Whelp, that's another series over and done with for Doctor Who and while I land firmly in the 'bored with Alex Kingston/River Song/Melody Pond' camp (mostly because of Kingston's performance lacking any consistency or likability) I do have to say that it was pretty darn good.


The Doctor has decided that running away is enough and it's time to die, but instead of picking up where we left off last episode we're treated to a fantastical story told by a bearded Soothsayer/The Doctor to Caesar/Churchill in a reality where dinosaurs are alive, the Roman Empire hasn't reformed into the Catholic Church and is instead also the British Empire.  It's a world that's a compete mess and apparently a world where time never changes because it's dying.


The story was pretty darn good, there were plot holes, fallible events and huge leaps of faith/logic to deal with; but by the end of it it hung together pretty well.  The Doctor Who finales historically have been a mixed bag, under Rusty they were emotional triumphs that were let down by his inability to write science fiction without resorting to Deus Ex Machina to resolve everything (or in one case, a wonderful coffee shop conversation, surrounded by a terrible flying John Simm, and followed by an overly long death that felt 50% Opera swansong and 50% RTD swansong.  


This one was one of the better ones, there was a lot to follow and a lot to get your head around but it made sense, it was clever and it wiped clean a lot of the "damage" Rusty had caused over the time he was in charge of Doctor Who.  I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but Moffat's work has gradually been cleaning away the dramatic changes Rusty put into place when he regenerated the series.  The Daleks have returned to a more familiar form (as opposed to the loose analogs for religion they became) - even if they do now look like iPods and now The Doctor is due to return to the shadows and become a figure of mystery again - much like he was in the original series, where he could wander about and people often thought he was a harmless traveler.  That's pretty good, and all you have to do now Mr Moffat, is bring back the Time Lords, thank you very much.


I would be amiss if I didn't at least touch on the hanging threads left to tease future events.  In essence we've been told that the Eleventh Doctor will die (and regenerate) at Tranzalor - however it's worded as the 'fall of eleven' so there's still a little room for wiggle room - mind you it's not worth bothering too much about how it'll pan out, the Internet has created such a forum for speculation that it's impossible for any writer to surprise viewers when dropping hints like that.  People are very wise to foreshadowing unless it's done in a subtle fashion (see Arrested Development's second season and The Wire for the definition of subtle foreshadowing).  Moffat took a pop at this during the episode with a fun jibe about the speculation around River Song.


I do hope that this means the end of River Song in the series, as I have written before many times - I just don't like the character, she's rubbish - and I'm concerned about what it means for Amy and Rory going ahead (Amy's in essence a killer, that's something The Doctor doesn't tolerate in companions - even if it "hasn't happened" because it took place in an alternative time stream.


I think I'm very contented with "The Wedding of River Song", it was a well crafted piece that hung together brilliantly.  It was fast paced, exciting and faintly ridiculous - but it makes sense when you look at the overall picture, there wasn't a big button labelled 'reset to normal' here, instead there was a brilliant man coming up with a brilliant plan for his own survival - saving the universe and himself at the same time.  It's... to quote Ace... "Well devious".


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Image from here

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Image from here

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Image from here.

Last week's episode "Let's Kill Hitler" was not my favourite cup of Doctor tea, in fact it was the latest in a run of episodes that I've found to be substandard (everything since "The Doctor's Wife" I've found to be kind of sucky if you're interested), in fact I was reaching the point where I was getting tired of The Silence and River Song, well more tired than usual.

Fortunately the preview for "Night Terrors" outlined an episode that looked like it was going to be old school Doctor Who, a monster, scary stuff and fun lines.  Unfortunately it was written by Mark Gatiss, writer of "The Unquiet Dead" (genuinely good), "The Idiot's Lantern" (pretty poor) and "Victory of the Daleks" (awful with a few moments of brilliance).  So the quality of writing was not ensured - Datura summed it up well when she commented at the start of the episode "Mark Gatiss, his writing is always a mess."

I sound like I'm going to open up another round of episode bashing don't I?  Well I'm not, because "Night Terrors" was actually quite a decent standalone story that ticked most of the boxes a Doctor Who needs to.  At it's core it was a retelling of "Fear Her", but this time the story was told in a stronger fashion.  In fact, looking back on the episode it hangs together exceptionally well - creating a piece that's about adoption, childhood fears and the love of a parent.  Daniel Mays, as Alex the father of George was given the bulk of the story to carry on his shoulders, this episode was about Alex and George, with The Doctor supporting them while Amy and Rory provided a little classic 'companion peril'.  Daniel delivers; he's very, very good in the role and more than capable of carrying the acting burden, this is always a risk in an episode that is focused around a one off character, how can you manage to round out their personality without ham-handed exposition and what happens if the actor miss-sells the character in some fashion?  We're in good hands here as Daniel takes the character of Alex and fills out the dialog and plot with some superb character acting.  I'm buying him as the concerned father, I'm buying him in bulk.

