New Who 12.3 Orphan 55
Sunday, 12 January 2020 20:15![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
strange_complexI really enjoyed this episode. I mean, massively more than Spyfall parts 1 and 2, actually. They were fine and enjoyable, but this one had me really rapt with the story structure and contents.
It was a genre of story I utterly love (base under siege / bottle episode / cabin fever story), and absolutely delivered on the things I want from that kind of narrative - people rising to the occasion, discovering their courage, and revealing their core priorities. The moment when Bella suddenly and unexpectedly turned on the rest of the group was mint. (She was also absolutely red hawt, which did not hurt.)
It also had two nice clear themes - just the right amount to give the story direction and structure without overloading it. One was the eco-horror, complete with the reveal that It Was Earth All Along - and I am guessingmiss_s_b in particular appreciated the way that the Russian subway sign which attested to that referenced Six's The Mysterious Planet. My mind went to climate change as soon as the Doctor started talking about how there is always an elite who evacuate out in 'societies that let this happen', and then got confused when people later started talking about nuclear winters, thinking it had all gone a bit old-school. But of course, as her speech about how the food chain collapses and then there is mass migration and war spelt out, it's all linked together. I also really appreciated the fact that the closing note for the episode was an explicit exhortation not to let this happen in our Earth's future. That felt in the spirit of the Pertwee era to me, and part of what I think Doctor Who jolly well should be doing.
The second big theme was family relationships. This popped up in the very first few lines of dialogue, about how the companions didn't know it was 'the mating season' for whatever they were having to clear up in the TARDIS, and then bubbled gently along throughout. It's in the episode name, Benni's belated marriage proposal, Ryan and Bella swapping their experiences of parental death, the relationship between Sylas and his father, and the evolution from humans to Dregs, and of course pays off in plot terms in this episode in the central conflict and then resolution between Bella and Kane. But it was such a Thing that I wonder whether it might not prove to extend beyond this episode alone, and be related to the Big Secret which the Master found in Gallifrey's history.
I also felt it was visually well designed. I thought the early shots of the Dregs, when they first appeared in the Spa and were threatening Ryan and Bella in particular, were very nicely done - good use of mists, silhouettes and partial glimpses to make them really scary. I also noticed at this stage that they were visually likened to another human character trying to escape them and running his hand along the wall in the same way as they did - a link which retrospectively proved to have been deliberately set up for us, once the reveal came about who they 'really' were.
Wikipedia tells me that the writer for this story was somebody called Ed Hime, who has only previously contributed one other Doctor Who story, It Takes You Away (the one with the hypno-toad in an isolated Norwegian cabin), which I also really liked. So that's a name to keep an eye out for in future - though we won't see his work again in this series, apparently.
Footnotey disclaimer - I've no idea how anyone other than the main characters' names were spelt, as there is no Wikipedia page up for this episode yet and the end credits went too fast for me. I reserve the right to amend my current guesses as and when there's better information available.
Edit - the Wikipedia page is up now, and I've corrected some names accordingly (Cain > Kane, Silas > Sylas).
It was a genre of story I utterly love (base under siege / bottle episode / cabin fever story), and absolutely delivered on the things I want from that kind of narrative - people rising to the occasion, discovering their courage, and revealing their core priorities. The moment when Bella suddenly and unexpectedly turned on the rest of the group was mint. (She was also absolutely red hawt, which did not hurt.)
It also had two nice clear themes - just the right amount to give the story direction and structure without overloading it. One was the eco-horror, complete with the reveal that It Was Earth All Along - and I am guessing
miss_s_b in particular appreciated the way that the Russian subway sign which attested to that referenced Six's The Mysterious Planet. My mind went to climate change as soon as the Doctor started talking about how there is always an elite who evacuate out in 'societies that let this happen', and then got confused when people later started talking about nuclear winters, thinking it had all gone a bit old-school. But of course, as her speech about how the food chain collapses and then there is mass migration and war spelt out, it's all linked together. I also really appreciated the fact that the closing note for the episode was an explicit exhortation not to let this happen in our Earth's future. That felt in the spirit of the Pertwee era to me, and part of what I think Doctor Who jolly well should be doing.The second big theme was family relationships. This popped up in the very first few lines of dialogue, about how the companions didn't know it was 'the mating season' for whatever they were having to clear up in the TARDIS, and then bubbled gently along throughout. It's in the episode name, Benni's belated marriage proposal, Ryan and Bella swapping their experiences of parental death, the relationship between Sylas and his father, and the evolution from humans to Dregs, and of course pays off in plot terms in this episode in the central conflict and then resolution between Bella and Kane. But it was such a Thing that I wonder whether it might not prove to extend beyond this episode alone, and be related to the Big Secret which the Master found in Gallifrey's history.
I also felt it was visually well designed. I thought the early shots of the Dregs, when they first appeared in the Spa and were threatening Ryan and Bella in particular, were very nicely done - good use of mists, silhouettes and partial glimpses to make them really scary. I also noticed at this stage that they were visually likened to another human character trying to escape them and running his hand along the wall in the same way as they did - a link which retrospectively proved to have been deliberately set up for us, once the reveal came about who they 'really' were.
Wikipedia tells me that the writer for this story was somebody called Ed Hime, who has only previously contributed one other Doctor Who story, It Takes You Away (the one with the hypno-toad in an isolated Norwegian cabin), which I also really liked. So that's a name to keep an eye out for in future - though we won't see his work again in this series, apparently.
Footnotey disclaimer - I've no idea how anyone other than the main characters' names were spelt, as there is no Wikipedia page up for this episode yet and the end credits went too fast for me. I reserve the right to amend my current guesses as and when there's better information available.
Edit - the Wikipedia page is up now, and I've corrected some names accordingly (Cain > Kane, Silas > Sylas).
no subject
Date: Sunday, 12 January 2020 21:24 (UTC)I kept seeing elements from previous stories - Mysterious Planet, as you said, Full Circle (oxygen as a weapon), Curse of Fenric (humanity evolving into monsters) etc. Mostly good performances and nice direction and dialogue - I particularly liked the very reassuring tannoy announcements.
Jodie's continuing to impress me. She was fine last year, but looks to have stepped up a gear this series, although her best moment for me is still her entirely non-verbal performance when told to kneel last week.
no subject
Date: Sunday, 12 January 2020 21:51 (UTC)Yes, agreed. Her final speech about Earth's future was just right.
no subject
Date: Monday, 13 January 2020 09:52 (UTC)I liked it too. The opening scenes that showed how the companions are now quite blasé about all this stuff -- weird alien stuff in the Tardis, alien newspaper coupons, and so on -- was really good. And then good scene-setting once we got to the resort, with short scenes of various people. Felt a lot like classic serials where we arrive in some strange new place and are quickly introduced to it.
A tiny bit preachy at the very end, but it's a kids' show, it gets to do that.
no subject
Date: Monday, 13 January 2020 22:15 (UTC)Agreed about the establishing material, both in the TARDIS and in the resort. All very nicely and efficiently handled.