Sunday, 24 April 2016

New Companion: Pearl Mackie


The months of speculation as to the identity of the new Doctor Who companion are finally over. The mini episode, Friend from the Future was broadcast yesterday on Match of the Day Live during half-time and revealed that Pearl Mackie will be joining Peter Capaldi's Doctor as 'Bill', in Series 10.

Introducing the new companion in the middle of a football match is certainly one of more unusual stunts that the publicity team has pulled. It's good to see Doctor Who being promoted during a mainstream sporting event although I suspect that by the time the next series is actually broadcast, most casual viewers will have forgotten who the new companion is. Still, the same could be said of the long wait until Matt Smith's introduction, and this was worth it to see all the tweets from fans who were angry at having to watch a sport they hate. Better for a wider promotion than just on the internet or Comic Con. 

The advantage of this three minute sequence meant that we catch a glimpse Pearl Mackie's acting as well as hearing the accent she will bring to the character. One could say the character is quite glib, but this is only a small fragment of a larger series. The name is also curious. Is 'Bill' short for Billie or some other unusual name? It's also the only time until possibly Class when we will see Peter Capaldi's in action. I think I preferred this to a bland interview in which the actor evades answering any questions. 

In the end, fans have no reason to think Pearl Mackie will be better or worse than her successors. While I was hoping it would be Rakhee Thakrar, as the rumours suggested, I am not disappointed at this choice. Pearl Mackie may not be a household name, it is exciting to see a young actor suddenly step into a big franchise and become a bigger name. There a lot of questions. Is she a modern companion or not? Does she have a family? Is she only staying for Steven Moffat's last series or will she carry over to the Chris Chibnall era? I look forward to finding out answers to these questions in the coming months. 

Friday, 22 April 2016

Film Watch: Metropolis (1927)


Metropolis is the story of Freder Frederson, the son of industrialist Jon Frederson, who runs Metropolis. Jon meets the mysterious young woman, Mariah, and follows her into the lower depths of the undercity. There he discovers the exploited workers who suffer in order to kee his father's city working.  Mariah appears before the people and promises a 'mediator' who will forge communication between the workers and the industrialists.

Upon discovering this, Jon Frederson approaches the scientist Rotwang, who has invented a machine man. Jon gets Rotwang to transform his machine man into a version of Mariah. This fake Mariah causes the workers to rise up and destroy Metropolis. Freder rescues the real Mariah, helps to quell the revolution and, unsurprisingly, becomes the mediator between his father and the workers.

The film carries with it a fairly obvious theme of workers exploited by big businessman. The revolution is shown to be a bad thing and at the end of the day, the businessman is allowed to live with no recriminations. It can feel a little mawkish at times, but it's still a relevant message.

This film took many months to make and the effort definitely shows int he final product. There is a great abundance of stunning studio locations, from the recreational park at the beginning, the steam ridden hellish world of the undercity to other things. Mariah's retelling of the tower of babel story is also a fairly interesting scene, The Machine Man is a striking creation and would go on to influence the design of C-3PO in 1977's Star Wars. There is also a wonderful dream like quality to the film with Rotwang's house feeling bigger on the inside with various doors that open and close of their own accord.

Given that this is a silent film, the characters are, by necessity, very broad so that their personalities are clear to the audience. Freder is the ernest and emotional young man, Jon is the cold hearted industrialist. Rotwang is a fairly typical mad scientist. Mariah could be seen as interesting in leading the people, but she is kidnapped and replaced by  he machine man, the real Mariah becomes a damsel in distress to be rescued by the male characters.

9/10

Monday, 4 April 2016

Class: Details Revealed


With the long gap until the next series films, there's been a drought of news in the world of Doctor Who. This changed today with the reveal of the cast of Class just before it went into production.


Greg Austin, Fady Elsayed, Vivian Oprah and Sophie Hopkins have been cast as Coal Hill sixth formers while Katherine Kelly has been cast as one of their teacher. A few of these names had already started to leak out in rumours but it was nice to have them confirmed. I can't say I've seen anything with these actors in before. The four 'sixth formers might look a little old for mid teens, but hopefully their acting talent will compensate for this.

According to the main article, one of the characters will be an alien who was hidden on Earth by a time traveler for their safety. Not only will this alien have to deal with school life but also with the aliens who have pursued them to Earth. It seems obvious that this 'time traveller' will be the Doctor, that is unless scriptwriter, Patrick Ness, decide to wrong foot us and have it be Missy instead. The Doctor would be the better choice. He is more likely to want to protect someone and it would be great to have Peter Capaldi guest star in one of the episodes.

Steven Moffat has described the show as being a 'British Buffy'. With  a cast four students and a teacher it certainly fits the model of the first three series of Buffy which had Buffy, Xander, Willow, Cordelia and Giles. How the characters will be similar or different it is hard to say. Whether the teacher will be a mentor for fighting aliens or simply a guide imparting real life lessons it's hard to say. It will certainly be interesting to see the Buffy format updated to include modern teenage issues.

While the show's connection to Doctor Who still feels tenuous, I feel strangely optimistic about it. Patrick Ness' twitter feed shows that he is strongly opinionated on certain issues, which might make for a compelling show. Hopefully this will be a successful spin that stays around for a while.