THE CRIMSON HORROR REVIEW: TROUBLE AT MILL?

On first seeing the trailer for this week’s episode, The Crimson Horror, Penny from The Big Bang Theory popped into my head with that line about Doctor Who always ending up in Victorian Britain despite having a time machine that can go anywhere. I had that same ‘Here we go again’ feeling, further compounded by the thought that this was going to be one of those seemingly throw-away genre episodes like The Curse of the Black Spot. When I found out it was Mark Gatiss at the motherboard I had mixed feelings; love his dark comedy writings but then there’s The Idiot’s Lantern, one of my least favourite episodes. My disappointment lay in the knowledge that here’s a man who knows how to write ‘dark’ extremely well and yet seemed to be a holding back. I know you can’t dish the kids up a helping of The League of Gentlemen in a Blue Box - not unless you can also afford their counselling sessions – but still, it felt like a swig of diluted Mark Gatiss.

Not so The Crimson Horror, which was like Mark Gatiss concentrate. Now here’s what I’m going to do, I’m going to enthuse for a bit, sometimes gushingly so, and then I’m not. Just so you know. Anyway, The Crimson Horror was pure Gatiss, combining his love for Doctor Who with that of Hammer films and Sherlock Holmes – the title itself is not only reminiscent of Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation but it also brings to mind the Victorian ‘penny dreadfuls.’ His fascination with Victorian England is one that lingers on the grotesque, very much like David Lynch’s in The Elephant Man. The scene where Ada’s scars are revealed to a gasping audience is, it appears, a direct nod to the film.

Setting the episode in the Victorian north rather than the usual London locations proved to be an inspired touch as not only did we get Matt Smith’s Doctor busting out his northern accent but the obsession with moral perfection, so prevalent in the Industrial Revolution’s northern factory communities, contrasted beautifully with the grotesque. The hypocrisy of those demanding such moral perfection was, thankfully, subtly explored through the relationship between Ada and her breathtakingly insane mother, Winifred Gillyflower, played by off-screen mother and daughter, Diana Rigg and Rachael Stirling.

On hearing that this episode had been tailored to allow mother and daughter to appear on screen together for the first time I had my misgivings (I get a lot of those. Does it show? Let’s call it Moffatitus), as that being the motivating force behind a story can result in the whole venture feeling a little too forced. It transpires, however, that they were slotted into an already existing story, and a ripping good yarn it was.

Beginning the episode with the Doctor in need of rescuing felt like a fresh approach and added to the growing sense that the Doctor is vulnerable; an invincible, undefeatable Doctor doesn’t really work for me, it’s the Superman syndrome, the character becomes a bit boring. Having the Doctor be the Hammer Horror ‘beast in the cellar’ hooked me; a masterful bit of storytelling. It wasn’t only the writing that won through here though; the flashback scene really intrigued me for the reason that it was so risky. For a moment it jolted me out of the story, the sepia look and the damaged-celluloid effects felt too affected, but then the pace and editing had me hooked again and I ended up wishing that the show would take more risks. I believe a shout out is due to Director, Saul Metzstein, and Film Editor, Matthew Cannings, for this.

Overall The Crimson Horror proved to be hugely entertaining. It was fun. It was also genuinely funny. The scene with Strax talking to the horse and the Doctor’s Pythonesque‘trouble at mill’ northern facade were very funny, as was the Doctor’s reference to Tegan as a ‘gobby Australian’ – following this up with the Doctor calling Clara ‘Brave heart Clara’, another Tegan nod, left me wondering if we now know who Mark Gatiss’ favourite companion is. Mr. Sweet was both hysterical and repulsive; calling him Mr. Sweet was genius and resulted in some wonderfully absurd dialogue. The whole Hammer Horror feel took me back to when I were a nipper – sorry, couldn’t resist – and BBC2 used to show a late-night Saturday horror movie double bill. Diana Rigg delivered a spectacularly mad and unrepentant villainess, and the inclusion of Strax, Vastra and Jenny from The Snowmen worked well, thankfully avoiding the saccharine commraderie-cliches that usually accompany such team-ups.

