The Halloween Apocalypse written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Jamie Magnus Stone

What’s it About: Space doggies, universal destruction, a scouser, and a mattress in the TARDIS.

Oh Brilliant: The Doctor has been through a lot of late. She’s travelled to the end of time and seen humanity and the Cybermen tear seven shades of hell out of each other, visited the ruins of Gallifrey and seen it destroyed, discovered terrible secrets about her past and been imprisoned by the Judoon for years. You might think that the 13th Doctor of the Flux season might be pensive, thoughtful, perhaps even a little quiet and brooding. Not a bit of it! Hanging from a Grav-raft in the opening scene; tackling a shaggy dog that appears to out to destroy the Earth and has information that she is after and acting every inch the silly, sunny, quirky heroine that she has always been. I have heard people say that Trial of a Time Lord (the last time we had a story this long play out in Doctor Who) is a showcase for everything that makes Colin Baker a great Doctor and I would happily make the same argument for Jodie Whittaker and the Flux. She’s already marvelous, but everything is stepped up a notch here. She is in full command of this six-part series; commanding, curious, hilarious, smart, witty and loving life as the Doctor. I’ve heard many people say that this was where they really came on board with Whittaker as the Doctor, and I’ve heard others say that this was her peak awesomeness. Just watch as she is flailing about on the grav-bar trading barbs with Yaz, making jokes about her previous selves, dodging acid pools and kill-discs and calculating a miraculous escape into the TARDIS from a great height involving a heroic freefall and a mattress. It’s enough to drive the shippers wild. Hearing a female Doctor admit she was a ball boy for Trent really made me smile. She gets one of many confrontations with villains this season here but the joy of this one is that Karvanista is nothing of the kind, as we get to know as the narrative unfolds. The fact that she has forgotten that he used to be her best friend and is now treating him as her enemy is absolutely woven into the narrative. It’s left until late in the episode to reveal just why the Doctor is seeking out Karvanista and Chibnall in a massive two finger salute to the NMDs reveals that he is following up on the promise of the Timeless Child/Division/Tecteun revelations of the series finale last year. And boy is he going to lean into that by the end of the season. I got tingles because it was quite slyly dropped during a fun scene, and I just admire Chibnall for going ahead and exploring something that has been so divisive.

Yaz: Yes! Yes! Yes! Finally, and for one episode only as the Doctor suddenly starts amassing more companions than ever before (I’d happily call Kavanista, Bel & Vinder and Jericho companions before the end of the Flux) we get to see what could have been a very fun and almost flirty relationship had the Doctor and Yaz gone one on one from the start. Series 11 all but ignored the potential of Yaz as a companion, series 12 rectified that a lot (I thought she was particularly strong in Spyfall, Praxeus, Can You Hear Me? and Ascension of the Cybermen) and now series 13 sees her as the seasoned Doctor Who companion, teaching Dan the ropes, going solo in a handful of episodes and being quite magnificent and dropping any ambiguity that she is in love with the Doctor. And Mandip Gill is just terrific and really seizes every opportunity that the Flux season gives her. I really the scenes of the Doctor and Yaz on Earth alone investigating Karvanista and Dan’s house. There's’ a zippiness to the dialogue and their interaction. It really is a peak into what this could have been all along. Yaz is pissed that the Doctor is still holding things to her chest and not letting her in. This sounds like an argument that is going around in circles but it is paid off in the final episode of this mini season. Isn’t it great how Yaz can go off an rescue Dan all on her own? It’s not even commented on. That’s picked up too when Dan essentially becomes her companion come episode five.

Dan: Has anybody NOT enjoyed Dan Lewis this series? Jon Bishop has skipped into Doctor Who with relatively little fanfare and become many people’s favourite of the era by the sheer charm and cheeky good humour of Bishop’s performance. He’s not the world's most compelling of actors. I don’t think you are going to see a Catherine Tate or Bradley Walsh style level of heartbreak from Dan but what he makes up for that with is his charisma, his likability and his earthy realism. His love of Liverpool (which is gloriously mocked throughout), his instant rapport with the Doctor and Yaz, the brilliant love/hate relationship he has with Kavanista, his humble living arrangements and charity work, his fricking hilarious parents and his suggestion that there is no point in being alive unless you are making people happy are all designed to get you on board with this character. And it really, really works. Ignore those people that cannot understand or object to his accent and tell them go and watch Hartnell’s time where everybody lisped in RP. Dan is an awkward romancer and bashfully asks Diane out for a drink. He’s a humble bloke who is down on his luck but makes the best out of life. How can you not love somebody like that?

Karvanista: I think it’s probably fair to say that humour hasn’t always been Chris Chibnall’s forte in the past couple of years. Dare I mention the spectacular jocularity of the Wi-Fi family in Resolution? It feels like with a comedian on board this year that the scripts have had a pass through more rigorous comic eyes and suddenly much of the comedy is starting to land. With a joyous bounce. Karvanista is a gloriously absurd character; a Wookie-like creation from a species who pair bonds with a human and is sworn to protect them and played with absolute seriousness by Craid Els. And it is that gruff, grumpy gravity that makes him so deliriously funny. He’s a massive bloody dog man for goodness sakes, and yet I completely believe in this character. It’s the Nicholas Courtney effect. If you play it for laughs it really isn’t funny but if you play it seriously with a twinkle in the eye it is enjoyable to watch. Dan touching his nose might just be the funniest thing in the whole episode. Seven billion ships and seven billion Lupari is such a mad idea that I just rolled with it.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Or maybe I was Scottish when I set them up. Rrrrrrrelease!’
‘By the way, here’s your house.’

The Good: Originally, I was planning on putting the heavy reliance on CGI in the next section until my brain kicked into gear and remembered that this story was filmed during a worldwide pandemic and there wasn’t the opportunity to shoot on location as much as possible and so green screen work was almost a given in order to bring this epic story to life. But it also allows them the opportunity to make Doctor properly weird and unusual looking again, probably for the first time since the beginning of the Chibnall era. In this episode alone we get to enjoy a vast acid sea planet with terrifying skeletal crags and spitting acid seas (think of Marinus taken up to eleven), a picturesque snapshot of Bristol in 1820, an elaborate quarry prison asteroid, a vast vista of Lupari ships that interlock into a foreboding protection shield around the Earth, space station Rose with a glorious view of the universe at large and a front row seat of the Flux eating its way through entire planets, and finally the TARDIS spitting vortex fire at the event and it not even raising an eyebrow. This is only the beginning. Effects work in Doctor Who are stepping up a massive notch.

You're either going to completely get on board with the serialised structure of the Flux season or not and there isn’t a great deal of ambiguity in between and that makes The Halloween Apocalypse a series of vignettes that make very little sense at this point in the story but essential to the overall narrative come the end. Joseph Williamson is dropped early in this episode and pops up as a raving madman throughout the first four episodes before the purpose of his character and the tunnels that he keeps banging on about drops in episode five and becomes important to the story. It’s the Lost principle. You can either wait for answers, or you want everything sown up week on week. I used to be the latter and I totally came on board with Doctor Who doing that in the new series (instead of telling a story over a month or so it would zip through a plot in one week) but this feels like a real refreshment after 12 (bar series 6 I would say) season of that. Be patient and the sequences featuring Williamson, the Angels, the Sontarans, etc in this episode will all make sense.

Matthew Needham plays a terrifying older version of Swarm before he is regenerated and much like the Jacobi Master it might have been nice to have spent a little more time with him before he transformed. There’s a stillness and an intensity to his performance that is really chilling. However, Sam Spruell steps into the role in incredible make up and has the most fun of practically anyone in this story as the younger, camp as Christmas and confidently despicable Swarm that walks as through the season. Beyond a shadow of a doubt the one thing that Chibnall gets spot on this year is his phenomenal cast of villains and monsters and Swarm and Azure (more on her later) are right at the zenith of the pack. The regeneration sequence itself impresses as the crystals burst from his face as he screams in what could be agony or absolute pleasure. The make up for Swarm is elaborate and clearly a labour of love for the make up technician.

