Behind the Sofa - The Collaborative Doctor Who Blog

Little Miss Blink

Sorry about the title, "Blink and you'll miss it" was already taken ;).

This is my first review since my inability to pre-empt and/or grapple sufficiently with my own stupidities during the pre-season warm-up. C’est la vie, &c.

I’ve been slowly absorbing what appears to be a significant change to Who, in writing tone, feel and direction, since Daleks in Manhatten. I’ve kept right away from the blog too, since I’ve found it hard to judge an episode on its own merits if I’ve read any commentary beforehand.

S3 Doctor Who is darker, punchier, more serious - and better written - than S2. I would also (possibly) go out on a limb and say that some of the Torchwood experiments are feeding back successfully into this season. And that this could be one of the best seasons ever.

Gone is the Rose-driven smugness, thank goodness. The stories are more emotionally effectual, more visceral. MURRAY seems to have been throttled back - another “thank goodness”. Or rather, the production team’s directives to Murray, to be more precise.

I think my favourite this season so far has been Blink, although I  found the Human Nature/The Family of Blood two-parter very moving, and a great story too boot. No accident that the respective authors were Stephen Moffatt (The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances) and Paul Cornell (Fathers’ Day). (As a complete aside, perhaps we’re beginning to see aspects of the Valeyard beginning to show through in the Doctor's character already - you can hardly call what he did to the Family of Blood merciful.) Some great direction in 42 by Graeme Harper, too, with its rather strong plot, visual and aural echoes of The Satan Pit, although they were ultimately red herrings. There haven’t been any episodes in this season that I don’t want to watch again, although my daughter has re-run Gridlock rather a lot - she loves it.

One of the reasons that I enjoyed Blink (great name, too) was that the episode relied more on other characters (cf. Love & Monsters), with the Doctor and Martha being somewhat sidelined (one Moon Landing too many, eh, Martha?). Somewhat like L&M, only much, much, much better, and no cheap “paving slab” and “bucket” jokes in sight! Carey Mulligan gave a memorable performance as “Sally Sparrow”: nicely balanced with finely judged amusing and dramatic touches, with an excellent sense of timing (just as well too, considering); and she gave the story a real boost.

Her foil, the scruffy brother of her time-switched friend Kathy, Lawrence Nightingale (Finlay Robertson, also giving a very good performance), reminded me somewhat of Jonas Armstong, who played the titular role in the BBC’s recent Robin Hood: the Who production team seemed to be trying to further suggest this with the bow and arrows at the end. Not too sure what that was about, and it seemed a bit forced to me. Maybe it was  a BBC/UK in-joke. (It seems that Robertson played “1st Sheriff’s Man” in two episodes of RH, and Captain Benwick in a US production of Persuasion, in which latter role he should be perfect!)

I thought at first that the house was going to be the one that Ace burnt down, except of course that it wasn't burnt, and, well, it wasn't in Perivale.

The final snaring of the Angels was neat, but would of course stop working as soon as someone triesd to move them (e.g., when a developer demolished Wester Drumlins for a housing estate and knocked 'em over ...). Maybe the bow and arrows was a bit of comic relief, or to remind the audience that they were watching a children’s program. In the former case case, it didn’t work; in the latter, it was unnecessary - we knew that Sally and Larry had survived.

The moment when the TARDIS dematerialised from around the fugitive pair of humans, leaving them apparently caught in the gaze of the Angels was good, following as it did the narrow escape into the TARDIS. The resolution was clever, giving way immediately to the realisation that it was actually the Angels themselves who had been trapped.

The episode was elegantly, even beautifully, filmed, and also reminded me several times of one of the better Torchwood episodes, Small Worlds, especially with the blue-grey lighting.

And we have Sir Derek Jacobi and (a post-Torchwood?) Captain Jack in Utopia to look forward to, can't wait!

Vote Result: Blink

After yet another record of 571 votes, the results are in for the seventh blog poll for Blink:

• 97%: Superb – Blinking Wonderful
• 03%: Not Good – Blink And You Miss It

Come back after Utopia for the next poll.

Blinkin' Hell

Blink was another superb episode from the pen of Mr Steven Moffat. Is there no end to this man’s talent? Is it possible that he could ever write a bad episode?

At the moment the answer to the first question is no and the answer to the second question is also no. So far all of the episodes, that he has written, have been superb and he has not dropped the ball once in any of the four episodes that he has penned so far since the show returned three years ago.

In this episode he had, perhaps, the hardest task that he has had so far, writing the episode that hardly features the Doctor or Martha, and he produced a blinding episode in the process, an episode where you hardly noticed the fact that the leading actors were hardly in it, and, in my mind at least, didn’t miss them at all. In fact the three best episodes of this series so far have been the one’s that don’t have much of the Doctor in them! Make of that what you will!

Perhaps Sparrow & Nightingale could be the next Who spin off? It could be like a trendy version of Jonathan Creek written by Steven Moffatt.

