But this week? I gotta admit, I was positively DREADING Face The Raven. The trailer seemed to promise a visit to Diagon Alley from Harry Potter. With some sort of magic bird thrown in. And I've never been a big fan of overtly magical stuff in Doctor Who. And then the pre episode hype kicks in with the news that Binty McWizard-Viking from TVs Game Of Thrones™ will be returning as well. And when you're my go to least favourite thing in a series that features Daleks LITERALLY MADE OF LIQUID POO... Well, it's not a good sign.
That I didn't actually hate the episode is actually somewhat confusing to me. And it's not even for the most obvious reason you might think.
Spoiler alert.
So... Yeah. They killed Clara. I really feel like I should be happier about that. I mean, she's never really worked as a character. She's always just been there, hanging around and never quite taking the opportunity to develop a personality beyond generic Doctor Who companion. The sudden shift to alleged paragon of all creation in this series was a little jarring to say the least, and that whole worshipping the ground she walks on thing has, in hindsight, had a bit of a severe knock on effect for the Doctors personality as well. It may seem an odd thing to say, but he's really been to happy this series. I think one of the things I like most in this episode is that he finally gets the chance to be angry again. Peter Capaldi does seem to do angry Doctor quite well. But that short tempered roughness got lost pretty quickly.
I do have to say though that it is a little annoying that the only reason we get this anger is because Clara is SO SPECIAL. I mean, once again she doesn't do anything to actually DEMONSTRATE this specialness. To the point that the episode even opens with her allegedly being helpful off screen somewhere where we can't see it. And, as usual, that's as close to helpful as she gets for the rest of the episode.
There are a few things that are interesting about her death though. Firstly of course there's the fact that it's unexpected. We know she's leaving, but didn't expect it until the end of the series. Although in hindsight it's played like we should know. There's something of that Logopolis vibe going on. An inevitable march towards a foregone conclusion. From the second that it's revealed that the magic death mark can be passed on there's really only one way that events can proceed. The only surprise being that they actually go through with it rather than throwing in a random last minute reversal.
But the main point of interest is simply that she died the way she lived: In a stupid, contrived and pointless fashion. I'm starting to wonder if the only reason they brought her back after giving her a really GOOD exit in the previous series is that somewhat in the production staff got really drunk and bet Satan that they could actually out Adric Adric himself. I mean, I know there's not a lot of companion Deaths on the books to choose from, but that was actually somehow even stupider than running back onto a doomed space freighter at the last second because you think you're good at maths.
It didn't have to be of course. There are hints of what could have been a character arc. The whole risk taking, fate tempting cocky behaviour thing could have been an interesting spiral of self destructive behaviour brought on by the trauma of losing the worlds most perfect man.
...Ladies.
But instead it just come across like in addition to trying to more useless than Adric she's trying to be more annoying and full of obviously fatal hubris than Rose. And sadly she doesn't have any Daddy issues to save her at the last minute. So a random ignominious death it is. Let's just hope it sticks.
Anyway, on to the other issues. The secret street isn't actually a bad idea. The fact that the Doctor immediately jumps to the conclusion that there must be a secret street somewhere in London that he doesn't know about is a little... odd. The perception filter thing is an interesting budget saving issue, but I do have to take some exception with it. After all, everyone on the street is a stock monster from the costume cupboard anyway. And you've still got to dig them out and get them onto set for those little flashes where we get to see through the filter. So why not go the whole hog and give us some proper Troll Market / Mos Eisley cantina stuff once we get deeper in?
Well, because having a bunch of actual aliens would probably spoil the Harry Potter vibe I suppose. But then I'm already on record as not thinking that's the best idea in the world, so I guess we'll put it down to creative differences.
One jarring moment was when we see an Ood working on a Cyberman. My immediate reaction was, simply, what the hell are Cybermen doing there? I mean, they're not exactly renowned for their friendly nature are they? Generally being more of the "let one survive and it'll come back and convert everyone in an exponential frenzy of violent dissection" kind of persuasion. But then I had a great idea. That's not just any Cyberman. There's at least one rogue Cyberman that we know about currently kicking around modern day Earth after all. It can logically ONLY be Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart.
... Ladies.
If true, this means 3 significant things: Firstly that my dream of hyper-violent spin off series called Cyber-Brig Kills The Bad Guys is not dead (this would just consist of a Cyberman stomping around screaming "FIVE ROUNDS RAPID" whilst murdering things in a variety of ways). Secondly it means that the local population is safe from conversion, so we don't need to worry about that particular problem. Thirdly it means that the street probably has a decent pub, as no mortal would be foolish enough to deny Cyber Brig a pint at the end of a long day.
FIVE PINTS RAPID. AND A PACKET OF PEANUTS.
And then we sadly come to Binty McWizard-Viking from TVs Game Of Thrones™. I'm not really sure what there is to be said here. She's still just... not very good. Totally miscast. The funny thing is I'm starting to see how this particular idea COULD have been done well. It just wasn't. If the character had been introduced well (I.E. given some actual character) and the whole immortality thing had been woven into the plot as a believable and character consistent fashion (rather than being randomly tacked on at the end) then we could have developed a whole interesting thread about the Doctor inadvertently destroying a person he cares about and the consequences of that. And I suppose to some extent that's what they thought they were doing. That could have been a nice interesting ongoing plot element, both directly (I.E. as she occasionally pops up in the background) and metaphorically (in that Clara is on a reckless path of self destruction thanks in no small part to the Doctors influence). Would have been better than someone randomly shouting the word Hybrid every 3 episodes. Still, never mind eh? Who needs thematic coherence when you have Binty McWizard-Viking from TVs Game Of Thrones™?
Plot wise the episode manages to hang toggether, but only barely. It's very clearly there to do a job. Remove Clara, isolate the Doctor from the TARDIS and pack him off to the finale in a very particular frame of mind and do so as cheaply as possible. I really do wonder where all the money is going these days. I mean, Doctor Who is still one of the BBCs biggest exports. You'd think they'd have upped the budget a little. Something funny going on there. Maybe the big bad guy for this series will turn out to Michael Grade or something.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, plot. It's a bit thin and a little too reliant on the old trope of needlessly overcomplicated schemes being somehow successfully enacted because the Doctor like a good mystery. I mean, if you just want Rigsy to call the Doctor why not just let him do it the first time, rather than all this buggering about? If you just want to slip a teleport bracelet on the Doctor why not just do that when you have him glued to the floor? And does anyone know how locks are actually supposed to work? The whole point is that you can't just jam any random key in a lock and open it. We do all get that, right? But despite the obvious shortcomings is does manage to create a decent bit of atmosphere. I suppose I'd probably be a lot more critical if this episode had aired as part of an overall better series, but I really didn't dislike it as much as some. Which frankly is a great relief, because I keep worrying that I'm turning into one of those annoying types that so plagued the end of the classic series. Always whining about how better everything used to be and only watching the show to complain about it. Given the choice I'd really rather not go down that road.
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