Oh mes enfants, it has been a while. I do apologise. But sure as autumn follows summer, sure as rain follows sun, the good Doctor is back on our screens and where he goes, the blog must follow. So, to kick things off again, a two-part review of the series opener 'Let's Kill Hitler' (Stephen Moffat) and this week's 'Night Terrors' (Mark Gatiss).
I was initially a little wary about reviewing them together; the task of trying to shoe-horn the revelations and plot-furthering of the main story arc of the former with the stand alone simplicity of the latter into one review was not an enticing one. In the event, I needn't have worried because what has emerged is something really rather interesting: Moffat, patron saint of the understated gothic-light urban-fairytale NuWho has produced an episode that put me very much in mind of an RTD finale and Gatiss, who has never quite managed to produce an episode of Who that wasn't an RTD-style shiny plastic toy, delivered what was, essentially, a Stephen Moffat episode. I also preferred it and I'm pretty certain me preferring a Gatiss episode to a Moffat episode is one of the signs of a forthcoming apocalypse, so next week I'll be writing the blog from an underground bunker surrounded by tinned food and blankets. Better to be prepared.
'Let's Kill Hitler' had all the ingredients of an episode I should have loved: River-centric, timey-wimey, snidey tongue-in-cheek about a famous dictator, great Rory lines, Matt Smith getting to be portentous and do Proper Acting, not too much Amy. But it just - well - gah. It just didn't work for me. Whereas the mid-series finale 'A Good Man Goes to War' was admittedly ridiculous, it was stylishly and entertainingly ridiculous, with its opening sequence of Rory's long overdue transformation into a badass, Victorian lesbian lizards and the Doctor's gleeful reveal from under the monk's hood, plus, of course, that preposterous piece of information about River Song's parentage. In contrast, I felt the pace of LKH smattered along somewhat awkwardly, lurching from banter to banter to heart-wringing death scenes all the while trying desperately to maintain the effortless cool of previous Moffat outings. Bute surely we can turn to that other staple of a grandiose Moffat episode, the resolution of a carefully plotted mystery?
Well, for an episode that was based around giving long-awaited answers, LKH seemed to be short on the actual revelations. I don't want to boast (well obviously I do) but either I'm getting smarter or the writers are getting lazy, because I saw every single twist in that episode coming from a mile off - I twigged that 'Mels' was River before she even opened her mouth because really, it's a series opener that's reunited Amy, Rory and the Doctor and a mysterious and exotic looking woman comes careering up in a fast car, plus we know River can regenerate. It's not exactly TARDIS rocket science. I guessed River would start trying to kill him. I guessed she would use up all her regenerations in saving him. I even guessed the lipstick was poisoned. (On a side note, I also totally guessed that Anton Lesser was the spy in The Hour.) Most likely is just that I've watched so much TV I can now smell clue-signposting a mile away. Or it could just be that there was nothing new in Let's Kill Hitler - it was simply a realisation of every piece of information that has been given away or hinted at so far. Let's review: at the end of last series we knew that Baby Melody had been stolen away to become programmed and trained as the incredibly strong six-year-old who busted out of the Astronaut suit in Day of the Moon and then promptly regenerated. We also knew that she would turn out to be ultimately good (and awesome) in the form of River Song. So - feel free to disagree - I feel a little cheated by an episode that does nothing more than say "Yes. That is correct. By the way, she was an annoying teenager for a bit in the middle as well." It was, I suppose, a necessary episode but I didn't think it was a particularly fun one.
