Review: Doctor Who 1.9-10: The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances

"Those would have been terrible last words."

Before he was the showrunner, Steven Moffat worked mainly on comedy. His first work for Doctor Who was the 1999 parody The Curse of Fatal Death, starring Rowan Atkinson, Richard E. Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant and Joanna Lumley as various incarnations of the title role. Another life-fan of Who, Moffat consistently provided the best episodes of RTD's tenure, and this is where he started, in his first serious piece for Doctor Who canon. It's no surprise then that this two-parter is the best story of Series One by a long shot.
     Despite how the years have passed, the story is still touched by Moffat's sense of style and writing. Here we have all of his stereotypes - an empowered female character (Nancy), The Doctor liking mundane objects (bow ties, bananas) and a villain who isn't being deliberately evil for the sake of it. It also shares his only problems during the RTD era; he much prefered to focus on The Doctor and on the characters of his creation, and the current companion (Rose here) gets left out of the equation. Regardless of this, the story is still compelling due to said strong characterisations and the tense yet ultimately fulfilling nature of the scenario.
     Nine and Rose follow a capsule through time, a cylindrical object giving out a mauve alert symbol (red is apparently considered camp) to 1940s Earth. The Doctor realises that he's in the height of the blitz, while Rose follows a haunting little boy and somehow winds up hanging from a barage balloon as an air raid flies over London. The exterior Tardis phone rings, and a girl appears called Nancy (Florence Heath) tells him not to answer it. The call comes from the voice of the child, who keeps asking after his Mummy. Following Nancy, The Doctor discovers her modus operandi - she raids the houses of people flouting the rationing system to feed her troupe of orphaned children. At the house, the child appears again and Nancy gives a second warning, telling The Doctor not to touch him, or else become like the child.

"Run, rabbit run, rabbit run run run."

     Rose is saved from certain doom by the first appearance by Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), whose inital characterisation is loveable but holds a certain underlying dickishness. His omnisexuality, included from the off, is an interesting feature. Fandom often accused RTD of a "gay agenda" because of his sexuality and the higher number of homosexual characters in his works, but this is possibly the most sexual episode of the series and it doesn't discriminate. Jack introduces himself as a former Time Agent who has gone freelance, and is persuaded that Rose is a member of the organisation, and offers to sell the "Chula warship" for a price. His ship, like the Child, is capable of transmitting over any electrical device as well as using little healing robots called Nanogenes.
     The Doctor, still looking for answers, follows Nancy one last time. She leads him towards the crash site of the warship, and then points him in the direction of London's Albion Hospital. There he finds Dr. Constantine (Richard Wilson) surrounded by patients who have become like the Child, all of them sharing the same injuries and acting like programmed zombies, all of them looking for the Child's mother. Constantine finally succumbs to the plague, in the only scene in Doctor Who which still freaks me out. This two parter is scary, still, and it was the first time NuWho really proved that it could be. Sure, The Long Game's corpse-robots were creepy, and the Dalek was a tad merciless, but the combined mixture of body horror and the tension of whether our characters will succumb make this extra special.
     Having scanned for alien tech, Jack and Rose teleport into the hospital to meet up with The Doctor, who shows the time traveller exactly what his shuttle has done. Jack explains that the shuttle was empty, and that he was a conman attempting to sell them the shuttle and then have it destroyed by a German bomb. We go into cliffhanger with the zombies suddenly cornering the trio and the Child about to touch Nancy, but all is resolved when The Doctor appeals to the zombies' childish hive mentality by telling them to go to their room. The trio venture up to the room where the Child was kept, and in a creepy scene they ponder his nature before finding that the Child has indeed returned to his room. Using Jack's sonic blaster they escape to a saferoom, with Jack teleporting back to his ship and bringing up his colleagues while Nancy says goodbye to her adopted family. Both sides head to the bombsite, where they convene.

