This story in a nutshell: Get me to the church on time!
Tempestuous Temp: 'The never-ending fountain of fat,
stupid trivia!' I don't envy Catherine Tate in The Runaway Bride, having to
fill in the gap of the extremely popular Billie Piper (whatever you might think
of her, the response to her departure was overwhelming). What she does (aided
by Davies) is quite smart, initially feeding on the audiences mistrust and lack
of faith in the character and proving to be every bit as wretched and
hysterical as we were imagining. The opening scenes with her screeching on
board the TARDIS hardly enamour her to the audience and she comes as across as
more like one of Catherine Tate's extreme sitcom characters. That's all part of
the character comedy - how will the Doctor overcome his natural dislike for
this woman and get her to the church on time. She's rude, overbearing, selfish
and frightened. The antithesis of Rose. However both Catherine Tate and David
Tennant are far too intelligent as performers to allow things to continue in
this ilk and around about the time of their rooftop scene you start to see a
relationship emerging between the Doctor and Donna (albeit a fractious one at
this point) and it is a relationship that would go on to rival some of the best
Doctor/companion partnerships in the history of the show. Her reaction to the
TARDIS (the first companion to be beamed inside and experience the spatial
discontinuity from inside to outside rather than the other way around) is to
grab her mouth as if to be sick, utterly disoriented and completely natural.
Donna failing to notice any of the alien threats that have struck the Earth
over the past two years is a running gag that never gets old. Literally
pursuing Lance down the stairs in order to secure his hand in marriage is
hilarious - this is a woman who always gets what she wants through dogged
determination. Watch as she pours on the fake tears to get away with murder,
this is definitely somebody the Doctor wants on side. How can you help but feel
for Donna as Lance vivisects her character so coldly and reveals what a shallow
individual of the new millennium she is? 'Text me, text me, text me...'
This is the point where she turns her life around, it isn't so much that she is
ashamed of who she is but she knows that she is capable of so much more. You
would imagine that at some point during this story that Donna would get changed
but she obviously enjoys playing the action heroine in a wedding dress. Since
when did the show pull off slapstick falls as confidently as Donna's as she
swings across the set? The Racnoss' reaction is a scream. The final scene
between the Doctor and Donna is quite beautiful and I can remember thinking at
the time that it was a shame to have developed their relationship to such a
point where they were delivery this kind of magic only to throw it away. Little
did I know. When Catherine Tate was announced as returning to Doctor Who full
time I was convinced that it was this Donna that would be back, the one who had
learnt from this experience and learnt to restrain herself.
Sparkling Dialogue: 'Skies over London full of Daleks?' 'I
was in Spain.'
'We used to call him a fat cat in spatz!' 'My Christmas
dinner!'
'This whole process is brilliant but only if it's being
observed.'
'There's just one problem...we've drained the Thames.'
'You've seen it out there, it's beautiful' 'And it's
terrible. That place was flooding and burning and they were dying and you stood
there like...I don't know. A stranger. And then you made it snow, I mean you
scare me to death!'
The Good:
* If you want a perfect example of how masterful Davies is
with character then check out the opening scene of this story (the only Doctor
Who story I might add to start with a wedding) and the number of reaction shots
to Donna's walk down the aisle and subsequent kidnap. The director manages to
get across the varying responses from the characters without a single word
being uttered.
* Despite battling the fact that this has clearly been
filmed in high summer (has Doctor Who ever looked this sunny when set on
contemporary Earth?) Euros Lyn manages to brew up an energy to the scenes where
the Doctor desperately tries to help Donna to get back to the wedding. Lots of
inter-cutting scenes, moving cameras and reaction shots (I love the taxi
drivers throwing insults at Donna) help to keep the pace up, cranking up to the
glorious set piece where Donna is kidnapped and the Doctor affects his rescue
in the TARDIS. You haven't seen this kind of elongated pace since The TV
Movie's final set piece (and in classic Who, probably the final instalment of
The Caves of Androzani). If you go with the flow, it is great fun to watch. The
moment this goes from being frivolous to being frightening comes when Donna
shakes the taxi driver and realises she is being driven by a robot. The switch
in tone is very confidently done (Donna punching at the windows is quite
dramatic) and then fluidly shifts again when the TARDIS bounces into view and
the story becomes a heroic spectacular. The Doctor manages to prove his worth
to Donna, pulls off an incredible looking stunt with the TARDIS (the two
children watching coo in delight like millions of kids watching at home) and
Catherine Tate hits some comedy highs ('Santa's a robot!' never fails to get me
howling). It's easy to see why this sequence was chosen to trail to the special
during the Proms. We've never seen the TARDIS used in quite such a frivolous
way before and it is desperately exciting to see it bouncing off the rooftops
of cars.