As ever with a Steven Moffat script you have to watch the episode till the very end to totally understand the plot, which makes a nice change, as quite a lot of the episodes so far don’t really have that much of a plot to speak of. In fact I would say that there is more plot in the 45 minutes of Blink, than in the 90 minutes of the Dalek two parter earlier on this season, hell even than the majority of the two parters so far, with the exception of Moffat’s series one opus.

It wasn’t until after the episode had aired that I realised that the name of the main character in the episode was the same as the name of a character in a Steven Moffat penned short story in the Doctor Who 2005 annual. It was actually my fiancee who pointed this out. I had a feeling that I had heard the name before but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

Then in the proceeding Confidential (which I am not going to comment on as everyone else will probably talk about it an awful lot and I have no more to add) it turned out that Moffat had based the episode on the story from the annual. Personally I am glad that he did, as the best episodes of this series so far have been the ones based on previous stories written by the episode’s authors

I read the story after watching the episode on the repeat and, while the basic idea of the story is present in Blink the majority of the episode’s plot is totally original, most notably in the fact that in the story Sally Sparrow was only 12 years old whereas in Blink she was in her early 20’s, and the episode was a more mature version of the original story.

Apart from the brilliant script this story also had some outstanding direction from Hettie Macdonald. From the opening shots of the story to the final shots this episode was directed with style and verve and looked fresh and totally cinematic. It had the same finesse about it that Caves of Androzani had on its original broadcast.

The scenes in the latter half of the episodes where Sally and Larry were in the house and there were quick cuts as the weeping angels got closer and closer to them were superb and quite unnerving. You really did believe that they were moving and were going to get you. The first shot you see of the statue with its mouth open, teeth bared, was about the only scene in Doctor Who to ever make me jump. It also made everyone I was watching it with jump too!

The final shots of lots of different statues and gargoyles with the Doctor telling you not to blink and not to turn your back were also great and will no doubt give children (and some adults) nightmares for weeks. I really hope that she comes back to direct more episodes in future seasons as she did a brilliant job on this episode.

That’s two Back to the Future references this series so far.

Like in last years double banking episode Blink featured strong performances from its two main stars: Carey Mulligan and Finlay Robertson. Mulligan’s Sally Sparrow was a wonderful character and the sort of ertzatz companion that sometimes comes along and you wonder what it would have been like if she was the companion some day, not too far removed from Lynda Day from Press Gang (and who would have liked to have had her as a companion in those days?); and Robertson’s Larry Nightingale was one of those lovable geeky characters (who is probably far to handsome to actually be a real geek) that you often see in teen drama’s nowadays. He is a little bit like the character from the last series of Coupling (whose name I can’t remember) except he works at a video and DVD shop rather than a sci-fi shop. Perhaps Sparrow & Nightingale could be the next Who spin off? It could be like a trendy version of Jonathan Creek written by Steven Moffatt.

Typically for a Moffat script there was plenty of quotable and very funny dialogue mostly between Sally and Larry such as her joke about “when you say the guys, you mean the internet”. Larry’s silence said it all. He sort of got his own back later when he exclaimed “You’ve only got 17 Dvd’s!” and perhaps best of all “You live in Scooby Doo’s house”. There was even a joke about the TARDIS not quite being right when the detective said “the windows are wrong”. Steven Moffat had obviously read something about that on the internet forums that he occasionally posts to.

I think it became obvious, when we had the scene, that was, virtually lifted word for word from Back to the Future part 2 (near the end after Marty saw the Deloreon hit by lightning), when Brian Cant’s son delivered the letter from Kathy to Sally, that there was going to be a time travel element to the story. That’s two Back to the Future references this series so far.

I won’t say that the episode is perfect but Blink is pretty damn close!

As usual with Steven Moffat it was never going to be as straight forward as that, which is why we all love his work so much and why his episodes are always brilliant examples of the show.

I am finding it very difficult to think of something bad to say about the episode and I can’t really think of anything that I didn’t like in the episode. There were no holes in the plot because the final scenes tied everything up with a nice neat bow. The direction was faultless; the acting was good all round and the weeping angels were beautifully designed.

I won’t say that the episode is perfect because there is no such thing as a perfect episode of Doctor Who, or of anything for that matter, but Blink is pretty damn close!

Going Bing When There's Stuff, Since 1969

Don't blink. Don't wink. Don't arch a quizzical eye brow. Don't furrow your forehead. Don't nod sagely. Don't even twitch.

Blink

The inventor of the turnip, he's got one. The creator of Horlicks, he's got three (all of which which make you drowsy). The first person to ever combine red lights and prostitution, she's got one. And the gentleman from Oldham who, in 1834, first discovered self abuse, has got one of him modelled in a particularly revolting pose. Nothing exudes civic pride than the whacking up of a statue.

"Slang for injecting an icing bag full of PCB directly into your earlobe."

Even in the dullest corners of this sceptical isle, they're there. Whilst the phrase "whacking up the statue" has since been hijacked by druggie ne'er-do-wells as slang for injecting an icing bag full of PCB directly into your earlobe, you really still, even in this day and age, can beat a damn good civic stiff.

"Moffat is a man who has Doctor Who running through his veins, his blood group is even Axos+."