"He's... Empty"

      Jack's meddling with the warship - an alien ambulance unit - leads The Doctor to the truth. As the ship calls upon the Zombies as an army to protect it, The Doctor explains that the ship was filled with Nanogenes like those on Jack's ship - ones that found the dead Child and used his body as a new template for the human race, taking over everyone who appeared, to them, different. As The Child approaches to lead the army, Nancy breaks down in tears and the Doctor works out that the Child is Nancy's, one she had as a teenager and was too ashamed to even tell of his parentage. Nancy finally accepts her motherhood and the Nanogenes follow suit, fixing all of the zombies and reverting them to perfect health. Having attempted to save the others by stopping the bomb from exploding himself, sacrificing his life, The Doctor deems Jack worthy for companionship and saves his life by inviting him aboard.
      Perhaps more indicative of Moffat's comparatively more mature attitude to this story is the sexual undertones underlying everyone's relationships. As per the title of the second episode, Moffat uses "dancing" as a metaphor for sex, which seems inconspicuous to young viewers but cheeky to the older ones. That aspect of the episodes balanced out the horror and made it a lot more watchable than it would have been had it only been one or the other.
     The Empty Child two-parter is, quite simply, a well-written and well acted story. Moffat's focus on character while also presenting intriguing and heartwarming sci-fi ideas makes this story so much more, and the fact that it's so scary and yet so ultimately optimistic makes it a first for NuWho. As I said above, it is by far the best story of Ecclestone's tenure from both subjective and objective viewpoints, and I love it.

Thanks. RIP JOHN LENNON

NEXT TIME: The Slitheen (well, one of them) return, and Torchwood gets some groundwork.

Review: Merlin 4.2: The Darkest Hour (Part Two)

Lancelot (Santiago Cabera) isn't long for this Earth.

Merlin's main issues, at least for this series, seem to actually stem from the main character and the grandiose phophesising that surrounds him. Sure, the mytharc is important - someytimes it's the only thing that can save a bad episode. But as we learnt from some of the later parts of RTD's Doctor Who, prophecies are only as good as the event they build up to, and after four series it just sounds silly. Despite this, the second half of the premiere was a great improvement because it took time to focus on the characters in ways that, unlike last week, didn't seem hollow.
      Merlin seems to have survived his encounter with a Dhuroka (presumebly because of his magical existence) and on Arthur's orders he is taken back to Camelot by Lancelot. I really liked the fact that they actually showed that three series have given Merlin and Arthur a brotherly cameraderie, the absense of which pushed last year's premiere over the edge into shit for me. While Arthur and his remaining knights wandered through tunnels, magical river spirits arrived, based on a prophecy, to conveniently heal Lancelot and Merlin, who called upon The Dragon for advice. Less cryptic than usual, the Dragon pretty much told them to do what they were going to do in the first place without as much melodrama.
      A more interesting side of the plot took place at Camelot. After shutting the gates to conserve resources, Inspector Lynley (I'm not called him anything else) got a talking down by Guinevere. After telling Morgana about her meddling, the witch had a tantrum and told Lynley about the prophecy (they're fairly common) proclaiming Guin king. He tries to kill her, but he doesn't have the heart; Morgana then tries to knock her out and leave her for the Dhuroka, but she's found by Gaius just in time. Everything was painfully obvious and Lynley is still a character that feels quite pointless, but Gaius at least feels like he cares about the situation.

Inspector Lynley. (Nathaniel Parker). Or Edgaban. Whatever.

     The Knights arrive at the Isle of the Blessed and run into Callieach. She and Merlin knock out all of the Kinghts except Lancelot so they can talk, and Merlin tells her that he is prepared to sacrifice himself to close the veil to prevent Arthur from doing so. She tells him that his time on this Earth is not yet over, and we see Lancelot walk into the Veil, closing it. Back in Camelot he gets a symbolic Viking Funeral (odd for early Medieval England, but ok) and Morgana tells Lynley of her intent to hunt down Emris.
     I was most annoyed at Lancelot's death. It would have been a bit of a copout if a less important character had gone, but I really thought that we'd get some mileage from the Love Triangle in Mythology. Instead, Arthur appeared quite cold as he refused to comfort her beyond a pat on the shoulder and then walked away as she grieved. I had the feeling that Lancelot would die the moment he promised Guin his life last week, and hoped that I was wrong.
     This week the characterisations were much better than before and at points I felt for them more than I had ever done in the previous series. Arthur and Guinevere's romance is still a song yet to be sung and now that Lancelot is out of the picture it looks set to be rather boring, but this premier has set up enough storylines to promise at least a few decent episodes this year. And I know that regardless of their quality they will share the problems at its centre - I just don't care about them any more, as they are Merlin. The second half of The Darkest Hour wasn't perfect, but it was at least entertaining and left me thinking that this series at least will have a good future.

