Source: Flickr On Sunday night here in Australia, the fifth series of the revamped Doctor Who came to a close. In many ways, this was as brand new a series as the 2005 series was under the leadership and direction of Russell T Davies. A brand new showrunner, Steven Moffat, had taken over. The show featured a brand new Doctor (Matt Smith), a brand new companion (Karen Gillan), a new TARDIS interior, a new title sequence and theme tune et al. All of which has resulted in the creation of a series that while not perfect, it wasn't totally poor.
The tone for this new series seemed to be "fairytale" - something Steven Moffat seemed keen to point out in most interviews he did about the show. It was a good choice, especially given RTD's desire for using "epic" storylines in series gone past. This made for a nice contrast, since we ended up with stories that were more personal, more intimate, and less about galactic conquest. Whether this was down to the reported BBC budget cuts I am not sure, but if nothing else it helped to keep things fresh and interesting.
Speaking of the budget, it was clear that at times there was less money being spent on this new series than in years gone by. This was a shame, as while it did help contribute towards a nice tonal shift in the show, the knock-on effect was that some effects seemed less polished (some CGI was evidence of this), and it also seemed that the number of CGI shots in the series were considerably less than in years past. Was this being the first full HD series part of this decision? Not sure. I've never wanted my Doctor Who to be effects-driven, but I did notice the drop in quality and frequency of the CG elements.
The cinematography of the series also seemed to step up a notch, particularly in how pace was used, with more use of establishing shots and tracking shots. While this did at times slow things down a bit, it helped to make things feel more cinematic, without the need to rely on CG effects. It also seemed at times as thought the colour palette and temperature was changed to reflect this new quality of "fairytales", with lots of saturated colours and shadows being used. The new set of Directors that Moffat employed for the show worked well, and I look forward to seeing some return contributions in Series 6 next year.
Another element that seemed to generate a fair bit of debate within fandom was the re-design of some of the iconic classic series monsters, principally the Daleks and the Silurians. While I don't really have a problem per se with the new-look Daleks (I like the use of different colours, and the slightly larger size does mean they now have to be a lot more careful which angles they film the props at), the Silurian re-design I was not at all happy with. What they gained in actor flexibility they lost in reptile / alien appearance, which was a real shame. I would have been a lot more interested in a much more faithful re-design, including a return of the 1970s style voice effect and third eye ability. We know the production team can do these kinds of effective yet faithful to the past designs - look at the Sontarans and Cybermen for good examples of that. So why wasn't that possible here? A real missed opportunity.
At least they did get some major re-design work right this series - the new TARDIS interior was glorious to behold. It was about time we got a proper and decent sized console room for the show, one that really made good use of levels and angles. This is the closest set we've yet got to either the original Hartnell set (with its multiple rooms and spaces) or even the McGann TV Movie set (still my favourite of all time), and I hope to see a lot more of this set in future series. I particularly liked how it had small rooms off to the sides of the main set, which helped to overcome the big limitation of the Eccleston / Tennant console room, which was a single dome-shaped set with nothing else to it. This new one has lots of nooks and crannies, which were put to good use this year.
Similarly, the new title sequence and theme tune did take me by surprise when first viewed, but after 13 episodes I have really come to warm to these latest iterations. Murray Gold did a good job here with the theme, even if we do seem to be moving further and further away from Delia's classic original with each new version that comes along. As well as that, the new title sequence complemented the theme tune nicely. I particularly liked how the TARDIS interacted with the tunnel effect, and the integration of the new logo was also well done.
As I said above, this was a series full of newness. This extended to a new Doctor and a new companion, Amy Pond. Matt Smith's Doctor is certainly a delight to watch, and never once did I feel the show was suffering by having such a young actor play the Doctor. There was a certain Davison-esque "old man trapped in a young man's body" about Matt's performance, coupled with a touch of Patrick Troughton's "play the fool, then snap into being totally serious instantly". Even though at times I did feel Matt still needs to further develop his skill as an actor (especially in how he manipulates his face), he has demonstrated himself a worthy successor to David Tennant, even if Tennant to me is still King of the Doctors (New Series).
Karen Gillan's Amy Pond was a lot of fun, and worked well with Matt's Doctor. Even though some elements of her personality were, shall we say, a little bit dubious (the poor girl clearly has no shame), I thought she made for a nice departure from the Rose / Martha style of companion we got under RTD. Utterly contemporary, yes, but in a more rounded way. She herself was complemented by the surprise inclusion of a male companion for the show, Amy's fiancee / husband Rory Williams (played to perfection by Arthur Darvill). Rory was not the Mickey to Amy's Rose by any stretch of the imagination, with the character reminding me a lot more of Troughton's male offsider Jamie. Certainly, there was a lovely dynamic and rapport between the Doctor and Rory that made things feel free and interesting. In some ways, the scenes between the Doctor and Rory were at times more interesting than those between the Doctor and Amy.
Am so pleased he has joined the TARDIS team full-time now. Long live the Crew of Three!
The scripts themselves were a fairly mixed bag this year. Opening with the homage to the RTD era The Eleventh Hour, we had a pretty decent run of quality episodes for the most part. From the excellent two-part Time of Angels / Flesh & Stone, through to the emotion of Vincent and the Doctor, the almost rom-com The Lodger, and the finale The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang, which nicely juxtaposed the epic and the intimate, there were only a few episodes which seemed to elecit a response from fandom. The Silurian two-parter, The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood, copped a fair bit of negative reaction from fandom, although I really rather liked it. Certainly the most traditional set of episodes this year, it reminded me a lot of a Pertwee episode, and in fact the two-parter could quite easily be classed as this year's love letter to the classic series, in particular that Pertwee era its monsters hail from. What I do agree with fandom on, however, was the awful Victory of the Daleks. While I always love seeing the Daleks, the episode just seemed to serve no purpose other than to introduce the new Dalek design. I had hoped we'get a pay off in the final episodes, but that never came. So I feel that said episode is easily the most disappointing of the entire set on offer this year.
In which case, that ain't a bad track record at all.
There are so many other things I could comment on with this series, but I don't want this review to go on for another 1500 words. Sufficed to say, I liked the 2010 series of Doctor Who, and I look forward to seeing where things go next year.