Doctor Who Review: Twice Upon a (Mediocre) Time

Twice Upon a (Mediocre) Time

a Doctor Who Review

Warning: *Spoilers*

We were fortunate this holiday season to be able to see the Doctor Who Christmas special on the night it broadcast in the U.S. I'd like to say we were fortunate to have seen a first rate send-off for Peter Capaldi's Doctor, but sadly we did not. 

First thing I have to mention is that I can't stand the sheer amount of commercial interruptions BBC America incorporated into the episode. Possibly there was a decent story hidden somewhere in between the copious amount of ad breaks, but they were enough to zap any interest either one of us had in the show from one scene to the next. And that says something for itself right there--if there had been a engaging storyline, then no amount of commercial interruptions would have caused us to channel surf and lose interest.

While David Bradley's portrayal of the First Doctor is superb, was his character really necessary in the story at all? Was the character of Bill necessary? Essentially, the premise is about the Christmas Truce of 1914. We have an English captain, played by screenwriter/actor Mark Gatiss, come along for a ride in the TARDIS, but there is surprisingly little mayhem or shooting.  There is a lot talking, however, and most of it could have been said and done within ten minutes tops, end of story.

The Christmas Truce is not a bad idea for a Christmas special. Can the Doctor bring a little "peace on Earth" during the Great War? But it's not a big enough story idea by itself for an hour show, so there was a lot of padding added, and the story's pacing slowed to a crawl. The preponderance of talking scenes didn't really make us feel all that nostalgic about Peter Capaldi's last time on screen as the Doctor, either. We were looking for more "action" and less "chatter."

The "atheists' heaven"--with dead companions walking around like spirits--came across as maudlin and an all-too-convenient plot device for the Doctor to say good-bye to his companions and deal with his fear of "death". While the recreation of the First Doctor's TARDIS interior was fantastic, we wished we could have seen more of it or had it worked into the plotline more. Once again, if you're going to add characters to flesh out a thin plot, perhaps you could have used them for greater affect? Otherwise, the viewer feels cheated. The promos tricked us into thinking there was going to be more to the story.

So, essentially in Twice Upon a Time we have a great actor in Peter Capaldi (and a great Who fan himself) who has been given a rather mediocre send-off after some rather mediocre seasons of Doctor Who. What a shame.

Somehow, I wasn't surprised to see the writer of this episode was Steven Moffat. His writing has really suffered since he took the helm as showrunner. (Is this the same person who wrote Blink?) Perhaps it's good he's retiring the gig and moving on.

Speaking of moving on, we were expecting to see a lot more of the new Doctor, Jodie Whitaker. She appears in the very last minute of the episode and promptly tumbles out of the TARDIS. As classic Who fans, we long for the more dignified regeneration scenes (such as the First Doctor experienced) instead of the showy pyrotechnics the modern Who series goes in for. Blowing up your time ship every time you regenerate gets messy--and predictable now that it's been done four times since 2005.

Let's cross our fingers for a better run for the "lucky thirteenth" Doctor!

We didn't see her in this outfit at all. It was a let down.

Available now--Book 3 in the Loving Who series, Losing Who. And coming in January--a short and sweet story featuring John Smith and Cici from the Loving Who series. All available from Devine Destinies Books and wherever fine ebooks are sold.

 

An Excerpt from Leaving Who

Calling all Whovians and rom-com fans... Now on sale, Book 2 in the Loving Who series, Leaving Who! Feel free to share the book link with others. Thank you.

Leaving Who
by Cynthianna 
http://www.devinedestinies.com/leaving-who/

After traveling for six months throughout the vastness of time and space with the alien known as John Smith, Cici Connors wants to do one more thing—go home and see her friends. Homesickness is something Cici never expected to experience as a rabid Doctor Who fan, along with her deeply held desire to be a time traveler's companion, but it's real. Once back home, things aren't quite the same as Cici remembers. John's colleagues, the gorgeous Captain Mac and the femme fatale, Babbling Brook, may not be as harmless as they first appear, either. Will the imminent destruction of Earth throw a kink in Cici's plans of leaving John? Will John ever let her go?

An excerpt from Leaving Who:

 

“She doesn’t know?” Mac accused my lover without a glance at me. “You didn’t tell her? She doesn’t understand why you came to earth in the first place?”

John shrugged. “It never came up in conversation.”