* I want to be the sort of person that isn't thrilled by a
Christmas tree coming to life with exploding baubles and demolishing a wedding
reception to the tune of Jingle Bells. But I'm not, I can think of
several weddings that I have been to where this would have improved things exponentially.
* Check out my review of any season seventeen story to see
that I like it whenever the show dares to do something a bit different when it
comes to it's monsters. Erato the blob might not have been a success visually
but conceptually he was a masterstroke, portrayed as a villain because of his
size and his flattening of victims but actually an ambassador who has been
trying (and failing) to communicate with people. Or the Mandrels, lumbering
teddy bears that slaughter people that become an illicit substance once
electrocuted. The Runaway Bride tries to do something different to the norm
with it's central villainess, a full blown pantomime creature that the kids can
hiss at and the adults can recoil from. A giant red spider that travels about in
a Web Star, it is visually and conceptually about as crazy as Doctor Who can go
with its monsters before it loses the audience completely to the madness. It
goes to show how much of a committed audience that (there was barely a leap
between the ratings of this story and the next) that it can get away with
something quite this outrageously hammy in a culture that is obsessed with
image and looking cool. The Empress of the Racnoss is one crazy mofo and Sarah
Parish unleashes everything that she has.
The end result is something very funny and so extreme that she comes
across as a credible alien threat simply because she is so different from
anything we have seen before.
* Tying Torchwood into the story is a lovely touch, if there
is one thing that Davies does very well it is developing his innovations once
he has introduced them. And he loves a secret underground base as much as I do.
* People forget that there is a solid narrative in existence
beneath all the frivolity of The Runaway Bride. Looking at the nuts and bolts
of the plot reveals this to be one of Davies' more robust plots. Whilst
distracting you with Bridezillas, igniting baubles and the exploration of
Torchwood bases, Davies slips in Agatha Christie-esque clues almost invisibly
(including Lance dosing Donna with particles when making her coffee explaining
how it was done and making him the obvious culprit, the Doctor climbing out
onto the Thames flood barrier and setting up the method of the Racnoss'
downfall, the many visual and spoken allusions to keys and H.C Clements and the
baubles wrecking Donna's wedding that allow the Doctor to create the flood).
How all the elements come together (albeit with a greater amount of
technobabble than usual) is really rather neat, in amongst all the comedy.
* If Doctor Who is about exploring the wonder of time and
space and the Time Lord sharing that through the eyes of his companion then
there are few scenes as perfect as the one where the Doctor takes Donna back to
the creation of the Earth. Not only are the effects dazzling and the
performances of Tennant and Tate pitch perfect but it introduces an important
plot point too. It comes after Donna has received some devastating news and
watching her tears vanish only to be replaced with an expression of wonder demonstrates
to her the joy of what the Doctor is offering. It's dazzlingly emotive in a way
that only Davies can deliver.
* Given that so much of Doctor Who is centred around the
Earth it is a massive reveal that the Racnoss became the centre of our planet,
causing its formation. It delivers a one finger salute to creationists. Let's
be honest, it's no more ridiculous than the alternative offered in the bible.
The Bad: The bizarre segway sequence down the most
gorgeously lit Doctor Who corridor in existence. At least Donna has the sense
to laugh at the sheer daftness of it. Davies cannot resist a bit of spectacle
and has the Web Star descend and begin attacking the Earth. Trouble is there is
plenty enough drama taking place beneath the surface to satisfy and the
realisation of these scenes feels like an afterthought. The most that we
witness is a strobe of lightning cut up a high street which feels like a cut
price invasion to me. It's worth it for the first mention of Mister Saxon, I
suppose.
The Shallow Bit: I don't think there is a single point where
David Tennant has looked more attractive as the Doctor. Charismatic, funny,
dark and confident. He looks gorgeous too.
1 comment:
How could you not have realized this was a comedy?! Well, I guess seeing as the last episode to air was Doomsday, and this literally starts right where that left off, I can see why you were expecting something more dramatic. Anyway, great review of a fun episode.
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