This story in a nutshell: A portent of the future?
Let's be honest, David Tennant was something of a television
phenomenon come The Next Doctor. Regardless of what a section of fandom might
think about the tenth Doctor, I don't think there has ever been an incarnation
that has been so embraced by the general public and so adored by them too. No
wonder this episode secured over 13 million viewers (look at the current state
of the ratings, even at Christmas, and bask in that number) - people were
desperate to see if this was his last story. A Doctor so popular that he had
three potential exits (it's mooted in The Stolen Earth, The Next Doctor and The
End of Time), a cheap trick that worked every time because the average Joe did
not want to see the back of the coolest, smartest, sexiest Doctor there has
been. That might not tally up with your opinion of the tenth Doctor but run any
poll amongst the general audience (non Doctor Who fans, that make up a huge
part of the audience of a figure like 13 million) I promise you Tennant will
come out on top. Having him step out of the TARDIS with an enormous beam on his
face as he takes in a quaint Christmas setting was probably enough to sate
their appetites alone. He's fascinated by the whole idea of meeting a future
incarnation of himself and follows him about like a bad smell. I love the idea
of the Doctor being pursed by Cybermen in a Victorian house and tackling them
on the stairs with a cutlass (or possibly a brolley). He makes quite a keen
companion, nudging all the clues into the Doctor's path and refusing to take
the credit. He hands Jackson his son and then tells him to bugger off before
rushing into danger himself. Jackson has something to live, which rather
suggests that the Doctor is still hurting from the loss of Donna. He admits as
much at the climax, in an emotional moment that took me entirely by surprise.
Sparkling Dialogue: 'Hope I don't just trip over a brick,
that would be embarrassing' - oh no, Ten, it is far more protracted than that.
'He dreams of leaving...but never does' - I wonder if that
description was pinned on the Doctor before he stepped out into the universe.
'I suppose in the end...they break my heart.'
The Good:
* Nobody puts on Christmas quite like the BBC. As much as I
might be a little tired of the festive sojourns, I have to admit that when I am
in the mood for a little Christmas (usually when the nights start drawing in
the weather turns inclement) I need look no further than the yuletide exploits
on my favourite show. The Next Doctor sports an impressive recreation of
Victorian London captured in snow and flame, a bustling marketplace full of
urchins, coppers, carollers and Christmas wares, and a funeral of black
undertakers marching against a white graveyard. This the sort of yuletide
imagery that the BBC excels at. What really impressed me was the visual
representation of what the Cybermen are all about, using biological slaves to
create a mechanical killing machine. The children working in the cogs of the
Cyber King, a masterful piece of engineering that is filled with smoke and
atmospherically lit. It's lunacy to think that children are running the
clockwork inside this ridiculous machine of war but that just makes it uniquely
Doctor Who. Take in all the detail of this set, for all that it is busy with
extras it is a very impressive piece of design. The long shot with enhanced CGI
cogs turning quite took my breath away. Welcome to the industrial revolution.
* Miss Hartigan remains something of an enigma to me, for
similar reasons as Lucy Saxon. So much about their characters is not explicitly
stated and yet it is clear that they have been shamefully mistreated in the
past and are slaved to a masculine alien presence to achieve some kind of
freedom. There is so much that can be read into her and indeed if you get
yourself a copy of The Writers Tale (or check out the Wikipedia entry for this
story which contain relevant quotes from the book) you can see that Davies was
taking the dangerous step of featuring a villainess who has been sexually
mistreated, powerless in this age of male dominance to resist the urges of her
masters whilst in service. As a result she is twisted and sexualises
everything, she even wears red, the most inflammatory of colours. 'The Cyber
King will rise...how like a man?' might be one of the rudest lines ever
uttered by a character in Doctor Who, and one of the most disturbing when you
tie it into her back story. Should Davies even be hinting at such dark subject
matter in a family slot on Christmas Day? Perhaps not, but it is a brave move
and the sort of complex characterisation that women enjoyed when he was running
the show. If The Keys of Marinus (twice) and The Time Meddler can make
allusions to the sexual abuse of women then show has set a precedent to at
least explore the idea. It might be uncomfortable in a family drama but that is
what makes it so compelling. How to explore the idea discreetly, in the
shadows, without upsetting the audience or misrepresenting the victims of such
appalling treatment. She will kill a man just to bring together her real
victims at his funeral, such is her desire for revenge upon men. She considers
the Cybermen her 'Knights in shining armour.' Offering her liberation
which turns out to be another form of slavery, Miss Hartigan cannot seem to
break out of this habit. She's appalled at the thought of being slaved to the
Cyber King, for all intents and purposes becoming a man. It is called her
liberation. Uncomfortable stuff.
