The Sandman: A Hope in Hell

 "I am hope..."

Why does Lucifer not just counter with despair, or nihilism, or some such dreary bollocks? Never mind; I usually tune out suring any but the quirkiest of fight scenes, but this one is so beautifully poetic- and, though I remember the comic book only dimly, I believe it's faithful, more or less. So is the evocative and myth-like scene with Nada, a woman he loves but has sentenced to Hell because he does not forgive her after ten thousand years. This is powerful stuff, like the ancient myths.

Meanewhile, John Dee, cynical, insane and troublingly powerful, meets Rosemary, a damaged yet kind and good woman. Yet this does not comfort us. Those masterful scenes of tension in the car and the petrol station, and his cruel killing of the shoipkeeper, show us he is capable of casual cruelty. So his casual kindness to Rosemary, even if it gives her immunity from harm, is merely a sign of terrible capriciousness. This man is dangerous.

I love the poetic depictiuon of Hell, even if it doesnt quite import the idea from the comic that the punishments of the damned arise from their own subconscious. I love the stoicism of Dream. I love the humanity of Matthew, although he's a crow. This is beautiful telly.

The Sandman: Dream a Little Dream of Me

 "What's the point of you...?"

This is a pivotal episode and, as far as I recall, faithful to the comic. Much of it is set-up. Hence we're introduced to the splendid Patton Oswalt as Matthew the Raven, and we have those incredible scenes between Ethel and John, which are textbook examples of how to do exposition well, culminating in her sacrificing her life (aged 116!) so her son may have the Amulet of Protection, presumably an extended lifespan, and all sorts of powers... so naturally he kills a guard and escapes. He won't do anything bad, right?

We also have Mad Hettie (yay!), a princess marrying a demon footballer, and Meera Syal as a delightfully human vicar.

But, yeah, this is all about Jenna Coleman as a gender-swapped John/Johanna Constantine who, nevertheless, is the character. And yes; Coleman is significantly better than Keanu Reeves in the part. But this is a nice little chacter piece, with a nice and surprising little bond between Constantine and Morpheus. This is good telly.

So, off to Hell. Should be fun...

The Sandman: Imperfect Hosts

 "He almost never murders me before lunch..."

After a deep and emotional first episode, the second episode feels curiously mythical, and deliberately so. Dream is reminded of his siblings in a way that in turn reminds me of Roger Zelazny's Amber novels, which I love, and so does Neil Gaiman. Yet this masterpiece takes that influence and adds so much.

Dream is questing for his three artifacts which will restore his realm. He seeks cryptic advice from the Fates, advice which I'm sure will define the outline of the season. Yet against him is the Corinthian and the modern Ethel, an art dealer, and her son in his asylum... John Dee. And there's a name with alchemical associations.

Triumphantly, though, we have Cain and Abel, shown surprisingly faithfully to the comic book (as is the whole episode, if I rightly recall) and portrayed superbly by Sanjeev Bhaskar and Asim Chaudhry, whose speech at the end is profoundly moving. As is the sacrifice of poor little Gregory, a faithful pet put down.

Are we all pets to Morpheus, to e put down when needed? This is a fascinating protagonist, and a lushly superb, if short, bit of telly.

Doctor Who: Resolution

“I always think I’m rid of them. I never am.”

This episode was written by Chris Chibnall. It is genuinely superb. Those two sentences don’t feel right together but, incredibly, they belong together on this occasion. This is a brilliant piece of telly, with a genuinely superb dramatic scene between Ryan and his father, and the best use of the Daleks since, well, Dalek, using the threat posed by one Dalek to banish all memories of recent years to re-establish them as the ultimate baddie to be feared.

The set-up is superb; narration, a mediaeval fairytale backstory and a mythical tale of an ultimate monster split into thirds and buried in far-flung places. A pair of archaeologists established as real characters through good dialogue before one of them is put through the wringer. And yet the true brilliance is in the basic plot- a naked Dalek without its casing reassembled after twelve centuries and forced to manipulate humans slowly into building it a makeshift casing out of available materials like an episode of the A-Team. This is brilliant not only because it's a fresh and superb take on the Daleks but because we are establishing that not only is one Dalek an unimaginable threat but that it doesn't even need any weapons or equipment or anything other than, well, a bubbling lump of hate itself to come damn close to annexing this planet.

Even better, the reveal of the Dalek casing is quite rightly held back, and the Heath Robinson nature of this Dalek has us clamouring for us to see how they actually look in the Chibnall era. No doubt we have that to look forward to. Next bloody year.

If I may nerd out a little more, though, it's great to have the little fan nods ("I wish I could remember exactly how long a Rel is") and the firm statement that there is no Kate Stewart and no UNIT in the Chibnall era; the Doctor and her friends are on their own. UNIT has been mothballed, it seems, for pettifogging and deeply shortsighted financial reasons, as happens in politics all the time, and the UK has decided to leave an international organisation which is vital to its security and prosperity and bugger the frankly terrifying consequences. It's good that nothing analogous is happening in real life, right?

