Doctor Who 9x03: Under the Lake

Ever since Innes Lloyd's time on Doctor Who, the 'base under siege' has become a tried and tested plot formula of the program. This episode particularly harks back to The Ark in Space, Revenge of the Cybermen and The Moonbase. As in those stories, the Doctor and companion arrive and explore a seemingly deserted base. They soon meet up with the base crew and discover that people are being killed off by monsters. In base in this story is a 22nd century underwater facility called 'the Drum', built over a military town . The base crew here are a group of scientists and soldiers who have uncovered an old spaceship and the monsters are ghosts of a Tivoli alien and the crew, who attack the crew after they find symbols on the spaceship.

The obligatory base commander is a woman named Cass. She's a fairly standard responsible leader type of person except that she's deaf and has to communicate through sign language. This proves useful in deciphering the message that the ghosts are chanting. It is great that Toby Whithouse has included a deaf character in his tale, however, that doesn't change the fact that she's still a standard base leader archetype.

The rest of the crew were also standard archetypes. The ill fated Pritchard was the annoying corporate representative. Like Burke from Aliens, or even Lux from Doctor Who's own Silence in the Library, he's the kind of character who is always more of a hindrance than a help in these kinds of tales. Unsurprisingly he is killed off for his stupidity. Bennett is the cowardly scientist who only feels compelled to stay because others do. O'Donnell is likable enough  but her one defining trait is that she is a fan of the Doctor, which basically makes her a Scottish Osgood. The last member of the crew is Lunn and I might be missing something but I'm not sure what personality he really has. He just seems to be there to translates Cass' sign language. At least his resistance to the ghosts may make him play a more useful role in the next episode. We'll have to wait and see if these are characters are developed in any way in the next episode.

The ghosts are pretty well realised. The moment when the ghostly Pritchard nearly smashes Lunn's head in with a spanner was particularly nasty and compelling to watch. It's not clear if there's a plot reason why the ghosts walk and don't run after the characters, other than to fulfill the zombie cliche. One of them is a Tivoli, like David Walliams character in The God Complex. Hopefully we'll see the living version next episode otherwise it will be a waste of guest star Paul Kaye.  The fact that they can be locked in a faraday cage somewhat diminishes their threat and it might have been spookier if we, the audience, hadn't known about it so early. Presumably the ghosts will be released and caused havoc again.

Peter Capaldi continues to impress as The Doctor, who is back to being delightfully aloof. The idea that he needs cue cards to tell him to be nice was hilarious. Nevertheless the existence of the cue cards shows that he knows his callousness is something that he needs to deal with. It's nice to see that he is worried about Clara becoming like him. His excitement when he thought the ghosts might be from the real afterlife was also a great moment for the Doctor.

While the Doctor was compelling to watch it seems that Clara has had a complete personality transplant this week. She is now addicted to adventuring to the point where she's taking on some of th Doctor's traits. I suppose we can assume that there's a bigger time gap between this and The Witch's Familiar. Jenna Coleman conveys Clara's developing personality well enough but the character doesn't really contribute much to the plot. She helps to lure the ghosts into a trap, but that role could have been taken by any of the base crew. I hope the writers haven't left it to the last few episodes to actually give her a journey this year otherwise there doesn't seem to have been much justification in keeping Jenna Coleman on for an extra year.

Overall, the story is simple, which I suppose is why fans like it. It's nice to have the Doctor and Clara arrive straight into the adventure instead of meeting up on Earth before hand.However, the adventure as a whole is almost too simple. The dialogue is less snappy than usual. Again some people will find this refreshing from Moffat's more comedy background oriented dialogue, but this is a somewhat less interesting alternative. Nevertheless, the end of the episode hints at more interesting things to come. What was responsible for the flood? What is the content of the capsule from the spacecraft? And what is the reason behind the appearance of the Doctor's ghost outside the station? At a guess I would say that the Doctor's the one inside the capsule. If that's the case then it was too obvious. Hopefully the isolated Clara will be forced to contribute more.