* I will never get bored of Cybermen's heads exploding like
technological boils jammed full of foamy pus. The first time we saw the
Cybermen they were marching out of the snow and it is an visual that remains
potent, especially when they slide between the gravestones of the dead. Walking
dead men, marching among their own kind. I found the action less interesting
than the imagery, this is far more artistic than dynamic (especially when you
add drop of blood to proceedings, Miss Hartigan's dress). This is wonderful
setting to tell a Cyberman story (certainly more appropriate than a department
store dressing room), an age of steampunk, of steel and cogs and industrial
improvements. It's just a shame that the Cyberman aren't really needed, beyond
their looks.
* If you are smart enough not to be distracted by the
possibility of two Doctors working together and Cybermen invading a funeral
then it is possible to piece together the mystery of Jackson Lake before the
twist is revealed. A murdered man, an info stamp, too much luggage, something
important being stolen... Davies smartly reveals the truth about his ploy
halfway through the story, allowing Jackson Lake to claim his identity again
and crumple at the murder of his wife but saves the emotional kick of this
storyline (learning that he has a son and he is alive) for the climax. I have
felt genuinely nauseous at the 'love conquers all' climaxes of several Matt
Smith episodes (Night Terrors and Closing Time are equally vomit inducing in
this respect) but the way this surprise is handled is expertly done. Morrisey's
reaction to discovering his child was kidnapped by the Cybermen, coupled with
the fact that he is in instant danger, delivers a double punch to the gut.
After everything he has been through, I was rooting for Lake to have some kind
of happy ending and pleased when it was delivered.
The Bad:
* I can't decide whether the Cyber shades are rubbish or
not, the only real conclusion I can come to is that they are...different.
Certainly the stunts they perform climbing up buildings and dragging the
Doctors to their doom are very impressive and there is something weirdly creepy
about their shaggy hides crawling across vertical facades. However when studied
in depth they are simply the Taran Wood Beast (nice to see he got work after
his brief appearance in season sixteen) decapitated with a bronze age Cyberman
helmet bolted on in place of its head (a shame it had to suffer such body
horror to secure employment). They are unlike anything we have seen in Doctor
Who before and they aren't iconic looking enough to be given another appearance
so they become a Christmas special aberration that add to this story' sense of
individuality.
* She's not badly performed (although the accent grated a
little), she's quite resourceful and she's certainly very attractive but I have
to say that Rosetta (I groaned at the Doctor's reaction to the name) left very
little impression on me. Like Clara, she's a bit of a non-entity. There isn't
really the time to explore her back story and make a mystery out of Jackson's
and one of them has to suffer as a result. Perky, quick to react,
humane...she's a perfectly adequate companion without ever threatening to be a
compelling one. Rosetta could be seen as a truly liberated woman, smacking Miss
Hartigan around the chops for her compliance with the Cybermen.
* The Cyber King. He's a bit naff, isn't he? Don't get me
wrong the visualisation of his ascendance is faultless. From the physical sets
rising with a beautiful woman at its heart (a tribute to Davies' Dark Season
perhaps?) to the painstakingly recreated version of Victorian London in CGI for
him to trash as he marches through the town, the impressive budget is very much
there on screen. If you are five years old this would probably be the pinnacle
of Doctor Who for you, an enormous Transformer style Cyberman blowing an entire
town to bits. It doesn't get more 'Cor! Wow!' than that. But if you have
reached adolescence and your brain can skip over spectacle to good sense then
the entire climax is just a mess of implausibility, embarrassment and lunacy.
