TV Gold

Just caught our breath from the end of Season Two and the traumatic loss of Billie Piper's dependable, resilient 'Rose Tyler' now trapped on the other side of a parallel universe...

but now we have news of a http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5146666.stm new companion and, apprently filming has already commenced on the 2006 Xmas special, now known as 'The Runaway Bride' with cryptic reports (5-6 July) from Cardiff residents of 'seeing the familiar silouette of David Tennant and a wedding dress atired figure on the top of 76 Shoe Lane'

I've read today that Russell T Davies has said about Season Three that:-

"We were delighted and honoured by the second series' success, and we can promise new thrills, new laughs and some terrifying new aliens. The Doctor and Martha are destined to meet William Shakespeare, blood sucking alien Plasmavores, The Judoon - a clan of galactic stormtroopers and a sinister intelligence at work in 1930's New York."

All sounds pretty good doesn't it?

Just read this morning on the BBC television teletext that

'the Doctor will face the Daleks in New York in a two-part story set in 1930s Manhattan. How can they successfully recreate period US on a BBC budget? Well it will be interesting to find out!

Here's a note for your diaries!

Just heard that the new Third Season of the revived show will commence on Saturday 31st March 2007 on BBC1!

Just to further wet your appitite as part of the link up between the BBC and YouTube I found this particular enjoyable clip with David getting his camcorder out again before we have the season three promo:-

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ffMgFb7nMXU

All looks pretty good doesn't it?

In an attempt to keep my thoughts brief here's my basic opinion of episode one...

?Smith and Jones? is a successful reset of the regular character dynamic that was originally established in Season One?s ?Rose? with the same blending of familiar settings and an alien threat told primarily from a human perspective. Use of a present day NHS hospital is brilliantly counterpointed by an effectively realised CGI moonscape and the imaginatively created prosthetic of the black leather biker clad Rhino headed Judoon. Providing the human perspective to the bizarre proceedings unfolding in her place of employment I felt that incoming companion Martha Jones showed distinct promise of indeed being a worthy casting addition to the series. Charismatically attractive actress Freema Agyeman acquitted herself admirably and her character?s resilient confident stance brings a perfect counterpointing human perspective to Tenant?s portrayal of the alien Doctor. Although intriguing enough are the objectives of the Judoon I believe it is the mystery surrounding the initially sweet grey haired lady Florence that is the strongest aspect of mystery of this opening episode. For me, the ultimate reveal of her identity and sinister plan was the most satisfying element on offer though whether ?Smith and Jones? will be the strongest entry during this third run remains to be seen.

certain aspects cover in next posting...

a bit more relaxed as with my second post regarding "Smith and Jones" I ponder 'certain aspects' of this third season opener...

As so typifies the Russell T Davies style of Doctor Who Season Three opener ?Smith and Jones? has the same grounding to Earth reality feel by having the main action centre around the interior of an NHS hospital. For anyone whose familiar with the Big Finish audio releases you can see certain similarities between this script and the Cybermen return story entitled ?The Harvest?. In that particular story you have the Seventh Doctor and Ace working in St Garts Hospital and introducing listeners to new audio companion Staff Nurse Hector Schofield, later to be known as Hex with the story largely played out through his perception of events in his ?place of employment?. In ?Smith and Jones? we find the tenth Doctor masquerading as a patient while we are introduced to medical student, later to be series regular Martha Jones. There was a nice bit of continuity scripting between the Doctor and Martha during the course of the story where the young woman explained that she was the cousin of Adeola, the character whom died during Season Two?s penultimate episode ?Army of Ghosts?. The character of Martha Jones brings with it a new ?routed to everyday reality? dynamic through her connection to the various members of her family which on the fleeting evidence of this first episode are indeed a far more outspoken, opinionated, colourful and in my opinion interesting group than the previous Tyler clan. Hopefully this will be successfully developed in subsequent episodes without unduly hindering the central dramatic science fiction nature of the series. Again we have excellent use of special effects the first of which has storm clouds (coupled curiously with upward falling rain!) centring around the hospital building which when viewed may liken to that which was achieved in the highly successful 1984 film comedy ?Ghostbusters?. I certainly thought the shot of the Royal Hope Hospital resting on the surface of the moon (and its corresponding former resting place of a now empty hole in the centre of London) was convincingly realised as indeed was the subsequent arrival of the Judoon spacecraft replete with the crew emerging onto the airless environment and remorselessly making their way towards the incongruous Earth structure. Fleetingly I found myself sifting through my memory trying to remember when the series had last visited the Moon and I guess that must have been during Patrick Troughton?s era in stories like ?The Moonbase? (in early 1967) and ?The Seeds of Death? (in early 1969). Although fairly sparingly used those establishing location shots sufficiently offset the fairly standard modern surroundings of a typical NHS hospital replete with tradition Doctor?s rounds. I loved the measured mystery surrounding Florence and the sinister black leather biker suited and helmet-wearing figures whom did her bidding which I felt overshadowed the impressively created alien menace stalking the hospital corridors. Lastly of note in this story when the tenth Doctor is carrying the unconscious form of Martha Jones through the corridor it rather seemed reminiscent of the dramatic journey conducted by the Spectrox Toxoemia infected fifth Doctor carrying the virtually lifeless body of Peri across the mud splattered planet surface in ?The Caves of Androzani?.