The story is nonetheless well realized by the production team. The base is functional and lit atmospherically enough. The director manages to keep a decent sense of horror. Murray Gold's music was slightly more prominent this week and helped to raise the tension of the action sequences with the ghosts and the flooding. It seems that the set designers had fun with the 22nd century setting and added some amusing little Star Trek easter eggs such as the wall painting with the sailors in yellow, red and blue jumpers to the door code and the '1708'.

Under the Lake is the kind of episode is probably comfort food for older fans, but will probably fail to interest those, like me, who prefer it when the show pushes against its boundaries and stock features. The progressive cast hides a simple tale. Next week may be more interesting, and hopefully make the story as a whole more to my liking.

7/10

Orphan Black 3x01: The Weight of this Combination

The third Series of Orphan Black has been airing in the UK for a couple weeks now although you'd be forgiven for not knowing it, seeing as BBC Three have stuck it on in a ridiculous slot in the early hours of the morning. This poor treatment is nothing new. Back when Series One started airing the show was barely publicized and the episodes were largely rushed through in double bills. On a more positive note, all of the episodes of series three can be viewed on the iplayer. I suppose that this is to get people ready for BBC Three's switch to being an online only channel but it still doesn't justify the tv timeslot. If the Channel can't be bothered to spread the word properly then I guess I'll have to do it through my mediocre reviews.

When we last left the show we'd discovered the existence of the male Project Castor clones as well as Topside's role with the Dyad Institute. Paul Dierdan's links to the military were revealed, and Mrs. S sold Helena out to the military to save Sarah and Kira. There were plenty of questions that needed answering. What would happen to Helena? Who are these Castor Clones? What happened to Rachel and will Cosima recover?

Helena predicament hasn't changed much since last series. The opening of the episode features a happy Helena surrounded by her sisters. Predictably she wakes up in a small box in the military base. It's a fairly cliche beginning which I suppose it was the only way the writers could think to remind viewers of Helena's feelings towards her 'sestras'. Her only company in this box is an imaginary scorpion friend called 'Pupok'. One of the highlights of the show is its ability to mix dark situations with crazy humour and this is a good example. Helena spends the rest of the episode in the box, only to be released at the end by the soldier Castor Clone. She's proved adept at surviving in the past, so it'll be interesting to see how she'll cope in her new situations and whether her captors can really contain her.

The Castor Clones remain mostly shrouded in mystery. Mark is off the radar so far and the Soldier one only appears briefly at the end of the episode. We do at least get to see more of the imprisoned one with the scar who made his debut in last year's cliffhanger. So far he seems to be a generic psychopath type who does manage to give Sarah a clue about the missing Helena. This episode introduces another one with a mustache who beats up Siobhan for information about Professor Ethan Duncan's research. These two clones claim to be operating independently from Paul. The mustached clone frees the psychotic looking one at the end of the episode so it remains to be seen what trouble these two will cause, and where their allegiances ultimately lie.

The most important plot developments took place within the Dyad Institute. Since the end of the last series Marion has gone to Europe. Rachel is recovering from her eye injury and Delphine has taken Rachel's place in Dyad. These circumstance force Delphine and Sarah to make a deal. Sarah must pretend to be Rachel in order to fool Ferdinand, an investigator from Topside while Delphine will look into finding Helena. Alison also helps out by pretending to be a captured Sarah. These scenes are full of tension, and Ferdinand follows in the example of the creepy intimate male agents of the higher powers seeking to control the clones. Ultimately Sarah's charade fools Ferdinand into revealling a plot between him and Rachel to try to kill the Dyad clones. Fortunately, with Delphine's help, the plan is thwarted at the last minute.

