Torchwood ’s Chris Chibnall rejoin to Doctor Who with a two - parter about reptiles , betrayal , expiry and tragical sexual love . And in the process , he show us that a certain level of viciousness is part of what makes Doctor Who great . Spoilers onward !
So first of all , sorry I did n’t recap part one of this two - parter last week . I find it really unmanageable to recap the first half of a story when I ’d already watched the second one-half . I think that next year , we ’ll just go back to recapping Doctor Who decently after it airs in the U.K. , and maybe we ’ll do pointer back to those reviews when the episode turn up in the U.S. Or maybe BBC America will at long last be able to execute the episodes the same weekend , like they did with David Tennant ’s swansong .
So “ The Hungry Earth”/”Cold Blood ” emphatically felt like it brought back a minute of the Torchwood spirit to Doctor Who . Maybe it was just that we were back in Wales and a group of masses were grappling with creatures coming out of the undercoat . More likely , though , it was that thing got a bit more intense and darker . We had one human being in particular behaving in a frightful , ill-conceived fashion . And then we had a atrocious , almost unthinkable departure at the last . It definitely felt like quondam - school Doctor Who in a direction .
Oh , and for your amusement — here ’s writer Chris Chibnall in 1986 , among a group of fan appear on the BBC to criticize the just - nail “ Trial Of A Timelord ” plot line . Of particular interest is the bit where Chibnall ( in the yellow tie ) approach overcomplicated plots and “ fly the coop up and down corridors ” storytelling , and accuses Pip and Jane Baker — to their brass — of telling “ ready-made ” stories . ( At least , according to Chibnall ’s Wikipedia pageboy , that ’s him . )
It ’s not surprising that we get the misanthropic view of human beings in a floor about the Silurians . They ’re the reptile hoi polloi who be on this satellite before we did , and their claim to Earth is just as strong as ours , making them a departure from the traditional “ foreign invasion ” chronicle . And probably for this cause , every story that ’s featured them in the past tense has painted the human race in a less - than - flattering light , as we turn out to be just as ruthless and selfish as all the other animal the Doctor has encounter . ( Even the incoherent , fearsome “ warrior Of The Deep , ” from 1984 , take some time out to show humans being monsters . )
Part of what ’s impressive about “ Cold Blood , ” in particular , is how it advances the Silurian plot line in a meaningful way . Chibnall picks up on the dynamic from the first Silurian narrative , imaginatively called “ Doctor Who And The Silurians , ” in which there ’s a scientist , a drawing card and a warrior , and they bicker amongst themselves over whether to swear the human slipstream . And once again , the Doctor win over the drawing card to try and make peace — but this clip around , maybe because the human military is n’t ask , the two sides actually make a lot of clearance . And even though it all goes to shit because of harum-scarum on both sides , you ’re left with the feeling that when the Silurians next emerge from suspended animation in a thousand years , things might in reality go differently .
The scene where Ambrose tasers Alaya to last is pretty horrifying , and in spades one of the harsh thing Doctor Who ’s done in years . ( We did have the human backwash zapping a whale ’s unwrap mentality over and over again in “ The Beast Below , ” as well , but this was a creature being tortured to death , viciously . ) The installment ’s title , “ Cold Blood , ” feel like a bit of a grim paronomasia on the way Ambrose kills Alaya as well as the biological science of the reptile people .
hold the independent human antagonist a worried mother and daughter instead of another war - pitch soldier type was an interesting choice — it palpate believable as a motivation , even though Ambrose is actually endanger her son ’s life more by kill Alaya . But it also reminded me a bit of C.S. Lewis ’ account , in Mere Christianity , for why married man should be in heraldic bearing and wife should obey their husbands :
A charwoman is principally fighting for her own children and husband against the ease of the world . course , almost , in a sense , rightly , their claims overturn , for her , all other claim . She is the extra trustee of their interest group . The function of the married man is to see that this raw predilection of hers is not given its psyche . He has the last word in lodge to protect other people from the intense family nationalism of the wife .
