You've got to feel a
little sorry for Matthew Graham. He got lumbered with the “can you
do us a replacement script in 5 minutes and no budget” story in
season 2, which to this day is unfairly underrated (seriously check
the DWM poll of polls), especially since it had the awesome scribble
monster.
He finally gets another
crack at it, a two parter no less, only he has to follow the Gaiman
episode and, if that wasn't hard enough, the masterpiece that was
Season 3 of Ashes to Ashes. He was never going to come out of this
one with anything other than faint praise unless he delivered an out
and all-time classic.
There is to compound
the problem the fact that the story was immediately overshadowed by
the Cliffhanger to A Good Man Goes to War. There is though much to
enjoy in the run-up to that Cliffhanger. This is reminiscent of the
two part “The Impossible Planet”/”The Satan Pit” in that it
is a rare example of New Who plundering the tropes of Old Who.
Specifically this is a structured very mush as a “base under siege”
and “rebels v colonist” type of story that permeated the show
from the Troughton to Baker years. There's also more than a hint of
the Cartmel era in the “right-on politics” and manipulative
Doctor. This is a double edged sword because as enjoyable as these
kisses to the past are, they also make the story feel highly
derivative particularly in comparison to the stories that precede and
follow it.
It is to Graham's
credit that he doesn't play to any great degree on “who is the good
one” and to the extent that he does its in respect of the Doctor,
with the answer being “both”. My favourite aspect of the episode
is the relationship between Jennifer and Rory. Jennifer story is
ultimately sacrificed for a cheap “monster” finish, but I liked
the steady build in her resentment to the humans. Rory is shown once
again to be highly compassionate and thoughtful and doesn't Amy
resent it! The writing for Amy and Rory has been much better this
seasons. They feel much more fully formed and consistent and more of
a couple. Amy's characterisation is almost a throwback to last
season in this story, but now it feels like we are seeing an aspect
of her personality rather than the ONLY aspect of her personality.
I could have done
without the “hey isn't your dad great” subplot. Unfortunately it
became running trope of this season to the point where its now clear
that the Moff really wants his kids to know how much he loves them.
There's nothing wrong with that of course except it became far too
repetitive. We now have “the parent agenda!”.
All of which brings us
to Amy's pregnancy and the finale/Cliffhanger. Now before I go any
further there is the issue of the Doctor killing Amy's ganger. Not
surprisingly this caused some consternation with plenty of people
saying that it wasn't necessary. It actually was. The Ganger was
ultimately an unwitting spy and would have died as soon as the Doctor
rescued Amy anyway. On top of that there was no guarantee that
Kovorian and the silence would have kept the original Amy (and
therefore the Ganger) alive once Amy gave birth.
What is clear is the
Doctor obviously had all of this in mind prior to the beginning of
the episode. So we basically have the Doctor reverting to the
“master of chess on a thousand boards” persona of his seventh
incarnation. Events are manipulated from the very beginning by the
Doctor. The whole story is an excuse for the Doctor to work out what
is going on with Amy and how the Ganger's work. He must know that
this was a turning point for the use of Gangers (this is the exact
turning point for where they are recognised as having “human
rights” in Earth's history). So he is also taking the opportunity
to right a wrong and teach and manipulate his companions at the same
time. Somewhere Ace and Benny are saying “join the club”!
Good stuff, but better
was to come.
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