Just when you think that Dan’s house is going to be a replay of Martha’s house exploding in The Sound of Drums (finding the device and how they exit the building is shot in a very similar way), Chibnall subverts that expectation by shrinking the house and landing the flushing toilet gag. The Doctor and Yaz apologising is genuinely laugh out loud. As if Dan coming through the floor of the console room wasn’t enough to make his TARDIS introduction scene a lot of fun, then the Doctor hands him his tiny house. I was laughing my head off.

There’s no hint within the episode that the Angels will feature and so when Claire meets one on the street it comes as a complete surprise. This is the first time that the Angels have featured on screen not written by Steven Moffat and after the law of diminishing returns, this set piece featuring the very simple idea of Claire having to turn around to put her key in the lock is terrifyingly executed.

The Sontarans feature in a small sequence that serves to set up the next episode. I had massive fears that Chibnall would treat them like he did the Cybermen last year – with deadly earnestness. I was laughing my head off at the delightful rapport between the two soldiers (‘You look really disgusting’) and their shared laughter at the oncoming massacre. Oh ye of little faith, Joe – this turns out to be the best Sontaran season ever.

After a ton of random set pieces throughout the episode, Chibnall climaxes The Halloween Apocalypse with a humdinger as the Flux sets its sights upon the Earth and the Doctor ingeniously organises the Lupari ships into a protective shield around the planet. We’ll skip over the notion of cutting off our access to the sun for the sakes of such an ambitious effects sequence that really looks cinematic. The Doctor punching the console and unleashing the vortex on the Flux is way cool. Sometimes Doctor Who is so dynamic.

Segun Akinola. You’ve just got it. The music at the climax gave me goosebumps. It’s epic and foreboding and has a sweeping majesty. I was transfixed.

The Bad: What the hell is happening to the TARDIS? She appears to be bleeding throughout the Flux season and the space inside is being reorganized and distorted and yet there is zero explanation about why throughout the six-hour run time. This is Chibnall playing a long game with his audience.

Why is Azure hanging out in the Artic Circle? I’m not sure that is ever explained. The joy of that scene is seeing Rochenda Sandall out of make up before she is poured into it for the remaining five episodes and giving a more naturalistic performance. I suppose after the last couple of seasons we have come to expect exotic locales in Doctor Who and this convincingly depicted, even if they clearly didn’t trudge out into the wintry wilds to film this.

I’m not going to make any serious excuses for Vinder talking to himself for the length of a bible because this is exactly the sort of Chris Chibnall exposition (it’s a very special kind that he has mastered) people agonise over but I will say that it is absolutely a good thing that there is a witness to the oncoming destruction that the Flux is wrecking on the universe.

Result: ‘Nice to meet you, Dan! Run for your life!’ What’s the most surprising thing that Chris Chibnall could have done with Doctor Who in series 13? Make it in the first place! Created during a global pandemic, we had the right to fear that Doctor Who might not make it to our screens in 2021 and in defiance of expectation Chibnall instead chooses to weaponise his limitations and create what a lot of people consider to be his finest year of Doctor Who to date. Can’t have unlimited number of actors? Chibnall writes in a guest cast that feature throughout and as a result we get to luxuriate with those characters and really get to know them. Can’t film abroad? Chibnall chooses his location filming wisely and instead takes us on a whirlwind tour of the universe to a diverse, weird and visually stunning number of CGI vistas. Can’t have an entire season of Doctor Who because of the health implications? Chibnall leans into his previous successes of heavily serialised television and creates the longest running, structurally ambitious and fluid piece of longform storytelling we have seen in Doctor Who for some considerable time. All of these things impress but what stood out for more than anything else was the insane amount of fun that Chibnall decides to have this season. Chibnall Who is a lot of things but he has never really leant into the out and out entertainment jugular before quite like this. Previously, his series seven episodes (Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and The Power of Three ) were deliriously fun to watch and I was expecting a lot more of that when he took over as showrunner. Instead, what we got was a lot more stripped back and worthy (do not read that as a negative). I never thought it would take until his third year to truly let his hair down and just embrace there fun but I am so pleased that we got here at last. A wealth of memorable and enjoyable guest characters, terrific villains and monsters, more exciting set pieces than you can shake a stick at, jokes that made me laugh out loud and a sense of dragging the audience along for a good time. Entertaining your audience is an underrated virtue and when I finished The Halloween Apocalypse, despite the universe munching Flux event that was causing mass genocide, I was tingling with pleasure from the ride I had been on. There was plenty here that was set up with no pay off, but the scenes themselves were great set pieces (the Angel attack, Diane being pulled into the house). Dan is introduced with great economy and clarity and immediately fits the series new comic tone and there is real enjoyment to be had with the Doctor/Yaz pairing that has previously been hidden to this extent. You’ll find the usual Chibbers exposition here (he has much more in common with Pip and Jane Baker than his spotty, precious youth would care to admit) and that is just an aberration in his work that you can either tolerate or not. Come episode five he takes it to meteoric levels so prepare yourself. I’m a massive fan of Star Trek and that is essentially people standing around explaining stuff all the time so I think I might be immune. What astonished me was at the climax where I felt that too many threads had been introduced and Chibnall had no hope in keeping a handle on all these characters and situations and in a nod to Broadchurch he climaxes the piece catching up with everybody and I realised with some punch the air excitement that he knew exactly where these characters were and where they were going. Stop resisting the fun, grab hold of the Grav-Bar, bounce of the mattress, leap from the miniturised house, duel with the doggie, and set vortex energy on the oncoming apocalypse. I haven’t even mentioned Swarm and Azure, two of the most exquisitely executed villains the show has ever given us. This is a gloriously entertaining start and I was absolutely on board for the ride. Segun Akinola’s music peaks at the climax: 9/10

Terror of the Vervoids Commentary!

Join Joe & David as they set sail on the Hyperion III for mayhem & intrigue! Why are Pip’n’Jane underrated? How charming is Colin Baker? And David regales with a tale of the delightful Bonnie Langford.

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Join Joe & David as they don’t snap their necks, at least not until... Joe is frightened because David loves a good body count, incoming comedy show ‘The Two Bonnie’s’, discussion of Hyperion class design, and Dolly Parton’s new song ‘Doland.’

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Join Joe & David as they are driven directly into the eye of the black hole of Tartarus! The question ‘would you say this is the most vaginal monster?’ is asked in all sincerity, intrusive Trial segments are discussed, Doctor in Distress is celebrated and we salute cosplayers everywhere.

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Join Joe & David as they are charged with genocide! The truth is out: Janet is guilty and we reveal all about how she murdered the Conmodore and was put on trial. Also, what the hell does Nicola Bryant sing in Doctor in Distress?

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TNG – The Naked Now

 

Plot – Sex virus wipes out crew and infects the Enterprise causing much silliness. Wesley takes over the ship and saves the day. Just read that rather than watching the episode.

Character – Wesley Crusher gets his first real examination in this episode and it is absolutely worthy of discussion. He begins the series as a wide eyed, straight A student with ridiculously over emphasised abilities and a chance to pilot a Starship long before his prime. He’s essentially told time and again that he is extraordinary, that his aptitude is far in excess of his peers and that he can see things in different ways to other people his age. No wonder he ends the series a moody dropout who essentially throws his hand in with terrorists and then chips the universe off to explore time with a God. Nobody can live up to that weight of expectation. He’s just a child, and he faces the terrible ignominy that despite his impressive technical ability, he is still a human being. It doesn’t help that he is characterised in the most saccharine way possible throughout the first year. Truly, it takes until The Child and then perhaps into the third season for the character to become tolerable. Characters without flaws are irritating, child characters even moreso. Wil Wheaton is not to blame; he acquits himself rather well in the face of some overly simplistic characterisation and dreadfully stilted dialogue. It’s like Gene Roddenberry didn’t want to give the kid a chance.

This is Dr Bev’s first chance to really show her medical competence and prove her place on the Enterprise. She manages to let a sex virus works its way through the entire crew, her son holds the entire crew to ransom and essentially endangers the whole ship. Top job, Beverley. No wonder they brought in Pulaski.

