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December is the month for 'Doctor Who' fandom to flex their
democratic muscles, it seems. Fans can vote for the current series on TV.com's
'best of television' poll, as well as give their collective nod likewise to The
People's Choice Awards. Former Sixth Doctor Colin Baker sadly fell short in his
quest to be crowned this season's winner of the British reality TV series 'I'm
A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here', though he 'did' manage a few respectable vote
tallies during some of the individual contests. While Americans were occupied
last month with deciding who would be the 'most powerful man in the world',
Whovians this month are busy voting in more important matters, helping to
secure 'Doctor Who' in its rightful place as a pop culture institution.
Besides, every card-carrying Whovian worth their TARDIS key chains already
'know' the good Doctor is 'really' the most important in the world, or even the
universe.
While we celebrated the 49th anniversary of the world's
greatest science fiction series in November, while we impatiently await the
transmission of this year's Christmas special, and while we all continue to
speculate on what (or 'who', to utilize an overused pun) will comprise the 50th
anniversary specials, I decided to do my own voting this month on what the
topic of this blog review would be. Would it be 'The Minister Of Chance', an
audio adventure featuring spin-off Whoniverse characters, boasting not one, but
two former Doctors, Paul McGann and Sylvester McCoy, in the cast (not to
mention former UNIT soldier Captain Hawkins/Tekker from 'Timelash', Paul
Darrow)? Or would I indulge my inner Tennant, and review the 2009 animated
serial 'Dreamland', instead?
Well, the answer is pretty obvious, and easily found in the
title of this blog. At the end of the day, work commitments (not to mention the
'oncoming storm' that is Christmas!), have kept me from listening to all of the
available 'Minister' episodes, though I am currently about half way through,
and will review the entire series on the next blog addition. For now, let us
take a look at 'Dreamland', starring the voice talents of the last of the great
Doctors, the sadly missed David Tennant.
The Story
The companion less Doctor arrives in 1958 Dry Springs,
Nevada, and enters a local diner intending on sampling some of the era's food,
not to mention the ambiance of this legendary time frame. He meets a waitress,
Cassie (played by David Tennant's now-wife and Peter Davison's daughter,
Georgia Moffatt), and the Native American Jimmy Stalkingwolf (played by Canadian
singer Tim Howar, of Mike And The Mechanics), who fill the ad-hoc role of
companions. The trio are quickly attacked by Men In Black when the Doctor
discovers and activates a strange alien artifact. Extended running and chasing
ensues, including being attacked by a Viperox, the first appearance of the main
alien 'baddies' in the story. The trio are rescued by the United States Army,
who (of course) then immediately kidnap them with the intent of wiping their
minds of the alien's presence, along with everything else. The Doctor affects a
break-out inspired by Houdini 'and' the 'Die Hard' films, rationalizing that
since they haven't been released yet, nobody will figure out their plan to
escape through the ventilator shaft!
Unfortunately, of course, the alarm sounds and the Army
comes running, but not before the Doctor discovers a real, living 'grey' alien
has been captured and is being held captive as well. By this point, it is
revealed that the Viperox race, who had been seen to be the hidden reason for
the Roswell Incident in 1947, when they fired upon the grey alien's ship as it
was attempting peaceful contact with humanity, are ruthless invaders who take
over planets by landing with a small force including a pregnant Queen, who then
proceeds to give birth to an entire army, all the while hidden in underground
lairs. What's more, because they promise to provide a special weapon to Colonel
Stark, the Communist-hating commander of Area 51 in order for him to get the
drop on Soviet Russia, the U.S. Army are actually in league with these monstrous
beings...all they need is the DNA code from the husband of the grey alien they
shot down in order to activate the alien artifact. The Doctor determines to put
an end to the Viperox scheme, one way or another...
The Cast
Simply put, any medium that features David Tennant in the
role of The Doctor is going to produce wonderful results. While the quality of
animation is akin to the worst of the old 'Reboot' series, Tennant's charm and
obvious enthusiasm for the role of the Doctor distracts even the biggest
detractors of the animation; once again, he capably raises a production to a
higher standard simply because of his presence. The Doctor remains his hipster
self, confusing his companions with endless references to a pop culture that
they haven't experienced yet. Tennant's Doctor's ability to shift from
whimsical and nonsensical ramblings one minute and then become deadly serious
the next is one of the best elements of the character, and his performance of a
good quality script here is much appreciated. As always, the best Doctor since
Tom Baker delivers as only he can.
The companions get more screen time in the visual sense than
would normally be the case, especially for an episode with a shade under
forty-five minutes running time, but while they are represented well in that
sense, neither the script nor the voice acting leaves much of an impression. It
doesn't help that they simply are not that interesting; Cassie is a waitress
and while she shows flashes of Tegan-like independence when she questions the
Doctor and bucks his authority somewhat, overall Georgia Moffatt simply doesn't
have to much to 'do' here other than voice a very generic character that could
have really been anyone else. Jimmy the Native American is cringe-worthy, the
delivery barely above that of a whisper, flat and monotonal. His very inclusion
as a companion seems to have been purely to fulfill a minor plot point later on
in the episode, and he and his fellow Native Americans suffer from what I call
'Chakotay Syndrome': the unfortunate tendency of 'anyone' who includes natives
of 'any' tribe or creed in science fiction/fantasy to adopt a knee-jerk
reaction to offending anyone, therefore said Native Americans will always be
depicted as vaguely and generically as possible. Hence the proliferation of
dialogue that sounds lifted from old 'Lone Ranger' episodes featuring Tonto!
