Shoes, Ships & Cadavers – Tales from North Londonshire

Anthologies based around local communities often fall into the twin traps of over enthusiastic mediocrity or inward looking elitism. Either way, they end up being bought by the people who wrote them, and their mothers.

It is therefore an absolute pleasure to read ‘Shoes, Ships and Cadavers which is both ambitious, entertaining, accessible and clearly puts Northampton on the map as a cultural centre for Sci-Fi and Fantasy.

The two Ians, Watson and Whates, have made a terrific coup by getting Alan Moor to write an eloquent introduction, although some Manx readers may quibble with his claim that Northampton had the first national Parliament in Western Europe!

An anthology lives or dies by its stories, and there are some absolutely superb ones here. For me, Donna Scott’s ‘Arthur’s Witch’ stands out as a powerful and disturbing immersion into a Northamptonshire Salem. Following close behind is Sarah Pinborough’s haunting ‘The Old Man of Northamptonshire and the Sea’ and Andy West’s exploration of proto-language, and proto-behaviour, in ‘Mano Mart’.

In contrast to the intimate style of the above stories, this anthology also encourages wide-screen epic sci-fi; like the economic urban nightmare of Paul Melhuish’s ‘The Last Economy’ and the hilarious end -of -the-world yarn that is Tim Taylor’s ‘I won the Earth Evacuation Lottery’.

It is almost unfair to not mention the other stories in the anthology because they’re all of a high professional quality, which is down to both the ambition of the writers and some very good editing. I bought this on a whim at Newcon 5 and read it through in one long sitting.

Buy this book; NewCon Press sell hard copies through their website, at £15.99 hardback and £9.99 paperback, and I believe you can now get an e-version. The best anthology I’ve read in years; a sense of place that speaks to the world.

Towards a Positive Future (Now the battle begins)

There’s been a lot of grumblings, fuelled by ConDem propaganda, about the influence of the unions and Ed Milibands election as leader of the Labour Party. These were not  block vote, but votes of ordinary working men and women.  Union members support the Labour Party through their subscriptions. These people also vote in General and Local Elections and many of them turned away from Labour because they stopped seeing the Party as representing them. Under STV Ed won on those second preferences and close finishes can be the result of such a system. Ed actually has far more of a mandate to lead than the Coalition.

If Ed follows through with his promises, the Labour party will again become a broad church of voices, not a dictatorship of an elite who worry about a small number of votes under a FPTP election. A new voting system, an unpopular coalition, a discredited 3rd party and a fresh democratic Labour party is what could be on offer.

Ed, and the Party officers need to reach out not only to grass-roots members, but to a wider community of British Citizens who want a better, more democratic, ore equal future for themselves and their loved ones. Labour needs to offer a positive alternative to the slash and burn ideology of the Conservatives, and now the Liberal Democrats. While the ConDems offer to destroy the state, privatise public services and put their faith in an uncaring global market, Labour needs to reject the authoritarian state solution employed in the recent past, and sell the ideal of a democratic state, that allows for the freedom of the entrepreneur and individual, while supporting communities and building a more equal society.

Ed Miliband, and his brother if he’ll serve, along with a truly democratic and collective Labour Party can deliver that.

Rewriting the Universe – a retrospective on the “The Big Bang”

I know – its been a long time since the last episode of Matt Smith’s first series of Dr Who and by now many people have posted reviews of it – but, if I’m to re-start this blog after a few weeks of not posting, I need to deal with unfinished business.

And unfinished business is what irks me about this story. I know the trend in T.V. is to leave unexplained story arcs open in the hope of a new series next season, but after 13 episodes of tantalising cracks and the sense of an overwhelming evil at the edge of everything we’re left with a curious lack of resolution.

Don’t get me wrong, there are many things that I loved about this episode. The performances of the three leads were a joy to behold, the story itself an evilly clever piece of paradoxical time travelling, the evolution of characters developed over the series was quite beautifully wrapped up in an hilarious wedding scene and the life-and-death stakes never higher. There is so much to enjoy in this magical rewrite of the universe that I just don’t have room to mention them in this blog.  Just give yourself a treat, watch the episode!

