Hide

I misjudged my calculation on my TARDIS and have ended up a day later than I meant to. Still, better late than never, here’s some thoughts and discussion on the latest episode of Doctor Who, Hide. It’s a spooky one. Kind of. It will contain spoilers of course so if you haven’t yet seen the episode, I suggest you hide (see what I did there?)

So, Hide. This was one of those episodes of Doctor Who that continually messed with your expectations. The Doctor and Clara arrive in 1974 in part of a ghost story. After an appearance from the “ghost” we learn it’s no ghost but a time traveller trapped in a pocket universe, being chased by a monster. Eventually the gang manage to rescue her and then the Doctor finally realises the monster isn’t chasing her, it is trying to get home to be with it’s partner. So it’s not a ghost story, it’s a love story. Only Doctor Who could make that happen!

Part of the love story comes from the guest characters, Alec Palmer and Emma Grayling. It’s rare that we get such a well characterised guest cast but writer Neil Cross managed to do it this week. The unusual approach of having the Doctor already know who they are worked a treat. Alec Palmer (Dougray Scott) was formerly a spy and he caused lots of deaths during his time with the service. A bit like the Doctor, he was trying to do something to counteract his past. Emma Grayling (Jessica Raine) was an even better character, an empathetic physic, a woman who can sense feelings but therefore lives a difficult life. The two characters were made for each other and finally became an item thanks to Clara and the Doctor. Incidentally, Jessica Raine will play Verity Lambert in the upcoming Doctor Who making of drama An Adventure in Space and Time.

The other part of the love story came from the hideous creature that is apparently called “The Crooked Man”. It was a great example of the old saying “never judge a book by its cover” and just because it is an ugly creature doesn’t mean it isn’t capable of love! How sweet!

This episode contained a direct reference to the Third Doctor era with the blue crystal from Metebelis III. The Doctor first picked one of these crystals up during the course of The Green Death and it was a central part of the plot in Planet of the Spiders which led to the Doctor’s regeneration. The crystals have psychic powers, hence there inclusion in this story- although it does mean the Doctor has returned to Metebelis III since that regeneration. Some fans noted Matt Smith’s mispronunciation of the name, although I would have to question whether he got it right and it was actually Jon Pertwee would pronounced it wrong…

We had some more development with Clara relationship with the TARDIS. Clara still senses that the TARDIS doesn’t like her but there’s no real evidence that it true. If the TARDIS doesn’t like Clara, is it just because she’s new like the Doctor said or because of what she is- the same way that it tried to shake off Captain Jack because he’s an anomaly. Maybe Hide was the end of this dislike though as the TARDIS did open it’s doors to let Clara travel into the pocket universe to rescue the Doctor. I’m sure we will find out for certain next week in a story largely set within the TARDIS!

Once again we didn’t really find out anything to explain the mystery of Clara. Emma Grayling decided she was a normal girl and nothing out of the ordinary. It did spark off a new mystery which we will be seeing much more of as time goes one. Emma said the Doctor had “a sliver of ice in his heart”. Steven Moffat has said that the 50th anniversary special will reveal a dark secret that the Doctor has. I haven’t the slightest idea what that might be though!

Next week is an exciting episode as we take a Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS. Join us then!

Cold War

It issss once again time to analysssse another epissssode of Doctor Who! Thissss week it’ssss time to board a sssubmarine with an Ice Warrior! OK, enough of speaking like an Ice Warrior, it’ll soon get boring and I’ll wear out by “s” key. As usual there’ll be spoilers so if you haven't seen the episode yet I suggest you don’t read on!

Before anything else, I feel a little bit of history on the Ice Warriors is necessary. They first appeared in 1967 when the Doctor Who team weren’t allowed to use daleks as the pepperpots were being used in films. Various monsters were created and Ice Warriors were quite possible the best. In The Ice Warriors the Second Doctor and his companions Jamie and Victoria found the Ice Warriors frozen in ice in the Earth’s future where a new Ice Age had occurred. It was actually Victoria that named them Ice Warriors and the Martians don’t seem to mind. The trio faced them again in The Seeds of Death when they tried to use the trans-mat system to take over the Earth and then the Third Doctor bumped into them in The Curse of Peladon where they had renounced their old ways. In The Monster of Peladon though a rogue faction of Ice Warriors had gone back to the old ways.

That was in 1974 and the Ice Warriors haven’t been seen on screen since. Until now that is. Mark Gatiss had been desperate to bring the Icw Warriors back in the new series but showrunner and friend Steven Moffat wasn’t so sure. Then Gatiss came up with the idea that made the Ice Warriors scarier- they can come out of their armour. Yep, here Skaldak leaves his armour and runs around the Soviet submarine finding out about humans by killing them. The master-stroke was the creepy hands hanging over people’s heads. Suddenly the Ice Warriors have become a whole lot scarier!

I’ve been scratching my head trying to work out a timeline for the Ice Warriors. This is technically the earliest in time we’ve ever seen them and Skaldak had been in the ice 5,000 years. All the other episodes were set far in the future, though Varga and co in The Ice Warriors had been there for “centuries”. Maybe Varga and Skaldak come from a similar time? All we know is that they were once a great empire, they weren’t for a huge proportion of humanity’s life and then they were again. There’s still plenty of room for expansion of their story and I hope we get some of that in the not so distant future.

