An old review of The Curse of Fenric

Lookie what I came across!  A review of The Curse of Fenric that I submitted to the Dr.Who Ratings Guide in October 1999.  Have a read and I'll post my revised thoughts on this story afterwards.

Best story ever? by Jai Parker 20/10/99

Imagine a Doctor Who story about the Doctor facing evil itself. Can you already hear the "boo ha ha's!" sounding pathetic? So it's quite impressive that the one story where the Doctor did face evil itself is definitely one of the series' finest. Some have said that this is the best Doctor Who story of all time and I tentatively agree. For starters the plot is so grown up that it is hard to imagine that this is even technically, or ever was, a kids show. The first time I saw Fenric I was only 11 and understood little of what was going on. However when I hired out the video a few years later I was impressed by Ian Briggs' script. The level of tension conveyed and the well thought out plot, along with a twist at the end made Fenric a challenging and enjoyable story.

The Curse of Fenric's other strength attributable to Ian Briggs is the characters. Millington is a believable human villain who you can almost feel sorry for and works well with the pitiable Dr.Judson, while Reverend Wainwright adds a mixture of hope and sadness to both lighten and dull the tone at once. All three characters are suberbly played by their respective actors.  Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred give great performances and Ace really comes of age while The Doctor at his darkest and most manipulative. Even Fenric, evil incarnete, comes across well and  is totally believable.

Despite all the low budget limitations The Curse of Fenric is well produced.  The musical score sets the scene perfectly, the special effects are quite effective and there's some great location work that sets the feel of the second world war.  The climax is almost perfect, with the Doctor's last gamble saving the day.  All of this combines to make The Curse of  Fenric one of the most impressive and consistent Doctor Who stories that still holds up to repeat viewings today.

In retrospect I was quite generous to The Curse of Fenric. Don't get me wrong, it's still a very good story. It is well produced considering the budgetary and time constraints and it has a good plot and some well drawn characters. But over time I've realised that Dr. Who should be more accessible to the casual viewer and Fenric is tries to be just a bit too clever for its own good. It's also interesting how in 1999 I seemed to want Dr. Who to be recognised as a more adult programme. Since then that attitude to Dr. Who has completely reversed and I'm quick to point out that it should be written primarily for kids. Around the time I wrote this review I remember hiding my Dr. Who videos when a girl I was keen on came over, as I was worried my chanceswith her would immediately disappear if she saw I owned videos of some cheap kids sci-fi show!

Overall I stand by most of what's written in that 11 year-old review, but in retrospect the plot is a bit too clever for its own good and I've gone off the idea of the dark, manipulative Doctor portrayed in Series 26. I give Fenric a revised rating of...

4/5

A review of Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith

I'm writing this review on my 31st birthday. Now I'm sure some of you are thinking 'Youngster!' while others are marvelling at how anyone can possibly be so old. Truth be told 31 is far from old, but in the past year I have felt myself slowing down somewhat. For the first time I'm getting the inescapable sense that I will get old and that I won't be around forever...

Sarah, Rani and Clyde investigate an alien meteor and meet Ruby White, a woman remarkably like Sarah. She's also aware of alien life and deals with extra terrestrial incursions on a regular basis. But unlike Sarah she is young, fit and she drives a hot car. Ruby is every bit as capable as Sarah and even more so. With Sarah exhibiting symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease, has she found someone to take responsibility for defending the Earth?

Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith is a story about really getting old and reaching the end of your usefulness. If your life is your work, what do you have left when you can't keep working? After Sarah's reintroduction in School Reunion (just pretend The Five Doctors never happened...) she has really found her place in the world but this story explores how she would react at having to give it all up.
This premise is a tantalising one and in some ways it's a case of the story imitating the reality of the show's production. Liz Sladen is getting on and the previous two series have featured the title character less to accomodate her increasing filming limitations.

