Doctor Who: Rogue

 "Just try not to get engaged, or accidentally invent tarmac".

My, Doctor Who is very metatextual these days.

Another bloody good episode this week. Oh, it didn't quite hit the higghs of last week or the week before, but that's frankly a high bar to reach. This was a bloody good bit of television.

It's also an episode written by someone not a Doctor Who showrunner, which is nice. Indeed, Kate Herron and Briony Redman are not only new to the show but have no connection to the fandom that I know of... and are, you know, a nice break from the testosterone. I know of Kate Herron as director of both Sex Education and Loki... and, whilst she doesn't seem to have writing credits for the latter, she apparently did a bit of showrunning. This is excellent: Loki is by far the best of the Disney Plus Marvel telly stuff.

Anyway, it's Regency England in 1813. "Oh my Bridgerton" indeed, as all the Jane Austen tropes are nicely deconstructed from the first scene, which gives us a nice little teaser to what'ds going on, as a Regency fop decides the man with him is a bounder and a cad... so he takes over his identity and kills him. Lovely.

It all looks wonderful, although I'm sure those who are upset by such things will complain about the presence of the occasional actor who has the temerity to not be white.Ruby gets to explore all the Jane Ausen stuff, while the Doctor meets, and flirts with, the mysterious Rogue, a bounty hunter who is mysterious, plays D&D(!), and is a rather convenient source of exposition as to what's going on- it's shape shifting aliewns, of course.,The two of them get on famously, despite Rogue committing the social faux pas of trying to kill a man on the first date. No doubt thosewho love to complain about such things will moan about the fact that, by this point, we pretty clearly have a Doctor coded as gay. Meh. People have sexual orientations. It's a mundane fact of life.

Rogue's invisible ship is a bit Shada, and Susan Twist is a portrait this time, but otherwise there's a total lack of continuity references, which is pleasing, a sign of new writing blood and proof that the show need not feel the need to reference its past every five minutes... much though I love it when that does happen. It's complicated.

The Doctor and Rogue are really getting on. The Doctor invites Rogue to travel with him, they almost kiss, and... yeah, it's clear at this point that he's doomed in some way. But the big reveal is delightfully metatextual: the alien shape shifters are cosplaying. And, I'm sure, no doubt there will e conventions in the coming months with fans cosplaying as them. Deliciously, the aliens behave like fans, complete with their "season finale".

The bit of cruel misdirection at the end, making us believe Ruby is dead, is well done, as is Rogue's heroism. He's more than a bounty hunter... and we get a nice hint that he may be returning. I love the Doctor's reaction to his broken heart, too: he's been there so many times, and just wants to go onwards... but Ruby, lovely as she is, insists on a proper hug. And rightly so.

But what truly makes this episode shine is the wit of the script and the delightful metatextualism of its ideas. I can't believe the season is nearly over. Can't it go on forever?

Obi-Wan Kenobi: Part V

 "Was beginning to think you weren't coming, Master..."

SPOILERS!

This  is the finest episode so far, full of both excitement and character stuff between Obi-Wan, Darth and the mysterious Reva, who in the same episode is made Grand Inquisitor, which will annoy lots of people, and has her origin revealed. It is at once an impressively jaw-dropping revelation and an apparent plot hole: how the Hell can a former youngling have managed to become an Inquisitor without arousing suspicion?

Tala, too, gets an origin reveal of sorts, confessing at her past complicity oin atrocities, including upon force-sensitive children, which is why she has since dedicated her life to this proto-Rebel cause. It's appropriate that this moment should come moments before she atones with a heroic death in one of those tropes that often works despite the fact you can usually see it coming.

Obi-Wan gets to be a hero, with his new lightsabre. There's lots of Darth. We even get a meaningful flashback to their younger days, complete with actual Hayden Christensen. And we getr an interestingly ambiguous ending. This may not be grreat telly, but it's certainly good. And it's ok to just be good.

Obi-Wan Kenobi: Part IV

 "I let them go..."

This is, one senses early on, a middle episode that's there to get from A to B in preparation for the last two episodes- Obi-Wan recovers from his ordeal at the hands of Vader, rescues Leia and acquaints himself with more Rebel allies.

