The Shakespeare Code - Doctor Who Series Three (massive spoilers, obv.)
Well, it was all a bit stolen from Harry Potter, wasn't it?
I'm not sure what I thought of that.
This is incredibly long and pointless. Don't say I didn't warn you.
I definitely liked it better than last week's, and I think overall I really did enjoy watching it, but it had some massive problems.
Right, straight to it - Freema's acting. There were moments when I thought, "Ah, she's almost got it!"...but they were few and far between. The woman just cannot hack it. It wouldn't matter if she was playing Martha as a bit of a silly, over-excited, over-gesturing, high-pitched woman - because then I'd get caught up in her excitement. But it's so obvious, from interviews and the Confidentials and such like, that there's no real character/actor distinction between excited Freema and Martha in general, and that bugs me. She's supposed to be acting.
That said, I loved the, "What did I do wrong? Was it the finger?" moment, but anyone can get lucky. One good line does not a good actor make. That bed scene, though...now that she did well. If only she could do the rest of it!
The thing is, though, that without a competant and brilliant performer/character to act against, Tennant's Doctor is just too eccentric. I love the eccentricity, don't get me wrong, but he needs someone to balance him out, and Martha - whether through acting or writing, I'm not sure - just doesn't fit the bill. This is why, I think, I'm only really enjoying his scenes with the aliens and monsters, because they just work great together, and why I can't as readily accept her as easily as some people have.
Martha wasn't the main problem this week, though. I can live with her. I'm getting used to it. I even quite like her - she gets some good lines. I honestly think that, with Freema acting a different character - she definitely did Adeola better than she does Martha - or with Martha played by someone else, she could have been brilliant, but the two together just don't gel. Perhaps if she could switch off her over-excitedness...I'm still hoping she'll settle into it.
Some of the other acting was positively painful - from Shakespeare and two of those actors in the theatre (when one of the witches appears) in particular. It was all so bland (that scene where he talks about his dead son in Bedlam, and Martha's like, "I'm sorry, I didn't know"? Well. There's brusque and brushing it off and then there's...nothing. And that was definitely a nothing). I didn't fall in love with Shakespeare like I fell in love with Dickens - which really says something, because I already loved Shakespeare and despised Dickens within the real world. Shakespeare had a head start, and he lost it, something which I think further proves my thoughts about Ten needing someone to balance him out - against the wonderful Christina Cole, he was perfect. I couldn't fault either of them. Against Shakespeare, though, someone they were trying to portray as his equal...none of it really cut it for me. David's acting isn't at fault, it's just the way that the character dynamics work - i.e., against big characters who can't act, they don't.
It's a shame, really, because some of Shakespeare's moments were so close to being great, and some of the lines could have been so much better if only Dean Lennox Kelly had acted it better! Or, perhaps, if he'd been directed differently, though to be honest I had no problem with this approach to Shakespeare. I really enjoyed it. I just would have liked some better line-deliverance (and it really was just the speech. His facial expressions and physical presence were great). He pretty much got into the swing of it by the end, but...bleh. It was too late by then, for me, to make up for it.
The thing that really annoyed me was the way that the writer couldn't quite decide whether to believe in magic or not, whether to make this all a bit supernatural or scientific, and then being so adamant that magic doesn't exist before...uh, casting spells and thinking that having characters say, "it's science!" makes that OK. It left the whole thing a little too surreal, and I found it hard to suspend disbelief (those witches with the awful prosthetics and horrible pigeon voices didn't help, nor did the poor opening). If they'd said, "Oh, it's not really magic, it can all be explained" and then explained it, I would've been happy, just like I would've been if they said, "It's magic!" and stuck to it. As it was, it seemed a bit plot-holey and loose and indecisive.
And expelliarmus? As Martha would say - are you kidding me?
Sure, the kids probably got a hell of a kick out of it, but sometimes the people making this show need to remember that we're not all five years old. It was a nice idea, and perhaps it could have worked, but with all that stuff about amazing, powerful, ancient words...
