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jjporLook, it was the only pun I could think of, okay?
Is it just me, or did Matt Smith's "impressions" of Nine and Ten respectively sound like nothing so much as Kryten's "Spare Head 3" from Red Dwarf...and Russell Brand?
Or possibly in the case of "Ten" a bit like the impression Phil Cornwell used to do of Mick Jagger in the comedy series "Stella Street"?
Nah, that's unfair. I thought the boy Smith gave a good turn in this week's one, alternating between Eleven and the Cyberplanner (do we use hyphens when writing down cyberterms like that? They're one of the things I like most about Cybermen - they remind me of Bat Shark Repellent and Powerful Gestapo Telescopes). I say, that Cyberplanner was a bit...emotional, wasn't s/he/it? Just like every other Cyberthing with a speaking part since at least Earthshock, then. ;D
See, if it was me, and I was writing something intended to "make the Cybermen scary again" or whatever the pre-publicity was babbling about, I'd probably go the opposite way. "Real" Cybermen are near-lifeless, relentless, characterless husks, right? Techno-monstrosities made out of human corpses, tinfoil and vacuum cleaner hoses? To be honest, the best ever take on the Cybermen that goes down that sort of path is probably the Borg in Star Trek, so that (star)ship has sailed. I suppose an alternative if you're aiming for that sort of approach would be Cybermen considered as a sort of technological zombie apocalypse, if zombie apocalypses hadn't become such a played-out cliché in the past few years. And if the sort of body-horror that would make such an approach really work wasn't exactly the sort of thing you'd get away with on BBC1 at 7pm.
Thing is, this story didn't go down that sort of grim path. Which shows how much I know. Not that it didn't flirt with the idea of Cyberconversion as a communicable disease. I think the thing is this - unless you're making a Troughton base under siege type thing (and we already had one of those a few weeks ago), then the Cybers sort of need a frontman to represent them in the story. Even if it's only good old David Banks playing the campest most would-be macho emotionless cyborg you're ever likely to encounter. This is the harsh reality that people like me who think the Borg sold out when they got themselves a monarchy really have to confront. Emotionless, characterless interchangeable cyborgs aren't really very interesting characters in and of themselves. Look at the Borg - even before their Queen showed up they needed CyberPicard to act as their mouthpiece to really give the story a bit of a kick. The RTD-era Cybermen in their initial outing got Trigger out of Only Fools and Horses impersonating Davros with about the same fidelity with which Matt Smith impersonates Christopher Eccleston. And then they got Dervla Kirwan, who represented a considerable improvement even if she and David Morrissey not-quite playing Six were the only things I liked about that particular Xmas special.
All of which, in its off-topic slightly stream-of-consciousness sort of way is to say that a bit like a certain Mr Gaiman's previous script for Who, the revered (round our way, anyway) "The Doctor's Wife", this took me by surprise. It did a lot of things I wouldn't have expected going in, and it kind of made me like them. Some extremely whimsical elements, but done in such a way that I found myself buying into them almost in spite of myself. I think I need to watch it again to decide exactly how much I liked it, but I was pretty well carried along by it while I was watching, which is surely a good thing, right?
Here's one thing - the kids. I didn't think I was going to like a "kiddified" episode of NuWho, but surprisingly they worked quite well, in a snotty teenager sort of way in the case of Angie in particular. It was almost like the story was throwing it in the faces of those fans who don't like to think that they're watching a "kids' programme". Yes, fanboys/girls, here's your "proper scary Cybermen story", except it's got all of these off-the-wall surreal elements and it's for kids, really. You know, like proper Doctor Who. You have to admire that sort of approach whether or not you fully agree with it.
And to be honest, the Cybermen emerging from their tombs and covering the landscape in their millions, the unstoppable march and the hapless soldiers failing to stop it, plus all of the detachable body-parts and cyberbugs creeping up arms and so on. Some of that stuff was properly tense, if not "scary", exactly.
And that Cybersuperspeed sequence was pretty cool, if somewhat Matrix-esque.
Liked some of the very light-touch world building, with the Imperium and the Cyberwars and the destruction of planets and galaxies sketched in with just enough detail to make them credible. "I feel sorry for whoever had to press the button", indeed.
Good guest cast. That bloke out of Being Human (I only watched the pilot episode of Being Human and never bothered with the actual series because I liked the actors in the pilot and for the series they recast everyone who wasn't Russell Tovey. With hindsight this may have been a mistake on my part), he was good. Tamsin Outhwaite - I remember when she was in Eastenders (I think - one of the soaps). She was good. And come to think of it, the sudden mid-sentence deaths were a bit nasty, weren't they? They gave a bit of an edge to the proceedings. That one soldier didn't half look like James Corden, didn't he? But he wasn't.
