Wednesday 4 December 2013

REVIEW: THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR (THE 3D CINEMA EXPERIENCE)

 
I have to admit, I wasn't really that bothered about going to see the 50th anniversary episode at the cinema. I hadn't followed the past few series, so it didn't make much sense for me to rush out and get a ticket to see the latest episode. I could have just watched it on TV. But there's something about the shared experience of viewing something at the cinema, especially for a show which we normally only get to see at home. So I decided to go and watch it on the 'big screen'. In 3D.

Even though I was a bit wary about the whole thing to begin with, I soon found myself immersed in what was going on. Sure, the storyline was upside down and inside out in places, but if you switched off your brain and didn't look for plot holes, then you could just enjoy it for the entertainment factor alone. It had several 'Doctors' in it, for a start. I think many people were thrilled to see David Tennant back, as he seems to be a favourite among many fans. Myself included.

But for me, it was John Hurt that really made the episode. A fine actor, who made the role of the War Doctor convincing and believable. A much different character than the other Doctor's incarnations, but all three personalities worked well together in the context of the story.

I thought it was interesting how they chose to bring in Rose Tyler, albeit as the interface to the Moment weapon. The brief appearance of Tom Baker at the end is sure to have pleased a lot of fans too. There was certainly some cheering in the audience, anyway.

 So, was this a perfect, outstanding, unmissable episode? No. Did I enjoy it? Yes! I definitely think that watching it at the cinema is the reason though, purely for the atmosphere and shared laughs and cheers with all the fans there. You just don't get that at home. So, to me, it was worth the price of a cinema ticket just as a one-off event.
 
Steve Upham - Editor of Screaming Dreams Publishing

Tuesday 3 December 2013

REVIEW: THE NIGHT OF THE DOCTOR

The-Night-of-the-Doctor-regeneration
 
No one really expect this. Since 2005, when Christopher Eccleston appeared in Rose,  it was the one question every Doctor Who fan wanted answer. When and why did the Eighth Doctor regenerate? The obvious conclusion, based on visual evidence in that first story, was shortly before the Nu Series, at the end of the Time War. But then earlier this year we saw the end of series seven and discovered a previously unknown incarnation of the Doctor, the one who fought in the Time War, and it was John Hurt! This threw us all into a tiz, trying to work out how he fitted in the grand scheme of things; was he the older version of the Eighth Doctor, was he the Ninth Doctor (thus making Eccleston the Tenth, and Tennant the Eleventh and so on)? We were all hoping that the anniversary special would answer this, and despite McGann’s insistence to the contrary, I for one was certain he’d appear somehow. But not like this!
 
I, like so many, clicked that YouTube link to see this minisode (as they’re now called) and watched as the TARDIS rushed through space to help a ship about to crash. And like all the others, my mouth at first fell open, and then broke into a wide smile when a voice said ‘I’m a Doctor, just probably not the one you expected’ and the shot cut to Paul McGann standing there with a cheeky grin on his stubbly face.
For the first time Steven Moffat (whose reign as producer has not always inspired me with confidence) was God. He delivered, in seven minutes, the best piece of Doctor Who he had ever written and produced. Finally all our questions were answered. This was the Eighth Doctor who had lived a long time past the TV Movie of 1996, who had endured much pain and loss, who had lived through the Big Finish audios (yes, for the first time since Nu Who began, the Big Finish Eighth Doctor adventures were given their place in TV canon when the Doctor names all his Big Finish companions – a lovely touch, and a most unexpected one [and one that creates more work for me, when I come to to revising my Companions book]), and was now battered and bruised by the Time War, which he refused to become a part of.  At last we knew, it was not the Eighth Doctor who fought in the Time War, and it was not he who regenerated into the Eccleston Doctor shortly before Rose. 
 
After years of playing the Doctor on audio, McGann stepped effortlessly back into the role, in an outfit that was the perfect evolution from that which he wore in the TV Movie. I had always liked the ‘dark eyes’ look Big Finish took to using, leather jacket and satchel included, and it always seemed a nice link between the old and new, but the outfit McGann sported in The Night of the Doctor changed that view for me. And his scenes on Karn were superb. Oh yes, Karn. Another surprising touch. A return to the location of the 1976 story The Brain of Morbius and the Sisterhood of Karn, a race of immortal beings who elevate Time Lord science. For four minutes the Doctor was actually dead, unless he chose to take the offer given him by the Sisterhood, regeneration or final death. It was a sad but noble performance as the Eighth Doctor chose to end his life and become the warrior needed to fight the Time War.
 
