my review of The Next Doctor
Before everything in the fandom goes pear-shaped after tomorrow's big announcement, I just wanted to say a few words about The Next Doctor.
There are spoilers below the cut, if one hasn't seen it yet.
On first watching, I loved it. In many ways, this might be my fave of the Christmas specials, although, unlike many, I really liked VotD (even if how the villain was disposed of--yes, that is a pun, sorta yeah--was a little cheesy). However, if one includes all episodes in New!Who set at Christmas time, my vote will go to The Unquiet Dead every time. I mean, Dickens, real snow, an almost telling of "A Christmas Carol", the wonderful character of Gwendolyn (beautifully realized), very scary monster villains, fantastic costumes (except that Rose was dressed more like a lady of the evening, and not a proper lady), Nine fanboying Charlie, and Dickens' reaction to the TARDIS at the end. Just lovely stuff. Great writing and all that jazz. :)
But back to The Next Doctor. I loved the ambiance. The feel of the mid-Victorian period came alive in the costuming, the sets, and the characters themselves. The steampunk look of the Cybershades' masks and the machinery the children were working amongst was just fantastic, as was the look of the Cyberking robot itself.
And I really loved the pre-title sequence, esp. Ten's walk through the square, just taking in all the wonder that is a Victorian Christmas. The joy on his face was palatable, and his delight as he turned round and round could be felt by everyone. :)
Jackson Lake and Rosita were wonderful heroes, and Miss Hartigan was a believable villainess, a woman struggling to survive in a male-dominated society. As much as I like the Victorian era, it was a time of set-backs, and finally some advances. Writers like Dickens and Anna Sewell helped, with both people and animals' welfare, by calling attention to their plights. (Even thought it was a cruel practice, I was pleased to see a little detail of the period in TND with the carriage horses' harness: at that time, carriage horses, esp. those belonging to the upper class, wore a piece called the checkrein that would keep their necks bent in the lovely curve of the stallion's arch. However, this would not allow them to put their heads down to really be able to pull well. The novel Black Beauty called attention to this and also the over-use of blinkers and other cruel practices.)
The Cybermen (or Cybusmen, as I like to call them, since these aren't the Mondas-Telos Cybermen from Classic!Who) were very scary coming out of the snow, and seemingly blending in with the snow and the gray of the tombstones. Shooting the scene in a real cemetery gave it an amazing quality that could have never been realized in an indoor set or with SFX. The shot from above was quite impressive, and showed the fear and confusion of the mourners. Btw, women were not socially accepted at funerals in this period or the Regency era just before it. And the funeral cortege itself, the black horses all in their funeral trapping, I found very elegant. I've always been impressed by British funeral customs of the 19th century, ever since I saw as a child a lovely little Victorian-era-set film farce titled The Wrong Box. Even seen on TV, chopped up with commercials, the funeral scenes had a great effect on me. (Goth before anyone knew what goth was! And no, my mother wouldn't buy me black anything.)
Mercy's red dress when she attended the funeral was thus even more shocking. It was not a colour that a respectable lady would wear, either. Echoes of The Scarlet Letter, perhaps? But the dress itself and her hairstyle seemed to be in period.
Rosita's garb, on the other hand, was not. Most everyone that I know as a costumer took issues with Rosita's outfit once it was revealed that Jackson Lake was not a Time Lord, and could not thus have picked Rosita up in the, say, 1700's. I wore garb like this whilst in the SCA back in the day, and this is very much Italian Renaissance to English Caviler style. So Rosita's outfit was definitely not period, unless she was a member of one of those Victorian re-enactment groups. (Oh, yes, some of the Victorians were mad for King Arthur and the like, and had organization similar to the modern re-enactment groups like the SCA.)
As for the writing, it was pretty much lovely, with plenty of quiet character-building moments interspersed amongst the action scenes. And not much spectacle until the end--thanks for holding off, Russell. DM and DT had excellent chemistry, in fact so much so, that Rosita became almost superfluous in the latter part of the story. A pity, that. But, truly, it seems that many of the best DW stories are, to coin a phrase, better with just two, the Doctor and his companion. :)
All the actors turned in beautiful work. :) As always, I'm impressed by the guys in the Cybermen suits, how they work together to co-ordinate their movements, and just suffering inside all that!
At least the cute kids acted scared, and ran okay out of the machinery when told to. (I'm reminded of the scenes in School Reunion, where the teens were laughing and joking and not acting scared at all, and didn't run fast enough--that was just poorly filmed and acted.)
The sets truly evoked the Victorian era, and the paper snow looked rather real. :) I do wish that we could have seen and heard more of the carolers, and the little lad that the Doctor, in truly Scrooge-like fashion, asks the day of. :) And a bit more emphasis on Christmas customs, too. But as their customs are the ones that were passed down to us, in the matter of celebrating Christmas, perhaps that wasn't needful after all, well, not to the plot.
Like the Classic!Who fangirl that I am, I was rather pleased to see all the Doctors in that brief projected sequence, although they could have done better with My Doctor, the Third Doctor, of course.
