Cards on the table from the outset: I didn’t think much of The Robot Revolution. Other opinions are available; this is only a personal view. I just felt it didn’t really hang together.
I watched it twice and something started bugging me fairly early on:
Who is this aimed at? Who is it for?
Some of the storytelling seemed clearly designed to appeal to a very young audience. There’s nothing wrong with that; without getting into the debate of how far Doctor Who was originally intended to be a children’s programme, most of us will have become fans when we were very young indeed (in my case, as a pre-schooler glued to the Patrick Troughton stories). And yet, some of it jarred badly. Chatting to friends about the episode, something came up very quickly, which may at first seem a minor point and hardly worth mentioning. But what kind of children’s programme includes the incineration of a cat, complete with comedy “miaow”, as a joke? How many children would think that was funny, rather than cruel and upsetting? Bit of a major misstep, surely?
(Malcolm Hulke’s Writing for Television includes the advice that, if you introduce a dog or cat into a drama when children are watching, and part of the plot includes a disaster like a sinking ship or a destroyed building, always include a shot of the dog or cat at the end to reassure the children that he or she was okay.)
That’s enough about cats. I’m only including it, really, as an example to suggest the script didn’t really work. And that’s odd. Russell T Davies is capable of some very fine writing; Midnight and the Jeremy Thorpe drama, A Very English Scandal, spring immediately to mind. He does season finales very well. But he’s also turned out quite a lot of substandard and pretty silly stuff too: New Earth, The Next Doctor, and quite a few others. He’s uneven and he badly needs a script editor. He doesn’t always make the right calls.
A strain of opinion – not quite yet received wisdom – among fandom is that RTD2 is not a patch on RTD1. We haven’t seen the best of his work since he returned; at the moment, the best is very much in the past. To be honest, I think he’s gone backwards to the realms of some of his poorer early judgements; we’re back in the world of toilet humour, burping bins and flatulent aliens, and of brash and silly visuals driving the stories (cf the Cyberking stomping on Victorian London and the Master zooshing into the air like a Roman candle). Come on, old chap: you’re better than this.
RTD2 also incorporates the ‘developments’ in storytelling of the Chris Chibnall years: the relentless messaging (less prevalent in this episode, admittedly), the Timeless Child (which should have been ditched along with the half-human Doctor of the Paul McGann TV Movie), and so on. It doesn’t take into account the tonal changes introduced in the Steven Moffat era, with the re-stressing of character over plot and the attempt to find the emotional core of the stories. Bill and Amy were real people, beautifully written and superbly acted; Peter Capaldi and Matt Smith really understood the character of the Doctor and played him with total conviction. Multi-layered performances of multi-faceted characters. They were compelling to watch.
And yet Davies is also capable of doing this as well – when he wants to. David Tennant was great (though I prefer Smith and Capaldi). Donna was one of the best companions in the series’ entire 60 year run.
What’s happened? Why has it all gone off the boil so much?
I try to like Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor. He’s a very good actor. I just think so much of what his Doctor does is out of character. We had another scene in The Robot Revolution in which the Doctor is crushed and frozen by the enormity of what’s going on around him, and has to be brought back to earth and galvanised by the companion. But he’s a stronger personality than that. He weeps copiously and excessively (can you imagine Jon Pertwee or Tom Baker doing that?). He’s Tiggerish in his joy and he calls people ‘babe’ and kisses the TARDIS. (William Hartnell might use the occasional ‘my dear’ when he’s very, very fond of people, and he might occasionally give the police box an affectionate pat – but kissing the thing? Hardly.) We’ve yet to see the gravitas, the moral centre, the moral outrage. I can’t imagine his Doctor (or Jodie Whittaker’s, for that matter) debating the ethics of the Daleks’ creation with Davros, as Tom did so superbly all those years ago. I just can’t.
Well, well. It’s good to see Varada Sethu back. She was outstanding in Boom: a genuinely beautiful performance. Belinda Chandra’s got real potential and is in the hands of a very impressive actor. A bit older than most of the companions: she’s 32, though we don’t yet know how old the character is. A professional woman and a strong character (maybe a touch of the Liz Shaws here?).
As for the rest of the episode: um… I haven’t really got a lot to say. The design was variable: the cybernetically enhanced Alan was superb; the robots less so. I know the official line is that Disney has nothing to do with the creative decisions, but I do wonder. Those robots looked very Disney to me. Music was good though for partially deaf people like me — it’s so loud that we have to have the subtitles on because we can’t hear the dialogue (actually, that’s a pretty serious problem). I just thought much of it fell into the category of ‘seen it before’. Aliens smashing up a semi (The Star Beast), robots with emojis (Smile – and done far better there, too), a big menacing mechanical thing in a basement (Paradise Towers), hospital and medics (Smith and Jones)… The whole thing was dialled up to fortissimo and there was no let up from the frenetic tone and pace.
Maybe I’m being too harsh. For people like me, who prefer their Who to be dark, gothic, violent, and frightening… Well, maybe this present version of the show just isn’t for us. I’m much more enjoying the new series of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror, which is superb on every level. And yet there’s no reason why Doctor Who can’t have that quality of writing. If we’re in for a hiatus, if and when it comes back, please can the new showrunner recruit Brooker (and people of the calibre of Armando Iannucci) to the writing team?
And the overnights were two million. Oh dear. No point trying to gloss them or spin them. They’re not good at all.
