Doctor Who - Boom Town

[raven]

Fresh from the obligatory post-episode squee with hathy_col, I give you:

So. Boom Town. An episode that, for me, has elements of brilliance but never really gelled. The sad thing is, I’ve thought and said this about every episode written by Russell T Davies. To be fair, though, let’s start with stuff I liked:

-the sunlit normality of the setting. I liked Mickey’s arrival at the TARDIS, to be met by Captain Jack being a pain, and then entering it without being surprised at its interior.

-actually, I love Jack to death. Everything about him, but particularly just how well he fits in. The banter! The flirting with the Doctor is so nice, particularly as it’s counterpointed by the fact the Doctor is so very aware of the fact Jack’s flirting with him. “Gotta buy me a drink first!” – that made me squee.

-and the best thing about the episode, in my ever-so humble opinion, was the very OT3 vibe I get from Rose, the Doctor and Jack. Those three have bonded since last week – they finish each other’s sentences and they do a little dance!

-Cardiff. I love the audacity of this show – anywhere in time and space, but it’s filmed in Cardiff so why not set it in Cardiff? Twice this season, and I like the cohesiveness, the way they take the story from The Unquiet Dead and from World War Three and blend them here. That said, this is the first episode of the series that’s really not a standalone. You’d have no idea what was going on if you hadn’t seen the other episodes.

-the scene in the restaurant (the first one). It’s so normal and so funny – Jack’s telling a story, Rose is heckling while the Doctor and Mickey laugh themselves sick. It’s so normal - friends out for lunch, normal, and it really works.

So there were things I liked. But the rest of it doesn’t gel. Yes, I can understand the choice to make this a character episode, not a plot-driven one – we’re getting close to the season finale and now is the best time for something like that. And certain aspects of the character-building, I really do like; for example, the way Margaret plays the Doctor so well. “Only a killer could know that,” she tells him, and it’s the crux, the fulcrum, so to speak, that the rest of the episode should really revolve around; the Doctor, the “happy-go-lucky” Doctor, is a killer. We know this. And it’s true what she says, he does have a tendency to swan off and fuck the consequences.

But it’s so bloody unsubtle. As I was saying to Colleen earlier, I’d rather like to engrave the word “subtlety” on an anvil and bang it on RTD’s head at this point – because we’re not stupid, and neither are the kids who watch the show. You can have a nice, character-driven piece without descending into the sort of deus ex machina that the end of the episode is. For no apparent reason, the TARDIS turns Margaret into an egg. I get the point – I get that giving a second chance is what the Doctor is all about – but they could have done that better. It was almost as though they were up to the last ten minutes of the episode, realised it had all been talking up to now, and now they need to destroy the world and save it again as a matter of course. It wasn’t necessary.

Also, the conversation between Rose and Mickey. That was overdue and a nice touch. I liked Rose’s description of a planet the Doctor took her to, where the sea had frozen in the middle of a storm – they walked at midnight below ice waves a hundred feet high. Beautiful, beautiful idea, and so evocative and painful for Mickey. That worked. The Mickey subplot worked better. But he isn’t that much of an idiot, really! We know he and the Doctor made some sort of amends at the end of WW3, and it seems strange that that’s been forgotten.

Although, Colleen did say that the Doctor’s messed Mickey around. He can’t understand the way this Time Lord, this arrogant, charismatic traveller in time and space, can just play silly buggers with his life, and I think it’s a nice way of showing the Doctor himself is deeply flawed.

D’you know, I was going to be much more vitriolic. I think I liked this episode more than I thought I did, if that makes sense and I’m aware it didn’t.

Further notes and queries:

-there was a Logopolis reference! Colleen got it, not me, but when the Doctor’s explaining finally why his TARDIS is stuck as a fifties police box, he mentions the chameleon circuit and how it should turn into anything that fits in, like for example a pillar… like the Master’s TARDIS did on Logopolis.

-Bad wolf. There was a bit I missed, which Colleen explained, about the Doctor actually realising that “Blaidd Drwg” means “bad wolf”, which means they’re lifting the secret at last. The website continues to terrify me.

-and the promos. It seems to be a reality television spoof, but I don’t know anything about it and Colleen had to explain the Big Brother references. I am dubious. RTD is much too fond of unsubtle post-modernism, and if they make the delightfully sinister bad wolf mystery into an excuse for campness, I won’t be happy. The episodes that, so far, have had the most depth and least silliness are Dalek and The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances – they’ve been funny, yes, witty and funny and affectionate towards the characters, but deep and honest in the way they’ve been written. I’d like more of the same, please.

I watched Confidential, which was fun, especially as it spent an inordinate amount of time mocking Mary Whitehouse, and featured a clip of Eight, which it hasn’t done before. Also, lots of Doctors saying goodbye, which is sweet and rather sad. I was sorry we didn’t see Four and Romana waving their hats in Paris, but you can’t have everything. Also, does anyone know where I can download the theme to Doctor Who Confidential? I like it far too much, it’s all snazzy ‘n’ stuff.

Two episodes left! And then I will stop spamming you all with fandomness.

[An octahedral metal ion complex can contain six ligands, five of which are globular proteins. If the central ion is magnesium, the molecule is chlorophyll; if iron, haemoglobin.]

Comments

[llieno.livejournal.com]

Actually, I can agree with just about all of that, from the charaterisation-squeeing to the annoyance of the unsubtlety to the liked-the-episode-more-than-I-thought. So, yes, wonderful review^^

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Heh! Thank you kindly. It was a bit of an oddity of an episode overall, I thought.

[llieno.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Very unwhoish come to think of it...but still interesting.

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

For no apparent reason, the TARDIS turns Margaret into an egg. I get the point – I get that giving a second chance is what the Doctor is all about – but they could have done that better.

