When I first heard about the new Dave Red Dwarf Special I was excited. Then I learned that it was to be written by Doug Naylor only without Rob Grant and I became worried – the last two series of the original show were extremely poor. So I approached Back To Earth with mixed feelings.
In the end it far exceeded my expectations – in a negative direction. It was much, much worse than I had thought possible.
The fault didn’t lie with the cast, @bobbyllew and the others slipped back into their characters with ease. No, the problem lay squarely with the script. It was uninspired, slow and lacking in laughs. It stank.
One of the things I really appreciated about the early series of Red Dwarf was the smart, tight plotting. In Back to Earth that was missing and with the absence of a laugh track I’m sure I could actually hear the sound of the bottom of the barrel being scraped. There was no depth and the story just plodded from one unimaginative set piece to the next. To add insult to injury the one surprise reverse was simply a lift from an earlier (much better) episode.
One nice touch was the Bladerunner stuff (although the “writing your own life” idea was nearer to Doctor Who – The Mind Robber). It was a good spoof but merely underlined the paucity of ideas in the new material. It didn’t make me want to watch more Red Dwarf, it made me want to watch Bladerunner again.
All of which I could have forgiven had it been funny. It wasn’t. True, there were a few good lines and the odd superb visual gag – the Starbug car was brilliant, as was the Bladerunner photo enhancement. However the script was in serious need of “gagging up”. That wouldn’t have been difficult, there were plenty of missed opportunities for humour. The cast did a valiant job of squeezing what laughs there were from the material they were given but it just wasn’t enough.
Back To Earth was initially intended to be a two part show but was extended to three episodes during production. Apparently Naylor couldn’t stop writing new material. He’d have done far better spending the time tightening up a two episode show. As it was the final lines of episode three were unintentionally ironic.
Still, perhaps it’s appropriate that Red Dwarf Back to Earth had three episodes. One episode for each of the letters ‘R’, ‘I’ and ‘P’.
April 13th, 2009
Reviews |
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Despite my negative review of Demons episode one I gave it another chance. Episode 2 – The Whole Enchilda by Peter Tabern – was better, but still far from good.
The pre-titles sequence was really promising, very atmospheric and nicely done. A disappearing kid and a misty graveyard are hardly original ideas but they worked.
Then the theme music began and the atmosphere was shattered.
That was pretty much the way it went. Every time the story started getting tense it was undermined by teenage soap opera and/or intrusive music.
Richard Wilson did a good job as Father Simeon, unfortunately his character – the best in the show – was mainly there to provide infoumps and plot devices. Infodumps seem to be a general problem with Demons, having the library and an all-seeing psychic must make them just too tempting.
Finally we got to the ultimate confrontation – which was a real let down. I can’t be the only one who thought “Is that it?!?” They should have cut the coda and used the extra three minutes to make the final battle something worth watching.
I come back to the word I used after the first episode: Demons is confused, it tries to do too many things at once. A writer of Joss Whedon’s calibre might be able to pull it off but Tabern’s script just ends up being a mess.
January 11th, 2009
ITV, Reviews |
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2009 may be short on new Doctor Who with only the four specials to look forward to, however there will be plenty of classic stories coming out for us to buy on DVD:
• The E-Space Trilogy
Three Tom Baker stories: Full Circle, State of Decay and the much under-rated Warriors’ Gate
• The Rescue / The Romans
Two William Hartnell stories. The Rescue is a two parter, The Romans a dull historical
• Attack of the Cybermen
A Colin Baker story that shows he could have been a great Doctor if only he was given more decent scripts like this fight against the cybermen
• Delta and the Bannermen
A stinker of a story from Sylvester McCoy’s first season. Special guest star is Ken Dodd of all people
• Image of the Fendhal
A gloriously gothic outing from the Tom Baker era
• The Deadly Assassin
A curate’s egg of a Tom Baker story that demonstrates why the Doctor needs an assistant to help with the storytelling
• Dalek War boxset: Frontier in Space / Planet of the Daleks
Frontier sees Jon Pertwee running around London’s South Bank as I remember it from my youth. Planet of the Daleks is the real prize, a classic dalek story with episode three having had its colour recovered using a new process.
• The War Games
An epic ten part Patrick Troughton story. Way too long but who cares, it’s Troughton!