After saying that it feels almost a betrayal to criticise such an audience pleasing episode, but it is an episode very much governed by the limitation of a shrinking TV budget. While the Davies version of Dr Who produced epic explosive final episodes for the Eccleston / Tennant era, the widescreen of “The Pandorica Opens” gives way to a, literally, much smaller universe. Watching Patrick Troughton’s “The  War Games” recently, I was struck  by the similarities not only of the character set-up (interestingly the action hero companion has a Scottish accent and wears a skirt, er… sorry… a kilt!), but the choices made by the production team with 10s 6d to spend; over half of the story is acted out in two rooms. But, as ever, the audience is carried along with the adventure and the characters’ charisma. The cracks begin to show (for want of a better phrase) with a Dalek reduced to a scary shooting machine – that’s not really at its best – and a River Song who doesn’t have much to do except be there. And then the ending.

There’s an element of brilliance in Moffat’s use of Amy’s memories and earlier continuity paradoxes to pull off a resoundingly emotionally satisfying conclusion to the closing of the cracks and rebooting her life. But… there’s no real resolution to the questions of who? and why?  We’re told that this will be looked at in the next series, and, quite frankly, that’s not good enough. There’s something about continuing an unresolved story from one series of Dr Who to the next that leaves me feeling cheated.  One of the successful features of Dr Who is that each new series feels just that – new. Having an unresolved conclusion to a series is a very American style of audience baiting, and  Dr Who does not need that.

It is a shame, because this has been a triumphant series, and Amy’s final words are delivered in an especially positive way. Even I, who dislikes the three person make-up of the Tardis, have warmed to the idea of Rory in the Tardis – but I still think the programme is never stronger than when Smith and Gillan are bouncing dialogue of each other. (I wonder if anything will be made of Rory now having the memories of a 2000 year old man, making his mind double the age of the Doctor’s, or will they just move swiftly on?)

So, as I said, unfinished business.

But there is so much to look forward to. I hope for more of the new confident style that Moffat has established with a reborn Dr Who, more of the idiosyncratic episodes from writers new to the show that  take the characters and format into a brave new world. The crowd-pleaser Christmas special’s up next and then – Neil Gaiman, etc.  I’m off to buy my children a new sonic screwdriver, the old one’s just so last season! and post about something other than the greatest T.V. programme in the universe.

Spoilers… The Pandorica Opens… and Closes.

The end is nigh. As perhaps the finest series of Dr Who reaches its conclusion the dream becomes a nightmare. “The Pandorica Opens” proves to be an epic tale told on a wide-screen. All the threads and hints of doom that have been scattered throughout Matt Smith’s first series are drawn together to produce the ultimate cliffhanger. And nothing is what it seems.

Cleverly using extra scenes taken from previous episodes Steven Moffat weaves characters that we’ve already met into an epic narrative that spans vast stretches of time. The Doctor and Amy are manouvered with a truncation of scenes and plot that plunges the audience straight into the action. The first three-quarters of the episode have an “Indiana Jones” feel as we’re taken to the Underhenge and then presented with a “Close Encounter” with the most dangerous armada ever assembled. And then there’s Rory.

The audience is superbly carried along with this unravelling of ancient myth that draws in and binds The Doctor and Amy. Throughout Matt Smith and Karen Gillan give performances both brave and heartbreakingly intimate.  And then, three-quarters of the way through, the game changes. The “myth” is seen for what it is. This is no fairy tale. It is the construction of a mind, it is a frame, it is a con.

But Moffat is cleverer than that. There is another game at play, and another, as yet unseen, player. The audience is shown the truth of everything, and yet there is one more piece of mystery that is kept out of everyone’s reach. The writer also provides us with a supreme moment of tragedy, quite shocking to an audience used to transcendental escapes. There are no happy endings here. The Pandorica opens… and closes.

While the strongest stories in this series have been the smaller, more intimate episodes, Moffat has created an intelligent epic, that on one side delivers everything we thought we knew, and on the other offers up a huge mystery. Next week’s episode is going to be something very different, and I haven’t a clue how they’ll get out of that!

So silence falls… till next week.

Gallifreyan Handshake

I had many misgivings about The Lodger before it was broadcast. I’m not a fan of James Cordern and felt his casting was reminiscent of the Variety/Light Entertainment guests that used to infest “Dr Who” during the eighties. The trailer seemed to promote the programme of a parody of itself – The Doctor and two pints of lager. A piece of filler between the previously emotional episode and the epic series finale. Then I watched it, and enjoyed every minute of it!

