OK this is 'just another base under siege story' but I LOVE base under siege stories! I feel they are the lifeblood of the show and basically epitomise what the show is, or should be, about i.e. The Doctor turns up to a dangerous situation and uses his ingenuity to save the day. There are bad base under siege stories (Sleep No More for example) but this has all the things that make them enjoyable with a different enough set of ingredients from other base under siege (BUS) stories to make it a strong one. The setting is great, the threat is interesting and menacing, the Doctor has to use his brains and the guest characters are well written and acted.
The only real criticism I have of this is that given that the TARDIS translates all language for the Doctor and his companions why is the message not translated as soon as they look at it and why do they (or at east the Doctor) not understand sign language?
Having a deaf guest character depicted so positively as an integrated, valuable, successful member of the team is great but having the Doctor, who can speak so many languages and has so much knowledge, not know sign language and not have the TARDIS translate it in their minds is an error in my book. This is compounded when he says he has discarded sign language from his memory.
My wife's mother is profoundly deaf and my wife felt quite insulted by this. The off-screen reason it happened is clear, if they did not need the interpreter to translate then we as viewers would not get the translations unless they put it all in subtitles. But I think either subtitles or a readjustment to having the Doctor understanding and repeating back verbally what the deaf character tells him would have made it all work in a more satisfying way. I still give credit for the strong representation of the deaf character but I feel the Doctor and deaf viewers were let down by the decision to have him discard sign language.
This one issue aside, the excitement, threat, action, humour, dialogue, characters, acting, sets and effects are all very good and the story is clever and interesting.
Each character has a role and is well acted plus the setting feels quite authentic. The ghostly threat is pretty creepy providing tense scenes and the Faraday cage aspect is a nice touch. The cliffhanger is dramatic too even though we know it will be reversed somehow.
This maintains the strong start to Series 9.
My Rating: 8.5/10.
Seeies 8 Episode Ranking: 7th out of 14.
The only real criticism I have of this is that given that the TARDIS translates all language for the Doctor and his companions why is the message not translated as soon as they look at it and why do they (or at east the Doctor) not understand sign language?
Having a deaf guest character depicted so positively as an integrated, valuable, successful member of the team is great but having the Doctor, who can speak so many languages and has so much knowledge, not know sign language and not have the TARDIS translate it in their minds is an error in my book. This is compounded when he says he has discarded sign language from his memory.
My wife's mother is profoundly deaf and my wife felt quite insulted by this. The off-screen reason it happened is clear, if they did not need the interpreter to translate then we as viewers would not get the translations unless they put it all in subtitles. But I think either subtitles or a readjustment to having the Doctor understanding and repeating back verbally what the deaf character tells him would have made it all work in a more satisfying way. I still give credit for the strong representation of the deaf character but I feel the Doctor and deaf viewers were let down by the decision to have him discard sign language.
This one issue aside, the excitement, threat, action, humour, dialogue, characters, acting, sets and effects are all very good and the story is clever and interesting.
Each character has a role and is well acted plus the setting feels quite authentic. The ghostly threat is pretty creepy providing tense scenes and the Faraday cage aspect is a nice touch. The cliffhanger is dramatic too even though we know it will be reversed somehow.
This maintains the strong start to Series 9.
My Rating: 8.5/10.
Seeies 8 Episode Ranking: 7th out of 14.