Oh dear.
After a promising start to the series we seem to have taken several steps backwards. I really didn't think highly of this episode at all, I'm afraid. Very good monsters, though wholly unoriginal, and nice location, but I can't credit it for anything else. The supporting characters were cardboard thin, and there were far too many of them - so none were properly developed. Was Kane supposed to be a businesswoman or a soldier? Kind of neither. Worse was Bella, who had a rollercoaster of a story arc, going from potential love interest for Ryan, to saboteur and killer, with a history of bomb-making, to reconciliation with her estranged mother, all in a matter of minutes. Such character development really needed time to play out, but it just never had a chance here. She switched from one thing to another in seconds.
Is there some kind of joke I didn't get about Hyph3n? Was she some kind of postmodern comment on bad costume and make-up? A woefully realised character.
The biggest laugh for me was one that wasn't intended, I'm sure, when the Doctor leads the rescue mission to retrieve Benni. She takes a pensioner, a little boy and a squirrel woman on a potentially lethal mission, in a hostile environment and in pursuit of savage monsters that have just slaughtered 20 or so vacationers.
The insistence on not showing anything gory on a Sunday evening meant that Benni's fate took place entirely off camera, and we didn't even get to see what Kane did with him. Telling us things rather than let us see for ourselves was one of the problems last series.
One interesting story element was that Orphan 55 was actually the Earth, and the Dregs were a devolved form of the human race. A nice idea - just a pity that it was done much better back in 1989 in The Curse of Fenric.
Development of the Doctor also took a great leap backwards. Am I the only one getting really annoyed that she knows everything, recognising viruses, computer systems, and even weapons at a glance. Would it hurt to have her have to ask what something is, rather than just reel off technobabble?
It was also extremely annoying that the resolution just happened to rely on that virus fixing the teleport - very lazy plotting.
As for the big speech at the end... I have no problem with messages in a story, so long as they derive from he narrative. I don't like being lectured. Doctor Who fans are an enlightened lot, and I'm sure most people watching already have environmental concerns, so it really was preaching to the converted. Again, all this was done much better in the past, by Jon Pertwee in Colony in Space, The Green Death and Invasion of the Dinosaurs. Chibnall and Hime are simply jumping on the XR / Thunberg bandwagon.
Like I said, I did like the Dregs, but as with the Thijjarians last season, it is a monster design which has been rather wasted, as what else can you do with them? I have to say that whilst the costume was rather good, there was some shockingly bad CG in evidence when we saw them en masse.
Overall, fairly dreadful, bringing back bad memories of last series.
This was truly one of the worst episodes of the JW era; I don't know on whether Whitaker was wasted by poor writing, so I can't really recall her acting throughout the era; if she was good or did the best she could with her era, since there are so many critcs and arugments from both sides but there was moment in this episode which made me uncomfortable; when the Dreg wakes up, and grabs 13 by the throat. The Doctor GASPS, prising at the massive fingers, but there's no chance. She stands there, dying, looking into those BLACK EYES - - till GUNFIRE erupts! -- from KANE! She lets rip -- firing at the Dreg - it drops down, letting go of The Doctor -- who falls to the ground .
ReplyDeleteThe sight of her being dangled by her throat with legs flailing was quite grim. It looked as if she might suffocate rather than use some Time Lord physiology trick. It was a million miles away from the Doctor will always be heroic, regardless of gender that many fans including myself were hoping for 13. It almost felt like an unneeded callback to when 13 taunts Krasko by getting him attempt to choke her by the throat in Rosa.