Persuasion is a beautiful book and is one of my favourite Jane Austen novels. ITV's adaptation of Northanger Abbey is excellent and their version of Mansfield Park is decent. So what's ITV's adaptation of Persuasion like then? Atrocious! I hated the script, I hated the acting, I hated the direction... I hated it! It's by far the worst of the ITV Jane Austen adaptations of 2007 and it has very little going for it! It's got some nice music in places, a couple of the supporting actors are good, and some of it was actually shot on location in Bath unlike ITV's Northanger Abbey (which was actually filmed in Dublin). But leaving these few positive aspects aside this adaptation is awful!
There's so much that's wrong with this version that I'm not even sure where to begin. Well, I never got the sense that this version had been made by people who loved and understood the story. The pacing feels very rushed and many great scenes from the book are left out or ruined. Things are changed around for no good reason too. As an example Anne's friend Mrs Smith is called HarrietSmith in this! What?! Was this supposed to be an amusing in-joke?! Well, I certainly didn't find it funny and Mrs Smith's backstory with Mr Elliot was completely cut as well. This is just the tip of the iceberg by the way! There's a lot more stupidity in this adaptation!
The tone of this version is also much too serious and there's no humour whatsoever. That's just wrong. Persuasion might be one of Austen's more serious works but there are still funny moments in it. The look of this adaptation is wrong. It's very dark and dreary-looking. Apart from a couple of exceptions the cast are all really poor in this version as well. I don't know if it's because of the direction they received or simply because the majority of the actors were badly miscast but the performances leave much to be desired.
I was so unhappy with Sally Hawkins as Anne Elliot. Hawkins can clearly act and I thought she was pretty good as Mrs Reed in the 2011 Jane Eyre adaptation. However the way Hawkins interprets Anne is completely wrong. She whispers most of her lines and she plays Anne as being a pathetic wimp who's always crying over Wentworth and looking miserable. Anne is never that depressed in the book! Yes, she certainly feels sad and lonely at times but she's also warm, conversational and witty. All of the other characters who have any sense in the book love her. Another thing that really annoyed me about this version is that they had Anne write in a diary as a means of letting the audience know her inner thoughts. Anne would often pause while writing and then look directly into the camera. This was just an unpleasant reminder of Patricia Rozema's Mansfield Park and I hate that film as well! And why is Anne so unattractive in this version?! I've seen pictures of Sally Hawkins in real life where she looks really pretty so why did they make her look so plain in this?! Why did they give her such greasy, messed-up hair and dowdy, ugly costumes! Anne isn't supposed to be unattractive! At first I assumed that they were going to make her up to look prettier and prettier as it went on to show how Anne regains her bloom and health but no, they don't. Anne finally washes her hair at the end but by then it's too little too late. Anne is so unattractive, boring and insipid in this version that I have no idea how Wentworth could fall in love with her - and still be in love with her - after eight years!
Rupert Penry-Jones as Wentworth is just as bad. He does absolutely nothing apart from brood and shows no charm or charisma. He just comes across as incredibly boring and bland. Why are Anne and the Musgrove sisters so crazy about him?! Also, Penry-Jones' skin is so pale and unblemished that I really couldn't buy him as a sailor who's fought in the Napoleonic Wars for the last eight years!
Most of the supporting cast are really poor in this version too. The worst culprit is Amanda Hale who is just sooo bad as Mary Musgrove! I know Mary is supposed to be a hypochondriac but Hale plays Mary as being mentally unhinged and her line delivery is also horrible. It felt like she was (badly) imitating Sophie Thompson from the 1995 adaptation. In fact there's only a couple of performances that I genuinely liked in this adaptation. I thought Alice Krige as Lady Russell was pretty good and it's a shame that she doesn't get much screentime. I love Anthony Stewart Head and I thought he did a great job as Sir Walter Elliot. I still prefer Corin Redgrave's more humorous performance in the 1995 version but Stewart Head is great too and the only actor who looks like he's having any sort of fun in this thing.
The Most Stupid Scenes in Persuasion!
Because I still don't think I've conveyed just how appalling this adaptation really is I've decided to give a run-down of its most stupid scenes in the order they appear - the scenes that had me sighing or shouting "Oh, for goodness' sake!"
This version of Persuasion begins with Anne rushing around Kellynch whilst the servants are packing up. She seems to be taking an inventory but she doesn't seem to be writing anything down. She just makes random scratches every now and again. Anne then runs out of ink but there just so happens to be a servant standing in the hallway with some ink for Anne to take a refill. What?! Was this servant just told to stand there all day for Anne to take refills?
When Charles Musgrove Jr dislocates his collar bone, Anne then rushes to help despite being in the middle of getting changed for a party. She doesn't seem to be even the slightest bit embarrassed to be standing in her underwear in front of her nephew and brother-in-law and they don't seem to be embarrassed about it either! Anne then sets Charles' collarbone back into place. What?! Since when has Anne had medical training?! Why couldn't they wait for the apothecary to get there?! And why couldn't Anne have put some clothes on?!
When Wentworth asks Louisa Musgrove when her brother Charles proposed to Anne, Louisa's response is "I do not exactly know, but before he married Mary". Well, duh Louisa! I'm sure that Wentworth wasn't thinking that Charles had tried to commit bigamy by proposing after he'd married Mary!
In the book there's a scene where some of the characters go out walking and Wentworth realises that Anne is tired. He asks the Crofts to give her a ride home, and then gallantly picks Anne up and helps her into their carriage. It's a really touching scene and it's when Anne begins to think that perhaps Wentworth does still care for her at least a little bit after all. Is it a touching and romantic scene in this version? Ha! Wentworth doesn't ask the Crofts to take her in the carriage, they ask him. And Wentworth doesn't gently pick Anne up and put her down. No! He handles her like she's a sack of potatoes! Both of the actors look uncomfortable and this scene isn't even the slightest bit romantic! It's just really awkward.
In the book Anne has a conversation with Wentworth's friend Harville in Bath. They talk about love and the constancy of women. Wentworth overhears this conversation and is really moved by it. He writes his famous love letter to Anne and the two are reconciled. This scene happens towards the end of the novel. This is completely ruined in this version! Anne's conversation is with Mr Benwick in Lyme Regis instead and Wentworth is well out of earshot. There's absolutely no way he could have overheard this conversation! Why would you change this?! Why, why, why?!
Louisa Musgrove's fall in Lyme Regis is completely wrong. You don't even see her fall and the panic that everyone apart from Anne is supposed to be feeling is completely gone. In this version nobody panics or cries or gets into hysterics. They're all calm! This scene is supposed to show Anne can keep a level head in a crisis but since no-one panics this scene is completely unnecessary! After this scene the characters seem only mildly upset about what's just happened.
The waters in Bath really do have healing powers! Mrs Smith makes a miraculous recovery in this and arrives just in time to tell Anne about the devious Mr Elliot's plans. In this he'd planned to marry Anne and make Mrs Clay his mistress afterwards! Anne doesn't even seem shocked to see Mrs Smith walking so well either!
And now I've come to the most hated and ridiculed scene in this entire adaptation - the Bath Marathon. They completely ruined the ending of the book! Firstly Wentworth comes over to Anne's house and she tells him that she isn't engaged to Mr Elliot. He then leaves the house. Anne is then briefly interrupted by Henrietta Musgrove and her mother. Wentworth is then nowhere in sight when Anne leaves the house despite him leaving only 8 seconds before! Yes, I did time it! Anne then decides that the logical thing to do is to RUN, yes, RUN all over the city like a headless chicken to find Wentworth. She then bumps into Mrs Smith (see above). Anne then runs over to where Wentworth is staying. Wentworth is no longer there but he still found the time to write his letter and entrust it to Harville. Anne then reads the letter, whilst running, to find the Crofts because Wentworth left with them. But when Anne finally finds the Crofts they say he's gone back to her house! When Anne finally finds Wentworth he's standing outside her house and is casually chatting away with Charles Musgrove. WHAT?! All of this is just so, so, so wrong! It's completely out-of-character and inappropriate for Anne to be running all over the city! No respectable woman in Austen's time would have done this! And how did Wentworth have the time to go home, write a letter, go out with the Crofts, and make it back to Anne's house without even breaking into a sweat whilst Anne is running for her life?! Is that Wentworth's super-power, super-human speed?! And then, just when you'd think things couldn't get any worse, Anne and Wentworth come to an understanding and kiss. But it's not remotely romantic. It's disgusting! Anne is sweaty from her run and is surely in dire need of a shower and a glass of water. And the kiss is ridiculously drawn-out! They hover around each mouth's for a whopping 24 seconds! Yes, I timed that as well! This scene alone is an abomination!
And now I've finally come to the ending. Anne finally gets a better hairdo in this scene so you might think I'd like it but no. In this version Wentworth actually buys Kellynch as a wedding present for Anne! WHAT?! Kellynch is entailed away to Mr Elliot!
This adaptation is absolutely dreadful and I don't understand how anyone could prefer it over the 1995 version. In that version there's far more chemistry between the leading actors, the acting is better all-round, the cinematography is much nicer, the pacing is much better, and it's much more faithful to the book. Instead of watching this adaptation watch that instead, or better yet read the book if you haven't already. This version is a trainwreck and I'm grateful that I watched it on YouTube and didn't actually buy the DVD. This - and 1999's Mansfield Park - are easily the worst Austen adaptations I've ever seen and Jane Austen must be turning in her grave.
Cabin Pressure is a radio sitcom about a one-airplane airline called MJN Air and the hilarious escapades of its staff. It's played on BBC Radio 4 and every single episode is written by John Finnemore. Cabin Pressure first started airing back in 2008 and it has a very young fanbase for a Radio 4 show. Why? Because Benedict Cumberbatch is in it! Cabin Pressure has always been well-reviewed but John Finnemore himself has said that the fanbase for the show pretty much tripled overnight when Sherlock first started airing on TV. Finnemore also noticed that the fans who turned up at Cabin Pressure's live recordings started to get younger and more female. In fact a whopping 17,000 people applied for tickets to Cabin Pressure's series four recordings which only goes to show just how popular the show has become.
I freely admit that I would have probably never even heard of Cabin Pressure if Benedict Cumberbatch wasn't in it. The only other radio drama that I've listened to is a version of Phantom of the Opera by Big Finish Productions (which is excellent BTW). Now that I've actually heard Cabin Pressure fromseries one to threeI completely recommend it. It's brilliant! It's an absolutely hilarious sitcom and is genuinely laugh-out-loud funny. And by laugh out loud funny I don't mean little giggles and sniggers funny. Oh no! I have actually howled with laughter in some episodes! The show is THAT good and it's seriously one of the best sitcoms I've ever heard! The episodes are brilliantly-written by John Finnemore and his writing is hilarious in a very witty, sharp, dry way. Cabin Pressure is a clever sitcom and the episodes are well-plotted and stand up to repeat listenings. I love the adventure feel of Cabin Pressure as well. The characters actually get to travel around the world!
