I feel like I was a bit of a nasty pants in my review this week. The episode was dire, but perhaps I got a bit carried away with my haughty snub nosing & didn't really try to find the diamonds in the muck. There were a couple, rough ones perhaps, but diamonds nonetheless.
I very much liked the 'will we see him again' moment when the Dr & Martha paused before getting back into the TARDIS; very much a Doctor Who moment. I can't remember too many 'will we see/ meet XYZ again' moments so far in the new series.
I also liked the Daleks conspiring against Sec like naughty school boys. The eye stalk nervously scanning the tunnel was hilarious. It was silly, I laughed, marvellous!
That'll do..it was still bollocks. Exactly 40 years on ('67 to '07) 'Evolution' is entirely unworthy of sharing the initials of the original 'EOTD', the sublime 'Evil Of The Daleks'.
Warmest fuzzies!, The Lucozer.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Flagellation Of The Daleks!
What a load of rubbish. As the Co-Pilot rightly said, so much of this episode was for pure effect and was lacking in subtlety, originality & inspiration. This was best exemplified by DT's 'just kill me then' speech in Hooverville. Poor Davo, he's been doing so well but even he, when confronted by such melodramatic dialouge, can't make it look behind it's shoulder so he can run away! Dalek Sec was abominable in every respect, the mask looked silly and it might as well have been Eric Roberts' head up the octopuses bum. He might actually have done a better job (gulp!) with this most awkward, wrong footed creation. EOTD, like the 1996 telemovie, is an uncomfortable mix of the Anglo and the American. The mix could work, but once again it's not given a chance because of the peddling of tired cliches and stereotypes. The faux-American elements just come over cheesy, grating and painfully forced. Tallulah being the prime example among many.
EOTD stumbles from set piece to set piece with lashings of 'shock' and 'awe'. Actually, there's not really much shock. It is painfully obvious from the start of each set piece which emotions we are going to be led by the nose to feel. If there is any uncertainty, as the Co-Pilot rightly says, the bombastic incidental music soon leaves little doubt. The dialouge was for the most part so ridiculously overblown and 'plotty' that moments that could potentially mine rich emotional and dramatic veins are laughed out of the loungeroom and out the back door in shame. Dalek Sec too, cow udder for a head (nice one CP), waxing emotional in a dodgy New York drawl? Funny for about two seconds until you realise this is meant to be serious, months were spent creating this tosh and that I expect so much more. The last ten minutes or so seem like an escalating joke among stoned teenagers...and then this could happen..ha ha...and then then that could happen...haha, that's f&*^king ridiculous, no no, how about this...The zenith of the stupidity was the chained Sec being led onto the stage S&M gimp style on his hands and knees. Unspeakable. Daleks as masters and slaves..ooh er!..Oh how they laughed and slapped their thighs in the Production Office!
Doctor Who is eating it's own tail, or maybe it's eating something else's tail? With it's Frankenstein referencing and Back To the Future aping, it seems to perpetually set itself up as the vaguely annoying, idolising geeky younger cousin to these things. Not even as an equal. Doctor Who shouldn't be bowing and scraping to the likes of Buffy or Back To The Future. Doctor Who should be setting it's own standards and needs to come up with new ideas, not fourth-hand rehashes. If it must reference other things, they should be more obscure and more subtly threaded into the story; analogies of tales from mythology, cult movies, it's own rich past even (rather than it's own wobbly previous season as the Co-Pilot pointed out). What is needed is elements with more to offer the story than what the Co-Pilot and I have derogitarily dubbed the 'fabulous effect'. The Simpsons finds a marvellous balance of the obscure and the obvious with its cultural and pop-cultural references. Doctor Who hasn't got the balance right yet.
Last week it looked as if we had a noble failure on our hands with this two parter. This week was so ridiculous that I can no longer give the nobility box a tick. I feel this story had the fractured clunkiness of lots of script editing (or adding) around it's flashy bits. All that said, I'm waving my pom poms for DT right alongside the Co-Pilot and I liked the fact that Laszlo remained half pig. Actually, I can't say that I want my 45 minutes back despite the dressing down I've dished out. Some shameful, twisted part of me still managed to enjoy this mess at some level. It certainly had some whizz bang. I think I should get a cat scan.
Love, Lucozer.
EOTD stumbles from set piece to set piece with lashings of 'shock' and 'awe'. Actually, there's not really much shock. It is painfully obvious from the start of each set piece which emotions we are going to be led by the nose to feel. If there is any uncertainty, as the Co-Pilot rightly says, the bombastic incidental music soon leaves little doubt. The dialouge was for the most part so ridiculously overblown and 'plotty' that moments that could potentially mine rich emotional and dramatic veins are laughed out of the loungeroom and out the back door in shame. Dalek Sec too, cow udder for a head (nice one CP), waxing emotional in a dodgy New York drawl? Funny for about two seconds until you realise this is meant to be serious, months were spent creating this tosh and that I expect so much more. The last ten minutes or so seem like an escalating joke among stoned teenagers...and then this could happen..ha ha...and then then that could happen...haha, that's f&*^king ridiculous, no no, how about this...The zenith of the stupidity was the chained Sec being led onto the stage S&M gimp style on his hands and knees. Unspeakable. Daleks as masters and slaves..ooh er!..Oh how they laughed and slapped their thighs in the Production Office!
Doctor Who is eating it's own tail, or maybe it's eating something else's tail? With it's Frankenstein referencing and Back To the Future aping, it seems to perpetually set itself up as the vaguely annoying, idolising geeky younger cousin to these things. Not even as an equal. Doctor Who shouldn't be bowing and scraping to the likes of Buffy or Back To The Future. Doctor Who should be setting it's own standards and needs to come up with new ideas, not fourth-hand rehashes. If it must reference other things, they should be more obscure and more subtly threaded into the story; analogies of tales from mythology, cult movies, it's own rich past even (rather than it's own wobbly previous season as the Co-Pilot pointed out). What is needed is elements with more to offer the story than what the Co-Pilot and I have derogitarily dubbed the 'fabulous effect'. The Simpsons finds a marvellous balance of the obscure and the obvious with its cultural and pop-cultural references. Doctor Who hasn't got the balance right yet.
Last week it looked as if we had a noble failure on our hands with this two parter. This week was so ridiculous that I can no longer give the nobility box a tick. I feel this story had the fractured clunkiness of lots of script editing (or adding) around it's flashy bits. All that said, I'm waving my pom poms for DT right alongside the Co-Pilot and I liked the fact that Laszlo remained half pig. Actually, I can't say that I want my 45 minutes back despite the dressing down I've dished out. Some shameful, twisted part of me still managed to enjoy this mess at some level. It certainly had some whizz bang. I think I should get a cat scan.
Love, Lucozer.
Devolution of the daleks
The worst Dalek story ever...the most 'Schlocktor Who' of all (New Earth and Runaway Bride might be jealous of this 'honour' but f**k them).
This is akin to a cartoon, from the terrible masks to the cardboard dialogue.
The case against:
Soloman was one of the few redeeming features in this debacle, but as he makes his stand against the Daleks one remembers the president from Rise of the Cybermen last year and feels disappointed at the obviousness of the recycling that is going on. New ideas please team.
Why does the Doctor offer his life in a grandstanding moment? It seems that this, like much of this story, exists purely for effect. Subtlety is so much more the domain of Doctor Who and this kind of macho "I am a selfless hero ra ra ra" bollocks, undermines the wonder of the show and its protagonist. If that sounds po-faced and superior, well maybe it is.
Dalek Sec is truly awful. The actor seems intent on evoking the best-forgotten memory of John Lumic. His performance is uncooked, scurvy-inducing ham.
Other evocations of last seasons early Cybermen 'opus' are reflushed through the script - the idea of 'mining' humans, being one obvious example. Another being the re-pillaging of the Frankenstein mythology. Get some new ideas please team - you have the keys to the castle...
Murray Gold as usual fills the space with Hollywood cliches...for Christ's sake man, listen to Brian Eno for a bit...let the audience find the meaning of the scene for themselves...with your pizzicato stabs and outrageously butch choir...stop telling us how to feel!...for the most part we are intelligent viewers. We'll get there ourselves. In all faireness, even the great Dudley Simpson started to run out of ideas, having to write a score every week, so maybe this is a critisism pointed at your superiors Murray. Perhaps they should give you a break. You could write maybe a third of the season's scores (it is true than now and again you have written some absolutely lovely stuff) and bring in a couple of other musical tyros to have a go at the rest.
Ok so it's time to say a few good thing about this episode, because frankly I could go on and on about its flaws.
I never thought I would say this, but the best thing about Doctor Who at the moment (apart of course from the fact that it is on our screens at all - and for that I must praise you my favourite aunty, Russell T.) is David Tennant. David, I am falling in love with you big time. You look like a man constrained by crappy scripts. You look like a man who could do anything with the right material. Please don't leave yet....I am a converted cheerleader to your cause.
Other good stuff...the line: "You told us to imagine, and we have imagined your irrelevance" was a fabulous shaft of gold, where most else was dark.
Other random thoughts:
1) How many himbos can there be in one episode?
2) Did Paul (Showgirls, Basic Instinct) Verhoeven have a hand in this shite? If not, why were the production team trying to emulate his unbelievable drivel?
3) The story was so ridiculous and over the top that I found myself praying that a buxom swiss farm girl (sorry about the sexist stereotype, chums) would come down from the hills and start milking Dalek Sek's teats! Alas no such pleasure.
