DW: Dalek and Jubilee compared
May. 20th, 2008 07:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakBecause several of the New Who scriptwriters were recruited among writers who had written in the Whoverse before, albeit in different media, you get the occasional case where a New Who episode is based on an earlier Old Who novel or audio. Such was the case for the third season two-parter Human Nature/Family of Blood, adapted by Paul Cornell from his own novel Human Nature, and such was the case for the first season episode Dalek, loosely adapted by Rob Shearman from his audioplay Jubilee. Since I've now heard Jubilee, I found it intriguing to compare the two.
The biggest change Shearman had to take into account when adapting a Sixth Doctor story for a Ninth Doctor episode was the biggest change New Who in general made to the Whoverse: the Time War. In fact, Dalek depends so much on the Time War context and both the Doctor and the titular Dalek being the last of their respective races (at that point in New Who) that what I was most curious about was how the original story had done without this, as obviously in the Sixth Doctor's era, Daleks and Time Lords are both thriving and about in masses in the universe. Well, the answer is that Jubilee creates its own epic context by the fact that was the story unfolds, we realize the Doctor and Evelyn have unwittingly created an alternate timeline in which they find themselves. In that timeline, after they helped Britain defeat the Daleks' attempted invasion in 1903, the result was Orwellian to the nth degree. Armed with the leftovers of Dalek technology, the imperialist Britain of 1903 went on to defeat all other nations on earth. Instead of two world wars, there was just one. The Doctor himself was imprisoned, like the last Dalek, while publically declared to be a (dead) hero. (There are two versions of the Doctor in this story - ordinary Six, who arrives with Evelyn in this timeline gone wrong, and the one who lived for a century in the Tower, crippled and tortured.) Britain is now a fascist state, with the Doctor and the Daleks both useful propaganda tools ("the two depend on each other, the Doctor and the Daleks", one of the villains declares helpfully).
There is some dark humour in the depiction of Alt!Britain - the very start of the audio, for example, is a movie trailer for a film about a Doctor versus Daleks story from the Alt!verse, in which the Doctor is an action hero, Evelyn, who in reality is a 55 years old historian, is his Bond girl, and the whole thing is obviously a parody of Indiana Jones, down to the line "Daleks - I hate those guys". But by and large, the depiction of Alt!Britain is unrelentingly black. I wasn't kidding with the Orwellian. In fact, I'd say 1984 is slightly more optimistic, because it does have sympathetic people in it, whereas the only sympathetic human in this story is Evelyn. Which I would say is one of its weaknesses. In Dalek, Adam or Henry Van Statten's female assistant might not be heroes but they're not just sadists, lunatics or fascist tools. One of the points of Jubilee is that the human society created by the victory of the Daleks is every bit as bad as the Daleks themselves, in fact, as the Doctor declares disgustedly near the end, worse, because Daleks were created by Davros to behave in a certain way, whereas humans do have a choice. But I think the idea that you don't need mutated pepperpots to create a horrible fascist society turning on itself because there is nothing else to conquer would have come across if there had been at least one or two human characters a bit more layered.
Of course, the character who gets to be layered is the Dalek, in both versions of the story. If you've already watched Dalek, the big surprise at the end of the first part, where the unnamed prisoner who gets tortured is revealed as a Dalek once the Doctor is locked up with him/it isn't one - the set up is nearly identical - but in both cases it's very effective storytelling. In Jubilee, the Dalek hasn't survived the Time War, but it has been imprisoned and tortured for a century. In both cases, the lack of orders, being wired for conquest in a situation where this is pointless and sheer Dalekian stubbornness have made it shut down until the Doctor shows up. In both cases, it is, however, the companion which truly triggers the change for the Dalek. Since Evelyn as opposed to Rose already knows what a Dalek is, there is no touching (and hence no genetic transfer, that very loved New Who plot device), but the fact she interacts with it despite her knowledge and feels compassion starts to make a difference. Given that the whole "Dalek is affected by Rose" storyline was somewhat controversial among Old School fans back when the episode was broadcast, I found it interesting that this precedent apparantly went by without such controversy, possibly because the audios don't nearly have the same audience. At any rate, the Dalek finding itself unable to kill Evelyn later on because it respects her is something you either buy or you don't, as with the Dalek unable to kill Rose in Dalek; I found it credible given the whole hundred-years-imprisonment scenario, plus the Dalek's realisation that this human society is indeed the ideal Dalek society, and the fact it turned onto itself means ultimate conquest spells doom for the Daleks as well.
