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Well, that was rather good.
I didn't find this quite as pleasing as Gridlock, but it was more rewarding to watch than Evolution of the Daleks; and for the first half of the episode I was losing patience with the relentless richness of the colourscheme and the broad-brush tone which I've appreciated up until now. However, after the half-way point there was a shift in the way this story was told which was pleasing and amplified the sense of threat. The move from the open space of the reception area in what was probably meant to be somewhere like City Hall on the south bank of the Thames (but was of course in Cardiff...), to the laboratories, to the corridors made the chase through the building progressively more claustrophobic. The decision to reduce the amount of incidental music once in Southwark Cathedral (actually, I've just learned on Confidential, Wells) was a welcome one.
A recent interview with Steven Moffat saw him make the point that RTD has deliberately set Doctor Who in the soap opera world - in the real world, he said, there is no way someone as clever as Rose Tyler could only have had one A-Level. The advantage of this method is that while the characters are caricatures and can retreat to this caricature level when a particular storyline is done with them, it can be surprising and effective when they move from this norm or when their traits are put at the service of the plot. Francine Jones's suspicion of the Doctor is similar to that of Jackie Tyler, and explicitly echoes it, with the theme of a grown-up child's safety being endangered, but her methods of control are different, based on ambition and 'focus', and this makes her prey for Harold Saxon. (I didn't notice the sound effect at the Mysterious Man's second appearance, with its connotations of mind control...)
The new series is now growing its own mythology, so that when Lazarus remembers the Blitz, the audience - and later, the Doctor - can relate to the events of The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances. The nascent Tish/Lazarus relationship is a neat reverse of the Martha/Doctor one.
As for the monster... not as successful as the team wanted us to think, sadly. The weak point is the face, which has very little resemblance to Mark Gatiss. It was explained on Confidential that Stephen Greenhorn's script had called for a different kind of creature - something fast-moving that might be glimpsed, and only that, as a giant bird, or as a lizard - but RTD wanted something more tangible, perhaps to take on Primeval.
EDIT 22:25 I thought Freema Agyeman's performance and the writing for Martha much better this week. I also thought her make-up was softer and she looks very fetching in that dress. Martha improvises in her own way, too, taking much more of a lead, I think, than did Rose, who tended to act from the sidelines, slipping away to outflank the threat rather than confronting it straight away.
I thought that the plot worked as well. Motivation was present or could be extrapolated: Lazarus doesn't just want the extension of his life but a new one, hence the casting aside of Lady Thaw. I assume that he and Lady Thaw have been lovers for a long time but that they have never married, presumably because it was politically inconvenient for Lady Thaw to abandon her husband. Lazarus has been dependent on her - she has arranged the funding and may be his contact with Saxon - but rejuvenated, he can present himself to the world and to his self-esteem as a truly self-made man and be himself the patron of a younger generation. There's definitely a strand in this episode critical of the use of love affairs for advancement; in following the Doctor Martha is rejecting the power that comes with manipulation of other people and the accumulation of material things.
Wasn't the trailer for the second part of the season good? The imagery was remarkably powerful. The main selling points are the return of John Barrowman and Human Nature/The Family of Blood, with Derek Jacobi and John Simm/Mr Saxon as enigmas. I have the impression that Saxon might be ruling using Peronist measures - is it Martha's flat that gets blown up? Most things will be explained, hopefully in plausible technobabble.
I didn't find this quite as pleasing as Gridlock, but it was more rewarding to watch than Evolution of the Daleks; and for the first half of the episode I was losing patience with the relentless richness of the colourscheme and the broad-brush tone which I've appreciated up until now. However, after the half-way point there was a shift in the way this story was told which was pleasing and amplified the sense of threat. The move from the open space of the reception area in what was probably meant to be somewhere like City Hall on the south bank of the Thames (but was of course in Cardiff...), to the laboratories, to the corridors made the chase through the building progressively more claustrophobic. The decision to reduce the amount of incidental music once in Southwark Cathedral (actually, I've just learned on Confidential, Wells) was a welcome one.
A recent interview with Steven Moffat saw him make the point that RTD has deliberately set Doctor Who in the soap opera world - in the real world, he said, there is no way someone as clever as Rose Tyler could only have had one A-Level. The advantage of this method is that while the characters are caricatures and can retreat to this caricature level when a particular storyline is done with them, it can be surprising and effective when they move from this norm or when their traits are put at the service of the plot. Francine Jones's suspicion of the Doctor is similar to that of Jackie Tyler, and explicitly echoes it, with the theme of a grown-up child's safety being endangered, but her methods of control are different, based on ambition and 'focus', and this makes her prey for Harold Saxon. (I didn't notice the sound effect at the Mysterious Man's second appearance, with its connotations of mind control...)
The new series is now growing its own mythology, so that when Lazarus remembers the Blitz, the audience - and later, the Doctor - can relate to the events of The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances. The nascent Tish/Lazarus relationship is a neat reverse of the Martha/Doctor one.
As for the monster... not as successful as the team wanted us to think, sadly. The weak point is the face, which has very little resemblance to Mark Gatiss. It was explained on Confidential that Stephen Greenhorn's script had called for a different kind of creature - something fast-moving that might be glimpsed, and only that, as a giant bird, or as a lizard - but RTD wanted something more tangible, perhaps to take on Primeval.
EDIT 22:25 I thought Freema Agyeman's performance and the writing for Martha much better this week. I also thought her make-up was softer and she looks very fetching in that dress. Martha improvises in her own way, too, taking much more of a lead, I think, than did Rose, who tended to act from the sidelines, slipping away to outflank the threat rather than confronting it straight away.
I thought that the plot worked as well. Motivation was present or could be extrapolated: Lazarus doesn't just want the extension of his life but a new one, hence the casting aside of Lady Thaw. I assume that he and Lady Thaw have been lovers for a long time but that they have never married, presumably because it was politically inconvenient for Lady Thaw to abandon her husband. Lazarus has been dependent on her - she has arranged the funding and may be his contact with Saxon - but rejuvenated, he can present himself to the world and to his self-esteem as a truly self-made man and be himself the patron of a younger generation. There's definitely a strand in this episode critical of the use of love affairs for advancement; in following the Doctor Martha is rejecting the power that comes with manipulation of other people and the accumulation of material things.
Wasn't the trailer for the second part of the season good? The imagery was remarkably powerful. The main selling points are the return of John Barrowman and Human Nature/The Family of Blood, with Derek Jacobi and John Simm/Mr Saxon as enigmas. I have the impression that Saxon might be ruling using Peronist measures - is it Martha's flat that gets blown up? Most things will be explained, hopefully in plausible technobabble.
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