4) The crap sentimentalism of Tallulah, waxing lyrical about the wonders of New York left me laughing at the shallowness of it all. If you are going to set a story in New York, and go on about how fabulous it is, show us New York's wonders don't tell us in a CGI homage (City of Death lavished Paris upon us and we went away contented)
Anyway. This sucked. Thankfully the trailer for next week looked sexy as!
Kisses
The Co - Pilot
This is akin to a cartoon, from the terrible masks to the cardboard dialogue.
The case against:
Soloman was one of the few redeeming features in this debacle, but as he makes his stand against the Daleks one remembers the president from Rise of the Cybermen last year and feels disappointed at the obviousness of the recycling that is going on. New ideas please team.
Why does the Doctor offer his life in a grandstanding moment? It seems that this, like much of this story, exists purely for effect. Subtlety is so much more the domain of Doctor Who and this kind of macho "I am a selfless hero ra ra ra" bollocks, undermines the wonder of the show and its protagonist. If that sounds po-faced and superior, well maybe it is.
Dalek Sec is truly awful. The actor seems intent on evoking the best-forgotten memory of John Lumic. His performance is uncooked, scurvy-inducing ham.
Other evocations of last seasons early Cybermen 'opus' are reflushed through the script - the idea of 'mining' humans, being one obvious example. Another being the re-pillaging of the Frankenstein mythology. Get some new ideas please team - you have the keys to the castle...
Murray Gold as usual fills the space with Hollywood cliches...for Christ's sake man, listen to Brian Eno for a bit...let the audience find the meaning of the scene for themselves...with your pizzicato stabs and outrageously butch choir...stop telling us how to feel!...for the most part we are intelligent viewers. We'll get there ourselves. In all faireness, even the great Dudley Simpson started to run out of ideas, having to write a score every week, so maybe this is a critisism pointed at your superiors Murray. Perhaps they should give you a break. You could write maybe a third of the season's scores (it is true than now and again you have written some absolutely lovely stuff) and bring in a couple of other musical tyros to have a go at the rest.
Ok so it's time to say a few good thing about this episode, because frankly I could go on and on about its flaws.
I never thought I would say this, but the best thing about Doctor Who at the moment (apart of course from the fact that it is on our screens at all - and for that I must praise you my favourite aunty, Russell T.) is David Tennant. David, I am falling in love with you big time. You look like a man constrained by crappy scripts. You look like a man who could do anything with the right material. Please don't leave yet....I am a converted cheerleader to your cause.
Other good stuff...the line: "You told us to imagine, and we have imagined your irrelevance" was a fabulous shaft of gold, where most else was dark.
Other random thoughts:
1) How many himbos can there be in one episode?
2) Did Paul (Showgirls, Basic Instinct) Verhoeven have a hand in this shite? If not, why were the production team trying to emulate his unbelievable drivel?
3) The story was so ridiculous and over the top that I found myself praying that a buxom swiss farm girl (sorry about the sexist stereotype, chums) would come down from the hills and start milking Dalek Sek's teats! Alas no such pleasure.
4) The crap sentimentalism of Tallulah, waxing lyrical about the wonders of New York left me laughing at the shallowness of it all. If you are going to set a story in New York, and go on about how fabulous it is, show us New York's wonders don't tell us in a CGI homage (City of Death lavished Paris upon us and we went away contented)
Anyway. This sucked. Thankfully the trailer for next week looked sexy as!
Kisses
The Co - Pilot
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Some afterthoughts from the Lucozer about DIM
Just a little afterthought about 'Daleks In Manhattan'. I've read that RTD gave Helen Raynor a shopping list of ingredients to weave into her script. I have just one question..WHY? It's not as if the elements given to her to twist her script around were essential to the overall story arc of the season. They are utterly frivolous, so why interfere? Frivolous elements are only acceptable if they are genuinely funny or entertaining. The pig men & the showgirls qualify on neither account. I agree with the Co-Pilot. Why pig men again? They looked ok at best & they've been done in a much more inspired fashion in 'Aliens Of London'.
If Helen Raynor is talented enough to be commissioned to write a two-parter for a multi-million dollar institution like Doctor Who (& I believe she is), she is good enough to come up with her own shopping bag of speccy moments & idiosyncratic elements. Having them imposed makes them seem even more obviously & painfully the uninspired 'tack-ins' they really are. Think of the gritty adventure we could be watching with just the shady businessman & the poor workers involved in the Dalek scheme. Dark & desolate. My kind of Doctor Who.
Addendum: After a second (& sober) viewing of DIM, I've revised a few of my opinions a little. I was perhaps a little too harsh on the actress playing Tallulah. 'Sassy broad with a heart-a-gold' is a thankless stereotype to have to breathe life into. Her accent falters & there are plenty of cringeworthy moments, but I'd prefer OTT to wooden & forgettable any day. She gives it a lot of energy & I hope she gets a chance to improve. I also feel that with Martha, it is not so much a problem of 'wobbly characterisation' as I said in my review, it's more that there hasn't been very much of it (relative to Rose) thus far.
With Rose, the 'Companion's Journey' schtick was laid on thick. All her emotions & reactions were explored in intricate detail. It was almost a 'Time Travel & its myriad mystical effects on you & yours: 101' for viewers. This was probably a necessary evil to entice new & 'inexperienced' viewers, but now the training wheels are off & viewers are expected to make the connections for themsleves. We can assume Martha is feeling many of the same things that Rose did without time being spent/ wasted having to spell them out so blatantly again. This is a great thing because the focus is back on the Doctor (just in time for Tennant's more assured performance) the monsters & the scares. The intricacies & nuances of Martha's personality can be revealed more subtly & with a greater sense of mystery because the framework building stuff has been dealt with through Rose. I'm looking forward to it.
Oh & the incidental chanting music just before Dalek Sec's 'reveal' was diabolically inept & over the top. There were 3 pained groans in unison in my loungeroom. Never a good sign. Til next time.....
Lucozer.
If Helen Raynor is talented enough to be commissioned to write a two-parter for a multi-million dollar institution like Doctor Who (& I believe she is), she is good enough to come up with her own shopping bag of speccy moments & idiosyncratic elements. Having them imposed makes them seem even more obviously & painfully the uninspired 'tack-ins' they really are. Think of the gritty adventure we could be watching with just the shady businessman & the poor workers involved in the Dalek scheme. Dark & desolate. My kind of Doctor Who.
Addendum: After a second (& sober) viewing of DIM, I've revised a few of my opinions a little. I was perhaps a little too harsh on the actress playing Tallulah. 'Sassy broad with a heart-a-gold' is a thankless stereotype to have to breathe life into. Her accent falters & there are plenty of cringeworthy moments, but I'd prefer OTT to wooden & forgettable any day. She gives it a lot of energy & I hope she gets a chance to improve. I also feel that with Martha, it is not so much a problem of 'wobbly characterisation' as I said in my review, it's more that there hasn't been very much of it (relative to Rose) thus far.
With Rose, the 'Companion's Journey' schtick was laid on thick. All her emotions & reactions were explored in intricate detail. It was almost a 'Time Travel & its myriad mystical effects on you & yours: 101' for viewers. This was probably a necessary evil to entice new & 'inexperienced' viewers, but now the training wheels are off & viewers are expected to make the connections for themsleves. We can assume Martha is feeling many of the same things that Rose did without time being spent/ wasted having to spell them out so blatantly again. This is a great thing because the focus is back on the Doctor (just in time for Tennant's more assured performance) the monsters & the scares. The intricacies & nuances of Martha's personality can be revealed more subtly & with a greater sense of mystery because the framework building stuff has been dealt with through Rose. I'm looking forward to it.
Oh & the incidental chanting music just before Dalek Sec's 'reveal' was diabolically inept & over the top. There were 3 pained groans in unison in my loungeroom. Never a good sign. Til next time.....
Lucozer.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Lucozer Does Manhattan!
Hmm, not quite sure what to say, my reviews usually start with a confident flurry. I should say our reviews are always written immediately after viewing the episode to give them a feverish freshness & to capture the 'bubble & squeak' of the moment. A moment that has usually been aided by quite a few potent beverages. I'm stalling. Well, to start with the easy things...Tennant was once again very solid & has been far superior this season compared to last. Freema struggled valiantly & put in a good showing despite the continuing trend of worryingly wobbly characterisation for Martha. We should have a better sense of her by the end of episode 4. All the attraction to the Doctor talk comes across as stilted & a little tired. We've (over)done frustrated sexual tension with Rose; just f*%k or shut up about it! Let's get on with marvellous monsters & fabulous shocks!
It all looked grand & polished, but there was just something lacking. That 'lack' was ably aided by the woeful performance of the vapid blonde playing Tallulah W&%khead. She 'performs' a truly atrocious wafer-thin stereotype. I hope she gets bumped off quick smart. The Daleks 'reveal' was completely lacking in tension & suspense, but I guess the director thought 'why bother' when the bloody thing was lumbered with a subtle & mysterious title like 'Daleks In Manhattan'! They should have taken a leaf out of the 'Earthshock' book of "whooaa, f%@k!!". Perhaps the internet has neutered the possibility of such a peerless shock ever happening again. Very sad. The Dalek dialouge, although never grimace inducing, had the uneasy & somewhat forced quality that seems unavoidable when the writer has been given the troublesome mandate of shoehorning the plot around a 'glitzy' set peice; in this case Dalek Sec's 'shocking' 'Extreme Makeover' 'reveal'. Half Dalek, half human! Joe Public will lap it up! ...screamed the production team memo no doubt. Well I didn't lap it up folks, but I liked it enough to watch next week with hope for improvement. Maybe I'd give this the edge over 'Shakespeare Code', but only just & it's a lagging third for the season.
