April 18, 2010 

The new Doctor and Daleks

"How may I be of service"

I have have had my reservations about the new doctor, taking over the role from David Tennant was always going to be a very hard job. But I have to admit I am liking the new doctor. He has the quirkiness and charm that is needed to pull it of, his companion is actually very good, and the first two stories have been good. I think the revised look works well, and while he is still finding his feet he carries it of so well I think I could happily watch a few series and be more than content.

That was until this weeks episode. Written by Mark “League of Gentlemen / Psychoville” Gatiss it was a look into an alternative World War II where our secret weapon was the Daleks. You can not tell me that is not a great idea for a plot. The opening was beautifully done and the reveal of a Dalek in WWII inspired uniform was excellent (I especially liked the little union jack on and the cammo packs), even the name “Ironside” was a great touch. The inclusion of Nazi Daleks would make for a fascinating story in its own right (or how about Nazi Cyber Men?).

Tommy Dalek/Nazi Cyber men

Unfortunately for me this episode took a tumble as soon as they stepped away from this simple premise and back into what I can only call a deus ex machina! For some reason Dr Who doesn’t think it can go on without the Dalek. But the problem is of course the Doctor is very good at totally wiping the Daleks from existence. So you get this trope of the few Daleks trying to resurrect the race from some random point in time.

As an enemy the Daleks are great and Dr Who definitely needs to keep them, but they don’t need to be in every series. We could happily go a couple of series and try out all new things and bring them back. That would be great! But not only did they need to bring them back again, they needed to update the look. For me the Daleks have had roughly the same look for a long time, and with the few exceptions (Davros, The tank Dalek from the McCoy days) it stays the same. It works well, its menacing, its everything you want. But it seems someone has decided they can do better.. and what they same up with as far as I am concerned is a joke.

All new look with a fatter ass. Available in a range of colours!

Its unfortunate because I like the new eye stalk, but everything else is all wrong. The shape now looks weird, its grown a huge ass, its got a massive head, and its too tall. But the voice work for excellent. The ark work here actually looks quiet nice, but somehow that has been lost in translation and on screen it does not work. On top of that the episode just didn’t make much sense as soon as the doctor set foot on their ship. But I did love the Tardis self destruct being a Jammy Dodger.. genus!.

SFX go strange

Then you get the bomb you can bomb you can talk out of blowing up, and spitfires in space (again sounds great.. didn’t work). What has happened to the FX? The ship and the spitfires had a much more “done with models” feel to them this time around. Being a huge fan of Thunderbirds, UFO, and even Blake’s 7 I can appreciate a nice retro SFX joke, but these didn’t work, it was either too cheap, or botched and just felt weak.

Unfortunate conclusion

I don’t know where this episode has gone wrong. I can only assume its when the marketing department came in and said they needed to launch a new line of toys. I was hoping for better from Moffat and Gatiss together! I am still enjoying the series, and a looking forward to the return of Moffat’s own angles next week (from one of my all time favorite episodes ‘Blink’).

Take a gander over to IO9 to see some more really great looking art for for the new series.

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  • http://www.the-cwf.com sideswipe

    Heh, I marked out for the camo Daleks, they looked superb. Shame they felt the need to do a Nintendo and release Daleks in all the colours. Maybe each colour will have a slightly different role or personality or maybe it is just another cheap marketing ploy… Time will tell but I loved how they did outfox the Dr. That was well done, sadly talking the bomb out of detonating was… you know… stupid…
    I thought I’d hate the Spitfires in space, to be honest, I enjoyed them., You always have to suspend some disbelief with the Doctor after all and a prop plane in space was entertaining so I can forgive the sheer absurdity. I know that might seem like double standards compared to the talking a bomb out of exploding but planes shooting stuff in wacky environments > old guy babbling about stolen/artifically created memories. Didn’t entertain me and I doubt anything other than an impromptu striptease to distract the bomb would’ve stopped me shouting at the tele as I saw the super lame get out of jail card they used to save the Earth.

    And yes, Jamie Dodger = Greatest Bluff EVER!.

  • binny

    Did I forget to mention the “talking the bomb out of exploding” crap? Damn! That was totally pointless and just plain weak writing! He has a good 10 minutes, more than enough time to stick him in the Tardis and stuff him into a black hole.

    I loved the concept of Spitfires in space, went really well with theme. I didn’t think it was well executed though which was a shame. I will always suspend my disbelief for the doctor, but they have to deliver on story if they want that. All I got from this episode was a marketing gimmick to push more Darleks.

    But I do think Matt has the chance to be a great doctor! Just try out some new ideas, and stop with only doing stories based on Earth. There is a whole universe, and all of time… use it!

  • Takatori

    Until now, I’ve disliked all new Doctors. Christopher Eccleston was way over the top, and David Tennant just didn’t do anything for me but was better than Chris. Now with Matt I am actually watching every episode and looking forward to the next one, I even come away with the feeling that I want more and I don’t want to stop watching when the episode ends. However, my all time favourite will probably remain as Tom Baker.

    So far every episode has been good, and especially the WW2 themed Daleks, great episode and I really thought the space spitfires were a good addition. At first I was a bit skeptical about the Daleks, because their talking/voices were very odd, and of course this was all part of the acting process, once the Doctor arrived and gave his testimony they changed and their voices went back to the way they are suppose to be which was great, I really liked how they fooled the viewers here. Yeah talking the bomb out of blowing up was a bit iffy, but that’s the Dr Who universe for you.

    Really enjoying the Weeping Angel story at the moment, part 1 was good and looking forward to part 2.

    And of course, you can’t forget Karen Gillan, now she is HOT! She does well as his sidekick, and I don’t know why but she really does bring back memories of Sarah Jane Smith, and I haven’t had that sort of feeling with ANY of the new Doctor series’. But yeah definitely looking forward to more!