This is clearly all just egregious pandering to the internet. Assuming of course that, since it's a show about time travel, there's no such thing as a hopelessly outdated pop culture reference. You can always just go back to when it was still relevant.
As far as I can see the only real problem with this strategy is, sadly, that it WORKS. Clearly, despite some of the previous misfires the show is still managing to plug right into some portion of brain and make a connection. And I don't just mean in the way that it clearly KNOWS I'm going to want to make lame jokes about films I've never even actually seen and is generously indulging me whilst still delivering a rather damn fine episode.
See, like a lot of people writing about any part of pop culture I do occasionally indulge in the idle fantasy of wondering how it would be if the production team read my reviews. But after this episode I'm actually starting to get seriously worried that Steven Moffat is reading my MIND.
I wouldn't mind, but this really isn't the first time this has happened. I idly consider to myself that it would be interesting to use Hitler in a story, and he writes Let's Kill Hitler. I contemplate (as I often do) that one thing that's really lacking in the series is some Dinosaur episodes, and what happens? Dinosaurs On A Spaceship. So what's the idea I'm trying to claim credit for this time?
Well, we'll get to that. But first a little background. You see, without trying to sound to emo about it I've not been having the best time of it in the last couple of years. I'm not saying I've been having anything approaching the sort of proper issues that some people have got to deal with by any means. But what with one thing and another I haven't really been coping as well as I might otherwise, and certain thing have obviously fallen by the wayside rather as my time management has degraded. And, ashamed as I am to admit it, one of these things has been Doctor Who. To the point where I even ended up cancelling my subscription to Doctor Who magazine because I never found the time to actually read it. I'm like 2 series behind on the DVDs because I haven't been watching much at all. Which is unfortunate. Because I actually really enjoyed a lot of the previous series. But the main memory I've had has been from the christmas special. Which I did NOT particularly like. And the general tone of the official news on line has gone increasingly.... buzzfeedy. Which is again rather off-putting to a man of my temperament with it's vapid lists of self congratulatory pointlessness.
Although to be fair it's always going to be tough to sell me on a top ten list of Clara moments that isn't actually called Top 10 Times Clara Was Fired Out Of A Cannon Into The Sun.
And even then it's just gonna end up reminding me of this bullshit and making me angry anyway.
So... yeah. I guess you could say I've been having something of a crisis of faith. I haven't even been managing to listen to that much Big Finish, since that's something I tend to whilst painting. And I haven't been managing to do any of that either.
BUT! All this terrible existential crisis has one significant upside! SInce I haven't been getting Dr Who magazine and largely skipping over the Who news on the web it turns out I had almost NO CLUE WHATSOEVER what was going to be happening. I think I remember seeing something about there being Daleks in the opening episodes. But given that the Grand Moff has so far managed a shocking 100% failure rate at Dalek stories I was hardly gearing up with excitement.
And that's where we come back to psychic powers. Because do you know who my single favourite Dr Who villain of all time is?
Ha, trick question. The Myrka is my favourite MONSTER, not villain.
It's Davros. If there's one thing I've been thinking they should do for a long time now it's a Davros story. This is something Big Finish have done brilliantly a few times. And really, it would hardly be the first time to take inspiration from the audios. Seriously, one day I'll get around to writing a full list, it's a lot more than you might think. So anyway, when we open up on with a lost child on the surface of Skaro was there ever actually any doubt as to who it was going to be? I'd come to that conclusion pretty much as soon as I'd clocked that we were on Skaro and junior showed up. I mean, he was hardly going to say his name was Brian was he? But still, it was a really cool moment.
But that's not all. You see, when I was thinking about what I'd want from a Davros story I'd come to a fairly certain conclusion as to what it should be like. And for me what would make an interesting episode would be a very old, tired Davros, locked in a dark room with the Doctor, TALKING. And blow me, but we actually get some of that. With the promise of more to come. That's great as far as I'm concerned. A little creepy that they keep basing episodes on half formed ideas floating around the back of my head that I've never really told anyone about. But still good stuff.
Frankly it was a great relief to suddenly be excited about things again. Not least because the prequel stuff they'd put out online beforehand was, actually, a little worrying. 2 Prologues, both of which REALLY felt like they were just retreading the same territory to the Name Of The Doctor. Which again, was not an episode I thought particularly good. The Doctor, lurking around, dropping hints about doom and battles and how he's going to die soon? Or fannying around with a bit of forced joviality trying to distract himself from the coming grimnity? Sound familiar at all? It should. My honest reaction to watching The Doctors Meditation was to wonder if that wasn't some left over material meant for Matt Smith. It seems so much more in keeping with his Doctor that Peter Capaldis'.
