Review: Doctor Who Classic: The Keeper of Traken

Traken's eponymous Keeper

Doctor Who, Season 18, Story Six - 
The Keeper of Traken

Since I've nothing better to do, over the next week or so I'll be reviewing Doctor Who's "new beginnings" trilogy, three interconnected serials from 1981, covering the end of Tom Baker's Season 18 and the beginning of Peter Davison's Season 19. We start with the penultimate serial of Season 18, The Keeper of Traken.
     First, some backstory. In 1981 infamous producer John Nathan Turner took the reins of the program, turning it into a more serious, sciency fare after the absudity in the previous season. Notably, their aim was to create a show that had, "real science," and thus the entire season focussed on the idea of entropy. It had the E-Space Trilogy, in which Romana and K-9 were left in a pocket dimension and Four picked up the fan-hated Adric. The villian of this story, The Master, was last seen in 1976's The Deadly Assassin, in which Crispy!Master had been eaten by Gallifrey's equivalent of a nuclear reactor. This is perhaps one of the reasons why Traken is seen by many as a classic story, but does it really stand up to scrutiny?
     Four and Adric, fresh out of E-Space, argue about how much Four knows and then their controls are for some reason aimed towards Traken, a civilisation kept together in constant harmony by the virtues of being friendly to one another. They get a message from an apparition in the form of the Keeper of Traken (an old man in bad prosthetics). He tells them of a great danger threatening Traken, and employs The Doctor to help him stop it.

The Melkur

     He talks about "evil creatures" that land on the surface of Traken and are "solidified" by its Good Atmsophere, known as Melkurs by the royal gardeners. Eventually the creature will become soil, but the society doesn't like to see them suffer and so tries to respect their passing. In particular Kassia, a girl who respects one particular Melkur all her life, even up the present day where she is a consul, married to their leader Tremas (Anthony Ainley) and with a daughter, Nyssa (Sarah Sutton). When, upon this marriage, she is released from her duties to the Melkur, she is noticeably upset. Tremas is named as The Keeper's successor.
     The Keeper is more mysterious and disappears, and Four and Adric pop along to Traken. We learn that now that she's married, the Melkur has started speaking to her and killing the gardeners. Four and Adric arrive in Traken, where Kassia is asking for the Gardeners to be armed as they summon The Keeper to discover the reason behind the murders and other "evils" leaking through. The Doctor arrives and is blamed for the "Evil", with the Melkur now walking and hiding the TARDIS. They summon The Keeper to prove The Doctor's innocence or guilt, and as they are brought forward the Melkur enters and The Keeper declares Doc to be evil.

Councillor Seron.

     Tremas isn't too sure, and saves the day by putting The Doc and Adric into his personal protection. After a night's rest and a slap-up breakfast, Tremas and Doc search for the invisibled TARDIS while Nyssa and Adric mingle. They get to work on doing some mathey analysis while the Council of Traken, minus one, discuss Tremas and their new "disharmony". Seron, one of the more intelligent of the bunch, settles things by offering himself to the Keeper's judgement because of he and Tremas' so called crime of hiding the worrying data readings.
     Melkur gives Kassia a special mind-controlling brooch (how thoughtful) as Tremas and Four are forced to take a secret entrance into the Gardens. Adric and Tegan, having found some strange readings, wander off to find them.With Nyssa solving the problem blocking the Gardens' front gate swifter than a politician tells lies, Adric sneaks in and shows The Doctor the readings, which indicate that there's another TARDIS in the grove. Meanwhile, Kassia oversees Seron's "rapport", and after The Keeper declared him "innocent but doomed" a brainwashed Kassia kills him with laser beams coming out of her eyes. Everyone else wanders in and Kassia blames Tremas and crew, forcing them to run away and hide in the newly visibled TARDIS. Brainwash!Kassia manages to knock out Tremas before they get there, and the trio are trapped by netting.

Doc, Adric and Tremas wake.

     Halfway though, now, and the story is gathering some pace (although I say that lightly.) The three, having been knocked unconscious and taken to a cell, conveniently awaken as Kassia informs the council that a new successor must be named. The Melkur tells Kassia that The Doctor must die for him to succeed, and that Kassia must take the succession. She captures Nyssa spying on the encounter and sends her away. She then goes to the Council, who elect her as successor. as her first act, she demands The Doctor's death.
     Nyssa pops down the prison and uses an energy weapon to break out The Doctor and company. Kassia is understandably pissed and sends the guards after them, but they outrun them. The Melkur tortures Kassia for her failure and increases her mind control. The four fugitives arrive in Tremas' office and The Doctor pushes Tremas to give him the blueprints to the Source. Upon receiving the blueprints, The Doctor figures out a way to trip the Source should it be taken over. They head back to the TARDIS, where they're ambushed by the guards. Luckily The Keeper is dying, so Traken is beginning to physically collapse because he's disturbing the "goodness field". The Melkur possesses Kassia and she takes the role of Keeper. Everything seems to calm down a bit. The Melkur is revealed as the Master's TARDIS. When Kassia accesses the Source, she disappears, to be replaced by the Melkur.

