Bad Wolf

I think RTD needs to look up the word В‘satireВ’ in the dictionary В– somewhere in the definition the word В‘ironyВ’ is mentioned. Now irony doesnВ’t seem to feature much in this episode. Nor does subtlety for that matter. RTD presents us with satire for the under 5s: instead of extrapolating the philistine dross that is Big Brother into a future scenario in which it takes on a different guise with a different name and set but detectably similar theme which the audience can pick up on and compare to their contemporaneous equivalent, RTD decides to simply reproduce exactly the same programme, along with its other cousin reality TV monstrosities, replace its hosts with androids who are obviously modeled on the real life presenters, and place it ludicrously over 200,000 years in the future. What we get then isnВ’t satire at all, but just direct replication of said programmes presumably as a vehicle to further cement New Who in the commercial public consciousness by meshing it with other TV brandnames (no doubt in a further misguided attempt to get teenagers identifying with it) without any notable sense of irony whatsoever. This is laziness of the imagination on a stupendous scale. Robert Holmes provided biting tax-related satire in The Sunmakers with references such as В‘inner retinueВ’ and it is rather despairing to deduce from this episodeВ’s satirical failure just how RTD perceives his modern day audience: incapable of detecting subtext. Either RTD is overly cynical about his audience or society really has degenerated intellectually in the last 15 odd years to a clutch of atavists who need everything literally spelt out in front of their eyes. So we also get The Weakest Link, also with exactly the same sets and an absurd and pitifully written reference to В‘Call My Bluff В– with real gunsВ’. What the hell possessed him to write that line? It is amateur beyond belief. Greatest Show in the Galaxy was the last great Who satire, and, despite some fairly cringeworthy scenes here and there, demonstrated quite consummately how Who really can do this difficult genre to great effect. Happiness Patrol, despite its garishness, was another consummate satire (though it included some incongruous embarrassments script-wise with lines like В‘no more queues at the post officeВ’). For GodВ’s sake, even the fairly staid and lifeless Colin Baker era produced a reasonable satire В– and surprisingly prophetic take on the future of (reality) TV, specifically voting programmes, not properly manifest back in 1985 В– with Vengeance on Varos. One must ask then what exactly RTD was trying to say here? This is not polemical in particularly, only possibly in its rather lazy and unimaginative take on terminal versions of reality game shows, but this is 16 year old stuff. There is no satire here, at least not noticeably, because RTD doesnВ’t seem to be saying anything at all about the nature of reality TV, only reproducing it on a slightly more extreme level В– therefore one can only assume it is yet another symptom of his all-too-blatant obsession with stamping popular culture all over the face of a once truly escapist and eccentric series. RTD missed a brilliant opportunity to truly criticize and comment on the insidious nature of reality TV here В– a massive disappointment.

Nevertheless, the Trinny and Susannah scenes were actually quite well done and more understated than the clumsier others; their android equivalents were nicely designed and reminiscent of the Kandyman (which isnВ’t necessarily a criticism). Ann RobinsonВ’s robot alter ego was also well realized despite the ludicrous red wig it had on. And a nice touch with the Big Brother eye symbol was the milky way swirling within its pupil on close up. So, the direction of these scenes В– JackВ’s prancing around nude and picking a gun from his arse aside В– just about managed to override the simplicity and satirical barrenness of the scriptorial concepts; the better elements of these scenes reminded me a little of some of the McCoy era В‘oddballsВ’ such as Happiness Patrol and Greatest Show. There was a feeling of menace too, which was a masterful achievement for a director given such embarrassingly one-dimensional material to play with. Of course you may take it as read that I absolutely detest reality TV and regard it as the death of quality programming, and that I cringed at the sound of the Big Brother theme in some of the scenes В– an horrendously sterile and visceral electronic racket of a theme В– and find the only irony in this part of the episode being, unnervingly, the fact that the ultimate in unimaginative television gets a plug in В– what was once and still could be В– the ultimate in imaginative TV: Doctor Who.

Still, letВ’s just say RTD might just about have got away with his soundbite, commercially-preoccupied take on Who this time round В– why? Well, because other aspects to this episode were well-realised and sufficiently intriguing to help the viewer В‘get overВ’ these cringeworthy reality TV intrusions; namely the behind-the-scenes programme riggers and particularly the excellently realized woman wired up rather like the Emperor Dalek in Evil of the Daleks, and the very impressive and vast sets they inhabited; and of course the impressive scale of the cliffhanger. What this episode had over all the other RTD episodes was a genuine energy, sense of menace and suspense, and engaging forward-moving drive to a genuinely thrilling climax. That, and the brilliantly realized What Not To Wear androids, rescue Bad Wolf by a hairВ’s breadth from being taped over on my video recorder (metaphorically speaking) and confined to collecting dust along with Aliens/War III and End of the World, the latter completely ruined by inclusion of a Britney Spears song, which is a pity as otherwise it stood up as a reasonable episode. Bad Wolf is easily RTDВ’s best episode so far, despite the appalling failure at satire by just duplicating contemporary reality programmes down to theme tunes, sets and logos (was RTD saving on the budget or what?) and placing them in a completely unbelievable future date, as usual. I hope this Relative Time Disorder is eclipsed by what promises to be a big climax in the next episode В– letВ’s hope Captain Jack doesnВ’t take a shine to DavrosВ’s nodules!