Doctor Who 10x07: The Pyramid at the End of the World

Peter Harness’ previous Doctor Who stories were about the triumph of optimism and discovery over cynicism. Toward the end, a character would be required to make a decision, and that decision would ultimately be beneficial to the human race. Kill the Moon ended with Clara choosing not to destroy the Moon and it was soon replaced by a new one causing humanity to re-engage with space travel. Harness’ next story, The Zygon Inversion concluded with the Zygon criminal, Bonnie being forgiven by the Doctor and in turn, she attempts to redeem herself by becoming a defender of the Earth as the new Osgood.

The Pyramid at the End of the World is a marked contrast in that the decision made near the end of the episode will have negative consequences for humanity. Bill makes the decision to surrender control of Earth to the Monks if they restore the Doctor’s eyesight so he can save himself from a biological disaster. The Monks do so, and although the world is still around, humanity has to adapt to a new set of masters. Ultimately there was never any chance of a good ending.

The story adopts the tone of a political thriller as the Doctor resumes his mantle of the President of the World and teams up with the UN Secretary General and soldiers from the three major powers in orer to investigate a Pyramid which has materialised in the fictional nation of Turmezistan. As with many a thriller we get a reference to air strikes and submarine missile launches which makes the episode feel like a callback to The Zygon Invasion. It’s a shame that this time around, none of the soldiers or politicians are given any kind of a personality. They are there simply to be killed and demonstrate how the concession to the monks must be done with honesty. It did seem strange that UNIT weren't involved in this scenario, but perhaps Moffat and Harness wanted to avoid Kate or Osgood being killed off by the Monks.

The Monks have used their simulation technology to predict what will end the world but they will only help if the humans consent. The Doctor is determined to work out the threat and eliminate it. The problem is are so many possibilities that  it would be hard to pinpoint one.  The threat could be a nuclear attack, islamic terrorism, or climate change, the list could go on.

While all of this is going on we get the developing story of the biological laboratory. We, as viewers, can easily guess that this is going to be the cause of the world’s destruction. The two lab scientists are the characters here. Erica is a good character. Douglas is well played by Tony Gardner but he is pretty much written as an idiot, hungover and carelessly allowing biological material to break out of the lab and kill him. Erica was great,  and well played by Rachel Denning. In her very first scene we see that she is absent minded and also has a partner. That’s more than we learn about the soldier ciphers. She proves to be useful to the Doctor when she shuts down the lab. The Doctor even wanted her to become a companion. I suspect she won’t be back next episode but I certainly wouldn’t have minded her becoming a genuine companion.

The Monks are interesting opponents even if their backstory is a little nebulous. Their corpse-like appearance is based on how they see humans, which is an interesting and creepy concept. They have a vast range of powers, with the technology to pluck weapons out of the air and teleport in the place of their enemies.

The notion that they need consent for control is interesting. Love is consent which is true in relationships.  Now that they have conquered the world it will be fascinating to see what their notion of the world will be. Who will benefit from this new society and who will not.

The Doctor in a position of weakness for most of this story. His eyesight gone he is choosing rash action for attacking the pyramid. His selfish and illogical decision to not tell Bill about his blindness really pays off here as he is now trapped. Peter Capaldi continues to be brilliant.

Nardole gets to show off a wider range of skills and emotions. He is the one who chooses the peaceful solution that the Doctor would normally go for and helping the Doctor to work out what the source of the world’s destruction might be. Matt Lucas is proving to be adept at these more dramatic moments although it is still unclear what Nardole actually is. The Doctor claims to have bought him lungs so is he a cyborg or an android? This is something I really wish would get cleared up unless there is a good reason for keeping this a secret from the audience.