The parting scene, where Jackson Lake asks the Doctor about the bright and shining companions, well, that broke my heart, too. Poor Doctor. *hugs him, but doesn't offer to be a companion--doesn't like adventure*
On second watch, some things began to bug me that really hadn't before. Typical, with Russell's writing. When he's on, he's spot on, and when he's bad, he's like the little girl in the nursery rhyme.
Rosita's garb and lack of much to do once she chopped the rope was more obvious. Her being told to go back to the TARDIS every time things got exciting not only bothered her, but this viewer as well.
Neither Mercy or Rosita wearing a cape or cloak when outside! London at Christmas would still be cold. And snow at Christmas? In the southern part of England, this is a rare occurrence. At least the men wore their coats once in a while. Btw, some might have objected to Jackson Lake's colourful garb, but the Victorians wore more colours than has been commonly thought.
What was the point of the Cybershades? Their masks looked cool, but their coats looked something from a Puli (dog with a corded coat that is natural), and really didn't look natural at all, more like walking shag carpets. And except for the throwaway line from Ten about them as one is climbing up that building in the pre-titles bit, we never get any more info. Mostly pointless, yes.
The Cyberking robot itself. Really, I couldn't help but think of a cross between a Transformer and The Iron Giant animated film. :) And how did something that tall hide in the Thames? Yes, it's a deep, dark, fast-moving river, but still--one of the folks at the NYE party that I always attend suggested that it was crouched down. Okay, I can buy that. But what about the displacement of the water? And no real nasty waves that I could see when it stood up. The banks of the river and the docks should have flooded and somewhat destroyed.
Mercy's reaction to the Doctor's "mercy" didn't seem at all in character. I don't think that he woke up her mind, as that was already as sharp as a tack, but her sleeping conscience. But the ultrasonic scream that destroyed her and the Cybusmen? Totally unbelievable. Just didn't make any sense.
And once Mercy became the Cyberking, she should have renamed herself to the Cyberqueen. ;)
The Doctor transporting the robot away bothers me. This means that the Cybusmen could return. :( I was so hoping that this special was the end of them, once and for all, and that the next time we see the Cybermen, they are the proper ones. Although, the SFX of transporting the robot away looked very cool, and I liked the Lord of the Rings/Tolkien reference where the robot almost touches the Doctor. Wonder if Russell had that in mind? Probably not. Probably he was thinking of a certain fresco by Michelangelo.
And I really thought that the Doctor would come back to find the TARDIS missing, or crushed by the robot. That would have been a cliffhanger! Instead, we get him going domestic once again.
In the end, though, for all its faults and flaws, I really liked The Next Doctor, and will be happy to watch it again, because of the Victorian ambiance, and the great chemistry between the Doctor and Jackson Lake.
There are spoilers below the cut, if one hasn't seen it yet.
On first watching, I loved it. In many ways, this might be my fave of the Christmas specials, although, unlike many, I really liked VotD (even if how the villain was disposed of--yes, that is a pun, sorta yeah--was a little cheesy). However, if one includes all episodes in New!Who set at Christmas time, my vote will go to The Unquiet Dead every time. I mean, Dickens, real snow, an almost telling of "A Christmas Carol", the wonderful character of Gwendolyn (beautifully realized), very scary monster villains, fantastic costumes (except that Rose was dressed more like a lady of the evening, and not a proper lady), Nine fanboying Charlie, and Dickens' reaction to the TARDIS at the end. Just lovely stuff. Great writing and all that jazz. :)
But back to The Next Doctor. I loved the ambiance. The feel of the mid-Victorian period came alive in the costuming, the sets, and the characters themselves. The steampunk look of the Cybershades' masks and the machinery the children were working amongst was just fantastic, as was the look of the Cyberking robot itself.
And I really loved the pre-title sequence, esp. Ten's walk through the square, just taking in all the wonder that is a Victorian Christmas. The joy on his face was palatable, and his delight as he turned round and round could be felt by everyone. :)
Jackson Lake and Rosita were wonderful heroes, and Miss Hartigan was a believable villainess, a woman struggling to survive in a male-dominated society. As much as I like the Victorian era, it was a time of set-backs, and finally some advances. Writers like Dickens and Anna Sewell helped, with both people and animals' welfare, by calling attention to their plights. (Even thought it was a cruel practice, I was pleased to see a little detail of the period in TND with the carriage horses' harness: at that time, carriage horses, esp. those belonging to the upper class, wore a piece called the checkrein that would keep their necks bent in the lovely curve of the stallion's arch. However, this would not allow them to put their heads down to really be able to pull well. The novel Black Beauty called attention to this and also the over-use of blinkers and other cruel practices.)
The Cybermen (or Cybusmen, as I like to call them, since these aren't the Mondas-Telos Cybermen from Classic!Who) were very scary coming out of the snow, and seemingly blending in with the snow and the gray of the tombstones. Shooting the scene in a real cemetery gave it an amazing quality that could have never been realized in an indoor set or with SFX. The shot from above was quite impressive, and showed the fear and confusion of the mourners. Btw, women were not socially accepted at funerals in this period or the Regency era just before it. And the funeral cortege itself, the black horses all in their funeral trapping, I found very elegant. I've always been impressed by British funeral customs of the 19th century, ever since I saw as a child a lovely little Victorian-era-set film farce titled The Wrong Box. Even seen on TV, chopped up with commercials, the funeral scenes had a great effect on me. (Goth before anyone knew what goth was! And no, my mother wouldn't buy me black anything.)
