Posts Tagged ‘helen raynor’

The Poison Sky

Monday, July 6th, 2009

The poisonous Sontaran gases (creating the titular "poison sky") above Sylvia and Wilfred's street ignite as the flames from the Doctor's atmospheric converter spread globally.

“The Poison Sky” is the fifth episode of the fourth series (since revival) of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 3 May 2008. The episode features both old companion Martha Jones and the alien Sontarans. It is the second of a two part story, following “The Sontaran Stratagem”.

Plot

Synopsis

Following from the previous episode, Sylvia Noble (Jacqueline King) manages to free Wilfred Mott (Bernard Cribbins) from the car by smashing the window with an axe. The Doctor (David Tennant) sends Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) back to the TARDIS while he sets off to figure out what the Sontarans are up to. After studying the gas, UNIT determines that it will need to reach 80% density to become lethal. Elsewhere, Martha Jones’s clone (Freema Agyeman) informs the Sontarans of UNIT’s defence systems and helps them to teleport the TARDIS to their orbiting ship. Realising that he is trapped, the Doctor attempts to goad General Staal (Christopher Ryan) into revealing their plan: Staal is smart enough not to fall prey to this ploy, but the Doctor soon works out by himself that the Sontarans plan to use the Earth for their own benefit, since they are beginning to lose their long war with the Rutans. He also tricks Staal into moving the TARDIS out of the main war room, placing Donna in a position to help.

Against the Doctor’s advice, UNIT decides to use nuclear weapons against the Sontarans; however, Martha’s clone has covertly copied the launch codes, and stops every attempt they make to fire the weapons. This in itself shows a hidden agenda, since the Doctor knows a nuclear strike would not have harmed the Sontarans in the first place. This, combined with the unidentifiable elements in the gas, suggest that the Sontarans have an interest in keeping anything from disrupting the atmospheric conversion. At the same time, the Sontarans, under Commander Skorr “the Bloodbringer” (Dan Starkey), mobilize a contingent of troops to protect the factory. With the Sontarans’ ability to jam most conventional firearms by expanding the copper-lined bullets, the UNIT troops are quickly slaughtered and the factory is secured.

Luke Rattigan (Ryan Sampson) leaves the Sontaran mothership to gather his students, explaining that he plans to have the Sontarans take them to another planet and begin the human race anew. The students merely laugh him off, even when he brandishes a gun. When he returns to report his failure, the Sontarans likewise ridicule his efforts, admitting that they had planned to kill his students and never intended to take him anywhere. Rattigan teleports back to his mansion before they can kill him, and the Sontarans lock the teleport pods behind him. Back in his own quarters, he lies sobbing on the ground.

Meanwhile, the Doctor instructs Donna on how to reopen the teleport pods. As she makes her way through the ship, UNIT begins a counterattack, loading their weapons with non-copper bullets and using the aircraft carrier Valiant to clear the gas. The counterattack is a success, and the UNIT troops are able to put the Sontarans on the defensive. The distraction allows the Doctor to make his way to the cloning room where Martha is being held. Having figured out long before that the clone wasn’t the genuine article, he severs its connection to Martha, leaving it to die. Martha convinces the clone to betray the Sontarans in its last moments, and the clone reveals that the poison gas is actually food for Sontaran clones: they are converting the planet into a giant breeding world. With Donna’s help, the Doctor is able to reactivate the teleport pods, allowing him to rescue Donna, steal back the TARDIS, and teleport into Rattigan’s mansion.

With the terraforming equipment Rattigan’s students built, the Doctor builds his own atmospheric converter, igniting the atmosphere to clear out the poison gas as shown in the picture. However, he knows the Sontarans won’t accept defeat so easily, and teleports to their ship with the converter, planning to give them the choice between retreat or death. Staal chooses the latter, content with the knowledge that the Doctor will die with them. At the last moment, Rattigan teleports himself to the Sontaran ship and sends the Doctor back to Earth, sacrificing himself to destroy the Sontarans.

With the day saved, Martha says goodbye to Donna and the Doctor in the TARDIS and prepares to head home. However, before she can leave, the TARDIS suddenly springs to life, locking the doors and piloting itself to an unknown destination as the jar containing the Doctor’s severed hand bubbles.