And when the revolution finally comes, and all Doctor Who fans rise up out of the chairs in front of their computers and stagger, blinking, out from their parent's spare room into the harsh light of FirstLife™, they'll mass as one on Trafalgar Square. Out will go General Sir Charles James Napier, Major General Sir Henry Havelock, King George IV and, lets face it by the time this all happens you know who'll be on the fourth plinth, Sir Simon Cowell. And in will come a Dalek, a Cyberman, a TARDIS and a cast bronze statuette of Steven Moffat himself.

"Moffat's description of Sally Sparrow was so precise, so detailed, that it alone ran for 435 pages."

Moffat is a man who has Doctor Who running through his veins, his blood group is even Axos+, so is it any wonder that he knows his onions. In fact, so familiar with his onions is he that, he could have become a master greengrocer, specialising in all manner of exotic and rare members of the genus allium.

Moffat's description of Sally Sparrow was so precise, so detailed, that it alone ran for 435 pages and contained an exact breakdown of her DNA. For reasons not yet uncovered, more than one page was stuck together. Archiving scientists, working for Pixley Laboratories Inc., believe this was due to the fevered work the author had put into the production of the script rather than any 19th century Oldham related activity involving the resulting hotness of the character visualised.

His own scribbled notes went on even further, "On second thoughts, just make her look like the hot one out of Primeval. I know she's not normally the one in her pants, but I've written this 19 minute scene that's integral to the plot, where pants play a major part. If they can do it, then I don't see why we can't too. It's artistically valid, you hear?!"

Moffat's work, whilst absolutely stunning, is always sure to cause controversy and outrage amongst the hardest of fandom's core who would find it hard to swallow a DVD extra starting the Doctor was not lovingly created by the Restoration Team and produced/directed by either a Levine or a Beech.

The Bumper Book of Made Up Doctor Who Facts has this to say about Blink: the entire episode now forms part of a complex public information film about the dangers inherent in those god awful street performers whose whole shtick involves standing absolutely still and expect to get money for it. The cheek of it!

 

Weeping and Windows

Three years ago, Doctor Who fandom was quite a different place. The new series had just entered production, and the minutest scrap of detail about it was fought over by hungry fans like a pack of hyenas tearing into a fresh corpse. We’d been waiting years for this, and every little piece of new information that leaked out or was posted online in the form of a blurry photo from a Cardiff street at night was welcomed with enthusiasm and debate.

The only female Doctor Who fans anybody had ever heard of tended to be American women the size of two houses with deeply strange Paul McGann fixations.

Ah yes, those debates. We were the old guard back then – men almost to a man, with the only female Doctor Who fans anybody had ever heard of tending to be American women the size of two houses with deeply strange Paul McGann fixations. And boy, could we get into a tizz about some odd stuff.

The first photograph of the new series TARDIS prop that came to our eyes was taken by Roger Anderson, the splendid chap who ran the late, lamented Doctor Who cuttings archive. You can see it here. And what did this image provoke? Joy at seeing such a fine reconstruction of the legendary old prop? Pleasure at the knowledge that the show was really happening, and it was all real and going to be seen on screen?

Well… yes. But there was also a degree – a worryingly large degree – of nonsense on the Outpost Gallifrey forums. For example, this bit from a chap calling himself Nuallain, but I could have picked any one from dozens of similar complaints. Mr Nuallain’s verdict on the new TARDIS prop? “It *does* look squatter, which disappointed my hugely on first sight. I agree with Etiem's assessment that while it may be *slightly* wider the main thing that looks off is the size of the windows. Far too big.”

Now, Steven Moffat is a member of the OG forums, and has posted there a couple of hundred times over the past three years or so. I’ve no idea whether he read that particular thread directly or whether someone told him about it but, whatever the case, last night the OG forum and all its various mad and strange folk became fixed in the history of the series like a bug in amber, as Billy the policeman told us that the TARDIS couldn’t be a real police box because the phone was just a dummy and “the windows are the wrong size.”

Hurrah for online fandom and all its bizarreness!

“The angels have the phone box” will be gracing t-shirts at conventions across the land before too long.

Pleasingly, this little nod to the olden days – which 2004 already seems like by now – seems to have gone down in the spirit with which it was intended over on OG, which is a nice surprise. It was just one of many such quotable and amusing lines Moffat sprinkled throughout the episode like icing sugar on a doughnut – “The angels have the phone box” will be gracing t-shirts at conventions across the land before too long, and indeed somebody was already flogging them on CafePress within minutes of last night’s episode coming to an end.

That Moffat writes sharp and amusing dialogue tends to be one of the given factors in any of his episodes. The other is that he will come up with an interesting plot with a clever twist to it, which he once again did last night with Blink. Moffat is one of the most popular writers generally in fandom, with many believing that he should be installed as the next Lord Lieutenant of Whoshire as and when Russell T Davies moves on. From reading interviews with Moffat I have my doubts as to whether he’d particularly want the top job, but there’s no doubting that of all the other writers working on the show, he is the one whose appointment to it would be most eagerly welcomed by the majority of the fans.