The Melkur appears.

     Melkur pretends to be a Keeper, with The Doctor's cynicism on high alert. Adric and Nyssa head back and work out what the Melkur is, while Tremas throws insults at it. Locking themselves in, Adric tells Nyssa about how the Melkur, like the TARDIS, is bigger on the inside. Melkur confines the consuls to quarters but then disappears, leaving The Doctor and Tremas confined to quarters. They plan to trip the Source using the blueprints, which the Melkur is savvy of, sending the guards to retrieve it before Tardis-ing in there himself and lasering Tremas into giving him the plans, to then destroy. Melkur beamed out, The Doctor nuts the guards and the two escape to the Source.
     In what appears to be a ridiculously big circuit board, Adric makes a device in the TARDIS to destroy the Source. Tremas helps The Doctor get to the Source but without all of the consul rings The Doctor has to decode it manually. Melkur appears, nearly killing them. He hypnotises everyone there, forcing Tremas to kill the Guard leader in front of The Doctor. Adric connects his whatsitmachine to the Source while The Master gloats with a typical villian speech about ruling the universe. The Master sucks The Doctor into his TARDIS. With the entire Source system becoming explosive, The Doctor escapes just in time, with Traken becoming all stormy again. He fixes the Source and one of the last remaining Consuls takes up the Keeper helm. The Doctor and Adric pop off in the TARDIS, the day saved again, with The Doctor planning to fix the TARDIS. Back on Traken, Tremas notices a Grandfather clock that was not there before. The Master paralyses him and takes his body, with the Ainley!Master walking away.

Tremas is possessed.

     Traken creates such a thick mythology so quickly that it's difficult to keep up at times. The idea itself is very high-concept - a world in which peace and harmony are so prevalent that they supposedly calcify any creatures deemed to be evil. As the Keeper says, "the legends do not exaggerate," and this presentation of a world in which the laws of nature are ruled by subjective morality presents a message about our own lives, as every good Who story should do. What's more, the science isn't just shoehorned in; from the second episode we get a half-decent explanation of how Traken, its Keeper and the whole calcifying thing, actually work, and that sci-fi plays a crucial part in the solution.
     What Traken is not, however, is energetic; there are often periods where it turns into a shoddy political thriller as the parliament of Traken dispute amongst themselves; there are few twists or turns that particularly excite or move. There's simply too much mythos and backstory, too much pretention and dilly dallying. The story only gains momentum in its second half, as Melkur/The Master take centre stage.
     There are quite a few interesting new additions here. Anthony Ainley doesn't get much chance to portray his Master here, but his portrayl of Tremas is believeable and sympathetic. Nyssa, originally here as a guest and soon to be companion, is a character that by-rights should be more interesting than as she arrives. The Melkur itself at the beginning is a ridiculous monster; a bumbling walking statue, although the interior set is great and The Master's new prosthetics are much better.

Brainwashed!Kassia

     Kassia is by far the most irritating character in this serial, her melodramatic pandering becoming increasingly tedious by the beginning of the second episode. While she does show some regret here or there, her character is one dimensional for no good reason; her obsession with the Melkur may be a result of The Master's mind control, but he doesn't reveal himself until now and her ownership of the creature seems on-par with other cases. It seems strange that Traken assigns specific people to "care" for Melkurs anyway, when it'd be much simpler, and psychologically safer, to leave the Gardeners to do it. Also, Kassia's special effect is quite blunt; two pieces of coloured paper stuck onto closed eyes. I suppose they mde do with the resources they had, but a few red CGI flashes in the right place (as they were clearly capable of making) would have made it look a little less tacky.
     A pet peeve is that Tom Baker doesn't really get a lot to do in this story; he has quite a few good lines here or there, but really he's on autopilot and the main drama is played out by the supporting characters. It may be a symptom of JNT's serious approach in Season 18, but the character feels empty without his characteristic energy. I admit that, yes, Tom was getting on in life, having been the youngest ever Doctor upon hiring (a spritely 40) and now weary after a seven year run on the show. But it would have been so much better if The Doctor's influence here was more memorable.

