Posts tagged ‘Doctor Who’

Major Doctor Who geek-out post, here. You’ve been warned.

It’s been known for some time that Paul Cornell, writer of many Who books and the man who brought us the Time Dragons (I refuse to call them reapers) in season one, would be contributing a two-part script to season three.

Somewhat later, and I don’t know how, the rumour was that this script would be an adaptation of what was arguably his best novel, ‘Human Nature’. These rumours were stoked when the girl from Spaced was announced as playing a character called Joan — the name of the main character in the book. Now that a truckload of other actors have been named, all with the names of other characters, it almost seems certain.

This is awesome for at least two reasons. One; the story itself is a fantastic one, and quite an emotional one for the Doctor. There should be tears jerked, is all I’m saying. And two; the key child role in the story is being played by Thomas Sangster, the kid from Love, Actually. Which has instantly put to rest my fears of child actors. Robin Hood fangirls (and I know there’s one of you around somewhere) will be happy to note that it looks like Will Scarlett is in it too.

Adapting an old script has happened before; ‘Dalek’ in season one was in many ways a retelling of the same author’s audio play ‘Jubilee’. But that didn’t bother me as I’d never really been sucked into the audio plays. The books are different though — I like to think of them as having actually happened. In order to maintain my personal continuity, I’ve decided that something that happened in the Time War must have screwed around with time so that ‘Human Nature’ never happened in the first place, but now it will.

Ahem.

So, anyhow, look out for episodes eight (‘The Family of Blood’) and nine (title as yet unknown) next year. They should be great.

“Sony has a futuristic sci-fi movie they’re looking to make.”
“Cigarettes in space?”
“It’s the final frontier, Nick.”
“But wouldn’t they blow up in an all oxygen environment?”
“Probably. But it’s an easy fix. One line of dialogue. ‘Thank God we invented the… you know, whatever device.'”

— Thank You For Smoking

Ah, technobabble. Also known as ‘phlebotonin’ if you’re a writer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I’m sure that to the casual viewer, all technobabble is equal. I know that when I watch House, I have no idea what they’re talking about half of the time, and it doesn’t bother me at all. As long as they don’t go on too long about it.

A big discussion blew up about technobabble, and Samantha Carter’s propensity for it, earlier in the year when we saw Stargate SG-1‘s wannabe epic, ‘Ripple Effect’. Interviews such as this one with Claudia Black have revealed that the SG-1 creative team are more focused on making sure that the plot is well-established than putting character moments into stories; not a bad thing in itself, but sometimes it feels like the show has become hyper-focussed on trying to make ultimately nonsensical science make complete, unassailable sense. Why bother?

‘Ripple Effect’ is a good case in point. For a parallel-universe episode to spend a quarter of its length on making sure that their universe jumping plan was explained to the letter seems peculiar for a show clearly targeted at regular science fiction viewers. On occasions, like in this season’s ‘Insiders’, it almost feels like background characters are there to say what the writers think internet fans are going to pick holes in. “But what about that device in season four that did this?” “Doesn’t that contradict season six, episode twelve?” If the characters are going to have mind-numbing debates on the internal continuity of the show on screen, what does that leave the fans to do?

Compare this to Doctor Who, which cops a lot of flak amongst its fans for doing exactly the opposite. In ‘The Idiot’s Lantern’, an alien intelligence went about through televisions, sucking the faces off people. The Doctor’s plan involves taping the consciousness on a videotape, but because it isn’t divulged until later, the climactic scenes become rather confusing. Oh no! Random thing has gone wrong! Oh yay! Random thing has been fixed! Phew!

This sort of thing would probably be over the head of Joe Normal regardless, just like the big, dramatic arguments about potential cures in House are only exciting to me because everyone’s acting like they should be, rather than because I understand what causes which symptoms. But for a sci-fi audience, just a little touch of technobabble can make them feel a lot more involved.

Technobabble has its place. Economically used, to smooth the discrepancies between the real world and the fictional world, and to ease the objections of people who actually know something about the science you’re fudging. If you’re Douglas Adams, not that anyone is these days, it can even be almost poetic. I don’t think it’s offensive to non-geeky viewers, but by the same tack, I think in many cases, especially Stargate‘s, large swathes of it become about satisfying Stargate nerds as opposed to science nerds. That’s when it becomes a mess — because let’s face it, the only people who give a crap are probably going to find a hole in it anyway.

Two seasons of the new Doctor Who down. Both far better than I could have dreamed. Season two proved contentious in fan circles, but more acclaimed by the general public, it would seem — judging from improved ratings and audience appreciation figures.

In Britain. Yes, I’m well aware no one gives two hoots in Australia. That’s just the kind of genre-scorning boring people we are. Except for Lost of course. I still don’t get why that does so well.

Anyhow, I thought I’d share three of my favourite moments of the past season, and my three top hopes for season three. Actually, let’s say four. I’ve got too many. I’d be very interested to know other peoples’ opinions too. The best moments:

• The Doctor proves what an over-curious psychopath he really is when he lets himself drop into the darkness in The Satan Pit.
• The Doctor rides a horse through a magic window in The Girl in the Fireplace. This moment stands in representation of all the awesome moments of that story.
• Rose kills the Devil in The Satan Pit. Girls are so hot when they’re annihilating evil forces from before time began.
• Sarah and the Doctor say goodbye in School Reunion. For a sad fan like me this was fantastic.

Oh, there’s heaps more, but I should get onto hopes before this becomes too soppy.

• More of the Army of Ghosts manipulative, quiet Doctor, and less of the Idiot’s Lantern shouty, bombastic Doctor. I didn’t find the shouting as off-putting as some, but it must be said, I really don’t think the “Nothing in the World” moment worked in that story.
• A story set on Earth in a country that is not Great Britain, in a location that is not an underground bunker. We kind of had this in The Girl in the Fireplace but I want more.
• The relationship between the new companion and the Doctor to be very different to Rose’s hero-worship. I liked Rose’s “I want to be the Doctor” arc this year, but I wouldn’t like to go there again. It got just a little too mushy by the end.
• An awesome, brand-new, monster/race/evil thing.

That’ll do. The gods of television seem to be doing their best to keep me occupied with TV. Who finished the week before Stargate returned, Stargate will run until Battlestar Galactica and Torchwood start, and there’s christmas specials and more Stargate to fill in the gaps between then and season three. What an age we live in.