Knowing that an episode written by the Scotsman is about to be shown is like knowing England are about to play in the World Cup final, but with the crucial difference of knowing for certain that they go on to win it.

He is by far and away my own personal favourite of the new series writers – I like the work of nearly all of them a great deal, but a Steven Moffat episode just seems to have an extra sheen of something special to it. Knowing that an episode written by the Scotsman is about to be shown is like knowing England are about to play in the World Cup final, but with the crucial difference of knowing for certain (perhaps having been told by a time traveller!) that they go on to win it. You have all of the excitement and anticipation of the great event, with none of the worry and stress.

It’s perhaps surprising that this episode was such a success, given that the Doctor and Martha were almost entirely absent, but the Doctor had just about enough of a presence through the DVDs to ensure that he still felt like an integral part of proceedings. Also, seeing him slowly revealed as a powerful and mysterious character to Sally also helped with the sense of mystery and intrigue about him, something that also came into play last week. The DVD conversation itself was one of the cleverest ideas I can remember seeing in Doctor Who, particularly the small section of it that worked perfectly in two different conversations.

For the second story in a row we have an adaptation of a piece of Doctor Who prose, brought to television by its own original writer. What I did on my Christmas holidays, by Sally Sparrow originally appeared in the 2006 Doctor Who Annual, the one published by Panini before they had to rename them Storybooks so that BBC Books could come up with their own, by all accounts sub-par, branded “Annual” efforts. You can read the story online on the BBC website now, here, and although the story has been expanded and chopped and changed a fair bit, the basic idea of the Doctor being trapped in the past and needing Sally Sparrow to help him is still there. Perhaps we should have this more often, Doctor Who stories being adapted and improved from their “first draft” form in other media – it seems to be working well so far!

And no, not just because she took her clothes off in it, before you all start!

Sally has been aged up a good decade or so for television, however, so that she can be played by the excellent Carey Mulligan, who impressed me last year in The Amazing Mrs Pritchard on BBC One. (And no, not just because she took her clothes off in it, before you all start!). I know it’s become something of a tradition that as soon as a young female guest star gives a half-decent performance everyone starts clamouring for her to be made the next companion (or even, sometimes, to immediately replace the current companion), but I would like to see more of Ms Sparrow one of these days. Surely if ever a character in the new series cried out for a return appearance – and more screen time with the Doctor – then it’s her?

Finlay Robertson as Larry had a slighter character to play, but I thought he gave Larry some warmth and humour that stopped him just short of being the stereotypical geek he could have been. He actually put me in mind a little of a more sane and sensible version of Jeff from Moffat’s Coupling, although that might just be me projecting my own expectations and knowledge of the author’s previous work onto the text.

I don’t recall having been frightened by an episode of Doctor Who since the 1993 Genesis of the Daleks repeat on BBC2, when I was eight years old, so I’m probably a bit too old to be unsettled by the series now. In fact I rarely find that it gets me all that emotionally affected in any direction – I’ve never cried at it or anything melodramatic like that – but then again little television does, so it’s not unique to the series. It’s hard for me to say then how scary the Weeping Angels were, but they were a certainly a terrific concept that I can imagine might well have unsettled some children across the country.

Why, as casting director Andy Pryor points out on the MP3 commentary, don’t they just close one eye at a time instead of blinking?

You could go on about Blink’s brilliance, I think, but to simply sit here and list everything that was great about it – the way the Angels killed, the Doctor’s brief appearances, Billy the policeman, the creepy old house, the final meeting at the end – would just end up boring everyone. There are little complaints you can make, or at least small issues to raise – why did the Angel bung a rock at Sally at the start? And why, as casting director Andy Pryor points out on the MP3 commentary and thus making me feel less clever than I had done five minutes previously, don’t they just close one eye at a time instead of blinking? Minor quibbles, though – and easily excused in such a fine episode.

Before I go, a few words on last night’s edition of Doctor Who Confidential, which was by far and away the finest episode of that series that has ever been produced. It really gave something of the feeling of what a magical and special series Doctor Who is, and what a special institution the BBC itself is, or at least used to be. BBC Television Centre in London is now no longer some marvellous, enigmatic palace where all the stars of television live, but an increasingly empty cavern were a few sitcoms and shiny floor shows play out their days. However, once all was different – once there was real magic made there, and legend stalks its corridors. The show, directed and presented by David Tennant, was a reminder of just what the BBC once was, and what Doctor Who is and continues to be.

A great night for Doctor Who fans.

All the small things

See, this is what happens when you, y'know ...

Top Twenty by audience

1. 7.9 (36.8%) - Any Dream Will Do (22:00) BBC1
2. 6.6 (33.9%) - Any Dream Will Do (20:00) BBC1
3. 6.1 (36.8%) - Doctor Who (19:00) BBC1

Top Twenty by Share

1. 7.9 (36.8%) - Any Dream Will Do (22:00) BBC1
2. 6.1 (36.8%) - Doctor Who (19:00) BBC1
3. 6.6 (33.9%) - Any Dream Will Do (20:00) BBC1

Warm day outside so viewership down across the board -- not a failure by any means, especially since the channel gained three million in time for the show starting.  It'll add at least a million through timeshifts and I think the BBC showing tonight will be popular too.

