225 lines
6.2 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
225 lines
6.2 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
culture
|
|
tvandradio
|
|
8465923
|
|
-----
|
|
# Doctor Who risks alienating the casual viewer
|
|
|
|
## Robert Colvile, a fan of Doctor Who, says tonight's episode, The
|
|
Impossible Astronaut, was both over-complex and grim.
|
|
|
|
![Matt Smith in Doctor Who. Photo: BBC/James Stenson][1]
|
|
|
|
Matt Smith in Doctor Who. Photo: BBC/James Stenson
|
|
|
|
By Robert Colvile 8:00PM BST 23 Apr 2011
|
|
|
|
[Comments][2]
|
|
|
|
It was fitting that Doctor Who returned to our screens on BBC One on Saturday,
|
|
since the opening episode perfectly encapsulated the spirit of the Easter
|
|
season - namely, sugar-crazed hyperactivity.
|
|
|
|
In just the first five minutes of this two-part story, we had seen the Doctor
|
|
rampaging through history in an effort to contact faithful companions Amy
|
|
(Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill), had a brief glimpse of their life of
|
|
beautifully decorated domesticity, been reunited with mysterious space
|
|
archaeologist River Song (Alex Kingston) and gone on location to Utah. And
|
|
then, after briefly admiring the Doctor's new stetson, we'd seen him killed -
|
|
really, truly dead-as-a-doornail killed - by what looked like one of the
|
|
Apollo 11 astronauts.
|
|
|
|
Fortunately for the BBC, which was rather relying on getting a few more series
|
|
out of its cash cow, the dead man turned out to be the Doctor from the future
|
|
- meaning that his younger self was still around. So "our" Doctor headed back
|
|
to 1969 with a trio of companions who were uncomfortably aware both that he
|
|
was soon to shuffle off this Time Lordly coil, and that they couldn't tell him
|
|
anything about it.
|
|
|
|
For many shows, that would be enough drama to be going on with. But the
|
|
writer, Steven Moffat, layered mystery upon mystery. To last year's big
|
|
question - who was behind the near-destruction of the Tardis (and the
|
|
universe) in the series finale? - were added many more. Who was the little
|
|
girl making disturbing phone calls to President Nixon? What were the sinister,
|
|
FBI-suited aliens stalking Amy? And did this have anything to do with the Moon
|
|
landing, which was just days away?
|
|
|
|
That such a densely plotted show did not sink into incomprehensibility, or
|
|
turn the viewer off with a tone that was, at times, almost horror-movie grim,
|
|
was down to the easy chemistry of the cast, the wit of Moffat's writing, and
|
|
the ravishing production values. Smith has come into his own as the Doctor,
|
|
shifting between amiable, zany and intense as the occasion demands, and
|
|
Darvill is a particular delight as Rory, with a nice line in buffoonery and
|
|
wounded affection.
|
|
|
|
## Related Articles
|
|
|
|
* [Doctor Who: The Curse of the Black Spot, review][3]
|
|
|
|
07 May 2011
|
|
|
|
* [Doctor Who - the top ten baddies][4]
|
|
|
|
06 May 2011
|
|
|
|
* [Matt Smith receives Bafta nomination for Doctor Who role][5]
|
|
|
|
26 Apr 2011
|
|
|
|
* [Karen Gillan: Who's that girl?][6]
|
|
|
|
16 Apr 2011
|
|
|
|
* [Doctor Who: The Impossible Astronaut, review][7]
|
|
|
|
23 Apr 2011
|
|
|
|
* [Doctor Who, episode 2: Day of the Moon, review][8]
|
|
|
|
30 Apr 2011
|
|
|
|
The central problem, however, is that while the Nixon references were
|
|
wonderful (who knew the Doctor was to blame for Watergate?) and the jokes
|
|
sparkling, many of the elements felt not just frenzied, but familiar. It's one
|
|
thing to refer to previous episodes, but Moffat recycled a host of tropes and
|
|
tricks from his own work on the series: sinister phone calls from childish
|
|
voices, chilling figures clad in opaque spacesuits, even monsters that you
|
|
can't look away from, lest something bad happens.
