For the past two years I have
repeatedly made one observation about the current lead writer for
Doctor Who. He is following in the footsteps of two of the
finest writers in the world and the fact remains that he is not only
not in the same league, but has another league in between his league
and their league. This will inevitably affect the direction and
quality of the programme. The lack of sheer poetry in Chibnall's
dialogue, when compared with his predecessors is evident, but not, in
the end, too damaging. Critically, however, Chibnall still exhibits a
lack of care when it comes to resolving plots, something that was of
particular concern when before watching "Ascension of the
Cybermen"/"The Timeless Children", because it builds
on the revelations of "Fugitive of the Judoon" to form the
greatest reformatting of Doctor Who's mythology since The
Deadly Assassin, if not "An Unearthly Child" itself.
The driving force is the reintroduction
of the Cybermen – bold, considering that the two previous Cyberman
stories were the best ones ever made, in my opinion. We see the
return of the memorable Ashad, the tortured half-convert from the
previous story, who is now the leader. Again, as with the two Moffat
Cyber-stories, we have the Master thrown into the mix as well. We are
also given the concept of a fugitive remnant of humans fighting
extinction. These form a strong framework to hang the story on, which
is a good thing, as there is some of the lack of attention to detail
that has cropped up before. The characterisation of the remnant
humans are sketchy, the Death Particle is a pound shop version of the
Daleks' Reality Bomb that is dropped into the plot a bit too
conveniently. Critically, we are never sure what the actual Ascension
of the Cybermen is – the aspect that seems to point the way to it,
the image of the awakened Cybermen made to scream by Ashad's
lieutenants is memorable, but unexplained. Most critically, we have
the portrayal of our leading lady. The characterisation raises some
big issues, most notably the fact that the Doctor is willing to cut a
moral Gordian Knot by allowing someone else to sacrifice himself.
And yet , while there are issues with
how Chibnall writes the character, he also sets out to rewrite the
Doctor's history and that of the Time Lords; and the ideas and de-
and remythologisation work well. The new origin story for the Time
Lords manages to be memorable, disturbing, and, crucially (and in the
best possible way) raises more questions than answers. In revealing
more about the Doctor's past, we are left with a figure as mysterious
as the one in the junkyard in Totters' Lane. As one of the many
people who know what the final revelations of the Cartmel Masterplan
were, Chris Chibnall's bombshell is a considerable improvement over
what would have been revealed in Sylvester McCoy's fourth season.
The, at first, entirely disconnected story of Brendan the Irish
policemen shows Chibnall reaching for a Moffat level of conceptual
ingenuity – and succeeding to a very welcome degree!
The story is realised with epic
flourish, with flotillas of attacking cyberdrones and warping battle
cruisers materialising on an immaculately shot battlefield location.
The supporting actors make their hastily written characters really
work – Julie Graham's character Ravio, realising that she is on the
planet where her race originated on is a surprisingly powerful scene.
The fam are as utterly delightful as ever, with Ryan finally making
the shot that he missed and a wonderful scene between Graham and Yas,
showing the difference between Cockney and Yorkshire 'sharing'. The
more proactive role that Yas has been taking of late, is wonderful,
improving the fam's chemistry, no end. Patrick O'Kane spits venom
again as Ashad and his ultimate destruction is unexpectedly sudden.
At this point we must address one thing – the Cybermasters. The
design is ridiculous, bordering on the New Paradigm Daleks,
especially when compared with the other Cyberman designs in the
story. It would have helped no end for the Doctor to have pointed out
how silly they look.
Sacha Dhawan effectively shows the pain
and fury of his new-found relationship between the Master and his
best Enemy. The enemy in question, the Timeless Child is a huge task
for Jodie Whittaker as an actress and she is more than up to the
challenge. After a memorable pep-talk from her unknown former-self,
we are treated to the magnificent sequence where the Doctor blows the
matrix with her memories, realised magnificently as a drop beat to
the Doctor Who theme music. The Doctor is still with us,
bigger and more magnificent than ever before.
Chibnall, as I've said before is a
lesser writer than his predecessors. Yet, despite its faults,
"Ascension of the Cybermen"/"The Timeless Children"
show him increasing his reach by striving to be better than anyone
thought he could be. He fails, of course, but what we are left with
is a very good story, although not the classic that the Chibnall era
has been lacking, so far. I look forward to what's coming next.
NEXT: "Revolution of the
Daleks"
