Sunday 1 July 2007

Let's play Master and Servant

And so 3 months of good old fashioned family entertainment has come to it's conclusion in spectacular form. There may be spoilers ahead, so if you don't want to know the score, look away now.
It seems like only yesterday that we were saying hello to The Judoon and Martha Jones on the Moon, as nice lady from "dinnerladies" sucked the blood from poor old DC Dalglish, and yet here we are, Summer's here and the ride is over. For now at least.
But, oh what a ride. Only blip in the season was the 2 parter featuring those malevolent pepper pots, the Daleks in Manhatten. I'd have been happier with the Muppets myself.
However, if that was the low point in season, there were many, many high points. First and foremost, it was a beautiful series to watch, hopefully the BBC will allow the production team to spend as much as they want on the visuals, it's incredible to think how far things have developed in the world of Special Effects since the original series aired.
We also witnessed possibly the finest "Who" stories in Stephen Moffat's "Blink" and Paul Cornell's two parter "Family of Blood/Human Nature". Moffat also wrote last year's "Girl in The Fireplace" and Series One's "The Empty Child", so has really got his work cut on for next season. Paul Cornell was also responsible for "Father's Day" in Series One when Rose went back to meet her father, so again, no pressure!
And what of the actual cast? I have enjoyed seeing Freema Agyeman's character of Martha develop over this series, and I hope the rumour that we haven't seen the last of her is true. I liked her, she was refreshing to watch after Rose's latter smugness, she was funny and sassy, and was a great foil to the big fella.BBC One's Mr Saturday Night, John Barrowman in his Captain Jack guise was back, larger than life but more rounded than in previous outings, and all the better for that. But still very much behaving like a dog in heat, flirting like Bill Clinton at... well anywhere really.
Now if you are going to bring back a super baddie, you'd be unlikely to do better than have one played by Derek Jacobi and John Simm. The Master, now sans goatee, but still oozing charm, was resurrected with a fantastic end of series triple parter that put the world and The Doctor himself, to their collective knees. Although I have no idea what a collection of knees would be called, A Knobble? Anyway, it was good to have him back, and even though we last saw him being burnt in a funeral pyre, (ashes to ashes, as opposed to Life on Mars) I fully expect to see him back in the not too distant future.
And so finally to the former David McDonald from Paisley.
I am a long time devotee of the show, my earliest memory is of watching Doctor Who, in my high chair. No really, in those days, we had two televisions, both from the Co-op, both black and white, one had a picture but no sound, the other naturally had sound but no picture, so one sat on the other. And that's how we watched telly in our house in the early 70's.Thankfully we only had one channel, see blogs passim.
And as a long time devotee, I can say without any doubt, that David Tennant is everything that The Doctor should be, and so much more. He has evolved into the role, bit by bit ever since he first burst forth from Christopher Eccleston's firey leather jacket back in the Summer of 2005, and has made the role very much his. His performances have been a joy to watch, his acting has terrific depth and he displays marvellous comic timing time after time. Cheeky, funny, scary, dark and brooding. And, in a Bowie-esque way, rather sexy.
There will come a day soon when he's gone from the role, so, make the most of these glory days. His are very big Converse boots to fill.

11 comments:

bethnoir said...

Looking forward to reading your thoughts. Just saw it. Blimey! Dobby the House Elf anyone? Face of Bo? Eh? The cute Scotsman remains, yay!

Gari said...

Ah, you've got to love a man in a suit and trainers, I beleive the last Scotsman to be knowm for this was Rab C Nesbitt, but he didn't quite have the charm, and dare I say, sexiness of Mr Tennant. Still wasn't sure if he would remain, right up until the National Lottery started! Face of Boe had me laughing out loud at it's sheer cheek, and nice to see Richard Hammond in the cage.

bethnoir said...

Our Dr Who Top Trumps say that Face of Boe has an intelligence of 49 which is only one less than the maximum, he must have got wiser over the years. Capt Jack is many things, but amazingly bright didn't seem to be one of them. He was darned heroic in the last episode though.

I saw a tiny bit on 60seconds on BBC3 which said that next series there will be 2 companions and one of them will still be Martha, my money is on the new hunky Dr. Did you watch Lost? He reminded me of Jack the doctor in that.

There were some high points in the series, thanks for reminding me of them.

Gwen said...

Dr Who is excellent. Sadly I haven't had that much time to see most of it but I have enjoyed what I have managed to catch.

Gari said...

Oh, Gwen I hope I haven't spoiled things for you. As in previous years there is a fairly good chance that BBC3 will repeat the series, about 17 times, before Christmas.
As for Capt Jack, Beth, he's certainly not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, but he does own every single "...for Dummies" book ever published, and all of eternity to read them. Although he'll have trouble holding them if he's in that jar.

bethnoir said...

never liked Face of Bo very much, will have to reassess him now. Do you think it was planned from the beginning that he was Jack?
I'm sure the Sisters of Plenitude would hold up books so he could read them in his jar!
Have you heard of 'The Sinister Woman'?

Gari said...

Do you mean as in the woman listening to Martha's phone calls to her mother? Eliza du Toit?
What about her? Is she the one who took the ring? Bloody hell, I'm turning into one of those internet Doctor Who geeks... Did I ever tell you about the script my friend Cammy and I wrote when we were about 12? Doctor Who-The Deadly Reunion. It was really poor.

bethnoir said...

You have disappointed me G, I thought you knew everything Dr Who related! No someone on Livejournal said that it wasn't the Master's wife who picked up the ring ( I assumed as she was all in red), but someone called the Sinister Woman. Have you heard that Kylie Minogue is in the Christmas one?

Gari said...

The Sinister Woman is apparantly the woman listening into the phone calls, she was Saxon's Henchman/woman/person, and ordered the arrests of Martha's family. I think we are talking about the same woman...I am happy to be proved wrong, as it says on the tin, "Never knowingly correct".
I hope Kyles, as I like to call her, does "Confide in Me" in an attempt to lure The Doctor into her evil web. maybe it was she who picked up the ring...

bethnoir said...

nah, Kylie's not sinister, too cute! I do love Confide in Me even though she looks a bit dodgy in some of the outfits in the video (go look on youtube if you don't remember it).

Now I know who the Sinister Woman is, my faith is restored :-)

Gwen said...

Don't worry Gari - you haven't spoiled anything - just made me more determined to watch the repeats.