Sat down and watched last Friday’s DW. I’m beginning to get a feel for what I do and don’t like about this particular series (vs. Series 1).
The episode, the first of a two-parter, reintroduces the classic Doctor villains, the Cybermen. The show tries to play it somewhat coy, not showing the critters or naming them until close to the end — though obviously classic Doctor fans were likely to recognize them in advance, and the title was, well, sort of a give-away.
Since the Cybermen on our Earth were all defeated (multiple times) some number of Doctors ago (we actually saw one of their heads in Henry Van Statten’s collection in “Dalek,” Series 1), Series 2 gets around this by dropping the TARDIS and Co. into a parallel world London. That also lets them update the Cyberman look (which has upgraded over
the years, anyway) into something … well, honestly, something a bit more Cylonesque.
It also provides for some ample B-plotting, as both Rose and Mickey deal with the differences between their home Earth and this. Which of them has the roughest time with the divergent paths is open to debate, but, as usual, Rose is played for pathos, Mickey for laughs. Well, kind of — there’s some teary bits for him, too, but there’s way too much of the classic “I’m Mickey and I’m so scared and excited I’m peeing my pants” stuff, too. Rose, meanwhile, is still tied up in emotional melodrama
we’ve already seen her go through, and spends more of the episode moping and looking lost and hurt than actually doing something.
The Doctor, meanwhile, once he gets the TARDIS back repairing itself, just sort of hangs, chiding Rose (again) and blowing off Mickey (again), but also generally enjoying himself until the Cybermen start up. And that’s where I realized what I’m just not getting from David Tennant, as the Doctor. He’s just too bloody light-hearted most of the time. Too glib. Too laughing. Too light-weight. And that’s not just a comparison to Eccleston, but to Baker and Pertwee, too.
The only moments in the episode where I really got any oomph from his performance was when he was shouting at the Cybermen. The rest of the time, and in most of the previous episodes this season, he’s just been — well, a clever, jolly fellow, young and slight and a bit callow and just plain old along for a jolly ride. There’s all too little gravitas, mystery, or emotion.
Though the reading glasses are an interesting touch.
So the problem I’m seeing in Series 2 (all 6 of its 14 eps) is this: the cast just isn’t jelling (or the stories aren’t jelling around them). Rose alternates between being irresponsible and angsty, Mickey alternates between being excited and terrified, and the Doctor — who ought to be their focus, and the show’s — just sort of grins along, stumbles across the mystery, comes up with a brilliant idea, and solves it, and on to the next destination, tra-la. There’s little relationship
between him and Rose — certainly none of the romantic tension and mystery of Series 1, and little of the Partners Journeying Into Wonder, either. I’d criticize his treatment of Mickey (why is he along, anyway?), except that (a) Mickey’s a flake and deserves it, and (b) it’s strangely toned down from last year.
Regardless, it’s just missing on that human, relationship, character level — which is where DW needs to go (since Alien Of The Week schtick doesn’t really cut it these days). It’s better than 95% of what else is out there, but it’s not as good or as fun or as moving as Series 1 was, or this series promised to be.
The episode as a whole, given that, was pretty good, taking plenty of time (maybe even a bit too much) to set itself up for the climax and this week’s ep. The fx are good (the original reveal as to how this London isn’t really theirs is a nice one), the villain suitably and predictably villainous, the supporting cast solid (well, the resistance fighters are a bit lame). And I’ll certainly be back next week, to see how it wraps up.
Cybermen!
*glee*
Cybermen!
*glee*
I am still going to have to wait for the DVD’s to see what it is like show wise. To me, Like I said, seemed closer to the second Doctor than eny of the others.
Tennant just hasn’t had a chance to become anything other than “the charming one” or “the silly one”. I see him as mostly a combo of Tom Baker and Christopher Eccleston (with a little McCoy thrown in), but I’ve only seen 6 episodes with him. Eccleston’s 6th episode was “Dalek”–which was the first one where he really shined, imho.
I just don’t think Tennant’s Doctor has figured out who he is. At times he seems to be a bit of all the others (which is cool, as he is supposedly the same guy after all), but all the others have their labels:
William Hartnell – The old and crotchety one
Patrick Troughton – The sarcastic one
Jon Pertwee – The “go, go, Gadget” one
Tom Baker – The Bohemian one
Peter Davison – The British one
Colin Baker – The crazy one
Sylvester McCoy – The clown
Paul McGann – The movie one
Christopher Eccleston – The brooding one
On a different subject: I wanna see the fracking Time War!!
I don’t know how they’d do that, though, unless either Eccleston or McGann comes back for it. It had to either happen at the end of McGann’s time as The Doctor (maybe triggering his regeneration into Eccleston?) or at the beginning of Eccleston’s.
Unless… hmm…they never mention onscreen that Eccleston was the 9th Doctor… Maybe he was really the 10th and there’s another one in between… God, I love this show! 🙂
Here here!
And yeah, Solonor’s descriptions are pretty spot on, though I would change Colin Baker to say:
My-god-he’s-getting-fatter-every-episode one! ;P
Also, I will have to agree, Eccleston didn’t jell for me until the “Dalek” Episode either.
Fair enough. I think Eccleston had more solid moments before “Dalek” (“End of the World” was pretty good, at least in contrast to the much weaker “Rose”) but, yes, that was the defining episode for him.
Not sure I’d agree with the Pertwee description. I might say, “The Disdainful One” (he spent his tenure with a fairly consistent sour look on his face, though enjoyably so.)
Baker’s description works. Eccleston, too, though I might call him “the Manic-Depressive One,” too.
Manic Depressive works since he had both his very Manic Moments and his broody ones.
I think Go Go Gadget works since it was the Third Doctor (Pertwee) that started the Sonic Screwdriver (which was destroyed in Davison era, and I am curious as to how the Doctor got a new one), the Who Mobile, and Bessie.
I would say he was also more of a Sardonic Suave kind of Doctor. I mean…Opera Cape. 🙂
And…Jelled in the Sense that the “Dalek” Episode was the one where all the parts all came together, like when making a soup and all the herb, spices and other flavors come together. Rose and the Doctor just seemed to fire on all cylenders in that Ep.
Sometimes in the course of a single sentence.
Didn’t know about the SS. I remember Bessie, of course.
Pertwee was the Doctor Who Was Better Than All Of Us. He dressed better. He was smarter (and didn’t mind telling you). He was wiser. And he was, dash it all, stuck on this little mudball with a locked-down TARDIS. Oh, the indignity …
I never thought of him as suave, though. An ego the size of the space-time continuum, yes.
And, yet, also still a Good Guy — dedicated to fighting evil.
I miss those episodes …
Agreed. It was a Doctor-and-Rose episode, setting the tone for later ones. That’s something that’s been missing to date in Series 2.
I’m mostly in agreement, although Eccleston had me at “Well, Rose Tyler: run.”
I missed most of the ones after about the middle of Peter Davison’s run. Did any of you stumble upon the BBC’s “online” episode(s) that Paul McGann did? It was like watching a radio play, with very very simple non-animated images.
Oh, there was some great Eccleston, even in the first ep — and, again, I thought “End of the World” was where got locked in.
Never saw much after the Tom Baker years, myself.