The characters in Cabin Pressure are all extremely likeable and the acting in the show is as brilliant as the writing. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Martin Crieff who's the captain of the airline. Martin really couldn't be any more different to Sherlock Holmes. He's uptight, insecure, bumbling and just-about-competent. He's always getting outwitted by his first officer Douglas Richardson. Cabin Pressure really shows off Cumberbatch's comedy range and he's been in every episode of the show apart from Newcastle. He was unwell at the time so they got in the actor Tom Goodman-Hill to play Martin for that episode. Goodman-Hill does a decent job but you can tell that Martin is being played by a different actor. Martin's first officer Douglas Richardson is played by Roger Allam. Douglas is a very sarcastic and cunning character. He's always scheming and plotting and he reminds me quite a bit of Edmund Blackadder at times. Roger Allam is probably most famous for originating the role of Javert in the West End production of Les Miserables and he does get to show his singing voice off in a few episodes. Allam was also in Parade's End with Cumberbatch and I got to see him play Prospero in The Tempest just last weekend. The owner of the airline is Carolyn Knapp-Shappey. Carolyn is a middle-aged, battleaxe divorcee and she's pretty cunning herself in her own way. She's played by Stephanie Cole who has been in Doc Martin and Coronation Street. The final main character of the show is Arthur Knapp-Shappey. He's the steward of the airline and is Carolyn's well-meaning, enthusiastic, dim-witted son. He's played by Finnemore himself. Most of the humour in the show comes from the bickering between Martin and Douglas, Carolyn's penny-pinching ways, and Arthur's idiocy.
The main characters are extremely likeable and funny and they have quite a lot of depth. For all their clashes and disagreements it's obvious that they like each other deep down. They really do seem like an (admittedly weird) family and the show can be pretty heartwarming. In addition to the main actors there's also been some very impressive guest stars in the show: Helen Baxendale, John Sessions, Mark Williams, Alison Steadman, Ben Willbond, Phil Davis and Anthony Stewart Head.
It's difficult for me to narrow down what my absolute favourite Cabin Pressure episode is. I love all of the episodes but Ottery St Mary, Qikiqtarjuaq, Paris, Cremona, Ipswich, Helsinki, Newcastle and St Petersburg especially. Sherlock fans should love Paris in particular! This is a detective episode in which Martin goes all Miss Marple on us! This episode is really a hilarious homage to Sherlock of course. Apparently this episode took ages to record because the audience were in hysterics and could not stop laughing, and Cumberbatch kept throwing them some Sherlock Holmes facial expressions.
I bought a disc set of Cabin Pressure on Amazon, which included series one to three of the show plus the Christmas special episode Molokai. It only cost me about £10 which is a bargain. I've ordered series four of the show and I'm waiting for that to arrive. Again, I completely recommend Cabin Pressure. It's hilarious, clever, great fun, heartwarming, and brilliantly written and acted. The episodes are recorded in front of a live audience so all the laughter that you hear is genuine. Even if you've never really listened to radio drama before then give it a try!
About three or four months ago the Daily Mail announced that Cameron Mackintosh is planning on bringing Oliver! over to Broadway with Samantha Barks starring as Nancy. This was then reported elsewhere. The Mail also announced that Mackintosh then wants Barks to star in a movie adaptation of Oliver! to be released in 2016. If this story is true then it's great news! I saw Samantha Barks in Oliver! last year and she gave a brilliant performance. I'm sure her Nancy would be very well-received if she went over to New York. When I reviewed the show last year I couldn't find any audio clips with Barks singing but a YouTube user has now put some videos up if anyone wants to hear her sing : )
Oom Pah Pah
As Long As He Needs Me
I'd love a remake of the stage musical as well and normally I'm not in favour of remakes at all! I know I'm in the minority here but I've never been a huge fan of the 1968 film. What?! Are you crazy?! some might say, The film's a classic! It won six Oscars! Well, that might be the case and I do feel like I'm one of the few people in the world who doesn't like the film all that much. Nevertheless I still stand by my belief that the 1968 film is very overrated and that it's nowhere near approaching the quality of My Fair Lady and The Sound of Music. OK the music and the story is great but the film is still very flawed. The tone and look of the film is nowhere near as dark and gritty as it should be given the story's subject matter and the Victorian East-End setting. It's just too family-friendly. The direction is stagey. Great songs from the stage musical are left out: I Shall Scream, That's Your Funeral, My Name and the reprise of A Fine Life. Shani Wallis gives a good performance as Nancy but she's too old for the role. The single most annoying thing about the film for me though is Oliver himself. Mark Lester is badly miscast in the role and is a really poor child actor. His acting is just so bland and wooden. Lester didn't even sing in the film either! Due to the fact that Lester was tone-deaf his voice was dubbed by a 20 year old woman! How stupid is that?! You're telling me that they couldn't have found a single Boy Soprano in the whole of Britain, let alone the world, who couldn't have sang the part better?! There were probably hundreds of boys out there who could have sang and acted the role justice! So basically, what I'm saying is that the stage version of Oliver! is better than the 1968 film in every way. And I think a new adaptation of the stage musical could be excellent if they made the film darker and if they got a great director and a great cast.
Since this film isn't scheduled to come out for at least three years, and might not even happen, it seems pointless to speculate on who might be cast - but I'll do that anyway! I can see them going for Sacha Baron Cohen for Fagin, and possibly Rowan Atkinson as well since he's played the role before. I don't think Samantha Barks is as likely to get the role of Nancy in a film despite what Mackintosh is supposed to be planning. After Anne Hathaway's Oscar win for Les Mis I'm sure they'd be loads of Hollywood actresses who'd want to play Nancy in the film and they might end up going for a bigger name. But you never know, several big-names auditioned to play Eponine in the Les Mis film (Taylor Swift, Lea Michele, Scarlett Johansson) and Barks still got that role. Finally, I think Richard Armitage could make a brilliant Bill Sykes. Armitage started his career off doing musicals and he's got a excellent classically-trained baritone voice. I'm sure he could act the role brilliantly too - although it would cause me some pain to see an actor I love playing such a horrible person!
Series two of Downton Abbey picks up in 1916, two years after the end of series one. WWI is now raging and life at Downton Abbey has been turned upside down. Matthew Crawley and the footmen Thomas and William all find themselves fighting in the war. Meanwhile everyone else is doing their part for the war effort back at home. Lady Sybil is working as a nurse, Anna and the other maids are having to fill in for the footmen, and Isobel Crawley is helping out at the local hospital. In Episode Two Isobel manages to persuade the Crawley family into making Downton a convalescent home for wounded soldiers. But there's romantic drama going on in this series as well. Just when it looks as if Anna and Mr Bates will be able to get married after all, Bates's vindictive wife (Maria Doyle Kennedy) shows up. She refuses to grant Bates a divorce and threatens to bring scandal on the Crawley family. Matthew has seemingly moved on from Mary. He's now engaged to a lovely young woman from London called Lavinia (Zoe Boyle). Mary, on the other hand, is considering whether to accept an engagement from a shrewd and powerful newspaper owner called Richard Carlisle (Iain Glen). Sybil is also torn. She has a growing love for her family's chauffeur Branson but she knows her family would be disappointed with her if she was to accept him. In addition to all this, Lord Robert is feeling useless in this time of war and the new housemaid Ethel (Amy Nuttall) finds herself in a difficult position. And Lady Mary's secret from series one keeps threatening to expose itself.
I really enjoyed series one of Downton Abbey. A few minor flaws aside it was undeniably excellent. Does series two hit the heights of series one? No. WWI is very poorly handled in this series. In fact I got the distinct impression that Julian Fellowes wanted to get the war stuff over and done with as quickly as possible so he could get to the roaring 20s. There's very little drama in the WWI scenes of series two; in particular the episode where Matthew and William go MIA is very rushed. This could have been easily stretched out for another episode and I didn't doubt for a second that they were in any real danger. It really doesn't help matters that Matthew keeps returning to Downton Abbey all the time either. An episode will start with Matthew in the trenches and then five minutes later he's back at Downton! Don't get me wrong, I really like Matthew. He's actually one of my favourite characters in the show and I liked seeing him... but the fact that we saw so much of him when WWI is on is a bit of a joke. I know that Downton Abbey isn't a war show but it still needs to handle its subject matter responsibly.
Series two has other bad points as well. The show basically becomes a historical soap opera in this series. We get melodramatic soap opera clichés in series two like amnesia, miraculous recoveries and adultery. I got really annoyed with some of the characters as well. I got bored of the Anna-Bates stuff. I got fed up of Daisy moaning about how she doesn't want to marry William when he's dying. I became very disappointed with Lord Robert in the final couple of episodes. It felt like Fellowes didn't really know what to do with Isobel in this series either. In series one she clashed with Violet and in series two she clashes with Cora and then goes away.
I should make it clear that I didn't hate series two by any means though. I still like the show even if it's a guilty pleasure. The production values of Downton Abbey are still excellent, it's still extremely well-acted, there's still a lot of humour, and I still like and care about the majority of the characters. Violet continues to get some hilarious one-liners. My favourite being "You're not Toad of Toad Hall!" to Edith when she finds out that she's been driving tractors :) There's much less bitchiness and tension between Mary and Edith in this series too (that was one of my issues with series one). I suppose this isn't very realistic at all when you consider how nasty they were to each other in series one but I was just so relieved to see the end of their sibling rivalry. Mary's character, in particular, was far more bearable.
I'll mention the 2011 Christmas episode in this review too. It's called Christmas at Downton Abbey and is a 90 minute, movie-length episode. It takes place over the Christmas holidays of late 1919 to early 1920. Almost every character on the show is involved in this story and gets something meaningful to do, apart from Sybil and Branson who are both in Ireland. I loved this special episode! It's very strong and is better than any of the episodes of series two. It's very well-plotted, is great fun and really feel-good. I did miss Sybil and Branson and I didn't like the Ouija board stuff but everything else is great. I liked the different opening credits and it was really nice that Robert's sister Lady Rosamund (Samantha Bond) got more to do than usual.
Synopsis: Prospero is the exiled Duke of Milan and he's lived on a remote, enchanted island for many years. The only people he has for company are his teenage daughter Miranda and his servants Ariel and Caliban. But then Prospero finds out that the men who betrayed him - his usurping brother Antonio and Alonso, the King of Naples - are sailing on a ship nearby. Prospero has learnt magic on the island and he uses his powers to summon up a tempest that makes the ship crash on the island. He has the men from the ship scattered across the island and then proceeds to manipulate everyone in order to achieve his goals. He sends Ariel out to haunt the men who betrayed him and pretends to distrust Alonso's son Ferdinand whilst secretly matchmaking him with Miranda. Prospero has also got to deal with Caliban, who is now plotting against him with the aid of Alonso's servants Trinculo and Stephano.
