September 11, 2021: "Strax Saves the Day" / "Revenge of the Nestene" / "The Raggedy Doctor by Amelia Pond" / "Rory's Story" / "Farewell, Sarah Jane" / "Shadow of a Doubt" / "The Shadow in the Mirror" / "Sven and the Scarf"
By the time "The Timeless Children" aired, at the start of March 2020, it was becoming clear that COVID-19 was going to be more than just an abstract disease happening to other people and instead something that was going to affect all of us. As the disease swept across the globe (with the World Health Organization officially declaring COVID-19 to be a pandemic on 11 March), countries began to take the disease much more seriously than they had been, and a consensus emerged that a way to try to slow down the spread of the virus (so as not to overwhelm hospitals and other medical facilities) was to limit all non-essential services and movement. While here in the United States these measures became quickly politicized, with a lack of federal leadership leading to an inconsistent patchwork of measures from state and local government, the United Kingdom took things more seriously, announcing shutdowns of schools and, on 20 March, public venues -- with a stay-at-home order quickly following, going into effect on 26 March.
In response to all this, Doctor Who Magazine's editorial assistant, Emily Cook, devised the idea for Doctor Who: Lockdown, a series of planned simultaneous viewings of particular episodes, where people could respond to each other via Twitter as they watched it (what's known as a Tweetalong). And while this was the initial motivation for Lockdown, they quickly realized they could do more with this.
And so we got a bunch of short stories to enjoy, and, relevant to our purposes, a series of special videos, posted to YouTube, that flesh out some of the details and provide follow-ups to the original episodes -- in many cases written by writers of the episodes in question (Steven Moffat, for instance, wrote five of these, while Russell T Davies wrote three). And so the Lockdown Season, as Doctor Who Magazine #554 called it, was born.
The first of these, "Strax Saves the Day", is basically just an excuse for Steven Moffat to write a bunch of Strax jokes for Dan Starkey to perform as he introduces the Tweetalong for "The Day of the Doctor". It's quick, it's appropriately silly, and it gets the job done.
The next video, on the other hand, is a bit more ambitious. "Revenge of the Nestene" is an immediate sequel to "Rose", written by Russell T Davies and read by Jacob Dudman, providing us with a look at a surviving remnant of the Nestene Consciousness in the aftermath of the destruction of the Nestene's Thames base. It's the sort of short story that would feel right at home in 2019's The Target Storybook, a short story collection which also expands various Doctor Who episodes. Jacob Dudman (someone, I have to confess, who, although I was aware of who they were, I hadn't actually seen any of their work before this -- but I now understand why people were praising him) does a great job reading Davies's prose, while Davies himself seems to have quite a bit of fun fleshing out some of the backstory of the Nestene. Thus we're told how the Nestene had ended their planet-invading ways and were in fact quite peaceful and content until the Time War arrived and basically destroyed everything -- in a single second. It's nice to be reminded of how good Davies is at this world-building, and at providing off-hand remarks about aliens and events, with mentions of the Crownworld and the Maternity Reefs that were part of the Plastic Conjunction. And it ends with a sly suggestion that current UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson may in fact be an Auton. It's good, cheeky fun, wonderfully read by Dudman.
After that we get a quick little insight into Amy's childhood in "The Raggedy Doctor by Amelia Pond", where Amelia writes a little story about how the raggedy Doctor is her friend, and that she's only told her best friend Mels (and Rory) about him, and that she hopes she doesn't have to wait too long before she sees him again. It's not the most substantive piece ever, but it is rather sweet, and that's sufficient.
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| Rory records a video diary for his son. ("Rory's Story") |
"Farewell, Sarah Jane" is a beautiful coda to The Sarah Jane Adventures. While the show ended on an optimistic, hopeful note, Russell T Davies noted that it also froze things slightly, and he wanted to move the characters on, to give them the opportunity to continue to grow and develop. So, released on the ninth anniversary of Elisabeth Sladen's death, Davies gives us a gorgeous little tag to the show, as the friends and family of Sarah Jane meet at her funeral to remember her. Once again this is narrated by Jacob Dudman, but the difference here is that all the dialogue is by the actors who played those parts -- and so we get Katy Manning as Jo Jones, scatterbrained but remembering her friend; Mina Anwar as Rani's mum Gita, reminiscing about how much they all loved Sarah Jane; Sophie Aldred as Dorothy McShane, recalling how the Doctor had once mentioned how he missed Sarah, and how when Dorothy met Sarah Jane during a run-in with the Diamond Wolf Clan (again, Davies is great at throwaway references), she understood why the Doctor had missed her; and, most wonderfully of all, Daniel Anthony as Clyde, Tommy Knight at Luke, and Anjli Mohindra as Rani, all remembering the positive impact Sarah Jane had on their lives. It's really lovely and sweet and a beautiful epilogue, with Rani wondering if the reason the Doctor wasn't at Sarah Jane's funeral was because he whisked away before she died to have more adventures with him. "Farewell, Sarah Jane" is a very heartfelt, touching story.
