The Ood Cast

There was a time – the late 80s spring to mind – that Doctor Who wasn’t really viewed as, you know, “proper acting”. The Doctor was arriving in places filled with Comedy double-acts trying to stretch their careers for a bit longer, the cast of Cats and actors that people had assumed were already dead…

If there was any doubt to the quality of this show by now, I point you in the direction of The Doctor’s Daughter. This is, seriously, the best thing I have seen in a long time. Ok, so being daddy to a small boy, TV isn’t exactly something I get to experience all that much anymore. But the point still stands. This was brilliant.

That Tennant bloke is a master of his craft. In theory, I think its perfectly possible to play the Doctor by hiding behind the huge character and equally massive back-story and still do a fairly good job of it. But he packs so much into these performances – I’m sure that this isn’t the biggest acting challenge he will ever take on – but from the way he rollocks through these episodes, it looks like the most enjoyable.

Georgia Moffatt was superb – equally as subtle and deft with looks and facial expressions that echoed the Doctor. The beginning is a prickly one, and I felt a little nervous about where this would be going… But it becomes very obvious very quickly that the connection between them is real and from that moment on it was impossible not to warm to her.

In terms of characters, Donna showed a bit of intelligence here – and managed to think about puzzles in a completely dispassionate way, bypassing the confusion that the Doctor was going through. Martha was her usual bold self with firm morals. And the Doctor…? That scene where Jenny dies is the single most affecting thing I’ve seen this series. The pain and the emotion were real, and my goodness we felt that hole reopen inside him. A huge wow-factor.

It was hardly completely unpredictable. But I didn’t – and still don’t – care in the slightest. Like I said before, way back in my post about Partners In Crime I think, being a Doctor Who fan, its more about escapism than gritty reality. I don’t (usually) care whether the plot is water-tight and the visual effects are accurate, spot on or even good. It doesn’t matter if the cast contains more wood than a 16th century Galleon being studied by a group of hormonal 15 year olds. This isn’t Eastenders – this is meant to be entertaining.

And this was magnificent. I loved the similarities with classic stories – particularly Genesis of the Daleks sprung to mind a few times – the multi-generation race war just about to come to a horrible, destructive head and the surface scenes in particular helped that image.

And you know, even though I knew the end was coming, I loved it. Even though I was sitting there, waiting for it, I still bounced off walls with joy. The Doctor isn’t the only Time Lord any more. And he’s not the only one of him around. I really hope Andrew’s right and she returns some day…

I’m really really looking forward to next week. Not least because the writer of one of the best Series 3 episodes (The Shakespeare Code) is back with a new story, but also because its allegedly written as a more straight-up comedy episode, and that its about Agatha Christie – an author that I have disliked and been bored rigid by since I was little. I now sit here impatiently fidgeting waiting for Saturday…

I wasn’t wrong this time! Love it. There was a moment where the Doctor made wordplay with ‘source’ and I wondered what sort would go with my preview if I had to eat my words. As it was this was really really what I’d hoped it would be and totally unexpected too.

Doctor Who is like a packet of Revels – love them too. The variety. Some are crunchy (like The Sontaran Stratagem and The Poison Sky) some are chewy (Planet of the Ood), and some a bit surprising and not what you thought you might get (The Doctor’s Daughter).

Just so many lovely, rich ideas. Humans versus fish, fighting for so many generations that they have forgotten precisely why, but each generation lasts only a few hours so the war has taken a matter of days. Brilliantly implausible! And so much more besides: a deceptively layered story with plenty for the regulars to get their teeth into, even asides on the Child Support Agency and a turkey baster. There’s no other series that could cover such a broad rang…, ha, I’ve said it enough times before haven’t I? This blog is getting hard to write. This year is so consistently superb that I am getting stuck for superlatives. I wonder if the time has come for a new word to describe such consistent excellence. The English language has already embraced Dalek as a noun, so why not Doctor Who itself?

Doctor Who
1. BBC Television series. From 1963 to present.
2. Adj, (pronounced: dok-ter hoo). Consistently brilliant; defying expectations.

Here is another reason why I like Doctor Who. Those moments and ideas that plant the seeds of ‘what if’ in your mind. Those extraordinary moments that leap out and grab our imagination and often scared us stupid as kids. Walking stones, Kinda’s dream sequences, The Kandyman, the Marshmen. The other week a friend came up to me out of the blue and went, ‘I found these in the attic and I know you like Doctor Who‘ and gave me copies of The Tenth Planet and The Silurians. I’ve never seen either so this is very exciting. So I cracked open Tenth Planet last night. I was struck by the entrance of the Cybermen and then how they just command the screen. My goodness they are creepy. Terrifying actually. The way they speak with that voice (by the geniuses who did the voices for Captain Pugwash and Zippy and George in Rainbow!) that is emotionless but still recognisably human with their mouths breathlessly opening and closing. These days the idea behind them still seems fresh no matter how much it has been used in fiction, and the shock of their first appearance is so discernable 42 years on that I am very impressed. Not just the moments of awe and creepyness though. The ideas. Compare the breadth and depth of the ideas in your average Who story with almost anything else on telly and you’ll wonder why you watch anything else ever. Two more episodes to go and then it’s the first regeneration. I need another night in and fast!

What? Oh, yes; The Doctor’s Daughter.

It’s unfair to single anyone out, but this was David Tennant’s master-class in the full gamut of acting skill. There were many moments this week in which he effortlessly showed us what the Doctor was going through but one that really stood out for me: that smile that crosses his face when Jenny asks him what the Time War was like – goodness knows how he made that look so much like a father’s reaction to an innocent question from a child and be so full of anguish at the same time. He claims on the commentary that before the scene he’d accidentally bashed his leg on a table that that had helped ‘the moment’. But that’s just being modest if you ask me. The man is a genius. Oh, and another one: the ‘I never would’ scene was like the manifesto of the series and was incredibly powerful. There are all sorts of parallels to life there and it was a proper stare straight at the telly blinking regularly without looking at anyone else in the room moment.

Georgia Moffett was effortlessly brilliant. There’s loads of subtlety in her performance: moments where you glimpse bits of the Doctor in her; in the smile, the quickness of her actions.

Now then, I have a certain track record with my predictions on this blog don’t I (ahem). I predict that Jenny will be back – with an outrageous amount of running. Can’t wait.