There is really so much in these seven minutes to love. None of it was expected, but all of it so gratefully appreciated. It finally gave us that link between the ‘original’ series and the ‘new’, proving once and for all that they are but one series. And it was the moment I fell back in love with Doctor Who. Suddenly my fears of the anniversary special faded, somehow I just knew that Moffat was going to do a damn good job, and I held to my belief that we would see all the old Doctors in one form or another, and we’d see Peter Capaldi turn up (it was too much of an opportunity to pass up, in my view, a fact I told many people over and over again).
 
Andy Frankham-Allen is the author of Companions: Fifty Years of Doctor Who Assistants

Monday 2 December 2013

REVIEW: AN ADVENTURE IN SPACE AND TIME


Image Copyright BBC 2013

As a man who has never really dabbled much in Doctor Who, I was somewhat unsure about how to feel about the madness surrounding the 50th anniversary episode. Was it to be something exclusively for the fans, or a possible invitation for newcomers such as myself to join the party? Or maybe even both? Either way, my knowledge of the programme was insufficient. I needed a way to feel educated about the universe of Doctor Who without necessarily watching through the hundreds of available episodes. Thankfully, An Adventure in Space and Time serves this purpose nicely.

The story chronicles the birth of the show and its various production troubles, from William Hartnell’s (David Bradley) ailing health and struggles as a typecast actor, to Verity Lambert’s (Jessica Raine) own trouble as one of the early female figures in British television. It becomes clear from the very first scene that this is not necessarily the smooth and obstacle-free ride that one might initially think.

With a keen sense of nostalgia, particular effort has been put into replicating both the context of 1960s Britain in all its gloomy-weather glory, and the harsh realities that come with working from within the BBC – a place not often associated with second chances. As a result, I was immediately drawn towards Hartnell, played with excellent cynicism and humanity by David Bradley. As an actor with very little direction in his career, Hartnell’s only desire was to steer clear of the authority figures he became so often associated with. Yet with the show’s aim to inform and educate as well as to thrill and terrify, the role was understandably irresistible.

What follows is an intense, but often fun series of events that follow Hartnell and Lambert as they both fight desperately to keep Doctor Who alive, regardless of whether it came from artistic integrity or something to pay the bills. Yet in a bizarre twist, I found the story’s finest moments were the ones that distanced themselves from Doctor Who. Such moments include Hartnell’s often adorable interaction with his granddaughter and wife, reminding us that he was still a human being, with familial concerns and constant reminders of his growing age in an industry that was constantly seeking to modernise itself.

Naturally, the references to the series itself are littered throughout the script. Some are impossible to miss, while others will no doubt be detected by only the most hardened of fans. But as the story reached its conclusion, I couldn’t help but feel a bit overwhelmed by the amount that was being thrown at me. Of course, there exists five whole decades of history behind Doctor Who, and it would be a missed opportunity not to acknowledge it through various nods and winks, but at times, it felt just a little too much.
Regardless, this was easily outweighed by the positives. Every actor gave an outstanding performance, in particular Brian Cox’s dominating presence as the iconic Sydney Newman – a role he clearly had incredible fun playing. But at its very core, An Adventure in Space and Time was a very human story about a very otherworldly concept. It provided an informative but touching look at both a man desperately looking to push past his own ‘grumpy old man’ persona, as well as the now cemented position Doctor Who holds as a key part to our history and culture.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

