Chapter The 175th, which focuses on the companion that couldn't, but maybe it shouldn't. |
Plot:
The leather-jacket Doctor, Rose and Adam (remember Adam, who they picked up in Utah after fighting a lone Dalek? No? Oh well!) arrive in the year 200,000 on Satellite Five, a 500 floor space station in Earth orbit that gathers, packages and broadcasts all galactic news to the human race. He encourages Adam and Rose to explore what is known as the fourth great and bountiful human empire, but the Doctor suspects something is wrong, and future history has been changed. Rose gets bored of Adam's lack of adventure, and joins the Doctor in his meddling. The two of them meet up with a journalist Cathica, and realise that floor 500 is where they need to be to figure out what's going on. Cathica, like the rest of the human race, seems to have been conditioned not to be curious or rebellious, and refuses to accompany them. On floor 500, they meet the Editor, and a massive creature, the Mighty Jagrafess of the Douglas Adams-esque long name. This creature is in charge of satellite 5 and uses the power of the news to control the empire.
Meanwhile, Adam has been tempted by the idea of recording future technological developments for monetary gain. His access to computers is limited, unless he gets an operation to put a socket in his head. He gets this done, and connects to the system, which gives the Editor all the information on the Doctor. The Editor plans to use the TARDIS to spread the Jagrafess' power throughout time. Luckily, the Doctor's admonishments have inspired Cathica, who has come up to floor 500. She plugs into the system too, makes the Jagrafess blow up, and helps the Doctor and Rose get free as the explosion kills the Editor. The annoyed Doctor dumps Adam back in his UK home, where he will have to live a quiet life as any click of the fingers will reveal the sci-fi hole in his head.
Context:
The evening of the first Saturday of December 2020, I had a Zoom meetup (not actually on Zoom, but you know what I mean) with my friends David, Trevor and Alan, who've been mentioned several times before on this blog. We regularly in times pre-Covid would meet up at the BFI in London for Doctor Who screenings (see many previous blog posts for write-ups of those) and there would usually be one in the run-up to Christmas. Meeting virtually for a glass of wine from our kitchens, spare rooms and the like made up somewhat for the lack of this ritual. We all added a few touches to emulate as well as could be expected the usual experience. For example, David used an image file for his background based on a photo he'd taken last time we were in NFT1, and I'd prepared a quick-fire Doctor Who quiz so we could all enjoy "shouting for Dick". We didn't do that thing you can do where you all watch the same thing on Netflix together to share a Doctor Who though (frankly the technology might be beyond me, I can't speak for the others). Luckily, I had watched one myself earlier long before the drinking and chatting started, the best to recreate the full experience. This was The Long Game, watched from the DVD. It was a shame Chris, who also usually joins us at the BFI, wasn't able to join the Zoom later, as this is one of the Doctor Who stories he worked on, and I could have asked him about it.
As there had been some signs of a lack of interest of late from the family, I started watching it on my own on that Saturday afternoon, but it wasn't long before the youngest family members (boy of 11, girl of 8) had entered the living room and settled down to watch it. Even the eldest child (boy of 14) came in towards the end and watched until the credits. There wasn't much commenting from the children watching, they were too engrossed. The eldest recognised that the nurse character was played by "the Mum from Friday Night Dinner", and the younger two were both shocked and appalled by the Doctor brazenly stealing money by using his sonic screwdriver to update a futuristic credit card.
First time round:
At the end of April 2005, I visited (along with the Better Half and my friend Phil who's been mentioned many times here before too), David - the same David from the not actually a Zoom call - to stay with him and his Better Half over the bank holiday weekend. This represented quite a few Doctor Who fans gathered together (what's the group noun for Doctor Who fans - a convention? A cosplay? A continuity of fans?). As such, we all sat down to watch the new episode that was broadcast on the Saturday, which was Dalek - the barnstorming big set piece story for the middle to the season. Everyone enjoyed it very much.Then, after the story proper ended, before the credits ran, there was a trailer for The Long Game. Everyone looked at one another as if to say "What the heck was that?!". A week later back in our own place in Kent, the Better Half and I watched the story go out live. It was a bit better than the trailer had suggested, but I still felt it was the weakest story of the year at that point, and I didn't revise that opinion once all the stories had been broadcast. Even now I think it probably is the weakest story of that year, but it was a hell of a year. I still maintain that the stories broadcast in 2005 form the best season of Doctor Who ever. So, for all that I felt it was lacking at the time compared to the stories around it, it's better than the last half a dozen or so stories I've watched for the blog by a long way.