As said above, the boy Smith was as reliable as ever, even if funny voices aren't his strong suit. He did well flip-flopping between Eleven and CyberEleven. Clara got a bit more to do this episode, and Jenna-Louise Coleman continues to play her excellently. Wasn't sure about the line about doing what the Doctor says, though - he's not exactly her boss, is he? And finally, but definitely not least, Warwick Davis was great, wasn't he? I've liked him ever since I saw him in the not-much-liked 80s fantasy film Willow, which I think is sorely underrated before you ask. It has Jean Marsh in it as well, playing pretty much the same character she did in "Battlefield". Fantastic stuff. But he was great in this - really sold the world-weariness and war-weariness of his character, even if I realised he had to be the missing Emperor quite early on in the story. Clara really, really should have taken him up on his proposal, though - she'll be regretting that come next week's story, methinks.
Speaking of obvious things - the Eleven/Clara romantic moment was such an obvious fake-out when seen in context that I couldn't help but chuckle at the poor shippers being so excited by the rumour of it last night. Very sorry, Eleven/Clara shippers - I'm a bad person sometimes. :)
But having said that, it was definitely hinted that the Cyberplanner was only tapping into something Eleven thinks even if he doesn't say it out loud. I'm not sure what to think of that or Eleven's closing remarks re Clara's skirt etc. Romantic Doctor/companion feelings in NuWho are a bit old hat by now, aren't they?
Very much liked the idea of Eleven suckering the Cyberplanner in with his blatant lie about being able to win the chess match in three moves. Fenric could have told s/he/it that the Doctor always cheats at chess...
And my favourite exchange: "It's a real castle?" "Yes, but comical." Oh, and the bit about Clara signing for the destroyed superweapon detonator. That made me laugh.
So yeah, another solid entry from Gaiman, and I suspect probably a grower on subsequent rewatches. I honestly don't know if it's on the same instant-classic level as The Doctor's Wife, though. Although, as is typical with me, my opinion on this could well have changed in six months' or a year's time.
Next Week! Again with the "Doctor who?!", Moffat?? Really???
My crazy theory for the season finale (and note the trailer didn't show a certain returning character who I've been led to believe is definitely in it - is it meant to be a surprise or something?) - Trenzalore is Gallifrey, or what's left of it in this post-Time War universe, anyway. That's almost certainly going to turn out to be a wrong guess, isn't it? ;D
Is it just me, or did Matt Smith's "impressions" of Nine and Ten respectively sound like nothing so much as Kryten's "Spare Head 3" from Red Dwarf...and Russell Brand?
Or possibly in the case of "Ten" a bit like the impression Phil Cornwell used to do of Mick Jagger in the comedy series "Stella Street"?
Nah, that's unfair. I thought the boy Smith gave a good turn in this week's one, alternating between Eleven and the Cyberplanner (do we use hyphens when writing down cyberterms like that? They're one of the things I like most about Cybermen - they remind me of Bat Shark Repellent and Powerful Gestapo Telescopes). I say, that Cyberplanner was a bit...emotional, wasn't s/he/it? Just like every other Cyberthing with a speaking part since at least Earthshock, then. ;D
See, if it was me, and I was writing something intended to "make the Cybermen scary again" or whatever the pre-publicity was babbling about, I'd probably go the opposite way. "Real" Cybermen are near-lifeless, relentless, characterless husks, right? Techno-monstrosities made out of human corpses, tinfoil and vacuum cleaner hoses? To be honest, the best ever take on the Cybermen that goes down that sort of path is probably the Borg in Star Trek, so that (star)ship has sailed. I suppose an alternative if you're aiming for that sort of approach would be Cybermen considered as a sort of technological zombie apocalypse, if zombie apocalypses hadn't become such a played-out cliché in the past few years. And if the sort of body-horror that would make such an approach really work wasn't exactly the sort of thing you'd get away with on BBC1 at 7pm.
Thing is, this story didn't go down that sort of grim path. Which shows how much I know. Not that it didn't flirt with the idea of Cyberconversion as a communicable disease. I think the thing is this - unless you're making a Troughton base under siege type thing (and we already had one of those a few weeks ago), then the Cybers sort of need a frontman to represent them in the story. Even if it's only good old David Banks playing the campest most would-be macho emotionless cyborg you're ever likely to encounter. This is the harsh reality that people like me who think the Borg sold out when they got themselves a monarchy really have to confront. Emotionless, characterless interchangeable cyborgs aren't really very interesting characters in and of themselves. Look at the Borg - even before their Queen showed up they needed CyberPicard to act as their mouthpiece to really give the story a bit of a kick. The RTD-era Cybermen in their initial outing got Trigger out of Only Fools and Horses impersonating Davros with about the same fidelity with which Matt Smith impersonates Christopher Eccleston. And then they got Dervla Kirwan, who represented a considerable improvement even if she and David Morrissey not-quite playing Six were the only things I liked about that particular Xmas special.
