Geekscape Reviews Doctor Who: Season Five on DVD!
“I’m The Doctor. Basically… run.”
It’s nothing short of miraculous that Doctor Who, arguably the most capable fictional character ever conceived, remains a television mainstay after almost 50 years. He has an uncanny ability to bluff, filibuster or at least deus ex machina his way out of any situation, no matter how improbable. Earth’s going to be destroyed in 20 minutes and all the Doctor has to stop it is a cellular phone? No problem. Vincent Van Gogh is fighting an alien mercenary that only impressionist painters can see? No problem. The loss of producer Russell T. Davies and fan-favorite star David Tennant? Well… Maybe that’s a little impossible.
The latest season of “Doctor Who” (or “series,” as the BBC insists on calling it), arrives on DVD and it’s a little bit of a disappointment. Not that “Doctor Who” fans have entirely rejected newcomer Matt Smith in the role of The Doctor, or even Steven Moffat, now the executive producer of a series to which he regularly contributed some of the finest episodes ever written. (“Blink” may in fact be one of the best episodes of television. Period.) But both Smith and Moffatt appear beholden to the Tennant/Davies run on the series, or at least hesitant to reinvent the wheel. As a result, this latest season of “Doctor Who” feels consistent with seasons past without ever standing out of their shadow. It’s fine entertainment, but it’s a little wibbly-wobby. Or at least timey-wimey.
At the start of this season (which is what we’re calling it, okay?), The Doctor and the Tardis, each recently destroyed, land in a little girl’s backyard. They’re both newer, fresher versions of their former selves – The Doctor recast, the Tardis redesigned – and they’re not quite working properly yet. The Doctor’s body isn’t entirely working properly yet, and for the first time in over 900 years he has a craving. While he desperately struggles to figure out what he likes to eat (one hilarious montage later it turns out to be fish sticks and custard) he also agrees to help a little girl solve the issue of a crack in her wall through which a dangerous criminal has escaped. But then the Tardis is about to break down and he promises the girl – Amelia Pond – to return in five minutes. 20 years later (broken Tardis, remember?) he returns to discover that Amelia is now grown up, ridiculously attractive, and living in the same house as a psychic alien eel monster. Like you do.
Before long (for us, at any rate… that broken Tardis is really quite an issue this season), The Doctor and Amelia are off pursuing one wacky adventure after another. Highlights include a squadron of WWII spitfires fighting off a Dalek invasion and a delightful comic relief episode in which The Doctor finds himself renting and apartment and forced by circumstance to act “normal.” Not all episodes are created equal however, with a fairly disappointing two-parter about preventing a war with an alien civilization living at the Earth’s core and a rather forgettable take of vampire fish aliens taking over medieval Venice failing to make much of an impression.
There are as always highlights in even the weakest episodes of this series – apparently the Tardis makes that whirring noise because The Doctor drives it with the brakes on – but there just isn’t much driving Season Five forward. Amy Pond is an attractive and plucky companion, but rarely has much to contribute to any given storyline. The arc of the season, about a crack in reality and the opening of the mythical Pandorica, is clever enough but after four seasons of Davies’ increasingly show-stopping finales the conclusion never quite hits the right crescendos to remain memorable, and indeed few of these thirteen initial episodes are likely to make any list of favorite installments in this classic series.
Matt Smith, looking for all the world like the ill-gotten lovechild of Anthony Perkins and Dolph Lundgren, gets the goofiness of The Doctor down pat, as well as his world-weary sympathetic nature, but call me crazy… he just didn’t differentiate himself enough from Tennant’s iconic take on the character. Smith’s gravelly voice and bowtie (which is, damn it, very cool) does a better job of conveying the incongruity between The Doctor’s physical appearance and his actual age better than the writing ever does. His youthful vitality never quite gels with series’ insistence that he’s too world-weary be anything other than a father figure to Amy Pond. That incongruity has famously been touted as Smith’s take on the character. Great idea, but not exceptionally realized yet. Maybe future seasons will define this version of the Doctor more effectively. It’s a decent enough start, but again, Smith follows Tennant here, and Tennant’s first episode was a better introduction to a new Doctor than all of Season Five put together.
But that’s praising with faint damnation: “Doctor Who” remains one of the wittiest and most entertaining series on television. You just can’t keep getting better and better without slipping once in a while. And Season Five never feels like a mistake… more like a slight miscalculation. This is the creative equivalent of forgetting to carry the one, and as a result the Geekscape Review can be summed up as: “Close enough.” It’s a fine series and a fine DVD set, brimming with commentaries and of course the ubiquitous “Doctor Who Confidential” special feature. It’s worth any geek’s time. It’s just got a little crack in it.
Editor’s Note: If you’d like to read what other Geekscapists thought of the individual episodes, including “The Eleventh Doctor” You can find the reviews here:
First Impressions of The New Doctor Who (Ep. 1 Review)
Doctor Who “The Beast Below” (Season 5 Ep. 2) Review
Doctor Who Episode Review: Victory of the Daleks
Doctor Who The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone (Series 5 Ep. 4 & 5) Review