Thanks.

NEXT WEEK: Either really bad padding or the most game-changing episode yet.

Review: Fades 1.3

"... Ok then."

Halfway through this series, and Fades continues to amaze me. The series continues to mix old horror tropes into new directions with a focus on character that at times feels intrusive. While it was hard to tell at times, this week certainly raised the stakes in the series' mythology, and raised the stakes in the more personal side of the story as well. We were left on a brilliant cliffhanger that left me really wanting next week.
     At home, Paul's relationship with Jay came to the forefront, bonking her for the first time and having the relationship revealed to his sister. As the key feature of their relationship for the first two hours, it felt a little strange when the discovery was cut short when an angry Paul accidentally used his powers to fuse sister Anna's mouth together. Mac became depressed after no one remembered his birthday, until Paul (who's been seeing increasingly more vivid visions of apocalyse, this time with a strange anti-christ figure) remembered and set the record straight. This takes up roughly half of the episode, and Paul only ventures back towards the Angelics when he collapses in Mac's house. In general, I found this side of the storyline to be genuinely human, combining humour and emotional poignancy. I was moved and amused; there's nothing wrong with that.
     Neil, however, was facing a different story. Incredibly wounded from the attack last week, he called upon Angelics from other areas to help him out. They tried to track down the first Fade to escape through, known as Pullus, who we see clips of throughout the episode undergoing a cocoon based transformation. Paul arrived just as Neil began to die of his injuries, and managed to cure every scar and blemish on his body - even his trademark blotted eye is healed. Paul also helps the Angelics to capture Natalie in order to discover the new Fades' limitations, but it's too late - we see at the end of the episode that Pullus has emerged from his cocoon as a human-looking man, the same man seen in Paul's apocalyptic visions. At the same time, Paul is hit by a van and is seen to die, delivering our cliffhanger.

"We were Angelics. I still am."

     Another more touching side to the story was the Mark storyline, which was a lot more involved here. Mark, fresh from last week's revelations, kept badgering Mac's dad about his suspicions surround Neil. On Sarah's request, Neil goes round and tells Mark the truth, translating across Sarah's feelings. This makes his reconsider everything and there's a poignant moment where he has a one-sided conversation with Sarah. Mac's dad is seen to have been promoted beyond his abilities, and is being stressed to find a culprit for the various deaths caused by the Fades. He arrests Mark, who has connections to all of the victims.
     One thing that I thought was impressive this week was the way that the episode raised the stakes everywhere. It wasn't uneven as Being Human oft was in that department, as I'm seeing while reviewing the second series. It also got on with things. Factors that I expected to last the whole series have now been "resolved" in interesting ways, and so it'll be more surprising when we do see how the plot thickens over the second half of the series.
     Other than that, it's business as usual from Fades. With consistantly brilliant performances by all leads, the story has raised the stakes to an even pace, racking up the tension to breaking point. At the same time, 1.3 delivered touching and human developments of our main leads and their relationships, taking the trivial and making it just as good as the supernatural. Maybe it's because I'm the target age range for this channel, or perhaps it's because I've never seen anything like it, but Fades has continued its consistant quality beyond my expectations.

Thanks.

Review: Being Human 2.3

Annie helps George get over Nina and help Hugh.

