Hrmph. I’m not sure
where I am right now and I don’t know if I can separate my love of
Doctor Who from my critical mind. I do know for certain that the
reservations I have about the current direction of the show are
genuine and not the byproduct of a jealous nerd’s possessiveness of
a previously niche franchise that continues to grow in momentum and
popularity. A small part of those reservations might, however,
arise from concern that the creators’ attempts to appeal to the
masses might alienate long time fans such as myself. That is
certainly something that has happened time and again with other
franchises.
And then there’s stuff
that I just plain don’t like, which is an entirely different issue.
That doesn’t jibe with
what I know of the Cybermen.
Now, I am not the
ultimate receptacle of Doctor Who knowledge. There might be things
that I have missed over the years or perfectly good explanations for
what happened in the episode. But to the best of my knowledge,
Cybermen are emotionless cyborgs that have removed all vestiges of
humanity from their person. They don’t get angry, they don’t get
happy, they don’t get excited. Those things have all been stamped
out by their programming. That’s the horror and the tragedy of
their species. To the point where this one time the Doctor showed
them that and they all killed themselves.
Side
Note: Yes, there are instances of Cybermen displaying anger or
frustration. And in The Next Doctor
that lady Cyber Controller shows some emotion. The former happened
mostly in the mid 80s and I attribute those instances to John Nathan
Turner. The latter bothered me at the time, but wasn’t as
noticeable as what we got last Saturday.
That’s not what we saw
in Nightmare In Silver (which is a terrible title; the first I
heard – The Last Cyberman – was much better). When the
Doctor was infected by the Cybermites (a creepy new version of the
Cybermats), the previously dormant Cyber Planner got a look at his
wonderful Time Lord brain and saw the opportunity to revive its race
with an all-new advantage. It attempted to take over the Doctor’s
mind but was only partially successful. Rather than represent the
resulting battle as Matt Smith alternating between the emotionally
charged and devious Doctor and the cold and calculating Cyber
Planner, we saw a battle between the emotionally charged and devious
Doctor and the even more emotionally charged and manic Cyber Planner.
And it just didn’t work for me. The portrayal of the Cyber Planner
rang false throughout the entire episode, spoiling what would have
otherwise been an exciting tale featuring the return of my favorite
Doctor Who villains in a form that was far superior to the Cybus
versions (I didn’t like them – they looked like cartoons).
If somebody can explain
to me why we got a Cyberman that was full of volatile emotions and
scenery-chewing glee I would love to hear it. I don’t want to not
like Nightmare In Silver. There was a whole lot to love about
it:
- Warwick Davis was fantastic. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen him in a non-gimmicky role where he actually got to act. And he was very good. He created a compelling character with a real dramatic depth.
- The new Cybermen are pretty awesome. Yeah, they look like they were designed by Stark Industries. But at least they don’t resemble Mega Man. They look like a natural evolution of what we saw in Silver Nemesis. And the expanded ability to manipulate disembodied parts was super creepy. So was the super-speed. My issues with the speed were that it looked doofy and that they gave it away too soon. The first thing we saw was the Cyberman blurring up to face the soldiers. It shouldn’t have sped up until it got within range. It would have been a much more impactful surprise that way.
- The idea of the Amusement Park planet was excellent and about as well-executed as I assume the budget would allow. I also liked that the story was basically a play on the old “built on an Indian burial ground” thing. But with Cybermen.
- Clara had stuff to do. Also, whatever her story is was very much in the background.
- The Punishment Platoon were solid, but I wish we could have gotten a little more character development.
- The Golden Ticket was a great plot device in every way that it was used.
So for the most part the
episode was good things, with the portrayal of the Cyber Planner
being the one flaw I could not overlook.
There were a few nitpicky
things that wouldn’t have bothered me as much if it weren’t for
the glaring wrongness of the above problem:
- The kids were just awful and pointless. They were everything that is bad about children in media – snotty, annoying, helpless, and victims.
- I feel that they could have been a bit less insulting with Warwick Davis’ throne at the end. Really? A footstool?