This is also a much better episode for the Doctor and her by now very well-knit crew; right from the tour of the universe's best CGI for New Year at the start they're a united and supportive bunch, although Yas yet again seems to get the least to do. It's a phenomenally strong Ryan episode, of course, introducing us to his dad Ryan after a lot of set-up over the last season. The result is an extraordinarily written scene in a cafe between father and son, and a masterfully written arc for Ryan, Aaron and Graham. I like the nuances of Aaron's character; far from being a cipher of a deadbeat dad he's a highly competent and able engineer, and while no excuses are made for his past behaviour he's shown as genuinely wishing to feel his way towards redemption. And Chibnall should be praised for resisting the easy cop-out ending of having Aaron sacrifice at the end; instead his near-death helps him with beginning to re-connect with his son.

Come to think of it, not a single named character dies- in a Dalek story.

I can't really fault this. I spent the whole of Season 37 waiting in vain for Chibnall to wow me, and at last he's done it. For the first time he's written a story for Doctor Who that is worthy of debate as to whether it deserves classic status. What took him so bloody long?

Doctor Who: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos

“Don’t aliens ever bother with doors?”

Sigh. That was a season finale?

It’s the moment of truth; the season has fully unfolded in all of its dubious glory and, well, aside from It Takes You Away it’s been good but hasn’t wowed me. And this episode- penned, fittingly, by Chris Chibnall himself- is the perfect illustration of why this season is often good but hardly ever more than that, and I expect more from Doctor Who.

This episode gets the usual things right, of course. Jodie Whittaker is a deeply promising Doctor in the vein of a Davison or a Tennant, in spite of being worryingly underwritten as a character who just does Doctorish things but isn’t given an inner life. Graham, Ryan and Yas are a strong TARDIS team, making a crew of four work as it did under Hartnell, and the characters are all strong- but let’s see a bit more development of Yas in particular. The show also looks awesome. It’s a good set-up.

But the problem is that Chibnall just isn’t that good a writer, either of episodes or of season arcs. I mean, this is the season finale and, yes, it pays off the death of Grace and features the return of Tim Shaw. Even the Sniperbits are back. But, well, really? That, and Graham’s predictable revenge sub-plot, is enough meat for a finale? This is thin stuff.

Then there’s the basic plot. I’ll forgive the steal from The Pirate Planet as the mood is so different, but the whole set up- the idea of the Ux as a species of two, the engineering, the faith; it all feels sonehow like the early New Adventures. Like all the Chibnall-penned stories set in space it’s grim, joyless apart from the TARDIS crew’s banter. In fact, that’s a big part of the problem; under Chibnall, Doctor Who is hard science fiction instead of the whimsical science fantasy we’vecall Known and loved for the best part of 55 years. Perhaps that’s why lastcweek’s talking frog had me grinning; Paul Cornell used to talk about frocks vs guns. Well, give me frogs over po-faced witless plodding plotting any time.

I never thought I’d be the “x must go” type of fan, but this season has me concerned about the programme in a way I haven’t ever been before, and I’ve been a card-carrying fan since Part Two of Remembrance of the Daleks. I’ll never stop enjoying Who, even if not as much as I’d like, and I’ll never stop watching it, blogging it or being as much a part of fandom as work, fatherhood and caring for my disabled wife allow. But I will say one thing.

Chibnall must go.

Doctor Who: It Takes You Away

“I see the sheep have moved on. Probably off plotting.”

You know how I’ve spend the whole of the season so far whingeing that yes, many episodes are good, but none of them have wowed me? Well, with one episode to go, this season has finally gone and bloody done it. Ed Himes, you can write for Doctor Who again. This is a splendid fifty minutes of television. It still doesn’t mask some underlying issues with Chibnall’s reign, though; still no arc beyond very basic character stuff, leading to a sense of drift. And, while Jodie Whittaker is excellent as ever, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that her Doctor isn’t getting any character development.

Still, bravo. Big sci-fi ideas, for a start; a sentient universe that just wants to be friends but isn’t very good for the health of reality, and the subject of a bedtime story from one of the Doctor’s seven grandmothers to boot, plus of course the whole scene with the frog. It’s also about something; Hanne’s dad is a parallel bad dad to Ryan’s father at first glance, although he’s addled by grief and sees the error of his ways. And Graham’s own grief gets played with horribly by the “resurrection” of Grace. Yet the whole thing brings Graham and Ryan together sufficiently for Ryan to call him “Grandad”, an earned and powerful moment.

All this, and the lines about the sheep. And the flesh moths. And Kevin Eldon A’s a nasty, duplicitous demon. And the whole concept of “antizones”. And so much subtext I’m sure I’ve not even noticed half of it.  I don’t know if we’ll ever see another Neil Gaiman episode, but this is pretty damn close, and just as good.

And yet... it’s a one off episode, full of one off brilliant and a Doctor Who does Doctorish things but isn’t written with any inferiority. Sometimes it’s the exceptional episodes what make you worry about where things are headed.

