DOCTOR WHO-THE NEXT DOCTOR

 

DOCTOR WHO-THE NEXT DOCTOR

 

DOCTOR: Jackson, you've got your son. You've got a reason to live.

LAKE: And you haven't? God save you, Doctor.

 

 

I can’t say that THE NEXT DOCTOR is total garbage, because it’s not. BUT it is a sign of things to come. It’s almost Moffat-sian instead of Dickensian. It has a mystery at the heart of it that’s involving, interesting and a good premise, like most of Moffat. The follow through is shaky at best; 21 minutes in we get the feeling that the execution a total mess and not worthy of the premise;  and after those 21 minutes, the story almost becomes a fairy tale and we’re in fantasy land of things that never were rather than things that might have been with a giant CyberKing marching through London, blasting away, all of this like Moffat (in particular his DAY OF THE DOCTOR bombings that seem to kill NO kids but blow a few adult men around and probably without killing them, either). Repercussions are almost nil. It’s a series of set pieces, some of which are very cool and some of which would be cooler if they had some story and background that makes sense along with it.

 

ABOUT TIME will give you all the things wrong with the Cyberman plan but…and it’s correct but…but…how did they get here anyway? The Doctor said there was a war that imprisoned them in the Void WITH the Daleks. While there, the Cybermen stole technology from the Daleks. What? How? In the void, they’d just be floating around. What tech did the Daleks have with them in the Void? That’s all just stupid. THEN, the Doctor tells Jackson that…another War freed the Cybermen from the Void, so that the Void was destroyed? What? Was this a reverse effect from the Time War? No. The implication, again, like most of Moffat, is that it doesn’t matter as long as we tell a romp. And this is a romp but it’s not really the romp that’s entertaining.

 

Visually, this is magnificent. It looks better than most movies.

 

There are also some moments of great entertainment. The idea of the Doctor meeting his future self that WE have not seen and that HE has not seen has merit. Of course, like THE DOCTOR’S DAUGHTER and others, this is a total cheat. Here, it works a bit better because…David Morrisey makes a great Doctor or pseudo Doctor as the case may be and Rosita (we also get Rose’s musical cue to make us think Rosita might be an alternate universe Rose, shame on the production staff).

 

We see final definite proof that this Doctor is the same Doctor as the classic series. Or do we? It can be an alternate universe Doctor. We get definite proof Paul McGann is the 8th Doctor and that there is NO War Doctor before Amy’s crack blows the universe through it…or something. In any case, I like the time before the War Doctor and the Ruth Doctor and all that shit.

 

Rosita punching Miss Hartigan out is a high top moment.

 

The first few moments of this is one of the nicest Christimas-y things I’ve ever seen. The snow, the music, the soundtrack, the carolers, the cheeky boy (now he’s make a great companion!), the Doctor’s bright and airy disposition, all combine to make this a feel good opening.

 

I even like Jed, too.

 

It’s kind of goes downhill somewhat there with the over the top intro of the next Doctor himself, though David Morrisey is engaging enough and the mystery of who he really is intriguing enough. Love Tennant’s wide eyed confusion and digging in the first 21 minutes. The Cyber Shades, well, okay, a viable “monster” but kind of gross if you think about it. I’d rather not think of the Cybermen converting animals.

 

BUT something happens when the kids are taken. This goes against most Cyberman processing. And if they want a work force, why not force MEN to do it? Indeed, they kill most of the men and then the rest of the men. BUT what’s worse is…

 

…well, a lot. A lot of DW and TV and movies in particular try to get us to buy that it’s okay if someone dies if they weren’t that good a person to begin with. So, the men that Mercy felt “abused” her or were higher up then her status and were not good to women and their status in that era, die and it’s not so bad. No one really minds if old men die either. Well, I’m here to say that it is not acceptable that anyone die and we should feel bad if anyone dies.

 

That said the tension flies out the window. The sense of urgency so prevalent in most of RTD’s era is nil here. We know none of the children (well, thank God for that as seeing kids die would be…miserable) were in any real danger. Nothing here feels as if anyone were going to be harmed. As mentioned before, bombs go off and the Cyberking marches through London, apparently killing and stamping on no one and his blasts apparently kill no one. Even his fall is stopped by the Doctor’s magic thingie.

 

And Jackson gets everyone to clap for the Doctor. How nice. How cute. How wonderful. And then he and the Doctor talk about how this night will be remembered in the pages of history but the Doctor just says, “Funny that.”  Well, no, it’s not. Perhaps something more serious would have been better. Surely there’s something in history that could have made a better story.

 

 BUT would it have made something appropriate for TV on Christmas Eve? Maybe not. Considering how the Uk makes awful things happen to beloved soap opera characters on Christmas, well, maybe it’s not worth thinking about.