Decidedly better than previous weeks, 2.3 recovers from this series' early slump by providing serious drama on one end and heart-warming comedy on the other while still following this series' arcs. As Being Human often does, it places an absurdly close emphasis on the development of character and this serves to make both drama and comedy much more potent.
     Mitchell finally felt the fallout of last series' finale this week, as he gathered the vampires together to prevent them from killing further. Making a deal with corrupt police constable Ian Puleston Davies (his characters are all the same, and I can't really remember his name), he blackmails the coroner to reset the system that collapsed when Herrick died. Cara strays off the path by killing two bullies, and to prove his worth to the vampires he punishes her by brick to the teeth, and is hence proclaimed the Vampire Leader of a group operating out of the old funeral parlour. This storyline felt vaguely Shakesperean - Mitchell becoming leader sets the stage for the tragedy that will become him up until his end in Series Three. This was nicely punctuated with such dialogue as, "The king is dead, long live the king," which reinforced those connotations. There was also an interesting setup wherein we're made to wonder whether the instinctive Vampires or the cold-blooded Police were the bigger monsters.
     With Annie invisible and Nina out the door, George and Annie's storylines came together this week as a rather dickish George helped Annie to get disenchanted former love Hugh back together with an old girlfriend, Kirsty. To this end George becomes her boyfriend and intends to give her to worst date ever, but instead his "worst dates" are her favourite things to do (there was a particularly unfair dig at German cinema.) Eventually George breaks up with her by telling her that she has to get on with her life, and she rings Hugh. They kiss and make up, and the mortals live happily ever after. This storyline, in keeping with the main plot of the episode, made many references to a "regime change" in the lives of its characters. George had to move on from Nina, as Hugh had to move on from Annie and his girlfriend from herself. This focus on characters that would otherwise be extraneous is one of the myriad of reasons that I love this show. I genuinely felt for Kirsty within five minutes of her introduction. That there is good television.

"You're putting the system back into place."

     The episode's big reveal came with the CenSSA storyline, which as the backbone of this series is beginning to develop a life of its own. The man running the scientific side of the organisation was seen to hear a snippet of Mitchell's plan before George inadvertantly destroyed the microphone planted in their house. We'll meet him again much later in this series of reviews, when I review one of the DVD extras focussing on his web series. Kemp is told, and the episode ends with a meeting with Proffessor Jaggart, who is revealed to be Mitchell's latest flirt Lucy. This changes the dynamic entirely - we've got another instance of Dating Catwoman.
      2.3 was a step better than the seemingly two-part introduction because it focussed on a more specific theme running throughout the episode and threw in some lightheartedness to dilute the stodgy sense of pessimism. In other words, it managed to hit that perfect balance between comedy and drama, and that is exactly what Being Human needs to do.

Thanks.

NEXT WEEK: Nina sits in the Chamber, Annie learns about The Door and George meets someone new.

Review: Doctor Who Classic: The Mysterious Planet

Drathro and the Twins

Doctor Who, Season 23, Story One - The Mysterious Planet

Michael Grade didn't like Doctor Who. He really, really didnt like it. After several complaints about Colin Baker's tenure on the show in 1985, Grade put the show on an 18 month hiatus and the production team had to come up with something to keep the show alive. In keeping with the public mood surrounding the show at the time, JNT decided to have an entire season of interlinked stories where The Doctor would be put on trial for the crimes that he had committed. Composed of four single stories with the plotline running through them, the 14-part Trial of a Timelord arc is a strange period in the show's history.
     The first story, written by verteran writer Robert Holmes, introduces the main Trial storyline. The Doctor, taken away from Peri, has been called here to face trial by a mysterious figure called the Valeyard, who acts as the prosecution and uses video evidence from The Matrix (from the previous Gallifrey stories) to claim that The Doctor is guilty of various crimes ranging from interferance to Genocide. He's played interestingly by the former Emmerdale actor, Michael Jayston, and for this serial at least the Trial aren't annoying yet.
     The "video evidence" in this serial is taken from The Doctor's past - an adventure from after Revelation of the Daleks but before Season 23. Peri and The Doctor arrive on the planet Ravalox, which the Doctor is visiting because it's eerily similar to Earth and, despite the Gallifreyan database's claims, is teeming with life. The Doctor and Peri are notably more friendly to one another here, another part of the show's attempt to regain viewers. Watching them are two weapons traders, Glitz and Dibber. I love Glitz; he's easily one of the best supporting characters in the Eighties. They're here to scavenge a robot called the L3, which has taken control of an underground city run by human slaves. They need to take down a Light Converter, which is being used by a local tribe (led by Joan Sims) as a totem pole. The Doctor and Peri discover the underground tunnels - the entrance appears to be the entrance to the London Underground. This disturbs The Doctor, and he intends to find out why Earth has been so changed.

