Doctor Who: Series 22, Episodes 12-13 – “Revelation of the Daleks” (1985)

*A few spoilers.*

This isn’t a serial that sticks with me very well. Even though it has some interesting stuff going on, I’ve found my attention wandering whenever I’ve watched it. But I tend to have a hard time with series 22 in general—the double-length episodes just weren’t a good fit for classic Who. Nowadays, I love hour-long Who episodes, but the original series does much better with more bite-sized installments.

On the planet Necros, the wealthy are placed in cryogenic sleep until the Great Healer can find cures for their ailments. It sounds classist and almost too good to be true, and naturally, it is. The Sixth Doctor and Peri come to visit a scientist friend of the Doctor’s, but they’re soon drawn into the mystery at the heart of Necros.

As you can tell from the title of the serial, this is a Dalek story, so that’s of course a major element that looms large here. They’re up to something beyond just the usual extermination, which makes for a nice change of pace. Daleks can definitely have diminishing returns as villains, so it’s good whenever they shake things up a little.

But while they’re the major baddies, they’re not all the Doctor and Peri have to contend with in this serial. There’s also some conspiracy involving an unscrupulous businesswoman, an assassination, and a mysterious statue carved in tribute to the Doctor.

Throw in some old-fashioned body horror and a DJ whose role is to keep the atmosphere light in the dystopian setting, and there’s actually a lot of appealing stuff here. Under other circumstances, I’d probably like it a lot. But when we’re dealing with my least-favorite classic Doctor and the wonky pacing of the series 22 supersized episodes, the serial just makes less of an impression on me than it otherwise would.

Relationship Spotlight: Miles Morales & Gwen Stacy (Spider-Man)

*Miles/Gwen-related spoilers.*

The bond between Spider-Folks is a special one. We’ve seen it between the Peter Parkers in No Way Home, a connection that crosses not just universes but franchises and studios! And we’ve seen it of course in the Spider-Verse films, highlighted in the chaotic mentor-mentee relationship between Miles and Peter B., the tight friendship between characters like Gwen, Hobie, and Pavitr, and even the minutes-long encounter between Miles and his universe’s Peter in the first movie. But even with that built-in bond, Miles and Gwen have something extra.

Miles’s closest Spider-relationship in Into the Spider-Verse is definitely his dynamic with Peter B., as Miles gloms onto Peter looking for help with his newfound powers and Peter finds his tired, jaded attitude towards being Spider-Man reinvigorated by Miles’s determination to do the right thing even when he’s not sure what he’s doing. The connection with Gwen, though, is certainly a close second. Like Miles, she’s still a young Spider—more experienced than Miles, who’s completely brand-new, but she’s much closer to remembering those early days of flailing and confusion than Peter or some of the others. When Miles runs into her at his school and accidentally gets his hand stuck in her hair, Gwen tries to explain how he can get himself unstuck, but Miles panics and just tries to yank it out. Which ultimately leads to the asymmetrical haircut Gwen sports for the rest of the franchise.

Even during the moments of Into the Spider-Verse where Gwen doubts Miles’s readiness, she is still in his corner and rooting for him. At the end of the film, theirs is the hardest parting, and when Across the Spider-Verse starts, it’s clear how much each misses the other from their respective universes. Miles is gearing his future college plans towards fields that will allow him to study the multiverse, and as things get harder and harder for Gwen at home, she wants nothing more than to be able to talk to Miles about it.

When Gwen gets hooked up with the Spider Society, Miguel tells her about Miles’s status as an “anomaly” who was never supposed to be Spider-Man, and despite equipping her with a universe-hopping portal watch, she’s warned to steer clear of him. But Gwen can’t help herself, and when her duties take her to Miles’s universe, she seeks him out.

As they hang out together, catching up as they both chill out upside-down on the side of a tall building, it really hits home how lonely being a Spider can be. Even though they both learned in Into the Spider-Verse just how many of them are out there, they ended that movie with all of them back in their own universes, once again the lone Spider. Knowing there are other Spider-Folks out there but you can’t see them might be an even lonelier feeling than being truly on your own, so it’s a balm for Miles and Gwen to see each other again. I really enjoy watching them have fun just swinging around Brooklyn together, and when they settle in to talk, we see how Gwen is really the only peer Miles has: the only other person who’s relatively his age and truly understands what he’s going through.

