The Review........A very warm welcome back.....Doctor Who


I felt I had to comment at some point on the new series of Doctor Who. Rather than jump on the immediate euphoria surrounding both it's return and the apparent ratings success of episode 1 (although as we all know, the BBC doesn't chase ratings....yeah right!) I thought it best to wait until a few episodes had passed by in order to give a balanced judgment on it. So here it is.......abso-fucking-lutely su-fucking-perb. Marvellous. Fan-bastard-tastic.

There can be little doubt that the Doctor Who series suffered in the 80's as technology for special effects became prevalent, but only affordable by mega-buck Hollywood studios and their TV arms like Paramount. Thus the yanks produced Star Trek: Next Generation and ensured that good scripts and casting alongside the new CGI technology combined to make it more successful than the original Bill Shatner series. (don't get me started on the rather inferior follow ups though). During this time, we in the UK were subjected to piss poor writing alongside the series becoming a novelty show for jobbing actors to try and kick start careers by putting themselves in the shop window. The production and writing of the series had been commandeered by the "flowery shirt" brigade of yuppie wannabees just trying to get a foothold in the cut throat world of TV. The BBC hierarchy saw through this and did the decent thing by axing the show before it became a complete laughing stock. In essence the decline started after the last good Doctor, Peter Davison in his fifth regeneration left just as the idiots took charge. The following two actors, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy never really stood a chance and ended up being blamed for much of the series problems, unfairly in my view as such was the degree of the sows ear, no-one could have made the silk purse from what was going on. Another factor of course, was that the good old British public had been gorging on special effects movies and TV from the States, and had started to rebel against the notion that we were happy to accept crap, as long as it was our crap.

Then BBC Wales decided that with the right budget, the right scriptwriters and the right producer (Russell T. Davies take a fucking huge bow for capturing this perfectly) , plus a new Doctor, the series might just be right for a reprise. They chose Chris Eccleston, a northern edgy actor, reknowned for taking on difficult parts. His pedigree included the fantastic Shallow Grave, the brilliant Our Friends in the North and Second Coming. He was the original young boss for Cracker, and his death scenes in that series were amongst the most powerful I can recall in modern TV. Alongside him they needed to cast an assistant - someone who could ask the questions in order for The Doctor to provide answers to help the narrative along. It helps us, the viewers, to understand the story better without asking awkward questions or spotting continuity failures you see. They rather bravely cast one time pop star, estranged wife of Chris Evans and budding actress Billie Piper in the role of Rose, and an inspired move it seems to have been as well.

I enjoyed the first episode, called simply Rose an introduction to Eccleston as The Doctor, and Piper as his feisty very modern assistant Rose. It also centred around the return of the Autons, controlled by the Nestine Consciousness, a nice homage to an earlier adventure featuring the late Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor. If I had a criticism it was that the single episode format gave the impression that the whole thing was a bit rushed, however, the following weeks adventure The End of the World, set in the year 5billion a.d was perfect for this format, as was the the third episode The Unquiet Dead (brilliantly written by Mark Gatiss from The League of Gentlemen) . In fact this episode was so scary that Baby refused to watch it, and even Teenager had a few skin-jumping moments. I commented to GMD at the time that there must be kids all over the country running away from the TV during this episode, which featured corpses returning to life. In this weeks episode Aliens of London I thought a wobble had occurred when the "alien" was exposed as a running pig. A return to the bad old days perhaps? But no, the script brilliantly rescued this notion by revealing that the real aliens had surgically altered the pig in order to deflect attention away from their own undoubtedly evil intentions. It also saw the single episode format moved away in favour of a dual episode adventure, leading brilliantly to one of Doctor Who's former trademarks...the cliffhanger. All of these have also done one thing apparently.....scared young children. Apparently the third episode gleaned over a 100 complaints from apparently thick and stupid parents about the fact it was too scary - of course it was you fucking morons! It always used to be, and so may it continue. Has anyone forgotten that most kids secretly enjoy being scared? These parents should have their children removed into care by virtue of being too fucking stupid to be parents in my view.....the scared kid factor was always another trademark feature of the old Doctor Who series. It reminded me of my Dad, who used to revel in laughing at my discomfort, gently ribbing me for being a cissy, whilst knowing it guaranteed him a cuddle with his first-born. That's how deep the Doctor Who sting of nostalgia can go.

Eccleston and Piper are superb in their parts, with Eccleston playing the Doctor as partially sarcastic, wary, cynical, concerned, lonely and childishly fun individual with a penchant for the odd sulk. With a northern accent. Quite human in fact. The writers have also introduced a new slant in exposing the fact that The Doctor is now the only remaining Time Lord (as far as he knows) due to a devastating war his planet fought and lost - an allegorical comment on our small planet perhaps - with more detail to be unveiled surely later. Billie Piper as Rose Tyler is a departure from the screaming assistants of the past, and comes over as a typical young woman in today's society, both inquisitive and rather disbelieving until something happens and then accepting the unreality of it all and dealing with whatever imminent danger lurks nearby. She shows a talent for capturing the human emotions of being excited at this new life, but also the emotional wrench of being away from her family and friends in her previously hum-drum existence. I think my own Teenager would make a good future assistant if attitude was the only criteria.

The BBC budget shows the right level at last for delivering good effects without wobbly sets, and the transformation of the Tardis internally into a part mechanical/part organic machine is frankly superb, even the slight jazzing up of the dematerialisng noise with its whale like screams adds to the mystique of the machine. Apparently the producers wanted this effect of part machine, part organism and to show the Tardis as a machine usually manned by several people in order to be "flown" properly. This goes some way in explaining why it's also a bit crap and continually landing the Doctor in dangerous situations, or never quite near to the time and place he thought he'd programmed into it. He might think he controls it, but the Tardis may think otherwise.... a real nice touch from the current series owners and an idea that Hollywood and the US TV companies would surely die for. All of this whilst retaining the Police Box exterior due to the broken chameleon circuit, again outlining it's underlying occasional crapness.

It's a shame that Eccleston only signed for one series and has already decided not to continue, but perhaps that's all that was needed, a brilliant kick start with a far more street wise and in some ways mysterious Doctor. I am sure that another cohort of the producer, David Tennant will make a very good Doctor as well, fresh from his excellent portrayal of Casanova This combined with good stories, respect for the previous tradition and history of the series, with contemporary touches of humour and emotion and an ability to appeal across generations surely means a rosy future for this series. Of course the Chav community will religiously tune to Wank and Prick on Saturday evenings for the usual mix of crap and shite lowest common denominator TV which will dent the Beeb's ratings for Doctor Who, but ultimately the ratings war doesn't count according to the Beebs charter, and they are guaranteed to make a shit load of money from DVD sales and syndication.

So top marks and congratulations to the BBC and everyone involved in this reprisal - a very good job, very well done and executed brilliantly.

Later, Grocerjack