In other Logos , there ’s a bit of a stereotype that womanhood ca n’t be rely to think clearly when the safety of their family is refer , and Ambrose ’s behavior plays into this a flake . Still , I mostly love the fact that Doctor Who is once again show the human slipstream as deeply blemished , while also pointing out the ways in which the “ monsters ” might really have a lawful point of sight .
And yes , this is yet another Who story in which the “ monster ” is just misunderstood , or at the most misguided . It ’s not quite a pervasive composition — the Daleks were clearly still evil in their news report , and the Weeping Angels were somewhat much pure spite — but it ’s decidedly a recurring one . I think this them works extremely well with the Silurians , because you get the majuscule thing of “ hotheads on both sides jump our chances for peace , ” but I call up the lack of strong antagonists is one reasonableness I ’ve had a bit of bother connecting with Doctor Who this yr . ( And so have audiences in Britain , judging from the jolly lower ratings . )
Oh , and the all - too - brief taste we get of Nasreen and the Doctor traveling together in spades left me want a time of year with Nasreen as the companion . I also quite like the glimpses of her human relationship with Big Tony , and the way she chose to stay with him in the end .
So will we get to see the Silurians wake up a thousand class later and attempt to excogitate a peace treaty understanding with the more - advanced human race then ? I rather go for so . particularly if the future of the human raceway does regard a partnership with homo reptilia , it could be the most daring thing Doctor Who ever does — a future history oscillation in which humans and reptiles capture the stars together .
So then the storey takes a sharp turn a few second before the destruction , and we encounter , once again , the gap in the textile of blank / time . The Doctor manage to close down one instance of this scissure , aboard the Byzantium , by send out a horde of Weeping Angels into it . But there are identical cleft all throughout the cosmos , and they ’re all just as intractable . At this point , I come out to inquire how many people these crack cocaine have devoured . Do they only show up when the TARDIS is present , or are they really everywhere ? If so , have billions of creature throughout history been erased by the ever - present go ? Are there huge gaps in the story of the universe , in which loads of central actor are no longer part of the fabric ? ( Or am I , quite possibly , overthinking this ? )
And then Rory forfeit his life to save the Doctor from Restac ’s beam of light good time . pathetic , pathetic Rory . The Doctor probably would have been fine , but Rory is toast . And even though we saw an older Rory waving from the hillside in the previous episode , he ’s no longer there this prison term around – bear witness , once again , that time can be rewritten . Adding erasure to hurt , Rory gets swallowed up by the crack , and it ’s like he was never born . Amy tries valiantly to hold on to her memory of him , but to no help .
I ’m afraid I never warmed up to Rory as much as some other multitude did , although this last two - parter went a long agency towards demo Rory becoming a coolheaded , competent journey companion in his own right . He pace out on his own a bit more and assume a piece of opening move , plus we can see the Doctor entrust him with more responsibility . Rory speaks for the humankind ! Etc . And yet , in the end , I still did n’t feel like I bonded with him that much , and the Doctor ’s final attempts to get Amy to hold on to his memory felt almost like the writer plead with us , the TV audience , to care that he was gone . “ Funny Rory ! Sweet Rory ! Beautifully coiffed Rory ! Rory of the lovely nose . You ’re going to overlook him . Really , you are . No , really . ”
Rory ’s no Adric , that ’s all I ’m allege .
So what did we learn about The Crack this calendar week ? Apparently , there ’s “ shrapnel ” in it – including a clod of the TARDIS . Even though it can swallow anything you discombobulate at it , the Doctor is able-bodied to stick his hand inside it , as long as he ’s got a hanky . But the Crack has a peculiar appetency for Rory , since it actually sends out tendril of stuff and nonsense to corrode him . ( Of course , the wisecrack may have done the same matter to those clerics back in the Angels two - parter , and we just did n’t see it go on . ) So on the face of it the TARDIS explode on Amy ’s wedding ceremony day , June 26 , 2010 , and the resulting chap in fourth dimension and space causes huge ruptures throughout the cosmos . Wicked .
So “ Cold Blood ” was n’t consummate – the principal Silurian guy seemed a second too easy - release , and the use of the “ boding voiceover ” thaumaturgy was peradventure the least successful illustration ever . But all in all , this was a passably right outing . What did you think ?
Chris ChibnallDoctor WhoTelevisionTorchwood
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