Before you read any further, this is a rant blog for people who are up to date with the show – I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but if you’re somewhere behind The Bells of Saint John this may not be of interest to you and I will obviously be talking about some of the stuff that happens in the subsequent episodes.
I don’t really care what Clara Oswin Oswald is. And I am
beginning to suspect I am not alone.
Screenrant has an excellent guide to people who are new to Doctor Who. It
ignores the pre-2005 series, rightly guessing that it is daunting and
overwhelming for new viewers to dive into, at least initially (although it does
offer a couple of suggestions), and
instead highlights a few of the new episodes that are a good starting point.
This can be a tad contentious (fans are defensive of their
favourite episodes – I know I am - and I have yet to meet a fan who isn't) but
one of the best parts in my opinion is a list of ‘tips’ for watching Doctor
Who. The last reads “…be aware that you will not likely be happy with each new
companion at first.” Excellent advice.
One of the things it doesn't cover for new viewers however is the prevalence
in Nu-Who for season-wide plots to be subtly hinted at, through the use of
arc-words (Bad Wolf, Silence Will Fall)
or names (Mr. Saxon, Torchwood). Generally these tend to be in the background,
and get resolved in the season finale. But if you’re a fan, of course you
already know that. In my opinion, they work best as borderline Easter Eggs, and
the less they infringe on the week-to-week stories, the better.
The best example of this, I think, was the mysterious Mr Saxon. He was never shown until the end, always
name-dropped by someone back on Earth as a shady ‘benefactor’, subtly
manipulating behind the scenes. His eventual reveal was doubly good, because it
lived up to its hinted promise as well as highlighting the fact that the Doctor
really should have been paying more attention.
Which brings us to Clara.
Clara is annoying. Some people may find her less so, but I
have yet to speak to one. She’s smart-alecky and overly talkative in that
irritating rapid-fire way writers confuse with genuine wit. She worked well in
her first appearance in Asylum Of The Daleks. The reveal that her chirpy personality and endless soufflé making
were essentially denial and that she had been turned into a Dalek in the middle
of a facility full of the craziest, most dangerous Daleks was a hell of a good
twist. It was dark, it was tragic. It was awesome.
But then she came back, and the show writers made the fatal
error of combining the new companion with the season’s major arc. Remember the
rule up there? In other seasons if I took a dislike to a companion I could
still get interested in the broader story as well as the week-to-week. I didn't like Amy Pond at first, but the stuff about the Silence and the Cracks didn't depend on her in the slightest. This way, however, the show runners have put
all their eggs in one basket and disliking Clara makes the arcing plot (her
being ‘impossible’ which in this case means ‘functionally immortal’) utterly dis-interesting The best episodes from
this season so far have been the ones that didn't draw attention to it at all,
namely Cold War and The Crimson Horror the latter
noticeable for providing far more interesting companions in Strax, Lady Vastra
and Jenny. Hide unfortunately showed a
slightly old fashioned ‘doctor-companion’ relationship between Professor Alec Palmer and Emma Grayling that
seemed infinitely calmer and preferable.
So why am I writing this now? Well, apart from the
monolithic Blink, I hadn't re-watched any of the previous episodes of Doctor Who
since they were on, but this Sunday I ended up watching The Lazarus Experiment, The Shakespeare Code and Human Nature/The Family of Blood, all from Series 3. Many people would argue this doesn't represent
the strongest selection from that series (again though, arguments may/will
ensue) but I was struck by three things:
1)
The quality of the stories was pretty good, with
a solid structure and even some vague attempts at social commentary.
2)
The Saxon arc was extremely unobtrusive, only being very briefly mentioned in The Lazarus Experiment.
3)
Martha actually did stuff. She was practical, brave,
loyal and most importantly relatable.
Quick-paced dialogue is not a substitute for convincing characterisation.
I realised I had been in denial. The show has slipped in
quality, and now has some serious problems. I am not going to abandon Doctor
Who any time soon and it still retains a huge chunk of my affections, but these
are my suggestions to the show runners that I think would improve it:
·
Realize that the core ‘mysteries’ of the series
are best kept in the background until the end. Over-exposing them quickly makes
them boring, confusing or both.
·
Realize that even if this were the case, the
core mystery for this series is not very interesting. We need to get to know
Clara before we care what happens or is happening to her. Amy Pond skated
dangerously close to this with the cracks in time.
·
At the moment you have a ‘mystery’ immortal girl
and a mad-man-in-a-box Time Lord adventuring through time and space. The
companion is in many ways supposed to be a stand-in for the audience. Who are
people supposed to be relating to at the moment, the TARDIS? (Addendum: This does not necessarily mean
that the companion has to be human. They just have to react to their
surroundings like a human – be it
confusion, wonder or terror. Come on guys, it’s not hard. Like I said, I think
Strax, Lady Vastra and Jenny would be awesome companions)
·
Please, please, please go back to finishing off
plot-lines convincingly. Are the Silence coming back or aren’t they? To be fair
though, Amy and Rory’s exit was exactly what it should have been - sad, true to
the characters and FINAL.
 |
| Also, these three in a spin-off show would be awesome. |
And seriously, no-one cares about Clara.
Anyway, that’s enough for now. What do you guys think?
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