“What never came up in conversation?” I demanded. “Will one or both of you start talking directly to me instead of around me?” They both turned and stared at me. “Thank you.”

Mac flashed a toothy smile and gave me a wink while carrying on his conversation with John. “I still can’t believe you didn’t inform such a beautiful creature that her life was in dire jeopardy--and everyone else’s on the planet.”

“Like I said, it never came up in conversation.” John continued to grin at me, but I may as well have been in the next county for all it mattered. “You can’t land on a primitive planet and tell them they’re doomed. They won’t invite you in for tea if you start a conversation with, ‘Excuse me. I have something important to tell you. You’re all going to die.’”

I jumped to my feet and shouted. “Why are we all going to die?” Several heads in the restaurant turned my direction. I sat down, blushing, and lowered my voice. "Why are we all going to die?” I repeated in a firm tone.

“Because you’re going to run out of oxygen,” Mac said calmly, his smile never wavering.

I stared at Captain Mac. “How? Due to global warming? Carbon emissions?” 

“No, a giant Hoover,” John interjected. “It’s going to suck the oxygen right out of your atmosphere.”

Mac sighed and flicked the fez tassel off John’s face. “Don’t try to make it any easier on her. She deserves to know the truth.”

Easier? We were all going to suffocate? A giant vacuum cleaner? 

“Okay, I’ll come clean.” John took my hand and squeezed it. “It’s because of us, Cici. The time traveling causes an imbalance wherever it takes place. Matter has to rearrange itself across the timelines and most of the time it means basic elements such as oxygen are moved from one place to another to rebalance the multiverse. It seems the Bygons are working for another concern that is in need of it, possibly due to their time travel throughout the universes. What better place to borrow oxygen from than Earth?”

“Surely they could find oxygen elsewhere!” I cried, trying to read into their expressions for any clues that they were joking. “Can’t they find an intergalactic Wal-mart somewhere and purchase it cheap? Why not make their own?”

Mac shrugged and tutted. “You’d think they’d do that, but in this case they’ve decided Earth’s air is quite sufficient for their needs. Right place, right price, right time.”

“I beg to differ.” There’s never a good time or place for suffocating, but then the entirety of what he said hit me. I leaned toward him. “Excuse me, but what price are these aliens paying and to whom are they paying it?”

Mac’s sexy grin faded. As the twinkle in his eye dimmed, John cleared his throat awkwardly. I turned to see an unusual blush coloring his cheeks. Oh, no.

“Don’t tell me it’s your people who are paying the Bygons to help them suck up Earth’s oxygen.” I moaned as my head dropped into my hands. “Why doesn’t this distressing revelation surprise me in the least?”

“Yes, you’ve been fraternizing with the enemy all along, Cici Connors,” John Smith declared in a quiet voice. “I can understand why you’d want to leave me, but I hope you can see why I wanted to keep you from returning home.”

Leaving Who now available at Devine Destinies Books, Amazon and wherever fine ebooks are sold.  http://www.devinedestinies.com/leaving-who/

And don't forget to read Book 1 in the series, Loving Who...
http://www.devinedestinies.com/loving-who/

Feel free to like my Loving Who series Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/lovingwhoseries/

New Beginnings: A New Book and a New Doctor

 New Beginnings: A New Book

It's here at last--the release of my first novel in my series, Loving Who, a sci-fi romantic-comedy full of Who fans and fun, is now available from Devine Destinies Books. Also available at Amazon in print and e-formats, and from other online retailers. You can read an excerpt below before I give my take on the "New Doctor."

Loving Who
by Cynthianna
http://www.devinedestinies.com/loving-who/
 
Screwball comedy meets the world of Doctor Who fandom. Cici Connors' life will never be the same and it all changes when she takes a mysterious man into her life—and her bed. John Smith makes the perfect Doctor for their club's fan film, but is he really good boyfriend material? His fondness for popcorn and whipped cream are the least of his eccentricities, as Cici discovers not everyone sees the same man she sees.

When will John confess he's not from this planet? Will Cici regret having an affair and becoming mixed-up in an extra-terrestrial kidnapping plot? After all, how many alien assassins tracking her does one fangirl need?

And now an excerpt from Loving Who.  In this scene, our heroine Cici is transmatted from Earth to an alien world for the first time:

I don’t know when I began screaming, but my ears throbbed from my shrieks upon our arrival on a dark, featureless plain. I clapped my mouth shut and stared at John Smith, the man, alien, sentient being, who had made the unthinkable possible, the undoable doable, and in the process, had taken me to where I’d always wanted to go.