I think what's been nagging at me about that is that the episode sets the Doctor up with a difficult choice which he never actually has to make. The Doctor doesn't give Margaret Slitheen the second chance, and the episode side-steps its own dilemma.

I am dubious. RTD is much too fond of unsubtle post-modernism, and if they make the delightfully sinister bad wolf mystery into an excuse for campness, I won’t be happy.

I'm a bit unsure of how far you can run with the joke of reviving bad TV when you yourself are reviving TV lots of people considered bad. A bit like The Long Game made the point of the media controlling people's thoughts while apparently missing that this in itself constitutes a media attempt to control people's thoughts.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

The Doctor doesn't give Margaret Slitheen the second chance, and the episode side-steps its own dilemma.

Mmm, definitely. During the dinner scene, I started wondering vaguely what the Doctor was most likely to do, and I remember deciding that it would be in-character for him to take her back, but do as he said and do her the courtesy of staying to watch her die. And then I started thinking that would be bloody dark for a teatime slot. You're right, we were short-changed in not actually seeing him decide one way or the other.

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

I caught that Confidential thing after the BBC3 midnight repeat and RTD was going on about what a dilemma it was and I went "...but you didn't answer it." Quite what they'd've done in the time left to solve it I have no idea, but her being Evil And Bad and the TARDIS glowing at her was a bit of a cop-out. It's like he realised the Doctor was going to end up killing her, got scared off and went with TARDIS ex machina.

[bekkypk.livejournal.com]

I am getting less and less fond of RTD as time goes on. He revived the show I remember from my kidhood yeah - but my fave eps haven't even been written by him. I had a lovely bitch last week with somebody about him and his general attitude towards what he's doing.
xx

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Look at it this way...sitting through a few RTD scripts that you don't like as well means you get to see the utterly brillient stuff the others are doing. And he's doing fewer scripts next season than this one, so hopefully he'll fall back to only maybe done one story every year or so.

While I do think RTD's scripts have been the weekest, that's not exactly damning...I've found his stuff enjoyable but just more flawed than the others...partly because RTD doesn't handle plot very well. He's great at characters, and that shows in episodes like this one, but he's at sea with plots.

[stuflyer.livejournal.com]

What he said.
Even the weakest of this sereies' episodes have been at the very least entertaining, and frankly, if "The Long Game" is a clunker, you can colour me bloody happy.
"Underwater menace" anyone?

[bekkypk.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm always very grateful that he brought it back, after all it has been a very large part of my life and my fandoms. And a lot of the time yeah the episodes are fine, it's just his attitude I'm really annoyed by.
xx

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

He doesn't seem to be taking his own show seriously, is what grates. He's almost playing up the people who are convinced this is just kitch idiotic fun, when episodes like TDD and Dalek have shown us the potential of it.

[bekkypk.livejournal.com]

I'm finding it hard to motivate myself to watch each episode (I must have missed about half of them :( ) thats not how it should be, I've loved who since I was a kid.
My faves have been Dalek, Empty child and whatever part 2 of EC was called. I didn't watch last nights, when my brother said "it's five to seven" and got off the bed we were sat on to clear off downstairs I don't think i even managed to look up.
It makes me feel very sad to not have the drive to watch it. Especially when I made such a ruckus in the leading up to it.
xx

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

Somewhere I had an lj-conversation with someone about how so far it feels like each of the writers have written the sort of DW they personally like, and that RTD's favourite kind is the kitsch and campy stuff that doesn't make much sense.

[technomensch.livejournal.com]

give me our e-mail address if you want the theme......friend of mine made it an MP3.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks very much! loneraven [at] livejournal [dot] com

[alysscarlet.livejournal.com]

Oooh, is there any chance I could have the theme mp3 as well?

Email is alysscarlet at livejournal dot com

Many many thanks in advance!

[eternalwings.livejournal.com]

I gotta admit I did not like the ending, but oh my god did you not notice the passport?
What was I saying only a few weeks ago? Extradition! TARDIS! Stuck in Venice!
It was scary in my mind anyway.
And the bad wolf, I had told Mum about that prior to the episode and so that evolved into us squealing "BAD WOLF! BAD WOLF!"
Yes my mother rocks,
I love Jack *giggleglomp* soooooo obvious. I cannot wait for next week-
DALEKS! That was also shouted by Mum who then proceeded to shout exterminate.....heh

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

You've got to remember, I missed the beginning of the Venice conversation and will be forever in the dark about it. Although on that note, did you see the story that was written for you? I really rather liked it.

Your mum gets cooler and cooler the more I hear about her. And she went to Black Sabbath concerts? Cool.

And, also - watch out for me tomorrow, as I've lost my mind and will be in school. I'll beta your ficathon story while I'm in, as well. :)

[quackaquacka.livejournal.com]

I wasn't a fan of Jack before this week. Now, I love him :D

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Me too. He is teh sex.

[quackaquacka.livejournal.com]

He really is.

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

I actually through the episode was a LOT more subtle than what I've come to expect from RTD. I loved the parallels between Rose and the Doctor, and their set of consequences. And there was a fair bit of showing rather than telling where the relationship dynamics were concerned--both between Rose and Mickey, Rose the Doctor and Jack, and how Mickey doesn't fit in with them yet comes quite close....

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

You're right in that it's more subtle than previous episodes - I wasn't fond of the end of WW3, for example - but it's the deus ex machina that gets me.

Perhaps I've been spoiled by TDD. :)

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

I suspect the only reason I like that ending is because I was sat there watching them do the missile thinking "...no way... they won't... they CAN'T... no way... OMFG THEY BLEW UP DOWNING STREET!!11!"