Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Dr Who Meme

medium rob has posted a Dr Who Meme on his blog. Rather unfairly he wants us to choose only three of our favourite episodes from NuWho. Only, three, Rob? That's harsh... However, if you insist.

There is a bit of a theme going here, as all of them are by the same author (and not just because I used to share his surname). It's simply because for me Steven Moffat is King of Nu Who. He consistently, scares, thrills, delights and moves. Plus he's got my children doing all manner of spooky things from asking if I'm their mummy to abjuring me not to blink. It's quite something for a kids' tv show to tap so much into all our imaginations that I end up spooked by my own offpspring...

The first offering is a bit of a cheat, as it's a double parter, but I regard it as the same story, so first honours go to The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, for introducing us to scary gas mask child who was the first nuWho character to terrify the whole family, and for that wonderful ending when Christopher Eccleston revels in the fact that just for once, everybody lived. I loved the darkness and rawness of the new series when the ninth doctor was suffering from the loss of his planet and people in the Time War, and it felt like here he got a bit of compensation. I also loved the ending when he remembers how to dance (but I've already posted that one on the other place).




Second choice (but probably has to count as my favourite) is The Girl in the Fireplace. Once again Moffat does it with scary monsters - those sort of monsters under the bed would certainly give me nightmares - but also it's funny (I loved the incongruity of the horse and Mickey teasing Rose about the Doctor calling Cleopatra Cleo), moving, and has a tender love story to boot. Sophie Myles as Madame de Pompadour is stunning, particularly the moment when she tells Rose that the Doctor always comes with monsters, and the rapport between her and David Tennant is fabulous. I particularly like the fact that he is prepared to sacrifice himself to the slow path for her, and his pain when he realises he's come back several years too late for her. Love it, love it, love it. Don't think Moffat's really topped this yet...



And last but most definitely not least, the superlative Blink. Again, another great scary story - I will never ever look at statues in the same way again, and one which really creeped us all out. It also features David Tennant talking about timey wimey stuff (sigh), and a great warning: Whatever you do, don't blink! I also loved the absurdity of the end when Sally Sparrow finally meets the Doctor properly and he's wandering about with a bow and arrow. Priceless. Carey Mulligan as Sally Sparrow is just fantastic. Wouldn't she be great as the new companion? All in all another cracker from Steven Moffat. Let's hope he gives us more of the same in 2010...




And if I'd been left up to my own devices and not constrained by Rob, I'd also have added from Series 1: Father's Day for poignancy and brilliant you can't undo time kind of stuff, and The Parting of the Ways because I liked Bad Wolf, and I loved the way Christopher Ecclestone looks at Rose and says, Ah Rose, I had so much I wanted to show you (what can I say? I write romantic fiction). From Series 2 I'd have to add Tooth and Claw because I loved the werewolf and Doomsday for the hilarious meeting between the Cybermen and the Daleks, and bittersweet ending (which you should really have left alone Russell). In Series 3 I also loved the Human Nature/Family of Blood double parter. And finally, in Series 4. I thought Turn Left was stunning and The Stolen Earth had the best cliffhanger ever.

But as I can't include those, you'll have to make do with Moffat...

6 comments:

music obsessive said...

So how spooky is this? When I saw the first phrase of your post on my own BlogList gadget, I had a think about it before looking and guess what, I matched your three episodes exactly. Well, perhaps not so surprising as Moffat is quite brilliant (Coupling's very good as well!)

To add to your list, my fav from the first series is the one with Charles Dickens and Torchwood Gwen. Simon Callow is supurb as Dickens and he always melts my heart when he inquires, 'My books...do they...last? Wonderful.

Political Umpire said...

Didn't Sophie Myles and David Tennant have a thing off screen afterwards as well ... (who could blame him, she is a bit of a looker, so to speak ...)

Anonymous said...

Yeah they did PU & allegedly he ended it because of his scheduling. Then he had a thing with a production assistant,allegedly ending for the same reason. Now allegedly he's dating Georgia Moffatt (aka his daughter and no relation)

I should get out more.

Anyway, I'm going to be controversial and say I loved the Daleks of Manhattan because I loved the fact that the Doc was willing to work with his deadliest enemies to create a new species & that the human daleks (with a bit of timelord thrown in) refused to be killing machines. His reaction to Caan killing them was really poignant.

But that's not my favourite. Have to say, it's difficult to choose, but I'd go for:

Midnight-I think this has got to be the best thing I've watched on TV in a long time. For the acting, for using the threat in a single room in a completely new way, for a great alien & for making me think ages after it finished.

Since you did a double whammy for Stephen Moffat, (another non relation) I'd say Family of Blood/Human Nature, which was just all round brilliant, the tortured nature of choosing to be the doctor, the young boy saying what the doc was, and the pretty dark side of the doc that we don't often see...

And finally, well it has to be Blink doesn't it? The gargoyles on Magdalen College have never quite looked the same. And by the way JH - do you realise what you are saying by suggesting Sally Sparrow for companion? There are whole hordes of fans who say it at every available opportunity and whole other ones who shout them down.

I look at Dr Who chatrooms way too much.

MTx

Faithful Soles said...

Great post. I knew nothing about this until you introduced it to me here. I think I'm hooked.

Lisa Rullsenberg said...

Ah, another convert to the cause of DW!

Anonymous said...

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