Crispy!Master

     The Keeper Of Traken is story that runs more on its ideas than its plot. Its plot runs on its supporting characters and taken on its own merits is a decent twist on the idea of the corruption of a Utopian society. It doesn't have anything too memorable about it though; the performances are... not bad. There's nothing wrong with them, but they're still not noteworthy. Traken is a "classic" story, but only for its grand ideas, its place in the mythology (especially in the Master's Timeline) and its quiet nods to the end of Baker's reign.
    Join me next week, when I'll be looking at the end of Tom Baker's seven year run, Logopolis.

Thanks.

Review: Torchwood 4.1: The New World

Forenotes: 1.) The official publicity gives the official name of this series as "Torchwood: Miracle Day." For the purposes of simplicity, I will be reviewing it as "Torchwood 4". 2.) There are intense spoilers for a program that has, as of the time of writing, not yet aired in the UK. 

Gwen acts badass to protect Anwen.

So; after managing to watch the premier of this new, Americanised series of the cult hit, what can I say about it? Well, surprisingly little. The show tempted me in with a trailer that promised a high-action adventure with all of our favourite Torchwood stars; instead, we got a slow-moving investigative thriller with a few Welsh overtones. Despite the fact that there are less episodes here than in Series One and Two, it still feels more serialised. The question being, then: Can Torchwood 4 support its premise over the course of ten weeks?
    Our main focus for this particular episode was on our American brethern; CIA analyst Esther Drummond (Alexa Havins) investigates Torchwood, a message about them having appeared on their databases at the exact same moment that everyone in the world stopped dying. Agent Rex Matheson (Mekhi Phifer) initially dismisses her concerns, but decides to follow the lead when he, as par "Miracle Day," survives being impaled after a road accident. Flying over the Wales, Matheson comes into contact with Gwen Cooper (a tired Eve Myles), her husband Rhys (Kai Owen) and their baby, Anwen. Both Esther and Rex end up bumping to Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), culminating in an action scene in the finale where Jack, Gwen and Rhys escort Rex away from a mysterious helicopter gunman who was trying to kill Gwen.
    Along the sidelines we saw the effects of "Miracle Day," notably the spread of the phenomenon (in which no one has died, no matter what injury) and the failed execution of convicted peadophile rapist Oswald Danes (Bill Pullman), whose repellent personality paints him quickly as the villian of the piece. The episode expored the concept with some gusto, I thought; not only explaining the base aspects of Davies' premise but also its ramifications. Especially gruesome was the example of a terrorist who had blown himself up, leaving his charred corpse fully conscious afterwards. Like Children Of Earth before it, this series of Torchwood has so far earnt its "adult" rating with more adult themes about death, rather than the more childish examples seen prior.

Rex Matheson finds Gwen in Wales.

     The American involvement certainly has had an effect on the show past locale and character nationality. Its production values are much, much slicker and the escapade resembles more of a Hollywood blockbuster than usual Torchwood fare. Despite British director Bharat Nalluri's (of Life on Mars alumni) best efforts, the episode had much more of an American atmosphere that made even the Welsh hills more spectacular.
     The New World wasn't as fast paced or gripping as its publicity had suggested but it did run well on its central premise, one that is interesting enough to stay the course. I'm a little worried about some of the characters and how Davies will manage to balance their writing with his more familiar creations, but for now I think it's safe to say that Miracle Day is off to a good start.

Thanks.

Films I Saw Recently, Volume One

Das Leben der Anderen

The Lives of Others is a 2006 German Language film covering the experiences of people living in the GDR (or, as we know it here in the West, East Germany) in 1984. The film specifically follows the path of State Security worker Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler (hereafter HGW) as he listens to the bugged home of playright Georg Dreyman, who State Security (or "the Stasi) believe is a Western sympathiser. Over the course of the story we witness a chilling series of events as HGW begins to sympathise with Dreyman's ideas as the Stasi grow ever more suspicious.

     The film's sense of tension is masterfully done, steeped in irony for all major characters as HGW goes out of his way to protect Dreyman and his lover, the actress Christa-Maria Sieland, who HGW discovers is being regularly raped by the leader of the Party, Honeker. The characters, having been extrapolated from real stories, are three-dimensional and believable, as are the props, which create a brilliant atmosphere from the beginning.

     Regardless of one's interest in the German Language, the film's moving portrayl of humanity makes it great to watch. While in reality no member of the Stasi ever regretted their actions, this films' otherwise realistic atmosphere and strict adherance to Rousseauism can really warm the heart, despite the bittersweet taste of its historical echo.

