Doctor Who: The Bounty of the Universe

Between this post and the previous one, I have caught up to the present with Doctor Who (revived series only; I have still not seen a single episode that aired before 2005). I know that my last post focused on an episode that I absolutely despised (more on that later), but I feel that I effectively stated that, "Love and Monsters" aside, the show was otherwise amazing. Oh, if I only knew what was to come.

Doctor Who has in some ways taken over my life. Then again, I am currently studying for the bar exam, so I don't really get out much anymore, and for the last few weeks, my study breaks consisted of watching an episode or two. But the show really has quickly ascended my hierarchy of fictional universes, and I am constantly finding more and more to love about it. And yet, I fully recognize that at times, the show can approach pretty deep levels of awfulness. Therefore, the fact that I enjoy it to the degree that I do is a testament to just how great it can be when it's on its A-game. I can best describe its quality like this: The average episode of the series is an above average, if not great, episode of television. When the show is bad, it is very bad. And when the show is at its best, it is some of the best televised science fiction around. In fact, the Series 2 finale shares many storytelling similarities with the Season 2 finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is probably my favorite Buffy season finale. My goal is to discuss what works about the show, why things don't work sometimes, the cast (specifically the actors who portray The Doctor), and standout episodes. I initially planned on doing separate posts, but I think that these topics may be inextricably intertwined.

I guess the best place to start is with The Doctor himself. Or himselves. Doctor Who began back in the 1960s and has been running almost continuously since, so obviously, there has been more than one actor who has portrayed the lead role. Instead of going the Bewitched route and having no one make any mention of why The Doctor suddenly looks, sounds, and acts differently, the writers decided to make one aspect of Time Lord (The Doctor's species) biology the ability to regenerate themselves when close to death. The process would heal any wounds or life-threatening conditions, but it would also cause The Doctor's appearance and personality to change. The Doctor's basic character remains the same across regenerations, but little quirks and tics come and go with each actor.

In the episodes that I have seen, three actors have held the principal role. (I have seen episodes with archival footage of all of The Doctors, and in one mini-episode, the Fifth Doctor showed up, but I have not seen a full episode with him.) Christopher Eccleston started out as the Ninth Doctor, then David Tennant took over as the Tenth Doctor, and the show currently features Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor. All three of them have their own strengths and play The Doctor in their own way while still keeping a consistent character. (From here out, I will refer to each of them by their associated Arabic numeral.)

Before the new series began in 2005, regular episodes hadn't been produced since 1989, which then featured the Seventh Doctor. A made-for-TV movie featuring the Eighth Doctor (his only appearance on TV) aired in 1996. When 9's first episode aired in 2005, the series was still part of the same continuity as everything that had come before remained canon (unlike Battlestar Galactica, which was a reimagining of the original series), but big events had occurred between 8's movie and 9's first episode. A great war, the Time War, had occurred, wiping out the Time Lords and (supposedly) one of their primary enemies, the Daleks. (Near the end of 10's run, we learn that there were many other species and factions involved, but throughout 9's episodes, we really only hear about the Time Lords and the Daleks.) As a result, The Doctor was the sole remaining Time Lord. 9's personality is seemingly upbeat, but underneath the surface, he hides a lot of anger, loneliness, and guilt. 9's episodes serve to educate new viewers about who The Doctor is, who some of his enemies are, and how he conducts himself as he travels through space and time in his ship, called the TARDIS. Like I said, 9's first episode was the first episode of Doctor Who I saw, and I still have not seen anything preceding it, but I have never once been confused about the series, due to the writers laying everything out in the first series in a way that did not seem like an overly long recap.

In his first episode, 9 takes on a new companion, Rose Tyler, to travel with him. Throughout the series, The Doctor tends to travel with someone in order to share his adventures. In taking in Rose, 9 was able to soften and accept what he had done in the war. The companions choose to go with The Doctor because they want to see things and go places that they would otherwise never get to see. The Doctor takes on companions because they help make him a better person (the same is also true of his effect on them, for the most part). Throughout the course of 9's episodes, he takes Rose to different times and different planets, showing her Earth's past and future as well as the many wonders of the universe. She in turn helps him come to grips with his recent past, and the two form a very strong bond.

