TV: Doctor Who Series 10 Finale

This blog contains spoilers...

The ending of the latest series of Doctor Who ends with the 12th Doctor stubbornly refusing to regenerate, something completely in tune with Capaldi's portrayal; and then meeting the first Doctor, possibly the only previous Doctor who can match the 12th Doctor for stubbornness.

Well I did say there were spoilers.

Anyway, that will all be dealt with at Christmas no doubt, Steven Moffat’s last flirtation with timey-wimeyness before he goes. Well his love of timey-wimeyness is less ‘flirtatious’ and more ‘rampant’ but you know what I mean.

This last series has seen the introduction of Bill, who has been one of the best companions in a long time.  Clara was originally created more as a development than a personality - the ‘impossible girl’ - and her departure last year, where she basically became a Doctor-like figure in her own right was a continuation of this, despite an attempt to giver her more character development in Season 8. That’s not to say she was a bad companion, but it’s refreshing to have a character that was more emotionally realistic and bult from the ground up.  In fact Bill’s character is probably my favourite companion from Steven Moffat’s tenure. Moffat sometimes can’t seem to help himself from going all timey-wimey on his characters, which isn’t always a bad thing in this kind of show - might not work as well in Corrie - but it’s nice that Bill became a powerful and realistic dramatic force in the programme to contrast with the weirdness around her.  Until she became a Cyberman and the Doctor couldn’t save her of course (you know by now there’s spoilers - if you’re annoyed about this spoiler you only have yourself to blame).

The build up of the evolution of the Cybermen finally gives them a origin genesis story in New Who - their introduction way back in Season 2 was basically the same as Genesis of the Daleks, but with Trigger from Only Fools and Horses instead of Davros.  Seeing the slow evolution of the Cybermen as something that a civilization willingly does in order to survive is believab

le (as far as Doctor Who goes) and creepy than the idea they started out as kidnapped homeless people by bad men and turned into robots.  The city (which has a strong 1920s ‘Metropolis’ feel), dominated by a hospital with its Inpatient, Conversion Theatre and Outpatient wards feels suitably decrepit and desperate. The patients, covered head to toe in bandages before being fully converted, are eerily sympathetic, and give a greater understanding of the point of the Cybermen - they started out as willing converts, and then went around the universe spreading the good news.  They’re technological evangelists.  According to the Doctor, all the vague and conflicting stories about where the Cybermen come from can be explained by the fact that this is where evolution takes everyone eventually, when mother nature can’t keep up with the demand for survival, humans give her a hand with their own augmentations.  These early Cybermen, based on the original Cybermen from the 60s, are suitably slap-dash and the best that could be done with limited resources (which in real life is exactly why the Cybermen costumes looked like they did in ‘The Tenth Planet’ making this episode partly a retcon 60s costume design).  It doesn’t take them long before they develop ‘war units’, who are the traditional armour plated Cybermen we are used to.

Oh yes, and that seemingly friendly man who looks after Bill for years in order to trick her into undergoing conversion?  Yes, that’s John Simm in disguise for the majority of the first half of the story, doing an excellent job of the Master being in disguise for an actual reason.  In the first multi-Master story the series has done, he is there in order to remind us how much Missy has become better at not being a completely villainous bitch and is starting to go over to the Doctor's side.  Simm’s Master is the traditional Master, the trickster who just likes being evil for evil’s sake.  He’s largely there as a counterpoint to Missy but steals a great many of his scenes.  When both versions of the Master murder each other (timey-wimey breakdown alert) there’s a brilliant scene of them giggling and laughing their heads off like naughty schoolchildren.

This series got the balance of dark and light just right.  The Doctor is still aloof but not as unkind or unsympathetic as he was in Season 8.  Most importantly, the plots have been entirely relatable and could be a great place to introduce someone to the series (perhaps - as long as someone could explain the Master to them).  If you’re ever trying to watch the show with a non-fan, Moffat is at his most frustrating when he over-eggs the clever plotting and it’s much more reined in here.  I’m looking forward to seeing how Capaldi’s Doctor finally ends, and of course finding out who his replacement is going to be...

TV: Prey

Prey, ITV's answer to The Fugitive, ended on Monday and it was a bit of a damp squib.

Prey was the perfect example of the thrill of the chase being more exciting than the ending.  The ‘hunted man’ story is enormous fun, especially when Our Hero is being hunted by the police, as the majority of dramas and films still have us on the side of the authorities by default.  Even when we know Our Hero is innocent, there is still something nicely subversive about being asked to identify with a man on the run from the law.

Our Hero in Prey is Marcus Farrow, a policeman wrongly suspected of murdering his wife.  Farrow’s got a violent temper but is on the whole a good person, and he is played by John Simm, which makes him at least 50% more interesting.  He goes to ground and tries to find out what really happened to his wife before the police catch him by doing research into a murky case he was working on at the time. 

There were lots of very good set pieces in Prey, nearly all of which featured John Simm on the run and nearly but not quite being caught.  Because Marcus Farrow had a violent character when irked, you were genuinely concerned that he might accidentally murder someone in his desperation.  Lots of sneaking around and subterfuge – this is what Prey did well.  Very well in fact, for at least half its screentime.

The ‘hunted man’ story is all about the set pieces, which is why conclusions can be such a pisser.  Yes, we do want to know what all the running around has been in aid of, but it needs to pull off the trick of being satisfying without being too drawn out or implausible.  But last episodes have to be about the conclusion.  Prey demonstrated in its third and final episode how hard it can be to finish a series with aplomb by giving us resolution, resolution, resolution.

The thing is, the cat and mouse stuff can keep on going for ages and still be entertaining even on a relatively simple plot, but Prey had a cover-up conspiracy as its premise which meant that it was setting itself up for giving an ‘epic revelation’ conclusion.  But it couldn’t convincingly do this, instead opting for one of the most clichéd wrap-up plots in thriller stories (the one person he thought he could trust whilst he was on the run turns out to be the baddie!  Who would have thought it!) But even then it didn’t quite work, because the big reveal of the villain happened far too early in the episode, meaning that too much of it felt like it was spent hanging around waiting for Marcus to catch up with us.  During the first two episodes, we had great fun complimenting John Simm on his cleverness from our sofa and basically enjoying the ride, but the last episode gave us too much time to work out that some of this was a little bit silly.

Which is a shame, because Prey was working really, really well as a cat and mouse chase drama – The Fugitive, set in Manchester – but sort of opted not to be one in the end and being a police melodrama instead.  Plot points were piled on for absolutely no reason – Farrow’s friend Shaun had betrayed him in episode 1, OK, fine.  But having Shaun then confess to Farrow he’d been sleeping with his wife for the last 10 years at the end made it seem like a soap with guns.  It managed to make the ending feel rushed and drawn out at the same time.  Prey kept the audience watching through the momentum of the action, but by its end it was obvious the action was supporting the plot and not the other way round.

At the end of it all though, I don't think it necessarily matters if the ending of something like Prey is a damp squib.  If you watch something that you pretty much know is going to be mainly enjoyable for the thrill of the chase, you can't complain that you didn't enjoy the bit after the chase had finished.  It just would have been a bit more satisfying if it had ended with more style instead of falling on back on cliche and melodrama.