TV review: Doctor Who Series 4 – “The Sontaran Stratagem”

While teaching Donna to fly the TARDIS, The Doctor receives an unexpected call from an old friend, Martha Jones, who calls him back to Earth. Now working with UNIT, Martha asks The Doctor to help investigate the ATMOS satellite navigation systems which have the added advantage of reducing the carbon emissions of vehicles to zero; brilliant, until they take control of the car and send the driver to their “final destination”.

Episode Review
Hmm … a bit of a mixed bag with this one, but I’ll start with the good points. It was lovely to see Freema Agyeman returning as Martha, and I love that her character has moved on and developed since we last saw her with The Doctor which I think suits Freema’s acting style better.

Yet again, Catherine Tate was excellent as the companion, with great scenes such as Donna’s indignation at being ignored by the UNIT commander and insisting on a salute after The Doctor had told them not to salute him, plus the different angle she brings to the story, knowing to look at staff records – similar to Rose’s domestic style. The highlight for me was the fantastic scene when Donna says she’s going home – beautifully played by David Tennant and Catherine Tate, both the emotional goodbye from The Doctor, then the teasing from Donna when he realises she only means for a visit. I’m a fan of the domestic scenes when the companions come home, and this had a nice twist to it, with Donna being able to completely confide in her granddad, while keeping her mum in the dark as to where she’s been, until as they all meet The Doctor and each realises they’ve actually met him before.

I like the returning use of the mauve light which I think was originally mentioned as universal colour for danger in “The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances” story, and we’ve seen this series already in “Partners In Crime”. It’s a nice little hint as to who will turn out to be the bad guys (in case you hadn’t already guessed!).

The idea of altering a common object like the sat-nav system in the cars to make it part of the aliens master plan to conquer the Earth is well executed, with enough ambiguity about exactly how they will achieve this to make it interesting, but it’s not exactly a new idea, and is very reminiscent of the bluetooth headsets in “Army of Ghosts/Doomsday”.

I think all the design departments have earnt their money on this episode, with the prosthetics, costume, sets and CGI all looking extremely good. I loved the design of the Sontaran spaceship, which I thought was original and looked realistic, and the combination of the prosthetics and the “gloop” for the growing clone was deliciously disgusting.

And now, unfortunately, the bad points. I felt that generally, the plot was a bit too predictable, and it was fairly easy to predict what was going to happen next. I’m also not sure about the decision to clone Martha and then make the clone the main role for Freema to play. It just makes me wonder why you would bring back an old companion and then put them in a coma under the control of the enemy.

Another problem I had was the style of dialogue written for the Sontarans which felt very old fashioned. I know they’re supposed to be a military race, but they felt too stiff and cliched in their speech.

A new director for Doctor Who for this story, Douglas Mackinnon, but for me, his direction felt a bit too ordinary. Everything seemed to be shot directly with no interesting framing or anything to make it stand out from other television dramas and give it that special Doctor Who quality.

So, not entirely successful for me, but still entertaining and enjoyable, and certainly enough good stuff to make me want to watch if again, and I would rate it 7/10.

Doctor Who Confidential – “Send In The Clones”

Behind the scenes action this week included how the special effects department shot the journalists car going into the river, plus the creation of the cloning tank and it green gloop, and discussing how that was set up and filmed. I am completely in awe of Ruari Mears who played the clone in the tank, because to be in a full face prosthetic with no vision and only holes in the mouth the breathe would be my idea of hell, and I just don’t think I’d be able to do it.

We also had “Welcome back, Freema!” From her first day back on set with a publicity photo shoot, followed by the writers and actors thoughts on how the first meeting between The Doctor and Martha would be. They discussed the change in Martha’s character and her development since meeting The Doctor for the first time. It was interesting to see how the director used cutting and editing the scenes where Freema’s body double was used to allow us to see Martha seeing her clone being created.

Episode Commentary

The commentary this week was from actress Freeman Agyeman, writer Helen Raynor and actor Ruari Mears.

As with last week, an interesting enough commentary, with a few nice snippets, such as the fact that the original plan had been to have chimneys taking the role of the sat-nav systems (how would that have every worked?!), but generally, not much extra detail than was covered by this weeks Confidential programme.