Firstly Cordern was not the star, rather he proved himself a fine supporting character, indeed a straight man to a manic Matt Smith. This episode proved more than any other how far Smith has moved the Doctor away from Tenant’s performance. As the lodger of the title, The Doctor’s alienness is explored perhaps more than any other episode. We have wonderful comedic moments of misunderstanding; the Doctor “acquiring” and dismissing an enormous amount of money, his many conversations with Cordern’s character, his garbled communication with “Pond” and his wonderful cat encounter on the stairs. His character here reminds me of James Stewart in the classic “Harvey” as his “insane” view of the world begins to infect everyone around him. There is a scene worthy of “The Office” as The Doctor takes over a call centre, and later his beautifully arty “found”   machine in his bedroom driving Cordern’s character to distraction.

The set-up is pure “Odd Couple”, and yet it is the alien Doctor who is in a position to play the worldly adviser when it comes to relationships. The fact the static nature of the main character – starting to look like his sofa – is an essential part of the plot and not just there for humour proves to be a major strength in the episode.

The writing is tight; nothing is wasted in this episode – from the Van Gogh postcard on the fridge, a Paris that will never be visited, to a distinctly unhealthy dose of extremely strong tea to cure an alien infection. The football match set piece serves both to cash-in on the broadcast date being the first day of the World Cup ( and get Matt Smith kicking a ball) but also to emphasise Cordern’s growing alienation as he is supplanted by this cuckoo in the nest.

And all the time Amy is in danger. Stuck in the Tardis, Karen Gillan gave yet another superb performance spending most of the episode on her own and reacting / contributing to the domestic adventure she’s cut off from. Her sparky and knowing dialogue with Matt Smith contrasts vividly with the stilted non-communication of Cordern’s Craig and Daisy Haggard’s  Sophie. Indeed by the end of the episode it is the human couple who’ve reached a new level of understanding while Amy and The Doctor unknowingly create a major feeling of doubt and major mistrust between them. (Rory’s ring is back.)

But this is “Dr Who”, not a sitcom, and the writing never lets us forget it. All this comedy, character acting and relationship exploration is overshadowed by the secret at the top of the stairs. Innocents are lured into the flat above and never come out. Strange noises, electricity drop-outs, and a gruesome stain on the ceiling all evoke an overwhelming feeling of dread. My children actually shouted at the screen to stop people climbing the stairs. Interestingly the Doctor hesitates, and in hesitating causes others to be lured in – but Smith’s Doctor does make mistakes, he is vulnerable, operating on the edge – and perhaps needs his companion most when he cannot reach her. It is only with the acquisition of Craig as a companion, and the imminent danger to Sophie that Smith’s Doctor is pushed to risk everything.

And this brings me to one of my favourite wacky moments in all of “Dr Who”. The Gallifreyan Handshake; in a wonderful plot shortcut, The Doctor literally butts head with Craig to share who he is and what he’s doing there. An hilarious moment showing both how confident is Smith’s performance and giving the audience yet another compressed flashback of his incarnation’s predecessors. This new era of “Who” is determined to place itself within the greater context of a show that’s been around since 1963.

With the need for an exponential scene dumped the episode swings into its third act and we’re presented with another “TARDIS”. I first thought this was some clever piece of CGI, but it is evident from “Confidential” that the production team built this expensive set. We’re presented with a simpler version of the TARDIS control room which shares many basic design featureswith the original. The Time machine is bigger on the inside, disguises itself, and even has an emergency hologram. It is a clever inversion of what we’ve been told is a unique ship. Who built it? – there are no answers in the story, but surely we will see something like it again – it seems a large investment for a show with a very tight budget. (I could imagine it being piloted by Daleks who once had at least one in the mythology of the  show -  but I’m just jumping to conclusions here.)

Here the writer deftly pulls all the plot streams together as only Craig’s and Sophie’s desire to stay there together proves to be an essential device in defeating the killer machine. Indeed The Doctor is shown to be possibly the most dangerous being in the universe  – his own power working against him.

Finally the episode wraps up with a coda in the TARDIS, as Rory’s ring is discovered by Amy, and pushing the characters and audience further towards that crack. Put quite simply this is an excellent episode – written with immense confidence by Gareth Roberts and performed delightfully by all the cast.

