Bad Wolf

Drivel. After watching В“Boom TownВ” and thinking nothing could be worse, along came В“Bad WolfВ”. Having sat through В“The Web PlanetВ”, В“Horns Of NimonВ” and В“Delta And The BannermenВ”, В“Bad WolfВ” ranks up there as one of the most embarrassing episodes in the seriesВ’ history. Where can one start to explain just how embarrassing this pretence at cleverness is?

The first point that people seem to hold is that Bad Wolf is a satire. I am pretty gob-smacked by the amount of people who have hailed this episode as, to quote one site, В“a brilliant satire on modern reality-TV and game showsВ”. Which is rather funny when one considers the meaning of the word satire: В“a literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit.В” And while thereВ’s plenty of derision coming from EcclestonВ’s Doctor (as usual, for example, the В“whole human race reduced to mindless sheepВ” line, repeated from В“The Long GameВ”, although one wonders why since reality-TV doesnВ’t imply that people are mindless sheep, just that they have very bad taste), the only irony here is that Bad Wolf contains all other aspects applicable to what most people would call a satire. Compared to В“The Sun MakersВ”, it has the subtlety of a bull in a china shop; compared to the genuine moral messages in В“Vengeance On VarosВ”, it is filled with irrelevant platitudes; and compared to В“The Happiness PatrolВ”, it lacks both creativity and feeling. This is an episode that displays more sophistry than sophistication. That RTD has used popular contemporary game shows (and hosts) rather than invent his own, which could either mirror the content of said game shows or reflect similar themes, is sheer laziness. ItВ’s not clever, itВ’s not trying to poke fun or be witty, itВ’s just a cheap ratings-grabber completely lacking in originality. What more do you need to justify this claim than the fact that 200,000 years in the future (exactly as in В“The Long GameВ”) everyone is wearing 20th century clothes! Even when they were just jumpsuits with exotic symbols drawn on them or spikey foam attached, Doctor Who costumes have always tried to be different, no matter how ludicrous some of the outcomes. That people in the far-flung 4th Great And Bountiful Human Empire wear the same clothes we do, act the same way we do, watch the same shows we do, is not reflective of a genius writer but an uninspiring hack. And this doesnВ’t bother anyone?

(And again on creativity: why have all the stories in the season been set in London, Cardiff or a space station? When the series first began in В’63, the travellers ended up on an alien planet in the second story! And here we have gone one whole season without. I guess whatВ’s really worse, is not just that all the stories have been set in these rather dull locations, but that В“The Long GameВ” and В“Bad WolfВ” are actually set in the same location!)

The second point is on death. Now from what I can see, the only point of introducing Lynda was as a Rose substitute so that after RoseВ’s apparent death, viewers would assume she had really died and that Lynda would now be taking her place on board the TARDIS. (ItВ’s not for nothing that the two characters are almost identical.) Is this a clever ploy to fool the audience into believing that Rose is dead? Perhaps, and if it is, it is quite clever. Unfortunately, like many similar moments in the new series thus far, the illusion is completely let down when Rose is revealed to be safe and well about ten minutes later! At least when we thought Peri died in В“Trial Of A Time LordВ”, we didnВ’t find out she was still alive until several episodes later.

The whole issue of using the death of main characters in drama to create tension, pathos or some such reaction from the audience, is only useful when the character really dies or at least is dead for an extended period of time, long enough for the audience to become accustomed to the fact. We have already had one Slitheen come back from the dead, weВ’ve had the entire cast of В“The Empty Child/The Doctor DancesВ”, weВ’ve had RoseВ’s dad (who came back from the dead twice!), now we have Rose, and in В“The Parting Of WaysВ” it will be Captain Jack. And then thereВ’s the Daleks. ItВ’s great to see them back and they do look superb but itВ’s annoying that here we have a species who were extinct bar one but six episodes ago. And now theyВ’ve returned in force through a less-than-dramatic loophole only to be completely exterminated again as a species in the next episode! Arrrggghhh! What is the point of killing and reviving characters so frequently??? We know the Daleks will be back in a season or two anyway, so why make grand claims to have destroyed them completely?

