Doctor Who Series 4, Episode 5
Hey, now that was a lot more enjoyable. I don’t know if part two was actually objectively better than part one, but I did have more fun watching it.
Sylvia and the axe! It was pretty obvious how this not especially suspenseful “cliffhanger” would be resolved, but I was glad that it was Sylvia who got to break open that windshield. She may be a bit of a harridan, but she can handle a crisis!
Wilf continues to be a delightful character - it’s so great that Donna has someone in her life that supports her goals and celebrates her choice to travel with the Doctor, who understands exactly why Donna wants this so much. We’ve never seen immediate, unselfish understanding and support from a companion’s family member before, and it’s lovely. The Wilf and Donna scenes are so heartfelt, a real credit to the actors. More Bernard Cribbens please!
Donna’s portrayal was wonderful throughout - she’s just so genuine. She doesn’t know what to do, she’s terrified of facing an alien ship on her own, knocking down an alien, figuring out alien tech - Rose or Jack or Martha would have been kick-ass and awesome, but Donna was real, and I love that we felt the weight of Donna picking up the mallet and venturing off the TARDIS on her own. I loved that the Doctor talked her through it, and that she needed him - she needed his direction, his support, his belief in her even when she didn’t believe in herself. The give and take in the relationship between the Doctor and Donna is great.
I do love cunning trickster Doctor, and he was in great form this episode. The Doctor’s confrontation with the Sontarans was my favorite part of the whole story - I can’t get enough of the Doctor manipulating situations simply through verbal trickery and wordplay. Words are power for the Doctor, and he wields that power very skillfully, and is most dangerous when he seems most lax. Mace’s comparison of his own unthinking words - “he’s a troll” - with the Doctor’s very deliberate ones really called that out. The Doctor seems to be babbling away for his own amusement but he’s really two steps ahead of the rest of the pack - in that one conversation he got the TARDIS and Donna moved to a location where he could put Donna into play, got Donna ready and waiting by the phone for further instructions, and confirmed that the Sontarans were after something more than just conquering or destroying the earth, which meant he had time to figure things out. And later, the Doctor guided Donna through the Sontaran vessel through his words alone. I also loved that the Doctor picked up on Clone!Martha almost immediately and let her stay in place because it suited his needs, including finding out where Real!Martha was being held. Sigh - so brilliant.
I enjoyed seeing more of the Doctor’s rather dysfunctional relationship with UNIT play out, particularly because I got the impression that the Doctor’s automatic and somewhat over the top dislike of the military is a reflection of his loathing for his own violent and destructive capabilities, particularly post-destruction of Gallifrey. After “leading the battle in the biggest war ever”, according to the Sontarans, his hatred of war and those things associated with it, such as the military, has an almost manic edge. I think the Doctor has taken life on a large scale so many times himself that he can hardly stand to see others use large-scale violence as a solution, to the point that he gets in his own way with Mace, who I imagine would have been a lot more likely to listen to the Doctor’s dire warnings concerning the Sontarans if the Doctor had not seemed irrational regarding the military from the beginning. While I find myself much more in sympathy with the Doctor’s point of view, I did like that Mace got a chance to show that UNIT could be creative and effective in fighting the latest alien threat, and I liked that the Doctor acknowledged that with his enthusiastic “brilliant!” - and Mace calling him on his inconsistency. At the same time, I really love the Doctor’s unashamed, implacable disgust with the idea of military and/or war as a way of life - his contempt for the 50,000 years of war between the Sontarans and the Rutans, as well as his eye-rolling and switching to cartoons during the Sontaran haka, were just so Doctor, and so awesome.
Another very interesting aspect of the story for me, reflected as part and parcel of the difficult Doctor/UNIT relationship, is the somewhat difficult and vague Doctor/Earth relationship itself. The Sontarans made a point of the triumph that would be killing the Doctor and destroying his “beloved Earth” at the same time - so apparently, at least among the Doctor’s enemies, his particular affection for Earth is well-known. (Which leads me to believe these Sontarans chose Earth as a target under the impression that the Doctor was dead along with the rest of the Time Lords.) The Doctor, according to him at least, earned the right to speak for the Earth long ago - and one can’t help but wonder if that right was bestowed by the highest authority the Doctor acknowledges, i.e., himself. The Doctor was absolutely bloody determined to keep the Earth from going nuclear, even though the nuclear missiles would have been ineffective against the Sontarans - and his explanation for that to Clone!Martha, whom he has made his pawn in that effort, is that he won’t allow the Earth to become involved in an interstellar war. I think if one was an ordinary person stuck on Earth, a position the Doctor was highly annoyed to find himself in for a few moments when he discovered that the TARDIS had been taken, one would think that aliens trying to turn the Earth into a clone breeding ground would be enough of a declaration of interstellar war on its own.
