Softer Six: I bet Colin Baker loved this script.
Certainly Ian Eddington has captured his Doctor extremely well. At times he's a
right bastard, insulting and accusing and trading wit for barbs. At other times
he's warm and gentle and the most understanding man you are likely to meet. I
loved the scenes where he communed with the creature because he offers
understanding rather than reproach. Only the Doctor could possibly lose a
kitchen but he does explain that the TARDIS is a living machine and at times
its mind does tend to wander. He's supposed to be treating Mrs Clarke to a meal
in the TARDIS (see Vengeance on Varos to see how well that usually goes down)
but given the kitchen has gone for a wander he decides to take her out for
dinner instead. It's lovely the way he is trying to charm her. Isn't it
wonderful when the Doctor finds people thoroughly irritating? It really brings
out the pedant in him. However he is man enough to admit when he has misjudged
somebody. 'I've known comatose molluscs with more technical ability' -
just don't get in his way when he is trying to save the day. The Doctor finds
that as in life the good stuff is always harder to get at. 'If you choose to
make yourself an enemy of the human race then you make yourself an enemy of
mine. And believe me that is not a good place to stand...' I love that the
Doctor says that in a very gentle way. It makes the threat much more
believable. He hates having his thunder stolen in the middle of a really juicy
explanation but considering it is Constance he lets it go. This time.
Constant Companion: This is the end of her first trilogy and
a good time to see what kind of impression that Constance has made. I would say
she has been a guarded success. She's certainly like her very much (which is
half the battle with companions) and Miranda Raison has a great way of
surprising with her line delivery. The Shield of Jotunn reveals a really gentle
and believable chemistry between the Doctor and Constance that makes it feel as
though they have been travelling for some time now or certainly long enough to
adjust to each other. They have plenty of time together and some really
enjoyable exchanges. However I do think that we need to plough into Constance's
backstory a little more and reveal more about her than the surface 'I'm an well
spoken Wren from WWII.' This story again shows more colours than the other two
of this trilogy put together, especially her morality which differs greatly
from the Doctor's. There's a potential for great conflict there. Let's call
this trilogy the get to know you material and overall it has given her a chance
to settle into the TARDIS. Now let's really start to challenge her. Certainly
to anybody who says that Constance has made no impression on them at all I have
to ask - have you had the sound turned down?
Her Great Uncle Jasper rattled around alone in the country
and spent his days talking to the dog - he reminds Constance of the Doctor. Is
she used to an austerity diet or does the thought of the Doctor cooking her
dinner simply fill her with dread? Listen to how she says 'In the United
States...In Arizona?' Miranda Raison has got that astonished clipped British
accent down pat. Constance is no silly flit of a girl, she's straight out of
the TARDIS and making observations about their surroundings that hint at where
they are. Modern languages are her specialty. Constance is near-hysterical when
it appears that the Doctor has been buried alive. How long have they been
travelling together at this point? Constance thought they were fighting a war
so the future would be brighter but now she is experiencing that future and it
isn't as rosy as she had imagined. Good men an women gave their lives so their
heirs could poison the planet? Constance likes nice gestures, things that are
small, warm and friendly. She's not really into big gestures. When things get
stressful she reminds them of the British way, calm and sober. She's known
people go to war and never return or to return home to a bombed out shell in
the Blitz. You can weep and wail for all the good it can do you...or you can
get on with it. That's Constance in a nutshell. No matter how scary it gets
flying around in time and space, it's not WWII but Constance does not consider
herself a deserter. She fully intends to return one day and take her rightful
place in the conflict. Except maybe the day after tomorrow. Mr Clarke is
mentioned again and Constance snaps that it is personal. When it comes to dying
at the hands of another, she is very much a get it over with sort of person.
She barely knows the Doctor but she doesn't doubt him in the least.
Standout Performance: Louise Jameson's unmistakable voice in
episodes two and three adds lustre to any production. Colin Baker and Michael J
Shannon enjoy terrific scenes together, their characters initially hostile, then
considerate and finally respecting one another.
Sparkling Dialogue: 'The hand of man -' 'And woman' 'And
woman will reach out and touch every star in the sky.'
'I'm trying to save the world. After all, it's where my best
customers live.'
'Isn't this Arizona? I thought they gave them away with
breakfast cereal!' - the Doctor on guns in America.
'80's nostalgia. I was born too late. I can't say I'm sorry'
- Macht's reaction to the TARDIS! 'This is a type 40 TARDIS' 'Well I'd hate to
see what the other 39 look like!'
'To save a world and to live in the world you've saved' - a
philosophy that both the Doctor and Mrs Clarke both believe in.
