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Welcome back, old chum: Review of Doctor Who Series One on DVD |
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Friday, 13 October 2006 |
By D. W. O'Dell
 Hollywood’s gone remake mad. Name any mediocre television series from the 1970’s and some studio executive is commissioning a screenplay for a big budget movie version. As studio execs get younger and younger and time marches on, all we have to look forward to is movies based on mediocre TV series from the 1980’s (oh look, here comes Miami Vice!).
So it was with some trepidation that I greeted the news that after 15 years, one bad TV movie, and dozens of novels, the BBC was reviving the long running series Doctor Who. The series had ended maddeningly. Sylvester McCoy was a brilliant Doctor, and Ace was one of the best conceived companions. But the scripts they had to work with went from dreadful to pathetic (a villain composed entirely of candy? Even Douglas Adams would have laughed that idea out of the room). Since then there has been an ongoing fan movement to revive the show, but once the BBC gave in could they capture the spirit of the old series again?
I apologize for coming late to the party, but I don’t get the Sci-Fi channel so I had to wait for Doctor Who Season One to be released on DVD. Having seen the first three episodes on Disc One, I can answer that last question with an emphatic “Yes!” They nailed it.
The key to Doctor Who is, of course, casting. It was amazing that the show survived the Colin Baker years. I mean this as no reflection on Colin Baker as an actor; Baker had made a career playing heavies (including an earlier Doctor Who episode) and just couldn’t convey they necessary aura of goodness the Doctor has to exude. Paul McCann, in the TV movie, was far too dour.
The new Doctor is Christopher Eccleston, a suitably goofy looking chap with what is (according to the script) a “Northern accent” (I’ll trust the BBC about English accents). He imbues his characterizations of The Doctor with a number of essential qualities:
Energy. His first line of dialog in episode 1 is, “Run!” The Doctor has always followed Arnold Schwarzenegger’s mantra of “Action, action, action!” When the Brigadier once asked Tom Baker’s Doctor what the hurry was, The Doctor replied with something like, “Really Brigadier, you must learn to cultivate a sense of urgency.” Eccleston has no trouble portraying The Doctor as a man (er, Gallifreyan?) of action.
Whimsy and gravitas. The Doctor has a dual nature; he grins like the biggest kid in a candy store most of the time, but when he starts snapping out orders based on his superior knowledge, they have to sound like they come from someone confident in his decisions. Eccleston has both parts down.
Honesty. The Doctor is utterly guileless. He may occasionally flatter someone in a position of authority to try and get him to do the right thing, but he never outright lies, even to the bad guys. When his new companion, Rose, asks him if joining him will be dangerous, he replies with a broad grin and an enthusiastic, “Yeah!” This says two things to her: yes, there will be dangers, but also that he’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe (through all of his adventures The Doctor‘s only lost one companion).
Based on the first three episodes, I am less sanguine about The Doctor’s companion, Rose. She is a teenager from a lower-class upbringing in London. She seems vaguely reminiscent of Ace but without her charming habit of blowing things up. But I will watch a few more episodes before passing final judgment. I was happy when The Doctor specifically announced that Rose’s dim-witted boyfriend wasn’t invited to accompany the two of them, but one of the commentary tracks revealed that he would become a companion in a future episode. We’ll see.
The series also captures a couple of other elements of the original show. Of course the special effects are better than they were back in the 1960’s (home movies are now capable of better special effects than those early episodes of Doctor Who). But there is still an element of kitsch in the effects, as if they don’t want to be too realistic. And the scripts, while good, are not innovative or ground breaking. The reason the original Doctor Who lasted 25 years was consistency, not brilliance. Few Doctor Who episodes broke new ground in science fiction; rather, they used establish plot ideas but combined them with engaging characters (not the least of whom was the titular Doctor) and satisfactory denouements.
I am looking forward to getting the rest of the discs of Season One from Netflix. After the catastrophe that was the Doctor Who made for TV movie (Eric Roberts as The Master? What were they thinking?) I didn’t think it was possible for anyone to accurately recreate the show while dragging it into a new century. Bringing Doctor Who successfully into the 21st century may be the neatest time travel trick of all. |