Performance – Very often when actors are asked to behave out of character it is an excuse to either really enjoy playing the opposite end of where they character usually is or the result is a very extreme (and humiliating) performance. Who could forget Siddig El Fadil playing the villain in DS9’s The Passenger? Or Jolene Blalock turning into a sexual predator in Bounty? I don’t think anybody was very comfortable playing the intoxicated version of their usual character in The Naked Now, mostly because they haven’t had the time to figure out who their characters are yet. Levar Burton decides to go for broke and play LaForge as a snappy, sweaty rude boy who can suddenly see the beauty of the universe. Denise Crosby is the one actor that just goes for it and doesn’t care if she has egg on her face. The sequence where she walks along the corridor gyrating her hips and grabs an officer and snogs his face is so insanely over the top it is impossible not to laugh. Marina Sirtis seems a little embarrassed (strange given some of the things she would do later in the shows run) and so takes to hang onto Jonathan Frakes’ neck and keeping her face out of shot. One of the worst acted scenes in TNG’s run comes when Gates McFadden (‘Oh would I like to show you…but we don’t have time for that kind of thing!’) and Patrick Stewart (‘Not now Doctor…please!’) trying and focus on the investigation at hand and find themselves desperate to try and rip each other’s clothes off. ‘I’m a woman…I haven’t had the comfort of a husband. A man!’

Terrible Dialogue – ‘Captain, what we’ve just heard is impossible’ says Data about the emergency hatch being blown. Impossible, really Data? Perhaps unfortunate would be a more appropriate word.
‘Help me not to give in to the wild things coming into my mind’ ‘Geordi, my job is security!’ might be one of the strangest exchanges in any Star Trek episode.
'It was an adult who did it!’

Worst moment – Why does drunk automatically equate to sex mad? Tasha’s scene with Data has lasting consequences for the series and the character but they feature some highly questionable and troubling dialogue that shows that you shouldn’t be playing around with issues like abandonment and rape if you don’t have the ability to tell those stories in a sympathetic way. Tasha seems to suggest that being abandoned at five and threatened with rape throughout her teenage years means that the only man she can ever trust now is a machine. ‘What I want now is gentleness…and joy…and love’ is such an awkward line. The ‘how fully functional?’ line has been quoted ad nauseum but coming after Yar’s confessions about her past this all feels very mucky and yucky.

I wish they hadn’t done that – Rule one Wesley: when a man comes into your quarters drunk and sweaty you show him the door. You don’t invite him in and show him your science project.

There are illusions to The Naked Time but that was an episode of TOS that was at least four episodes into the run so we have had the chance to get a handle on the cast and they are playing the episode to the hilt. The Naked Now in comparison is awkward and embarrassed. Perhaps the comparison should never have been made.

Why in these early episodes does Patrick Stewart sound like he is recovering from a stroke when he is forced to make an intercom message?

There’s a very funny moment when Picard practically stares out to camera and explains to all the kids at home that alcohol can be very dangerous and impair your judgement. In reality he is talking to Wesley, but Stewart has to force himself not to look directly at the audience.

A reason to watch this episode again – I have a question. Why would you feature an episode with all of your major characters behaving out of character before we have even figured out who those characters are? For all we know Tasha Yar might be a space vamp who enjoys fucking androids? Or Geordi might be the ultimate poet in the universe. Or Dr Bev and Picard have a history and can barely keep their hands off each other. Actually, that last one is true. It does indicate that Gene Roddenberry doesn’t really have much of a clue about kick starting a television show in the 1980s and reveals his weird obsession with sex that feels especially out of touch with what will eventually become such a dry show in that regard. If you’re a horny teenager who gets off on the idea of a sex virus plaguing the crew then this might just the ticket but if you are looking for sophisticated science fiction that tackles tough subjects then this may not be the ideal first adventure out of dock for you. For all we know coming out of this episode the entire show might be pitched at the level of a sub grade sex romp featuring pre-pubescent teens taking over the ship. I had huge fun writing this review which may go some way to explaining just how truly abysmal this episode is. Everything is off kilter; the premise, the pacing, the characterisation, the dialogue. What is shocking is that it is nowhere near the nadir of season one. It’s entertaining but mostly because of how truly terrible it is.

½ out of *****

VOY - Night

Plot – I love the Captain Proton holodeck programme and it is a huge feather in Voyager’s cap; camp, silly and really enjoyable. It doesn’t quite make up for the hideous programmes that surround it (Lord Burleigh’s gothic romance, the Jamaican luau, Leonardo Da Vinci’s study and the obscenity that is Fair Haven) but I do appreciate the fact that for one year only the show has decided to find the fun. It means that two of the most stilted performers in this cast have an excuse to be so (Duncan-McNeil and Wang) and the crazy melodramatic music, the detail in the ridiculous design and the beautiful black and white photography really help to sell the magic of this period of SF comic strip sagas on the big screen.

Character – There is a feeling of disquiet amongst the crew as the ship is finally crossing an area of space that is completely unknowable. The lack of stars means that it is impossible to navigate or even see where they are going and as Chakotay says for sailors who are used to exploring that is the worst position to be in. Rather than use this as an excuse to kick start a plot about jet black aliens that are swarming around the ship or some such nonsense, the writers instead decide to turn this into a psychological exercise. It is one where the crew have a long chance to consider their situation in the Delta Quadrant, the reason that they are stuck here and the strong possibility that they might never make it home. It is unlike Voyager to really push for intense examination of this nature, so it is especially fine that they chose this route. These are officers with nothing to report, with no star systems to chart or explore, where the blackness of the windows seems to pressing in on them and claustrophobia pervades.

Fascinatingly, it takes removing Janeway from the show altogether to reveal just how much she holds this crew together. It was a brave move to write out the central character for the first third of the season opener but in doing so they make her even more of a focal point than ever. She’s conspicuous by her absence and everybody is feeling it and has questions. Janeway is kept from the audience as well as the crew so we are all part of the mystery. When we do finally catch up with her she is darkly silhouetted in her quarters, brooding and depressed. It might seems an odd time for the consequences of her actions in Caretaker to finally have caught up with her (five years later) but when you are trapped in area of space where nothing is the order of the day and there is nothing to do but think then the mistakes of your past are bound to come back to haunt you. Janeway as this dark, critical thinker is not what we are used to (she’s often the real morale officer on this ship) but it plays to Mulgrew’s strengths as an actor and she really grapples with the darkness in the script. ‘If the crew asks for me, tell them the Captain sends her regards.’ It turns out Janeway thrives on danger and excitement and the second they are under attack she is back at her best. I just can’t imagine her stuck behind a desk back at Starfleet Command. She won’t give an order to strand the crew in the void when she has a way out of it, tying into her questionable (but understandable) decision in Caretaker. She’s willing to sacrifice herself in order to give her crew a push home, which is reckless but very noble. Tuvok says her methods are unorthodox and that that is her greatest strength and weakness as a Captain. She displays both here in spades.

Chakotay suggests that there is discord between him and Tuvok, which has been apparent since the pilot when he posed as one of his Maquis officers. Strange that they should bring this up here because I haven’t felt any kind of tension between them since the end of the first year.

Production – It’s so interesting that we are in the same sets we always are but by simply taking away the pricks of light outside the windows and suddenly it feels like there is a hand wrapped the ship and it is squeezing. Thanks to some strong directorial touches (the lighting is much more brooding than normal, suggesting the lack of light outside) and the increased anxiety from the actors and the premise really bites.

The most obvious thing that the script could do is plunge the ship into darkness but with 20 minutes of build up about how claustrophobic the crew already is, it is a really sweaty moment of panic. How the light snap off sequentially feels darkly playful, like somebody is trying to frighten the crew. Suddenly we’re in horror territory as the crew is trapped in absolute darkness with the suggestion of alien nasties in the shadows.

I rather like the Malon and their grungy, dirty aesthetic but I fully accept that they are hardly the most memorable of races that Star Trek has ever come up with. It is nice to have a race that is neither good nor evil but simply doing their job and spreading environmental hell throughout the quadrant as they do. We would see a little of them this year but nowhere near as much as I would like.

Best moment – Seven of Nine disabling Satan’s robot in less than five seconds and concluding her role in the holodeck programme before they have even started. It is screamingly funny, aided by Ryan’s brilliant deadpan delivery.

‘You realise you can all be hanged for mutiny?’ The crew show their solidarity in refusing to let Janeway sacrifice herself, by refusing to obey her orders. It is mutiny, but it’s also very cute.