If the whole thing had to be retrospectively shoved down Amy's crack then what
was the point of it all? Just because is the answer (or rather just
because it is going out on Christmas Day) and that is then laziest (and I hate
this word when it comes to writing) excuse of all. A hulking great Cyberman
because they can rather than because they should. They've never been seen
before or since and there is a very good reason for that. He even looks quite
daft although not quite as daft as the most recent perfect killing machine in
The Caretaker (beedy beedy beedy). I can at least believe in this thing as a
machine of destruction (just because it is so big) but if this cumbersome, wind
up toy of a Cyber King did stomp over the hills and take out your
town...wouldn't it be embarrassing?
* I prefer the 2nd Doctor's method of scarpering before
anybody can heap any praise on him for saving the day (or possibly just to
avoid clearing up). All this basking in applause is a bit too much for me.
Yeah, yeah, we know the Doctor is great because of what he just did. You don't
need to labour the point.
The Shallow Bit: In that Victorian garb Morrissey is quite a
dashing looking chap.
Result: What an odd beast The Next Doctor is. Those coming
to it expecting the sort of high-jinks that came with The Runaway Bride and
Voyage of the Damned were confronted with something quite uncomfortable. Don't
get me wrong there was plenty of action and not a little spectacle but along
with that came questions of identity, allusions to sexual abuse and some very
dark character drama. Visually it gives you all the trappings of a Christmas
adventure in Victorian London but its a story that is far more interesting in
heading into the shadows and finding out what is festering there. I think
Davies was quite conflicted at this point, perhaps bored of his festive
obligations and trying to shake things up by opting for a character drama
rather than another blockbuster. However because this was broadcast on
Christmas Day the audience demands an extravaganza of sorts and so he is
compelled to toss in a sequence of cinematic madness at the climax. The twisted
story of Jackson Lake and his family and the rise of the Cyber King are two
entirely different stories that are bolted together at the point where he
became the Doctor. I would take probing character drama over impressive visuals
any day of the week and I found clinging onto the pendulum swinging from one
story to the other quite disconcerting. Despite the fact that he is dressed up
as the Doctor for half of the story, Jackson Lake emerges as one of the most
vivid characters to feature in the Davies era. Thanks not only to David
Morrissey's superb performance but the subtlety of the script that forces him
to wear a mask, rips it away to discover the horrific truth and then allows him
some redemption and peace at the climax. We go on one hell of an emotional
journey with the character. Tennant is riding high on his success, engaging,
funny and warm and falling into a gentle on-screen bromance with Morrissey. It
makes me wonder if a trick has been missed with an all male TARDIS team. In
comparison the Cyberman story doesn't have any heart (what a surprise). It
boasts some astonishing visuals and features a thrilling turn from Dervla
Kirwan (another character with a disturbing past) but ultimately leads to
nothing more than the ultra-camp preposterousness of a giant Cyberman stomping
around Victorian London. After the nuanced characterisation on display, this
feels like the story selling out for the Christmas crowd. It is rare for me to
be this conflicted about a story; the Lake stuff is worthy of full marks
for the emotional reaction I had to the material but the climax is massively
problematical and it does awkwardly try and juggle every kind of mood. For once
I think the child in Davies should have been restrained and the adult should
have claimed Christmas Day. This could have been as disturbing and memorable as
Midnight. Because the Cybermen don't really add anything aside from attractive
window dressing in the period, I can't award more than: 7/10
2 comments:
With all this talk of Morrissey I'm suddenly interested in seeing the musician Morrissey guest star at some point!
Anyway, I did appreciate how Tennant was most impressed with handsome, cliff-jawed Jackson Lake when it looked like he might be the Nth Doctor, and deeply aggrieved when he met pencil-necked Eleven. That's the one positive to come out of this mifire.
David Morrissey made a terrific 'Doctor' in this episode. I thought this was a very moving character drama only somewhat undercut by the mediocre Cybermen adventure. It should have been a dead giveaway that Morrissey wasn't the real Doctor, given how well he got along with Tennant's Doctor. That never happens.
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