“Are you Ed Sheeran? Is he Ed Sheeran?”
Another script by Chris Chibnall and another episode which is well made, in this case with superb CGI in particular, but is, well, quite good. And no more than that. Steven Moffat was a genius writer but tended to write for fans (broadly defined) rather than a general family audience. Chibnall seems to be the reverse. Again he seems to be making smart decisions as showrunner, again he writes stuff that the general public seems to like, again he comes up with a script which is, well, ok.
Forget Moffat, though; the true comparison is with RTD, in terms of style if not talent. Season 37 echoes Season 27- The first episode introduces the new Doctor, then we have an episode in the future, one in the past, and then this: what we have here is the analogue for Aliens of London. The TARDISeers return to Sheffield, are embroiled in an exciting adventure with giant spiders and corporate greed (very topical, I suppose, and the script blatantly admits that the baddie is essentially Trump) and then decide to continue travelling. Oh, there are slight differences; Yaz’s mum being suspicious of the Doctor calls to mind Martha’s mum in Season 29. And indeed the whole TARDIS crew dynamic calls to mind Season One, but the point is, of course, that this is Doctor Who as a set formula, calculated carefully to use what works. What’s this with no pre-titles, though? That certainly seems to be a thing by now.
“Quite good” is still good, though; the spiders look great, and this Hallowe’en episode is suitably full of jump scares. Jodie Whittaker is still absolutely the Doctor, and I like all of Yaz, Ryan and Graham. The dynamic works well, with an ensemble cast allowing for characterisation to be shared out more. The direction is superb, especially the opening shots. And the ending, where all three of the Doctor’s friends choose to stay, is interesting. The Doctor seems very keen to mak sure they all make an informed decision to stay, and emphasises that she can’t guarantee their safety. Is someone going to die?
The bottom line is, though, that yet again I find an episode just quite good, no more than that. I want Doctor Who to amaze me again. Please?
Considering actor Chris Noth (Jack Robertson) was accused of sexual allegations later, and we almost certainly never see his character again, I perfer to think this is what happened to the character: a time-skip jump, with Robertson in the White House, believing himself to be the new president elect, being all smug about all he has done and he suddenly mentions the Doctor to his rival, President Trump, and everybody goes silent, and Trump says (just as smugly): "I'm sorry Mr. Robertson, did you just say you are the new president?"
ReplyDeleteWhen he confirms it, Trump handles him a file, five times the size of the bible, with a huge dossier on a huge background check on Robertson and as his eyes briefly go by each page, Robertson gets whiter and whiter, and he says "I had no idea". Trump says "Take him away!" Robertson is taken away by Secret Service. Trump leans back, the file implied to be allegations against Robertson (Basically in this case, Robertson, a bastard, is thrown away by an even bigger bastard). That would make an ironic ends to his plans.
Heh, that would make a great niche bit of fanfic! And I do wonder how the history of American politics might be different in the Whoniverse- we had that president in The Sound of Drums but Obama came after him...
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