Worst moment – Only Harry Kim could consider an existential crisis a ‘two-year holiday.’ Sometimes you have to wonder why they don’t install him with some kind of pain collar and every time he thinks up some insanely optimistic suggestion, they give him a quick zap of absolute agony. At least Tom and Torres both chide him for his remark this time around. The writers are coming around to the fact that they have created a complete chump.

I wish they hadn’t done that – I’m not the sort of person to normally worry about technical inconsistencies but if the power is down then surely the holodecks would stop working and we wouldn’t be seeing Seven and Tom in black and white anymore?

It is a shame that when the aliens are revealed they look a little like sparkly turds in body stockings. This could have been the Voyager episode to really get under your skin.

The closing scene where Voyager enters a densely packed region with thousands of star systems is very nice, but imagine how this would have felt after a handful of episodes trapped inside the dark region of space? The relief feels unearned because we have only come in at the end of this two-month trip through hell.

A reason to watch this episode again – This is the start of what is easily Voyager’s most successful season and one where the show exhibits the one thing that it has been lacking for most of its saga to date and would go on to lose again once this season is over; confidence. That is exemplified in the brilliant campy and overdone pre-titles sequence set in the Captain Proton’s holodeck programme, in the fact that this is an intimate character piece rather than a wham bang thank you ma’am action season opener, in the charismatic character interaction and the faith that this episode has in its cast. I have two complaints; one is marginal and the other is inherent in the series’ fabric. The aliens that attack the ship really should have been the most terrifying race we have ever met and they are patently absurd looking (although ultimately I like how they are used as a victim of the Malon’s waste dumping, because it sets up the race well for the rest of the season). And Voyager loves making these bold suggestions – two years in a pitch-black region of space – and then ducks the potential of long form storytelling within that by wasting the premise on a single episode. That means this episode is vivid and unique but it wastes the potential of the kind of what it could be exploring. I’d love this darker, more psychological take on the show long term. Night is a very strong season opener and it pleases me to see Voyager having this much belief in itself and its ridiculously talented cast.

**** out of *****

The Long Game written by Russel T. Davies and directed by Brian Gant (dedicated to Roger)

 

This story in a nutshell: Essentially a 45-minute-long pre-titles sequence for Bad Wolf…

Northern Adventurer: Context is key and what is fascinating watching the ninth Doctor and Rose running rings around Adam in the first scene is that it is entirely different in tone to the tenth Doctor and Rose running rings around Mickey in the next season. Eccelston smiles gently, Tennant was sadistically dismissive. Piper clearly has great affection for Adam, whereas she treats Mickey appallingly. Honestly, this is the better approach and much easier to watch. The Doctor is all irreverence, with gags about Paris and snogging strangers until his companions are out of sight and then he has a look of absolute stone and a determination to find out why there is no racial diversity here. He’s got that Troughtonesque anarchist streak when Rose asks him if there is any trouble and he grins and says ‘oh yes.’ If there’s’ trouble, he’s going to bring it down. The whole idea of the companion that gets it wrong is fascinating and it does open up the awkward question of whether the Doctor only accepts people that pass a certain interview process and don’t make mistakes. I don’t prescribe to that but I can understand why this war torn, less patient version of the Time Lord might lack the tact to deal with those mistakes and choose instead to kick them out rather than to help them to learn. Father’s Day interestingly sees Rose make a similar mistake (exploiting the possibilities of time travel) and the Doctor is much kinder. Perhaps it has something to do with her being a pretty blonde. It’s a good thing that Tom Baker didn’t regenerate into Christopher Eccelston because Adric would have been out the door in no time. This Doctor’s raison d’etre this season is to encourage people to do better and to try and help themselves. He’s extremely passive in that regard (it’s considered a strength here and a weakness in series eleven and twelve but hey ho) but very aggressive in how he interacts with the people he is trying to inspire. We don’t realise it yet but the Doctor makes an almighty fuck up in this story by releasing the Earth from the shackles of the media and putting the world back into their own hands. They simply don’t know what to do with it. Boom Town introduces the idea of the Doctor’s mistakes coming back to bite him in the ass and then Bad Wolfe revisits this setting and lets that idea play out on a huge scale. It makes you sit there and think of all the times the Doctor has liberated a planet (say The Sun Makers and Vengeance on Varos) and really question whether that was the right thing to do without hanging around and making sure that some despot doesn’t start things all over again, or make things even worse. The look on the Doctor’s face when he walks towards Adam at the end of the story is the scariest he’s ever been.

Chavvy Chick: This is probably the episode in series one that is the least interested in Rose, her domestic life back on Earth and her emotional reaction to time travel. And I don’t think it is any the worse for it. To have her involved in a mystery, asking all the right the questions and being highlighted positively against a less savoury companion does her no harm at all. Essentially the idea is that this is business as usual, before the major fireworks start in the next episode. When they hold their hands in the lift as they go off to stop the monster, it serves a mission statement for series one.

Metal Mickey (umm, Adam): We should have known when Adam didn’t get an interior TARDIS scene staring agog at the interior dimensions that he wasn’t going to stick around for long because if he was going to be a new companion…why would you avoid that glorious moment. He’s so rubbish that he doesn’t deserve it. Replaying exactly the same sequence that Rose had in The End of the World with Adam witnessing the future as God looking down upon the Earth but having him faint is another indication that one is cut out for this line of travel, and the other is not. Let’s be fair for a moment. This is realistic depiction of somebody thrown off the deep into a universe of adventures that he was in no way prepared for. But how he tries to immediately turn the possibility of time travelling fun into an exploitable resource is what condemns and dooms him. You can see the pound signs in his eyes when he first watches a data spike, and from that point on he is on a one-way track of insatiability for the technology that would reveal his true colours to the pair that have offered him a trip of a lifetime. I don’t think he is a bad character, or badly played (I’ll spare you my opinion of the actor away from his profession) but that mix of naivete and abuse of his environment makes him hard to have any positive feelings about. When the Doctor sees Adam with the technology rammed into his head he looks desperately disappointed, as though he was rather hoping that he would work out. ‘It’s not actually my fault because you were in charge!’ means that he refuses to accept liability. He’s a child.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘The fourth great and bountiful human Empire. And there it is; planet Earth, at its height. Covered with mega-cities, five moons, population 96 billion, the hub of a galactic domain stretching across a million planets, a million species, with mankind right in the middle’ Anyone that says that Russell T Davies cannot world build economically, go read that again. We don’t NEED to visit this world because with a description like that (the sort of description that Robert Holmes was the master of) we have conjured up something so spectacular in our heads that anything rendered in CGI would never live up to it.
‘What happens on floor 500?’ ‘The walls are made of gold’ A whole essay could be written about that exchange about capitalism, career progression and the rich feeding off the poor.
‘Don’t you even ask?’ ‘Why would I?’ ‘You’re a journalist!’ Ahem. Sarah Jane Smith would be appalled.
‘Your master and humanity’s guiding light: The Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe! I call him Max!’ I can completely understand why kids fell in love with the show all over again. It’s much more fun than names like Dorian Maldovar.
‘I don’t know how she did, sir! It’s impossible! A member of staff with an idea!’ is one of the most subtly funny lines in the first series. I howl every time I hear it.

The Good Stuff: I’ve heard complaints that this is the least visually appealing story of the first series, and certainly the cheapest. In terms of visual style I think this a step up from Father’s Day (with it’s drab 80s aesthetic) and director Brian Gant enjoys throwing in terrific long shots to suggest the scale of Satellite Five, some stylish lens work and some lovely shots with layers of depth. Almost to go against the grain I might suggest in terms of lighting, set design and camerawork it is one of the best of the first year. Each episode in that first year is going for movie of the week and I would say that it is Boom Town that comes off as the one with the least resources (but Joe Ahearne is directing that one and so it is still marvellous). There’s money here; slobbery, salivating CGI, huge sets, horror set pieces, a bustling marketplace but it just isn’t being poured into dynamic set pieces like, say, The End of the World. There’s a similar ‘inside world’ feel to this as in The Beast Below but I think the scale of this story is pulled off much successfully. There is a claustrophobia to The Beast Below (which suits the story) but fights against the suggestion of the scale of a city. Conversely this is only supposed to be a space station but it feels the size of a city.

