Retrospective Discussion | Doctor Who (2005) | 1x10 "The Doctor Dances"
Retrospective Discussion | Doctor Who (2005) | 1x10 "The Doctor Dances"
Written by: Steven Moffat
Directed by: James Hawes
6 comments
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A really nice episode that improves on the already-quite-good first installment in pretty much every way.
Jack works a lot better once he's integrated into the main plot - he actually fits in quite seamlessly. He's still not quite as charming as he's clearly meant to be, but I think it's a big step up from last episode.
The "go to your room" bit is a lousy way to solve a cliffhanger that I nonetheless find very amusing. I'd also completely forgotten about the banana gag. Good stuff.
Jack suggests Pompeii on volcano day as a good place to visit if you're running a con. Hmm...
Nancy continues to be an outstanding character, balancing vulnerability with authority and toughness. Her confrontation with the owner of the house works really well, though it bumps up against problematic-yet-appropriate-for-the-era topics.
We get our first mention of Villengard, the weapons manufacturer that gets occasional shout-outs to this day.
The two-parter as a whole manages to seed its major plot developments - the nanogenes and Nancy secretly being Jamie's mother - without making it glaringly obvious - no small feat.
And, of course, we get the "everybody lives" monologue. It's iconic for a reason.
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The banana gag was great, and I think it starts to signal the doctors ongoing hatred of guns. He was quite quick to grab one at the end of Dalek, but now he's more critical of them.
As for the cliffhanger resolution, I would struggle to answer if you asked me to name one episode where a cliffhanger was resolved well.
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6 comments
This is a really good episode and pairs nicely with the previous one.
It's got really nice character work - Nancy being street smart enough to turn tables on the home owner, and a touching twist of her being a single teen mother (and everything else that implies). Jack is a lot more tolerable on this one now he's stopped his fake persona, even if the sonic pissing match is a bit much for me.
The direction in this one is really nice - multiple times there is a sequence where the characters are chatting away and not realising something critical has happened around them. For that I absolutely love the scenes in the doctors room, with the typewriter, and the teleport during the dance.
The explanation of how the child is able to control radios and all the hints leading to the final answer to the puzzle of what's happening are well written. It's a story straight out of black mirror with an all powerful AI gone wrong - a story still very of our times. My only gripe there is his on earth does the child remote control the typewriter, but given how well that scene was done I don't mind it.
The set design of the bomb site is great and really gets the vibe of a hastily erected military encampment. Music wise I again feel that it was a bit much, especially when it interrupts the sweet but creepy lullaby.
Random other remarks :
That's right up there with, "how/why is he looking for his mummy if he was already dead when the nanogenes found him?"
My thinking was he was almost dead. What's a kid's last words going to be if he's almost dead? "I want my mummy". If that was the last thing coursing through his neurons, the nanogenes would pick that up and might think it "normal".