Gridlock

"Gridlock" ? at times very impressive, beautiful even, yet tainted with frustration and a sense of "what might have been".

I've read many reviews on Outpost Gallifrey in the last year or two, and only now have I found it necessary to add my own thoughts to the mix. I've not felt compelled to write a review before this and I'm still not sure what has encouraged it now. Suffice it to say that "Gridlock" had the hallmarks of being a great story, in the mould of say "The Impossible Planet" or "Father's Day", yet niggles which seem to have developed over the last season or so have dogged what could have been a firm favourite.

Let's start with the good points then. The obvious first one is the continued excellence of David Tennant. Someone recently wrote in the press that he's dangerously close to becoming the definitive Doctor, and I have to say I agree with this estimate. Tennant conveys each facet of the Doctor's personality with equal ease. The humour he displays at certain points through his interactions with even the minor characters he encounters in his quest to reach the fast lane is balanced with the anger he shows at the "mood sellers" encountered early on in the episode. Tennant is excellent at the anger. We've certainly moved on from the Sylvester McCoy days? Whereas Christopher Eccleston's Doctor seemed to use anger as his raison d'etre, Tennant's Doctor is more sparing here, the occasional outbursts seeming more effective than a permanent coil of what seemed to be the Ninth Doctor's resentment at his life. Of course this is probably best explained within the context of the overarching storyline. Eccleston's Doctor had witnessed first hand ? or so we are led to believe ? the Time War. The anger, profound shock and frustration built up seemed to be mixed with a fear that maybe the power to regenerate had been lost. Now that the Doctor has changed again, there seems to be a new found optimism that things are returning to the Doctor's favour ? he can regenerate, he can defeat villains and monsters and so on. But this is digression. David Tennant has tapped into the Doctor's character so successfully and so effectively blends all aspects of this together in what is such a powerhouse performance, that you tend to forget he had nine predecessors. You simply cannot take your eyes from the screen when he's on as there's always something happening ? he's an electric presence, and yet alien at the same time. I know how he does it ? good acting, but it's a revelation every week. I'm reminded of feeling like I'm back at school again watching Tom Baker ? it's very strange. I must admit to trepidation when I heard Tennant was succeeding Eccleston; I was hoping we'd finally get an old Doctor again, and I still think the late lamented Ian Richardson would have made a superb Doctor, but there you go! When you watch the final scenes of Gridlock, when the Doctor talks about Gallifrey, you almost physically see inside his head and gain some sense of wonder, sadness and loss. Was I the only viewer who thought, "hang on, he's going to cry"? A powerful moment, beautifully acted, and beautifully written by Russell T Davies.

Add to this Freema Agyeman's performance and you start to see, if you've not already done so, why this Doctor and companion work so well. She's extremely assured as Martha, and a superb foil for the Doctor. Agyeman's confidence shines through in every scene, and the different dynamic to the Tennant-Piper relationship is highlighted by her greater pragmatism. Maybe I'm just cynical, but I can't help feeling that her faith in the Doctor is going to be shattered by the end of the season ? is she going to react to the Daleks in much the same way as Tegan Jovanka did, or will she become a victim of the expected end of season revelations and be treated in the same way as Ace in "The Curse of Fenric"? (Look it up newbies?). It's early days though and Agyeman makes Martha such a likeable character that again, you tend to forget Rose? My only concern is that Russell T Davies might reintroduce the family again ? I wasn't keen on the Tylers, and I'm not sure the Joneses will be much better, but let's reserve judgment for now.

Perhaps the other excellent point in the episode was the use of music. I know Murray Gold comes in for a lot of criticism on this site for his "intrusive" music, but I think in this episode he seemed to get the balance right. I'm a massive fan of his theme arrangement - an orchestral version was long overdue ? and here the use of hymns was a beautiful counterpoint to the action, without being overly cloying. All right "Abide with Me" was perhaps a little obvious for the final monologue, but the arrangements were simply exquisite and fitted perfectly. The visuals and the music at the end of the episode were simply excellent, and show how far the show has progressed under the modern stewardship. Full marks also for the stand-out turn by Ardal O'Hanlon as Brannigan; although he was really Thermoman in a cat-suit, he's always likeable, and it would be good to see him return. I'm not sure what everyone else made of him, and perhaps he should have been given a greater role to play within the story, but that's the problem with trying to complete a story in 45 minutes.

