The War Between the Land and the Sea: The Witch of the Waterfall

 "You'll never swim alone!"

Hmm. I can see what they're trying to do, and even admire it. There's a racism and xenophobia subtext in this episode, especially given that the phrase "great replacement theory" gets bandied around at one point. Far right conspiracies, rich oligarchs, populism... these are, of course, terrible things. So Salt gets arrested, there's the deepfake image of her claiming responsibility, all so very topical. It's all very well done, but perhaps a little too obviously on the nose.

Then there's the weird romance between Salt and Barclay, now rebels together against both human and Sea Devil. Yes, we've seen their mutual attraction, but I'm not sure I buy this. Again, we have the racism angle, and this is supposed to show an interracial relationship as a contrast to all the MAGA-type racism. But the analogy doesn't hold. Barclay and salt aren't people of different ethnicities, they're literally a mammal and a reptile... "interracial" is a much bigger deal here.

And there's Kate, overworking and ploughing through her grief. Jemma Redgrave is superb here, but the character just isn't that deep, and this deep focus on her characterisation just doesn't really work as a consequence. And the stuff with the conspiracy, and the stressed prime minister in over his head... again, I like and appreciate what they're trying to do in theory. But the execution makes no sense. Why is a British PM being advised by American and French generals rather than the Cabinet? Why is an American general giving orders to the British army on London's streets? The whole thing doesn't quite come off, and I just don't buy the stand-off at the end.

Perhaps I'm being a little harsh. The whole thing looks superb, and the performances remain first rate. The dialogue is often impressive. But I'm not sure this is quite working in terms of the execution when it comes to both plot and subtext. I hope the finale makes me feel differently...

The War Between the Land and the Sea: Plastic Apocalypse

 "This man is the most important person on the planet."

This episode may be Pete McTighe rather than RTD, but the quality continues. If it continues to do so, we could have something truly special here, a modern and deeply thoughtful updating of the Silurians' and Sea Devils' intrinsic subtexts. Here, though, there are two key differences. Firstly, the Sea Devils (still not having Homo Aqua, reptiles are not hominids!) are not opposed to humanity's existence, or ownership of the land; they merely object- strongly- to our pollution, and our possession of the oceans and waterways. Secondly, there's no Doctor... much as Kate may complain, when Barclay goes off script, that "This is like working with the Doctor"!

Yet there's the human side too. Barclay feels real, a testament to Russell Tovey's acting but also to the characterisation. His relation to Barbara and Kirby further humanises him, with Kirby genuinely both idealistic and proud of her dad. But humans, of course, are not perfect, and those with wealth and power are plotting to undermine UNIT. This plot thread can only deepen.

It's interesting to see UNIT more closely. For the first time we see Kate and Colonel Ibrahim at home, very much a couple, contrasting with their professionalism at work. We see speculation about a kind of Sea Devil hive mind. And... it becomes more and more unclear what Shirley's job description actually is.

Yet the drama of the actual diplomatic negotiations is enormous. Even more so than the Sea Devils' dramatic act of returning all plastic etc in the oceans back to land (including, in an echo of Ghostbusters II, the Titanic finally reaching New York)!. Salt and Barclay see to have real chemistry, yet her (and their) anger is palpable. Their demands are seemingly impossible, the sacrifices seemingly too great. Yet, from the Sea Devils' perspective, they are modest and reasonable.

There's long to go, and I've no idea how this will end. But the subtext, the pacing, the characters... this is very, very good.

Doctor Who: Lucky Day

 "How committed are you to the lies you've told?"

Like, I trust, most of us, I was somewhat displeased by the dismaying tendency of so many people to vote Reform UK on Thursday. The disease of far right populism is a very present danger. So it's highly gratifying to see good old RTD write an episode addressing this, with the real monster not being an alien creature but a cynical, far right grifter, a thinly veiled version of Tommy Robinson. Good. On this occasion I don't even care about the total lack of subtlety towards the end, as the Doctor turns up to give Conrad a proper good bollocking. 

To paraphrase what a wise man once said... there are parts of the Internet that have bred some terrible things, things that oppose all that we believe in. They must be fought.

One may question, of course, the need for Doctor-lite episodes where seasons are only eight episodes long, but heigh-ho. After that brief scene at the start, in 2007, we don't see Belinda again at all (then again, if she appeared, we wouldn't be able to have a story set in 2025...) and the Doctor appears only for the later scene with Ruby from just after The Devil's Chord and, of course, for the aforementioned bollocking. Instead, it's down to Ruby Sunday, her family, and the UNIT gang, to hold the fort in the Doctor's absence. And, actually, this is an interesting long term writing choice to use Ruby in this way. Are we going to keep checking in on her, focusing on the after-effects of being the Doctor's companion and adjusting to "real" life? Having had this experience- betrayal, doxxing, worse- is going to have a deep effect on her character.

