#review...ish

[letsgetgordangerous]

Some thoughts on  Demons of the Punjab/Kerblam!/The Witchfinders

Season 11 continues its broad trend of being solid week in week out, there are issues of course -particularly in the case of Kerblam!- but much of this has been prevalent across NuWho as a whole. I’m particularity impressed by how well the pseudo-historical have been handled, given they tend to be pretty....shit for want of a better word. Period settings are treated as an entity in their own right rather than an excuse to raid the BBC props department. The 45 minute format can be a bit limiting, but like I said that’s hardly a grand revelation for this particular iteration of Doctor Who. 

Demons of the Punjab

As it stands Demons of the Punjab is my current candidate for best of the season, its small-scale and minimal cast are a perfect avenue for examining Season 11s overt thematic focus on the failings of people.

The episode feels indebted to The Aztecs in much the same way the Time-Meddler and Rosa are clearly playing within similar concepts within new contexts. With Yaz’s central drive mirroring Barbara’s episode. 

The aliens are somewhat shoehorned in, however it’s doesn’t detract from the plot in the same way as say; Vincent and the Doctor’s giant invisible chicken. 

The episode at times streamlines a lot of actual history, but that’s the 45 minute format for you.  Vinay Patel clearly did his research, and provides a more in-depth account for the partition on his Twitter feed. 

Again, history is presented as a force in of itself. With the cast, particularly the TARDIS’ crew’s eventual commitment to going through with the wedding in-spite of knowing what will happen being all the more powerful because it can’t be changed. The notion of fighting this is raised and then quickly dismissed and it’s the smarter option, it allows the show to showcase another kind of strength in the central characters rather than the usual whiz! bang! everything is okay! 

Seriously, when you choose a historical setting you need to commit to it, don’t treat like it’s interchangeable with a space-station or whatever. 

On a more obvious note, the show has never looked as good as it does right now. Goddamn. 

Graham’s quest to become the Grandad of everyone and everything continues to go well.

Kerblam! 

This episode ended up being the thematic equivalent of a kid trying to jump and river, changing their mind at the last minute and promptly falling in it. It utterly fails to commit to any of the viewpoints raised within the episode leaving the entire thing feeling confused.

This is easily the weakest episode of the season, that’s not to say there isn’t a lot of good stuff within it, just that you have to awkwardly separate it from the eventual resolution. 

Like, I wasn’t expecting Doctor Who to every properly commit to an anti-capitalist message. It didn’t happen in Oxygen and it didn’t happen here, but Oxygen didn’t go out of it’s way to repeatedly raise the fact that the setting is effectively a post-scarcity utopia. 

It’s actually kinda like vast swaths of Star Trek on that front, but where they are supposed to be operating in a setting where it’s something that everyone is aware of. Kerblam! instead features a world where it’s actively being suppressed and the resolution is....the maintaining of that system? it’s odd. 

Also Lee Mack never says “I’m not going out there,” which is the entire things biggest sin.

Evil Bubblewrap feels like it could have been a nice ribbing of Moffat’s “scary thing from childhood is scary now” approach, but it like the thematic stuff it never quite arrives there. 

Seriously given a few drafts this could have been a solid run-around. 

On the positive side of things the show’s really settling into balancing the cast, it’s thankfully not trying to make every episode have direct, personal impact on the crew because that’s just silly but at least they are all getting moments to shine. 

Some A+ robot design, those things are genuinely unsettling. The robophobia callback was cute. 

The soundtrack for this episode was great, the use of the Kerblam! jingle in increasingly sinister tones was a cute touch. 

But seriously, the corrupt manager gets away with little more than a jab to the throat. 

The Witchfinders

Lets just get this out of the way. “One Wet Weekend With Houdini” title of your sex tape! 

I was ready to hate this one because James VI and his role in various “witchhunts” is one of those things I’m inexplicably knowledgeable about, alongside this Doctor Who’s last dabblings with a similar period in Steve Lyon’s “The Witch Hunters (Confusing, I know) resulted in one of the finest pure-historicals to ever come out of the franchise. So I’m fairly surprised that I liked it as much as I did. 

As with Punjab the setting is well realised and the plot is swimming in little details that correlate well to established history. However, as with that episode a lot of this feels like, had there been more time the plot could have delved into the wider culture of witch-hunts with the UK during this period. Again, the 45 minute formula isn’t conducive to that so I’m not going to hold it against it. 

I’m genuinely surprised by how well the captured the various cultural factors at play in the hysteria surrounding witchhunts. It’s never reduced to a single factor, from a single strata of the society. Instead, and in reality, they were the products of almost every level from commoner to king pushing the idea that these “forces” were at play. Too it’s credit it also doesn’t deny that the gentry and/or a monarch pushing a witch-trial is going to result in more action than your garden variety scumbag. Becka Savage is a particularly good character on this front -to a point- because it captures her own fear at being accused, and the familiar connection is a good touch because most accusations came from this front. 

It’s depiction of James VI is....odd. Again, they do a great job of capturing the “why” behind his behaviour. James’ childhood reads like a gritty Annie reboot, hell he was called “The Cradle King” due to being crowned at an incredibly young age. His various tutors, particularly George Buchanan  were all lets say....unique in their tutelage of the young king and this resulted in a very genuine belief in the idea of divine rule. With this coming across as almost a defence mechanism. 