Cheers, a disconcerted Lucozer.
It all looked grand & polished, but there was just something lacking. That 'lack' was ably aided by the woeful performance of the vapid blonde playing Tallulah W&%khead. She 'performs' a truly atrocious wafer-thin stereotype. I hope she gets bumped off quick smart. The Daleks 'reveal' was completely lacking in tension & suspense, but I guess the director thought 'why bother' when the bloody thing was lumbered with a subtle & mysterious title like 'Daleks In Manhattan'! They should have taken a leaf out of the 'Earthshock' book of "whooaa, f%@k!!". Perhaps the internet has neutered the possibility of such a peerless shock ever happening again. Very sad. The Dalek dialouge, although never grimace inducing, had the uneasy & somewhat forced quality that seems unavoidable when the writer has been given the troublesome mandate of shoehorning the plot around a 'glitzy' set peice; in this case Dalek Sec's 'shocking' 'Extreme Makeover' 'reveal'. Half Dalek, half human! Joe Public will lap it up! ...screamed the production team memo no doubt. Well I didn't lap it up folks, but I liked it enough to watch next week with hope for improvement. Maybe I'd give this the edge over 'Shakespeare Code', but only just & it's a lagging third for the season.
Cheers, a disconcerted Lucozer.
Daleks in Womanhattan by the Co-Pilot
Daleks in Manhattan is a grim episode touching on themes of genetic engineering, racial purity (it is a Dalek story) and class segregations. Though it appears on the surface to have a lot going for it - not the least of which is the flashy setting and of course the return of the Daleks, it is ultimately an uninvolving and disappointing episode. Firstly, I just did not get into the showgirl stuff - which seemed to be there solely to generate laughs based on exaggerations and cliches - T.Davies templates. The pig 'experiments' seemed to again be there just for effect - we are given no explanations as to why pigs were chosen for modification - particularly as they have already been used by the Slitheen for similar reasons...why not genetically modified sheep, ducks or even cabbages ??? I am not really a fan of the new series Daleks either - perhaps it's just personal taste, but there is something about Nick Briggs's performance that irks me...his Dalek voicing somehow seems too passionate and over-played.
For me Daleks in Manhattan suffers from many of the same problems as its Cybermen counterpart 2 parter from last season - a thin plot weighed down by charicatures, and interspersed with images of horror that are not carried off with enough panache to be classic Who moments. Fingers crossed things will be better next week.
To end on a positive note, great to say that the David Tennant renaissance continues.
See you next time.
Love
The Skonnon Co-Pilot
For me Daleks in Manhattan suffers from many of the same problems as its Cybermen counterpart 2 parter from last season - a thin plot weighed down by charicatures, and interspersed with images of horror that are not carried off with enough panache to be classic Who moments. Fingers crossed things will be better next week.
To end on a positive note, great to say that the David Tennant renaissance continues.
See you next time.
Love
The Skonnon Co-Pilot
Saturday, April 21, 2007
DOCTOR WHO 2005/2006 - LUCOZER'S RATINGS
Hi folks,
The Co-Pilot & I would've dearly loved to have had our blog & myspace up & running as we witnessed the glitzy debut of the new series back in 2005 & as we nervously navigated the sterling peaks & slovenly troughs of the series thus far. Alas, our thoughts could only travel as far as across the loungeroom to each other & some like minded fellows during the first two seasons. Now that we may have some fresh ears for our thoughts to rattle in, I want to do a quick catch up. A very brief status check on our estimation of the stories so far...a score out of ten for each with a ONE LINE review!
Here's mine, The Co-Pilot's to follow soon....
2005
Rose - 6 / 10 (shallow & worrying)
End Of The World - 8 / 10 (above par intergalactic mardi gras)
Unquiet Dead - 8.5 / 10 (stylish fright in the dead of night)
Aliens Of London - 7 / 10 ("how about it love?")
WW3 - 5.5 / 10 ("not tonight dear!")
Dalek - 8 /10 (flashy but flawed)
Long Game - 6 / 10 (I already told you Rose, it's a wrecksuckocrapwhataboretous!)
Father's Day - 9 /10 (a 45 minute symphony of heart string plucking)
Empty Child - 9.5 / 10 (Dr Who!!!)
Doctor Dances - 9 /10 (menacing & masterful)
Boomtown - 6.5 / 10 (a fruity fart secretly enjoyed)
Bad Wolf - 9.5 / 10 (well tickle me fabulous!!)
Parting Of The Ways - 9 / 10 (Russell to a T. Davies!)
Christmas Invasion - 7.5 / 10 (luke warm egg nog)
2006
New Earth - 4.5 / 10 (a dry wretch from an empty stomach)
Tooth & Claw - 8 / 10 (there's life in the old queen yet!)
School Reunion - 7 / 10 (not MY Sarah Jane I'm afraid)
Girl In The Fireplace - 8.5 / 10 (intriguing & polished)
Age Of Steel - 7 / 10 (age of pig-iron maybe..or tinsel perhaps?)
Rise Of The Cybermen - 7 / 10 (moody moments, but not my Cybermen)
Idiot's Lantern - 6 / 10 (promising concept unfathomably ballsed up)
Impossible Planet - 8 / 10 (oooh!...a flash package on my doorstep!)
Satan Pit - 7.5 / 10 (vaguely disappointing contents of said package)
Love & Monsters - 6 / 10 ("lonely icing seeks cake, no time wasters please!")
Fear Her - 6 / 10 (see 'Idiot's Lantern')
Army Of Ghosts - 8.5 / 10 (brain setting...9 year old...Whooaw!!!)
Doomsday - 8.5 / 10 (ok ok...maybe just ONE more Iced Vo-Vo)
Runaway Bride - 6 / 10 (...for worse)
That's the lot then....
Love, The Lucozer....
The Co-Pilot & I would've dearly loved to have had our blog & myspace up & running as we witnessed the glitzy debut of the new series back in 2005 & as we nervously navigated the sterling peaks & slovenly troughs of the series thus far. Alas, our thoughts could only travel as far as across the loungeroom to each other & some like minded fellows during the first two seasons. Now that we may have some fresh ears for our thoughts to rattle in, I want to do a quick catch up. A very brief status check on our estimation of the stories so far...a score out of ten for each with a ONE LINE review!
Here's mine, The Co-Pilot's to follow soon....
2005
Rose - 6 / 10 (shallow & worrying)
End Of The World - 8 / 10 (above par intergalactic mardi gras)
Unquiet Dead - 8.5 / 10 (stylish fright in the dead of night)
Aliens Of London - 7 / 10 ("how about it love?")
WW3 - 5.5 / 10 ("not tonight dear!")
Dalek - 8 /10 (flashy but flawed)
Long Game - 6 / 10 (I already told you Rose, it's a wrecksuckocrapwhataboretous!)
Father's Day - 9 /10 (a 45 minute symphony of heart string plucking)
Empty Child - 9.5 / 10 (Dr Who!!!)
Doctor Dances - 9 /10 (menacing & masterful)
Boomtown - 6.5 / 10 (a fruity fart secretly enjoyed)
Bad Wolf - 9.5 / 10 (well tickle me fabulous!!)
Parting Of The Ways - 9 / 10 (Russell to a T. Davies!)
Christmas Invasion - 7.5 / 10 (luke warm egg nog)
2006
New Earth - 4.5 / 10 (a dry wretch from an empty stomach)
Tooth & Claw - 8 / 10 (there's life in the old queen yet!)
School Reunion - 7 / 10 (not MY Sarah Jane I'm afraid)
Girl In The Fireplace - 8.5 / 10 (intriguing & polished)
Age Of Steel - 7 / 10 (age of pig-iron maybe..or tinsel perhaps?)
Rise Of The Cybermen - 7 / 10 (moody moments, but not my Cybermen)
Idiot's Lantern - 6 / 10 (promising concept unfathomably ballsed up)
Impossible Planet - 8 / 10 (oooh!...a flash package on my doorstep!)
Satan Pit - 7.5 / 10 (vaguely disappointing contents of said package)
Love & Monsters - 6 / 10 ("lonely icing seeks cake, no time wasters please!")
Fear Her - 6 / 10 (see 'Idiot's Lantern')
Army Of Ghosts - 8.5 / 10 (brain setting...9 year old...Whooaw!!!)
Doomsday - 8.5 / 10 (ok ok...maybe just ONE more Iced Vo-Vo)
Runaway Bride - 6 / 10 (...for worse)
That's the lot then....
Love, The Lucozer....
Sunday, April 15, 2007
GRIDLOCK - Lucozer dons a smock!
**SPOILER WARNING**
I wasn't holding out a lot of hope for 'Gridlock'; the Cat People, New Earth, a traffic jam? Not ingredients for glory I would have thought. On the contrary, I'm glad to say this was more than the sum of its parts. After an awkward first few minutes during which I settled in for the expected disappointment, I found myself increasingly engrossed & impressed. The special effects were a vast improvement on Gridlock's sister story from season 2 & the concept was a whole lot stronger; a city in trouble locks down into survival mode to protect it's people. I'm even prepared to overlook the ludicrous idea of people being stuck in cramped cars for years & not 'going postal' because RTD's brush strokes are so offhandedly confident. We're not really allowed too much time for nit picky plot poking. Never let common sense get in the way of a fab romp!