We have Obi-Wan and Tala (I like her, and not only because she's Susie from Torchwood) being heroic and brave. We have some new trebel characters. We have lots of fan-pleasing use of Imperial tropes- officers, droids, Stormtroopers, TIE fighters. It's fun, and it's exciting.

Indeed, it echoes Star Wars- the film, not the franchise; there's no such film as A New Hope, whatever George Lucas may wish- in that Leia is brave under the threat of torture and she is ultimately rescued by a Jedi with a blue lightsabre, assisted by a Rebel fleet. Yet it's interesting to see the dynamic between Darth and his protege, sort of, Reva, who is an inyteresting character, very well played by Moses Ingram in a way which perhaps flatters the writing a little.

This episode is, perhaps, merely transitional. But the action sequences are fun and I enjoyed it. What more needs to be said?

Obi-Wan Kenobi: Part III

 "He's coming, Master..."

Halfway through and, yes, this series is somewhat predictable in how it's padding out. It looks good, it's acted well, but the story is nothing ground-breaking, still, prepared to the work of Jon Favreau. But that's actually ok. This may not be awesome, or ground-breaking, but it's very good nonetheless. It's pure fanwank, but very good fanwank.

This is essentially about Obi-Wan trying to get Leia to safety without getting caught by Stormtroopers, and there are a lot of suitably dramatic tension-filled scenes. But it's also, from the first shot, in which Vader emerges from his flotation tank to put on his armour, about the countdown to a lightsabre fight between Obi-Wan and Vader, which is a huge event but which Kenobi essentially loses but survives- much like Luke in The Empire Strikes Back.

The chemistry between Obi-Wan and Leia here, moving realistically from wariness to mutual affection, is brilliant, and makes us see her message to him in Star Wars quite differently. But the cliffhanger is deeply horrifying, as it should be. And I love the deliciously petty power struggle between the two Inquisitors, and the real sense of political divisions over order vs freedom now the Empire is in charge.

It's also great to see Indira Varma, who was superb in Torchwood and is superb here, and it's especially awesome to hear James Earl Jones. This may not be original stuff, but I'm having fun with it.

The Quatermass Experiment (live TV play, 2005)

"It's good to have you back, Doctor!"

The above quote is rumoured to be an ad lib referring to the casting of David Tennant- playing Gordon Briscoe here- in a certain prominent television part.

Anyway... my regular readers (possibly a concept I've just invented, but there we go) may be aware that I've blogged the two extant episodes of 1953's The Quatermass Experiment. There's still a film based on the series to watch and blog, but in the meantime here's this live, abridged version from 2005 which is probably the closest we will ever get to what was sadly never recorded in 1953.

It's obvious from the start that the production had a budget of about 40p but that doesn't matter; the excitement of the fact it's live and the calibration of the cast just carries it along. Flemyng, for me, is competent but no more as Quatermass but Mark Gatiss is a revelation as Paterson while Adrian Bower is a long way from Teachers as the philosophical Jimmy Fullalove.

It's great to see the story continue and climax as Nigel Kneale intended, albeit at a faster pace. For once the message about humankind is not all that pessimistic; Kneale must have been feeling a bit cheery that day. But even this truncated adaptation puts across very well indeed the sheer quality of the script in terms of themes and character.

It's a nice touch that the climax should be in the Tate Modern rather than Westminster Abbey, although one thing that's hard to accept in 2005 is Quatermass' broadcast to the nature; scientists are not the authority figures they were. But this is nevertheless superb adaptation anchored by excellent performances.

Torchwood: They Keep Killing Suzie

“That’s all we are in the end- just a pile of boxes.”

For the first time we get some footage from a previous episode in the pre-titles bit; at last the series is starting to acquire a mythology of its own. We then move to the teaser itself and Yasmin Bannerman as Detective- surely Detective Inspector?- Swanson. It’s quite an effective teaser, with the reveal reminding me of Seven. Swanson directly blames Torchwood for the murder; it soon turns out that she’s right. This episode continues the recent run of episodes implying that our protagonists are not the good guys and do much more harm than good.

