Where can one start to explain just how embarrassing this pretence at cleverness is?
The first point that people seem to hold is that Bad Wolf is a satire. I am pretty gob-smacked by the amount of people who have hailed this episode as, to quote one site, "a brilliant satire on modern reality-TV and game shows". Which is rather funny when one considers the meaning of the word satire: "a literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit." And while there's plenty of derision coming from Eccleston's Doctor (as usual, for example, the "whole human race reduced to mindless sheep" line, repeated from "The Long Game", although one wonders why since reality-TV doesn't imply that people are mindless sheep, just that they have very bad taste), the only irony here is that Bad Wolf contains all other aspects applicable to what most people would call a satire. Compared to "The Sun Makers", it has the subtlety of a bull in a china shop; compared to the genuine moral messages in "Vengeance On Varos", it is filled with irrelevant platitudes; and compared to "The Happiness Patrol", it lacks both creativity and feeling. This is an episode that displays more sophistry than sophistication. That RTD has used popular contemporary game shows (and hosts) rather than invent his own, which could either mirror the content of said game shows or reflect similar themes, is sheer laziness. It's not clever, it's not trying to poke fun or be witty, it's just a cheap ratings-grabber completely lacking in originality. What more do you need to justify this claim than the fact that 200,000 years in the future (exactly as in "The Long Game") everyone is wearing 20th century clothes! Even when they were just jumpsuits with exotic symbols drawn on them or spikey foam attached, Doctor Who costumes have always tried to be different, no matter how ludicrous some of the outcomes. That people in the far-flung 4th Great And Bountiful Human Empire wear the same clothes we do, act the same way we do, watch the same shows we do, is not reflective of a genius writer but an uninspiring hack. And this doesn't bother anyone?
(And again on creativity: why have all the stories in the season been set in London, Cardiff or a space station? When the series first began in '63, the travellers ended up on an alien planet in the second story! And here we have gone one whole season without. I guess what's really worse, is not just that all the stories have been set in these rather dull locations, but that "The Long Game" and "Bad Wolf" are actually set in the same location!)
The second point is on death. Now from what I can see, the only point of introducing Lynda was as a Rose substitute so that after Rose's apparent death, viewers would assume she had really died and that Lynda would now be taking her place on board the TARDIS. (It's not for nothing that the two characters are almost identical.) Is this a clever ploy to fool the audience into believing that Rose is dead? Perhaps, and if it is, it is quite clever. Unfortunately, like many similar moments in the new series thus far, the illusion is completely let down when Rose is revealed to be safe and well about ten minutes later! At least when we thought Peri died in "Trial Of A Time Lord", we didn't find out she was still alive until several episodes later.
The whole issue of using the death of main characters in drama to create tension, pathos or some such reaction from the audience, is only useful when the character really dies or at least is dead for an extended period of time, long enough for the audience to become accustomed to the fact. We have already had one Slitheen come back from the dead, we've had the entire cast of "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances", we've had Rose's dad (who came back from the dead twice!), now we have Rose, and in "The Parting Of Ways" it will be Captain Jack. And then there's the Daleks. It's great to see them back and they do look superb but it's annoying that here we have a species who were extinct bar one but six episodes ago. And now they've returned in force through a less-than-dramatic loophole only to be completely exterminated again as a species in the next episode! Arrrggghhh! What is the point of killing and reviving characters so frequently??? We know the Daleks will be back in a season or two anyway, so why make grand claims to have destroyed them completely?
Point three: the Bad Wolf arc. Now this is something laughably ridiculous. Lots of people have commented how Super Rose, having been able to send messages back in time and space, sent such obscure and unhelpful ones. Very few people have commented, though, that the messages Rose did send to herself were actually rarely seen or heard by her! The references in The End Of The World, Dalek, The Long Game, Father's Day (give or take), and The Doctor Dances, would probably not have been noticed by Rose, either occurring when she was not present, being so small as to go unnoticed or else being in a foreign language! Once again we have what has become typical of the new series: a pretence at cleverness, and only that. There is nothing clever at all about the Bad Wolf arc. Even the revelation of what Bad Wolf is is unsatisfying and sloppy. Many of the theories fans have come up with are far superior than the one RTD has, which begs the question why he is penning so many episodes. Yes, people will get down on their knees and worship RTD for bringing back Doctor Who, but when it all comes down to it, a review is a review, not a homage. I am glad that the new series is back and while some of it is really good, with some cracking stories, a lot of it is a pale imitation of Doctor Who of old.
