TV review: Doctor Who Series 2 – “Tooth and Claw”

19th century Scotland and the brothers from the local monastry arrive at Sir Robert MacLeish’s manor house, using their martial arts skills to hold the occupants hostage and force Sir Robert to commit an act of treason against Her Majesty Queen Victoria … and all before the opening credits! After a slight misdirection by the TARDIS, The Doctor and Rose, who had been aiming for Sheffield 1979, end up in Scotland 1879 and find themselves in Her Majesty’s entourage and embroiled in the monks plot to take over the crown.

This episode means a lot to me. I never watched Doctor Who when I was growing up, and I’d only seen the new series because my boyfriend had been a childhood fan and wanted to see what the revamped programme was like. I’d enjoyed series one the first time of watching, but without being over enthusiastic, and had been very dubious about the casting of David Tennant as the tenth doctor. After The Christmas Invasion and New Earth, I still wasn’t sure how I felt about it, and then came along Tooth and Claw. It hit me like a sucker punch, and I suddenly saw what all the fuss was about. This episode was amazing, and I was completely hooked from then on in, and not only that, I looked again at the previous stories with new eyes and started to appreciate them on their own merits.

So what was it about this particular story that made me fall in love with Doctor Who? It was just so much fun! The best Russell T. Davies script by far, with a great monster, a fast-paced, scary but exciting plot, plus clever and witty dialogue. I get the impression from Classic Who fans that they don’t like a lot of the silly jokes in the new series, but for me that’s one of the best aspects! In this episode, I loved dialogue around The Doctor and Rose’s Scottish accents as well as the running “We are not amused” joke.

From a visual perspective, the design of this episode is breathtaking. It perfectly evokes the period with the costumes and the décor of the house, and the juxtaposition of the bright orange suited “kung fu monks” is excellent. In addition to the design, the cinematography was beautiful, from the pre-titles “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” influenced fight scene to the werewolfs point of view shots. And talking of the werewolf, the quality of the look, movement and effects for the creature were worthy of a multi-million dollar film, not a comparatively small budget television programme.

Euros Lyn has emerged as my favourite director of Doctor Who, and this episode showcases his talent extremely well. He includes quirky framing of shots, knows how to build suspense and allows us to feel the sense of peril that the characters find themselves in.

I’ve probably watched this episode at least twenty times now, and I can’t find a fault with it at all, and while there are other stories I still think are superior, I can’t actually mark this one down because of that, so my rating for this episode is 10/10.

TV review: Doctor Who Series 4 – “The Unicorn And The Wasp”

The Doctor and Donna arrive at a country house in England in the 1920’s just as a weekend party is about to start. Inviting themselves along, they are delighted to meet the most famous whodunit writer of all time, Agatha Christie, only for the Doctor to realize that today is the day she disappears, turning up 10 days later at a hotel claiming amnesia. They soon find themselves drawn into a murder mystery worthy of one of her best plots – will they be able to solve the crime, and find out where happened to those missing 10 days?

Episode review
I say, chaps, that was a pretty spiffing episode, what? Gareth Roberts script delivers a fantastic homage to the best Agatha Christie murder mysteries, with a nice science fiction twist and a bit of comedy thrown in and it all comes together as a brilliantly entertaining whodunit. Combine all that with a fabulous ensemble cast, and you’ve got a corker of a Doctor Who episode!

I was discussing Doctor Who with someone the other day, and trying to decide why some episodes don’t quite work, and we came to the conclusion that the best ones are either out and out drama, or a mixture of comedy and drama. But, if you’re going to put comedy into it, then the comedy has to be equal to the drama in terms of quality. This episode is a perfect example of that, with plenty of drama from the murder mystery point of view, with some excellent comedy, particularly for Donna’s character.

The whole style of the episode was beautifully realized with the locations, sets, costumes, hair and makeup all looking genuinely like the 1920’s, and again, the script was written with authentic dialogue as if lifted straight from one of Agatha Christies own books.

There were some great comedy lines for Donna, including “What do you think – flapper, or slapper?” when she appears out the TARDIS in her period costume, then when told that a jewel thief has snatched Lady Babbington’s pearls from right under her nose, Donna’s response is “Funny place to wear pearls”. We then get “Hold on, the body in the library. I mean, Professor Peach in the library with the lead piping”. Brilliant timing from Catherine Tate, but then I’ve come to expect nothing less and it’s another great performance from her.

We also get treated to another completely off the wall scene from David Tennant when The Doctor has to try and get rid of the cyanide. What a nightmare to have to douse youself in ginger beer, then have to guzzle walnuts followed by anchovies. And then poor Catherine Tate has to kiss him! Brilliant!

