Doctor Who 10x03: Thin Ice

Structurally, Series Ten has played it safe, following the present-future-past triptych of other companion introductions. Bill has seen the present and the future. Now she gets to see the past.
This episode's writer, Sarah Dollard, earned great acclaim writing Face the Raven. This time around she shows us a new era for televised Doctor Who; the regency era. More specifically, we get to see a London Frost Fair.

In Dollard's tale, the Frost Fair is connected to a creature lurking beneath the depths of the Thames
This creature is being exploited by the evil Lord Sutcliffe, who uses the Fair to lure humans to the Thames so the creature can eat them. The creatures' waste matter is then refined into fuel. This premise is similar to The Beast Below only this time around the human villain, Lord Sutcliffe, actually gets comeuppance for his actions, unlike Hawthorne of The Beast Below who was allowed to get away scot free after feeding humans to a Star Whale. Another improvement over a previous story is that  there are no double standards regarding the victims of the beast. Although the Thames beast is not intentionally evil, it cannot distinguish between adult or child victims and eats them both for its own survival. There is no sense in this story, unlike The Beast Below, where sparing children over adults is seen as more acceptable. Both are reprehensible and Sarah Dollard has succeeded where Steven Moffat introduced skewy morality.

Although the plot was average, the character development of the Doctor and Bill was where this episode really excelled. Bill gets to see a darker side to her travels as she actually sees someone die as well as facing some racism from the aristocracy. She also has her first confrontational argument with the Doctor. Unlike in Series 8, this argument is over in a minute and the Doctor gets a chanceto show that deep down he really does care about urchins. The Doctor gets a cheesy speech but it is all but forgotten about and we can move on to a decent climax.

Pearl Mackie continues to impress as she portrays the serious side to Bill Potts. She sells the grieving of Bill when Spider dies and successfully shows anger when she is facing off against the Doctor. In turn, Peter Capaldi can switch from funny Doctor to angry Doctor in almost a blink of an eye.

Doctor Who is meant to be watched by children yet child characters tend to get a mixed response from viewers of the show. I would say this gang of street urchins include Spider, Dot, Harriet, Dowell and Perry are less annoying than some kids that have been on the show. Their resourcefulness and cunning is emphasized over trying to make them too sweet. Dot may be cute but it belies her thieving persona. I am glad the production team were bold enough to let Spider die. As with the plot being similar to Beast Below, these kids feel similar to the ones from The Empty Child. It makes you woner how much of the splot was Dollard;'s and how much was suggested by Steven.

As is usual for these kinds of productions, the  historical setting  is well presented.  Michael Pickwoad can be recommended for his really good job at doing the set for the Frost Fair and it is all very well directed by Bill Anderson. This episode also proves that costume designer, Hayley Nebauer can do a fantastic job. The first episode was on modern  day Earth and the second only had a few humans at the end. With the Regency period, Nebauer can show off her talents. Bill gets a lovely feathered hat and the villain gets a glorious blue coat, showing his wealth. The music by Murray Gold is perhaps less interesting this week, but since everything else excells, this is not a problem.

With so much of the story focused on Bill and the Doctor, Nardole gets relegated to a couple of scenes at the very end with more hints as to the occupant of the vault. We get more of a hint that Nardole is not too happy with being the Doctor's servant. When the thing inside starts knocking, we get a glimpse of Nardole's mettle when he tells off the thing in the vault. One wonders if he willbe so brave when the thing is actually released. The evidence so far suggests that this thing will be Missy or the Master.

Thin Ice is unlikely to go down as a classic story. There are just a few too many recycled elements to make it stand out above other adventures. Nevertheless it does accomplish the task of settling Bill in rather well. Now that she has settled in we will hopefully go to more interesting locations. I for one it will be very interested in seeing where she, the Doctor and Nardole go next.

7/10

Oliver (1968)

I recently got a chance to watch the 1968 musical version of Oliver. Your liking of this film will probably depend on your preference for musicals. I've never liked these sanitised versions of Charles Dickens' work. From what I've heard, Oliver is a pretty popular film, although having seen it, there are other versions of Charles Dicken's classic tale that I think I would prefer more.