Great Ideas: An artron energy source detected on Earth? That
can only mean trouble. A Viking burial pit is not the first thing you expect to
find in the United States. The Doctor has seen some terraforming machines the
size of moons so the one that is being deployed here seem quite a modest
effort. It's a story with some lovely imagery - I love the thought of snow drifting
down in Arizona and the storm whipping up and forming into a savage creature. I
dread to think how that would have been achieved at the time but nowadays they
could go to town. However there is no better realisation of effects than your
imagination. Go wild. A geo-engine that is transforming the local climate -
hardly a poetic explanation but at least it is a rational one. This is one of
those stories where there is no clear villain, just people with good intentions
stumbling upon something that causes a shitstorm. A ghost in the terraforming
machine, trying to build itself a new body. The Talesh are unique, a
techno-psychic race that could react with machine intelligences. Imagine
thinking your instructions into a computer instead of typing them. It could
interact so easily with the terraformers mainframe because of it. They wanted
to take the Earth's sun and replace their own with it, to create a new energy
source for their race. Their world is the inside of a Dyson Sphere, a whole
world re-engineered into a hollow technological sphere with a sun at its
centre. Thanks to the Doctor's meddling they can create bodies out of the
elements themselves. Creatures gestating inside a tornado - that's a fantastic
image. A thousand years ago another Talesh emerged to terrorise the Kingdoms of
the North but it was defeated by relative primitives. The Talesh aren't the
only people who can be reconstructed by the terraformer - the Doctor uses it to
bring forth a bunch of slavering Viking warriors baying for blood.
Audio Landscape: Footsteps in the TARDIS, the Ship
buffering, the TARDIS landing (is it possible to ever get bored of that
sound?), a digger crashing through the wall, crunchy snow, a snowstorm,
something smashing through the roof suddenly, battering a door with a tractor,
walking on glass, a vicious Viking battle of screams, whinnying horses,
clashing steel and tearing flesh, the gnashing teeth of the creature, birds
screaming, flying through the sky, carts on gravel, whispering voices, shapes
and shadows forming in a tornado, Viking warriors stomping onto the scene.
Musical Cues: Jamie Robertson has been at this game long
enough now that he knows precisely how to guide you through practically any
kind of audio Doctor Who adventure. I especially liked his dynamic score during
episode two as the characters were on the run from the sinister snow storm.
Standout Scene: I thoroughly enjoyed the narrated fable of
the Vikings attempting to best the demon. Narration works a treat on audio to
transport you to another place and the soundscape during this sequence was
incredible. The flashback gives the current day events much more relevance,
too.
Result: 'Welcome to the New Ice Age...' Things that
impressed me about The Shield of Jotunn; Louise Jameson's fresh and exciting
direction, the immersive soundscape, the gorgeous scenes between the Doctor and
Constance, the escalating sense of threat, a juicy narrated section that offers
some dramatic backstory, a fine antagonist for the Doctor to spar with and
ultimately respect, epic SF ideas from a comic book writer and a real sense of
a cast gelling very well and thoroughly enjoying their work together. One
problem: it's too long. You could quite happily excise about a third of the
material and the story would play out just as strongly, just with a lot less
running around and a few less dramatic altercations between the characters. It
was a problem with the main range around the 50-100 mark that the stories would
bloat out of control with a bizarre feeling that the writers were being left to
their own devices and nobody was looking over their shoulder to tighten the
stories up. You can only stretch a piece of elastic so far and it starts to get
so thin that breaks start to show. It works the same with a narrative. Ian Eddington
attempts to work around this by shifting genres with effortless skill, from
mystery to horror to end of the world madness. The story continues to develop
throughout and so if it does take longer than it should, it's always heading
somewhere worthwhile. And the slack is mostly taken up with some fine
characterisation and that can never be a bad thing. I certainly was left with a
strong impression of the small cast of characters in Jotunn. Lot's to recommend
and enjoy, just condense this down to three episodes worth of material and it
would be much punchier. I would probably dispense of the cliff-hangers and
moments of jeopardy they bring altogether, this plays out like a movie and it
would be quite nice to see the whole piece edited into one. An enjoyable tale,
one that isn't out to change the world but to provide you with a rollicking
good time all the same: 7/10
2 comments:
It was a really fun episode and I agree that Mrs Clarke is really gelling. I see her as being an Evelyn type companion. Skip You Are The Doctor if you value your sanity.
Vikings had been regarded as the North's terrors viking shield simply because they are formidable men which often battled down inside the town in lieu of battle the mansions. They had been competent seafaring with their highly developed vessels. More importantly, these people were highly effective traders as well as very good constructors.
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