But then it all went horribly wrong, or least threatened to. Clara returns home to find that the children she is looking after have discovered she’s a time traveller through the eye-rollingly coincidental discovery of conveniently posed photos from all her adventures. No, really, it’s OK, I can make this square peg fit into this round hole, don’t worry. All I need is a hammer and a chainsaw. Look! It fits! The whole thing felt forced and I could feel my Moffatitus playing up again. A couple of wise-cracking kids in the TARDIS? Please, no. I sense that there may indeed be ‘trouble at mill.’

Richard Kelly

HIDE REVIEW: PUTTING THE BOO BACK INTO DOCTOR WHO

Padding down the hallway, spilling coffee, I heard the announcer announce, as announcers do, that Doctor Who would be on in a moment and it was time to hide behind the sofa. Do kids actually do that anymore? This is something I’ve been wondering lately. My cynical self’s been wondering of late if the brand and all those tacky plastic free-gift Daleks on the front of Doctor Who mags are detracting from one of the show’s most important jobs; to scare the crap out of kids. It’s part of the thrill.It's part of the legacy. As the the announcer proved, it's a shared cultural memory.

Watching the trailer for this week’s episode, Hide, I’d thought, OK, it’ll be The Haunting of Hill House minus the scares. The ghost’ll turn out to be nice and it’ll collapse under the weight of its own banality, crumbling into a schmaltz-fest that’ll result in me turning into the kind of bitter individual who ends up writing jaded things like this.

But no. Well, yes in a way too because there was a distinct nod to The Haunting of Hill House with the ghostly crashes and bangs, and yes the ghost was nice, so I can – and will –  look a little smug but the episode was an excellent surprise. It was actually scary and didn’t rely on tired cinematic devices to achieve this. Instead, with its small cast, claustrophobic interiors and dark look it successfully created an atmosphere of foreboding, much more so than last week’s Cold War episode which, despite taking place on a submarine, really didn’t capture that sense of isolation.

Earlier in the day I’d popped in to see friends. On hearing that I was to be writing this their nine-year-old daughter vanished upstairs and returned with her arms full of Doctor Who collectables and toys. I asked whether the Cold War episode had scared her and she simply shrugged, wrinkled her nose and thoughtfully shook her head. I wonder what she made of this week’s episode?

It’s the first episode I’ve seen in some time that had support characters which were genuinely engaging. Emma Grayling, as played by Jessica Raine, and Dougray Scott as Professor  Alec Palmer, were shrouded in such a palpable aura of sadness. Isolation, doubt, guilt and fear were the real 'monsters' in this episode. The themes of love, seperation and aloneness were executed with an assured subtleness that proved such a welcome change from spending an hour being repeatedly beaten around the head with a ‘message,’ quite often to the point where I sit, concussed, watching the final credits roll and wondering if I should go along to A&E and get checked for head trauma.

Something’s changed about Matt Smith’s Doctor too. I’m going to step forward and say that I believe he’s a great Doctor, which has only fueled my frustration with the show because it’s all felt like a massive missed opportunity. Last night, and the first two thirds of The Rings of Akhaten (or up until the cosmic sing-along bit) – both by writer, Neil Cross, have provided a glimpse of how good the show really could be. Jenna-Louise Coleman as Clara is really shaping up to be a memorable companion and not just a fresh-off-the-production-line two-dimensional ‘feisty woman.’ As Emma Grayling points out, Clara is more scared than she lets on. So it seems is the Doctor, and perhaps this is what feels different about him; at times he appears full of doubt and painfully vulnerable. In Hide his quirkiness came across as a mask, a performance for those around him. When alone in the pocket universe that mask momentarily slips revealing a completely different Doctor. Perhaps the most chilling moment for me came when Emma Grayling tells Clara not to trust the Doctor; that he has a sliver of ice in his heart. That alone has got me tuning in next week.

Good to see a few 'whovian pleasers' in there as well. There were references to The Eye of Harmony and the blue crystal of Metebelis, stolen by the Doctor in The Green Death and later returned in The Planet of the Spiders – which, incidentally, were two of the first Doctor Who episodes I can clearly remember seeing as a kid, both of which scared me, as they should! The orange spacesuit from The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit got an outing too, albeit a brief one. Actually it looked in need of a good boil wash.