The Tempest is believed by most to be the final play that Shakespeare wrote by himself. It's widely considered to be one of Shakespeare's best too, due to its maturity and beautiful language. The Tempest was also drawn on when Kenneth Branagh read a piece from it during the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony. During the play Miranda utters the phrase "Oh brave new world that has such people in it" which inspired the title of Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World. And an alien race was named after the Sycorax (Caliban's mother) in the Doctor Who episode The Christmas Invasion. The Sycorax were referred to again in a Doctor Who episode where the Doctor actually meets Shakespeare, The Shakespeare Code. These are just some interesting facts I thought I'd mention!
I've been wanting to read The Tempest for a while but it wasn't until I booked a ticket to see a production of it at the Globe Theatre that finally spurred me onto reading it. The production has Roger Allam and Colin Morgan starring in it and I'm very excited about it! I wouldn't call The Tempest one of my favourite Shakespeare plays though, at least not just yet. I suspect that this play is probably a lot more fun to see live.
It's not that I didn't enjoy reading The Tempest but there are other Shakespeare plays that I enjoy more. The play is supposed to be a comedy but it's not really laugh-out-loud funny like Much Ado About Nothing. Also, the whole true-love-at-first-sight romance between Ferdinand and Miranda is sappy and annoying. I'm not a fan of love-at-first-sight romances anyway but their romance was just so sickly-sweet and roll-your-eyes-inducing that it was hard to stomach. They meet, fall in love, swear their undying affection for each other, and get married on the very same day!
There is a lot that I liked about this play though. There are other Shakespeare plays that I like more but there are other Shakespeare plays that I like less. The Tempest has got a very interesting story and the magical island setting is really cool. Prospero, Ariel and Caliban are all very interesting characters. Prospero's final speech in the Epilogue is very bittersweet and there are hints of Shakespeare's retirement in it. The outcome of the play is nice and cheerful too. Prospero could have very easily used his magic to kill his enemies but instead he just wants to teach them a lesson. At the end everyone lives and all is forgiven. As you'd naturally expect from a Shakespeare play The Tempest is brilliantly-written too and there are some fantastic quotes: “Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices, That, if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming, The clouds methought would open, and show riches Ready to drop upon me; that, when I waked, I cried to dream again.”
“Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.”
Wicked is a musical that I have a huge amount of love for because it's the musical that made me a fan of musicals. Wicked is also the first musical I ever saw live. I first saw the musical live in London back in January 2010 and I saw it again last month. I'm also hoping to see it again when it comes to my hometown on tour next year. As you can probably imagine Wicked holds a special place in my heart even though I wouldn't call it my favourite musical anymore. My favourite musical ever is Les Miserables withmy second favourite being Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera. Wicked is still absolutely in my top five though.
The musical of Wicked is very loosely based on the book of the same name by Gregory Maguire and is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz. It tells the story of Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and how she became close friends with Glinda (the Good Witch of the North) when they met at University - despite them being very different people and sharing the same love-interest, Fiyero. The two witches then discover that The Wizard, the ruler of Oz, is deeply corrupt and is persecuting Talking Animals. Elphaba then rebels against the Wizard and in return he uses propaganda to convince almost everyone in Oz that she's wicked. We also find out how Elphaba's younger sister Nessarose became the Wicked Witch of the East and the origins of the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion. Wicked came out in New York in 2003. Its critical reviews were mixed but the public loved it and it was an instant smash-hit (not unlike Les Mis). It was also a smash-hit when it came to London in 2006. The musical is still running in both cities and ticket sales are still extremely strong, with no sign of its run ending any time soon. Wicked has also been performed in other countries including Germany and Australia.
Wicked is a fantastic musical and I love it for lots of different reasons. As a show it's visually stunning. It has amazing sets, costumes, lighting and special effects that really add to the magic of the show. In terms of spectacle Wicked is right up there with Phantom of the Opera and The Lion King.
Wicked has a great story too and you really don't need to be a Wizard of Oz fan in order to enjoy it. To be honest I've never really been a huge fan of the classic film and when I was a child I actually preferred the sequel Return to Oz - despite the Wheelers giving me nightmares! You really don't need to be fan of Maguire's novel to enjoy the musical either. The musical has almost nothing in common with that book - apart from sharing the names of the characters, the same settings, and a couple of plot points. I read the book after I first saw the musical and I hated it. The idea behind it is fantastic of course and I'm grateful that Maguire wrote it because we would never have had the musical otherwise - but the book itself is really boring and frustrating! It's poorly-paced and the story really drags at times. The characters are all really unlikeable and underdeveloped with even Elphaba leaving me cold. The book is far too preoccupied with sex as well. I don't necessarily have a problem with sex scenes being in books if they're not too explicit and there's an actual point to them, like them being used to drive the plot forward or to show the relationship between the characters. But with Wicked it felt like they were there just for the sake of it. The book is packed with sexual innuendo and sexual references and I REALLY hated the Philosophy Club scene! How many people would enjoy reading about a man and a Tiger engaged in some weird sex act?! (If you would then you need psychiatric help. Seriously) OK it was implied that a character picked up an STD at this sex club but it was a very minor character and it didn't have a significant impact on the story. I would not recommend the book AT ALL but I would recommend the musical to just about anyone.
The musical is a MASSIVE improvement upon the book. It has a much tighter and more focused plot. The characters are much improved and are far more likeable and engaging. Musical Elphaba is clearly a misunderstood person with a good cause. She's a lot more relatable and she's a character that you can really root for and get behind. I also loved Elphaba's friendship with Glinda. In the book Glinda is a fairly minor character and she and Elphaba aren't close. But in the musical Glinda is a great character and has a far more prominent role. She's funny and quirky and I loved her character development. Glinda is very shallow and vain when Elphaba first meets her but over time she develops and becomes a better person. I much prefer Elphaba's romance with Fiyero in the musical as well. Fiyero is actually married to another woman in the book and has an affair with Elphaba - which makes it rather more difficult to root for them as a couple. There's no sex in the musical either and it's far more family-friendly. As far as I'm concerned the musical is everything the book should have been. And I haven't even got to the music itself yet! The score and lyrics for Wicked were written by Stephen Schwartz who wrote the musical Godspell back in the 1970s. He also wrote the music and lyrics for the Dreamworks film ThePrince of Egypt and provided the lyrics for the Disney films Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Enchanted. The songs in Wicked are brilliant and are often quite emotional: Defying Gravity, No Good Deed, For Good, No One Mourns the Wicked, Thank Goodness, Popular, One Short Day, What is This Feeling?, Wonderful...the show is packed with great, memorable tunes.
Of course Wicked isn't without its faults. What exactly does Elphaba do in the one year gap in-between Acts One and Two? How is she defying the Wizard? What good is she doing? It's never explained and I find that very odd. The Something Bad and A Sentimental Man songs are also quite boring and Fiyero could have really done with getting his own solo song to sing. Wicked can't compete with Les Mis or Phantom when it comes to emotional depth either. However Wicked is still a brilliant musical. Its songs are great. It has a very interesting storyline. Its characters might not be as well-developed as the characters in Les Mis but they're still likeable. There's a lot of humour in the show but it's also quite touching in places. I'd definitely recommend seeing this show live or at the very least listening to the original Broadway cast album. There's even talk about Wicked getting adapted into a film as well and I'm sure that will happen at some point. In fact Wicked was originally planned as a movie musical by Universal Studios but they decided to make it into a stage musical first. Despite my love of the musical I'm much less excited about a Wicked film than I was about a Les Mis film though. I think I'd rather they simply filmed the stage version of Wicked in front of a live audience. They could simultaneously screen it live into cinemas and then release it on DVD a few months later, similar to what they did with the 25th anniversary concerts of Les Mis and Phantom or Love Never Dies (despite my dislike of that musical). There are a few reasons why I'm apprehensive about a film adaptation but I've decided to cover that more in a separate post. To end my review of the musical I thought I'd comment on some of the performers that I've seen in the show.
LIVE REVIEW
I didn't buy a programme when I first saw the show back in 2010 - but I do know that Alexia Khadime played Elphaba, Dianne Pilkington played Glinda, and Oliver Tompsett played Fiyero. Khadime and Pilkington were both really good but my favourite performer was Oliver Tompsett. He had a great voice, he acted the role really well, and he was even quite attractive : )
More recently I saw the musical on the 15th of March. This will be in a lot more depth because it's more recent and I remember it better. My favourite performer this time was Gina Beck who played Glinda. I was really looking forward to seeing her and she didn't disappoint! Beck is one of my favourite Christines from Phantom of the Opera and now she's one of my favourite Glindas. Beck was funny but she didn't go completely over-the-top like some stage Glindas do. She's very pretty and she looked lovely with blonde hair. She has a fantastic voice too and she sang everything really well.
I was supposed to see Louise Dearman play Elphaba. Dearman recently made history as the first stage actress to play both Glinda and Elphaba. I didn't see Dearman perform though, instead I got her understudy Hayley Gallivan. She was sensational and is easily the best understudy I've ever heard! Unlike Beck, Gallivan did seem to be struggling at times though. Gallivan sounded quite strained during the choruses of Defying Gravity where she has to sing in head voice. Her voice cracked once or twice. But Gallivan has an amazingly powerful belt and her versions of The Wizard and I, No Good Deed and the belting sections of Defying Gravity were stunning. She should definitely take over the role full-time. Another performer that I really liked was Katie Rowley Jones as Nessarose. According to the programme she previously played Nessarose two years before and she seemed very comfortable with the character. The ensemble was brilliant too and I was only really disappointed with Ben Freeman as Fiyero. I didn't really like his portrayal of the character. I didn't find his Fiyero particularly likeable, he didn't have any chemistry with Gallivan or Beck, and I didn't really like the tone of his voice. Oliver Tompsett was so much better.
So that's my review of the West End's Wicked! Hopefully I'll be seeing the show on tour next year as well and if it's noticeably different to the West End version - different sets, etc - I might do a separate review for it.
Sometimes two films with similar themes will come out at more or less the same time as each other. Antz and A Bug's Life came out within a few months of other. The Matrix and Equilibrium came out within a few months of each other. The Prestige andThe Illusionist came out in the same year. In 2012 we had two Snow White films: Mirror Mirror came out first and that was followed by Snow White and the Huntsman a few months later. Of the two Snow White and the Huntsman did far better at the box office, making $396 million worldwide compared to Mirror Mirror's $166 million. However, the critical and audience reactions to both of the films were far more mixed. The majority of the critics felt that Mirror Mirror was visually stunning but they also felt it was silly and lacking in depth and originality. However some dissenting critics out there liked Mirror Mirror and it does have a slightly higher rating on rottentomatoes.com than Snow White and the Huntsman. Mirror Mirror has a 50% rating and Snow White and the Huntsman has a 48% rating.