So yeah, nice that that all seems to be a bit of misdirection. As does the fact that whilst they'd hyped the return of the Daleks and Missy I hadn't seen anything even hinting at Davros turning up. Even the published chose to concentrate on the frankly incidental business with the planes. Good job. It's nice to be surprised for a change.
So, what else should we mention? How about Colony Sarff? Creepy snake people are something I have a soft spot for.
And have done since primary school.
As creepy snake people go, this is actually a pretty cool version. When you see him in the trailers you tend to think Dr Channard from Hellraiser 2 rather than King Hiss. And all that gliding around and slight overacting only reinforces the association. So again, good job on the misdirection.
Not perhaps the Doctor you were looking for, but he is at least medically qualified.
Of course, at this point I'm not sure if it's the production team doing the fooling or just my brain. But I'm not sure it really matters. Or even that there's much of a difference anymore.
One odd thing that I really liked about the episode is the realisation of the Dalek city. I'm not 100% sure if it IS a model. But it looks it. Even better it looks like an old school model. An odd effect, but one that's actually used really well. As we approach Davros' lair from space the shot looks... odd. Slightly off. Kinda like a shot from a classic episode of Doctor Who in fact. And then it's revealed that actually it IS just a cheap special effect. How deliciously meta.
Then there's the Daleks. Now, I've gone on at some length about Daleks before now. How I didn't like the frantic backpeddaling on the new Dalek Paradigm before they even had a proper go at doing anything. How this then resulted in even more confusion and tangling of the Dalek command structure just on the point where we thought it had been sorted out for once. I'll try not to go over that same ground too much. Suffice to say that whilst I begrudge nobody a trip to the Doctor Who experience I'm not sure how bringing back Davros, a Dalek Supreme AND a Black Dalek all at the same time is going to make things any clearer. Although I DO love the fact that they're mixing some old school casings along with the tired old Time War design. You'll not find me entirely unappreciative when you stick the Special Weapons Dalek in there.
Still the best Dalek.
But I don't think any of that's super relevant. After all, this isn't a Dalek story. It's a Davros one. At least it seems to be. You'll get Daleks in there somewhere of course, but more as side dish than the main course. It will hopefully be Davros doing the significant heavy lifting in the plot. Sure, you might argue that blowing up the TARDIS, Missy AND Clara all within the space of 5 minutes is a significant thing, but if you think that's going to stick for more than 5 minutes into the next episode I've got some excellent bridges to sell you. Although I'm sure it will help with that last temptation of the Doctor thing the trailer is setting up for next time.
That's probably the second main problem with this episode, that it is primarily setting things up for next time. Obviously that makes it hard to really dig into the plot threads in any great depth or detail. The pieces are now in place, we just have to wait and see if they're moved around in a suitably interesting way.
However it would be remiss of me as a churlish internet curmdgeon not to mention the FIRST major problem with this episode. It's something that quickly get's forgotten as things progress, but it's still a fairly egregious blunder. Sadly indicative of the sort of attitude that results in all those masturbatory articles which I was talking about earlier. Can you guess what I'm talking about? Here, let me give you a hint:
Now, I have no problem with the idea of the Doctor playing the guitar. Doesn't seem super in keeping with the 12th Doctor, but they seem to be going somewhere different with the character this series, so fine. And I can even, just about, forgive him riding in on a tank. Again, not exactly typical behaviour, but it makes for a nice visual. But you what I can't forgive?
PLAYING THE THEME MUSIC TO YOUR OWN TV SHOW.
That's just... No. Sorry. No. Bad writer, don't do that. Have the terrible axe pun, fine no problem. But since you could play literally anything why pick that? You know those concepts of suspension of disbelief and audience engagement? You just killed them. If you want a metallic version of the theme then there's plenty to choose from (I recommend About Time by Ewigkeit), but don't try and have the main character play his own theme music in his own show. It was bad enough when they had people continually calling out the name of the program like that was somehow clever. This is just more of the same.
Now, luckily this gag is over quickly and soon forgotten as more interesting things happen. But it's still stupid. Since more or less everything else is great it's a shame they had to try and spoil it. I mean, not even Clara managed to particularly annoy me this episode. Which is a result. Maybe I'm just hoping Missy will kill her off whilst no one is looking.
But let's be charitable. After all, she's finally confirmed as leaving, so we'll be nice and give her one last chance to impress us. Maybe this time around she'll actual do something useful and we won't just spend the whole series being told how special she is despite all evidence to the contrary. I mean, it COULD happen, right?
Sorry, sorry. I'm trying to be positive. I just really dislike the character and am looking forward to being able to say "other than Clara, that was really good".
So, yeah. I'd say we're off to a fairly strong start this series. Indeed, I'm almost feeling optimistic. With the greater focus on 2 part stories that we're apparently getting this time around there should be some real potential for good plots and the sort of extended character interactions that tend to get passed over too quickly in the standard format. Interesting times ahead.
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