Doctor Who: The Next Doctor...

[fajrdrako]

I watched the Doctor Who 2008 Christmas Special The Next Doctor this evening. I had a video-party with maaseru, Beulah, Lyn, Sandi and Pat. After watching the show, we watched the Confidential.

A great time was had by all.

A few comments:

1. David Morissey was much more appealing than he ever was as Ripley Holden, a character I hated in Blackpool. Better script. Though much as I enjoyed his role in the story as Jackson Lake, I didn't find myself drawn to the actor.
   
   
2. Loved the whole set-up, with Lake believing he was the Doctor, and the real Doctor figuring out what had happened.
   
   
3. Loved, totally loved, the TARDIS as a balloon.
   
   
4. Loved the byplay with the fob watch. In fact, I loved the gadgets and the incidentals in this show: the steampunk styles, the sonic screwdriver that wasn't, the suitcases, the costumes, the look of the Cybermen. Wonderful!
   
   
5. Why did the Doctor go to London in 1851? He wasn't sure what year it was... Perhaps he let the TARDIS pick the destination?
   
   
6. Loved the Doctor's defeat of Miss Hartigan - making her see herself as she was. That's Doctor Who at its best.
   
   
7. I liked it that they raised the question of the Doctor's loneliness, and his lack of a companion.... The way he said they broke his heart. (Not 'hearts'?) I loved that because I think it hints at my contention: that he is afraid now of getting too close to anyone.
   
   
8. Loved the Cybershades. Scary.
   
   
9. I liked Dervla Kirwan's style. She was magnificent. On the other hand, I didn't find Velile Tshabalala as Rosita very appealing: she was a bit too tough, a bit too shrewish - I didn't like the way she bossed Lake around. And her heroism seemed second-hand, described but not seen. As a sort of second companion she seemed extraneous. I liked the way she ended up with Lake and Frederick, though, as a sort of surrogate wife/mother, though frankly, if I were Frederick, I'd want someone nicer as my nanny.
   
   
10. Lake's half-memories reminded me of the Doctor as John Smith in "A Family of Blood".
    
    
11. I totally loved the Victorian cyberfactory. Didn't recognize it as the Hub at all. That was impressive! The kids as workers was a nice chilling touch, too.
    
    
12. Miss Hartigan made me think of a slew of female Doctor Who villains of a similar type: Yvonne Hartman, Diana Goddard (my favourite by far), The Wire (maybe), and Miss Foster in "Partners in Crime". Miss Hartigan had the best end. There's something of the 'spinster schoolteacher' about these characters, though at least two of them are involved with children. I find them, on the whole, both compelling and scary; it's a certain way of handling authority.
    
    
13. So why was Miss Hartigan corroborating with the Cybermen? Because she had a grudge against men? They hinted she was supposed to be a 'lady of the night' but I thought that didn't come across very clearly. She seemed cold, not wanton.
    
    
14. Why were they horrified that a woman should come to the funeral? Was it because she was a fallen woman?
    
    
15. Why had the Cybermen changed? Where did the Cybershades come from?
    
    
16. Though by every reasoning I know I should hated the giant transformer CyberKing (as I did Abaddon), I liked him. I liked the way his hips were wheels and he moved as if he had gears.
    
    
17. I know it's the theme of the 2008-09 season, but I don't like seeing the Doctor without a companion. Now, I loved "Midnight", so obviously I don't need a Companion's presence, but it was really the relationship between the Doctor and his Companion (Rose, as it happens, and then Jack) that drew me into the story and made me a Doctor Who fan in the first place. It doesn't have to be a romantic relationship (though I prefer it when it is), but the ephemerality of his relationships with his acquaintances in the one-shot stories isn't enough of a compensation for me. This isn't really a complain, just an observation, perhaps a slight surprise - though I knew it all along - how very important that central relationship is to me.
    
    
18. In the Confidential, I particularly liked the part where they were talking about going up and down - the use of direction on the show.
    
    
19. Loved the moment when the Doctor, not realizing that Miss Hartigan was with the Cybermen, tried to save her.
    
    
20. Liked the ending, when the Doctor revealed rather a lot of himself, and went to Christmas dinner with Lake and family. I go the impression that the Doctor had a lot of fellow-feeling for Lake, and was rather fond of him.
    
    
21. The story had very little about Christmas in it, except in the colours and a few visuals. The snow looked more real than in "The Planet of the Ood", which might have the fakest-looking snow I've ever seen.
    
    
22. How long till the next Special?
    
    
    

Comments

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Why did they need the children?

I think that was just to play up the 'suffering orphans in the workhouse' angle - a play on Dickensian themes.

I'd be rather more convinced if they had something more horrid in store for them, a special type of conversion that only worked on small bodies or what ever.