If I had any criticisms (which I inevitably do), I would say that the story wobbles only on a few points, first of all it moves away from being scary and into being funny a little too quickly (oversized lantern & wooden pan), the CGI is weak at all times in the episode (carpet and doll landlord in particular) and the 'monsters' (as such they were) look awful, not scary, not creepy, just awful.

But these are minor complaints in an episode that was a breath of fresh air to a stale cupboard.  I'm happy with "Night Terrors", it was classic Doctor Who with fun dialog, peril, a plot that hangs together and touching scenes between a father and his son and that's exactly what the show needed at this point in time.

A second successful Doctor Who story for Mark Gatiss me thinks.
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I'm writing the first paragraph for this prior to watching the episode.  This is because I'm not entirely certain that 'Let's Kill Hitler' is going to be a classic piece that I'll recall fondly for the years to come.  The previous half series of Doctor Who was a wildly inefficient piece that paled compared to the series before it.  There was a great deal of effort expended in making sure that the metaplot hung together, but instead of being subtle and mysterious like the scene from 'Forest of the Dead' it came across as forced and ham-fisted - the very traits that cause me to have an issue with 'Bad Wolf'.  As a consequence I'm not completely certain that the remaining part of the series is going to hold up well.  Mix in the title of this episode, a tired trope if there ever was one, and it doesn't look good.


On the other hand...  Steven Moffat must know that people would fear the title as being old hackneyed ground.  So maybe he has something special planned.


Lets come back after watching the episode.


...


Sigh.  No.


While the episode did indeed sidestep the tired trope of time travelling to kill Hitler, by virtue of stashing the dictator in a cupboard and then forgetting about him. (Just as well considering his accent that threatened to dismantle the illusion of reality - yes, yes I know the TARDIS translates, but come on).  It really wasn't what it should have been.


I wanted to like the episode, I wanted to enjoy it as much as Dan Owen clearly did (http://danowen.blogspot.com/2011/08/doctor-who-68-lets-kill-hitler.html).  However I find myself leaning more towards Myle's take on the episode (http://cultural-learnings.com/2011/08/27/fall-premiere-doctor-who-lets-kill-hitler/).  Except a bit more brutal in my thoughts and feelings.


Some of the good points first. Most of the good moments, revolve around Rory.  I'm pleased he's evolved beyond the Moffat-Man-Child archtype that most leading men he writes fall under.  In fact I'm sold on (Arthur Darvill) as the reluctant hero, I'd go to see an action film just on the strength that he was in the leading role.  His Nazi sucker punches channeled pure (pre-Nuke) Indiana Jones and his Miniaturisation Ray observation was spot on and hilarious.


Matt Smith also had his fair share of strong moments, the Doctor stopping off to change into top hat and tails, complete with Sonic Cane was a wonderful touch.  However it was impossible to feel any real sense of danger for him, we've already got the Sword of Damocles hanging over us in the spaceman shooting.  Threatening his existence even further doesn't really ramp up the tension, it instead makes me feel frustrated and worn out.


Speaking of which, the show is in vast danger of becoming overwhelmed by this series's mystery.  I, for one, am getting more than a little tired with it.  It's sucking the fun out of the show.  Please, I want more of 'The Doctor's Wife' and less of 'The Doctor's Death'.


Karen Gillan was relegated a little to the sidelines here, yes she got to play a robot simulacrum of herself.  Run around a bit, look in danger and then act in a way that would have murdered several hundred people if they hadn't had an escape button (is it OK for a companion to intend to murder people but fail through no fault of her own?  I'm not sure...)  This is no bad thing, it's nice to have focus on other characters at times, Amy Pond is a cracking character, but so is Rory and The Doctor.


On to the elephant in the room.  Melody, Amy's friend (Ret-conned into the plot a little ham-fistedly, but I'll over look that) - aka Melody Pond, Amy's Daughter - aka after a gut shot regeneration Melody Pond II (Pre-River Song).


I'm sorry, I really am, but I am tired of Alex Kingston, sick and tired of her performance and her character as a whole.  Once it was interesting and sweet, but her delivery of lines has grated on me to the point that I'm tempted to watch Silence in the Library again just so I can see her die once and for all.  The concept is fun, the character is well written, but at the end of it - it just does nothing but tire me.  If there were more Doctor Who episodes per series I'd probably be pressing the 'Skip' button the moment I see her on screen.  Datura (the lovely wife) agrees with me, she's also sick of River Song.  I'm hoping that this half series wraps things up and we get to move on from her.


The problem from here on in is this, there's not much else to the episode - it was an episode that started out as a cheeky time travelling trope that should really be left alone (but could be fun) and degenerated into little more than a vehicle for River Song and more mysterious hints.  Outside of the Justice department (which made me think of Red Dwarf's Inquisitor) there was little else to the episode - apart from Rory punching Hitler.  That was pretty fun.


So, 'Let's Kill Hitler' was not the episode I hoped it would be, it hasn't moved the series away from the rather awful end of the first half and at this point Doctor Who is in serious danger of drowning in its own mythos.  That's almost ironic, because I've always wanted more ongoing story lines in the show, I just wanted them to be more like Murder One or The Shield (interesting, balanced with other items) not murky and frustrating (like Lost became in the second season).


