10.45: The Next Doctor

In which everyone is tired, and the writer would appreciate some thanks.

Broadcast: December 2008

Watched: October(?) 2021

So, that question mark. By this point in my journey, because I make terrible choices, these posts, originally written for a mailing list of a dozen nerds, had gone from “a few quick notes typed as I watch” to “mini-essays, based on those notes, which I think about and write up later as if they’re proper reviews”. That I was behind on a book is both cause and effect of this. 

Anyway: this means that the posts had started to take some time, so if I watched a couple of episodes back to back, I could easily fall behind. This explains why, although nobody who lacks my specific OCD brain should care, from this point on, I might be a month out with my estimation of when I watched this stuff. It also explains this opening line:

Waaay behind with these – I’m five episodes into the next season – so gonna try and bash a few off now. The fact I’m meant to be working on the book is a coincidence. 

“It’s the TARDIS! She’s flying!”

Also, “What are children ever needed for? They’re a workforce” is a nice summation of Victorian economic morality. Meanwhile, “I hope I don’t just trip over a brick, that’d be embarrassing” is a nice summation of the pre-credits from Time & the Rani.

Anyway, feels a bit lacking after, well, the entire past two and a bit years of Doctor Who, really. That thing I keep saying about how the high RTD era is so good that even the rubbish episodes have this energy to them? That stops here. Everyone’s knackered, from making the previous 14 episodes, and you can tell.

This is a shame, because on paper, it’s quite good. Having a title that’s there largely to pique audience interest/wind up fandom is terrific fun, even if it’s really not the story of the episode: the first hint Jackson isn’t really the Doctor, the sonic screwdriver bit, comes 10 minutes in, and we know the truth for certain halfway through. It’s really only the pre-credits that actually commits. That said, the fob watch bit is a great joke – even more so when it turns out to be the clue to Jackson Lake’s real identity after all. 

The idea of landing in a Dickens novel in which the cybermen are kidnapping children in the snow at Christmas is also pretty great. (1851, too, slap bang in the middle of both the 19th century and Dickens’ career). There are loads of memorable visuals: okay, the cyber shades are silly, but the balloon, the factory, the Iron Giant-style cyber-king (I have no idea if this is silly as I didn’t see this episode aged 8).

But... Hartigan’s story feels a bit confused. Her motive, of wanting to convert everyone but remain human, makes no sense, even compared to John Lumic’s from Rise/Age. And she’s head of a workhouse – okay, that’s a Victorian horror, but it’s still a charitable venture. What is the story trying to say? And what’s it got to do with Jackson Lake thinking he’s the Doctor?

And the answer is: nothing. There’s either too much or not enough here, because RTD is too knackered to finish writing it. And made at the end of a season it feels small and cheap.

It’s made to be watched by half pissed families on Christmas day, so I’m not sure it matters, but I think it might be the weakest episode RTD had written to this point. And the “No one has ever thanked him!” bit is still painful.

Other things:

• Is the original conception slightly nicked from the fake Doctor BF, The One Doctor? Gareth Roberts was around quite a lot in this period.

• Some references: Rosita, obviously. The redo of the “Turn left, turn right” ear piece bit from Rise. Is “Dreadnought class!” a reference to those terrible Radio Times comics Gary Russell did?

• Amazingly, a reference to something that hasn’t happened yet: the Cybermen are planning ascension, because Chibnall has no original ideas.

• The way Hartigan kills someone to get all their friends together at a funeral is literally that old joke about how you can tell someone's a psychopath.

• Does Jackson not remember his son’s name? Because he never says it, just keeps saying “My son”. Also, why is the kid obviously wearing eyeliner?