Sarah Manning spends much of the episode determined to protect her sisters at any cost, even shutting out Siobhan or attempting to kill Ferdinand in the process. She's as cunning at impersonating her sisters as ever and Tatiana Maslany is as reliable as ever at making Sarah's impersonations convincing while at the same time showing the deeper awkwardness. It was particularly interesting to watch Sarah's violent reaction to the news that her sisters were about to be assassinated. Her attempts to throttle Ferdinand when she thought hope was lost demonstrates how far she can go when pushed. Delphine's intervention ultimately prevents Ferdinand's death, but it will be interesting to see if Sarah

Delphine features prominently in this episode. It appears that she genuinely want to help Sarah for now but she is beginning to distance herself from Cosima because of her responsibilities to Dyad. The moment when she hurts the injured Rachel for information reveals a harsher, more ambitious side. Whether Delphine's new position mean she stays allied with the clones or is forced to become their enemy is something to look out for.

Alison Hendrix continues to be a highlight for the show. This series she intends to run for election as School trustee against a neighbor, Marcie. Campaigning for a public position will no doubt bring some of her background to the surface which will probably create a lot of drama later on. The scene of her disguised as Sarah was a hoot but also filled with tension when Ferdinand started to grope her. With that and the assassin that came to kill her, this is the episode where she has been in the most physical danger. Donnie has got himself fired so it will be interesting to see whether this puts any strain on the family.

Cosima, still suffering from her sickness, spends the episode in Felix' flat. Her relationship with Delphine is shown to be faltering and she shows Scott the book left by Professor Duncan, trusting him to help her over Delphine.

Felix remains the grounded individual helping Sarah out, though both he and Kira contributed very little to the episode. Maria Doyle Kennedy is as a good as ever as Mrs. S, getting to be brave against the Castor Clone but also humble as she pleads Sarah to trust her. Whether she and Sarah will be able to trust each other again remains to be seen.  Art and Carl were completely absent from the episode but hopefully they turn up later on. We also get introduced briefly to another clone, Crystal, responsible for the capture of the psychotic looking Castor clone. She's only briefly seen on security footage so there's little personality to judge her on yet but she may prove more important later on.

As is often the case with first episodes, The Weight of this Combination is concerned with reintroducing the core plot threads while setting up small hints of things to come. It keeps you curious about what happens next but a lot of what is in this episode has been seen before. Hopefully the other episodes will take the show in a new direction.

6/10

The War Doctor comes to Audio

For the first time since 2012, a new Doctor has joined the Big Finish fold. It's not just any Doctor either. It's the War Doctor played by John Hurt. It's exciting enough that it's a new Doctor, but also the fact that Big Finish have secured an actor of John Hurt's caliber to something as obscure as an audio spin off series.

Of course, to use the new cliche, he's not quite the Doctor we were expecting. Many fans have already heard rumours David Tennant and Catherine Tate would be reprising their roles as the Tenth Doctor and Donna for audio adventures. That may yet happen of course but as great as it would be to see one of the best Doctor/Companion teams, I'm even more excited at what we've got right now. It feels inevitable that one day David Tennant would participate in these audios. He has done already as other characters. But John Hurt was a person I never expected to do them. It's great that he's doing this. Fans can get to hear more from this great actor who gets the chance to reprise role in a manner which demands less physically tiring work.

I have no doubt that the Big Finish writers are relishing the opportunity to write for the time war. George Mann's War Doctor book, The Engines of War, only just scratched the surface of this dark time in the Doctor's life and I'm hoping Big Finish can push the darkness and the grittiness even further. Some might argue that stories of the Time War were best left to the next generation of fans to explore. I sympathize with this view, but it's also the case that this is the best time to get John Hurt to participate. Let's hope the quality of the story-lines do justice to the talent of the leading man.

While 2016 is looking to be a gap year for Doctor Who on television, Big Finish is leading the way with more and more promising arrivals from the new series. I've dipped in and out of Big Finish once or twice, but this is certainly making me inclined to look at their catalogue.

Class

When I first read the title of this new Doctor Who spin-off I had a horrible moment of dread where I thought we were getting the 'young Doctor Who' series that the BBC wanted to make during the RTD years. The childhood of the Doctor on Gallifrey is something we really never need to see. Fortunately, this isn't quite as bad as that. It's not particularly exciting news though.

