Wednesday, 11 September 2013
So, I haven’t blogged about Doctor Who in a
while. For any other show, this would be acceptable, as Doctor Who is, you know,
not currently on telly, but it’s the fiftieth anniversary year and there’ve
been some pretty big news stories. If the major newspapers put Who on the front
cover, I should probably get off my metaphorical ass and spout some opinions.
So, what’s been going on in the Whoniverse?
Well, the publicity’s really ramping up for
the fiftieth anniversary special. And by ramping up, I mean chaotically fucking
up. The BBC announced a load of details, realised they'd made that announcement
by accident, took ages to take it down, then pretended it never happened, and later
put it back up with a new poster. Come on, guys. You’re making yourselves look
stupid. While it's great that Who gets so much publicity, surely they could
have just pretended it’s what they meant to do?
That callback to Series-7B-Blu-ray-gate
aside, what is it we’ve actually learnt? Well, the special, to be broadcast on
23rd November, conveniently a Saturday, will be 75 minutes long and
titled The Day of the Doctor. 75 minutes
sounds like a fine length – it’ll match The End of Time Part Two in the race for
the longest New Who episode. Which sounds like an achievement, until you remember
that The End of Time had a Part One, and that the twentieth anniversary special
The Five Doctors did get 90 minutes. Still, pacing was much, much slower back
then. I just hope the special packs a lot of story in while not feeling as
rushed as some of Steven Moffat’s recent episodes.
The title is… well, it’s what we could
expect really. Doctor-centric, doesn’t say much about the episode, pretty
unambitious. Day of the Doc-meh. Oh, well. A naff title doesn’t mean a naff
episode. I can keep my spirits high, as long as they don’t go and release a
naff poster.
Oh.
Is it me, or do the Tenth and Eleventh
Doctors both look exactly the fucking same? Their hairstyles are turning into each
other's. Their suits are lit to look identical. They have the same expression
of morbid seriousness. What happened to each Doctor being distinct and
interesting? Matt’s hair has been gradually becoming more styled and less manic
since series five, and his clothes have become more bland and less mad
professor. This poster marks the utter apotheosis of his descent into losing
that sense of individuality, him turning from the Eleventh Doctor into the
Generic Doctor.
After these disappointments, I really hope
the episode can still be the great celebration of the series which fans want it to
be. Come on Moffat, pull this one out of the bag.
Still, even if it does turn out to be naff,
there’s always Capaldi.
Yep, this Christmas, Matt Smith will be
handing over the TARDIS keys to the Twelfth Doctor, The Thick of It star Peter Capaldi, as announced in a
mind-numbingly tedious half hour live show. Really, the first twenty-five
minutes of that half hour were so banal – “so, Peter Davison, you were the
Doctor once, is that right? I bet no-one’s asked you that before.”
And then Capaldi came out, tugging his
lapels in Hartnell homage and bringing smiles to the faces of all but those
obsessive Aneurin Barnard fangirls (I say that, but truthfully, I probably would). I haven’t actually expressed my opinion on the new Doctor on here yet,
so here it is. Yes, I would like a female Doctor at some point, or a black Doctor – Doctor Who is all about trying new things, moving forward, and
providing good role models, and why the Doctor's character would be irrevocably destroyed by any such change is beyond me. Gallifreyan culture is meant to be more advanced than ours, so would hopefully have perfect equality, and what better way to symbolise that than by making the Doctor female and it not really mattering in terms of who the Doctor is? What's that you say? The Doctor's always been male? Well, until 1966, the Doctor had always been William Hartnell, and until 1987, he'd always had a southern English accent. No excuse. Trying new things, moving forward, change (my dear, and not a moment too soon). On the other hand, considering the characterisation of Clara Oswald and River Song, maybe Steven Moffat isn’t the right
showrunner for the first female Doc…
No, the two conditions I absolutely wanted for Moffat's next Doctor were: someone
different to Matt Smith in some major way; a talented actor. That first one:
not because I don’t like Matt Smith, I just couldn’t stand for the show to be
more of the same. Again, trying new things is cool. And, by casting an older actor (by the time of his first
episode, he’ll be the oldest ever to take on the role) that tradition is
carrying on. And, yes, Capaldi is a very talented actor, very funny, and very
good at powerful drama too (check out his heartbreaking performance in Torchwood: Children of Earth, by far the best that sometimes-very-very-dodgy spin-off ever got). Plus, he’s a fan, which always helps. He’ll make the role
his own, and we’ll even forget the days when everyone was making Malcolm
Tucker/Who jokes. They are funny,
though. I’ll end this blog with the funniest one I’ve seen going around the
internet:
Do
you know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek homeworld? The
Oncoming Fucking Shitstorm.
Ha, ha, ha. Comedy gold.
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- KieronMoore
- Hi there. I'm Kieron. I write films, comics, and other assorted scribbles. I like Doctor Who, LGBTQ subjects, and chocolate digestives.
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Whatever they do to them, Matt Smith and David Tennant could never look exactly the same. Trust me ;)
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to more of The Doctor's adventures, whatever guise he's in. She said cryptically.