Das Leben der Anderen, 2006, Deutch, 137 mins, Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Certificate 15.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World

On the other side of the realism battle, this quirky 2010 comedy comes from director Edgar Wright, known for ventures with Simon Pegg like Sean of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Here he's adapting a comic book series by Bryan Lee O'Malley. A world where video game physics apply, Scott (Juno's Michael Cera), a selfish and somewhat bumbling band member is forced to come to terms with his life when he falls in love with Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). In true video-game style, it turns out that her exes have formed a "league", headed by the mysterious "Gideon," to control her love life and thus destroy Scott Pilgrim.

     What follows is an exciting 90 minutes of straight-up video-game inspired action inpregnated with nerdy references and complex comical love triangles the likes of which not even Coronation Street has ever seen. This film is modern, and carries the weight of 40 years of nerd history without flinching. The actors, all young, get the chance to surge into the market, and there isn't one dud performance in the piece. 

    Perhaps the best part of SCVTW is its refusal to admit reality; its laws and idiosyncrasies are tuned firmly to pop culture. This is what some people wish the world was like; a place where vegans gain super powers, where enemies explode into coins upon death. This film is nerdy escapism at its very, very best. 

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, 2010, English, 112 mins, Directed by Edgar Wright, Certificate 12.

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Review: Lost 4.11: Cabin Fever

Richard Alpert observes Baby Locke.

"...destiny, John, is a fickle bitch". Ben

After the banality of last week, we return to the core storyline with a Locke-centric episode that sets the ground for the finale. As this season's penultimate story, it feels like a fitting tribute to a character whose signficance is set to rocket in the succeeding two seasons. Elsewhere, the episode finally knuckled down and got moving.
     Since Locke doesn't get off the island (not yet, anyway), we have a long series of flashbacks for this episode. First we see his birth; his teenage mother gave birth to him prematurely after a road accident and then subsequently gave him up for adoption. The immortal leader of the Others, Richard Alpert, is watching, and arrives at his foster parents' house a few years later, claiming to be from a "special school." He presents Locke with a number of island related items - a vial of the Island's sand, a knife, a comic book talking about other lands, and so on. He asks Locke which of the items "belong to [him] already." When the five-year-old boy picks the sand, the compass and then, in particular, the knife, Alpert storms out, claiming Locke isn't "ready".
     Later, in middle school, a science teacher releases a 16-year-old Locke from a locker. The science teacher tells him about a program for gifted students up in Portland (where we know, from Season Three, that Alpert's off-island company is based). Locke refuses, saying that "science camp is what gets [him] put in lockers." The science teacher offers him some advice, telling Locke that he is a certain type of person and no matter what he wants, he will never be the "popular kid". Locke rebuts him with his catchphrase, "Don't tell me what I can't do." Thirty years later, after Locke is paralysed by his father, the mysterious Abbadon poses as a hospital porter and tells Locke to go on a walkabout in Australia to clear his mind - the same walkabout that led to him being on flight Oceanic 815 in the first place.
     These examinations of Locke's past feel sporadic and out of place, despite how much they key into the character as a whole. They were edited well into the other sections of the episode but ultimately they were distractions from the rest of the action.

Keamy's device.

    In the present, two yarns were unfolding. We once again followed Locke, Ben and Hurley in their quest to find Jacob's Cabin, the home of the island's legendary deity. Ben, who is supposed to be Jacob's intermediary, admits that he has little to no idea where he is going, and has simply been following Hurley. They camp for the night, and Locke has a dream where 70s DHARMA member Horace Goodspeed tells him to find his corpse. The next morning, Locke leads the others to the DHARMA mass burial, where Ben dumped their bodies fifteen years prior. In Goodspeed's corpse's pocket lies the cabin's schematics, with which they then locate the cabin. Locke goes in alone, finding an eerie Claire and Jack's father, Christian Shepherd, who appears randomly about the island. Christian gives Locke "Jacob's message," which he then relays to Locke - "We have to move the island."
    Meanwhile, on the boat, Martin "Obvious Villian" Keamy and what remains of his mercenary troupe return. He finds out about Michael, but leaves him to prepare for his final assault on the island - his "Secondary Protocol" to kill everyone on the island. He has a strange device strapped to his bicep. The Captain is wary of Keamy's plans and knows that he will mutiny, and thus conspires with Sayid and Desmond for them to use the freighter's Zodiac Raft to begin ferrying people from the island, where Keamy intends to go, to the safety of the Freighter. Just before Keamy and his troupe set off for the island, The Captain confronts him with a gun, but is shot before he can work out what Keamy's device is for.

See quote.

