The Doctor's Companion Blog

As I have disk two of Doctor Who series 1 in my machine (after doing my review of Dalek), I have just been watching Aliens of London. You know its really very good.

I know that people are a bit negative about AOL, and I suppose it is not in the same class as Dalek, but it is very entertaining none the less, even the farts are bearable. And the acting is great. I love David Verray and Rupert Vansittart as the sligheen brothers, not to mention the fabulous Annette Badland as Margaret Slitheen. And the possibly even more fabulous Penelope WIlton, as Harriet Jones MP for Flydale North.

Plus it has Andrew Marr, who had one of my all time favourite lines (which he delivers brilliantly) “Oh thats Joseph Green, MP for Hartley Dale, he’s chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on the monitoring of sugar standards in exported confectionary…” How does Russell think of them?

I accept the point about the super speedo CGI slitheen perhaps being a bit silly, but on the whole it is a very enjoyable episode. In fact, if you will excuse me, I think I will now watch World War Thee.

Mind you, they don’t seem to have invited Keith Boak back to direct again.

Do you remember when we all watched that first series of New Who back in 2005, there was a moment when we all realised that this was not just going to be good, it was BRILLIANT! That moment was when we watched Dalek. Somehow Dalek took the show to new heights. It re-introduced us all to the Daleks, told us a bit more about the ‘last great time war’ and the Doctors part in it. And it was great drama.

The story starts when the Tardis arrives in a strange ‘great big alien museum’ in Utah, USA, 2012. Exhibits include a stuffed slitheen claw, the mileometer from the Roswell spaceship, and a cyberman head. But thats not what called them there. That was something else, reaching out, calling for help … The Doctor touches the Cyberman case, and suddenly they are surrounded, and Rose points out that if its aliens the museum owners are after, he will be exhibit A.

After the credits we meet Henry Van Statten. He appears to be the owner of the compex, is obviously wealthy and powerful, and has a strong interest in the extra terrestrial. He has agents buy alien artifacts at auction for him, but has just has just the one living specimen. He named it ‘the metraltron’, although he would prefer to find out its real name. He invites the Doctor down to see it.

Van Stratten is obviously a nasty piece of work. People who do not agree with him have their memories removed and are slung out on the street, He shows no respect for an alien musical instrument, bought by his employee Adam at auction for $800,000,  throwing it aside once he has worked out what it is, and he tells his staff that the Doctor is not to be let out of the ‘cage’ until he has a ‘result’.

The next few minutes are some of the most powerful in the series. The Doctor, coming face to face with a representative of the race that destroyed his, goes mad and tries to kill it. Christopher Eccleston’s acting is truly superb here, you feel his pain, and know just the moment when he decided to kill…

But Van Statten is not going to lose his living specimen so easily. ‘Get him out’ he orders, and hurries in to the cage. ‘And now I know your name’ he says gleefully, “Dalek’. However Van Statten may own the internet, but the Dalek refuses to speak. “My name is Henry Van Statten, now recognise me” he cries in frustration, but the blue eye just stares at him. ‘Make it talk’ he orders the torturer, Simmons, ‘Whatever it takes”.

Meanwhile, Rose is chatting to Adam, upstairs. This is a lovely scene beautifully played by both actors, and beautifully and artistically shot. Rose is obviously taken with Adam, even though he nearly started world war three, which she clearly does not think is funny.  However he reminds her of the Doctor when he says “Fantastic”.

Adam confesses to being a genius who believes that the world is just teeming with life, but Rose is unimpressed. “What and you just sit here and catalogue it?” How can be be content to do this when Van Statten has a living creature downstairs? However when Adam patches them into the comms system to take a look at it, what they see is the creature being tortured. Rose demands to be taken down there, and so starts the whole tragic course of events.

In the meantime, with the Doctor and Van Statten we are learning a bit more about Daleks in general (genetically engineered to remove every emotion except hate) and this Dalek in particular. According to Diana Goddard it has been on earth for over 50 years, moving from one collection to another, having fallen to earth on the Ascension Islands like a meteorite, burning in its cradle for three days before anyone could get near it. Of course one thing that no-one ever mentions is what it ate and drank during all this time – Daleks being organic, presumably they need to consume something to keep them alive, But perhaps food is manufactured for them by their casing, from the air.

As predicted by Rose, once Van Statten realises that the Doctor too is an alien, he seeks information, and is not too choosy with his methods of obtaining it. Only the crisis started by Rose forces him to keep the Doctor free. For Rose, seduced by Nick Briggs dulcet tones, has touched the Dalek, allowing it to regenerate itself using her DNA, and free itself from its cage. Although the Dalek’s ‘suckering to death’ of Simmons is no great loss to the world, the fate of the rest of the base personnel is more worrying.

In view of what happened later, it is a pity that Rose and Adam did not make a bolt for it there and then. It is only when the Doctor shouts at her to get out and Di Maggio is given the job of getting them to safety that they leave. Meanwhile the Dalek is repairing itself by draining the power supply of western United States and absorbing the internet. Not that it does it much good. However it enjoys itself having an orgy of killing, while Van Statten orders his men not to put a scratch on its bodywork, until he realises that he is speaking to dead men.

One of the writer, Robert Shearman’s briefs for this story, was to deal once and for all with age old jokes about the Daleks, This scene makes it quite clear that Daleks are superb fighting machines. The next makes it equally clear that they can now climb stairs (and playgrounds the following day echoed to “Elevate!” the length and breadth of the country).

One question which I have not heard raised is the Doctors responsibility for the deaths of the men in the weapons testing area – the main battle ground of the program. It was he who suggested all personnel (including the technicians, the lawyers, everyone) be given guns to fight, as an alternative to sealing off the area and therefore trapping the Dalek with Rose. Was he also morally responsible for their deaths?