Where's the show I loved gone?
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I recently got my Wii set back up and it's now become my standalone BBC iPlayer. I suppose I could use it for other things, but I can't really figure out what else it would be any use for (having grown tired of the balance board that came with it). Fortunately for me the BBC iPlayer works pretty well on it and as such I've been using it to explore the various BBC programs that are on offer. On Demand viewing is pretty much my preferred viewing method these days, I don't want to be tied to watching the television at a fixed day and time, I want television to suit my lifestyle and my choices. If I want to go out for a cycle or an impromptu gathering I don't want to go through the hassle of having to remember to record any shows I miss.

Sure, I could set up series links and what have you, but again that doesn't suit my temperament. I prefer to look at a list of shows and pick one to watch immediately rather than draw up a list of shows that I want to record in order to watch at some point. I can now dip in and out of shows, taking a chance on things like Cowards, Mongrels (more on this one next week for sure) and returning to shows such as My Family and Armstrong & Miller whenever I feel like it.

This is how I came across the BBC 2 show Vexed; something about its entry in the comedy section of the iPlayer made me decide to click the play button. I'm pretty sure it wasn't the synopsis provided - "Police detectives Jack and Kate have very different approaches to the job and life in general. In fact they disagree on everything" - that just sounds, well bloody awful. And I know it wasn't the cast - I've never heard of Lucy Punch, Toby Stephens, Ronny Jhutti, Roger Griffiths or Rory Kinnear before and looking at their imdb entries it's not really surprising - none of them have performed any monumental roles, though they've all appeared in episodes of shows I have watched.

Vexed is best described as a comedy/drama/police procedural with an irrelevant sense of humour. It's a mild spin on the old cop buddy format with two somewhat disparate partners pushed together - in this case you have the talented and dedicated but somewhat neurotic DI Kate (Lucy Punch) partnered up with a man who seems to be permanently stuck in the 1970s with his misogynistic, womanising, lazy, cut corners attitude - DI Jack (Toby Stephens). It's an old formula and while it's not really a stretch for a show to partner a woman with a misogynistic pig it is one that works. The relationship provides a lot of bounce between the characters (as long as the man isn't too much of a tw*t).

Vexed has just three episodes at this time and with its production company Greenlit Right Productions in administration (or greenlit for termination as The Shield would have it), it's hard to say if there will be any more episodes - especially given the mixed critical reaction. I know that Dan of Dan's Media Digest had a rather adverse reaction when I tweeted about liking Vexed - I believe he threatened to unfollow me! Certainly many critics and reviewers have had negative things to say about the show, in particular about Toby's performance as Jack.

But frankly I disagree, I felt the show had a certain charm from a police based television series that I hadn't seen since Police Squad - Vexed is certainly grounded more in reality than Police Squad was, but DI Jack has a Frank Drebin feel to him - an ironically charged, ham-fisted performance that is over the top - but it's still pretty darn hilarious to watch him in the same way it's hilarious to watch Frank over act in every single scene. He's supposed to be charming and great with the ladies, but instead he tends to come across as ignorant, useless and piggishly chauvinistic and I think we all know those are traits that some women are drawn to like moths to flame. (I said some ladies, I didn't mean you of course!)

Lucy Punch's performance as Kate is the more grounded of the two performances, she's a lot of fun - a mix of a strong woman combined with a neurotic wife desperate to keep her home life together. She's the smarter of the pair by a long margin and tends to use her head in problematic situations - Jack instead seems to rely on a mix of intuition and dumb luck, he's a man who can't remember how to plant a tracking device properly, carries a gun without training (and then loses it) and electronically stalks women to pick them up. An awful piece of work if you met him in real life, but pretty darn hilarious on screen.

It is more than likely that Vexed won't have any more episodes after the third one, the combination of critical panning and the large factor of the production company being in administration seems the right mix to result in it being killed off before it has a chance to develop and that's a shame in my opinion, because there's a lot right about Vexed. It's something different enough to get my interest and it's one of the few new British shows that I found myself enjoying - it's energetic, crude, offensive and born in a timeless fashion that makes it feel like it would be just as much at home in the 1970s or 80s as it is in this day and age.

The three episodes that have been recorded cover a trio of cases - the first involves a serial killer hunting single women, the second a depressed banker under threat of assassination (in a rehabilitation clinic) and the kidnapping of Gemma G - a member of a girl band. Each episode is 60 minutes long and self contained.

In all I'd say you should consider giving Vexed a try, it's an uneven show that is in its infancy but there are times where the dialog and characters shine out with sheer genius and show what it could grow into. Jack/Toby and Kate/Lucy have some solid on screen chemistry that bubbles up in exceptional ways at times, especially when they are dealing with Jack's general incompetence. It's a fun show and something a little different - so spend three hours of your time and give it a go. I'm glad I did.
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