I don't know. Perhaps this is all part of that ironic Doctor Who humour that I just don't get. It just seemed so out-of-place after all the denial of magic and insistence that everything was science.
--
Oosh, that was cynical! OK. Onto what I liked -
The Globe! Squee! 'Nuff said.
All those little references to Shakespeare's lines were great, and I love that they researched it so carefully, slotting it all into the right timelines to allow room for both Shakespeare and the Doctor to come up with lines. The thing about the Sycorax skull cracked me up; I've just finished studying The Tempest, and of course the witch in that is called Sycorax. Also, I adore the suggestion that Shakespeare can't come up with anything of his own, because it's so, so true! He had a way with words, alright, but practically every single play he's ever written was based in a true, historical event or another play written before his time. That was so cleverely and subtley implied by all these lines he picked up from the Doctor in this episode, without ever discrediting Shakespeare or making an idiot out of him, and that was brilliant. I love subtlety.
"Ugh. Fifty-seven academics just punched the air." - BWAHAHA.
Christina Cole (Lillith). OMG. She was AMAZING. I mean, I'm probably biased because I already loved her in Jane Eyre, but she was a perfect mix of innocence and beauty and pure, pure evil. She judged it just right, too - this wasn't circus pantomime evil, like her "mothers" were (ugh, don't get me started). She got every single thing perfect. Please, please, please bring her back! I haven't liked a minor-major character (uh...I know what I mean) as much as her since Tommy from TIL. And her scene opposite DT just blew me away. Both of them were so brilliant in that - him not reacting at all despite the fact that she's seconds away from kissing him, and her not at all rebuffed or bothered by that.
My own mother commented that they'd probably bring her back as an assistant next series, before realising that a) she had a big part and b) she's not a Londoner. She also added, "if she was an audience member who clapped particularly impressively, then she'd've guaranteed herself a role as the next companion" - she's still rather embittered over the way Freema was cast :P
This different approach to Shakespeare amused me no end, and I like that they bigged up his genius as well as making him an arrogant sod. It's not how I imagined Shakespeare, but then again I always love it when something's different to how I imagined and I can still enjoy it. *sighs* Like I said earlier, I just wish he'd delivered some of his lines better.
The Doctor totally got pwned by...uh, a witch and a playwright. And he got his hair stolen and was really emo about it. *falls about* Tennant's on top form, as ever.
"The Doctor may never kiss you..." - Amen to that. Please. Uh....I mean...add an "again" to it, and THEN amen.
The bed scene. Just. Ha.
Martha: Blah blah flirt.
Doctor: Blah blah emo stare at ceiling blah blah Rose.
Martha: ...Fine! *grumps and rolls over*
I was so worried about this scene and it turned out so well that I literally danced around the room and sent my dog quivering into the corner. Thank God I was alone in the house until my mother showed up in the middle of the second Rose mention...
Talking of which. Aww. Cheese! I loves it! The way Lillith hesitated just before delivering the line, pausing just before "Rose" so that we know she's going to say it but can't quite dare to believe it. And his response! Oh, every scene these two were in blew me away, with or without Rose mentions. I'm so happy she's not been forgotten, though. I was prepared to bet my last Easter egg that last week's "we were together" would be the last mention of her until Jack came back. This just added squee and melt to the general brilliance of Christina and David.
So. I think you can tell from how much I've written that I'm still pretty enamoured by the show. I can pick faults in it and still enjoy it, I guess. What worries me, though, is that I forgot it was even on until five minutes before, when a friend text me to remind me, and I used to spend the whole day spazzing about it beforehand. My favourite bits are the Rose mentions, always. *sighs* Poor Martha. Ah well, at least I don't hate her like I thought I would.
This, again, didn't grip me - it got me more than last week, but I still quite happily wandered off towards the end to get myself a drink and chat to my mother, without straining to hear what was going on, and that's something I would never have done last year. But, overall, it was fun to watch and a good way to pass 45 minutes. If they get better by this much every week (oh, this was full of plot holes, but I could ignore those this time around. Yay! Let's pretend that's probably NOT because I was too busy focussing on the dodgy acting...), then I'll be loving it as much as ever by the finale.
