mondojohnson

Some of you have been puzzled by my silence on the subject of Doctor Who over the past few months. Your confusion is understandable — after all, we’re eight episodes into the latest series, and not a peep? What gives? One reader thought that I had been stunned into silence by the show’s radical overhaul; that I had been left traumatized and mute by the sight of a new TARDIS.

I’m sorry to disappoint, but the explanation is far more ordinary: work. I just couldn’t find the time to see any of the new shows until recently. But now I’m caught up, having had my own little Who marathon over the past week. And now that I’m up to speed, I can assure you that I’m anything but traumatized by the new directions. Indeed, let me declare: Matt Smith is an outstanding Doctor, perhaps one of the best.

There was much hand-wringing over the choice of Smith to succeed David Tennant, the most popular actor to inhabit the role. How could a 27-year old actor, however talented, summon the eon-scupted complexities of the 907-year old Time Lord, memorably portrayed by 10 acting heavyweights? Well, the fears are unfounded. I don’t know how, but Smith nails it capably.

The Doctor’s indefatigable curiosity and quirky tics are all there, often performed with subtle homage to his first ten incarnations. Echoes of Tom Baker, Sylvester McCoy, and Tennant all reverberate through the performance without ever lapsing into mimicry. Smith has truly inhabited the role.

His skill is especially apparent in scenes that touch on the Doctor’s ancient burdens. The sharp, plosive rage emitted by the Doctor in the episode “The Beast Below” is one fine example: “No one human has anything to say to me today,” he curtly declares to a room of his beloved, yet infuriating homo sapiens. Smith managed to pack the Doctor’s immeasurable back story into his delivery of the line. He also did a great job in the difficult task of portraying the Doctor’s second meeting with River Song –the mysterious woman from the future whom the Doctor met on her last day. He knows their relationship will become extraordinary, but he doesn’t know how because the keep meeting out of sequence. For Smith to wrap his head — and heart — around such a crazy relationship is testimony to his skill. (Alex Kingston must also receive kudos for her reprisal of the role, the best new scifi character on the block, in my book.)

In the days to come I’m going to write up individual episode reviews for the new season. But like the Doctor’s friendship with River Song, I will probably post them out of sequence, as whim takes me. But, as you may have noticed, I am completely on board with the new series. The bold and radical changes — not just the casting Smith, but also the promotion of Stephen Moffat to head writer — were a gamble that paid off, for this fan, at least. It is shaping up to be one of my favorite seasons, and that is saying something.

David Tennant‘s turn as the tenth Doctor in Doctor Who came to a slightly maudlin end last night as BBC America aired the final episode starring the most popular actor to inhabit the role. The show — second of a two-parter called The End of Time — was gripping due to this important event, but ultimately came across as something of an overwrought disappointment. It was too “aware” of its own significance to let itself be a taut Doctor Who adventure.

I suppose a sense of disappointment was inevitable, given the lengthy build-up that spanned the previous three episodes. But I had high hopes after enjoying The End of Time Part 1, which laid the groundwork nicely. In it, we saw the resurrection of the Doctor’s nemesis the Master, who overlaid his image and consciousness onto every human being on earth. Throughout we heard the narration of the Time Lord President, who at the end of the episode announces his intentions to restore the Time Lords. The Doctor and kindly old Wilf had been subdued by the Master, leaving us with a good old fashioned cliff-hanger.

Part Two picks up with the Time Lords, in-council and trapped in the last day of the Time War — an event locked in history from which they know they can’t escape. Led by the bellicose President and informed by the eccentric Prophet, they scheme to prevent their destruction. Only two Time Lords are known to have survived the War — the Doctor and the Master. They decide to use the Master as a lifeline, embedding the maddening four-beat “sound of drums” into his psyche to use as a signal to broadcast beyond the confines of the “time lock” that contains the War.

The Doctor, of course, figures out this plan, and we learn that the Time Lords are not as benevolent as the Doctor’s misty recollections have made them out to be. Indeed, the prospect of their return prompts the pacifist Doctor to pick up a gun, something he has sworn “never” to do.

Without going into too much detail, I can confirm that the Doctor does indeed hear the dreaded “four knocks” that were prophesied to precede his death. They come in a surprising manner, as well, in a clever twist that I hadn’t seen coming.

Unfortunately, this is where the episode became lachrymose, even for this psychic-paper-carrying Who fan. It could have ended pretty tightly right then — but instead the Doctor launched into an uncharacteristic, Garden of Gethsemane rant — Why me? Why now? I had so much more to do!!, etc. We have seen the Doctor face his own demise with cool nobility many times before, so this scenery-chewing spasm seemed very out-of-step. (Contrast this with the demise of the 9th Doctor [Christopher Eccleston], for instance.) And the fact that this may be his true death — not just the prelude to regeneration — doesn’t get him off the hook. The Doctor — even Tennant’s Doctor — has often been willing to march to his annihilation.

