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

The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Man Who Never Was

It would take a particularly sour person not to acknowledge that The Man Who Never Was as anything other than fantastically entertaining. It certainly brought a smile to my face as I watched a story that spoofed tablet computers, had James Dreyfus playing a human version of the Master (replete with middle-aged spread), created the portmanteau word Clani and has a surprisingly adult joke in response to the command (delivered by dog whistle, natch) "Grab Harrison's pen". The Skullions - a classic example of an alien species designed to look monstrous but who actually represent the good guys against the real humanoid monsters - also managed to be quite sweet in a strange way and added a certain poignancy to the story. Although, despite the overall humourous and energetic feel to the story, this one could not help but be poignant.

Because that's it for The Sarah Jane Adventures. There's no more. The show is gone. And not because it was struggling to be good, or struggling with the ratings. It wasn't cancelled. It is over because of the death of its star. And if the fact that Elisabeth Sladen may well have been dying as the recorded not just these two episodes but all the ones in this shortened season makes the whole even more poignant; not that you could tell from Sladen's performance, though. Sarah Jane Smith remains the same character she has throughout the whole series, and not just this season. Looking at her performance here - and the energy of her fellow actors and indeed the whole show - this doesn't feel like an ending. It feels like a series that can and should go on an on. It is tragic, really, that it can't.

Perhaps understandably, the show doesn't really stress the fact that is is the end. There is no The End of Time attempts at tear-jerking attempts here. Indeed it doesn't really feel like an ending; the final caption was "And the story goes on... forever". Of course, it can't. At least not on our screens. But it can in books, in fan fiction, and in the imagination of what I would imagine are thousands of children this show has inspired. And that's why, the ending, voiceover, caption and all, is pretty much perfect. It reminds me of the ending to Survival all those years ago; it references the fact that the show is over as a TV programme, but leaves the story open for those who might want to think about what happens next to Sarah Jane, Luke, Sky and the unrequited love (or at the very least affection combined with a healthy dose of attraction) between Clani. Good. Fine. That's the way it should be. The show is over; the story goes on.

Had you told me prior to seeing the first episode over half a decade ago that I would have noticed, let alone cared to the point of writing a slightly maudlin post about, the demise of this show I would have rolled my eyes at you. The very fact that I do care is tribute to the efforts not just Elisabeth Sladen, but to everyone involved in the show. They managed to turn a spin-off show into a classic in its own right. Good on all of you, and as it ends as a TV programme, here's to The Sarah Jane Adventures.

The Sarah Jane Adventures: Sky

As the good Doctor heads off into the stars for his pre-Christmas break (well, he has had a busy year, what with not really dying and everything), one of his previous companions jumps back onto the screens – albeit for just three short weeks. Yup, it is time for the return of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Any returning show runs the risk of not being quite as good as its last series – witness the nosedive in quality between Torchwood dealing with the Children of Earth and the unintentionally ironically named Miracle Day (the only miracle is that they were allowed to spread that boring farrago of nonsense across 10 weeks). Mercifully, Sky does not show any dip in quality. In fact, this is very much business as usual for The Sarah Jane Adventures. And that should be celebrated, because this series proves to be constantly entertaining.

The story zips along at a fast pace and is blessed, in Rani and Clyde, with two supporting characters (and the actors playing them, of course) that just work within the series. They are not so serious that they become boring. Nor are they so self-aware that they damage the drama. Rather, they fit in perfectly within the story and each play a convincing, and logically consistent, role within that story. Frankly, the tedious Gwen Cooper could learn a lot from Rani and Clyde.

There is also humour here, but it is not obtrusive. The banter between Rani’s parents, for example, or Sarah Jane’s attempts to explain away the fact that she has a new baby (and that baby goes from tiny to teenager across the course of one day) all help to keep the episodes light without undermining the story. Again, the performances help. This sort of story could very easily be over-acted and/or turned into a parody of itself. Instead, the actors seem to pitch it perfectly.

But what of the story? Well, it is safe to say that it is not exactly ground-breaking. In fact, after the River Song/Melody Pond saga in the most recent series of Doctor Who, a child with extraordinary power feels very familiar (and that’s without noting the similarities between Sky and elements of Delta and the Bannermen). But the story never becomes a shameless photocopy of previous entries into the Who universe. Yes, it may not be iconoclastic, but it does exactly what it needs to do – it entertains at the same time as introducing a new character into the series.

Ultimately, Sky is yet further evidence that this series has a firm place within the Doctor Who universe. It is never quite as good as the parent show, but it is streets ahead of the more often than not lamentable Torchwood. As such, it is always worth watching. So if you haven’t already discovered the The Sarah Jane Adventures, you should do so. Before it is too late.