The Valeyard (Michael Jayston)

     He heads underground while Peri is intercepted by the tribespeople. Joan Sims locks up Glitz and Dibber together with her. The Doctor is arrested as a "water theif" but is eventually saved and goes to see the L3, who calls himself "The Immortal". Glitz reveals that he's here for Time Lord knowledge being kept here. The L3, called Drathro, forces The Doctor to work on his power system. He manages to escape and is followed by Drathro's L1 robot. Along the way he finds the leader of the L3's guards, Merdeen, who has been secretly escorting people to the surface. He meets up with Glitz and Dibber, but they find themselves trapped by tribesmen on one side and the L1 on the other. The L1 is disabled temporarily but they're taken to the tribe and locked up. The L1 breaks in, disabling The Doctor and allowing the others to escape. The tribe luckily destroys the L1, but they believe that this is the Immortal and thus go storming into the underground. The Doctor and Peri follow, but are collared by Merdeen who shoots them into a cliffhanger. Turns out he was shooting another guy, who had tried to rat him out to The Immortal. The tribe discover the L3 and he kills Joan Sims.
     The Doctor goes in and faces the L3. They have an interesting conversation about what makes organic life more important than mechanical life. Glitz and Dibber accompany Peri through a hatch into the chamber, but they're trapped there by the L3. As Peri and The Doctor are tied up, Glitz bluffs his way into getting the information by claiming that they can save him; they kill him and The Doctor finally stops his machine from exploding. Everyone lives happily ever after, and The Valeyard moves onto the next stage of the trial.
     I like The Mysterious Planet more than common sense says I should. It's shoddy, the villain's design is ridiculous and the acting is melodramatic and over the top. But because of Joan Sims and the way that Glitz' joke-a-sec personality takes over, it has a feeling very similar to a Carry-On film. Robert Holmes, as we'll see when I look at The Caves of Androzani, is excellent at characterisation and satire, and that's why these two side-characters are in ways better than the main characters. Colin's wit and exuberance comes off much better here than in other areas and thus the character is more empathizable; Peri too, although she's a little absent in what would become her penultimate story. I'll comment more upon the Valeyard at the end of the Trial, but I will admit that the strong performance soon does become tedious by the third episode of the story. However, it does produce some of the season's best lines and monologues, and the best one in this serial is the one in Episode Four in which The Doctor claims that The Valeyard should, based on the tired decadence of his arguments, change his name to The Knackers' Yard.

The Time Lord is on Trial.

    The Trial dynamic is interesting in this serial, despite how tiring it gets later on. Unlike previous arcs, where it was either a string of serials following on from one another or completely different serials connected by a common theme, this instead tries to do both. Here, at least, it's successful - the trial scenes enhance the story rather than slow it down. Some scenes are in fact censored the Valeyard, and this makes the core concepts that bit more intriguing.
     The Mysterious Planet is a great start for the Trial of a Timelord Arc, with satirical side-characters and a comedy aesthetic that I love. The villain is a little shoddy, perhaps, and overall the ideas are not that innovative or interesting, but the key arc behind it all more than makes up for it. I love the core story and I love the rambles on Ravalox, where character is king.

Thanks.

NEXT WEEK: Brian Blessed, A character I've met but you haven't and another craaazy scientist.