The will-they-won’t-they hints are impossible to deny, but at this point, it’s understandable why Gwen balks at Miles’s shy intimations that he might like to take things further. At the Spider Society, she’s met tons of Spider-Folks and learned all about “Canon Events,” and it seems to her that one incontrovertible truth of every universe is that Gwen Stacy falls for Spider-Man and then dies. Her own universe is flipped—there, she was bitten by the spider, and Peter was the one to die—but she’s in a state of mind where she doesn’t think she can question the Canon, and she’s scared to risk it.

Back at the Spider Society, when Miguel reveals what he knows about Miles, Miles is both hurt and horrified to realize his friends (chiefly Gwen and Peter B.) already knew this and apparently believe it. It’s awful for him to be chased by a crap ton of Spider-Folks trying to capture him, but that’s nothing compared to the sense of betrayal he feels towards Gwen and Peter B. For her part, Gwen is saddened but conflicted, and as Miles pushes back against Miguel and the others, she doesn’t know what to do.

As I’ve said, there are aspects of the Canon Event/anomaly plots that I don’t like, one of which is simply the fact that Gwen would go along with ganging up on Miles like this. Luckily, she’s shaken out of that fall-in-line thinking, and the movie ends with her determined to help Miles, not lock him up. After Miles escapes the Spider Society, she follows him in the hope that, if she finds him before Miguel, there’s still a way to fix things. But as she realizes just how much trouble Miles is in, she reasserts that her greatest allegiance is to her friend.

Miles is in an incredible dicey situation at the end of Across the Spider-Verse, but there are two things that will make the wait for the third movie easier (aside from the obvious—I don’t want the animators to be worked into the ground.) First, Miles has a plan, and I have faith in him. And second, Gwen has assembled all their friends to come and help. Whatever happens next, I’m confident that they’re going to be okay, and whatever they do next, I’m sure they’re going to do it together.

Definition Please (2020)

This indie film doesn’t always stick the landing, but I’m glad I had a chance to see it. I enjoy the premise, and the actors do a great job of creating the sense of history between the characters.

When Monica was a child, she won the Scripps National Spelling Bee. But while other champions have gone on to bright futures, she’s still living in her hometown, tutoring new would-be champs and taking care of her mom. When her brother Sonny comes back into town, the two siblings struggle to navigate their fraught relationship.

As I said, I really like the idea of a story centered around a spelling bee champ who hasn’t lived up to her potential. Monica’s huge early success sent her on a whirlwind of acclaim at a young age—she had a guest spot on an educational show hosted by LeVar Burton, she met Oprah and Hillary Clinton, etc. But while she’s just as smart and studious as she ever was, she hasn’t been able to translate that childhood accomplishment into present-day success. Personal issues within her family have gotten in the way, and she can’t bring herself to detach from her role as the person who holds everything else together.

The plot is a little wandering, which I suppose is fitting, since Monica is in a period of her life where she feels kind of drifting/directionless as well. But it can make the story drag at times, and there are a few too many repetitive scenes where the same goal is accomplished in slightly different ways. But the major beats are mostly strong—it’s just some of that connective tissue that could be tighter.

Where the movie excels most is in the relationship between Monica, Sonny, and their mom Jaya. The three have been through a lot—Sonny is coming home ahead of the anniversary of their dad’s death—and through brief flashbacks, we get little glimpses into the world that formed Monica and Sonny and contributed to bringing them where they are now. The story slowly teases out some of the wedges that have come between them, and we watch them contemplate whether they’d be able to get back to each other. Through it all, Jaya attempts to brute-force togetherness through a potent combination of optimism, appealing to their better natures, and parental guilt. All three actors have excellent familial chemistry and feel very natural in their interactions with each other.

Writer/director Sujata Day stars as Monica, a brainy townie who in some ways has been using her responsibilities to avoid making big choices for her own life. Ritesh Rajan does nice work as the boisterous but mercurial Sonny, and Anna Khaja is effective as Jaya. The film also features appearances from Jake Choi, Sonal Shah (who I remember from the later seasons of Scrubs,) and Lalaine (who, weirdly, I will always remember from playing one of the orphans in the 1999 TV movie version of Annie.)

Warnings

Thematic elements, violence (including off-screen child abuse,) sexual content/references, language, and drinking/drug use.