Apart from the frivolous & "fabulous" use of the Macra, there was little to fault. Where were the glaring & embarrassing flaws?. The scenes with the Face of Boe were well executed. Tennant has a lovely rapport with the Face. Hats & all other extraneous garments off to you RTD! You had the Co-Pilot & I in raptures & stitches with the lovely quip 'Don't you go dying on me you big old face'. Fabulous in the most fabulous way! Freema recovered quite well from a flat spot last week & Tennant is slowly but surely becoming the Doctor I've longed to take to my Bosom & then hold aloft.
Despite having to make a few leaps of logic (quite easy after several drinks - I'm even struggling to remember what I had to leap!) 'Gridlock' is far more credible & involving than 'Shakespeare Code'. Next week can't come soon enough.
I wasn't holding out a lot of hope for 'Gridlock'; the Cat People, New Earth, a traffic jam? Not ingredients for glory I would have thought. On the contrary, I'm glad to say this was more than the sum of its parts. After an awkward first few minutes during which I settled in for the expected disappointment, I found myself increasingly engrossed & impressed. The special effects were a vast improvement on Gridlock's sister story from season 2 & the concept was a whole lot stronger; a city in trouble locks down into survival mode to protect it's people. I'm even prepared to overlook the ludicrous idea of people being stuck in cramped cars for years & not 'going postal' because RTD's brush strokes are so offhandedly confident. We're not really allowed too much time for nit picky plot poking. Never let common sense get in the way of a fab romp!
Apart from the frivolous & "fabulous" use of the Macra, there was little to fault. Where were the glaring & embarrassing flaws?. The scenes with the Face of Boe were well executed. Tennant has a lovely rapport with the Face. Hats & all other extraneous garments off to you RTD! You had the Co-Pilot & I in raptures & stitches with the lovely quip 'Don't you go dying on me you big old face'. Fabulous in the most fabulous way! Freema recovered quite well from a flat spot last week & Tennant is slowly but surely becoming the Doctor I've longed to take to my Bosom & then hold aloft.
Despite having to make a few leaps of logic (quite easy after several drinks - I'm even struggling to remember what I had to leap!) 'Gridlock' is far more credible & involving than 'Shakespeare Code'. Next week can't come soon enough.
The Co-Pilot's Gridlock Review
**SPOILER WARNING**
Fabulous! The best realized Russell T script (bar the finales) thus far. I really thought this was going to be god-awful and I am very happy to say I was wrong. The Macra - although completely superflous to the story - brought a huge fanboy whoop of delight to me and the Lucozer...lovely stuff Darling T Davies, lovely. I was flumoxed, ((though in a delighted way) with delight) by just how much better the special effects and production values are a year on from NEW EARTH...is this really the same show? The cats, the face, the cars, the ending, Tennant...I enjoyed it all really....this is the template for throwaway stories. Thanks team.
The Co-Pilot
Fabulous! The best realized Russell T script (bar the finales) thus far. I really thought this was going to be god-awful and I am very happy to say I was wrong. The Macra - although completely superflous to the story - brought a huge fanboy whoop of delight to me and the Lucozer...lovely stuff Darling T Davies, lovely. I was flumoxed, ((though in a delighted way) with delight) by just how much better the special effects and production values are a year on from NEW EARTH...is this really the same show? The cats, the face, the cars, the ending, Tennant...I enjoyed it all really....this is the template for throwaway stories. Thanks team.
The Co-Pilot
Monday, April 9, 2007
THE SHAKESPEARE CODE - A Co-Pilot's Sonnet of Lament
A pretty setting and a jokey take on history do not a wonderful story make. Little more than a poor man's UNQUIET DEAD, THE SHAKESPEARE CODE just didn't do it for me. From the cliched panto witches (with costume department atrocities for masks) to the wafer-thin characterisation of Will (surely he would have been a more complex, mysterious, thoughtful and intriguing figure than we see here...?)...this just isn't my prefered flavour of Doctor Who. I long for a terrifying and seemingly unsurmountable villain and a clever SURPRISING set of events...a story with few genuine surprises is a story that is hard to get interested in. The underlying message of "the power of words" is intriniscally flawed...Shakspeare's genius wasn't words, it was recreating reality (and imagining new realities) through words AND images...he was after all a practitioner of the theatre...not a writer of books....
Did Ron Howard have a hand in this...?
Not as engaging as last week...however I suspect the real cream in this season is still to come.
The Co-Pilot
Did Ron Howard have a hand in this...?
Not as engaging as last week...however I suspect the real cream in this season is still to come.
The Co-Pilot
THE SHAKESPEARE CODE - Lucozer Takes A Gander
Oh dear, could this be a tragic case of premature excitation on my part? I was so hopeful after the swagger & charm of Smith & Jones. 'Shakespeare Code' was by no means a travesty, but it fell way short of my geeky, fanboy hopes.
The witches looked awful, not ugly awful, just cheap & nasty awful. Poor Martha seemed lost in this wrongfooted mess. Freema was just perfect in 'Smith & Jones', but she ultimately flounders here with some poor dialouge & some shaky character development. I am still rooting for her in a big way though!
All the silly Shakespeare quoting & mis-qouting was naff & clunky. Dean Lennox Kelly, worth walking to the ends of the earth to have a cuddle with (at least), was hardly worth walking into the sitting room to watch on telly. He failed to convince as Shakespeare. The Shakepeare of my imagine is nervous, shy & perhaps a little wet. As well as being a hands down & up & sideways genius of course. Not a hunky Lothario with a quick wit you might meet down the local! The problem probably lies more with the flawed characterisation written for him though. DLK is a good actor.
Tennant on the other hand continues to impress thankfully. His new more serious & sombre countenance suits him rather well. If he keeps the mugging & eye googling in check, I may yet end up a champion for him. Shame about the little barbs at Martha in the bed scene though. They seemed forced as well as mean spirited under the circumstances.
Regrettably, the production team seem to have thought that the fabulous setting & grand guest star/ character would let them out of this one easy. Alas no, they failed to up the ante & I failed dismally to be impressed. Not a stinker of 'New Earth' proportion, but disappointingly lazy & half baked nonetheless. A potential 'Unquiet Dead' rival turned out to be another pasty 'Idiots Lantern'.
:( Lucozer
The witches looked awful, not ugly awful, just cheap & nasty awful. Poor Martha seemed lost in this wrongfooted mess. Freema was just perfect in 'Smith & Jones', but she ultimately flounders here with some poor dialouge & some shaky character development. I am still rooting for her in a big way though!
All the silly Shakespeare quoting & mis-qouting was naff & clunky. Dean Lennox Kelly, worth walking to the ends of the earth to have a cuddle with (at least), was hardly worth walking into the sitting room to watch on telly. He failed to convince as Shakespeare. The Shakepeare of my imagine is nervous, shy & perhaps a little wet. As well as being a hands down & up & sideways genius of course. Not a hunky Lothario with a quick wit you might meet down the local! The problem probably lies more with the flawed characterisation written for him though. DLK is a good actor.
Tennant on the other hand continues to impress thankfully. His new more serious & sombre countenance suits him rather well. If he keeps the mugging & eye googling in check, I may yet end up a champion for him. Shame about the little barbs at Martha in the bed scene though. They seemed forced as well as mean spirited under the circumstances.
Regrettably, the production team seem to have thought that the fabulous setting & grand guest star/ character would let them out of this one easy. Alas no, they failed to up the ante & I failed dismally to be impressed. Not a stinker of 'New Earth' proportion, but disappointingly lazy & half baked nonetheless. A potential 'Unquiet Dead' rival turned out to be another pasty 'Idiots Lantern'.
:( Lucozer
Thursday, April 5, 2007
The Lucozer's 'Top 5 Most Criminally Underrated Doctor Who Stories'
Aaahh....the quest to find the 5 most criminally underrated stories in the whole of Doctor Who....
I hope to bring some much needed & long awaited attention to some neglected gems that have fallen on hard times. These gems, through no fault of their own, have found themselves trolling the dives & seedy bars at the lower end of critical opinion & 'favourite story' lists.
On occasion they have found themselves in the unsavory company of the likes of 'Delta & The Bannermen', 'Nightmare Of Eden' & 'The Twin Dilemma' (shudder) having to resort to lewd acts of Xoanan knows what to get by in the vicious, unforgiving world of Doctor Who fandom. I was propositioned by 'Death To The Daleks' in a dark alley just last night! Death has fallen on the hardest of times. Times that will change if I have owt to do about it!! "Death" said I, "you need not offer me that, I would be glad to take you home for a viewing!"......
First up (chronologically), from 1968, another hungry undernourished slice of 'Death'!
1) 'Seeds of Death' (Troughton/1968)
Granted it's no 'Evil' or 'Web', but what it is is jolly good. There is a grand sense of adventure in this eminently enjoyable tale. The rocket trip to the moon & T-Mat stuff are a little kitsch, but still fabulous fun. The character of Fewsham I find most intriguing; his struggles with his guilt & his conscience are beautifully written & quite gripping to watch.