Of the three current Doctors, 9 tends to be discussed much less than 10 or 11, which is a shame, because he played the role very well, if very differently, and helped get most of the anxiety out of the way in time for 10 to take over. (One other reason why 9 doesn't get mentioned as much is probably due to the quality of the material he had to work with, which I'll get to soon.)

10, who many have claimed to be the greatest or second-greatest Doctor, is, in the words of 9, fantastic! David Tennant went from being a name with which I was familiar to one of my favorite actors due to his run as The Doctor. He played The Doctor as clearly still hurt from what happened during the Time War, but he had more or less come to terms with everything. It was during 10's run that I realized how different of a series Doctor Who is as compared to most sci-fi/fantasy shows that I have watched. With 9, he was certainly no killer, but he was about as willing to end life as your average sci-fi hero. For example, Malcolm Reynolds doesn't go around killing people for the fun of it, but he probably didn't have to kill that one guy by pushing him into the engine of Serenity. 9 doesn't go out looking for fights, but he was more than willing to rid the world of the last Dalek that had somehow survived the Time War. (Note: apparently, the Daleks have the amazing ability to always find a way to come back after being eradicated.) 10 on the other hand sees violence as the last resort, and was even against killing a new species of Dalek/human hybrids because he is absolutely against genocide. To put this in perspective, the Daleks are one of The Doctor's greatest and most feared enemies. I have jokingly referred to them as Space Nazis because their raison d'etre is to EXTERMINATE all life forms that are not Daleks. The have no emotion (although fear has sometimes crept in) and no mercy, and are often very efficient at killing. And yet, despite this, 10 always looks for a way for races to coexist in some way.

That does not mean that 10 is not a badass. He is. He will fight when he has to, and at that point, his enemies realize that they have made huge mistakes in pissing him off to the point of violence. And sometimes, he doesn't even need to use violence to win the day. In his first full-length episode, "The Christmas Invasion," after he defeated the aliens invading Earth, he told them to leave and never come back. As they did, the Prime Minister ordered a mysterious organization to destroy the retreating ship. 10 was so enraged at the act, something he deemed unnecessary as the aliens were leaving, he angrily (one great element of 10's character was that his anger was expressed through a chillingly soft tone of voice) told the PM that he would take her down through words. And he succeeded. Or, there was the excellent two-part story "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood," in which most of the two episodes' run time involved The Doctor and his companion Martha Jones fleeing from some aliens. When they could run no further, 10 very easily found ways to defeat the antagonists by granting their greatest wish, to live forever. He placed them each in different a type of prison that would keep them alive forever, but in torment. 10 was generally a very exuberant and happy Doctor, but it was clear that pushing him to his breaking point was a very bad idea. As I said above, The Doctor takes on companions in part to keep himself in line. In the first episode in which 10 met companion Donna Noble, he angrily wiped out the unborn spawn of a hostile arachnid alien. The episode took place right after 10 split up with one of his companions, and arguably, that was partly why he was allowing himself to get so worked up. But years later into the show's run, 10 was traveling without a companion, and he lost his way because of it.

But usually, 10 was a very positive and fun person to watch. The show itself shared those qualities, as it presented a very optimistic worldview. Unlike a lot of modern American science fiction*, science tends to be generally good (as in someone who uses it for improper purposes is what is condemned, rather than the science) and exploration and tolerance are espoused. Meeting a new creature was a source of adventure and fun for The Doctor, and when his companions would get creeped out, or Earth officials would try to destroy an alien that had not yet shown hostilities, The Doctor would explain why they were wrong. The Doctor, 10 especially, refuses to carry a weapon (although he does have a multi-use tool called a Sonic Screwdriver that can certainly cause problems for his antagonists) and condemns those who would do harm to another with little provocation. In a two-part episode featuring 11, a group of humans that uses remote-controlled avatars to do dangerous work suddenly find themselves having to deal with the avatars gaining control over themselves. When they all freak out and decide that the situation is an "us-or-them" kind of deal, only The Doctor disagrees and argues that the avatars had done nothing to endanger the humans. Interestingly enough, this optimism was put to the test in one of my favorite episodes, "Midnight." That particular episode put the paranoia and xenophobia of humanity directly at odds with 10's optimism and xenophilia. I won't say anything more about the plot, but that episode showed us that David Tennant can act solely with his face and give a knock-out performance.

