| THE IDIOT'S LANTERN by Mark Gatiss |
| Story 17 Synopsis: The Doctor tries to take Rose to see Elvis Presley on the Ed Sullivan Show, but instead they land in London, the day before the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, 1953. Rose wonders why so many houses have television aerials when she thought they were scarce. The Doctor learns that many people have been taken away, supposedly having become monsters. But in fact, they've just had their faces removed. He tracks the van taking the victims, to find it's just the police keeping them stored safely. DI Bishop can't fathom what's behind it. Rose examines the TV, and traces it to Magpie Electricals, a nearby shop. But Mr Magpie is just the stooge for the Wire, which attacks Rose and takes her face. Angered, the Doctor makes the connection of the new televisions, but when he comes to Magpie Electricals, he nearly loses his face. Magpie takes a portable transmitter containing the Wire, to Alexandra Palace, whilst the Coronation is in progress. The Doctor races after him, having collected a jumble of electrical equipment which he puts together on the way. Magpie scales the transmitter, beaming the Wire's signals out, and sucking faces in. But the Doctor manages to turn the transmitter into a receiver, storing the Wire on a harmless videotape, and restoring everyone's faces. The Doctor and Rose enjoy a streetparty, as the Coronation celebrations go on. |
| Review:- Gatiss scored well in the previous series with the creepy terror of The Unquiet Dead. Here, he takes a different tack. It's June 1953, London, although not for the first time this series, the Doctor plans to take Rose to one location and finds that they've landed elsewhere. Of course, if this story is set after the shenanigans on the alt-Earth last week, then fair enough that the TARDIS should be a little shaky. Then again, Rose seems to have got over Mickey's loss very quickly, so maybe some time has passed? Maybe we'll find out later... or maybe these sorts of details don't mean a thing. Anyway, Londoners are being carted off, after apparently mutating into monsters. But it's actually the police taking them away, for their own good, and they're not monstrous, just facially-challenged. And there's a fascist-esque chap stirring trouble anyway. And their faces have been taken away by televisions, recently supplied by local dealer, Mr Magpie. Into this world roar the Doctor and Rose on his motorbike. He's soon bossing the "fascist" father around, and trying to liberate the man's family, as well as investigate the "monsters". When the Doctor roars off on a lead, Rose is left to track the source, but pays for her deduction... And so it goes on. Yet somehow, it doesn't seem to matter. The Doctor and Rose barge into the Connolly household like the friends from hell, and then turn things upside down. Whilst the Doctor comes out okay from his barney with Eddie, the father, Rose's bossing around seems so silly. If it's supposed to show her equal with the Doctor, it doesn't work. Her deduction of the connection of the TVs to the disappearances feels like a writer justifying a character's supposed cleverness, rather than a genuine moment of observation. Her comeuppance is rather amusing, and shows how she isn't an equal at all. The Doctor pals up with the police in a great scene where his interrogation turns 180 degrees. But there are more flaws here. If the faceless victims have been held for months, why aren't they dead, with no faces? Why hasn't DI Bishop worked out what took Rose about 10 seconds? He does at least provide some help to the Doctor when they finally go to confront Magpie. Then we have Maureen Lipman, nominally as the Wire. I'm afraid it would have to take a lot more than this to make me tolerate Ms Lipman on my telly. She hams up her part, irritating where she should be ferocious. Her plan of consuming millions of faces during the Coronation is quite dramatic, but what would it really achieve? And how come, when she is blandly defeated, do all her victims get restored? Sadly, answers like that were few and far between. The theme seems to have been about how television can be a bad thing. Which with a poorly-explained alien in a 1953 setting, doesn't work at all. I can put up with the dramatic climb-the-transmitter finish, but the ludicrous pseudo-acclaim for a false memory of a lost England seems so silly. And for the Doctor to claim "God save the Queen", when not that long ago he was sniggering that the Royal family were werewolves is a bit slack. It tried. But it bored. |
| Disclaimer: I have watched this story. |