Guys & Dolls

Night Terrors held a lot of promise. This has so far been a pretty strong series overall, with a dark and creepy atmosphere as almost the default setting. The idea of taking all those childhood fears and projecting them through the lens of Mark Gattis' writing onto the shifting tapestry of horrors that is series 6 seemed like a sure fire recipe for success.

Still, can't win them all can we?

Now, I by no means wish to imply that this episode was Fear Her levels of bad, but it's a lot closer than I would really care to admit. Interestingly both episodes do share a lot of common ground. The everyday urban setting, the mysterious alien child possessed of godlike powers and the sudden ghastly descent into terrible Disney SHITE as a resolution. There's also the fact that there's something about each story which just quite WORK.

However, whilst Fear was bereft of basically any redeeming features whatsoever there at least some enjoyable elements on display here. The story does manage an enjoyably creepy atmosphere to start with, which is only slightly hampered by being set on a council estate that had the same lighting crew as Warriors Of The Deep. Maybe there are places that break out the floodlights in an effort to give everything and everyone a prison camp tan, but in the name of artistic licence it really could have been dialled back a little. As it is you're a little hard pressed to notice it's even set at night.

The dolls house fairs much better, being drenched in shadow and atmosphere. Well, except when the Doctor lands and every room he goes in is fully lit, but I digress. The dolls are wonderfully grotesque, and the sequence of Purcell being captured and transformed is suitably horrific.

However things start to fall apart as more of the plot is revealed. So, the problem is that the godlike kid from space is so scared that he's scooping up anything and anyone that scares him, as well as anyone standing nearby, and putting into a psychic container. Which in turn is scaring the crap out of him even more. That almost works, fear does feed on itself after all. But explanation we're given is that this cycle of terror was caused by him thinking his parents were going to send him away. Which was a misunderstanding caused by overhearing his parents discussing their need for help with the child, because he's so scared of everything. 

Paradox much?

Anyway, in the end the day is saved through the power of WUV and everybody gets magically better. Meanwhile the audience throws up a little. Please, for the love of god will you stop it with this Disney SHITE.

Steven Mofatt has a lot to answer for. 

Back in 2005 Doctor Who returned to our screens in blaze of vindication and ecstasy. In in that first series Mr Moffat penned a little 2 parter that was rather successful. You may remember it. However at the end of this rather sterling story no one died.

In 2005 everyone lived. In 2006 there was the incident with the pigeon.

In that story it was an event, a cause for celebration. A rare and wondrous event. And due to the success of that story the new series has been littered with instances where the threat and menace of the monster has been totally undercut by a blind insistence on happy endings. Look at New Earth. Thousands of plague infested zombies, no one dies. Or the Idiot's Lantern. Whole bunch of people get their faces erased, then all get magically better, like the bad guy was fucking wizard or something. 

There are a few things you need to make a really good Doctor Who episode. You need a strong story. You need some decent actors. You need a a cool monster. But if the monster is going to be taken seriously you need one thing, and isn't even a large budget.

Body motherfuking Count.

You need CONSEQUENCES. If no one dies how are you demonstrating that your villain is a credible threat? If all the villains victims get magically and instantly better you totally undermine whatever sense of threat you may have already established. The monsters have to MATTER.

And no, at this stage killing Rory doesn't count anymore.

The problem with the dolls is that in the end they feel some what.... ephemeral. The big twist that the problem isn't actually in the cupboard but is in fact the boy doesn't quite ramp up the menace like it perhaps should, and at the end of the day all the so called victims are just fine.

Oddly this is one episode I actually enjoyed a lot less the second time around. On the first watching you had all the dark creepiness and mystery to enjoy. After you've seen it once however you know that the love ship is coming and nothing really makes much sense.

This should have been better, but it could have been worse. At least nobody sang.