And the last point, although there are many more I could make and I'm sure others will make one day when everyone's stopped worshipping RTD, is regarding characters. For me, one of the greatest disappointments of the new series is the lack of hero-figures it contains. When I watched Doctor Who as a kid, the Doctor and his companions were always people you could look up to, to emulate in life and try to make a better world. This new series has very few such characters.
The Doctor seems more incompetent than effective, unable to resolve any issues himself and makes blunder after blunder. After presenting the Doctor throughout this season as a killer, we see him in "Bad Wolf" realising that his past actions have created the world in which he now is. Strangely, however, he only dwells on this very important point for a minute, as opposed to the half-hour of pedestrian philosophy and padding for a plot we had in the previous episode, "Boom Town". The way the Doctor has been shown in this new series, one has to wonder why he even bothers to do anything at all, since he can't seem to get anything right and tends to make things a lot worse. The idea was already raised in "Trial Of A Time Lord" and rightly resolved as being mostly irrelevant since not only are the Doctor's intentions good but also in the utilitarian balance of things, he tends to do far more good than evil. So why bother to raise the point again and not just raise it, but leave it unresolved?
Then there's the Doctor's line about "wiping every last Dalek out of the sky" (which is technically wrong, since space isn't sky). While I don't have a problem with this intense machismo, which seems to be a very strong trait with Eccleston's Doctor, it is, as usual, the machismo of a eunuch. Regardless of the Doctor's boasts, it will be Rose/Bad Wolf who destroys the Daleks in the final episode of the season, leaving the Doctor doing bugger all. Again this reflects the trend of the entire season: a Doctor who is supposed to be a hero but rarely seems to have the answers to anything and finds himself in situations where he relies on others to do things for him (characters or props, viz. the overuse of the sonic screwdriver you can see why JNT decided to get rid of it!). The 9th Doctor is so useless that he might as well give Rose control of the TARDIS and retire. And when the Doctor even confesses to loving "Bear With Me", I'm sure we have to agree that it adds no small amount of "greatness" to his character.
So that's the star of the show, although more of a red dwarf than a neutron star. What about the rest of the characters? Captain Jack's main motivation in the show seems to be trying to sleep with everything he comes across or else making constant sexual passes and innuendos, to the point where every conversation involving his character is one. Although he adds some needed humour and action to the show, I'm sure most parents would love their children to display that certain quality of sexual perversity inherent in Captain Jack. His character is yet another example of how low the show has sunk. A critic of the new series has rightly pointed out that sexual (overtly homosexual) references may have some place in Doctor Who provided that they complement the context and themes in the story. However the gutter innuendo RTD seems to enjoy injecting into the series is pointless, probably just there for cheap jokes and to seem "contemporary", and completely irrelevant to both plot and context. That the Doctor should spend even a line of dialogue in a 45-minute show trying appeal to Captain Jack or telling him (when the latter tries to pick up one of the station controllers in this episode) that "there's a time and place" for that sort of thing, is abysmal and would have William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee rolling in their graves. RTD doesn't seem to understand himself that "there's a time and place" for that kind of muck, and the time and place certainly isn't contemporary Doctor Who. I guess that's what happens when one person on a programme has so much power he can sanction his own ideas, being both producer and main script-writer. He might be a great soap writer, but RTD sure has a hell of a lot to learn about writing either science-fiction or Doctor Who.
Rose is the only character that is in the slightest way admirable in the new series, even if she is incredibly stupid at times (and this is "incredibly" for a Doctor Who companion). And while all these characters may be entertaining I'll admit, they're not boring in the slightest the level of morality they exhibit leaves more than a lot to be desired.
