Series 34 so far

We are five episodes in with Peter Capaldi as the Doctor and a lot of people have already voiced their approval or disapproval of the latest chapter in Doctor Who and so I thought that I would offer my thoughts. If you like a 100% Steven Moffat bashing then you probably wont want to read on because this wont happen, however if you want a more balanced opinion then read on.

The first episode was shown in cinemas as well as on BBC1. When the 50^th anniversary special was shown at the cinema I went along with friends and it was a fantastic experience because the screening was full of Doctor Who fans (some of whom had dressed up) and the story was great and the reaction from the audience was equally great. I could see why it was shown in a cinema and didn’t mind paying for the privilege. Fast forward ten months and I cant see the point. Yes the arrival of a new Doctor is a big deal but I refuse to pay £12 to see Capaldi’s debut.

On the subject of the story it was twenty minutes too long and is not going to be in the top 3 stories of the series because opening stories aren’t known for quality story telling. It’s all about trying to get the audience and fans to accept the new Doctor. The next story is perhaps going to be the best story of the series (or in the top 3 anyway). It’s fair to say that the Daleks’ star has fallen since the show returned in 2005. Whereas a Dalek story use to be a source of great excitement, now it doesn’t quite have the same attraction. What ‘Into the Dalek’ did was show what a great Doctor Peter Capaldi will be but also that something interest can be done with the Daleks.

Robot of Sherlock is a story that I thought I wasn’t going to like when I first saw it because it looked like it was going to be a comedy and if there is one thing that Doctor Who doesn’t do well it is a comedy and whilst I don’t think it’s the greatest story so far, it was better than I thought it was going to be. It allowed Capaldi to do a bit of comedy which if you’ve seen him in ‘The Thick of It’ is always a fun thing to witness. Sadly, the good form wasn’t going to last when we got to Listen. I was bored when I watched Listen and thought that it was just 45 minutes of interesting scene followed by interesting scene without the key thing that every story should have and that is a purpose. I watched it a couple of days later on BBC3 and whilst I liked it slightly more the second time, I was still left with a bit of disappointment because there is something that works in the episode but it gets lost. The main critiscm that seemed to be following it on twitter and from a friend is that there was too much Clara and I think that is what has been the problem with the series (more in next week’s blog).

The trailer for Time Heist which followed Listen was more entertaining than the previous 45 minutes and the full episode was a massive improvement on episode four. It felt like the show was having fun again whilst having a bit of a mystery for the viewer to try and sort out. As I write this (on a Wednesday), the next episode is the Caretaker and seems to be focusing more on Clara and the other guy. Only time will tell how the rest of the series will run but at the moment I would give the show 7/10. The good stuff includes Peter Capaldi and the Dalek episode but the bad stuff was Listen and too much Clara.

The mystery surrounding Missy is something that is intriguing me and I hope that the payoff for this isn’t going to disappoint me in the way that previous story arcs have disspointed me. I think that the decision to pit it against the ratings juggernaut that is ITV’s The X-Factor and putting it on at 8.30 is a mistake because it means that ratings are going to be lower and those that hate Steven Moffat are going to use this as a stick to beat him with. I don’t care about that because all I care about is what I see on my TV screen and have in my DVD collection.

Peter Capaldi is a brilliant Doctor and despite some reservations, Jenna Coleman is really good as Clara and all the stories (apart from Listen) have been good in different ways and those that have supposedly stopped watching the show because the Doctor is an old guy are missing some great stories and the fandom is better without. Hope your enjoying watching Dads Army on BBC2 or your David Tennant/Matt Smith DVD’s or whatever your watching when you not watching Doctor Who.

Time Heist (2014)

After being somewhat disappointed with last week’s episode. I was somewhat hoping that this episode would return back to something resembling good form. Certainly the trailer seemed to indicate this and the start of the episode seemed to start off like most episodes this series. The Doctor takes Clara away in the TARDIS and off onto their next adventure but within moments, the normality is disrupted when the Doctor and Clara are in a new room with two complete strangers. The two people that the Doctor and Clara meet are Psi and Saibra who are a augmented human and a shape shifter. There is a recording which in a nutshell sets up the story saying that they have had their memories wiped and it was all of their volition.  

