Doctor Who: Series 9... one month away
On September 19th, Peter Capaldi will return to our screens for his second season as the Doctor. Two trailers have been released in anticipation of this event, and speculation and criticism have run rampant ever since. I've been a fan of Doctor Who for more than 25 years, and have suffered through the poor effects and tight budget of the classic years; enjoyed the highs of the ninth and tenth Doctors; and felt mixed emotions with the eleventh and twelfth Doctor's stories.
Peter Capaldi is an excellent, excellent actor but I don't think he was given the best stories to work with in Series 8. Episodes like The Caretaker, Kill the Moon and Listen were cringe worthy, while episodes like Mummy on the Orient Express, and Flatline were excellent. The two part series finale was both hot and cold, as there were moments of writing stupidity that had me shaking my head (and fist at my television) and times of cleverness that made the story passable. I'm not really sure what to expect from the new series, but I'm going in with slightly lower expectations than I had for Series 8.
This post though is not to bash or celebrate the past, but to look to the future, and breakdown the trailers a little bit; which was something I was hesitant to do. I'd like to be surprised when I watch the show. I'd like to go in with no expectations and no spoilers, but since our world has become so connected it is nearly impossible to visit any social media sites and not catch a glimpse of what is coming up.
What did I get from the first trailer? Well, it's obvious that we're getting Daleks and Zygons and the Master...sorry, "Missy" again in Series 9. We also get a lot of running and lots of corridors. This trailer really didn't give much away, possibly because the cuts were so quick and clips so short. It had been long announced by the BBC themselves that Michelle Gomez would be returning, so seeing her and Clara is not really a spoiler; and what season doesn't have Daleks? Well, Series 6 actually... I'm leery about the "narration" dialogue in the trailer, because I think a lot of it has been taken out of context and from different episodes to tease us on. The biggest reveal, and biggest question, from the first trailer is Maisie Williams. The Game of Thrones actress was confirmed as a guest star quite a while ago, and it was speculated that she would be playing anyone from Susan (the Doctor's granddaughter) to Jenny (the Doctor's clone "daughter" played by Georgia Moffett) to Romana (the Doctor's Time Lady companion from the classic series played by both Mary Tamm and Lala Ward). It was later announced that she won't be playing a returning character.
The best thing that I took from this trailer was at 1:05 when we hear Capaldi announce "I'm the Doctor, and I save people". Hopefully this will mark a return to the kinder, more protective, more confident, more authoritative and fatherly character that I've grown to miss over the last few seasons.
Now, what did I get from the second trailer? It's a bit shorter, but perhaps a bit more informative, as the scenes were longer and we got a bit more dialogue, and it was actual dialogue from actual episodes. I must say that I'm very curious about the robots that appeared at the 9 second mark, if they are even robots at all (they could be someone or something in armour, you never know). If you look closely, it would appear that their episode has viking characters in it (0:33). The Doctor appears alongside UNIT troops (0:49), and Missy is in the Dalek episode (0:41). I'm also now very curious to see what that fire breathing lion-like character (0:19 and 0:43) is.
My big takeaway from the second trailer is at 0:50, where Clara hugs the Doctor and he touches her hand. Hopefully this means there will be no more of the ridiculously condescending and rude dialogue that we got last season where someone thought it would be funny if the Doctor repeatedly insulted Clara's appearance.
I'm a bit confused about the Doctor's costume now. When Peter Capaldi was first announced and the costume revealed, it was cool, stylish and suave: a white collared shirt, the black boots, and his long coat. Then it morphed into a t-shirt, and a bedazzled shirt, and then a hoodie... Remember, the clothes do make the man....hopefully they sort it out.
A quick trip to wikipedia and I see that they've announced the episode writers and the directors for the series, but they haven't released all the episode titles. It would appear that showrunner Steven Moffat is stepping back a bit and writing fewer episodes this year, though he is handling the first and last two episodes. This actually is the best news I've read all day. I thought he was an excellent writer under Russell T. Davies, but without someone holding his reigns, I haven't liked what he's done with the show. I'm also glad to see that Jamie Mathieson is back for another go, but I'm very nervous that Peter Harness is tackling the two Zygon episodes, as he was responsible for the horrendous Kill the Moon last year.
This was my first Cultjer article, and hopefully it came out okay, and hopefully it will be the first of many. As the episodes air, I will be posting my reviews of them, so check back. You can find my reviews of past episodes of Doctor Who as well as my film reviews at theswitz.wordpress.com