This episode is the first one where Clara was in real danger. It’s the first episode of Series 7 Part 2 where we actually had some deaths, and even then there were only three, a relatively low body count for the show. It was great to see how terrified by it all she was and how much she enjoyed the whole saving the world thing. There is pretty much no further clues to help solve her mystery. The only thing I picked up on was when the Professor asked her what hobbies she had and she couldn’t come up with an answer. Clara’s life before the Doctor seems disturbingly empty. She was quite scared at the time though so it could mean nothing!

I have noticed something which may be vitally important to the series arc or might be a coincidence. In this episode there is a direct quote from Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”:

“What do you want from me?”

“Much”

In The Rings of Akhaten there was a quote from “Alice in Wonderland” and someone I was watching with reckoned there was a quote from “The Woman in Black” in the preview for next week’s episode, Hide. I don’t remember any book quotes in The Bells of Saint John although there was the obvious mention of the book by Amelia Williams. Are these book links a clue? Or is this just another Doctor Who coincidence?

For me the highlight of Cold War, apart from Skaldak of course, was David Warner’s professor. Most of the submarine crew weren’t particularly fascinating characters but the professor was great. He was good fun what with being an old Russian man who loved Ultravox and Duran Duran but he was also a caring character who was really sweet. The two-hander with him and Clara was brilliant! Definitely guest star of the week!

One final thing is when the Doctor talks about resetting HADS on the TARDIS he pretty much repeats what he said way back in the 1969 story The Krotons! Few other shows can do continuity like Doctor Who does!

That is it for this week but do join us next week for the creepy ghost story, Hide!

The Rings of Akhaten

Hello and welcome to another post new Doctor Who episode discussion! This week the Doctor takes Clara to her first alien planet. As usual there’ll be spoilers so if you haven’t seen the episode yet I suggest you look away now!

The Rings of Akhaten was written by Neil Cross, who is based in New Zealand and wrote Luther and quite a few episodes of Spooks. The episode has split the fandom, with some absolutely loving it and some absolutely hating it. Personally I am more leaning towards the hating it side of things but there were still plenty of things to love!

First of all, the pre-credits sequence, which saw the Doctor pretty much stalking Clara’s Mum and Dad. He was making sure Clara was definitely human and normal and it seems she is. The secret of the leaf is revealed and it turns out not to be something sci-fi at all but simply a symbol of her parent’s relationship when said leaf hit her Dad in the eye. And then we discover that Clara’s mother died when she was a child, giving us some great emotional context for the new companion.

The Rings of Akhaten are an asteroid belt, full of many varying alien races. And it’s now time for alien safari- here’s all the alien races that are ‘named’ in the episode:

The story itself revolves around saving a little girl from being sacrificed to what is pretty much a god. I must mention what a brilliant little actress and singer the girl is- her name is Emilia Jones and she is the daughter of infamous Welsh choral singer Aled Jones. The currency in Akhaten is sentimental items and Clara gives up both the leaf and her mother’s ring to save the day. For once the companion has some empathy with the idea of the Doctor’s loss of his own people. And speaking of which, what an incredible speech Matt Smith gave on that subject:

“I have lived a long life and I have seen a few things… I walked away from the last great Time War, I marked the passing of the Time Lords, I saw the birth of the universe and I watched as time ran out, moment by moment until nothing remained, no time, no space, just me. I walked in universes where the laws of physics were devised by the mind of a mad man. I watched universes freeze and creations burn, I have seen things you wouldn’t believe, I have lost things you will never understand - and I know things, secrets that must never be told, knowledge that must never be spoken… knowledge that will make parasite gods blaze! So come on then! Take it!”

OK, now some things to notice in this episode. Firstly, the Doctor mentioned he’d been to the Rings of Akhaten before, with his grand-daughter. The Doctor’s grand-daughter, Susan, appeared with the First Doctor and was left in London in the year 2164 to help rebuild civilisation after a dalek invasion with her new boyfriend. Maybe she’ll make a return one day?

The Doctor claimed he had nothing of sentimental value on him, except his sonic screwdriver, but that’s not exactly true as he must still have Amy Pond’s reading glasses on him (he had them when he was watching Clara’s parents after all). The Doctor simply cannot part from them!

There wasn’t much in terms of solving the mystery of Clara in this episode, although maybe there is a clue when she says that the TARDIS doesn’t like her. The TARDIS is a living thing and theoretically could try to stop someone getting in. As it can see through time and space it probably knows the secret behind Clara and might not like it. But then again you always need a key to get into the TARDIS and Clara doesn’t have one yet. In fact she’s not really reached companion status yet and is dropped home at the end of the episode, which seems a bit odd. The part-time companion thing worked well for Amy and Rory in the first half of series 7 but it doesn’t feel quite right with Clara. Maybe next episode will see her enter the TARDIS permanently?

That’s all here for this week but join me next week as I discuss The Cold War, where the Ice Warriors are back in their first appearance since 1974- expect some Doctor Who history within it!