TV Review | Doctor Who: “The Witchfinders” by Joy Wilkinson

It says a lot about the quality of Chris Chibnall’s first season in charge of Doctor Who that “The Witchfinders”, which is more compelling than much of what aired in the dying days of the Moffat era, left me feeling disappointed and underwhelmed.

As a once-avid consumer of Doctor Who across the media, particularly in its wilderness years off the air, I was always going to be inclined to compare a Doctor vs witchsmeller pursuivant story unfavourably to Steve Lyons’ twenty-year-old Salem novel, The Witch Hunters, which, if you love the show enough to be reading my musings on it, you’ll almost certainly enjoy. It’s an excruciating and brilliant read that showcases the sort of grit and nuance that, ironically, has set this season’s finest offerings apart from the pack. Yet Joy Wilkinson’s first script for the series borders on the prosaic. It’s Doctor Who painted by numbers, perfectly entertaining, but forgettable and flat - save for when it’s memorable for all the wrong reasons.

The realisation of King James I, for instance, is painful. Be it due to Alan Cumming’s performance, Wilkinson’s writing, or a combination of both, the monarch comes across as CBeebies-hammy; at times it’s like watching Gigglebiz. Fortunately Siobhan Finneran (Benidorm, Downton Abbey) and particularly young Tilly Steele (Victoria) are haunting and credible in their supporting roles, but unfortunately their portrayals do not sit well with the king’s camp theatrics.

 

The regulars, as ever, all give solid performances. Ryan, the king’s “Nubian prince”, handles the script’s comedic elements artfully, as does Bradley Walsh, though I was less than impressed with the subject matter of his. This episode’s heavy focus on the Doctor having to play assistant to Graham because of her gender brought back that unsettling disconnect for me. I love Thirteen, and think Jodie Whittaker is incredible in the role, but at times I still find it hard to reconcile her incarnation with the Doctor’s preceding thirteen. Little moments, such as the one I highlighted in “Demons of the Punjab”, work splendidly in recognising the character’s newfound womanhood, even managing to feel Doctorish in the process, but this episode’s approach, whilst arguably historically warranted, is more akin to using a sledgehammer than a sonic. What’s particularly irritating is that the Doctor just grins and bears the rampant sexism of the age - I would at least expect Thirteen to deliver her usual, uncomfortable parting riposte to her would-be oppressors as she beats a gauche retreat.

And so whilst “The Witchfinders” is far from being the calamity that “The Tsuranga Conundrum” was, it still failed to capture me. This season has been so fresh and so innovative that an episode reliant on a traditional alien monster masquerading as a witch and hidden within a witch-burning landowner feels a bit... meh.

The new series of Doctor Who airs on Sunday nights on BBC One and this episode is available to stream or download on BBC iPlayer in the UK, where the preceding 153 episodes are also currently available. A series pass is available from iTunes for £23.99.

The Witch Hunters by Steve Lyons is available to download for just £1.99 from either the iTunes Store or Amazon’s Kindle Store.

TV Review | Doctor Who: “Kerblam!” by Pete McTighe

Another week, another newcomer, another timely and politically-charged script. Doctor Who’s back and it’s on fire.

 

Pete McTighe’s “Kerblam!” packs all the punch of its title, and more besides, as it satirises the future according to Amazon and takes the viewer through just about emotion in the screenwriters’ playbook. “Kerblam!” wears its humour and its hazard on its sleeve, but its onomatopoeic handle is particularly apposite when it pulls the rug out from beneath viewers with its frequent twists and misdirections, or smashes them over the head with its sudden pathos. Kerblam!

“You’re just making sounds now...”

The episode’s subject matter is particularly unsettling as we approach Black Friday and our annual online orders supernova; it’s a triumph of scheduling, as well as everything else. Parts of the story put me very much in mind of this year’s supremely disquieting X-Files episode “Rm9sbG93ZXJz”, which played upon the same sort of fears, but of course here McTighe’s story has a much more nuanced and ambiguous punchline than Shannon Hamblin and Kristen Cloke’s did. Indeed, “Kerblam!” is television at its most thoughtful disguised as television at its most crude, its well-observed script stirring up classic corporate techno-fear with its left hand while its right reminds us of the real root of all evil (which is a recurring theme for this year, it seems).

