It’s
been a while since I’ve reviewed any Doctor Who toys. Also, that’s
the most times I’ve used the same word in a title.
Doctor
Doctor Doctor.
Doctor.
On
top of that, I was just starting to become cognizant of my
dissatisfaction with current Doctor Who.
I
basically stopped collecting Doctor Who figures at that point, though
I didn’t write
a whole post about it.
Now
the powers that be seem to have recognized the error of their ways
and have started releasing single figures in the five inch scale.
Since they’ve resumed this scale in earnest we’ve gotten several
Tenth Doctors, a new Jack Harkness, the Twelfth Doctor, Clara, the
Curator, Missy, and this fella.
We’ve
had two other figures of Doctor Eight – one in the fantastic (and
possibly due for an update) Eleven Doctors Box Set:
Both
of those use the costume from the television movie, though in
different colors. While I never had an issue with Paul McGann’s
Wild Bill Hickok duds, a lot of people didn’t care for them and I
have to admit that what he wore in the “The Night of the Doctor”
short seemed far better for adventuring around space and time than
Party City’s “Old West Gambler” costume.
Since
I’m talking about “The Night of the Doctor”, I suppose I should
address the recent news that its writer, Steven Moffat, is stepping
down as the showrunner for Doctor
Who.
I’d
love to be excited about it. Moffat has driven my love of the
franchise into the ground. If my son hadn’t for some reason wanted
to watch the last season of the show, I wouldn’t have. The above
link provides more detail about that than you’ll ever want, but the
point is that I should be celebrating Moffat’s departure.
But
I can’t.
Given
the length of his run, there’s no denying the BBC was satisfied
with what Moffat did with Doctor
Who.
They want more of that. And so they picked Chris Chibnall to replace
him, a man who is very much part of Moffat’s regime. It was like
when George Bush succeeded Ronald Reagan. Expect more of the same,
but probably watered down.
As
far as credentials, Chibnall is a lifelong fan of Doctor
Who,
but I think we’re all grown up enough to know that letting fans run
the show is not always good. Often quite the opposite. He wrote eight
episodes of Torchwood,
a show that I loathe, including the execrable “Cyberwoman”, which
holds the honor of being the worst fifty minutes of science fiction I
have ever had the displeasure of enduring.
Chibnall
has also written some modern Doctor
Who.
Among his script credits are “42”, which I liked, the 2010
stories that brought back the Silurians, which I liked, “Dinosaurs
on a Spaceship”, which I loved, and “The Power of Three”, which
was one of the worst stories I saw while co-hosting Earth
Station Who.
That’s
quite a mix of bad and good. I don’t know what to expect from
Chibnalls’ reign – aside from the departure of current Doctor
Peter Capaldi – but I don’t really care. I still adore Doctor Who
as a franchise. There are plenty of stories from 1963 to 1989 for me
to enjoy, and 2005 to 2010 isn’t too shabby, either. If Chibnall is
better than I expect and turns the franchise around, great! If not,
I’ve made my peace with Doctor
Who not
being for me anymore.
As
far as Capaldi goes, I’ll be reviewing his new figure soon and will
get into my thoughts about him then. For now, here’s a figure that
brings to mind nothing but positive thoughts!
For
as much disdain as Doctor Who fans expressed over McGann’s previous
costume, this isn’t honestly that
different. It’s less costume store-looking and has enough elements
that aren’t quite
Old West to look cool and fit better into the Doctor Who wardrobe.
Side
Note: It is entirely possible that this and Matt Smith’s second
costume influenced the “standard” Phantom Troublemaker costume I
adopted a few years ago.
This
window box is entirely too much packaging for this figure, but if
you’re going to be charging $24.99 for a five inch scale figure, I
suppose it needs to look fancy.
That
being said, it is a beautiful box. The graphics are rich and colorful
and the interior features the “space gears” design that the show
has been utilizing lately.
I’m
very happy with the biography on the back. It doesn’t specifically
get into Big Finish territory, but it also doesn’t just say “The
Doctor visited the Sisterhood of Karn and regenerated”. It actually
does flesh out the Eighth Doctor a bit.
