Radio Free Skaro #323 – The Mark of the Gatiss
< The summer time-wasting series winds down a bit with what’s likely to be the final miniscope for a time. With New! Doctor! Who! on the horizon, The Three Who Rule look at the NuWho writing efforts of stalwart scribe Mark Gatiss, whose contributions to Doctor Who date back a couple decades. Gatiss has authored New Adventures, starred in fan videos, written for Big Finish, done Confidential voiceover work and so much more – not to mention penning a 50th anniversary special about the origins of our favourite show; it’s no hyperbole to say he was a natural to write for modern Who. Then again, it unfortunately means we talk about Victory of the Daleks. News of the week, including ICONIC casting banter, rounds out another of these things we call Radio Free Skaro. And stay tuned for our plans for the podcast’s sixth anniversary! Oh, wait. We have none. Carry on. |
| Show Notes:
– Richard E Grant…Iconic Casting! Miniscope: |
4 Comments on “Radio Free Skaro #323 – The Mark of the Gatiss”
Leave a Reply to Milo Cancel reply
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two things:
#1
mark gatiss writing doctor who bio-pic is not good.
condensing history into a drama invites historical inaccuracies. read the complaints about curse of steptoe, holy flying circus, the hour, land girls, and the tudors (to name a few).
i wish the powers at bbc picked someone not related to the doctor who production team (preferably someone not a fan) to write this drama. not so much for historical accuracy but rather to prevent hagiography.
#2
for various reasons, most fans are divided on victory of the daleks. however, most folks miss the real point of the episode.
moffat structured series 5 much like rtd structured series 1, 3, and 4. in the first three episodes of each, the new companion is introduced and the emotional bonds between her and the doctor are solidified before a big two-parter.
(series 2 almost follows this structure with mickey. however, his story runs episodes 3-4 before the the two-part cybus cyberman story. in fact, you could probably skip girl in the fireplace and it would not harm the flow of series 2 in terms of mickey’s characterization.)
the unquiet dead, gridlock, planet of the ood, and victory of the daleks are supposed to be emotional-bonding episodes.
The thing about Victory Of The Daleks is that at the time it seems like exactly what you say it is, but later…
See, something I realised about a month ago is that Victory is actually one of the most devastatingly sad Dr Who episodes ever.
And the reason is this:
The Time War.
The Timelords died for nothing.
The Dr destroyed his family, his friends, his people, for nothing.
I literally dropped my cup of water when I realised it.
It is a terrible realisation.
As for Night Terrors, I didn’t have a problem with the farther/son thing, I just found it as a mediocre to good episode.
And Mark Gatiss as showrunner?
I think it would be interesting to see what he would do, perhaps we’de have the Dr have a more paternal Hartnell/Susan style relationship. We could even bring back the wonderful Jenny from the equally brilliant episode The Doctors Daughter if we wanted to go the fully down that route. Or he might include more borderline paranormal episodes, like most of his have been so far. And judging by what he said on the Victory confidential about whenever he tries a new Dr it always ends up as Pertwee, we could get an interesting Creation if Matt Smith regenerates at the same time the Moff hands over to Gatiss. I agree though that Tom MacRae or even Gareth Roberts would make equally good, and equally different, show runners.
But anyway, I should probably shut up now and let you clever people talk.
Geronimo!
@Milo – I for one don’t buy the victory being the futility of the time war. Were it the first Dalek story overall, sure, I could see that. But not at that stage.
As for the next show runner, as we said on the episode, there’s an amazing talent pool from which the BBC can draw. That’s a very reassuring thing.
Here, here!