Storytime with Rachel F Hundred

It’s terrible

I really wanted to like this third installment of the Eleventh Doctor’s adventures, and there was much to be hopeful for given the trailers: the rich historical background of England in the Blitz, and the Doctor going up against his oldest enemy. Unfortunately, none of that was enough to save the episode, which featured an appalling lack of tension, patchy characterization and plot issues aplenty.

The plot is fairly basic: the Doctor turns up in England during the Second World War, discovers the Daleks are being used by the British as a secret weapon, but uncovers the Daleks’ true plan to lure the Doctor into confirming their identity so they can open up a can of Dalek DNA and restart their own race. The Doctor is forced to make a choice between saving the Earth or killing the brand new shiny Daleks and, of course, chooses to save the Earth allowing the Daleks to escape to face him again another day. On the face of it, it sounds like an interesting and compelling story – and yet, it isn’t.

The main problem is that the story focuses too much on what was clearly its main aim from a series’ arc perspective, (the rebirth of the Daleks), and not enough on the Doctor working out what the Daleks are doing. This part of the story is very weak and very static. The Doctor doesn’t actually do anything to solve the mystery except shout at the Daleks, giving them fairly quickly what they want; his assertion that they are the Daleks. His subsequent trip in the TARDIS to the Dalek ship (and why wouldn’t he have worked out that they must have had one around somewhere) is done alone leaving Amy on Earth like some hapless heroine who needs to be protected. These scenes are also very weak and very static, with the Doctor holding the Daleks back with a Jammie Dodger (a type of cookie for the uninitiated) while they tell him what they’re doing in exposition scenes that are as exciting as watching paint dry. The climax with the Doctor dealing with the Dalek android about to explode on Earth is also – yes, you’ve guessed it – very weak and very static.

Indeed, there is just no sense of urgency or anything particularly dynamic about this episode, bar the spitfire shoot-out with the Dalek space-ship. That small segment had great special effects and action. Yet, if the Doctor could disturb the Dalek shield, why didn’t he do it as soon as he got back to the TARDIS instead of waiting until only one lonely spitfire was left? And given the comments that the ship was on its last legs, how did it manage to: firstly, turn the lights on in London leaving the city open to attack from the German bombers; secondly, have a shield; and thirdly, manage a time jump at all?

Plot issues aplenty.

Unfortunately, all these plot issues effectively lead to a total lack of tension. There’s nothing scary about the Daleks wandering around the cabinet war rooms offering tea and biscuits; no underscore in the music to suggest danger, and only the Doctor is bothered by them, and even he’s more frustrated than scared. When the lights are on in London, there’s no sense of danger because we never see the approaching bombers or the bombs falling over the city. The only sign of imminent peril at the end is the segmented dial that lights up prettily on the Dalek android’s chest, but even this really doesn’t do the job, as the trick to disarming the bomb isn’t technical or a race to get him off Earth before he explodes, but simply talking to him and evoking his human emotions. This is all compounded by the title of the episode, which rather stupidly gives away the ending.

The final issue with this episode is the characterization. Only Amy comes across as authentic the whole way through; the Doctor seems all over the place (possibly because the writers are finding their way still with this version) and Churchill seems to be written as a caricature spouting what the writer believes he would have said. It was all rather disappointing.

But rather than disappointments, I’ll finish with what there was to applaud; the set design, make-up and costuming should certainly get a shout-out for recreating war-time London, even down to the tea-cups. Everything looked fantastic if in a slightly comic-book perfection type of a way. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan continue to act their hearts out and make their respective characters warm and believable (despite the aforementioned issues) and Bill Paterson offers a great guest performance as the Dalek android. The humor continues to be great and I loved the Jammie Dodger moment (and the Doctor proclaiming he was offered tea), and the way Matt shook his hand after punching the android.

In conclusion

Overall, the episode does what it needs to do in terms of the series’ arc, from the return of the Daleks to the comment about Amy forgetting the events of “Journey’s End” (30.13), to the ending with the ominous crack (which is less than subtle and beginning to get old). But the episode fails to deliver a good story in and of itself; a great idea but lacking in execution. Let’s hope that this is the worst episode of the series and things will improve from here…