The
head sculpt perfectly captures McGann’s expressive but slightly
mournful countenance. The hair has plenty of character and detail and
a nice wash to give it more definition. The eyebrows are just kind of
blotted on, but they look okay. The eyes aren’t so much sculpted as
painted, but the way they’re done works at this scale.
The
Doctor’s coat looks a bit plain at a glance, but once you get close
up there’s a bit of character. There are wide lapels with sculpted
buttonholes and buttons to either side. Interesting panels run down
the front and back, with a pair of buttons on the back. I love the
shape of this piece – how it flares out as it goes down rather than
just hanging straight. The main portion is sculpted separately from
the body of the figure, which looks much better than is it was all
one piece.
Under
the coat are a shirt, vest, and scarf. The scarf is – like the coat
- a separately sculpted piece. Like all of the figures in this line,
the neck is part of the head rather than the torso, which makes the
collar look better than what we see on other lines. I’m a big fan
of how Character Options uses layers of sculpting. The vest has
cleanly sculpted lapels and buttons, as well as a watch chain. The
paint looks great and gives it a nice, leathery look. The chain has
some well-applied gold paint.
The
Doctor also has a belt with a bit of a swashbuckling look to it. It
hangs low and has a buckle that resembles the symbol for infinity –
a nice touch.
Well-sculpted
and painted trousers are tucked into tall boots. The laces on the
boots are distinct and well done. I like the paint on the figure
overall, but it is a little weird to have so much wash on the boots,
trousers, and vest and no detail on the coat. It’s not bad, just
slightly odd.
The
Doctor comes with a bandolier, a sonic screwdriver and a goblet.
The
sonic is the Eighth Doctor’s, which is actually a bit different
from every other Doctor’s despite resembling Four’s. It has three
colors of paint, which is something of a phenomenon when you look at
accessories from other toy lines, let alone something this small.
It’s made of a sturdy but slightly flexible plastic and fits
perfectly into the figure’s hand.
The
bandolier is an interesting touch considering how unladen the Doctor
typically appears. It's slightly bulky on the figure, but that's just
because of it being a separately sculpted piece. I prefer that to it
being permanently attached to the figure. The sculpt and paint are
great. It's a well done accessory.
The
goblet is the one the Sisterhood serves their magical regeneration
juice in. It looks great and has a nice wash of dark paint on it, but
I wish it had something inside. For being the catalyst of the
Doctor’s most controversial regeneration, it’s a little
underwhelming. Not “cup of a carpenter” underwhelming, but still.
It fits perfectly into the figure’s hand and does not, in fact,
change the figure into John Hurt.
These
figures tend to be “pretty good” in the Fun department. As I
mentioned above all of the accessories work nicely.
The
articulation is far better than the first releases in the line, but
not up to the standards of Hasbro’s 3.75” or 6” figures. You
get swivels at the neck, biceps, wrists, thighs, and boot tops. The
shoulders and hips have hinged pivots and the knees and elbows are
single pivots. He can do many of the things that the Doctor might do,
but is a bit more limited than I’d like. The worst thing on all of
these figures are the cut joints on the biceps.
They sculpt the arms flat rather than round, so if you turn those joints it looks terrible.
They sculpt the arms flat rather than round, so if you turn those joints it looks terrible.
Still,
this is the Doctor, not Rey Mysterio, so he really only needs to be
able to aim the sonic screwdriver and stand as though he’s
monologuing.
While
the price is utterly absurd, I always end up satisfied with these
figures. As different as the characters and monsters look, there’s
a certain uniformity across the line that other toy lines don’t
always accomplish. They all share a certain look and style. And I
can’t quite put my finger on it, but there’s something distinctly
British about them.
To
me, this figure was a must-have even though I have both of the other
McGann figures. It looks fantastic and, to me, fits in with the rest
of the Doctors much more organically than the television movie
versions. The costume also provides a beautiful visual bridge between
the classic series and modern Doctor
Who.
5
out of 5
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