 

ABOUT TIME complained that they should have had Jackson rescue his son, the non talking Frederick. Well, a valid criticism but it was fine the way it was done. I also like the end talk with Jackson and the Doctor and that Jackson gets the Doctor to change his mind and stay for dinner.

 

In all, this was NICE but also a bit uneven with morbidity about the murder of Jackson’s wife and various others. One gets the feeling RTD loved writing about the priest or minister getting killed by the Cybermen. The entire Cybermen in a snowy cemetery works well, too.

 

Most of this doesn’t work as a coherent whole, though. For Doctor Who has turned a corner and a bad one. The writing is TOO confident and TOO illogical, too whimsical, and too cliché.

 

This type of thing would plague the next four “specials” and only WATERS OF MARS a scary, truly danger story which, however, ends with a character’s fatalistic suicide just to tell the Doctor off. More on that in a few.

 

There’s also this attempt to make the Doctor, this Doctor and maybe every Doctor, a sad, lonely man. While this is a viable character option for such a strange, long lived character, it’s a bit heavy handed to go on this long. It also smacks of having the Doctor act like a negative nelly and a sad sack, blaming others for “breaking his heart” rather than a man of the world who has a lot of friends and who makes the best of it. He’s become self pitying and at times, this makes us cry but also makes us feel, he’s an entitled jerk who gets to live longer than the rest of us, makes friends wherever he goes, and yet…never visits them for long or stays or goes back to them. Yes, we feel sorry for him in the moment but if you think about it, he’s an ass. He tells Jackson, “You have your son back. You have a reason to live.” When Jackson asks if the Doctor has one, the Doctor does not answer. Jerk. He thinks he doesn’t have a reason to live? Later, when the Doctor goes on about his former companions, complaining that they leave him for others or whatever, he fails to tell about how some die (Adric) or have their memory wiped (Jamie, who would still be with the Doctor if he didn’t; Zoey, Donna, which the Doctor had to do himself); or how HE stuck Rose in a parallel universe; Rose who wanted HIM, not his copy. Sigh. All of this makes the Doctor come off as a jerk, a self loathing, self sorrowful idiot who hasn’t learned from his experiences and how, given how often it seems Jon Pertwee’s Doctor made friends and joined groups and has connections on Earth, he’s gone backwards in social skills and how he sees himself.

 

Much was made of his people being gone but he was never totally fond of them anyway. Then, there’s his “love” for the Master, which never feels right in this new series. They also make, which does make some sense, something of his awful feelings that he will outlive his friends and potential lovers (though they never directly say he and Rose are lovers, despite some strong hints) and this idea feels more okay, though I’d prefer the escapism of having the TARDIS change the companions so that they live longer, too, as long as even the Doctor.

 

While much of this is story ideas being milked out of the premise of the classic series, it also makes DW somewhat less bright and airy and probably even darker than it already was. I’m not sure I like that. Maybe if there was some balance or solutions. Most of these ideas are left dangling and never solved. He carts Rose off with a Doctor who lives as short as she does and not as long as he does. I’d have preferred it if somehow she would live as long as he would. Of course, that would demands that Rose never leaves the show EVER, so real world situations impinge on what the makers and writers CAN do.

 

Ah, well, there’s always the realm of fan fic. As Sarah says to him in JOURNEY’S END, he acts like such a lonely man but he has the biggest family in the world, though, she neglects to tell him that he hardly makes any use of them or that unless there’s some crisis and then he just makes new friends to add to the list of those he leaves behind. They DON’T leave him behind. He can at least try to visit them.

 

In DEATH OF THE DOCTOR, he kept tabs on Jo Grant but couldn’t find her? Stalker much? Inept much? In that story, Sarah also talks about Ace, Ben and Polly, an Ian and Barbara (who HAVEN’T AGED since the 1960s though the last story of the 13th Doctor shows Ian looking ancient), and Tegan.

 

To be clear, this was not terrible but it did, at the time of first airing, give me a sinking feeling that Doctor Who certainly needed a change of head writer, producer, and show runner. Not terrible is not necessarily good and this was not good, certainly not great.

 

DW has taken a turn for the worst and to be honest, it never fully recovered from it. Season Ten (yes, it was Moffat’s) and Season Eleven were noble attempts at making great DW and season Eleven was even great with stuff like ROSA and DEMONS but honestly, consistently good DW was over at the end of MIDNIGHT.

BTW, The Doctor already told Rosita he was the Doctor and then lies that he is John Smith. Some of the dialog makes it seem as if Jackson and Rosita just ignore a lot of what the Doctor originally said on their first meeting. 

Everything Wrong With Doctor Who - "The Next Doctor" - YouTube