I've finally resigned myself to the fact that this is no longer the Doctor Who I know and love. Chibnall's tried hard this season to make the show more palatable for the seasoned Whovian, but whilst it remains his baby it'll always bear the hallmark of a showrunner at odds with my tastes. And maybe not just mine: the overnights were down again, this time to a measly 3.81m. Bugger!
The show has almost always benefited from the constant introduction of new talent, but the current cack-handedness of the storytelling has finally broken me. For every one thing it gets right, it seems to get two things drastically wrong. Its heart's in the right place—it wants to educate and entertain—but the entertainment component is starting to feel secondary to the compulsory lecture. Worse, the things which don't work aren't just still there, they seem even higher in the mix: from the Doctor's childish, ineffectual nature, to the continued lack of chemistry between the main characters, to the overly-clumsy exposition.
Take the opening quote: not content with boring everyone to death with her incessant rambling, the Doctor's now doing it when nobody's there. Why? Because the writers know of no other way to set up a story than to shout through the screen at us. They want us to know that the theme of the episode is depression and anxiety, but rather than allowing the story to inform us over the course of fifty minutes, they instead have the Doctor tell us directly how enlightened Islamic physicians were in the mental health field, and then have virtually everyone involved in some sort of mental health crisis. I mean, could they be any subtler?
As I say every week, the topics themselves aren't the problem: raising awareness of mental health issues is hugely important, and definitely should be the subject of an episode of Doctor Who. 'Vincent and the Doctor' covered similar ground back in 2010, and was hands-down one of the best episodes of the season; maybe even the show. But the story here was too thin, the conclusion too easy, and the getting from A to B just not interesting enough to hold my attention. Which is annoying because the core of the story—two immortals planning a chaos-inducing rampage—was a belter of an idea. Shame they were both foiled by the wave of a sonic screwdriver.
Presumably the development surrounding the companions is what earned Chibnall his co-writing credit. Despite wishing we'd had Yaz's origin story sooner—and as this was a stand-alone, we most definitely could've—this felt like a solid bit of character work all round. Yaz's past was beautifully written and sensitively acted by Mandip Gill; Ryan re-connecting with Tibo—particularly in light of Tosin Cole's rumoured departure—offered an interesting insight into the mental states of both Ryan and his best friend; and Graham's fears surrounding his own mortality felt heartfelt, realistic, and genuinely moving.
The Doctor's reaction to Graham sharing his feelings however was fucking abysmal. I don't know whether it was a joke which didn't land, a ball-drop on Jodie's part, a ghastly directorial gaff, or some brilliant piece of character development that went way over my head, but the Doctor's frankly weird reaction to Graham opening up—essentially snubbing him—I found incredibly disappointing. You can argue that it was a character-defining moment for the Doctor, or that she's always been socially awkward and her inability to talk openly about illness was a relatable human trait, but this was the perfect opportunity for the Doctor to impart some real wisdom—drawing upon millennia of coping with loss—and she blew it big time.
Personally, I think the Doctor's tactless reaction was to make the point that even Time Lords can suffer from anxiety. It just felt so unnecessary, and whilst undeniably making its point—that mental health issues can effect us all—it had the unfortunate side-effect of impacting negatively on the Doctor. Despite being the occasional berk, compassion isn't something she typically lacks. Whatever the writers' intention, this was a poorly written, poorly executed scene in an episode presumably meant to elicit both hope and understanding. You have to be so careful with these complex subjects, as the potential for cock ups is alarmingly high—as this episode aptly demonstrated.
What I did find interesting was that all three companions were given potential series outs. Ryan is clearly finding it hard to justify living his life at a different pace to his friends, Graham could obviously relapse at any time, and now Yaz has made amends with her past, it's certainly plausible she might want to reconnect with her family and workmates in a more meaningful way. Clearing away the current companions and introducing a new face or two for the Doctor to riff off—this time with an emphasis on character building—might solve some of the show's current issues. But the main problem is the showrunner himself, whose vision for the show—this pseudo-educational character-vacuum of a monstrosity—has made it a shadow of its former self.
Other Thoughts:
—Loved seeing Grace in Graham's dream. Sometimes I wish she'd stayed around a little longer. At this point I'm starting to wish Tim Shaw was still here. How sad is that?
—I wish the companions' personal lives played more of a part in the ongoing narrative, rather than appearing and disappearing as the topic of the week demands.
—The story is always paramount. It doesn't matter how important you feel the central themes are, if you sacrifice your story on the altar of noble intentions, it doesn't matter how clearly you get your point across, your story will almost always fail.
