RIP Adam West

Another day and we have another sad passing of a much loved actor. Adam West's Batman was the first version I ever saw. Channel 4 was rerunning the 1966 series in the early 90s and it was the first superhero show I ever really saw and the one that first got me interested in the genre. Tastes change a as you get older. Some fans give the impression that you are not supposed to like the 'camp' Batman. In the late 2000s I revisited the series and found that it was really good. The show was absurd but the people making it were aware of that. Adam West was great because played the role utterly serious which just made the absurd situations funnier. As a child, you took the show seriously like the characters did. When you were older, you could see the funnier side. Adam West did make a welcome return to the Batman universe in my other favourite version of the character, the 1992 animated series. There he played a character called the Gray Ghost, a superhero loved by the current Bruce Wayne. It was a great tribute to this actor and Adam was brilliant in it.  His Family Guy appearance was also great. So long, Adam West, you were brilliant. 

RIP Peter Sallis

Peter Sallis has passed away at the age of 96. I first knew about him as the voice of Wallace in the Wallace and Gromit clay animation series. He gave a very distinctive vocal performance and those films were a highlight of my childhood. As I grew older and became a Doctor Who fan I recognized that same voice when I saw Peter playing Scientist Penley  in The Ice Warriors. The character itself was probably not that special but Peter Sallis gave him some charisma. He is probably better known for his on-screen appearance as Norman Clegg in Last of the Summer Wines from 1973 to the series' conclusion in 2010. His contributions will be missed.

Doctor Who 10x08: The Lie of the Land

The first 'act' of The Lie of the Land presented a very interesting scenario of the Doctor turning evil and the companions having to stop him.  It takes place six months since Bill consented to the Monks. The Monks now rule the world and the Doctor has apparently become their Minister of Propaganda. Bill Potts is back in the UK, living the life of just another citizen in this dystopian world. She alone can see the changes and has invented an imagined version of her real mum to speak to and remind herself of the truth. When Nardole finds her they both team up to find the Doctor on board a boat. This is a very new situation for these companions.

All this potential is ruined the moment that the Bill and Nardole are reunited with the Doctor.  It turns out the Doctor was just pretending to be evil to test Bill and has been gathering a resistance. He even throws in a fake regeneration which would have no meaning to Bill and felt like it was included just to boost the trailers. These fake regenerations have become standard now. The Doctor and his friends laughing at Bill also seemed unnecessary cruel. When a similar test of faith happened in The Curse of Fenric, the Doctor appeared regretful. Here is he is every too gleeful. You'd almost think he actually was being controlled by the monks.

After the promising first act,  the episode devolves into a standard adventure where Doctor and his companions work with a resistance to overthrow evil authorities. With the Doctor now good, everything feels much easier for our heroes than it should. The Doctor opening the vault to try and get Missy’s help and Missy suggests killing Bill which is something that the Doctor could probably have worked out for himself.  It was nice to see the inside of the vault but a bit disappointing that it was only Missy inside of it. I was hoping there was going to be an extra twist with something else in there.

As the  Doctor and his allies attempt to find the Monks control centre, the plot slowly becomes ever more ridiculous.  In the previous episodes we saw that the Monks were able to meticulously planning the invasion of Earth but now we find out that they have given no thought to protecting their own base, allowing the Doctor and his team of rebels to get to the control system with very mild resistance. This is where having the Doctor on the good guys side causes problems.  It all felt too easy for our heroes. Bill uses her emotional link to her mum to overpower the Monks which is very similar to the way that Craig’s love conquered the
space ship in The Lodger. 

The Monks were very easily dispatched. They simply run away when the going gets tough. It could have been more interesting if we had seen the humans pursuing and fighting them. They've been shown to have the power to teleport into peoples' places and use gravity beams to control military craft but they now flee and we don't get to see how. Like many of the big events of this episode, the Monks' defeat is explained in a voice over by Bill, which feels like it was just done just to save the money and time to be spent on scenes.

At the conclusion everyone has forgotten about the alien invasion and put it down to a film which doesn’t explain how they were all wearing black clothes or what they think happened to all the people that were killed in a six months since the Monks took over. The Doctor gets a funny and true line about humanity never learns to resist dictatorships. That is true but it is still hard to think people wouldn't notice the physical changes in the world. The time paradox resolution of The Last of the Time Lords worked way better than this. The conclusion also sees Missy confessing her guilt to her past crimes but it is almost impossible to believe that she won't turn evil again by the time of the finale. Michelle Gomez puts on another good performance nad does her best to sell the concept, but it is hard to believe, especially when Missy seemed to relish the idea of killing Bill earlier on.

If Bill is so important to the Monks then why did they let her wander around with the rest of the public? Would it not be better for her to have been their prisoner? The one point where a Monk came face to face with her it apparently did not recognize her. It feels as if the writer, Toby Whithouse, had no knowledge of what had gone on in Peter Harness' script. If that was the case then it was a sloppily planned arc.

The Doctor is on and off for the episode. It seemed strange enough  when he and his new soldier pals laugh at Bill for thinking he turned evil. He also laughs when he crashes the boat into the shore. Peter Capaldi turns in a decent performance but there is something a bit off about the Doctor this week.

At the end of tree episodes we still didn't really know enough about the Monks. Why did the Monks want to take over the Earth? Did they specifically want control of this planet? What was their end game? They felt a little bit too nebulous.

This episode had the opposite problem to the previous two parts of the Monk trilogy. Extremis and Pyramid had thin plots which were stretched across 45-50 minutes. Lie of the Land had a lot of plot but a lot of the narrative had to be covered in voice overs.

The Lie of the Land was a bit of a dud. It actually made me reevaluate Extremis because that episode had interesting things to say about coping in a crisis. At least we have the Ice Warriors in next week although you’d be forgiven for thinking it was the Cybermen coming back since the production team accidentally put the Cybermen theme over the Next time trailer. Let's hope that the romp will be mor entertaining

5/10

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