Doctor Who: 'The Ghost Monument' review
Fast-paced, humorous and compelling, Whittaker's timelord finds firm footing in her second adventure which cleverly introduces the iconography back into the series
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| The Doctor and her gang find an old foe in 'The Ghost Monument' (BBC) |
by Jack Linsdell
The figures have just been released for Jodie Whittaker's second adventure as the iconic timelord, 'The Ghost Monument', which pulled in an impressive 7.1 million overnight viewers. Although this is a drop of 1.1 million (-13.4%) in viewership, as I've outlined previously, this was to be expected with every first episode (especially a debut for a new actor) in the series drawing the biggest audiences due to public curiosity. However, this drop is smaller than I predicted and quite clearly proves that people were more interested in Whittaker's incarnation of the Doctor than just checking out all the hype over the "first female doctor" thing. This is promising and if the audience can stay above 6.5 million weekly, then Chris Chibnall and all involved can consider the new series to be a success.
To the review, and having been impressed but yet to be totally convinced/hooked after the opening episode 'The Woman That Came to Earth', episode two has me excited and looking forward to number three. Honestly, it was always a fifty-fifty chance whether the series would build upon its solid foundations, or if it would just lie dead in the water. However, I was seriously impressed.
The narrative kick starts with the Doctor and her new 'gang' being picked up by two competitive planet racers, after she had tried to beam them all up to her Tardis but had been left stranded in open space. We find out that the Tardis's signal is coming from a planet, which has moved its position from where she beamed them up. This planet is deserted and full of mysteriously-creepy creatures and cold-natured holograms, and is the last hurdle for the two racers to overcome to gain a substantial cash prize. The Doctor and her new friends are inevitably thrown into the fray with these two racers and encounter a series of weird events/creatures that threaten their survival on this planet. The said final task is finding the 'Ghost Monument' which is the TARDIS. One of the episodes strong points is how the traditional Doctor Who iconic elements are being weaved back into the new series, but in a way that feels creatively refreshing and surprisingly subtle. The episode begins straight away with the title sequence (the tune hasn't grown on me as much as the previous one, but you can't win everything, right?) and gives fans what they expect, but not how they expect it.
Chibnall is proving a very capable writer, someone who can deliver the family-targeted sci-fi spectacle that audiences want but combining it with the adult tension reminiscent from the series' earliest episodes (in that era people were hiding behind sofas from fright) and emotional character development. What's more, in a long-standing series, to come up with a story that audiences don't really feel like they've seen many times over is exceptional - full marks for originality here. The story is really about the Doctor trying to find her TARDIS again, so she can return her new friends to the safety of earth. However, the subplot surrounding the planet and its history/creatures which come into focus gives the narrative a sophistication, which is often missing from TV drama writing.
My main criticism/reservation with the first episode was that the relationship and chemistry between the Doctor and the gang (and between each member of the gang) had yet to invest me enough in their characters. I thought the performances last time were occasionally cold. However, that was obviously a minor digression caused be it being the debut one. Here, in episode two, Chibnall had me invested in each and every character straight from the beginning. Bradley Walsh's performance was much improved and quite faultless, capturing the realistic sense of "what the hell is all this crazy stuff that's happening" thing but also nailing the emotional depth, especially in the scenes where he's trying to prove himself to his step-son Ryan. The series and these characters are seemingly going to be underlined by the death of Ryan's mum and Graham's (Walsh) wife - providing scenes full of thought-provoking reflection about the narrow boundary between life and death but also these character's motivations to continue. The new companions have successfully got me invested into their stories and I truly believe the dynamic they have with the Doctor - basically blinded trust.
Jodie Whittaker's performance has found another gear here too. Her incarnation of the timelord is very resourceful (there's a scene where she argues to think their way out of the problem instead of using guns) and a strong leader, but also one that suffers from self-doubt in her passionate quest to prevent evil. Indeed, she provides most of the comic relief (unlike last series where it was Matt Lucas's Nardole and the way he reacted to the Doctor) and in this episode it was proper humour that both made sense and made me laugh - it was more adult-like (not in content but in sophistication) and the episode really felt like the series had warmed up. And actually, I believe a female Doctor actually gives the series a refreshing feel and if Whittaker keeps delivering the standard of performance she's seemingly just finding then the sky (or the universe) is the limit for the series.
