The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Series 1- The Blue Carbuncle

"Mr. Holmes, the goose! The goose, Mr. Holmes!"

"Well, what of it, man? Has it come back to life and flapped through the kitchen window?"

A splendid Christmas episode here, with geese, snow, some first class dialogue and, best of all, Ken Campbell.

A famous jewel has been stolen and an innocent man arrested, while there seems to be an awful lot of commotion about a goose. These two plot threads dovetail spectacularly as Holmes gives us a fine example of his deductive powers and the episode ends up giving us plenty of Christmas cheer as an innocent man is freed and Holmes discreetly let's the culprit off just because it's Christmas. He may be a cold fish but no Scrooge he.

The most fun part is probably Holmes' analysis of Henry Baker's hat, but this is a particularly fine episode throughout. A fine conclusion to a fine first series. Roll on series two.

Doctor Who: Deep Breath

"I'm not your boyfriend."

Damn you, Moffat. My lovely wife may be pregnant, and somewhat prone to blubbing, but that bit where Matt Smith's Doctor told Clara over the phone that his new self would need looking after made her cry!!!

This is the best regeneration story I've properly seen thus far (although seeing The Power of the Daleks with actual footage would be nice, hint hint, Mr Morris and Auntie Beeb). The Moff is, as usual, both very clever and very meta in having the script address head on all of the audience's concerns and questions about the new Doctor (Peter Capaldi is the Doctor, superb and very Tom thus far) and the show's future. 

Clara's resistance to this older, non-heartthrob Time Lord echoes that of countless fangirls, one of whom I happen to be married to, but Gem, at least, has been won over. It takes time for Clara to be won over too, but this is both realistic and allows her to voice the fears of a portion of the audience, and moreover the clash between her and Vastra over her denial that the Doctor has changed is a real dramatic highlight.

Capaldi is instantly the Doctor, as expected, but the real delight is Clara who, for the first time, is being given actual character traits and a chance for Jenna Coleman to show what a bloody good actress she is when given the material. It's also notable that, given the new friction between the Doctor and Clara, the two leads have real chemistry, more so than there ever was between Coleman and Matt Smith. A lot if this has to do with Clara suddenly being an actual character with a personality, and not just the walking arc plot MacGuffin that was the impossible girl. She's as much of a revelation here as Capaldi.

The plot, while slightly rehashed from Full Circle, is nicely unfurled, with the surprise baddies ("rubbish robots from the dawn of time") being those clockwork droids from The Girl in the Fireplace way back in season twenty-eight. There are some nice moments as the Doctor and Clara investigate,notably as Clara shows what a tough but she is when being interrogated but most shockingly when the Doctor seems to abandon her, a trick which works in a regeneration story as in no other.

There are other little things to love here aside from the plot and characterisation: the little jokes about the Doctor's accent; the hint that the face he now has (that of a Roman whom he met in Pompeii!) is a clue he set for himself(!)( Strax's many splendidly quotable lines, and the slightly kinky nature of Vastra and Jenny's relationship. Oh, and there's that mysterious lady at the end, who apparently both arranged the Doctor and Clara's rendezvous at the restaurant and performed a similar feat in The Bells of Saint John. We will see her again, I'm sure; season big bad, perhaps?

This is an assured and confident beginning (love the new TARDIS interior and new steampunk title sequence!), with a first class script, an exciting new Doctor and a wonderfully nuanced Doctor/companion relationship. Doctor Who is on a real high right now.

Blake's 7: Horizon

“Oh Hell. I’m tired of running, Jenna.”

Blimey. For the first time, we get a writer who has neither written nor script edited an episode of Blake’s 7, nor do I know of him from Doctor Who. Allan Prior: who he? He’s rather good, whoever he is.

It seems Cally is now an expert in medical matters. Either that, or the fact that she’s a woman apparently means she’s good at nurturing and stuff. But the message is clear; the entire crew is knackered, dangerously knackered for a bunch of people who live in such constant danger. So what does Blake do? Yep; go chasing a nearby Federation freighter because he’s “curious”. This is one of many recent examples of a subtle but growing trend; instances of Blake showing that he is in fact a dangerous, reckless fanatic who is a danger to his crew, who would be better off with Avon who, in spite of his outward cynicism, is a sensible chap, has their best interests at heart and is not so apolitical as he pretends.

