Scoring the double
Friday, March 11, 2005
This has been a bit of a big couple of weeks for revisiting my childhood, as trips back to the grandparents’ manor on the hill in Calliope always are, but nothing underlined the point like the last couple of days, in which I renewed acquaintances with the weekday evening double act of The Goodies and Doctor Who (not that either of them exactly ever went away for me, but it’s been a long time between drinks vis a vis new stuff).
First of all was the horribly-illegally stolen and distributed first episode of the new DW series starring scarily intense serious actor Christopher Eccleston and former pop star and yummy bit of crumpet Billie Piper. I want it on record that I had every intention of resisting watching this version of the episode, which apparently was nicked before the final cut and is thus lacking some visual effects, music etc. However, it somehow made its way into our possession anyway, and seeing the CD with “Doctor Who Season 27 Episode 1 Rose” hastily scrawled on it, all resistance crumbled.
Warning: Minor spoilers follow in the italicized chunk after the big gap, but nothing plottish. Still, if you don’t want to read even that, let your eye slide gracefully over the new few paragraphs and resume functionality after the next gap.
Two second review: it’s not great, but it’s very promising.
Slightly less unfair extended version of review: Eccleston and Piper are excellent. I called Eccleston’s portrayal as something like Troughton on speed – he’s manic, abrupt, mischievous, very much alive and enjoying himself – but he also mixed it up with a touch of alien callousness and ‘big picture’ disregard for the little people. (I would expect that Piper’s character will, over the course of the series, contrive to soften and humanise his outlook – character arcs are popular these days). Given his gloomy body of work to date, it’s surprising that his comedic timing is so sharp.
Piper is also good, though her character made less of a distinct impression on me (I’m a sad fanboy, all I cared about was that we got a good Doctor, which we did). She’s also got great timing, and her exchanges with Eccleston are spot-on. Her character Rose is a completely generic, or perhaps I should say archetypal, companion, which is probably deliberate. I have had an interesting thought about the circumstances of her joining the Doctor in his travels, but it would give away stuff about the episode, so I’ll get back to you on that.
The episode moves along at a brisk clip (some might say ‘frenetic dash’), with a high-tempo soundtrack to underscore the point. It’s full of broad visual humour, up to an including slapstick which is clearly aimed at the kids. The scripted gags are frequent and work pretty well. The scares are mild (at least in this one), and the only reason not to show it to your six or seven year olds is that they probably won’t be able to keep up with half of what’s going on. The visual effects are not super-advanced, but they’re not at all cod either. The TARDIS interior design (by The Authority artist Bryan Hitch) is as brilliant as I’d expected and hoped. Despite the new 45-minute, self-contained-story format, it’s absolutely classic Who, with nothing left out (except aimless corridor-wandering, and we can all live without that, yeah?).
All in all, it’s an entertaining watch, and promises great things to come. I’m deeply excited. He’s back.
Last night we saw The Goodies: (Still A)Live on Stage, which was as fascinating as it was entertaining. The show consisted of the three Goodies (Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie) on stage with three chairs, a lectern and a projector. They’re all now in their sixties, so they’re almost unrecognisable until they open their mouths (Garden, who’s almost completely bald, started with a great schtick of wearing a grotesque toupee and fake sideburns).
The show was pretty basic – each one in turn would read a question sent to them from a fan, along the lines of “Which one was your favourite episode?” and “What’s the most painful thing that ever happened to you filming the show?”, after which they would reminisce a bit or show a clip or tell an amusing anecdote about how one of the others got hurt. What that description doesn’t really convey is the absolute magic of listening to three of your childhood idols rabbiting on – somewhat chaotically, I might add – as if they’re trying to liven up a party with a few mates. They were brilliant. All the more so because they were obviously under-rehearsed – they talked over the top of one another, they fell about giggling a lot, they carried their scripts about with them and referred to them constantly – but when their best gags landed, they went off like a nuke. Garden did a routine with a loud censor’s buzzer and a selection of Julie Andrews songs that just about killed me.
Some bits fell flat – they reproduced a radio play from “I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again” (I think) that I suspect was funnier to participate in than watch, and they finished with a pre-recorded singalong to The Funky Gibbon that drowned out both them and anyone else attempting to join in. In any case despite it being a big hit it was never my favourite song of theirs (who wouldn’t prefer Run or String or even Wild Thing?). But despite these quibbles, it was a great show (and a good reminder that I should get their DVD collections. Oh yes, I am marketing’s obedient slave).
5 Comments:
Wild thing. My favourite Goodies song. I used to sing it at Mt Leyshon and drive my co-workers nuts. So how do you get hold of this live on stage thingy anyway?
Um, you go see them - live on stage :) They're touring Australia.
A
By Anonymous, at 2:30 PM
Hurrah! Dave lives! Welcome back to the virtual world!
Sigh, closest live on stage in Brisbane. Bummer
Hmm, no, probably not *quite* good enough to make a Townsville-Brisbane round trip worth it. Maybe rent the DVDs and watch them instead...
