"...how
can you walk through the world |
and
not leave a single footprint..." |
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PLOTLINE
The TARDIS materialises in the year 200,000,
on Satellite Five, a huge satellite broadcasting
system that transmits news to a million households through out the Human Empire.
However, the Doctor soon
discovers that something sinister is going on in the television agency...
EPISODE
SEVEN REVIEW Spoilers
ahead
THE LONG
GAME?
Fascinating episode title.
Part of a 'long con'? Someone manipulating
unsuspecting players unknowing that they are part of a fictional game? The Doctor's
game of travelling through time and space?
Could be anything, go anywhere and involve
anyone, and the episode does not disappoint as it has a beginning, a middle and
a satisfying (and tantalising if you pin back your lugholes for the clues and
hints at what is come.) end.
In effect, this was a traditional CLASSIC SERIES plot. A view of the human
race that has developed to it full potential only to become reliant on a external
source which is acting for its own benefit rather than the good of the whole.
Earth unwittingly becoming enslaved or pawns within a greater sphere of influence.
Alien influence with a human henchman. It could quite easily be an episode of
THE TOMORROW'S PEOPLE.
But would such a 1980s story fit into the 2000s NEW SERIES?
Yes, however , yet another
Earth-based story is wearing a bit thin. Travels in time and space means that
the TARDIS can go 'infinite-where'
- alien worlds, inter-spaces between time, etc. It is seemingly easy to 'do'
Earth but the NEW SERIES needs to expand its perspective.
Satellite 5 is home to the news (arrogantly,
Satellite is regarded as 'the
news' by its news journalists), broadcasting 600 channels to the Fourth Great
and Bountiful Human Empire ("five moons, mega cities, 96 billion population.
A hub of a galactic domain with mankind at it middle", as the Doctor labels it)
but, as the Doctor surmises, the technology and scope of influence does not correspond
with his expectations of the timeline.
DOCTOR WHO: This technology is wrong.
ROSE: Trouble?
DOCTOR WHO: (with relish) Oh, Yeah.
And that's the story arc of THE
LONG GAME; discover who is in control and
put them out of action.
Add to the mix the mystery of what actually happens on Floor 500, the off-the-cuff
comments about central heating plumbing issues, a terrorist disguised as an unassuming
journalist and an errant TARDIS traveller who is out for personal gain (one that
makes Adric look like a saint).
With a few exceptions, DOCTOR
WHO has never
been very good (I hesitate to use the word 'realistic') at representing a vision
of the future. Well, it's impossible, isn't it? But STAR
TREK's (post-the original
series) vision seems to sit comfortably with our own hopes and fears of the distant
future. Clean lines, organised, informational, subtle, and highly electronic.
DOCTOR WHO's vision of year 200,000
is recycled, grime-coated, still materialistic and de-progressive.
The set design is uninspiring, and looks like a warehouse in Newport on a
budget of an end of term school play. Unfortunately, from wobbly sets to weak
sets. End of term report? Could do better.
However, the computer generated environments,
created by MillTV, are constantly exceptional but will only be tested as we encounter
alien cultures and architecture. The solidity of the structures and encompassing 'space'
give weight to this NEW SERIES.
However, whilst the characterisation of
the Doctor and Rose are similarly 'weighty',
supporting characters are tortuously flat - bones yet no flesh. Surprisingly
so as Russell T Davies frequently preaches that 'character' must have a strong
back-story or motivation for them to be part of the story. Suki is an exception
but as soon as we learn her 'secret' she is taken out of the equation. Cathica
is simply a journalist. The Editor could have double-crossing his 'master' but
he wasn't; basically, a minion of an alien power motivated by money.
But remember that this is CLASSIC SERIES within the NEW SERIES, and all is
well.
THE LONG GAME is a two-level contemporary parable that is realised with every
new JAMES BOND film (in particularly in the 1997, TOMORROW NEVER DIES). Be careful
not to accept everything you have been told, and be careful not to want for more
you can rightly have.
For 90 years, planet Earth hangs like a celestial
couch potato force-fed with dribble, dross and MINE
ALL MINE, whilst Adam Mitchell succumbs to greed for
hindsight forethought only to be gorged by technology he sought. The DOCTOR
WHO universe is cruel, at times.
Leaving aside the Jagrafess, the other misguided
creature is the Editor (played by the talented and bleached-out Simon Pegg).
Employed by a consortium of banks (ah, Morgus would be so pleased) that finances
Satellite 5 to manipulate mankind (through changes in nuances of inflection or
emphasis within the news-output) and retaining subservience & promoting fear.
Simon Pegg is charmingly and calculating
mischievous with an edge of dispossession, and handed, by RTD, on a platter rich
and witty dialogue that, in the hand of another less professional actor, could
have been overly played for laughs. Played straight, the arrogance and ambition
of the character draws in the viewer who relish the quick-fire verbal exchange
between him and the Doctor. His demise, whilst justly deserved, is unfortunate
for he would have made a interesting 'foe'
for future episodes - unless the Editor was part of a 'cloned' race of Coordinators.
The Adam Mitchell story-arc was, thankfully,
short and resolved within two episodes. Employed to divert the story to a sub-plot
away from the Doctor and Rose (and giving the lead actors a breather from the
pressures of a hectic filming schedule. In the CLASSIC SERIES, it would like
writing the Doctor out of a story for an episode whilst the actor took a vacation).
Adam is seen to greedy acting upon his own wants with little regard for the consequences
(".be careful not
to want for more you can rightly have.") for either himself, others or time itself.
Would the Doctor act so quick to ditch Rose should she do the same in coming
episodes? I doubt it.
Eccleston grows into the role, intermixing
that comic charm so well employed by Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor persona
and the "you know that he knows
more than he's letting on" look so well employed by William Hartnell's First
Doctor persona. This ninth incarnation keeps the audience second guessing; does
the Doctor like this person or loathe him? Does the Doctor know what is going
on or is he just impulsive? The side glances are just as telling as the full-on
reproaches or berating his issues forth.
Truly a magnificent actor playing the most rewarding television character
ever written?
And he's leaving at the end of this series.
THE LONG
GAME, as I said, is well-rounded and satisfyingly resolves itself.
DOCTOR WHO: The human race should accelerate
and get back to normal.
However, after such a reliance upon 600 channels of news and information that
is instantly terminated, can the planet come full circle and become, once again,
self aware?
Things will never be the same again.
Oh, did I mention the rewarding
tracking shot as the TARDIS materialises? fantastic.
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