it enough times at this point and I’d like to see other sides of her intelligence than just what her career has trained her in. The scene where they basically just said that Donna wasn’t pretty enough to distract or seduce a guard felt a little mean too. And as much as I think the Doctor’s immediate rejection and other ways he treated Jenny was harsh, especially in some of the things he directly said to her, I’m not sure I liked the way Donna just kept pushing him about it. It’s not like the Doctor chose for Jenny to be created, or chose an action that led to her creation, he was forced into the machine. And it wasn’t a case of something like an accidental pregnancy, where the father should have to take responsibility given he made the choice to engage in activity where that is obviously a risk. However, as indicated before, I’m fine with Donna at least trying to make the Doctor treat Jenny with respect, but I don’t think it’s fair for her to expect him to just immediately take her in as his daughter either given the circumstances. The people on Messaline who created Jenny are the ones that should have to take responsibility for her.

Not sure if I believe that they’d suddenly stop fighting each other just because the Doctor threw a ball of gas on the ground and didn’t kill a guy. Ending felt a little rushed. And apparently a little ball of gas can somehow terraform a whole planet. It really is just there as a MacGuffin, and significantly adds to how contrived the entire premise of this story is. I looked at my 3/10 I have for this and thought about whether or not that’s fair, but I really couldn’t come up with any good reason to give it any more than that, so it’s gonna stay there. Easily the weakest from Series 4.

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TV Club: The Doctor’s Daughter
1793

I finished “Planet of the Spiders”, 7/10. I’ve officially finished 3rd’s era!

I thought it was a pretty good serial but it didn’t completely blow me away, so I give it a 7.

I liked Sarah Jane quite a bit here, but the one who steals the show is 3rd, who I loved throughout the entire story, the Brigadier also had some really good moments.

I liked Tommy, despite basically being a walking offensive stereotype during the first half, but there was something about him, I don’t even know what, that made me connect with him. I also loved K’anpo.

I didn’t like the first 2 parts that much but after that it really starts finding its rhythm, the Eight Legs are such an absurd concept on paper but somehow they work surprisingly well, and 3rd’s death was fantastic.

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1794

Watching the new video from Clever Dick Films. It’s weird seeing Rufus Hound without a moustache.

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1795

The Unicorn and the Wasp. You know what, maybe it’s not the best murder mystery story, but to be honest, that’s not really the point. What it does though is make a very funny and enjoyable story out of Christie and other sorts of whodunnit tropes. The references to Christie’s works are pretty fun (though I’m glad they didn’t try to be edgy and work that title into it like was joked about by RTD and Roberts). Lead pipe, cyanide, names like Professor Peach, the list goes on, you see what they’re doing here. Some of the bits are similar to Shakespeare Code especially Donna name-checking characters and works Christie hadn’t yet written, but they were funny there as well as here.

I’m not sure I’m satisfied by the Vespiform kills because he has the works of Christie in his head. He doesn’t have any real motive for doing it, nothing to gain, not even something like his anger at having been abandoned because his mother is an aristocrat who couldn’t live with the scandal it would have been. It’s just he kills because the bad guys in the books do. I think there may have been more that could have tied the origins of this creature from Lady Eddison getting knocked up by a wasp man, but as it is, it’s just backstory. Backstory that doesn’t even really influence the outcome. So if you’re coming into this for a well designed murder mystery, you may be disappointed.

What I think makes this story still work is all the investigating, especially from Christie using her brain as a writer of these stories. And because the killer is basing it on her stories specifically, you don’t even have to worry about “well, she’s just a writer, not an actual detective.” The whole thing is catered to her knowledge and skill set. It’s so fun to see her and the Doctor just looking around for clues, piecing things together, interrogating everyone, and the scene where they make their conclusions and identify the killer is top-notch. Sure, everyone is lying about something, their alibis and such don’t really add up, but in Christie there’s always lots of lying going on to get the reader speculating, drawing their own conclusions trying to figure it out, possibly on the right track, possibly not. And of course, I like how the story has an answer to the mystery of her brief disappearance, as well as the way this story recognizes her as one of the great writers.

I do wish Donna was a bit more of the investigative process in this. Yeah, she finds the big wasp, allowing us to know what the creature was, but aside from that it’s all Doctor and Agatha. Donna is there for comedic relief mostly, but she’s very funny in this. The trying to figure out what the Doctor wants in the detox scene is hilarious every time. I do think the “so he killed them?” interjections in the scene toward the end was a little too much, I’d have liked less breaking of the tension in that scene.

The side characters are maybe a bit forgettable, but not exactly unlikeable. It was cool to see Christopher Benjamin again. Jago could have possibly still been alive in the 1920s, probably in something like his 80s, but I don’t think he would have filled this particular role quite right, they’d have had to rework it to actually get Jago in this. Rather sad that he feels he has to pretend to be disabled in order to have Lady Eddison stay with him. It was really funny how the maid’s death was completely avoidable if she just stepped to the side instead of standing there screaming as a gargoyle fell on her. The Unicorn wasn’t exactly forgettable in this, but she was rather a bit pointless. I think if they had set her up as the Unicorn earlier, she could have functioned as a good red herring, but that’s not what they did.

It’s just a fun bit of Doctor Who, even if it’s not the best structured murder mystery. Stuff can definitely be picked apart, but I think it’s just one of those cases where you should just sit back and enjoy it instead. Just have fun with the Doctor and Agatha doing their deductions, the detox, the pretty cool looking giant wasp, and the comedic pastiche of the whodunnit genre. Too many enjoyable bits for me to treat it particularly harshly or give it any less than a 7/10.

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TV Club: The Unicorn and the Wasp
1796

Yeah, I just need the time to sit down and watch it, and on the TV, which I haven’t had. But, it sounds like YouTube is being a shit about copyright, and maybe my time to watch it is limited, so I should get on it. I’ve been anticipating this video for years. I hear CDF isn’t really a fan of any post-Capaldi Who, but I hope he does continue with the videos, since they are very well done.

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1797

About to start the TV movie, third time watching overall but obviously the first time in glorious 4K! Hopefully I survive my face getting melted off from the sheer resolution of it (I don’t watch much in 4K).

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1798

I hope you love it! The plot still makes no sense, but the visuals are very pretty now!

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1799

I’ve just spent my day watching the entirety of Trial of a Time Lord. The scripts could have been better but Colin Baker gave one hell of a performance this season. Such a shame he got fired.

Now it’s time for McCoy!

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1800

Oh dear. Dreamland.

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1801

Going to start the TV Movie after a while. Unfortunately it’s the 2011 Special Edition DVD from my library and not the impressive Steelbook. Granted, I have no real desire to own the Steelbook (though I’d like to eventually own a copy of the film), so oh well.

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1802

I found it incredibly funny when Liz suddenly vanished in the TARDIS :sob:

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