Even in a season populated by such revered actors, the cast of “Kerblam!” still manages to stand out. Household names like Jodie Whittaker’s fellow Broadchurch alumnae, Julie Hesmondhalgh, and comedian Lee Mack certainly deliver performances worthy of their repute, although for me it was the two youngsters who really shone. Claudia Jessie imbues her down-at-heel but eternally optimistic character, Kira, with a spirit so inspiring that when the Doctor comments upon it, she’s only giving voice to what the audience is already thinking. Meanwhile, Kira’s would-be suitor, Leo Flanagan’s bog-cleaning Charlie Duffy, gives a convincing and layered performance that on occasion threatens to steal the whole show.

Above: In defence of the 2:1 - the four members of Team: TARDIS really need the trendy super-wide aspect ratio if they want to have a chance of sharing a shot together.

McTighe’s incredibly adroit storytelling also does a terrific job of serving all four members of Team: TARDIS in equal measure, which is quite a feat given the size of the gang, and doubly so when you consider the time afforded to the supporting players. Whittaker’s Doctor mercurially leads the charge, while the rest of her gang pursue their respective avenues of investigation. Yaz is paired with Mack’s memorable everyman, Dan Cooper, and once again serves as the episode’s heart, while Graham takes on janitorial duties with Charlie (and thus the critical exposition). Ryan, meanwhile, enjoys his strongest outing since “Rosa”, as the story’s warehouse setting and physical challenges force him to address both his feelings about his vocation and his dyspraxia head-on. It’s quite ironic that one of the greatest strengths of “Kerblam!” is that it’s a masterclass in people management.

I’m also incredibly taken with the episode’s look, which to the production team’s credit favours authenticity over spectacle - at least for the most part. Warehouses will always have a certain functional aesthetic, I reckon, and much the same probably applies to clean and light corporate lobbies too. When the design does need to appear more technologically advanced, though, “Kerblam!” convinces effortlessly, with its trademark Kerb!am Men and their ‘TeamMates’ straddling that fine line between retro-chic company poster boys and convincing future tech.

Best of all, though, “Kerblam!” has the one essential ingredient that sets the most memorable Doctor Who stories apart from the good but largely forgotten ones – and in this case, it’s bubble wrap. Taking the mundane and infusing it with menace has been a signature of the series over the years, and McTighe has arguably taken the concept to another level here with his pliable plastic packing material that goes... KERBLAM!

The new series of Doctor Who airs on Sunday nights on BBC One and this episode is available to stream or download on BBC iPlayer in the UK, where the preceding 152 episodes are also currently available. A series pass is available from iTunes for £23.99.

TV Review | Doctor Who: “Demons of the Punjab” by Vinay Patel

The first Doctor Who episode of 2018 not to feature showrunner Chris Chibnall’s name anywhere on the byline is Vinay Patel’s “Demons of the Punjab”, a superlative fifty minutes of telly even by this season’s usual standards.

By turns thrilling and moving, Patel’s story explores an event in history previously untouched by the show, and it does so through the most intimate of lenses. As the UK stands on the precipice of Brexit, Doctor Who whisks its viewers back in time to the partition of India, reflecting on old divisions as a young Muslim woman and Hindu prepare to wed on the very spot that their nations are to be divided. That young Muslim woman is Yaz’s grandmother. But that young Hindu man ain’t her grandfather...

In some ways reminiscent of Paul Cornell’s seminal “Father’s Day”, yet in others almost its antithesis, “Demons of the Punjab” benefits from that crushing sense of inevitability that the best historical adventures have, only here it’s turned up to eleven - Yaz’s very existence is a constant reminder of the tragedy to come. The drama is borne not out of the Doctor and her friends trying to save the world, but them trying to unravel the mysteries of it.