Point three: the Bad Wolf arc. Now this is something laughably ridiculous. Lots of people have commented how Super Rose, having been able to send messages back in time and space, sent such obscure and unhelpful ones. Very few people have commented, though, that the messages Rose did send to herself were actually rarely seen or heard by her! The references in The End Of The World, Dalek, The Long Game, FatherВ’s Day (give or take), and The Doctor Dances, would probably not have been noticed by Rose, either occurring when she was not present, being so small as to go unnoticed or else being in a foreign language! Once again we have what has become typical of the new series: a pretence at cleverness, and only that. There is nothing clever at all about the Bad Wolf arc. Even the revelation of what Bad Wolf is is unsatisfying and sloppy. Many of the theories fans have come up with are far superior than the one RTD has, which begs the question why he is penning so many episodes. Yes, people will get down on their knees and worship RTD for bringing back Doctor Who, but when it all comes down to it, a review is a review, not a homage. I am glad that the new series is back and while some of it is really good, with some cracking stories, a lot of it is a pale imitation of Doctor Who of old.

And the last point, although there are many more I could make and IВ’m sure others will make one day when everyoneВ’s stopped worshipping RTD, is regarding characters. For me, one of the greatest disappointments of the new series is the lack of hero-figures it contains. When I watched Doctor Who as a kid, the Doctor and his companions were always people you could look up to, to emulate in life and try to make a better world. This new series has very few such characters.

The Doctor seems more incompetent than effective, unable to resolve any issues himself and makes blunder after blunder. After presenting the Doctor throughout this season as a killer, we see him in В“Bad WolfВ” realising that his past actions have created the world in which he now is. Strangely, however, he only dwells on this very important point for a minute, as opposed to the half-hour of pedestrian philosophy and padding for a plot we had in the previous episode, В“Boom TownВ”. The way the Doctor has been shown in this new series, one has to wonder why he even bothers to do anything at all, since he canВ’t seem to get anything right and tends to make things a lot worse. The idea was already raised in В“Trial Of A Time LordВ” and rightly resolved as being mostly irrelevant since not only are the DoctorВ’s intentions good but also in the utilitarian balance of things, he tends to do far more good than evil. So why bother to raise the point again В– and not just raise it, but leave it unresolved?

Then thereВ’s the DoctorВ’s line about В“wiping every last Dalek out of the skyВ” (which is technically wrong, since space isnВ’t sky). While I donВ’t have a problem with this intense machismo, which seems to be a very strong trait with EcclestonВ’s Doctor, it is, as usual, the machismo of a eunuch. Regardless of the DoctorВ’s boasts, it will be Rose/Bad Wolf who destroys the Daleks in the final episode of the season, leaving the Doctor doing bugger all. Again this reflects the trend of the entire season: a Doctor who is supposed to be a hero but rarely seems to have the answers to anything and finds himself in situations where he relies on others to do things for him (characters or props, viz. the overuse of the sonic screwdriver В– you can see why JNT decided to get rid of it!). The 9th Doctor is so useless that he might as well give Rose control of the TARDIS and retire. And when the Doctor even confesses to loving В“Bear With MeВ”, IВ’m sure we have to agree that it adds no small amount of В“greatnessВ” to his character.

So thatВ’s the star of the show, although more of a red dwarf than a neutron star. What about the rest of the characters? Captain JackВ’s main motivation in the show seems to be trying to sleep with everything he comes across or else making constant sexual passes and innuendos, to the point where every conversation involving his character is one. Although he adds some needed humour and action to the show, IВ’m sure most parents would love their children to display that certain quality of sexual perversity inherent in Captain Jack. His character is yet another example of how low the show has sunk. A critic of the new series has rightly pointed out that sexual (overtly homosexual) references may have some place in Doctor Who provided that they complement the context and themes in the story. However the gutter innuendo RTD seems to enjoy injecting into the series is pointless, probably just there for cheap jokes and to seem В“contemporaryВ”, and completely irrelevant to both plot and context. That the Doctor should spend even a line of dialogue in a 45-minute show trying appeal to Captain Jack or telling him (when the latter tries to pick up one of the station controllers in this episode) that В“thereВ’s a time and placeВ” for that sort of thing, is abysmal and would have William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee rolling in their graves. RTD doesnВ’t seem to understand himself that В“thereВ’s a time and placeВ” for that kind of muck, and the time and place certainly isnВ’t contemporary Doctor Who. I guess thatВ’s what happens when one person on a programme has so much power he can sanction his own ideas, being both producer and main script-writer. He might be a great soap writer, but RTD sure has a hell of a lot to learn about writing either science-fiction or Doctor Who.

Rose is the only character that is in the slightest way admirable in the new series, even if she is incredibly stupid at times (and this is В“incrediblyВ” for a Doctor Who companion). And while all these characters may be entertaining В– IВ’ll admit, theyВ’re not boring in the slightest В– the level of morality they exhibit leaves more than a lot to be desired.

Ultimately Bad Wolf is an episode in a series that is generally pretending to be clever and creative, but really canВ’t be bothered trying or else doesnВ’t have the talent to do so. (2/10)