Still Who

Back in May I started writing about Doctor Who, because after all, I’m a geek with a blog and that’s what we people do (it’s not like we’re going to go clubbing). Due to a reoccurrence of acute laziness I never finished the blog, I added to it in June, and then again in August and September but I never managed to write the final paragraph. It was a good blog too (probably), look, here is an example:

“The Doctor should be travelling to weird and wonderful locations, instead he’s doing a tour of dark and dingy corridors.”

Ok, so it wasn’t that good, and that’s partly why I’ve started from scratch, the other reason is that now the series has ended I can finally gain some perspective on the whole confusing thing.

Doctor Who has always been for kids, it’s why I avoided it for so long, I thought it was silly (unlike Star Wars) and therefore not worth my time. I only watched Matt Smith’s inaugural episode last year with the intention to write a blog about how silly it was. Instead I ended up loving it because while Doctor Who is primarily for kids, it’s really for adults as well, or at least nerdy ones. It’s definitely silly - no nerd can deny that - but it’s knowingly silly and that gives it a loveable charm that even I can appreciate. Yes, I appreciate things.

For whatever reason the latest series has been a little more adult than previous ones, I don’t mean in a dirty “I’m going to sonic screw you” kind of way, but more in a “the new Harry Potter book is a lot darker than the last” kind of way. With its new super serious and seriously dark tone it lost its silly charm. No longer was it just a silly space adventure, it was sci-fi, with overarching plots, twists and reveals.

The writers’ ambition is admirable but I kind of liked not having to concentrate too hard. There was time travel and aliens and shit but I didn’t have to think too much where with this series I had to pay attention, I didn’t have a clue what was going on in the first two episodes and after watching the final episode I still don’t really know what was going on.

The whole series was structured around a seemingly inevitable death of the Doctor and the mysteries of River Song and the Silence, who were always going to be intrinsically linked to the Doctor’s inevitable death. Of course it’s hardly a spoiler if I tell you that the Doctor inevitably didn’t die and in hindsight this makes the whole 13 episode series seem kind of pointless. If we’re told he is definitely going to die and then he doesn’t, then what was the point of the whole hoopla about his death?

The series was intriguing and mysterious but only because we were constantly told it was. It had that Lost-esque answer a question with another question thing going on but with questions that we were never asking. I didn’t really care about who River Song or the Silence was because in Doctor Who everything is just an alien. There’s vampires in Venice, oh wait, they’re aliens. It’s James Corden, oh wait, he’s an alien (probably).

There was so much emphasis placed upon the big plot that the whole series suffered as a result. In the past the tone of each episode has usually been quite unpredictable, you never know what kind of episode you’re going to get, but with this series it’s been the same dark tone for every episode. Quoting version one of this post, it did seem like the Doctor was doing a tour of dark and dingy corridors. No matter where he was in time and space, he was usually down a dark corridor.

For me the low point of the series was the “Let’s Kill Hitler” episode. LET’S KILL HITLER! Fuck yeah! Now that’s a title, they’re gonna get Hitler and F him in the A. No, no, no. We didn’t get any of that. Rory, or Scrappy Doo as he should be known, gently punches Hitler in the first few minutes, and that’s the last we see of the Fuhrer. After that there’s a few plot twists while the characters try and evade the evil clutches of the miniature space police. Let’s kill Hitler? Should have called it “Let’s softly punch Hitler in the face, run away and get embroiled with the mini space police for 40 fucking minutes”.

Bad episodes aren't anything new in Doctor Who, in fact I’ve geekily calculated that 1 in 5 episodes are either bad or downright awful. For every “Blink” is a pavement with a face that gives blowjobs (not even making that one up). There weren’t many truly bad episodes this series however, there just weren’t many good ones. They were too dark and too complicated, and any jokes or moments of silliness felt somewhat inappropriate amongst all the seriousness, why was Rory dressed as Roman when his wife was in danger? Surely the time spent finding and putting on a costume could have been better spent? Fortunately the series’ conclusion suggests that the show will be going back to basics next year, without anyone chasing the Doctor he should have time to feature in some good episodes. Let’s just hope there are no more pavements with faces that give blowjobs (seriously, it happened).