I'm not sure what I thought of that.
This is incredibly long and pointless. Don't say I didn't warn you.
I definitely liked it better than last week's, and I think overall I really did enjoy watching it, but it had some massive problems.
Right, straight to it - Freema's acting. There were moments when I thought, "Ah, she's almost got it!"...but they were few and far between. The woman just cannot hack it. It wouldn't matter if she was playing Martha as a bit of a silly, over-excited, over-gesturing, high-pitched woman - because then I'd get caught up in her excitement. But it's so obvious, from interviews and the Confidentials and such like, that there's no real character/actor distinction between excited Freema and Martha in general, and that bugs me. She's supposed to be acting.
That said, I loved the, "What did I do wrong? Was it the finger?" moment, but anyone can get lucky. One good line does not a good actor make. That bed scene, though...now that she did well. If only she could do the rest of it!
The thing is, though, that without a competant and brilliant performer/character to act against, Tennant's Doctor is just too eccentric. I love the eccentricity, don't get me wrong, but he needs someone to balance him out, and Martha - whether through acting or writing, I'm not sure - just doesn't fit the bill. This is why, I think, I'm only really enjoying his scenes with the aliens and monsters, because they just work great together, and why I can't as readily accept her as easily as some people have.
Martha wasn't the main problem this week, though. I can live with her. I'm getting used to it. I even quite like her - she gets some good lines. I honestly think that, with Freema acting a different character - she definitely did Adeola better than she does Martha - or with Martha played by someone else, she could have been brilliant, but the two together just don't gel. Perhaps if she could switch off her over-excitedness...I'm still hoping she'll settle into it.
Some of the other acting was positively painful - from Shakespeare and two of those actors in the theatre (when one of the witches appears) in particular. It was all so bland (that scene where he talks about his dead son in Bedlam, and Martha's like, "I'm sorry, I didn't know"? Well. There's brusque and brushing it off and then there's...nothing. And that was definitely a nothing). I didn't fall in love with Shakespeare like I fell in love with Dickens - which really says something, because I already loved Shakespeare and despised Dickens within the real world. Shakespeare had a head start, and he lost it, something which I think further proves my thoughts about Ten needing someone to balance him out - against the wonderful Christina Cole, he was perfect. I couldn't fault either of them. Against Shakespeare, though, someone they were trying to portray as his equal...none of it really cut it for me. David's acting isn't at fault, it's just the way that the character dynamics work - i.e., against big characters who can't act, they don't.
It's a shame, really, because some of Shakespeare's moments were so close to being great, and some of the lines could have been so much better if only Dean Lennox Kelly had acted it better! Or, perhaps, if he'd been directed differently, though to be honest I had no problem with this approach to Shakespeare. I really enjoyed it. I just would have liked some better line-deliverance (and it really was just the speech. His facial expressions and physical presence were great). He pretty much got into the swing of it by the end, but...bleh. It was too late by then, for me, to make up for it.
The thing that really annoyed me was the way that the writer couldn't quite decide whether to believe in magic or not, whether to make this all a bit supernatural or scientific, and then being so adamant that magic doesn't exist before...uh, casting spells and thinking that having characters say, "it's science!" makes that OK. It left the whole thing a little too surreal, and I found it hard to suspend disbelief (those witches with the awful prosthetics and horrible pigeon voices didn't help, nor did the poor opening). If they'd said, "Oh, it's not really magic, it can all be explained" and then explained it, I would've been happy, just like I would've been if they said, "It's magic!" and stuck to it. As it was, it seemed a bit plot-holey and loose and indecisive.
And expelliarmus? As Martha would say - are you kidding me?
Sure, the kids probably got a hell of a kick out of it, but sometimes the people making this show need to remember that we're not all five years old. It was a nice idea, and perhaps it could have worked, but with all that stuff about amazing, powerful, ancient words...
I don't know. Perhaps this is all part of that ironic Doctor Who humour that I just don't get. It just seemed so out-of-place after all the denial of magic and insistence that everything was science.