He was certainly given a good view of it all as the Dalek kindly put the power back on so he can view it all via video link. After watching so many being killed it is perhaps understandable that the Doctor would lose his cool and tell the Dalek to kill itself. Leading to the unanwearable “You would make a good Dalek” before it cut out the power and makes its way up the stairs. And then the Doctor tells them to seal the vault.

It is obvious watching Adam and Rose run upstairs and along the last corridor, that Rose is not going to make it. Adam manages to slide under the door at the last moment but Rose is left to face the Dalek alone.

But the Dalek has troubles of its own. Why has it not killed Rose? Why is she still alive? He can feel her fear, but Daleks do not fear, must not fear. She gave him life, but what else did she give him? He is contaminated. He opens communications with a delighted Doctor and orders him to open the bulkheads. For ‘what use are emotions if you will not save the woman you love?” The Doctor opens the bulkheads.

So. The Dalek is moving steadily up the stairs with Rose. Van Statten is panicking in his office. While Adams takes the Doctor to his room (now lit quite differently) to find some weaponry which will work against the Dalek. After rummaging through broken guns and hair dryers, a big gun is found, while Rose accompanies the Dalek, still questioning itself, up in the lift.

And at last, on arrival in his office, the Dalek finally acknowledges Van Statten and speaks to him, However as the word used is ‘Exterminate’ he is less than happy about it. Only the intervention of Rose saves him. ‘You don’t have to do this any more, there must be something else, not just killing, what else do you want?” she asks him desperately, and the Dalek answers, probably to its own surprise ‘Freedom”,

So to the last scene with the Dalek, when the Doctor confronts it with the gun, Rose won’t let him kill it, and we see the Dalek revealed in all its slimy horror. The Dalek is changing, mutating into something new. But for a Dalek that is bad, so it orders Rose to order it to self destruct. Which reluctantly she does. Leading to some nice CGI effects as the Dalek blows itself up.

Right through the story, Diana Goddard has been there, respectful to Van Statten but obviously sympathetic to the Doctor. At the end however she takes over, how or why we are not told. Still “200 personnel dead and all because of you, sir”, is not a bad reason, for taking a man away, wiping his memory and leaving him by the road someplace, in San Diego, Seattle, Sacramento, or someplace beginning with S”.

So all that is left is for Goddard to order the base be closed down and filled with cement, while Rose and the Doctor leave in their small blue box with a rather puzzled Adam, for us to meet again next week on on satellite 5.

As well as being a fantastic story and drama, this episode is also an artistic triumph. I particularly admire the lighting (from director of photography Ernie Vincze, who writes movingly about light in the 2nd series confidential here) which unerringly picks out Rose’s hair and creates beauty out of a rather utilitarian set. The music is also superb, and chilling in the way it creates a mood of menace, as the Dalek alternately plots and despairs – the last Dalek (for this episode anyway).

However it all stems from the superb script from writer Robert Shearman. We could do with some more from him. Mr Moffatt?

Dalek is sold as part of Doctor Who – The Complete BBC Series 1 Box Set [2005] [DVD], and also (and more cheaply) with the ‘vanilla’ Doctor Who: Series 2 – Volume 1 [DVD] [2005].

With my new persona as a Dr Who Blogger, what I really need to do, I decided, is a bit of research.  So I have had a very pleasant time over the past few days, re-reading one of my very favourite Doctor Who books, Doctor Who – The Inside Story: The Official Guide to Series 1 and 2 by Gary Russell.

This nice thing about the whole Doctor Who experience, is that so much information is available about the making of the program and all the different people who make it what it is – one the of the best programs on British television.  This book also takes us behind the scenes and introduces us to all sorts of people.

It starts with an introduction from David Tennant himself, a general introduction about the series, and then looks at the process of bringing back Doctor Who, from periodic pitches made by Russell T Davies in the 1990′s, through to Lorraine Heggessey and Jane Trantor making the decision to bring it back and then how the various key people were put in place.

First to be installed were the triumvirate of executive producers –  Russell T Davies as showrunner, Julie Gardner in charge of sorting everything, and Phil Collinson, in charge of making it all run smoothly and to budget.

Then we look at the casting of the major characters, then the various key people involved in the production of the series.  The two costumer designers, Lucinda Wright (series one) and Louise Page (series two), and the various makeup artists (including Sheelagh Wells (formerly of the classic series).  The Mill in charge of CGI, Neil Gorton of Millennium FX in charge of prosthetic costumes, Mike Tucker (another of the few from the classic series) determined to do as much of the modelling as he can, and the wonderful art department headed by Edward Thomas.

Then there are the writers, and the scriptwriters (including a very interesting interview with Helen Raynor, now  a regular writer who hopefully will also be writing for series 5), all very important.  The wonderful music from Murray Gold, Paul McFadden doing the sound, and Tim Ricketts mixing it all up at the end. The book also touches on the various directors, although they are discussed more in the episode descriptions.

I would like to have heard a bit from the photography and lighting people (particuarly Ernie Vincze), and also from the other special effects people (i.e. those in charge of explosions), but all in all it is a fascinating insight into the making of a TV series.

The second part of the book is an episode by episode description of all the episodes in series one and two, plus a peek into the (then) future by looking at the Catherine Tate Christmas episode and the start of series three.  Gary Russell tends to concentrate on the more technical aspects, but that is great as we would not be able to find that information out otherwise.

I really enjoyed reading this book again, and would like to see something similar for series three and four.  And of course for series five, under the new administration …