In both Jubilee and Dalek, we get a three-fold confrontation between Doctor, Dalek and Companion, because the Doctor doesn't want to believe the Dalek could change, and then once the Dalek draws the ultimate conclusion from change by setting up its own death, is struck by this. This is where the tv version scores higher, because Six while having a long bad backstory with the Daleks isn't as desperate as post-Time War Nine, and so Evelyn asking "what makes you different?" doesn't have the same impact as Rose's "what have you become, Doctor?" The big emotional confrontation, as far as the character of the Doctor is concerned, isn't that one in the audio, it's an earlier one, between the Dalek and the Sixth Doctor who has been imprisoned for the same number of years, losing his legs and his sanity along the way, and that one is every bit as affecting as the Nine and Dalek "you'd make a good Dalek" scene from Dalek. Great vocal performance by Colin Baker.
Jubilee is mainly Evelyn's story, though, whereas I'd say Dalek is both Rose's and the Doctor's story. It's also chock-full of meta. Evelyn is a historian, and the way history is filtered through narration, can be used as propaganda or to justify one's own actions is a main theme. Early on, when Evelyn and the Doctor find out this version of Britain has Daleks not just as bogeymen but as cartoon villains in films, toys and decorations, I thought it was just a cheap pot calling kettle black shot, because after all the BBC profits considerably from its Dalek merchandise, but then when Evelyn expresses disgust the Doctor says something in reply which makes it something else. He points out to her that her society did the same thing - making an old enemy into ridiculous one dimensional caricatures - to the Nazis. (Of course, Terry Nation explicitly created the Daleks in 1963, with their racial purity doctrine, as a sci-fi echo of the Nazis, and in early Dalek stories such as "Invasion of the Daleks", and even later ones like "Genesis of the Daleks", the WWII parallels are very pointed.) Which makes it a swipe at what I usually call "operetta Nazis" (the ones in the Indiana Jones films are excellent examples) instead; as the Doctor says, villains you can safely hate without ever taking them as real as yourself. The irony is that in Jubilee, humans, down to crying "exterminate, exterminate" in the climactic scene where the last Dalek is supposed to be executed in public, are of course just those kind of one-dimensional fascists.
By contrast, by the time New Who and Dalek come along, the whole Nazi/WWII allegory thing had run itself to the ground. Instead, you have the evil and soullessness of unlimited capitalism (always a tried and true DW villain) as embodied via Henry Van Statten, and the Dalek itself more harking back to WWI than WWII with the "two traumatized war veterans meet" constellation it makes with the Doctor. In Jubilee, the fear factor comes from how low the human race can sink (the New Who episode who captures some of that is Last of the Time Lords, actually, with the revelation that the last humans from Malcassario are the Toclafane); in Dalek, while Henry Van Statten's greed is one of the evils of the episode, we also get the reintroduction of the Daleks played for all it's worth, as the sequence where the Dalek frees itself and proceeds to take out most of van Statten's guards is still, imo as always, the best and most efficient tv depiction of a Dalek as genuinenly frightening and a threat. Of course, it very much depends on the visual medium; I can't imagine an audio sequence having the same effect. (In fact, the Dalek in Jubilee does cause some deaths, but they don't work the same way.)
The Dalek in Dalek commits suicide; the one in Jubilee can't do that but asks Evelyn to kill it, which she does. I can see why they didn't do that with Rose; season 1 was rather heavy on Rose as a symbol of innocence and the means to help the Doctor heal emotionally. If this had been the episode where she kills for the first time, even as a means to a suicide, this would not have worked quite in that way. On the other hand, it feels right for Evelyn, who is both an adult, far older than Rose was and, while very much emotionally affected by everything, better equipped to handle something like this.