Next we get two quick little episodes from Paul Cornell, following up on "Human Nature". "Shadow of a Doubt" brings Benny Summerfield (played by her long-time Big Finish voice actress Lisa Bowerman) to an archaeological dig where a mirror shows a girl with a red balloon seemingly trapped in it. When I covered the "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood" two-parter, I mentioned that the Doctor's punishments for the Family of Blood seemed a bit harsh and out of keeping with how we usually think of him, and it seems that Paul Cornell ultimately agrees. This first one describes Benny having a conversation with the girl, about how the Doctor visits the girl once a month to see if she's sorry for all the people she killed. We also get some sly references to multiple versions of events (Benny, who was present for the novel version of Human Nature, notes that "I'd been hunted by a girl like that; but, this wasn't quite her") and various other versions of the Doctor, including a red-haired version who "thought he was the last". Benny ultimately leaves the mirror where she found it, and then the second half of the story, "The Shadow in the Mirror", continues later on, with the thirteenth Doctor having crossed her own timelines to set Daughter of Mine free, having decided that mercy is more important than fairness or vengeance. These two stories serve as a nice little coda to "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood", softening the Doctor's punishment and bringing her actions more in line with how we like to think the Doctor behaves. It may not be the most important Who story ever, but if you're going to retcon your own works, there are definitely less satisfying ways to do so than this.
The final video for today is 30 April 2020's "Sven and the Scarf", which is a quick, silly little skit about one of Henry van Statten ("Dalek")'s researchers discovering a strange multi-colored scarf and examining the bits attached to it, including the wires from Genesis of the Daleks and a piece of Eldrad from The Hand of Fear. It's quick and it's silly, but it also doesn't outstay its welcome.
So far the Lockdown Season, despite the inherent limitations involved, is a lovely delight, full of ingenuity and feeling. We'll have to see if the second half maintains this sense of optimism and charm.
September 12: "Pompadour" / "The Zygon Isolation" / "The Descendants of Pompeii" / "Listen" / "Fear is a Superpower" / "Doctors Assemble!" / "The Secret of Novice Hame" / "The Best of Days"
So last time we got through April 2020; now we enter May, and as the COVID-19 lockdown continues so does the Lockdown Season. First up today is "Pompadour", a short Steven Moffat-penned story following on from "The Girl in the Fireplace", with Sophia Myles reprising her role as Reinette, aka Madame de Pompadour. Sort of. We get a sense of her isolation, as she waits for the Doctor to return, but then we learn that this isn't the real Madame de Pompadour but instead the computer aboard the ship SS Madame de Pompadour, which (having stored the scans of the real Reinette inside its banks) has come to believe it's the real Madame de Pompadour. It's a bittersweet tale, not only because we get a sense of Reinette's loneliness, but also because the Doctor isn't likely to visit the ship again, which means that the ship's loneliness will also continue. It's not maudlin or overwrought but instead a bit understated, which fits this little story well.
"The Zygon Isolation" gives us the two Osgoods chatting over video, both stuck in their homes without much to do. It feels a bit like the Michael Sheen/David Tennant295 comedy Staged -- except this actually got there first, as Staged didn't premiere until the following month. This is also the first of the Lockdown Season videos to actually be set during lockdown, which makes it more immediately relatable. That said, it feels a touch unfinished; the Osgoods make a couple jokes while the Doctor is apparently listening in, and then it suddenly stops with the two of them deciding to watch Doctor Who on iPlayer -- specifically, "The Zygon Invasion". You kind of wish they'd pushed things a bit further -- but, on the other hand, as this is meant to be an advertisement for the Tweetalong for "The Zygon Invasion"/"The Zygon Inversion", it does what it set out to do.
Similarly to the last video, the next one, "The Descendants of Pompeii", features two more people experiencing the lockdown -- except this time it features a mother and daughter wondering if there's a "guardian angel" looking out for their family. As the mother and daughter are played by the same actresses who played the mother and daughter in "The Fires of Pompeii", the clear implication (along with, um, the title) is that these are the descendants of the family the Doctor saved, and that he/she is still watching out for them. It's a nice idea, but again, they don't do much with it other than broach the idea. But that's fine, not everything has to be a thought-provoking drama.