    Unlike last week, where things dragged a little, Cabin Fever kept up the pace and moved everything into placein a compelling way. A lack of anything to do with the Quadrangle certainly helped in matters, with conversation here more stimulating that trite. My favourite exchange cmes from the Locke storyline, where Ben warns him about the dangers of being "chosen," digging at the philosophy that seems to keep Locke standing. It adds another dimension to both characters - emphasising Locke's idealist stubbornness and Ben's frustration with his current situation. Meanwhile, on the Freighter, we got yet another glimpse (as if The Shape of Things To Come wasn't enough) of Keamy's destructive tendencies - notably in his killing of the Doctor, who because of the time differential between the island and the outside world has already washed up on the beach back in that earlier episode. All good Time Travel fun.
     Next week - the first part of the three hour finale, There's No Place Like Home!

Thanks,

News: Close to Miracle Day

With this series of Doctor Who stuck on the back burner for three months, the BBC aren't letting up on the Whoniverse. Come 8th July we get a brand new series of Torchwood, the confused Who spinoff, this time made hand-in-hand with US Company Starz. This means that we'll have a few American cast members, but most of all I'm wondering about how the completely different American attitude to drama will affect Torchwood, whose plots have often been convaluted or silly. Even last year's excellent, week-long powerhouse Children of Earth had some key flaws, and I'm not sure if Starz is going to fix any of that.
     But I wouldn't be a decent critic (cough) if I was biased beforehand, so expect regular reviews of Torchwood: Miracle Day from 8/7/11 onwards.

Thanks.

EDIT: Turns out the UK transmission date is the 14th, six days after the US.

Review: Being Human 1.4

Mitchell guides Lauren away from Bernie.

"We're deluding ourselves, here. Thinking we could ever be accepted by normal human beings."

I know what you're thinking, reader. This is a Brian Dooley script, the man who brought the world BDSM vampire orgies in a 9:00 slot on BBC Three. This review is going to be one of the most biased I've ever done, right? Right? Well, Dooley certainly has his problems, but a good reviewer approaches his media with fresh eyes. Not that looking on it with fresh eyes improves this episode in any way...
   Mitchell gets focus for a change, this time showing a caring side. After a cold-open monologue talking about self-identity, he protects a child, Bernie, from bullies. Father figure absent, the boy's mother allows Mitchell to take him bowling and take him to see films. While they're interrupted once by Lauren, who's singing the praises of the vampire world, everything is going swimmingly. In an attempt to show Bernie the wisdom of Laurel and Hardy, Bernie accidentally picks up Lauren's Vampire Porn and the resulting furore has Mitchell and George branded "peedos". Annie and George are appropriately pissed at Mitchell for even keeping the DVD. When Bernie tries to visit the house, a mob tries to kill Mitchell, but when the boy is knocked down by a car Mitchell helps him get to hospital. Mitchell tells his mother about vampires and promises that he can save her little boy - as long as she lets Mitchell turn him into a vampire. And... well... she does so. Creepy. Anyway, we wave goodbye to  and we never hear from him again. Pissed off at Humans, Mitchell heads back to the Mortuary and announces he's rejoining the Vampire Masterplan.
     It's nice that Mitchell gets a starring role again, but Bernie, like most child characters in low-budget dramas, is twee and annoying. The character's end felt unnecessary and it would have made a much bigger statement to have the boy simply die; not because of any malice on my part, but because it would make more sense considering what Mitchell does next.
     George meanwhile is worrying about whether Nina won't like him now he isn't sexing her up with the power of the moon, but she soon admits that she's glad that he wants to take it slow and be romantic. However, after the mob starts their assault, George tries to break it of with Nina, taking into consideration the risk he's putting her in with his lycanthropothy. She isn't having it, and turns up outside his egg-stained door. She assumes that he's a peadophile, but he explains that there's other stuff going on. She storms off. After Bernie is hit, George seeks out Nina's comfort, where she reveals to him her "secret" - she has horriffic burns on her stomach from when she was a child.

Mitchell tries to hold back his hunger for blood.

     George took more of a back seat this week, and that helped his character a bit, but it had a few good moments for the fast- developing Nina too. Annie meanwhile felt like a footnote, her main moments coming during a visit by Owen, where she became a poltergeist and started unintentionally destroying things. At the end, she destroyed her photos of Owen and mvoed on, becoming more powerful in the process as well as visible to everyone. This is a key part of her character and it sets the scene for the penultimate episode, which forms part of the finale.
     For George and Annie, this week's episode felt straight on target, while Mitchell seems to have missed by a few inches or so. On the whole it wasn't in any way unpleasant, but there were little problems here or there that stained the copy-book, making a watchable episode a litle more irritating. And yes, while it isn't as blatantly terrible as Dooley's later contribution, there are still the seeds of things to come (vampires' adverse sexual behaviours, a teenage vampire). It needed a quick buff to get rid of the creases, one that I hope will be apparrent as the first series' finale roles upon us.