Book review: “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” by Paul Torday

Dr Alfred Jones is a fisheries scientist for the National Centre for Fisheries Excellence, who receives a laughable request to create a habitat suitable to introduce salmon into the highlands of the Yemen. Dismissing it as an unachievable folly, he is soon drawn into the project which is politically important for not only his government agency, but for the entire British government. While working on what initially seems an impossible proposal, Dr Jones gradually learns to appreciate the vision of a rich Sheikh with a passion for salmon fishing, embarking on a journey that will change his life forever.

I was completely enchanted by this book, which came as a breath of fresh air after reading what has seemed like a seemingly endless run of dour, depressing novels (that is, aside from my forays into chick-lit). A fresh approach to story telling, using various styles of reportage, from diaries to emails, PM’s questions to transcribed interviews and letters to unpublished manuscripts, the author was able to show different perspectives on the story without having to have a single narrative voice running through the novel. On the surface, the plot is a light hearted tale, but as you get further into it, you realise it is a political satire reminiscent of Yes, Minister and The Thick of It, as well as a heart warming story of the discovery of faith and love.

An easy, quick read, but extremely entertaining and I would heartily recommend it. I look forward to reading Paul Torday’s second novel as soon as I can get my hands on it!

TV review: Doctor Who Series 4 – “Planet of the Ood”

After travelling into Earth history last time, Donna travels to her first alien planet, and after the heat and fire of Pompeii, the travellers find themselves on an ice planet. Within minutes they find a dying Ood, whose dying words, “The circle must be broken” send The Doctor and Donna on a search to find out more about the Ood and their enslavement. But, the spread of Red Eye means a threat to both Ood and humans alike, and The Doctor is soon in a race against time to find out what the mysterious circle is, and why it must be broken.

Episode Review
The Ood are back! We last saw the Ood in the two parter The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit in Series Two, but never really knew much about their background other than they were used as servants by humans. I always think returning to previous characters or aliens in Doctor Who works best when we see them in a different environment or situations, and when the characters are allowed to develop, so this episode was particularly successful.

There are not many opportunities for comedy in this episode, but I think we can see a running joke developing this series, with The Doctor and Donna being mistaken for a married couple. In fact, this was one of few lines which seem as though they may be developing themes for future stories; the others I’ve noticed are the mention of the bees disappearing on Earth, and another reference to The Doctor’s future, with the Ood saying his song must end soon.

Keith Temple’s script allows us to see that the Ood are individual creatures with a sentient telepathic link, and there was a nice reference back to the earlier Ood story, with the scene in the container when the Ood start to respond collectively to The Doctor’s questions, which even Donna finds creepy. It’s one of those moments where the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and a little shiver went down my spine. The script also allow us to understand that repression can take many forms, not just the repression of the Ood to enforce their subservience, but through The Doctor’s comments to Donna, we are made to consider how humans are repressed on Earth today.

Catherine Tate has hit the ground running with her portrayal of Donna, and I love seeing her show the emotion and compassion in her scenes with the Ood, and the scene where she hears their song of captivity almost brought a tear to my eye, but I also love that her character doesn’t show fear in the face of adversity, but gives an indignant disbelief to her situation.

There was a definite 60s flavour to the design of this episode, and when we first see the building complex, I was struck by a similarity to the James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and this continues inside the building with the white plastic furniture and the Andy Warhol style Ood painting. The matte paintings of the landscapes of the alien planet were also stunning, and reminded me of the classic era of 1940’s cinema where the matte paintings were used to create the majority of outdoors backdrops in an almost entire studio based film shoot.

For the second episode in a row, I wasn’t bombarded by the music score, and I felt it actually achieved its purpose this time, where it added to the atmosphere of the story without being too overbearing, and I adored the two Ood songs which were beautiful and evocative of the emotions there were conveying.

Another very enjoyable episode, different in tone from the two previous weeks and developing the ongoing journey The Doctor and Donna are taking together. I give this episode an 8/10 rating.

