jason stives looks back on the Doctor’s sixth season …
Is it Monday already? That must mean the weekly Doctor Who review, oh but wait, there is no new Doctor Who. That’s right, we are without a new episode until the Christmas special some 75 days from now, and after that, no more new episodes for another eight months. Instead, it’s time to put into perspective the show’s sixth series, which completed transmission last Saturday with the finale “The Wedding Of River Song.”
First, I would like to take this time to thank all the loyal readers who have read my column every week since this season commenced. The love for the show on Pop-Break is wonderful, and it’s nice to see a strong interest amongst the show’s viewers. That being said, it’s always a bit discouraging to see how overall perception of the series has been taken in recent memory. Now, I know nothing of the American viewers’ opinions, but British viewers seem to have lately been flying off the handle about the recent direction the show has taken. Some fans have cried out blasphemy against executive producer Steven Moffat’s dark undertones to his tenure as well the perceived complexity of the story lines. To lift from the Oxford dictionary, this is all completely bollocks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpe1Ywz8azM
The one thing that has always made Doctor Who so different and yet so great from other realms of science fiction is its ability to bend continuity — after all, this is a show about time travel and altering events based on interference. It’s that very essence that has always made the Doctor a dangerous and meddlesome character beyond his charm and overall wonderful demeanor. Steven Moffat has greatly returned to such roots and Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor has shown this throughout his two very stoic years on the show. Series 6 showcased this in very epic fashion, and from a personal standpoint, it may be one of the best seasons they have done. For me, it ranks second behind David Tennant’s last full season as the time lord in 2008, and that’s a lot of weight to live up to.
The overall direction of the show has been a unique one and has dabbled heavily in the fanatical but also the complexity and grandeur that science fiction has always been able to produce. The constant complaint of the show being too complex for children greatly comes from the parents who don’t get it and quite possibly don’t like what they see because of what they remember from their own childhood. Long scarves of renegades have been swapped for bow ties of the last of his kind, a wonderful evolution to a character that has been on and off our screens for almost 50 years.
Overall, this season was absolutely a knockout with it being easily divided into two parts, broken off at exactly the mid season finale and premiere. We spent the first half tying up the loose ends of the story of River Song, an idea three years in the making. The other was the focus of the Doctor and his presence in the universe as both a force of good and pariah of destruction to both his friends and those who honor his protection of them.
I have always believed that River Song is one of the greatest additions to the Doctor Who canon and was a ploy of mystery just as great as the Doctor’s own strange facade. Her importance in the Doctor’s universe was immense, and while one important chapter in her story was completed, I don’t see this as the end of her adventures with the Doctor, but I feel her narrative can be pulled back a bit.
This too also goes for Amy and Rory, who seem to have ended their continuing adventures with the Doctor without a long goodbye but will most likely return at some point (probably the Christmas special). Considering most peoples’ criticisms of their acting, Karen Gillian and Arthur Darvill really ran with their characters this time, and the development of both of them as the ultimate companions was amazing to watch. More important was the overall sense of importance that these two showcased to each other and with the introduction of a child, they seemingly became their own Doctor-like protectors of another life as well as their own. It’s a lot to develop in the span of two seasons, but it has been done beautifully.
Considering how Moffat has spent a great deal of time with story arcs and the overall linking of each story, it was nice to see the second half of the series allocated more to standalone stories than being an advancement of a bigger idea. This isn’t to say those ideas weren’t laid out during these stories but they were subtle, and Doctor Who suddenly became its old stuff focusing more on adventures than journeys. These episodes were also very heavy in emotion and character development demonstrated in both the companion centric “The Girl Who Waited” and “The God Complex,” which focused on the deconstruction of the Doctor’s faith to his companions.