This is the third story this series in which the kids have to save the world without help from the lead character and it was great to see Luke back. Some of the interaction between Luke and Rani really stands out and demonstrates just how far Luke has come from the socially awkward struggler of Series One.

Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith has a few weaknesses which marr an otherwise excellent story. The idea that Sarah and Rani were so quick to trust Ruby is absurd and for someone who considers herself an investigator Rani displayed no inquisitiveness about a remarkably unusual situation. The acting by Julie Graham (Ruby) was quite weak and Anjili unnecessarily camped up the scene where Rani bluffed Ruby.

In spite of a few flaws Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith is a very good end to Series Four. With the first half of Series Five already in the can and excellent viewing figures for the current series I think this show has a fair bit of life in it yet.


4/5

P.S. I wrote this review and watched both episodes on the Nokia E63 that my wonderful Wife gave as a birthday present. Forget touch screens, I love my qwerty keyboard!

A review of Lost in Time

Sarah, Rani and Clyde are tempted to investigate a local shopkeeper's report of a massive alien creature, but it turns out they have been lured there because the shopkeeper needs them to complete a quest. Three pieces of chronium, metal forged in the Time Vortex itself, have been spread across Earth's history and now all three are needed to stabilise time and stop Earth from being sucked into the Vortex. Sarah Jane, Rani and Clyde are then dispatched to separate time zones to complete their quests, and if they fail to do so in time, Earth is doomed.

It's no secret that former BBC One Controller Peter Fincham was impressed with Series One of The Sarah Jane Adventures, and he made Russell T Davies the offer to have it's status bumped up from being a CBBC show to a Saturday evening BBC One programme running in the same timeslot as Dr. Who, Robin Hood and Merlin. Davies declined, believing that Sarah Jane Adventures was perfect for CBBC and that in some way Dr. Who should have a presence on the channel specifically catering to children. I agree wholeheartedly with him, although this series has been surprisingly adult in tone and is dealing with issues and displaying incidents that would never have appeared in Series One. For example the developing romance between Clyde and Rani would never have been developed when these characters were younger. But Lost in Time in particular deals with some very adult themes, such as the execution of The Nine Day Queen, small children dying in a house fire and displaying Nazis running around with automatic guns. One of the strict rules when Sarah Jane Adventures started was "No guns!". How much this little show has grown up along with the characters!

Lost in Time has a tantalising plot which is cleverly resolved, although the main strength is the drama. The scenes with Lady Jane in particular stand out as Rani deal with her inevitible fate although Sarah Jane's storyline in early 20th Century also has a fair bit of dramatic oomph. The nature and identify of The Shopkeeper and his parrott is never explained, and it doesn't need to be. Nevertheless I find the idea that whoever or whatever has stepped in to fill the vacant role as time's guardians are disguising themselves as parrotts to be somewhat bizarre!

The only signficant issue I have with this story is the lack of humour. There were plenty more opportunities for Clyde to have a laugh at the Nazi's expense and although the segments featuring Rani and Sarah Jane were deadly serious a few more gags would have helped break the tension of this unusually serious story.

Even so Lost in Time is a superb story. It's cleverly plotted, dramatic and heartbreaking. Anyone who won't watch this because it's a CBBC programme doesn't know what they're missing.

5/5

A review of The Empty Planet

Clyde and Rani wake up one morning to find that they're the only people left on Earth. Nobody else, and no mobile coverage, TV, radio or anything. But then they discover another another human and when robots appear out of nowhere things get even stranger…

Gareth Roberts has proven himself to be an invaluable addition to the Dr. Who writing team. In the 1990's he wrote about a dozen Dr. Who novels and all were heavy on humour but tended to have ropey plots and The Doctor, Benny, Roz and Chris often acted out of character. Roberts has come a long way since then, and The Empty Planet is a good example of the knack he's developed for clever plotting as well as his ability to write excellent character pieces.

