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Doctor Who: Enlightenment
Sep. 16th, 2008 09:54 pmFacing the long wait for the next regular season of Doctor Who, I've taken to rewatching some serials that I like but wouldn't put on my list of personal favourites. Some I've enjoyed more on a second viewing - The Day of the Daleks - and some less - I still don't get the fuss about Horror of Fang Rock - but it's been interesting so far. Enlightenment is one of the handful of Doctor Who TV stories written by a woman, something the new series still needs to do better at. (Four episodes in four years is a start, but it's hardly enough.)
On the down side, the plot meanders about while the Doctor does nothing. His critics often talk about Five being useless, but it's really taken to extremes here. At the climax of the story he at least does nothing in an important and significant way, but it doesn't make up for all that nothing earlier. When the Doctor could have slept through most of the story with very little alteration to anything that happens on screen, your story has a problem.
On the up side, it's all very stylish and the Eternals are intriguing creatures. Barbara Clegg brings a distinctly female sensibility to the story by having a companion in a schooboy uniform crawl on the floor in front of a dominatrix dressed like a pirate, who then handcuffs him to the ceiling. No wonder we fangirls are so fond of the ginger love god.
On a more serious note, Marriner has always struck me as a character far more likely to be invented by a woman than by a man. He spends the whole time following Tegan around, creeping her out by delcaring that she's like nobody he's ever met and that he's nothing without her. The science fiction twist is that it's literally true - Eternals have no ideas, and must take inspiration from the minds of 'ephemerals'. It's unclear if they even have minds of their own, as such. It strikes me that there's a potentially interesting story in Marriner tracking Tegan down again ...
With the Doctor standing on the sidelines and Tegan busy fending off her stalker, most of the character material here goes to Turlough. It really underlines how different he is to any previous companion, with a mind so layered and twisty even the Eternals and the Black Guardian don't know which way he'll jump. While he ends up on the right side at the very end, I have no doubt that he contemplated making a different choice.
The Doctor's gambit when Turlough is presented with Enlightenment is actually a clever bit of manipulation. Everyone else has been offering him deals and ultimatums and trying to force him into a corner, and Tulough is thoroughly sick of it by now. The Doctor is smart enough to just stand back and trust his companion's better nature. He doesn't even give him that reproachful look he uses several times earlier in the story.
On the down side, the plot meanders about while the Doctor does nothing. His critics often talk about Five being useless, but it's really taken to extremes here. At the climax of the story he at least does nothing in an important and significant way, but it doesn't make up for all that nothing earlier. When the Doctor could have slept through most of the story with very little alteration to anything that happens on screen, your story has a problem.
On the up side, it's all very stylish and the Eternals are intriguing creatures. Barbara Clegg brings a distinctly female sensibility to the story by having a companion in a schooboy uniform crawl on the floor in front of a dominatrix dressed like a pirate, who then handcuffs him to the ceiling. No wonder we fangirls are so fond of the ginger love god.
On a more serious note, Marriner has always struck me as a character far more likely to be invented by a woman than by a man. He spends the whole time following Tegan around, creeping her out by delcaring that she's like nobody he's ever met and that he's nothing without her. The science fiction twist is that it's literally true - Eternals have no ideas, and must take inspiration from the minds of 'ephemerals'. It's unclear if they even have minds of their own, as such. It strikes me that there's a potentially interesting story in Marriner tracking Tegan down again ...
With the Doctor standing on the sidelines and Tegan busy fending off her stalker, most of the character material here goes to Turlough. It really underlines how different he is to any previous companion, with a mind so layered and twisty even the Eternals and the Black Guardian don't know which way he'll jump. While he ends up on the right side at the very end, I have no doubt that he contemplated making a different choice.
The Doctor's gambit when Turlough is presented with Enlightenment is actually a clever bit of manipulation. Everyone else has been offering him deals and ultimatums and trying to force him into a corner, and Tulough is thoroughly sick of it by now. The Doctor is smart enough to just stand back and trust his companion's better nature. He doesn't even give him that reproachful look he uses several times earlier in the story.