Reaction:
When Russell T Davies, writer of The Long Game and showrunner of the relaunched 2005 Doctor Who, was planning the first run of new Who stories, he produced a document of the running order of the thirteen episodes he wanted to write or commission, with a short description of each. This was subsequently published in the Doctor Who Magazine special that formed a guide to the 2005 Christopher Eccleston run. This episode was intended to highlight how special Rose was, and how solid her and the Doctor's partnership was, by bringing in another companion who was a bit rubbish by comparison. Subsequent to the broadcast, in a couple of different interviews, Davies accepted that the story didn't quite work, and mused on whether he should have stuck to his original concept. This was to play the episode entirely from Adam's point of view, like a darker mirror image of the series opener Rose. Instead, the story cuts back and forth between Adam's story and the Doctor and Rose's, leaving neither with quite enough screen time to be satisfactory. The latter, though, is where the audience want to focus, and that's the central problem with The Long Game: it's the answer to a question that nobody asked.
To understand how this came to pass, one has to cast one's mind back to March 2005, just before that opening episode Rose was broadcast. There was a lot of hype about the series, but hype does not guarantee a hit. I remember seeing a Saturday tabloid newspaper front cover when I was out on the day of Rose's broadcast, talking about the ratings clash between Doctor Who and Ant and Dec's show on ITV. As someone who in the 1980s had avidly watched every tiny ripple and dip in Doctor Who's audience figures as it struggled against big hitter competition on the other side, my heart sank. Was it going to be a disaster? Would anyone watch? Davies was doing everything he could to shape a set of stories that would bring people in. It can be seen in the planning document, and the shape of the season it led to: start with a bang with some returning classic monsters, but not the Daleks, hold the Daleks back. Instead, show what the series can do - future, past, aliens, invasions, cliffhangers - then, for the sixth episode when that hype might have died down, bring in the Daleks and have what is effectively another launch episode. The story doesn't touch on the series character arc for Rose, and doesn't feature any of the supporting characters from Rose's family and friends, so as not to alienate any new viewers joining who are intrigued at seeing Daleks again.
It makes sense in this series structure for the story immediately following Dalek to establish for those new viewers how special our two heroes - a Gallifreyan, a human, but one team - are, by comparison to an interloper just introduced. The issue, though, is that Doctor Who in 2005 was more successful than anyone had imagined. The first episode Rose had received a record-breaking audience of over 10 million; some of those had fallen away, yes, but a very large audience of around 8 million were consistently and loyally watching, a much higher figure than a Saturday night drama had any right to expect at that time. By The Long Game, ITV had all but given up, and were putting out dross like Celebrity Wrestling up against Who. Everybody already knew that the Doctor and Rose were great, they didn't need it underlining. When he was writing this, Davies - never that timid or cautious a person, I think it's fair to say - must have predicted this on some level, which is why he couldn't stick with the original idea of it being solely from Adam's perspective, and kept wanting to cut to the Doctor and Rose. Adam's cautionary tale isn't as interesting as even the slightest proper Doctor Who story, and is maybe even slightly damaging to Rose and the Doctor's standing, as they come across as a bit cruel, unable to empathise with his culture-shock at the start, and taunting him at the end because of the finger-click activated hole in his head. It might have been better to get rid of Adam altogether and just concentrate on the Satellite 5 story.
Tonally, the Satellite 5 story feels like the one most aimed at the younger end of Who's demographic of 2005: loud, brash, colourful and stylised - the journalistic operation much more CBBC Newsround than All The President's Men. This is probably the right choice, but it does feel a bit fake in places. The original idea was reportedly pitched by Davies to the Doctor Who production office in the late 1980s, and it would have been right at home in one of Sylvester McCoy's seasons. It's not without its good points, don't get me wrong. The thing that the episode does showcase that hadn't been seen in 2005 up to that point was the mainstay of Doctor Who, the humanoid moustache-twirling villain. The disguised Slitheen are monsters, and didn't get any real screen time facing off to the Doctor in their humanoid disguises, Van Statten in Dalek was another mainstay, the dupe that enables the real alien baddie. So, by my reckoning, Simon Pegg as The Editor is the first proper one, despite his insistence that he's just second-in-command - the capital letter job title as handle rather than a name is a giveaway. He gives a great performance, and the series was lucky to have him before his star rose rather rapidly. The Long Game was filmed just a few weeks after Shaun of the Dead premiered in the U.S.
