Doctor Who- 'Blink' review
September 14th 2007 00:37
Doctor Who- Season 3- Blink
Oh. My. God. I think I’ve just witnessed one of the best, if not the best, Doctor Who episodes ever written. This one ranks up there with The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances two-parter (the one involving gas-mask wearing aliens in WWII) and the exceptionally good The Girl In the Fireplace (clockwork assassins in eighteenth century France with Madame de Pompadour) as among the best offerings of the new incarnation of Who. (I’d even place ‘Blink’ up against the likes of the classic Tom Baker years of the show in the 1970s) Incidentally, those other episodes I mentioned were by the same writer as ‘Blink’, Stephen Moffat. Take a bow, sir. I think you’re without a doubt the best thing the new Doctor Who has going for it. Moffat previously wrote the BBC’s Coupling and the miniseries Jekyll. Rumours abound that he will take over the show-running duties of Who after Russell T. Davies steps down next year. If that is indeed true, us Whovians have nothing at all to worry about. If Moffat takes the reins, we’re in very good hands.
One of the chief successes of this episode is that (and this may sound blasphemous to some) the Tenth Doctor himself (David Tennant) hardly appears. Instead, we get to focus on a group of guest characters, and the events are told from their twenty-first century point of view. I still have mixed feelings about the new Doc. Not sure if it is appropriate to still call him ‘new’, considering he’s now been in the part for two years, and has already served a longer tenure than Chris Eccleston did as the Ninth Doctor, but Tennant’s performance is often inconsistent. He has his moments of manic brilliance, but sometimes he overdoes it a bit.
The Doc and Martha Jones are stuck in 1969, without a TARDIS to their name. Meanwhile in 2007, a young woman, Sally Sparrow, starts discovering strange messages apparently aimed specifically at her, as easter eggs on DVDs. These messages are from a mysterious eccentric man calling himself the Doctor. I don’t want to spoil the excellent plot too much further, but I will say this. Don’t let the wee kiddies or those with a sensitive heart condition watch ‘Blink’! The monster-of-the-week, the Weeping Angels, are terrifying! Is that not what all classic Who villains should be?
It appears as though the character of Sally Sparrow has appeared before, in the realm of Doctor Who print fiction. This is not the first time television Doctor Who has mined its own literary counterpart for ideas. In fact, I encourage them to do it, as it often results in some of the best stories. Last week’s Human Nature/The Family of Blood double-hander (also brilliant, BTW) was based on a Who novel, if I recall correctly.
I was very impressed with ‘Blink’. In fact, the last six episodes of Season Three represent an unblemished run of superb episodes. I don’t think many television shows can claim to have a perfect season (with no duds among the bunch, or at least, more hits than misses). Lost’s first season was fairly consistent in its awesomeness, although the second year wasn’t without a few stinkers. The third season was an improvement over the second, though. Heroes’ debut season this year was pretty uniformly great (although it’s still early days for that show. We’ll see what happens in year two, shall we?) Buffy’s season three and season five were almost perfect. In fact, nearly every year of that show (except maybe season six) was effortlessly fantastic. The revived version of Doctor Who still ain’t quite Buffy great just yet, but if they keep giving us stuff of the quality of Human Nature, Blink, and Utopia, it will soon catch up with it. Nu-Doctor Who is my favourite sci-fi series of the last few years, I have to say that. The new Battlestar Galactica is rather splendid, too; and Firefly (rest in peace) was cruelly underrated, and short-lived.
Season three started off unpromisingly (The Runaway Bride was one of the worst ever episodes of the new show, IMO) but god damn, has it made a turnaround in the last few weeks. I salute you, Moffat. Keep up the good work. I hope to see more scripts by you in Season Four!
Oh. My. God. I think I’ve just witnessed one of the best, if not the best, Doctor Who episodes ever written. This one ranks up there with The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances two-parter (the one involving gas-mask wearing aliens in WWII) and the exceptionally good The Girl In the Fireplace (clockwork assassins in eighteenth century France with Madame de Pompadour) as among the best offerings of the new incarnation of Who. (I’d even place ‘Blink’ up against the likes of the classic Tom Baker years of the show in the 1970s) Incidentally, those other episodes I mentioned were by the same writer as ‘Blink’, Stephen Moffat. Take a bow, sir. I think you’re without a doubt the best thing the new Doctor Who has going for it. Moffat previously wrote the BBC’s Coupling and the miniseries Jekyll. Rumours abound that he will take over the show-running duties of Who after Russell T. Davies steps down next year. If that is indeed true, us Whovians have nothing at all to worry about. If Moffat takes the reins, we’re in very good hands.
One of the chief successes of this episode is that (and this may sound blasphemous to some) the Tenth Doctor himself (David Tennant) hardly appears. Instead, we get to focus on a group of guest characters, and the events are told from their twenty-first century point of view. I still have mixed feelings about the new Doc. Not sure if it is appropriate to still call him ‘new’, considering he’s now been in the part for two years, and has already served a longer tenure than Chris Eccleston did as the Ninth Doctor, but Tennant’s performance is often inconsistent. He has his moments of manic brilliance, but sometimes he overdoes it a bit.
The Doc and Martha Jones are stuck in 1969, without a TARDIS to their name. Meanwhile in 2007, a young woman, Sally Sparrow, starts discovering strange messages apparently aimed specifically at her, as easter eggs on DVDs. These messages are from a mysterious eccentric man calling himself the Doctor. I don’t want to spoil the excellent plot too much further, but I will say this. Don’t let the wee kiddies or those with a sensitive heart condition watch ‘Blink’! The monster-of-the-week, the Weeping Angels, are terrifying! Is that not what all classic Who villains should be?
It appears as though the character of Sally Sparrow has appeared before, in the realm of Doctor Who print fiction. This is not the first time television Doctor Who has mined its own literary counterpart for ideas. In fact, I encourage them to do it, as it often results in some of the best stories. Last week’s Human Nature/The Family of Blood double-hander (also brilliant, BTW) was based on a Who novel, if I recall correctly.
I was very impressed with ‘Blink’. In fact, the last six episodes of Season Three represent an unblemished run of superb episodes. I don’t think many television shows can claim to have a perfect season (with no duds among the bunch, or at least, more hits than misses). Lost’s first season was fairly consistent in its awesomeness, although the second year wasn’t without a few stinkers. The third season was an improvement over the second, though. Heroes’ debut season this year was pretty uniformly great (although it’s still early days for that show. We’ll see what happens in year two, shall we?) Buffy’s season three and season five were almost perfect. In fact, nearly every year of that show (except maybe season six) was effortlessly fantastic. The revived version of Doctor Who still ain’t quite Buffy great just yet, but if they keep giving us stuff of the quality of Human Nature, Blink, and Utopia, it will soon catch up with it. Nu-Doctor Who is my favourite sci-fi series of the last few years, I have to say that. The new Battlestar Galactica is rather splendid, too; and Firefly (rest in peace) was cruelly underrated, and short-lived.
Season three started off unpromisingly (The Runaway Bride was one of the worst ever episodes of the new show, IMO) but god damn, has it made a turnaround in the last few weeks. I salute you, Moffat. Keep up the good work. I hope to see more scripts by you in Season Four!
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