180 The Shakespeare Code

Watched 28/7 on Bluray

Funny, witty, definitely tongue in cheek.

The title is derived from the novel and film "The Da Vinci Code" which was popular at the time and is now fading rapidly from popular consciousness.

 Christina Cole looks like a sensible witch. If you could do magic you should magick up good hair and a cute nose too. Her mates Mother Doomfinger and Harold are much siller in this regard.

There's a feeling that this is meant to annoy traditionalists. Shakespeare is presented as a young-ish northern accented yobbo, the Globe actors complain about learning lines, there is more than one black face among the extras. Have you heard any of the racist wankery about how this is "unrealistic"? It is **totally** realistic that race politics of the late 16th early/17th century in Britain was NOT tainted by slavery and supremacy tropes.

Apart from that this is a lot of fun. 

The plot is weak and so is the sci-fi (witches and spells are real-ish, hmm) 

David is breezing through this now and Freema looks, sounds, acts like she's been doing it for years.

ABM Rating 3.40/4.00
LJM Rating 3.65/5.00
SPJ Rating 9.40/10   

No. 48 (out of 189)


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179 Smith and Jones

Watched 26-Jul on Bluray

Freema Agyeman as Martha makes a breezy and impressive debut. Where do they find these great DW girls?

The plot is usual RTD ODTAA (one damn thing after another). The events are lacking any credibility... again.

The characters are soap (Martha's fam) and campy (Stoker especially). Anne Reid (out of Curse of Fenric) makes a solid reappearance. The Judoon are good original monster suit aliens.

It's a very competent serial adventure ep. Good enough to open a new series and memorable too.

David T is actually hamming some of this up. The ruse with Anne about the bunions was delightful. The submission to "strawing" was less than satisfactory.

ABM Rating 3.15/4.00
LJM Rating 3.97/5.00
SPJ Rating 9.35/10   

No. 49 (out of 188)


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Torchwood 110 Out of Time

 Watched 24-Jul (about)

We decided to pick the 'eyes' out of Torchwood.

That way we can avoid the worst/silliest eps (Cyberwoman, Countrycide, the fairy one) and get a better impresion.

This one has (sorry, had) a reputation as a bit better than the rest. It's basically three stories of people who fell through a time warp from 1953.

One chick bonks her way to the point she wants to get in her aeroplane and get away from Owen go back. One struggles to cope with modern manners but fights back and is left up-in-the-air about will-she/won't-she?

The third one (the older guy) has a meltdown and tops himself.

So the plot is pure midday movie soap.

 

ABM Rating 1.80/4.00
LJM Rating 3.81/5.00
SPJ Rating 6.20/10   

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The Sarah Jane Adventures (pilot) The Invasion of the Bane

 Watched  23-Aug (about)

It's cool. Yasmin Paige is very good.

The plot is better than I remembered. This show is one we will watch.

ABM Rating 3.20/4.00
LJM Rating 4.00/5.00
SPJ Rating 8.0/10   

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Torchwood 101 Everything Changes

 Watched 22-Jul (about)

Better than I remember but still far from compelling.

ABM Rating 2.10/4.00
LJM Rating 3.09/5.00
SPJ Rating 5.40/10   

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178 The Runaway Bride

Watched 21-Jul on Bluray

Straight out of the blocks Catherine Tate as Donna Noble is outrageously good here. The woman was great as an outrage comedienne in Wild West and The Catherine Tate Show.

The lesson of Billie's casting should have been do not underestimate Casting Director Andy Pryor's casting ability.

Euros Lyn's direction is very good too.

But up to a point.

In the first half of this is the "What" scene and the "I'm in my wedding dress" fun and then there's the freeway chase scene with the TARDIS and the Robot Santa taxi. Exhilarating stuff.

Then it crashes like a dropped pie when the Racnoss turns up. The story seems to metamorphose from a shouty, confrontational action packed chase to a mundane and frankly ridiculous Earth origin due to aliens tale involving bullsh*t about Huons (I keep thinking of Tasmanian pine trees whenever it's mentioned) and segways.

This is an example of RTD "writes great dialogue" but plots seem like afterthoughts.

Tennant and Tate are amazing together and it's not hard to see why they put them together for the next series.

