Doctor Who: Cold Blood
I once read that writing the first episode of a Doctor Who story was easy - it was rounding off the whole story effectively that created problems. Basically, the first installment is about creating mystery and fear, while the follow-up(s) have to credibly resolve all the strands and plot points created by the first episode. Anyone who's seen the Doctor Who story The Space Museum knows just how badly this can go, and how a great first episode can be destroyed by the episodes that follow.
My big fear for Cold Blood was that it would struggle to positively enhance The Hungry Earth. Because, with the benefit of hindsight, The Hungry Earth was a very slight episode - big on atmosphere but lacking in plot and effective use of the Silurians in their long-awaited return. Which leaves a lot for Cold Blood to achieve. Wrapping up the story, tying up the plot strands from the first episode, making the whole adventure stand out from the crowd, and realising the potential that the Siluarians have shown since 1970. That's a tall order even for the best of writers...
And, let's be honest, Chibnall did OK. His resolution of what he'd set up was alright. It was visually very strong, with a couple of interesting ideas. But it was also incredibly bland. I mean, the whole thing didn't so much feel like a cop-out as a perfunctory run-through of science fiction cliches. You had the evil alien general, the nice alien old scientist, and the wise old leader. And the way it was all resolved was pretty uninspiring. The nice old leader decides to put his people back into hibernation. Sure, it is a way of avoiding the slaughter than has ended previous Silurian (or should we be saying Homo Reptilia now?) stories. But I couldn't help but feel how lucky the Doctor and the humans were. They got a Gandhi-esque figure as leader, rather than the Silurian equivalent of George W Bush. Which is just as well, really, or things could have turned out much worse for the Doctor's posse.
But the whole thing a little like it was going through the motions in places. It wasn't a bad resolution to the story, but it certainly wasn't the epic, intelligent adventure that the Silurians deserved.
Then... then we had the ending. Oh, and - spoilers ahead.
It's a shame that Rory's fate couldn't have been woven in to the story a little more effectively - like Adric's death at the end of Earthshock. But once Rory had been shot, the episode was completely transformed. Mainly because not only did Rory die, but Amy was forced to forget about him by the energy emerging from the crack in the universe. Heartbreaking scenes of a desolated Amy gave way to a poignant scene where she was waving at herself now alone on the hillside. The Doctor is left carrying another secret - that Amy was once in love, and waiting to get married. It is a bold and brilliant moment: much better than simply dropping Rory off as Amy and the Doctor go off for a little bit more pre-Wedding adventuring.
And then... to up the ante even more, we saw what the Doctor pulled from the crack in the universe. An audacious escalation of the story arc.
Tim, a character in Spaced, used to occasionally say "skip to the end" when he was bored of a story. And looking back on it, I reckon that's how I feel about Cold Blood. An OK episode that will probably be most remembered for its great ending.
Labels: Doctor Who, Reviews, TV
8 Comments:
I have to say, I was a bit disappointed, but I don't really know why. I suppose, somehow I didn't care for the characters as much as I should. I failed to empathise with the Silurians, except for the 'head honcho'. He was subtle and superb. You could feel for his position. As for the military 'leader' one suspects her troops would only follow her out of morbid curiosity.
I am beginning to feel that the new series is only standing on what has gone before. The acting is good, but lacks something. Dr Who should be good because it IS good, not because it was.
I was VERY disappointed... the green-rubber-mask look lost all hint of the sheer strangeness of the Silurians (they were just TOO human - reptiles with human eyes, perfect human teeth... surely eyes, teeth and third eye could have been made reptilian in some way whilst still allowing the acting to come through? ...awful, really, and very lazy). The story itself was a virtual retread of the original, with a few tweaks to 'freshen it up'. Sadly an inferior remake,as the Silurian characters were two-dimensional cliches that we've seen a thousand times. I can't agree that this episode was thoughtful at all. Hmmm. I had high hopes for this series at first, and especially for Matt Smith's doctor, but the series itself is increasingly uninspired and is missing the mark too often, whilst Smith is occasionally great and occasionally awful - the negotiation scenes were crying out for gravitas (the future of the planet is at stake, and what we get is the Doctor hopping in and out like an unamusing schoolboy). I LOVE this programme, but for the first time I was actively bored watching it. Are we sure that the falling viewing figures are simply due to sunny weather last week?!!?