Very quickly, we realise that something is wrong with this period of time; the lack of non-human individuals and it is one of the only smart things that Adam says. This has aged well in a time of social segregation, Brexit and a frightening presence of racism. Is this where we might be heading in the future? The head technology is simultaneously grotesque and very cool, which is a nice balance to get right.

I’ve made the complaint that Simon Pegg is wasted in this episode and it is true that had he managed to fit in with the schedules and play Pete Tyler that he would have had a bigger part in the show and have more meatier material to play but (and it’s a big but) it is always more fun to play the villain, right? He is clearly relishing the role and has that magic that certain actors bring to the bad guys that he can underplay the villainy and still be spectacularly melodramatic and gorgeous to watch. The Editor (a spectacular name for somebody who is manipulating the social structure of the Earth with the media, ahem) having a law that insists that the news must be unbiased, is hilarious.

If The Face of Boe is pregnant does that mean there is something that Jack is not telling us? I love how RTD manages to out Moffat Moffat by introducing Boe before Jack, and then revealing he is Boe. It’s like the River and Amy scenario, but more fun.

I really like the cheat of the audience falling under the impression that it is the Doctor, Rose and Adam that turns out to be the disinformation in the system, when Davies is cleverly sneaking Suki in under the radar.

Don’t you just love the idea of the Daleks installing this enormous racist blob into Satellite Five to oversee the Earth, with the Editor ensuring that the news that is being broadcast moulds the planet into one of subtle xenophobia. It’s very much the Daleks way but it is them using their brains instead of their guns and literally playing and exquisite long game to build up a fleet from the humans and then murder the rest. Clever, evil bastards. You’ve got love a Doctor Who story that ends with a big bang…but this one ends with a big blobby bang. That’s even more fun.

Once upon a time I thought that Tamsin Grieg (one of the finest comic actresses this country has presented) was wasted in a bit part role in this episode. Now I’m convinced that this is the highlight of the episode, a sequence of understated comedy that gives a peek into the behind-the-scenes nature of this technology, does some more world building and manages to be very cute (the vomitomatic) at the same time.

The Bad Stuff: I’m not sure we needed the sequence with the TARDUS key. Davies wants to make this a threat to the whole timeline of planet Earth but it doesn’t quite come off because the episode doesn’t have the time to deal with that as a genuine peril.

Isn’t that Odd: This might have been the ideal time in series one to head off to an alien world, especially since we have a new companion in tow. It’s completely intentional that we do not and that this series as a whole rejects the typical trappings of an off-Earth Doctor Who adventure to welcome the entire potential audience into the fold, but it was around this point that as a season Doctor Who fan that I was longing to see a quarry, some beardy natives or some latex primitive aliens. Colony in Space, basically. The fact that I did not get my wish (which is often a good thing because the show would never go anywhere or do anything new if it did) means it caught on to the mass audience and was an enormous success.

Result: ‘You and your boyfriends!’ This plays out so much better now than it did on first broadcast because we know now that this wasn’t Doctor Who’s only chance of a series that could be snatched away at any minute. Without the danger of fearing that if an episode is less than spectacular falling away you can suddenly see that this is a biting satire on the media and the degree of control they have on public perception, a fascinating piece of world building that serves as a prelude for the end of the season, an attempt to look at the role of the companion from a fresh and uncomfortable angle and a fun Doctor Who adventure feature a giant, slavering blob that wants the Doctor and his friends killed. All packaged up in 40 minutes of atmospheric camerawork, lighting and music. That’s not bad going for the dud of the season. There’s an exciting fusion of Paradise Towers (the internal structure of the environment, the floors that suggest different horrors, the nasty force that is behind all of this at one extreme end of the building) and Vengeance on Varos (the scathing attack on the disinformation, a suggestion that the TV being broadcast is violent and keeping everyone in their place) and it has that look of a mid 80s Who adventure all set inside the studios with lots of space corridors. There’s a three-minute horror set piece in the middle of the episode that proves to be one of the scariest moments of the season. If there is a huge sense of dissatisfaction about the episode it is that there are a ton of unanswered questions, which at the time felt as though they were never going to be answered. What happened was that this was the most important episode of the season (posing as the least) with the whopping great clue to its importance in the title. Go figure. This isn’t perfect; Suki’s character is overplayed until we discover who she really is, there are moments where the story pauses for some odd worldbuilding (kronkburger, anyone?) and I think we are supposed to be impressed by Thatcherite Kafaka but I found her willingness to climb the ladder at the expense of all else loathsome, and thus her decision to ditch all of that and save the day simply because she didn’t get a promotion problematic. But it’s a thoughtful story, it’s doing things with the building blocks of Doctor Who that have never been done before (very season one) and it features Eccleston and Piper at their most relaxed, and Simon Pegg as the (delicious) villain. Criminally underrated, this is one of the episodes of the first year that feels exactly the right length for what it is trying to do: 8/10

The Trial of Steven Moffat - Defence and Prosecution!

The Nimon are back and they're going to court! Join Jack and Joe as they finally return from the Nethersphere for the first instalment in the trial of Steven Moffat.

With the defence up first, it's down to Jack and the witness testimony of Rohan to make their case for six whole seasons of Doctor Who. Can they do it? Is Moffat's time travel shenanigans a strength or a weakness? And just how many quotes can Jack recite in two hours?

 The Defence

Join Jack and Joe as they untangle some of the criticisms of the Steven Moffat era. A writer panicking, or adapting? Too confusing? Too sexy? Too smug? Prosecution witness Pete Lambert takes to the stand. And a chance to have your say!

The Prosecution

Vote in the poll on this very blog!

Buy Me a Coffee - Doc Oho Reviews

Doc Oho Reviews has been going for a whopping ten years now and there are over 1000 reviews covering a wide range of Doctor Who media including television, audio, book and comic strips. The entirety of Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Buffy, Star Trek (DS9, TNG, VOY) have been covered. And much much more. I have always insisted that this is free content and I am so happy to have received much feedback from people saying how much they have enjoyed the site, how it has helped them to make purchase decisions, and how it has helped them to see the shows they enjoy in different ways. 

The content is still absolutely free and available for everybody. I have taken the step to add a 'Buy me a Coffee' Tab in the header. The idea is that if you wish to show a gesture of appreciation for the blog and the content that you can click on the link and make a small donation. This is entirely voluntary and simply if you wish to do so. It would help me to continue to purchase items to review on the blog - particularly Big Finish stories, which can be expensive. It is a joint 'Buy Me a Coffee account' with my podcast 'A Hamster with a Blunt Penknife.' 

I want to repeat that there is no compulsion but also that I would be extremely grateful to anybody that might wish to show their support for Doc Oho Reviews. It has been a huge labour of love and I look forward to continuing to provide content in the future. 

Many thanks for reading, 

Joe 

Terra Prime

 

Plot – When Trip and T’Pol’s baby turns up on the viewscreen as the most dangerous enemy that humanity has ever faced, I wondered if that was in fact the most dangerous enemy that Braga and Berman have ever faced – character development. It’s a fantastic symbol of what I feel has been Enterprise’s biggest weakness, it’s failure to capitalise on the awesome talent of its cast and stretch them in different ways. It’s always a brilliant way to begin what is essentially the last episode of this show (officially that is These Are the Voyages… but we don’t like to talk about that). The worst monster that the crew of Enterprise has come up against is the prejudice of humanity. I’m not sure if that was what Gene Roddenberry was going for when he created this Utopia in the future but it is a compelling approach to take and forces us to hold up a mirror to ourselves (it is more relevant today given who is in political power in the States than ever).

I really like the fact that at this stage of the game, Enterprise feels like a living, breathing universe with its own unique take on Trek. It took four long, bloody seasons to get there but with politicians on Earth, representatives from Vulcan, Section 31 in the mix, the entire season in the Delphic Expanse, the Andorians being given some exposure and even the Tellurians propping up some episodes it truly feels like Enterprise has set up all the pieces for a riveting final three years…oh bugger.

