I did enjoy last weeks episode mainly down to the fact the early 1970s Pertwee era was my favourite period of the classic show . The Hungry Earth borrowed so many elements of the Perywee era in its plot devices , such as The Silurians and Inferno from season 7 , The Deamons from season 8 and The Green Death from season 10 . By a bitter irony writer Chris Chibnall once appeared on a BBC show called Open Air in 1986 where he accused Pip and Jane Baker of being " unoriginal " . Is this a valid criticism of any writer , especially one who writes for DOCTOR WHO ? In 1963 Sydney Newman created the show which is basically a rip off from HG Wells THE TIME MACHINE . Jon Pertwee's glorious moody and atmospheric debut season was very much a steal from Nigel Kneale's QUATERMASS serials from the 1950s whilst Nigel Kneale was also an influence on the early Tom Baker era along with Hammer horror films . So unoriginality isn't necessarily a criticism . The Hungry Earth was enjoyable fare
The problem with Cold Blood is that it's painfully generic . After last weeks wonderfully understated cliffhanger there's a annoying sensation that all the characters have wandered in to an episode of any telefantasy show you want to name . The story could have been set in a space station from any American show you could name be it STAR TREK , V or THE OUTER LIMITS . The Silurians them self suffer greatly from this . And the make up doesn't help - they look like people with their faces painted green with a silly hat on Anyone reminded of V ? I was reminded more of LOST IN SPACE The original Silurians , the original inhabitants of Earth were paradoxically one of the most " alien " species the classic show had come with , especially their voices . Here their voices spoken by the actors themselves are very mundane . This isn't helped by Chibnall having them speak in prosaic lines where they state they're a noble race and the humans must be wiped out as in
" We are a noble race and these filthy ape vermin must be destroyed "
Only to have the painfully clichéd good Silurians state
" Yes we are a noble race but so are these humans "
" No we must destroy the humans "
" No we ...... "
I kept expecting someone to start claiming " No I'm Spartacus " such is a the repetitive tone of the dialogue . And where as in their debut tale the Doctor tried to negotiate a peace plan between the humans and the reptiles here negations re held by a strippergram pointing a ray gun at the Silurian leader and telling him to " stick them up buster " . I'm sure George W Bush was a much more articulate peacemaker
That said the episode will probably be remembered more for its ending rather than any intricate plotting of the main story ., the ending being that Rory dies and is consumed by the crack in time so that he has never existed in the first place . I'm not sure if Arthur Darvill will go on to be a big name actor but he's very effective as Rory in this episode . Unfortunately the one thing that will undermine this series twist is if he gets resurrected later in the show . One can't help noticing that this season isn't too far away from the RTD era and the one massive flaw RTD had was bringing back previous companions after they'd been written out of the show . One fears that Moffat will cheat the audience as did his predecessor
In summary Cold Blood is a slightly mediocre episode that could have been any episode from any science fiction show from television but is saved greatly by shock twist of having a semi regular character being written out of the show . It's easy to understand why some of the newer fans loved this episode and the message boards are full of users saying that they were in tears at the end of this episode . But ask yourself this - would you have enjoyed the episode so much if it had a very happy ending where you would perhaps have been more critical of the plot itself ? As for Cold Blood it left me cold for the most part
The problem with Cold Blood is that it's painfully generic . After last weeks wonderfully understated cliffhanger there's a annoying sensation that all the characters have wandered in to an episode of any telefantasy show you want to name . The story could have been set in a space station from any American show you could name be it STAR TREK , V or THE OUTER LIMITS . The Silurians them self suffer greatly from this . And the make up doesn't help - they look like people with their faces painted green with a silly hat on Anyone reminded of V ? I was reminded more of LOST IN SPACE The original Silurians , the original inhabitants of Earth were paradoxically one of the most " alien " species the classic show had come with , especially their voices . Here their voices spoken by the actors themselves are very mundane . This isn't helped by Chibnall having them speak in prosaic lines where they state they're a noble race and the humans must be wiped out as in
" We are a noble race and these filthy ape vermin must be destroyed "
Only to have the painfully clichéd good Silurians state
" Yes we are a noble race but so are these humans "
" No we must destroy the humans "
" No we ...... "
I kept expecting someone to start claiming " No I'm Spartacus " such is a the repetitive tone of the dialogue . And where as in their debut tale the Doctor tried to negotiate a peace plan between the humans and the reptiles here negations re held by a strippergram pointing a ray gun at the Silurian leader and telling him to " stick them up buster " . I'm sure George W Bush was a much more articulate peacemaker
That said the episode will probably be remembered more for its ending rather than any intricate plotting of the main story ., the ending being that Rory dies and is consumed by the crack in time so that he has never existed in the first place . I'm not sure if Arthur Darvill will go on to be a big name actor but he's very effective as Rory in this episode . Unfortunately the one thing that will undermine this series twist is if he gets resurrected later in the show . One can't help noticing that this season isn't too far away from the RTD era and the one massive flaw RTD had was bringing back previous companions after they'd been written out of the show . One fears that Moffat will cheat the audience as did his predecessor
In summary Cold Blood is a slightly mediocre episode that could have been any episode from any science fiction show from television but is saved greatly by shock twist of having a semi regular character being written out of the show . It's easy to understand why some of the newer fans loved this episode and the message boards are full of users saying that they were in tears at the end of this episode . But ask yourself this - would you have enjoyed the episode so much if it had a very happy ending where you would perhaps have been more critical of the plot itself ? As for Cold Blood it left me cold for the most part