Jubilee ends with the Doctor and Evelyn encountering Rochester, who in Alt!Britain (now restored to its usual self) was the President/dictator, and in Real!verse apparantly has had a heart attack. As the Doctor revives him, Rochester recognizes him. In the later conversation between the Doctor and Evelyn, they wonder how many others will remember what they were in the Alt!verse and what they're capable of, and there is a strong hint the Doctor remembers what his 100-years-locked-in-the-Tower self experienced, at least partly, which leaves us on a dark note. Dalek ends on a somewhat more optimistic note - you get the impression Nine made step towards healing with Rose's help, while also having shown for the first time (in her presence, that is) that this Time War trauma goes pretty deep - though not for Mr. Van Statten, who ends up mindwiped as many of his previous victims did. (Rochester is somewhat better off, being alive again when he died in the Alt!verse.) Speaking of Henry Van Statten, one gets the impression Rob Shearman does not care too much for the colonial cousins. Jubilee might have fascist Brits instead of capitalist Americans as its human villains, but it also has a sequence where Rochester talks to the "Prime Minister" of the US in what is clearly intended as a parody of the Blair/Bush relationship, with the American ruler using the phrase "standing shoulder to shoulder" which, given that this audio hails from 2003, must have been directly from the headlines, and being exactly the kind of servile poodle which the public perception sees Blair as having been to Bush.
Lastly, and now a personal prejudice: while Dalek is one of my favourite first season of New Who episodes, it also has one of my least favourite lines, to wit: the Dalek describing Rose as "the woman you love" to the Doctor. I liked the relationship between them, but not when it was forced down my throat by such clunkers. (Adam's "everyone can see you two belong together" an episode later also falls into that category.) Jubilee is blessedly free of this, while also being strong on the Doctor/Evelyn friendship; the scene where Evelyn finds Incarcerated!Six is incredibly touching, especially since blustery Six in his normal state is more prone to spar with her, and here it's clear he's broken beyond repair.
The biggest change Shearman had to take into account when adapting a Sixth Doctor story for a Ninth Doctor episode was the biggest change New Who in general made to the Whoverse: the Time War. In fact, Dalek depends so much on the Time War context and both the Doctor and the titular Dalek being the last of their respective races (at that point in New Who) that what I was most curious about was how the original story had done without this, as obviously in the Sixth Doctor's era, Daleks and Time Lords are both thriving and about in masses in the universe. Well, the answer is that Jubilee creates its own epic context by the fact that was the story unfolds, we realize the Doctor and Evelyn have unwittingly created an alternate timeline in which they find themselves. In that timeline, after they helped Britain defeat the Daleks' attempted invasion in 1903, the result was Orwellian to the nth degree. Armed with the leftovers of Dalek technology, the imperialist Britain of 1903 went on to defeat all other nations on earth. Instead of two world wars, there was just one. The Doctor himself was imprisoned, like the last Dalek, while publically declared to be a (dead) hero. (There are two versions of the Doctor in this story - ordinary Six, who arrives with Evelyn in this timeline gone wrong, and the one who lived for a century in the Tower, crippled and tortured.) Britain is now a fascist state, with the Doctor and the Daleks both useful propaganda tools ("the two depend on each other, the Doctor and the Daleks", one of the villains declares helpfully).
There is some dark humour in the depiction of Alt!Britain - the very start of the audio, for example, is a movie trailer for a film about a Doctor versus Daleks story from the Alt!verse, in which the Doctor is an action hero, Evelyn, who in reality is a 55 years old historian, is his Bond girl, and the whole thing is obviously a parody of Indiana Jones, down to the line "Daleks - I hate those guys". But by and large, the depiction of Alt!Britain is unrelentingly black. I wasn't kidding with the Orwellian. In fact, I'd say 1984 is slightly more optimistic, because it does have sympathetic people in it, whereas the only sympathetic human in this story is Evelyn. Which I would say is one of its weaknesses. In Dalek, Adam or Henry Van Statten's female assistant might not be heroes but they're not just sadists, lunatics or fascist tools. One of the points of Jubilee is that the human society created by the victory of the Daleks is every bit as bad as the Daleks themselves, in fact, as the Doctor declares disgustedly near the end, worse, because Daleks were created by Davros to behave in a certain way, whereas humans do have a choice. But I think the idea that you don't need mutated pepperpots to create a horrible fascist society turning on itself because there is nothing else to conquer would have come across if there had been at least one or two human characters a bit more layered.