Next up are two related videos, both spinning off from "Listen". The first, also called "Listen" and also written by Steven Moffat, expands the poem the Doctor recites in that episode, revealing that the Doctor himself showed up to talk to the poet, asking him not to write the poem. It's a touch meta, but it's still good fun -- and Jacob Dudman, who's reading the poem, does a reasonably good Capaldi impression. The other short, "Fear is a Superpower", is simply a look at Danny Pink's life through the lens of "Listen", of how that changed his life but how he forgot that fear is a superpower -- until he was converted into a Cyberman and was able to use that fear to overcome his conditioning. It's a nice perspective of Danny Pink that we didn't quite get during his time on the show, aided by some great visuals from frequent Doctor Who Magazine comic strip artist Mike Collins. Short but sweet.
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| The sixth Doctor sends a picture of a cat to the group chat. ("Doctors Assemble!") |
After "Doctors Assemble!" we get "The Secret of Novice Hame"296, a short story from Russell T Davies describing the final days of Novice Hame, the cat nun we saw in "New Earth" and "Gridlock", and how she's waiting for the Doctor while resting in a white pavilion on New Earth, being guarded by hippos while others visit. It's a slightly melancholy but touching story, with Novice Hame ready to disclose a secret about New Earth to the Doctor, who finally arrives (as part of his farewell tour from The End of Time) to say goodbye. It's beautiful and well done, performed well by Novice Hame's actress, Anna Hope, and David Tennant. Really quite lovely.
The final story of this initial Lockdown Season is "The Best of Days", which (kind of) reunites Nardole with Bill Potts. Set after "The Doctor Falls", it gives us Nardole (still defending the Mondasian colonists from the Cybermen) sending Bill Potts a "daily positivity outbreak", discussing how good it is that the Cybermen won't be invading the floor they're currently on for an extra day and how nice it felt to almost not break his left leg after falling down a thirty-foot hole. Nardole's message is silly fun, but Bill's is a bit more serious. On a break from Heather ("How can you have an honest difference of opinion with your girlfriend when one of you can alter the fundamental nature of reality just so she's always right?" Bill asks), she's decided to study at St. Luke's again (the university where the Doctor taught in series 10, if you've forgotten) but finds all the masks and social distancing a bit tricky. She's also participating in a Black Lives Matter protest ("Turns out not all Cybermen have handles on their heads, let's put it that way"), and she thinks maybe this time will turn out better than the other times people have gathered to march and protest and make their voices heard. It's a good way of bringing the events of summer 2020 into Doctor Who without trivializing them, and by presenting it as a "good news" message -- trying to see the positive in things -- it helps us do that as well, even if only a little.
That's basically the end of the Lockdown Season -- there are a couple other short videos still to discuss that were released later on as one-offs, but as a continuing thing that's the end of it. Given the limited resources, people really did something special with this, providing all sorts of fun and touching moments with these videos, and ultimately reminding us that even when we're isolated, we're not alone. That's the spirit of Doctor Who at its best, giving us joy and hope when we might otherwise forget about such things. In that sense at the very least (along with several other senses), the Lockdown Season is a tremendous success.
September 13: "The Archive of Islos" / "The Sentinel of the Fifth Galaxy" / "Planet of the Mechanoids" / "The Deadly Ally" / "Day of Reckoning" (Daleks!) / "U.N.I.T. On Call"
The pandemic threw a lot of things into disarray and confusion, with lockdowns and strict safety procedures and complicated requirements regarding work and life and such. One thing, however, that didn't get subsequently delayed was a cross-platform project that BBC producer James Goss had been quietly working on: an ambitious multi-Doctor story called Time Lord Victorious, taking its overarching title from the tenth Doctor's declaration at the end of "The Waters of Mars". This involved the tenth Doctor taking on the mantle of Time Lord Victorious (y'know, the thing that they sidestepped when they got to The End of Time), while an enemy from the Dark Times of ancient Gallifrey appeared. There were a lot of tie-ins to this story (including comics, audios, books, and even little toy figurines), but for our purposes there was also a five-part webseries released on YouTube called Daleks!
I admittedly haven't followed the Time Lord Victorious storyline too closely (since it's very complicated; Goss was at one point suggesting that one way to experience it was to simply pick a character you were interested in and just check out those stories), so I don't really know how much this ties into the larger plot. But from what I can gather, Daleks! is a pretty early part of the arc, which means that there's not much foreknowledge required to appreciate this (probably by design, since this is just about the most easily accessible part of Time Lord Victorious). And so instead what we get is a fully CG animation, featuring the Daleks fighting a mysterious entity.