I really didn't think I'd like Mirror Mirror. This was mainly because of its rubbish trailer that had the "Snow way!" line (thankfully that line isn't actually in the film). Mirror Mirror isn't slightly better than Snow White and the Huntsman though, I think it's much better! In the end I was really surprised at how much I enjoyedthis film!
In Mirror Mirror Snow White's mother dies and her father then marries another woman, the Evil Queen (Julia Roberts). Snow White's father than goes off to fight a great evil and mysteriously vanishes. He is never seen or heard of again. The Evil Queen then takes the throne and rules in his absence for 10 years. She also keeps Snow White locked up in the castle during this time but Mirror Mirror's Snow White (Lily Collins) has an easier time of it than Snow White and the Huntsman's Snow White. Mirror Mirror's Snow White still gets to sleep in a beautiful bedroom and still gets to roam around the castle and talk to people. However, Snow White decides to violate her house arrest for one day so she can see her kingdom. She sneaks out of the castle and bumps into the charming, handsome and wealthy Prince Alcott (Armie Hammer) in the forest. They go their separate ways but they're instantly smitten. Alcott then shows up at Snow White's castle as he's been robbed by bandit dwarfs and wants to seek shelter. The Queen instantly makes plans to marry Alcott when she finds out that he's from a wealthy kingdom and is filled with jealousy when she sees Snow White and Alcott talking together. She then orders her manservant to take Snow White to the forest and feed her to the Beast that lives there. The manservant spares Snow White though and she ends up meeting the Dwarfs. Snow White befriends the Dwarfs and they soon make plans to defy the Queen. This gives Snow White the chance to remove the Queen from the throne, save her kingdom, and find true love.
Mirror Mirror is the polar opposite of Snow White and the Huntsman. It's much more family-friendly and it never ever tries to be a dark adaptation of the admittedly dark Grimm Brothers fairytale. Instead Mirror Mirror is more of a live-action, modernised update of the classic Disney film. It even has Nathan Lane (Timon from The Lion King) starring in it as the Evil Queen's servant and long-time Disney composer Alan Menken providing the music. Mirror Mirror is much more light-hearted than Snow White and the Huntsman and there's no gritty realism in it whatsoever. Instead the film positively embraces the fact that it's based on a fairytale. It has a beautiful animated opening, a clifftop castle, a mysterious beast that lives in a forest, and extravagant parties with vibrant costumes and lavish production values. The director Tarsem Singh is known for being very visually inventive and the film is bursting with light and colour. The costumes and sets in this film are gorgeous, especially the costumes which bagged the film an Oscar nomination. I loved the visuals in this film and it was such a nice contrast to the dark and dreary-looking Snow White and the Huntsman. I really don't understand why Mirror Mirror has been criticised for being lacking in originality and inventiveness either. In Mirror Mirror the Queen actually goes inside the Mirror and is transported into a different world. She literally becomes consumed by her own appearance. The Dwarfs use stilts to make themselves look like giants. There's a scene where the Evil Queen tries to kill Snow White with some giant, wooden puppets. When we see the Beast it looks like a bizarre hybrid between a dog, a snake and a dragon. There's even a Bollywood-style song and dance number at the end of the film!
The acting is far better in Mirror Mirror than it is in Snow White and the Huntsman as well. In this film Snow White is played by Lily Collins, who's actually the daughter of Phil Collins. Even though I haven't seen her acting in anything else I think Collins is a pretty good actress from watching this film. Her Snow White is certainly far more likeable and appealing than Kristen Stewart's Snow White. Lily Collins' Snow White is adorable, innocent, kind, brave, resourceful, clever and funny. She kicks ass a lot more convincingly than Kristen Stewart's too. They actually bothered to throw in a training montage in this film! Collins is hands down the better Snow White and she even looks the part more than Kristen Stewart. That's not to say that Kristen Stewart isn't attractive but Collins is really beautiful and I think she looks a little bit like Audrey Hepburn.
Snow White's love-interest in this film is Prince Alcott. He's played by Armie Hammer who is probably most famous for playing the Winklevoss Twins in The Social Network. Hammer provides some comic relief, his character is likeable, and he and Collins have great chemistry. Surprisingly even Julia Roberts is good in this film! I've never been a Julia Roberts fan and I've always thought she was a very overrated actress. After seeing her in this film I still don't think she's a great actress but she did give the sort of performance that this film needed and she clearly had a lot of fun. Another great thing about Mirror Mirror is that the Dwarfs get much more screentime in this film than the Dwarfs in Snow White and the Huntsman, and their characters are much better fleshed-out too. OK they're still not massively well-developed characters but you do get much more of a sense of their individual personalities. It's really nice that the Dwarfs are actually played by Dwarfs as well.
Mirror Mirror certainly isn't a masterpiece and I still had some issues with it. Not all of the "funny" bits are actually funny and, yes, the film is a bit silly and cheesy at times. Also, even though Mirror Mirror seems to be set somewhere in Europe almost everyone has an American accent in it. However I still really enjoyed this film. It doesn't take itself too seriously and it's charming, funny and entertaining. It had me laughing out loud at times. Mirror Mirror also features superb visuals and engaging performances. You get the sense that the actors really enjoyed making this film and I actually cared about the characters. Oh, and there's a great cameo at the end as well!
Synopsis: Lady Dona makes a sudden visit to her husband's remote estate in Cornwall after becoming bored and weary of her lifestyle in London. Dona then discovers that the estate, unoccupied for years, is being used as a base by a notorious French pirate who is raiding the Cornish coast. Dona then meets this pirate and they embark on an affair.
I had very different reactions to the three Daphne du Maurier novels that I read before this one. I loved Rebecca, really liked My Cousin Rachel and really disliked Jamaica Inn. This book is only marginally better than Jamaica Inn.
Frenchman's Creek is another historical novel from du Maurier only this time it's set during the Restoration rather than the 19th century setting of Jamaica Inn. It also features a heroine who falls for a sexy French pirate. It sounds like a really fun and exciting read, right? Is it a really fun and exciting read? Erm... no. In order for me to enjoy a romance novel - and du Maurier did consider this to be her only romance novel - I really need to care about the characters and their romance. Here, I couldn't. Frankly I couldn't have cared less about Lady Dona and her lover. See I've even forgotten his name so that only goes to show just how little I cared! I felt no real passion or love between these characters and their romance was boring.
Lady Dona is a particularly irritating character as well. She didn't irritate me quite as much as Mary Yellan did in Jamaica Inn but she certainly came close! She's extremely shallow and selfish. She shows no love or even an interest in her children. She's happy to leave her children with her servants for days on end so she can go off and help her lover steal from her neighbours. The only reason why she decides to have an affair and steal from her neighbours in the first place is simply because she's bored. She'd be sent to prison or hanged if she got caught of course but the thought of leaving her children without a mother is obviously no big concern of hers!
This book does have some nice descriptive passages and I didn't hate it as much as Jamaica Inn so that's a bonus at least. And I will keep reading du Maurier's books because she's still one of my favourite writers and I know that she's capable of far, far better than this.
Synopsis: the Doctor and Martha answer a distress call from a spaceship which is out of control and hurtling towards a star. The Doctor and Martha are then separated from the TARDIS and have just 42 minutes to save themselves and the crew before the ship will be destroyed. Martha then teams up with Riley - who's one of the crew members - and they work their way through a series of deadlocked doors in order to reach the controls. Meanwhile the Doctor helps the engineering team and discovers that a crew member has been infected with something and is now trying to kill them all.
Chris Chibnall is a very odd writer in that he's capable of pretty bad stuff but also pretty good stuff. Chibnall was the co-creator of Camelot and that show was rubbish. I've also heard really bad things about the episodes he wrote for Torchwood. However I'm really enjoying Chibnall's new show Broadchurch at the moment and I actually quite like the episodes that Chibnall has written for Doctor Who. I really like 42 and I think it's an underrated episode. OK it isn't very original and it's very similar to The Impossible Planet/The Satan's Pit episode from series two. Once again we have a spaceship that could potentially fall into a dangerous object and something that's possessing the crew and killing them. The episode is quite reminiscent of Alien at times as well. Yes, I suppose this episode is a bit lacking in imagination and originality and it won't go down as a classic but it's still a really good episode in my opinion. I really like the episode's title. Not only is it a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy it also reflects the fact that the episode is done almost entirely in real-time 24 style. I think that's a great idea! The visuals in this episode are also great and it's fast-paced, tense and full of action. The direction from Graeme Harper is great. The crew members were quite likeable and the guest actors who played them were all really good even Cindy Beale, er, I mean Michelle Collins. I even quite like the pub quiz element in this story. Although if the crew members were all drunk when they entered in the questions might they have given incorrect answers?
David Tennant is terrific in this episode as well especially in the Doctor's "I'll save you!" scene with Martha and in the final 10 minutes or so when the Doctor's facing the threat of being possessed. And despite the action and fast pace of this episode there was still room for some nice character development. It was lovely to see how concerned the Doctor was about Martha in this episode, like in the scene when Martha leaves him to go and help Riley and in the scene where Martha is ejected from the spaceship. It's really nice to see their improving relationship. The Doctor also gives Martha a TARDIS key and gives her phone universal roaming. Martha should be glad about that considering her large family! It's nice that Martha gets a love-interest in this episode as well. I reckon she'd have been interested in Riley if she wasn't already in love with the Doctor. Poor Riley. He'd have made a decent companion for the Doctor as well. Martha's mother Francine isn't making it easy for us to like her in this episode is she? When Martha speaks to her over the phone it turns out Francine is now in cahoots with Mr Saxon's minions in an attempt to bring the Doctor down. Anyway, 42 is an underrated episode and series three continues to improve. The next Doctor Who story is a classic : )
8-9. Human Nature/Family of Blood (written by Paul Cornell).
