The Year in Doctor Who

I was thinking of doing a countdown/reassessment of the Doctor Who episodes of the year, but my opinons haven't really changed and a simple countdown is pretty boring*. So instead I'm offering an overview of the Year in Who.

In terms of the main show, it was quite a year. In fact, I struggle to think of a season of Doctor Who that has ever been as consistently good as this one. There was only one real clunker, and even some of the filler episodes were minor classics in their own right. I mean, a few years ago the slots held by The Girl Who Waited and The God Complex were represented by the likes of Love and Monsters and Fear Her. And it is one of the filler episodes - one of the few not dominated in some way by the overall story arc - that wins my award for the best episode of the year - The Doctor's Wife was an incredible, moving and inventive episode of Doctor Who. I would love to see Neil Gaiman writing another episode on the future.

And there were some brilliant performances in this season. Karen Gillan deserves a lot of praise for The Girl Who Waited, which is a startling rejoinder to those critics who have commented that she is more there for her looks rather than her acting ability. Likewise, Let's Kill Hitler finally gave some great lines to Arthur Darvil, who has perfected his bemused everyman routine. It also allowed Alex Kingston to play a very different version of River Song. But the best performer of the season was the star. Matt Smith has shown his versatility across 2011, and his performance in A Good Man Goes To War showed his incredible range across just forty-five minutes. Watch the Colonel Runaway conversation for a restrained yet compelling anger from the Doctor. Or watch the scene when he realises that Madame Kovarian has actually stolen Melody from under his nose. This year has shown one of the most talented actors the show has ever had as its star at the very height of his powers.

We also got some great monsters this season. The dolls in Night Terrors might have been derivative. but they were very creepy. The Minotaur of The God Complex was also derivative but striking; the nightmare maze it inhabited has probably entered the psyche and the nightmares of many a child. But the Silence were the monsters of the year; it would be good to see more of them and fully explore what they are about.

But while almost everything was well in the parent show, the same can not be said for Doctor Who's various spin-offs. The Sarah Jane Adventures ended as it really had to, given the circumstances, but at least it ended on a high. The Curse of Clyde Langer was a great instalment of that show, and a story that puts to shame many of the stories in the parent show.

Torchwood may have ended, or it may be back. But if it does end, then it effectively committed suicide. Miracle Day was a bloated mess of a series - about 50% longer than it should have been, it was turgid, bloated nonsense that took an interesting premise and then did nothing with it across the course of circa ten hours. The sole truly interesting moment was when a character met a fiery end in the camps; aside from that, it was a colossal waste of time and a massive step back from the really rather good Children of Earth. As I say, I don't know whether this was the last series of Torchwood, but the truth is that they don't deserve another series even if they happen to get one.

And last but by no means least, any review of the year in the Doctor Who universe has to note that said universe lost two of its most important figures last year - Nicholas Courtney and Elisabeth Sladen. Short of the eleven actors who have played the lead role, it is difficult to think of any other actors who have been quite so important to the series. They deserved the accolades that made up their obituaries, and their deaths are deeply saddening. And their is a real poignancy in watching a story like Planet of the Spiders, and noting that the three protagonists are no longer with us. Rest in peace, Lis and Nick.

And what about next year? Well, we've got quite the wait until the good Doctor returns to our screens. When he does, we've been promised the tragic end to the story of the Ponds and a new friend for the Doctor. How will it end for the Ponds? I suspect that Moffat will stop short of killing them off, but I do think that there will be something very final about their departure. And the whole series is gearing up to the 50th anniversary and the fall of the eleventh - I suspect that either 2012 or 2013 will see the end of the Eleventh Doctor. So much to look forward to... even if it isn't coming for a while.

*Oh, alright, if you insists - here's the countdown:

14: The Curse of The Black Spot
13: The Rebel Flesh
12: Closing Time
11: Night Terrors
10: The Almost People
9: A Good Man Goes To War
8: Day of the Moon
7: The Impossible Astronaut
6: The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe
5: The God Complex
4: The Girl Who Waited
3: Let's Kill Hitler
2: The Wedding of River Song
1: The Doctor's Wife

Doctor Who This Year

As I mentioned yesterday, this year saw perhaps the best season of Doctor Who since the show returned, and one of the best in the show’s history. Plus, after the relatively Who free 2009, 2010 has seen no fewer than fifteen episodes of adventure for the Doctor (not counting his brief sojurn into The Sarah-Jane Adventures). Nonetheless, as with any series, some episodes were clearly better than others. So let’s take a look, in reverse order of merit, what I made of this year in Who*:

15. Cold Blood
The Silurians are one of the best “monsters” in Doctor Who history, but you’d be forgiven for wondering why based on this story. They could have been any monster in this episode, and the utterly underwhelming, sub-Star Trek plot lacked the edgy realism of Doctor Who and the Silurians, the action of The Sea Devils and the sheer insanity of Warriors of the Deep. Plus, the death of Rory was just tacked on the end like an afterthought – something that utterly undermined the most dramatic moment of the whole story. Not just a missed opportunity, this one was a failure – and one that leaves me with the harsh conclusion that Chris Chibnall should not be allowed to write any more Doctor Who.