I also liked the nice back references to previous stories, starting with Donna trying to speak like a character out of the 1920’s with the Doctor saying, “No, don’t do that”, as he’d done previously with Rose in Tooth and Claw and Martha in The Shakespeare Code. There was also the reference to The Unquiet Dead episode when Donna is amazed at the coincidence of being caught up in a murder, a mystery and Agatha Christie, and comparing it to “meeting Charles Dickens, and he’s surrounded by ghosts. At Christmas”. Add to that all the hidden Agatha Christie book titles sprinkled liberally throughout the script, and you have something for fans of both Doctor Who and the author herself, you could make a great quiz out of the entire episode!

I still look forward each story to the “We’re not a couple” line, and I’m convinced that at some point in the series, they’re actually going to have to pretend to be a couple!

So all in all, a fantastic episode of Doctor Who, and I’m giving it a rating of 9/10.

Doctor Who Confidential – “Nemesis”
The episode of Confidential concentrates on looking at the cast and the setting of the episode more than anything from a special effects point of view, so there’s lots of background on the real life disappearance of Agatha Christie, plus a look at the similarities – and differences – between the type of plots and stories she wrote in her books.

One of the best parts for me was when the director of photography talked about how they had to set up the lighting for the dining room scene, to give warmth to the candlelit table, then moonlight as the candles are blown out, followed by the lightening effects. We don’t usually see much of the DP, so it was nice to have a new face to tell us more about the filming process.

Podcast commentary
Writer Gareth Roberts, director Graeme Harper and actor Tom Goodman-Hill who played Reverend Golightly present this weeks podcast commentary. No startling revelations in this podcast, and probably only worth a single listen, but entertaining enough as a one off.

TV review: Doctor Who Series 4 – “The Doctor’s Daughter”

After last weeks cliffhanger we know the TARDIS has taken control and The Doctor, Donna and Martha find themselves transported to the planet Messaline, where a tissue sample is taken from The Doctor to propagate a new soldier for the ongoing war between humans and the Hath. But she’s not just any soldier … she’s The Doctor’s Daughter. Will The Doctor be able to stop the fighting, and will he come to terms with being a father again?

Episode review
Another week with some good and some bad, but as always, I’ll start with the good.

This week, the acting performances were superb from all parties. David Tennant’s gave his strongest performance so far this series, with a script that offered him a chance to demonstrate the depth and range he brings to the role of The Doctor. Anger, frustration, despair, hurt, love and longing are all facets on show culminating in another emotional parting for his character.

Freema Agyeman was wonderful in this episode, although poor Martha just doesn’t look like she’s ever going to get a break and just enjoy traveling with The Doctor. After her excitement as she arrives in a new place again, rekindling her love of travelling with The Doctor, she’s almost immediately thrown into peril, as she’s captured by the Hath, but manages to befriends one, only to have him save her life but lose his own in the process.

The casting of Jenny was important, and Georgia Moffett was an excellent choice. For anyone who doesn’t know, she is fifth Doctor Peter Davison’s daughter. She managed to portray different sides to Jenny; from the military conformity required of the soldier she has been bred to be, to the naivety of being a new but grown up daughter, to the excitement and anticipation of being a traveler.

From the script, Stephen Greenhorn (who wrote series three episode The Lazarus Experiment) gave us an excellent pre-titles sequence, setting the scene perfectly in a short space of time, while concluding with the fantastic line, “Hello, Dad”. Some lovely scenes such as The Doctor reflecting on what being a Time Lord means, Donna helping him to understand that no matter how she was created, Jenny is his daughter, and the final denouement of the story in the temple was fantastic. There were, however, a few pacing issues, and I thought there were times when the story felt a bit flat, so not 100% successful in terms of the script for me.

From a production point of view, the Hath were the most disappointing aliens we have yet seen, and unusually, I think that was down to the prosthetics. I felt they did just look like rubber masks and there was no life in them, particularly the eyes, which did just look like painted plastic.

Other departments fared much better, with the design, locations and special effects all looking really good, and suitable for the story, particularly the use of Swansea’s Plantasia attraction used for the plant room in the temple on Messaline.

Enjoyable if patchy, I’d rate this episode 7/10.

Doctor Who Confidential – “Sins of the Fathers”
Another good mix of history, behind the scenes story development and special effects from Confidential this week. Delightful to see reference to the 2007 Children In Need special Time Crash and hearing a bit about that from both Peter Davison and Steven Moffatt. Worth watching for Steven Moffatt’s contribution alone, who is always entertaining to listen to.