Continuity

  • Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart is mentioned as being “stranded in Peru”, the first explicit mention of the character in the new series. Colonel Mace refers to him as “Sir Alistair”, implying he has received a knighthood since the events of Battlefield.
  • Just as Donna moves towards the TARDIS screen while the Doctor contacts the Sontarans, Rose Tyler briefly appears on the screen, silently calling out. This follows a similar silent cameo appearance in “Partners in Crime”. The same happens in “Midnight.”
  • The Valiant, the primary setting for the climax of “The Sound of Drums” and much of “Last of the Time Lords”, is seen again in this episode when it is used by UNIT to clear the poisonous gas from the atmosphere over the ATMOS factory. It is also equipped with a scaled down version of the Torchwood weapon that destroyed the Sycorax ship in “The Christmas Invasion”.
  • As the TARDIS traps Donna, Martha, and the Doctor at the end of the episode, the Doctor’s severed hand, last seen at the beginning of “Voyage of the Damned”, can be seen in a similar state of agitation it felt when the TARDIS materialised near it in the Torchwood episode “End of Days”.
  • In addition to the Sontarans, the Rutans are mentioned for the first time in the revived series.
  • Lachele Carl reprises her recurring role as Trinity Wells, a US newsreader, seen previously in the episodes “Aliens of London”, “World War Three”, “The Christmas Invasion” and “The Sound of Drums” and in Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures story Revenge of the Slitheen.
  • The Doctor asks Colonel Mace, “Are you my mummy?”, while wearing a gas mask – a line spoken by gas mask-wearing characters in “The Empty Child” / “The Doctor Dances”.
  • The episode is revisited in the series four episode “Turn Left”, where Jack Harkness and the remaining Torchwood team of Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones stop the Sontarans in a parallel timeline. Harkness is transported to Sontar while Cooper and Jones are killed destroying the Sontaran ship.
  • The finale episode “Journey’s End” features a brief flashback of Luke’s sacrifice, among others, as the Doctor remembers all of those who have died for him.
  • The Doctor doubles back from calling Martha, Donna, and himself the “old team”, and calls them the “new team”. In Series 2’s “Doomsday”, Rose proclaims that the Doctor and herself are the “old team”.
  • A single remaining Sontaran from this story is the focus of The Sarah Jane Adventures story “The Last Sontaran”.

Production

This episode and the previous episode were filmed over five weeks, beginning in September 2007. Post-production was completed a week before the first part aired.

During production, director Douglas Mackinnon intended to have the episode’s climatic scene in the TARDIS show the moveable column in the center console move up and down much more rapidly than normal. However, when attempting to accomplish this, Mackinnon ended up breaking the prop, which took thirty minutes to repair.

When interviewed on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Catherine Tate stated that she had been filming alongside ten actors playing Sontarans for two weeks before she realised that there were actors inside the Sontaran costumes. She had assumed the Sontarans “ran on electricity”. It was not until an actor removed his helmet to reveal his real face that she realised her mistake. She stated she was “freaked out” by this and said she “nearly died”.

When the Doctor interrupts the Sontarans’ transmission, animated footage from CBeebies’s part live action, part animationeco adventure show Tommy Zoom is brought up on screen featuring the villanous Polluto disguised as a magician and the heroic Tommy and his dog Daniel as his audience. Originally, the plan was to use Shaun the Sheep, but this fell through.

As in many previous episodes of the revived series, supposed BBC News 24 footage is used featuring reports of unfolding events. However, as with the more recent appearances of such footage in Doctor Who, the channel is simply captioned on screen as ‘News 24′ devoid of the BBC logo. Since this episode was produced, the BBC News 24 channel was rebranded in real life as BBC News.

Broadcast

Unofficial overnight figures indicated that “The Poison Sky” was watched by 5.9 million viewers, giving it a 32.5% share of the total television audience. The final consolidated figure was 6.53 million viewers. It was the second most watched programme of the day, being beaten by ITV1’s Britain’s Got Talent, which got 9.12 million viewers. It was the highest rated programme on BBC1 for the day and the 18th most watched of the week. The episode received an Appreciation Index score of 88 (considered “Excellent”).

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Sontaran Stratagem

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

A Sontaran introduces himself to the Doctor as General Staal, "the undefeated".

“The Sontaran Stratagem” is the fourth episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 26 April 2008. The episode features the return of former companion Martha Jones, as well as the return of the alien Sontarans to the series. It is the first of a two part story, followed by “The Poison Sky”. This is the Sontarans’ first appearance since the 1985 Colin Baker story The Two Doctors.

Plot

Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) calls the Doctor (David Tennant) to ask for assistance during an investigation by UNIT. Minutes after the TARDIS materialises in contemporary Britain, Martha authorises the raid of an ATMOS (Atmospheric Omission System) factory. The Doctor introduces his companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) to Martha and UNIT; Donna instantly befriends Martha, but is concerned about UNIT’s ethics and asks the Doctor why he is associated with them; the Doctor ambiguously replies he used to work for them in the late twentieth century.

ATMOS is marketing a satellite navigation system developed by child prodigy Luke Rattigan (Ryan Sampson). The system also reduces carbon dioxide emissions to zero; UNIT requested the Doctor’s help because the technology is not contemporary and potentially alien. UNIT are also concerned about fifty-two simultaneous deaths occurring spontaneously several days before the narrative. The Doctor travels to Rattigan’s private school to investigate the system, and discovers that the episode’s events are being influenced by the Sontarans.

The Sontarans depicted in the episode are part of a battlegroup led by General Staal, “the undefeated” (Christopher Ryan). Instead of an instant invasion, they are tactically approaching an invasion with a combination of human clones, mind control, and ATMOS; Martha is captured by two of the controlled humans and cloned to provide a tactical advantage against UNIT.