14. Victory of the Daleks
This episode failed – and yes, in the harsh light of day, it simply didn’t work – for two reasons. Firstly, there was just too much going on. It felt like a two part story forced into forty-five minutes, and as a result concepts that should have worked (like the subservient Daleks) were over and forgotten about almost as soon as they had been introduced. But the big problem was the fact that this story was meant to introduce the new Daleks – and given those Daleks were obese toys presented in bright primary colours, it was never going to work. Death to the new Daleks!

13. The Hungry Earth
There was a lot of atmosphere in this episode – especially as darkness fell and the church came under attack. But the twists of the episode were obvious (of course someone’s drilling up) and the Silurians were wasted. Not as much as they would be in the second part of this story, though, but I’ve already mentioned that…

12. The Vampires of Venice
This one was a bit like a bacon sandwich – fine while you’re consuming it, but always going to fade into insignificance when you’re eating a decent, full and well-prepared meal. As a standalone episode it worked well (despite the “flick the switch, save the world ending) and had some great lines. Ultimately, though, it was dwarfed by the bigger, and more distinctive, stories that surrounded it.

11. The Lodger
Like The Vampires of Venice, there was nothing wrong with this one, and it had moments that were both highly amusing and unsettling. But it ended up feeling like an also-ran among the more striking episodes of the season. However, I’d advise all fans to remember this one – I reckon the question of who was trying to build a TARDIS above that flat will be answered next year…

10. The Time of Angels
Well, it had some striking images – the Angel emerging from the TV screen – and a patented Moffat twist (the one-headed statues) but this one was ultimately too derivative to score any higher. It was clever, well-written and directed, and well-performed. But it pales into insignificance against the far superior – and more original - Blink. It also suffers a bit from padding syndrome – to a large extent, it was all about building up to the cliff-hanger, which is not uncommon in episodic shows – but equally not as rewarding as a first episode that can stand alone as more than just a cliff-hanger in waiting.

9. Flesh and Stone
(Just) better than the first episode in this story, this suffered a bit from being an elongated chase/escape from the Angels. Yet with Amy’s blindness, the moving Angel and the Doctor’s refusal to lie to the dying Amy there were flashes of inspiration bordering on genius. Furthermore, the fact that the crack in time played a key role in resolving the situation made it part of the story rather than just a story. Still no Blink, it did at least have the decency to be a good episode in its own right – no mean feat for the second instalment of a two-part story.

8. The Beast Below
Putting some slightly dodgy FX to one side (yes, Mr Space Whale, I’m talking about you), this was a neat little story with a strong narrative and some haunting images. It also managed to be topical, with a neat little critique of elections in Britain. Furthermore, it contained one of the season’s finest – and scariest – moments as the Eleventh Doctor raged against his companion and the whole human race. In a way, I almost wish we’d had a whole season of neat little stories like this one (the Doctor and Amy taking on injustice throughout the universe) before the overall story arc took over, and the Doctor hurtled towards his fate in the Pandorica.

7. The End of Time (Part Two)
Yes, it counts because yes, it was broadcast this year. On New Year’s Day, fact fans. And this episode stands as a shining example of what both worked and didn’t about the RTD years. The story was big on emotion, and more than capable of bringing a tear to the eye. Yet it was also full of padding and the ending – which was effectively about the Doctor stopping the Time Lords by shooting a machine – was a bit of a cop out. Special mention, though, must go to both Tennant and Cribbins – they never gave less than their very best, and were always absolutely convincing even when the script wasn’t.

6. Amy’s Choice
Despite the lacklustre explanation for the strange events of this one (space pollen? Please don’t) and the slightly tedious idea of alien possessed old fogies, this story worked well in part because of the banter, but also because of the Dream Lord – perhaps the best enemy faced by the Doctor in 2010. And the final revelation of who he was is one of those moments that was genuinely outstanding, particularly since it revealed so much about how the Doctor views himself. Clever, funny and unsettling – just what Doctor Who should be about.

5. The Pandorica Opens
Ok, so in retrospect a lot of this episode was padding – making up the runtime before we got to the cliff-hanger. But given the cliffhanger was one of the best – and bleakest – in the show’s history, I’m prepared to be quite forgiving. Particularly since a large section of that padding was taken up with the scariest presentation of the Cybermen seen since the show returned.