All of which, in its off-topic slightly stream-of-consciousness sort of way is to say that a bit like a certain Mr Gaiman's previous script for Who, the revered (round our way, anyway) "The Doctor's Wife", this took me by surprise. It did a lot of things I wouldn't have expected going in, and it kind of made me like them. Some extremely whimsical elements, but done in such a way that I found myself buying into them almost in spite of myself. I think I need to watch it again to decide exactly how much I liked it, but I was pretty well carried along by it while I was watching, which is surely a good thing, right?
Here's one thing - the kids. I didn't think I was going to like a "kiddified" episode of NuWho, but surprisingly they worked quite well, in a snotty teenager sort of way in the case of Angie in particular. It was almost like the story was throwing it in the faces of those fans who don't like to think that they're watching a "kids' programme". Yes, fanboys/girls, here's your "proper scary Cybermen story", except it's got all of these off-the-wall surreal elements and it's for kids, really. You know, like proper Doctor Who. You have to admire that sort of approach whether or not you fully agree with it.
And to be honest, the Cybermen emerging from their tombs and covering the landscape in their millions, the unstoppable march and the hapless soldiers failing to stop it, plus all of the detachable body-parts and cyberbugs creeping up arms and so on. Some of that stuff was properly tense, if not "scary", exactly.
And that Cybersuperspeed sequence was pretty cool, if somewhat Matrix-esque.
Liked some of the very light-touch world building, with the Imperium and the Cyberwars and the destruction of planets and galaxies sketched in with just enough detail to make them credible. "I feel sorry for whoever had to press the button", indeed.
Good guest cast. That bloke out of Being Human (I only watched the pilot episode of Being Human and never bothered with the actual series because I liked the actors in the pilot and for the series they recast everyone who wasn't Russell Tovey. With hindsight this may have been a mistake on my part), he was good. Tamsin Outhwaite - I remember when she was in Eastenders (I think - one of the soaps). She was good. And come to think of it, the sudden mid-sentence deaths were a bit nasty, weren't they? They gave a bit of an edge to the proceedings. That one soldier didn't half look like James Corden, didn't he? But he wasn't.
As said above, the boy Smith was as reliable as ever, even if funny voices aren't his strong suit. He did well flip-flopping between Eleven and CyberEleven. Clara got a bit more to do this episode, and Jenna-Louise Coleman continues to play her excellently. Wasn't sure about the line about doing what the Doctor says, though - he's not exactly her boss, is he? And finally, but definitely not least, Warwick Davis was great, wasn't he? I've liked him ever since I saw him in the not-much-liked 80s fantasy film Willow, which I think is sorely underrated before you ask. It has Jean Marsh in it as well, playing pretty much the same character she did in "Battlefield". Fantastic stuff. But he was great in this - really sold the world-weariness and war-weariness of his character, even if I realised he had to be the missing Emperor quite early on in the story. Clara really, really should have taken him up on his proposal, though - she'll be regretting that come next week's story, methinks.
Speaking of obvious things - the Eleven/Clara romantic moment was such an obvious fake-out when seen in context that I couldn't help but chuckle at the poor shippers being so excited by the rumour of it last night. Very sorry, Eleven/Clara shippers - I'm a bad person sometimes. :)
But having said that, it was definitely hinted that the Cyberplanner was only tapping into something Eleven thinks even if he doesn't say it out loud. I'm not sure what to think of that or Eleven's closing remarks re Clara's skirt etc. Romantic Doctor/companion feelings in NuWho are a bit old hat by now, aren't they?
Very much liked the idea of Eleven suckering the Cyberplanner in with his blatant lie about being able to win the chess match in three moves. Fenric could have told s/he/it that the Doctor always cheats at chess...
And my favourite exchange: "It's a real castle?" "Yes, but comical." Oh, and the bit about Clara signing for the destroyed superweapon detonator. That made me laugh.
So yeah, another solid entry from Gaiman, and I suspect probably a grower on subsequent rewatches. I honestly don't know if it's on the same instant-classic level as The Doctor's Wife, though. Although, as is typical with me, my opinion on this could well have changed in six months' or a year's time.
Next Week! Again with the "Doctor who?!", Moffat?? Really???
My crazy theory for the season finale (and note the trailer didn't show a certain returning character who I've been led to believe is definitely in it - is it meant to be a surprise or something?) - Trenzalore is Gallifrey, or what's left of it in this post-Time War universe, anyway. That's almost certainly going to turn out to be a wrong guess, isn't it? ;D