The Ice Warriors are genuinely frightening in the claustrophobic confines & shadowy corridors of the Moonbase & the Weather Control Station. The shots of the Ice Warrior stalking through the foam covered park are creepy & superb. I would argue this is their finest showing from four starts. Alan Bennion as Slaar is particularly wonderful, bringing depth & great menace to a character stuck in a stiff plastic suit, daft helmet & silly cape & having to rely mostly on his sinister voice & heavily made up lips to do it.
Seeds never drags as badly as some of its six part counterparts do (though it is often criticised for padding) & it has some truly great moments of suspense & dialouge. The line "your leader will be angry if you kill me, I'm a genius" is one of the most oft quoted in the history of the show & deservedly so. It is a marvellous synthesis of the 2nd Doctor's manner & wits into one small moment.
The 'T-Mat nerve centre' prop & daft costumes are the obvious cons, but they are just cosmetic. The Pat, Frazer & Wendy team are in smashing form & Seeds is a big cut above the underachieving drabness of the 'The Dominators' & 'The Krotons' from early in the uneven 6th season. Dudley Simpson's frantic, percussive incidental music is stunning; it adds hugely to the tension & drama. Perhaps the finest of the Troughton era bar the marvellous score for 'The Invasion'.
Seeds is a great pulpy romp, certainly lacking the depth & finesse of a true classic, but a super example of 'monster invasion/ base under seige' Doctor Who. Never self importantly absorbed in excessive exploration of characters or sci-fi/fantasy wank, it purely sets out to be entertaining action/ adventure. The 'wrong signal' ploy to see of the Ice Warriors is a simple & charming conclusion. Nice one Seeds!
2) 'Death To The Daleks' (Pertwee/1974)
Sure it looks a tad shabby at times, but it has a palpably tense & sinister feel to it. That's what I'm after in Doctor Who dammit! Part one is superb; the promise of sunny, effervescent 'Florana', the TARDIS being drained of all power & then the Doctor & Sarah both wandering alone in the darkness…shivers & tingles! The unnerving stillness & sense of impending trouble in these scenes & in the moments before the Exxilon arrow attack is fantastic.
The startling incidental music in 'Death' probably bows only to the 'Sea Devils' in the whole of the Pertwee era. It is marvellously evocative & has been unfairly maligned by some over the years. The sound the city beacon makes & the moment Sarah first sees it are indelibly stamped on my memory. The Doctor's 'wonders of the world' line as the city crumbles at the end is a lovely touch.
The Daleks losing power renders them vulnerable & allows us to see their true resourcefulness & cunning; perhaps more than ever before. The sweet Bellal is sensitively played & quite charming. He has a touching rapport with Jon as they explore the city. Dr #3 is marvellous when he meets new beings such as Bellal for the first time. He shows great sensitivity & respect. His first meeting with a Silurian in the cottage in 'The Silurians' is another fine example.
There is clearly more inspiration & effort in this script than 'Planet Of The Daleks'. 'Death' is gritty, atmospheric, involving, tightly plotted & full of wonderful moments. A few flat guest performances & lack of overall production polish aside, criminally underrated.
3) 'Leisure Hive' (T. Baker/ 1980)
'Leisure Hive' marks the brilliant beginning of the greatest re-invigoration of Doctor Who in the show's history. Only 'Spearhead' comes close, though it's 'new stylings' were foreshadowed by 'Web Of Fear' & 'Invasion'. The new series you might say? Well that only really hit its stride with 'Unquiet Dead'. This amazing about-turn in Leisure was surely a huge shock on the heels of Season 17 dross like 'Nightmare' & 'Nimon'. It was an immediate & self assured creative success (if not a success in the ratings up against 'The A-Team').
The new title credits & Peter Howell's new version of the theme tune are striking. One can only imagine how exciting it must have been for long term fans to have seen them for the first time back in 1980. After 6 seasons with unchanging credits, it must have been a wonderful surprise, up there with the unheralded revelation of the Cybermen after a 7 year absence in 'Earthshock'. These credits still excite nearly 30 years on.
All of a sudden the show seems to have become 'adult' again. It has an invigorating urgency about it & has regained the earnestness it had so palpably lacked through the Williams reign. The new production team seems to be hungry & eager. There is innovation & ambition evident in every department. JNT is widely criticised for the way the show developed (some say degraded) during his reign, but at first & throughout the whole of season 18 he got it mostly right.
The design & production polish throughout season S18 are so far superior to S17 it is mind boggling. The scripts generally were several cuts above as well. JNT also pulled off the seemingly impossible & pulled the by now almost unquestioned & dictatorial TB back from the lazy self parody & excessive humour that had contributing hugely to eroding all the credibility the show had. In 'NOE' & 'CFTP' I would go so far as to say it had none.
JNT's team gave the Doctor a sumptuous new look & his vision of the Doctor is that of a quite grave & world weary man with a sparing dry & melancholy humour about him. This major shift in the Doctor's mood & manner gave us back a true sense of his long history; hundreds of years of experiences, littered with more than his share of death & loss. You wouldn't have known it from the scene chewing silliness that prevailed from '77 to '79. Good riddance to the casual flippance that had no relation to the Doctor we knew! Tom is a brilliant & charismatic actor & he was using his full range once again.
Leisure has many evocative & memorable moments. The Doctor ageing in the Tachyon machine...all the Pangols marching out...The story itself is merely good, but the whole of 'Leisure' is executed with such style, swagger & joy that I can forgive its minor shortcomings & silly plot holes. The guest cast are generally strong too; no more of the season 17 cardboard extras! The incidental music is absolutely gobsmacking; at turns marvellously rousing & at others tender & almost tear inducing.
Lalla & Tom are absolutely wonderful together. With the lead duo taking things seriously again, the sense of drama & our interest return with full force. 'Leisure' is a bold & wonderful first step by the JNT regime.
4) 'Mysterious Planet' (C. Baker/ 1986)
This story will always have a special place in my heart. For a long time it was the only Dr Who story that I had on tape (I'm mystified as to why that happened?) & for an even longer time it was the only Colin Baker story I had in my collection full stop. Colin's stories were not repeated in Australia until 1993 & even then were on at 4.30am!! Despite the nostalgia factor, I actually would pick this story if I could only have one Colin Baker story in my collection now. I honestly believe it is the best Colin Baker story of all. Better even than the patchy & flawed 'Revelation OTD' (more on that another time) It is also the only story that my sister, a devout non-fan, actually asked if we could watch one day! Go figure!
There are flaws certainly, the Humker & Tandrell silliness, the mystery of the planet being all but solved in the first 10 minutes, some sketchy design choices; but on the whole it looks polished & is pulled of with a fair amount of style. The story barrels along at a cracking pace & never forgets it primary duty to entertain. Robert Holmes script gives Colin some lovely passages that he delivers well; "planets come and go, stars perish, matter disperses, coalesces & reforms into other patterns, other worlds, nothing can be eternal" etc. There are also lovely touches such as the sacred texts. I thought the 'UK habitats of the Canadian Goose' scene blushingly daft as a child, but now I think it is brilliantly quirky & inspired.
The shifty double act of Glitz & Dibber are a treat. I adore their casually sinister banter as they peice together their guns in the first episode. It is a shame though that Glitz is rapidly softened from unconscionable thug at the start of the story to (almost) loveable rogue by the end (& in subsequent appearances). The season 23 'more comedy' mandate seems to have come into effect HALF WAY THROUGH the first story. This change is most evident in the court scenes, initially unsettling & credible, they rapidly degenerate into panto-ish silliness & repetition despite the valiant efforts of Jayston & Bellingham.
I can't state strongly enough how wonderful the first few minutes are, in fact most of the first episode. It is genuinely mysterious & engrossing & there is very little to fault. The stupendous first shot of the spacecraft & the time scoop, the TARDIS being dragged down the beam, the Doctor's first chilly exchanges with Michael Jayston's exquisitely malevolent Valeyard in the half light. All wonderful stuff that could stand proudly against any era of the show. I couldn't say that about many other episodes from season 22 or 23 sadly.
A crucial factor in the ultimate success of the story is that Colin is the most 'Doctor-ish' we have seen him to this point & more sympathetic & likeable than ever before. He is genuinely concerned for others, endearingly curious & generally dry humoured rather than the often cringeworthy buffon of prior stories. Colin gives the most relaxed, assured & natural performance of his reign. The same can be said for Nicola. Even when Col does slip back into mugging arrogance; "this is my best side", (delivered to Drathro's security camera), it is mercifully brief.
The rapport between Colin & Nicola has vastly improved from season 22. Their scenes together wandering through the forest & exploring Marble Arch are their finest bar none. There is genuine affection & SUBTELTY in the performances! It is such a shame that just as they were finally building a mature & believable rapport, they struck the craggy 'shitberg' that was 'Mindwarp' & that was that. In this though, albeit briefly, most of the the childish bickering & over acting is gone.
Gone too are the indescribably bad stabs of synthesizer incidental music that had made their wretched tiffs seem even more forced & painful ('Timelash' & 'Attack Of The Cybermen' being just two of many examples). In fact, the incidental music is the finest of Colin's era. It is generally tasteful & suitably dramatic at the right points. It responds appropriately to the mood of each scene. Genius! You'd think it was rocket science looking at its forebears.
