Day 310 – November 6th 2021
The Awakening Parts One and Two
The Awakening – Part One
I didn’t mention Peter Davison’s hair during Warriors of the Deep, but I think that’s probably the place where he looks the least like Doctor Who for me. It feels like a massive step down from the longer hair he was sporting for the latter stories of Season Twenty. A few years ago I did the covers for a trilogy of Davison stories for Big Finish, and I tweeted about having to use a Warriors image because it fitted the composition in spite of the awful hair… and I was inundated by people telling me they loved the shorter hair! So maybe it’s a ‘me’ thing?
What I will say is that in this story – filmed about a month later – I think his hair looks great. It’s still shorter, but it’s grown out just enough to make all the difference. For whatever reason he looks proper like Doctor Who here.
This episode also sees the introduction of the Fifth Doctor Who’s second costume. It’s a straight remake of the original, but all the elements are new. I’ve always thought that I wasn’t a fan of the Season Twenty-One costume. It always looked slightly cheaper than the original. I once described it to a friend as a ‘cosplay version’ of the outfit. And yet… I think it looks really good here! The whole thing comes together and really works for Davison. Perhaps it’s a case of this feeling like it symbolises the season I’ve always thought of as my favourite for this incarnation?
He’s on real form in this one, too. Davison feels confident in what he’s doing, and it’s nice to see Doctor Who gripped by trying to solve a mystery. The cliffhanger feels like Davison’s version of the Creature From the Pit, in which Doctor Who actively heads into danger despite the warnings of everyone around him. It’s strange to say, but I think it might be my favourite Davison moment so far.
There’s lots to like in this one across the board. The location is beautiful, and shot in the middle of July it looks especially lovely in some blistering sunshine. This is what Black Orchid should have looked like, rather than grey and overcast. There’s something about seeing our heroes run around a sunny English village which feels so right, which is strange because I don’t think we’ve really done a lot of it in the past. The location work also means we’ve lots of film material, and there’s some especially lovely close ups on display. Michael Owen Morris only directed this one story, but on the strength of what I’ve seen so far he’d have been very welcome to do more. There’s a particularly nice moment where he steals Peter Moffatt’s trick and uses a glass shot to add the church into the distance.
On the subject of the church, how impressive is the scale of the set? It’s massive! Of course they’re impressive across the board, which is exactly what you’d expect from a story which utilises so many historical trappings. It’s testament to the success of the sets that I didn’t even think of Sir George’s house as one until just now.
All of this before I even mention the guest characters, who are lots of fun in their own right. I think my namesake, Will, might be my favourite if only for his reaction to Doctor Who’s introduction;
Doctor Who: ‘Who are you? I’m the Doctor.’
Will: ‘Doctor? That don’t be a proper name. Will Chandler be a proper name.’
That’s the second time our hero has to introduce himself in this story, but the earlier occasion is the first (or first that I’ve noticed, at least) appearance of something which will become a common phrase over the next couple of seasons. It’s the slightly clunky line ‘I’m known as the Doctor’. When I think of this snippet of dialogue it’s Colin Baker’s Doctor Who that I picture, and I can’t recall hearing Davison use it before now. I know it’s a silly thing to find annoying, but it’s a phrase which has always grated on me!
8/10
The Awakening – Part Two
It seems a bit hilarious to me now that I thought the whole ‘guest characters inside the TARDIS’ thing would have wound itself up by the time we reached this season – this is one of the fullest TARDISes we’ve ever had! By the end of this episode the Control Room is home to our three regulars plus Jane, Ben, Tegan’s grandfather, a ‘roundhead’ from the village and Will! There’s a suggestion that Doctor Who’s going to need to take Will back to 1643 so I’d like to think we’ll eventually get a box set featuring him from Big Finish. I’ll write one! I’d love a series of adventure tires where he encounters aliens. Davros b’aint a proper name!
We also get the little sprite form of the Malus inside the TARDIS at various points throughout the story, and I think it’s probably the most effective example of a monster making it into the ship so far. There’s something about the little mute figure clinging to the top of a pillar which is creepier than a Cyberman or an Android stomping around. If I’ve one criticism it’s that there’s not enough room in a two part story for the creature to really do anything. It manifests inside the ship and then it’s defeated; all that bit too easy for my liking. It also falls victim to another trend which I think will become quite prevalent across the next couple of seasons – it dies accompanied by copious amounts of green goo! We’ve already seen similar happen to some Sea Devils this year, and I think I can picture at least one more before the run is through.
Perhaps more impressive than the little mini-Malus is the full-scale thing upstairs, poking through the wall of the church. It’s such a great image, mouth pouring smoke, and it’s another of those things which I reckon would have stuck in my mind as a kid. I’m not sure I entirely understand what the Malus is or how it operates, but that sort of doesn’t matter because it’s provided enough enjoyment for a 50-minute story. This episode goes heavier on the psychic projections, and by the time they actually cut someone’s head off you get the sense that this is one of the scariest things the show has ever done.
7/10