Synopsis: the Doctor and Martha narrowly escape back to the TARDIS after an attack from the unseen Family of Blood. The Family are mayfly-like aliens with limited life spans and are seeking the Doctor's Time Lord life force to prevent themselves from dying out. The Doctor attempts to pilot the TARDIS away from the Family but discovers that the Family are still pursuing him with stolen Time Lord technology. The episode then cuts to 1913 where we see John Smith (still played by David Tennant) waking up in his study at a boys' boarding school. The Doctor has transformed himself into a human to escape from the Family and his memories and Time Lord DNA have been hidden inside a fob watch. The Doctor has given Martha instructions to look after him and keep him safe whilst he waits for the Family to die out in three months' time. The Doctor is now John Smith and is working as a teacher at the school, Martha is now his maid. John Smith has a very different personality to the Doctor but he still retains some faint memories of the Doctor's life and is having dreams about the Doctor's former companions and adventures. He's been making some very cool-looking sketches of these in a diary. Smith is also falling in love with the school nurse called Joan Redfern, which worries Martha since the Doctor didn't give her any instructions on what to do if he fell in love. Meanwhile the Family of Blood have been able to track the Doctor to Earth and are in the local area. They then take possession of human victims and begin to track the Doctor down. Martha and a young boy at the school called Latimer must then convince John Smith to give up his life and become the Doctor again in order to defeat the Family.
When Doctor Who is at its very best it makes for absolutely amazing television. This is Doctor Who at its absolute best! Paul Cornell wrote the excellent Father's Day episode back in series one but this story is even better. Cornell adapted it from his own Doctor Who tie-in novel Human Nature, which was published in 1998 to critical acclaim. I haven't actually read Human Nature but I've done a bit of research on it. Apparently that book and this two-parter story both share the same basic plot but there are differences between them. That book isn't about the 10th Doctor, it's about the 7th Doctor. That's probably why this two-parter story has a very Classic Who feel about it. In the Human Nature book the 7th Doctor decides to become human on a whim. In this two-parter story the 10th Doctor becomes human out of necessity. The villains of the Human Nature book aren't called the Family of Blood. They're called the Aubertides and they're also cannibals who like to eat the bodies of their victims. As I've not read Cornell's book I can't really comment on these episodes's success as an adaptation. I can only comment on these episodes' own merits - and I think these episodes are flawless. There is not a single thing I would change about these episodes. Steven Moffat's The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances is my favourite 9th Doctor story, Human Nature/Family of Blood is my favourite 10th Doctor story, and it's too early for me to say what my favourite 11th Doctor story is. Anyway, I love this particular story for several different reasons. Its pre-opening credits scene is the best in the whole of series three. It's extremely well-acted. It has great villains and even their Scarecrow henchmen look threatening and creepy. The story is deeply emotional and suspenseful and is full of fantastic moments. Cornell's script is intelligent, beautifully-written and touches on a number of complex issues. The tragic events of WWI that are looming over the horizon help to give this story an air of impending doom and the scene of the schoolboys crying as they uncomfortably handle their guns is a powerful one. These episodes do get very dark in places. The production values for this story are also great and the direction from Charles Palmer is great. These episodes are awesome!
I also have to mention that David Tennant gives a magnificent performance in these episodes. He's brilliant as John Smith, the Doctor, and the Doctor-pretending-to-be-John Smith. Tennant makes it very clear that Smith is absolutely nothing like the Doctor. Smith is quieter, less self-confident, more awkward and more clumsy. I suppose Smith is a bit dull but he's still likeable enough in his own way and his romance with Joan is touching. Tennant uses a slightly different accent as Smith as well. However we the audience prefer the Doctor. We miss his brilliance, his charm, his sense of humour, his alien-ness, all of the things that make him the Doctor. We might feel really sorry for John Smith but we still want the Doctor to come back. Martha and Latimer do too. John Smith then has to effectively kill himself in order to allow the Doctor to come back and defeat the Family of Blood. This is impressively dark stuff for a family show! Smith's vision of the life he and Joan would have had if they could have been together adds to the poignancy. The Fury of a Time Lord conclusion is downright chilling too. We find out then that the Doctor didn't hide from the Family because he was afraid of them. He just had misplaced compassion for them and knew it would be kinder to just let them die. But when the Doctor punishes them near the end of the story he shows no such compassion or remorse. It would still be kinder to kill the Family but the Doctor now ensures that they'll be able to live forever. It's the worst kind of punishment and a powerful reminder of just how dangerous and dark the Doctor can be when he's angry - and I love it! It's one of my favourite moments in the show. However I think the reason why the Doctor takes such extreme revenge upon the Family is down to the fact that John Smith - now buried deep within the Doctor's subconscious - is furious with them for robbing them of his life and the woman he loved. This performance from Tennant is quite possibly the best he gave in his run on the show and even this deleted, ad-libbed scene is really adorable and charming : )
These episodes are also Martha's shining hour, and I don't think these episodes would have been anyway near as moving if Rose had been in this episode instead of her. Poor Martha has to look after the Doctor for three months whilst he's having a great time and is falling in love with another woman as John Smith. And to think that Rose moaned about having to work as a dinner lady for three days in School Reunion! And as if that wasn't hard enough for Martha, she also has to put up with racist comments and class prejudice. Cornell doesn't shy away from depicting the nasty racist attitudes of the time. In her time, Martha is a medical student and has some respect. The fact that she's black and female is no issue. Here Martha is a black, female servant and she has barely any respect at all. John Smith and Joan Redfern are good people but even they still show casual racism towards Martha and are dismissive of her. Martha brilliantly shows her intelligence to Joan Redfern by naming all of the bones in the human hand and even then Joan's still in denial! I felt really sorry for Martha in these episodes and Freema Agyeman gives her best performance in her run of the show. Martha's increasing anger and frustration about everyone refusing to listen to her warnings about the aliens and her speech about being in love with the Doctor, if a bit cheesy, is very touching. However, you still get the sense that Martha has been coping reasonably well at the school and she gets some badass moments. Martha immediately works out that something is wrong with her friend Jenny and her confrontation with the Family is great.
I have to mention that there are some amazing guest performances in these episodes as well. The Family of Blood are great villains and all of the actors who play them are impressive. The very best of these actors though is Harry Lloyd *A very cool fact about Harry Lloyd: he's the great-great-great grandson of Charles Dickens on his mother's side* As Baines, Lloyd is unlikeable and unpleasant enough anyway but when he gets taken over by the Family he becomes really creepy and otherworldy i.e. his strange, clipped speech patterns when he's taunting the Headmaster of the school. I also find it really interesting that the Family recognise the horror of war more than the Headmaster, who fought in a war but still sees it as something glorious. Thomas Sangster gives another very impressive performance as Latimer. Sangster was also in Love Actually and Nanny McPhee and I found him a bit annoying in those films. Here though Sangster is great and he's got quite an otherworldly vibe about him as well. And finally there's Jessica Hynes as Joan Redfern. As a character Joan isn't always likeable. I wanted to slap her in some of her scenes with Martha. However Joan's grief at losing John Smith is so beautifully-acted that it would take a heart of stone not to feel sorry for her character. Joan's cold anger towards the Doctor later on is understandable. These episodes do end on an uplifting note though. I loved that Latimer was able to get a vision of a future near-death experience in the War, and know how to avoid it, because of the Doctor. In the final scene the Doctor and Martha visit Latimer as an old man when he's at a WWI memorial for fallen soldiers. There are some really nice nods towards the classic series in these episodes as well. John Smith is an alias that the Doctor used in the classic series (and in Smith and Jones). John Smith's parents are called Sydney and Verity, which is a lovely nod towards the show's original producers. There's also a line about Gallifrey being from Ireland which was a running joke in the classic series.
Human Nature/Family of Blood are stunning episodes and my favourite story of the RTD and David Tennant era. Come back and write an episode for the 11th Doctor, Cornell!
10. Blink (written by Steven Moffat).
Synopsis: a young woman called Sally Sparrow goes into a derelict, abandoned house one night in 2007 to take some photographs. Instead she finds some eerie statues and a hidden message from the year 1969. This message is a warning about the Weeping Angels and it comes from the Doctor. The next day Sally begins to investigate this further with the help of her friend Kathy, Kathy's brother Larry, and a policeman called Billy. Sally must then decipher more messages from the Doctor and she mustn't blink when she comes into contact with the Angels... Blink is the second Doctor-lite story of the RTD era. These were episodes that weren't centred on the Doctor and were instead focused on other characters that he came into contact with. The first Doctor-lite episode was the dreadful Love & Monsters from series two. However this time around the Doctor-lite story is written by Steven Moffat, a far better writer than RTD! Moffat based Blink on a short story that he wrote for the 2006 Doctor Who annual - 'What I Did on My Christmas Holidays', by Sally Sparrow - and it's simply a fantastic episode! Moffat had previously written The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances and The Girl in the Fireplace in series one and two and these episodes were extremely well-received but Blink even more so. In fact Blink was recently voted the second best Doctor Who episode of all time in Doctor Who Magazine, only being beaten by The Caves of Androzani. It is that highly-rated by the fans! Although I personally prefer Human Nature/Family of Blood over Blink, it's still one of my absolute favourite Doctor Who episodes and is still sheer flawless brilliance. I wasn't sure I'd like Blink when I first saw it because of the Doctor not being in it much but five minutes in I didn't even care. The episode is creepy, tense, moving, intelligent, and extremely well-plotted and written. It has terrific, quotable dialogue and engaging characters. It has a brilliant story and Moffat introduced the amazing villains the Weeping Angels to Doctor Who!
One of the reasons why Love & Monsters was such a bad episode was because its characters were dull and unengaging but this isn't true of Blink at all. Sally Sparrow is a brilliant character and is very likeable. She's funny, sassy, independent, brave, clever and sensitive. She would have made a great companion to the Doctor and Mulligan brings a lot of charm to the character. She does a superb job in this episode and gives a brilliant performance. Many Whovians out there would love her to return to the show and become a full-time companion, or at the very least appear again. However this is now extremely unlikely. Mulligan has gone on to win a BAFTA and a Oscar nomination for An Education and is set to become an even bigger film star with her role in the upcoming Great Gatsby adaptation. When you watch Blink you can see exactly why Mulligan has become a big film star. All of the other actors in this story are really good though and the characters are engaging. I really liked Kathy and Billy but my favourite character, apart from Sally, was Larry. He's hilariously bumbling and seems like a sly nod to the stereotypical Doctor Who fan.
It also goes without saying that Blink has far better villains in the Weeping Angels than Love & Monsters' Peter Kay in a fat suit! The Weeping Angels are fantastic monsters! Forget the Daleks, forget the Cybermen, these things really are scary! When Larry turns his head for a moment and the Angel is suddenly right there, in his face, leering at him, it gives me the shivers! I mean can you imagine looking out of your bedroom window at night and seeing that thing?! I'd be screaming my head off! The Weeping Angels are definitely my favourite Doctor Who villains and I bet they get parents sending their kids to bed early whenever they appear on Doctor Who. The Angels look terrific with their demon-like faces and, although we never actually see them move, the fast camera-cuts get their fast movement across and make them even scarier. Hettie McDonald's direction is brilliant and I'd love her to direct another Doctor Who episode. Another thing that adds to the brilliance of Blink is its comedy. Not only is it one of the scariest Doctor Who episodes ever it's also one of the funniest. It really reminds me of the Buffy episode Hush in that respect. Moffat puts some really funny lines in Blink but he doesn't put in so much comedy that it ruins the tension. He balances the comedy and the scares perfectly just like he did The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances.
