Suburbia Strikes Back

I was intending to watch Fear Hear again to do this review, but, after an incident involving a book shelf collapsing and knocking my tv off, breaking the tv/video combi and my dvd player in the process, I have been unable to watch it again since first broadcast. On the plus side our Wharfdale freeview box is obviously indestructible as that survived with just a small dent. Damn gravity!

It did take me a while to get into Fear Her when watching it. I found it to be quite slow at first and it did get take a good 20 – 25 minutes before it started to get good and by the end it was pretty good, well apart from the Doctor running with the Olympic torch that is, which was just silly, but was exactly what I thought was going to happen when everyone else who had been turned into a drawing had returned apart from the Doctor at that point.

Like Sean said, the episode did seem like it was a remake of Survival. They even had a bloke about to wash his car, an annoying teenage companion, a Scottish Doctor unable to do anger and cats. So, quite a lot like Survival then. It did seem a little odd that the Doctor didn't like cats as none of his other incarnations seemed to mind them but I guess he could all of a sudden take a dislike to cats. I can't really imagine why. Cats are cool, they do whatever they like, whenever they like. What's not too like about that?

I guess it was only a matter of time after having a monster based on a child’s drawing that an actual child’s drawing would become a monster itself. I must admit when I saw the clip on Totally Doctor Who where Rose was being attacked by a scribble I did think to myself "what on earth are they doing?", but in the context of the story it worked despite being rather silly as did the Doctor running with the Olympic torch.

The Doctor and Rose were again very smug and very, very slappable throughout the story, well apart from the Doctor who did look rather frightened at the end of the episode with The Terminator-a-like line “There’s a storm coming.” More on that story in the coming weeks. However up until that point I dearly wanted to slap them both round the head.

Probably the best thing about the episode was the performance by Abisola Agbaje as Chloe Webber. She was very good in this episode and pretty much out performed everyone else. There is just something about children being possessed and evil that really freaks me out. It was the same watching The Ring and Dark Water (the Japanese original and not the recent Hollywood remake) Nina Sosanya was good as her Mum but really she didn’t have that much to do but what she did was pretty good. That’s yet another Casanova alumni appearing in the series. I wonder who we will get next season? I’d like to vote for Peter O’Toole or perhaps Rose Byrne. She’d be good.

Euros Lyn's direction here was quite restrained by his standards but was still far better than what we used to get in the old series. This episode looks like it wouldn't have been out of place in a soap opera, well a soap opera like Revelations perhaps. Well it was Matthew Graham who proclaimed this was his the TARDIS lands in Brookside Close episode.

It was pointed out by a fellow fan, whom is also a parent (unlike myself who isn’t), that this story may actually be more frightening to parents that to children themselves. I can see his point entirely. For the children watching I would imagine that the idea of their drawings coming to life would be quite attractive, but not the same could be said for their parents. I think that, as a parent himself, Matthew Graham knew exactly what buttons to press to make this story frightening for the parents amongst us.

My girlfriend really enjoyed this story and she said it was probably the one she enjoyed most of all the episodes shown thus far. I grew to like the episode over the course of the 45 minutes, but did find it a bit lacking in places, though that’s probably just the curmudgeonly old fan in me. There were some good parts (the performance of the young girl) and some not so good parts (the Doctor carrying the flame) but the same can be said for most of the episodes this series. It was enjoyable and, was again, the best thing on television at the moment.

The BoMUDWF had this to say about Fear Her: It was David Tennant’s birthday during the filming of this episode. His mother made him the cake with the edible ball bearings on as a treat and he insisted it was put into the episode itself.

Comments

[Ray]

To be fair, the Doctor explicitly cites New Earth as his reason for disliking cats: being threatened by one in a nun's wimple! They obviously made less of an impression on Rose: which is understandable - she was possessed by Cassandra during the main confrontation with the Sisters...

[Neil]

So he must dislike humans too. He's been threatened by hundreds of them over the years!

[Adam]

I guess that the events in New Earth might be a viable explaination for his dislike of cats in this episode but it does seem a bit odd when you consider the 6th Doctor who obviously loved cats.

[Salem]

Then you have to take into account the aforementioned "Survival" and this episodes close relation to it. Think about it, the Doctor probably thought he was 10 minutes away from facing the Cheetah people again throughout the episode.

And I can definitely attest to this episode being better and more affecting being a parent. Didn't quite have the same affect Father's Day had on me(which I was watching while my 1 1/2 year old - at the time - daughter was playing in the living room, had me blubbering at parts throughout), but yeah, I got a chill with the whole Father-in-the-closet bit.

[Ray]

>>So he must dislike humans too. He's been threatened by hundreds of them over the years!<<

Hey, good point... I guess he'll like them even less after next week's episode, if Torchwood's part in the trailer's anything to go by!

Maybe his OTT expressions of love for the human race over the years were just a front, and he's biding his time to unleash a terrible revenge...

[Neil]

This guy: http://www.the-word-is-not-enough.com/blog/rob/2006/06/ah_how_sweet_of_david_tennant.php

thinks your Made-Up Fact is true. How sweet.

[togmeister]

Are you sure it's not true? After all DT did invite his parents onto Ready Steady Cook a few months back......

[Rob Buckley]

Neil: I did actually describe it as a 'factoid', not a fact (a factoid being something that looks like a fact but isn't. Like a cuboid isn't a cube but looks a bit like one. Okay, I admit it's a made-up word, so its meaning may not have been immediately obvious, but...)

[AlexN]

Here is a definition of "factoid"...

Also, did the 6th doctor like his cats baked, stewed or grilled?

[Rob Buckley]

Ooh, thanks. It's amazing what there's definitions for in Wikipedia, isn't it? Hadn't realised Norman Mailer had invented the term though - or is that a factoid? Bit of a worrying thought, that. I see though that some people have been using factoid instead of factlet, which I admit would muddy the waters a bit.

The 6th Doctor's preferred cat-cooking method varied according to his Androgum content at the time.

[AlexN]

Wikipedia is an amazing resource - especially for things Who :). In fact, if you try to ping a British actor from the last 40 years or so, you will most likely get a 'played "so-and-so" in > of Doctor Who'. In a prominent position, too.

Wrt cats:
Normal Doctor* - scratch behind the ears
Half Androgum - where's my recipe book?
Complete Androgum - *crunch*

*except for # 10 - *snap*

[AlexN]

Rob: if I'd lit on a word-coining that Mr Mailer had already created, I would feel rather gratified :).

[darkbhudda]

Umm, I thought it was pretty obvious why the Doctor now hates cats. RTD has imbued the Doctor with his other traits, so why not his dislike of pussy?

[Neil]

Do not post your home address, please. Comment deleted.