The line that felt really brave is the one that exposed that somebody on Enterprise helped Paxton gain the genetic material on the ship to create a half human, half Vulcan child. The implication being that a racist supporter of Paxton was working on the ship. It’s tricky because I hate the idea of this kind of sick xenophobia prevailing but at the same time I like the idea of deeply flawed characters with questionable beliefs potentially being regulars on this show.

Character – To see T’Pol rocking a child in a maternal way is a far cry from her opening episode on this show. She’s the character that has come on the furthest journey and whilst I would say that that has been an exploitative voyage (often she is developed through the means of sex and drugs), it still shows remarkable growth. I wouldn’t have imagined that she would have a maternal bone in her body in Broken Bow and certainly would never have suspected she had the capacity to fall in love. Bring those two things together here and you have a heart-breaking conclusion to her time on the show, as she and Trip have to experience the loss of a child together. I truly wish they had gone down another route with this (just because I want them to be happy) but it really helps to sell how much they care about each other and it climaxes this tale on a genuinely poignant note. The means by which Paxton wants to bring down the aliens on Earth has a direct, emotional impact on two of the Enterprise crew. Why did it take so long to get these characters so emotionally involved?

I think the last time that Mayweather had any serious development was in series one and so it feels like the biggest joke of the series that in its last gasp he is given a corrupt ex-girlfriend to muddy the plot.

It’s interesting that Trip can convince a member of Terra Prime that he is a steaming bigot because the lines that he says in this episode echo precisely where he was in the first series. He didn’t like the Vulcans and he did object to them making them jump through hoops for technological advancements. One of my least favourite elements of the first series was that there was an underlying xenophobia amongst our heroes that came out in some very ugly ways. So look at them all now. Their mission has allowed them to grow and understand each other more, to develop relationships and to have a much better appreciation for other species. Trip has come a long way as well. He’s still handsome as hell, mind.

Performance – Paul Weller is certainly commanding as Paxton but I’m not sure that he is an especially compelling character under the surface. His xenophobia is not given much explanation (remember when O’Brien’s hatred of Cardassians was explored in a single episode of TNG?) and so he comes across as a man who picked a cause and just went for it, rather than having a solid motive. A shame because the performance is icy and memorable. The best moment for this character is when T’Pol bursts his bubble and tells him that he is no significant and he responds that history will determine that. He wants his moment, and if he has to murder everybody in Starfleet Command to do it then so be it.

Great Dialogue – ‘I promise you this; our future will be secure because humanity will prevail’ – Astonishing how that line, which on paper is celebratory, can become twisted with hatred and xenophobia. I can imagine a Starfleet Captain saying that line to bolster their crew. Spoken by a racist politician, this is a damning criticism of any non-humanoid living on Earth.‘Earthmen talk about uniting worlds. But your own planet is deeply divided.’

Production – Was it my imagination or did the CGI seem especially ropey in this episode? It feels like we have reached the end of the season with an exhausted crew and budget. There’s one particularly troubling sequence where we set foot on Reed’s 32^nd planet where it is very obvious that they are all standing in front of a green screen.

I wish they hadn’t done that – Back on DS9, Section 31 used to operate in plain sight under guises and manipulate the political landscape to the Federation’s gain. Now they are adhering the most hilarious of cliches; only meeting in dark smoky alleys and wearing buttoned up black suits to conduct their dastardly deals. It would appear that they learnt the art of subtlety come the 24^th Century.

A reason to watch this episode again – A strong script with a fair production, this is a fairly muted but reasonable end to the Enterprise journey. There is certainly no point where this episode drops the ball and throughout each of the crew get something of significance to do. The threat of the destruction of Starfleet Command gives the narrative some balls and the Paxton makes for a strong, if not especially deep villain. If I sound fairly ambivalent it is only because I would expect so much more than good for a final two parter. I would hope to see a show juggling empires, crossing time zones or making deals with the Borg. Instead this is a subtle ending to what has proven to be the most forgettable of the Trek shows. However, to go out questioning the Roddenberry ideal, probing the inherent racism that was in the fabric of the show in the first season and giving each of these characters a fair crack at the whip…well, I’ve seen series depart with far less dignity and intelligence. Enterprise was a victim of being the fourth Berman era Trek and being produced when the franchise was suffering from fatigue. It was also bizarrely conceived to be mired in continuity but it only really embraced that at the last minute. Season four of Enterprise is a strong year of Trek and certainly the best year of Enterprise and so perhaps it was a good thing for the series to go out at its height. However, it feels that everything was finally falling into place when the axe came down on this show and that is unfortunate because I am practically certain that the following few years might have really seen this show flourish into something to rival the three previous shows. Terra Prime is very watchable, and it even stabs at your emotions at the end. If I wanted more from this story it is because I wanted more from the series. Had this been the end of series four with series five to come I would be far more favourable.

**** out of *****

The Commentary...of Marnius!

 

The Keys of Marinus 1

Join Joe & Mark & Sarah as they head to the Crystal Maze and are drafted to find the keys of the Consciousness. Why are Ian and Barbara so fabulous? How young is William Hartnell? And how many ways can Susan be useless in one episode?

The Keys of Marinus 2

Join Joe & Sarah & Mark as the are dazzled by the elegance offered by the great eye brains of Morphoton. We discuss the clever camera trickery, the knees of Altos, and which Brain from Doctor Who you should bid for at auction...

The Keys of Marinus 3

Join Joe & Sarah & Mark as they head into the Screaming Jungle! Is Mark’s Marinus themed escape room viable? How was Sarah’s dad the hands of Jesus? And just what has been going on in Neighbours lately?

The Keys of Marinus 4

Join Joe & Sarah & Mark as they venture through the snows of terror! 17 glorious minutes on Two Watch Who, RuPaul and WandaVision. How rapey should Doctor Who be? Sarah explains why The Keys of Marinus is simply the best story ever.

The Keys of Marinus 5

Join Joe & Sarah & Mark as they head to a terrible miscarriage of justice - the Trial of Ian Chesterton! Gawp as defence lawyer William Hartnell returns from his holiday and steals the show! And is this Doctor Who’s first femme fatale?

The Keys of Marinus 6

Join Joe & Sarah & Mark as they assemble the keys and take on terrible Voord! We don’t care about Susan being kidnapped...especially when there is Gilmore Girls to talk about! Does this story falter at the last hurdle? And dare you listen to Mark’s song ‘Unadulterated Altos?’

TNG – Reunion

 

Plot – Worf gets so wound up by K’ehlyr’s utter disrespect for Klingon traditions but I just want to cheer. She points out in entirely reasonable terms why duty and honour should not be paramount in society and why it has led the Klingon Empire to the political precipice it is now facing. This is marvellous stuff, TNG diving into a form of serialisation whether the producers want it to or not. The Klingon plotline runs through TNG like a gold seam and some of the shows best episodes feature in that narrative. DS9 would tackle this sort of thing in a far more dynamic and detailed why but kudos to TNG for laying down all the foundations and for having a good stab at a continuing story when it certainly wasn’t a popular choice behind the scenes.

There’s a suggestion that Klingon Wars very rarely refuse to allow any of the neighbouring systems to be bystanders. That’s proven to be the case in Way of the Warrior when the Federation is their target and the entire Alpha Quadrant is on red alert.

Klingon politics amuse me at times because what is needed is somebody like K’ehlyr to tell all these silly boys to stop puffing out their chests and strutting about like masculine peacocks and to simply try and work together. It is a feudal system based on who can kill their rival in the most effective way. All of these Klingon episodes eventually lead to a savage shot by Ezri Dax in Taking Into the Wind where she deconstructs Klingon society and exposes its flaws in such a compelling way that even Worf cannot find the words to argue with her. Klingon society is utterly corrupt and troubled, that’s why the franchise keeps coming back to them. It makes for great drama.

Where the Klingons are, the Romulans are usually right behind. At least on TNG. They are the devious buggers of the series and where political intrigues are involved you can be guaranteed that they have some involvement.

