DOCTOR WHO reviews

Here are two reviews of Doctor Who, recently published in Strange Skins Magazine.

Both episodes were written by Neil Cross, creator of Luther, currently showing on BBC One.

THE RINGS OF AKHATEN



There is an unofficial tradition in Doctor Who of the thumbnail sketch.  The Seventh Doctor saw out the classic series describing “people made of smoke and cities made of song”.  Subsequent showrunners have continued the tradition (“Space Florida” being amongst numerous examples) and now debut Who writer Neil Cross has gone one better by creating a thumbnail-based story – Akhaten is in concept an established planetary system and in execution a series of broad strokes.  This results in an intriguing but insubstantial episode.  Cross is a strange choice to be performing script duties on a prime time family show – his main TV credit is the BBC’s Luther, with its Dexter-style blend of warped characters and twisted situations.  Can a crime author preoccupied with serial murder be a good fit for the Doctor, especially in this fiftieth anniversary season?  On this evidence I’d say yes – he has devised a rip-roaring composite of science-fantasy and horror hampered by obvious budgetary restrictions.  The Egyptian motif looks good and puts you in mind of Pyramids of Mars, but having been billed as an epic excursion to an alien world what we end up with are a cluster of small sets bookended by some impressive CGI spacescapes.  However Cross and the creature department have some fun with a Star Wars-inspired array of rubbery denizens, some of whom are so well-realized it’s a shame we’re only meeting them in passing.
The writer also has the added responsibility of delivering Clara Oswald’s first trip aboard the TARDIS.  Having been introduced no less than three times, this is the beginning of Jenna Louise Coleman's tenure as a fully-fledged crew member.  Thus far the character or the mystery surrounding her isn't doing what it should.  It could be that she is yet another girl-shaped mystery for the Doctor to solve, or that despite Coleman’s strong performance she is having to plug the creative crater left by the Ponds.
Overall the story is stronger on atmosphere than content.  The nature of the relationship between the Akhatens and their “god” is vague, with the connection between the sacrifice, the imprisoned monster and the evil planet unclear.  “Grandfather", the mummified boogeyman of Akhaten, is initially frightening, but once you realize his main role is trying not to bang too hard on a conservatory window he becomes an opportunity for viewer trauma sadly squandered.  In my book the best characters are the underused Vigil, who wind up as Hellboy-esque throwaway henchmen.
This is an unusual instalment in that there is very little in the way of supporting cast.  Of the unmasked performers Emilia Jones makes a suitably delicate Queen of Years.  The songs have become a major bone of contention but I have to say I didn’t mind them.  Granted they are more Andrew Lloyd Webber than ancient paean, but they certainly aren’t offensive to the ear.  Matt Smith is so consistently fully-formed that I find it pointless to scrutinize him, but he does struggle with the final confrontation.  It’s the first time I've seen him a bit adrift in his performance - arguably the Doctor is supposed to be groping for answers, but this sequence would have benefitted from a bit more rehearsal perhaps.  Still, Smith at sea is more interesting than most actors in the same situation.  Of course he could always be wondering why the citizens of Akhaten have all started singing encouragingly in the beast's direction, more a case of trying to create a rousing finale than anything logical.  Clara's leaf-based solution is a neat way of bringing the faith-based elements of the tale together.  Not only is this leaf the most important leaf in human history, it must also be the most durable to have survived twenty five years in a scrapbook and a trip across space in a moped.
This is a credible debut script set on a compelling world, but an absence of meat and a broad sentimental streak hold it back from the emotional heights Cross plainly hoped to scale.  Not so much “everybody lives” as “everybody sings”.

HIDE

For me Hide is a significant chapter in the fiftieth anniversary season.  Following the narrative cacophony of Season Six, there appeared to be a concerted attempt to get back to basics.  The florid first half of Season Seven went too far in this direction, its brash style arguably influenced by the show's burgeoning foothold in America.  The opening episodes of the second half felt tired and rehashed too much of what had gone before.  With Hide we find a noticeable sea change - a stripped-down instalment with a punchy one word title and solid sci-fi leanings.  It has a good setting in a haunted stately pile and one rooted in that most sinister of decades, the 1970s.  There is a sense of the cheesy wallpaper and knitted items adding to the dread – a key aesthetic factor that makes so many of the horror movies of that period successful today.  Of the recent past the Sixties are too respected to be truly appalled by.  The Eighties were just plain wrong.  The Seventies are the natural decade of visceral entertainment.  There’s even a sequence with a gold headset that could have come straight from the Philip Hinchcliffe era.
The story benefits from some simple but effective images of threat.  The "Caliburn Ghast" is a spectral figure with a Mr Men face.  A spinning black disc appears from nowhere to fracture and terrify.  The monster of the piece is a tower of faecal-looking matter blurred in the style of Francis Bacon.  As a writer who has collaborated with Guillermo del Toro, Neil Cross knows his scary onions.  This and The Rings of Akhaten have demonstrated his versatility and ease with the format, which bodes well for future scripts.  The “pocket universe” in which the Ghast is trapped is perhaps a little vague, albeit a recurring notion in the series.  But Cross introduces something seldom seen properly in the modern, fantasy-laden Who:  the idea of the unexplained being clarified by scientific endeavour.  Here the Doctor is not a lonely god or someone who shows up and extemporizes his way out of a situation.  This is a man driven by scientific inquisition, finding a parallel of sorts in Dougray Scott’s gifted but scarred Alec Palmer.
Even when the tale goes off into hyper mode with a fact-finding whistle-stop tour through the centuries, Cross brings it back down to earth as Clara gets her first inner-glimpses of the person she’s travelling with.  “We’re all ghosts to you,” she remarks, a refreshing perspective after so much waffle from other writers about how amazing the Doctor is.  There are hints about Jenna Coleman’s character, though as with Karen Gillan I’m not sure to what extent I’m watching a charismatic performance that enlivens a series of traits rather than a developing companion.  Like Amy, Clara has entered the TARDIS with gusto, displaying almost superhuman levels of adeptness, insight and fortitude.  Very good for the Doctor, not so convincing for the dedicated viewer.
Of the guest cast Jessica Raine comes off best as psychic Emma Grayling.  She has an understated quality that puts you at ease.  Hollywood star Scott looks out of sorts with the ‘science bit’, but his chiselled Action Man features make him a good contrast to the Doctor.  As for the Time Lord himself, dare I say there’s a restless aspect to Smith’s performance this year, as if he’s trying to make the material work for him rather than inhabiting the part.  Nevertheless, he skilfully portrays the Doctor as an ebullient child then a frightened man, before dealing a killer blow with an icy stare as the motives behind his trip to Caliburn House become clear.
There’s a hurried end scene that is too upbeat to gel with what’s gone before, but overall Hide heralded the beginning of what proved to be a satisfying and story-led set of episodes that showcased what Doctor Who is about – a weekly adventure series with memorable characters, frightening adversaries, a dash of science-fiction and above all a yarn you’ll recall long after the credits have rolled.  What better way to mark the show’s half century...?