Of course, the character who gets to be layered is the Dalek, in both versions of the story. If you've already watched Dalek, the big surprise at the end of the first part, where the unnamed prisoner who gets tortured is revealed as a Dalek once the Doctor is locked up with him/it isn't one - the set up is nearly identical - but in both cases it's very effective storytelling. In Jubilee, the Dalek hasn't survived the Time War, but it has been imprisoned and tortured for a century. In both cases, the lack of orders, being wired for conquest in a situation where this is pointless and sheer Dalekian stubbornness have made it shut down until the Doctor shows up. In both cases, it is, however, the companion which truly triggers the change for the Dalek. Since Evelyn as opposed to Rose already knows what a Dalek is, there is no touching (and hence no genetic transfer, that very loved New Who plot device), but the fact she interacts with it despite her knowledge and feels compassion starts to make a difference. Given that the whole "Dalek is affected by Rose" storyline was somewhat controversial among Old School fans back when the episode was broadcast, I found it interesting that this precedent apparantly went by without such controversy, possibly because the audios don't nearly have the same audience. At any rate, the Dalek finding itself unable to kill Evelyn later on because it respects her is something you either buy or you don't, as with the Dalek unable to kill Rose in Dalek; I found it credible given the whole hundred-years-imprisonment scenario, plus the Dalek's realisation that this human society is indeed the ideal Dalek society, and the fact it turned onto itself means ultimate conquest spells doom for the Daleks as well.
In both Jubilee and Dalek, we get a three-fold confrontation between Doctor, Dalek and Companion, because the Doctor doesn't want to believe the Dalek could change, and then once the Dalek draws the ultimate conclusion from change by setting up its own death, is struck by this. This is where the tv version scores higher, because Six while having a long bad backstory with the Daleks isn't as desperate as post-Time War Nine, and so Evelyn asking "what makes you different?" doesn't have the same impact as Rose's "what have you become, Doctor?" The big emotional confrontation, as far as the character of the Doctor is concerned, isn't that one in the audio, it's an earlier one, between the Dalek and the Sixth Doctor who has been imprisoned for the same number of years, losing his legs and his sanity along the way, and that one is every bit as affecting as the Nine and Dalek "you'd make a good Dalek" scene from Dalek. Great vocal performance by Colin Baker.
Jubilee is mainly Evelyn's story, though, whereas I'd say Dalek is both Rose's and the Doctor's story. It's also chock-full of meta. Evelyn is a historian, and the way history is filtered through narration, can be used as propaganda or to justify one's own actions is a main theme. Early on, when Evelyn and the Doctor find out this version of Britain has Daleks not just as bogeymen but as cartoon villains in films, toys and decorations, I thought it was just a cheap pot calling kettle black shot, because after all the BBC profits considerably from its Dalek merchandise, but then when Evelyn expresses disgust the Doctor says something in reply which makes it something else. He points out to her that her society did the same thing - making an old enemy into ridiculous one dimensional caricatures - to the Nazis. (Of course, Terry Nation explicitly created the Daleks in 1963, with their racial purity doctrine, as a sci-fi echo of the Nazis, and in early Dalek stories such as "Invasion of the Daleks", and even later ones like "Genesis of the Daleks", the WWII parallels are very pointed.) Which makes it a swipe at what I usually call "operetta Nazis" (the ones in the Indiana Jones films are excellent examples) instead; as the Doctor says, villains you can safely hate without ever taking them as real as yourself. The irony is that in Jubilee, humans, down to crying "exterminate, exterminate" in the climactic scene where the last Dalek is supposed to be executed in public, are of course just those kind of one-dimensional fascists.