“Look up,” he said calmly.

I did. A million stars stabbed my eyes from a sea of the blackest velvet. A billion times better than staring through my souped up telescope. A trillion times better than pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope on the internet.

I was actually here.

“Like what you see?” He chuckled at my dumbfounded response. “Fancy the Bygons placing their teleportation deck where they keep their observatory.”

He strolled toward what appeared to be a console and flipped a couple of switches. Low-level lightning came on about the walls and a hum of machinery filled the emptiness of the circular chamber. I continued to gaze up through the huge skylight window.

“Cici? You okay?”

I pointed upward. “Stars,” I said at last. “Lots of them.”

“Eloquently put.” He came to my side and looked up. “You may or may not recognize any of the constellations but try not to worry. I’ll sort it out.”

“So many stars.” I had to close my mouth to keep from drooling.

“Uh, yes.” He frowned. “It appears I’ve made bit of a miscalculation. We’re not in Earth’s orbit. We’re not on a ship, either.”

I gasped. My knees turned to jelly. The piercing lights above began to swirl about me. I could feel my breakfast rising as a wave of nausea swept over me. John caught me by the elbow and lowered me to sit cross-legged on the deck.

“Where…are we?” I asked.

“A planet somewhere to the south and west of St. Louis by several million light years I estimate.” He stood and shrugged. “Not too far off the beaten path.”

“Not too far off?” My brain switched back on, and things began to sort themselves out internally. “We’re several million light years away from Earth, and you considered that close?”

“It’s all relative. Ask my friend Albert. It’s what he said. Anyway, we can go back the way we came, so we might as well avail ourselves of a tour of this curious facility.”

He offered me a hand, and I shakily regained my feet. “Where is everyone? I thought we’d run into the ghostly geeks with the shades.”

“So did I. Maybe it’s their tea time or something. Come along. Let’s explore.”

Loving Who now available from Devine Destinies Books and other fine online book sellers. (Now available at Amazon.)

 
You can read more about the other books in the series coming soon on my Loving Who series page by clicking here. If you can, please leave a review of my books on Amazon, Goodread, Facebook or elsewhere and let me know when you do so I can thank you. 

Loving Who was first written in the David Tennant era, so no, it doesn't mention the latest Doctor. It's about fans of both the classic series and the new. What do I think about the recent announcement of Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor? Well... I've not said much about the announcement online since I've been busy lately, and I've seen some fans attacking other fans over either liking or not liking the Beeb's decision.  Some even attacked Fifth Doctor Peter Davison for simply voicing his opinion. 

That's simply not right. It's a TV show, folks. In the grand scheme of things, it's entertainment--not life or death. Peter and all Whovians deserve the right to express their thoughts in a respectful manner. So with that in mind, here's what I say about this latest bit of Who news.

 A New Beginning: A New Doctor
  

As an author myself, I'm not always sure it's a good thing to mess with another artist's creative vision. Verity Lambert and Sydney Newman (the original producers/show creators) created  Doctor Who to be "family friendly" and "educational," but it has wandered far afield from this early concept. They made the Doctor a crusty, older British-sounding male, and cast William Hartnell in the role. If that's how they saw the character of the Doctor, who are we to argue with them? It would be like saying, "Huckleberry Finn is now a middle-aged, Chinese female instead of a young American boy." What would Mark Twain think of what you did to his character of Huck Finn? (Does a radically different Huck make sense in the context of the entire novel?) Since Verity and Sydney are no longer with us, we'll never know what they think about how others have interpreted their vision, but don't we owe it to their legacy to take care of their artistic creation?

I wonder why the BBC doesn't start a new, completely unique show with a "Time Lady" (such as Romana or the Rani) instead. Then the new show creators could do whatever they like with the Time Lady character without the worries of upsetting fans of the old show or going against series canon. I hear rumors of actress Georgia Moffat returning as the "Doctor's Daughter" in her own television show, so it is possible to start fresh with a spin-off if you're feeling trapped by the older show's scope.