This episode is by Paul Tomalin and Daniel McCulloch. Who they? I remember at the time there was speculation that this was a pseudonym for RTD, but frankly the dialogue doesn’t feel polished enough for that. Still, it’s a good episode, with the earlier scenes quite strongly foregrounding the themes of the episode, which by now are looking to be the themes of the season. The murder victims are linked by Retcon in their bloodstream; the connection is Torchwood. This in itself implicates Torchwood in some dark stuff, but their decision to use the glove means we see them making a morally troubling decision here and now. Crucially, Gwen, the new girl and still the group’s conscience, is specifically implicated in its use.

It’s not all moral murkiness, mind. This episode sees the start of Ianto’s line in dry quips. And the Ianto / Jack thing. And the stopwatch. But from the resurrection of Suzie to her final death all this stuff is pretty much foregrounded. Interestingly, Suzie spend two years confiding in Max and then giving him a retcon pill; this is exactly the same urge to talk to someone about what happens with Torchwood that we saw with Tosh and Mary last episode- in fact it’s such a blatantly exact parallel it pretty much hits you over the head. The implication seems to be that Suzie is the end result of what the Torchwood lifestyle does to you; in the end the moral compromises have turned her into a serial killer. Come to think of it, that’s two separate serial killing sprees…

The scene shifts to a rock club, rather depressingly playing some nu-metal rubbish instead of the sort of thing they used to play in my day. Sigh. I mean, is a bit of White Zombie or Therapy? Or The Almighty really too much to ask?

Anyway, Suzie turns out to be rather clever, having planned this entire situation to happen in the event of her death, making use of Max and Emily Dickinson. Unfortunately, this means Gwen is going to die by being shot in the head. Slowly. Clever but with collateral damage; yep, that’s Torchwood all over.

I’m glad DI Swanson gets to have a good laugh at Torchwood’s expense because let’s face it; she’s the only character in this episode with a speaking part who can possibly be described as a “goodie”. Torchwood aren’t a bunch of incompetent failures who mystifyingly never seem to get fired; these “failures” come from moral failings which arise from who they’ve become by working for Torchwood. And they’re not constantly failing to save the world; they’re not trying to save the world- that’s not the point. Torchwood is a murky, unaccountable organisation with its roots in a fit of xenophobic pique which can do whatever it likes and seems to do little but satisfy its own curiosity and succumb to temptations which lead to very dark places culminating ultimately in killing sprees. Its existence is not a good thing. All its members- even Gwen, even Jack- are corrupted by belonging to it. I’m starting to suspect that the subdued version of Jack I’ve been having such trouble with is supposed to show that he realises all of this but is trapped.

Or, on the other hand, I could be barking up the wrong tree entirely with all those sweeping statements I made just then. I’ll see what I reckon at the end of the season…

Ahem. Interesting description of the afterlife from Suzie, because it seems that there is an afterlife; it may be that there’s “Nothing. Just nothing,” but it seems from the way things are phrased that Suzie was consciously experiencing that nothing. Oh, and there’s something in the darkness, it’s moving, and it’s coming for Jack. Lovely. In no way is this foreboding.

Anyway, another good ‘un but not quite up there. 4/5.

Torchwood: Everything Changes

“That is so Welsh.”

“What is?”

“I show you something fantastic, you find fault.”



I remember reading RTD (I think it was him) saying in an interview somewhere that he loves the way Torchwood makes Cardiff look like LA, and it’s so true! The very first thing you notice is how fantastic the city looks, how very similar its presentation is to the treatment of LA in Angel. There’s even a similar style of directing (jump cuts, dissolves within a single short scene) which works very well and instantly distinguishes the programme from its parent.

We get a nice short establishing scene with PC Gwen and PC Andy (Tom Price is great), the arrival of the mysterious Torchwood, their Torchwoodmobile, and the line “It’s a fucking disgrace”, just to tell us we’re not watching Doctor Who any more. Then it’s the big scene with the glove and resurrection, seen by Gwen as well as us viewers. Watching it now this scene is actually quite deep, examining quite deeply the implications of what would happen if someone were to be brought back to life, knowing they’d be dead again in two minutes. The dead man has established he didn’t see his killer; what to talk about for the next thirty seconds? It’s quite profound, even before we get to the “Oh my God, there’s nothing!” climax. And then, of course, we get the quip about the last corpse screaming for an ambulance for two minutes just to counterpoint it all with humour. It’s moments like this that remind me what an awesome writer RTD is.

