Visit the official Doctor Who website

Visit the official Doctor Who website
Look to the future

Asylum seekers...

Asylum seekers...
Refuge of the Daleks

Doctor Who picture resource

Doctor Who picture resource
Roam the space lanes!

Explore the Doctor Who classic series website

Explore the Doctor Who classic series website
Step back in time

Infiltrate The Hub of Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood

Infiltrate The Hub of Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood
Armed and extremely dangerous

Investigate The Sarah Jane Adventures

Investigate The Sarah Jane Adventures
Fearless in the face of adversity

Call on Dani’s House

Call on Dani’s House
Harmer’s a charmer

Intercept the UFO fabsite

Intercept the UFO fabsite
Defending the Earth against alien invaders!

Uncover the secrets of the Dollhouse

Uncover the secrets of the Dollhouse
Programmable agent Echo exposed!

Hell’s belles

Hell’s belles
Naughty but nice

Love Exposure

Love Exposure
Flash photography!

Primeval portal

Primeval portal
Dressed to kill or damsels in distress?

Charmed, to be sure!

Charmed, to be sure!
The witches of San Francisco

Take on t.A.T.u.

Take on t.A.T.u.
All the way from Moscow

Proceed to the Luther website

Proceed to the Luther website
John and Jenny discuss their next move

DCI Banks is on the case

DCI Banks is on the case
You can bet on it!

On The Grid with Spooks

On The Grid with Spooks
Secret agents of Section D

Bridge to Hustle

Bridge to Hustle
Shady characters

Life on Ashes To Ashes

Life on Ashes To Ashes
Coppers with a chequered past

Claire’s no Exile

Claire’s no Exile
Goose steps

Vexed is back on the beat!

Vexed is back on the beat!
Mismatched DI Armstrong and bright fast-tracker Georgina Dixon

Medium, both super and natural

Medium, both super and natural
Open the door to your dreams

Who’s that girl? (350-picture Slideshow)

Tuesday 11 May 2010

Warden’s Watch: Doctor Who - Series Five, Episodes Four to Six


The new series of “Doctor Who” continues to be a mix of the good and the downright awful! Episodes four and five, “The Time of Angels” and “Flesh and Stone”, attempt to develop ideas from two of Steven Moffat’s earlier stories, the Weeping Angel statues from Series Three’s “Blink” and Alex Kingston’s River Song from the two-part library story of the Fourth Series. I like the former, not so keen on the latter! All this “sweetie” nonsense, and continued reference to “spoilers”, is a bit cringe-making. For heaven’s sake, it was only in the previous story, “Victory of the Daleks”, that the Doctor called one of the pepper pots “sweetheart”! Despite liking the statues in the Carey Mulligan episode, I’m not so sure it was a good idea to bring them back. The new story seemed to virtually ignore the original concept of what happens to an Angel’s victims. Less importantly, but nonetheless irritatingly, the Doctor loses his jacket to one of the stone beasties, at one point, then, unseen by the viewer, somehow manages to retrieve his tweed threads by the end!

The best scene in the Fifth Series, so far, came in the second part of the Weeping Angel yarn. I’d go so far as to say it’s the best scene since Jefferson’s eulogy to Scooti Manista, four years ago, in “The Impossible Planet”. I’m talking about the marvellous dialogue between the Doctor and Father Octavian upon the latter’s demise. Genuinely moving. The trouble is, it is almost immediately undermined by the ending of “Flesh and Stone”. New “Doctor Who” does this a lot. It’s afraid to capitalise on truly emotional moments. What does Moffat do? He has new companion Amy come on to the Doctor in the most ludicrous manner. We’ve been there before. Russell did all that ad nauseam… for five blooming years! I’d hoped we’d put such crassness behind us. At first I thought it was padding because the story had under run again, like the Dalek episode two weeks earlier, but its dubious purpose is to set up a ménage à trois between the Doctor, Rory and Amy exploited during the sixth episode, “The Vampires of Venice”, written by Toby Whithouse - the man behind “Being Human”, the “Doctor Who” episode “School Reunion” and the “Torchwood” episode “Greeks Bearing Gifts”.

