​This week brings us Under the Lake, the third episode of DOCTOR WHO Season/Series 9, this one scripted by Toby Whithouse (who brought us The Vampires of Venice, The God Complex, and A Town Called Mercy in the Matt Smith-era, as well as the 10th Doctor adventure School Reunion).

The tone of S9’s two-part opening episode (The Magician’s Apprentice and The Witch’s Familiar) was notably mature and intense - and promos and clips from this week’s installment suggest we may be in for a darker outing this time around as well.  

I strongly suspect suspect Team Moff may bring a more sober tone to bear throughout this series, which I personally don’t have any issues with whatsoever - although it’s hard not to wonder whether this more mature vibe might be playing into some of the ratings wobble currently being noted in the UK.

Here are some promo images from Under the Lake.  The second installment in this tale, Before the Flood, transmits next Saturday.  

​PLEASE NOTE: We warmly invite and encourage an open discourse and free exchange of ideas, but will enforce a strict zero tolerance policy regarding trolling, disrespect, or hate speak of any kind.

The Witch's Familiar thread is HERE.  

The Magician’s Apprentice thread can be found HERE.  

The ongoing DOCTOR WHO Season/Series 9 Multi-topic Megathread can be found HERE.

COMING NEXT WEEK:  Before the Flood  (S09E04)

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​Big Finish 201: We Are the Daleks

Written By: Jonathan Morris

Directed By: Ken Bentley


Cast:

Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Melanie Bush), Kirsty Besterman (Serena Paget), Angus Wright (Alek Zenos), Mary Conlon (Celia Dunthorpe), Robbie Stevens (Niles Bunbury/Frank Lewis), Ashley Zhangazha (Brinsley Heaton), Lizzie Roper (Shari), Dominic Thornburn (Afrid), Nicholas Briggs (The Daleks).
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Big Finish, after the 200th CD, has decided to simplify things and have a kind of “reboot” at 201. What this means is not that earlier Big Finish stories do not exist, but rather, there is an attempt to write stories which are contextually more simplified without worrying about all the Big Finish continuity. How long this will last, I am not sure. How good an idea this is, I am also not sure. I think it is easy to write stories without concern for continuity – but it is often best to be able to be free to engage it when needed (and never to contradict it) when dealing with an established series.

As 201 starts of Big Finish with a new paradigm, and we are here, with a new paradigm for our discussions, I figured  would start off with a new way of dealing with Big Finish audios. While it might be nice to write up every story which I listen to, it can also be difficult to do so, since some stories do not connect with me as well as others (or give me as strong reaction as others). Sometimes, when the story is neither great nor terrible, I have a difficult time knowing what to write. For this reason, after checking up with Merrick and seeing we would continue with Big Finish reviews, I thought it is best to have a new paradigm for my reviews. 

I won’t review every story. 

But I will review those I think deserve reviews, either because they are exceptional, or they have something worth mentioning, or because I find them to be bad and worth warning people against them. And while I will do a more traditional review later, I wanted to do something for We Are the Daleks.  I thought it was a good story to use to inaugurate our Big Finish reviews here, because it is the start of a new era for Big Finish.

201, We Are the Daleks, is not an exceptional story, but it is a very good middle of the road story which addresses one major New Who Dalek concern and so makes the audio a good bridge between classic Doctor Who and New Who. At the end of the story, we find out why the Daleks have changed their political structure. I will not spoil that ending, but rest assured, it explains the new Dalek political structure seen in Asylum of the Daleks. For this reason, it is an important Big Finish story, and worth to have in the collection of anyone who listens to the audios.

Because I am doing this quickly for this first review, and because Big Finish gives a good description of this story, I will start my discussion of the adventure with their description: 

The year is 1987, and Britain is divided. In Bradford, strikers are picketing and clashing with the police. In the City of London, stockbrokers are drinking champagne and politicians are courting the super-rich. The mysterious media mogul Alek Zenos, head of the Zenos Corporation, is offering Britain an economic miracle. His partners wish to invest – and their terms are too good to refuse.

While the Doctor investigates Warfleet, a new computer game craze that is sweeping the nation, Mel goes undercover to find out the truth about Zenos’s partners.

The Daleks have a new paradigm. They intend to conquer the universe using economic power. The power of the free market!

This story stars the Seventh Doctor with Mel. Unlike many, I have never had a problem with Mel; though she never reached her potential on screen, I thought Bonnie Langford always did well with what she had been given and Mel made sense as a companion. I would even go so far to state that I liked her as a companion before I learned how unpopular that she was, and though I understand the criticism of how she was written, and can laugh with the next Who fan about it, I still have always had a soft spot for Mel.