The Sarah Jane Adventures: Lost In Time

One of the many ways in which The Sarah Jane Adventures is like classic Doctor Who is in how much the tone and style of the show varies from week to week. In class Doctor Who you could go from the tedious boredom of Sarn in Planet of Fire to the gritty, desperate drama of The Caves of Androzani right through to the absolute bollocks that is The Twin Dilemma in the space of just three stories. Likewise, The Sarah Jane Adventures allows you to go from a reasonably chilling ghost story to a working class alien Mona Lisa right through to farting aliens trying to take over the world using Nestle Clusters in the space of three adventures. In a sense, it is good that this happens because you never quite know what you are going to get. Of course, it also means that you could end up with a sub-par story for two weeks...

Lost in Time, however, raises the stakes. Not only is it very different to the story that went before, it also manages to tell four different stories with radically different tones across its 60 minutes. As a result, it never pauses for breath and sucks the viewer into its very diverse times. Clyde fights Nazis in rural World War Two; Rani witnesses the last days of Lady Jane Grey; Sarah Jane ghost hunts in the past. And all the while they are watched over by a mysterious (in that we are never given an explanation rather than him actually being enigmatic in his realisation on screen) by a strange Shopkeeper and his parrot. It might sound all over the place and a bit surreal. Hell, it is all over the place and a bit surreal. But that's why it works; there is so much happening that you can't help but find a part of the story to latch on to and enjoy.

There are downsides. I was left with the feeling that this whole story contained a number of plots because not one of the plots could actually sustain a full-length story on its own. And the linking narrative involving the Shopkeeper was very weak, in all honesty. It was nothing more than a catalyst for much more interesting action elsewhere. Furthermore, the resolution of the tedious "crisis" underpinning the story was lacklustre and anti-climatic. If your resolution involves a charisma lacking old lady turning up with a key to make everything alright again, then its probably time to go back to the drawing board and come up with something else. Preferably something good.

But, as a collection of stories, it worked. In fact, it is a good showcase for the series - it presented a neat summary of the types of stories the show does well. And it left me wondering just what the hell they would come up with next...

The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Empty World

In which Sarah Jane Smith goes on holiday.

No, not really – she does put in an appearance at the beginning and end of the episodes to bookend it, but this is one of those Sarah Jane lite episodes.

And amazingly, it doesn’t impact on the quality. The series is lucky to have characters as engaging and as well performed as Rani and Clyde, who can not only carry an adventure on their own, but positively excel at it. In fact, it is almost something of a relief not to have the titular character in it – Sarah Jane’s breathless, often tearful presence grates occasionally.

Of course, the characters are aided by having a great little script. It takes the old sci-fi cliché of people waking up and finding that they are more or less alone in the world. The running around in empty houses and empty streets are spooky, and the tension of the piece escalates when the robots appear (no mean feat given the decision to deck said robots out in primary colours). The story even manages to sustain itself in the second episode, when explanations emerge as to why the world is empty and what the robots are looking for. Admittedly, all the talk of “son and heir” made me think of a certain Smiths song, but there was a certain logic to the whole story which was no means guaranteed by the high-concepts of the opening installment.

Flaws? Few and far between. The exposition about the theoretical abduction of Prince Harry seemed like an attempt to make a cheap political point and thus appeared completely out of place in the programme. Furthermore, the notion that a lost kid who thinks he is nothing being redeemed by an accident of birth seems to be an odd message to send out to kids everywhere who might think they too will never amount to anything.

But overall, this is another great little story for this season of The Sarah Jane Adventures - which is shaping up to be the best so far*.

*Yep, I know that – technically – the series has already ended but, as always, I’m a little behind with the times.

The Sarah Jane Adventures - Death of the Doctor

In which three people return; one RTD, a little-known writer who's occasionally churned out a Doctor Who in the past, Katy Manning as Jo Grant (being seen for the first time since the 1970's) and, of course, Matt Smith as the Doctor. And to be honest with you, I was most interested in seeing the latter - and I suspect that I am not alone in that.

There's a danger, of course, that with so many elements in a story that the end result is unable to live up to expectations or come up with credible reasons for the involvement of the special guest characters on top of the regulars. Here, RTD did well - the notion of the Doctor's funeral means it is logical that UNIT would be involved, and likewise past companions. It would also make sense that the Doctor would appear - I mean, if anyone was going to crash his own funeral, it would be the Doctor. So the set-up was great, and as such it was pure RTD. He's great at setting up stories, and great at the concepts behind those stories.