The acting elsewhere is very good. Bruno Langley plays what's on the page as well as anyone could; boy genius is never a likeable part to play, even before the exploitation and greed is factored in. Tamsin Greig's extended cameo is fun; Anna Maxwell Martin, in a very early TV performance, looks at every moment like a talent to watch for the future. Christine Adams as Cathica does good solid work. Everyone's performances are a little bit heightened but I'm sure that's what the director is asking of them. The regulars are great, fully settled in to their roles now. The massive globby ceiling creature with the silly long name is fun enough, though a bit static to be threatening. Overall then, not too bad. It is anyway worth it just for leading to the ominous recap at the start of Bad Wolf, which in but a few minutes tells us that The Long Game was just a set up for something bigger and better...
Connectivity:
The Long Game and Planet of Evil both take place in years further in the future than usual for stories previously in the series - five and six figure numbers, rather the usual four.
Deeper Thoughts:
The Even Longer Game. It's getting towards the end of the year. I have watched a Christmassy story already for the next blog post, which I aim to publish on Christmas Eve or just before. I may even squeeze in another story after that in the Chrimbo limbo period before New Year's Day brings Revolution of the Daleks, which - after a yes/no coin toss - I have decided to blog immediately after its broadcast. Before thoughts turn to festive things, or a look ahead to what 2021 will bring, it's time for my yearly audit of how I'm progressing in my long and frankly insane plan to blog every TV story of Doctor Who's two lifetimes, classic and new. Assuming I do blog the next one and find a post-Turkey moment to watch and blog another after that, I'll have covered 33 stories in total this year. That's about the same as my usual recent yearly average. As I commented at the time, though I thought the lockdown periods might have given me time to watch and blog more stories than usual, I turned out to be even more busy with other things not less. Of the 30 odd stories covered in 2020, there's been a good spread of coverage. Having just snuck a Christopher Eccleston story in, and having polished off Paul McGann's sole contribution very early on when I started this adventure, five and a half years ago, that meant every available Doctor was covered bar one: Colin Baker. He made very few stories altogether in his time, and I've done a lot of them already, so the odds of him coming up in a random search are quite low.
The winner of the most stories covered per Doctor in 2020 is Matt Smith, with six. Matt won't be beaten this year. Just behind him with five is Tom Baker; if I do find time to blog another one between the 25th and 31st December, and it's one of Tom's, he can only equalise. Then, Peter Capaldi and David Tennant are tied for the Bronze with four apiece, though two of David's were 'Doctor lite' stories, so Capaldi probably racked up more screen time. Jodie Whittaker, like Hartnell, had three stories; Peter Davison, like Pat Troughton, had two. One of Davison's was The Five Doctors, where all the early Doctors gets a look in. Other than his appearances in that, Jon Pertwee was only represented by one story this year, as were Sylvester McCoy and Christopher Eccleston. For those latter two, it's just as well as - looking at what's left - they, like Baker, C. are looking dangerously low on remaining stories with only four or five left each. Tom Baker and David Tennant are the highest mountains left to climb, both with 17 stories left. It may turn out the last couple of years of the blog find me alternating between those two popular Doctors; we'll see. I completed no new seasons this year; last year, I managed to finish off the four story season 23, but nothing more to date. I have a feeling this may change in 2021, though. A lot of the Jon Pertwee seasons only have one or two stories left to do, including season 8, which is coming out in a Blu-ray box set; again, time will tell.
I have reached my 175th story and blog post, which is definitely a milestone. Based on my idiosyncratic system, that means there are currently 126 stories left (including Revolution of the Daleks). Just in case anyone is using up brainpower working it out, that's because I count The Trial of a Time Lord as four separate stories, lump Utopia in with The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords to be one long story, and because I include Shada and K9 and Company in the total too. Because reasons. If I had been covering the stories in chronological order of broadcast, I'd be well in to new series territory by now. I would have just published the blog post on School Reunion, a few stories into Tennant's first year. With a reduced rate of new series episodes being made, I could catch up in about four years' time; but, if 2020 has taught us anything, it's that you can't necessarily plan for anything. So, I'll just enjoy the ride!
In Summary:
The companion that shouldn't have been, but the rest is fun enough .
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