I'll mention the Doctor in this episode review as well. Even though he isn't in this episode very much he still gets more screentime in Blink than he does in Love & Monsters and Turn Left. He gets awesome dialogue as well and the Doctor is still very much in character. He's mysterious, brilliant, hilarious and wonderful. Tennant is brilliant as well and, despite not being in it all that much, still gives one of my favourite performances from him. This episode isn't as good for Martha as it is for the Doctor but her comments about going to the Moon and that she's still working to support the Doctor are funny and made me smile. Blink also explained to me what DVD Easter Eggs actually are and I love the montage at the end of this episode with all the statues too. Moffat is clearly trying to scar kids for life! Awesome! : D ; )
11. Utopia (written by Russell T Davies)
Synopsis: the Doctor and Martha land in modern-day Cardiff to refuel the TARDIS at the Rift. The Doctor's former companion Captain Jack Harkness notices the TARDIS and runs towards it. He grabs onto it as it dematerialises and this causes the TARDIS to fly to the end of the universe in an attempt to shake Jack off. Jack, the Doctor and Martha then find themselves on an alien planet in the year 100 Trillion which is inhabited by cannibalistic, humanoid aliens with sharp, jagged teeth called the Futurekind. A small group of humans are also living on the planet. They're waiting to board a rocket to the planet Utopia which is the last hope of the human race. The TARDIS team then meet Professor Yana and his assistant Chantho who are having problems launching the rocket and desperate for help. But is Yana all he seems?
Utopia and the following two episodes are a continuous story. In these episodes we get the return of both Captain Jack Harkness and the Master, Martha's time as a companion comes to an end, Mr Saxon's identity is explained, and all of the loose ends are tied up. Utopia is the best of these final episodes but it's still very overrated in my opinion - I think it's a pretty average episode until the final 5-10 minutes or so. The story of Utopia is lacking. It's basically about the Master getting his memories back and becoming a Time Lord again and everything else just feels very tacked-on. Was anyone that interested in the plot about the humans getting on the rocket to Utopia? Martha doesn't really get all that much to do in this episode either, apart from sulking whenever the Doctor and Jack keep mentioning Rose. Chipo Chung gives a decent performance as Chantho but her weird, stilted dialogue is annoying. The prosthetics on her are great though. They're so much better than that half-human, half-Dalek monstrosity from Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks! There's also a few things that don't make very much sense in Utopia. Nobody noticed that there was a cannibal at the human base even though they check teeth and this one was snarling away every few minutes? And how was Jack able to hang onto the TARDIS when Sally Sparrow tried something similar in Blink and it went off without her? I don't really like the big numbers that RTD keeps using in the futuristic episodes of Doctor Who either: 1 billion, 5 Billion, 100 Trillion. They just seem a bit silly to me. I can just picture RTD typing these episodes up and thinking "Ooh, what's the biggest number I can think of?!"
There are some very good moments in Utopia though. Having never watched Torchwood Jack's backstory was completely new to me and it made his character more interesting. Jack isn't at all happy with the Doctor for abandoning him on that spacestation in TheParting of the Ways either and I can't say I blame him, especially when it turns out why. Basically the Doctor knew Jack was now immortal, was freaked out, and ran away from him. That really doesn't seem very Doctor-like to me! I did really like the scenes where the Doctor and Jack are talking to each other through the radiation room though, Tennant and Barrowman are both excellent. I also love the look of shock and horror that Tennant gives later on, when the Doctor realises that Yana is the Master.
My favourite thing about Utopia is Derek Jacobi who gives a very impressive performance as both Professor Yana and the Master. He's excellent and there couldn't be a bigger contrast in how he plays the two. As Professor Yana he's very amiable, warm and bumbling but when he becomes the Master he completely turns and becomes very menacing, malevolent and evil. The scene where he comes back is great and I really liked that they used voiceovers from former Masters' Roger Delgado and Anthony Ainley. I really wish that Jacobi's Master hadn't regenerated into Simm's just 5 minutes after he turned! I much preferred Jacobi's portrayal of the character! The conversation between Simms' Master and the Doctor through the TARDIS is one of Simms' better acting moments as the Master though. 12-13. The Sound of Drums/The Last of the Time Lords (written by Russell T Davies)
Synopsis: in The Sound of Drums the Doctor, Martha and Jack manage to escape from the Futurekind by using Jack's repaired teleport device and find themselves back in modern-day London. They then learn that the Master has called himself Mr Saxon and is now the Prime Minister of Great Britain, after subconsciously influencing the public to vote for him. The Master then arrests Martha's family and the Doctor, Martha and Jack are forced to go on the run. The Doctor then tries to reveal who the Master really is to the world but the Master ages him up with his sonic screwdriver and kills off 1/10th of the world's population. Martha manages to escape because of the Doctor giving her Jack's teleport device. The Last of the Time Lords takes place a year later. The human race and the Doctor are under the Master's control and Martha is now leading a resistance movement against him. The Master is now planning to take over other planets and is still keeping the Doctor, Jack and Martha's family as prisoners. Martha is following the Doctor's orders however and if she succeeds it will undo the Master's actions...
(Groans) The finales just got worse and worse in the RTD era and these episodes are incredibly frustrating and infuriating. There's so much that's wrong with them but I'll start with the villain. I know John Simm is a really good actor from watching Life on Mars. He was brilliant on that show and I think Simm could have been an amazing Master had his character been better-written. I'm sure the manic portrayal of the Master wasn't Simm's idea. In fact John Simm was asked about whether he'd like to return to Doctor Who relatively recently and he said this:
"I'd love to have another take on him, to be a bit quieter. I started annoying myself after a while [in my previous appearances]. Russell T Davies had a specific idea of what he wanted him to be like. So I just had to do exactly what he wanted me to, and he wanted a giggling lunatic."
So it's not Simm's fault then, it's RTD who completely screws up the Master's character in these episodes. The Master is just so... zany! He prances around, pulls stupid faces, makes silly quips, and watches The Teletubbies! There's absolutely no subtlety to him and his character is just far too daft and over-the-top. Apart from killing off loads of people he really doesn't seem all that menacing and evil. The other actors try their best to look frightened of him but they never had me convinced. The Master isn't a scary villain and he isn't even a funny one. He's just an annoying buffoon!
There's lots of stupid stuff going on in both the Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords episodes and I'll start with the former. We get annoying and pointless celebrity cameos from Ann Widdecombe, McFly and Sharon Osbourne which I was not impressed with at all! And how come the Master only distracted Jack's Torchwood team and didn't have them executed? Instead of sending them off on a wild goose chase to the Himalayas why didn't he just give the order for them to be killed? And how stupid was that female reporter for attempting to warn Mr Saxon's wife about her husband's evil-doing ways?! Like Mr Saxon's wife couldn't possibly be in collusion with him?! The Doctor's rudeness towards Jack when he finds out that he's been working for Torchwood is hypocritical and unfair. Back in Doomsday the Doctor seemed really pleased that Rose was working for them! We get some bad music in both of these episodes too. I hated the super-fast scenes of the Doctor ageing whilst accompanied by techno-ish music and the out-of-place pop music: Voodoo Child in Sound of Drums and a bad Scissor Sisters'song in Last of the Time Lords. It's like when RTD used Britney Spears' Toxic in The End of the World episode back in series one. In fact there are only two things I like about Sound of Drums. I really like the brief glimpse of Gallifrey and the Doctor's descriptions of it. I really like the telephone conversation between the Doctor and the Master as well. Tennant and even Simm are really good here. You get the sense that these two men really have known for each other for a very long time, that they used to be friends, and could still be friends now if the Master wasn't evil and insane. You can understand why the Doctor tries to reason with the Master here and it's not just because he's the only other living Time Lord. But apart from these things Sound of Drums is really bad and the quality drops even further with Last of the Time Lords.
Throughout Last of the Time Lords I just kept shaking my head and thinking "No! No! How could anyone think this was a good idea?" Again, this episode is just full of stupidity. Captain Jack's character is completely wasted and he gets barely anything to do. RTD should have had both him and Martha leading the resistance. The Master's evil plan to create a Time Lord empire really doesn't make sense either. Is he hoping to have lots of half-human half-Time Lord babies with Lucy? Having Tennant off-screen for so much of this episode is a big mistake as well. In this episode the Master ages him up even more, he ends up turning into an awful CGI Dobby-like creature, and the Master sticks him in a birdcage. It's embarrassing!
We then get to the resolution and it's a massive deus ex machina. Apparently getting everyone in the world to think about the Doctor and chant his name at a certain time allows him to get back to his original self! Well, how exactly does this work?! I've watched this episode about three times and I still don't understand it! It's completely illogical, a lazy cop-out and far too Peter Pan-ish! The Doctor then hovers around the room like an angel whilst engulfed in white light and is immune to the Master's laser screwdriver. The Master then turns into a complete wimp and starts cowering in a corner in tears because of his defeat - which makes him even less menacing than he was before! But incredibly the stupidity still doesn't end. We get yet another stupid, ridiculous scene of the Doctor forgiving the Master! What?! I know the Doctor is moral and noble and a hero and all that but he's still a very flawed character. Has the Doctor forgotten about what the Master did?! Killing hundreds of millions of people, enslaving the rest of humanity, making plans to destroy other planets, keeping the Doctor prisoner for a year, and then turning him to a house elf and putting in a bird cage?! Surely the Doctor would be feeling some righteous anger about this?! Come on! Yes, the Master used to be his friend and he's the only other living Time Lord but this is ridiculous! RTD sure does love his Christian imagery for someone who's an atheist. He seems intent on portraying the Doctor as Jesus in this episode - the Doctor isn't Jesus!
I'm coming towards the end of this episode review thankfully. After the Doctor forgives the Master he then announces that he's going to keep the Master as his prisoner in the TARDIS but the Master's wife Lucy shoots him. Er, why? Lucy was all over him in The Sound of Drums. Admittedly I think that small bruise on her face is supposed to be an implication that the Master beats her up but I didn't even notice it the first time I watched this episode. The Doctor then pleads with the Master to regenerate but he refuses. This scene is actually one of the very few highlights of the episode. As much as I think the Doctor's total forgiveness of the Master is out-of-character it's still an extremely well-acted scene by Tennant. How stupid was the Master for refusing to regenerate though?! A proper villain would have settled for being the Doctor's prisoner and would have then spent the next few centuries plotting an escape. There is a strong hint that the Master is going to come back though with that hand picking up a ring from his funeral pyre...
