Tuesday 26 April 2011
Starman
And we're back.
You might have noticed the new series of Doctor Who started this weekend and The Impossible Astronaut compelled me to have a word splurge.
To start a series off with a two-parter is more like the old days of the series and it marked the new direction under Stephen Moffat by starting with creatures that were disturbing and, whoa, scary.
Remember the adipose? They were amusing, sure, but at the ultimate end it was just another episode with an alien disguised as a human and a blinky spaceship and David Tennant making lots of 'ohhhhhhs' and funny faces.
It was almost inevitable that every series of Doctor Who should start with some mild peril gambit of the world being in danger via some silly source that you couldn't quite take seriously (autons, aformentioned adipose, a weird translucent floating snake and some cops made of eyeballs).
Of course, these episodes would hint at what was to come, some bigger whodunit to be solved after a 42 minute yarn of mild peril and toasted teacakes.
There's more danger in this year's opener, it's sinister, creepy and confusing, thanks to all the bizarre time-travel whatishappeningidontunderstand in the first 10 minutes.
There's nothing wrong with having an over-riding story arc throughout a series, the feature working in brilliant fashion in the last series with reappearing cracks in time, but there are still things left over from last year to explore. EXCITING.
Who did the crackly voice on the Tardis belong to? Is it these aliens in Burton menswear that are trying to take over America? Or is it someone else?
Suave and scary as
That River Song came back (again) and this time there was someone in a spacesuit shooting death-rays caused a backward glance to her debut with Tennant and the library/computer/simulation/godonlyknows gizmo. Is there a link to that? Did she say anything about spooky dead things in spacesuits?
I can't remember and I won't be going back to check but the very fact the thought occurred makes the show feel a bit more American in tone, which can only be a good thing.
Revisiting old stories within the Eccleston/Tennant/Smith age makes the canon stronger and more believable (and accessible to the chiddlers who haven't seen Tom Baker. Their loss, of course...) and, again, more like an American show.
Self-contained series can be a little bit boring after a while, it certainly got to that stage when Russell T Davies was running the show.
When Doctor Who returned all those moons ago the effects were still very much of the old show, in a way. You sort of laughed. The BBC might have thought a big, shiny monster stuck to a ceiling and bullying Simon Pegg was impressive, but when kids have been spoiled with Hollywood special effects then Doctor Who just wasn't going to cut it.
The Moffat run has started to change that. The (over) ambitious special effects have been reined in (bar that whale thing) to allow the ambition of the stories themselves to show through.
Nobody wants the Doctor to become Schumacher's Batman, impotent and standing in the wings while you look at the OTT villains, but there is a lot to be said for taking a bit of plastic, putting it in a mould and making something bloody scary, rather than seeing what The Mill can produce.
Matt Smith is still the coolest thing about Moffat's Doctor Who
The biggest compliment you can give the new series so far is that it is classic Moffat with scares, disembodied children's voices (a staple) and, best of all, it's the episode 5 and 6 two parter right at the bloody beginning!
It can only get better, too, right?
You might have noticed the new series of Doctor Who started this weekend and The Impossible Astronaut compelled me to have a word splurge.To start a series off with a two-parter is more like the old days of the series and it marked the new direction under Stephen Moffat by starting with creatures that were disturbing and, whoa, scary.
Remember the adipose? They were amusing, sure, but at the ultimate end it was just another episode with an alien disguised as a human and a blinky spaceship and David Tennant making lots of 'ohhhhhhs' and funny faces.
It was almost inevitable that every series of Doctor Who should start with some mild peril gambit of the world being in danger via some silly source that you couldn't quite take seriously (autons, aformentioned adipose, a weird translucent floating snake and some cops made of eyeballs).
Of course, these episodes would hint at what was to come, some bigger whodunit to be solved after a 42 minute yarn of mild peril and toasted teacakes.
There's more danger in this year's opener, it's sinister, creepy and confusing, thanks to all the bizarre time-travel whatishappeningidontunderstand in the first 10 minutes.
There's nothing wrong with having an over-riding story arc throughout a series, the feature working in brilliant fashion in the last series with reappearing cracks in time, but there are still things left over from last year to explore. EXCITING.
Who did the crackly voice on the Tardis belong to? Is it these aliens in Burton menswear that are trying to take over America? Or is it someone else?
Suave and scary asThat River Song came back (again) and this time there was someone in a spacesuit shooting death-rays caused a backward glance to her debut with Tennant and the library/computer/simulation/godonlyknows gizmo. Is there a link to that? Did she say anything about spooky dead things in spacesuits?
I can't remember and I won't be going back to check but the very fact the thought occurred makes the show feel a bit more American in tone, which can only be a good thing.
Revisiting old stories within the Eccleston/Tennant/Smith age makes the canon stronger and more believable (and accessible to the chiddlers who haven't seen Tom Baker. Their loss, of course...) and, again, more like an American show.
Self-contained series can be a little bit boring after a while, it certainly got to that stage when Russell T Davies was running the show.
When Doctor Who returned all those moons ago the effects were still very much of the old show, in a way. You sort of laughed. The BBC might have thought a big, shiny monster stuck to a ceiling and bullying Simon Pegg was impressive, but when kids have been spoiled with Hollywood special effects then Doctor Who just wasn't going to cut it.
The Moffat run has started to change that. The (over) ambitious special effects have been reined in (bar that whale thing) to allow the ambition of the stories themselves to show through.
Nobody wants the Doctor to become Schumacher's Batman, impotent and standing in the wings while you look at the OTT villains, but there is a lot to be said for taking a bit of plastic, putting it in a mould and making something bloody scary, rather than seeing what The Mill can produce.
Matt Smith is still the coolest thing about Moffat's Doctor WhoThe biggest compliment you can give the new series so far is that it is classic Moffat with scares, disembodied children's voices (a staple) and, best of all, it's the episode 5 and 6 two parter right at the bloody beginning!
It can only get better, too, right?
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