But not all of these were there for damage control. Both the slow-moving freak-out of “Night Terrors” and the one-for-the-road comedic romp of “Closing Time” balanced out the show into its fantasy-like elements showing the Doctor as an important mouthpiece and information to children. All these were book ends to both “Let’s Kill Hitler” and “The Wedding Of River Song,” which closed out what had been started earlier in the run with the Doctor’s unavoidable death, although this was all one clever ruse as we all knew it would be. I mean c’mon, folks — did you really think they would actually kill off the Doctor?
The Doctor himself has come full circle since his reintroduction to television in 2005, and this season we saw the Doctor that his predecessor was avoiding trying to become but as always with a renewed sense of whimsy. Danger lurks wherever the Doctor arrives and this isn’t by mistake and only adds to the alien subtext of him as a character.
The one thing that was misplaced when David Tennant became the Doctor (with all due respect to him, of course) was the alien quality of him. As Neil Gaiman said in an interview about writing for the Doctor, he is the kind of person that if you offered him a million dollars or the chance to see a beautiful sunset, he would choose the latter. His sense of wonderment gets him severely into trouble as we saw in “The Rebel Flesh/Almost People” two-parter, but it also paints a beautiful landscape of who he is.
“The Doctor’s Wife” episode showcased this tremendously and his hopes of someone with an equal part to his adventurous eye were seen with his interactions with the TARDIS in the flesh. But all the good can have heavy consequences as seen as he built an army to fight those who were doing unjust to his loved ones (“A Good Man Goes To War”). Many see this as a way of damning the Doctor’s wonderful nature, but it’s a dark narrative that runs through every heroic figure, something literature and popular culture has never shied from. By series’ end, the Doctor was no longer this powerful God-like figure and instead returned to the shadows of mystery that all started with a daft old man in junkyard.
This all leads back to fan expectation, something I have conceivably despised since I started watching the show some 15 years ago. Fans thrive on spoiling themselves and Doctor Who is never about spoilers except to those who seek it. For those complaining of questions left unanswered, just wait a while. The narrative is not done and questions are always getting asked and then eventually answered on a show that has the most important question asked every week in the show’s title.
Series 6 was a wonderful ride with high stakes that most shows can never really measure up to in such a short time. I could go on for days about what made this season great, but ask any child or any fan with a taste for sci-fi theatrics and there is always something to like within the context of a Doctor Who season. No season is perfect, but what show is? And that is something we should never expect of a show. While we patiently await Series 7, we have so far had a journey in six series that has been engaging to a youthful audience and heavy reminder to the past that has been watching with bated breath every Saturday night since that initial night back in 1963.
All Photos Credit: BBC America
Sorry didn’t read the entire article, stopped when I realised it wasn’t actually a review but instead just fanboy worshipping. Possibly around the point where the article casts aside any complaints that viewers have had as “completely bollocks.” Well there’s some good, non-bias reviewing skills right there!
Reviews are based in opinion and isn’t an opinion a form of bias?
This is our writer’s review of the entire series and in the opening graphs he expresses his views on the criticisms Series 6 received. He doesn’t agree with the negative opinion people are throwing out there, is that wrong? No, it’s his opinion.
And if you read beyond graph #2, you would have found he transitioned into the review of the show itself and the characters in it.
Also, this writer has been critical of the show in his weekly series of review.
author comment: First off, if this were fanboy worshipping, I wouldve complained about every mundane continuity issue which I didnt. That being said I went on to say how much I enjoyed the show and not trash it, and in prior articles like the above comment says I have been critical of the show. The opening paragraph stems from peoples complaints that the show is not what it was a few years ago when in fact it still shares the same sense of fun and fantasy that it always has regardless of who is at the helm.
The point I was making is that its actually fandom making a big stink about the tiniest things and the core audience, which is actually children, has been enjoying the show so the notion of it being too complicated to understand is stemming from a small demographic.
If you had read the paragraph that followed you would have seen what I meant. Now yes, that has a biased tone but thats what reviews are and as opinions they are taken as agree or disagree and you are allowed to like or dislike whatever you please. That does not make anyones opinion muted, its purely based on your own perception of what is being said. That is all I need to say, Im not looking for an endless debate just stating my case.