By contrast, by the time New Who and Dalek come along, the whole Nazi/WWII allegory thing had run itself to the ground. Instead, you have the evil and soullessness of unlimited capitalism (always a tried and true DW villain) as embodied via Henry Van Statten, and the Dalek itself more harking back to WWI than WWII with the "two traumatized war veterans meet" constellation it makes with the Doctor. In Jubilee, the fear factor comes from how low the human race can sink (the New Who episode who captures some of that is Last of the Time Lords, actually, with the revelation that the last humans from Malcassario are the Toclafane); in Dalek, while Henry Van Statten's greed is one of the evils of the episode, we also get the reintroduction of the Daleks played for all it's worth, as the sequence where the Dalek frees itself and proceeds to take out most of van Statten's guards is still, imo as always, the best and most efficient tv depiction of a Dalek as genuinenly frightening and a threat. Of course, it very much depends on the visual medium; I can't imagine an audio sequence having the same effect. (In fact, the Dalek in Jubilee does cause some deaths, but they don't work the same way.)
The Dalek in Dalek commits suicide; the one in Jubilee can't do that but asks Evelyn to kill it, which she does. I can see why they didn't do that with Rose; season 1 was rather heavy on Rose as a symbol of innocence and the means to help the Doctor heal emotionally. If this had been the episode where she kills for the first time, even as a means to a suicide, this would not have worked quite in that way. On the other hand, it feels right for Evelyn, who is both an adult, far older than Rose was and, while very much emotionally affected by everything, better equipped to handle something like this.
Jubilee ends with the Doctor and Evelyn encountering Rochester, who in Alt!Britain (now restored to its usual self) was the President/dictator, and in Real!verse apparantly has had a heart attack. As the Doctor revives him, Rochester recognizes him. In the later conversation between the Doctor and Evelyn, they wonder how many others will remember what they were in the Alt!verse and what they're capable of, and there is a strong hint the Doctor remembers what his 100-years-locked-in-the-Tower self experienced, at least partly, which leaves us on a dark note. Dalek ends on a somewhat more optimistic note - you get the impression Nine made step towards healing with Rose's help, while also having shown for the first time (in her presence, that is) that this Time War trauma goes pretty deep - though not for Mr. Van Statten, who ends up mindwiped as many of his previous victims did. (Rochester is somewhat better off, being alive again when he died in the Alt!verse.) Speaking of Henry Van Statten, one gets the impression Rob Shearman does not care too much for the colonial cousins. Jubilee might have fascist Brits instead of capitalist Americans as its human villains, but it also has a sequence where Rochester talks to the "Prime Minister" of the US in what is clearly intended as a parody of the Blair/Bush relationship, with the American ruler using the phrase "standing shoulder to shoulder" which, given that this audio hails from 2003, must have been directly from the headlines, and being exactly the kind of servile poodle which the public perception sees Blair as having been to Bush.
Lastly, and now a personal prejudice: while Dalek is one of my favourite first season of New Who episodes, it also has one of my least favourite lines, to wit: the Dalek describing Rose as "the woman you love" to the Doctor. I liked the relationship between them, but not when it was forced down my throat by such clunkers. (Adam's "everyone can see you two belong together" an episode later also falls into that category.) Jubilee is blessedly free of this, while also being strong on the Doctor/Evelyn friendship; the scene where Evelyn finds Incarcerated!Six is incredibly touching, especially since blustery Six in his normal state is more prone to spar with her, and here it's clear he's broken beyond repair.
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no subject
Date: 2008-05-20 05:10 pm (UTC)Personally, my feelings about these 2 stories boils down like this. Dalek made me love the Ninth Doctor more than I thought was possible. For me, it was a small scale story about him and his guilt and the consequences of his hatred and actions in the Time War. I agree with all the stuff you said about the secondary characters and Rose and the Dalek, but when I watch it, that all gets lost in the hopelessness of Nine and his realization about what the Time War turned him into.
On the other hand, Jubilee gutted me. Like I was actually nauseous listening to it and have never been able to listen to it a second time. Despite the fact that I think it is one of the most brilliantly written and acted BF audios. The idea of the Sixth Doctor, crippled and insane, held prisoner for a century by the fascist results of his own actions...everything he ever fought against...it was too much. Too horrific.