 

I think I like the idea that Clara isn’t always with the Doctor in the TARDIS. I like the idea that she has a life away from the Doctor and the Doctor keeps popping in like a relative. The phone ringing is still a rare thing. I think the last time it rang was in the 2005 story ‘The Empty Child’. The whole theme of the episode (as the title suggests) is that it’s a heist adventure. The episode takes place in a bank which given the current attitude towards the banking community is perhaps the sort of area that deserves to have people of ill repute running it.  

 

The first thing that strikes me about this episode is that there is less of Clara hogging centre stage and the Doctor actually being the lead character. It’s fair to say that Jenna Coleman’s performances in recent weeks have been overshadowing Capaldi’s at a time when he should be striding away with the role. Here Capaldi shows us how good he is and there were moments of Malcolm Tucker in a few lines. Despite my growing frustration at the character of Clara, I think that Jenna Coleman’s performance was very good. I thought that it was good how Clara didn’t go gooey eyed over Psi and even their goodbye hug wasn’t a soppy send off.  

The main name that appears in this episode is Keeley Hawes who plays Ms Delphox. As much as I wanted to like her character I thought that Hawes’ performance was very similar to that of Ms Foster as played by Sarah Lancashire in the 2008 story ‘Partners in Crime’. I think that this Hawes’s character was slightly better because compared to ‘Partners in Crime’, the plot in this one was stronger. 

 

I thought that Psi and Saibra were two very good characters and Jonathan Bailey & Pippa Bennett-Warner did a good job of keeping up with Capaldi and Coleman. Normally I would have found the character of Psi to be irritating and I would instantly hate the actor playing the part but on this occasion I found the performance and the actor to be quite good. I thought that Bennett-Warner gave an understate yet engaging performance and I wanted these two characters to be alright at the end of the episode and thankfully they did.  

If I have an issue with the episode then I think that it runs away with itself in the final few minutes when its revealed that the person calling the TARDIS phone at the very beginning of the episode was Madame Karabraxos as an old woman. On a side note, I thought that the make-up was very good. Certainly better than some of the make up used to make people older that we have seen in previous episodes. The idea that she is ringing the Doctor in her dyeing days was something that clearly had Steven Moffat’s fingerprints all over it because it seemed overly complex. 

 

I’ve managed to get this far without referring to the monster which looked very good and is one of the strongest monster designs for quite sometime. The idea that it’s being forced against its will to do something isn’t terribly original but its used quite well here and the moment when its revealed that the Teller is the last of its kind was quite nice and about as soppy as it got. 

 

I definitely thought that ‘Time Heist’ was miles better than the previous episode because at least it felt like a normal Doctor Who episode. I still think that ‘Into the Dalek’ is the best episode of the series but at least this episode shows that ‘Listen’ was just a blip. Nearly halfway through the series and its been a pretty good run of episode with only one really letting it down. 

July 2014 Ratings

The Tomfiles: #23 - Dalek Empire - A Retro Review

In the first of a series of new Tomfiles, I look back at one of Big Finish’s earliest success stories and whether it stands up to the high quality that Big Finish have become known for since it started making Doctor Who stories fifteen years ago. This first part looks back at the first series. Dalek Empire was the first thing that I listened to that was made in the Big Finish world. I remember buying it at a Memorabilia Fair in 2003 not knowing much about Dalek Empire or Big Finish. I also bought this along with a few Eighth Doctor main range releases. Dalek Empire is one of the first big successes that Big Finish had. There was the Bernice Summerfield series that Big Finish launched first but this was the first series that they had created.

The Dalek Empire series started back in June 2001 and having listened to it recently, the first thing that struck me was just how well it stood up to todays standard of Big Finish storytelling. The only thing that is missing from these releases is the noise that is made when the Daleks move. It’s important (but not vital) to have heard two main range releases in the form of ‘The Genocide Machine’ and ‘The Apocalypse Element’ (both from 2000).

The first instalment of this opening series was called ‘Invasion of the Daleks’ and the plot was exactly that. The Daleks invade Vega 6. The thing that is littered during this series is the narration done by Joyce Gibbs.

