After 45 minutes of Victory of the Daleks my first reaction was "What the Hell was THAT?" I ended up watching it again this morning, mainly as the recorder had cocked up and failed to record CSI, and it is actually much better than I thought although I'm still left with two major annoyances.
There have been many attempts to build a science fiction story around World War II. Usually, this involves a cunning Nazi plot to build a super-weapon by utilising some supernatural force or a secret Nazi technology involving space rockets or delta winged stealth planes - some of these even have a basis in fact. However, Mark Gattis has chosen none other than Churchill to be the prime mover for extra-terrestrial technology. I've enjoyed Gattis's previous stories for Who although his one acting stint in the show was dire - not his fault, mind, it was just an awful script. For this story he has gone for the old trick of plundering a 1960's story, The Power of the Daleks, and throwing in a couple of other ideas - but more of that later.
The problem with the Daleks is that they are remarkably one dimensional. They hate everyone, want to take over the universe and enjoy exterminating every other living thing in the process. That's it. To make a Dalek story interesting it needs to involve character development of the regular cast and the plot kept simple. Since the series returned this was most effective in the story Dalek with Christopher Eccleston's Doctor somewhat losing it in the face of a single, stranded, lone Dalek. For the first 10 minutes of Victory Matt Smith really kept up with this - and then it all went a bit bonkers.
In fact, this is where it got much better with the second viewing and it proved my two annoyances. Firstly, there was far too much happening in this episode. This could have been a nicely paced two parter allowing the story to unfold at an even stride and
to let the major plot devices establish themselves before the next crash-bang-whollop. Secondly, the sound mix was back to RTD overkill with needless musical score drowning out the actors' words. Amongst this the Daleks were cunningly tricking The Doctor into triggering the Daleks' regeneration into Technicolor pepper pots that reminded me more than ever of the old Peter Cushing Dalek films and reminded Nina that they can now sell five times as many Dalek toys.
I thought the sub-plot involving Bill Patterson's character would have made a great episode in itself. This had more than a little similarity to Philip K Dick's story Impostor which was later turned into a mostly forgotten but still worth seeing film staring Gary Sinise. In fact, like The Next Doctor's David Morrissey, this was a much more interesting idea. I also noticed various homages to other science fiction works including the attack on the alien saucer from Independence Day and a wholloping great take on Dan Dare with the space going Spitfires - even the lead pilot was called Danny Boy although that may have been for a Where Eagles Dare reference. Mind you, what were the propellers doing outside the atmosphere?
One mention should go to the set of the War Rooms, which were ably recreated, not in London, but actually in my old university building in Cardiff. It looks like they have repainted it since I managed to blow up one of the laboratories although that may have been done for the show. They didn't show the library which is just as well as the librarian was a bit of an old dragon and I still have a book on quantum mechanics which is nearly 25 years overdue.
Raymond enjoyed the episode and I think using iconic villains like the Daleks does draw the younger viewer in, but he did notice the crack in time at the end and picked up on the fact that Amy did not know what a Dalek is. These story arc items have been fairly heavily signposted in this series which I think may do well in engaging the younger or more casual viewer. Nina also noticed that there have been prominently displayed Union flags throughout the series. Whether this is coincidence or not remains to be seen. We also had the customary Scottish reference. I had wondered whether an English audience would get the Scottish humour and, judging by David Baddiel's comments on Charlie Brooker's show, I'm not sure that they do.
However, I think Matt Smith has definitely established himself as The Doctor for me now. There are elements of the other actors in there but he has a style of his own which, on occasion, can be decidedly camp. The "Don't mess with me sweetheart" comment to the Dalek was classic - it's almost what I would imagine a Johnny Depp Doctor would be like. Nina still thinks he is a bit ugly but, following the Easter Island comment on Brooker's show, she thinks there may be a decent Who story to explain how those statues got there.
Anyway, next week it's a Steven Moffat two parter with Weeping Angels and River Song. I'm looking forward to it - as long as they take their time and turn the bloody orchestra down.