Like Moffatt, Tim Howar struggles gamely with the words he's handed and the
result is lifeless and dull. Fortunately for all concerned, though, David
Tennant is given the best lines and his Doctor really carries the story (I
would argue that this is how it 'should' be regardless. After all, the series
is called 'Doctor Who' not 'Doctor Who And His Gang Of Emo Teens' pardon me while
I consume some of my anti-Steven Moffatt medication, I seem about to go off on
a rant..)..
The remainder of the cast, however, are excellent. As the
primary Viperox leader Lord Azlok (don't you just 'love' loud, bombastic
science fiction bad guy names?), David Warner, no stranger to the Whoniverse,
virtually chews the scenery. His Azlok is malevolent, intelligent,
superior-minded, and xenophobic, and Warner plays every aspect admirably. I'm
personally 'still' waiting for David Warner to mail in a performance, whether
it's in film, TV, or animation. Hasn't happened yet, and certainly not here, he
was an excellent choice. Stuart Millighan as the misguided patriot Colonel
Stark skirted the edge of your basic military man, of the type the Doctor would
philosophically oppose about every other week on the classic series in the
1970's. The character itself is riddled with the conventional cliché stereotyping
that occurs in most 'Doctor Who' military personnel (except of course The
Brigadier) historically, and his about face after the Doctor spends
approximately 30 seconds convincing him the Viperox will simply crush his
much-vaunted U.S Army the way they had countless other more advanced armies on
countless other planets is rather convenient to the plot, but all in all, it's
a serviceable performance. The remaining cast each perform their roles in
equally serviceable ways.
Summation
'Dreamland' is forty five minutes of 'Doctor Who' goodness
circa 2009, before the dark times of Matt Smith. It is choke full of homage material
to fondly-remembered movie moments, from a mine car chase evocative of both
'Goonies' and 'Indiana Jones' to the Doctor's funny use of pop culture itself
as a weapon, when he figures out that he can simply borrow elements from the
'Die Hard' films to in order to escape the mind-wipe gas that Colonel Stark
unleashes on him and his companions, to the Queen Viperox, who looks and sounds
like that from 'Aliens'. Of course, it also plays like a mid-1990's FOX UFO
special, with the inclusion of Men In Black, (who actually warranted a
live-action return appearance in the 'Sarah Jane Adventures' story 'The Vault
Of Secrets'), the 'secret truth' behind both the Roswell Incident as well as
uncovering the goings-on of Area 51. Far from being cautious, the Doctor is
positively giddy with excitement at the prospect of 'finally getting to the
bottom of that stuff', and I've said in previous blogs that 'Doctor Who' as an
action-adventure science fiction series ought to make every effort to utilize
well-known themes such as 'grey aliens', as well as Bigfoot, vampires,
etc...the 1950's were a boom period for UFO activity and perhaps the one and
only time in this planet's history that the subject was taken with something
approaching serious and sober thought rather than the tabloid newspaper
approach that was later adopted to discredit it, and I greatly enjoyed the
depiction of the 'grey aliens' in 'Dreamland' not as mysterious and potentially
malevolent abductors of sleeping humans, but as caring and compassionate beings
who sought peaceful relations with humanity.
While many bemoaned the lack of quality animation of this
webcast, and it 'is' true it is poor in the extreme given the advances in
computer animation in the year that it was made in, died-in-the-wool original
Whovians will choose to appreciate the story over the delivery method. A
well-told story that succeeds despite shoe-string special effects has long been
the hallmark of 'Doctor Who', and this is no more evident than in 'Dreamland'.
For whatever reason, it doesn't appear that much money was spent on this story
in terms of animation, and that 'could' be due to its initial release being on
BBC's Red Button, a 'freeview' interactive TV service maintained by the BBC, originally
designed for teletex service; perhaps the mind-set was that as the transmission
method would be low-grade, what was the point of spending money on it as it
wouldn't be in a high-definition format, anyway? It was also transmitted on the
BBCi Player as well as the official BBC website. In terms of the latter, the
animation quality is actually greater than that of its sister animated 'Doctor
Who' releases for the website, the flash-animated 'Scream Of The Shalka', 'Real
Time', 'Death Comes To Time', and 'The Infinite Quest'.
Taking the animation limitations aside, the story itself
shines. It contains fast-paced, snappy dialogue, action sequences that would be
at home in any televised 'Doctor Who' episode, a monster race that visually
appear as giant cockroaches, complete with twitching mandibles for the creep
factor, enough nods to the classic accoutrements of 1950's UFO stories to
satisfy fans, and best of all, the greatest modern Doctor of them all, in a
story that does him justice and in which David Tennant gives it his all. What
more could anyone ask for? 'Dreamland' is the Ghost Of 'Doctor Who' Past, and
it's a welcome ghost during this cold and dark Christmas night, and I'm
grateful my vote counted! I'm Shannon Lush, wishing all those who listened and
continue to listen to 'The Whostorian' podcast, my fellow traveler Mr Stylin'
Steve Lake, all Whovians everywhere one and all, a Merry Christmas and a Happy
and joyous New Year, and thank you all for reading my blog in 2012; if the
Mayans will it, I'll be back soon into 2013 with my review of 'The Minister Of
Chance'. In the meantime, go support Sylvester McCoy in 'The Hobbit', and don't
forget to vote for 'Doctor Who' every chance you get in whatever poll or vote
there is!
...and by the way, I 'am' partial to Christmas gifts. Just
throwing it out there :-).
You can find 'Dreamland' full episode here, from Youtube:
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