The Long Game

I noted when I reviewed ‘Aliens of London’/‘World War Three’ that, for me, the rot was starting to set in. I was sufficiently impressed with ‘Dalek’ that I’d forgotten this, but with ‘The Long Game’ the feeling came back with a vengeance. And I’ve realised exactly what it is about the series that is bugging me.

Russell T. Davies has made it well known that his primary concern when writing television is characterisation. This is obvious throughout his Doctor Who episodes, with the main emphasis being firmly on the relationship between the Doctor and Rose. The trouble is, the episodes written by Mark Gatiss and Robert Shearman both boasted characterisation that complimented the plot, with memorable supporting characters in form of Charles Dickens in ‘The Unquiet Dead’ and the Dalek in ‘Dalek’. What Davies seems to be doing is concentrating on characterisation to such an extent that his plots are secondary to it and suffer as a result. Worse still is the fact that none of his characters have any depth besides the Doctor and Rose; the supporting characters are usually barely sketched ciphers, with prime examples here being the Editor and Cathica, neither of whom we learn anything meaningful about; the Editor is a villain, Cathica is a journalist, but beyond that we get no insight into what motivates them. There are obvious exceptions, including Mickey and Adam, but both of these exist purely to emphasis the bond between the Doctor and Rose, and Rose’s suitability as companion material.

This is painfully obvious in ‘The Long Game’, as Davies uses Adam as a contrast to Rose. Consider the similarities; both step out of the TARDIS for the first time to find themselves in the far future on a space station orbiting the Earth. Both initially suffer from culture shock as they stare out of observation platforms at the Earth below, and both are provided with a reassuring link to their lives in the past via the contrivance of Rose’s modified phone. At this point, they make different choices; Rose wanders around with a sense of wonder, talking to various people, whereas Adam quickly sees the potential of his new situation and tries to exploit it, having a chip implanted in his head so that he can download information about his future to make use of when he gets home. The result is that the furious Doctor dumps him back home, informing him, “I only take the very best” and looking pointedly at Rose. Which is fine, except that Davies did exactly the same thing with Mickey in ‘Rose’, presenting two humans of the same age group and background with something alien and terrifying; Mickey ended up gibbering in terror, whereas Rose turned into Mrs. Peel and saved the Doctor. We were given another reminder of Rose’s suitability as a companion in ‘Aliens of London’/‘World War Three’, with Mickey redeeming himself but turning down the Doctor’s offer of travelling with them because he believes that he is incapable of coping with the lifestyle. We don’t need reminding that Rose is great, the Doctor keeps pointing it out to us. It’s also rather ironic that as a result of Davies’ use of Adam here, Rose is relegated to the traditional companion role her, following the Doctor around and asking questions, and being used as leverage over him by the villain.

Then there’s the Doctor. The portrayal of the Ninth Doctor is proving rather interesting, as he seems to be a bit of bastard and not somebody I’d actually like to go travelling with. He’s quick to judge people, and his treatment of Adam here is a case in point; Adam’s actions in ‘The Long Game’ are a mistake, but understandable. Yet the Doctor gives him no second chances, dumping him back at home and rather nastily warning him, “If you show that head to anyone, they’ll dissect you in seconds. You’ll have to live a very quiet life.” This is of course after he not only took Adam to the future and left him wandering about on his own anyway, having told him, “The thing is Adam, time travel is like visiting Paris; you can’t just read the guide book, you need to throw yourself in”, but also after he gave him a credit chip with unlimited credit that allowed him to have a chip fitted in the first place. The point being, that this Doctor is short-tempered, unforgiving, and very quick to judge others. He also threatens the Editor with physical violence, and looks like he’s going to punch Adam at the end; as the Editor says, “Ooh, he’s tough, isn’t he?” All of which makes for an unsympathetic lead character, and is presumably a result of the trauma he feels as a result of seeing Gallifrey destroyed by the Daleks, and whilst I don’t actually like the Doctor as a result, he does make an interesting character in this respect.

