Confession #8: I'd Love to See More Classic Baddies (and Think We Will)

Part of the bread and butter of Doctor Who is introducing new creatures to be antagonists for the Doctor.  Writers experiment with it, thrive on it, even cash in on it (~cough~TerryNation~cough~).  Despite our perceptions, though - thanks mostly to institutions such as the Daleks and the Cybermen - most of them show up no more than twice.  So it's not surprising that we end up with such one-offs as the Sycorax, clockwork robots, the Carrionites, the Vashta Nerada, and the Krafayis (some of which fully deserve to remain relegated to the annals of history).  We've also, however, had recurrences of the (rather regrettable) Slitheen, the Ood, and the Weeping Angels as well as the return of the Autons, the Sontarans, and (WTF?) the Silurians.

But what I really want to see is more links back to some the more interesting - and not yet overused - pre-RTD-era baddies.  Here I'm thinking of entities such as the Toymaker, the Black Guardian, the Valeyard, or Omega.  In fact, all of these crossed my mind at one point or another as a possibility for the culprit behind the as-yet-unexplained Silence and reason for the TARDIS's explosion in Series Fnarg.  And while Toby Jones' brilliantly creepy Dream Lord could well have been interpreted as another aspect of the Valeyard, I don't honestly think either the Valeyard or the Toymaker are good fits for the Big Bad of Series Six.  My money (and a huge pent-up fangirl squee, if this wishful thinking pans out) is on Omega.

It's recently been brought to my attention that I'm behind the curve on this idea.  So I'm certainly not an original thinker on this front, but I submit that I am at least an independent thinker (like Newton and Leibniz, or Hertzsprung and Russell).  Suffice it to say, I had the idea myself - it sprang from the murky depths of my own fandom, not from cruising others' forum posts.

All that aside, why do I like the idea of Omega's return?  For starters, the character is 100%, completely, utterly, and in all ways stark-raving mad (and who doesn't love that kind of villain?).  He's already tried to destroy the entire universe when he was thwarted before, so why wouldn't he try again?  It also makes sense that he would use the Doctor's TARDIS as the vector for destruction, since it was the Doctor who prevented his return twice before.

Another intriguing tidbit about Omega is that for countless eons, he has been trapped in an alternate universe, having been converted entirely into antimatter.  It would give him both motive and a method as plausible as any Who science for getting to the TARDIS and rigging it to explode.  Who knows, maybe it would even lead to enough of a universal change to allow Omega to transfer himself back through to his native dimension.

Of course, I have no idea how any of this would fit in with the resolution of River Song's story, which - since posting Confession #5 - I've read is supposed to be wrapped up this series.  Is River really Omega in disguise?  (Nah - that's patently ridiculous.)  Do River, Amy, and Rory have to save the Doctor from Omega, or is River secretly in his employ?  None of those ring true; my imagination isn't yet good enough to find a way to mesh those two characters in a believable plot.  Maybe it's too much even to ask of the Grand Moff.

But I've got a squee saved up, just in case.

Bonus Post

This week I've made a bonus post before my regular Wednesday post goes up.  You can see my latest entry on the Nu-Views page ("First Thoughts on Four"), in which I detail the Ladies' initial reactions to the Fourth Doctor.

New review posted: The Seeds of Doom

Today's update is a review of the recent DVD release of The Seeds of Death, starring Tom Baker as Four.  It is posted on the Reviews page.

At this point I am not sure whether next week's post will be a Nu-View or a Confession, but I'm leaning toward the former.  Tune in...

New review posted: The Ark

Today's update is a review of last week's North American DVD release of The Ark.  Check it out on the Reviews page.

Next Week:  Review of The Seeds of Doom - a Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) adventure

Confession #7: I've Learned to Like Six

As I was first learning about the pre-RTD Doctors, I heard a lot of love for Three, Four and Five, and a lot of hate for Six and Seven.  Although I've never understood why Seven was so reviled (perhaps because my first experience with him was Remembrance of the Daleks, which included Ace, who was to become one of my all-time favorite Companions), I must admit that I took an instant dislike to Six, as I'd come to expect I would.

I suppose it was partly a self-fulfilling prophecy, but when you consider my first exposure to Six (not counting the regeneration scene) was in Vengeance on Varos - in which he is exceptionally snotty to Peri (who, granted, kind of deserves it, but not that much...) - perhaps it's not surprising I didn't take to him right away. All I got from him was egomania and disregard for his Companion - not a Doctorly attitude at all. It wasn't till much later that I discerned any sort of affection for Peri underlying the banter.