The Writing's on the Wall

Don’t blink

Believe me, you don’t want to…

Blink

Ever get that feeling that all your birthdays and Christmases have come at once? I had thought that after the last fortnight’s worth of heart-wrenching, war moralising genius from Paul Cornell that this week’s virtually ‘Doctor-less’ story couldn’t be anything but a comedown. And then I checked whose name was on the credits. But then I thought that surely even the great writing God that is Steven Moffat was due a clunker; a dose of ordinariness amidst the superb work he’s already done on this show of ours (and don’t even get me started on ‘The Girl in the Fireplace’…18,456 viewings at last count). Then I remembered just how intrigued I was by that title and how the episode would somehow involve the Doctor and Martha without really involving them. And forty five minutes later I was berating myself once more for my lack of faith in this little show.

Don’t even blink

‘Blink’ is genius. ‘Blink’ is superb. ‘Blink’ is so brilliant that you want to hang it in the television equivalent of the Tate and shout to complete strangers ‘That’s how you write bloody good, intelligent, funny and clever television’. I’m almost beyond superlatives this time, folks. After half an hour I was already preparing texts to send to the converted that this was about as good as this show could get. But then I remembered that I’ve been saying that for the past few weeks now, so I thought I’d shut up. For while this time last year Season Two was taking something of a nosedive into self-indulgent smugness, this year the bar has been raised so high that I’m actually starting to wonder whether there’s actually a bar to reach at all.

Blink and you’re dead

And where last year’s double-banker seemed something of a contrivance to allow the regulars a breather and the show’s chief architect to get a few things off his chest about the love of fandom, ‘Blink’ could only possibly work because the Doctor and Martha’s involvement is entirely peripheral. If you ever wondered what an interactive DVD episode of Doctor Who would look like, then here it is. Steven Moffat is renowned for writing intricately plotted stories that only make complete sense just as the credits role, and tonight’s is certainly no different. Considering that he apparently kept putting off and putting off his entry this year, it’s absolutely staggering to learn that ‘Blink’ was written so off-the-cuff when you witness the convoluted mechanics that twist and turn throughout this story’s haunted-house opening right up until the aah denouement.

‘Blink’ is so brilliant that you want to hang it in the television equivalent of the Tate

Don’t turn your back

And who’d have thought that he’d have got the idea from a Two Ronnies sketch (what, you’ve never seen the one where Ronnie Corbett answers the question immediately before the one Ronnie Barker’s just asked?) There are too many great moments to mention from this puzzle within a mystery within an enigma that I’m almost loathe to even try. But the scene in which heroine-of-the-week Sally Sparrow gradually realises that the Doctor is ‘talking’ to her from the TV set is about as audacious as this new show has yet tried.

Don’t look away

On the subject of our one-off stars, have you ever seen a more likeable and believable set of characters created just for one episode? Carey Mulligan gives Sally a sweet, girl-next-door feel tempered by a steel that makes her - in RTD’s own words - the best companion the Doctor never had. And the rest of this eclectic cast - from the surely pun-inducing romantic interest ‘Lawrence Nightingale’ to the brief and tragic Inspector Billy Shipton - all provide their little pieces that go to make up the great big puzzle that is ‘Blink’s most defining feature. I never really gave Coupling the time of day, but I kinda regret not doing so now seeing as on the evidence here Moffat has a skill and intuition when it comes to the nuances of human behaviour that you wouldn’t normally see outside of a psychology text book. And then there’s the whole Nick Hornby stuff with deconstructing pop culture nerds and the modern age of technology feeding its own aesthetic. This is a mystery that could only have been written for the DVD age, so steeped is it in deliberately leaving clues that only the anally retentive could find.

If you ever wondered what an interactive DVD episode of Doctor Who would look like, then here it is

And don’t blink

But being Doctor Who - at least in style if not in content - ‘Blink’ manages to be all things to all people. So while all the uber-fans are connecting the dots - whilst no doubt grinning to themselves at the throwaway line about the TARDIS’ windows being too big - the kids at home are peering through the cracks in their fingers just like the Weeping Angels do. On which point, what a marvellous creation this week’s nemeses are; taking a time-honoured Who tradition of making the everyday very creepy and instilling them with a character and a history that goes far beyond any visceral scares. Quantum-locked creatures whose greatest power is also their greatest curse, their loneliness is so real that you could cut it with a knife. And combined with Hettie McDonald’s sublime direction - on which point, let’s have three cheers for the return of a woman to the show’s directorial reins - the living statues will no doubt have children everywhere taking second glances at every statue they pass this week.

Good luck

Which leaves me just to make some honorary mentions of Moffat’s oh-so quotable dialogue - sad being happy for deep people, the sly dig at ITV detective dramas, the Doctor’s ‘timey-wimey’ detector - and you’ve got yet another slice of perfect Season Three goodness which is making this year’s DWM end-of-season poll an increasingly difficult task. ‘Blink’ is to be watched, re-watched and cherished for decades to come, just like all the best of Who. But remember just one thing…

Don’t blink.