--
Oosh, that was cynical! OK. Onto what I liked -
The Globe! Squee! 'Nuff said.
All those little references to Shakespeare's lines were great, and I love that they researched it so carefully, slotting it all into the right timelines to allow room for both Shakespeare and the Doctor to come up with lines. The thing about the Sycorax skull cracked me up; I've just finished studying The Tempest, and of course the witch in that is called Sycorax. Also, I adore the suggestion that Shakespeare can't come up with anything of his own, because it's so, so true! He had a way with words, alright, but practically every single play he's ever written was based in a true, historical event or another play written before his time. That was so cleverely and subtley implied by all these lines he picked up from the Doctor in this episode, without ever discrediting Shakespeare or making an idiot out of him, and that was brilliant. I love subtlety.
"Ugh. Fifty-seven academics just punched the air." - BWAHAHA.
Christina Cole (Lillith). OMG. She was AMAZING. I mean, I'm probably biased because I already loved her in Jane Eyre, but she was a perfect mix of innocence and beauty and pure, pure evil. She judged it just right, too - this wasn't circus pantomime evil, like her "mothers" were (ugh, don't get me started). She got every single thing perfect. Please, please, please bring her back! I haven't liked a minor-major character (uh...I know what I mean) as much as her since Tommy from TIL. And her scene opposite DT just blew me away. Both of them were so brilliant in that - him not reacting at all despite the fact that she's seconds away from kissing him, and her not at all rebuffed or bothered by that.
My own mother commented that they'd probably bring her back as an assistant next series, before realising that a) she had a big part and b) she's not a Londoner. She also added, "if she was an audience member who clapped particularly impressively, then she'd've guaranteed herself a role as the next companion" - she's still rather embittered over the way Freema was cast :P
This different approach to Shakespeare amused me no end, and I like that they bigged up his genius as well as making him an arrogant sod. It's not how I imagined Shakespeare, but then again I always love it when something's different to how I imagined and I can still enjoy it. *sighs* Like I said earlier, I just wish he'd delivered some of his lines better.
The Doctor totally got pwned by...uh, a witch and a playwright. And he got his hair stolen and was really emo about it. *falls about* Tennant's on top form, as ever.
"The Doctor may never kiss you..." - Amen to that. Please. Uh....I mean...add an "again" to it, and THEN amen.
The bed scene. Just. Ha.
Martha: Blah blah flirt.
Doctor: Blah blah emo stare at ceiling blah blah Rose.
Martha: ...Fine! *grumps and rolls over*
I was so worried about this scene and it turned out so well that I literally danced around the room and sent my dog quivering into the corner. Thank God I was alone in the house until my mother showed up in the middle of the second Rose mention...
Talking of which. Aww. Cheese! I loves it! The way Lillith hesitated just before delivering the line, pausing just before "Rose" so that we know she's going to say it but can't quite dare to believe it. And his response! Oh, every scene these two were in blew me away, with or without Rose mentions. I'm so happy she's not been forgotten, though. I was prepared to bet my last Easter egg that last week's "we were together" would be the last mention of her until Jack came back. This just added squee and melt to the general brilliance of Christina and David.
So. I think you can tell from how much I've written that I'm still pretty enamoured by the show. I can pick faults in it and still enjoy it, I guess. What worries me, though, is that I forgot it was even on until five minutes before, when a friend text me to remind me, and I used to spend the whole day spazzing about it beforehand. My favourite bits are the Rose mentions, always. *sighs* Poor Martha. Ah well, at least I don't hate her like I thought I would.
This, again, didn't grip me - it got me more than last week, but I still quite happily wandered off towards the end to get myself a drink and chat to my mother, without straining to hear what was going on, and that's something I would never have done last year. But, overall, it was fun to watch and a good way to pass 45 minutes. If they get better by this much every week (oh, this was full of plot holes, but I could ignore those this time around. Yay! Let's pretend that's probably NOT because I was too busy focussing on the dodgy acting...), then I'll be loving it as much as ever by the finale.