The Web of Fear

I can now definitively say that the best way to watch The Web of Fear is in bed, in the dark, with a large mug of hot chocolate.

Web is as beautifully restored as Enemy of the World was. It is as stunningly clear as if it was filmed yesterday. It's wonderfully atmospheric, with the echoing of underground tunnels. They look exactly like the tunnels I've seen through the windows of the underground in Glasgow. And the set designers have put in a couple of fun little background pieces. At one point the Doctor confronts some Yeti in front of a poster for a film called "Blockbuster", whose tag line describes their own base under siege situation. And when Jamie is alone on a platform, he stands next to a Scottish Nationalist Party poster (what that would be doing in London I've no idea). 

The let down is episode 3. The telesnaps do not appear to have been cleared up in any way. The ones of characters in motion are blurred, the rest simply fuzzy. There are a couple of snaps of scenery that are nice and clear, but any with characters or yeti are disappointingly unclear. At one point the people who put together the telesnaps acknowledge that you can't tell what's happening and subtitle them to tell you! The BBC web page that talks about the discovery of the episodes and announces a DVD release for then (25th November for Enemy and 24th February for Web) makes no mention of whether this episode is being animated, but the deadline for release suggests it might not be, which is a shame. I hope for the DVD release they do at least clear up the snaps. I'm sure it's a very different job from cleaning up film, but there must be some way to at least decrease the fuzziness.

Ten years ago, this was voted DW's tenth greatest ever story, despite no one having seen it in full since it's first transmission.  I can honestly say that it can now move up that list. It is a wonderful threatening story. Other than some hamming from the actor playing Evans (who also insists on calling everyone "boyo" to prove his Welshness), the cast are strong.  Everyone takes their job seriously and they really sell the fact that London has been taken over and they are trapped in the underground. 

As Lethbridge-Stewart's (you can't really call him "The Brigadier" yet) first appearance, you can see why they brought him back, though having watched him since I was small, it's odd now to see him under suspicion of being a traitor. He shows a despair in episode 4 that I can't ever recall seeing in him in later stories.  He also immediately trusts in what the Doctor is saying ordering a rescue attempt for the TARDIS, without really knowing whether or not to believe the Doctor's assertions of its ability to help them escape.

I'm just so happy to have been able to watch this at last, and it didn't let me down. It was as fantastic as I always hoped it would be. Today's children will be watching it from behind the sofa just like the children who watched it in 1968. 

The Enemy of the World

And that was The Enermy of the World.

Patrick Troughton is fantastic in his duel role as Salamander and the Doctor. The scene of the Doctor trying to find his way into imitating Salamander's accent after watching a single video is just brilliant. As the Doctor he gets to be funny, silly and occasionally serious and brave. Playing Salamander, he gets to be despotic, cruel and violent. After watching Troughton playing the Doctor for a year and a half, this would have been a chance to show the audience his brilliant range. I did notice the Salamander accent slip once or twice, but how little it did is remarkable given how many scenes there were where he started as the Doctor, slipped into pretending to be Salamander, then went back to being the Doctor. It's especially impressive given that these stories were filmed "as live" and retakes were only allowed for catastrophes (and those mostly of a technical nature - actors just had to muddle along as best as they could if they made a mistake).

Technically the episodes are beautifully remastered. This morning I saw some clips from before the cleaning up process began and the difference is incredible. The restoration team have done a brilliant job and deserve all the praise they can get. It looked wonderful on my laptop. The only technical issue I did notice is that the audio is about half a second behind the picture. In some scenes, particularly in the last couple of episodes characters were still speaking after their mouths had stopped moving (it's particularly noticable with Benik as the actor has a tendency to snap his mouth closed when he's finished speaking). But that is a minor issue and it really doesn't detract from the story at all.

Deborah Watling looks just gorgeous throughout (I want her hair!) and Frazer Hines in a kilt is just good for the soul. I'm definitely remembering my crush on the dashingly brave Jamie.

And now I'm torn. Do I save it for tomorrow? Or do I take my laptop up to bed with me, knowing that I can only watch maybe half of Web of Fear before I have to go to sleep? Will I even be able to stop once I start? Damn weekend working.