Hope to come back sometime next week with some thoughts about "The Shakespeare Code"

best wishes to all!

Back after the Easter break with a 'brief overview' posting regarding second episode "The Shakespeare Code"...

Leading us into Martha?s first historical set adventure there is an initial cosy warm inviting night-time glow permeating the entirely convincing recreation of Elizabethan England as personified in second story ?The Shakespeare Code?. Once again the BBC has excelled in its use of authentic period costumes and elaborately realised settings this time further enhanced by the impressively utilised real life location of the Globe theatre. These elements give further authentic credence to the regular and guest starring actors whom appear in a story that creditably honours one of histories greatest literary figures. Praise is certainly due to actor Dean Lennox Kelly whom imbues the Bard with a roguish youthful, handsome and slightly playful exuberance occasionally belaying a keen creative intellect which makes the story all the more endearing and convincing. Although replete with many spoken nods to the collective works of the great man the prominent regular use of three ?cackling crone? witches mostly gathered around a smoking cauldron is a more direct reference to a similar scene to be found in ?Macbeth?. At its heart ?The Shakespeare Code? is a good old-fashioned period mystery tale which effectively blends fifteenth century witchcraft with a sinister alien threat. The end result is both a pleasing related and dramatically engaging piece of television entertainment, providing us with yet another rewarding twenty-first century take on a ?historical adventure?!

Got a lot to say in the second 'certain aspects' posting regarding this story, so here goes...

Once again the Doctor sets out to wow his new companion with a trip back in time in the same kind of way that he did with Rose during ?The Unquiet Dead? however I felt with the rather more confined, intimate and cosy realised settings of Elizabethan England that the viewer could more easily relate to the sense of wonder that Martha was feeling. During their initial ?acclimatization? conversation I liked the offer the Doctor made to Martha about ?accompanying me to the theatre? which seemed to be almost a throwback to the fourth Doctor?s invitation to Leela during the opening moments of ?The Talons of Weng-Chiang?. Once again we are provided with another example of just how streetwise and culture aware the Doctor is when he uses a reference to the 1985 Michael J Fox time travel comedy film ?Back To The Future? regarding Martha?s potential tampering with established historical events to which they are presently witnessing (i.e. being ?rubbed out of existence? similar to the photo that Marty carries with him back to the 1950?s). For most of ?The Shakespeare Code? that ?three witches around a cauldron' concept with its direct relationship to a similar character dynamic to be found in ?Macbeth? is surprisingly and rewardingly expounded on (as expected in a Science Fiction series such as this) as being shape changing aliens with their own sinister covert agenda. The transformation of Christina Cole?s Lilith character (from beautiful serving girl to cackling crone) together with her occasional ?voodoo doll? manipulation (e.g. in the theatre early on or using a animated by strings puppet to manipulate Shakespeare into writing what she wanted (something that we later discover is instigated through use of a DNA replication module)) is both effective and convincingly conveyed particularly when concerning the amazing drowning of the slightly overweight and slightly pompous Lindley character as portrayed by Chris Larkin. Although the Doctor said he had not seen such a death happen before I personally thought, and maybe I?m not alone about this, that it rather similar to that which occurred in early 70?s men?s prison six-parter ?The Mind of Evil?. The eventual reveal of the three crones as being Carrionites together with the impressively realised final CGI-created end sequence with these floating rag creatures emerging from the slightly faded scarlet coloured ?funnel of fury? is undoubtedly a visual treat in a pleasing forty-five minutes of television entertainment. With the story rounded off a surprise appearance by the majestic figure of Queen Elisabeth I causing a sudden hasty departure of the Doctor and Martha and this is indeed one highly satisfactory historical entry for Tennant?s tenure as the series lead. I?d like to briefly come back to Dean Lennox Kelly whom without his convincing ability to use his charm and roguish good looks to such believable effect I feel that this story would not be as successful as it undoubtedly is. I?m sure that viewers will come away from this story by gaining a really strong perceptual identity of William Shakespeare, a character imbued with humour, confidence and a keen creative intellect. No more is this readily apparent than when, for the first time, the Doctor encounters a human whom is able to see through the psychic paper and comments that it is ?nothing more than a blank sheet which does not provide details of their identity?. Thinking back to this story I recall one now iconic scene where we see Shakespeare writing at his desk, part of the room is being illuminated by a single candle placed in the centre of a skull, the melted wax dripping down on this sinister dusty object. Shakespeare is undoubted one of the most quoted literary figures in contemporary entertainment. You only have to look at, for an example, ?Star Trek 6 : The Undiscovered County? which is indeed replete with quotes from the great man just to illustrate the immensely high regard his collective works continue to have on contemporary life. Story writer Gareth Roberts undoubtedly derived much pleasure from peppering his script with numerous quotes from the great man?s works including, towards the end, a postulation regarding his unfinished work ?Loves Labours Won? blended into the sinister scheming of the Carrionites within the confines of the Globe Theatre. Use of the stage in the Globe Theatre was undoubtedly a decision of pure genius as this amazing historic structure in such a story as ?The Shakespeare Code? is one of the finest ways of honouring its illustrious live performance history from a contemporary perspective. For acting contemporaries like Tennant, Lennox Kelly and other members of the cast whom delivered significant scenes on its hallowed stage the chance to perform in this venue will undoubtedly (due to its link to established history) be one of their proudest moments in their acting careers. Even during the story the echoed atmosphere of this hallowed period setting certainly comes across which in relevant scenes is further enhanced due to CGI created enhanced attendant crowds bringing back to life the atmosphere endemic to the fifteenth century.

