I’ve tried to be fair about Who in these reviews. Sometimes I’ve been a bit too critical and others I’ve been willing to over look things I really shouldn’t have. There are reviewers out there that have just been praising the show and I’ve been left wondering just what they saw I haven’t. There are other reviewers that lay into the show and have nothing good to say about it. I think all three groups, the overly critical, the soft touch and the middle ground can agree on something:-
Bradley Walsh is a fantastic actor.
In every episode both his character and his performance have been a highlight. This time he really proved it. Considering he did this while also filming a nightly general knowledge quiz show and from all reports being the joker of the cast I’m in awe.
It’s worth noting this isn’t his first time in Who, well not technically. Walsh played a villain in the Sarah Jane Adventures, The Pied Piper. An evil alien that disguised itself as a clown and kidnapped children to feed off the fear doing so generated. Look it up if you have a chance because it too is a really good performance.
I say all this knowing my previous prediction. Now that Ryan has called him Granddad I fear the characters days are numbered. Still that’s the future, right now I’m looking at the ninth, and penultimate, episode of the season.
And I don’t know what to say.
Honestly this episode has left me stumped. It’s not entirely unique in Doctor Who. The Planet of Evil, for example, is a 70’s adventure where the Doctor visited an anti-matter universe. Same happened more recently in Hide and the Doctor’s Wife. Both involved micro universes just outside our own.
However, in many ways it’s not Doctor Who. At least not standard Doctor Who. There was no villain to conquer, or really a threat if I’m honest. It was an adventure and had a high concept science fiction plot at heart. Without a major villain the antagonist is an sentient aspect of creation that was banished somehow in order for the universe as we know it to exist.
It’s an interesting idea. What if an existence is lonely? It’s weird, mind bending when you try to think about it and quite intriguing. The problem with that is that it is overly complicated. Much like the preceding sentence, but however good the core idea it’s execution is important.
Look I am dancing around the subject. You can probably tell because I am, as I said, stumped. I can see what they were trying to do and I can respect it, at the same time it’s horribly written. It’s your typical bait and switch plot, you think it’s going one way but it’s really taking a hard left later in an effort to surprise you. My problem is they tried it twice, first with the monster in the woods and then with the netherworld in between space before finally getting to the other side. That whole middle stunk of filler. In more ways than one.
Something thrown in to pad out the run time because the last bit was so quickly solved. The two realities are mutually exclusive so for the good of all this pocket universe, this incompatible bit of existence, has to go on alone. It’s a predictable, pat ending that does nothing in the grand scheme of things.
I think the best way to sum this whole thing up is the ending. The frog. It was limply set up only a few minutes earlier and was a sort of pointless point. Now it is the sort of abstract weirdness you get in high concept science fiction and fantasy novels. A magic frog is the sort of thing you’d get in a Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett or even a Douglas Adams book. Just that added bit of surreal strangeness to make the reader laugh uncomfortably, but unlike those books this wasn’t earned. The Frog came out of nowhere and just was!
Given the off hand gag about a sheep maybe that would have been better choice. Or maybe having a frog crop up every so often. A sort of visual motif for the episode. That would have made it more integrated. Instead it comes out of nowhere, means nothing and doesn’t connect to anything. Without a resonance it’s just frog. Thanks.
Same goes for the fake monster in the woods, or the whole middle bit with the moths. It’s very well produced, but the whole plot feels very much just like a collection of random things that don’t have the impact they need or should. There’s little to no setup for anything that happens here. Like a series of joke punchlines without an actual joke.
Is it just too clever for it’s own good? Is it all really smart and fits together in a way I don’t see? I’ve racked my brains and I just can’t put the pieces together. It’s like someones thrown three or four different jigsaws into one box, shook it up and then only given me half the pieces to each.
What’s confuses me is that the jigsaws have solid potential. Any one of the stories here has some real possibilities. The Blind girl trapped in a cabin in the woods with a monster outside. A portal to a nether realm in a mirror. A lonely other reality tricking people into staying trapped with it for eternity. All solid and all possibly entertaining, but here they’re rushed. Jammed together, squashed and forced to work against each other.
I wish I liked this episode more. I want to enjoy it, there’s something about it. Be it Walsh’s performance, the outstanding special effects, the wonderful bit where the Doctor blows a kiss that was in the trailers, but I can’t.
I think that’s the most damming thing I can say. It’s confused mess that leaves me saying I can’t. I’ve disagreed with Who in the past. I’ve hated it, loved it, admired it, despised it and even defended it. I’m just left with a deep sense of I can’t.
I’m not looking forward to the next episode. Usually I dislike season enders because that’s it. There’s no more. This time I don’t want to see what happens next because I don’t know how this could get worse, but I know it’s going to.
Chibnall’s back and I long since lost faith in him. Now I just hope it’s not quite as bad as I fear. and not half as needlessly, pointlessly, confusingly as what we just had.
Magic Frog out of 13
Ribbit
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