*A few spoilers.*
In which Peri wins the award for the shortest stick ever drawn by a companion, yikes. Six’s first rodeo is a rough one, and my first time watching it, it completely soured me on him as a Doctor. Overall, he’s better on rewatch, and even this serial isn’t as bad, but it still makes me cringe on Peri’s behalf.
A pair of twin super-geniuses have been kidnapped by aliens and forced to math for them in service of a devastating evil plan, but the Doctor and Peri aren’t in the best of positions to rescue them. Newly regenerated, the Sixth Doctor is going through a wallop of a regeneration crisis that involves majorly erratic decision-making and multiple psychotic breaks. Peri does her best to hold things together for the both of them as she worries that something’s gone wrong with the regeneration.
The introduction to Six is controversial, to say the least. Even before factoring in the regeneration-crisis instability, it’s clear from the start that this is a different sort of Doctor. I get that the Doctor doesn’t have any control over how he’s going to come out, and I think “Deep Breath” helps me to give him a bit more leeway—I can recognize now that his good qualities aren’t quite as few or far between as they seem at first. But honestly, he can be such a jerk, especially here and in series 22. I hate to see him dumping on Peri, the arrogance and smugness can be infuriating, and it can be hard to tell if he just doesn’t like to admit when he’s messed up or if he’s actually so self-impressed that he thinks he can do no wrong. I get that the show was going for something radically different, but here, I don’t think they carried it off all that well. It puts a damper on this era, and this story especially. (Is it super-hypocritical of me to side-eye Six when I get so mad at Clara for doing the same thing to Twelve? I feel like it’s different, but it does still make me tell myself I need to give Six the benefit of the doubt.)
And then, yes, there’s the regeneration crisis, complete with that scene. Yes, show—it would be shocking to show the Doctor trying to choke his companion. But you know what else it is? Terrible. Even knowing that he’s having a psychotic episode, that one moment all but ruined Six for me, and I’ve had to actively try to give him a second chance. For me, this is a case where “provocative” isn’t enough to make up for how troubling it is. Six’s reaction to it bugs me, too. I know he doesn’t remember doing it, but he’s so dismissive of what Peri tells him and completely scoffs at the idea, even though he knows he’s been losing control of his faculties. To his credit, though, when he sees how frightened Peri is of him, he does sober up and realize he really did try to hurt her. Still—hate that scene so much. Just not worth it, in my opinion.
Oh yeah, and there’s an alien plot, too. The twins are seriously annoying (although that’s intentional,) but the gastropods work decently as the baddies—classic Who has a surprisingly-good track record with giant sentient insects/slugs/crustaceans—and I like the side plot with Azmael. I always enjoy meeting other Time Lords outside of Gallifrey, and while Azmael’s not my favorite, I like seeing him and the Doctor together.
No comments:
Post a Comment