He's also great at the emotional moments that frankly transformed Doctor Who when he took it over. Particularly in the second episode, those moments abound. The Doctor talking to Sarah Jane about his most recent regeneration and admitting it hurt while refusing to comment on how his previous incarnation was at the end was touching, particularly since we know what the Tenth Doctor's last words were*. Even more affecting was the Doctor's conversation with Jo Grant, as they tentatively discussed why he never came back to see her** whereas Sarah Jane has seen him many times since she left the TARDIS. And the final scene, where Sarah Jane related what other companions have got up to, was moving as well - the notion that the Doctor inspired them to go on and fight for others here on earth was brilliant***. Again, pure RTD - he knows how to pull on the heartstrings.

However, in terms of coming up with a genuinely striking plot, he's less good. Sure, this episode managed to end without someone pressing the magic button, although the solution to the Weave was hardly original and could have been seen by anyone not terminally myopic when it comes to plotting. The use of the lead-lined coffin to shield Jo and Sarah Jane was good, but again hardly groundbreaking stuff. And given the whole run time of the story was less than an hour, there was still a lot of padding in there - particularly the shuffling through ventilation shafts. And while RTD cannot be held solely responsible for the Shanseeth (which sounds a little like a brand of contraceptives when you say it out loud), the villain of this piece was sub-par, particularly when you consider the well realised villains of the stories in the previous weeks. There was something of the Jim Henson Company about the Shanseeth - but with less of the class associated with Henson. Oh, and the cliffhanger was frankly boring.

Still, the whole thing worked - and that was, at least in part, down to the actors in the piece. The regulars are exceptional - in particular, Clyde is a convincing character in his own right, and very well performed. Katy Manning's return as Jo was strongly rendered, making her recognisably the character who left in The Green Death but at the same time showing she had developed as a person (and, of course, her appearance has, well, changed radically too). And, of course, there was Matt Smith.

It is difficult to work out where the script ended and Smith's performance began, but it is clear that his mercurial incarnation is a far more interesting character than his predecessor. The relentless energy he brings to the role makes his Doctor compelling to watch, and the rudeness (in particular his really cutting comment to Jo about her age) gives him an edge missing in many presentations of the Doctor. His faintly dismissive tone was present - patronising others, particularly about their intelligence, and calling Sarah Jane "Smith" just as he calls Amy "Pond". But Smith's range was shown in the scenes where he was listening to an emotional Jo talking about her life without the Doctor. This isn't a Doctor who wears is heart on his sleeve, or is even particularly aware of the emotions of others. But when he does get that other people are upset - when he engages with their sadness - he has an air of quite empathy that shows he still cares about others. The combination of Smith and the character of his Doctor helps to make for compelling TV - even if he is fighting glove puppet space vultures wearing curtains.

In a sense, you'd have to work hard to make an episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures not work if it has the Doctor in it. And this story, in the final analysis, did work, and helped to bridge the gap between the end of the last season of Doctor Who and the coming Christmas special. Sure, it wasn't perfect, but then again, it didn't need to be. It was fun.

*If you haven't been paying attention or can't remember back to New Year's Day, they were "I don't want to go".

**Wasn't quite convinced about the idea of the Tenth Doctor looking in on all of past companions while he was dying, though. Seriously, how long did this regeneration go on for? And what about Sara Kingdom or Adric? Did he go and look sadly at piles of dust and tattered, burnt remnants of pajamas?

***Although I could only buy into some of the fates revealed by Sarah Jane. The gobby, feisty and good-hearted Tegan fighting for Aborigine rights in Australia? Spot on! Perfect! Ace running a multi-billion pound fund-raising company (even one with the acronym ACE)? Perhaps not. I'd have seen her being more involved in direct action, rather like Jo. But small gripes notwithstanding, it was nice to see that life goes on after the Doctor - which is, in part, what the Sarah Jane adventures is all about.

The Sarah Jane Adventures - The Vault of Secrets

This story is perhaps more what you might expect from a show like The Sarah Jane Adventures. Delivered at a frenetic pace, high on adventure but low on scares, it is intelligent sci-fi for kids. And any show where a group is called B.U.R.P.S.S. is clearly trying to make kids laugh. Yet, there is much more to this story than might first appear.

Firstly, the story is true to the characters within it - even the villains. Androvax, a returning villain, is given a chance to redeem himself - but rather than this being a saccharine reversal of a character's previously essential evil, he still has an edge to him (especially given what he is prepared to sacrifice in order to get his race back). Likewise, the Alliance of Shade's androids are neither good nor bad - they are trying to do what they are programmed to do, and whether that involves helping or hindering Sarah Jane and her buddies depends on where the adventure is at. The very fact that this story is able to end happily for just about everyone without copping out is a sign of the thought and care that went into the writing.

