Doctor Who - "Space" and "Time"
If, like me, you can't bear the wait until the next season of Doctor Who, then it is definitely worth checking out the Comic Relief adventure here and here*. Or Space and Time, if you will. Of course, being Comic Relief episodes, they're rather lightweight - both in terms of dialogue and plot. In fact, a lot of the story is built around the length of Amy Pond's skirt, which is both very tongue in cheek and a good indicator of what the story is like. Then when you fact in the only characters are the three regulars and the only sets the TARDIS interior and exterior, you sort of get the picture that this won't be one of the Doctor's most epic adventures.
But the whole thing works, and you end up with the feeling that this is exactly the Doctor, Amy and Rory do in-between adventures. And, mercifully, the whole thing is tongue in cheek, but it isn't mocking the show as, so often, Comic Relief things end up doing. It is a little piece of Doctor Who - a small, rather inconsequential gem between seasons. And it more than whets the appetite of this fan for The Impossible Astronaut come this Easter...
*Probably best to catch them sooner rather than later if you're interested, as I have no idea of how long they will be hanging around for.
Labels: Cult TV, Doctor Who, Reviews, TV
posted by The Nameless Libertarian @ 12:02 pm
5 Comments
5 Comments:
Ta for the links, I could not bring myself to sit through something I do not find at all 'Comic' and the only 'Relief' is when it's over
It was a fantastic mini episode.
Seeing as these programmes are all about 'space' and 'time', it would be far better if they abandoned the format of "50 minutes every Saturday evening when the new season's running" in favour of episodes of random length (why not one minute episodes? Or four hour episodes?) scattered across all the different BBC channels at random and unannounced and in no particular order.
So you might be watching BBC Parliament and catch an 8 minute episode, which is part 2 of a two hour episode which they broadcast on Cbeebies several days later. But you miss that one, so you have to piece it together from a twenty minute episode 3 that they show in BBC News 24 at one o'clock in the morning the very next day.
And so on.
It works because it is actually written as a very short episode rather than as just a bit of larking about for charity, like most of the previous Comic Relief attempts. Given that the show is now run by people who started out as fans, I wouldn't be surprised if it was inspired by the TARDIS appearing inside itself in the Tom Baker story "Logopolis".
As the new series is fast approaching, it's time for some pointless fan speculation.
Who is River Song? The Doctor has met her in many different places so she seems to have the ability to travel freely through time and space. She also understands how the Doctor thinks, and knows how to operate the TARDIS. All this suggests that she is a Time Lord/Lady/Person.
But the Doctor trapped the Time Lords on Gallifrey in a Time Lock. So she must have left Gallifrey before the Time War (in as much as that concept makes any sense!) and must have gone somewhere beyond the reach of the Daleks. We know one person who fits the bill, and that is Romana. At the end of "Warrior's Gate" she was left at the border of normal space and E-space. She was going to help free the Tharils, who had once built an empire on their ability to navigate the "time winds". If she has learnt to do the same it would explain how she travels so widely without a TARDIS, and how she survived the war.
This also seems like the kind of clever continuity reference that would appeal to Steven Moffat, the current Head Writer and the writer who introduced the character in "Silence in the Library".
Romana is certainly a possibility - but (despite it not being explicitly stated on television) it has been strongly implied that Romana returned to Gallifrey and even became President (for example, by RTD in the first annual for the new series). Of course, that is by no means canonical, so it doesn't completely eliminate the Romana solution (there's a title for an episode, right there). And that would be a far better solution than some of the others I've heard suggested - like River Song being the Rani.
I suspect that Moffat will try to come up with something new for River Song, though. It has been heavily implied that she marries/is married/will be married to the Doctor, but that's been so heavily trailed now that it would almost be an anti-climax. I did think that she could be his mother, but if that is the case, then he has a really weird relationship with his mother given the amount of flirting they do (or she does with him at any rate).
And you're absolutely right about the mini-episodes - the fact that they are made by people who care about the show makes all the difference and prevents them from being the normal comic relief dross. And yes, as soon as I saw the TARDIS in the TARDIS, I though Logopolis.
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