There are three main characters introduced in this series and they are Kalendorf (played by Gareth Thomas), Alby Brook (played by Mark McDonnell) and Susan Mendes (played by Sarah Mowat). It’s Susan that becomes quite integral to the whole thing because she soon becomes defiant in the face of the Daleks and the Daleks use her to try and improve moral and productivity levels of the slaves. She becomes known as the Angel of Mercy. I think that the relationship between Kalendorf and Susan Mendes is one that works from the very moment that they have a scene together. Thomas does a great job of making Kalendorf sound ordinary at first and then to be a Knight and can communicate telepathically.

This opening story attempts to tell everyone that listens what to expect and its pretty clear by the end of the first part that its going to be a story on an epic scale. We know who the important characters are and it’s a solidly written opening story and one that wouldn’t be out of place in todays Big Finish output.

The thing that I noticed about the second part ‘The Human Factor’ is that it feels like the foot has been taken off the accelerator a little bit. That’s not to say that it’s a poor story or even a substandard adventure but there is a definite change compared to the opening story. Susan Mendes’ involvement becomes more important and clearer and this causes a nice bit of tension between the two. This part is the first one that has what I would class as a proper cliffhanger. Alby is shot at by unknown forces and it seems like his involvement is not going to go on for much longer. This part is also another one that has relations to the main range and that is the Garazone System which featured in ‘Sword of Orion’ but there is a time difference between the two stories. Whereas it might be necersary to have listened to The Mutant Phase and The Apocalypse Element, I don’t think that is the case for ‘Sword of Orion’.

By the time you finish the third part ‘Death to the Daleks’, there is no denying the epic scale of this story. The characters feel like they are old friends with Alby Brooks coming across like the slightly rebellious and likeable brother who despite letting his heart rule his head, doesn’t seem to be as annoying as if he were in some Hollywood romantic comedy. At this stage of the adventure the story needs some fresh blood in it and that happens in the form of Mirana (played by Teresa Galagher). She is someone who seems to be a running sore for Brooks and seems like the perfect person to be alongside Brooks. The release builds to those famous words being uttered by the Angel of Mercy and before this happens there is a lovely scene between Mendes and Kalendorf which shows how close they have become even though they do take swipes at each other from time to time. Her death is the ultimate shock in the story and shows that even one of the central characters isn’t immune from the axe. The penultimate story in a series or serial has to do a job of making the final instalment to be an unmissable finale.

It’s interesting when the final part ‘Project Infinity’ starts because it would be interesting to see how the loss of one of the key characters would affect the story. One thing is made clear is the purpose of the narration that we had been hearing since the very beginning and its down to the Angel of Mercy having formed a link with her.

Alby has gone a little bit crazy at the death of Susan Mendes and seems to do some crazy things to try and prove that she’s alive. What’s quite clever is that Briggs slightly distracts us with the possibility that there is something else going on. The twist that Mirana is actually working for the Daleks is something that I didn’t see coming (or remember).

The ending of this final part is not what most people at the time would have been expecting. The Daleks are basically going to have a war with each other. In the ‘Big Finish Companion Volume 1’ its explained that Nicholas Briggs knew that there was going to be a Dalek Empire 2 and that’s clear from the ending that this is the case and it’s the best ending to a Dalek Empire release up until this point. What I like about the story at this point is that there is still plenty of room in this adventure and with the addition of new Daleks there is even more that can explored.

This series has been fantastic to listen to. Aside from the lack of sound effect on the Daleks, this series is just as strong as ‘Counter Measures’, ‘Jago and Litefoot’ or even ‘Graceless’. Despite it being made thirteen years ago it sounds just as good as it did back in 2001. I look forward to listening to the second series and the second of these new Tomfiles I am going to see whether the second series suffers from the Big Finish version of the difficult second album.

June 2014 Ratings

The Lamentation Cypher (2014)

If there is one thing that has been constant in the Big Finish forums is the desire to have a Charlotte Pollard series and so their cries have been heard and here we have a boxset of adventures featuring Charley who appeared alongside the eighth Doctor from 2001 to 2007 and then with the Sixth Doctor in a series of superb stories from 2007 to 2009. Charley is a fantastic character and was the second companion created by Big Finish and is arguably their most successful companion. After 13 years she is still as popular as she was when we first heard her on board the R101 and I was worried that these stories weren’t going to live up to expectations that have been growing since word was first mentioned about a possible series. I was slightly worried because I didn’t know what format the series would take as the last time we heard from Charley she was working with the Viyrans.