The episode is very clever: until the twist arrives, the relationship between Ruby and Conrad develops in ways that are rather sweet, only for the rug to be pulled from underneath us as Conrad turns out to be the cynical leader of some vile conspiracy theorists profiting from insinuating that UNIT are just faking all these alien invasions, which will ultimately result in Earth being vulnerable. They remind me in many ways of anti-vaxxers (Conrad, I note, doesn't take the antidote), and remind us that conspiracy theories- all of them- are dangerous.

The final showdown (it's a shame Mel was missing) is fascinating- yes, it's satisfying to see Kate release the Shreek on Conrad, and the result seems to discredit him, but I suspect the harm has not gone away entirely. And Kate, it very much seems, will have to face the consequences.

There's a satisfying resolution, of sorts- well, until bloody Mrs Flood turns up- but these people will never go away, never stop endlessly flooding the zone with their bullshit and their dead cats and their hate. But the future doesn't belong to the incels, the MAGA morons, Nigel Farage, or Elon Musk. It belongs to us.

So that's four bloody good episodes out of four so far. Good going. Here's hoping they can keep this up.

Doctor Who: Praxeus

“That’s why you smell of dead bird!”

That was rather good. Not, perhaps, up there with last week or Spyfall, but at last this season has given us a story of the week that is more than “quite good”. This was a solid tale, and not only because it looked amazing- well shot and looking far more e pensive than it actually was.

I’m reminded of The Enemy of the World in how this story flits from location to location- in this case Chile, Hong Kong and Madagascar- in a story that can feel somewhat bewildering. Perhaps the story struggled to squeeze everything into its running time but I’m nevertheless impressed with how the supporting cast were well fleshed out, the Doctor gets to be extremely Doctorish, the regular cast are all given lots to do while being shown to be awesome, and the story is actually about something- the scary amounts of microplastics we are releasing into our world.

The plot is rather daring, beginning with the TARDIS crew split up on various missions and allowing the TARDIS itself to link the various strands. Yet this allows each regular character to have a little development- especially the arguably neglected Yas- and shows how far each of them has come since they started travelling with the Doctor. We get to see an international and pleasingly diverse cast. We even get a sympathetic and three dimensional same sex relationship where, at the last moment, the more three dimensional of the two narrowly escapees a heroic yet cliched death. Phew.

Also, it’s interesting to have the baddie be a deadly alien pathogen for once, and for the sentient alien antagonist to be using humans as lab rats in a desperate attempt to find a cure. As stories of the week go this feels new, experimental, expanding what Doctor Who can do rather than fitting into an established story type like “celebrity historical” or “base under siege”. No, this may not end up as one of my all time favourites, but it’s well conceived, well scripted and well made. At last the stories of the week this season give us something impressive that’s more than “quite good”. And, after last week, it’s good to be reminded that you don’t need loads of continuity to redefine what this programme can be capable of.

Doctor Who: Kerblam!

"Have you smelt her?"

"Oddly enough, I haven't..."

Terrible title and, I was confidently expecting from the preview, terrible episode. Turns out I was wrong; along with last week's episode this heralds what's looking like a definite upswing in quality with a thoughtful bit of what science fiction was made to do- satirical extrapolation of current trends to the nth degree.

What we have here is a bit of a cross between Doctor Who Discovers the Effect of Automation on the Workforce and Doctor Who Discovers the Appalling Working Conditions in Amazon Warehouses, a very topical bit of telly that will be very relevant to many viewers. The satire is simultaneously made blatant- the ancient junk robot seems awfully like Amazon, and the degree of employee monitoring that goes on is truly terrifying, although not as terrifying as automation itself. Just how many of us, even in professional jobs, will not have our livelihoods threatened by automation in say, twenty years' time? How will we pay our mortgages? Will it be a dystopia or was the great John Maynard Keynes right to expect increased leisure time? Somehow I expect neither will happen, but those of us with mortgages and dependents can be forgiven for being nervous.

Political though he episode is, mind- the working conditions on show are genuinely horrifying- the baddies are not the bosses but a protester- yet the system exploits him as surely as he exploits the system; capitalism is and is not the villain here, which is nicely nuanced.

The robots are splendidly creepy, too, and the reminiscence to the robots in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy parallels the similar opening scene in the TARDIS - is the deliberate implication that the delivery robot in both stories is from Kerblam? On the subject of continuity I liked the fez from when the Doctor was Matt Smith, and the shoutout to The Unicorn and the Wasp. And we can't not mention The Robots of Death either- we even get "robophobia" referred to. But this is, at its heart, a welcome piece of contemporary sci-fi which addresses major issues of the world we live in and gets away with doing so at prime time by having robots in it. Brilliant.