Doctor Who: season 12

[altariel]

Robot
mraltariel: I was expecting not to like this, because in the past I have always thought it "too Pertwee". Having recently watched lots of Pertwee, I now see this in a new light. It's really rather good! Plenty for everyone to do, and this new Doctor seems OK.
altariel: I thought this was a lot of fun. Brash and plenty going on, and the Robot's story is really rather touching. Some nice secondary characters, and crypto-fascists. Can't complain.
mraltariel: The crypto-fascists are my least favourite bit of this story. They're always too panto, which is a shame. I hope we don't have any more this season.
altariel: No, surely we must be done with examining fascism now.

The Ark in Space
mraltariel: I think it looks terrific. The long curving corridor is like no corridor we've seen before.
altariel: I was slightly underwhelmed, but I think that was because for some reason I'd convinced myself this was a six-parter, and I kept thinking, "God, this is going to be interminable..." And then it ended. In retrospect, I like it.
mraltariel: It wasn't as good as I was expecting. The highs are high, but it descends into some chaos towards the end and just sort of stops.
altariel: I have to put a special word in for the bubble wrap.

The Sontaran Experiment
mraltariel: The first episode has one of the most spectacularly shit robots committed to Doctor Who, which warbles about ineffectively while people fall down holes. Not a great start.
altariel: Episode 2 is nasty and violent. I thoroughly dislike this story. The torture is voyeuristic and unpleasant. Do Not Like.
mraltariel: It is well made though.
altariel: That's a fair comment.

Genesis of the Daleks
mraltariel: Oh dear. For all that there are a couple of good speeches, it's all panto Nazis and giant clams. And hardly any Sarah.
altariel: Yes, she's disappeared in this season. I do have a soft spot for Harry, I think he's sweet, but Sarah may as well not be there.
mraltariel: Oh yes, we've not mentioned Harry, and he's the new companion! He has quite a lot in common with Ian Chesterton. That is all I have to say about him.
altariel: On this story, I've tried and tried to see what it is that makes people think it's one of the best. I just don't see it. Mostly it's a runaround...
mraltariel: With unconvincing secondary characters and a cod moral dilemma.
altariel: And it's no fun. I don't mind serious, but I don't think this is serious. I think it's dull.

Revenge of the Cybermen
mraltariel: Surprisingly, I quite like this.
altariel: I think it's shite.
mraltariel: Despite it being absolutely shite! The plot's a mess, the Cybermen are farcical, and like most of the rest of this season, there's too little story spread out across too many episodes.
altariel: There's some more torture too - this time instigated by the Doctor, which doesn't seem right. Poor show all round.

Ranking
Robot
The Ark in Space
Genesis of the Daleks
The Sontaran Experiment
Revenge of the Cybermen


mraltariel: Oh dear. This doesn't bode well.
altariel: I think this season is a bit of a disaster. Tom's not bad though.
mraltariel: The high points are moments in individual stories, there's no really excellent story.
altariel: And the low points are low.
mraltariel: The low points are boring, and boring is a bigger crime than stupid. The biggest tragedy is that they've completely wasted Sarah. For the first time ever, I'm approaching the next season with some trepidation.

Comments

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

This was the season I 'started' with when I began re-watching Who a couple of years ago. I think your points are fair - I do like Genesis, but as someone else (possibly parrot_knight) was pointing out recently, its popularity probably rests more on its importance in terms of developing the mythos of the Whoniverse, rather than its actual qualities as a story. That was more than enough for me two years ago, but I think the way I watch Who has changed quite a lot since then, and I worry that it might be disappointing now. Looking back, you're probably right that this was a rather patchy season - I certainly thought The Sontaran Experiment sucked, even with the enthusiastic eyes of a newbie.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

its popularity probably rests more on its importance in terms of developing the mythos of the Whoniverse, rather than its actual qualities as a story

I suspect that might well be the case: I'm not terribly interested in the mythos, if by that we mean universe-building - one of the charms of the show for me is the constant invention and the internal inconsistencies.

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

Robot is in the Pertwee mould, but that just makes the new guy's performance all the more contrasting. A great example is the scene where the Brigadier and Benton (is it Benton? I'll assume it is) are examining the cut-open wire fence following one of the Robot's attacks. It's framed with the Brig on one side, ?Benton on the other, discussing the ripped fence, and a great big hole in the middle where you would expect Pertwee to be. Instead, in the middle of the screen but away in the background, is Tom lounging on the grass checking out the daisies. It's a visual moment that sums up the new Doctor's relationship with UNIT, and with authority in general.

I can forgive Genesis and Revenge a great deal for Elisabeth Sladen in tight-fitting camo pants.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

a great big hole in the middle where you would expect Pertwee to be. Instead, in the middle of the screen but away in the background, is Tom lounging on the grass checking out the daisies

Aw, that's sweet!

Sarah doesn't put those camo pants on soon enough in Genesis, IMHO,

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I remember my complaint when I first saw Genesis of the Daleks was that the Doctor and his companions were superfluous, and it should have been a standalone play. They go on a mission, they decide not to carry it out, and the only things they do in between could have been done by somebody else.