As Sarah Jane is missing for almost the entire story The Empty Planet focuses almost entirely on Clyde and Rani, who have to work out what is going on and save the world without any help. This is handled exceptionally well and their, er, relationship starts to develop some more. Much of the point of this is to give Clyde and Rani a chance to realise that they're not second best, they're not just sidekicks. In fact they're just as important as Sarah and Mr. Smith. It's also good to see the gradual evolution of Clyde and Rani from kids into adults. They're now in Sixth Form (the UK equivalent of Grade 12) and are really young adults, so the production team is being clever by not pretending they're still 13 year-olds.

Asides from it's strength as a character piece, The Empty Planet is remarkably eerie and has to be one of the most atmospheric pieces of children's TV ever. Seeing Rani verge on panic as she realises there may be nobody else left and watching them chased through the deserted London streets is a sight more at home in a sci-fi horror film than a CBBC programme, but it's handled in a way that shouldn't freak small children out too much. Oh, and there are cool robots. I like robots.  :)

It's hard to say more about the plot than what's shown in the trailer without giving away too much, let's just say I didn't see the twist coming and the resolution really is very clever.

Overall The Empty Planet is another excellent story. Starting to sound like a broken record, am I? Well that's because this series is just so good!

5/5

A review of Death of the Doctor

UNIT shows up at 13 Bannerman Rd with terrible news. The Shansheeth, known as the intergalactic carers of the dead, have returned a body to Earth and DNA tests confirm it's the Doctor. Sarah Jane, Clyde and Rani attend the funeral and there they meet Jo Jones, formerly Jo Grant, and her grandson Santiago. Sarah Jane is convinced it's a setup while everyone else puts her reaction down to denial.

Of course The Doctor isn't dead and the whole thing is a trap but it's fascinating to see how people would react to the Doctor's death and this makes for interesting viewing.

Like The Nightmare Man this is an excellent character piece, as we see Sarah Jane's reaction to the mere possibility of the Doctor being dead and how her life compares to that of Jo Jones, played perfectly by Katy Manning. I was never a huge fan of Jo but Katy Manning plays the role as perfectly as she did 37 years ago. Jo is still the scatterbrained, bouncy character she always was, just much older and is a perfect example of the ageing hippy. Bringing Jo back was clever because it allows the audience to see the massive contrast between her life and Sarah Jane's. While Sarah was childless and somewhat lonely for most of her life Jo married and has a huge family. Yet both women spent their lives after travelling with The Doctor missing him dearly and hoping he would come back for them.

And on the topic of The Doctor, Matt Smith is, as you would expect, wonderful! Russell T Davies has particular fun with his appearance as he plays havoc with established continuity by discarding the old 12 regenerations rule and in a pleasing moment he The Doctor states that he doesn't have to be white. And listen carefully for the revelation that the scenes of The Doctor saying goodbye to his companions in The End of Time was only the highlights. He actually went back and saw all of them.

The Shansheeth are an interesting villain and reasonably well realised considering the budgetary constraints of a CBBC production. The plot holds together quite well and at first it seemed The Shansheeth's plan was a bit ropey, but upon reflection it makes perfect sense.

In terms of fan pleasing references this takes the cake of any and every episode of Nu Who or Sarah Jane. Not only are there flashbacks to Doctor in his First, Second, Third, Fourth and Tenth incarnations, but everything from Aggedor to Zygons gets a mention or a brief clip. And if that wasn't enough no less than six former companions have their stories closed off in the final, touching scene and it's revealed that Liz Shaw is stationed on UNIT's Moonbase! As with The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith, it's sad that The Brigadier was unable to make an apperance and meet The Doctor again, but Nicholas Courtney's health problems have prevented him from working, so it appears that we've sadly seen the last of The Brig.

But all these flashbacks and references work within the story, and are anything but gratuitous and unnecessary. Because ultimately Death of the Doctor is a story about the power of nostalgia and the impact positive memories can have to keep one going through a difficult present.