Podcast commentary
This week’s commentary was from Executive Producer Russell T. Davies, actor David Tennant and director Alice Troughton

Another very entertaining podcast this week, with two of the best raconteurs in the Doctor Who family, Russell T. Davies and David Tennant. Never a dull moment, with interesting stories about how the Georgia Moffett was cast in the role of Jenny and some of the fan speculation about how The Doctor came to have a daughter after the title of this episode had been released. They also talked about whether the TARDIS translation circuits were actually translating the Hath’s language, as well as the brief Stephen Greenhorn was given for writing this script.

Russell says at one point he could do a 1000 hour podcast on the scripting process – my response would be “Yes, please!” Well maybe not a 1000 hours long, but I would love to hear and in depth discussion on how scripts are developed, from the initial outline of what the series episodes will be, to the decision on who will write which ones, to the brief given to each writer and the role of the script editor. Please Russell, please consider doing this as one of the fantastic extras that now form part of the newly regenerated official BBC Doctor Who website.

Anyway, this weeks commentary is very good and well worth listening to.

TV review: Doctor Who Series 4 – “The Poison Sky”

With the Sontarans activating their ATMOS devices across the Earth, the planet is choking and The Doctor faces a race against time to save not only Donna’s granddad, but the entire human race. Will he be able to defeat the Sontrarans save everyone on Earth, and at what cost to himself?

Episode review
After last weeks opener of this two part story, I didn’t have high expectations for this weeks episode, but I was pleasantly surprised.

The plot moved along at a good pace, but it was still a bit predictable at times. The character development of Luke Rattigan was well handled, which in its own way, was a look at how genius can be lonely and could lead to the creation of an evil villain, but with the The Doctor’s intervention can be redeemed.

Donna is developing nicely into the role as companion, with her most difficult challenge yet, being stranded alone on an alien spaceship with only a phone link to The Doctor to get her back to Earth. As is now the standard for the new series, the companions family are a way for us to see the human point of view of the ensuing story, and allow us to understand the choices the companions have to make when deciding to travel with The Doctor, and for Donna, they show us her emotional side, which rarely comes to the surface.

The special effects throughout the episode were of a very high quality, particularly the atmosphere burning from both the viewpoint of standing on the ground looking up into the sky, to the view of New York from above and from the Sontaran spaceship seeing the entire planet engulfed in flames.

There were some lovely touches in the script and the visuals which although were only fleeting, were lovely things for fans to drool over! I loved The Empty Child reference when The Doctor puts the gas mask on and says, “Are you my mummy?”, as well as the glimpse of Rose shouting “DOCTOR” on the TARDIS console screen as The Doctor made first contact with the Sontarans.

I can’t believe I’ve got to episode five without focusing on David Tenant’s performance in the programme. Yet again, he shows the range he has as an actor, showing anger, frustration, despair as well as great comic timing.

However, this episode wasn’t perfect by any means though, and I still didn’t like the style of the Sontarans speech, and I didn’t like that their body armour could be breached by rad steel coated bullets as this seemed to contradict the idea that the only weak spot they had was probic vent at the back of the neck. I also had a problem with clone Martha threatening The Doctor with a gun in the clone room, when last week, the two UNIT soldiers were unable to use their guns because of the cordolane signal in the same room.

Finally, what a fantastic cliffhanger and trailer for next week!

Overall, entertaining but a bit too reminiscent of the classic era for me, but I enjoyed it as much as last week, so I would give it a rating of 7/10.

Doctor Who Confidential – “Sontar-Ha!”

Lots of just behind the scenes looks at special effects for creating smoke and breaking glass (poor Danny Hargreaves in a pink jumper!), as well as a potted history of the Sontarans in Doctor Who and their redesign for the new series, including how Neill Gorton’s team created both the prothestic heads and the body armour. Finally, there was another look at how Donna differs from Rose and Martha, with things like her reaction to getting the TARDIS key, plus a nice montage of Donna’s best bits of the series so far.

This series of Confidential has got to grips with the 45 minute format much better than last year, and when watching it I don’t lose interest at the 30 minute mark like I did last year. I really enjoyed this weeks episode.

Podcast commentary

This weeks commentary was from Catherine Tate, Executive Producer Julie Gardner and actor Ryan Sampson who played Rattigan in this story.

Chaotically irrelevant for the most part, this weeks podcast was very enertaining covering subjects such as the smell of lubricants, live rabbits being used to train greyhounds, party clothes with two Oxford brogues, text services that provide answers to any questions, recycled suits and the Wombles.

Really funny, and well worth listening to.