The film follows Oliver after he is kicked out of a work house and forced to go to London. He runs into Fagin and his gang. He soon meets a man who turns out to be a distant relative.

The cast are all suited to the roles.  As if often the case with these productions, Oliver seems a little well nourished for a child who was supposedly growing up in a workhouse. Nevertheless, Mark Lester is adequate for this particular incarnation of the character. The best characters are the villains Ron Moody is good as Fagin and Jack Wild as the Artful Dodger. Harry Seacombe is perfectly cast as Mr Bumble.

Oliver is one of the reasons I'm not a big fan of the musicals. The songs go on for slightly too long and they tend to get boring very quickly. I found myself checking the time more than once. Still, although the songs are bit on the long side, they are least catchy and the lyrics will stick in your mind. John Green's should be congratulated for his good composition. Having said that, they were well performed. We get a real sense of scale with many performers on the same sets.

If you're a fan of musicals you should check Oliver out. It's a well made production even if it isn't my personal cup of tea. If you want something close to Dickens' source material then I would stick with the David Lean adaption. It may be in black and white but it treats the source material better. Of course this is only an opinion. Should this musical ever be on again, you might as well check it out for yourself.

6/10

Doctor Who 10x02: Smile

Over the years, Frank Cottrell-Boyce has written a number of significant works including the 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony, directed by Danny Boyle.  He has also won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize for The Unforgotten Coat. Frank's reputation did not seem to impress Doctor Who fans as his Series 8 episode, In the Forest of the Night, received a lukewarm response  and often languishes at the lower end of the episode ranking polls. Nevertheless, Steven Moffat appreciated the author’s work enough to bring him back to write Bill’s second episode, Smile.  

In the Forest of the Night was all about man's relationship with nature. Smile explores the notion of artificial intelligence and how it can develop or go wrong.  On a distant planet, man-made robots have been constructing a new colony to house the last survivors of the human race.  These robots are called the Vardies, tiny construction robots that look a like a swarm of bees or a starling cloud. The city walls are literally made out of them. Their interfaces are called Emojibots, tasked with maintaining happiness levels of the human colonists. Over time the robots’ intelligence and understanding of how to maintain happiness has expanded. The single death of a human colonist causes grief to spread across the colony, forcing the Emojibots to kill each unhappy human in turn. It’s a situation that the Doctor compares with the fairy tale of Magic Haddock, a creature that grants wishes but does not have the capacity to understand the meaning behind them. Ultimately the Doctor reboots the robots intelligence and leaves them with the surviving colonists to make peace and build a better future. It may not work but it’s their best chance. This is a story about hope rather than grim certainty. 

The Colony City was filmed on location in Valencia and it looks spectacular.  The tinted colour of the sky and the crops outside makes the planet look gorgeous. Buildings are painted clinical white while the under-levels are more practical, with pipes and gauges. . The over-city is a triumph. It’s nice to have a sci-fi location that looks aesthetically pleasing. The Colony ship is a little more traditionally grungy. This rusting industrial look was fresh when films like Alien were released but it has become as clichéd as the designs it was intended to replace. The atmosphere is complemented by Murray Gold’s soundtrack, which uses a lot of synths. Lawrence Gough continues to prove himself as a decent director with his realisation of this location. The helicopter shots of Bill and the Doctor running through the cornfields give the whole thing a sense of scale. 

For a large portion of the story, the only characters we see are the Doctor and Bill, are exploring the seemingly deserted, colony, evading robots and uncovering secrets. It’s good to see that the focus on character development from The Pilot is carried through to here. We see all of Bill’s reactions to her first journey into the future. Along the way she learns why the Doctor is staying on Earth, and discovers how he likes to interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets. Pearl Mackie is continuing to be an absolute delight. It’s nice to see the reactions of the companion after they were glossed over in Amy and Clara’s time.  I liked it when Bill asked the Doctor how much the Tardis cost. No companion has ever asked that before. 