After Hide I went online for a little research and came across an interview with Neil Cross conducted recently by SFX magazine, and what do I find? Refering to Hide he speaks about his desire to make a really scary episode, one that produces in the audience, and especially in children within the nine to twelve years old bracket, the same response to the show that he experienced as a child of around the same age; terror. He adds that one of his influences for Hide was the cult British show Quatermass, which, he goes on to say, Doctor Who owes a lot to Quatermass was another show that terrified me as a kid, although, being so young I remember the 1970s Thames Television outing starring John Mills rather than the original. No comments please. The show, like Hide, had a very grainy, almost colourless look and used atmosphere to build tension, rather than in-your-face shocks.

Towards the end of last night's episode I could feel myself begin to tense up as I waited for the feel-good, schmaltz ridden ending, and yes it did lean towards that a little but in a very understated way that felt unforced and consistent with the rest of the episode. All in all the best, and most suprising, episode I've seen in a while. Let Neil Cross do more, I say. He's putting the much needed 'Boo!' back in Doctor Who.

 

Richard Kelly

COLD WAR REVIEW

 

This is, on one level, a typical base under siege type of Doctor Who episode, of the kind done many times over the past fifty years – and not only in Doctor Who. And having it set on a Russian submarine during the Cold War just added a little extra depth: Yes, the interior of the sub was not accurate – too flat a floor, wider space, and the incorrectly named ‘bridge’ – but this is Who and you have to allow for certain dramatic liberties. Thing is, the minor errors that popped up throughout the episode are largely irrelevant, because that’s not the pull of this story.

This is the first Doctor Who episode to feature the Ice Warriors since 1974’s The Monster of Peladon, some thirty-nine years ago. They almost came back in 1985, but the original season twenty-three was cancelled and away with it went Mission to Magnus and the Doctor’s rematch with the Ice Warriors. During the long years in which Doctor Who was off our screen, from 1990 to 2004, the authors of the novels and audio dramas created a very rich mythology around the Martian culture of the Ice Warriors, and they featured in arguably some of the best pieces of Doctor Who fiction ever written.

So, to hear that they were set to return in this anniversary year came as no surprise. That they’d return to the 21^stCentury Doctor Who was pretty much a given. Despite only appearing in four stories during the series’ original run, they’ve always been regarded as one of the top five monsters (alongside the Daleks, the Cybermen , the Sontarans and the Silurians). What wasn’t certain, however, is how well they’d be brought back. After recent design disasters –first the Dalek paradigm in Victory of the Daleks and then the radically altered appearance of the Silurians in The Hungry Earth – it’s understandable that many had reservations about the Ice Warriors return. Such concerns were pushed aside when the design was revealed, so that was one good point in favour of the upcoming Cold War. The question remained; would they be depicted with the respect they deserved?

It’s a valid question, after all Mark Gatiss was the writer behind Victory of the Daleks (although, in fairness, his other stories since 2005 have been generally regarded as, at least, good). Well, the answer, for this reviewer, is a resounding YES!

Gatiss played it well. A very straightforward story – very little subplot, just the crew of the submarine vs the Ice Warrior, with the Doctor and Clara’s help, of course. He knew that it’s all about selling the Ice Warriors, making them powerful and menacing, a worthy addition to the updated Whomythos. The script is one aspect that makes it work – Gatiss draws on a lot of the mythology established in the novels, and builds on it – but the slight re-design of the costume brings it to a whole new level. Finally we get to see what’s inside the armour (for yes, it is indeed armour – which we all kind of knew anyway), and learn that the armour was built as a survival suit to combat the freezing temperatures of Mars. We don’t get to see all of the Martian –just its arms and elements of its body in shadow. Better too little than too much.

What about the rest of the cast? Well, Matt Smith continues the assured performance he’s had since The Snowmen, commanding the respect of all those he meets. And Jenna Louise-Coleman is proving to be quite a find as Clara. She has some wonderful moments – questioning the Ice Warrior, the moment with David Warner after Clara has seen the dismembered bodies. Ah yes, David Warner. As awesome as ever. He doesn’t have a huge role, but he imbues it with charm and wit. Liam Cunningham is great, too, with some brilliant chemistry between him and Smith.

In short, it’s another really fun episode. Nothing complicated, just an easy story, a vehicle for the reintroduction of a classic monster. And it does exactly what it needs to do. With panache!