Amy in the Sunflowers

There was something quite magnificent about “Vincent and the Doctor”.  A William Hartnell historical for the twenty-first century; an emotional rollercoaster that required an “If you’ve been affected…” phone number at the end. And all of this put together with pure craftmanship from both a familiar writer fresh to “Dr Who” and a production team committed to taking risks with the ultimate T.V. format.

Rory has gone, but his ghost haunts us, returning us again to an intimate Doctor and companion relationship. Also gone is the hectoring Doctor from the previous story – replaced with a far more Troughtonesque character of depth, understanding, eccentricity and guilt. Indeed both Hartnell and Troughton make a lightning guest appearance confirming this series as the rediscoverer of classic “Who”.

Perhaps the most beautiful aspect of this story is the way it bravely wraps-up  its “A” plot with 15 minutes left on the clock and focuses purely on its “B” plot or underlying theme.  Some reviews have pointed out the weakness of the Frankenstein’s Chicken in the Window, but this entirely misses the point. The monster here is Vincent’s depression combined with Amy sense of loss. I posted earlier about how you can visualise depression as a being, animal or landscape, how when you are better it is still there in the corners of the room. Well, in a series with a recurring motif of seeing and not seeing, we have a blind monster, itself isolated and afraid, who can only be seen by a lonely tormented man. We have a woman suffering a profound sense of loss and she knows of no reason why this should be so. And finally we have another lonely man, full of guilt over his failure to prevent a death and being unable to express this monster in the room to the person he is closest to and he has unwittingly hurt the most.

The viewer only ever sees the monster through Vincent’s eyes, and flashingly through the reflection of the Doctor’s cyberpunk machine. (A machine that gives an impressionistic image of the Doctor).  Amy never sees it except throug Vincent’s  expression of it.  Therefore the camera is an unreliable narrator; each person in the story “sees” their monster in a different way. The final killing of the monster is no victory, the ending of this “A” plot is purposefully unsatisfactory, it merely gives voice to the monster( who is shown to be in fear) and a Doctor and companions full of unresolved regret. The Doctor is powerless to help the monster, but for perhaps the first time he is able to offer human comfort, something he repeats later with Amy.

To read all the above would make you think this episode is complex, difficult and dark,  it is anything but. This very human story is delivered as an historical romp. It is full of life and love, Amy and Vincent make a charmingly flirtatious couple – both actors glow in each other’s company. Matt Smith is the closest he’s been to Troughton’s childlike clown – his bored monologue as he waits for Vincent to finish his painting is hilarious, as is his interaction with “Dr Black”.  This is perhaps the most beautiful episode of Dr Who ever. The screen is drenched in the palette of Van Gogh’s paintings, Vincent’s bedroom is a beautiful reproduction of an iconic painting and Amy and the sunflowers is one of the most joyous pieces of mise-en-scene you’ll see on television.  The CGI enhancement of the night sky is just wonderful, in the truest sense of the word.

Richard Curtis’s voice is clear  in this episode but it feels fresh and new for “Dr Who”. The dialogue is light, and yet enables Tony Curren to give full range  in a standout  scene of raw despair in Vicent’s bedroom. The use of music, while sentimental, is utterly appropriate in the second art exhibition scene, the images cleverly edited together with the rhythm and lyrics of the song.

The episode is full of hope and the joy of life – Vincent’s experience of the Tardis, Amy and the Doctor’s playful demonstration of the console, the wonderful affirmation scene as Vincent encounters Dr Black and the modern popular love of his paintings.

And finally the cruelty of life. Amy’s childlike belief that they’ve rewritten time and “saved Vincent” destroyed. Vincent will still have his monster and it will end badly. Here, though, is a message of hope. Karen Gillan’s beautifully acted response to Vincent’s dedication of the Sunflower picture to her, the final scene of the Doctor being able to offer her comfort and wise words, and the final image of the Doctor and his companion, intimately united in their experience of the universe.

A beautiful episode that both entertains and explores.  I’ve said before that we seem to be living through a golden age of Dr Who, here is the evidence.