Peter Capaldi's Doctor continues to show a range of emotions to Bill. He shows righteous aggression when he tries to blow up the Colony before he realises there are still humans there. He later shows regret for this. He ultimately finds the peaceful solution, even when compromise is called for and seems very polite and friendly when he's talking to the Emojibots.  He still refers to himself as Bill’s tutor and it’s a role that suits this older Doctor very well. We fans are lucky to have Peter Capaldi on this show. 

The robots are well designed. The Vardies look like a starling cloud that you might find by a pier whereas The Emoji bots have a nice smooth and clinical design. Cute but deadly, like the Quarks were supposed to be in The Dominators. Their tendency to kill people who don’t smile back is similar to the Happiness Patrol soldiers from The Happiness Patrol. and the concept of them turning the bones of the preparation team into fertiliser is similar to Soylent Green. Their smooth joins makes them look similar to the Handbots from The Girl Who Waited, who were also malfunctioning tech. It really has become an overused trope. 

The only other human characters are the preparation team at the beginning and the revived colonists at the end. This cast includes Ralph Little as the gun totting ‘Steadfast’ and Mina Anwar as ‘Goodthing’.  Their odd names are never spoken in the episode, but they’re better than the kinds of names you used to get in sci-fi like ‘Zardon’ or ‘Gorfax’.  The actors are effective but the roles barely quality as characters. They serve their plot function as generic representatives of humanity, and do not develop beyond that. Their appearance is all too fleeting to be memorable. 

Another character who makes a fleeting appearance is that of Nardole, who only appears near the beginning to try and stop the Doctor leaving the world. It serves the plot function of revealing Bill that the Doctor is meant to be guarding the vault on Earth. Otherwise it feels almost like a standard contractual appearance. Hopefully we’ll see more of him when the Tardis returns to contemporary Earth. I did like the little line  he had that he won't stoop to serving humans. 

As I’ve noted before, aspects of this episode seem to  have been derived from stories in the original series. The focus on the Doctor and Bill exploring the city was reminiscent of The Ark in Space while the robots tendancy to maintain happiness is similar to The Happiness Patrol. It’s unlikely that Frank Cottrell Boyce has spent much time watching these stories but perhaps the production team were too nervous of annoying a writer of his reputation by steering him away from old concepts. One call-back I did like, was the throw forward at the end of the episode The Doctor and Bill emerge from the Tardis to find themselves on the Thames, with an  Elephant in front of them. This kind of scene felt like a nice call-back to the next time cliffhangers of the William Hartnell era. It may or may not have been intentional but it was still fun to have. 

Smile is a pretty decent episode. It's not without its faults as the idea of alien tech that needs reprogramming feels incredibly stale but it has some good moments. I can’t speak for every fan but I’d imagine that this episode will end up being more popular than Frank Cottrell Boyce’s previous episode. It's not as innocent as the other tale and there are creepy ideas, like the Emojibots using human remains for fertilizer. Overall, this is decent enough that it will put a smile on your face. 

7/10

Watership Down (1978)

John Hurt became reknown for playing a number of great roles in the 70s from Caligula in I Claudius to a prisoner in Midnight Express. Even a smaller role, like Kane in Alien made him famous to fans of science fiction. It's therefore quite surprising to find that around the same time, he voiced a cartoon rabbit called Hazel in this animated adaption of Richard Adams' Watership Down.

Hazel is the leader a group of rabbits attempting to flee from their warren after one of their kind, Fiver, has a premonition of the warren being torn down by humans. These rabbits, including the fighter Bigwig, attempt to find a new and better hovel on a hill.

The book contains some of the nice worldbuilding from Richard Adams' book. The rabbits worship 'Frith' and the black rabbit is the vision of death.Their warren has ranks including the Ossler, the police of the group.

