Season 27

Well… well... well. Dr Who after all these years. It is often said that Doctor Who fans are very committed, no don’t worry, no cheap sarcastic gags from me, or I’ll have the mass legions of PPS members inviting me to a tarring and feathering party. Accompanied by chants of “exterminate”, no doubt led by the editor of this worthy tome. Talk about the Cosa nostra, they have got nothing on a PPS member when roused.(incidentally that was nice dress, Martin in the last issue)

So how was it for you? Well it seems the vast majority of “anoraks” (whoops, sorry, fans) have enjoyed every moment of it, in most cases probably a hundred times each episode by the time you read this. Now how was it for me, well…it wasn’t as good as Celebrity Love Island or Celebrity whatever else ITV’s Nigel Pickard (ITV’s very own Davros, bearing in mind some of the monstrosities he has commissioned lately)can think of… no, just teasing, honest guv-. Well I felt it was very much like the curates egg-“good in parts”. In fact very good in parts, namely those parts not written by Russell T Davies, apart of course from his highly amusing idea of vapourising contestants on Big Brother. Now that would be entertaining, I think somebody should tell C4’s Kevin Lygo, it would improve the programme one hundred per cent in my opinion (silly pun alert: it seems rather appropriate the man behind the new Who should have initials that make him sound like a character straight out of that other Sci Fi leg end, Whoops legend Star Wars)

Certainly we should thank RTD (see told you!) for persuading the BBC to finally bring Who back and with a proper budget (£10 million) and with equally proper marketing and backing behind the show. It has also avoided the pitfalls that previous BBC attempts to revive long dormant shows have had to cope with, such as badly miscast leads (Randall and Hopkirk with the poor man’s Cannon and Ball, Reeves an Mortimer anyone, no me neither) Or ridiculous attempts to distort the format to make it more trendy or just plain dumb. (step forward Dick and Dom’s Ask The Family, I could make a crude joke at this point, but I will resist the strongly felt temptation). The new Who has had many good to very good episodes compared to a few nearly as boring as watching Julian Clary doing his tired old act on the lottery type episodes, if you know what I mean, which you probably do being members of the PPS with the discerning tastes all members have.

So there I sat on the first night, having switched over from a programme on Channel 5 about primitive life forms…yes, that’s right Tricia, to be confronted by a truly terrifying sight, straight out of Dante’s Inferno, in fact so terrifying was this image, it took me, ..oh nearly a second to realise I had switched on a couple minutes early and was watching Graham Norton. Now as my co reviewer Mr Parrish states the new version of the theme was indeed a masterstroke, very stirring.

But now, what of that first episode…oh dear… oh dear… I am sad to say “Rose” was definitely in the Julian ary category. I found it juvenile, relatively feeble and unpromising. I hear you ask (I have got a very good imagination) what other episodes were in the Clary category, well, the answer can only be lets face it the Slitheen episodes-aliens with a wind problem indeed!-especially the verbose “Boomtown” (if ever there was an episode that looked like it was designed to save money, that was it!) When the Slitheen shed their skins, I half expected them to exclaim “why, we would have got away with it if it wasn’t for that pesky Doctor?!

So now at last for some praise, Billie Piper has turned out to be a far better actress than any of us would have thought or given her credit for. As for Chris Eccleston, he has turned out to be an excellent Doctor, displaying a child like quality similar to Patrick Troughton’s incarnation. It is extremely sad that Eccleston could not be persuaded to continue in the role. Again, like Mr Parrish John Barrowman’s character Jack, grew on me, some might say like a wart, but that would be cruel. As for Rose’s mother and Mickey I found that they were the least convincing characters in the entire run, whether this was the actors fault, or the way the characters were written, who can say.

What were the exciting episodes, The Empty Child-The Doctor Dances, very good production values, Victor Meldrew in a gas mask. And a good rattling story line that never lets you stop to think about the implausibility’s. The Unquiet Dead, an episode of the type that Doctor Who should be all about, scary, but not too scary, again good production values and a sighting, of a for once non hammy Simon Callow as Charles Dickens. Dalek, again it has to be said the production values were excellent, a fast moving story with only one drawback, apart from the Dalek finding his feminine side- Bruno Langley’s performance or lack of it as the irritating Adam.

So now for the future, and David Tennant. While wishing him lots of luck, he has a hard act to follow as does the entire series. With the Cybermen, Lz Sladen’s return as Sarah Jane Smith and Stephen Fry penning an episode, it is either going to be a great show or a bit of a disappointment. Let’s hope it is the former or Michael Grade might do what he is best at and cancel it. But on the other hand, go on Mr Grade, cancel it, and we can look forward to all the complaints that will ensue. As they say the secret of comedy is in the timing.

Text by Malcolm Hunter
Email address: malcolm@live.co.uk