That's what I was expecting. An army of small Cyberchildren or something. As it was, it seems the only person the Cybermen really wanted to convers was Miss Hartigan.

No they just had to give a minimum of manual labour (something they could have well done themselves I think)

It wasn't clear how many Cybermen there were, but it did seem they could have pushed those levers themselves. Still: Cybermen aren't too bright.

As for Mercy being a lady of the night, I allready got the impression they hinted at that when she was at the funeral and she berated the men for walking past her so many times and not acknowledging her.

So she was angry at them for not hiring her? I thought that at the time, but still thought she was an interestingly contradictory character - if a whore, she was deliberately nonsensual, which is interesting.

I didn't find her unpleasant like you seem to, but not quite... well she was a companion for a Doctor who was himself not quite...

That's true: Lake was a near-miss as a Doctor, she was a near-miss as a Companion. I didn't hate her, but I didn't warm to her, either. There just wasn't enough there.

I like it how it shows that Lake is doing his best to make sense of garbled memories.

I liked that too. He was ... coming close in a lot of ways.

Considering that the Doctor can erase memories (we saw him do it with Donna), I expected him to do a little telepathy with Lake to see what memories he could reach. When he touched his face, I wondered if that was telepathy happenening, but it seemed not to be.

[wijsgeer.livejournal.com]

I think that was just to play up the 'suffering orphans in the workhouse' angle - a play on Dickensian themes.

yeah, but they felt too much as just a theme for me. I would have loved them to have a limited amount of material and hence resorting to other things than full grown cybermen and instead using those cyber beasts and cyberkids. I've never seen a cyberkid, it would have been a nice touch. Oh well, I shouldn't think and just watch.

So she was angry at them for not hiring her? I thought that at the time, but still thought she was an interestingly contradictory character - if a whore, she was deliberately nonsensual, which is interesting.

I think there might well be many whores who are not sensual. People (certain these upright protestant blokes) often have funny double feelings about sex, wanting and loathing, desire and repulsion all warring together. Simple sensuality might well not be what they want, paid sex should not be generously given. So it might well be a good attitude to have for a sew worker.
And no, I don't think she was angry for them not patronizing her services but just for patronizing her. For walking past her, officially looking down on her and at the same time throwing secret glances at her wares so to speak. At least, that seems to me quite a reasonable reason to become bitter. I see her as a smart woman with very limited ways to make use of her potential, society left her the option of whore but it is so absolutely condemning about it. I agree she doesn't seem sensual and I wouldn't think her a great lover of sex. The a-sexuality of the cybermen might very well be one of their attraction (and the possibility that they would give her power and she could pay back the society that had wronged her).

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I've never seen a cyberkid, it would have been a nice touch. Oh well, I shouldn't think and just watch.

I agree. It would have been scary, and we'd already seen the Cybershades, though I think Cyberbeast is a better name for them.

People (certain these upright protestant blokes)

Of whom your British Victorian male would be a prime example!

often have funny double feelings about sex, wanting and loathing, desire and repulsion all warring together.

I did wonder if that was part of her thing - maybe not exactly a dominatrix role, but a dominating one.

I don't think she was angry for them not patronizing her services but just for patronizing her.

Makes sense.

The a-sexuality of the cybermen might very well be one of their attraction (and the possibility that they would give her power and she could pay back the society that had wronged her).

I agree. I think she wanted revenge and validation - and thought Cyber-power was a way to get it.

And then of course the Cybermen were just as patronizing as the human men - they wanted her on their terms, and told her that the upgrading was for her own good. Interesting karma, tying in nicely with the Doctor's revenge of showing her the reality of what she'd done.

[wijsgeer.livejournal.com]

I did wonder if that was part of her thing - maybe not exactly a dominatrix role, but a dominating one.

I think, perhaps, I should try and look for a book for different types of whores/different roles. Preferably in a socio-economic expose or cultural (not a psychological study I mean).

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, quite right.

[wijsgeer.livejournal.com]

And then of course the Cybermen were just as patronizing as the human men - they wanted her on their terms, and told her that the upgrading was for her own good. Interesting karma, tying in nicely with the Doctor's revenge of showing her the reality of what she'd done.

But wasn't it fun that she somehow overcome the rule of no emotion-less? No matter how often I see the trick of the totally black eyes, I keep finding it creepy. As for creepy, cybermen filled with emotions (like sadism and powerlust) would be ultra creepy...

BTW what was the weapon the Doctor used?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

But wasn't it fun that she somehow overcome the rule of no emotion-less?

I liked that. I liked the way that the Cybermen weren't predictable - they weren't just the same metallic creatures we'd known before becuase they were acting different. Which was terrifying.

As for creepy, cybermen filled with emotions (like sadism and powerlust) would be ultra creepy...

Yes!

BTW what was the weapon the Doctor used?

Er... um... sonic blue ray?