The problem is there's nothing to get excited about. It's a show that happens to be set in a building that's cropped up in Doctor Who once in a while. Jenna Coleman's not going to be in it. There's been no indication yet whether Ellis George will return as Courtney or how much of a connection to the parent show this will have. At the moment it just sounds like Buffy with aliens, or alternatively the Sarah Jane Adventures without Sarah Jane. Something that perhaps could have been developed as its own show without a Doctor Who connection. Those who've read Patrick Ness' writing might have a better idea of whether or not the show will be successful, but that's not me.

It's been strongly suggested for a while now that  Doctor Who's will have an decreased episode count next year. If true then I suppose this will keep the fans entertained until the proper show turns up. Until then we'll just have to wait for further casting and plot details to see if Class is worth getting excited about.

Doctor Who 9x02: The Witch's Familiar

Compared to last week's episode, The Witch's Familiar had a far less impressive opening. As expected, Clara and Missy survived their Dalek encounter through teleportation. Things weren't much better back in the Dalek city where we get a bit of faffing about as the Doctor tries stealing Davros' wheelchair. It's a funny moment but really just exists as padding.

Fortunately, once the Doctor is recaptured we get get the Doctor/Davros conversation we've been looking forward to. The kind of thing the television series hasn't done since,  Revelation of the Daleks. While Julian Bleach's Davros may have been overshadowed by the Daleks and returning companions in The Stolen Earth, here we get to see all the facets of this version of Davros.  First he tries persuading the Doctor that touching the wires will kill all the Daleks, then, weeping crocodile tears over the return of Gallifrey and playing the dying victim. The scene where Davros reveals that he can use his real eyes was one I wasn't particularly keen on. It seemed to defeat the point of having an electronic one in the first place, but it was probably necessary to persuade the Doctor of Davros' sincerity. Julian Bleach made a crying Davros feel in character. Peter Capaldi was no slouch in this conversation either. Where his Doctor was more of a clown last week, here we see the old anger return with Clara's death, tempered with a more sympathetic side as he falls for the weak Davros.

Surprising, the scenes between the Doctor and Davros were not the best bit of the episode. The best bits were actually the scenes of Missy and Clara breaking in to the Dalek City. Missy once again veers on the right line of being funny and dangerous, toying with Clara like a cat with a mouse. Once again, we got to see Missy trying to make the Doctor like her. Last time she handed him a Cyberman army and this time she tried to trick him into shooting a Dalek which actually had Clara inside. The good thing she is definitely surviving for future appearances. The only bad thing about the focus on Missy is it means that Clara once again feels sidelined. Still, there's a whole series left to go to improve on that matter.Seeing her inside the Dalek nicely homaged both Ian Chestertson in the The Daleks story and Oswin in Asylum. It seems Coal Hill teachers and Oswalds are doomed to be Daleks.

With the focus on the four leads, it was inevitable that the Daleks themselves would be side-lined. In this case it was fair enough, because it allowed for more of a focus on Davros. There are more than enough Dalek only stories to be getting along with anyway. Having said that we did get some interesting developments. The notion that they power their guns by hate nicely refers back to a similar notion in Death tot he Daleks. The other interesting idea was the sewers containing dead Daleks. This was not only nicely grim, but also worked as the Chekhov's gun solution to the problem. It was a shame that despite getting Time Lord DNA, there was little time to explore what the implications of that would be.

Although the episode ends happily, there are still some plot threads left dangling. The question of why the Doctor left Gallifrey has been brought up again. Reasons for this have been varied. In the 90s, the New Adventures novels toyed with the idea of 'the Other' who stole the Hand of Omega from Gallifrey so it'll be interesting to see what Steven Moffat does with the idea in 21st century Who, The secrets of the Doctor's confession dial are as yet unknown. The legend of the Hybrid is also up in the air. Was this all resolved here or a hint of future events?

