deus ex machina
I was very chuffed with the new series of Doctor Who this year.  There's certainly plenty to pick fault with, but niggles are ultimately excusable if you take a step back and appreciate the scope of the project.  For example, the burping wheelie bin and farting aliens might be just a bit too unsubtle for most of us, but don't misunderstand why they were there at all - kids loved them.

And of course, one of the goals of the writers and producers was to breathe life into "family television" again.  It seems to have worked a treat, with big people and little people watching it together.

If you have a think about it, it's actually been a very educational lesson in professional and skilled writing with the intention of catching an especially broad audience.  Don't forget that on top of writing plot and dialogue that has to work so widely, there was an existing world of Who fans out there who also had to be written for.  I'd have to say that for such a bold venture as this, they did incredibly well in 13 short chapters.

I noticed that legacy background detail was cunningly skirted for the most part - which is of course cleverly allowing a duality to work for them;  New audiences aren't alienated, confused or bored, and those of us with plenty of Old School DW knowledge fill in details for ourselves anyway.  New audiences don't need to know any more about the Chameleon Circuit than the basic concept, and the Old School already knows the finer details.  So they showed great craftsmanship in wasting no time on such minutiae.   Convey the concept and move on with the show.

Anyway, enough of that kind of thing - here's what I really wanted to write about.  My one Great Niggle...

It's nothing to do with production quality, acting, dialogue, any of that.  I'm very happy with all that, and excuse any trivial quirks here and there because it's been a hell of a task and they've managed so well.  My gripe is, ironically, the use of Deus ex Machina.

Here's a very good explanation of what that means if you're not familiar with the term; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina

In short, Deus ex Machina is when a writer pulls a rabbit out of the hat at the last minute to resolve the story.  It's frankly insulting to an audience or reader when a writer drops in a quick fix solution out of nowhere.

Sadly, RTD has exhibited this exit strategy really badly now, in two particular stinkers, which deny us the satisfaction and completion which a contrastingly well set up plot has got us all set to receive.  Both are double whammies as well, because not only did they unfulfillingly come from nowhere, but they also excused our hero from making a decision regarding a brilliantly crafted dilemma and conflict.

Boom Town.  Our problem here is taking an alien back to her home world, where she will face certain death for her crimes.  It's an interesting situation, and as it unfolds we form our opinions on whether he should or shouldn't and so on.  It works nicely.  We wonder what the outcome will be.  So far so good, but with just minutes to go, it's time for Paul Daniels to go to work, and out comes the rabbit.

WHERE the feck did this Heart Of The Tardis thing come from??  This is about as God From The Machine as it gets - oh no, I take that back, it gets more literal next week.  Anyway, up pops the hood of the Tardis and performs some Star Trek staple magic.  The moral dilemma is solved by something outwith the flow of the story, the Doctor is excused from resolving the issue entirely.  Phew, that was lucky, eh Doctor?

But this introduction of the supernatural force in the middle of the Tardis's column is at least something that links to the outcome of The Parting Of The Ways.  But oh my god, how to abuse a Get Out Of Jail Free card...

The Parting Of The Ways.  I'll get this off my chest first instead of using it as a conclusion - I honestly believe this was not how this story was intended to end.

Make no mistake, I loved this episode, and I was totally carried along by it.  I was delighted.  Over all.  At the time the weak conclusion didn't really matter, so it DID work as an excellent piece of TV.  But now to get on my soap box...

What a complete body-swerve of the problems, and LITERALLY fixes the plot's nicely flowing situation by wheeling in a God From The Machine.  It's so lame a get-out and quick fix that having viewed stacks of irrefutable evidence that RTD is a careful, creative and intelligent pensman I can't believe for a minute that he's written that ending, sat back, and said "ah yes, that works beautifully".  I think he sat back and said "I hope this will do."

Look at the engaging and entertaining situation we have;  We've been awed by the unstoppable might of the Dalek invasion force. The Doctor has a gigantic moral dilemma against him, the ability to vanquish them, but at the cost of Earth's population and his own life.  With just minutes of the episode to go, we are truly on the edge of our seats.  HOW will the Doc deal with this?  The audience torture peaks when the Doctor stands down and the Daleks have won.  The Doctor faces extermination.  We really can see no way out, and we're prepared to be amazed.  At this point our arses are fairly gripping our chairs and we're formulating possible outcomes in our heads - the doctor must get shot down after all, and the regeneration will ensue.  But how will he sort out those Daleks... 

Time to call Penn & Teller, we need a rabbit! 

And so appears Magic Rose, and we discover what the Bad Wolf references have been about.  Bullshit.  The big one written on the playground in that same episode would have sufficed to "send herself a message".  Everybody on the planet reckoned the Bad Wolf was tied to the Doctor and his apparent combination destruction of Time Lords and Daleks, it was just a matter of the actual details that eluded us.  Regardless, this was possibly the biggest disappointment possible for explaining the Bad Wolf thing.

But back to cases, how to solve the Dalek situation?  Somebody's been watching too much Buffy and Charmed!  "Begone evil ones, I vanquish you!" (more or less) and they fizzle into dust?  Oh come ON!  That has to be the most unfulfilling great big smelly let-down since the "but it was all a dream" ending ritually wheeled out back at school when there was just a few minutes to finish your story.

Oh, I have to stop writing now in fact, because the only other surviving Time Lord other than the Doctor, who we've had no prior mention of in this article, has arrived in my living room and told me this computer is about to crash.  Well, if RTD can use it to round off a story, so can I! :-p

So anyway.  Russel T Davies.  Deus ex Machina.  Next Season.  DON'T.  Please.

JD


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