Doctor Who: 6X09

[jinxed_wood]

Well, that was a bit boring, wasn't it?

It's weird, you know, Mark Gatiss can write decent telly - we saw it in Sherlock - and he is a huge old school fan of Doctor Who, so you'd think the combination would work well but...no

Comments

[idontlikegravy]

It is a conundrum, isn't it? I think I liked this one best of those he's written, because I know how much he loves horror movies, particularly early ones, and I could see that he was nodding to the genre in that ep and the scares were judged pretty well IMHO. But yeah, it was a thin premise and felt a bit too much like Fear Her or am I the only one who saw similarities? Once Amy got turned into a doll it kind of lost any sense of jeopardy for me.

Maybe he just writes better for adults? And when he's writing for DW, maybe he's always thinking 'this is a family show' and it hampers his writing?

[jinxed_wood]

Poor guy, I'm sure he dreams of writing the perfect DW episode!

[ithildyn]

I think if I were 6-8 years old, that ep would have been the scariest thing ever. It really struck me as an episode aimed at that part of the audience, which the younger set don't get much of anymore from DW.

[kerravonsen]

Which explains comments saying that it would have worked better as a Sarah Jane Adventures story.

[jinxed_wood]

I'm obviously a spoilt brat because I want my flirty!River/larger arc/angsty Rory/timey wimey stories - and I want them now!

[kerravonsen]

It felt a bit "meh" to me too. After various people's comments, I think it was aimed for a younger audience, which DW watchers have gotten unused to, because they younger-audience episodes have been siphoned off to The Sarah Jane Adventures.

But I don't think the idea was bad, however. It had potential to be better than it was.

It was terribly similar to "Fear Her", but "Fear Her" was better executed as far as the scariness went, and better executed in the bonding between parent and child - that scene in "Fear Her" where the mother and daughter are huddled together singing "Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree" was very good. However, the resolution of "Fear Her" was silly, while the idea in "Night Terrors" was better, though it was not well-executed.

[jinxed_wood]

I think you may be right! I just found the whole thing extremely unsatisfying!