What's it about: The Point of Stillness. A place the Time Lords are forbidden to go. It cannot be drawn, it cannot be whispered, it cannot be thought. And yet somebody is very keen to reach it. Deep within the TARDIS, something unusual is happening. One of the ship's oldest secrets is about to be revealed, and once it is, nothing will ever be the same again. As danger materialises deep within the ship, spectral strangers lurk in the corridors and bizarre events flood the rooms, someone long-forgotten is ready to reappear. The Doctor and Leela are soon to discover that their home isn't quite the safe stronghold they thought.
Teeth and Curls: 'Do you really think you can fly this
old bucket?' I love the idea of the Doctor taking her back to ancient
Gallifrey to learn from extraordinary scholars, what an incredible gift to her.
The seventh Doctor did a similar thing for Ace once but put her through all
manner of cruel psychological tests before hand. He has no doubt in his mind
that the TARDIS can hear him and understand. The Doctor is a mass of
contradictions, telling Leela that machines have no feelings and then responds
to the TARDIS as though she is a living thing requiring tact, love and
encouragement. Machines are only as imaginative as those who programme them and
it is the Doctor who programmed the TARDIS and therefore she is at the height
of creativity. The Doctor is seriously protective of the TARDIS and gets quite
angry when Three starts manipulating her controls. The Doctor remembers a time
during his childhood where he spent time with the Outsiders in the snow,
staying for days with them. He admits that he didn't go to every class in the
Academy because there were places to go. I enjoyed the illusion of the Doctor
appearing to have gone completely bonkers, sawing the hat stand in half and
then asking who did it. Let's be honest if you wanted to make a case for
psychological instability it would be the fourth Doctor with his boggle eyes,
barking laugh and random comments that you would turn to. Like all little boys
the Doctor had an imaginary friend called Binka who has been actualised by
Marianna.
Noble Savage: Given that this is a script of Louise
Jameson's devising it makes a lot of sense that it would highlight Leela and
one of the unique aspects of her relationship with the Doctor, the way in which
he was always trying to educate her. The Doctor has begun the unenviable task
of trying to teach Leela the basic functions of the TARDIS console, a task that
she doesn't seem to be enjoying. She is the second most intelligent being that
the Doctor has known in the last 500 years or so, after himself. All she lacks
is education but she has the aptitude to learn. She asks intelligent questions
and can spot an illogical point a mile off. She is determined to understand
what he is teaching her, even if it seems like it is beyond her grasp. Leela
reads the story of the old woman in the shoe and points out all the facts that
don't make any sense. She finds herself talking like the Doctor when she
addresses the TARDIS. The conversation between Leela and her father is given
extra poignancy by the (shallow) examination of her relationship with him
earlier in the season. Named after the Sevateem's greatest warrior and now she
is living up to that name.
Sparkling Dialogue: 'There is something seriously wrong with
the TARDIS, Leela.'
'I was bricked up, abandoned to the bowels of this grand
puss!'
'Who gives a tuppenny toss?'
Musical Cues: Nigel Fairs has always provided some catchy
and decisive music for his stories and The Abandoned is no different. There are
some sinister snatches of fairytale music (the sort he aced in The Child) and
when the fourth Doctor theme kicks in it is slowed down and given a melancholic
treatment that I rather liked. The flute stings also stood out and the choral
screams.
Isn't it Odd: The second episode is much, much more
satisfying than the first where the answers are spilled and the assault of
madness of the first episode is put into context. That initial instalment can
be a bit wearying at times though as you try piece the jigsaw of lunacy together.
All those mad sound effect and random happenings are beautifully explained away
by the power of the point of stillness that can realise anything that exist in
your imagination.
Standout Scene: All the elements of delusory madness cohere
at the end of the first episode to provide a crescendo of mania. It's difficult
to figure out what is going on but that is the exciting part, the Doctor and
Leela gripped by something that cannot be defined.
Result: 'What is the point of the point of stillness?' Brave
and challenging, it's time for something completely different. There are going
to be people who really don't like this kind of thing because they have a
certain expectation of what they want from Doctor Who. And there will be others
that adore because it is pushing the boundaries and giving a range that has
surrendered to nostalgia and predictability more often than not a shot in the
arm of creativity. I'm mostly in the latter category and think it is long past
time that this range started displaying some individuality but I do have an
issue with some elements of the execution of the tale. I did enjoy some of the
TARDIS based atmospherics and Nick Briggs certainly fulfils the remit of
utilising the sound effects of the ship to create an unique audio environment,
playing to the strengths of setting a story entirely within its walls. The
moments of random weirdness reminded me of Sapphire and Steel but the
first episode might test your patience because it doesn't appear to have any
structure to it and there are some moments of assaulting shrieks and laughter
that encourage the application of paracetamol. As you might imagine from a
script partly written by Louise Jameson the characterisation of the Doctor and
Leela is extremely strong, returning them to their roots of teacher and pupil
but also saying some new things about both characters. That genuinely surprised
me in a period where I have come to expect little definable examination of the
regulars. Stephanie Cole is one of my favourite actresses and I have always
wanted her to appear in a Doctor Who story so I can cross that off my wish
list. With a little binding of the script and production so that it wasn't
quite as all out cuckoo, this would have been an absolute classic. As it is I
would still say it is a massive leap in the right direction for the 4DAs, an
attempt to try something completely exclusive rather than trading on past
glories. Nigel Fairs and Louise Jameson should team up again, they are clearly
full of ideas (the former brings his penchant for fairytale notions and the
latter a willingness to experiment and pioneer...and Jameson certainly brings a
narrative coherence that has been lacking in Fairs' last two scripts) and are
invested in the characters. With firmer notes from the script editor they could
produce something truly outstanding instead of something flawed but fearless: 8/10
4 comments:
The opinions about this one in the BF forums are very bad, I haven't listened to it yet, but since I usually agree with the most of your reviews I'm gonna give it a try!
I hope I haven't led you up the garden path! Everybody else seems to hate it...but I really liked the fact that nothing like this has been attempted before. Even if it is a little hysterical, it is full of great ideas.
I'm somewhat amused that you liked this because it has "never been attempted before". This is so derivative of every sci-fi "what happens when your thoughts become real" scenario that it makes me weap. It's the same story that is told ad nauseum in various Star Treks and hales back all the way to movies like The Forbidden Planet. In Who this may be different. The closest cousin to this is probably The Mind Robber and that's still a far way away but this is such an overused sci-fi staple.
Eh?
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