There have been many attempts to build a science fiction story around World War II. Usually, this involves a cunning Nazi plot to build a super-weapon by utilising some supernatural force or a secret Nazi technology involving space rockets or delta winged stealth planes - some of these even have a basis in fact. However, Mark Gattis has chosen none other than Churchill to be the prime mover for extra-terrestrial technology. I've enjoyed Gattis's previous stories for Who although his one acting stint in the show was dire - not his fault, mind, it was just an awful script. For this story he has gone for the old trick of plundering a 1960's story, The Power of the Daleks, and throwing in a couple of other ideas - but more of that later.
The problem with the Daleks is that they are remarkably one dimensional. They hate everyone, want to take over the universe and enjoy exterminating every other living thing in the process. That's it. To make a Dalek story interesting it needs to involve character development of the regular cast and the plot kept simple. Since the series returned this was most effective in the story Dalek with Christopher Eccleston's Doctor somewhat losing it in the face of a single, stranded, lone Dalek. For the first 10 minutes of Victory Matt Smith really kept up with this - and then it all went a bit bonkers.
In fact, this is where it got much better with the second viewing and it proved my two annoyances. Firstly, there was far too much happening in this episode. This could have been a nicely paced two parter allowing the story to unfold at an even stride and
to let the major plot devices establish themselves before the next crash-bang-whollop. Secondly, the sound mix was back to RTD overkill with needless musical score drowning out the actors' words. Amongst this the Daleks were cunningly tricking The Doctor into triggering the Daleks' regeneration into Technicolor pepper pots that reminded me more than ever of the old Peter Cushing Dalek films and reminded Nina that they can now sell five times as many Dalek toys.I thought the sub-plot involving Bill Patterson's character would have made a great episode in itself. This had more than a little similarity to Philip K Dick's story Impostor which was later turned into a mostly forgotten but still worth seeing film staring Gary Sinise. In fact, like The Next Doctor's David Morrissey, this was a much more interesting idea. I also noticed various homages to other science fiction works including the attack on the alien saucer from Independence Day and a wholloping great take on Dan Dare with the space going Spitfires - even the lead pilot was called Danny Boy although that may have been for a Where Eagles Dare reference. Mind you, what were the propellers doing outside the atmosphere?
One mention should go to the set of the War Rooms, which were ably recreated, not in London, but actually in my old university building in Cardiff. It looks like they have repainted it since I managed to blow up one of the laboratories although that may have been done for the show. They didn't show the library which is just as well as the librarian was a bit of an old dragon and I still have a book on quantum mechanics which is nearly 25 years overdue.
Raymond enjoyed the episode and I think using iconic villains like the Daleks does draw the younger viewer in, but he did notice the crack in time at the end and picked up on the fact that Amy did not know what a Dalek is. These story arc items have been fairly heavily signposted in this series which I think may do well in engaging the younger or more casual viewer. Nina also noticed that there have been prominently displayed Union flags throughout the series. Whether this is coincidence or not remains to be seen. We also had the customary Scottish reference. I had wondered whether an English audience would get the Scottish humour and, judging by David Baddiel's comments on Charlie Brooker's show, I'm not sure that they do.
However, I think Matt Smith has definitely established himself as The Doctor for me now. There are elements of the other actors in there but he has a style of his own which, on occasion, can be decidedly camp. The "Don't mess with me sweetheart" comment to the Dalek was classic - it's almost what I would imagine a Johnny Depp Doctor would be like. Nina still thinks he is a bit ugly but, following the Easter Island comment on Brooker's show, she thinks there may be a decent Who story to explain how those statues got there.
Anyway, next week it's a Steven Moffat two parter with Weeping Angels and River Song. I'm looking forward to it - as long as they take their time and turn the bloody orchestra down.
As usual, it's taken me until tonight to watch this. I was pre-warned with three comments from the gang in the pub: "That was poo" and "Should have been a two-parter" (echoing your thoughts) and "It was setting something up for the future."
ReplyDeleteAlso as usual, I enjoyed it overall. The only bit I didn't like was the flashing lights in Bill Paterson's chest that they had to talk him out of exploding. I like Bill Paterson but nonetheless, in this case, I'd have just scooped him into the Tardis, delivered him to the Dalek ship and kicked him out there. Boom! I suppose that's why they don't let me write for Doctor Who.