Re: Review - Season 2, Episode 7: The Idiot's Lantern

pbowles@xxxxxxx wrote:
FishFood wrote:
pbowles@xxxxxxx wrote:
Well, I hadn't heard much positive about this episode in advance, and
in the event I found myself underwhelmed by it, though I might qualify
that by saying that I didn't think it was THAT bad.

We're promised a 'Twilight Zone'-style story, but I have to confess I
never got into The Twilight Zone. A weakness of the Doctor/Rose
situation that I've seen Agamemnon, of all people, highlight here is
becoming clearer - with a human companion and no overarching objective
of his own, the Doctor does mainly seem to be relegated to taking her
on a tour of bits of her planet's past. And usually getting the date
and place wrong, as here. That suggests it is time for a fresh
companion, hopefully one with a different background - aside from
Sarah's allusion to the fact in "School Reunion", let's have a reminder
that the Doctor takes alien companions; we've had none in this new
incarnation of the series.

Onto the story itself, the Magpie-Wire plot proves, in itself, too thin
to hold the story together. Therefore we're given a substory about the
abusive Eddy Connolly which is only tenuously tied to the main plot,
and which I feel the story could have done without. I've heard people
complain about the Doctor's and Rose's treatment of Connolly, but while
I didn't like it it seemed in character for the Doctor, who in past and
present incarnations rarely seems to have accepted that cultural norms
make certain behaviour acceptable, and I understand why Gatiss included
it. This is, after all, a show for a modern audience, including kids,
and kids' shows teach morality among other things - if we were to be
shown the abusive father/husband and not have him held to account, what
sort of message would that send? But it seems we have to be shown him
to make this a 'period piece' of the sort the BBC loves to sell, and so
we had to have Connolly taken to task.

On the subject of that part of the plot, I'm becoming uneasy about how
glibly the Doctor flashes psychic paper around as a way of avoiding any
necessity to work his way out of situations. Last season we saw psychic
paper twice. Since "New Earth", we've seen it in four out of six
stories, and here it's manifestly used simply as a way of avoiding
scripting the Doctor talking his way into the house. Some time soon we
need to have someone in an episode challenge the authority of the
psychic paper or doubt its veracity, just so that it becomes less of a
get-out-of-jail-free card. There must be a reason why the old Doctors
never resorted to it (a story reason, not the real reason that the idea
hadn't been thought of).

Having Rose victimised by the Wire was a mistake - that made it
inevitable that whatever solution the Doctor came up with would restore
everyone's faces, and as pointed out by others that makes no sense at
all in the context of the story or its resolution. It's not as though
Doctor Who needs happy endings where no one dies or is horribly
disfigured; the story could easily have been resolved with the victims
remaining faceless and hidden as a police cover-up (and on that
subject, why do we have Connolly mentioning Torchwood, an organisation
Harriet Jones told us in an episode set in 2006 that she wasn't
supposed to know about as PM? In an alternate universe I can stomach it
being public knowledge, but not here). The 'happy ending' to the
Connolly story was out of place too - the kid just got his father
kicked out of his home, and suddenly by going to help him carry their
bags the two are reconciled as they leave? Connolly's character is
presented as being too vindictive for that to be plausible, even if it
were desirable.

Not a strong showing at all - the only episode of the six on DVDS 2 and
3 that I've hesitated to watch a second or subsequent times. I'd have
to watch more of last year's episodes again before commenting on
whether it's on a par with the weaker showings there, but it's not a
favourite by any means.

Phil

This seems to be another one of those stories designed not simply
to make sense, but for the viewer to find sense. Strands of ideas
included for different, yet deliberate reasons. Its only the
superficial aspect of 'story telling', which impedes those ideas.

Ah, you mean it's another of *those* stories where a certain type of
viewer finds intellectual satisfaction in inventing spurious
justifications for a bad story.

ha ha - no, i'm saying its part the culture, functioning in this case to
provide a tiny window on change, or persistence. It is meaning for those
who can see meaning and entertainment for the rest. Its a whisper to an
open mind, a key to a locked door, the title page of unwritten book. A
closed book with pretty picture. Its whatever you have the sophistication
to see. Some might even see it as one of those test of fitness, assuming
one follows such ideas. Hopefully i'll be taken in the same vane.

The 1950's, the new age of the media, the glorious distraction of
pomp and circumstance, and then those faceless people one might
describe as off their face..

Only if one likes bad puns.

not to mention the significant story of abuse, and identity.

"Significant story"? The abuse plot was irrelevant to the story and
served little purpose beyond allowing the Doctor and Rose to moralise
on correct behaviour to their family audience. As for 'identity', are
you referring to Connolly's single line about peer pressure?

The reference to identity, was based in the inference made of Tommy's
character. One could see this for its connections to us now. The way we
have this, and other aspects of identity, defined for us. Those identities
defined as we react to or away from what the culture projects.

Consider the time, post war Britain, then the ideas which would been
necessary to promote the idea of the male, the soldier, the breeder.
I am saying this sub story followed the pressures of its times. As such
it functions as a way to see our own times. The same goes for the abuse
subtext.

There was quite a lot packed into this
episode, its just a shame the dramatic tension, relied on to sell
the idea, was less than it could be. No sight of the monster
behind the veneer of beauty. Just a vague notion of the image,
as so much reconstituted electrons.

Because that's all the writer had in mind. There was no thought of some
deeper 'Beauty is the Beast' subtext - it was just a convenient way of
sparing money on monster makeup.

They might have had the monster stealing faces and so identity - for a reason.

But they didn't. Another subtext that simply wasn't there was the idea
of 'ídentity' being taken. Tommy's grandmother was no less his
grandmother for having her face removed, and nor was Rose any less
Rose; they were just the same person with most of their brain activity
shut down. There's no more a question of identity than there is with
someone in a coma. It didn't even make sense in the context of the
story; it was just done to appear creepy.

I see what you're saying and i have to say this is really where they need
to spend the time. Its doesn't really require any extravagance in spending
or production, just an element of thought and the persistence with the
question - why? Its all the difference between good and better. One
additional scene would have held all the answers, but no. We have just
that single face for The Wire, when in truth even that face was
representative of some other force. Why not show this with a myriad of
stolen faces? Not one thing, but many.

The significant moments was the doctor's comments to the police
and the boy's statements to his father, either would have been
reason enough for the episode. Good old Doc, always at hand with
the right medicine.

Another thing about this episode is that Tennant spends too much time
shouting angrily at people - I don't think it's anger he does badly,
since I felt he showed that well enough in the Christmas special, the
Cyberman story and School Reunion - but he sounds very false when
trying to shout. It can't be the easiest thing in the world to both
speak with a false accent and modulate your tone when doing so, and
maybe that's why it didn't work. And the "Now there's no power on this
Earth that can stop me" line was just moronic, not to mention a cliche.

Yeah they might have done better to play him as a Scot and allowed
his natural voice to come thought in his performance. Or write with
an idea of his strengths and make that the strength of the doctor.
No need of histrionics of acting big. Instead have someone else
supply the rage, with him as counter point. The voice of reason.


Phil


[It would seem one can't even whisper as we use to, without
providing 'them' with an excuse to jump in. Consider what we lose
as yet another mode of expression is lost. Seeing less, having
less reason to think, so grows the perfect illusion. A profound
ignorance waits to fill the vacuum vacated by thought. ]
.

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