4. A Christmas Carol
Yes, it is light-hearted and short on scares. But it also has some very dark undertones. And it manages to be Christmassy. Which is the point – it was designed for viewing on Christmas Day. As such it absolutely succeeds, in my not at all humble opinion.

3. Vincent and the Doctor
People will talk about this one for many years, because it is Doctor Who at its best. It took a serious concept, and told a story about it in a sensitive yet entertaining way. Who’d have thought that what some dismissively call a kid’s TV show would deal with depression in such a compassionate and thoughtful way? Yet, that’s what Who can do. This episode may have been atypical in some respects, but throughout its history, Doctor Who has dealt with serious issues effectively, and often been at its best when it does so.

2. The Big Bang
Ok, it confused some and disappointed others, but for me the season finale was a great piece of well-plotted entertainment. Furthermore, it had one of those punch-the-air style moments that Doctor Who rarely has – when Amy remembered, and call the Doctor back into existence with the words he’d planted in her mind as a child – “something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue". Great stuff – and proof positive that the season finale can do a great deal with not a lot. No invading armies here – just a stone Dalek and a burning TARDIS managed to bring real, and often affecting, drama to Saturday night TV.

1. The Eleventh Hour
A magnificent statement of intent with a breath-taking central performance from Smith, the first episode of the new season showed not only that the series was in safe hands, but those hands were going to guide the show in more exciting ways than ever before. In years to come, The Eleventh Hour will be remembered as one of the all-time greats. Simply superb.

*2 episode stories are counted as separate stories, because they often feel very different in tone.

Movies Of The Year

Thinking about this year at the movies, I’m struck by just how uninspiring it has been. There has been very little to actually coax me from the comfort of my sofa into the cinemas. Part of the problem is the prevalence of remakes and sequels – while I’m interested in such films as Iron Man 2 and Paranormal Activity 2, I’m not interested enough to schlep all the way to the cinema, queue for aeons and then pay cinema prices to see them when I could pay a fraction of that and watch them via LoveFilm in the comfort of my own home. The same goes for something like the movie version of The A-Team. There is also the ongoing problem of the length of modern movies – there seems to be a temptation (which I blame completely on the tedious Lord of the Rings franchise) to try to make a movie seem epic by giving it an epic run time. I mean, does anyone really believe that Shutter Island needed to be as long as it was?

Yet two films do stand out to me this year, and while they are very different in content, style, budget and profile, they have one thing in common – intelligence. The first is Christopher Nolan’s Inception - a movie that takes larking about in people’s dreams and makes it into compelling viewing. There are two main reasons why this movie works – firstly, it is visually stunning. As a director, Nolan shuns CGI as much as possible, and we can see in this movie that really paying off. Nolan messes with reality, but the effects he uses to achieve this are given a more tangible quality by not being simply done on a computer. Yet despite being an effects heavy fantasy movie, Inception deals with complicated themes in a subtle, yet clear, way. Freud is a clear spectre in the film, and it is as much about psychoanalysis and the burying of painful emotions as it is simply about dreams. Crucially, it makes you think about dreams and how we respond to them. And that’s no mean feat for a film designed to be a blockbuster.

The other film that really stands out to me this year was Precious. Unlike Inception, this picture is very much based in reality – and the grim reality of abject poverty in America. Crucially, the film doesn’t pull any punches – it shows abuse (including a terrible example involving a newborn baby), welfare dependency, incest and discrimination in such a way that demonstrates the drama without slipping into melodrama. Parts of the film are very difficult to watch – but, then again, they have to be. To fully demonstrate the reality of Precious’s world, there has to be a realistic depiction of her nightmarish parents, the general debilitating impact on people of abject poverty and the inability of those tasked to help people like Precious to do so effectively. There are no easy solutions offered here, and as a result the film is innately political in away that many overtly political films are not.

So the two films that really made an impression on me are very different, yet they engage with the viewer’s intellect, and as such are worth actually going to the cinema for. And this is something that, in the era of 3D and endless remakes, the best filmmakers should bear in mind – if you want to make a film that genuinely stands out from the crowd, then you should try to make it intelligent.

Album of the Year

The album of the year has to be The Suburbs by Arcade Fire. There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, it is an exciting, compelling album containing striking, memorable songs done in an eclectic style. It even has a couple of bona fide classics on it – songs like “We Used To Wait” deserve not only to be widely heard hits but have the potential to join the ranks of the truly great rock/indie songs of all time. Despite their increasing fame, profile and (presumably) wealth, the Arcade Fire are not only still producing albums that are worth hearing, but positively demand to be heard. Not just highly recommended – it’s essential listening.