Of the other support cast, Joan Sims gives the most uneven performance; wavering from tender & subtle in her scenes with Peri in the hut to awkward & OTT in her 'rousing' battle speeches. Probably she was miscast. It was almost another 'Beryl Reid', but she actually copes pretty well in comparison. Tom Chadbon as Merdeen is very laid back (some might say too laid back), but I would say his performance is dry & laconic rather than wooden. Merdeen lives a shitty existence in underground tunnels ruled by an megalomaniac robot, so I think his performance is quite apt. The naive, dorky Balazar is also quite well realised.
'Mysterious Planet' is a qualified success & began 'Trial Of A Timelord' with great promise that was all too quickly squandered. As Robert Holmes last contribution to the show, it is a solid if not spectacular farewell, with Colin & Nicola at their all too brief peak.
5) 'Happiness Patrol' (McCoy/ 1988)
Why does this divide people so? I am happy (& glad!) to see some champions for it amongst the Gallifrey One reviews, but a hell of a lot of people still seem to think it is embarrassing rubbish & the finest (or worst?) example of the daft camp & pantoesque leanings of the late JNT era.
The best way I can tackle reviewing this story is to first mention the way I saw it on first viewing as an 11 year old kid. I thought it was horribly gaudy, woefully overacted, painfully unbelievable & much too bizarre. The way I saw it then is pretty much the way a lot of people still see it now. It has taken several further viewings, several years more experience & an understanding of Graeme Curry's intent to change my perspective. I now feel it is an unfairly maligned (by some) & widely misunderstood minor classic. I should also point out that I am no push-over for the mid to late McCoy era. I feel that amongst its contemporaries, 'Rememberance' is very good, but overrated (thanks Keff!) & 'Silver Nemesis'is absolute rubbish.
There is much to applaud in 'Happiness'. There are lovely (gulp) 'Kafka-esque' touches such as the 'Waiting Zone'; where pointless, head spinning beauracracy prevails ("You're not under arrest but... step over that line & you're a dead man") & also in the impersonal & dehumanising doling out of letters to denote rank & worth (the icy, iron fisted Helen 'A' & the ambitious 'heavy' Priscilla 'P' for example). The scene where Silas P attempts to grovel his way up the alphabet is fantastic, as is Helen A's swift, clipped retort "Not quite, the very top, I hope, Silas P?". In this society, your worth ultimately comes down to your letter. Climbs up & slides down the alphabet ladder are desperately desired & fearfully dreaded respectively. As an 11 year old I had no idea what beauracracy was let alone being able to tell when someone was satirising it. I just thought it was all far too odd. Several years on though, I feel the 'clever social satire' credentials are in good order & I enjoy the story very much on this level.
Although the McCoy/ Aldred team is on fine form & has some lovely moments (could have done without McCoy's singing & "laughing" victory though!) I find the Doctor & Ace to be the least fascinating players in this most curious grotesque. They are sidelined somewhat by a wealth of intriguing, well written & finely textured support characters. The troubled, melancholy Susan Q, the droll, theatrical & shifty Gilbert M, the seemingly dotty & submissive but ultimately duplicitous Joseph C. Were he & Gilbert M on together for years? They seem to have had a lot of practice with their little barbs at one another. All three characters are beautifully played with nuance & delicacy. The distinction between the artifice that each character is forced to maintain under Helen A's regime & their true inner selves is intriguing to watch played out in these & many other characters.
What I read as over-acting as a young whippersnapper, I now see as characters either valiantly struggling with the artifice & fearing death for failure in maintaining it (Susan Q) or on the other hand, so practiced at it that they have forgotten how sickeningly false they appear (Priscilla P, Daisy K). The same goes for the design. Yes, clearly it is hideously colourful & garish. Surely that's the point though? The artifice of the design is ugly because all true emotion has been sucked out & it is presenting what is really fake, uninspired happiness.
The Kandyman is a joy to watch "It's all in there somewhere; caramel, sherbet, toffee, marsipan". Never did a list of sugary sweeties sound so terrifying. He is genuinely intimidating & his voice drips with malice. His demented nursery rhyme 'theme' adds to his impact too. All the "Fondant Supreme" stuff is marvellous. The Co-Pilot & I are big suckers for it. It makes us giggly school girls. I also really like the overhead pipe design in the Kandy Kitchen.
Sheila Hancock is just superb. I hang on every poisonous word that falls from her pursed lips. She can change gears in half a blink. Her rants about the miserable drones & such are masterfully delivered & perfectly cold & callous. Helen A sets the tone for the whole story. Hancock has the gravitas in this central performance to give the whole thing a big shot of credibility. If she hadn't taken it seriously & played for laughs, the whole thing could have fallen apart. The rest of the cast follow her lead & thankfully for the most part play it straight. Helen A is no cardboard villain. She has incredible depth & mystery to her. The final scene of her cradling her beloved Fifi in her arms as the incidental music swells is a gem & I genuinely feel for the twisted, misguided old bitch.
A fourth episode could have allowed for fleshing out of the Pipe People side-story a little, but in three parts it may have been wiser ultimately to excise them all together. With the brisk way they are brushed over & their drab design & muffled voices it is hard to engage with them in their plight. Despite a few dubious design choices (not all of them can be excused as 'for effect') & mercifully brief silly moments, this is captivating & intriguing to watch. Intelligent & innovative Doctor Who that is stretching for new ideas & new frontiers.
So that's it, thanks for reading!
The Lucozer
I hope to bring some much needed & long awaited attention to some neglected gems that have fallen on hard times. These gems, through no fault of their own, have found themselves trolling the dives & seedy bars at the lower end of critical opinion & 'favourite story' lists.
On occasion they have found themselves in the unsavory company of the likes of 'Delta & The Bannermen', 'Nightmare Of Eden' & 'The Twin Dilemma' (shudder) having to resort to lewd acts of Xoanan knows what to get by in the vicious, unforgiving world of Doctor Who fandom. I was propositioned by 'Death To The Daleks' in a dark alley just last night! Death has fallen on the hardest of times. Times that will change if I have owt to do about it!! "Death" said I, "you need not offer me that, I would be glad to take you home for a viewing!"......
First up (chronologically), from 1968, another hungry undernourished slice of 'Death'!
1) 'Seeds of Death' (Troughton/1968)
Granted it's no 'Evil' or 'Web', but what it is is jolly good. There is a grand sense of adventure in this eminently enjoyable tale. The rocket trip to the moon & T-Mat stuff are a little kitsch, but still fabulous fun. The character of Fewsham I find most intriguing; his struggles with his guilt & his conscience are beautifully written & quite gripping to watch.
The Ice Warriors are genuinely frightening in the claustrophobic confines & shadowy corridors of the Moonbase & the Weather Control Station. The shots of the Ice Warrior stalking through the foam covered park are creepy & superb. I would argue this is their finest showing from four starts. Alan Bennion as Slaar is particularly wonderful, bringing depth & great menace to a character stuck in a stiff plastic suit, daft helmet & silly cape & having to rely mostly on his sinister voice & heavily made up lips to do it.
Seeds never drags as badly as some of its six part counterparts do (though it is often criticised for padding) & it has some truly great moments of suspense & dialouge. The line "your leader will be angry if you kill me, I'm a genius" is one of the most oft quoted in the history of the show & deservedly so. It is a marvellous synthesis of the 2nd Doctor's manner & wits into one small moment.
The 'T-Mat nerve centre' prop & daft costumes are the obvious cons, but they are just cosmetic. The Pat, Frazer & Wendy team are in smashing form & Seeds is a big cut above the underachieving drabness of the 'The Dominators' & 'The Krotons' from early in the uneven 6th season. Dudley Simpson's frantic, percussive incidental music is stunning; it adds hugely to the tension & drama. Perhaps the finest of the Troughton era bar the marvellous score for 'The Invasion'.
Seeds is a great pulpy romp, certainly lacking the depth & finesse of a true classic, but a super example of 'monster invasion/ base under seige' Doctor Who. Never self importantly absorbed in excessive exploration of characters or sci-fi/fantasy wank, it purely sets out to be entertaining action/ adventure. The 'wrong signal' ploy to see of the Ice Warriors is a simple & charming conclusion. Nice one Seeds!
2) 'Death To The Daleks' (Pertwee/1974)
Sure it looks a tad shabby at times, but it has a palpably tense & sinister feel to it. That's what I'm after in Doctor Who dammit! Part one is superb; the promise of sunny, effervescent 'Florana', the TARDIS being drained of all power & then the Doctor & Sarah both wandering alone in the darkness…shivers & tingles! The unnerving stillness & sense of impending trouble in these scenes & in the moments before the Exxilon arrow attack is fantastic.
The startling incidental music in 'Death' probably bows only to the 'Sea Devils' in the whole of the Pertwee era. It is marvellously evocative & has been unfairly maligned by some over the years. The sound the city beacon makes & the moment Sarah first sees it are indelibly stamped on my memory. The Doctor's 'wonders of the world' line as the city crumbles at the end is a lovely touch.
The Daleks losing power renders them vulnerable & allows us to see their true resourcefulness & cunning; perhaps more than ever before. The sweet Bellal is sensitively played & quite charming. He has a touching rapport with Jon as they explore the city. Dr #3 is marvellous when he meets new beings such as Bellal for the first time. He shows great sensitivity & respect. His first meeting with a Silurian in the cottage in 'The Silurians' is another fine example.
There is clearly more inspiration & effort in this script than 'Planet Of The Daleks'. 'Death' is gritty, atmospheric, involving, tightly plotted & full of wonderful moments. A few flat guest performances & lack of overall production polish aside, criminally underrated.