Next time: Jack’s back. And we go further than we’ve ever been before. Will Derek Jacobi be a knight of the realm or just another hard day’s night..?

(The Bumper Book of Made-Up Doctor Who facts has this to say about Blink: in actual fact, one in two 'Doctor Who' fans already think the Doctor is talking to them from their television set)

I like blinking, I do..

Firstly, I'd like to summarily tell those angels to fuck right off my dreams. Never before has a monster that doesn't perceivably move been so terrifying. Secondly, wouldn't that have made for a super, super fun episode of Torchwood? A startling alien concept, probably quite cheap and performed by a cast that barely doesn't feature the Doctor (except for when it does, but let's ignore that because it invalidates my argument).

The script is as tight as the Pope's anus

Steven Moffat writes a good Doctor, possibly the best Doctor after Russel T, so it's interesting that his only contribution to the show this year is Doctor-light.

These episodes only ever work when the cast is incredibly strong, the direction is spot on and the script is as tight as the Pope's anus. Fortunately, everything is spot on in the only episode of 13 years of Who-watching that has actually made me cover my face with a cushion. Those fucking angels again.

The core two members of the cast are brilliantly matched. Sally Sparrow is in the mold of that popular Joss Whedon trope-strong, cute and intelligent girl next door and Larry is the the mold of that other Whedon trope, Xander. It's not a blatant lift of the characters, but certain traits and behaviours are instantly identifiable and it's a fun starting point for two very enjoyable, entertaining characters. Carey Mulligan's Sally sparrow is heavily reminiscent of Lalla Ward and the visual reference only augments my adoration of the character. RTD- spin her and Larry off into their own show, please! They could hang out in their shop, solving alien mysteries with the help of DVD extras. At the very least, I wouldn't be surprised to see Sally Sparrow novels on book-shelves five or six years from now.

Thankfully, it seems, that Russel's theme-hammer was given a rest for an episode

Thematically, the episode seems to be low on the running strand of the season. Thankfully, it seems, that Russel's theme-hammer was given a rest for an episode, although there are still hints of humanity's triumph over adversity and our ability to adapt to any  situation, even time displacement. Speaking of time, Moffat has delved a little deeper into another motif of the season: cause and effect. Time, as we are told, isn't exactly linear and never before in this season has that been so dominant within the plot. Sally saves herself in the past. The Doctor saves Sally in the future that is his past. It's all thoroughly confusing stuff, a little reminiscent of season one's Bad Wolf strand, but it's an exciting direction for the season nonetheless. We've already seen time moving non-linearly for our time-traveling heroes in Smith and Jones and The Shakespeare Code and it's great to see it being picked up again near the end of the season. I suspect that it will play a major role in the unfurling of what is shaping up to be a very tightly connected three part finalé. I'm willing to get into spoilery speculation in the comments section.

And finally, is anybody else noticing an interesting theme emerging in Moffat's work on Who?

Some miscellanea: Excellent direction, superb prosthetics and pretty great music. I do have one little niggle about the episode. At the end, that scene with all the statues. I felt that it was reaching for effect a little too hard. The notion that any statue in any city or town could come to life and stalk you is already established wonderfully throughout the episode, as the Angels follow Sally to the police station. We really didn't need a rather ugly scene thrust into our faces at the end, when the episode admirably succeeds in establishing that sense of fear in the previous forty minutes.

And finally, is anybody else noticing an interesting theme emerging in Moffat's work on Who? Little gas maked boy stalking his mother. Spaceship stalking Madame de Pompadour. Angels stalking Sally. Stalktastic!

(S)Blink

Sorry Mr Tennant, I don't actually have first memory of Doctor Who.  Actually I generally draw a blank on whole sections of my childhood and I have a horrible feeling that like the shadows that follow Jim Carrey about during the eternal sunshine of his spotless mind every now and then whole decades are doomed to become blury, only memorable through the application of my videos of the 'I Love...' series of the early naughties.  Who knows, in about ten years time I might look back at this review and ponder exactly where it came from.

What I can say is that somewhere along the line, I drifted from reading Topsy & Tim books, Grimm's Fairy Tales and a book of Greek legends to John Masefield and C S Lewis and then on to Doctor Who (and then to He-Man and Transformers and Star Trek and then back to Doctor Who when I matured) but that I didn't see a difference between them.  They were all fantasies firing the imagination of the younger version of me in different yet similar ways.

If I did have to really strain my brain, I do remember a POV shot of Leela with a knife prowling through corridors only to fall over K9 at some point, but I don't even know if that was in an episode or something I dreamed.  There's a miasmatic process I think that happens where your childhood memories of watching stories somehow become mingled with watching the UK Gold repeats, where the vividity of the original happening becomes mixed with the later viewings.  Did I really see Tom Baker regenerating under a pylon all those years ago or just assume I did?

"Did I really see Tom Baker regenerating under a pylon all those years ago or just assume I did?"

