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24TH JUNE 2006
(45-MINUTE EPISODE)
This year’s
budget episode is Life on Mars’ co-creator Matthew Graham’s Fear
Her, a
hastily-written episode that I understand was commissioned to fill the gap
left by Stephen Fry’s unfinished episode. I don’t think that I’m being
unduly harsh in saying that
this is perhaps
the worst episode of the season thus far - particularly considering level
of
the competition
- but even so, there is still a hell of a lot to love.
For me, the
greatest strength of Fear Her
is its humour. Last week I thought
that Love
& Monsters was funny, but at times this ep-
isode had me
rolling in the aisles. Scenes
like the Doctor coming face to face with the
burly father; the whole “fingers on lips!” sequence; and, of course, the
immortal line from Kel
– “You just took
a council axe from a council van and now you’re digging up a council road!
I’m reporting
you to the council!” – really dragged this one up from being a relatively
poor
episode to a
thoroughly endearing one.
Ironically
though, another of this episode’s strengths is in fact the relative
cheapness of it all. What could be creepier than children going missing on
a normal, suburban street in the not-too-distant future? Although it’s
been done before, the ‘spooky little girl’ angle really works,
particularly when brought to life by a young actress with the intensity of
Abisola Agbaje. That
voice she does
is downright disturbing.
Furthermore,
Chloe’s strange power is fascinating - only in Doctor Who could you
have one of your main characters being attacked by a scribble! The effects
shots in this episode may be few and far between, but when they are used
they look terrific. The cartoon boy coming
to life in the
pre-title sequence is especially horrific; he looks like something lifted
from the artwork of a Radiohead album!
What’s more,
Fear Her is an outstanding story for Rose. Whilst it is the Doctor
that works everything out about the Isouls creature that has taken over
young Chloe, when he becomes one of her drawings it is up to Rose to save
the day single-handedly. It’s strange to think that this is Rose’s last
chance to do something on her own – in a fortnight’s time she’ll be gone
and so Fear Her is really her last chance to really show what she
can do.
“You just took a council axe from a council van and now you’re digging up
a council road!
I’m reporting you to the council!”
And the
axe-wielding Billie Piper certainly doesn’t disappoint
Even when the
Doctor is still around, in Chloe’s bedroom it is
Rose that does
the explaining, and it is Rose that really stands
up to Chloe’s
Mum Trish (Nina Sosanya of Teachers fame),
blaming her for
making Chloe feel so isolated. It’s also only
fair to mention
that Piper looks stunning in this episode too –
New Earth standard.
The story’s
conclusion is very uplifting and reminded me very
much of the “everybody
lives!” climax to The Doctor Dances
last year; even Murray Gold’s
score is lifted in part from that
episode. The Isouls’ pod needs some love
to bring it back to
life, and so Rose throws it into the Olympic Torch
which the Doctor then carries all the way into the Olympic Stadium! It’s
a
wonderfully enriching Doctor Who moment, a definite calm
before the
storm.
On a final note,
I’ve noticed that the writers have been much braver this year about
slipping
in more and more
references to the show’s past, and Fear Her marks the biggest one
yet. Blink and you’ll miss it, but in the TARDIS Rose says to the Doctor,
“…easy for you to say, you don’t have kids”, to which he replies “I was a
dad once”. It won’t matter to most viewers, but I’m certainly glad that
the revived series is a definite continuation of the show that began back
in 1963 with the Doctor and his granddaughter Susan. Whether Susan
actually is his granddaughter or not is another matter entirely (I suppose
it depends where you stand on
the whole
‘Other’ issue…) but regardless, it’s the latest in a long line of lovely
little touches that certainly sit well with this fan.
“Something’s in the air. Something coming. A storm’s approaching.”
And so next week
it’s the big one. We all know she’s leaving, but is Rose going to die?
Personally I hope not, but I really can’t see any other way of getting her
to leave the Doctor; she would rather die. On the other hand
though, if they kill her off, millions of children are going to be scarred
for life, not to mention a fair few grown-ups too. Nobody even liked Adric,
and look what a mark his death left on the nation’s youth...
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