After this rather perturbing sight, we get to see the contrast with Gwen’s home life, and her rather lovely relationship with Rhys, a thoroughly nice bloke. We get the first of several montages showing us Gwen’s life, incorporating a rather amusing line about a CSI: Cardiff from PC Andy. Then we arrive at the hospital, where Gwen sees a glimpse of Jack, and the pace slows down again. It’s a nice little example of the direction style and the narrative driving each other.

I love the way that neither Gwen nor the porter are bothered about the Weevil at first, both of them assuming it to be a bloke in a rubber mask in the sort of self-referential moment that I’m a right sucker for. But this only adds to the shock as the blood starts coming. And the following scenes emphasise both Gwen’s ordinariness in her reactions and her unusual tenacity in tracking down Torchwood.

Our first sight of the hub and our introduction to the team (Owen comes off best with his “I’m a twat”) give us another big scene. It’s all so much more effective because it happens through Gwen’s eyes. I’d actually forgotten the pterodactyl, incredibly. Oh, and it’s great to see Captain Jack again, the same as ever, in this episode at least…

The explanations come: the Weevils are aliens inhabiting the city’s sewers, but of late they’ve become more confident about coming to the surface and attacking people. But they’re not from a spaceship; they’re here because of the rift. And the vertical exit from Torchwood is directly underneath it, its perception filter probably caused by a chameleon circuit reacting with the rift! Although, it has to be said, this does rather sound a bit like a Somebody Else’s Problem Field from Douglas Adams’ Life, the Universe and Everything. Then again, that originally started out as Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen so what goes around comes around.

Gwen and Jack proceed to have a very interesting conversation in a very horrible-looking bar, the sort of place that trendy urbanites like to think of as “classy”. I would use other words personally. Plus, they’re drinking lager. Ugh. The campaign for compulsory real ale in all drinking establishments starts here.

Of course, we then get the scenes with various members of Torchwood taking alien stuff home for personal use. And then we come to the one thing I remember being discussed a lot at the time: is Owen a rapist? I would say quite clearly no; crucially he uses the spray on himself, not the woman. But even if it’s not rape it’s still a dodgy thing to do for a number of reasons and not really the sort of thing one of the heroes should be shown doing in a first episode.

Oh, and this is where we first hear all the stuff about “The 21st century is when it all changes, and you’ve got to be ready,” and “separate from the Government, outside the police, beyond the United Nations”. And we’re told that this is Torchwood Three: Torchwood One was in Canary Wharf; Torchwood Two is a “very strange man” in Glasgow, and Torchwood Four (wonder where that was?) has gone missing. Oh, and Torchwood aren’t interested in catching the killer, just testing the glove. Not that Gwen will remember any of this, as her lager contained “a touch of denial and a dash of retcon”. I’m sure it would have improved the taste. Let’s face it, anything would.

Gwen’s attempts to remember are cruelly dashed by Ianto wiping her files, and Jack is now free to stand precariously on the roofs of architecturally striking buildings looking cool, without the worry of being discovered. But Gwen’s made of sterner stuff, and she soon finds herself opposite Suzie having a gun pointed at her. Indira Varma is fantastic here and the character really comes alive in the combination of script and performance. It’s genuinely shocking when she shoots herself. Suzie’s words about getting “all the Weevils and bollocks and shit” really pack a punch, as does her powerlessness at having to flee from the job she loved. The climax, of Suzie shooting Jack only for him to get back up, is great, although I seem to recall predicting it at the time. Only Gwen, Suzie’s replacement, knows of Jack’s immortality habit for the moment.



Brilliant, great drama with depth, humour and character. 5/5. So far, at least, Jack is his old self and all the characters are getting stuff to do- can this last, he asked rhetorically? More worryingly, these episodes seem to be 50 minutes long, which might scupper my plan to do two episodes most weekdays!