Don't let the fact that this is a cartoon fool you as this is definitely not a film for very young children. This film shows the harsh reality for the rabbits attempting to survive in the wild countryside. As the rabbits search for a new home, they face snares, gun wielding farmers, vicious dogs, and an aggressive rabbit warren whose members, under the control of General Woundwort, will go as far to tear a traitor's ears off. Some of the rabbits become traumatized by the threats facing them. I admire the fact that this film doesn't sugar coat the harsh realities that animals must face.

The voice actors are all good, playing the rabbits in their normal voices instead of giving them hitch pitched or silly voices because it is a cartoon. There are a number of famous British actors here, including Richard Briers as Fiver, and Roy Kinnear as Pipkin.

The soundtrack, provided by Art Garfunkel, including the infamous 'Bright Eyes'.

Even if you are not a fan of animation, I would say that this film is well worth watching for one afternoon. A very good achievement.

9/10

Doctor Who 10x01: The Pilot

The challenge for any production team is to get new viewers interested in their show. The longer a series goes on for, the more backstory and continuity it develops. Every so often it’s good for a show to go back to basics, making things more accessible for new viewers and remind the older viewers what they liked about the series in the first place. Some franchises choose to ‘reboot’ their series, resetting the characters to how they were in their first appearance. Others may reintroduce the world through the eyes of a new character. The latter approach is used in The Pilot.  Steven Moffat uses the introduction of Bill reintroduce the key aspects of the Doctor Who lore.

It’s been almost a year since Bill was introduced in A Friend from the Future. We saw that she was sassy and spoke her mind, but The Pilot gives us a sense of her background. She is shown to be working in the Canteen at St Luke’s University in Bristol, a menial job making us sympathetic to her. She is has a sense of curiosity enough to attend lectures of an eccentric Professor, known as the Doctor. We also discover that she has a love-hate relationship with her stepmother, Moira. Bill also has a crush on girls. This is already far more than we knew about Clara in her first appearance. We knew nothing of Clara’s family and it was unclear how she could be making a living as a nanny to the Maitlands. Bill’s more grounded existence is a welcome change.

The approach to straightforward storytelling is demonstrated in the pre-titles sequence with Nardole letting Bill into an office for a meeting with the Doctor. This first conversation establishes straight away that Bill is working at the University as a caterer at St Luke’s University and the fact that the Doctor is also working there as a tutor. The Doctor has noticed Bill at his lectures and decided to become her tutor. It is as if she is being interviewed for the role of a new companion. It is nice that Moffat cuts to the chase and gives us this first meeting. There is none of the jumping through time zones like The Impossible Astronaut or Asylum of the Daleks.

Where previous companion introductions occurred over the course of a day, the first act of The Pilot spans many months, as Bill regularly attends the Doctor’s tutor meetings. During this time the script establishes Bill’s family situation as well as developing her crush on Heather. Through Bill’s eyes we also discover a bit more about what the Doctor is doing at the University. Bill discovers that the Doctor and Nardole are hiding something in a vault in the campus basement. The price of all this character development is that the first act has quite a slow place. The mystery is gradually developing but there is no actual threat to our protagonists. In Rose there were enough attacks by Autons to keep the audience interested. Here we have to hope that audiences didn’t drift away before anything interesting happened.

It is only twenty minutes in when Bill faces an alien threat that poses a danger to her. Her friend, Heather is absorbed into the puddle of alien oil and comes back as a dripping wet zombie intent on pursuing Bill. This zombified Heather looks like one of the flood zombies from The Waters of Mars and repeats phrases back to people, like the monster in Midnight. It’s hardly the most original monster though Stephanie Hyam looks suitably creepy in the role.

Bill’s only hope is to take refuge with the Doctor, leading to her obligatory introduction to the Tardis. The new girl is a little slower than previous ones to clock on to the Tardis’ nature, thinking of it as a lift or a kitchen before reaching the ‘bigger-on-the-inside’ realisation. Some fans may be tired of these kinds of introductions but they are important for new audiences. It’s been four years since a companion introduction so it’s very welcome here.