And there's the problem in a nutshell. 45 minutes. I was OK until about an hour after the episode, until my subconscious came up, tapped me on the shoulder and said "But what about the Macra?" I'm sure I must have missed something ? and maybe I'll have to watch the repeat, but I'm certain the Doctor just saved the people trapped on the motorway and left the Macra to it! Five minutes to save the world ? let's do what we can seems to be the motto now. All right, maybe the lack of fumes from the traffic would mean the Macra would die anyway, but it seemed that this aspect of the story was rushed. No doubt I'll have started a flame war on these pages now from the forum writers telling me to concentrate, but that's life? Patrick Troughton's Doctor ? or any other Doctor ? would have made sure that the Macra were thoroughly removed. It might have taken four episodes to do it, but the job would be done. My concern here is the speed at which the current stories run. OK, we'll never have six episodes of corridor running, thank heaven, but I think one episode is too short a length for a number of stories, and Gridlock was a case in point. Some stories are perfectly suited to one episode, "The Idiot's Lantern" or "Father's Day" for example, whereas two episodes was a perfect length for "The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit". I just felt the balance was wrong here. It deserved a cliffhanger which would have allowed the action to move from the motorway to other parts of New York. A cliffhanger also allows of course for the dramatic possibility that the Doctor might not just throw a switch and win ? he might have to make sacrifices or really have to think about how best to defeat the monsters. The honour (and the great benefit for youngsters watching) is in the fact that sometimes it IS hard to defeat the enemies, but you grow stronger for doing so, and learn in the process. The Doctor shouldn't really be glib and be able to knock a solution up in five minutes.

Unfortunately I thought the re-introduction of the Macra was wasted. There was nothing really for the Doctor to "confront" as such ? villains or monsters always seem to work better when there's been the direct give-and-take between them and the Doctor. A faceless monster which had no interaction with the Doctor has only really worked a couple of times ? most notably in "Fury from the Deep", ironically again from the Troughton era. Much better perhaps to have reintroduced the Yeti or even the Ice Warriors?

The 45-minute format is too short I think to tell some of the stories which are being told. Far better I think for the production team to have the confidence now to push for 16 episode seasons, have say 6 double episodes with the occasional single episode story. So many of the stories written during the new series have deserved longer screen time, and I think that without being over-critical of Russell T Davies ? he who is the golden-egg laying goose ? his ideas deserve longer expression over two episodes. There are almost too many ideas competing for attention, and I think maybe an editorial re-think is needed. And if Russell's reading this, no-one has yet written a more tense half an hour in the new series yet than in "Bad Wolf" with Rose's supposed death and the reintroduction of the Daleks ? "We have your associate" is still the best line in the new series for me - written so well and delivered with such venom that it makes you feel 12 again, which is what it's all about.

Other negatives ? the nagging feeling to older viewers like me who barely struggled to escape the late 1980s episodes that it's all becoming a bit derivative. I know that's like saying the Grand National's derivative as it always uses the same course, but it's getting easier to spot the origins of each episode. "Gridlock" had a strong smell of "Paradise Towers" left on the shelf for just a bit too long, whereas I was thinking "It's the Unquiet Dead again" during "The Shakespeare Code". Let's have some more variety ? we're big enough and ugly enough to take it. We must cater for the younger viewers of course, and I know we're not going to get Chekhov at 7pm on a Saturday evening, but let's have a couple of real thrillers with some good cliffhangers, political thrillers, or a few more psychological dramas.
We're so nearly there. Just a few tweaks needed, and we can start talking seriously about Golden Ages?