|
|
|
|
It could be, given Moffat's stellar record on both Doctor Who and Sherlock,
|
|
that this was entirely deliberate, and will pay off later. But stir in the
|
|
brain-melting time-travel paradoxes and multitude of dangling plot threads,
|
|
and this felt like a writer stirring everything into the pot, and damn the
|
|
need for exposition. The result was an episode that rewarded the dedicated fan
|
|
but could leave the younger or casual viewer baffled. That, or terrified: in
|
|
the cliffhanger ending, Amy confessed to the Doctor that she was pregnant,
|
|
then shot a young child in the face. As I said, grim.
|
|
|
|
[X][9] Share & bookmark
|
|
|
|
Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter
|
|
|
|
Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
|
|
|
|
[What are these?][10]
|
|
|
|
* Share: [Share][9] [ ][11] [ ][12]
|
|
|
|
[Tweet][13]
|
|
|
|
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8465923/Doctor-Who-risks-
|
|
alienating-the-casual-viewer.html
|
|
|
|
Telegraph
|
|
|
|
## [TV and Radio][14]
|
|
|
|
* ### [Culture »][15]
|
|
|
|
* ### [Doctor Who »][16]
|
|
|
|
* ### [BBC »][17]
|
|
|
|
[![TV Guide][18]][19]
|
|
|
|
### [TV Guide UK: searchable TV listings][19]
|
|
|
|
[![Paul Merton presents the Birth of Hollywood][20] ][21]
|
|
|
|
### [Today's TV highlights][21]
|
|
|
|
[![][22] ][23]
|
|
|
|
### [Britain's Got Talent: where are they now?][23]
|
|
|
|
[![][24] ][25]
|
|
|
|
### [Doctor Who - the top ten best Doctors][25]
|
|
|
|
[X][9] Share & bookmark
|
|
|
|
Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter
|
|
|
|
Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
|
|
|
|
[What are these?][10]
|
|
|
|
Share:
|
|
|
|
* [ ][9]
|
|
|
|
* [ ][11]
|
|
|
|
* [ ][12]
|
|
|
|
* [Tweet][13]
|
|
|
|
* Advertisement
|
|
|
|
![][26]
|
|
|
|
telegraphuk
|
|
|
|
Please enable JavaScript to view the [comments powered by Disqus.][27] [blog
|
|
comments powered by Disqus][28]
|
|
|
|
Advertisement
|
|
|
|
sponsored features
|
|
|
|
Loading
|
|
|
|
Culture Most Viewed
|
|
|
|
* TODAY
|
|
|
|
* PAST WEEK
|
|
|
|
* PAST MONTH
|
|
|
|
1. [Gil Scott-Heron, the 'Godfather of Rap' behind The Revolution Will Not
|
|
Be Televised, dies][29]
|
|
|
|
2. [Cheryl Cole in talks with over return to UK X Factor][30]
|
|
|
|
3. [Grease actor Jeff Conaway dies][31]
|
|
|
|
4. [How I fell back in love with Television][32]
|
|
|
|
5. ['Margaret Thatcher' actress Janet Brown dies][33]
|
|
|
|
1. [Cannes 2011: Peter Fonda calls Obama a 'traitor'][34]
|
|
|
|
2. [Joely Richardson breaks silence over family scandal claims][35]
|
|
|
|
3. [Cheryl Cole out of American X Factor 'over accent fears'][36]
|
|
|
|
4. [Kate Middleton shows that this Sloane obsession with fake tan has got to
|
|
stop][37]
|
|
|
|
5. [Cheryl Cole 'replaced' as judge on US X Factor][38]
|
|
|
|
1. [Cannes 2011: Peter Fonda calls Obama a 'traitor'][34]
|
|
|
|
2. [Eurovision Song Contest 2011: review][39]
|
|
|
|
3. [Joely Richardson breaks silence over family scandal claims][35]
|
|
|
|
4. [Horoscopes: Catherine Tennant looks at the week ahead][40]
|
|
|
|
5. [Why I miss that old meanie Simon Cowell][41]
|
|
|
|
Advertisement
|
|
|
|
Classified Advertising
|
|
|
|
* [RHS Chelsea][42]
|
|
|
|
* [Culture][43]
|
|
|
|
* [Fine Arts][44]
|
|
|
|
Loading
|
|
|
|
var puffs_8120641 = new Array();
|
|
|