 

The enigma unravels very deliberately and delightfully, and as it does, it forces viewers to take a hard look at their preconceptions when it comes to aliens - in all senses of the word. In particular, I really have to applaud Patel’s imagination - and gall - when it comes to the execution of his eponymous “Demons”. Terrifying, mesmerising, perfect creations... who turn the narrative on its head when they reveal their true purpose, and mystery turns to shock and sadness. It’s another fresh angle in a season of fresh angles; another wrinkle in the reinvention that makes Doctor Who shine like new.

Mandip Gill, as you might expect, really carries this episode. The script is a gift for her character, and her performance ekes every ounce of excellence out of it. Yet this episode is perhaps more notable for Jodie Whittaker’s dazzling turn - I’m rapidly falling in love with Thirteen, and “Demons of the Punjab” is a fifty-minute visual treatise on why. I have absolutely no doubt now that she’s the same Doctor that he’s always been - here she’s incredibly forceful, arguably for the first time, yet she also gets to partake in a hen do and be - dare I say it - a little bit girly... but in what feels like an authentically ‘Doctorish’ way. It actually made me realise how little the character has changed since Matt Smith’s “just us girls...” conspiratorial interpretation. Thirteen is a vibrant force throughout whole episode - a thrilling splash of colour in a muted world of ubiquitous mustard and brown.

Inevitably, the Doctor’s male friends are relegated to supporting roles for this story, but Bradley Walsh still makes Graham’s big moments count. When he hugs Prem, knowing the young bridegroom’s fate but being powerless to change it, it’s one of the episode’s most powerful and enduring images.

A phenomenal script that’s been beautifully performed and directed, “Demons of the Punjab” instantly course-corrects after last week’s appalling offering. For me, it ranks as an instant classic: an episode that can be held up alongside “Rosa” as one of the best Doctor Who stories of the last decade.

The new series of Doctor Who airs on Sunday nights on BBC One and this episode is available to stream or download on BBC iPlayer in the UK, where the preceding 151 episodes are also currently available. A series pass is available from iTunes for £23.99.

TV Review | Doctor Who: “The Tsuranga Conundrum” by Chris Chibnall

With four strong outings to its name already, Doctor Who’s eleventh - well, thirty-seventh, really - season was threatening to leave recent years’ runs for dust... until “The Tsuranga Conundrum” came along to remind us all that we aren’t quite out of the woods yet.

A fresh and intriguing opening gambit quickly descends into a lightweight, low-stakes romp that calls to mind some of the previous season’s most torturous efforts. A frantic, yet at times astoundingly thoughtful, performance from Jodie Whittaker just isn’t enough to carry fifty-one minutes of prime-time television - not when the script has the plot playing second-fiddle to an emasculating agenda, and the ambition of the effects is not accommodated by the budget. This episode may not have the “wobbly sets” of urban legend, but it is built on a woefully unconvincing space termite. Bad move.

Even the Doctor’s new friends, who until this point have been as key to revitalising the show as Thirteen herself, falter here. Everyman Graham turns out to be an avid fan of Call the Midwife, which might be convenient for the plot, but doesn’t sit well with his characterisation to date. Ryan fares even worse as what was clearly intended to be ‘his’ episode is robbed of any emotional weight by the utterly preposterous execution. Almost a quarter of a century on from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s greatest cinematic failure, and nobody’s learned anything.

‘Blip’ doesn’t quite cover this one; ‘deterrent’ is the sad truth of it. Flashy lenses and showy aspect ratios aren’t worth a thing if your principal special effect can’t pass muster, but even that is the least of your problems when your narrative is as absurd as this episode’s turned out to be.

The new series of Doctor Who airs on Sunday nights on BBC One and this episode is available to stream or download on BBC iPlayer in the UK, where the preceding 150 episodes are also currently available. A series pass is available from iTunes for £23.99.