Bob Stanley looks at the first episode of the
second half of the seventh season!!
It took me until June 2012 to watch
the 2011 Christmas Special: it's thanks to John and his request for me to write
a review that I watched `The Bells of St. John` reasonably close to original
transmission. I must say I was underwhelmed by the thought of a new series of Doctor Who, even in this 50th
anniversary year. That's heresy for a fan of 30 years' standing! Maybe I'm too
old and cynical to enjoy the show in its hip, modern clothes? Maybe I've
finally outgrown it?
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| BBC cuts forced the cast to collect cash for the next episode |
Beware of spoilers past this point...
As it turned out I was surprisingly
entertained by a fast-paced modern production with a traditional story at its
heart. None of your timey-wimey nonsense: humanity is threatened by an everyday
technology, which the Doctor manages to turn against the enemy to defeat it.
Billy would have been proud. You could argue that the story is deliberately
simplistic so as not to distract from the main event: the third and actual
introduction of Clara Oswald. Once again, Jenna-Louise Coleman impresses. Clara
is clever, wise-cracking and (cliche alert) feisty; she's quietly impressed by
the Doctor, but isn't going to let him know that.
Although we know there's a backstory,
Clara doesn't come with any of the relationship and family baggage which dogged
recent companions, meaning we can take her at face value. Coleman has calmed
down a lot from her earlier appearances, and we hope this will rub off on Matt
Smith, who is as hyperactive as ever here. For somebody who cites the Second
Doctor as an inspiration, Smith should really watch a bit more of Troughton in
action: Trout showed that puckishness could be balanced with quiet
contemplation. Otherwise it's business as usual for the 11th Doctor.
Being an anniversary year it was
natural for an old adversary to reappear, but who'd have guessed Moffat would
take a shine to the Great Intelligence? From a production point of view, its
ethereal nature makes it relatively easy and cheap to realise, and only the
situation changes to keep things fresh, in this case using the modern-day
phenomena of wifi and cloud storage. Just like the snowmen and the tube map at
Christmas, we have a monastery to hark back to the Intelligence's earlier
outings. Nice touch to bring back Richard E. Grant as the face of the
Intelligence, and also nice to have it return its servants to (relatively)
normal once defeated.
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| To help with the cuts, Matt Smith built some of the sets too |
Nothing's perfect. Murray Gold still
needs to turn the volume down (I find myself having to watch nu-Who with
subtitles on, as some of the dialogue is low down in the mix), and the Doctor
riding the motorbike up the side of the Shard was unnecessary and only there to
show off to overseas audiences. But what really didn't ring true was Clara's
distinct lack of computer skills, even regarding social networking. Clara is of
the generation which grew up with the Internet as a way of life, and we are
asked to believe she doesn't even know about Twitter? Mind you, I have a theroy
about this which may count as spoilers if I expand any further. And on the
subject of "spoilers", I think we can guess who the "woman in
the shop" is going to be!
Dammit Moff, you've done it again.
You've got this wizened old fan looking forward to next week's story. "The
Bells of St John" is the first nu-Who I've enjoyed for some time, although
the title could have been improved on. "The Cloud of Fear" perhaps?
"Web of Fear 2"?
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