Despite the strength of the plot and well drawn characters the best aspect of Death of the Doctor is that is's just plain FUN! Yes, this is a thoroughly enjoyable story filled with aumusing situations and sparkling dialogue that could elicit a chuckle from even the sourest viewer.

Death of the Doctor is another very good story, just don't get too caught up obsessong over the continuity references and remember to laugh!

5/5

Plans: A review of The Vault of Secrets

Androvax The Destroyer comes to Sarah requesting help to rescue the rest of his race from The Vault of Secrets, a hidden establishment underneath an abandoned hospital. Androvax seems genuine enough and refusing his request would be equal to committing an act of genocide. But does Androvax have a secret agenda and what are the risks posed by helping him break into The Vault of Secrets? Meanwhile Gita joins BURRPS, a small group of UFO spotters who all claim to have had close encounters with aliens.

The Vault of Secrets is a solid, if unremarkable story. The plot stands up to scrutiny, although the pacing of Episode One is a bit slow and the plot resolution is a tad convenient but at least the device used to resolve it was foreshadowed. The subplot with Gita and her alien hunting friends is cleverly tied into the main plot and Gita borders on being hilarious in this story. As a teenager of the 90's I particularly liked the Men in Black references and the classic Dr. Who story The Pyramids of Mars gets a brief look in. Fans of Luke will be pleased to see him put in a brief appearance, albeit on a computer screen. Sarah, Clyde and Rani are all written perfectly, although the lack of character exploration sticks out after the superb Nightmare Man.

The moral dilemma at the centre of the story is quite compelling. Basically, if Sarah refuses Androvax's request it equates to genocide because she'd be condemning an entire race to extinction. But given Androvax's history the risk of him destroying the human race is quite real too, so what is the right course of action?

Even so there are several fundamental problems with this story. Firstly, we're never given any insight into Androvax's species or their culture. Asides from his claim that they were a peace-loving race the audience is given nothing to sympathise with. Sarah Jane Adventures doesn't have the budget to depict an entire world of lizard people laughing and playing but a few lines of dialogue would have added to the emotional drive behind the plot. Secondly, a brief recap of who Androvax was and why he became "the Destoryer of Worlds" would have gone a long way. It's been over a year since I saw Prisoner of the Judoon and the details of this story's villain were hazy in my memory. Together these issues significantly dilute the strength of this otherwise very good story.

The Vault of Secrets is a standard Sarah Jane Adventures story. It's well written, plotted, produced and acted. Even so, nothing in particular stands out about these episodes. So just sit back, enjoy the story and have a good laugh.  It looks like the special stuff has been saved for next week... 

 

4/5

This week's song is by Birds of Tokyo.  It has a wonderful, sombre but upbeat feel.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Owk3oqUjgh4

Punching In A Dream: A review of The Nightmare Man.

The fourth series is generally regarded as "danger year" for a TV show. Only successful shows last this long, and any successful show is built around a good concept and a dynamic group of characters. This describes The Sarah Jane Adventures quite succinctly.

However after a few years the show's central concept has often been explored in every obvious way and the characters have also been fleshed out reasonably well. It's at this point that the writers and producers start scratching their heads, wondering how they can keep making the programme without retreading previous ground and starting to look repetitive.

If The Nightmare Man is any indicator of the quality of stories to expect this year then it appears that The Sarah Jane Adventures is avoiding the dreaded Fourth Year Syndrome remarkably well.

The story opens with Luke recording a monologue on a video camera, leaving a warning about someone called The Nightmare Man. This sets the tone for the story perfectly, and in true non-linear fashion the story then flashes back one month and shows events leading up to the fearful moment when Luke records his warning.

Joe Lidster has scripted a story that unfolds perfectly, with a clear sense of danger from the outset nicely wrapped in a mystery. Who is The Nightmare Man? Why is Luke so convinced the world is about to end? And why is it his fault? As the story unfolds the answers to all these questions are answered one by one.

