A Head Teacher in Sussex decides to review
episodes of Doctor Who on his school's blog
episodes of Doctor Who on his school's blog
Mr. Hudson is Head Teacher at Greenfields School which is bigger inside than it is outside...
In the light of an article a couple of years ago which placed David Tennant as the top of a poll on who would be the ideal headmaster (http://www.metro.co.uk/showbiz/738913-david-tennant-is-dream-headmaster), it might be interesting for some to know that one school has its very own "Doctor" -Grant Hudson, Head Teacher at Greenfields School in Forest Row, East Sussex, has been a mad fan of the series since it began and happily writes about the recent Neil Gaiman episode here:
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| Grant Hudson,Head Teacher at Greenfields School |
I was able to extract one negative comment: that the whole "junkyard in space" motif and the non-descript rubbish in it was a bit... well, rubbish.
For a fan boy like me though, there were references throughout this episode to the classic series and a kind of homage to Doctor Who as a whole which swung it over to positive in my estimation. Things like the fact that we first met the Tardis in 1963 in a junkyard, the psychic message boxes (last seen at a very pivotal moment in 1969), the cloister bell ringing in the Tardis, the fact that the "junk" console was actually designed by a child on Blue Peter, the shaving mirror reminiscent of "The Masque of Mandragora" in which we first see an alternative control room (which has a shaving mirror on the console), the reference to the Doctor stealing the Tardis (or the Tardis stealing the Doctor), the "deleting" of rooms to give the Tardis extra power (last used in the early '80s) and so on. It all showed that Gaiman is a real fan, and therefore that we were in safe hands.
I also enjoyed some of the lines and their delivery: like when Matt says "Just admiring your collection of Time Lord psychic distress signals..." in that slightly menacing way; or when he says to Idris "I've got nothing" and she replies "You've got everything you've always had: you've got Me" and touches her finger to the console, sparking the take-off. Goosebump stuff for me.
But the most stand-alone dramatically effective pieces were the scenes with Rory and Amy inside -the switching of viewpoints, the psychological tension, the use of collapsed spaces and times, the claustrophobia (as well as the wonderful resurrection of the earlier control room). Like that episode on board that ship ("Midnight") with David Tennant.
It's interesting to read Neil Gaiman's feedback on the Guardian website on 16th May 2011.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/may/16/neil-gaiman-doctor-who-doctors-wife
I think the one disapproving comment reveals an important weakness in the show, though: it is highly vulnerable to being too self-referential (and even self-reverential) -it can effectively disappear up its own Rift by depending for its emotional impact on its own past history. Unless it can reach out effectively to non-fans it will begin to die. This was one of Russell T Davies great strengths: he could do the wacky Dr. Who stuff and still drop in a real moment of real human drama. In fact, he inserted quite a few in each episode and this served to make the show more universal and more real. I think of Rose confronting Donna who says "I'm not important -I'm just a temp from Chiswick" -beautifully written, beautifully acted by Tate who almost broke my heart at that point. Moffat runs the big risk of introverting the show too much, making it "too clever" and cutting it off from the wider public. It will disappear into its own bubble universe if it's not careful.
But it's still one of the loves of my life and I still felt re-invigorated about my relationships with things and people when the Doctor sees the lever move by itself at the end and realises that the Tardis has always taken him where he needs to go rather than where he wants to... :)
Grant Hudson, Head Teacher
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