The New Who

It wasn't the best Doctor Who episode; nor was it the worst. But it was the first new Who in about six and a half years.

I, like many fans, had some misgivings about the new Who movie even before it aired. The Doctor (Sylvester McCoy/Paul McGann) having a romantic relationship with the female lead (played skillfully by Daphne Ashbrook) was out-of-character for him. Indeed, if Susan was the Doctor's granddaughter (and we have no substamtial reason to believe otherwise), there may well be a Mrs. Who back on Gallifrey, and the Doctor would thus be cheating on her. Also unsettling is the revelation in the movie that the Doctor is half human, which seems inconsistent with what we had learned on the original BBC series. Indeed, the two Bakers' (Tom and Colin) portrayals of the Doctor stressed the alien-ness of the character. But we couldn't really criticize the telemovie until we watched it.

Two hours later, and the verdict is in. As far as I am concerned, the movie was not as bad as it could have been. Name some of your least favorite Doctor Who stories: The Gunfighters, The Web Planet, The Twin Dilemma, Timelash, The Dominators, and so on. Chances are you didn't think it was that bad. But it didn't rank up there with The Caves of Androzani, Logopolis, Inferno, or (my personal favorite) The Pirate Planet - so a low budget production with a good story does indeed triumph over a lavish production with a weak story. Still, the relatively weak storyline of this new Who movie is not necessarily a fatal blow; other key elements of a potentially successful science fiction series are already in place.

But first, let me throw out a litany of problems that I had with the story. If more of these stories are written, the writers are going to have to pay more attention to issues like these:

• The Master is put on trial by the Daleks. Since when did the Daleks become interested in justice? Perhaps they have evolved into a peaceful race. Or perhaps they put him on trial because they have a personal score to settle with the Master. But it occurred to me that it seems that if anything, the Master and the Daleks would be more likely to join forces to wreak havoc, as they did in the past.
• The trial was held on Skaro - but Skaro was destroyed in Remembrance of the Daleks! Of course, since we're dealing with time travel here it's easy enough to say that this all took place before the destruction of Skaro. Alternatively, you could argue that it was Skaro II that was destroyed, not the original Skaro.
• The Doctor uses a sonic screwdriver to close the Master's little casket. But the sonic screwdriver was destroyed in The Visitation! Of course, I always suspected that something like this would be relatively low-tech for a Time Lord, and he could have simply built another one (as Romana did, cf. The Horns of Nimon) or bought a new one or something - or maybe it was on board, but he simply misplaced it? But if this were the case, why did he wait all these years to get a new one? Again, it's not an insurmountable problem, but considered cumulatively, it chips away at the credibility of the story.
• The Doctor is shot when he steps out of the TARDIS into a gunfight. As at least one other fan has already pointed out, what ever happened to checking the monitor? For examples of use of the monitor in key situations, writers would do well to view such classics as The War Games and The Invisible Enemy.
• As at least one other fan has pointed out (again), how does the Master get into the TARDIS? Furthermore, when did the Master gain the ability to morph into a snake? Or is this some kind of religious symbolism (i.e. the Master is actually Satan - will we find out in a future episode that Doctor Who is God - or would that be blasphemous, as we are defaming Eric Clapton)?
• This is a bit of a stretch, but there is one point where Grace and Lee are both dead, yet they come back to life when they are in the time loop. Well, maybe this comparison does not withstand close scrutiny, but contrast this "rolling back of time" with the Doctor's admonishing Tegan (or Nyssa?) for suggesting that they go back in time to save Adric. This would be a violation of the First Law of Time, he warned, a warning he echoed in Timelash when Herbert suggested a similar maneuver.

This list of complaints underscores the need in the future for writers to consider more carefully what has happened in the past on the show (and depending on who you ask, what was in the NAs and MAs as well). As it is, it seems as if Jacobs simply pulled elements of the show out of thin air and inserted them to placate fans of the old show - witness the Eighth Doctor's use of jelly babies. But Paul McGann himself is a likeable Doctor, and he seems entirely capable of retaining the core identity of the character while adding something entirely new to it. The sets and special effects have been greatly improved, but something's not quite kosher about the new TARDIS. While a bigger budget will potentially elevate the show to a new level of excellence, some elements should remain the same. Nobody would dispute that they need to keep the police box (and they did), and it probably would be a good idea if they went with a more traditional TARDIS interior (with a few roundrels for good measure).

As for the Doctor having a romantic relationship with the cardiologist Doctor Grace Holloway (Ashbrook), this may be one of the inevitable effects of Americanization. The ultimate effect is to make the new Who project more middle American, more generic. It is normal for the leading man to have a romantic relationship with the leading female, right? But the relatively asexual nature of the old Doctor Who was much more fun. As Harlan Ellison once said, the Doctor's relationship with his female companions has never been adequately explained for those of us with suspicious minds. Of course, we don't know what happens off-screen, and I once thought that perhaps he was getting a bit of crumpet after all. Of course, even with the relative paucity of romance in Doctor Who, the Doctor could exude sexuality when he wanted to, when Rebec kissed him at the end of Planet of the Daleks, one gets the feeling that he could have nailed her, if he wanted. And such speculation is much more fun than the romantic element added to the new Who.

One critic has already said that this is an example of good idea, bad execution. I would have to agree. With better scripts, there is no question that a rejeuvenated Doctor Who series can be every bit as good as the old one. But so far, the final product has fallen far short of this potential. One can only hope that Fox execs give the Segal team another chance to usher in a new golden age of Who.

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This page © 1996 David Zientara dzien@nic.com