The most immediate thing you notice when watching this is that it's been rendered at 60 fps -- over twice as fast as standard Doctor Who. The other thing you notice is that, although they do a good job with what they've got, this isn't a prestige project but rather something they've put together with the resources they have available. Generally this doesn't matter too much, since the majority of what we see are Daleks and Mechanoids and other robots which don't need lots of fine-grained curves and such, but the times when such things are called for (such as the various explosions that happen, most of which resemble large overlayed geometric shapes of varying degrees of transparency), it does pull you out ever so slightly. In fact, the overall effect of this, combined with the smoothness of the motion and various camera moves, is one of watching an Xbox 360-era video game cutscene being rendered in real time by the game's engine. It's sometimes hard to shake this feeling, in fact.
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| The Mechanoid Queen and the Dalek Emperor in the Queen's Star Chamber. ("Planet of the Mechanoids") ©BBC |
But it also sometimes feels as if Daleks! is playing things slightly safe. We don't get crazy huge machines or much in the way of counterplots from, say, a small band of people trying to defeat the Daleks, and so in that respect it doesn't quite feel like the comic. What we get is interesting in terms of watching the Daleks try to outmaneuver both the Mechanoids and the Entity, but it's lacking a certain flair. Watching the Dalek Strategist put its plan into motion to, say, trap the Mechanoids in a position where they have to aid the Daleks is interesting, but when it only involves a small handful of Mechanoids actually doing anything beyond flying and spinning in the background, it feels a bit like a missed opportunity. And the fact that this mysterious Entity pursuing the Daleks is never explained satisfactorily also leads to a vague sense of dissatisfaction. And occasionally the dialogue is silly ("The damage is incalculable," one of the Islos Archivian robots states. "Calculate it!" the Chief Archivian commands), but Daleks! doesn't lean into this purple prose the way you might hope, so it sometimes devolves into Daleks and Mechanoids stating dry facts at each other.
So I dunno. Perhaps this works better in the context of Time Lord Victorious, with the Dalek Emperor and Strategist both getting more to do there, but on its own Daleks! never quite reaches the heights it's aiming for. I can appreciate the craft that went into making it -- this could have easily been excruciating to watch, and it's never that -- but the overall storyline is brought down by its lack of ambition; it's true that their reach doesn't exceed their grasp, but you kind of wish it had. There's nothing particularly wrong with Daleks!, and indeed some might find it extremely enjoyable (and, judging by the YouTube comments, there's more than a few such people). But for me, it's just a touch uninvolving.
But before we go, we've got a Lockdown video to mention: "U.N.I.T. On Call", which was actually released between the first and second parts of Daleks! in response to the second UK Lockdown in November 2020.297 This one's a little more openly heartfelt than the previous Lockdown videos, concerned less with expanding our knowledge of Doctor Who and more with chatting with the third Doctor, the Brigadier (both admirably played by Jon Culshaw), and Jo Grant (hooray! Katy Manning's back!), as they reassure us that things won't be like this forever here in 2020 and to keep focusing on the positive and not to lose hope. It's a worthwhile message.
September 14 continued: "The Genuine Article"
We do have one final Lockdown webcast to discuss: the 14 February sketch "The Genuine Article", produced during the UK's third COVID lockdown. This one ties in with "Love & Monsters" and features the tenth Doctor confronted by the Abzorbaloff's father. This one is actually animated and directed by William Grantham, the person who designed the Abzorbaloff for "Love & Monsters" back in 2006, when he was nine. This one also features a "design a monster" winner in the form of the Krakanord, an insect in a specially-designed suit with buzzsaw blades and an acid gun that is enlisted by the Abzorbaloff's father to gain revenge on the Doctor but which ends up killing the dad because it's ticked off at being stuck in an alcove for three months, living on nothing but Earth food which it detests. This is a fun, silly little skit, with an incredibly impressive performance by Elliott Crossley as the tenth Doctor (seriously, I genuinely thought I was listening to David Tennant), and a nice way to close out the Lockdown videos.
Footnotes
295 David Tennant/Michael Sheen
296 Doctor Who Magazine includes "The Long Song (Lockdown Cover)" in between these two shorts, but as it's not actually any sort of narrative I won't cover it here, other than to note that they did a great job with it.
297 Actually, there were a couple more Lockdown videos released around this time, but one's a fanciful rendition of Doctor Who's 57th Anniversary credits (which at one point features every credited actor to appear on the show) and the other is a Lockdown Choir version of Abigail's song from "A Christmas Carol" -- so as before, although they're well done, neither is a new narrative.