Since the Doctor has regenerated thirteen times now--and has always been "male" in appearance and British in his speech patterns--why would he/she/it become "female" now? What good reason can one give for this radical change in the character? Why isn't the Doctor African or Asian instead? Why can't the Doctor speak with an American or Australian accent? Why does the Doctor have to speak English at all? Why not make the Doctor Brazilian or Mexican? The fans south of the border would love it! It just doesn't make much sense within the internal logic of the Doctor's  character to change his basic make-up since it has worked so well for the show for almost 54 years.  Such a radical change comes across as a ratings' ploy more than an artistic choice. Is the show in such trouble that it needs to pull a "stunt" to gain new viewers? What's the real motive behind this "gimmick"?

Still, Jodie Whittaker is a good actress, and it's worth a look to see how she handles the part.  I wish her and the new showrunners the best of luck. Fingers crossed they give her decent scripts to act and not the poor quality scripts Peter Capaldi was sometimes stuck with. It's the poor scriptwriting of the newer Who series that's disappointed me at times--never the actors, settings or SFX, etc., which are generally first rate. Having studied screenplay writing and film critique, I hate to see opportunities wasted to create brilliant science fiction on screen. The talent is out there writing-wise, BBC. Please use it!

Loving Who now available from Devine Destinies Books and other fine online book sellers!

 

The Doctor as U.N. President

 

 

The Doctor as 

(Possibly Unsuccessful) 

U.N. President

(Attn: Spoiler Alert) 

 

When does a television show "jump the shark" and become a sad parody of itself? Is it possible "to unjump the shark" and redeem itself ever? That's the question playing through my mind after watching the second part of a two-parter storyline, beginning with Extremis and ending with The Pyramid at the End of the World. 

 

Perhaps the question is more along the lines of "Has Doctor Who finally given up on being original, fresh or even half-way intelligent and instead gone for the bleeding obvious?" The wonderful special effects, sets, costumes and mood lighting notwithstanding, it's hard press to tell you of anything of the actual plots of these two episodes, simply because there's not much of any actual plot. It seems to be a series of well-photographed scenes with little true emotional connection between them. One if left scratching his/her head and saying, "What was all the fuss about then?"

The stakes are high since Missy is back--or is she? The stakes are high because the Doctor is still blind after saving Bill--or is he, since he has those groovy sunglasses? Sometimes he seems able to see just about everything he needs to in a scene, and then in the dramatic moment in The Pyramid he can't seem to see the combo lock on the door. Even those with just the basics in fiction writing can understand why such contradictory plot points make for an unsatisfying resolution.

 

The "monks" (which seems to be a common term for most DW alien/baddies in recent years) are predictably ugly, evil and controlling with their Matrix-like program of optical wires that is running a simulation of all life on earth. (Where have we heard something like that before? Oh, yeah, in the Matrix movie trilogy!) The Doctor and others find out about the program by reading a dark magic book called the "Veritas", eerily similar to this season's Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "Darkhold" book of evil spells and power. So, the world is all fake and we're being watched by aliens--what's new about that even in the Whovian universe?

 

After the build up of Extremis, we were really looking for a satisfying ending and a tying up of strings, but The Pyramid didn't deliver on any promises. It sticks us back in "reality" (out of the Matrix) and sticks a pyramid in the middle of Central Asia where three great military powers are standing off, but no warfare ensues. Cool SFX of landing a B-52-like a Harrier jet, but that's about it. The end of the world is coming we're told, but not by falling nukes or the tiny hands of Donald Trump it seems.

 

A separate story line gradually develops, and we're told the great disaster  to end all life in the world is because of a Monsanto-clone and its evil GMO and biochemical meddling. (That made me smile actually since it's more than likely will be the case.) Generals die because their "consent is not sincere" enough for the evil monk-aliens to stop this from happening somehow. Only the true-hearted Bill can give consent because of her love of the Doctor and concern for his safety. Earth is or isn't safe at the end, but who really cares? The Doctor can see again.

I guess it helps if one is blind to the possibilities of science fiction and to the great acting abilities of Peter Capaldi and company to think these two stories were anything more than mediocre. Peter and the entire cast and crew deserved better scripts. After trying so hard to keep an open mind about Steven Moffat's scriptwriting ability this season, he's done it again in my opinion--butted into the show mid-season and put in the two weakest episodes so far. If I were the showrunner, I'd fire him. 

 

Oh, yeah, he's not about to do that, is he? On to next week and hopefully a much stronger story. It wouldn't take much to top this last pair.

What do you think? Too harsh or not harsh enough on Moffat's latest escapade? Leave your comments below.

P.S. I have a tentative release date of August for my novel of fan-filmaking gone wild, Loving Who. Yeah! Something to look forward to in the Who universe!