But something else that happens is that you begin to take these things too seriously.  If you're so inclined (and most of the people reading this will be) somewhere along the line the fantasy begins to break down and you can see those sets and special effects and production problems and you stop being able to take some of the scary bits seriously.  Paradoxically though a percentage of those people (probably the one wondering where this is leading and whether I'll be offering an opinion of tonight's episode any time soon) find another way of taking it seriously, carefully putting them all into a continuity, rigidifying the continuity and searching for inconsistencies.

I used to be like that.  I'd wonder why after all of these alien invasions there are still people living in the south-east of England let alone the capital; the chance of mortality must be miles higher than the national average.  If it was a rational Whoniverse, the top story on BBC Breakfast (because it's always some kind of Daily Mail-friendly shock statistic) would be 'People in London are 30% more likely to die from an alien invasion than people in the north.  In Wales the percentage is greatly reduced and  Scotland, apart from a minor incident, is unaffected'.  I'd rip my hair out about UNIT continuity and the fact that Britney Spear's single 'Toxic' survived eons longer than her actual pop career and that Shane Ward was only releasing (his surely brief) greatest hits album in 2012.

But somewhere in the middle of the past fortnight's triumphant story, somewhere in the middle of the flashforward to John Smith's potential life I remembered.  It is a fairy tale.  It is all a fairy tale.  A wonderful, magnificent fairytale.  It's also, myths and legends and half remembered annecdotes.  It doesn't need to be consistent.  There doesn't need to be some great continuity because there isn't supposed to be.  And it knows.  Time and again, in the new series and the old series and the spin-offs between all of this has been referred to.  And if you you keep this in mind, the subject of whether two versions of Human Nature can exist in the same canon and this week how two different Sally Sparrows can help the Doctor disappear.  It's just the same story being told in range different of ways.

"It is a fairy tale.  It is all a fairy tale.  A wonderful, magnificent fairytale."

It also means that you don't get yourself in the kind of twist that a correspondent gets himself into in SFX magazine this month trying to work out how Martha can come from a future that doesn't exist yet forgets that the series is about a man who flies through time and space in a police box as if that's acceptable.  Isn't it interesting that people will do this but they don't sit around debunking the magic beans in Jack and the Beanstalk or what Repunzel does when she needs to spend a penny. 

Why not treat Doctor Who the same way?  Tonight's episode Blink is tied up using what I think some people call a predestination paradox.  Sally gave the Doctor a list of the dvds she once owned, a transcript for a conversation and other related gubbins for an adventure he hasn't had yet and which he'll need in order to bring himself home -- but which he wouldn't know that he needed until she gave them to him.  Within the episode the explanation given is that essentially time is complicated (basically the explanation I was giving for years when I was taking this stuff seriously) its all 'big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff ' or whatever.  But the better explantion is -- it's a fantastic, epic idea and caps off a really entertaining episode in the same way that a princess kissing a frog turns him into a human.  With a bit of the Back to the Future theme on the soundtrack.  In other words, Mr Paul Cornell, I'm with you.  There is no canon.  And I love that you managed to post that blog entry without actually mentioning what probably caused it -- Human Nature redux.

Which is all why my fanboy glow (or whatever Sean Alexander called it) has returned.  Why I can deal with the appearance of another army of marching whatevers and the repeated appearance of mind control.  They're for the kids.  Everything else, the big huge, as Steven Moffat said in tonight's Doctor Who Confidential, movie sized fairytale concepts are for the rest of us, and if the two can fit together as has happened this past three weeks, so much the better.  Plus in Blink the weeping angels marched off camera and somehow managed to be even more terrifying -- the illusion of movement created through editing and repositioning of statues, mimicking the blinking of the eye.  Hitchcock used similar techniques throughout his career, where its what the mind thinks its seeing that terrifies -- everyone thinks they see Janet Leigh being stabbed in the shower scene in Psycho and at no point to you actually see the knife puncturing the skin.

"Blink continued that run in fine style with its Primer-style time travel escapades, wonderful script which was an excellent cross between The Twilight Zone and those chilling Christmas ghost stories and intelligent dialogue and characterisation."

Of course it also helps that we've had such a good run of episodes ... about the only duff chapter we've had this year was the one where I had my wobble, Evolution of the Daleks and I think that was probably because of the half-decent build up.  Blink continued that run in fine style with its Primer-style time travel escapades, wonderful script which was an excellent cross between The Twilight Zone and those chilling Christmas ghost stories and intelligent dialogue and characterisation.  I think this is the first story to be script edited by Gary Russell and it was impeccably paced, every scene dragging the plot forward.  Certainly it's not a new concept (it's unfortunate that the BBC decided to show Frequency recently which did some of the same things) but like the other shows this series without really new ideas, it presented itself with such panache and punch it didn't matter.  Once again we received a climax outside of the main narrative designed to scare the bejesus out of kids.  Although I also think that having kids not being able to take their eyes of public art is also an amazing way of introducing them to a bit of culture.