Review: Merlin 4.1: The Darkest Hour (Part One)

The Knights of the Round Table

Merlin's third series was an incredibly mixed bag, with the series' formulaic nature often hampering the progress of both the characters and the mytharc. I had hoped at the end of the last series that the status quo would finally be shattered, and that finally this series (which has now had its fifth series comissioned) would become a lot more dynamic. Perhaps I was hoping for too much from this already tired concept, but mostly it didn't stray too far from the slightly-altered norm.
      With Uther a broken man, Arthur is in charge of the kingdom. Morgana sacrifices , at her request, her sister Morgause to summon the demon Callieach and open the veil between worlds, releasing creatures known as the Voices of the Dead, or the Dhuroka. These creatures soon attack Camelot, bringing it to its knees. Arthur decides that if another sacrifice must be made then he should be the one to give his life. Merlin goes with the Knights of the Round table and the episode ends on the cliffhanger of death.
     There were some wonderfully tense moments in The Darkest Hour, particularly during the scenes in which the Knights and Merlin visited a village completely massacred by the Dhuroka. Stylistically the episode was much darker than it had been before, mainly to encourage fear of this forthnight's villains. The Dhuroka, straight out of a Moffatian fantasy, are a clever decision when creating fear and suspense - or they would be, if we didn't know how the story of Merlin will inevitably end.

Morgana (the stunning Katie McGrath)

      Katie McGrath seems to have learnt her lesson, and so far her villainy is less Disney villain more realistic sadism. This week she was accompanies by the King's brother, Elgaban (I'll never get any of these names right) played by Nathaniel Parker. I wish this revelation of his treachery could have been kept until a later episode; I suspected it from the moment he appeared (he was colour coded black, of course) and confirming it ten minutes later just ruined any suspense that that situation could create. In a similar vein, Morgana was told to beware of someone called "Emris" - Merlin, as we know -, puzzled on his identity for a bit and then had a vision showing that it was Merlin. What a waste.
     Other characters were also badly treated. A few of the knights didn't have speaking parts, while others served only to annoy. Angel Coulby, argueably the most important female character in the story, had only a few lines soley regarding Arthur. Two knights that we don't know the names of did get some character development, but I had no idea who they were and thus couldn't really judge.
     Merlin's return wasn't as catestrophically bad as last year's, but the episode didn't really improve upon any of Series Three's problems. Notably, it neglects advancements in the plot for atmospheric aesthetic, which may be fine for the casual viewer but isn't very fulfilling for someone watching for the Arthurian legend. It was, however, a step in the right direction; characterisations are falling into place despite unfair emphasis and it looks as though we're moving towards something brilliant.

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From hereon in, Merlin will be reviewed in Doctor Who's stead on Saturdays. Next week our story concludes, and the week after that we get an early treat from Misfits writer Howard Overman.

Thanks.

Review: Doctor Who 6.13: The Wedding of River Song

Doctor Who?

Series Six will be remembered, in my mind, as the series of Moffat's Arc. Tacked onto the end of single episodes, this is an example of an arc that manages to be both intrusive and too light. It's as if Moffat only envisaged his episodes and unlike RTD didn't really touch upon the other scripts, which means that this series - already fragmented by a six-month long split - was incredibly inconsistent in quality. Now, after two years' worth of build up, is our climax.
     In many ways it was very similar to the finale preceeding it - a period of distortion where time and space were collapsing. But unlike The Big Bang, The Wedding of River Song answered questions, and in a way tht made them compelling rather than tedious. There were no big surprises, not really - everything panned out pretty much as most fans had expected it to, but the way it was handled felt fresh and so incredibly watchable.
     All of time is happening at once - pterodacyls fly over London as Emperor Winston Churchill sits inside Buckingham Palace surrounded by his Roman guard. The Doctor, kept as "the seer", recants to Chruchill how time froze in place when River emptied the cells on the spacesuit instead of killing The Doctor. The Silence infest the Palace but The Doctor is evacuated by a swat team led by Amy Pond, who in this reality is the head of a society fighting The Silence. At their base in one ofthe Cairo pyramids, River Song greets The Doctor with joy. He insists that he has to die or time will disintegrate, and the base is attacked by The Silents. River takes The Doctor up to the roof and reveals that she called upon everyone who ever loved The Doctor, and that there were so many they appeared to block out the sun. Eventually she gives in and The Doctor dies at Lake Silencio as in The Impossible Astronaught.