Bill is on the side-lines for much of the episode. Her character was a little out of place in a political thriller, but she does at least get to be the one who makes the major decision to consent to the monks’ control. Now that the writers established Bill as a decent companion, they can give her more nuances by having her make a wrong decision or argue openly with the Doctor. It is her compassion and love for the Doctor that ultimately leads to her consent. It will be interesting to how whether this affects her relationship with the Doctor. It was nice to see her go on another date with Penny but this is put on hold again with the invasion of the UN Secretary General. Hopefully this series will conclude with her and Penny getting together for real.

Daniel Nettheim’s direction in this episode was good. I also have to complement Murray Gold for music was well implemented in the episode. The James Bond style theme from Extremis was reused here but it felt more suited to this global thriller notion than the Dan Brown conspiracy thriller.

Both Pyramid and Extremis stretched a fairly short plot across forty five minutes and yet Pyramid was more satisfying to watch. This is because its events were actually having an impact on our lead characters. The story was very talky, but this suited the idea of slow and building tension, that Harness was going for. In the end this was a solid story and hopefully the next episode, The Lie of the Land, will build on these ideas in a satisfactory way.

8/10

Forty Years of Star Wars

Today is the fortieth anniversary of the Star Wars franchise. I became a fan during the twentieth anniversary when A New Hope was re-released in its 1997 special edition format. The unconvincing Jabba the Hutt has always been part of the Star Wars to me.

The thirtieth anniversary was a little more forgettable. The conclusion to prequel trilogy had led most people my age to start treating the franchise with disdain. I didn't hate those films but there was a lot of potential in them that the finished product didn't live up to. It was a a bit of a sad time to be a fan, even if the spin-off media continued.

Now, fans of Star Wars are able to see that the franchise is moving on to bigger and better things. There is an upcoming Han Solo film and Episode VIII is due to be released in cinemas later this year. Things are looking hopeful for the saga.

RIP Roger Moore

I was sad to hear that Roger Moore passed away. He is most known for playing Simon Templar in The Saint and, even more obviously, as James Bond in the main United Artists series.

Roger Moore's depiction of Bond was the third Bond I saw, after Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan. His performance was certainly a departure from Connery's but he made Bond his own. I would say that the  best film he starred in was The Spy Who Loved Me but his best performance was in For Your Eyes Only where Bond got to mentor Melina Havelock on the notion of revenge, mourn Tracy Bond and show a ruthless streak when he kicks a car off the edge of the cliff which has the villanous Locque trapped inside it.

Roger Moore was also known for his work outside of acting, becoming a Unicef ambassador and helping out with other causes. He has contributed a lot and will be missed.

Doctor Who 10x06: Extremis

The trouble with reviewing Extremis is that it is really just a prelude to the next episode. The episode confirms that Missy is the person inside the vault and also introduces the sinister Monks but the ramifications of these revelations will not be felt until the following episode.

For the entirety of the episode, the Doctor is sitting outside the vault, on guard. The reveal that Missy is inside the vault is presented in flashback sequences wich show the Doctor and Nardole, fresh from their River Song relationship, rescuing Missy from a planet of executioners before bringing her into the vault. These scenes imply that the Doctor and Narole must have already been looking after the vault during the events of The Return of Dr Mysterio.  In these flashbacks we get to see more of Missy's vulnerable side when she begs the Doctor to let her live if she follows the path of righteousness. Whether she is sincere in this remains to be seen. Whether there is anything or anyone else inside the vault remains to be seen, but this certainly advances the story arc.

The rest of the episode revolves around a recording from a digital world sent by a digital Doctor to the real Doctor. This world is being run as a simulation for the Monks to test an alien invasion. Inside the digital world, a book called the Veritas has been translated and reveals the artificiality of the world. The Catholics have already killed themselves, shortly followed by the CERN and the President of the United States. The Doctor, Bill and Nardole spend the adventure trying to locate the Veritas to understand the reason why people are committing suicide.

The last time the show involved the Catholic Church was in The Massacre. Now we have the modern Pope who is much of a celebrity guest as Charles Dickens in The Unquiet Dead or Richard Nixon was in The Impossible Astronaut. He is more of a plot device than a character, a means of involving the Doctor in this adventure. The other major Catholic character is Father Angelo, the go-between, who is a straightforward character.