Overall, director Hettie MacDonald  brought a visual pallette to the episode very unlike the house style we've come to expect which made it look totally unlike an episode of nu-Who which is probably what made it even more special.  As well as the Hitchockian editing style, there were transitions, crane shots, push ins, everything looked like it was location (which is also a complement to the lighting team who worked on the house interiors) and the contemporary scenes all looked like they were happening now, unlike most episodes which seem to be happening in a Whoniverse version of now for the first time since the seventies, scuzzy and dark and not afraid to be grimy in places.  If Murray Gold's music now and then seemed to have intruded from his score for Rose and Moffat's own sitcom Joking Apart it somehow never worked against the visuals even though they were cryout for a bit of the Bernard Hermanns.

The other reason I'm warming again to new Doctor Who is the approach to performances or more particularly the fact that in the main unlike the old series, most of the characters act like human beings.  Given the material and the fact they you're in Doctor Who, the temptation for most actors must be to go large (see Torchwood).  But Carey Mulligan's perfectly measured work expertly carried the episode and actually at no point did you feel the absense of the Doctor which is no mean feat in a series which is supposed to be about him.  Sure, the script had something to do with that ... and indeed now and then, perhaps intentionally you saw in her flashes of his questing approach to a problem ... but Mulligan had an instant likeability and grace (I know, I'm gushing).  But that empathy spread across what was a surprisingly small cast with even a small character like Larry Nightingale given weight because of Finlay Robertson's charisma.  How can I dislike any show that week in and out casts so well?

"The other reason I'm warming again to new Doctor Who is the approach to performances or more particularly the fact that in the main unlike the old series, most of the characters act like human beings. Given the material and the fact they you're in Doctor Who, the temptation for most actors must be to go large (see Torchwood)."

I would imagine, like those of you I mentioned in the brackets earlier who where waiting for me to  get around to reviewing the episode, there'll be some wondering why they're watching the story of a cute middle class girl for so longer before David Tennant arrives in person but more fool them.  The rest of us are enjoying this spectacular format bender which if it had been a US show would have been presumed to be a backdoor pilot ... in much the same way that Assignment: Earth showcased a new format that didn't fly in classic Star Trek.  But unlike the Gary Seven character in that thing, I'd love to see the further adventures of Sally Sparrow (the best companion The Doctor never had) and her best friend's brother, perhaps searching for the fate of all the people whose cars ended up in the police store, especially if it was as well crafted as this, and I don't think it would be too ITV.  Any chance of an Easter special where they meet up with Elton and his paving slab and they go on an adventure together?

So yes, in short (or in this case long) as if it wasn't apparent already I'm back.  One of the themes of Blink was that it doesn't matter when you live your life, so long as you do something with it.  Even the Doctor and Martha seemed to settle down whilst trapped in the past City on the Edge of Forever-style ('I'm working in a shop to support 'im...') living their lives until they could be saved.  That's a great philosophy and I can't think of anything better than spending some of my life watching and loving this new series of Doctor Who.  And unlike the seventies, when I do start to forget the details I'll have the dvds to remind me of what I've forgotten.  Unlike half the people speaking on Confidential tonight whose first memories of the series have apparently been wiped from the BBC archives...

Next week:  Captain Jack's back and I can't wait to hear how they're going to explain what he's been doing to a family audience. 

Sorry explain to a family audience what he's been doing.

In Case Of Time Lord, Break Glass

The great paradox:
If a fan groans by himself,
Does he make a sound?*

Blink

(Enter a bouffanted corpse accompanied by a silly man in sillier costume with even sillier Cornish accent, and a twee 80s plastic robot.)

Corpse: Hello, I'm Jon Pertwee. And I'm here to tell you what YOU should do when faced with an up-its-arse episode with no Doctor about that's far too clever for its own good. Remember the handy acronym 'BLINK', which stands for "BLoody hell, get a mirror or move the statues opposite each other, really difficult I don't thINK", and follow this six-point-plan in complete safety since there's no actual danger of losing your life despite what Moffat's temporal Schroedinger gumph about 'potential energy' would have you believe. Are you ready?

1: First find a time paradox to cross, then stop.

2: Stand in no pants, near the knuckle for 7pm on Saturday.

3: Lew Grade all round for ITC detective duo names, then listen.

4: If The Girl In The Fireplace is coming, LET IT PASS or you'll look all around for the twist ending again.

5: When no time-travel coconuts are coming, walk straight across to the kitchen for a cup of tea.

6: Keep looking and listening for cheap ending shocks while you get cross.

Dave Prowse's accent: Rememburrrrrr, the Furrrrrr Facturrrrrr kids won't be thurrrrrr to point owwwt the obvious when Moffat crosses YOURRRRR road, so aaaaaalllllways use the -

Twee robot: GREEN DOC'S CODE!

Sorry Steven, but either I've heard one too many Big Finishes or that was just disappointing. You'd have to be mad to say it's anywhere near to being the weakest episode of the season, but if I were to describe it in three words, it would be DIG HOLE HERE from Battlefield. I bet everyone else absolutely loved it though...

Next week: The end of the universe. Again. I think my watch is five minutes fast.

*Obviously not.

The Bumper Book of Made-Up Doctor Who Facts has this to say about Blink: had it been made in 1977, Roger Murray-Leach's polystyrene budget would have bankrupted three small nations.