It’s hard not to make comparisons between Charley and Bernice Summerfield. Ok they have different social backgrounds and jobs but there is something there and this story even starts off with Charley writing in her diary which is something that Bernice did in her early stories (only listened to the first series). Then the narration continues in the story which is something that I think works in this story. One of things that I do like about this story is the relationship between Charley and the Viyrans.

Things seem to start off rather weird when after speaking to Robert Buchan (played by James Joyce) starts saying random words in his speech and I can’t help but think of an episode of House where a guy suffers a bang on the head and then starts to speak gibberish. This is a relatively short but very dramatic moment which seems like it’s going to take up the entire story but appears to be over in less than ten minutes. There are more strange things that happen which then lead to Charley trying to escape.

They try to do something different with the Viyrans. The title ‘Lamentation Cypher’ doesn’t get mentioned until the half hour mark and its dropped into a scene which is where the story starts to take shape. I think that the Viyrans are a great creation and so its great that they feature so prominently in the spin-off series. There is a Viyran that doesn’t speak like the rest of them (voice effect). This seems to create a bit of tension and drama between the Viyrans. There was a nice mystery as to what the Lamentation Cypher was and its not what I was expecting. Another thing I wasn’t expecting was that the Viyrans can effectively stage a coup when the leader becomes unstable. By the end of the story it seems that the course of the series is quite clear. Whether this is going to change in future stories remains to be seen but it was definitely an exciting ending.

Michael Maloney seems to be the Nicholas Briggs of this series as seems to have voiced all the Viyrans and there are several scenes where several Viyrans talking to each other in the same way as when several Daleks talk to each other. Speaking of Mr Briggs, there is a fun cameo from him which sounds like he was playing a train spotter. He does get a more substantial role playing Robert’s dad and sounds like a cheeky cockney that wouldn’t be out of place in Eastenders.

Considering that apart from a brief appearance in ‘Light at the End’ back at the tail end of 2013, it’s been five years since she played Charley last, India Fisher hasn’t missed a step as Charley. If you didn’t know better you would have said that it was less than a year since she appeared in ‘Blue Forgotten Planet’. She has some good scenes with Maloney’s Viyrans and this is something that is going to play well during the course of the series. James Joyce is a character that seemed perfectly fine in the first half of the story but once he had been cured he then seemed to become a more interesting character and that might be because he had some scenes with Nicholas Briggs’ Bert Buchan.

I would be lying if I said that I was bowled over by the release because I just wasn’t. The reason is because I still haven’t got use to what the series is about. What I can see is potential and think that this is going to be a spin-off that is going to be another success story for Big Finish and I look forward to listening to the rest of the series.

Last of the Colophon (2014)

I knew that this was going to be a story that wasn’t going to be as good as ‘The Evil One’. That’s purely because I thought that it would be the best story of the series and if this did manage to beat that then it would have to be a cracker. This story was written by Jonathan Morris who won several Tomstardis Awards in 2013.The story sees the Doctor and Leela arrive on the planet Colophos which on first inspection seems to be. The story is playing with the idea of the Invisible Man and seems like the sort of story that would have featured during the Philip Hinchcliffe era. The involvement of Morax is one that develops over the story when Morax is covered in bandages and at the right point the truth is revealed.

Gareth Thomas returns to the Doctor Who world as Morax and Thomas is brilliant in every single story he appears in and this is no different. Jane Goddard also returns as Nurse Torvik and she is also one fine form. The other supporting characters were all standard but I didn’t find them as interesting as Morax or Torvik. As far as the central performances are concerned, I thought that Louise Jameson was on her usual fine form but after the peak of the previous story, here she seems to return to her usual self which isn’t a bad thing. Tom Baker seems to just stroll through this and there did seem a moment when one of Tom Baker’s famous suggestions seems to have made it in when he’s talking about a signal to show someone its him and how its repeated seems to be his idea. I may be wrong but that is what it seems like to me.

The main problem with this story is that as much as I wanted to love this story, it just didn’t quite connect with me. It’s not a terrible story by any means but compared to other Morris scripts, its not one of his best. I think that this is a story that other people will like because the setting and what it deals with isn’t something that I am wild about and those tend to be the ones that people rave about. I suppose only time will tell but I think that ‘The Evil One’ remains the best story of the series.