Doctor Who Confidential – “Oods and Ends”
Another good episode of Confidential with interviews with Russell T. Davies telling us why he wanted to bring the Ood back and show how the relationshipe between The Doctor and Donna is being forged, alongside a great sequence showing us how the scene with The Doctor trying to escape the claw in the warehouse was realised with a nice emphasis on the role of the stunt co-ordinator and stuntmen in such an action packed episode. The only problem I had with this episode, was there were so many clips of previous episodes shown, it’s made me want to go back and watch them all again, so that’s not a bad problem to have!

Episode commentary
Producer Susie Liggat, writer Keith Temple and actor Paul Kasey were the presenters of this weeks commentary.

A nice mix of script development, location shooting, behind the scenes information in this weeks commentary, which provided an interesting addition to the programme, but I’m not sure that I learnt much more than was covered in the Confidential episode, so not as successful as others I’ve listened to.

The best commentaries stand alone on their own merits, and can be listened to independently of the episodes and still be entertaining, and I don’t think this one will be in that category. There are certain people who bring something special to their commentaries, and unfortunately, we don’t hear enough of them anymore. Russell T. Davies, Phil Collinson, David Tennant are all excellent in their commentaries, and based on the “Partners in Crime” episode, I think Catherine Tate will be added to that list.

TV review: Doctor Who Series 4 – “The Fires of Pompeii”

The Doctor takes Donna to Ancient Rome, only to find the TARDIS has veered slightly off course and landed in Pompeii, and Mount Vesuvius is about to erupt! The pair lose the TARDIS and while trying to find it, meet soothsayers who have not just the ability to see the future, but who seem to know far more about the time travelers than they should, forcing The Doctor and Donna to investigate the strange happenings in the doomed town.

Episode review
All I need to say about The Fires of Pompeii is that it was a fantastic episode. If these first two stories are indicative of how this series of Doctor Who is going to play out, then we are in for a fantastic thirteen weeks.

A great script from first time Doctor Who writer James Moran, with a pacy storyline building all the way through the episode to the dramatic and emotional climax. Although we know from the interviews in Confidential, the basic idea and some of the themes are set down by Russell T. Davies, Moran develops these beautifully in the script. The idea that while the TARDIS translates the English spoken by The Doctor and Donna into Latin, when Donna tries to speak Latin it comes over as Celtic to the locals brings some gentle humour into the story. There were also some nice “spot the film reference” elements, with the Mary Poppins style catching of ornaments as the rumblings of the volcano shake the houses, the twist on the classic Spartacus scene, and the design element of the Evelina and the Sisters with the eyes on their hands, similar to one of the monsters in Pan’s Labyrinth. In addition, I loved the reference to earlier Doctor Who episodes, The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances, with The Doctor repeating the phase, “It’s Volcano Day”.

One of the stand out scenes for me, was when Lucius and Evelina play off against each other with their knowledge of the future, and more particularly with their knowledge of the two time travelers. This was so well written, poetic and chilling at the same time, and was beautifully performed by the actors. Compare this to the contemporary dialogue written for Donna, and it shows what an accomplished script this was.

With this new generation of Doctor Who, I feel the best stories have all incorporated a difficult moral dilemma for The Doctor, and this one was no exception, and is even more poignant when we learn what the consequences of The Doctor will be with whichever choice he makes. As usual, the companion is given the role of providing the human internal view of the problem, making The Doctor question his actions, while allowing us to understand the some of the processes behind his decision.

It’s been mentioned in interviews that this episode was extremely expensive, but to me it looked like it was worth every penny. The design, the effects, the locations and the sets were all outstanding. I didn’t like the Colin Teague directed episodes last year, but I suspect that was more to do with the scripts, and I just felt they weren’t different enough to distinguish them from other television dramas. I think because the other elements of the production for this episode were so strong, they make this episode a great all round episode, and Colin has brought them all together really well. A special mention must go to the lighting department, as throughout the entire episode, the use of lighting for effects and atmosphere was gorgeous. From giving heat to the underground thermals, to creating daylight coming into the villa set, and creating the darkness of the cloud of ash spreading across Pompeii, it was a visual treat to see this medium used so effectively on screen.