January 8th, 2009
BBC, Doctor Who, Reviews |
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Well, it wasn’t quite as bad as I’d expected – but it certainly wasn’t good. Judging by the first episode, They Bite, the best word for ITV’s new show Demons is probably “confused”.
Someone clearly said “Let’s do a British version of Buffy”, which is fair enough. However they then seemed confused as to whether they wanted a serious, atmospheric supernatural story or a tongue in the cheek version. In episode one it seemed that neither the writer (Peter Tabern) nor the director (Tom Harper) knew either. The choice of theme music added to the confusion.
Mixing comedy with suspense on TV is a difficult trick. Programmes like the original Buffy and Doctor Who manage to pull it off. Demons didn’t. Probably the only person who got the balance right and emerge with any credit from this episode was Holly Grainger as Ruby.
As for Philip Glenister – oh dear. He’s a decent actor but in this he just looked embarrassed. He also limited himself to a single facial expression and tone of voice – perhaps that was because he was so busy concentrating on his dreadful American accent. More likely he was working hard to avoid yelling “Get me out of here!”
As to the other main actors, Christian Cooke as Luke and Zoe Tapper as Mina, they were competent but apparently chosen mainly to look good and appeal to those of appropriate inclinations. That might explain why Luke spent so much time without his shirt. Combined with the music this suggests a laughable attempt to appeal to the “cool teen” market.
The whole thing smacks of committee production. Instead of a single creative force it looks like the work of different people pulling in different directions. The end result does nothing very well.
Apparently this first episode attracted almost six million viewers. It’ll be interesting to see how many people bother to watch episode two.
January 5th, 2009
ITV, Reviews |
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The Next Doctor seems to have split Doctor Who fans with many being disappointed. Well, I loved it.
Warning: Spoilers follow
The Next Doctor was hardly a classic Doctor Who episode, in many ways it stank. But it was a perfect Christmas special. Warm and cuddly with all the right seasonal elements and exactly what was needed for the evening of Christmas Day.
The idea of two Doctors battling the cybermen during a Victorian Christmas was a fun one. I suspect that some people were disappointed because the “secret” behind David Morrisey’s Doctor was revealed very early and turned out to be fairly trivial. That shouldn’t really be a surprise – Russell T Davies went on record ages ago saying that he only thought of the episode’s name after David Tennant announced he was leaving the show. With hindsight the BBC probaby made a mistake in over-hyping this element of the story.
The story was hardly original or complex but was at least appropriate. Whereas the Daleks use brute force the Cybermen have always preferred to work with traitors in the enemy camp. In Miss Hartigan (played brilliantly by Dervla Kirwan) they found the perfect disaffected human whom they betray as soon as she’s no longer needed. Meanwhile we have Morrisey’s character who believes himself to be The Doctor and attempts to behave as such as far as his Victorian understanding will allow. This allowed Morrisey to ham it up something rotten and he was clearly having great fun showing how the character should not be played!
Meanwhile the reaction of Tennant’s Doctor was just right. He’s smart enough to cotton on immediately to the possibility that he’s met himself and also the implications of that. He’s curious yet also careful not to share information that could corrupt his own timeline. However he also picks up quickly on the clues that Morrisey isn’t what he seems and works out the real story.
The atmosphere was suitably Dickensian and appropriate for Christmas Day, complete with children being rounded up to a cyber-workhouse. I imagine that around the country this started many family conversations about what life for kids was really like in those days – social education by the back door.
The other thing I really liked about the episode was the pervading sense of steampunk. In particular Morrisey’s Tardis – Tethered Aerial Release Developed In Style – was superb and entirely believable as the result of a Victorian mind trying to comprehend the world of a Time Lord. Similarly the Transformer style CyberKing – which was totally unjustified in plot terms – fitted the whole Victorian steampunk idea.
Perhaps the one thing that I really disliked was the Cybershades. The idea of upgrading lower life forms to perform menial tasks and espionage makes a lot of sense. However their level of intelligence seemed to vary wildly throughout the show. I could have forgiven that if the budget had stretched to more than a man in a monkey suit wearing a mask. That really was unforgivably cheap and nasty.
That aside I really enjoyed The Next Doctor. That’s the key word – enjoyed. It wasn’t great TV, it wasn’t classic Doctor Who. It was perfect family entertainment for Christmas.
December 28th, 2008
BBC, Doctor Who, Reviews |
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