Character – It’s a bad day in the office when your ex shows up on the viewscreen in a ship that comes out of nowhere and she didn’t even let you know she was coming. Worf, who started this show as little more than a savage animal has become one of the standout characters of the show simply because the amount of effort the writers and Michael Dorn have gone to to flesh him out. Very sweetly he thinks that his dishonour in Klingon society might offend Ambassador K’eyhlyr and so requests that somebody go and receive her but Picard in an even kinder gesture informs him that he is a member of the Enterprise crew and that that should be enough for any visiting dignitary. Except Picard uses stronger words and blazing eyes. His face when Alexander beams onto the ship and he realises that he has a son is an absolute picture. Finally, Worf has been caught up in the same soap opera machinations of TNG but in the best possible ways.

Performance – It’s always a delight to catch up with Suszie Plakson, who across TNG and Voyager plays three separate and rather wonderful characters. It’s to the producer’s discredit that they never managed to secure her for a continuing role because I think she would have brought something unique to either of the shows. We see later in DS9 what a coup it is to set Worf up with a domestic setting and a wife. TNG tries to do that here but they choose Alexander rather than K’ehlyr, which was entirely the wrong choice. Imagine Plakson being all plummy and fruity and rude with everybody on TNG and embarrassing Worf on a regular basis. How marvellous would that have been? In a moment that made me want to stand up and cheer, K’ehlyr admits that she doesn’t care what other Klingons think of Worf and that she will pursue a relationship with him anyway.

Jon Steuer on the other hand seems to have come from the Matthew Waterhouse school of acting. He has terrific difficulty even walking across the set with any degree of conviction. Child actors are a real lottery and it does feel that the producers made a poor call with Steuer and should have kept trying until somebody naturalistic within this fantasy setting was found. They try this and we end up getting stuck with Brian Bosnell for three seasons, who is somehow even worse. Bosnell is agonisingly twee in future episodes. Take a look at DS9, where they recast Ziyal three times until they found the actress they were happy with.

Robert O’Reilly steps into the Star Trek scene with a ready-made character in his head and he seems perfectly comfortable playing this slimy, creepy Klingon that is trying climb atop the political tower. He’s famous for his burning eyes and psychotic smile and would go on to have a memorable role on both TNG and especially DS9 when the Klingons get caught up in the Dominion machinations. There’s never any doubt that he was born to play this part – I can’t imagine anyone else attacking ti with such gusto.

Great Dialogue – ‘I won’t bore you with the intricacies of Klingon politics…’ – oh thank God.‘You have never seen death. Look, and always remember.’

Production – Model shots versus CGI? When it comes to stationary objects (which most of the vessels are in this story) then the detail and motion control work on model is vastly superior. And for TNG they are brushed up in HD so the quality of the miniatures looks even more impressive. Once DS9 starts adding epic scaled action sequences with ships then CGI enters the scene to make the movement and the suggestion of a vast army of ships more plausible. However, it is when the two combine in Way of the Warrior where Trek’s effects work is at its height. You have all the precise features of the models with the energy of the CGI work. For TNG’s purposes, model work is pretty much entirely sufficient.

Best moment – That sick feeling in your stomach when you realise that K’ehlyr has stumbled across some dirty information on Duras and that he is going to prevent her from revealing it. The suspense in these scenes is palpable. I never thought TNG would go through her murder in such a graphic way but the writers (and director) refuse to hold back, leading to one of the great injustices of the series and one of the most spectacular twists. Worf’s reaction to his lover’s death remains one of the most breath-taking sequences in TNGs run.

I wish they hadn’t done that – It’s a fascinating climax because it exposes one of my biggest objections about TNG but in a way where I am in agreement of Picard, rather than criticising him. He suggests that if people are employed by Starfleet then they should abide by the rules. That I agree with. The trouble is they then encourage people from a huge range of species to populate the crews of their ships and a conflict between their personal cultural ethics and the Prime Directive collide. It creates great drama (such as here) but it exposes a fundamental flaw in the set-up.  Essentially it is ‘we want to explore new life and new civilisations’ but follows that up with ‘but we want you all to behave just like us.’

A reason to watch this episode again – I love the TNG Klingon episodes because they are played as though they are the most sophisticated of Shakespearean dramas being playing to the crowned heads of Europe. With absolute conviction, with no concessions to the pasties on the actor’s heads, and with the belief that the events could genuinely shift the Alpha Quadrant as we know it. And with Patrick Stewart as the lead it has precisely the sort of gravitas to convince that this really is high art. They are genuinely the best episodes of TNG to my mind, because there is a conviction and commitment to drama that is unparalleled elsewhere in the series. AND it is the series dipping its toes into serialisation, which I love. A Klingon assassin is trying to shift the balance of power and war with the Federation looms. It feels like the stakes are high. The direction of this episodes is quite extraordinary; the production value is high and the lighting and action are both staged with some skill but most impressive of all is the work that the actors do and it takes a director of some expertise to drive performances this intense out of a cast when playing science fiction. Jonathan Frakes deserves a massive round of applause for the drama he has assembled.

***** out of *****

ENT – Carbon Creek

Plot – This strikes me as exactly the sort of thing that Enterprise was designed to do. To lean into the history of Star Trek and put a pleasing new slant on it. So, I can see why the pitch of rewriting the details of where the Vulcans first met the humans is something that was grabbed at with both hands.

Character – If you take Dr Phlox away (because he is always going to win a best character competition, right?) I think T’Pol would probably take that spot simply because she went on such a progressive journey over the four years of this show. From ice queen to drug addict to grieving mother over the course four years, it was a hell of a journey with her character and because T’Pol is so reserved it often makes her a hard person to care about even when she is going through something extreme.  But I rather like that contradiction and Jolene Balock always ensured to give the character a charming disinterest that made her very easy to relate to. Toasting over her ability to remain on Enterprise at the beginning of this episode is earned because this time last year all she wanted to do was to get away from these people. Astonishing what a dreary debut season can do to a character.  In a wonderful moment that causes Archer to pause, T’Pol tells Archer that she has just finished her evaluation of him for the High Command.

T’Mir is the one truly deplorable character in this tale. She’s the one who remains resolutely Vulcan and insists on not enjoying her time on Earth, pushing away friendships, criticising her fellow officers for adapting to their environment and is willing to let people die rather than risk cultural contamination. In terms of Star Trek, she is doing all the right things. But because we like the people in this episode and because her fellow Vulcans prove that they have a heart she comes across as a clinical, stuffy jobsworth. It makes her ultimate decision at the climax have emotional resonance. She’s come good and helped the people that helped her. That might sound trite but it’s directed delicately and made me feel warm and fuzzy.

Performance – Making one of the characters T’Pol’s relative means we can play out the first contact scenes and Balock can play one of the Vulcans. You might think that that would afford Balock the luxury of shaking up her performance a little but it is literally as though T’Pol is acting out these scenes. Is the inference that Vulcans are all pretty identical from one generation to the next?

Great Dialogue – ‘It’s unfortunate that you’ll be leaving these people without experiencing one thing they have to offer’ ‘Such as? Alcohol? Frozen fish sticks? The constant threat of nuclear annihilation?’ ‘There’s much more to them. You just refuse to see it.’

Production – This doesn’t feel like you usual Star Trek episode on location. That is often either set in some dusty old canyon out in the sticks, takes place a waterworks posing as Starfleet HQ or is set in the modern day (ala The Voyage Home and Futures End). Instead, here we have something much more atmospheric and pastoral, middle America at its most rural and charming. The music understands the tone of the episode and is present but catchy and appealing, using the sort of instruments that Star Trek doesn’t usually play about with.

As I was watching the episode, I was drawn in by the gorgeous Vulcan character of Mestral who seems to enjoy breaking the rules and settling in to their alien setting by trying things out and enjoying himself. He’s a most atypical example of the species and he really stood as a result. Bugger me if he didn’t turn out to be the same actor who played One in Drone, the Voyager episode I reviewed before this. He has a similar kind of restraint but is having much more fun with Mestral and the most fun he seems to have is making T’Mir flustered. When he mentioned that he wanted to watch I Love Lucy, I started to wonder if we had the wrong Vulcan featured on Enterprise.

Best moment – The episode refusing to take the obvious route of the Vulcans being met with hostility but instead being treated with empathy and compassion. It’s easy to write conflict. It is a lot hard to sustain the viewers interest when everybody is being nice. The scene where Mestral was kissed was especially enjoyable because he manages to give the blandest response to the surprise whilst still salvaging the moment.

