Series 8. The Difficult Series 8. Is there any television show whose best series was the eighth? It simply doesn't happen. With this in mind, it's easy to sympathise with show-runner Steven Moffat when you think about how difficult a task it was, not only to approach the production of this year of Doctor Who episodes but to pull them off at all. Think about how much creativity must be put into every season of this eclectic show; 13 scripts, multiple casts (cannon fodder), new sets, new enemies, new solutions to new problems and, this year, a new new Doctor.
The success of Doctor Who series 8 in the public's consciousness is difficult to gauge, in hindsight. The comments sections on BBC social media accounts sing a repetitive theme - "Peter Capaldi is good but the scripts let him down." To read tabloid news stories in recent weeks you would think that Capaldi was the Doctor who had failed most since the series began. Deteriorating overnight viewing figures are cited and the millions of fans who watch online and, indeed across the world are ignored. These reactions are understandable, the show by its nature appeals to a young audience and young audiences, by their natures grow up. It is closely connected with childhood and nostalgia and when the show changes as distinctly as it does in this series it stops providing that nostalgia in the same way. As for the tabloid's attitudes, the show is unique, a success story that has lasted over 50 years, it is the BBC's flagship family drama show and therefore it is hardly news to say that it is succeeding. The most commercially viable news is a failing show. For my part, Doctor Who will never be Christopher Eccleston in 2005 again. It will never make me an eleven year old boy but I'm still on its side and so recently I sat down again to watch this divisive series, distancing myself from the influence of all of these contrasting viewpoints and narratives to give it the chance it deserves. Here is what I thought.
I didn't have particularly fond memories of Series 8. My impression of it was mostly influenced by the overwhelmingly bleak tone and the dark, dark themes. I enjoyed the episodes Kill the Moon, Listen, Dark Water, Flatline and Mummy on the Orient Express very much upon transmission, the series came out during my second year of university and as such I would spend pleasant Saturday nights in bars and pubs coming home to enjoy a late night Doctor Who (wild.) These episodes were strong in terms of structure and they dealt with rich and interesting subject matters but in the past three years I have had no interest in returning to them because of those oppressive, dark overtones. For me, a child of the Russel T. Davies Doctor Who school, the show should always be fun. Series 8 is a story of identity and fear, trauma and regret. It's a far cry from Errol Flynn Tennant holding hands with shop girls and punching the air with glee. And yet, upon my re-watch I found that there was a lot to enjoy and to engage the viewers beyond its lack of fun.
- Dinosaur is incinerated
- Doctor and Clara visit a restaurant
- Doctor and Clara are on the menu
- Restaurant is a spaceship
- Robots are using body parts to fix the ship
- Lead robot tries to escape and "dies"
It is very thin. The rest of the (extended) run time is padded with extraneous, if entertaining, comedy skits and contrived moments of drama. Like the central metaphor of the episode - the robot which takes new body parts and faces is like the Doctor - it's a tad superficial and unsatisfying.
Going into the second episode Into the Dalek I was always going to be on the back foot because I'm not a fan of daleks. They're so one note that they bore me. I usually find that the good dalek stories (Asylum, Dalek and Into the) work in spite of rather than because of their presence or do something interesting with their legacy in the show's publicly recognised mythology. With a title and a premise like Into the Dalek I was hoping for a cerebral interpretation as well as a literal enactment, for whatever reason I didn't feel like the episode delivered the on first viewing. The moving parts of the plot; that journey from eye stalk to mutant inside the dalek creature doesn't really engage the grown up me but it is only window dressing and it is pretty enough. The first shot of our heroes entering the dalek's eye is beautiful, surreal film making.
Another thing that put me off during the first watch was the return of the Doctor's curious, bigoted hatred of all soldiers first seen in David Tennant adventure The Sontaran Stratagem in which he bullies a general for ordering his men to defend the planet against a militarised alien threat. At first it appeared as though this was simply setting up another tedious round of Doctor/ companion boyfriend boxing match. This episode introduces series recurring character Danny Pink and to the first time viewer it seems as though his role is going to be a retread of the Doctor's picking on Micky Smith in the first two series or his rivalry with Rory in the fifth but when the episode is viewed with the knowledge of how the entire series will play out it actually begins to feel more fresh and interesting as something slightly more nuanced will be done with this thread.
Into the Dalek itself is in fact quite a textured story in its own right. The Doctor, who is often portrayed as infallible, is proven wrong by the people around him. It's a clever idea to show that in his eyes, a dalek who slaughters other daleks is "good" because it questions his world view. Truly in war one side is not good and one is not evil (before you cry Nazi consider the multiple and diverse members of the Axis alliance and the misleading propaganda and misplaced pride in Germany at the time) it is war itself and the death and suffering it causes that is evil. Just so, it is not that blind label of "soldier" which makes a person unworthy of your respect but the things they do and the reasons for them.
Perhaps it is a little repetitive that "Rusty" the dalek proclaims The Doctor a "Good Dalek" in the final scenes of the episode, The Doctor having previously been labelled as such in the series 1 episode Dalek but even here the repeated theme has its place in the episode. So much of Steven Moffat's work (although this episode was co-written by Phil Ford) contains cheeky tweaks of meaning that no doubt come from his history as a writer of sit-coms. The "Good Dalek" is not a "Dalek who is Good" but someone who is "Good at being a Dalek." This confrontation between the Doctor and his worst enemy has more gravitas than the others, it's an inspired piece of writing to have the Doctor admit that the daleks' hatred defined him as far back as the second televised story. It cements Peter Capaldi's Doctor into the show's continuity in a rather less prosaic manner than Matt Smith literally walking through a hologram showing his predecessors' faces.
The season truly begins in this episode, it introduces the third main player of the series, Danny who will define the lead characters in his differences and similarities to them. It asks the question on screen whether The Doctor is a "good man" and begins to infer that Good is an ideological term, one that casts the world into black and white and draws lines, other-ing people. Has The Doctor become an old man, so set in his ways and worldview that he is set to become a judge, jury and executioner for the peoples of the universe or is he more nuanced and flexible? As the good man Danny Pink will soon find out, he harbours a blinding dislike of soldiers and as The Doctor himself will find out, he is asking Clara the wrong question.
No comments:
Post a Comment