Even if I just compare the two staring Daleks, the Jubilee Dalek affected me more, emotionally, than the one from the TV ep. In Dalek, that survivor was evil. Still a Dalek in every way that mattered up until the point when he became part human. Because of that ridiculous genetic transfer, his "redemption" at the end lacked any real meaning for me. It wasn't a Dalek turning away from his basic genocidal mindset. It was a Dalek that was so consumed with hatred for anything different that it would rather die than be racially impure. Or am I remembering that wrong?
In Jubilee the surviving Dalek made me actually feel for it. Even without it being the last of its kind, it was more alone than the Dalek from tv. A soldier who was just looking for orders, for meaning. The parallel between it and the Sixth Doctor hurt me more than the one between the Ninth Doctor and his Dalek survivor. And after reading this meta I've been trying to figure out why. Here's what I've come up with. I think it's because in Dalek both the Doctor and the Dalek are guilty. They are the last survivors of the most destructive war ever (or so we are meant to think) and in which they were both active participants. Everything else is collateral damage, really. In Jubilee, the Doctor and that Dalek ARE the collateral damage. They were the ones caught up in events and made to suffer the horrific consequences. For me, that makes Jubilee so much more painful.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-20 05:19 pm (UTC)I saw it coming - that the Doctor was the other prisoner, I mean - but it still gutted me as it played out. And you know, it's precisely what Torchwood didn't give us with the ridiculous Jack plotline in the season fine - realistic consequences of what such a horrible fate would have on the hero of the story. But I can understand why you couldn't bear to listen to it a second time. It will be a while until I can, that's for sure.
It was a Dalek that was so consumed with hatred for anything different that it would rather die than be racially impure. Or am I remembering that wrong?
I think there was a certain ambiguity there - i.e. whether the Dalek wanted to die rather than be racially impure, or whether it wanted to die because it didn't want to continue the old Dalek way yet could not see a new one - but I thought the first one was the case, and so I understand why the Jubilee Dalek affected you more - same here. (While I did feel sorry for TV!Dalek as well.)
I think it's because in Dalek both the Doctor and the Dalek are guilty. They are the last survivors of the most destructive war ever (or so we are meant to think) and in which they were both active participants. Everything else is collateral damage, really. In Jubilee, the Doctor and that Dalek ARE the collateral damage. They were the ones caught up in events and made to suffer the horrific consequences.
That sums it up beautifully!
no subject
Date: 2008-05-20 05:12 pm (UTC)I have to say I like Jubilee better than I do Dalek, and I think this has to do more with character material. I love Nine and Rose, but Six and Evelyn are one of my favorite teams, and both Baker and Stables do such a wonderful job. I thought Jubilee did have interesting characters: Rochester, his wife - we learn they're crazy fascists later, but I bought their motivations and their stories.
Great meta, as usual. And yes, the Rose/Doctor thing bugged me when they tried to shove it down our throats - as a contrast, I like the moment in The Unquiet Dead when Nine and Rose think they're about to die and grab each other's hands and say they're glad they met each other. It's a touching moment, but I'm not forced to read they are in love out of it. This was a thin line they walked with Rose.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-20 05:26 pm (UTC)I love Nine and Rose, but Six and Evelyn are one of my favorite teams, and both Baker and Stables do such a wonderful job.
Six and Evelyn as a team win over Nine and Rose in my fannish love, too, but I will say both teams are used at their best in their respective stories.
Rochester, his wife - we learn they're crazy fascists later, but I bought their motivations and their stories.
See, it wasn't that I didn't buy it but that I thought they were painted as unrelentingly evil. Rochester might kid himself about wanting to be a good man in a self-pitying way, but it's clear from the get go he's vile, and not forced into anything. Miriam has a moment where it looks like she's layered, just playing the dutiful wife while really planning her husband's assassination, but then it's made clear that not only is she as vicious as he is, but she also happily buys into the gender stereotypes. And she likes getting beaten up. And she wants to take the Dalek as a consort. This is just too much for me - they could have been Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, i.e. definitely out for power and ruthless and bringing their own doom on them, but also layered and tragic, but instead they were caricatures.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-20 05:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-20 05:33 pm (UTC)On the bright side of things: if his episodes are any indication, he does not 'ship the Doctor with anyone in particular.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-20 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-20 05:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-21 06:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-21 09:46 am (UTC)Jekyll was horrifying and frightening for his casual violence and lack of civilized restraints. James Nesbit's performances were pretty impressive, the difference between Jackman and Hyde apparent even without immediate visual confirmation.