A subplot depicts Donna returning to her home to warn her mother Sylvia (Jacqueline King) and grandfather Wilfred Mott (Bernard Cribbins) about the Doctor, having been advised to do so by Martha. Concerned about the implications of telling the truth, Donna reneges from warning her mother. At the end of the episode, the Doctor investigates the ATMOS device attached to Donna’s car and discovers a secondary function: the device can emit a poisonous gas. Wilfred attempts to take the car off the road, but is trapped when Staal activates all 400 million ATMOS devices installed in cars worldwide. The episode’s cliffhanger depicts Donna shouting for help while the Doctor stares helplessly at a street full of cars emitting the gas, while on their ship orbiting the planet, the Sontarans prepare themselves for battle.

Production

The episode features the return of the Sontarans, who last appeared in the 1985 serial The Two Doctors; a centric appearance by UNIT; and Martha Jones, who had last appeared in “Last of the Time Lords” and made special guest appearances in the Torchwood episodes “Reset”, “Dead Man Walking”, and “A Day in the Death.” The brief that executive producer Russell T Davies gave to writer Helen Raynor included the terms “Sontarans”, “military”, and “Martha’s back”.

Martha’s departure allowed Davies to change the character’s personality. In her reappearance, she is more mature and equal to the Doctor in comparison to falling in love in the third series. Several aspects of her character were debated: in particular, her status and reaction to Donna. Raynor elected to emphasise Martha’s medical career over her military career, and avoided a “handbags at dawn” scenario because she felt it would rehash Rose Tyler’s (Billie Piper) initial opinion of Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) from the second series episode “School Reunion”.

The episode is the first centric appearance of UNIT since the show’s revival. Their name has changed from United Nations Intelligence Taskforce to Unified Intelligence Taskforce at the request of the United Nations, who cited the political climate and potential “brand confusion” as reasons for disassociation. The new acronym was coined by Davies after several meetings among the scriptwriters. The UNIT privates Gray and Wilson were specifically written as “alien fodder”. The episode refers to inconsistencies in dating UNIT stories when the Doctor is unsure whether he worked for UNIT in the 70s or 80s.

This episode continues the pattern of having monsters from the classic series return in the new one. Davies commented that the Sontarans were “always on his list” of villains to resurrect. The time and location of the episode was deliberately chosen because every Sontaran story except for The Invasion of Time was set on Earth.

When interviewed on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Catherine Tate stated that she had been filming alongside ten actors playing Sontarans for two weeks before she realised that there were actors inside the Sontaran costumes. She had assumed the Sontarans “ran on electricity”. It was not until an actor removed his helmet to reveal his real face that she realised her mistake. She stated she was “freaked out” by this and said she “nearly died”.

Raynor initially envisioned the poisonous gas would be emitted by factories, but changed it in later drafts to cars for several reasons: the episode would provide social commentary and the idea of an “evil satnav system” was “much more engageable” and “irresistible”; Davies thought the concept was “so very Doctor Who“. Because the series was produced out of order, the “ATMOS” subplot was seeded in the episode “Partners in Crime”. The “fifteenth broken moon” of the Medusa Cascade is also mentioned. The Medusa Cascade was previously mentioned in “Last of the Time Lords”, “Partners in Crime”, and in “The Fires of Pompeii”. In the episode, a system installed in a UNIT jeep undramatically explodes; originally, Raynor wanted it to be a large explosion, but reduced the explosion to several sparks to reduce costs and to lampoon an action movie cliché. The opening scene, which depicts the system driving its occupant into a canal, was filmed at Cardiff’s docks. The scene was the first time a car-cannon had been used since 2005, and was required to be completed in one shot. The car fired into the canal was removed immediately afterwards to clear the shipping route.

The episode, like “Aliens of London” and “The Lazarus Experiment”, properly introduces the lead companion’s family. Unlike the Tyler or Jones families, both Sylvia Noble and Wilfred Mott had met the Doctor before (in “The Runaway Bride” and “Voyage of the Damned”, respectively), providing Raynor with an additional subplot. Expository dialogue explains Mott’s absence from “The Runaway Bride” as the character having Spanish flu. Wilfred’s positive opinion of the Doctor is different to Sylvia, who “joined a long line of mothers that don’t get the Doctor”; Davies had wanted a family member who trusted the Doctor since the show’s revival.

Despite the Sontaran’s clone culture being asserted in the classic series, “The Sontaran Strategem” is the first episode to depict cloning. Originally, all of the factory workers were to be clones, but Raynor reduced it to only Martha to solve continuity problems with the second part. The template clone was portrayed by Ruari Mears, who wore a prosthetic mask which took longer to apply than any mask he had worn. The scenes involving the cloning tank were filmed in a Welsh shampoo factory and reused a prop from “The Fires of Pompeii” as the tank which contained the clone. Davies and Agyeman enjoyed scenes set in the cloning room; Agyeman enjoyed playing an “evil companion”, who she and Davies felt made the real Martha “warmer”, and Davies thought Privates Gray and Harris discovering the tank in a darkened room was “classic Doctor Who“.

