I'm currently reading Wally Funk's Race for Space. Author Sue Nelson is a science journalist, Star Trek fan and an old friend of mine from the 90s. In fact, she took me to Page's Bar in Westminster around 1995: the meeting place of a Star Trek fan club.
The story of a female spaceflight pioneer ( by a female author) is very apt for the Doctor's mid-fifties incarnation. But how successful has the Thirteenth Doctor actually been so far?
In terms of ratings, it's been one of the most successful series in years, with a phenomenal audience share for the launch.
The US Civil Rights story, Rosa, looked beautiful and was worthy but somewhat sedate. While the next episode, the pun-tastic Arachnids in the UK criticised landfill, it was also a heavy-handed Trumpian satire. The Tsuranga Conundrum was charming filler with its adorable monster, pregnant man and clinical spaceship interiors.
Demons of the Punjab was, again, very pretty. Polite and slick, the alien element was largely redundant and forgettable. Kerblam! was a satire on Amazon with echoes of the Robots of Death but bafflingly ended on the side of the exploitative corporation.
A series of simplistic moral quandaries that are beautifully shot, these stories feel like the adventures between the proper ones. I am quite amused that the stories are trolling the Daily Mail, however. But I feel the Doctor herself hasn't really had a defining moment. The character is a collection of David Tennant's tics and while Jodie's commitment to the audience is endearing, her character is oddly passive.
The strengths of this series are the rapport between #TeamTardis ( although Yaz seems a two-dimensional role) and the cinematic landscapes. The audience appeal seems broader but the series itself feels less clever than in Moffat's era. To my surprise, I miss the pre-titles teaser sequence after thirteen years. It's all enjoyable enough but unsatisfying, like one of those tiny boxes of four Lindor chocolates in a Morrison's aisle.
This autumn, BBC Books released a trio of novels featuring Jodie's Doctor.
The Good Doctor is a satire on religion and gender roles by YA author Juno Dawson. She has a sure touch in crafting a modern-day Terrance Dicks scenario of zealotry among a race of Space Dog people. Coincidentally, I was also reading Clean, Juno's Heroin Chic novel about a Russian oligarch's daughter, which I found trashily compulsive but not appropriate for our school.
I literally just bought Combat Magicks and Molten Heart has been on the "To Read" pile beside my bed for two weeks. (I have to say they both look a bit more appealing than our book group selection, This Is Going To Hurt, the hospital "tell-all" book on the Best Seller list, which is the kind of book you find in the Boots Xmas Catalogue.)
Twitter rumours that Chibnall is frustrated and is leaving- and that his star is leaving with him- are now attaining a higher profile. I must say I feel disappointed but if it becomes the case, DW will survive nonetheless, as it did when Eccleston quit and this transition has been a smooth and refreshing one.
Walking to and from work recently, I listened to the cassette tapes ( on a Sony Walkman!) of The Paradise of Death, the 1995 BBC radio serial starring Jon Pertwee. Time and loss have lent this anachronistic production great charm, although some of the dialogue has aged badly. And Jeremy Fitzoliver is still awful. The satire on Virtual Reality, bread and circuses still feels contemporary however.
Earth and Beyond is another 90s tape where a young Paul McGann murmurs soothingly through three short stories of a fairly newly-minted Eighth Doctor. The People's Temple, about the building of Stonehenge , is an effective showcase for teen eco-warrior Sam Jones, a prototype Rose Tyler and a character who has never been performed by an actress in audio drama, to my knowledge. These were two finds that emerged when I packed up my Glasgow flat.
I also worked through Big Finish's 2012 trilogy The Burning Prince/The Acheron Pulse/ The Dark Heart, where the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors deal with internecine strife in an alien empire. The story feels very much like a Whovian Star Wars with its royals, armoured baddies and masked, disfigured arch-villain. The vanilla "Base-Under-Siege" first instalment is actually the most entertaining. The timey-wimey whimsy of the third is difficult to thole.
Future posts may include The Doom Patrol, Kolchak, Quasar and the THUNDER Agents.
Gronda Gronda!
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