Thanks.

Review: Doctor Who 6.7: A Good Man Goes To War

I'm sure that "late" doesn't cut it.
    A Good Man Goes To War is burdoned with a dual purpose - a climax to not only the clumsy arc of this demi-series, but also to the story of River Song and questions surrounding her identity. Maybe it's a bit of a cop-out to say so, but I'm really quite tired at this point - the show was always better as independant stories with tenuous links at best, so each story could be marked on their own merits. When the show turns over to this overly serialised nature, it makes viewing (and reviewing) more difficult.
     Amy's baby having been born and named Melody, Amy awaits her rescuers in a future human base known as Demon's Run. The Doctor appears to the Cybermen (only a cameo, unfortunately), a Silurian (and her maid) and a Sontaran. As the soldiers, belonging to the 51st Century Church from all the way back in S5, ready ot fight the Doctor, we're shown The Headless Monks, a mysterious race of robed warriors. The army is being controlled by Madame Kovarian, who appeared throughout this demi-series, and by Colonel Manton. As the Colonel gives a speech to the troops revealing the literal nature of the Headless Monks, The Doctor appears and inflicts his Silurian army, with the help of his Sontaran friend, Silurian Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh) and her maid Jenny (Catrin Stewart, Misfits) - the subjects of a sly cunnilingus joke - and trader Dorium. A motley menagerie of cameos and guest characters, this episode notably feels a lot more flashy and expensive than the rest of the series.
     The Doctor and Vastra look at Melody's DNA, discovering that because she was conceived in the TARDIS she got partial Time Lord DNA. Before they can think further, the Headlessmonks slaughter quite a few people, wnader off again and then it is revealed that Amy's baby is a 'Ganger as well and thus the real baby has been taken by Kovarian, off to Earth in the 1960s. Disheartened, a previously reluctant River Song pops in and gives an undeserved rant about how dangerous the Doctor is, before telling him her true identity - she's the Time Lord offspring of Amy and Rory.
    And I, like many others, didn't see this as much of a surprise. It had been rather obvious for a while, and the name Melody Pond in itself was enough for most perceptive viewers to work it out. Moffat advertised this cliffhanger as "gamechanging" - really? I'm not convinced.

Amy monologues.

    AGMGTW wasn't in any league bad, but it felt very fluffy and stuffed full of grandiose proclamations in lieu of any plot. What reason is there for bringing back such unconnected monsters for the sake of a few flash sequences? Was it to throw the Spoiler-Hounds off the scent? Whatever the reason, it turned this episode into something more aesthetic and Lowest Common Denomintor, despite the otherwise complex themes that the demi-series has been working with up until now. The episode depreciates on rewatching, when the adrenaline from the initital runthrough passes in favur of sly cynicism.
     I enjoyed the episode on a base level. It just disappointed on so many others.

Thanks.

P.S. No, Let's not Kill Hitler...

Review: Doctor Who 6.5-6: The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People

The Doctor, Amy and Rory accept a friend's sacrifice.

Unlike many overseas viewers, my reason for a late review of this two parter is for more personal reasons, mainly to do with my work schedule for School. Regardless to say it's been a while since I've have to chance to look upon the episodes with fresh eyes.
     Many would say that so far Series Six has either been one of the best ever made or suffering from issues to do with Moffat's general style of series-writing. I am hesitant to say so, but I've been in the middle; I've enjoyed the episodes but there's some underlying problems that might spoil my enjoyment if I think about them for too long. The Flesh Two-parter is an example of a story that divides opinion, and for very good reason. The rest of the series (keep getting tempted to call it a season because of the whole Summer-Autumn fiasco) so far has been quite extraordinary, boundary-stretching Who, and at times this story feels a little too close to formula for the standard we've been given.
     Set in a 22nd Century Acid Factory (built out of an old castle on an island, for whatever reason. The reason that they're mining acid isn't explained either), the Doctor arrives with an agenda, interested in the site's use of "Flesh" technology - living biomatter that can be programmed into any state and controlled, like vehicles, by the workers in the factory. If a worker gets injured or killed, a new body (or 'ganger in these terms, short for doppelganger) can be made right away. The workers in the factory are shy Jennifer (Sarah Smart, Five Days), doting father Jimmy (Mark Bonnar, Psychoville), cheeky Buzzer (Marshall Lancaster, Life On Mars/Ashes to Ashes), quiet Dicken (Leon Vickers) and leader Gleaves (Raquel Cassidy, Lead Balloon). They're all pretty one-note.
     As they arrive, a solar storm hits the factory. While The Doctor manages to prevent most of the system damage, the storm severs the links between the 'gangers and their hosts, leaving a set of clones with identical memories. The Doctor insists that these clones are equal to humans in every way in terms of rights, even when the two sides want to kill each other. Meanwhile, Rory takes a shine to who he thinks is Jennifer, who is in fact a 'ganger and the one most insistent on killing everyone.