The biggest strength of this story is the way the characters of Luke, Clyde and Rani are explored via their nightmares. In these dream sequences their darkest fears brought to life. Luke is terrified of being rejected by his Mum and friends. Four years after being adopted by Sarah Jane, he still feels like an outsider to the rest of humanity. Rani is desperate to make a successful career as a journalist but fears having to compromise her principles to attain success. And it turns out that the seemingly over confident Clyde is most afraid of growing up to become a nobody who works a dead end job. It's Series Four, and are the writers are having trouble finding something new to say about the characters? Not at all!  This is one of the strongest character pieces in Sarah Jane Adventures yet.

The Nightmare Man himself is an wonderfully spooky character and I'm sure plenty of the six year-olds watching will have trouble sleeping after watching this story. Mr Smith explains The Nightmare Man's origin however I'd have preferred this left unexplained, or at least remain more mysterious than it was. Sometimes keeping the villains origins and nature ambiguous makes them even more usettling. The superb Dr. Who story Midnight springs to mind as an excellent example of this.

My only other gripe with this otherwise brilliant story is with the plot resolution. Yes, it makes sense and but it's not clearly explained just how The Nightmare Man is defeated. Scroll down past the spoiler warning at the end of this review to see an explanation.

The Nightmare Man is an outstanding start to Series Four and features a very clever plot, excellent villain, to notch characterisation and performances and flawless production values.

Don't miss this one.

5/5

P.S. This week's song is by New Zealand band The Naked and Famous. It has a very distinctive sound.

SPOILER WARNING!

What isn't made completely clear is that Luke realises that in a nightmare there's nothing to be afraid of except for fear itself. Once he realises this and builds up the confidence to face his fear the power of The Nightmare Man is broken.

Talkin' About a Revolution - A review of Dr. Who Series Five

Remember being nine years-old and watching Dr. Who?  For me, every Doctor before Sylvester McCoy was ancient history.  Peter Davison was a vague memory from my early childhood and the Tom Baker repeats I watched on The Afternoon Show prehistoric because I wasn't even born when they first aired.

The current generation of nine year-olds views Christopher Eccleston in the same way I viewed Peter Davison.  For us oldies (and I class everyone over the age of 12 in that category!) all Nu Who is new.  It's a far cry from the tin foil Cybermen and bubble wrap monsters of old, but the truth is that Nu Who is now in it's sixth year of broadcast, which means today's nine year-olds were only three or four when Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper were lighting up our screens.  In an age when most TV shows are lucky to last beyond a couple of series Nu Who is getting old. 

This is why it needed this revamp.  Yes, David Tennant was still popular.  Yes, the ratings for Series Four and the 2009 specials were as strong as ever.  But Dr. Who is a show primarily for 8 to 12 year-olds, and they need to view it as something fresh and exciting.  Dr. Who needs to be something that is theirs and theirs alone. A show that they have ownership of, that their older siblings and their parents are allowed to watch with them.

Steven Moffat was very keen to completely revamp Dr. Who and keep it fresh, which he succeeded in admirably.  Everything about Series Five seems fresh, from the new titles sequence to the lighting and direction, and most importantly overall feel of the show has changed from rollicking adventure to a dark fairytale.

And this new approach works brilliantly!

First off – The Doctor.  Making him Amy's “imaginary friend” was a stroke of genius, and taps into the fairytale theme perfectly.  Matt Smith has proven that age is no barrier to playing The Doctor.  His strength in playing the Doctor stems from his quirky personality, well developed acting abilities and the ability to seem both old and young at the same time.  Although I initially thought his costume was overdone it suits him perfectly.  And I've concluded that bow ties are indeed, cool.  Steven Moffat ideally wanted an actor at least 20 years Matt's age but gave him the role because he was perfect and I agree completely.

Visually Series Five has gone for a radical new look.  Gone is the colourful, almost cartoonish veneer as Series Five has a more subdued, almost Twilight look to the lighting and grading.  The new TARDIS control room is gorgeous and hiring a whole new team of directors has given the show a distinctly different visual feel to the previous era.

