In the worlds of Doctor Who monsters, there are the "Big Four" - four monsters who repeatedly menaced the Doctor over a number of stories (more than two anyway), and a number of incarnations. Naturally two of those are the Daleks and Cybermen, and the third are the Ice Warriors, but the fourth are the Sontarans. It's been 22 years since the Sontarans graced our television screens and the last time the creatures - described as "nasty, brutish and short" - weren't exactly given an opportunity to shine. Nasty they may have been, but they weren't particularly brutish and most certainly weren't short. The new series has decided to adopt that particular description and take it to the letter with diminutive actor Christopher Ryan (he of The Young Ones fame) being given the latex to lead the Sontarans - not the first time for Ryan either, curiously.
In addition to the Sontarans, Freema Agyeman returns to the cast (getting an "and" credit in the title sequence...wooo!) and we now discover she's engaged to the doctor Milligan she met in Last Of The Time Lords and is still working for UNIT, under its new commander Mace. The Doctor, however, seems to have got a bit of a but in his pants about hanging around UNIT because they have guns - this from the man who had no problem with the Ood last week dishing out electrocutions left, right and center. It's nice to see UNIT return, but I can't help wishing that if they were going to bring back the iconic organisation it would have been nice to bring back the iconic Brigadier that went with it... Also of interest is the fact that UNIT now stands for Unified Intelligence Taskforce. How times have changed.
It's hard to review the first of a two parter as, by definition, it sets up the action, and in Doctor Who in particular really works towards the cliffhanger. Curious that the audience is expected to be disturbed by the immediate possibility of death of dear old Wilfred Mott, and once again shows how Russell T Davies believes that a companion's family is as important to the series as the companion her/him self. The scene where both Sylvia Noble and Wilf recognise the Doctor from previous Christmas events is nicely played by all involved. Still, while gas is spilling out over the world, the audience is supposed to feel more concern for Wilf and that they (well, me anyway) actually do (does).
There are lots of nicely played scenes in this episode, and lots of entertaining characters, but while the episode is a setup, it's not really a setup for the story. We meet the Sontarans, Martha, UNIT, Colonel Mace, Rattigan, Sylvia Noble, Wilfred Mott and learn what Atmos is and how it is a weapon that the Sontarans are planning on using, but we don't really learn exactly what the Sontarans are planning on doing. Usually in two-parters we get discover what they are going to do, and the second part deals with the Doctor defeating them. In this particular case we still don't quite know what the Sontarans are planning on doing by gassing the Earth with the Atmos devices, and so it all gets a trifle confusing towards the end.
I'm looking forward to The Poison Sky in the hope that it will explain to us exactly what is going on!
"B-"
No comments:
Post a Comment