Here, she returns to what she was expected to being in Doctor Who: a computer specialist. There is, to be sure, a big caveat here: by the time Mel would have experienced this story, her knowledge of computers in and through history would have been greater than what seems to be shown here (and subsequently, in the next story which I won’t review beyond stating it is a fair, but average story). I’ve been led to believe, in previous Big Finish audios, she is a natural computer genius who was given access to and knowledge of higher techs thanks to the Doctor,  which she quickly learned and mastered (perhaps with no greater example of this than in the Sixth Doctor audio story, The Juggernauts). While she continues to be a computer genius, it feels like she has lost a lot of her experience with the Doctor (mirroring, perhaps, the Big Finish desire to start fresh in story 201).

The general story – the Doctor faces the Daleks, who have taken on a business venture as a way to dominate the universe – is a slightly clever allegory about the problems inherent within capitalism. It is so natural that it feels like it is old hat, and not as ingenious as it actually is (though not as exceptional as I feel Jonathan Morris might have thought it was).  The Daleks try to take over the universe and exterminate all competition; it is not difficult to see how this is the same way businesses work. And it takes only a little effort to turn people into willing slaves of the system, to kill for the sake of business, to become like a Dalek. The allegory here is clear with the name of the story: in a way, we are Daleks (though in the story, this title is able to be taken several ways, more than I express here, showing the name really is clever). That it seems almost cliché shows how strong the connection is, and why this is a good story for the new Big Finish paradigm even if it feels old hat – because Big Finish likes to take the old with the new, when it can. 

The story is not perfect. Mel gets involved with computer simulations which the Daleks use to have humans act as pilots in space ships fighting against those rebelling against the Daleks. It is a smart idea, but again, almost feels second hand if one thinks of The Last Starfighter, with the added dimension that the video game itself is what is real. It works, and is an interesting concept – but there seems to be something missing in its execution, just a little more tweaking and it would work better than it does here. But it is still good, just like The Last Starfighter is good. 

The Doctor gets involved with the business side of the Daleks and their desire to use businesses as a way to conquer humanity. I enjoyed this side of the story more than Mel’s, and it is here we eventually find the New Who connection emerge. The Daleks are trying to encourage a deal with the British, to make an exclusive business deal. Those involved with the deal find themselves engaging the Daleks, some against them, some working for them. One of those who works with the Daleks eventually finds a way to join them while changing Dalek society. It works, not perfectly, but it works, perhaps because it helps answer a question about New Who.

All in all this is a good “new” start for Big Finish. It is an enjoyable, though not perfect, tale, with some interesting allegories involved. I give it an 8/10, though this score is in part, because it answers New Who questions, for without it, it would feel a more average 7/10.


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PLEASE NOTE: We warmly invite and encourage an open discourse and free exchange of ideas, but will enforce a strict zero tolerance policy regarding trolling, disrespect, or hate speak of any kind.

Last weekend brought us The Magician’s Apprentice, the first episode of DOCTOR WHO Season/Series 9, and the beginning of the end of Jenna Coleman’s run on the show as companion ‘Clara.’ 

Now we’re onto The Witch’s Familiar, the second part of that bizarre and shocking tale, which should (in theory) address and/or resolve several significant plot developments, as well as explore the wickedly wrenching moral quandary piled onto the Doctor in Apprentice’s second half.  

Since the show’s 2005 relaunch, I can’t recall ever having been profoundly impressed by any of its Season/Series openers.  I haven’t disliked them, per se, but I’ve frequently felt like they were attempting to rediscover the show…again…instead of confidently charging out of the gates swinging.  This was not the case with Magician’s Apprentice.  It was big, bold, brash, and (depending on how storylines resolve) it may’ve even been a little ballsy.  Apprentice felt almost as if it was professing…loudly and in no uncertain terms…there is still artistic and conceptual gold to be mined from DOCTOR WHO, and it showed us as much rather brilliantly at times.  

Photography by Ali Asad was cinematic and carefully considered, deftly evoking WHO’s modernized sensibilities while somehow recalling photographic proclivities from the best of ‘classic’ DW.  Performances were more sharply defined and more fully invested than we’ve seen in a long time, with Capaldi’s conveyance of our favorite Timelord feeling assured and effortless and like he’s finally found a deeper connection...and fully plugged into...his role.  

Hettie Macdonald’s directing was smart and clean - allowing for an almost surreal atmospheric slow-burn at times, invariably punctuated by either dopey-fun WHOish madness, or effectively high drama.  All driven by one of the most ‘on game’ Steven Moffat scripts we’ve enjoyed for some time.  