The casting of this episode shows how well respected Doctor Who has become, with both Peter Capaldi (I love The Thick of It!) and Phil Davies but also wonderful performances from Francois Pandolfo and Francesca Fowler as the Quintus and Evelina. David Tennant gives nothing less than we’ve come to expect with the range of his acting of The Doctor, and Catherine Tate being allowed to develop the character of Donna even further with some wonderful changes in mood throughout the story.

I thoroughly enjoyed this episode, and give it an excellent 9/10.

Doctor Who Confidential – “The Italian Job”
Another fantastic episode of Confidential, showing us the process of moving an entire production from South Wales to the Cinecitta studios in Rome, explaining how the Rome sets allowed the team to give such depth and scale to the recreation of Ancient Pompeii including Italian supporting artists, special effects equipment stuck in Customs, transporting the TARDIS on a lorry through Europe and trying to shoot all exterior scenes in two short days at Cinecitta. It was interesting to see yet another aspect of the production of an episode of Doctor Who being covered, finding out how Production Manager Tracie Simpson had to co-ordinate the massive migration to Italy alongside balancing the budget for the episode.

There was also a chance to learn the real history of Pompeii as David Tennant walked up Mount Vesuvius and visited the remains of the city that have been excavated by archaeologists, helped by a very stylish local Italian guide.

I know we’re only two episodes in, but this series of Confidential is a big improvement on last year for me, with the content and the pacing of the longer 45 minutes format better managed. The sound-bites provided by David Tennant and Catherine Tate are brief but funny and just allow enough lightening of the material to keep it being stodgy and a little bit dull, which is how it felt during some episodes of Confidential last year.

Episode Commentary
This weeks commentary was from writer James Moran, associate designer James North and the actor who played Quintus in this episode, Francois Pandolfo.

The podcast commentaries can be a bit hit and miss in their success, but this one was pretty good, especially listening to James Moran talking about his starstruck meeting with David Tennant, and reverting to being a five year old fan when visiting the set and walking up to the TARDIS. I always like to listen to the commentaries while watching the episode, as sometimes you need to match up what the presenters are talking about with the scene on screen. This commentary was going along nicely when I realized after about 25 minutes in, that the discussion wasn’t following the action. I looked at my iPod and found that the podcast was only 29 minutes long, and yet the television programme was 48 minutes long. There was no explanation of this, and I’ll have to wait for the BBC3 repeat tonight to see if they’ve cut down the commentary for the BBC7 radio broadcast, or if there is genuinely about 25 minutes missing. I know sometimes the dialogue is cut, presumably if someone gives away an important future plot point, or something the production team don’t want to become public knowledge, but this is such a large chunk of the commentary missing that I feel we should have had some explanation.

TV review: Doctor Who Series 4 – “Partners In Crime”

Donna Noble is back! Realising she made a mistake turning down The Doctor’s offer to travel with him at the end of the “The Runaway Bride”, she’s determined to track down The Doctor again. Trying to look for things she thinks The Doctor would be investigating, she starts to investigate the new diet wonder drug, Adipose – “the fat just walks away” – and meets the villainous Miss Foster (played by Sarah Lancashire). Will she find the Doctor in time?

Episode Review
As with all the previous series, Russell T. Davies has written the opening episode of the series, and we have a modern day Earth setting, but for a change, the re-introduction of a companion. I know lots of people weren’t keen to see the return of Donna, but I for one, was looking forward to it. I knew they wouldn’t be leaving her as the loud, abrasive character we saw in “The Runaway Bride”, and I was delighted that from the beginning, we see her development. Proving, as always, that one encounter with The Doctor is enough the change your life forever, Donna is unhappy with the knowledge that there is more to the universe than the small world she inhabits on Earth, and is desperate to find him and take him up on his offer to travel with him.

While investigating Adipose, we see The Doctor and Donna in a sequence of missed opportunities of meeting each other, which looks like the best type of British theatrical farce. It possibly goes on a bit too long, but when the inevitable “meeting” takes place, it’s a mad, funny scene worth the wait.