One of the other very few highlights of this episode is Martha's companion exit scene which I actually quite like. I'm glad that Martha has too much self-respect to waste years of her life pining after the Doctor and hoping that he'll eventually notice her. I liked Martha and I think this is a really nice scene. This episode wouldn't be Martha's last though as she goes on to appear in a few episodes of series four and in the second series of Torchwood. I'll be reviewing series four of Doctor Who next and hopefully that review won't take me as long to write as this one did.
Synopsis:The Runaway Bride picks up exactly where the series two finale Doomsday left off. Just after his emotional goodbye scene to Rose, the Doctor is shocked to find a woman in a wedding dress standing in his TARDIS. This woman is called Donna Noble and is played by Catherine Tate. Donna is furious with the Doctor and angrily accuses him of abducting her on her wedding day. But when the Doctor attempts to return Donna to her wedding he discovers that she's unwittingly involved in an alien plot to destroy Earth.
I know a lot of Whovians don't rate this episode very highly and I can see why others would prefer The Christmas Invasion. The Runaway Bride has a darker, less cheerful and less christmas-sy feel than that episode. Also, many fans dislike Donna Noble and Catherine Tate in this episode and, again, I can see why. Many fans already disliked Donna for her jarring introduction in Doomsday and the character is incredibly annoying in the first 20 minutes of this episode as well. She's over-the-top, shouty, extremely rude, and she hurls abuse at the Doctor when he's clearly trying to help her. But after the first 20 minutes Donna calms down and by the end of the episode I felt sorry for her. I don't understand how you couldn't. What should have been the happiest day of Donna's life turned into a nightmare. Her fiance didn't really love her at all and was poisoning her with Huon particles every day for six months. No-one really cared that she'd gone missing from her own wedding. They were all too busy partying it up at the reception without her. She doesn't seem to have any real friends either and her mother bitches about her, thereby making her the worst mother of Doctor Who so far! Rose and Martha may have had annoying mothers but at least they cared about their daughters! Catherine Tate's acting is really good in this episode too, especially in the betrayal scene with Lance and in the scene where Donna cries silently in the TARDIS. I can see why RTD decided to bring her back as the Doctor's companion in series four.
The Runaway Bride isn't a great episode but it's not a bad one either and it has its moments. The motorway chase scene, with the TARDIS weaving in out of cars, is brilliantly done and a really fun scene. Sarah Parish is also completely unrecognisable as the Empress of Racnoss, her make-up is brilliant. The story isn't bad either and I love it when the Doctor mentions Gallifrey. I think this is the first time that the Doctor's home planet is mentioned by name in New Who. Tennant is as great as always and it's very nice to see the Doctor's dark side. In this episode RTD shows that without a companion the Doctor is a darker character. When Donna asks the Doctor to help the injured people at the reception he brushes her off and says that he needs to look at the bigger picture. I love the look on Tennant's face when the Doctor drowns the spider babies too. He just looks so cold and almost dead behind the eyes. It really shows how dark and dangerous the Doctor can be when he's pushed to his limits. It's one of my favourite 10th Doctor moments. I think it's a bit of a shame that we didn't get to see this side of the Doctor's character more often in the Tennant run.
1. Smith and Jones (written by Russell T Davies) Synopsis: the Doctor goes undercover at a hospital in London and meets a medical student called Martha Jones. The entire hospital is then transported to the Moon by a brutal alien police force called the Judoon who are searching for an alien fugitive - a Plasmavore - who is posing as a human patient. The Doctor and Martha must then expose the Plasmavore and get the Judoon to return the hospital to Earth before everyone runs out of oxygen. At the end of the episode Martha then becomes the Doctor's new companion.
I'm not a huge lover of this episode but it's the best series opener of the RTD era. Smith and Jones isn't an outstanding episode but it's a good one. The special effects are good. It's fun and and the story is really good. I like the Judoon as well, an alien police force is a good idea. Also, Martha is an immediately more likeable companion than Rose! Martha made the conclusion that the presence of a forcefield must mean that they only had a limited supply of oxygen. Would Rose have been able to work that out?! I don't think so! And unlike Donna, Martha actually noticed the Christmas Invasion and the incident at Canary Wharf. Martha is clearly level-headed too. When she sees the Plasmavore sucking Dr Stoker's blood she doesn't just stand there screaming. She runs away. When Martha doesn't know how to work the MRI machine she sensibly looks through the manual. She's compassionate too. When the Doctor is about to run from Stoker's office Martha stays behind to close Stoker's eyes. I loved Martha's retort to the Doctor as well: "What, people call you the Doctor?" she says to our favourite Time Lord who shrugs and says "Yeah". "Well, I'm not" she says, "as far as I'm concerned you've got to earn that title". Nice! Very nice! Even though the Doctor's not looking for a new companion you can see why he invited her to come along with him on a trip. Again, Martha comes across very well even though she's a bit too sceptical. Why does she find it so hard to believe that the Doctor's an alien when she's on the Moon and surrounded by space rhinos?! And, yes, Martha does go all swoony when the Doctor kisses her. Even though Martha claims that she isn't romantically interested in the Doctor she's clearly fallen for him by the end of the episode. Martha's crush on the Doctor is obvious in the final scene and she clearly thinks the Doctor is flirting with her. You can tell by how she responds to him. Smith and Jones is a really good introduction episode for Martha and the only things it that I'm not that keen are the glimpses of Martha's family and some of the lines in the final scene. The Doctor brings up Rose and he begins his "You only get one trip on the TARDIS!" policy with Martha. Despite that it's a pretty good episode and Tennant and Agyeman are both great in it. A very enjoyable start to series three.
2. The Shakespeare Code (written by Gareth Roberts).
Synopsis: the Doctor takes Martha to Elizabethan London in the year 1599. They then meet William Shakespeare and discover that he's being manipulated by three witch-like aliens called the Carrionites, who want Shakespeare to finish the play Love's Labours Won so they can place a code in there. This code will break the rest of the Carrionite species out of prison and onto Earth. The human race would fade as a result. The Doctor then has to get Shakespeare to say the words which would close the portal.
The Shakespeare Code is a really fun episode and it's one of my favourites from series three. I wouldn't call it a classic though and it isn't without its faults. There's the title for one thing - it's a pun on The Da Vinci Code which was huge at the time. I'm really not keen on the portrayal of Shakespeare in this episode either. Very bizarrely he's portrayed as being some kind of Liam Gallagher-esque rock star! He's an arrogant, womanising, cocky loudmouth and he even has a mancunian accent! I guess they were trying to do something a bit different with Shakespeare but he wasn't very likeable. The Rose references in this episode are annoying as well. I hate it when the Doctor tells Martha that he wishes Rose was still with him and that she'd have worked out the mystery by now if only she were here. These lines make the Doctor seem really insensitive and heartless, and the fact that Martha clearly has a massive crush on him already makes it ten times worse. Also, these lines make the Doctor look stupid! Rose wouldn't have worked out what was going on! Martha is clearly much more intelligent than Rose! There's another mention of Rose as well when Lilith the Carrionite brings her up and makes the Doctor angry. For goodness' sake, let it go Doctor! The Doctor is still really likeable everywhere else in this episode though and I still think this episode is entertaining and that it has a lot going for it.
Gareth Roberts is a writer who seems to get a bad rap from many Whovians and he has turned out a few bad episodes, but The Shakespeare Code isn't one of them. This episode is really good fun and there's some really good dialogue. I am a Shakespeare fan and I enjoyed the numerous references to Shakespeare's plays. The Carrionites were very creepy and Christina Cole gives a great performance as Lilith. I liked that words were the key to the Carrionites' power as well. The production values for this episode are superb too. It's visually stunning, 16th century London looks gorgeous, and I really liked that parts of this episode were filmed at the Globe Theatre. The Shakespeare Code is also a really good episode for Martha. She gets a much more fun first trip with the 10th Doctor than Rose got with the 9th Doctor in The End of the World. Martha continues to be very likeable as well. She's clever, capable, she gets some good lines, and I liked her enthusiasm during the encore of Love's Labours Lost. She adapts well to the time period too. Being a black woman, she's understandably a bit nervous when they first arrive in Elizabethan London in case she gets kidnapped and turned into a slave. But once when the Doctor reassures her that that won't happen, she's enthusiastic and she isn't even phased when someone throws a bucket of urine out the window. She's seen far worse working night shifts at the A&E. Agyeman and Tennant are both great and I really enjoyed the Harry Potter and Back to the Future references. The ending is great too. So why does Queen Elizabeth I want the Doctor hanged?!
3. Gridlock (written by Russell T Davies)
Synopsis:Gridlock is a sequel to New Earth from series two. The Doctor is umming and awing over whether to take Martha on one more trip so he decides to take her to New Earth in the far future, to the city of New New York. The pair end up in a grotty old alleyway where drug-dealers are selling Moods such as "Honesty". Honesty isn't a mood! Anyway, as they investigate, Martha is kidnapped at gun point by a young couple and drugged. Once she's in their vehicle the kidnappers explain to Martha that the reason why they've taken her is so they can quality for the three-person fast lane on the motorway - and that they'll drop Martha off when they reach their destination 10 miles away... a journey that will take 6 years. Meanwhile the Doctor goes looking for Martha and talks to car passengers. He then discovers that there are rumours of a terrifying beast that is hiding underneath the city. The Doctor also meets the Face of Boe for the last time.
After two fun, enjoyable episodes it was only a matter of time until things went wrong again! I really dislike this episode. It features a classic Doctor Who villain called the Macra, a monster that featured in a now lost serial from the classic series - but this episode barely focuses on the Macra! The story is really lacking in this episode. Instead of focusing on the Macra we just get the Doctor and Martha stuck in a traffic jam, with endless talking scenes about how the population has been trapped in cars for x amount of years. Gridlock is really boring and there isn't nearly enough action. There are loads of plot holes too. Leaving aside the fact that this episode is supposed to be set 5 billion years into the future yet everyone is wearing 21st century clothing, and the fact that the technology doesn't seem all that advanced, are we really supposed to believe that people can go round and round a motorway for decades, whilst chatting to each other, without anyone working out that the exits aren't open? And if that elderly lesbian couple were among the first on the motorway and are still trapped on it then why haven't they become suspicious about them not arriving before anyone else? And then there's the fact that the cars are only supposed to travel about a mile every 12 years. No sane person would choose to put up with that!
The final revelation that the Face of Boe reveals is disappointing too. His last words "You are not alone" are an anti-climax because the Master was a badly-kept secrets. It had already come out that he was going to the big villain of the series three finale. If it had been kept a secret then it would have been a lot more exciting. And another thing, surely I can't be the only one who finds it really, really creepy that a woman is married to a cat-man in this?! They've had offspring too! Eew! That's really disturbing!