     However, as seen earlier in the episode, an older River reveals to Amy that the Doctor who died at Lake Silencio was in fact the Tesselecta from Let's Kill Hitler. This had always been a common fan theory ever since the device was introduced, and the fact that the device was given a lot of study in the "previously" intro made the solution rather obvious. However, I didn't feel let down by it. I've been very critical of this series, and for once this episode moved me. I was excited to learn the solution, no matter what it was, and that's either a testament to Moffat's writing or a critism of how intrusive the arc has really been that I can't wait for it to be over.
     And thus, like The Big Bang - the comparison is very worthy of thought, both set in a crumbling reality with River Song facing people who want the Doctor dead because he might destroy the Universe, with The Doctor appearing to sacrifice himself before being miraculously brought back - there isn't much more to say. Unlike Moffat's other efforts, his finales are so far have been rather simple tales and I've enjoyed them. For me, this climax wasn't truely mindbending or confusing, and the characters that I'd been getting tired of bowed out (hopefully) in a way which made me intrigued for next year. Thank you, and goodnight.

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Merlin 4.1 is coming tomorrow, and from then on will take Doctor Who's place on Saturday nights. Mondays will feature the Classic Doctor Whos that I mentioned in "High Turnover," as will Being Human Series Two on Tuesdays and Fades on Wednesdays. Thank you if you've read all of my Series Six reviews, and if you haven't then why not click on the "DW32" tag at the top of this post? Anyway.

Thanks.

Review: Being Human 2.2

Hell tries to trap Annie.

Like Fades, the second series of Being Human doesn't have any real change in quality between the first two episodes. In a way the two are connected, and the tyle of the episode feels very much like this is a direct continuation from last week. It isn't particularly centric in any direction, but the main focuses are on Mitchell and Annie, which is a good note in my book. As the conclusion to the opener it ramped up the tension and introduced the series' themes in a way that made the previous episode feel rather more transitionary.
     In Annie's storyline, Saul begins to experience what he thinks are hallucinations; Terry Wogan talks to him on the television and tells him to tell Annie about his near-death experience. He does so and the two bond over the "corridor" after death, but Saul becomes violent and Annie is forced to teleport away from him. The hallucinations tell him that Annie refused death and persuade him to drink-drive. Later, at the hospital, Annie tries to guide Saul's spirit to the afterlife. It turns out that this situations has been a manipulation by the people from Hell to try and forced Annie through the door, but Saul regains his humanity and sacrifices himself for her. At the end of the day she returns to Hugh, who she realises loves her, and finds that she is now once again invisible to mortals. I thought this short-lived love triangle got a tad cheesy at times, but the idea of a autocratic manipulation of events to persuade a ghost to pass on is an intriguing one in concept at least, and provides Annie with character aims for the first half of this series.
     Mitchell was more preoccupied with the appearance of an old friend, Carl, who was the vampire that trained him to stay off blood. Carl is in hiding after bowing to his urges and drinking from his human lover, and the coroner who used to cover the vampire cases during Herrick's time is refusing to help. Against Nina's best wishes, George helps Mitchell to smuggle Carl off on a Merchant ship to South America (a theme in Being Human is to make the comparison between vampires and Nazis, escaping crimes by going to South America). That night Nina leaves, unable to cope with their lifestyle, and is taken in by Kemp. This storyline was trying to make us empathise with Nina, but because Carl was a genuinely good man who had made a mistake because of his biology, it felt like she was overreacting. Admittedly the fact she moved in at all after only a few months seems a tad silly, so her leaving didn't have that much effect either.

Carl and George talk ethics.

      Perhaps I'm just jarred by the change of pace. These first two episodes have been heavy on the religious themes and deep contemplations of the nature of humanity, and that really doesn't feel right for what was previously a lighthearted comedy series with a few more serious undertones. Like the child entering its teens the show has thrown out the comedic lavour and instead fallen into full drama, which while not necessarily a bad thing is a tad off here.
     The second episode of this darker series feels like a conclusion to the premiere, and sets in stone the series' new approach to the subject matter at hand. It's tense and powerful but to regular viewers of the first series the change is very jarring and stands to the show's detriment in places. That isn't to say that I'm not enjoying it, but I'm doing so for very different reasons that as before.