Compare that to a show like Stargate: SG-1, which is also about people exploring the galaxy. In that show, the main characters are soldiers who carry weapons and have much fewer qualms about shooting first and asking questions later. As soon as something even gives the hint that it could be a threat to Earth, it is an enemy until proven otherwise. Granted, one of the SG-1 team members is a non-military scientist who usually argues for understanding, but his view was often ridiculed by the team leader (which was sometimes right and sometimes wrong). I mention SG-1 in particular because of this flow chart. At first glance, I didn't really see the connection between SG-1 and Doctor Who, but as I said, they are both about exploration, but the American show is more about learning about the galaxy to protect homeworld security, while the British show is about learning for the fun of it. In LOST, killing is very rarely seen as a last resort, and many of the characters who take lives are relatively unaffected by it. And while I have not seen V, my impression of it is that it is very science-negative, meaning that the characters' immediate distrust of the aliens and their technology inevitably turns out to be correct.

11 continues the love of exploration, but he is simultaneously more childlike and more world-weary than his predecessors. Unlike 9 and 10, who showed a firm understanding of human culture (and many alien cultures), 11 is extremely odd and aloof, and has a lot of trouble blending in with human culture. (This is a constant about his character, but was most obviously shown in "The Lodger," in which he had to become roommates with a random guy in order to inspect some strange happenings in the house.) This translates into a lot of giddiness on his part when he sees or learns something new as well as a penchant for odd clothing, such as fezzes. At the same time, it becomes very clear (if it wasn't already from 10) that 900 years of life have made The Doctor lose some patience for certain things, and 11 can be very ruthless and unforgiving. The way in which 11 can shift from happy and goofy to stern and angry is part of what makes him such a great Doctor. He can change in an instant, the stimuli for whatever personality type he currently displays believably induces that type, and Matt Smith makes the performance very believable, funny, and scary.

Knowing all that about The Doctor, what of the universe in which he lives? Part of what makes the series so great is that the characters act like they are living in a fully realized world, in which people have lives off-screen and remember things that happened previously in the show. Far too often in television shows, big events will happen, but the non-main characters who perceive the big events conveniently forget what happened by the episode's end or before the next big event happens. In Doctor Who, people are not that stupid. In the first series, a two-part story involved a high-profile alien spaceship crashing into Big Ben. At the end of the story, the world remembers this event, and it gets referenced the next time an alien invasion is attempted. Also, every year, the show does a Christmas special. The first two were about alien invasions of Earth. In the third one, a character remarks that the streets of London are empty because everyone remembers what happened during the previous two Christmases, and stayed in their homes to avoid more hostile aliens (which did NOT happen that year).

Furthermore, nearly everything that the show does matters in some way. Each series has an underlying storyline, and while not every episode seems to forward the endgame upon first viewing, usually by the end of the series, small plot elements or references will take on new meaning. Sometimes, what seems like an episode-specific plot element will come back later and pay off in the finale. Or, a seemingly random or throwaway line of dialogue, which is relevant to the plot of the episode but otherwise forgettable, will have greater implications toward the end of the series. I am trying to keep this post as spoiler-free as possible (aside from stating that, at some point, 9 must regenerate into 10 and 10 must regenerate into 11), so the only example that I will give is this: In the episode "Blink," The Doctor notes that traveling through time without a capsule surrounding the traveler can be physically uncomfortable. By the episode's end, it does not appear as though that tip will be relevant again. The writers handle this element of the series splendidly, and rarely draw attention to the fact that they are setting something up. For example, in Series 4, one hint about the series endgame came out in a line of dialogue that seemed to be nothing more than a character-establishing moment for someone who we would never see again after the episode in which it was spoken.