And yet…I think the Doctor’s response to that would be, you ain’t seen nothing yet. The Doctor has very consistently tried to keep the Earth from taking overly aggressive action against other species, even though the other species attack first. He engineered the fall of Harriet Jones specifically because she destroyed the retreating Sycorax - not just because she committed murder but because, I think, she made the Earth appear dangerous, a possible threat. I think the Doctor is following an unswerving policy of trying to keep the Earth out of interstellar conflict, and indeed, out of formal interstellar relations altogether, because as long as the Earth is a “level five” planet, it’s receiving some form of protection under whatever interstellar law exists. Once that protection is gone…is it open season? The Doctor has declared himself Earth’s defender, but he isn’t there all the time, and I think he’s trying to keep whatever other levels of protection available (the Shadow Proclamation?) in place - whether the Earth likes it or not. Arrogant, condescending, or wise on the part of the Doctor? Considering the state of Earth, I think all three - because if one family Slitheen or one fleet of Sontarans can almost destroy the Earth except for the intervention of the Doctor, then the Earth really isn’t ready to face the rest of the cosmos yet. And when it comes down to it, I have more faith in the decisions of the guy who keeps the world from going nuclear, than those made by people who know that nuclear missiles will be ineffective - and want to fire them anyway, again and again, because they can't come up with another course of action.
Which leads to the Doctor’s decision, after burning up the poison in the atmosphere in 30 seconds (wow, nothing like some skience), to take the atmospheric converter to the Sontaran ship himself - because he has to offer them a choice. Oh, Doctor. That, that right there - that’s why he’s my hero. Because the Doctor fights to save everyone, even the bad guys, the attackers, because he gives them a chance to turn away from destruction, because he thinks nothing of giving his own life for that chance, even when he’s gotta be pretty sure they won’t take it. That’s why he’s amazing - because no one else even thinks of giving that choice, not even Martha and Donna, and the Doctor always, always does. Because he doesn’t want anyone blown out of the sky, Harriet Jones - he wants everyone to live. And the corollary of that, of course, is that the Doctor won’t let the Earth bear the burden or the consequences of killing the Sontarans - he’ll do it himself if it must be done. So when Luke takes the second chance that the Sontarans refuse and redeems himself by saving the Doctor, it doesn’t feel unearned - because we may not know much more than a character sketch of creepy immature teen genius Luke, but we do know the power of the Doctor to inspire heroism in others.
And would the Doctor have pressed the button? He certainly didn’t want to, even after it was clear that the Sontarans would not turn from their course. We know the Doctor could do it, based on Gallifrey and Pompeii and the Racnoss, and we know the Doctor couldn’t do it, based on the Game Station and the Daleks. The Doctor doesn’t know, either - his terrible choices are always terrible, and always have to be faced anew.
I find myself liking the Sontarans a lot more than the previous returning baddies - I give a lot of the credit to Christopher Ryan in the lead role. He gave a wonderful performance and made Staal into a character that I enjoyed, which is probably where the Daleks and the Cybermen always fall apart for me. Talking special effects will never beat actual performances in capturing my interest. The Sontaran visuals, from the heads to the spaceships, were just amazing - but I felt like it served the story and the characters, not that it replaced them.
Finally - call outs! How great were all the continuity references? Mention of the Sontaran/Rutan war, the Brig, the Valiant - and “Are you my mummy?” was just plain hilarious. Plus, the merest glimpse of unexpected Rose frantically calling the TARDIS - yeah, that got my attention all right.
So, all in all, a much better finish to the story than I was expecting, with unanticipated character exploration especially for the Doctor. Not a great or original story overall -- the skience doesn’t bear any examination, and while I respect the epic ambitions of the series, they can’t really pull off worldwide scope. And also, with all due respect to the hard work involved, battle scenes are just boring (and even more boring when explained on the Confidential). But parts of the story elevated the whole for me much more than I expected. Even Martha was inoffensive once she showed up 30 minutes in - I really felt that she cared for the Doctor as a friend when she hugged his arm upon his return from the Sontaran ship, which was nice.
And as for next week - well. It looks like it’ll be one of those love ‘em or hate ‘em episodes. I am of course very intrigued by the premise, although I wonder at the way RTD et al apparently have no interest in keeping this any kind of secret to anyone who’s seen the previous episode. Wouldn’t it have been more fun if the audience was genuinely surprised? And I’m kind of getting bad Buffy flashbacks from what we’ve seen of the smirky blonde super-gymnast. Plus, written by the guy who wrote The Lazarus Experiment? Yikes to the max - aside from the Dalek episode, TLE was my least favorite of series 3. Definitely some trepidation for this one. But, come on. It’s all about the Doctor, and DT should give an amazing performance. So fingers crossed…