Pulse – 9.00pm Thursday 3rd June

BBC3 pilots have served us well in the past (“Being Human”) and again we have three potential series on offer. Most promising of these is Paul Cornell’s “Pulse”. Paul is the writer of the classic Dr Who David Tennant story “Human Blood” , based on his own novel, and the Christopher Eccleston story “Father’s Day”. He is also an experienced T.V. writer who has done time on both “Casuality” and “Holby City” – experience that puts him in good stead for this modern horror set in a hospital.

“Pulse” makes full use of its adult slot as the production team subject the viewer to no-holds-barred operation scenes and blood-splatter.  The tone and plot evoke the body horror of David Cronenberg and the dread of classic Quatermass. It is written with great confidence – the viewer is grabbed right from the start and knows, or think they know, the plot from the first 5 minutes. A tale of secrets and human error, a sense of paranoia dripping off every scene, delivered in a claustrophobic hospital setting will have you gripped throughout every one of its 55 minutes.

One of the massive strengths of “Pulse” is the damaged main character of Hannah played magnificently by Claire Foy. The actress is superb in creating a character that the audience cannot help but identify with, who is both terribly fragile and yet incredibly brave. This actress is such a superb asset to the show that  her participation would be an absolute necessity if this was to be picked up as a series.

Powerful performances are also delivered by Stephen Campbell Moore as the surgeon with a secret, and Emily Beecham as Stella, Hannah’s ruthless rival.  Other characters have very little screen room to develop, but that is a problem with all drama pilots, and there is clearly more to discover about their various agendas through the course of a potential series.

The final act is full of action and shock – some of it filmed in an actual working mortuary and the audience left desperate to know more.

If you can’t catch the pilot  tonight, it is already streaming here and will be on bbc iplayer after its T.V. debut. Don’t watch if you’re about to go into hospital for an operation. If you want to see this made into a series, if you want to know the secrets, if you like adult horror, if you’re a fan of Claire Foy – let the BBC know at http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcthree/2010/05/watch-pulse-online-now-and-tel.shtml#comments

The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood – A Game of Two Halves

Malcolm Hulke’s novelisation of the classic Pertwee Silurian story holds a special place in my heart. It was my first Target book, bought when I was 9, and was signed by John Pertwee. It is also the only Target book that I still have. Here was a story that treated its readers like adults and played out on an epic scale. Its final bitter ending quite shocking for a nine-year old.

So I had high expectations, which for the large part -in the first episode-  were met. The building tension and pace of the show was a throwback to classic series episodes – the use  of darkness was a particularly effective device to heighten the mysterious and frightening nature of the underground adversaries. This episode seemed confident in its characterisation and had an intelligent face-off between the Doctor and the captured Homo Reptilia. The writer and production team cleverly provided pointers to the Doctor’s troubled history with the “Silurians” and yet kept this meeting fresh for the new modern audience. A tricky balance, the pace of this episode seems too fast compared to a Pertwee era story, and slow for the modern 45 minute runaway train – but I think they managed it well.

The characters, reduced to a “family”, were well drawn and the series again harked back to 1960′s low-budget sci-fi horror B-movies with a small cast trapped in an isolated rural environment. While lacking the hustle and bustle of a UNIT force and an underground power station, it enabled the audience to see civilization represented by a few people, something that would be developed in the next episode. It also allowed the characters of Amy and Rory a little room.

I should state though that I am not a fan of multiple companions.  The early Dr Who of the crowded TARDIS may be popular with older fans, and those that value to Peter Davison era, but I was brought up on the intimate male-female dynamic of the later Pertwee and Baker Years. One of the strengths of the new Matt Smith era has been the character of Amy Pond and Karen Gillan’s performance. The character of Rory, although played excellently by Arthur Darvill, seems to get in the way of that powerful dynamic. Not his fault – I often wonder what Davison’s stories would’ve been like if we had seen him paired solely with Nyssa, or Tegan. For me, if you crowd the TARDIS  the companions are reduced to plot devices. While “Amy’s Choice” provided the viewer with a story that was built up entirely from its characters, “The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood”  runs the risk of reducing them to none of the “out-of-focus guys”. Indeed for half of the first episode Amy is absent and asleep.

Apart from my personal prejudice here, Amy and Rory do have a nice early scene together, although they are soon separated enabling Amy to again establish herself as the alpha female for Matt Smith’s Doctor. Indeed in this episode both characters act as single companions for the Doctor.