Bryn Lloyd

Sunday 1 December 2013

REVIEW: THE LIGHT AT THE END

light
 
The first step of the anniversary for me began when Big Finish released their multi-Doctor anniversary adventure, The Light at the End. Now I have to confess that I’m not a huge fan of Big Finish’s main range of Doctor Who adventures – I stopped listening to them when the TV series returned. Might seem a little unfair of me, but I easily tire of the over-reliance on returning monsters and companions that started to litter the releases from that point. Truly original pieces of drama seemed to diminish bit by bit, which is fine since, in my view, Big Finish needed to cater for the core group of fans – those who wanted Doctor Who as it used to be. I like my Doctor Who to continue to grow with the audience, with the social development of our culture. For me during the Wilderness Years (when there was no TV Who) Virgin Books, BBC Books  and Big Finish provided us with a Doctor Who that continued to grow, to echo the decade in which it existed, as it always did on TV. Then, in 2005, Doctor Who returned home to BBC One and the books and audio adventures seemed to lose a lot of their ambition, their originality. Which is a shame. There were some true classics produced between 1991 and 2005 – not to say that Big Finish haven’t produced some sterling stuff since, but usually it’s in their spin-off series’, like the Gallifrey series, or the I, Davros plays and, primarily, through the ongoing series of adventures for the Eighth Doctor that were being produced for transmission on BBC Radio. So, The Light at the End would be my first, for fun, look at a Big Finish play in a long while. (Bearing in mind I had to scour all of the Big Finish releases when researching my anniversary book, so it’s not like I haven’t heard the majority of them.) At the time it seemed that the official anniversary story, Day of the Doctor, was not celebrating the classic series but rather focussing on the mythos and characters introduced since 2005. The BBC insisted that no old Doctors would be appearing! To me, and so many other fans, this seemed to be a slap in the face. It was the anniversary of  fifty years of Doctor Who, not just Nu Who (as the series from 2005 to present is affectionately called), and so the cast list of The Light at the End decided me on getting that story. This seemed to me to be a true celebration with countless characters from the old series returning. For the old fans an anniversary story was an excuse to bring back as many old faces as possible – the strength of the story was secondary. We wanted something like The Five Doctors, which is not a terribly interesting story – it’s not known for its complexity, but it is known for the pure fun and nostalgia of seeing so many old friends return. And so The Light at the End
 
Hmm. How quickly one’s view can change.
 
It took me a while to work out why I left The Light at the End feeling so blah. The story was straight forward enough, although possibly not the most well-structured. It certainly brought back a whole host of old friends, every Doctor from the first to eighth made an appearance, countless companions. Essentially all one could want from an anniversary story. At least that’s what I had always thought. but upon reflection I came to realise the problem – for me, at least. Ever since Virgin got the licence to publish original Doctor Who fiction the guest appearance of old Doctors and companions had become something of a regular occurrence. Indeed, the very first novel, Timewyrm: Genesys, featured guest appearances by the Third and Fourth Doctors. Later stories saw the return of all kinds of companions from Peri to Liz to Susan, and featured all sorts of multi-Doctor stories (although none topped Lance Parkin’s Cold Fusion which featured a bona-fide reason for two Doctors being in the right place, and a wonderful spin on how the Seventh Doctor did not recall the events already, since his fifth self was also involved – the answer was simple, he did remember!). Big Finish have also featured various versions on the multi-Doctor story over the years, everything from The Sirens of Time (their very first release! Much like Virgin and BBC Books did before them), to The Four DoctorsProject: Lazurus and The Wormery. Even companions got their own stories with releases like The Five Companions. And so the problem as I see it; The Five Doctors was a success because of the nostalgia. Characters we had not seen in years returned, Doctors joined forces for the first time in ten years (well, eleven really when you consider The Three Doctors was transmitted in 1972, almost a year before the tenth anniversary). In The Light of the End it’s essentially just more of the same. We hear all these actors so often throughout the year, hear these characters interact, heard the various Doctors team-up countless times. There’s no sense of anniversary or nostalgia. Linking it to 1963 didn’t do anything except offer a failed attempt to enforce a feeling of nostalgia. We can’t orchestrate such a thing; it comes from within, from the memories. Don’t get me wrong, hearing Tom Baker and Paul McGann together is fun (although the BBC were soon about to officially do something even better with these two!), but having actors come in to impersonate the first three Doctors is not. I can see what was being attempted, but it felt like an insult. It didn’t help that none of the three actors sounded anything like the characters they were supposed to be (something in common with the Patrick Troughton impersonator on the upcoming An Adventure in Space and Time). I left the story with a feeling of blah, of ‘yeah, seen it all before’, and I realised that it was no longer just enough to have loads of old actors return to Doctor Who. An anniversary, to me, needed to be something different. A good story, a development of the mythos of the show, and a sense of nostalgia.
 
Andy Frankham-Allen is the author of Companions: Fifty Years of Doctor Who Assistants