I love the way the family life of the companions is integrated into the story, and it works well again here, with the wonderful Bernard Cribbins playing Donna’s granddad. A late addition to the cast, following the death of the actor Howard Attfield, who played Donna’s father, a good decision by the production team not to recast the part, but to rewrite the scenes with a grandfather instead, Bernard Cribbins was invited back, after appearing in the Christmas special, “Voyage of the Damned”.

As is becoming fairly typical, one of my big complaints is the incidental music throughout the episode, which instead of adding to the emotion of the drama, I just find it annoying and overbearing. My personal opinion is that it actually cheapens the production value and makes it feel as though it’s trying to make up for a weak script, poor acting, or lack of direction, none of which is true.

Nowhere near the best of Russell T. Davies Doctor Who scripts, but a good episode, and a nice opener for the series. A gentle dose of comedy and with a sprinkle of heart throughout the story, it was an enjoyable episode, with just a couple references to Donna’s previous meeting to The Doctor and a small mention of Martha and Rose, and thankfully not too sentimental.

David Tennant continues to give a great performance as The Doctor, but it seems as though he’ll have to give up some of his comedy lines to Catherine Tate, who the writers will know will be able to handle the timing and delivery required for comedy. I loved Catherine’s performance and look forward to seeing the rest of the series.

Overall then, a good solid season opener, not sensational, but entertaining, if a bit slow at the beginning, and maybe lacking a real sense of peril. Doctor Who looks to continue its reign as the flagship of the BBC’s Saturday night schedule, and I would give this a solid 7/10.

Doctor Who Confidential – “A Noble Return”
Sticking to last years 45 minute format, and continuing with Anthony Head narrating, Confidential this week focused on Catherine Tate’s return to the show, starting at the beginning with footage of the script read through, and we learn why the read through is important, and it’s one of the fascinating things I love Confidential for. If I was invited to see something behind the scenes of Doctor Who, I would pick a read through every time, even more than watching some filming or the special effects. It’s such an important insight into the development of the script from the written page to the screen, and if I had one wish for the DVD boxset, it would be to have an entire read through as an extra.

Following on from that, we saw how the scenes in the window cleaning basket were achieved, as well as the effects for creating the Adipose (by the way, will anyone who’s seen this Confidential ever be able to look at an Adipose without seeing that knitted toy version used as a stand in on set?), and about the decision making behind whether to recast Donna’s dad or rewrite the script with a different character.

An interesting episode, which didn’t seem to falter as last years did occasionally, so an 8/10 for the season opener.

Episode Commentary
After the “issues” with the episode commentary for the Christmas special “Voyage of the Damned”, where the BBC decided that they could no longer produce podcasts of this length unless they were tied into a radio programme, the commentaries for Series 4 are now being broadcast of Radio 7 on a Sunday, but fortunately the BBC have decided to make them available for download on Saturday after the first broadcast of each episode on Saturday night.

The commentary for “Partners In Crime” is from David Tennant, Catherine Tate and Phil Collinson, and I have to say, it was a great start to the new series. Some of the commentaries in the past have been a bit hit and miss, but this is a cracker. Entertaining cast members, with funny and interesting tales of shooting, who are witty and eloquent, and a joy to listen to. As with the best of the commentaries in previous series, it’s one that can be listened to for the most part without actually watching the episode at the same time, but it does work perfectly with it.

Scheduling
I’ve seen a lot of discussion about the scheduling of Doctor Who again this year, and I have to agree that 6:20 was not a good timeslot for the programme. As far as I’m concerned, it shouldn’t be that difficult to schedule prime time Saturday night television, and Doctor Who is such an important part of it, and is regularly cited as one of the key programmes for the BBC, so there is no excuse for messing around with the timing. BBC, please give the programme the respect it deserves, and put it back in the 7:00pm slot and work the other programmes around it. You make millions of pounds out of merchandising and selling the programme around the world, and it deserves to be treated better than this. I understand from comments from David Tennant that from around episode five or six, the programme will be given back its normal timeslot and will remain there, and if that’s the case, why couldn’t this have been done here.

Better still, after the year of specials in 2009, when the series returns in 2010, move it to the autumn schedule and place it directly after Strictly Come Dancing – the perfect evening of entertainment as far as I’m concerned.