Broadcast and reception

“The Sontaran Strategem” was the most watched programme in its timeslot, with 7.06 million viewers. The episode was the second most-watched programme of the day, beaten by Britain’s Got Talent, and was the seventeenth most watched programme of the week. The episode’s Appreciation Index was 87 (considered Excellent), the highest figure recorded on its airdate.

Continuity

According to The Sarah Jane Adventures website (before the series started), the website revealed that Sarah Jane Smith was investigating ATMOS and the villainous Luke Rattigan. However, it was evident that she found out that Kaagh and his race were the ones behind the Earth burning.

Kaagh the Slayer (known as Kaagh the Shambles to Mrs Wormwood of the Bane) said that he was fighting off UNIT and the Doctor gave him his scar as a result of the fire.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Silence in the Library

Saturday, June 27th, 2009

Professor River Song questions the Doctor about where he is on their personal timelines.

“Silence in the Library” is the eighth episode of the fourth series of the revived British science fiction television series Doctor Who, first broadcast on 31 May 2008. It is the first of a two-part story, followed by “Forest of the Dead”, and is the second two-parter Steven Moffat has contributed to the series after “The Empty Child”/”The Doctor Dances” in 2005. A few days before the episode aired, the BBC announced that Moffat will become Head Writer of the programme for the show’s fifth series in 2010, replacing current Head Writer Russell T Davies, who has held the role since Doctor Who returned to television in 2005.

Plot

Synopsis

The Doctor and Donna arrive in the 51st century at a planet-sized book repository simply called “The Library”, summoned by an anonymous request for help on the Doctor’s psychic paper. However, they find it completely devoid of humanoid life, and the Library’s computers even claim as such, though when the Doctor widens the search for non-humanoid life, the Library’s computers claim over “a million million lifeforms” exist. A Node, an information drone which presents a donated human face to the user to facilitate communication, warns them to count the shadows, which appear despite the lack of objects to cast them. As they try to search for answers, they meet a team of explorers, led by archaeologist River Song, who have come to ascertain the meaning of the Library’s final communication, which states “4022 saved, no survivors”. River Song seems to know the Doctor, has a diary with a cover matching the Doctor’s TARDIS, and even possesses a sonic screwdriver. She also later displays knowledge of the TARDIS’s “emergency programme one”. She only admits that she will know the Doctor in his relative future, refusing to disclose more for fear of spoilers. Professor Song also recognises Donna’s name, but avoids explaining why Donna was not present when she knew the Doctor.

The Doctor organises the team to make sure the area is well lit as he explains that they are surrounded by Vashta Nerada, microscopic carnivorous creatures that disguise themselves as shadows to hunt and latch onto their prey. He notes that they are usually nowhere near as aggressive or numerous as the ones here seem to be. Before he can fully explain, however, Miss Evangelista wanders off and is stripped to the bone in moments. The Doctor and Donna learn that the exploration team wears communication devices which link to their nervous systems for thought-based communication. As a side-effect, these devices tend to retain an imprint of the user at the moment of death, creating a short-lived “Data Ghost” of that person’s consciousness, which is capable of communicating with the living (being ‘unaware’ that it is dead) but eventually dissipates to the point where it simply repeats the last thing it said or nonsense.

Curiously, the Library’s operations seem to be tied to the imagination of a young girl; she sees the Doctor and Donna through the eyes of a security camera when they first break into the central room, the exploration team appears on her television when the Doctor attempts to hack the Library computers, and books fly from the shelves when she fiddles with the television’s remote control. The girl is under the observation of Dr. Moon, a child psychologist, at the request of her dad, but Dr. Moon insists to the girl that what she imagines in her nightmares is in fact real, while the real world is a lie. He also states that there are people in her library who need to be saved.

The team’s investigation is interrupted when a shadow of Vashta Nerada latches onto the pilot, Dave. Although the Doctor attempts to save him by sealing him inside his suit, the creatures manage to get inside, eat him alive, and then animate his suit in order to chase the other explorers. The Doctor attempts to teleport Donna back to the TARDIS while he leads the rest of the team to safety, but something goes wrong with the teleport and Donna fails to materialise properly. As the team races away from the possessed suit, the Doctor is horrified to find a Node with Donna’s face on it, which claims that Donna has left the Library and has been saved. The show ends in a cliffhanger as the Doctor is forced to leave the Node behind, but is trapped by the approaching suit on one side and the Vashta Nerada shadows on the other.

Continuity

As shown on the BBC Doctor Who website, there are a number of books in the library either written by former Doctor Who writers or featured in previous episodes. Among those seen are the operating manual for the TARDIS, Origins of the Universe (Destiny of the Daleks), The French Revolution (An Unearthly Child), the Journal of Impossible Things (”Human Nature”/”The Family of Blood”), The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (written by Douglas Adams, former Doctor Who writer and script editor), Everest in Easy Stages (The Creature from the Pit) and Black Orchid (a book first seen in the Fifth Doctor serial of the same name).