Having reached the end of the two parter it seems the 'Apprentice' and 'Familiar' of the two titles were left up to the viewer. One could argue that the Doctor was the Magician who shaped Davros, his apprentice, when he taught the boy mercy. Then again one could say that Clara is the Doctor's apprentice as she learned from him. It's easier to see Clara as the Witch's Familiar. It's certainly a far cry from the simplicity of the 'slutty titles' that Moffat wanted for the Series 7 'movie poster' stories.

There were plenty of nice easter eggs and callbacks to old episodes for fans, from the 60s through the present. But for all the nods to the past, I am looking forward to fresh take next week. Just the Doctor and Clara in a brand new place with what appears to be brand new characters and monsters. The series goes forward.

8/10

Doctor Who 9x01: The Magician's Apprentice

It's new Doctor Who month again. There's already tons of opinion pieces about this episode all over the internet but who cares? Let's have another.

It has been ten year since Doctor Who was brought back to our screens. The show has built up a large fanbase and no longer needs to prove itself to audiences . I wonder whether this affected Steven Moffat's development of the episode because it seemed more relaxed about dropping continuity references than ever before. It's only the first episode and we've already had the return of Missy, Davros, Kate Stewart, UNIT,  the Shadow Proclamation, the Sisterhood of Karn and the Maldovarium. There were even clips of older Doctors. Most of these elements are relevant to the plot and some are explained but you probably wouldn't show to this episode to a beginner. As a result I have a hard time knowing whether I enjoyed the episode because it was good or whether I enjoyed it because it pushed all my fan buttons.

Of all these returning elements it is Davros that is the main core of the episode. Children have been appearing more frequently in Doctor Who since Steven Moffat took over. Normally they are rescued by the Doctor, or he inspires them in some way. Here we are presented with a very interesting and cynical twist on this format. What if the child you rescued turned out to be someone who would become a dictator? This argument was also put forward in Genesis of the Daleks and forty years later we get to see how the Doctor would actually react in that scenario. It seems that the Doctor left Davros alone in a field of Handmines. Many years later, a dying Davros sends his new agent, Colony Sarf, to search for the Doctor. 

Meanwhile, on Earth the planes have stopped. Clara Oswald is sought by UNIT and together they track down Missy. It's an interesting sequence, but one which largely exists just to reunite Clara with Missy. Arguably, unless UNIT are more relevant in the next episode, Missy could have sought Clara out via more simple means. On the other hand it is nice to have a scene of four smart women in positions of power, working together.  

The Doctor, who has apparently left Missy a confession dial which will open after his death. Missy and Clara use Vortex manipulators to track the Doctor to medieval times when he makes a grant entrance with a guitar and a tank. This sequence goes on for slightly too long but then we get Colony Sarf back who takes them forward to Skaro, the planet of the Daleks that has apparently been concealed from the rest of the universe. The Doctor is taken to Davros while Missy and Clara are taken to the Supreme Dalek. 

It is here that the episode gets back on track as Davros and the Doctor discuss old times. It was great to see Julian Bleach back as Davros. I was lucky to have avoided spoilers about this character's return so it was a nice surprise. It's also been seven years since we last saw the character, so his return is more exciting than the return of his Dalek creations. Julian Bleach holds back on Davros' mania and we get a much more chilling performance, perhaps indicative of the fact that Davros is apparently dying.

The episode ends on an interesting cliffhanger. Missy and Clara appear to be exterminated while the Doctor re-appears in the past of Skaro with a Dalek gun to apparently 'exterminate' someone, Supposedly Davros. It's more likely that he will use the gun to destroy the handmines and Missy and Clara probably used their vortex manipulators to escape before extermination, but I coild be wrong. It'd be more interesting if that was wrong. 

Overall the tone of the episode is interesting. There is a lot more humour in episode like the old Matt Smith series. Nevertheless, the idea of Doctor's guilt over leaving a child to die make it appear that we will retain some of the darkness of Series 8. It's a good balance. The episode is also brimming with interesting ideas such as the Handmines, as well as Colony Sarf as a creature made out of snakes. 