And then there’s “Cold Blood”. Oh dear.  After the carefully balanced first episode, the runaway train is back – and everything suffers because of it. Characterisation is sacrificed to plot and an absurd symbolic negotiation that fails to suspend disbelief.  The worse crime is how Ambrose’s character doesn’t evolve – it implodes. Transforming from mother figure to Jack Bauer in one quick scene she becomes an inverted Lady Macbeth. Having Tasered the hostage to death (not even attempting to torture – just killing her) – she moves quickly to ruthless Hawk and fully paid up member of the BNP. At the end she has a telling-off from the Doctor that doesn’t do his character any favours. All of this so that we can have the brave new world scuppered and the reset button pressed for the next 1000 years.

It’s just too much too fast. This was a story that needed more room to breath – it could have benefited from another episode – or developing this threat over a series – but in the end everyone’s just running away as soon as their usefulness to the plot has concluded. There is also the distasteful character arc of the Nazi-like scientist dissecting humans and then becoming a friendly geeky alien – with no criticism from the Doctor, quite the opposite.

The game of two halves ends – with characters built-up quite wonderfully in the first episode, for everything to be wasted in the second. And then there’s extra-time.

Rory takes one for the Doctor, and then Amy forgets. For me, of course, this is good news because it means we reset to my preferred TARDIS cast. The suddenness is quite powerful, his wiping from memory creates an intense unresolved dilemma for the Doctor. It’s like a mini-episode all in itself – it could have appeared in any story – and it shifts the crack-in-time storyline into a much higher gear. As signalled by the future ghosts – time really is in flux – we now have a fragment of a destroyed TARDIS – the stakes are so much more personal. In this sort of show its an even bet that Rory will be back  (Is the ring still in the TARDIS?) – but at what cost? What effect might this “forgotten” event have upon the Doctor and Amy’s relationship? So many questions – all thrown up in about two minutes of screen time.

On the one hand – a disappointing waste of something that promised so much – and on the other – a terrific upping of the series game. The Pandorica is opening.

Amy’s Bump

I’ve been puzzled by some negative reviews of the latest Dr Who story: “Amy’s Choice”. Often the complaints have been about a lack of exciting camera angles, or a sense of low-budget effects. It seems  to me that such comments serve to merely show how used we’ve become to big budget flashy Dr Who, but miss the deliberately low-key realistic style that is adopted to undercut the dream scenario.

The directorial style perfectly matches the quiet “Miss Marple” village life and the energy sapping cold of the TARDIS.  This was the last episode to be made ( at the end of this series’ budget) and was designed to only have four main speaking roles. It’s clearly shot in difficult weather (snow), but the sense of drabness and flatness enhance, rather than detracts, from the overriding theme of a quiet dull village. There is also an emptiness in the early scenes, reminiscent of 1960′s low-budget British sci-fi horror movies.  A generation of viewers raised on MTV flashy-flashy may miss this stylistic choice, or not understand that a BBC  budget only stretches so far. But there is a place for such a straightforward style of directiona and editing that is as old as film itself, and still modern and immediate. A most effective recent example is “Let the Right One In” which shows us a cold drab winter urban setting through an observational camera – and yet its story is exactly the kind of nightmare fairytale that Steven Moffat is trying to develop in Dr Who. (But one that appeals to a family audience.)

So I find it uncharitable when a critic complains about flat light and that they should have spent an extra day filming. It ignores the restrictions of a tight budget, difficult weather and a clear stylistic choice that suits the theme of the story.

As far a story goes, it’s a great one. A dream-like narrative that flips between two realities ( a frozen TARDIS and OAP zombie infected Leadworth ) it combines witty dialogue with realities that explore the fears and desires of the three main characters. Taunted by the Dream Lord (an excellent Toby Jones) Amy, Rory and the Doctor are put through two adventures, only one of which is real (of course even that is a misdirection). One effect of this being the last episode shot is that the three leads are obviously very comfortable with each other and their characters bounce dialogue around like three characters in a long-running sitcom. In this way the story plays to the strengths of its writer (“Men Behaving Badly’s” Simon Nye) and provides us both with clever humor and real emotional payoff. Amy’s response to death and her final choice is hauntingly played by Karen Gillan.

There will be complaints. The OAP “whack” and pushing an old lady off a roof, while pure “Shaun of the Dead” hilarity, will raise Daily Mail bile, but the programme makers have covered themselves – these are child-murdering zombie-alien OAPs after all!

