Overview: Doctor Who Classic: Season 24

Doctor Who - Season 24
Written 10/6/12

How do I describe Season 24? I wanted to hate this series, I really did. Reviews where I say that I like things aren't entertaining to write or to read, and after having loved some of the "worst" Doctor Who in the Saward Era, I needed desperately for Sly to come through with some real clunkers. But I can't help myself; the simple fact was that despite all of the season's faults, it's really, really fun. It's fun because you know that the characters are having fun, because when it's good it's superb and where it's bad, it's so bad that you really don't care. I sat through these fourteen episodes wondering why the hell anyone would find them unpleasant. Like I did before, I'll be looking at characters.

Lifitng of the hat became a common character tic.

Seven (Sylvester McCoy) - Time and tide melts the snowman...
(All Season)

The writers couldn't decide what to do with Seven's characterisation. While Andrew Cartmel had the idea of the Doctor's manipulative streak, this took a long time to translate through - most of the writers were unaware of poor Colin's sacking, and so a lot of the scripts had been written with him in mind. What results is a Doctor with an incredible witty streak who now and then shows flashes of dark anger. This is most obvious in Seven's first story, Time and the Rani, which while excusable due to his regeneration presents an overtly silly and clownish Doctor who takes almost nothing seriously. And yet, I love it. Because Sylvester is still working the character, and it's fun to watch.
     The Doctor favoured by Cartmel starts to appear around Delta and the Bannerman, the first story that wasn't overtly written for Colin Baker, as a sort of cheery old uncle. The way he confronts the villain of the week, with such fervour - it seems almost uncomparable to the absurdist impression that we first see of the character as he pratfalls around Lakertya. And I like this guy - he's a fun Doctor, unlike his two JNT predecessors and yet still recognisably the hero. Season 24 won me over to Seven, and I'm glad that it did.

Like the 2012 Albanian Eurovision entry....

Mel (Bonnie Langford) - Surprisingly ok...
(All Season, leaves in Dragonfire)

In my last overview I may have said a few things that I now regret. Mel in Season 23 was unique - something that I hated! At last! I'd been waiting for so long, and finally the Saward Era delivered me a character whom I despised throughly. Now that she was the proper companion, however, I had none of that. Mel became a bit blander than I had expected, but with that it brought out Bonnie Langford's natural charm and turned the character into a positive influence on the series. That was what originally got me about Mel - after four seasons of snarky dysfunction with his companions, the Doctor finally met someone with whom he had a perfect friend.
     But the screams, oh god the screams. By Dragonfire it's just ridiculous how often and how painful those screams are. At least Terror of the Vervoids did a relatively clever thing and tuned the scream to the pre-credits sting - here it's just blatant, and happens in at least ten of the fourteen episodes. She's getting so little development (and, notably, absolutely no backstory) that this otherwise superficial element completely takes over her characterisation. Mel may be a pleasure on-screen, but as a character she fails absolutely.

Ok, maybe she inspired Lister's jacket, rather
than the other way round...

Ace (Sophie Aldred) - Outdated slang, Professor!
 (Dragonfire)

Ace, in the beginning, is naff. Dead naff. She may think she's ace. That she's wicked. But she's naff. And that's the biggest thing that detracts from Ace's initial characterisation - some of her superficial aspects seem to be a deliberate ploy by the production team to try to appeal to a younger audience that, at the time just didn't exist. However, Ace has one shining thing about her that differentiates her from the incumbent by several miles.
     She has a backstory! After Mel was introduced with three lines of Vervoids, it's such a relief to know that the Who scriptwriters had heard of this concept after the Hiatus shakeup, and despite the very vague nature of her Wizard of Oz-esque origin, she does get a few intimate moments that highlight the fact that she is a character - a character controlled carefully by Cartmel. Ace has the potential to become very good, and some of her lines and actions in this story show that perfectly. Onto the next eight serials!

Thanks.