Mark Gatiss' DOC-u-drama is a heartfelt glimpse at the origins of Doctor Who
After about seven lifetimes as an absentee granddad, The Doctor checks in on Susan in post-Dalek-invasion UK
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After seven lifetimes of not giving a tinker’s cuss, The Doctor decides, hey, wonder what my granddaughter’s up to. Oh, wouldn’t you know, she’s sending out a distress signal and has been for the last 30 years since the Dalek Invasion of Earth, the charred aftermath of which he abandoned her in with a potato farmer and one shoe. Another extraterrestrial intelligence did respond to her call, though, in the form of “Hope”, a sentient concept dispatched by the Guldreasi to provide assistance to mankind, on their terms, of course.
Susan Campbell, nee Foreman, has since had a son, Alex, a young, Bristolian revolutionary in danger of being led astray by Britain’s current roster of xenophobes, The Earth Watch. Councillor Faisal Jensen fancies Alex as his new poster boy to front the campaign against filthy alien influences, but little does Alex know that he himself is not wholly of this Earth. Perhaps a family reunion is in order.
On first listening I hated it, but after a few re-listens for this review I’ve started looking on it more favorably. I’m sorry, but I’m going political. I couldn’t help but draw comparisons to to my country’s political debates. Trump and his supporters all hate “aliens” but have also forgotten that their grandparents or great-grandparents were aliens themselves. Sorry for that slight tangent.
The Doctor and Susan have great chemistry and work off each other quite well. But the McGanns have none at all. It’s hard to tell if it is good acting to show a disconnect from each other or bad acting trying to pretend that they don’t know each other. I’m disappointed by the aliens in this episode. I couldn’t picture them. I felt like the visual descriptions were lacking throughout and the few cues that we got were obnoxiously loud, like the static blocking out what the pilot was saying to Susan. Despite all the things I disliked, I can’t say enough how nice it was to hear the Doctor and Susan interactions. 3.0
I’ll end with a question, where do you want to go with audio who reviews after the end of the EDAs?