Since those first few months, though, I've come to appreciate him as a great character in his own right. Mostly, this is due to the brilliance of Rich Morris, artist and web comic writer extraordinaire, who penned the epic fan comic The Ten Doctors (also available in PDF format here). It was through Rich's work that I was finally able to see the beautiful potential of Six, who really had been done a disservice by his writers, in my opinion. (Not to mention the costume designer - what is up with that nasty outfit? Why couldn't they have gone monochrome?) The Six of TTD was extremely clever, yet never out of acerbic character from the televised episodes.  He was somehow simultaneously grumpy and charming. I had a lot of respect for that version of Six, and was able to superimpose the positive qualities exhibited there onto the on-screen Doctor afterward.  (In fact, I learned a lot about Doctor Who as a whole from both TTD and the associated forums, which are populated by some really knowledgeable folks in what is probably the friendliest community on Teh Intarwebs.)

It also helped when I was finally able to watch Trial of a Timelord.  In his second series, Six finally came into his own.  (Getting rid of Peri - my all-time least favorite Companion - was a step in the right direction, too.  ...though Mel wasn't much of an improvement.)  There's finally a real, noticeable warmth between Six and Peri (at least before the brain scrambling incident in the second sub-story), and he radiates confidence without arrogance in the adventures viewed through the Matrix. He's still kind of a prat in the courtroom on Gallifrey, though, faced with the Valeyard's vitriol. It seems that being under fire brings out the worst in him (though having recently taken a couple of hits at work, I can't really blame him); when he can't be the one in charge, he gets huffy. However, when things clearly go awry as the Doctor tries to make his own case, his discomfiture affords him a bit of humility.  Without all that smug self-satisfaction, Six is actually rather engaging. Perhaps it's that it gives him just enough of the "humanity" that the Companion (largely absent in court) usually affords the viewer.  Whatever the case, by the end of Trial, I was much more willing to cut Six some slack, and count him among "Doctors I Like," rather than have him all alone on the other side of that tally sheet.

Sometimes it takes someone else's perspective to make you take another look.  That experience changed my mind.  If you've never had an appreciation for Six, maybe it's time for you to look again, too.

Confession #6: The Fourth Doctor Kind of Bugs Me

If Confession #3 irked a few Neo-Whovians (and yes, I did catch some flak from the Ladies), then this one is sure to incur the wrath of some Old Skool Whovians.  Tom Baker, aka Four (you know the one - "all teeth and curls," perpetually wrapped in a ridiculously long scarf), is one of the best-loved Doctors of all time.  In fact, before David Tennant's stint, he was the most popular Doctor ever.  However, though I do generally enjoy him, a lot of times Four just sort of rubs me the wrong way.

First, there's the way he seems to work so hard on being weird.  Sure, the googly eyes give him a head start, but that's the least of it.  There are so many instances where he'll just repeat! someone else's line enough to startle ("of course!"), and then come down from that vocal high still as confused as ever ("nope - still don't know what you're talking about") that it ceases to either surprise or amuse (a trait Tennant borrowed for Ten, though I don't believe he wielded it as often).  I think it would bug me less if it weren't such an ongoing gag.  It's something that feels like it started as one of Baker's many attempts to make the cast and crew lose their composure and start laughing on set - except that once it worked, he kept inserting it as one of Four's quirks, and it lost its effect (file under: funny once).

What really irritates me, though, is how rude he is to everyone.  He frequently cuts off his Companions mid-sentence, usually when they're trying to tell him something important that he needs to know.  It doesn't matter who it is - Sarah Jane, K-9, even Romana (who's supposed to be as clever as the Doctor) - all suffer the same indignity and implication of insignificance.  Again, every once in a while it can be amusing, but it seems to happen nearly every story.  His self-centeredness in this sense feels very anti-Doctor to me, and makes me wonder:  where's the Doctor who loves and values his Companions?  Oh, I know he does, but as the saying goes, he has a funny way of showing it...

Not all of these annoying traits crop up in every story.  Occasionally, none of them do (like The Invisible Enemy - Nu-View pending).  Yet somehow, the pall of them tends to color my enjoyment.  Maybe I've seen a few too many interviews on DVD extras or something, because Tom Baker and Four seem indelibly intertwined, even outside the studio.  That makes it difficult to know how much of Four's posturing is Tom Baker's larger-than-life personality coming out, and how much is just the way he chooses to play the character.

I've also gotten the impression from various accounts that Baker was very jealous of "his" role, and didn't exactly play well with others at conventions and such, having made Four so iconic during his tenure.  For example, at one convention, he reportedly greeted his fans on an entirely different floor than the other Doctors present.  I suppose my opinion of the character has thus been a bit influenced by what I've learned of the actor.

On the other hand, I'm certainly not going to stop watching him.  He delivered a whole lot of really good stories, and - especially after my recent viewing of Meglos (DVD review sadly scrapped) - I have plenty of respect for his acting chops.  When you can see how distinct the Doctor is from another character Baker is playing, it makes even the over-the-top bits more palatable - Four as caricature rather than alter-ego is somehow less off-putting.  So Four's stories will most definitely stay in my "happy to re-watch it" queue.  I just need to make sure I'm in a properly off-the-wall mood.