Cry Havoc

Okay, is it just me or is anyone else thinking Curse Of Fenric after watching The Rebel Flesh?


There's something in the atmosphere of the story that hearkens back to the glory days of the 7th Doctors era, and to The Curse Of Fenric in particular. Maybe it's the fact they both feature a medieval religious building out of which something nasty is being pumped. Or maybe it's the fact that the Doctor clearly knows something and is not telling. There's that dark layered complexity at work that was the hallmark of the 7th Doctors finest stories. If anything it's this aspect of the story that interests me more than the whole "get out of the Impossible Astronaut free" card that got played in one of the most confusing cliffhangers of all time. By which I mean it was a great, exciting cliffhanger whilst being simultaneously massively obvious.

You don't stick your hand in a tub of people copying goo and expect a banana to come out.

The question which of course remains is just how much of this is part of the Doctors masterplan. Well, that and what his masterplan actually is. This has been a series for unresolved questions after all. Not that I would begrudge any of the mysteries on offer here. This is, after all, only part one. Of course, that does rather make it difficult to really discuss, as what we have here is largely setting the scene for what is to come. The great thing is that it does it beautifully. From the opening scene of one of the workers dying horribly and being strangely unfussed we have a great atmosphere of disquieting mystery and no little darkness. That the episode also features some really funny moments. That these don't jar is quite a testament to the skill of the writer, as everything works together to form a really good slice of pure Doctor Who goodness.

Which is pretty shocking when you consider it was written by the guy who gave us Fear Her. The nearest thing Doctor Who has ever come to being completely unwatchable. I.E. it's MOSTLY unwatchable. I don't think there's been any Doctor Who story I've disliked as much as that episode. I actually quite like Timelash. I thought the Web Planet was actually pretty cool. Hell, Black Orchid only really suffers from the interminable cricket scenes (which I guess makes it the Surf Nazis Must Die of Doctor Who?). So you understand that I felt pretty strongly about the writers previous work on the series. However I would like to state that when I found out he was writing these episodes my attitude was less a bout of slavering nerd-rage and more that I felt it was rather nice of Moffat to give the guy a chance to clear his name. After all, would YOU want to remembered for writing Fear Her?

Thought not.

The fact of the matter is that, going by what we have here, he's rapidly on the way to almost total forgiveness. Obviously I'm not going to commit myself 100% until after the denouement, but there doesn't seem to be much room here for the Disney shite which so marred the previous offering.

As it stands right now I'm looking forward to the next episode, rather than looking back. Roll on Saturday.