The Doctor and Bill use the Tardis to lure Heather away from contemporary Earth, leading them into the nasty looking Dalek/Movellan war, tying the episode together with Bill’s first introduction in A Friend from the Future. It wasn’t particularly necessary to this story and it does feel as if the Daleks were shoehorned in to get their introduction out of the way.  Still, it was nice to see the Movellans back after 47 years.  Maybe one day soon those disco robots could get an adventure of their own. Get on it Chris Chibnall!

It is in the middle of this war that the Doctor is able to deduce the reason why Heather is pursuing Bill. The alien puddle was actually a spaceship and Heather has become its pilot. Heather wants to take Bill with her as a passenger. It’s very similar to the threat in The Lodger. Still, it means that Heather can act as a mirror to the Doctor. They are both pilots, offering Bill all of time and space. Heather wants to invite Bill regardless of the danger. The Doctor doesn’t want to endanger Bill but takes her anyway. Bill does resolve to let Heather go, a sad resolution, if a little straightforward.

Even after all that’s happened, the Doctor still does not want Bill to go with him on the account of a promise. Preferring to mind wipe her and continue to guard the vault and keep a promise. It was a great moment when Bill fought against the Doctor mind-wiping her, and a nice hint that the Doctor still cares about Clara.  It seems that Steven Moffat really did not like the Donna mindwipe from Journey’s End as this is the second time he’s had a someone refute this. This time around, the Doctor spares Bill’s memory and concedes to let her travel in time and space with her.

Peter Capaldi is superb as the Doctor. There is a hint of the darker series eight persona when he tries to mind-wipe Bill, but the lighter touches of Series 9 are still in evidence, like his strumming a guitar and bringing Bill pictures of her deceased mother back from the past. Steven Moffat has a few digs at his endearing run. Seeing him back as the Doctor reminds me of why I don’t want him to go.  He has been one of the best. Whoever his successor turns out to be, they’ll be no match for him.

Pearl Mackie is the perfect casting choice for the role of Bill and this episode allows her to show off a range of emotions from fear of danger, to laughter to anger. I really hope this will not be her only series.

With the focus on the Doctor and Bill, Nardole was relegated to a supporting role. He seems to have become the new K9, following the Doctor close behind and assisting with the technical issues. He does at least get one good character moment near the end when he tries to comfort Bill something the Doctor prefers not to do. Hopefully Matt Lucas will get a chance to expand on the character when Bill settles in.

Lawrence Gough’s direction of this episode was pretty good. It was hard to get an impression of his talents from, A Friend from the Future, since it was a cheaply made mini-episode, cobbled together in a week. Here, with more time, Lawrence has succeeded in making The Pilot look spectacular. The Dalek-Movellan war looks far more exciting, with flames and Movellans being thrown around.  The dialogue from Friend from the Future was quite sensibly cut down to increase the tension. There is a lot of colour in this episode and the photography is superb.

The composer, Murray Gold, should be congratulated for coming up with another splendid companion theme, this time for Bill. Some older scores are used, but they help to punctuate the emotions in those scenes. Clara’s theme plays when the Doctor is remembering her and the Twelfth Doctor’s theme plays when he springs into action. It’s annoying that a Series Nine soundtrack has still not been released. I hope they correct this and release a Series Ten one.

This episode leaves viewers with one big question. What is inside the Doctor’s vault? Will it be an incarnation of the Doctor himself? Perhaps it will be the John Simm Master. Hopefully the answer will be a satisfying one. We’ve also got Emoji Robots, an Ice Lady, the return of Missy and the return of the Mondassian Cybermen to look forward to. It is also possible that Bill will meet Heather again. This episode is certainly a more tantalising opener than The Magician’s Apprentice and The Witches Familiar turned out to be. The Doctor, Bill and Nardole look alike a great and team and I can hardly wait to see their adventures ahead.

8/10

Happy Easter!

Just to say that I hope that anyone who happens to be reading this blog today is having a happy Easter day 2017. As cheesy as it sounds, keep your family and friends close to you.