They go to a place where ancient books of a heretical nature are held. This decent looking location is pretty similar to Underhenge of The Pandorica Opens or the Under Gallery from The Day of the Doctor. They soon find that the Crypt is filled with red robed creatures called Monks who are also evil as evil. They look creepy with their corpse like faces and red wrath robes but they have little personality as of yet.

Nardole and Bill find a portal to CERN where they find out what the Veritas actually is. The world is fake. Every seemingly random action is actually planned in advance. It is like the Matrix, and videogame references are abound, a rarely explored genre for Doctor Who.

Nardole disappears an Bill goes to the White House where the Doctor has realised the truth. He has decided not to be a little byte of data and will email the real Doctor. This whole adventure has been a message to the real Doctor all along. The scenario is somewhat similar to one that Joss Whedon and his writing team posited in Angel. If our existence is meaningless then what we do is meaningful.

With a very plot focused episode, Bill feels more like a generic companion this week. We do get to see her on a date with a girl called Penny. The scene of her finding the Pope and the Catholic Priests in her bedroom is a funny sequence to bring the Doctor into the adventure, even if it is somewhat reminiscent of Clara being called away from a date by a Spaceman in Listen. As Bill joins the adventure we get the interesting fact that the Doctor does not tell Bill that he is now blind because it will be true.

One companion who does benefit from this story is Nardole. He is the Doctor’s conscience who reminds the Doctor why he is pretending not to be blind. He is also secretly a badass and is quicken the uptake in all things. He is the first of the two companions to work out that the world is an illusion. The character has truly grown to be a force equal to his two compatriots.

The digital Doctor is generally withdrawn for most of this adventure, reluctant to let anyone know his weakness. Blindness is not a complete impediment for the Time Lord. The sonic sunglasses which give him vision somewhat like Neo from the Matrix. He also uses equipment so that he will be able to read the Veritas. When your back is against the wall how would you act? Would you try to be heroic good or will you reveal yourself to be evil or a coward? This is the dilemma faced by the Doctor in this adventure. Having been blinded in Oxygen, he is now faced with situations getting worse with the digital universe.

I had a hard time determining how I felt about this one. To an extent, the plot was a 21st century equivalent of The Android Invasion. The alien Monks were running a simulated invasion of Earth. albeit on computers instead of building a whole physical world. This is only really like a Part One of a story. How the Monks ultimately planned their invasion will be seen next week. It will be interesting to see how our heroes react to this threat.

6/10

Rose Returns for Audio Adventures

Good news for Rose Tyler fans as she is about to be reunited with the Tenth Doctor in upcoming Big Finish productions 'The Tenth Doctor Adventures - Volume Two'. These are three hour long audio adventures. 

I was never a particular fan of Rose Tyler. I thought she was great in Series One with Christopher Eccleston but found her a little irritating when she was paired with the Tenth Doctor in Series Two. Nevertheless, Billie Piper was great in the role and at least the fans of the Tenth Doctor and Rose will be happy. As the first companion of the modern series, Rose is an important part of the Doctor Who history and its a great achievement for Big Finish to get hold of Billie Piper. It will certainly be interesting to hear her meet the Ice Warriors.

Doctor Who 10x05: Oxygen

Oxygen was one of the episodes of Series Ten that I was most looking forward to watching. The episode's writer, Jamie Mathieson, has been one of the best new writers to be hired during the Peter Capaldi years. Each of his stories, Mummy on the Orient Express, Flatline and The Girl Who Died, had something great about them. Yet, somehow, this episode just didn’t work for me.

The Doctor has ignored Nardole's protests and taken the Tardis the mining facility of Chasm Forge in response to a distress call. The first act is similar to The Ark in Space in that the three regular characters are travelling alone across the Space Station. The Doctor introduces us to one of the more interesting ideas for the future where companies charge the staff for use of oxygen was an interesting one. It's a nice expansion on the modern idea of paying for heating or water.