To hell with it - I might just watch the whole thing!

Kidnapping, Arson and Murder

That seems to be the order of the day in Chester's Mill.  All of that occurs in the 48 hours following the arrival of the Dome.

The second and third episodes of Under the Dome mostly seem to be concerned with setting up the future conflicts that will escalate within the confines of the Dome. There are very few alliances formed (though city-kid Norrie and geeky Joe seem to have made a connection that results in synchronised fitting), but lots of suspicion and aggravation.

Reality and prejudice make themselves known fairly clearly. When Norrie disappears from her Moms' sight overnight, several people at the bar make comments including "how does that work" (on how the black Carolyn can be the white Norrie's mum) and "did you think they would posh the gay out of her?" (when told that they were on their way to drop Norrie off at a prestigious boarding school). As much as I'd hate to admit it, that attitude probably can still be found in some places in small town America. And it is great to see a same-sex couple with a teenage kid being depicted on prime-time TV. And Norrie herself acknowledges the possibility of prejudice in her total denial of it. She isn't afraid to stand up to the local bully, but covers up any possibility of her parents both being female.

Barbie also suffers from a different kind of prejudice: the outsider in a small town. Carolyn, Alice and Norrie are spared this - partly because they have a good reason for being stuck in the town and partly because they are just considered freaks. But Barbie is more mysterious. His "just passing through" doesn't seem to hold much water with folk. His taking down of an armed man is much commented on (though no one gives him credit for organising people to fight the fire). And both Big Jim and Julia seem inclined to believe the psychotic Junior's  acusations of an unprovoked assault.

We get no further on in discovering what Big Jim was doing with so many propane tanks and why the Sheriff was covering for him, though we get another conspiritor in the strung out reverend (who doubles as the town undertaker). And even though Big Jim tells Barbie the story of how he got the nickname "Big", a story which much be well known in the town, only Barbie and Junior (who gets the brunt of his fathers malice at home) seem to see past the upstanding citizen act to the untrustworthy and potentially violent man beneath.

I usually like character development episodes, and this early in they really are necessary to establish the people the audience need to bond with if the series is to survive. But, other than seeing the dynamic between Big Jim and Junior which may explain why Junior is such a psychopath, we don't really learn any more about the characters than we did in the pilot. And the story isn't moved forward at all either. The fire seems to be a big set piece hangover from the pilot, but other than that there isn't much real drama in either episode. 

I've been told that after a few slow character episodes, the show picks back up. I hope that happens soon - it is only a 13 episode season.

Pink Stars are falling!

I’m writing this a little late, having seen the show at the beginning of the week, but I wanted some time to let this show sink in and to have a think about it.

I remember when the Stephen King book Under the Dome first came out, picking it up in a bookshop and thinking I’d have to get it when it came out in paperback. I never did but I think I will now since the concept is so fascinating. And I do enjoy seeing the differences between TV shows and the books they're based on. 

I actually first heard about the series because some colleagues were discussing it. My boss saw a taped copy, passed it onto someone else and they ended up enthusiastically discussing it over lunch several times. When I saw C5 was airing it, even though I'm not usually a fan of their output, I thought I'd give it a go.

It's definitely a show I'll be sticking with. I wasn't as instantly "OMG this is fantastic" as my colleagues, but hearing them chat about the first episode had spoiled a couple of the big setpiece moments so I was waiting for the cow chopped in half, the concertinaed truck and the exploding pacemaker. But it's still intreguing. I can already see that there's going to be a lot of interpersonal conflict that could lead to interesting places. And it looks like it will be quite dark. Junior Rennie and his dad "Big" Jim seem to be people to watch. And what will happen to the spark between Julia and Barbie when she finds out what he was doing pre-titles.

It was a bit gorer than I was expecting. They showed a lot more blood and nastiness, but I suppose you'd expect a few nasty injuries if I giant invisible dome suddenly dropped over a town. And they have to create some major excitement in the pilot to keep people coming back from the pilot.

And "the pink stars are falling. The pink stars are falling in lines". Stated by two characters I'm pretty sure have never met. What does that mean?

I guess I'll stay tuned to find out.