The freighter is going to Horizon, an isolated world on the very edge of this spiral arm. Blake follows, pushing his crew hard; Jenna makes it very clear that she’s tired. They make it through a magnetic barrier- another example of how Blake’s recklessness could have got them all killed- and eventually Blake and Jenna teleport down, but not before Avon overhears Blake admitting to her that he’s taking her, as the best pilot, as insurance to stop Avon running off without him.

Being knackered, they are both promptly spotted and hit by darts from a blowpipe, meaning that Gan and Vila have to go after them.

Blake and Jenna are interrogated by the Federation’s Commissar, a nasty little totalitarian who sees resistance as a “malfunction of the genes”, suffered by “one in 100,000” which is usually “detected in infancy”. Suddenly we’re back to the overtones of Brezhnev-style medicalisation of dissent as seen back in The Way Back, and we’re reminded just how awful the Federation is.

Alongside the Commissar is a young, hesitant man called Ro, nominally in charge of this planet. He’s played by Darien Angadi, who had a rather memorable part in I, Clavdivs. There’s a tension between him and the Federation, but as a young and weak ruler, he allows himself to resist, collaborating with what he tries to pretend are not his colonial overlords. As with the European colonies of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Federation are interested in Horizon for its mineral resources, in this case Monopasium 239, a rare element(?) which can send ships “into new galaxies” (Is this new? Is humanity just about on the verge of leaving the Milky Way for the first time?). This is done by slave labour, and generally by the most repressive practices possible. 1979 is surprisingly late for a colonial allegory like this one, but Ro reminds me of one of those Indian princes who went to public school and Oxbridge.

Blake has an interesting conversation with Ro, in which he sows all sorts of doubts into his mind; it seems he saw a friend of Ro’s die on the way to Cygnus Alpha. This isn’t allowed to go on for long, though; soon they’re both dispatched to the mines, where there’s an interesting scene where Blake organises the rationing of food fairly. There they meet Selma, Ro’s consort, who has been dispatched to the mind for vaguely “seditious” remarks. This is pretty appalling, in fact so much so that it’s a bit of a misstep on part of the script. For Ro to treat the woman he supposedly loves like this makes it hard for us to sympathise with him at all.

With four of the crew missing, Cally goes down to find them, and promptly disappears. Now there’s just Avon. Will he flee, safe aboard the Liberator, or will he rescue his friends? There’s a degree of tension, but regular viewers know by now that he’s far more loyal and reliable than he superficially seems.

Meanwhile, Cally reveals to Ro that the Federation had his father killed, and he discovers the Federation had been considering having him killed. Worst of all, he has to watch while Selma is tortured. The climax is fitting, as Avon’s highly efficient rescue mission coincides with Ro, in traditional dress, killing the Commissar with his blowpipe.

The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Mad Woman in the Attic

Part One

“…Inquisitive?”

“I remember being that.”

Unusual beginning for SJA; we don’t usually get this sort of mildly complex timey-wimey plots, presumably because of worries about whether the young audience would be able to follow it. Personally I don’t see the problem; when I was a very young kid I never really understood the plot of anything but I enjoyed watching television drama anyway. So it’s good to see something like this being attempted, even though it wouldn’t pass as being in any way complex for the other two shows. Interesting how Joseph Lidster, both in SJA and in Torchwood, seems to be getting himself a reputation for framing his narratives with interesting devices. Personally, I like it.

Initially, what with the early scenes being weighted heavily in favour of the older Rani and the future Luke-a-like, it seems this might be a sort of everyone-lite story. But it turns out it isn’t, and it’s a nicely Rani-centric tale of a kind we haven’t really seen before. Most importantly, though, we get more information on the legendary Zodin! “It’s stripy and… they’re odd”, apparently.

Things get very creepy very quickly, though. Abandoned fairgrounds, fixed smiles and forced jollity are genuinely terrifying to me! This may be a cheap episode, but that doesn’t stop it being the most terrifying episode yet. Perhaps it’s just me and my idiosyncratic fears but… isn’t this even a bit too scary for the kids?

Nice episode, with just enough plot revealed to keep us guessing.



Part Two

“Playtime is over.”

Ooh, loads of clips! And some from Doctor Who! In the Seventies! Hope they flog a few DVDs from this. Doesn’t she look young? There’s also some of Sarah Jane’s future… and the TARDIS! Ooh…!

More good stuff happens here. The ghost train is nice and scary, and Rani’s outburst at the others is an interesting first. And the resolution is satisfying; Eve is just a child, the Ship is trying to look after her, and Harry is just a red herring after all. In fact, there are no baddies in the story at all. And K-9 is back. Yay! I look forward to seeing more of this slightly amusing rivalry between him and Mr Smith.