Once again, the cinematic visual feel to the episode upgrades it from just being a TV drama and the special effects work is clearly done on a moderate budget as the planet looked and felt real and immerses the audience right into the landscape. However, the highlight was how much the old-school tension and horror (not in the gory sense) has been brought back into the series. You always hear stories of older adults remembering how when Doctor Who was on when they were a child, they always hid behind the sofa in fear. Now, I'm not saying that the recent Doctors haven't had that dramatic weight in their series (Capaldi had some really nail-biting episodes early on) but I feel that Chibnall and the directors have really added that old-style fear element back into the episodes - I wasn't hiding behind sofas but was muttering expletives in many points. My point is that this increases the entertainment value of each episode whilst also returning the franchise back to its roots as a sci-fi/thriller/horror kind of genre-mix.
Next week, we have another Chibnall teleplay (co-written with popular author Malorie Blackman) that interestingly takes us to a period setting not yet explored by the series. Titled 'Rosa' it see's the Doctor and her cronies helping civil right activist Rosa Parks in 1960's America. Although we've yet to see an episode not written by Chibnall and at only two episodes there's a long way to go but I feel that Whittaker's incarnation of the timelord has really hit the mark here, finding its familiar rhythm but in unconventional and refreshing ways.
I've booked my appointment with the Doctor next week - and as ever, we'll watch this space.
My main criticism/reservation with the first episode was that the relationship and chemistry between the Doctor and the gang (and between each member of the gang) had yet to invest me enough in their characters. I thought the performances last time were occasionally cold. However, that was obviously a minor digression caused be it being the debut one. Here, in episode two, Chibnall had me invested in each and every character straight from the beginning. Bradley Walsh's performance was much improved and quite faultless, capturing the realistic sense of "what the hell is all this crazy stuff that's happening" thing but also nailing the emotional depth, especially in the scenes where he's trying to prove himself to his step-son Ryan. The series and these characters are seemingly going to be underlined by the death of Ryan's mum and Graham's (Walsh) wife - providing scenes full of thought-provoking reflection about the narrow boundary between life and death but also these character's motivations to continue. The new companions have successfully got me invested into their stories and I truly believe the dynamic they have with the Doctor - basically blinded trust.
Jodie Whittaker's performance has found another gear here too. Her incarnation of the timelord is very resourceful (there's a scene where she argues to think their way out of the problem instead of using guns) and a strong leader, but also one that suffers from self-doubt in her passionate quest to prevent evil. Indeed, she provides most of the comic relief (unlike last series where it was Matt Lucas's Nardole and the way he reacted to the Doctor) and in this episode it was proper humour that both made sense and made me laugh - it was more adult-like (not in content but in sophistication) and the episode really felt like the series had warmed up. And actually, I believe a female Doctor actually gives the series a refreshing feel and if Whittaker keeps delivering the standard of performance she's seemingly just finding then the sky (or the universe) is the limit for the series.
Once again, the cinematic visual feel to the episode upgrades it from just being a TV drama and the special effects work is clearly done on a moderate budget as the planet looked and felt real and immerses the audience right into the landscape. However, the highlight was how much the old-school tension and horror (not in the gory sense) has been brought back into the series. You always hear stories of older adults remembering how when Doctor Who was on when they were a child, they always hid behind the sofa in fear. Now, I'm not saying that the recent Doctors haven't had that dramatic weight in their series (Capaldi had some really nail-biting episodes early on) but I feel that Chibnall and the directors have really added that old-style fear element back into the episodes - I wasn't hiding behind sofas but was muttering expletives in many points. My point is that this increases the entertainment value of each episode whilst also returning the franchise back to its roots as a sci-fi/thriller/horror kind of genre-mix.
Next week, we have another Chibnall teleplay (co-written with popular author Malorie Blackman) that interestingly takes us to a period setting not yet explored by the series. Titled 'Rosa' it see's the Doctor and her cronies helping civil right activist Rosa Parks in 1960's America. Although we've yet to see an episode not written by Chibnall and at only two episodes there's a long way to go but I feel that Whittaker's incarnation of the timelord has really hit the mark here, finding its familiar rhythm but in unconventional and refreshing ways.
I've booked my appointment with the Doctor next week - and as ever, we'll watch this space.
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