The whole thing was scary and fascinating.
What bothered me about Jekyll was how one of the central questions was handled - what was Jackman's origin? When I showed the series to my mother this spring (my third viewing), that irked me enough that I debated whether or not to show the very final scene to Mom, as I felt it detracted both from the serial as a whole and from my opinion of the lead's intelligence.
Some of the direction didn't really work for me, with unmarked flashbacks or other devices used, but overall I'd rec Jekyll to anyone with an interest in the basic premise.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-20 09:53 pm (UTC)And this is why I try to avoid author interviews. Ugh.
On the other hand, maybe he was time displaced by one of the Blink angels and is really from the 1850s?
no subject
Date: 2008-05-21 04:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-20 05:25 pm (UTC)Sounds like both Dalek and Jubilee had their high and low points.
And the Doctor with a 55 year old woman. Don't think we'll see that on tv very soon...
no subject
Date: 2008-05-20 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-20 06:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-21 01:08 am (UTC)He just ripped my heart out and stomped on it as a version of the Doctor who had lost everything - his freedom, his best beloved companion, his faith in his favourite species, his legs, and ultimately his mind. Even post-Time War Nine isn't that far gone.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-21 04:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-21 08:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-21 08:35 am (UTC)(It upsets me to a strange degree when actors I love are accused of not being able to act. Just the other day I've read a repeat of the old complaint that David Tennant can't do gravitas, and a new one that has "dead eyes". WTF?)
no subject
Date: 2008-05-24 01:41 pm (UTC)I think some people believe Colin Baker gave a hammy, over-the-top performance as the Doctor because that's all he's capable of, rather than because that was his take on the character. I can understand not liking that decision, but it was a deliberate stylistic choice that has little to do with his acting ability!
And I'm so looking forward to that dvd...
It was a glorious production, and since I was near the back of the theatre when I saw it live, it will be nice to be able to see better!
(It upsets me to a strange degree when actors I love are accused of not being able to act. Just the other day I've read a repeat of the old complaint that David Tennant can't do gravitas, and a new one that has "dead eyes". WTF?)
... as the Doctor in question might say: what? WHAT? He has wonderfully expressive eyes! Which are quite lovely besides!
no subject
Date: 2008-05-21 03:39 pm (UTC)Other differences I noticed:
When the Dalek asks for orders, Nine says "I order you to die." Six can't say that, or doesn't think of it, and the Dalek kills him. I think that's really telling about the difference between them - for all Six's bluster, he's really not all that dangerous. Six is the only Doctor I can imagine being tortured to death after watching his companion tortured to death - and by humans, yet. (Three would get out of it somehow, Four would do something clever, Five would wibble and be rescued - or alternatively die saving his companion, Seven would talk his way out, Nine would die saving Rose and Ten would suffer and then save everyone.) Basically all Six does here is suffer and say nasty things to people. (I loved the "one of you should wipe out the other and right now I don't very much care which!" speech.) But that's enough to goad the people (and Daleks) around him into action, which is what he does best.
As far as Evelyn and Rose, this is one of the episodes in which it felt like Evelyn was actually acting as a history professor. Not so much by giving information, more by asking questions and having a discussion with the Dalek that allows it to learn the lessons of its own history and what it has seen. In the audio the Dalek is the one who resolves the crisis by being willing to learn. In the episode it's Rose who fixes things by loving, which is her nature and role. She touches the Dalek and so the Dalek takes on something of who she is. The Dalek is more passive, transformed against his will. That wouldn't have been appropriate for Six, Time War aside, he doesn't *do* that. He doesn't save people. At best he helps them a little (or berates them into action) while they save themselves.