Soon our heroes meet up with the sole surviving crewmembers, who, have very little in the way of personality, despite there only being four of them. The alien, Dahh Ren, was distinguished through having blue and that was it. There's no further sense of who he was. Ivan and Abby had no discernible personality. Ivan's girlfriend died in the pre-titles sequence but it does not seem to have affected his reactions much. Both of these characters were angry and suspicious anyway. I think I preferred the students from Knock Knock to these guys.

One of the problems with this episode was how it all felt very familiar. The Space Station, Chasm Forge, felt visually very similar to Space Ships or Space Stations we’ve seen in other episodes like the Pentallian of 42 or the Sanctuary Base of The Impossible Planet. Whether the Chasm Forge were filmed in the same location or used recycled sets, I don't know. Next time the production team could have go for a tonally different look.

At least the few new ideas that were featured in this episode were good ones.  The idea that these companies would go as far as to kill their own staff and to use automated suits to save money was also good. But the execution of these two ideas were a bit mixed. 

The highlight of the episode was the interaction between the regular leads. The Doctor was well portrayed by Peter Capaldi. We get to see his rebellious side when he steers the Tardis from Earth to answer the distress signal. We see his selflessness when he saves Bill. Ultimately he is blinded by his experience and brought back to Earth. His arrogance has cost him and it will be interesting to see how he goes on from here.

Bill was also put through the wringer this week, what with almost dying of oxygen starvation and almost being killed. The sequence where she died felt very real. Her last memories being her mum was quite sweet.  The moment when she needs comfort from the Doctor and he cannot give it is cool.

Nardole got a lot of good character development this week which was a highlight of the episode. He stole the fluid link and acted in the role of the Doctor's conscience. It is now clear that his whole body is mechanical and not just his head. Apparently he has had a girlfriend before now.

The direction was good. The decision to shoot Bill's loss of oxygen as a POV shot was an interesting decision. The outside space scenes were also effectively shot, giving a sense of non-gravity. 

The Doctor going blind was an interesting move. Quite how this will be worked into the forthcoming episodes remains a mystery. As with the previous episode there is a promising opening but a dull middle. Let's hope Extremis will have a good middle and an ending. 

6/10

New Torchwood!

It's been announced that Torchwood will finally be getting a series 5 in the form of Big Finish Audio Format.  What makes this especially exciting is that the series is going to be overseen by Russell T Davies himself. With the BBC currently unwilling to revive the series, this is as close as we're going to get to new episodes. It will be interesting to see what the tone of the episodes will be. Will they be as camp as the first two series or will they capture the brilliance of Children of Earth? Time will tell.

Doctor Who 10x04: Knock Knock

Mike Bartlett has become well known for writing Doctor Foster so I was interested in seeing how he would write for a very different kind of Doctor. On the basis of this episode I would say it is not so well.

It seems that Bill, like previous companions created by Steven Moffat will alternate between travelling in the Tardis and living on Earth. This time it makes more sense given that she is focusing on studying. She and her student friends Harry, Shireen, Paul, Felicity and Pavel are searching for accomodation and seem to have been in luck when a Landlord offers them a huge empty house to stay in. It is too good to  be true. The Doctor helps Bill to move in but soon discovers that something is not quite right when the walls board up and people get trapped in the walls.

The cause of these problems are creepy alien insects called the Dryads. Creepy crawlies are always a good way of getting the audience to feel uncomfortable. The way they can crawl up people's shoes and swarm over them is an effective way to cause scares.

Deep in a tower in the house is a wooden woman, Eliza. She turns out to be the Land Lord's mother who has been preserved for many years. The wood-design around her body is quite good. It also helps the story to take on a darker significance. The Landlord is actually a recluse living with his mother. They both vanish in a cloud of insects.

This all leads to a disappointingly abrupt ending where the people are restored for some reason. Perhaps it took them twenty years to be fully absorbed. It still felt a little unexplained.