Amy Pond tends to get the most criticism out of any aspect of Series Five and I can see why.  She's quite a bitch, and probably the most flawed companion in Nu Who.  Yet, I found Amy to be likeable and a well rounded heroine who's perfectly played by Karen Gillan.  Rory is a perfect foil to Amy and Arthur Darville plays the role of the bumbling yet chivalrous hero perfectly.

Here are some mini reviews of each episode.

The Eleventh Hour

An excellent start.  Matt Smith makes the role of The Doctor his own instantly, the script is funny, scary and intriguing and sets up the series story arc perfectly.  My only gripe is that a bit more visual flair wouldn't have gone astray.  5/5

The Beast Below

An excellent plot and great atmosphere but this doesn't quite fly.  Predictably the relationship between Doctor and companion is cemented in this story and there are some good, if unspectacular guest characters.  4/5

Victory of the Daleks

The only disappointment of the series, but I wasn't surprised considering this is a Mark Gatiss script.  The plot feels like it's trying too hard to make a story from the initial (admittedly brilliant) idea of pairing Winston Churchill up with the Daleks.  There are some corny scenes but the flying Spitfires were very cool and I'm warming to the new Daleks.  3/5

The Time of Angels & Flesh and Stone

Whoa.  River Song is back!  Weeping Angels are back too!  Scary as, a plot that is as intriguing as any so far and Matt Smith and Karen Gillan on top form, which is testament to their acting ability because this was the first story shot.  And the River Song plotline thickens.  Can The Doctor really trust her?  5/5

Vampires in Venice

The Doctor replaces the stripper at Rory's bucks party and the new TARDIS trio get involved in an adventure with space fish.  Good episode but doesn't quite hit the heights it should, although this is one of the funniest episodes yet.  4/5

Amy's Choice

Awesome plot, great performances and unbridled violence directed at nasty old people.  What more could you want?  Sadly Simon Nye said he won't be writing for Dr. Who again, so this is a once off.  *sigh*  5/5

The Hungry Earth/ Cold Blood

The story is excellent, the characters are excellent and I can't fault the quality of the production (asides from the dodgy explosion at the end).  Yet this story is a bit too grim and humourless for my liking.  If Dr. Who was to be made as an adult sci-fi show for 9pm this would be a perfect example of how to do it, but I like my Who to have a childlike quality to it.  Nevertheless, this is an excellent story.  5/5

Vincent and the Doctor

The plot involving the big space chicken/horse/lion thing was little more than an excuse to pair The Doctor and Amy up with Vincent Van Gogh but this is an exceptional piece of drama.  With films such as Four Weddings & a Funeral, Notting Hill and The Boat That Rocked on his CV Richard Curtis is probably the most high profile writer to have penned a Dr. Who script ever and this story shows why he has such a high reputation in the British film industry.  Beautiful and haunting.  5/5

The Lodger

The Doctor as your housemate?  Hilarious!  Having rented with various blokes over the years I really got this story.  Gareth Roberts is getting much better at writing clever plot resolutions too.  5/5

The Pandorica Opens/ The Big Bang

The very first Moffat finale is a work of sheer genius.  This story is emotionally charged, intriguing, features some of the best performances from Matt Smith and Karen Gillan and has the most stunning cliffhanger to the first episode.  Oh and it finished with a wedding.  I love weddings, especially my own.  I really don't care that we didn't find out who or what The Silence is or that River Song's identity was unexplained.  Both those explanations are coming next series, and I can hardly wait.  The resolution to the plot reminded me of why I like Dr. Who so much, and I adored the ending. “Goodbye!”  5/5

This is easily the best series of Nu Who yet, but will next series be even better?

P.S.
The song for this review title is a classic from Tracy Chapman.

A review of The End of TIme

I wrote this in an .rtf document which I've lost.  Will rewrite soon.  Anyway, awesome two parter and a great end for David Tennant!