3) 'Leisure Hive' (T. Baker/ 1980)
'Leisure Hive' marks the brilliant beginning of the greatest re-invigoration of Doctor Who in the show's history. Only 'Spearhead' comes close, though it's 'new stylings' were foreshadowed by 'Web Of Fear' & 'Invasion'. The new series you might say? Well that only really hit its stride with 'Unquiet Dead'. This amazing about-turn in Leisure was surely a huge shock on the heels of Season 17 dross like 'Nightmare' & 'Nimon'. It was an immediate & self assured creative success (if not a success in the ratings up against 'The A-Team').
The new title credits & Peter Howell's new version of the theme tune are striking. One can only imagine how exciting it must have been for long term fans to have seen them for the first time back in 1980. After 6 seasons with unchanging credits, it must have been a wonderful surprise, up there with the unheralded revelation of the Cybermen after a 7 year absence in 'Earthshock'. These credits still excite nearly 30 years on.
All of a sudden the show seems to have become 'adult' again. It has an invigorating urgency about it & has regained the earnestness it had so palpably lacked through the Williams reign. The new production team seems to be hungry & eager. There is innovation & ambition evident in every department. JNT is widely criticised for the way the show developed (some say degraded) during his reign, but at first & throughout the whole of season 18 he got it mostly right.
The design & production polish throughout season S18 are so far superior to S17 it is mind boggling. The scripts generally were several cuts above as well. JNT also pulled off the seemingly impossible & pulled the by now almost unquestioned & dictatorial TB back from the lazy self parody & excessive humour that had contributing hugely to eroding all the credibility the show had. In 'NOE' & 'CFTP' I would go so far as to say it had none.
JNT's team gave the Doctor a sumptuous new look & his vision of the Doctor is that of a quite grave & world weary man with a sparing dry & melancholy humour about him. This major shift in the Doctor's mood & manner gave us back a true sense of his long history; hundreds of years of experiences, littered with more than his share of death & loss. You wouldn't have known it from the scene chewing silliness that prevailed from '77 to '79. Good riddance to the casual flippance that had no relation to the Doctor we knew! Tom is a brilliant & charismatic actor & he was using his full range once again.
Leisure has many evocative & memorable moments. The Doctor ageing in the Tachyon machine...all the Pangols marching out...The story itself is merely good, but the whole of 'Leisure' is executed with such style, swagger & joy that I can forgive its minor shortcomings & silly plot holes. The guest cast are generally strong too; no more of the season 17 cardboard extras! The incidental music is absolutely gobsmacking; at turns marvellously rousing & at others tender & almost tear inducing.
Lalla & Tom are absolutely wonderful together. With the lead duo taking things seriously again, the sense of drama & our interest return with full force. 'Leisure' is a bold & wonderful first step by the JNT regime.
4) 'Mysterious Planet' (C. Baker/ 1986)
This story will always have a special place in my heart. For a long time it was the only Dr Who story that I had on tape (I'm mystified as to why that happened?) & for an even longer time it was the only Colin Baker story I had in my collection full stop. Colin's stories were not repeated in Australia until 1993 & even then were on at 4.30am!! Despite the nostalgia factor, I actually would pick this story if I could only have one Colin Baker story in my collection now. I honestly believe it is the best Colin Baker story of all. Better even than the patchy & flawed 'Revelation OTD' (more on that another time) It is also the only story that my sister, a devout non-fan, actually asked if we could watch one day! Go figure!
There are flaws certainly, the Humker & Tandrell silliness, the mystery of the planet being all but solved in the first 10 minutes, some sketchy design choices; but on the whole it looks polished & is pulled of with a fair amount of style. The story barrels along at a cracking pace & never forgets it primary duty to entertain. Robert Holmes script gives Colin some lovely passages that he delivers well; "planets come and go, stars perish, matter disperses, coalesces & reforms into other patterns, other worlds, nothing can be eternal" etc. There are also lovely touches such as the sacred texts. I thought the 'UK habitats of the Canadian Goose' scene blushingly daft as a child, but now I think it is brilliantly quirky & inspired.
The shifty double act of Glitz & Dibber are a treat. I adore their casually sinister banter as they peice together their guns in the first episode. It is a shame though that Glitz is rapidly softened from unconscionable thug at the start of the story to (almost) loveable rogue by the end (& in subsequent appearances). The season 23 'more comedy' mandate seems to have come into effect HALF WAY THROUGH the first story. This change is most evident in the court scenes, initially unsettling & credible, they rapidly degenerate into panto-ish silliness & repetition despite the valiant efforts of Jayston & Bellingham.
I can't state strongly enough how wonderful the first few minutes are, in fact most of the first episode. It is genuinely mysterious & engrossing & there is very little to fault. The stupendous first shot of the spacecraft & the time scoop, the TARDIS being dragged down the beam, the Doctor's first chilly exchanges with Michael Jayston's exquisitely malevolent Valeyard in the half light. All wonderful stuff that could stand proudly against any era of the show. I couldn't say that about many other episodes from season 22 or 23 sadly.
A crucial factor in the ultimate success of the story is that Colin is the most 'Doctor-ish' we have seen him to this point & more sympathetic & likeable than ever before. He is genuinely concerned for others, endearingly curious & generally dry humoured rather than the often cringeworthy buffon of prior stories. Colin gives the most relaxed, assured & natural performance of his reign. The same can be said for Nicola. Even when Col does slip back into mugging arrogance; "this is my best side", (delivered to Drathro's security camera), it is mercifully brief.
The rapport between Colin & Nicola has vastly improved from season 22. Their scenes together wandering through the forest & exploring Marble Arch are their finest bar none. There is genuine affection & SUBTELTY in the performances! It is such a shame that just as they were finally building a mature & believable rapport, they struck the craggy 'shitberg' that was 'Mindwarp' & that was that. In this though, albeit briefly, most of the the childish bickering & over acting is gone.
Gone too are the indescribably bad stabs of synthesizer incidental music that had made their wretched tiffs seem even more forced & painful ('Timelash' & 'Attack Of The Cybermen' being just two of many examples). In fact, the incidental music is the finest of Colin's era. It is generally tasteful & suitably dramatic at the right points. It responds appropriately to the mood of each scene. Genius! You'd think it was rocket science looking at its forebears.
Of the other support cast, Joan Sims gives the most uneven performance; wavering from tender & subtle in her scenes with Peri in the hut to awkward & OTT in her 'rousing' battle speeches. Probably she was miscast. It was almost another 'Beryl Reid', but she actually copes pretty well in comparison. Tom Chadbon as Merdeen is very laid back (some might say too laid back), but I would say his performance is dry & laconic rather than wooden. Merdeen lives a shitty existence in underground tunnels ruled by an megalomaniac robot, so I think his performance is quite apt. The naive, dorky Balazar is also quite well realised.
'Mysterious Planet' is a qualified success & began 'Trial Of A Timelord' with great promise that was all too quickly squandered. As Robert Holmes last contribution to the show, it is a solid if not spectacular farewell, with Colin & Nicola at their all too brief peak.
5) 'Happiness Patrol' (McCoy/ 1988)
Why does this divide people so? I am happy (& glad!) to see some champions for it amongst the Gallifrey One reviews, but a hell of a lot of people still seem to think it is embarrassing rubbish & the finest (or worst?) example of the daft camp & pantoesque leanings of the late JNT era.
The best way I can tackle reviewing this story is to first mention the way I saw it on first viewing as an 11 year old kid. I thought it was horribly gaudy, woefully overacted, painfully unbelievable & much too bizarre. The way I saw it then is pretty much the way a lot of people still see it now. It has taken several further viewings, several years more experience & an understanding of Graeme Curry's intent to change my perspective. I now feel it is an unfairly maligned (by some) & widely misunderstood minor classic. I should also point out that I am no push-over for the mid to late McCoy era. I feel that amongst its contemporaries, 'Rememberance' is very good, but overrated (thanks Keff!) & 'Silver Nemesis'is absolute rubbish.
There is much to applaud in 'Happiness'. There are lovely (gulp) 'Kafka-esque' touches such as the 'Waiting Zone'; where pointless, head spinning beauracracy prevails ("You're not under arrest but... step over that line & you're a dead man") & also in the impersonal & dehumanising doling out of letters to denote rank & worth (the icy, iron fisted Helen 'A' & the ambitious 'heavy' Priscilla 'P' for example). The scene where Silas P attempts to grovel his way up the alphabet is fantastic, as is Helen A's swift, clipped retort "Not quite, the very top, I hope, Silas P?". In this society, your worth ultimately comes down to your letter. Climbs up & slides down the alphabet ladder are desperately desired & fearfully dreaded respectively. As an 11 year old I had no idea what beauracracy was let alone being able to tell when someone was satirising it. I just thought it was all far too odd. Several years on though, I feel the 'clever social satire' credentials are in good order & I enjoy the story very much on this level.
Although the McCoy/ Aldred team is on fine form & has some lovely moments (could have done without McCoy's singing & "laughing" victory though!) I find the Doctor & Ace to be the least fascinating players in this most curious grotesque. They are sidelined somewhat by a wealth of intriguing, well written & finely textured support characters. The troubled, melancholy Susan Q, the droll, theatrical & shifty Gilbert M, the seemingly dotty & submissive but ultimately duplicitous Joseph C. Were he & Gilbert M on together for years? They seem to have had a lot of practice with their little barbs at one another. All three characters are beautifully played with nuance & delicacy. The distinction between the artifice that each character is forced to maintain under Helen A's regime & their true inner selves is intriguing to watch played out in these & many other characters.