Mercy's red dress when she attended the funeral was thus even more shocking. It was not a colour that a respectable lady would wear, either. Echoes of The Scarlet Letter, perhaps? But the dress itself and her hairstyle seemed to be in period.
Rosita's garb, on the other hand, was not. Most everyone that I know as a costumer took issues with Rosita's outfit once it was revealed that Jackson Lake was not a Time Lord, and could not thus have picked Rosita up in the, say, 1700's. I wore garb like this whilst in the SCA back in the day, and this is very much Italian Renaissance to English Caviler style. So Rosita's outfit was definitely not period, unless she was a member of one of those Victorian re-enactment groups. (Oh, yes, some of the Victorians were mad for King Arthur and the like, and had organization similar to the modern re-enactment groups like the SCA.)
As for the writing, it was pretty much lovely, with plenty of quiet character-building moments interspersed amongst the action scenes. And not much spectacle until the end--thanks for holding off, Russell. DM and DT had excellent chemistry, in fact so much so, that Rosita became almost superfluous in the latter part of the story. A pity, that. But, truly, it seems that many of the best DW stories are, to coin a phrase, better with just two, the Doctor and his companion. :)
All the actors turned in beautiful work. :) As always, I'm impressed by the guys in the Cybermen suits, how they work together to co-ordinate their movements, and just suffering inside all that!
At least the cute kids acted scared, and ran okay out of the machinery when told to. (I'm reminded of the scenes in School Reunion, where the teens were laughing and joking and not acting scared at all, and didn't run fast enough--that was just poorly filmed and acted.)
The sets truly evoked the Victorian era, and the paper snow looked rather real. :) I do wish that we could have seen and heard more of the carolers, and the little lad that the Doctor, in truly Scrooge-like fashion, asks the day of. :) And a bit more emphasis on Christmas customs, too. But as their customs are the ones that were passed down to us, in the matter of celebrating Christmas, perhaps that wasn't needful after all, well, not to the plot.
Like the Classic!Who fangirl that I am, I was rather pleased to see all the Doctors in that brief projected sequence, although they could have done better with My Doctor, the Third Doctor, of course.
The parting scene, where Jackson Lake asks the Doctor about the bright and shining companions, well, that broke my heart, too. Poor Doctor. *hugs him, but doesn't offer to be a companion--doesn't like adventure*
On second watch, some things began to bug me that really hadn't before. Typical, with Russell's writing. When he's on, he's spot on, and when he's bad, he's like the little girl in the nursery rhyme.
Rosita's garb and lack of much to do once she chopped the rope was more obvious. Her being told to go back to the TARDIS every time things got exciting not only bothered her, but this viewer as well.
Neither Mercy or Rosita wearing a cape or cloak when outside! London at Christmas would still be cold. And snow at Christmas? In the southern part of England, this is a rare occurrence. At least the men wore their coats once in a while. Btw, some might have objected to Jackson Lake's colourful garb, but the Victorians wore more colours than has been commonly thought.
What was the point of the Cybershades? Their masks looked cool, but their coats looked something from a Puli (dog with a corded coat that is natural), and really didn't look natural at all, more like walking shag carpets. And except for the throwaway line from Ten about them as one is climbing up that building in the pre-titles bit, we never get any more info. Mostly pointless, yes.
The Cyberking robot itself. Really, I couldn't help but think of a cross between a Transformer and The Iron Giant animated film. :) And how did something that tall hide in the Thames? Yes, it's a deep, dark, fast-moving river, but still--one of the folks at the NYE party that I always attend suggested that it was crouched down. Okay, I can buy that. But what about the displacement of the water? And no real nasty waves that I could see when it stood up. The banks of the river and the docks should have flooded and somewhat destroyed.
Mercy's reaction to the Doctor's "mercy" didn't seem at all in character. I don't think that he woke up her mind, as that was already as sharp as a tack, but her sleeping conscience. But the ultrasonic scream that destroyed her and the Cybusmen? Totally unbelievable. Just didn't make any sense.
And once Mercy became the Cyberking, she should have renamed herself to the Cyberqueen. ;)
The Doctor transporting the robot away bothers me. This means that the Cybusmen could return. :( I was so hoping that this special was the end of them, once and for all, and that the next time we see the Cybermen, they are the proper ones. Although, the SFX of transporting the robot away looked very cool, and I liked the Lord of the Rings/Tolkien reference where the robot almost touches the Doctor. Wonder if Russell had that in mind? Probably not. Probably he was thinking of a certain fresco by Michelangelo.
And I really thought that the Doctor would come back to find the TARDIS missing, or crushed by the robot. That would have been a cliffhanger! Instead, we get him going domestic once again.
In the end, though, for all its faults and flaws, I really liked The Next Doctor, and will be happy to watch it again, because of the Victorian ambiance, and the great chemistry between the Doctor and Jackson Lake.