I went into this episode
wanting very badly to like it. As I said above, the Cybermen are my
favorite of the Doctor’s foes. And I have yet to meet a Neil Gaiman
story I don’t like. Plus, I just don’t want to not like
anything that is Doctor Who. I am very predisposed towards the
franchise, to the point where I excuse an awful lot of things that
would bother me in other media. “Because Doctor Who” is something
I coined for this very reason.
And that brings me to the
things that I have been giving an awful lot of thought to lately –
since I have been the co-host of Earth Station Who, do I feel
a greater need to be as objective as I can about the franchise and as
a result am more willing to recognize flaws? Or am I perhaps
experiencing a combination of fatigue and nerd jealousy? Or maybe,
just maybe, there have been several noticeably sub-par episodes over
the past couple of years and I genuinely don’t like the New Series
habit of basing entire seasons of narrative around what the current
companion had for breakfast?
That last one definitely
hits the mark. I am way tired of the companion-oriented
stories. Enough with that. The companions are there as characters the
audience can relate to. There’s nothing wrong with developing their
characters beyond just being a pretty face or a broad pair of
shoulders, but it is absolutely ridiculous the way that the last
several seasons have been based entirely around the companions. I’m
over it. I had some hope that Clara would be different, but from her
very first appearance it became clear that she was well on her way to
being even worse than River Song in that respect. While her story has
mostly been a secondary concern for the last several episodes; it is
still ongoing and seems to be the focus of the entire second half of
Series Seven.
At the same time, I
haven’t developed some sort of all-encompassing loathing or
mistrust of showrunner Stephen Moffat. He’s given me a lot more
good than bad and his love of Doctor Who shows through in every
episode. Just because he’s made a few choices that I do not agree
with doesn’t mean he has ruined the franchise. I am taking the man
at his word that there is a grand plan and that it is good. I think
we’ll have a fair idea of his intentions and degree of success
after tomorrow’s episode, and know for sure at the end of November.
I remain cautiously
optimistic.
If you want to hear more
about the current state of Doctor Who, be sure and check out
the last few (or all of the ) episodes of Earth Station Who:
-Phantom
So, for someone who has never made it through an entire episode of Dr. Who; you're telling me this is the best time to jump on board and bring all my friends with me?
ReplyDeleteI am not.
DeleteValid points, all. I really enjoyed this episode for all the reasons you mentioned, and a few more. Here's my thing with the CyberPlanner.
ReplyDeleteOne from a purely logistical point of view, I guess, is that a straight up Borg-zombie Doctor would be very boring to watch. It worked for Picard - it was absolutely chilling. And let's face it; with this episode Gaiman went straight up for the Borg, right down the the nifty face decorations. An ice-cold logical CyberPlanner probably could have worked with David Tennant; in fact, with a lot of the Matt Smith episodes I couldn't help but wonder how Tennant would have played it, given the same concepts. In this case, I'm sure Gaiman would have approached it very differently, and I probably would have liked the result better.
But you have to figure, this is Eleven's head that the CyberPlanner is in. It's frenetic, chaotic, and the one thing it's not is cold or angsty (see above re: Tennant). Also remember, in the episode with Craig and the Cybermen, strong emotions can break the grip of the cyber-programming altogether, so one could argue that amping up the emotion level was part of what made the Doctor able to resist it. There was some emotional manipulation going on that seemed completely outside the scope of cyber-thinking, but if the goal was to break down the Doctor's will....?
I don't know. I may be overjustifying to defend an episode I really enjoyed. I totally get where you're coming from, I just was able to justify it in my own mind. :-)
This is another totally valid rationalization of the portrayal. Award-Winning Bobby Nash had a good one, as well. And I like both of them and wish very much that I could accept them. But I just don't agree with the decision. I didn't want a Borg, I wanted something cold and sinister. Something we hadn't seen out of Matt smith before that would have actually contrasted his normal state rather than just making it look like he got ahold of some really amazing blow. But I think it's awesome there are those of you out there that are cool with it.
Delete