Thanks.

Review: Fades 1.2

Neil preaches to Paul.

Fades' second episode didn't do anything to really change my opinion of it, and instead delivered much of the same thing. Still holding its balance of gothic horror and quirky comedy (almost what Being Human was aiming for), the show continues to be engaging and entertaining. 
     Paul has a frightening dream showing the corpses of his loved ones as Neil destroys the bodies of his fallen comrades and takes Paul to look for someone to explain his visions. There he meets a little girl from Neil's past called Natalie, who tries to kill him. They meet Eric, one of the earliest Angelics, who's the oldest Fade he knows. Eric recognises Paul as "important", and Neil takes this, coupled with Natalie being able to touch, as a bad omen.
     After they get involved in some school stuff, Neil saves Paul from some Fades and tells him that he has to go underground, abandoning everyone he knows. The Fades are eating humans to convert them into more of themselves. Paul goes home but can't face his family, and so he stays at Mac's house, where his drunken father beats him. To his surprise, Paul is able to heal Mac's injuries.
     The episode climaxes with a party where Neil is attacked by the Fades (but not killed/eated for some reason) and Paul works out after snogging Jay that he can live a double life. In Mark's storyline, he's watched over by Sarah as his grief leads him to attack pupils and sleep with the girl from the first episode.
     Of all the things I admire about Fades, the most important is the show's focus on all of its characterisations. Everyone is fundamentally real and realistically flawed in a way that makes the show more compelling than it would otherwise be. This helps to makes the show stand out against the fantasy-horror predecessors it's trying to emulate and certainly makes me more concerned about what's happening. This of course meant that we didn't learn much more about the mythos of the show, but the character development, mixed in with plenty of humour, is entertaining enough in itself to sustain the series. I really enjoyed the development of Mac's character a lot, and it's a testament to this series that someone who could only serve as comic relief has such a detailed personality. Even the named Fades are somewhat human, despite never even talking, and the least likeable character in the series - Paul's sister who controls the school's cliques - has a few touches of humanity. This approach is generally favourable to Centric stories, I find, because they can often lead to characters being badly written along the sides.

Paul and Jay

     The balance between the comedy and horror is very well managed, and as I mentioned, it seems like the Being Human team learnt their lesson when it comes to Fades. The tone of the series so far is incredibly dark, no doubt encouraged by the hyperbolic advertising campaign. Perhaps for the better, the humour relies more on the characters and less on the dark nature of the series, which means that it hopefully won't become snuffed out as in Being Human.
      At the end of the day there isn't much more to say about this episode other than it reinforced the thoughts I already had. Fades is an engaging piece of entertainment that juggles a brilliant if cliche gothic horror and a fast-paced wit bolstered by outstanding characterisations. I'm really enjoying it and I can't see, based on this episode, that changing very soon.

Thanks.

P.S. Yes. I know it's called "The Fades". I just think that's an unnecessary definite article, and I'm not gonna change it.

News: High turnover!

In order to make this blog's second anniversary (all the way on February 4th!) special, I've been trying to write more reviews than I normally would. The downside to this is that I'm really getting through my material, and my aim (400 posts) is a little far-fetched. Regardless, I hope you enjoy my increased workrate and that this will encourage more people to read my work.
     Coming up before the Anniversary we'll have Trial of a Time Lord Month in October, where I'll look at Colin Baker's second season as The Doctor. October will also see the return of Merlin, as well as the end of my Doctor Who reviews (for both Seasons 27 and 32). Being Human reviews will continue weekly on Tuesdays, and Fades on Wednesdays.
      In November I'll finally finish Lost with three Finale reviews and we'll also see the return of Misfits for an eight-part series! In Classic Doctor Who I'll examine three of the show's classics - Spearhead from Space, Caves of Androzani and Vengeance on Varos. I'll also be reviewing some films.
      In December I'll exhaust my Doctor Who supply by ending the year with The Beginning, the first three serials from 1963. Merlin and Misfits will finish, and I'll review the Christmas special as Audenshaw Reviews bows out to 2012.

Thanks.