But there is another reason why the Arcade Fire had the album of the year this year – basically, I just haven’t kept up to date with new releases beyond the bands (such as the Manics and their largely phoned in offering) I already like. Consequently, I don’t have much to compare The Suburbs with. So it is over to you, diligent reader, to help me out – what were your albums of the year, and what should I have listened to?

Top 5 Events of the Year

Last "Of the Year". Promise.

So, Top 5 events of the year:

5. Gordon Brown saves the world. We've seldom had such a good insight into how Gordon Brown thinks, but his audacious claim to have saved the world just shows this man's arrogance - and how detached he is from reality.

4. Boris Johnson becomes Mayor of London as the Labour party faces electoral wipeout. I'm no fan of the Tories, but it was wonderful to see the once mighty Nu Labour machine get royally fucked at the polls.

3. David Davis resigns. On a point of principle. And on one of the most important issues facing the UK. I doff my (completely imaginary) hat in his direction. Once again.

2. Obama is elected President of the United States of America. Many events are called historical by hyperactive journalists; few actually are. This would be a great example of an event that genuinely deserves to be called historical.

1. Lehman Brothers goes out of business. It was at this point that the credit crunch really bit, and the global economy went down the toilet. I think you can trace so many moments - like McCain's campaign for President falling apart, the UK government part nationalising banks, Gordon Brown's baffling resurgence in the polls - back to this one event.

Anyway, that's enough "Of the year" posts. So I'll take this opporunity to wish everyone a very Happy New Year, as I am heading off to enjoy a couple of light ales to see in that new year.

Blogs of the Year (and the ones to watch)

The blogs I've enjoyed reading most this year:

5. Guido Fawkes: A great source of controversy and gossip, even if the homophobia and racism of some of the comments sometimes leaves me feeling a little sick.

4. Iain Dale: The polite version of Guido. Yes, the relentless promotion of the Tories and of Dale himself is more than a little wearing, but get past that and there are some interesting and thoughtful posts.

3. Mr Eugenides: Intelligent swear blogging by a baby. And the home, albeit briefly, for my good friend and blogging cohort The Moai.

2. LPUK blog: The blog of a party that will hopefully become more visible next year and also be in a position to contest elections. The different voices posting on this blog make it a refreshing and varied read. Plus, it is the blog of the party I'm a member of so it is going to get a plug here.

1. The Devil's Kitchen: Sometimes too much, sometimes wrong, sometimes just too much but always worth a read. Not so much a blog as a force of nature.

And the blogs I think I'll be starting to read a lot more next year:

5. Question That: Well argued and generally intelligent Libertarianism.

4. Nation of Shopkeepers: As above. Although just a tad more angry.

3. Letters From A Tory: I like the letter format, and there is a refreshing breadth of topic covered off on this blog.

2. I am Livid: Mr Angry has a real turn of phrase, and with his relentless yet entertaining cynicism he's rapidbly becoming one of my (what some would call) daily reads.

1. The Daily Mail Tendency: Because, I swear to God, we're going to do something with this next year. It is a great idea, being held back by the indolence of the two contributors. With that in mind, if you would like to contribute to the The Daily Mail Tendency, then drop me a line. The only criteria is you have to believe that The Daily Mail is a cancerous wart on the face of British society. My e-mail address is thenamelesst[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk.

That's it for today, folks. Happy reading!

Politicians of the Year

Some suprises, maybe:

5. Vladimir Putin: If only for his audacity. And for reminding the world that faintly sinister looking baldies shouldn't be underestimated.

4. Gordon Brown: no, really. Probably fifty percent of the posts on this blog have been slating that cunt in some way, so I have to acknowledge that he is a key source of inspiration for me. And in fairness to the evil git, he's managed to pull off one of the most remarkable political comebacks in history despite shafting the economy over the past decade.

3. David Davis: For reminding me that politicians can have principles, and why I voted for him as Tory leader rather than that feckless youth currently heading up the Conservative party.

2. Boris Johnson: Yes, he's been a bit of a wet fart with totalitarian instincts since being elected, but he scores points for actually being a Tory who can win an election and for finally ridding London of that outrageous piss midget Ken Livingstone.

1. Barack Obama: For obvious reasons. Seriously, like him or loath him, you have to concede the guy has achieved a massive amount. This time last year, he was an outside bet for Democratic nominee for President. Next month, he will be sworn in as Bush's replacement. Fair play to the guy.

...Of the Year

All the main media outlets are doing it, which means there's a bandwagon. And I'm sure as hell going to jump on it. So, over the five days, you're going to get my top five lists of things over the course of the year. I may post about other stuff, but frankly it is Christmas, and I can't be bothered to spend too much time blogging, so you may have to make do with these lists. Or, y'know, spend less time on t'interweb.

Normal blogging (whatever the ruddy fuck that is on this blog) will resume in the New Year.