Ganger!Doctor in his half-state.

     Real Cleaves is freaked out and kills 'Ganger Buzzer, leading to the two sides being "at war." The cliffhanger of the first episode has a clone of The Doctor appear, he having touched the raw material earlier on.
    The Rebel Flesh sets up its concepts interestingly enough, but the pace feels rather slow when set against the past few weeks and it takes a while to get used to. The idea itself, of biological clones, is certainly not new, but ex-Life On Mars writer Matthew Graham examines the moral dilemmas in a way unlike, say, Chris Chibnall's story last year. The comparison is justified - both stories feature The Doctor holing up with a group of humans angry at a species who they share their world with, both written by an ex-Life On Mars writer. Graham has some stigma here, having produced the fan-reviled Fear Her in 2006, but I like that particularly story and I think Graham has a better grasp of character, something which makes his characters a little more real (no pun intended) than Chibnall.
     We return from the cliffhanger with Ganger!Doctor reacting badly to having to clone an eleventh body, having him quote Doctors 1,2,3,4 and 10. He stabilises, and The Doctor "introduces" him as his exact equal, despite any biological difference; the only difference in Amy's mind is their shoes, of which the Real!Doctor had to change. Regardless, the humans remain suspicious and when the group ventures out, Ganger!Doctor is left with the 'Gangers. In the interim, however, a somewhat prejudiced Amy slips to the 'ganger about The Doctor's death back in The Impossible Astronaut. The ganger is angry because he can feel the suffering of the Flesh - it remains partially alive through the deaths of its hosts and "rejected" Gangers are left to rot.

Amy keeps herself firmly with the Humans.

     Wandering about, Jennifer (now most definitely a Ganger, as the real Jennifer died a while back) uses Rory to help her destabilises the factory's coolant systems, which will eventually cause it to explode. Both the Gangers and Humans catch on, the Gangers using the Humans' security codes to call for help. Jennifer arrives with Rory, but the Ganger!Doctor has already been humanising his colleagues by exploiting their main character traits and Jennifer is left to fight alone.
     Ganger!Jimmy tries to save his real self but he dies; the same with Dicken, and both are allowed to resume their original's lives. The Tardis falls through into the factory from the outside world just as The Doctor and Ganger!Cleaves discover that Jenniffer has turned into a massive monster. Everyone meets up, and The Doctor reveals that he and his ganger switched shoes, and that Ganger!Doctor was him all along, proving to Amy that she can't tell them apart. Gangers Doctor and Cleaves decide to stay behind and stop the Jenn-Monster while the rest go off their their specific destinations.
     Now; the devisive cliffhanger. In a lead into next week, it's revealed that The Doctor's reason for visiting the Flesh was to exmine the technology based on his core suspicion that Amy is in fact a Ganger being controlled from elsewhere - a theory confirmed when The Doctor dissolves Amy and she wakes up in a birthing chamber, 9 months pregnant and the woman in the eye patch telling her that she's ready to pop.
     Fan reaction to the cliffhanger was, in my opinion, exaggerated - the cliffhanger's shock appeal works on the first viewing but feels somewhat of an inevitable burdon on the second time-around. It builds up the Semi-finale well, but other than that the end feels tacked on and not fluidic.

     So; my final verdict? Well, the story didn't feel as powerful as the rest of the series but it kept the same tone and feeling as well as containing potent writing and a series of ideas not only capitvating but well-presented for what they were. Fundamentally, the main aversion of type was the avoidance of cringe-comedy clone moments - the clones managed to create serious drama instead of "hilarious" exploits. Not what I expected, at all, but in most ways better, and worth my time if only as good entertainment before the semi-finale.

Thanks.

P.S. A Good Man Goes To War coming some time soon.

Not enough hours in a day...

It's probably not escaped your notice (it certainly hasn't escaped mine) that I've not been posting a lot recently. I'm not going to make up excuses for why I've not been active; other than the fact that I've not been able to keep with with the blog when finished with my homework schedule.

I'm going on Holiday for a week so there's little chance of me updating anything while I'm there, but when I get back I hope to write another triple-bill Doctor Who review with The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People and A Good Man Goes To War.

Heading towards summer my schedule should start to free up a bit. You'll hopefully be getting reviews of Lost, which is beginning to wrap up, Being Human Series 1-2 and an overview of this series of Psychoville.

Thanks.

Review: Lost 4.10: Something Nice Back Home

Jack supervises his own operation.