Murray Gold continues to create more subtle music as he did in Series 8. I barely noticed it, but it felt suitable in providing the right mood at the right points. 

There are only a few real negative points. One is that Jemma Redgrave underplays the role of Kate Stewart to the point that the character comes across as a bit boring. It is also odd that Kate, the head of a military organisation, would be too slow to see the idea of he trapped planes potentially being used as weapons. Osgood's replacement, Jac, is not yet a patch on her predecessor. The joke about Clara kissing Jane Austen was a bit naff, as was the Doctor using the word 'dude'. Also the plot thread of the Doctor preparing for his death has been done before in The End of Time and Series 6. Hopefully this time it will go in a different direction to either of those two. 

The negatives are mostly overcome by a spectacular cast. Jenna is, as always, brilliant. Michelle Gomez is also brilliant, having dialed down the craziness a little bit and made more of an emphasis about being the Doctor's friend. I like the way the character embraces her Time Lord status as a sign of superiority. It is also good that she is still utterly ruthless, killing snipers and making the occasional threat to kill Clara. It’s not quite clear what Missy’s overall function is in the story but we will probably get that next time. Liked seeing Missy and Clara working together. Love her response when the Doctor calls Davros his arch enemy. 

Of course, Peter Capaldi is brilliant as the Doctor. Any other Doctor, such as David Tennant, might have seemed irritating playing the guitar, but Peter Capaldi, as an older man, makes it seem good. Cool and uncool at the same time. He pulls off the ageing rockstar look well. Capaldi also pulls off the Doctor's vulnerable when the Daleks threaten his companions. I was worried they would lighten his character too much, but he still has a certain self doubt and insults people at times.

Overall this was a pretty good start to Series 9. Perhaps it teetered a little bit too much onto the continuity heavy side, but was fun regardless. I look forward to seeing how the story resolves itself in The Witch's Familiar.  

8/10

Goodbye Clara Oswald

It's been confirmed that Jenna Coleman is leaving Doctor Who. It's not completely a surprise.
Even before the Daily Mirror leaked the news earlier this week, we'd known that she'd
considered leaving last year. The appearance of River Song at Christmas also seemed to hint at this. Who better than an old friend to help the lonely Doctor in his time of need?I haven't even mentioned yet all the teases in the Series 9 promo material about how the series would be  'glory years' of the Doctor and Clara,  All  very reminiscent of how Tennant's Doctor and Rose were said to be having the time of their lives before their separation in Doomsday. No one is irreplaceable, and Jenna has been in the show a great deal longer than any of the other modern companions. It's probably a good time for to leave on a high and pursue bigger and better things. Really, we fans have been privileged to have this brilliant actor as a lead for so long.

Jenna made a great impact during her first appearance as Oswin Oswald, making a temporary character lovable to the point where you were sad when she turned out to be a converted Dalek. You just wished she could have gone with the Doctor at the end of the tale. Of course Jenna's returned later that year in The Snowmen as the Victorian nanny version of Clara. She proved that she was versatile enough to play roles from different periods.

Her rise to full time companion status in 2013, as the modern Clara Oswald  suffered a bit. The character seemed very vague, as if the production team wanted to keep the mystery going, but Jenna still did her best in the role. The character was thankfully reinvented as a headstrong schoolteacher for The Day of the Doctor, and the character of Clara grew in my estimation.

Jenna may be leaving but she has left behind a legacy of television, comic books and even had herself remade as a Lego character!She also had the special status of being the companion for the 50th anniversary of the show and having the small but crucial role of dissuading the Doctor from destroying Gallifrey.

It's been fun but it's not over yet. We've got a whole series of Clara left to enjoy before the end. She may even have a minor cameo in the upcoming Christmas Special, like Danny Pink in Last Christmas. No doubt there'll be a lot of teasing within the show as to the nature of her departure.  Lets hope that these 'glory years' truly are glorious!