Also, Davros should never have been brought back, except in Remembrance of the Daleks. I can appreciate him once every 13 years or more, but a little of him goes a terribly long way.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

the Doctor and his companions were superfluous

That's a good point: by far the most interesting bits are with Stephen Yardley and the rebel woman who plays an Alta in 'Redemption'.

[nwhyte]

I think she is fantastic. You know she also appears in this lemonade commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcBYZoIo95Q

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Oh classic!

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Harriet Philpin?

[altariel.livejournal.com]

That's the one.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

I've always thought Genesis over-rated, but that's mostly because they stretched it to a 6-parter. It would have made a pretty decent 4-parter, but at least one ep in there is nothing but running back and forth. I agree with you on the Boring sin.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It's good to find out there are more people around who aren't wowed by it.

[raspberryfool.livejournal.com]

I recently saw 'Genesis of the Daleks'; the clams were a definite low-point for me, and all the to-ing and fro-ing across the wastelands to stretch out the plot was a bore. Very effective visuals though, and a great story from Nation. IMO, it should have been a four-parter. I love that the Daleks, played by Roy Skelton, sound like Zippy. :-)

I enjoy reading your thorts, keep 'em coming. :-)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It does have do some nice visuals in various shades of grey. Boy, though, I wish it was two episodes shorter!

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

I actually thought Ark in Space was really cool, and everything on from that was descending in boring.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I viewed it very badly. Now I know it's a four-parter, I'll watch it differently next time.

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

I just think there's a very good body horror story in there, buried under the infamous bubblewrap.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It has a lovely cold and isolated atmosphere, and I think the set is brilliant

I don't mind the bubble wrap, I think because hardly anyone had seen it at the time the story went out. (Also - I still get slightly and tragically excited at the sight of bubble wrap and its popping promise.)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

We stalled about halfway through Genesis of the Daleks, and I'm glad to see we're not the only ones to be bored by it. I felt as if I ought to watch because it's a key story, but it just never really engaged my interest.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

You. Are. Not. Alone.!

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

For all that it has its share of rubbish bits, I really like season 12 and I can understand why it has classic status. Once we get past Robot and into the proper Hinchcliffe/Holmes stuff, there is a palpable change in the show. The Doctor, Sarah and Harry are plunged into situations which are small (if crucial) parts of much larger events off-screen. A lot of this is Bob Holmes' genius for sketching in whole worlds and histories with a few well-chosen phrases. Revenge of the Cybermen may be a bit naff on-screen, but the hints we get about the history of the Cyber Wars make it seem like we're just glimpsing part of a much bigger, richer and deeper story. The same goes for The Ark in Space, with its mythical future of humanity and connections to later stories, The Sontaran Experiment, which manages to subvert the future history we've only just learned about, and most especially Genesis of the Daleks, in which the sense of being one page out of a long history is a central part of the story. Indeed, it's arguably the only "historical" story not set on Earth.

The joy of this is not about actually setting out some definitive Doctor Who mythos, as if such a thing were even possible let alone desirable. Rather, it's the same sense of half-glimpsed, far-off vistas that Tolkien evokes so wonderfully in The Lord of the Rings. Of course, Tolkien had to actually develop his feigned history in detail over decades before writing that great work - but then, he was no Bob Holmes.

[mraltariel.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. IMHO, Bob Holmes is an expert at witty one liners, punning and creative word-play. I just don't see the "far-off vistas". Is there really more future earth history painted in "Revenge" than, say "Death to the Daleks" in the last season (a story we found vastly more entertaining)? What makes Genesis more a historical than, say, "The Ark" or even "The Daleks"?

I see a few good gags and bits of witty wordplay trying desparately to leaven some messy and badly conceived stories. Maybe Bob hasn't got the hang of the script editing yet, and is in the "sprinkling of fairy dust" stage, rather than dramatically reconstructing badly flawed stories. Maybe it is the complexity of the half hand-over from Letts/Dicks. But these aren't (to us) very enjoyable stories in their own right. They're just not very good.

Fan lore (a fandom that was getting started round about the time these episodes transmitted, which may explain some of their centrality) has built great castles in the sky on Genesis. But the source material is patchy at best.

That said, isn't patchy source material always the best foundation for fan-edifice-construction? Particularly if it is massively contradictory of previous narrative within the show.

[matildabj.livejournal.com]

I'm currently rewatching this series and got annoyed because Revenge of the Cybermen isn't available on Lovefilm. Are you getting them from somewhere else for research purposes or is Lovefilm just being pants?

[mraltariel.livejournal.com]

Revenge isn't out on DVD yet, so ours is from the VHS.

[matildabj.livejournal.com]

Ah, VHS. Funny how that didn't even occur to me...

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

Well, I just hope the next season has something better to offer, because dull and boring just doesn't cut it, even with Sarah in tight camo pants. I wonder how long the new guy will last?

I am totally enamoured of the fact that some of the threads in this post exactly bear out some of what me and my group was saying in class last Weds.

[mraltariel.livejournal.com]

As far as I remember, the next season has some of Sarah's best costumes, and most lovely haircut.

And better stories, for those that care about such things.

But we'll see... Proof is in the pudding etc.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I wonder how long the new guy will last?

He'll be sacked by Michael Grade if he's not careful.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

That bubblewrap terrified me at the time! When I saw the story again, years later, I could hardly believe it. "But, but, they've edited it and...made it rubbish!"