When the show is at its best, the storytelling is masterful. The revived series has seen two showrunners: Russel T Davies, who started the revival, and Steven Moffat, who took over at the beginning of Series 5. Each one has his own strengths and weaknesses, and each has made the show his own. (So much so that the Moffat years seems to be almost a sequel to or spin-off of the Davies years.) They both excel at telling great science fiction stories, but Davies is better at creating emotional moments, whereas Moffat's strength lies in his ability to tell complicated and rewarding stories. I think that Davies was responsible for some of the most heartfelt and sad moments of the series, while Moffat has created more "Holy shit!" types of situations. They also each have their own weaknesses: For all of Davies' great episodes, he is also responsible for some of the worst episodes of the new show. And Moffat can sometimes get overly complicated and/or speed through storylines that could stand to be drawn out a little bit more.

Another interesting duality of the show is that sometimes, the writers know how to make the most out of a limited budget, whereas at other times, they clearly try to bite off more than they can chew. This was most obvious in Series 1, which had a much lower budget than the subsequent years. The effects in most of the episodes, including the first in particular, often were laughably bad (I'm looking at you, Auton-Mickey), and the sets were fairly minimal. Sometimes, this didn't matter; in "Father's Day," the special effects certainly looked silly, but the story was so good that I was able to look past them. In "Rose," on the other hand (the aforementioned first episode), the story matched the effects in cheesiness, and there were a few times when I almost gave up on the show. In particular, the climactic scene had some of the worst blocking/choreography I've ever seen in an action show. Just from watching how the characters positioned themselves at the beginning of the scene, it becomes immediately obvious how things will be resolved (and that the villains of the week are some of the dumbest advanced life forms to ever cross the galaxy). After the first year, though, the budget became big enough to effectively create grand scenes and situations. The show never quite loses its cheesiness during the Davies years; while most episodes are solid, every now and then, a plot, character design, or line of dialogue would come up that would nearly take me out of the episode. Fortunately, Moffat has nearly done away with that issue, creating a much sleeker and often darker version of Doctor Who.

Some of the worst episodes are those that cater the most to children at the expense of adults (the Series 1 episodes "Aliens of London" and "World War Three" featured aliens who had flatulence problems, which drove me insane), used silly antagonists in furtherance of a weak metaphor ("The Idiot's Lantern" was about some kind of sentient broadcast signal that could steal the faces of people who watched too much TV), or tried to stretch a thin plot over the course of a full episode ("Gridlock" had an important ending, but an otherwise forgettable story; "Planet of the Dead" was a 1-hour special that could have been told in half an hour). And then there was "Love and Monsters." My previous post made it very clear that I HATED that episode in ways that I could never hate many things that I dislike. (Although from what I'm told about the Twilight series, I would probably feel similar, if not greater, levels of hate for that.) I'm not going to go too far into detail about why I dislike "Love and Monsters" so much, as it is clearly spelled out in my last post, but that episode is an example of Doctor Who at its lowest. Unfortunately, it is not an isolated incident, as there are a few other episodes that are pretty low-quality. The good news is that no other episode is anywhere near as bad; I think my next-least-favorite episode is "Voyage of the Damned," a 1-hour Christmas special. That episode's crimes are that it is boring and inconsequential to the plot, a far cry from being offensive to my worldview in multiple ways the way "Love and Monsters" is.

Fortunately, the good of the show far outweighs the bad. To end this overly long post, I will give some examples of when the show worked best, listing some of my favorite episodes and explaining why they worked so well. The episodes I am picking tend to be the ones that either excel at telling an emotionally powerful story, do something different with the format of the show, act as game changers, or transcend the series to be excellent works of fiction in any medium. (I am thinking of one episode in particular, but I think that most, if not all, of the episodes below are strong examples of narrative fiction.) I will focus on the storytelling aspects of the episodes and will keep spoilers to a minimum.

"Dalek": This episode, from the middle of Series 1, introduced new viewers to the Daleks by using Rose as an audience surrogate. We also see The Doctor scared for the first time, which is a significant plot development, but that alone would not have been enough to convey the threat to new viewers. The design of the Daleks is kind of silly, but the writers acknowledged that by having Rose not understand the threat posed by them until it was too late. The episode also served as a chilling display of what The Doctor can be capable of if he is angry or scared enough.