Furthermore, the body-hopping - that staple of kids entertainment - was given an edge owing to the empathy it created in the main characters towards the villain. They could feel the pain of a dying creature - something that made them both more caring and more careless. The story managed to dodge easy get-outs and cheap laughs and therefore deliver something really rather satisfying.

And for the nerds like me, there were numerous subtle yet clever reference to pick on. In the Doctor Who universe, this is not the first time we've seen these particular androids - and the brief recap featuring the Judoon was also very welcome. But perhaps most satisfying - and most subtly done - was the hints at the similarities between the sole survivors of their species - Androvax and the Doctor. But it wasn't just Doctor Who stuff that got referenced - the androids referenced a number of different movies. The replacement of hands reminded me quite a lot of Robocop, and the similarities between these men in black and the, well, Men in Black was also clear. But it was the links with The Terminator that were most blatant - particularly the taking of a van by Mister Dread and his glowing eyes beneath his shades were clear nods to another type of robot. The latter two references working well in part because the similarities were commented on - thus creating a link with those in the know about the references, but not doing so in such a way as to ruin it for those yet to see the films in question.

When it comes down to it, the reality is that this was an entertaining installment of a great series. But it was nothing more than that. When I look back on this series of The Sarah Jane Adventures, this story won't be one of the ones that springs to mind - despite all of the positive attributes listed above. Which in many ways is a shame, but what can you expect for a typical (for the show) story that is destined to sit between The Nightmare Man and a little story broadcast this week called The Death of the Doctor? I mean, the latter has got... Jo Grant in it. And an appearance from some little-known actor called Matt Smith...

The Sarah Jane Adventures - The Nightmare Man

Now I'm reconnected to the interweb at home, I can do all the essential stuff that just isn't possible when borrowing Wi-Fi from pubs - namely, watching the TV on the internet. And as a result, I can now give you my review of the first story in the fourth season of the most successful Doctor Who spin-off - The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Of course, this is a show primarily designed for kids. Yet to call it a kid's show is rather to miss the point. It is often a surprisingly subtle and multi-faceted programme - much more so than Torchwood often is. And given it has superficially simple stories with decent cliff-hangers, it also resembles "Classic" Doctor Who at its best. The best Sarah Jane Adventures could easily be Doctor Who adventures themselves.

Except this one. Not because it isn't good enough, but rather because it is completely caught up in the mythology of this particular series. It is about what happens when a boy who was not designed to dream suddenly starts having nightmares. It is inventive, clever and creepy - indeed, had I been watching the first episode when I was a kid, I think it would have scared me more than just a bit. Not so much the character of the titular Nightmare Man, but rather because of the logic of nightmares. In particular, doors swinging closed of their own accord and malign faces appearing in the glass is the sort of thing that adult horrors are made of. Indeed, the latter image reminded me of the skull-face in The Exorcist - pretty bold stuff for a supposed children's programme.

And there is a depth to the script that you don't often see in modern kids' TV. Luke's nightmares are not just scary - they also deal with teenage insecurity, focussing on a desperate need to be liked/not forgotten by friends and a fear of parental rejection. These aren't just nightmares for Luke Smith - they are also anxiety dreams, where a predatory figure makes him feel guilt for the very fact that he is being preyed upon. Furthermore, there is a nice fate in store for the villain of the piece - he is not just defeated, but given a fate for all eternity that he would clearly hate. And finally, there are nods to much more adult films - the entire set up (and especially the scenes where Luke cannot let himself go to sleep) reminded me of A Nightmare on Elm Street, while Rani being dragged into the TV was a neat inversion of Ring. Indeed, there may be a whole generation of kids growing up and seeing Ring for the first time and thinking that the most striking scene from that film was stolen from the Doctor Who universe.

Of course, nothing's perfect, and this episode (inevitably, given its focus and what it had to achieve) was Luke Smith's - and while the actor playing him isn't bad, he is probably the least involving and the least charismatic of Sarah Jane's friends. Furthermore, the Nightmare Man himself - as played by former Ghostmaker and Davros Julian Bleach - was a little two over-the-top for my liking. This was probably inevitable - had he been anymore freaky he might have traumatised children. But given his appearance and endless laughing, Sarah Jane didn't need help from the Doctor this time - Batman would have been more appropriate to smack this second rate Joker in the face.

Yet this was a great story, well-told and well-performed. Indeed, as season opener's go, this is probably the best this series has ever managed and better than a couple of Doctor Who's season openers since it returned in 2005. It succeeded in dealing with the departure of two main characters in a satisfying and credible way, while still being a great story in its own right. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a decent TV sci-fi/fantasy story.