What I read as over-acting as a young whippersnapper, I now see as characters either valiantly struggling with the artifice & fearing death for failure in maintaining it (Susan Q) or on the other hand, so practiced at it that they have forgotten how sickeningly false they appear (Priscilla P, Daisy K). The same goes for the design. Yes, clearly it is hideously colourful & garish. Surely that's the point though? The artifice of the design is ugly because all true emotion has been sucked out & it is presenting what is really fake, uninspired happiness.
The Kandyman is a joy to watch "It's all in there somewhere; caramel, sherbet, toffee, marsipan". Never did a list of sugary sweeties sound so terrifying. He is genuinely intimidating & his voice drips with malice. His demented nursery rhyme 'theme' adds to his impact too. All the "Fondant Supreme" stuff is marvellous. The Co-Pilot & I are big suckers for it. It makes us giggly school girls. I also really like the overhead pipe design in the Kandy Kitchen.
Sheila Hancock is just superb. I hang on every poisonous word that falls from her pursed lips. She can change gears in half a blink. Her rants about the miserable drones & such are masterfully delivered & perfectly cold & callous. Helen A sets the tone for the whole story. Hancock has the gravitas in this central performance to give the whole thing a big shot of credibility. If she hadn't taken it seriously & played for laughs, the whole thing could have fallen apart. The rest of the cast follow her lead & thankfully for the most part play it straight. Helen A is no cardboard villain. She has incredible depth & mystery to her. The final scene of her cradling her beloved Fifi in her arms as the incidental music swells is a gem & I genuinely feel for the twisted, misguided old bitch.
A fourth episode could have allowed for fleshing out of the Pipe People side-story a little, but in three parts it may have been wiser ultimately to excise them all together. With the brisk way they are brushed over & their drab design & muffled voices it is hard to engage with them in their plight. Despite a few dubious design choices (not all of them can be excused as 'for effect') & mercifully brief silly moments, this is captivating & intriguing to watch. Intelligent & innovative Doctor Who that is stretching for new ideas & new frontiers.
So that's it, thanks for reading!
The Lucozer
Monday, April 2, 2007
SMITH & JONES - The Lucozer's First Blood!
Good lord! I have to say that I was loudly impressed by the first one out of the box this time around. As expected there was froth & fluff galore, but 'Smith & Jones' was all together more involving & credible than Mr T's previous two season openers; the initially worrying 'Rose' & the diabolical 'New Earth'. Martha is immediately likeable & ol' Ten-Inch is more subdued & believable than I have come to expect. Romping good fun & definitely several notches further down the cringe-o-meter than most of the underachieving, flatulent season 2.
Good-O!, The Lucozer.
SMITH AND JONES - The Co-Pilot's initial reaction
I liked SMITH AND JONES. I liked it's style and it's wonderful visual effects. I liked the adult tone - the cruel death of the senior doctor, the horrible effect of the Judoon gun zapping a hapless hospital person. Mostly however I liked SMITH AND JONES because it wasn't crappoola! Unlike the puerile "romps" RTD has specialised in (perhaps the worst exampe of which is NEW EARTH), SMITH AND JONES is classy, tense in parts and fun in a non schticky kind of way. I am delighted to say it didn't feel like it was being made to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Martha is wonderful straight off the bat...and what spunk! Tennant manages to be less cringe inducing that usual, putting one in mind of the fine actor he is often reputed to be. In short, a fine season opener...at last! I suspect this will be one of the lesser stories of the year, which bodes wonderfully well for a sparkling season ahead.
The Co-Pilot
Sunday, April 1, 2007
THE CO-PILOT'S SEASON 3 FORECAST (hot and sunny with nary a cloud)
Hi chums,
here is a quick pre-season critique of season 3...filled with ridiculous assumption and unfounded optimism/pessimism about what lays ahead!
SMITH AND JONES
Judging by the previews the effects look pretty dazzling...the Judoon marching forth from their craft for example. Not surprising given that Auntie Russell seems to favour "speccy" over "substantial" when it comes to season openers ie ROSE and NEW EARTH. Early signs suggest that this might be a tad better than those.
THE SHAKESPEARE CODE
Could be surprisingly good ala TOOTH AND CLAW or surprisingly crap ala IDIOT'S LANTERN. The witches look bollocks but the premise of the story and the setting offer hope.
GRIDLOCK
Not holding out a lot of hope for this one. An early pick for wooden spoon. I suppose the Face of Boe's secret might spice things up a bit, but it seems the cat is already out of the bag ie "You are not the only one Doctor"...lets hope there is more to it than that. Why a sequel for NEW EARTH??? Can you imagine if Graham Williams tried to do a sequel to the Invisible Enemy for example??? Pure self indulgence.
DALEKS IN MANHATTAN / EVOLUTION OF THE DALEKS
Promises to be a fun romp. City of Death anyone?
THE LAZARUS EXPERIMENT
I was impressed by the trailer...there was something very simple and mildly disconcerting about the way Lazarus transforms himself. Let's hope the rest of it is marvelous.
42
Could be anything. Given the space setting (praise the Lord, not London/Cardiff again), I am quite looking forward to this one.
HUMAN NATURE / FAMILY OF BLOOD
Eureeka! Can't wait for this. I loved Father's Day and I really like the premise of this, though I haven't read the book. The Jack Straw scarecrows look promisingly menacing.
BLINK
Steven Moffat is Jimi Hendrix is Eric Clapton is GOD!!! Delighted to hear that this one is actually scary and not just throwaway comedy like Love and Monsters and Boomtown.
UTOPIA
Sir Derek J...greatest actor ever to appear on the show...return of the Macra....fabulous darlings fabulous! These ingredients should and will transform what might have been another FEAR HER into one of the highlights of the season. Does Jacobi turn into Simm in a Chronotis / Salyavin like revelation...or will it be a Tremas tragedy? I can't wait to find out. I imagine this is going to be a very emotional season, and my prediction is that Utopia will absorb most of the kleenexes.
BANGING OF DRUMS / LAST OF THE TIMELORDS
Has wonderful written all over it (hopefully not in glittery texta). Auntie Russ always saves his best for the big bang, and he always writes good last episodes too. This coupled with the expected tragedy and sadness bodes well for a cracker ending to a much better season, and of course it will probably set up some dazzling future stoushes between Mr Master and Mrs Doctor. Brothers or Lovers? (Final sentence brought to you by the Lucozer).
I think we are in for a real red hot go this season. Hope I'm right.
Hugs.
The Co-Pilot.
here is a quick pre-season critique of season 3...filled with ridiculous assumption and unfounded optimism/pessimism about what lays ahead!
SMITH AND JONES
Judging by the previews the effects look pretty dazzling...the Judoon marching forth from their craft for example. Not surprising given that Auntie Russell seems to favour "speccy" over "substantial" when it comes to season openers ie ROSE and NEW EARTH. Early signs suggest that this might be a tad better than those.
THE SHAKESPEARE CODE
Could be surprisingly good ala TOOTH AND CLAW or surprisingly crap ala IDIOT'S LANTERN. The witches look bollocks but the premise of the story and the setting offer hope.
GRIDLOCK
Not holding out a lot of hope for this one. An early pick for wooden spoon. I suppose the Face of Boe's secret might spice things up a bit, but it seems the cat is already out of the bag ie "You are not the only one Doctor"...lets hope there is more to it than that. Why a sequel for NEW EARTH??? Can you imagine if Graham Williams tried to do a sequel to the Invisible Enemy for example??? Pure self indulgence.
DALEKS IN MANHATTAN / EVOLUTION OF THE DALEKS
Promises to be a fun romp. City of Death anyone?
THE LAZARUS EXPERIMENT
I was impressed by the trailer...there was something very simple and mildly disconcerting about the way Lazarus transforms himself. Let's hope the rest of it is marvelous.
42
Could be anything. Given the space setting (praise the Lord, not London/Cardiff again), I am quite looking forward to this one.
HUMAN NATURE / FAMILY OF BLOOD
Eureeka! Can't wait for this. I loved Father's Day and I really like the premise of this, though I haven't read the book. The Jack Straw scarecrows look promisingly menacing.
BLINK
Steven Moffat is Jimi Hendrix is Eric Clapton is GOD!!! Delighted to hear that this one is actually scary and not just throwaway comedy like Love and Monsters and Boomtown.
UTOPIA
Sir Derek J...greatest actor ever to appear on the show...return of the Macra....fabulous darlings fabulous! These ingredients should and will transform what might have been another FEAR HER into one of the highlights of the season. Does Jacobi turn into Simm in a Chronotis / Salyavin like revelation...or will it be a Tremas tragedy? I can't wait to find out. I imagine this is going to be a very emotional season, and my prediction is that Utopia will absorb most of the kleenexes.
BANGING OF DRUMS / LAST OF THE TIMELORDS
Has wonderful written all over it (hopefully not in glittery texta). Auntie Russ always saves his best for the big bang, and he always writes good last episodes too. This coupled with the expected tragedy and sadness bodes well for a cracker ending to a much better season, and of course it will probably set up some dazzling future stoushes between Mr Master and Mrs Doctor. Brothers or Lovers? (Final sentence brought to you by the Lucozer).
I think we are in for a real red hot go this season. Hope I'm right.
Hugs.
The Co-Pilot.
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