The interim between the Doctor’s fatal blows and his regeneration also went against the show’s mythology and continuity. In this instance, regeneration is a lazy, relaxed process that allows the Doctor to mozy around spacetime to “get his reward”… which involves going back and seeing (and saving) a few characters “one last time.” Honestly, it all felt more like an office-party farewell to David Tennant than a proper story. Very self-indulgent and very insensitive to the fourth wall. The time would have been better spent tying up some loose-ish ends, like the identity of “The Woman” or the fate of Donna Noble (though they might be one and the same?)…

The regeneration finally comes, after subjecting us to a painful case of blue-(box)-balls. Matt Smith bursts into the role, and with just a few moments of youthful hyperactivity he rescues the Doctor from the “stations of the cross” treatment we just had to endure. It got me psyched for the new series — I think this will be an energetic shot in the arm for Doctor Who, just as the the J.J. Abrams film was for Star Trek.

Don’t get me wrong — I loved the Tennant years as much as anyone — I just think the farewell could have been handled with a bit more dignified restraint. The Doctor is dead, long live the Doctor!

Now that the End of Time, Part I episode of Doctor Who has aired on US television, I can give a more full-throated, spoiler-laden review with a clearer conscience.

The episode is the first of a two-part swan song for actor David Tennant and writer Russell T. Davies, who championed the classic show’s revival and provided its major stories. Like previous Davies-penned Christmas shows, this one was a big, pregnant piñata, stuffed with complex and long-simmering storylines. Beloved heroes and villains return, mixed with new and interesting ones. Many of my fellow Who fanboys harshly criticize Davies for this heavy, baroque brush; indeed, some of the reviews on io9 are downright brutal.

I am not one of these critics. I think that Russell T. Davies approached his tenure as head Who-scribe in the manner of a 19th-century novelist: his individual episodes are standalone adventures, but they also form part of a grander whole. The End of Time appears to be providing resolution to plot lines that began during the first series of the reboot.

The first and most epic of these meta-plots is the Time War, a historically-frozen holocaust that destroyed all of the Time Lords except for the Doctor and the Master. As a “time-locked” event, the Doctor is powerless to prevent it. In The End of Time, we see the doomed Time Lords scurrying to prevent the inevitable. But as we saw in The Waters of Mars, time has its own ideas — and it has no problem handing down a humbling smackdown, even to a mighty Time Lord. The End of Time asks: will the Time Lords be able to undo their extinction, or will their meddling bring “an end to time itself”, as prophesied by the Ood?

Which brings us to another meta-motif in the Davies episodes that is marching toward resolution in these final shows: the “sound of drums”. In series three, the Master is obsessed with a martial drumbeat that throbs in his head, and he uses it to enslave humanity. We assumed that this was just the Master’s psychotic time signature, the pulse of his madness. But the latest episode hints that it is much more than this — the Doctor can hear it, too. Clips from Part II reveal that the pounding is the beat of the Time Lord’s two hearts; a signal broadcast throughout history by the desperate and doomed Gallifreyans. It is also the “four knocks” that foretell the Doctor’s impending “death”… however that is going to play out.

Part I was also full of lighter confections — like the revelation that the Doctor dilly-dallied en route to the Planet of the Ood, marrying Queen Elizabeth I along the way. Apparently he robbed her of her prized “Virgin” epithet — this explains Liz’s rage upon seeing the Doctor in The Shakespeare Code.

Special props must be paid to director Euros Lyn. His direction is a perfect mixture of brisk action and moody foreboding (see Torchwood: Children of Earth for the best example).

I think the RTD haters should back off a bit — try to see this elaborate effort as a truly Grand Finale to a great run at the Who helm (and hey, at least he didn’t include the Daleks^* — yet).

^* Not that I would mind…:)

Related articles by Zemanta

• ‘Doctor Who: The End Of Time’ Review & Discussion (screenrant.com)
• Doctor Who: The End of Time – the verdict (guardian.co.uk)

The long-awaited, penultimate episode of Doctor Who starring David Tennant — “The End of
Time, Part 1″ — was an extravagantly exciting Christmas gift, exceeding even my most
demanding, “comic book guy” expectations.

I am going to refrain from giving a detailed review until tomorrow night’s BBC America
airing. I don’t want to spoil it for any of my fellow US Who fans….

But I will give you a couple tantalizing bits:

• We learn why Elizabeth I went all “red queen” on the Doctor in The
  Shakespeare Code
• President Obama fixes the recession — almost! (Is RTD giving Barack some more
  “aspirational” nudging, a la the Nobel committee?)
• The Master may not be as insane as we thought…
• The dreaded “four knocks” is deeper and more significant than it first seemed…(think
  “Bad Wolf”)

Tune in tomorrow! 9PM on BBC America

It doesn’t get any better than this: a new quiz show called Never Mind the Buzzcocks on BBC, hosted by David Tennant, which includes panelists Bernard Cribbins (Wilf on Doctor Who), Catherine Tate (Donna Noble), and Vince Noir (Noel Fielding) from The Mighty Boosh!

And they further guild this orgasmic lily by using Doctor Who as one of the quiz topics (turns out Catherine Tate is pretty clueless about the Whoniverse, but in a very sweet and charming way )

ENJOY!