And let's be honest, that's hardly a bad place to be.
WHY MUST I BE?!?!?
No, what we have here is an altogether subtler approach. One that is quite clearly being used in furtherance of the shows future, especially in this our anniversary year. And it starts in that most innocuous of places: The opening credits. Now, I know I'm a bit of a fanboy. I know I get obsessed over the odd trivial detail and enthused by the most irrelevant things.
Case in point.
But even I, sure in the knowledge of just how socially maladjusted I am can't honestly believe that anyone with even a cursory familiarity with the shows history didn't sit there with a giant erection as the new title sequence unfolded. It somehow manages to evoke almost every version of the titles from history. From the grandiose swirling star fields of the 1980s to the psychedelic time tunnels of the early 70s. A bit of all the classic sequences, and one that is in my opinion utterly PERFECT for the anniversary series.
Then there's all the little points building up to the big reveal of the villains true identity. To all the old fans it's a fun moment with a great nod back to those classic episodes, yet it doesn't feel alienating to anyone who's never seen The Abominable Snowmen or The Web Of Fear.
Which is just as well really, considering how little of those stories remains. So, you know, thanks for that BBC.
The icing on the cake (take a shot every time someone makes a snow pun in a review of this episode) is however undoubtedly the new console room design.
It's just so....classic. So undeniably... well, 80s. It's also surprisingly jarring. We've gotten so used to the warmer tones of the recent model that a return to the older, cooler colour scheme seems almost strange by comparison. It was also rather unexpected. I mean, the last one didn't exactly look cheap to build, and was certainly an effective design. But part of what this story does is to draw a line between what has gone before, and the era which is to come. In that light this is certainly an effective way of doing it.
Between the new title sequence and the new console room we can certainly feel sure that the anniversary will be paying proper tribute to the past, but still moving forward into the future.
Of course just what shape that future will take is going to be something of a mystery. Indeed, the only thing we can really take from this episode is that Mr Moffat, for all his considerable skills has a deep seated psychological problem that someone should probably look at one of these days. I mean, is it REALLY necessary to keep killing your main characters off with such wild abandon? I mean Rory undoubtedly made reincarnation fashionable, to the extent that pretty much every other character decided to give it a go at least once. But now we have a new companion that's been killed at least twice before we've technically even MET her.
Probably should have put this first.
Say what you want about the current era of Doctor Who, but nobody could ever dispute it's unrivalled boldness. I mean, here we have a story that introduces and kills the new companion all before a regular episode has even aired. I mean, half five showing time for that? Really BBC? REALLY?!?!?!
I'm actually surprisingly torn on the big mystery of what's going on with Clara. or whatever her name turns out to be in the next incarnation. I think it should certainly be interesting. All big and exciting and undoubtedly a different way of dealing with companion role in the show. But I can't help but be slightly disappointed that we didn't actually get a Victorian era character as a companion. It would have made a nice change from the unbroken trend of modern day companions.
Although I admit that there is the strong possibility that she's from the modern day, Victorian era AND outer space ALL AT THE SAME TIME. Which I guess trumps any petty concerns of mine.
Of course, the real highlight of the affair is the return of Madame Vastra, Jenny & Strax. Indeed, Strax has to be one of the rare cases where bringing the character back from the dead was an unequivocally good idea. I mean, as much as I might like a character I really hate it when a death is casually undone as it cheapens everything that went before. But Strax really was a character that was too good to stay dead. Somehow the concept of a comic relief Sontaran just works so well.
Indeed, one of the few problems with the script is simply that Vastra, Stax and Jenny don't get a chance to kick anythings ass. I mean, I know it went out early and all, but they only would have been beating up SNOWMEN. Is that really so much to ask.
The other obvious issues are the Doctors rather limited role in actually resolving the problem, namely the fact that once again the alien menace is defeated by the power of WUV.
This continual cheap resolution of plotline with deus ex machina bullshit confuses and infuriates us!!
And of course the whole part where if the Snowmen are so desperate for a bit of the Ice bitch maybe they should have picked some up when it was all lying about the place. Or at least grabbed some of the 80% or so that the Doctor clearly DIDN'T have stashed in his biscuit tin. I mean, seriously, you can only fit so much of a human sized body in single biscuit tin. Trust me, I know.
That would however be missing the point slightly, as the crux of those scenes is of course Claras' sudden, shocking and then subsequently painfully protracted demise. Which was still pretty effective. And I suppose you could possibly argue that the Doctor really was kinda responsible for the ultimate resolution as if he hadn't let Clara die then everyone wouldn't have gotten sad enough to WUV the bad things away. But really, when has the Doctor ever been such a manipulative bastard?
Oh yeah....
As I said, Old School.
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