Hope to come back next week to offer up some thoughts about "Gridlock" however it might not even be shown on Saturday if the rotten footy goes into extra time!

For anyone familiar with the stresses of everyday multi-lane contraflow traffic congestion the aptly titled “Gridlock” takes the concept to unimaginable extremes thanks to the impressively realised far-reaching CGI work of The Mill. The hovering vehicles themselves have evolved to reflect the inhabitants personalities with the story replete with many excellent examples. One of the most memorable would undoubtedly be that of Cat-man Thomas Kincade Brannigan (played with suitable Irish charm by Ardal O’Hanlon), his wife and, behind the curtain, their charming ‘kitten litter’. The scenario for “Gridlock” is certainly a far cry from the Doctor’s previous visit to the year Five Billion. Looking below the breathtaking exterior vista of the soaring city spires (opening scenes of “New Earth”) we are presented with a far more grimy low-tech environment within its lower levels, hardly inviting to tourists! Essentially this script presents us with a far more restrained character led drama than its preceding rather pacy Season Three entries and although welcome to strikingly revive a long forgotten ‘classic series’ alien threat the immediacy of the peril faced here seems, for me at least, less readily apparent. Now don’t get me wrong there is nothing here that particularly negates “Gridlock” offering up an entirely worthy final Face of Boe/Doctor meeting plus significant character development scenes between the Doctor and Martha bookending the length of the story. Its just that I feel that ultimately it will be a pleasing ‘also ran’ in a season that once again is dominated primarily by the Daleks amongst a pantheon of new impressively realised (whether it be CGI or prosthetics) alien lifeforms.

Now I consider myself rather an avid connoisseur of the ‘classic series’ so I was pleasantly surprised to see the sudden reappearance, in impressively convincing CGI rendered appearance, of many of the Macra creatures located below the gas shrouded ‘Motorway’ lanes of the under city of New New York. In the overall concept of the story their participation was entirely justified and in keeping with their previous series appearance despite the limited screen time they had this time around. Obviously this was undoubtedly going to cause a bit of a problem when reference to their reappearance was made in the subsequent ‘making of’ series ‘Confidential’. Sadly the 1967 four-part story entitled “The Macra Terror” is one of the few monochrome Patrick Troughton stories to which no complete episodes actually exist. A few extremely brief clips do exist (as seen on the “Lost In Time” 3 DVD disc set) so it was pleasing to see a scratchy black and white scene depicting a Macra claw menacing move into shot towards a screaming with terror extremely short haired Polly replete with the gorgeously evocative incidental music that accompanied this story. As we know a full audio soundtrack does exist, has been released but in addition to a rather pedestrian narration by sixth Doctor Colin Baker the sound quality of the recordings are arguably not as crisp and clear as other ‘lost story’ audio CD releases. Returning to thoughts about “Gridlock” and I appreciated the comradely spirit amongst the ‘Motorway’ travellers as illustrated by the collective rendition of ‘The Rugged Cross’, an uplifting hymn which unified these perpetual inhabitants in their common cause. One aspect that might have passed most people by occurred with the very first scene in this episode which presented us with a married couple whom quickly got into trouble negating ‘The Motorway’. Their likenesses immediately got me thinking back to an iconic painting I guess most of us must have seen some time in our life. I did some checking and these characters were similar to a 1930 American Gothic artwork that Grant Wood painted. It is his most famous painting, and depicts a farmer and his wife in a style influenced by 15th-century Flemish portraits. It is part of the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