Doctor Who: Demons of the Punjab

”You know there are aliens, right? In Punjab, during Partition? And you're worried about me being gobby?"

At last, an episode that's more than quite good and actually both moving and interesting. And it's written by Vinay Patel, who is 1) the first non-white person to write for Doctor Who, which is quite awful at this late date; 2) new to the series; and 3) not Chris Chibnall, thank the gods- indeed, this is the frst episode of the season where Chibnall doesn't have a writing credit.. This script is assured, thoughtful and moving.

Moreover, after Rosa, it's tempting to muse on the possible return of the near-pure historical. In that story the only science fiction element was timey-wimey stuff; here the aliens merely observe, and mourn. They seem a little metatextual, although subtly done, and if anything they represent us as viewers. They are not the titular demons of the Punjab; that would be humanity.

Partition happened only in 1947. Back in the monochrome era this was both far too recent and too close to the bone for a British programme, it being no longer ago to them than the New Labour years are to us, and there being no serious view of Partition, and its millions of deaths, that doesn't largely blame the British. This is skirted over here, but it is there.

The plot s simple, really; Yas wants to find out her grandmother's mysterious past so persuades the Doctor to take them back in time to the Punjab during what turns out to be Partition, and there ensues a tale of genocide and star cross'd lovers as she sees her Muslim grandfather marry Prem, a Hindu man who is not her grandfather. If you're used to stories about time travel- and many viewers may not be- it's straightforward stuff, but full of potential for drama and pathos as we see the inevitable tragic events play out.

It's worth emphasising again how much I like this TARDIS crew. They have fun, they have heart, they have a real developing bond; I love that brief scene between Yas and Graham about what she must be going through, yes, but also how great their lives are. And Jodie Whittaker is brilliant again. Chibnall has got so much right about the shape of the show. But there's definitely a pattern developing where the ones he doesn't write are the better ones.

Doctor Who: The Woman Who Fell to Earth

“Sorry. Half an hour ago I was a white haired Scotsman...”

No opening title sequence. No reprise of the regeneration. Just the above line, some interesting dialogue about the process of adapting to a new persona, and Peter Capaldi’s clothes. Those aside, we have only the perennials of the programme to guide us into what does indeed look very much like, ahem, a “jumping on point”.

We’ve had few spoilers and an incredible vagueness in publicity; personally, I’ve never known less about a new season of Doctor Who. I mean, beyond next week we don’t even know the episode titles. We know to expect easier-to-follow storytelling and no old monsters for this season, but that's it.

So what did we get? Well, I'm impressed. Chibnall's stuff has been variable in the past to say the least, as least with Who (I haven't seen any Broadchurch but will remedy that very, very soon, trust me), but here he nails it. A simple plot (a policy aim, I understand; I yield to no one in my Moffat fanboyishness but even I will accept that his complex plotting, brilliant though it is, is wont to drive away the kids), likeable characters in Ryan- a decent kid held back by his dyspraxia; Yasmin, his old school friend and now rookie copper; and Graham, his cancer survivor step-grandad- and of course his Nan, who dies heartbreakingly by falling off a pylon thingy while saving the day. Such a very Tom way to die, as we old fans know, and the culmination of some very good writing to get us (and the new Doctor, of whom more in a bit) to like these four (soon to be three) new friends.

The whole thing looks amazing, indeed cinematic, although there is perhaps a darkness to the visuals which isn't necessarily there in the script. I can't deny that the direction is superb; I can, however, worry that the veering towards a horror film style may drive away younger viewers as surely as complex plots. That shot of the baddie with teeth all over his face terrified Mrs Llamastrangler.

And Jodie Whittaker? She is, simply, the Doctor. Her every line, her every act, is Doctorishness incarnate.She's superb. There's nothing more to it than that. The fact that she happens to be this or that gender is completely and utterly meh. It's interesting that, a token short period of unconsciousness and lots of exposition about how she's still forming aside (and that nice subtle touch of the little bit of regeneration energy) she's up and running and active and Doctoring from the start, much as Matt Smith, and is very much the more broadly Doctorish type- a Tom, or a Tennant, or a Troughton rather than one of the irascible ones. But we shall see.

Interesting that we start without a TARDIS- it appears that this will be resolved next episode, along with an explanation as to what happened; fortunately the Doctor ends up,with the dead alien's transmat thingy in order to get her to the necessary planet. Along with Yasmin, Ran and Graham. Oops. We also get a new sonic screwdriver, "now with added Sheffield steel", a very Sheffield feel with some awesome shots of the Peak District, a traditional debut episode confrontation scene, and a joyous new costume scene. Overall this is an impressive new debut to the new era and the new Doctor. And Chibnall? He done good, and his strong point seems to be characters over plot. Let's hope that being able to create everything to his liking continues to play to his strengths. For now, though, I'm excited.

Love the theme tune and closing sequence too- very Tom, but very modern.