"The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances": This two-part story was the first Doctor Who tale written by Steven Moffat, and it showed us that (1) we need to eagerly anticipate Moffat-written episodes, and, more importantly, (2) the show had the potential to be truly terrifying. The Daleks are a threat, but they do not induce terror in the viewers. The antagonist in these episodes was creepy as hell and caused horrific body horror images to occur. This would not be the last time one of Moffat's creatures deeply unsettled me.

"Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday": The Series 2 finale, which, as I mentioned earlier, has certain plot similarities with Buffy the Vampire Slayer's "Becoming, Parts 1 and 2." The story was an edge-of-your-seat thriller which resulted in the most emotionally powerful scenes to date on the show, and still remains one of the best years later.

"Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood": Another emotionally powerful story, this one was able to tell a deeply sad story using characters who had been introduced in these episodes, rather than having two years of development to draw from. It also helped show why Martha Jones is my favorite companion, forcing her to keep everything from going to hell while The Doctor was incapacitated.

"Blink": Possibly the greatest piece of sci-fi/horror that I have seen in a while; effectively did "a lot with a little," making use of small budget to maximize the horror Another Moffat episode, this may be the greatest sci-fi/horror work that I have seen in years. This episode is proof that the writers and production company can do a lot with a little, as there are very few special effects. In addition, it's a "Doctor-lite" episode, so The Doctor and Martha are off-screen for most of it. Yet, this serves to only make it better, because what appearances they do have help create the foreboding atmosphere. Also, it's got one of my favorite jokes from 10's run.

"Planet of the Ood": Often, when science fiction shows do episodes about slavery, they can be a little heavy-handed. Yes, the message is good, but that doesn't always mean the metaphor works. This episode was a parable for slavery that worked beautifully. I can't quite explain why, but everything just clicked.

"Midnight": Like "Blink," this is another example of Doctor Who doing a lot with a little. It is what is known as a "bottle episode," which uses only a single set and usually only the core cast of characters. This episode did have some guest stars (but not companion Donna for most of it), but it took place almost entirely in a confined location, allowing the writers to do an episode about the nature of paranoia and fear. They overturned many of the show's conventions and used many of The Doctor's skills and quirks against him. And once again, they were able to portray a horrifying villain with no special effects or makeup.

"The Eleventh Hour": This was the first episode to feature 11 as the main Doctor, having been briefly introduced at the end of the prior episode. It was also Moffat's first episode as showrunner, and it expertly introduced us to the new Doctor, the new companion, and, in many ways, the new feel of the show. Moffat's years clearly are the same show, but the pacing and storytelling methods are much different. Even the TARDIS set got a major overhaul. The episode is very fast-paced and exciting, and shows us what kind of person 11 is going to be. It was also laugh-out-loud funny.

"A Christmas Carol": Doctor Who does a yearly 1-hour Christmas special. I was not exactly looking forward to this episode, as (1) they tend to be on the weaker end of the spectrum, and (2) A Christmas Carol has been done to death. Fortunately, the writers knew how to combine the themes of Dickens' story with the best elements of Doctor Who, which gave us a very unique take on the story of a wicked man who is forced to see the error of his ways on Christmas Eve. Michael Gambon (the second Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films) played the Scrooge surrogate as a man whose anger and greed stemmed from hurt, not from the fact that he was simply an angry and greedy man. And the people who filled in for the ghosts were excellent, notably the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come.

"The Doctor's Wife": An episode written by Neil Gaiman, telling a scary story and utilizing excellent humor Knowing in advance that Neil Gaiman wrote this episode gave me very high expectations for it, which were sadly not met. And yet, it was still an incredible episode, utilizing Gaiman's knack for writing offbeat characters (one person in the episode reminded me very much of Delirium from The Sandman), creepy situations, and of course, humor.

So that was very long. I know it's a lot of information to take in, but if you haven't seen this show yet and you like science fiction, I highly recommend it, with the caveat that it can be bad at times, and much of those times were in the first series. But I guarantee you that it is worth sticking with, as the good is just so good.

*As much as I don't like Star Trek, I will admit that from what I have seen of it, it is a very science-positive show, and obviously believes in exploration and tolerance.