This week’s episode was a mixed bag,
with a few genuine scares (I actually jumped as the Doctor found the
Clockwork Robot under Madame Pompadour’s bed) and more of the same
nitpicking that has made my series two viewing experience a bit less
enjoyable.
I had expected more from Steven
Moffat, writer of last years The Empty Child, and although you could
see the great original ideas in the script itself – such as the
human parts in the spaceship, the menacing Clockwork Robots, the
great parting shot showing the ship being named “SSS de Madame
Pompadour” – I still felt that the script, like most of series
two so far was put at a breakneck pace and speed that makes me
wonder if the cat nurses from New Earth took over the production
offices of Doctor Who during the filming of that episode.
Again David
Tennant shone throughout and the man that monsters have nightmares
about is most certainly the Doctor at his best. Rose and Mickey
however, seemed pushed into the background of the story with the
classic Doctor Who cliché of the companions being separated from the
Doctor – this time by both space and time.
Now Terrance Dicks once said that the
best Doctor Who ideas are when the Doctor and his companions land in
some terrible place, and they are split up and allow the writer to
have multiple story lines. In The Girl in the Fireplace, they seem
separated without any purpose, and Rose and Mickey would have been
better served finding out more about the Clockwork Robots’ plan
while the Doctor got tipsy at Versailles.
The Clockwork Robots were fantastic and
were the first Who creations to give me chills since Mr. Sin popped
out of Weng-Chiangs’ time cabinet. The masked faces of the robots
were great and I can see children once again leaping behind the sofa,
and hiding their wind-up alarm clocks before bedtime.
Although I came into this episode with
no preconceived notions, avoiding all spoilers and website forums on
the episode, I still feel that Series Two is a bit less of a journey
of a lifetime then series one last year. I feel that last years
episodes despite being the same screen time length, wove the viewer
more into the story, and the elements like the Doctor’s loneliness
were handled with tact and drama rather than being a main plot point
of the episode itself.
All in all it was not the best of the
best, but we have the Cybermen next week to bring us back up to the
quality that School Reunion proved that Series Two is
about.
Oh, one more small tiny little thing.
To all future Doctor Who script writers: please stop incorporating
“clever” lines that play on the “Doctor who?!” joke.
It’s been done.
Thank you.
-Thomas Spychalski
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