Yes, it’s a little trite and predictable that Sarah Jane should forgive Rani for blabbing everything to Sam, just as she forgave Clyde for blabbing to his dad. And the framing device is resolved a little too easily, perhaps. But this is a very successful attempt at a quieter type of story, and I think it works. 4/5.

Doctor Who: Snakedance

Part One

“The Federator’s son is bored.”

This is the first time I’ve had to resort to video again, after a stream of DVDs, since Kinda. Is there some kind of anti-Christopher Bailey conspiracy going on?

The story begins with perhaps the most jaw-dropping moment yet to be seen in 1980s Doctor who: Nyssa has actually changed her clothes! Of course, the Doctor doesn’t notice, to Nyssa’s resigned irritation. Nice little subtle character moment, that. Nyssa has a lot more personality these days than she used to.

We can now add Tegan to the list of TARDISeers whose bedrooms we’ve seen! So let’s see: that’s Romana, Nyssa, Adric, the Doctor and now Tegan. Is that it, or will we eventually see even more? Stay tuned, for you may be surprised and delighted, unless of course the memory cheats.

Anyway, the Mara’s at it again inside Tegan’s subconscious. Meanwhile, on the planet of cheap ‘80s proto-IKEA décor, Lon, son of the unseen Federator, is lounging around being bored. He’s a brilliant character, perfectly radiating the self-indulgent ennui of unearned privilege and a total lack of responsibilities. I’m no fan of that wretched sitcom Martin Clunes is best known for, but he’s great here.

This scene also provides some much-needed exposition on the Mara’s destruction five hundred years ago, the role of the Federation in this and his predicted return, also briefly alluding to the snakedancers. All this is admirably imparted in ways which sketch out for us the personalities of Tanha, Lon and Ambril.

For all the competence of the script, though it’s a shame about the sets. It’s not the cheapness I mind- this is Doctor Who after all- but the lack of imagination. The design of everything on this supposedly alien planet, with what is apparently meant to be a less advanced level of technological development than our own, just looks contemporary.

The Doctor reveals himself to warn Tanha, Lon and Ambril of the Mara but, again, this Doctor is not accepted as his predecessors probably would have been. Instead his warning is seen not just as the rantings of a crank, but worse, those of a harmless one, no more than a minor irritation. We’ve never quite seen the Doctor receive this reaction before. As Lon says, “No, let them go. What’s the point?”

Part Two

“Are you just going to lie there being bored?”

“Yes, I rather suspect I am. After all, what else is there to do?”

The scene with the mask, and its “six faces of delusion”, is a nice touch, although it shows Ambril to be rather a poor archaeologist to have missed seeing something so obvious. But worryingly, although this is still a good episode, nothing new is really developed. It’s becoming apparent that this isn’t going to be as good as Kinda- the plotting and characterisation is as competently done as before, but thematically there’s nowhere near as much going on, and this robs the events of having much meaning.

Janet Fielding is brilliant as the Mara-possessed Tegan at the cliffhanger, and the combination of her and Martin Clunes is particularly great.

Part Three

“We wait.”

Again, not much new really happens here, although there’s nothing bad about the story exactly, and Christopher Bailey is too good a writer to let things become dull. We get to fill in a few more details about Dojjen and the snakedancers, we see a Punch and Judy show, and we learn the history of the Mara, much of which, I’m sure, consists rather heavily of a Buddhist subtext which I’m not getting.

This is a very odd story, with a mystical type thereat and no attempt to give a scientific explanation for the Mara. It isn’t a science fiction story at all. And never has the Doctor, who spends pretty much the entire episode in a cell awaiting rescue, seemed so powerless. And the main source of conflict in this story so far has been the refusal of others to believe the Doctor. This seems to indicate that scepticism should be seen as a bad thing, a potentially worrying message.

Part Four

“Am I forgiven?”

“Oh, yes of course. Aren’t you always?”

It all concludes logically enough, although the visions induced by the hallucinogenic snakebite are rather too reminiscent of the visions induced by Mary Morris’ character in Kinda. But I like the ceremony (“I offer you fear in a handful of dust”) and the snake effect is very well realised this time.

Overall, I’m slightly underwhelmed. After Kinda, at the moment my second favourite story, I was expecting something similarly brilliant. But while Snakedance was certainly a decent enough story, it seemed something of a retread of Kinda, with less apparent thematic depth. A high 3/5.