Unfortunately, in another key respect, he’s simply irritating across the board. I had put some of my growing dissatisfaction with the Ninth Doctor down to Christopher Eccleston’s occasionally forced and stilted performance, but I think its more down to Davies’ writing, since I had no problem with the Doctor in either ‘The Unquiet Dead’ and ‘Dalek’. This is a Doctor who does tricks, using his sonic screwdriver to pull rabbits out of hats in a way that makes me think it’s time the Terileptils paid him another visit. Yet again somebody else saves the day; having bumbled around until Rose saved him in ‘Rose’, and having relied on Mickey to blow up 10 Downing Street in ‘Aliens of London’/‘World War Three’, he here depends on Cathica to save the day, adding to the air of impotence that surrounds this Doctor. The other main problem lies again with his relationship with the Rose. Having indulged her by informing her that they are in the year two hundred thousand and that they are on a space station he rather sweetly lets Rose point all of this out to Adam in order to show off. Almost immediately afterwards however and for the rest of the episode, he starts acting like a jealous lover. When Adam faints, the Doctor tells Rose, “He’s your boyfriend” and she replies, “Not any more”, a badly scripted a juvenile exchange that makes the pair of them sound like horny adolescents squabbling. Even whilst furious at Adam for getting himself chipped and letting the Editor know all about him, his only reprimand to Rose when he learns that she has given Adam the TARDIS key, and thus provided the Editor with the chance to get his hands on it is, “You and your boyfriends.” Basically, we’ve gone from the kind of subtle sexual tension that arises from the gentle flirting between leads seen in programmes like The Avengers to a situation where the Doctor seems to be actively trying to get into Rose’s pants. I don’t especially want the Doctor to start having sexual relationships with his companions, but if it will put an end to this feeble sixth form sexual tension and petty jealousy, I’d rather he just shagged her on the console and had done with it.

Anyway, what about the plot? For one thing it’s rather flimsy, and is extremely lazily executed, with a massive infodump from the Editor and yet another big explosion at the end. It has already been described as “old school” and it certainly feels like a rather clichйd nod to the past; some fans hypothesized that Simon Pegg’s character would turn out to be the Master, and he might as well have done, since the Editor is a smug, self-satisfied, gloating, chuckling megalomaniac with a goatee, who sells out the human race to a big alien monster and then tries to leg it at the end. Pegg is also slightly hammy at times, which only heightens the effect, but I must admit that despite my reservations about the episode, the Editor is easily the best and most entertaining thing about it. The plot is also used as an excuse for some more satire, and as in ‘Aliens of London’/‘World War Three’ it’s far too unsubtle to be called subtext, with commentary on the use of the media to manipulate the public, such as when the Editor notes, “Create a climate of fear, and its easy to keep the borders closed. It’s just a matter of emphasis.” Cathica explains the lack of aliens on Satellite Five by telling the Doctor, “I suppose immigration’s tightened up, it had to what with all the threats” but is of course unable to specify what these threats are. The trouble is that whereas the satire in, for example, ‘The Sunmakers’ was used to drive the plot, here it feels bolted on so that Davies can take casual pot-shots about whatever issue happens to on his mind this week.

‘The Long Game’ is at least quite well directed by Brian Grant, with some particular scenes worth mentioning, including Suki’s discovery of the rather grisly frozen corpse, and the swift cut between the Doctor bundling Adam into the TARDIS on Satellite Five and the throwing him out into his living room. The design is bizarre, with very retro sets that like a nineteen-eighties attempt to depict the future, with padded red leather walls, perforated metal seats, and junk food outlets. The Jagrafess also looks quite good, although it does remind that the scripted reasons for keeping aliens out instead of trying to manipulate them like humans is more down to budgetary limitations than plot logic. The guest cast is also generally good, with Bruno Langley working perfectly well as Adam, Christine Adams as Cathica, and Tamsin Grief as the slightly sinister yet slightly seductive Nurse.

But it isn’t enough to save the episode. Yes, ‘The Long Game’ is mildly entertaining, but it really ought to have been so much better. So many details annoy me here, from Rose’s utter stupidity in forgetting the word “Jagrafess” seconds after it’s been said several times, to the fact that yet again a character in a Davies script keeps uttering “Oh my god!” which is starting to feel like a lazy catchphrase. I’m also getting board with his sense of humour; I didn’t mind the burping wheelie bin or the farting Slitheen, but I don’t want this kind of base humour every single week, and in this episode we get the facile inclusion of the utterly ridiculous vomitomatic. But the part of the episode that annoyed me like no other was the diabolical final scene, as Adam’s mum comes into the room. Guess what? She clicks her fingers! No, really, did anyone see that coming? As a consequence, ‘The Long Game’ had the unexpected result of making me try to remember when I last heard somebody clicking their fingers in real life, and coming the conclusion that it doesn’t actually happen all that often.

So basically, I’m starting to realize that whilst I’m still entertained by the new series, I’m looking forward to the three remaining episodes not scripted by Davies far more than the ones that he’s penned. Which does rather bode well for next week.