—This week's main theme was mental health issues. So what about them? What is the Doctor's perspective on them? What can she offer by way of succour? The answer of course was nothing.
—The Doctor freeing her sonic screwdriver was like something out of a cartoon. I watched it half a dozen times and I'm still not entirely sure how she did it.
—I rather liked the animated section. Very A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
—All manner of classic series mentions to keep the fanboys happy: from the Eternals, to the Guardians, to the Toymaker. Shame the referenced individuals are so much more interesting and from vastly superior stories.
Quotes:
Doctor : 'Of course, Islamic physicians are known for the enlightened way they treated people with mental health problems.'
Doctor: 'Do you have any idea where those planets might be?'
Graham: 'You get me an A to Z of the universe and I'll be able to stick my finger straight on... no, I've got no idea.'
Ryan: 'It's like we're living at different rates.'
11 comments:
I don't know whether you saw it, but here's what the Radio Times thinks was a "formal apology."
"Thank you for contacting us about Doctor Who: Can you Hear Me? with your feedback that it was insensitive for the Doctor to dismiss Graham’s cancer concerns,” the BBC Complaints response (which RadioTimes.com has independently verified) said.
“We never set out to upset our viewers with what we show and this episode tackled some sensitive themes. The episode used dreams and nightmares to explore the inner lives of the companions. Thanks to Zellin’s nightmare powers, Ryan, Yaz, and Graham were forced to confront their worst fears, many of which relate to the way traveling with the Doctor has changed their lives.
“When Graham opened up to the Doctor about his fear of his cancer returning her response was never meant to be dismissive. The Doctor’s friend was scared, and we see her struggling to deal with the severity of the situation.
“The intention of the scene was to acknowledge how hard it can be to deal with conversations on this subject matter. When faced with these situations, people don’t always have the right words to say at the right time, and this can often lead to feelings of guilt. By showing the Doctor struggling to find the right words, the intention was to sympathise with all those who may have found themselves in a similar position.”
The message concluded: “We hope this has helped to address your concerns, but please be assured your feedback has been raised with the programme’s Executive Producer.”
Where exactly was the apology? It was more a case of this is what you were supposed to get from the scene but didn't.
Since Chris Chibnall can't manage it the BBC should employ a show overseer who does nothing but read over the stories and pick out contradictions between the intended message and the presented message.
New showrunners should be restricted to one companion for their first year, and if they don't mess it up they get a second. Three companions over ten episodes with incidental characters to introduce is too much.
If the current three leave I'd like to see them replaced by Captain Jack. Thirteen is so lacking in any sort of sexuality that having Jack along constantly making advances would be hilarious.
It's also probably why they didn't meet two weeks ago. Jack's promiscuous pan-sexuality is completely at odds with the tone of the current show. Which is why it absolutely *must* happen. I want to see this show get its shit shook up.
Chibnall just can't get it right can he? It's like he wants to do the right thing and wants to raise awareness of these important subjects, but his understanding of them is so flimsy that he's forever making faux pas that undermine the message.
I also don't like the way they inconsistently uses their characters to drive the plots or serve supposed jokes. Everyone knew about Rosa Parks because they wanted to make the point that everyone worth their salt knows what she did (despite her being a fringe historical character in the UK) yet when it fuels a funny line, none of the cast knew who Nikola Tesla (arguably a far more famous figure) was.
I put that down to different writers, but you're right, these things should be smoothed out by whoever's in charge of continuity.
I'm really not warming to Segun Akinola's scores. What the kitten was tonight's music about? Akinola's style is a great soundscape behind the story, but really doesn't elevate the action or mystery. Not sure what tonight's boing boing sounds were supposed to achieve. Even though Murray Gold frequently went over the top, at least he was capable of memorable themes.
I'd give this a 1/10. How did she get the sonic from her pocket? Why couldn't she have just reassured Graham? In fact forget it, I don't want this clumsy team dealing with real world issues any more. Another episode where they tried to disguise their crappy script behind an important issue.
Bit of a dropped ball having Bradley Walsh just playing himself innit?
Yeah, the guy's got range. What a pity they chose not to use it. In fact this is probably true of half the cast.
There's something extremely challenging about the idea of a single person regenerating multiples times into people who although share memories, are actually quite different. There should be no issue with the idea of a Doctor being radically different to his/her predecessor, but there has to be some thread of continuity somewhere, and this Doctor just seems totally detached from any that came before. That may have been a deliberate decision, and I think it could have been done well, but as is seemingly the case these days, there really isn't enough time given to any of it. It just seems different for different's sake, or maybe to raise awareness of something or other, but if the story isn't there to match and support, then what's the point?
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