Visually Gridlock is a good episode I must admit. There's some very good special effects and the make-up is excellent. Ardal O'Hanlon is completely unrecognisable as the cat-man. I also like the fact that Lenora Critchlow (Annie from Being Human) is in this episode and the final conversation between the Doctor and Martha is lovely. Martha forces the Doctor to face his demons and he finally opens up to her. The Doctor's speech about Gallifrey is lovely and very well-acted by Tennant. I can almost forgive RTD for the 40 minutes before that speech then but not quite. At least Gridlock isn't as bad as the next story though!
4-5. Daleks of Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks (written by Helen Raynor) Synopsis: After leaving the New New York of New Earth, the Doctor decides to take Martha to the real New York of 1930 for her last trip. The pair go walking through Central Park and come across the Hooverville shanty town. They then learn from the community leader Solomon that people have been mysteriously disappearing. The Doctor, Martha, Solomon and a young man from Tennessee called Frank are then recruited for a job by a wealthy businessman called Mr Diagoras and are attacked by pig slaves. When they flee they come across a Broadway showgirl called Tallulah whose boyfriend Lazslo has also gone missing. The Doctor then discovers that the Daleks - remnants of the Cult of Skaro last seen in the Army of Ghosts/Doomsday two-parter from series two - are behind these disappearances. The Daleks are also the masterminds behind the Empire State Building and now want to create Human-Dalek hybrids, since their leader Dalek Sec fees that humans are much better at surviving than they are.
Ah, now I've come to the first two-parter story of series three. It's much-hated! Apparently Helen Raynor was shocked when she read the vitriol aimed at these episodes on internet forums. To be honest these episodes really are dreadful! Poor David Tennant! Unlike Christopher Eccleston he never got a good Dalek story! Before I point out everything that's wrong with this story though I'll get the very few positive things about it out the way. They did a good job of recreating 1930s' New York on a set in Cardiff... although when you compare this story to the recent The Angels Take Manhattan episode, which really was filmed in New York, the difference is very striking. There are some nice references to classic Doctor Who in this episode: Davros and the Dalek's home planet Skaro are referred to. I like some of the guest stars in these episodes. Andrew Garfield gives a really good performance as Frank. These episodes were filmed before he became a big-name Hollywood star and it's nice to see him on Doctor Who even if these episodes are rubbish. Holby City actor Hugh Quarshie is really good as Solomon and his American accent is quite convincing. In fact he and Garfield give the only good American accents in this story. Tennant and Agyeman are also really good in this two-parter and they do the best they can with what they've been given to work with. I love Tennant's acting when the Doctor first sees the Daleks again in Daleks in Manhattan. I love the anger on the face. Unfortunately for Tennant, the writing makes his character look really daft in Evolution of the Daleks but that's not his fault. This story is also a mixed one for Martha. We have the second episode in a row where she gets kidnapped but she does get the chance to use her medical skills and her lightning conductor plan in Evolution of the Daleks is great. However, I still hate this story! The plot is a shambles and I felt genuine pity for the actors!
This story is full of plot-holes and the whole idea of the Daleks wanting to create Human-Dalek hybrids is just absurd. Even though I've still not seen Genesis of the Daleks I do know from my research that the Daleks were programmed to regard all other alien species apart from their own as inferior. They're basically Space Nazis. The Daleks wouldn't want to contaminate themselves with humans. Also, the reason why there are only four Daleks left and six billion humans isn't down to the fact that humans are all just so amazing at surviving. It's because of the Doctor! He loves humans and hates the Daleks. He's saved planet Earth over and over again. He's the one who wiped most of the Daleks out in the Time War. So instead of acting like a bunch of mad scientists why don't these remaining Daleks just exterminate the Doctor - or attempt to exterminate the Doctor - and get on with their lives?! In fairness only Dalek Sec thinks the Human-Dalek plan is a good idea and the other Daleks do think it's a mistake. Later on they take command and have Dalek Sec and the Human-Dalek army killed. But why did these Daleks go along with the idea in the first place if they thought it was so bad?! And then there's the fact that it's the Daleks who are the property developers behind the Empire State Building. Well, where are the Daleks getting the money from?! How did they fund the laboratory, pay the architect, buy building materials, and pay the construction workers? Even if they weren't paying them very much they still had to get the money from somewhere. Oh, and Dalek Sec looks awful. Absolutely, laughingly awful.
The stupidity doesn't end there though. Why doesn't the Doctor just accept that the Daleks are plain evil?! For example: there's the scene where the Doctor begs the Daleks to kill him if they spare the lives of the humans in Hooverville. This is a stupid scene! Firstly, I don't believe the Doctor would just give up and abandon hope like that. And what makes the Doctor so sure that the Daleks would stay true to their end of the bargain once they'd killed him?! And why on earth does he go along with Dalek Sec's bonkers plan to produce more hybrids later on?! Yes, I suppose the Doctor would be willing to allow his enemies a chance at redemption - but to blindly trust Dalek Sec after everything that the Daleks have put the Doctor through?! When I first saw this episode I thought the Doctor was only pretending to go along with Dalek Sec's plan so he could save the humans in Hooverville but no! He really means it!
There's some really poor dialogue and acting in this story as well. I especially hated the part when Frank gets dragged off by the pig slaves to a horrific fate (for all we know)... only for it to cut to a scene with Tallulah and a gun which is obviously supposed to be funny. Very bad judgement on Raynor's part! Also, it was obvious that Solomon was going to die as soon as he made that extremely cheesy motivational speech in Hooverville. I was disappointed that Solomon died though all the same. Couldn't they have killed off Tallulah or Laszlo instead?! They were annoying and I really don't understand why the Doctor thinks that Tallulah will have a happy life with Laszlo the Pig Man. I give it two weeks tops! Tallulah and Laszlo were badly acted too. Miranda Raison's American accent is very unconvincing and I don't think she's a very good actress at all. She isn't even a very good singer either! The scene where she sings in Daleks of Manhattan is cringeworthy! Ryan Carnes' acting isn't as bad as Raison's but he's lacking in emotion and is a bit wooden. Eric Loren is also very poor as Mr Diagoras/Dalek Sec.
So yes these episodes are terrible! There are other episodes in the RTD era that I personally hate more but this is still a dreadful story and I can definitely see why it's hated so much. The plot is a mess, it has stupid Daleks, some very bad acting, and an out-of-character Doctor.
6. The Lazarus Experiment (written by Stephen Greenhorn). Synopsis: the Doctor takes Martha back to her flat in modern-day London, just 12 hours after she left with him in Smith and Jones. They then watch a news report which features an elderly scientist called Dr Lazarus declaring that he will "change what it means to be human" that night. The Doctor is curious and he Martha then decide to go to the formal dinner party at Lazarus's laboratory. They meet up Martha's sister Tish there who is working for Dr Lazarus. Martha's brother Leo and her mother Francine are also there. Lazarus then steps into a capsule at the party and becomes a much younger-looking man. The Doctor is concerned about Lazarus's experiment and with good reason. Lazarus's body is now unstable and he keeps turning into a monster. The Doctor and Martha must then stop him before it's too late.
I know The Lazarus Experiment isn't a very popular episode and I can kind of see why. There's some bad CGI and Lazarus looked terrible in monster mode. Its mad scientist plot is very clichéd and Martha's mother Francine is extremely annoying. Francine immediately takes a violent dislike towards the Doctor and even slaps him! This makes no sense! Yes, a mysterious man in a suit did warn her about him towards the end of the episode but Francine clearly disliked the Doctor before then any way. She spent the whole of her time at Lazarus's party with a huge frown on her face. Now back in series one you could actually understand why Jackie Tyler disliked the 9th Doctor so much. Rose had gone missing for a year to go travelling with this man and Jackie thought Rose was dead. But in this episode Martha simply hasn't been answering her phone for a day and Francine now thinks the Doctor is distracting her from her work! And how can Francine complain about Martha turning her back on her family when Martha was the one who got them out of the laboratory safely and only left them when she was sure they were safe? Get a grip, woman! Even Martha's sister Tish is a bit annoying in this episode and she's one of Martha's less annoying relatives. Tish does seem pretty shallow in this. She's repulsed by Dr Lazarus's advances when he's an old man but as soon as he's de-aged 40 years she's panting for him. Er, Tish, it's the same man! And he's not a nice man! She did redeem herself by saving Martha in the cathedral later on though.
These faults aside I do actually quite like this episode. It has some good action and the final showdown at the cathedral is great. Fans of the classic series will like the fact that the Doctor mentions the polarity of the neutron flow. This episode has some great acting too. After previously writing the episodes The Unquiet Dead and The Idiot's Lantern, Mark Gatiss makes his acting debut on the show and gives an excellent performance as Dr Lazarus. He's genuinely creepy and makes for a great villain. Tennant and Agyeman are great as per usual and this episode was a good one for their characters. It's really nice in the scene where the Doctor is explaining the DNA stuff to Martha and she gets it straight away, and Martha recognised that the kiss on the hand from Professor Lazarus meant that they had a DNA sample. I also liked Martha's using the sonic screwdriver to force the laboratory doors open and her defiance towards her mother's accusations about the Doctor. What I liked even more than that though was the scene where Martha finally points out to the Doctor that her constant temporary companion status is unfair. And the Doctor actually listened to her and agreed! Finally! Martha and the Doctor looked especially good in this episode too. Martha looked beautiful in her purple dress and purple shoes and it was nice to see her with her hair down. It's a much more flattering hair-do than her usual hairstyle. We also get to see the Doctor wearing a suit and bowtie! And this is before he became the 11th Doctor! David Tennant always looks great in a suit so I did enjoy that : D
Hello, I'm Indigo Montoya (my real name is Hannah). I'm English, 25 years old, a Christian, and I love reading books, watching films and TV boxsets, and going to the theatre. I love musical theatre. I'm interested in history (mostly British and European). I'm learning French and I'm a wannabee polyglot. I want to travel and see the world. I have a thing for accents. My favourite colours are blue and red. I'm 5'3" tall. I love tea and cake. I like to sleep and daydream.
Thanks for reading and please leave comments because I enjoy reading them : )
Congratulations! Welcome to GRYFFINDOR HOUSE. Our emblem is the lion, the bravest of all creatures, and we pride ourselves on boldness, courage, daring, and chivalry. Our house colours are scarlet and gold and our common room lies up in Gryffindor tower.
Traits: Bravery, boldness, daring, nerve, chivalry, courage, loyalty, good-heartedness.
Notable people: Harry Potter, Albus Dumbledore, the Weasleys, Hermione Granger.
.jpg)