A great start for the new Season/Series?  Very much so.  I’d even call it the best (2005+) seasonal launch episode this show has put forth.  There is, however, a nagging sensation I can’t quite shake.  An itch I can’t quite manage to scratch.  

Over its long history, my personal feeling is that DOCTOR WHO, on the whole, has often been far more proficient at setting-up its multi-part stories than successfully paying them off.   Thus, when word arrived that S9 would be heavily comprised of two-parters, I (literally) shifted in my seat uncomfortably.  I couldn’t help but wonder if S9 might end up being a staggering and consistent frustration throughout - populated by immensely promising initial episodes, chased by relatively scattershot and underamped resolutions.  

I can not express how much I hope this won’t be the MO for this Season/Series, and this weekend’s transmission of The Witch’s Familiar promises to deliver unto us (at least) some sense of how such formatting might play out over the next few months.  

Based on the strength of Magician’s Apprentice and my sense of the overall ‘vision’ Team Moffat appear to be pursuing for S9, I feel…hopeful…as of this writing.  Very hopeful, in fact.    We’ll see soon enough…

In the gallery below are some images from The Witch’s Familiar.    Should further images arrive throughout the week, I’ll incorporate them here as well.  This article may feasibly be updated with other media which may come our way (clips from episodes? etc.) - but feel free to glance through the discussion stream below, as videos and images are posted there quite frequently...and content you may find there isn’t necessarily mirrored in artricles here.   

PLEASE NOTE that some of the images in this gallery may be considered ‘SPOILERY’ - although the spoiler itself shouldn’t come as a particular surprise if you’ve been following recent interviews with the cast/crew of the show.   

Also note that these images are officially issued, thus they can't be THAT spoilery, I suppose.  Although, as discussed in our forums recently, content TPTB on this show do and do not brand as 'spoilery' is sometimes very nonsensical indeed.  

Also interesting here:  notably present in these images is _____, notably absent from these images is _____.  Misdirection or manipulation by The Powers That Be?  Or, meaningful??

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ALL CLEAR 

Welcome to Geeklectica’s second episode-specific DOCTOR WHO discussion thread.  The notion driving this environment is simple and sincere:  

We warmly invite and encourage an open discourse and free exchange of ideas, but will enforce a strict zero tolerance policy regarding trolling, disrespect, or hate speak of any kind. 

With this in mind, please feel free to step in, say ‘Hi!’, share your thoughts, hang out, and…above all…have fun!  



The ongoing DOCTOR WHO Season/Series 9 Multi-topic Megathread can be found HERE.

The Magician’s Apprentice thread which began last week can be found HERE.  

COMING NEXT WEEK - DOCTOR WHO: Under the Lake (S09E03) 

This weekend brings us the first new installment of DOCTOR WHO since last December - The Magician’s Apprentice - the opening episode of DOCTOR WHO Season/Series 9.  A prequelish thing for S9 came online a few days ago...

Today has brought forth quite a bit of media from The Magician’s Apprentice, as well as Series/Season 9 on the whole.  For example, THIS lovely Tweet has revealed all episode titles from the Season/Series proper…

…while THIS piece at BBC revealed a few more hints (albeit not many) regarding what we can expect from  S9.  Concurrently, THIS issuance offers some nice, High Res Magician's Apprentice wallpaper.  

Meanwhile, a number of official Magician’s Apprentice promo images are starting to emerge - the initial batch of which can be found in this gallery.  

The gallery above, and this post overall, will be updated throughout the week as further media from DOCTOR WHO’s S9 premiere appears online - so check back frequently.  

Personally, I’m hoping this Season/Series focuses more on Capaldi as a lead (the Doctor role seemed a touch rescinded for my taste in S8), and I’d love to find a bit more clarity in this upcoming batch of episodes.  For example, I really, really liked S8’s Listen, but I’m not at all convinced it made any sense whatsoever.  Similarly, I felt S8’s two-part finale (Dark Water/Death in Heaven) was tremendously ambitious…and I have no issue with the metaphysics it was attempting to zing.  But too many conceits were too hazy, and too many narrative threads felt too convoluted, for the stories to pay off completely.  Hopefully, similar ambition…but with sharper sculpting…will be the order of the day  this time around.  

Welcome to Geeklectica’s first episode-specific discussion.  Each episode of S9 will receive its own dedicated thread, as will this year’s Christmas Special.  I’d like to extend a heartfelt welcome to anyone newly joining our discussions here - thank you so much for stopping by.  Please don’t be shy.  Step on in, share your thoughts, and have fun!    

As always...

PLEASE NOTE: These forums are actively moderated.  We warmly invite and encourage an open discourse and free exchange of ideas, but will enforce a strict zero tolerance policy regarding trolling, disrespect, or hate speak of any kind.