He’s effectively at war with his own mother as a child, which isn’t going to be great for the ole’ mental health especially when you add his father’s assassination into the mix. You’ve got someone who, from a young age is aware of both his status and the fragility there of. 

Ralph Houlbrooke has a good point on this front. ‘The Crux of James's argument was that only God had the power to make and unmake kings,’ so his overt belief in divine right can be taken as something of a self-serving notion. He’s aware of the ease with which “the people” have disposed of previous rulers within Scotland, and Buchanan further kicked this into his head so he adopts a system where a higher force, and that higher force alone can dispose of him. He’s a bit of a throwback on that front really. However unlike most monarchs, James did see this as a genuine duty to god, and committed to it beyond the point where he had power. 

All of this is dealt with in a minor fashion in the episode, and that’s genuinely impressive. His involvement with Witch-Trials comes as a result of his duty to god. In his view at least that is. 

However, this is where the episode slightly falters. They nail that James genuinely thinks he’s doing gods work, that the hunting of witches is fighting the forces of Satan and so on. But they play him as over eager for this, one of the few genuinely positive things that can be said about James is that his involvement with witch-trials tend to end up with him being one of the more level headed figures in the room so to speak. 

He published  Daemonologie while still ruling in Scotland, and this is a remarkably handy guide to getting an insight into how he approached the subject. 

 I mean on a basic note the full title is full Daemonologie, In Forme of a Dialogue, Divided into three Books: By the High and Mighty Prince, James &c so you know, that’s your opening. 

In it he remarks, “The Prince Magistrate for further tryals cause, may continue the punishing of them such a  certaine space as he thinkes convenient: But in the end to spare the life, and not to strike when God bids strike, and so feverelie punish in so odious a fault & treason against God, it is not only unlawful, but doubtlesse no lesse sinne in that Magistrate, nor it was in S A V L E S sparing of AGAG. And so comparable to the sin of Witch-craft it selfe, as S A M U E E L alleaged at that time”

So yes, fighting the forces of Satan is part of the responsibility he owes to God for granting him kingship, but he has to do it properly. There needs to be indigence in the matter. James conducts himself at this trials as a genuine investigator, and at times sees through the produces of the local communities. The episodes James meanwhile is just a wee bit too keen to jump right into drowning and so on. 

That’s not to say he’s a good person, because for all his genuine to desire to look into these matters properly they still almost unanimously result in the death of innocent women. The odd positive moment does not remove the fact that James was a massive part in this cultural hysteria, he was a monster through and through. 

And I suppose this is a big failing on the episode’s part, James ends up being a dangerous fool rather than a dangerous monarch who was fundamentally a part/driving force of a culture that propagated monstrous crimes. 

But this is a minor part in the key flaw in the episode; the fucking aliens. While it does a good job of continuing the season’s trend of many of the threats being caused by human or human-proxy evil it still cannot let this stand on it’s own. Resulting in killer muck that kinda detracts from the general issue. Again, it’s not quite as bad as say a giant invisible chicken, but it’s still unnecessary. Hell you could say they drag an otherwise decent episode into the mud. 

I’m not sorry. 

Also, Cumming’s large ham portrayal is far from terrible. But it’s treatment of James’ sexuality felt a bit like they were playing him for a cheap laugh. James had sex with men, these relationships were evidently more passionate than his marriage but it would be nice if we could avoid playing queer historical figures with dubious morality as mincing stereotypes. 

The Doctor having to deal with the realities of being a woman, particularly a smart woman made for some great drama. Especially against the duel James/Savage antagonist. The witch-trail seen is goddamn amazing. 

The fact that ended with the group threatening a monarch was also one of the most atypical things I’ve seen in the show.  

Oh and the role ergot poisoning played in all this is sadly overlooked. Ergot represent! 

[mrpinniped]

Oh man. The Essgee production is quite possibly the gayest Mikado ever. Bare chests and tight pants abound on every male character except KoKo. The ladies are relatively covered, but the maids are a doowop group. Seriously this production looks like a vaguely Oriental-themed gay bar decided to have Mikado Night. I would not have been the least bit surprised if Katisha started singing "Off With His Shirt" from Galavant. Ok, I'd be a little surprised, since this was from the late 90s, and Evil Time Travel would be required.

[storms-whisper]

"It's not that kind of movie"

HEY! Go see Kingsmen...Holy shit was that movie an A+ and beyond. Like seriously! I have literally no complaints about this movie. It had a great script, great camera work, fuckin fantastic follow through.

I could nit pick, sure, I always can, but that solves itself if they do a sequel which I really hope they do. Thus far the luckiest friday the thirteenth I've ever had because that brilliant movie!

GO SEE KINGSMEN!!! I can promise you it'll be more rewarding than that other thing.  (can you say revitalizing the spy genre?).

P.S. No spoiler but don't leave right away. There is something during the credits. Not the Marvel bladder torture kind, you don't have to wait all the way to the end. It's well worth it. ;)