However, despite my misgivings, Moffat has a particularly irrepressible genius and his talent at writing funny, sexy, sparkling Who shone through on several occasions: the whole Doctor/River battle of wits was beautifully executed (all that practice writing Sherlock is paying off, I see), and Rory just ran away with the best lines ("Get in the cupboard, Hitler.") Plus, I'm really starting to appreciate Rory and Amy's dynamic now that they're being allowed to function as a unit - Amy-and-Rory is much more fun than Just Amy. And Just Rory, come to think of it. I'd love to see more of that, and less of that self-aggrandising 'THIS IS EPIC' stuff. Although let's address one thing: Moffat has certainly beaten his record on the sheer amount amount of genderfail he managed to cram into 45 minutes. Off the top of my head, there was Mels' "I'm concentrating on a dress size", River running off to weigh herself as soon as she regenerated, the "I'm going shopping", the "plus, she's a woman", not to mention making River's whole career all about the Doctor. Not cool, and so very 90s sitcom.
So, Moffat, I'll cut you a deal. Let's just wrap up this whole Dead Doctor thing with whatever timey-wimey alternate-time-stream-River, Flesh avatar, Silence-involved solution you have up your sleeve, we'll all pat you on the back and say how clever you are and the whole thing can be better best forgotten, left to gather dust in the vaults of Who-lore. Then you'll go back to producing a series of finely-crafted individual gems of episodes with an intriguing but not overly intrusive series arc, and we'll say no more about it. Sound good? Great.
Gatiss' 'Night Terrors' was an altogether different beast and, as previously stated, far more enjoyable. Seeing as I'm now seriously behind with my Who homework, I'll be brief. I loved the theme of children's nightmares, plus all the opportunities for tongue-in-cheek, breaking-the-fourth-wall humour about the scariest place in the universe being a child's bedroom. Or, y'know, behind the sofa. Maybe after watching something on TV, say. For example, the adventures of a 900-year-old alien and his travelling companions. But that's just silly now.
Fine, so it didn't go that meta, but it was enough to tick my meta-lovin' boxes. With a little more hindsight, I can say that perhaps the episode wasn't stellar, merely solid, but I still got more viewing pleasure out of it that Moffat's. Viewing pleasure is something that Gatiss understands, a man self-confessedly raised by television: as a writer he's an expert on combining the creepy and the funny to create something blackly, rather than bleakly, comic. I hugely enjoyed his 'Crooked House' series (three horror stories set in the same house through time with an over-arching narrative in the present day to tie it all together), League of Gentlemen is unparalleled in its niche, and his episode of Sherlock was just about the best of the three. But famously he's never really written a good episode of Doctor Who. Until now, I say. (Actually, way back in Series 1 and 2 of NuWho, I quite liked 'The Unquiet Dead' and 'The Idiot's Lantern' but shh, don't tell anyone.) 'Night Terrors' was a sweet little vignette in Who-lore and a welcome break in the ongoing tsunami of the whole Dead Doctor saga. It won't win any awards but it was funny, genuinely touching (I admit, I shed a little tear) and just creepy enough to keep it in the territory of the Who we know and love.
So yeah, it did sort of seem to be crafted out of the leftover bits from 'The Empty Child', 'Fear Her' and every RTD-era story set in yet another council block but hey, Moffat's been borrowing from his own story lines so much that the whole structural integrity of the show has been compromised, so I'll overlook this. And like I said, a good episode, not a great one but with enough real heart to it that I enjoyed it more than Moffat's showing off.
If it sounds like I've done a 180 degree turn on Moffat, I really haven't. I still think he's a fundamentally better writer than Russell T Davies and his ideas for the show are more exciting and genuinely ambitious. But he's also fallen prey to his own ego. There's a danger in being the kid that watched the show when he was seven and said "I'm going to run that when I grow up": on some level, he's still the child playing with his action figures in his bedroom. Sadly, action figures aren't believable, engaging characters and the convoluted sagas that seven year olds spin to amuse themselves are not gripping plots. It's not the end of the world for the show and it certainly isn't OMG RUINED FOREVER, but the skeptical reserve I expressed way back at the start of the series is still skeptical and reserved. I've got four more episodes to be impressed in and I really want to be.
In my opinion, then, the series resumes a little lost and a little misogynistic. My diagnosis: there's still light at the end of the time vortex.
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