My main problem with both Jack and Kate is simply that they're either not doing anything particularly interesting or they're being incredibly unlikeable in a variety of ways. Both of these things are true in this episode, whose main focus is yet again the series' tiresome Love Quadrangle between Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Juliet. However, quite like the last Kate episode, Something Nice Back Home provides us with some other useful distractions to keep us interested. And, with only four episodes of this season left to go, it needs to.
     In the future (after Eggtown and The Beginning of the End but before the Season Three finale), it turns out that Jack is living with Kate and is helping to raise Aaron. They're quite cosy; Jack's starting to take a few pills, but otherwise everything fine and dandy. Upon his request, Jack visits Hurley who tells him that he now believes that the six are in Purgatory, that they died on the island. He says he knows this because Charlie has been talking to him in visions, and has asked Hurley to pass on a message - that Jack shouldn't be raising his child.
     Jack is a little freaked out but he tries to keep it off his mind. Later, Jack proposes to Kate and she accepts.  That night, at the Surgery where he works, Jack goes to fix a faulty fire alarm and sees a hallucination of his father, as predicted by Hurley. Completely stressed, Jack hits the pills and the bottle, heading home. The following night Kate returns home to find Jack drunk on the sofa. He probes her about why she's been late the past few nights, and after some coercing she reveals, frightened, that she was running a last errand for Sawyer. Jack goes off on one, telling her that Sawyer made his choice to stay and that Kate isn't even related to Aaron.
     I've never really liked Jack's character. Every character needs flaws but there's nothing really redeeming to go with Jack's daddy issues, and his main system of belief (that science is the way forward) is shattered by the series end. And just think; considering my general opinions on the vapidness of Kate's character, realise that this episode manages to make her seem like the vicitm! Jack's behaviour in this episode casts a long shade of doubt over the series finale, which settles the insipid quadrangle by pairing these two together.

Jin confronts Charlotte on her eavesdropping.

     The present storyline isn't much better either, a series of events driven by inconsistent quadrangle stroking. On the beach, we pick up where we left off with Jack collapsing after confronting Daniel. Jack manages to wake up and settle the survivors, telling them not to get too angry about it, before collapsing again. Although Jack tries to shrug it off as a stomach bug, Juliet confronts him and says that they both know that he has apendicitus. Jack says that she can operate; on condition that he can assist via use of a mirror.
    Jin, Sun, Charlotte and Daniel are sent off to the The Staff (a medical station left by the island's previous inhabitants) and Jin realises that Charlotte can understand Korean and has been eavesdrpping on all their conversations. He makes a deal with her to do whatever she can to get pregnant Sun off the island in exchange for keeping Charlotte's secret.
     Jack insists that Kate (whom he's suddenly decided he loves) has to be by his side during the operation. In practice it doesn't go well, and Juliet sedates him and finishes the job herself. While Jack sleeps, Juliet and Kate talk, with Juliet telling her that, "that kiss was for you."
     The only interesting thing about this side of the storyline was the interaction between Jin and Charlotte, which was some fun character development for what is an otherwise undeveloped character. Again, I abhor this romantic nonsense and it really added nothing of any value to the episode.
     Elsewhere in the present, and Sawyer, Miles and Clare (with Aaron in tow) are wandering back to the beach. Nothing much really happens in this side of the storyline, but there's some interesting character work. Sawyer acts like a protective big brother and warns Miles not to talk to Claire. Miles discovers the corpses of Rousseau and Karl in shallow graves using his powers. The night after having to hide from Keamy's group moving thrugh the forest, Claire disappears after seeing her father (who just happens to be Jack's father, too) leaving nothing but a baby behind.

Sawyer gets protective over Claire.

     Claire's disappearance has always really bugged me - in Season Four the issue is forgotten and in Season Five it's never spoken of; when the character returns in Season Six she's a gun-toting lunatic. Way to ruin the character, writers! I know Claire wasn't the most exciting person in the world - her main arc was about motherhood and with Charlie, both of which were were running thin. I just think that the haphazard way in which she was temporarily offed was rather opaque; mysterious for the sake of being mysterious.
     Something Nice Back Home is strangely captivating despite its many flaws - notably its reliance on the show's romantic angle as a structure, which offers very little narrative tension. Where the episode tried its best o stray from that, it provided some mediocre entertainment in the meantime. It's a shame that Lost's "protagonists" are its weakest characters; Ben and Locke were absent here for the first time in a while,and it really shows. All of this extra stuff had to happen while they were busy, I suppose, but it doesn't make for captivating watching. We've only four episodes left, and I can tell you that Jack's apendix is not a key part of this season's arc...

Thanks.