ABM Rating 3.10/4.00
LJM Rating 3.84/5.00
SPJ Rating 9.20/10   

No. 59 (out of 187)


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From Quickflix

Doctor Who - Series 3

First volume of the 2007 series (not counting the 2006 Xmas Special) introduces the new companion Martha Jones, a medical student. Stories are set first in the present day, then the middle ages then the very far future. The pace is cracking, David Tennant is on form as the Doctor. This dvd does not contain episodes that are too scary for the little ones. The worst images are the witches in the Shakespeare Code, the crablike Macra in Gridlock and the rhino like Judoon in Smith and Jones. Modern DW for a modern audience. Top stuff, non dud/ You'll be pleased you rented it!!

177 Army of Ghosts/Doomsday

Watched 18-Jul on Bluray

The starting premise is just ridiculous. Why would modern people in an exciting forward looking universe think mysterious apparitions are ghosts of their recently dead relatives?

They don't look, sound or act like them. Even a bit. it's not credible.

The Torchwood Institute arrives and it isn't very credible. A mix of Van Statten and weird neo-colonialism.

Tracey Ann Obermann as Mrs "I did my duty' is OTT and wrought from very strange posh stuff.

The Cybs' arrival seems inevitable.

The parallel worlds hyperjumping is kinda handwavey and the Genesis Arc is an obvious plot contrivance.

The Daleks jumping out was an effective surprise at the time but this excitement has dimmed more than somewhat in 14 years. Pete, and Mickey and Jake (the blonde guy) were surprising too but boil down to cameos.

The fall of Rose is the story. It intro's both eps and its resolution takes something like a quarter of the screen time in the 2nd ep. Billie Piper makes her (first) exit from the show in a blaze of (not really) deathly glory. She is rightly remembered as an archetypal modern DW girl. Unlike more than a few of her predecessors her career has gone on.

As far as real Earth goes she and Jackie T and Mickey are all goners.

David Tennant as the Doctor is finishing his first season with good points. To me he's like a show-off Doctor. He shouts, he makes his hair spiky and he talks loud... and then goes straight to the sincerity angst. There is something like credibility lacking in his portrayal but I can't work out what it is. His jokes aren't very good. He has little of the patrician attitude of Pertwee or Baker, T. The gentle charm of Troughton is absent.

A direct comparison with Chris E at this point is fair. I think Chris had shown a great deal more depth and range in his series. David T has mastered the cool though. (Spoiler: he gets better...)

I think this works well as soap opera but it fails a little as either SF or DW because of the hand waving explanations and the comic-ky action. 

 

But it does the business and draws in the viewers, so stop yer whinging.

ABM Rating 2.90+2.91/4.00
LJM Rating 3.80+3.79/5.00
SPJ Rating 7.80+7.75/10   

No. 79 (out of 185) + 80 (out of 186)


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176 Fear Her

Watched 12-Jul

On a Bluray.

This actually sucks.

The first few minutes establish the plot , the 'threat', the 'big bad' by means of ludicrous standing about in the street, unreal conversations between undeveloped characters. The Trish and Chloe characters seem like minor and distant at this early stage and do not get introduced in a sympatico fashion.

The action then seems to move to show the Doctor and Rose engaging in at first pretend police detective work, then some kind of weird mix of social work and hypnotism before it goes full "Exorcist homage". These scenes are uncomfortable to watch since they normalise a grown man interfering with a young child in a domestic "I'm saving her" setting. When Catholic Priests do this there's (sometimes) a Royal Commission... yuck!

Then the last reel is full of vomit dripping "this is a great day for humanity" unbelievable Olympic stadium/torch relay antics which would be barely credible if they were some kind of dream sequence.

The plot is alien tries to take over people by transmatting them 'somewhere' and using them for I'm not sure what. Then when the alien is discovered it submits when the Doctor and Rose rescue the 'egg' thing and burn it in a burning Olympic torch relay. (Could they have simply barbequed it?)

The whole episode is grating and lacking in the kind of thing DW should be. It's not relatable (except to middle class property weirdoes, maybe) and the climax is terrible.

I feel Matthew Graham (famous for Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes) is unsuited to the task of DW scripting. That he will be asked back to do another is hard to understand. Wikipedia claims that this episode was written quickly at a late stage to replace an script from Stephen Fry that failed to complete.