Overall this story was not spectacular. Haunted House stories are difficult to pull off in Doctor Who. As a Saturday night show there are limits as to how horrific the show can go.The ending is a sign of how a show can chicken out. Still, the guest cast were decent but overall I would say this is average fair.

6/10

The New K9

After months of nothing, development for the new K9 film, Timequake looks set to proceed now that they have unveiled the new design for K9.

This new model resembles the one from the 2010 television series, only with pointy ears. It's not a bad design, although it is very similar to the one that was used in the K-9 TV series. The laser snout certainly looks more powerful. The collar is a nice homage to the original. It will be interesting to see what Omega will looks like.

The film is now supposed to be released next year. Like the television series, this may get delayed further but it will probably come out eventually. While I don't think K9 really works as a leading character, it will be interesting to see a Doctor Who spin-off on the big screen.

Rogue One (2016)

Today is May the 4th, Star Wars day, which feels like just the right time to put up a short review for Rogue One. I didn’t bother seeing this film when it first came out last year. The Force Awakens was the next chapter in an ongoing story whereas Rogue One was merely a side story dealing with a plot thread we already knew about. To be honest, now that I’ve seen Rogue One, I’m glad I waited for the commercial release and didn't spend any extra money seeing it in the cinema.

The story follows the life and times of Jyn Erso, daughter of research scientist Galen Erso.
As a child, she witnesses her father, being taken by the Empire and her mother killed by the Empire. Jyn is taken in by Saw Gerrera. The story then cuts to many years later, Jyn has left Saw, for reasons we never see and is freed from imprisonment by the rebellion and is sent to reunite with Saw. What follows is a bit of a planet hop.

The supporting characters are fairly thinly sketched. Cassian, the main rebel shows an interesting side when he kills an informant but later can't kill Jyn's father for no good reason. It might have been more dramatic if he had killed Jyn's father and they still had to work together. Most of the characters say who they are and don’t demonstrate it. Jinn is meant to be a troublemaker but she does the right thing for most of the film. The droid K-2SO is a more successful element. The idea of an Imperial Droid being reprogrammed is new. He has a nice sarcastic personality. The pilot, Bodi Rook is memorable for being a pilot. There's not much more to him.

Chirrut Imwe is an easy character to like. JUst as George Lucas drew on Kurosawaiinfluences and wanted Obi-Wan to be played Toshiro Mifune, so Chirrut is a japanese style warrior in the style of a Zatoichi. It is a good thing to have a force user who is not a Jedi. It's a pity that his friend, Baze Malbus, has very little of interest and he just shoots things with guns.

The main villain is Director Krennic, the man who captured Jyn's father. Now that Moff Tarkin is taking over he ants to be known as the man who built the Death Star.It is quite a petty motivation for a villain and makes a change from galactic conquerers. He would be too boring for a main Star Wars film but is suitable here.

There's not much to say about Darth Vader because he is only in it for a short time. I like the fact that he lives on Mustufar which is effectively his birthplace. The notion o f Vader living on a volcano planet is one that goes back to the Leigh Brackett draft of The Empire Strikes Back. Vader is a bit more chatty like his New Hope self rather than the silent and broody Empire version.

One of the more controversial elements is the recreations of Tarkin and Leia. I have to agree with those who say they're not particularly successful. They are a little too clean next to the humans and Tarkin's voice isn't an entirely successful recreation of Peter Cushing's voice. Both of these characters have a sense of the Uncanny Valley about them. Disney has probably put more money and effort into this than most companies would have but it’s not good enough.

If there is one good aspect about the film its the action sequences. The battles on Jedha and the attack on Scarif are well done. It's nice to see Rebel Troopers in battle without Ewoks or Gungans.

All in all, this is a film which expands the Star Wars mythology even though it is not very interesting in and of itself. A lot of effort on aesthetic for little plot. There are better Star Wars films. I look forward to The Last Jedi. 

7/10