Apart from the broad humour,tributes to other zombie stories, echoes of old Dr Who dream/fiction stories, this is a complex tale. The dream setting allows an adventure programme to produce a story that is utterly character driven. The dream metaphor explores their dreams and fears, Amy’s fear/desire for domesticity and motherhood, Rory’s insecurity and desire to become everything the Amy wants in a man (i.e. The Doctor) and The Doctor’s own dark fears, his isolation, fear/knowledge of age,  failure and finally his trust in Amy. The story arc of the Amy, Rory, Doctor triangle seems resolved, although I’m not so sure about that – I think there are tough times ahead – and another level added to the Doctor’s character. My only complaint is the way everything is blamed on some convenient crystals – but I don’t think the programme makers want us to accept that  (it reminds me of the cod-psychiatrist lecture at the end of “Psycho”). Such endings are usually provided to create a sense of  “normal service resumed”, but then the reflection of the Dream Lord subverts the Doctor’s own confidence in his explanation.

So in my opinion this episode is a gem. It echoes Dr Who tradition of  odd surreal stories reaching back to “The Edge of Destruction”, but does so with a very modern mix of humour and pathos that reaches right across the family age range. While the public tune in to see the big epic end-of -the-world episodes, it is often the little intimate stories of the Doctor and his companions that become regarded as classics. Go back and watch this again and again, this is the sort of Dr Who story that people will talk about years from now.

Also try and catch Dr Who confidential – worth it if only to see Karen Gillan’s Bump dance!

A Moment of Clarity

So this is the way it went. Both The Guardian and The Sun backed the same party, and it won. After 13 years of power Labour couldn’t find the right language (or the energy) to make a deal. Indeed they were split within their own party. Cameron and Clegg found a hymn book to swing both their parties into a lock-in that’ll last 5 years.

Now we have the honeymoon period. All newspapers trying to sell the deal or keeping quiet, no real opposition, and a legion of photo opportunities. The Tory press machine is shaping the narrative for a puppy-dog media. Constitutional Reform is being sold as the “progressive” side of this new coalition. An elected House of Lords, Alternate Voting,  fixed-terms, a concern for Civil Liberties – all sound wonderful (even though both sides acknowledge there’s no guarantee of any of this and they’ll probably campaign and work against each other) – but there’s no mention of the attack on Public Services and the Privatisation of everything that isn’t nailed down. And that fixed term ( a creditable reform in itself) is so convenient to lock the ConDems in power.

Of course Clegg is gambling on some form of PR to save his party from this deal. Cameron is happy in the coalition because it breaks the whole concept of a Left-of-Centre majority in the country – the Libs will put-out for anybody. I think Clegg and his advisors have overlooked local elections which could be corrosive to this new marriage. At the same time as they’re meeting in Cabinet both sides are going to be campaigning against each other. Nobody is going to see the Libdems as a left-alternative to Labour. How are local libdems going to sell themselves? I wonder how people in the South West feel now that they’re effectively living under a one-party state.

And what about Labour. There has to be a renewal, there’s a hope of this with them facing such a coalition of cutters, but they run the risk of an implosion as profound as that afflicted the Tories after 97. Interestingly, the places where they did well were in constituencies where their MPs were embedded in their communities. They have to really build-up local support amongst the people and find their principles again. And they/we must be brave.

I woke up this morning with a moment of clarity. During Labour’s reign, I recognised their faults and spoke against them, but there was always a kind of self-censorship; I always felt that these were people who shared my values and wanted the same as I did (it was the means that I disagreed with). Today I know my government is my enemy. We must oppose these people as they attack Public Services, Tax Credits, give our money to evangelical businesses to run schools and privatise, privatise, privatise. Make sure they make good on their promises of constitutional reform, and when it comes to 7th May 2015 (and hopefully some form of PR vote) remember that the Libdems  are not on our side.

The honeymoon period is beginning, but watch for the first budget, unemployment is rising (how are they going to cope with that – by making more people redundant?), watch how they respond to Europe (are the Tories still going to sit with the dregs and extremists?) watch where their axe will fall. (And notice the lack of women in the Cabinet.) Know your enemy and look for ways to form a real left coalition around issues and local communities.  We have 5 years, we must build, we must fight!