Andy Frankham-Allen

THE BELLS OF SAINT JOHN REVIEW

 

Ringing in the new season...

Despite being a split ‘season’ on paper, this was without doubt a series opener. It had all the spectacle one expects from the opening instalment, introducing all the key plot points that will carry on through the next seven episodes (Clara’s mysterious origins, the villain behind this story [spoiler alert – do not read the final paragraph if you haven’t seen this episode yet]), and yet somehow managed to tell a nice little story, feeding into people's fear of technology and concern over the way the Internet has made the world so small.

In tone, this episode felt more like a RTD adventure than a Moffat one, which for me was a nice change of pace – being more of a fan of RTD’s era than Moffat’s. Nonetheless, the usual Moffat flourishes are here – a new companion with a convoluted back-story (although, even after only three appearances, the mystery surrounding Clara [not‘Oswin’ – a name she hasn’t even heard of when the Doctor first appears at her front door, but one she does come up with later after scoring a win – an oswin] is much more intriguing than anything done with Amy Pond), movie-inspired moments that are there more for spectacle than plot (the plane crashing towards Clara’s house, and the Doctor subsequently flying it away, and the Doctor riding his anti-grav bike up the Shard), and some clever continuity references (most notably the book ‘Summer Falls’ written by Amelia Williams [Clara’s favourite chapter being eleven], and the appearance of UNIT, an ‘old friend’ of the Big Bad), not to mention some nice nods to real-world events such as the London Riots of 2011 and the Police Box in Earl’s Court.

It’s a good idea – using the ubiquitous Wifi as a way of alien invasion, and it’s the kind of idea Doctor Who does well, subverting something everyday into something malevolent. This is not a new trope of Doctor Who – indeed, it’s been a staple of the best kind of episodes since the ‘60s (and became an almost weekly occurrence during Barry Letts era of 1970-75). Granted, this does lead to the oh-so-exciting visual of two hackers going neck to neck via typing extremely fast on a keyboard. Fortunately it’s not a major piece of the episode, so it’s not overdone, but it was predictable and proves, once more, than it’s not much of a dramatic visual.

No review would be complete without a word or two about our lead man. This is now Matt Smith’s fourth year in the role, and it’s most certainly going to prove to be his most important year, since Doctor Who celebrates its fiftieth anniversary in November – and for the most part Matt Smith will be carrying the series through this milestone of television history. No pressure there. As the recent announcement of David Tennant’s return suggests, Smith will not be the only actor portraying the Doctor this anniversary year, so at least he’ll have some support, but, in some respects, he’s going to have an awful lot to live up to. If this episode proves anything, he’ll carry us through the year magnificently. Without doubt, Smith is so comfortable in the role now – the excesses of previous years have been toned down – he dominates the screen from the moment he pulls down his monk’s hood right up to the final moment of him running around the TARDIS console. And the chemistry between him and Jenna-Louise Coleman is superb – it sparkles! There is much that can be said of his on-screen chemistry with Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill in the previous three years, but it pales in comparison to the way he and Coleman connects. We saw much of the same in last year’s The Snowmen, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. Whatever the mystery is surrounding Clara, I’m looking forward to the journey. Watching these two is a pure joy.

SPOILER ALERT!

It’s impossible not to mention the reveal of the intelligence behind the invasion of the Wifi. We saw the creation of it on Christmas Day – and no, it isn’t the Saviour of Man. It is, in fact, the Great Intelligence, previously seen in two Patrick Troughton stories (in 1967’s The Abominable Snowmen and 1968’s The Web of Fear). It calls UNIT an old friend, a nice link to The Web of Fear, since it was that story which lead to the formation of UNIT, but the best thing about the return of the Great Intelligence in the anniversary year is having Richard E Grant continue to voice it (as per The Snowmen). For a short period, in 2003, Grant was the Doctor, in the webcast, Scream of the Shalka, but his position as official Ninth Doctor was overwritten by the series return in 2005 and the casting of Christopher Eccleston. So it’s a nice touch that Grant makes such an important contribution this year – and yes, as indicated by the end of this episode, we’ve clearly not seen the last of the Great Intelligence.

Bottom Line:This is quite possibly the most assured episode of Doctor Who since Matt Smith took over the reins.

Andy Frankham-Allen