I wish they hadn’t done that – It feels like a bizarre choice to begin the second season fresh (after the conclusion to the two part, ahem, spectacular) with an episode that doesn’t feature any of the regulars in any significant way. It does feature Archer, Trip and T’Pol and so it’s mission seems to suggest that these are the only true important characters on the show, a bit like the triumvirate in TOS. It’s a mission statement they live up to.

A reason to watch this episode again – This could have been a very different story. Given that the Vulcans look like Native Americans to some extent I was expecting a race hate tale that sees the Vulcans facing up to the worst of humanity as they try and live among them. Instead, this is much gentler and less confronting, but also less obvious and more charming. Carbon Creek isn’t trying to rock your world with continuity shake ups (which the pre-titles seems to suggest it might be) but instead wants you to relax into its atmosphere and character work and show the very Star Trek morality of cultures mixing together successfully and fruitfully. In terms of tone, it’s closest parallel is Voyager’s 11:59. I often enjoy it when Trek takes a step into the past and this is very sweet representation of 1957 with some of the loveliest (in terms of that they pose no real threat) guest characters you will ever meet. Trip says this is like an episode of The Twilight Zone but I would say this more like a 50s sitcom featuring three Vulcans trapped in rural America. Whether or not this episode needed to be made is irrelevant, it’s a pleasant watch and I’ll take that over the many attempts too hit big in the first two seasons that fall flat on their face. This is aiming pretty low in terms of ambition but it actually achieves its goal in spades and wraps you up in a big hug as it does so. I really enjoyed how much the Vulcans enjoyed their stay. Even stuffy T’Mir.  I wouldn’t mind if this sitcom ran for a few seasons. Mestral’s final decision, and T’Mir’s decision to lie for him is quietly one of the best endings to an Enterprise episode.

**** out of *****

VOY – Drone

 

Plot – We’re seeing the Seven of Nine story play out in a microcosm but this time she is the mentor and an innocent drone is the character we are studying. It has no right to be as affecting as it is but in 45 minutes they achieve the impossible. You fall for this character and want him to stick around, knowing that he won’t. The moment the Borg are summoned and One starts asking questions about the Hive and wanting to experience it, there is a sinking feeling that this episode is not going to end well for Seven.

Character – You’re essentially on the right track if the episode begins with Seven of Nine attempting to smile at her reflection and throwing an acidic barb when the Doctor enters the room. This is going to be about the freshest addition of the crew, and probably, realistically the most interesting one too.

Watch Drone very carefully. There’s no one character that is letting the side down. Each of the Voyager regulars is being written to their strengths. The Doctor is obsessed with photography and annoying the hell out of everybody (and proves to be a peeping Tom in Torres’ shower), Janeway is deeply suspicious of the Borg baby and enjoys some tense scenes with Seven, Torres takes the piss out of Neelix in the most spectacular of ways (see Great Dialogue) and Neelix attempting to integrate One is both sweet and a little irritating. I love how Torres is the most vocal and unsure about a new drone on the ship but she becomes the person that Seven opens up to and leans on for help. Their fractious but developing working relationship is low key one of my favourite things about Voyager.

Janeway is a scientist and somebody who embraces humanity. Those are two the reasons I believe she forced Seven (whether that was the right call or not) to regain her humanity and that is why she refuses to pull the plug on the Borg baby that is being grown in this episode. To see Janeway as a child murderer would have been bold for all the wrong reasons. Her role as a scientist is first and foremost through much of this shows run and she and Seven are as curious about this accidental experiment as each other. She’s smart enough to be sensible and take security precautions. But you can see the lust for information in her eyes. She admits that there were crewmembers that were anxious about having a Borg crewmember when Seven was first extracted from the Hive. I’m often critical of Janeway’s inconsistent management style on this show but this is a very responsible take on the character, and one I can entirely buy into.

Performance – Boehmer plays One with a real sense of innocence and charm, but without ever making it seem as though he is trying to play innocence or charm. It’s his lack of guile and pretence that appeals (the scene where he steps into the alcove is hilarious).. He states things exactly as they are. The moment he asked Janeway if he was sufficient my heart went out to him. It is like a child asking his mother if he is good enough. I have seen actors play roles in multiple episodes in Voyager (Cullah, Icheb) that haven’t made half of the impact that Boehmer does in 20 minutes of Drone. I would have loved for him to stick around and to watch this relationship with Seven develop but this show wasn’t invested in long term character arcs at the time. A shame because they decided to go down that route (to a lessen extent I’m afraid to say) in season six with the Borg kids.

Great Dialogue – ‘You must comply. You are hurting me,’ is a piece of dialogue that is repeated twice with very different emphasis each time. I don’t usually praise Voyager for its dialogue but this is great example of repeated phraseology with an emotional kick. The first time One is physically hurting Seven, the second he is breaking her heart. How Ryan delivers that line in the climax is one of Voyager’s emotional highs, or Seven’s emotional lows. It gives me goosebumps.

‘It will become whatever we help it to become’ ‘How Starfleet of you.’

Production – It’s worth talking about the direction of Les Landau, which is extremely good in this episode, because he has been on an incredible journey with the rebooted Trek franchise to this point. He was first assistant director in episodes as early as Encounter at Farpoint but the moment he started directed episodes himself he was delivering pieces as good as The Survivors, Deja Q and Sarek, which are absolute belters. Continuing through TNG he gave us Family, Ensign Ro, Chain of Command part II, Tapestry before moving onto DS9 and tackling some of the best character dramas that that series put out; Progress, The Forsaken, Whispers, The House of Quark, Accession. Just with those episodes named above (and there are more, trust me) Landau has brought to life some of the most memorable moments in the Trek canon. This a man who knows what he is doing and can deliver excellent work under the extreme conditions of the Berman era. Drone features some stunning, creepy imagery as the Bog child is being created (especially the freaky shot of the baby in the maturation chamber and the POV shot of the baby looking out at Janeway and co), and some fierce camera work once it has been activated to show Tuvok and his security team hunting it down. He remembers to give the actors their space because this is a character drama first so the impressive camera trickery calms down and pulls in close as we start to explore the Seven/One relationship. Landau also directed Counterpoint this season, and that ranks in my top five Voyager episodes of all time. He’s a master of his craft in terms of technicality but he can also work extremely well with and get the best out of his actors.

Best moment – The beautiful endorsement of the entire previous season of Voyager where Seven confesses to One that ‘Voyager us my collective.’ That is a very satisfying moment.

I wish they hadn’t done that – I always complained in later seasons that a Borg Cube (or Sphere) turned up in every other episode to add some excitement but it is absolutely vital in Drone to prove whether One can be trusted or not. And an exciting set piece to boot.

A reason to watch this episode again – Something happened in season five of Voyager that I just can’t put my finger on. The show was touched by magic for those 26 episodes and for what I consider its only real complete success as a season with more than the regular number of absolute stunners. Seven had integrated beautifully into the cast, there was an attempt to tell bigger, bolder episodes, the cast was really gelling well and the duds (of course there are duds, this is still Voyager) were ambitious failures rather than simply not trying to put out anything of worth. Drone comes after a character filled opening episode and it too takes the heavy character approach; being as brave as to give Seven a son who grows to maturity in 45 minutes and then dies before her eyes. That’s something you can only do in a science fiction series but just because it is Star Trek that doesn’t guarantee that a premise as mad and as tragic as this is going to work. Remember TNG’s The Child? I’d suggest DS9’s The Abandoned struggled in places too. What Drone gets so right is Seven’s intense relationship with the Drone; from rejecting him outright, to wanting to help him, to developing parental feelings for him and suffering her first real loss since regaining her humanity. That’s helped along by J. Paul Boehmer’s staggeringly good performance as One, who proves to be completely different to Hugh from TNG with much more depth and a constant question of whether he can be trusted or not.  Any chance to let Jeri Ryan emote is a worthwhile exercise but this has the weight of the Borg experience behind it, some stunning moments with Janeway (Mulgrew and Ryan were still at odds at this point and their scenes sizzle as a result) and a climax that really makes you feel. If Voyager’s entire run was as visually arresting, characterful and genuinely affecting as this I think I would be declaring it the best Star Trek show. That it can reach these heights proves that it had that potential all along.

****1/2 out of *****

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