The Doctor mentions that “emergency program one” will send Donna home should she be left alone in the TARDIS for five hours. In “The Parting of the Ways”, this program was activated by the Ninth Doctor to send Rose Tyler home.

According to Steven Moffat, the squareness gun used by Professor River Song to help the party escape from the impending Vashta Nerada is intended to be the same sonic blaster that was used by Jack Harkness in the episode “The Doctor Dances”. Moffat suggests that it was left in the TARDIS after “The Parting of the Ways”, and taken by River Song in the Doctor’s future. The name “squareness gun” was coined by Rose in the earlier episode.

The psychic paper has previously summoned the Doctor to a location in “New Earth”, where the Face of Boe called the Doctor to his supposed deathbed.

The Doctor also mentions that he loves “a little shop”, a sentiment previously expressed in the episodes “New Earth” and “Smith and Jones”.

The Doctor says, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” to Dave once he realises the Vashta Nerada have latched onto him. This has been a recurring phrase throughout the new series.

Broadcast and reception

“Silence in the Library” was scheduled against the final of ITV’s talent contest Britain’s Got Talent and suffered in the ratings as a result. BARB’s final figures recorded an audience 6.27 million when adjusted for time shifting. Britain’s Got Talent was viewed by 11.52 million in comparison. This was the first time since the series’ revival in 2005 that Doctor Who did not have the largest audience share in its timeslot.

However, the episode did receive an Appreciation Index score of 89 (considered “Excellent”), the joint highest figure the new series had received to date, alongside “The Parting of the Ways”, “Doomsday” and the following episode “Forest of the Dead”. BBC Three’s repeat of the episode was watched by 1.35 million viewers, almost double the figures for the equivalent repeat of the previous episode, “The Unicorn and the Wasp”.

This episode, along with “Forest of the Dead”, has been nominated for a Hugo Award in the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form category.

Production

Casting

For the role of River Song, whom producer Russell T Davies describes as “sort of the Doctor’s wife”, the production sought to cast Kate Winslet. One of Winslet’s first acting roles was in the BBC teen drama Dark Season, written by Davies. The role of River Song eventually went to Alex Kingston, about whom Davies said, “I bloody love her!”

The role of Strackman Lux went to Steve Pemberton, who is best known for his work as a member of The League of Gentlemen. Pemberton’s fellow League member Mark Gatiss wrote the Doctor Who episodes “The Unquiet Dead” and “The Idiot’s Lantern”, and appeared in the episode “The Lazarus Experiment”.

Locations

Certain scenes were filmed at the Old Swansea Central Library and the Brangwyn Hall in Swansea, Wales.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Forest of the Dead

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

Donna discovers that Miss Evangelista was corrupted when she was uploaded to the data core.

“Forest of the Dead” is the ninth episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast by BBC One on 7 June 2008. It is the second of a two-part story, following “Silence in the Library”.

Plot

Synopsis

The Doctor, Strackman Lux, Dr. River Song and the rest of her group successfully flee from the Vashta Nerada that were pursuing them at the end of “Silence in the Library”. As the group light up the room to dispel the shadows the Vashta Nerada may hide in, the Doctor finds that the Library’s moon is sending out electromagnetic signals that interfere with his sonic screwdriver. Lux explains that the moon acts as a virus checker on the Library’s computer core, causing the Doctor to recognize that Donna and the other 4022 people that were “saved” according to the Library were actually stored in the data core. The group make for the access point to the computer core, still pursued by the spacesuits of Song’s former teammates possessed by the Vashta Nerada. The Doctor pauses a moment to try to reason with the Vashta Nerada, and learns that the books in the Library were made from the trees that their species has laid its eggs in. The Vashta Nerada awoke in the Library and now take it as their their own forest to defend.

Meanwhile, Donna wakes up in the care of Dr. Moon inside the Earth-like computer simulation, though Dr. Moon as well as the little girl that watches Donna from her television attempt to prevent Donna from recognizing it as such. Dr. Moon introduces Donna to a man Lee, and the two become lovers, married, and have two children, though to Donna she seems to skip between these events. One day, Donna is met by Miss Evangelista, who explains that the Library had stored her persona when she was attacked by the Vashta Nerada, but due to corruption, her face has become severely deformed, although she has become more intelligent. As such, Evangelista is “brilliant but unloved” and is able to see the computer simulation for what it is, and tries to pass her knowledge of the simulation to Donna. The little girl causes a distraction to prevent Donna from learning the full truth, but Donna’s confidence is shaken, and when her children doubt her existence, they disappear. Donna desperately seeks out Lee. The little girl, fearing that the truth may be known, “deletes” her father and Dr. Moon, and descends into further despair.

