DOCTOR WHO 60TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL # 2 - WILD BLUE YONDER (2023)

 

WARNING THERE BE SPOILERS AHEAD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DIRECTED by Tom Kingsley

WRITTEN by Russell T Davies

STARRING  - David Tennant as The Doctor,  Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, David Tennant as The Doctor Dopleganger, Catherine Tate as The Donna Doppelganger

With...

Nathaniel Curtis as Sir Issac Newton and Bernard Cribbins as Wilfred Mott.

PLOT - The TARDIS is out of control and malfunctioning. It crashes on a space station that is located at the very edge of the known universe. Upon arrival the TARDIS then dematerialises, leaving the Doctor and Donna stranded on the deserted space station.

However, the space station is not as deserted as it first appears...what is the secret of the slowed down robot ? Who or what are the hostile creatures that are hiding in the dark ? The Doctor and Donna must escape but without the TARDIS thier chances of survival are looking increasingly slim...

DIALOUGE  - Donna - "There is something here so terrible that the TARDIS ran away ?"

The Doctor - "Um...yeah."

Donna - "Then let's go...and KICK ITS ARSE !!!"

PERFORMANCES  - I really think David Tennant must be going for some kind of record as the actor to have played the most versions of the Doctor. Not only has he played two separate incarnations of the Doctor (the tenth and the fourteenth), he's also played the Doctor's half human clone (in series four's finale) and now he gets to play a twisted alien shape changer that's taken on the Doctor's form. 

As always Tennant is excellent and this episode sees him take it to the next level. What we have here is literally a two hander - Tennant and Tate carry the entire episode for the majority of it's run time. Bar a quick prologue featuring Nathaniel Curtis as Issac Newton and an epilogue seeing the return of the late Bernard Cribbins as Wilfred Mott, the rest of the episode features just Tennant and Tate playing thier usual roles plus the evil alien duplicates of the Doctor and Donna. It's always interesting to see the leads of a show tackle an episode where the focus is entirely on them - even more so when you get your leads to play evil versions of thier usual characters.

Both Tennant and Tate rise to the occasion. With the Doctor and Donna we get to see more examples of the way thier characters have matured since 2009. They seem to have a truly deep friendship and understanding of one another and this episode's format allows both actors to delve deeper into thier characters especially during the story's quieter moments.

We get to see how much the Doctor needs Donna and how much regret and guilt he harbours for not being able to save large chunks of the universe at the end of the previous series when he was still Jodie Whittaker. In Donna's case we get to see how much she has missed the Doctor being in her life, even though her memories of him had been repressed she still had an aching void in her life.

The nature of the threat also brings out a real sense of fear in the characters. The Doctor and Donna are genuinely scared in this episode. There's none of the usual hi-jinks or wise cracking that we usually get with these two characters, instead we get two friends who love each other desperately clinging onto one another, trying to survive a horrifying situation. It's refreshing to see a dose of real fear being injected into our two main characters. The exhausted and deeply traumatised looks on both thier faces as they narrowly escape the monsters and the exploding space station really do say it all.

Of course, the real fun part of this episode is seeing our two leads play the evil Doppelgangers. This is a great concept and whilst it leads to some scenes which can be slightly confusing (sometimes we're not sure who is real and who is a duplicate) both Tennant and Tate succeed in making the Doplegangers into truly creepy creations. Whether they're howling and barking like wild dogs, screaming endless streams of insults or just standing creepily still, theres just something so "off" about these creatures. Evil is always scary - but evil wearing a friendly face is more unnerving still.

The story's epilogue/lead in to the next episode sees the return of Bernard Cribbins as Donna's grandfather Wilfred Mott. He's only in it for about two minutes but it's lovely to see him back. Wilf was a great character in his original run. Cribbins played the character pretty much as "the best grandad in the world", it was a magical performance which won him loads of new fans in the twilight years of his career. Cribbins was apparently very happy to return for the 60th anniversary even though he'd more or less retired from acting. The original plan was for him to have a much larger role in the specials, unfortunately ill health prevented him from doing so and Cribbins sadly died before filming was completed. He was 93 years old. I believe this scene was the only scene that he was able to film before his death.

The looks on Tennant and Tate's faces in this reunion scene say it all - they clearly both had a lot of love for this man and that affection comes over onscreen. It's sad to see Cribbins/Wilf look so frail but at least he managed to make it to the birthday party even if he had to unfortunately leave early. The episode ends with a dedication to Bernard Cribbins. Rest in peace - good sir - you've more than earned it.

SFX - As with last week's episode we get to see some of that extra Disney money up there on screen in the shape of some absolutely stunning shots of the space station.

We get a nicely designed robot - christened "Jimbo" by the Doctor and Donna. As with the Meep last week he manages to straddle that line between being cute and creepy...

Definitely falling into the creepy camp are the alien Doplegangers. Thier bodies are twisted into various horrific shapes and poses. This is mainly achieved via CGI. Some of it is slightly ropey but this only adds to the "Uncanny Valley" feel that these creatures invoke...

For those of you who think that the Doctors always talking out of his arse then in this episode you'd be right.

VIOLENCE  - At the end of the episode the two shape shifters are blown to smithereens along with the rest of the space station.

RATING  - Wild Blue Yonder is a strange episode of Doctor Who. In some ways its Doctor Who stripped down to its most basic elements - you've got the Doctor, his companion, The TARDIS not working properly, scary monsters and lots of running up and down corridors in a space station. 

However, the story veers into some very unfamiliar territory - at times it has an unsettlingly strange and almost surreal feel (the scenes where the Doctor is being chased by his Doppelganger recall similar scenes in the final episode of the original Twin Peaks where Agent Cooper is being chased through the Black Lodge by an evil Doppelganger of his own). There's also lots of body horror as the evil aliens twist and contort themselves into shapes a human (or Time Lord) body should never EVER be twisted into.

Overall this is a strange story to include as an "anniversary special" as (Wilf's brief cameo aside) there's nothing particularly celebratory about it. If anything it feels more like a standard mid-season story albeit with a bizzare and disturbing makeover. However don't let this lack of birthday celebrations put you off because what we have here is a nice slice of experimental and weird TV. Doctor Who is always at its best when it straddles the line between sci-fi and horror and this episode is no exception.

I'm giving it 4 and a half shape shifters out of 5. Next week it's the return of the Celestial Toymaker and the fourteenth Doctors last stand...should be a bit of a giggle...

ART -

Above is the cover to the  forthcoming Target novelisation. Seeing as Mark Morris is a respected horror writer it should be interesting to see how he handles the more horrific elements of this story. I'm definitely looking forward to reading this.