Warning: Spoilers for Victory of the Daleks follow.
When Steven Moffat took over the realms of Doctor Who he expressed fear that he might “break” the show. He hasn’t done that but, judging by Victory of the Daleks, he has broken the Doctor’s most formidable enemy. The Daleks have been transformed from terrifying killing machines to hunchbacked figures of fun.
There have been a lot of design changes to accompany the start of Matt Smith’s era in the Tardis and stamp Moffat’s vision on the show. On the whole I like them – I’m even one of those who likes the new theme music. But this reworking of the Daleks is a disaster. OK, Moffat probably didn’t design them personally – but he would have had to ok them. Instead of ticking the box marked “Approved” he should have ticked the box marked “Burn these abominations and never speak of this again”.
The new design is ugly, the key word being “chunky”. In the past I’ve been able to forget the operator inside – with this design you can’t avoid imagining not just the operator but a couch for him to sit on along with a TV and games console for shooting breaks! This chunkiness extends throughout the design, especially the ground skirt and central band. Perhaps a clue to the design philosophy is given by the size comparison with the old Daleks: the theory seems to be that “bigger is better”. In this case bigger is just crass.
And the colours. Oh my god, they look like something out of a sweet shop. These new Daleks would make great Christmas tree decorations. Daleks should have a palette made up from black, greys and metallic shades. Yes, there have been coloured Daleks in the past but usually in the movies or as “specials”. A rainbow assorment of Daleks strikes me as simply an excuse to sell more merchandise. Well I won’t be buying it.
And double jointed Daleks that can look round corners?!? Please tell me this is a belated April Fool joke.
What makes this destruction of the greatest Who monster even worse is that the design for the RTD era was absolutely beautiful. Seeing the last three of these in the universe exterminated by their inbred replacements was a painful experience.
Yes, these new Daleks are scary – but for all the wrong reasons.
April 18th, 2010
BBC, Doctor Who |
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Short review: Fantastic
Longer review:
there’s no denying that The Eleventh Hour was very light plotwise. But then the episode wasn’t about the story, it was about introducing the new Doctor, the new companion and the new Steven Moffat led era. In this the show succeeded superbly whilst also setting up the series five plot arc. Most importantly The Eleventh Hour gave us a feel for what Doctor Who will be like under Moffat’s leadership, and I for one liked what I saw.
Let’s start with the key question: was Matt Smith the right choice as Doctor? It’s still too early to tell, as The Doctor says himself he’s not quite done yet. But he certainly has the potential. A little too manic for my tastes perhaps but I can get used to that. The main thing is that he definitely is The Doctor, the final face-off proved that. There was that one line on the roof that sealed it for me and probably for many others as well.
Is Matt Smith the new David Tennant? Of course not, and he shouldn’t be. Will he be a great Doctor? It’s far too early to tell. Will he be a good Doctor? Yes, definitely.
The atmosphere of the story managed to combine both laugh out loud funny with pretty darned scary. And for the adults not only did we have sexily dressed Karen Gillan plus Matt Smith stripping but a number of lines that would (fortunately) have gone way over the heads of the kids (dressing up games anyone?). Given the pacing of the whole show there were probably more that I missed. I’m looking forward to watching the episode again to find them.
For old timers like myself the new arrangement of the theme tune was a delight, bringing back memories of the classic era whilst also having a contemporary feel. The vortex effect was good, although the Tardis CGI did look a little cheap. The new console room isn’t as radically different as I’d expected but will serve its purpose. Some of the “steampunk” is a bit silly – I actually had to check they weren’t using Susannah from Lancashire’s design!
Minor quibbles aside, The Eleventh Hour was thoroughly enjoyable and reassuring. I started watching with high hopes but also feeling very nervous. By the end of the episode I was extremely happy and feeling a lot more confident about the show’s future.
Roll on next week!
April 3rd, 2010
BBC, Doctor Who, News, Reviews |
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The BBC has released some information about those involved in Matt Smith’s first series of Doctor Who. As well as Smith and Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) the following have been confirmed:
James Corden, Tony Curran, Arthur Darvill, Iain Glen, Alex Kingston, Helen McCrory, Ian McNeice, Sophie Okonedo, Bill Paterson, Meera Syal, Nina Wadia
That list is in alphabetical order, no clue as to which episode each appears in.
The series writers are as follows:
Steven Moffat (ep 1, 2, 4, 5, 12, 13)
Mark Gatiss (ep 3)
Toby Whithouse (ep 6)
Simon Nye (ep 7)
Chris Chibnall (ep 8, 9)
Richard Curtis (ep 10)
Gareth Roberts (ep 11)
Six episodes from Moffat and one from Whithouse are definitely good news. I’m less convinced by the inclusion of Nye and Curtis, we’ll see.
The programmes are directed as follows:
Adam Smith (ep 1, 4, 5)
Andrew Gunn (ep 2, 3)
Jonny Campbell (ep 6, 10)
Catherine Morshead (ep 7, 11)
Ashley Way (ep 8, 9)
Toby Haynes (ep 12, 13)
It’s disappointing to see Euros Lyn missing from that list, he’s done good work for both Doctor Who and Torchwood: Children of Earth.
March 19th, 2010
BBC, Doctor Who, News |
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First off, three pieces of good news good news: The BBC has now officially confirmed the broadcast date for Matt Smith’s first Doctor Who story, The Eleventh Hour. It will, as expected, be shown on Saturday 3rd April 2010. Second piece of goodnews, it’s apparently an hour long special. According to the Beeb:
The Doctor has regenerated into a brand new man, but danger strikes before he can even recover. With the TARDIS wrecked, and the sonic screwdriver destroyed, the new Doctor has just 20 minutes to save the whole world – and only Amy Pond to help him.
That’s the third piece of good news – the sonic screwdriver destroyed. Like K9 and the psychic paper the screwdriver is a good idea frequently overused by lazy writers.
Now the bad news: As you’ll see from the graphic here the broadcast is apparently London only!
Hopefully that’s just a temporary glitch. The BBC is notoriously London centric so they might well confirm the “main” London date before the “regions”. Fingers crossed.
March 15th, 2010
BBC, Doctor Who, News |
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The BBC is about to begin broadcasting a 2D animated version of Muddle Earth. The novel, written by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell, follows the adventures of Muddle Earth’s only wizard Randalf and his apprentice Newt as they try to save the world from the evil blue teddy bear Dr Cuddles.
The new BBC animation consists of 13 eleven minute episodes and has been produced in house by CBBC, its first long form animation project. David Jason provides the voice for Randalf and the musical score is performed by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Lead writers for the adaption are Rob Sprackling and John Smith.
Sarah Muller of CBBC said:
We are thrilled to have been able to produce a world-class animated series entirely in the UK, which is testament to the extraordinary talent that we’ve been able to gather together.
CBBC has a strong commitment to support the British animation industry and I hope that Muddle Earth is just the first of many great local successes for us.
Muddle Earth begins on BBC1 this Monday, March 15th, at 3:50pm and runs weekdays until the 31st. A second series is already in production for broadcast in September this year – series two will again consist of 13 eleven minute episodes.
March 13th, 2010
BBC, News |
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