There are two worthwhile moments. The Doctor admitting, casually dropped into a conversation, that he "was a father... once." This is played by Billie as the sequel hunting bombshell it is... but sadly this has never really been followed up on. And of course the final scene which presages the dramatic tear at Rose's complacency in the following two episodes. Neither of these justify the whole running time.

Apart from that this is easily the worst episode of new Who and vies with the worst of old Who. A stunning and disappointing mistake.

ABM Rating 0.10/4.00
LJM Rating 1.49/5.00
SPJ Rating 2.00/10   

No. 180 (out of 184)


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175 Love and Monsters

Watched 8-Jul on Bluray

This has a few innovative things in it. The narrative is flashback style. The story centres on some other character than the Doctor or his assistant. The villain is up to something other than power, domination or taking over/destruction.

The plot style is tedious and looks like an attempt at needless 'cleverness'.

The performances are moronic, particularly Peter Kay who is miscast as a DW villain. He's an "I'm crappier than you' style of comedian, not a dramatic actor.

The costume is risible, particularly the hair. And his main motivation appears to be hunger? Why bother with all the pretence?

This is the first bottle episode of the new series. It's a very rare occurrence in DW history. Perhaps Mission to the Unknown is the *only* precedent.

It fails to be entertaining... and it's got very, very little to commend it indeed.

The worst bit for mine is in the climax when Elton reveals his Mother's forgotten demise in his childhood. This seems to have been chucked in post plot in an attempt at dramatic heft. It comes across as soapy and unbelievable.

I do not like this. In fact it sucks.

ABM Rating 1.80/4.00
LJM Rating 1.50/5.00
SPJ Rating 3.45/10   

No. 142 (out of 180)


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174 The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit

Watched 4-Jul on Bluray

This one seems to have some layers.

It's an appealing hard edged SF base under siege story with a coterie of sexy, ugly, smart, dumb characters wearing overalls and bitching at each other. There's "cute" aliens (Oods) and scary aliens (Oods) and an entertaining big bad.

But where it succeeds best (and this is mostly in the second ep) is when the 'devil' starts promptig characters to

question their own beliefs. The reveals are fascinating and counter to expectations.

I like the line from Rose about space being tough not glam. It's a sober dash of realness.

The black hole physics are ok without being stunning. The concept of orbiting a black hole is perfectly valid. But the falling in without relativistic effects (time dilation, mass dilation, dimension dilation(aka spaghettification) is a thing which disappoints me. (Subsequent efforts such as The Doctor Falls are not perfect either.)

ABM Rating 3.50 & 3.55/4.00
LJM Rating 4.26 & 4.28/5.00
SPJ Rating 9.70 & 9.75/10

No. 21 (out of 182) and 20 (out of 183)

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173 The Idiot's Lantern

Watched 3-Jul

Blurays

There's an air of silliness or something here.

The plot is nuts. Some vaguely defined alien who lives in the telly is sucking people's faces/brains to 'feast'... on what?

Apart from the "how does that work then?" question, the "big audience" is key to this.

If they waited 5 years then the general TV audience would have grown by 5 times, if they had waited 20 years the TV audience would be nearer 95% of the populace.

If they had attacked the general TV audience in California or Japan AT THE SAME TIME they would have reached much larger audiences.

So why Britain?

Ummm... and what the hell is the climax thing about. It's shouty and exciting but the drama isn't there because of the handwaving explanations...

The actual story and the direction, dialogue, are pretty good.

There's an anti cyclic side plot about the Dad character's hypocritical bullying and toadying which presages his being kicked out of the house.

But the main plot is weak and there's an obvious attempt to conceal this by some kind of facile, aesthetic cover up.

I'll cite:

• The Police interview with the DI and the Doctor (which starts and ends with the same police procedural cliche....).
  
• Dropping a Kylie quote
• The copper guy's reaction to first a portable TV and then a colour TV...
• The use of a Betamax cassette and the technobabble about wiping it... (Mark Gatiss knows full well that wiping a Beta tape would not be necessary since because it's Beta no one will be able to play it ever again.)

ABM Rating 2.20/4.00
LJM Rating 2.20/5.00
SPJ Rating 4.50/10   

No. 142 (out of 180)


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