{"id":651,"date":"2009-01-02T22:19:00","date_gmt":"2009-01-02T09:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zeusblog.tetrap.com\/?p=651"},"modified":"2009-01-02T22:34:28","modified_gmt":"2009-01-02T09:34:28","slug":"steam-pudding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zeusblog.tetrap.com\/?p=651","title":{"rendered":"Steam Pudding"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"nextlogo\"
\nThe end of year special has now\u00a0arrived after a great amount of
\ninternet speculation.\u00a0\u00a0We know how the story goes by now; if it
\nmakes fans sit up and take notice then newspaper inches follow –
\nthis story certainly delivered. But as seasoned fans do we expect
\ntoo much? As a popular yuletide diversion, does The Next Doctor<\/em>‘s
\neasy charm offer anything else?<\/p>\n

I suspect that this is the measure by which the remaining stories
\nmean themselves to be assessed for the RTD era, which as far as
\nyou and I and Russel T Davies are concerned, is nearing its end,
\nand soon. We haven’t reached the end of the tenth Doctor, though
\nI would say it is telegraphed visibly here. Quite probably this all
\ncould be explained by the fact that in order to save time and also
\ndo justice to a hampered lead actor’s schedule needs dictated that
\nthis story was filmed back to back with season 4, and it does show
\nin point of fact. David Tennant is a master at this and still remains
\nour best ambassador to the role, but looks knackered, acting in his
\nsleep (or was it the back problems already?)<\/p>\n

You may recall last year saw TSV<\/em>‘s most regal subscriber ever
\nrealise the same cheese factor as Fear Her<\/em>‘s Olympic torch, though
\nI will admit that this story is tighter (although it could be said we
\nhaven’t seen the benefit of tighter editing, instead what we have
\nseen is a simpler plot and fewer supporting characters muddying
\nthe story to fuss over than 2007’s support-cast massacre festive
\nthing).<\/p>\n

If this year is better it’s because it’s quieter (though yet again
\nnoone mentions still another giant-sized bother for London, or even
\nnotices), and this also has more actual actors. David Morrisey is
\nthen slightly less of a stunt casting than the ‘faddish’ John Simm.
\nI’ll say he does ‘sad’ well, which redeems that OTT CiN<\/em> prelude.
\nThrow in the arguments over the months leading up to this that
\nThe Next Doctor<\/em> was based on Big Finish’s The One Doctor<\/em>, then a
\nlot of the pantomime Doctor’s bluster may actually have been more
\nin keeping.<\/p>\n

If this was indeed RD’s modus operandi<\/em> then there’s an irony to be
\nidentified in turning a man who has had everything in his life un-
\nkindly removed into a suddenly swashbuckling and outrageously
\nforward ‘hero’ may be smarter than it appears. We can also see
\nthis through the Doctor’s own life the real Doctor adopts a bluster
\nto cover his inward turmoil. It’s a neat parallel to the tragic hero
\nthe Doctor has become – a neat and exaggerated, portrait of the
\nusual candidate. That the Doctor also possesses the humanity to
\naddress this himself is key to his persona.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Tennant’s performance it’s not overdone.<\/p>\n

PA<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The end of year special has now\u00a0arrived after a great amount of internet speculation.\u00a0\u00a0We know how the story goes by now; if it makes fans sit up and take notice then newspaper inches follow – this story certainly delivered. But … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-series-4-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeusblog.tetrap.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeusblog.tetrap.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeusblog.tetrap.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeusblog.tetrap.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeusblog.tetrap.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=651"}],"version-history":[{"count":94,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeusblog.tetrap.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":750,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeusblog.tetrap.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions\/750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeusblog.tetrap.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeusblog.tetrap.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeusblog.tetrap.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}