Jumanji (1995)

22 years after the original film's release, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle will be coming out later this year. It features Dwayne Johnson and Karen Gillian and appears to be very loosely connecetd to the original film. Time will tell whether this sequel is any good but the original film is certainly worth watching to pass an hour or two.

The title, Jumanji,  is the name of a mystical, jungle-themed board game. In 1969, Alan Parrish discovers the game and plays it with his friend, Sarah Whittle. The game has strange powers and Alan is sucked right into it. 26 years later, and the Parrish household is occupied by a woman and two orphaned siblings, Judy and Peter. Judy and Peter discover the Jumanji board game in the attic. They play the game, freeing Alan. After adapting to the new time period, Alan and the kids locate the adult Sarah Whittle. Together, the four players attempt to finish the game. Every move results in more animals breaking out into the real world along, as well as  a human big game hunter, Van Pelt, who is out to get Alan.

If there's any theme to this film then it's one of facing ones fear. Jumanji is a game which lends players the chance to escape the world. Alan's journey into the jungle allows him to escape from the reality of is life. But it is ultimately shown to be better to return to it.  It's very similar to Wizard of Oz, which gets referenced in the film. Robin Williams' Alan must face the issues with his long dead father as well as facing down Van Pelt, who is played by the same actor as his father, a similar to the Judy Garland Wizard of Oz.

There's quite a few fun set-pieces spread throughout the film. The mosquito attack is quite threatening and the animals stampeding through the house is fun to watch. Alan's fight with a lion is also quite good. The scene in the supermarket feels a little slapstick, but it was fine up to that point. Some of the CGI, such as that around the monkeys, feels primitive by today's standards. The hair on the monkeys being the obvious. But the film never feels too hampered by this.

Robin Williams is good as you would expect of him in the role of Alan Parrish, capturing the vulnerability of the character, a boy in an adult's body. The character of Sarah is effectively played by Bonnie Hunt, even if she comes across as a little bit screechy and neurotic at times at times.

The two kids are pretty good too. Kirsten Dunst is effective in her early role as Judy and Bradley Pierce is decent as Peter.  They are certainly watchable as kid actors. Not cloyingly sweet or too irritatingly rebellious.

Overall this was quite a good film. James Horner certainly provided a decent soundtrack. I'm not sure the sequel will live up to expectations but at least it will not dent the original.

8/10

He Returns... (Doctor Who Spoilers)

Doctor Who fans got a pleasant surprise when it was officially revealed that John Simm will be reprising the role of the Master in one of the upcoming episode of Series Ten. It has been more than seven years after his last appearance in The End of Time Part Two. His version of the Master was the perfect foil for David Tennant's Doctor; a slightly zany young man whose sense of humour is often mask a with which to hide his true intelligence. The scenes between the Doctor and Master were often a highlight of those episodes, just as the Twelfth Doctor and Missy scenes are in the current area.

I'm finding myself more excited about this than I am about the return of the Daleks or the Cybermen. The longer gaps between appearances often make a returning character or plot point seem more exciting. The return of Davros in Series Nine really should have been given more focus than his creations, or even Missy. I certainly never expected John Simm to return, as I'd assumed he'd put that role behind him. I'm glad I've been proved wrong.

It will be interesting to see how this older Master is integrated into the Peter Capaldi era and what role he plays. The BBC press statement indicated that he would be meeting up face-to-face with the female incarnation, Missy.  A story of 'The Two Masters' sounds like a very fan indulgent episode but it could still be made to work. We've had episodes with multiple Doctors, or multiple types of Daleks, and they worked well enough It will be interesting to see how the Master responds to the Peter Capaldi Doctor, or even his female incarnation. Will Missy accept him? Will we finally see the regeneration of John Simm's Master into Missy? And what will his Master make of Bill and Nardole if he meets them? There's a lot of questions and I'm excited to discover the answers.

It won't be too long before the new series returns, and with all the announcements, it's certainly looking like it will be a good one.