Ultimately Bad Wolf is an episode in a series that is generally pretending to be clever and creative, but really can't be bothered trying or else doesn't have the talent to do so. (4.6/10)moreless
EDIT
Episode Summary
Location: The Gamestation (Satellite 5)
''Date: 200,100
'' Enemy: The Games, The Daleks
In a seemingly futuristic world, the Doctor wakes up in the Big Brother house during an eviction, Rose wakes up on the Weakest Link with the Anne-Droid, and Captain Jack gets a make over with Trin-E and Zu-Zana. But something unusual is happening, and the losing contestants are being disintegrated. Obviously, it's time for the Doctor to investigate...moreless
''Date: 200,100
'' Enemy: The Games, The Daleks
In a seemingly futuristic world, the Doctor wakes up in the Big Brother house during an eviction, Rose wakes up on the Weakest Link with the Anne-Droid, and Captain Jack gets a make over with Trin-E and Zu-Zana. But something unusual is happening, and the losing contestants are being disintegrated. Obviously, it's time for the Doctor to investigate...moreless
Watch Online
-
John Barrowman
Captain Jack Harkness
-
Billie Piper
Rose Tyler
-
Christopher Eccleston
The Ninth Doctor
Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions
See All-
Trivia
ADD TRIVIA- The low pulsing tone that Rose hears when she awakes in the Dalek ship is identical to the one used in all Dalek installations in the classic series. Edit
- When the Doctor first tries to escape from the Big Brother house, Lynda reveals that a "deadlock seal" prevents contestants from escaping. Deadlock seals are first mentioned as a barrier that the sonic screwdriver can't breach in the 1969 episode The War Games; they are referenced again later in the 2006 episode School Reunion. Edit
- When Rose is remembering the various times and places she has heard or seen the phrase 'bad wolf', clips from 'The Unquiet Dead ('the big bad wolf'), Dalek (the helicopter), Boom Town ('Blaidd Drwg'), Aliens Of London (the TARDIS graffiti) and The Long Game (BadWolfTV) are shown. Edit
-
Notes
ADD NOTES- International Airdates: Turkey: November 15, 2009 on CNBC-e Edit
- Captain Jack mentions he got his denim in Cardiff at the TopShop. This is a clothier chain in the UK, of which there are two TopShop stores in Cardiff. Edit
- Russell T. Davies stated that the pale, androgynous Controller was inspired by the pre-cogs from the feature film Minority Report. Edit
-
Quotes
ADD QUOTES- Captain Jack: Well, ladies, the pleasure was all mine. Which is the only thing that matters in the end. Edit
- Dalek: The Doctor is initiating hostile action! Another Dalek: The stratagem must advance! Begin the invasion of Earth! Edit
- (The Controller is transmitted out of the Gamestation for helping the Doctor) The Controller: Oh, my masters. You can kill me, for I have brought your destruction. (The Controller is shot by a beam which kills her) Edit
-
Allusions
ADD ALLUSIONS- Lynda Moss: Oh - Bear With Me? I love that one! Unlike all the other games mentioned, which are reality and make-over programmes from the 21st Century, Bear With Me is fictional, at present. Edit
- Security Guard: You will be taken from this place to the Lunar Penal Colony, there to be held without trial, you may not appeal against this sentence. A penal colony on the Moon that was used to house political prisoners with a similar lack of due process was seen in the 1973 episode 'Frontier in Space', taking place in 2540. If it's the same prison it has been in service for approx. 198,000 years. Edit
- The Doctor: I'm coming to get you. The final line of the episode is another 'Big Brother' reference as it is Davina McCall's traditional announcement to contestants about to be evicted from the Big Brother house in the UK. Edit
Show Forums
Add a Topic
See All
Last Activity
Replies
-
Which companion do you feel took more control of events?
Yesterday4
-
Official DIscussion Thread: The Doctor, the Widow... (possible spoilers)
2 days ago22
-
What about River?
3 days ago5
-
Who do you feel has been the best two Doctor run?
02/07/1213
-
Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock
01/25/125
-
The Doctor, The Widow, and The Wardrobe
S 7 : Ep 1
Aired 12/25/11
-
The Wedding of River Song
S 6 : Ep 13
Aired 10/1/11
-
Closing Time
S 6 : Ep 12
Aired 9/24/11
-
The God Complex
S 6 : Ep 11
Aired 9/17/11
Related Shows
Season 1 Episodes
See AllEp 13
The Parting of the Ways (2)
Ep 12
Bad Wolf (1)
Ep 11
Boom Town
Ep 10
The Doctor Dances (2)
Ep 9
The Empty Child (1)
Ep 8
Father's Day
Ep 7
The Long Game
Ep 6
Dalek
Ep 5
World War Three (2)
Ep 4
Aliens of London (1)
Ep 3
The Unquiet Dead
Ep 2
The End of the World
Ep 1
Rose
-
Gislef EDITOR
User Score: 2243
-
kennyljs
User Score: 2184
-
_Islander_
User Score: 1697
-
queerlybeloved
User Score: 1061
-
mattpitt1991
User Score: 879
-
nhubi
User Score: 731
-
TheOldBill
User Score: 603
-
jackharkness
User Score: 381
-
LMH68
User Score: 379
-
bluecatcinema
User Score: 346
-
Shivkala
User Score: 305
More
Less