The Doctor and his group reach the core as Lux explains that “CAL”, the name they have been seeing associated with the core, is the girl that is watching them through her television. She is really his aunt Charlotte Abigail Lux. As a child, she suffered from an incurable disease and Lux’s grandfather paid for the construction of the Library, hooking Charlotte to its computer to allow her to spend eternity surrounded by humanity’s literature. However, now that over four thousand other persons are in the core with her, even the “doctor” moon cannot help to keep the computer systems going. The Doctor plans to connect himself into the core to provide the stability to allow the rescued patrons to be reconstituted, and has Lux prepare for their arrival. When the Vashta Nerada threaten to attack them, the Doctor negotiates a deal—that once he frees the people from the core, he will have humanity leave the Library to them forever. River Song recognizes that the Doctor will die if he attempts to put himself in the data core, and knocks him out, taking his place instead. Much to the Doctor’s anguish, Song reminds him that he will see her in his relative future and that there would be only one reason why she would know the Doctor’s real name. As Song connects herself to the system, Donna attempts to race to Lee in the simulation before it whites out.

The Doctor’s plan works as expected as all the stored humans, including Donna, are returned to corporeal form, and Lux begins to transport the humans off the planet. Donna attempts to find Lee but just misses him before he is transported away. The Doctor mournfully leaves Song’s diary and sonic screwdriver to the Library, but suddenly questions why he would have given her the screwdriver in his future. He discovers that the screwdriver has a Data Ghost device in it, and races to the computer core to transfer its data into the computer. River Song awakens in the computer simulation, greeted by Charlotte, Dr. Moon, Evangelista (her appearance restored to normal) and the rest of her team, and thanks the Doctor.

Continuity

According to Steven Moffat, the squareness gun used by Professor River Song to help the party escape from the impending Vashta Nerada at the beginning of the episode is intended to be the same sonic blaster that was used by Jack Harkness in the episode “The Doctor Dances”. Moffat suggests that it was left in the TARDIS after “The Parting of the Ways”, and taken by River Song in the Doctor’s future. The name “squareness gun” was coined by Rose Tyler in the earlier episode. The Bad Wolf motif (seen prominently during series one as well as in other places) is alluded to once more: a picture of blonde girl and a wolf is visible in Charlotte’s house.

Professor River Song uses the Doctor’s name (not heard by the viewer) in order to gain his trust. The secret behind the Doctor’s true name was also explored in “The Girl in the Fireplace” (also by Steven Moffat), “The Shakespeare Code” and “The Fires of Pompeii”, and later referred to in “Midnight”. According to the Doctor, he could only tell his name to someone at one (unspecified) point in his life.

Production

Writing

“Forest of the Dead” was initially announced under the title “River’s Run”, before its name was changed relatively late in production. Josh and Ella, Donna’s two children in the computer-generated world, were named after Steven Moffat’s son and his son’s friend.

Casting

For the role of River Song, whom producer Russell T Davies describes as “sort of the Doctor’s wife”, the production sought to cast Kate Winslet. One of Winslet’s first acting roles was in the BBC teen drama Dark Season, written by Davies. The role of River Song eventually went to Alex Kingston, about whom Davies said, “I bloody love her!”

The role of Strackman Lux went to Steve Pemberton, who is best known for his work as a member of The League of Gentlemen. Pemberton’s fellow League member Mark Gatiss wrote the Doctor Who episodes “The Unquiet Dead” and “The Idiot’s Lantern”, and appeared in the episode “The Lazarus Experiment”.

Filming

Several scenes from this episode and “Silence in the Library” were filmed at Swansea’s Brangwyn Hall. These include the library reception area where the TARDIS arrives, and the staircase where the Doctor and Donna look out over the empty library. The climactic scenes of the episode (in the library core) were filmed in an electrical substation of a disused Alcoa factory in Waunarlwydd, Swansea.

The wedding dress Catherine Tate wears in this episode is the same dress she wore in “The Runaway Bride”.

Reception

Forest of the Dead was watched by 7.84 million viewers, giving it a 40% audience share; the highest in Series Four and the highest in its timeslot. The episode received an Appreciation Index score of 89 (considered “Excellent”), one of the highest figures the new series had received to date, alongside “The Parting of the Ways”, “Doomsday” and the preceding episode “Silence in the Library”.

This episode, along with “Silence in the Library”, has been nominated for a Hugo Award in the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form category.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Midnight (Doctor Who)

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

The Doctor, Driver Joe and Technician Claude stare in awe at Planet Midnight's enchanting landscape.

“Midnight” is the tenth episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 14 June 2008. The episode placed much more emphasis on the role of David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor than in the rest of the fourth series of the programme, with the Doctor’s companion Donna Noble, played by actress Catherine Tate, playing only a minimal role. For this reason the writer Stephen James Walker has described this episode in his book Monsters Within as being “companion-lite”, in his analysis of this episode’s successor, the “Doctor-lite” episode “Turn Left”.

Plot

Synopsis

Via a telephone, The Doctor tries to persuade Donna to take a four hour shuttle bus ride to the Sapphire Waterfall. They are both holidaymakers on the crystalline planet Midnight, which orbits close enough to its sun that the extonic radiation exposure would vaporise any living thing walking unprotected on its surface. Donna opts to sunbathe at a spa. Passengers, along with the Doctor, include Val Cane, Biff Kane, and their teenage son Jethro, Professor Hobbes and his assistant Dee Dee Blasco, and businesswoman Sky Silvestry (who is a divorcee, on holiday and recuperating from the end of her marriage). The staff are the driver, Joe, trainee mechanic Claude, and a steward who is only referred to as ‘the Hostess’.