It appears the colour of Doctor Who's bowtie changes from blue to red after the emotional scene where the Doctor is trying to make Amy remember Rory.
Are there two Doctors?
Are the cracks caused by one of the Doctors self desctructing his Tardis as shown in Amy's choice?
Spoilers:-)
I maintain that it was thoughtful in that it hinted that one day reconciliation between human and reptile was possible, and also in that some humans wanted to stay with the Silurians and await the new age in hibernation.
That said, I'd agree that this was a misfire in the presentation of the Silurians. It was trying to repeat Doctor Who and the Silurians - whereas it should have been trying to do something new. Compare this adventure with 2005's Dalek - a story that took the Daleks and made them awesome for a new generation of fans and for those who already knew of them. By contrast, the Silurians were just as they always had been, but with better (and, yes, in some ways less effective as a result) make-up/prosthetics.
This season has been at its best when it tries new things - with both the Daleks and the Silurians, it has struggled to truly convince. So let's see more new adversaries for the Doctor, rather than relying on recycling past monsters from previous eras.
Fair enough, on reflection I'd agree that at least the 1,000-years-on ending was mildly thoughtful, and it did progress the usual 'Silurian story' format somewhat. I just wish that I could find more to like in the rest of the episode, as the potential to make something great was there.
You're absolutely right that one of the major strengths of the RTD era was (usually) sensitive and (usually) successful reinvention - or maybe 'refurbishment' would be a better word, as what he seemed to have achieved was to update a 'classic' character/adversary whilst retaining the essence that made it classic in the first place. No mean feat, that. The daleks are a great example of this - the 2005 refurbishment was fab, but the 2010 reinvention seems to have lost the essence, possibly simply by straying just that bit too far from the original paradigm.
Similarly, Silurians; of course the original designs needed to be updated, but in the process the sheer 'otherness' of a reptilian race got lost - and it was that otherness that made them such a successful creation.
I don't want to sound as though I'm totally down on this series - there are good things there - but the RTD series, though inevitably patchy, regularly threw up very, very good episodes. When I think about it, I'm struggling to think of a genuinely great episode so far in this series (mayyyybe the first part of the Weeping Angels story) with many being thoroughly mediocre. At first I thought it was just the bedding in of the new elements, but it now worries me as it's getting worse rather than better as the series goes on.
My other worry is that the 'crack in the universe' theme so often seems to be unsubtly tacked on at the end of episodes, which to my mind is coming across as a bit hackneyed. Moffat is such a good writer that I'm trying to tell myself that it's all leading up to something fabulous, but - hmmm, is it...?
Rory, aka http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_That_Time_Forgot
I just wanna say that I loved the new series until they changed writers and actors. Yeah I know moffat wrote several episodes before, but c'mon! A little girl cooking for The Doctor?
This series five is getting worse, I only watch it because it used to be great, now I have to flash forward every episode and still I think I didn't missed anything.
That makes me sad :(
John,
Going to have to disagree with you there - the episodes that haven't involved Daleks and Silurians have generally been a bit disappointing, the other episodes have been consistently good. And I think The Eleventh Hour was one of the best, if not the best, installment to introduce a new Doctor - inventive, clever and scary.
I also think that Smith is a far better Doctor that Tennant, and Moffatt has been a far better chief writer (thus far) than RTD. Because while Cold Blood didn't quite work, it was still far better than the duds of the RTD era (such as Partners In Crime and World War Three).
TNL
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