And what a flippant beginning to the much-awaited vampire tale. It would’ve been amusing in any other drama but “Doctor Who”. We’d already had Amy as a WPC kissagram, in the opening story of the series, and so we return to the idea with the Doctor replacing the stripper at Rory’s stag night! I was hoping for some genuine gothic horror, just for once, but “The Vampires of Venice” is undermined before it has barely begun. Why does the series try so hard to be domestic just to appeal to the “EastEnders” crowd? Why doesn’t it simply be itself? It managed it for twenty-six years. I don’t buy into the notion it had to change to appeal to a modern audience. Only if said audience lacks intelligence! (There is a current series does domestic brilliantly, by the way, even though it’s ostensibly a supernatural drama. I won’t reveal its name here as I hope to devote a future post to it.) The vampires themselves were terrific looking, as you can see from the above picture - a scene reminiscent of the Haemovores breaking in through a vestry window in “The Curse of Fenric”, while their two leaders were portrayed suitably seriously until being revealed, predictably pseudo-scientifically, as “fish from space”! “They bite”!!

4 comments:

Steve said...

I must admit I groaned aloud when Amy's boyfriend got invited onto the Tardis. Micky and Rose all over again - boring! The other thing that bugged me was how was Amy able to reflect sunlight from her compact mirror into the "vampire's" face when the sky was supposedly covered over with storm clouds? Spoilers? Damn right!

TimeWarden said...

And don’t forget, Steve, before Mickey climbed aboard the TARDIS, there was Adam for a couple of episodes in the previous (Christopher Eccleston) series! Adam featured in episodes six and seven - the same as Amy’s boyfriend Rory is doing, five years later, in the current season!! I notice, in “Doctor Who Confidential”, the clapperboards are calling the present batch of episodes Series One. Coincidence? Seems like there’s nothing new under the sun!!!

Old Cheeser said...

Tim, first of all, welcome back, back, BACK! Thanks for leaving the comment over on my blog - I saw you'd left some comments on Steve's blog too, so guessed you were back in the fold. It's great that you're back with us, we were worried about your disappearance!

Anyway back to all things Dr Who - naturally! I'm sorry that the latest series isn't "doing it" for you. As you probably would have guessed, I don't share all of your criticisms, but can see where you're coming from. It's true that the Angels' method of dispatch got overlooked in the recent 2 parter. I am a fan of River Song however and look forward to future revelations...

I'm with you on your comments on "Vampires" - even though I found the opening scene quite amusing. The potential for a real gothic horror story in the Hinchcliffe vein was overlooked and the story just felt too silly and farcical in most places. The only really good scene was the one where Rossana told the Dr about the "cracks" appearing in her world and having to flee - making her that bit more rounded as a character - and an angry Dr upbraiding her for not knowing the name of girl who was recently made a vampire (nice touch). Although I've enjoyed the majority of the stories, I have to say this series hasn't yielded a "classic" for me yet...

Well I've no doubt we shall have many more debates on DW! Hoorah!

TimeWarden said...

Hi, Simon. Thanks for the warm welcome back and look forward to having some of those debates, PC permitting! Hope you and yours are keeping well.

"Doctor Who" isn't really doing it for me, yet again, but there is one story, out of the nine so far, that shines more than most of the others. Hope to write a post on it sometime soon so I won't reveal which one till then! But, despite hoping, there hasn't really been a classic story since 2006's two-parter "The Impossible Planet"!!

It's not all doom and gloom though, as I do like Matt Smith's take on the Doctor. It's his sad eyes, seems to make him more sensitive than his two immediate predecessors! Not so keen on Karen Gillan!! Her younger self, in episode one, had far more personality!!!