The trip initially goes smoothly despite the shuttle being rerouted to a new course, but suddenly the shuttle stops. The Doctor checks with the shuttle’s driver and mechanic, confirming that there’s nothing wrong with the vehicle apart from the micropetrol engines needing to be stabilised. He convinces them to open the shutter to look outside, and the mechanic believes he sees a shadow moving towards the bus. The crew calls for a rescue vehicle while the Doctor returns to the main cabin.

A few moments later, something begins knocking on the shuttle’s hull, copying the passengers when they knock back. The knocking moves around the shuttle, making its way towards Sky Silvestry, apparently the most frightened of the lot, and dents the door she is standing by. The lights then temporarily fail and the shuttle is violently rocked. When the lights are restored, the seats near Sky have been ripped off the floor and she is cowering in the corner. An attempt to speak to the cabin crew reveals that their cabin has also been ripped away, exposing Joe and Claude to the deadly sunlight.

Sky initially remains motionless, but is coaxed into turning around by the Doctor. Attempts to get her to speak only cause her to repeat what she is told, making it clear that Sky is no longer in control. The delay between Sky’s repetitions becomes shorter, until eventually she begins speaking in exact unison with the passengers. Cabin fever sets in, and the passengers contemplate throwing her outside. Their fear of the unknown presence among them is analysed by Dee Dee through a quotation from Goblin Market, a poem by Christina Rossetti. The Doctor’s attempts to calm the situation fail when the passengers become suspicious of him, especially when he is unwilling to reveal his name. This is only amplified when Sky focuses solely on repeating the Doctor’s words.

As the Doctor tries to reason with Sky, she begins speaking his words first, and the Doctor quickly becomes the one doing the repeating. Sky is now able to move, while the Doctor is paralysed. Most of the passengers reason that whatever was in Sky has now passed into the Doctor, while the hostess and Dee Dee reason that this is just the next step: stealing the voice of another. The other passengers refuse to listen and begin to drag the Doctor towards the nearest door after being goaded by Sky. However, the hostess realises that Sky is not talking in her own voice when she uses phrases the Doctor had used earlier. Before the other passengers can throw the Doctor out, she sacrifices herself by dragging Sky out of another door. The Doctor slowly recovers, and as the passengers wait for the rescue shuttle, he realises that no one knew the hostess’ name. At the spa, a mournful Doctor reunites with Donna. When she tries to imitate one of the Doctor’s phrases, he quickly tells her not to.

Continuity

Rose Tyler appears on one of the shuttle’s television screens shortly after the lifeform attacks the transport, echoing a similar appearance in “The Poison Sky”. In both instances, she silently shouts for the Doctor, who is not there to see the image in the first instance and is looking the opposite way in this episode. She also appears briefly in “Partners in Crime”. Rose is also mentioned by the Doctor by name along with Martha and Donna. In an early conversation with Sky about becoming recently single, the Doctor indirectly referred to Rose as one who “went to a different universe.”

This is the first story since 1975’s Genesis of the Daleks where the TARDIS does not appear. It is also the only full Doctor Who story where the adversary is neither seen nor given a name.

Two of the Tenth Doctor’s common phrases are used to identify his voice: “allons-y” and “molto bene”, first used in “Army of Ghosts” and “The Christmas Invasion” respectively.

Production

This episode is the fiftieth episode filmed for the revived series, and was filmed at the same time as “Turn Left”. Donna has a minor role in the episode (appearing in only the pre-credits sequence and the final scene), while the Doctor has a minor role in “Turn Left”.

Cast notes

David Troughton, cast here as Professor Hobbes, was a late replacement for Sam Kelly, who broke his leg and had to withdraw from the production. Troughton joined the rest of the cast in Cardiff with just two days notice. Now known for his stage work with the RSC as well as television, David Troughton is the son of Patrick Troughton, who portrayed the Second Doctor. He had a long association with the early series in the 1960s and early 1970s, appearing as an uncredited extra in the first, fifth, and sixth episodes of the Second Doctor serial The Enemy of the World, as Private Moor in the sixth episode of the Second Doctor serial The War Games, and as King Peladon in all four episodes of the Third Doctor serial The Curse of Peladon. More recently he has appeared as the Tinghus in the Doctor Who audio adventure Cuddlesome, as well as appearing as a new version of the Doctor’s old foe the Black Guardian during the events of The Judgement of Isskar (Only appearing at the conclusion of the audio), The Destroyer of Delights, and The Chaos Pool.

Daniel Ryan (Biff Kane) had announced in a 2006 interview that he was going to ask Russell T Davies for a role in Doctor Who, as he wanted his children to see him acting on television in a programme that was not inaccessible. Davies had previously written an episode of Linda Green, which Ryan starred in, and Ryan’s former castmates Sean Gallagher and Claire Rushbrook had already appeared in Doctor Who.