1930’s New York city as personified in this two-parter attempts with, it has to be said with some success (replete with old style theatre dance routine), to effectively convey the historical counter pointing of living standards that existed at that time. If you scrape below the majestic splendour of the famous high rise city the poverty ridden underbelly of lower class unemployed residents comes to the surface as witnessed by the Doctor and Martha. Following the pleasing opening shot gazing across the bay from Liberty Island at the nearly completed impressive Empire State Building our duo then venture towards the city via the makeshift shantytown of Hooverville located in Central Park. Assembling the final stages of the cities towering iconic structure effectively provides the focusing centrepiece of “Daleks In Manhattan” with the employers of the hard pressed local workers eventually revealed as the Daleks. Whether it be wondering what the ‘wee salt shakers’ (a quote from 1974’s “Death To The Daleks”) are up to this time or the mystery surrounding the jelly like substance the Doctor finds during a tense underground sewer exploration there is enough here to keep viewers suitably intrigued. Factor in a satisfactorily dramatic and grotesquely horrific cliff-hanger “Daleks In Manhattan” pleasingly does enough to warrant viewers to return next week for the exciting resolution.

Nothing really to say about this other than the theatre dance sequences had me vaguely remembering the pop videos “What Have I Done To Deserve This” (Pet Shop Boys with Dusty Springfield) and “Something’s Got A Hold Of My Heart” (Marc Almond and Gene Pitney). Again we have a location previously visited (albeit extremely briefly) in the ‘classic series’. About fifty minutes into the six part 1965 story entitled “The Chase” the TARDIS touches down briefly on the observation deck of the Empire State Building. In this third episode, entitled “Flight Through Eternity” (originally transmitted on 5th June 1965) both the TARDIS and the chasing Dalek time travelling machine encounter (in a sequence totalling about eight minutes) Morton Dill, a simple minded, deep south tourist whom is convinced that these strange travellers are part of some movie shoot!

next episode to be shown tomorrow (27/04/07) at 6.45pm on BBC1!

Picking up from last weeks intriguing opening episodic narrative “Evolution of the Daleks” further enlightens us as to the full nature of the far reaching horrific genetic mutation experiments that the ‘Cult of Skaro’ are planning in the confines of their gothic horror transgenic laboratory. Sprinkle in some worthy special effects (dramatic nighttime Dalek/pig slave attack on Hooverville and the arcs of electrical energy hitting the Empire State Building and the Doctor(!) towards the end) top inventive solutions from the Doctor and Martha, plus some laudable self sacrificing from a couple of the regular story characters and this all adds up to a commendably entertaining and satisfactory conclusion to the first two part Season Three story. Overall I felt that this two-parter provided a creditable balance of establishing backstory (period New York location and residents) and sinister alien threat with a surprisingly intriguing atypical take on the usual run-of-the-mill Dalek stories we’ve seen up to this point.

I noticed a couple of similarities that made worthy nods to other productions. When Solomon steps forward from the inhabitants of the makeshift settlement and addresses the two Daleks hovering infront of my high above in the night sky it could almost be liked to a similar scene featured in the 1950’s classic film adaptation of HG Wells ‘War of the Worlds”. In that particular scene you had a Vicar, as a man of god, clutching his bible walking out into the battle scared landscape towards the hovering Martian invaders in the hope of brokering a peaceful settlement to the carnage that they had wrought. This figures words like that of Solomon in “Evolution of the Daleks” whilst being similarly eloquent was met with the same callous disregard and instant death at the hands of the invading aggressor. In the final dramatic scene that has David Tennant’s Doctor confronting Dalek Khan I could almost liken it to that sequence where Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor cautiously approached the last black Dalek in London during 1988’s “Remembrance of the Daleks”, on both occasions it was the Time Lord that was the last one standing… for now!