Reviews

Dokter Wie: Eindpsel

So, those episodes were all fine. Acceptable writing, faithful adaptations, decent action scenes. As much as I remain completely unimpressed by this show, I couldn’t really complain about De Dokter fighting with Borusa.

And then it dawned on me.

Why is De Dokter fighting with Borusa?

Hold your horses! I’m not questioning why she is opposing Borusa, this much is obvious. But why is she fighting? Why is the last act of a Time Lady bearing the name of healer and the wise man an action fight?

Part of the reason why The Doctor is so unique character in fiction is that he’s not an action hero. They’re not there to beat or conquer anyone, but to help. They don’t punch, but think their way through the problem. Even Third Doctor, the so-called “action hero” with Venusian Aikido and stuff, usually was coming up with some clever way to blow up the enemy instead of just kicking his butt. There are times when The Doctor is forced to show their fighting skills, true, but that’s not the norm for this character. So why instead of dying how she lived, De Dokter ends her life with a brawl? Similarly to the beginning of Doomsday Cannon, I find this scenario just so... unDoctor-ish. I think De Dokter’s final stand should look more like… well, Her Final Stand, with a sacrifice to save countless lives, not to destroy an enemy.

This isn’t however another thing that I can add to the “Dutch don’t get Doctor Who” pile, the original Endgame ends like that too. There’s a symbolical side to that fight, with The Valeyard embodying Doctor’s inner evil, but it’s still an action fight. This is a larger problem that plagued the franchise through Chapters Three and Four, primarily in movies, in a misguided attempt at fitting into Hollywood. Have we now restored the balance to the character, and Dokter Wie is just an echo of the past? I certainly hope so.

The Daleks' Master Plan

THE RONALD’S MASTERPLAN (FEATURING THE MONK’S MASTERPLAN (FEATURING THE DALEKS’ MASTERPLAN))

Boy, where to start with this...

If I were to deconstruct this story scene by scene, as I usually do with stories of this grandeur, we’d be here not just the whole day, but the whole week. But since I don’t feel very strongly about this one, I don’t have the need to do that. Now, that doesn’t yet mean this story is boring. Spy stories are just fundamentally not really my thing, and Daleks’ Masterplan is in many aspects similar to spy story. We’ve got agents fighting another agents, dangerous stunts, betrayals and breathtaking chases, just like in a spy story. It is a very well-paced story, and the characters like Vyon or Sara Kingdom are wellconstructed. But I’m only able to like it as much.

The curveball here is a sudden entrance of Ronald’s old toys. Has anyone missed Phaedra? I certainly did! Has anyone missed Raleigh? Probably not, but at least we finally lost the doomsday clock hanging over our heads, counting down to her inevitable return. Has anyone missed The Gaians? Yeah, me neither, but fortunately there isn’t much of them here, they are just lost great empire that Mavic Chen and the neo-neo-neo-nazis that raised him aspire to. And as funny as Gaians being the role model are, that’s still less funny than Bertie falling in love with The Emo Doc- (gets slapped by his snarky self) ... Sorry, got distracted.

Ronald never does fanservice for fanservice sake, he definitely has a point in all these returns, so I should be excited. Instead, I’m afraid. The agenda of The Monk and co. is The Restoration – the setup from the Hodges era that I spent 1/3rd of an essay praising and that remains rather enigmatic. However, the vibe that accompanies it already is pretty different than in Journey Into The Unknown. According to that story, The Restoration was an event involving the Sixteenth Doctor which brought the - well, restoration of Gallifreyan civilization and some elements of Time Lord society, like The Looms. In further perspective it made the existence in universe – according to The Intendant – so pitiful that The Intendant went back in time to prevent it, and when that proved FUNDAMENTALLY IMPOSSIBLE (implying that The Restoration is the natural direction of the course of history), he decided to just tear the timestream apart with paradoxes, considering that a more preferable outcome. That, of course, is quite a lot to pay off.

This story on the other hand establishes The Restoration as the plan of The Monk, Phaedra and possibly the other individuals we remain unaware of that apparently requires the Taranium core, events of Daleks’ Masterplan to be rewritten and possibly survival of Sara Kingdom. It is also concept that can be familiar to The Daleks and that they bought into wholeheartedly (which by itself is the red flag to the universe). It presumably involves Phaedra coming back to life and getting a great power, if we were to take at face value the scene with Phaedra gathering energy on the throne, in the vein of Mag Mel from Bakugan: Mechtanium Surge (hey, I managed to put a Bakugan reference in Doctor Who review! What did you accomplish this month?).

As you can see, we have some differences here. Hodges’s Restoration somehow involves the Doctor, Moore’s Restoration happens around The Doctor, but does it involve him? Support of the Daleks is troubling, but... shouldn’t The Restoration seem great at first glance? We heard someone cheering. The plan of Phaedra and The Monk proves quite clever, but how is rewriting the course of time a universal constant? And if the motivation behind it is Phaedra’s death, then why couldn’t The Intendant keep her alive? Is The Rogue’s incredibly risky plan involving dimensional hopping and grooming Will Adams into sacrificial lamb for years really that hard to foil? Or would alive Phaedra go ahead with The Restoration anyway? Speaking of which, The Monk and Phaedra are aware of Intendant’s sabotage and existence, which means they’re likely aware of his reasons as well. So they know 100% what they doing and they still think it’s worth it. In this case, The Restoration’s ultimate outcome needs to simultaneously satisfy Phaedra and The Monk AND be the fate worse than death for The Intendant and allegedly many other beings... As if the bar wasn’t set high enough already.

It might still be possible to tie up all this foreshadowing into something cohesive and satisfying, but it’s getting harder and harder. Mal, Jane, Ronald, David, everyone else involved – are you guys sure you didn’t bid too high? It is very much because I love how the Restoration was set up that I worry about the pay off. Yet the pay off has to come – we can’t afford to wait 20 years with closure like with The Valeyard if we don’t want to leave Season 55 viewers – who got to see Sixteenth Doctor very clearly in that vision – feeling cheated. So, for both your and my sake, I hope you have the resources to pay that bill.

In other news, did I mention that Mavic Chen is cool? I wonder who he reminded Raleigh of – she saw a good deal of diseased maniacs.