Reception

“Midnight” was watched by 8.05 million viewers, a 38% share of the total television audience, making it the fifth most-watched programme of the week. The episode received an Appreciation Index score of 86 (considered Excellent).

The Guardian‘s TV reviewer Sam Wollaston described the episode as “great… it’s tense and claustrophobic, and gnaws away at you.” He praised the fact that all the action happened in one confined space with an unseen enemy, saying “this is psychological drama rather than full-blown horror; creepy-unknown scary, not special-effect-monster scary.”The Times‘s reviewer Andrew Billen was more critical, writing that Tennant’s Doctor was becoming “increasingly irritating”. He called the episode “sheet upon sheet of dialogue” that “felt too much of a writing exercise to be really scary” and a case-in-point of how the 2008 series “fails as often as it succeeds”. Billen did, however, praise the episode for its claustrophobic atmosphere and for showing the series was “not afraid of variety [and]… dead scared of repetition”.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

To the Last Man (Torchwood)

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

Toshiko implores Tommy to use the key in order to repair the time shift.

“To the Last Man” is the third episode of the second series of British science fiction television series Torchwood, which was broadcast by BBC Two on 30 January 2008.

Plot

Synopsis

Tommy Brockless, a young World War I soldier, shell-shocked from his experiences in the trenches, is the key to saving the world. He is taken into custody by Torchwood in 1918 – Torchwood having been told to do so by his future self – and held in cryonic storage until the time comes for him to save the world. He is awoken one day each year for a medical check-up and a “day out” as a precautionary measure in case he is needed.

A time shift is set to cause 1918 and the present to bleed together at an unspecified time, and when this happens it is Tommy who will be “stitching” the fragments of 1918 back to their rightful place in time.

It is ninety years before this eventually happens and fragments of 1918 are appearing in an old abandoned hospital. Before the team realise that this is the year, Toshiko becomes infatuated with Tommy. Owen, noticing the closeness between them and having experienced something similar (cf. “Out of Time”), warns Tosh about the eventuality of saying goodbye.

When Tommy is told what he must do – actions that will result in him not seeing Toshiko again – Tommy initially refuses to take part. However, with encouragement from Toshiko, he begins to see the bigger picture and agrees. Toshiko is reluctant to do this, as Jack explains that Tommy is destined to be court martialled and shot for cowardice upon being sent back to the trenches. Jack eventually persuades her that it is for the greater good and she relents. During a brief time shift, Tommy tells Torchwood employees from that era that they must take him into custody. Then, with the next time shift, after a tearful goodbye, Tommy goes back to his own time. However, in his own time he reverts back to being shell-shocked and forgets all about Torchwood and why he has the Rift Key therefore the time shift still continues. As the time shifts are forcing the rift open Toshiko is able to be psychically transmitted into Tommy’s mind in the past and encourages him to the use the key. Tommy turns the key in his Rift manipulator device, dragging all of 1918 back with him.

Continuity

  • For the dating of this episode, see the Chronology.
  • Tosh and Tommy share a brief moment on Penarth Pier – built in 1894, the same year that Tommy was born.
  • Tommy remarks on how ridiculous it is that he has to save the world in his pyjamas. The Doctor did just that in the Doctor Who episode “The Christmas Invasion”, and refers to it as being very “Arthur Dent.”

Outside references

The title of – and dialogue within – the episode is a reference to Field Marshal Douglas Haig’s Order of the Day on 11 April 1918, in response to the German Spring Offensive: “There is no other course open to us but to fight it out. Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement. With our backs to the wall and believing in the justice of our cause each one of us must fight on to the end.” Reporters at the time recognised that his order echoed that of Général Joffre to the commanders of the French Armies in September, 1914, at the outbreak of the First Battle of the Marne: “The hour has come to advance at all costs, and to die where you stand rather than give way.”

“Tommy” was a common slang term for a British soldier, particularly associated with the First World War.

Jack suggests that the British army executed “more than 300″ shell-shocked soldiers for cowardice during the First World War. Executions for all offences numbered 346, of which 40 were for murder or mutiny. The remaining 306 were for desertion (266), cowardice (18), and other offences (22). While some of these can now be attributed to shell shock, most cannot, although all 306 were posthumously pardoned in 2006.

Production

The song “One Of These Mornings” by Moby plays towards the start and at the end of this episode. The song “She’s Got You High” by Mumm-Ra plays in the pub as Toshiko and Tommy play pool.

News 24 stock footage is used to depict the Iraq War, again with the BBC logo omitted as it has been in Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures episodes and in more recent Doctor Who episodes when news reports have been included as part of the story.

Reception

On overnight returns, The Guardian reported that the episode achieved a 13% share, 3.2 million viewers, in its first broadcast on January 30, 2008, at 9pm.BARB later listed the episode as BBC2’s top audience draw for the week ending February 3, with a certified estimate of 3.51 million viewers including timeshift.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »