Starz In Their Eyes

The final weeks of Peter Capaldi's reign as Doctor Who have begun and already I feel a slight sense of melancholy and regret. There's a received opinion that the actor himself is the reason for declining viewing figures while ignoring that the revival of the series was twelve years ago. Maybe the audience is getting jaded and has moved on. And do we even consume television the way we did a dozen years ago?

I have had my doubts about Steven Moffat's vision many times since 2010- the dark fairy tale of Matt Smith's Doctor; the inappropriately sexualised relationships with Amy Pond and Clara Oswald; the convoluted story arcs and the "switch -off -the- machine" resolutions; the moral ambiguity and morbid tone of the Twelfth Doctor's early days.

And yet.

Is it possible that we might look back with yearning to the era of River Song and the Impossible Girl? Or will the populism of Broadchurch creator Chris Chibnall rival the approach of Russell T. Davies? After all, the Douglas Adams era of the late 70s was derided at the time and all through the following decade and it's a high point of entertainment in the classic series.
So far, this year's tenth season has met with a measured sense of approval in the media.

The Pilot ( ho ho, Mr. Moffat)  has revitalised the series with its "Educating Rita"-style mentoring relationship between the Twelfth Doctor and his new companion, Bill Potts. While I've been championing diversity in super-hero comics this spring, I was concerned that Bill would be a patronising "street" character with annoying "chav" mannerisms and a pasted-on, fashionable queer agenda. But in fact, Pearl Mackie has played Bill with great charm and accessibility.

While the pace of the first episode was leisurely, the follow-up, Smile, was even more talky but it looked beautiful. In its theme and its visual style, it felt redolent of Seventies sci-fi, like Logan's Run or Silent Running. After the unsuccessful whimsy of In The Forests of the Night, three years ago, I was dubious about Frank Cottrell Boyce's episode but I felt, in fact, he created an alien world out of whole cloth. The segue into the next episode also felt very Hartnell and media rumours suggest that may be quite intentional...


Meanwhile, in the spin-off universe of readings and plays, The Lost Planet is another audio exclusive from George Mann. It continues the adventures of the Twelfth Doctor's new teenage American companions, Alex and Brandon. These audio stories presumably fit in the gap between Clara's departure and the Doctor's university tenure.

This disc involves a forgotten catastrophe when the Doctor put the virus-ridden planet of the Arborites into cold storage. Eighties tv companion Nicola Bryant reads the story which is pleasant enough but rather unmemorable despite its hoarsely croaking tree people.

The Fourth Doctor Adventures from Big Finish are now supposedly evoking the autumnal eighteenth season of DW: Tom Baker's swansong. The Eternal Battle, by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright proposes the ultimate nightmare for a species that glories in death in battle. A Sontaran battle squad become zombies in a war zone controlled by an ancient Sycon computer ( No relation to the Psychons of Space:1999). This is undemanding, comic-strip stuff. Tom is very entertaining in the cd extras- possibly more so than in the play.

The Silent Scream is set in late 20s Tinseltown and evokes elements of Sunset Boulevard. The monsters remind me very much of the Noughties Who novel Dying in the Sun.

Writer James Goss delivers a story which makes effective use of the audio medium but the time-travelling antagonist seems to be an unsubtle criticism of the fan collector mentality. Although it feels more like a Season 17 story, I thought it was a cut above the space operatics of its predecessor.

Doom Coalition 4 is the final box set in a sprawling 16-part epic for the Eighth Doctor. The set begins with Ship In A Bottle- literally a "bottle episode". The Doctor and his companions Liv and Helen are trapped on a space lifeboat in a dead future. The second disc , Songs of Love, sees River Song on Gallifrey, apparently forging an alliance with the eponymous cabal. The third disc, The Side Of The Angels shifts locale to New York City, infested with the Weeping Angels, where the Doctor encounters another member of the Doom Coalition, a bombastic new incarnation of the Meddling Monk. This Sixties rival Time Lord has had several appearances in the adventures of the Second, Fifth and Eighth Doctors and here, it sounds as if the Doctor takes a long-awaited revenge for the loss of Lucie Miller.

 In the climax, Stop The Clock, Helen appears to sacrifice herself to stop the schizoid Eleven and the master schemer Padrac meets a chilling end-literally. We also discover a link between The Red Lady and the Sonomancer.

 I haven't enjoyed the Eight/Liv/Helen team very much, I admit- one is too dour and the other too insubstantial. I feel that the whole story needs a re-listen one day, to see how well it actually hangs together but generally I had a more positive experience than with Dark Eyes, which seemed to quickly lose its way. This week, I finally started listening to the Big Finish adventures of Dan Dare, so look out for my thoughts on them.


In future posts about comics, I'm going to look at kingship and why an American medium seems so preoccupied with the head that wears the crown.

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