A frivolous fun feature! Clive Dunn is spectacular as this version of the Doctor, even going so far as to get his lines wrong, come in at the wrong time, all fitting the character flawlessly. The jokes are the sort as featured in Christmas crackers - absolutely lame to the point of amusement. For being so early on in Doctor Who's history, it's worth watching, as the first ever clear glimpse of anyone making fun of the programme, so it's interesting to see what they make of it, the Doctor (as he is) just being a rather ridiculous boffin. Overall, this is the kind of feature I love, it's comedic, much more enjoyable than many Doctor Who stories, and relevant to that, nice and short.

Lucky Day - a review based on first impressions:

I place great value in the title of an episode. The connotations, ideas and imagination spurred from a combination of words is often far in excess compared to what the episode results; perhaps the mark of a strong storyline is an episode that least diminishes away from its potential. “Lucky Day” suggests this could be a pivotal, fairly friendly good episode of Series 15, a rarer enjoyable well-crafted piece of entertainment. Well, to that end it is rather, and elsewhere, less than it strives.

The now-expected traditional “Doctor-lite” episode, Lucky Day focuses on Ruby Sunday, the companion from the previous series, rather unexpectedly. The Doctor is hardly in it, but very alike to Love & Monsters, in his absence can one sense the power of his presence. One may easily draw such comparisons (also to 73 Yards last year, especially with the pub crawling activities present in both). The entire episode basically revolves around Ms. Sunday and her new boyfriend, Conrad, a name somehow incredibly fitting to his character. It is apparent fairly early on that Conrad must be the antagonist, since there is little room elsewhere to which the plot may manoeuvre, reducing the surprise of the occasion. Perhaps this predictability adds to the overall themes of the story, concerning the uprising of people in opposition to the common view, the more challenging, anti-consensus populous, just like the conning, radical Conrad. For all one may say and infer from the simple story, there is little else going on here, meaning if one is not drawn in by the plot and characters, there isn’t much to consider or praise. The episode is more magnetised to analysis and discussion than producing an exciting, interesting piece of escapist fiction.

The aliens themselves, when they have little time to feature, reminded me of those from the film “Attack the Block” (featuring Jodie Whittaker), except using a different colour, red instead of blue. The Shreeks differ, however, in being worthy of even less time considering them, for they appear emblematic of any Doctor Who monster - Cybermen, Daleks, Ice Warriors, Shreeks, any threat terrorising the land, seen as a fiction to the general population. This idea was set forth clearly back in Series 1, World War Three, with the “hoax” newspaper article. Such themes were very heavy in the following years, such as the Master commenting on the invasions in Series 3. One gathers RTD must have had quite a hand in developing this concept, or inspired, since those old episodes are now over two decades old. Ruby being escorted in a car is another similar call-back. I quite liked seeing such beats in the story, cutting to news programmes, seeing Trinity Wells, even if it does strike in the usual self-indulgent, distracting manner. One suspects that lift shot from Series 1 and 2 could have been re-used here, too. At least there was a variety of setting and pacing, even virtually, more than can be said for the preceding episode. In the rapid montage, as well as the naturally dynamic relationship between Ms. Sunday and the surnameless Conrad, a fun momentum builds, which I enjoyed.

Much as with some recent efforts from the Revived Series, such as Praxeus, this episode has a very definitive theme that less distracts from the story, more-so grows from it, and takes it over entirely, which produces the same positive boon as in a caterpillar when a parasitoid wasp intervenes (for more information, see The Ark in Space). Exploring this idea could prove insightful, making one question the reality of UNIT, whether the aliens are real, perhaps suggesting that many stories in Doctor Who act in a fictitious meta-narrative, unreliably set-up stories. This may push some motivation towards the inexplicable dates of the UNIT stories, set in some unestablished paradoxical time around the “near future” of the ‘70s, ‘80s and beyond.

But Lucky Day does little to really dig into these themes. It presents ideas most topical to this time, about denying reality, yet by presenting these anti-establishment views as wholly misguided and leading to evil, is unlikely to really convince anyone of anything, good or bad, about how to think. The Doctor himself shows up at the end to scold Conrad, and basically inform the audience of the lesson - the notion that the Time Lord can effectively appear at will and know basically everything indicates his vast comprehension beyond humanity; adding to that his simple click that makes the TARDIS disappear, as if it, too, were but a fantasy, shows his true abilities above humanity. This last scene simplifies the story too much, makes the “lesson” of the parable all-too evident, ironically denying much thought besides its idea as the “good” option. It appears utterly reduced in power as old Mrs. Flood returns to free Conrad, although one could argue gains a greater realism in allowing him to live on free, really was just a feeble decision, tying into the series’ tedious mystery as a whole rather than letting this narrative to reach its conclusion.

Much like 73 Yards, this incarnation of the Doctor is insistent on enabling any life, even those who disagree with his ideas of the universe, to live (and even prosper? Sadly no one says “I deny this reality”, like in The Deadly Assassin). One simply wishes for one of the “old” Doctors, and may happily imagine Tom Baker’s brief interaction, rather like his treatment of Scorby in The Seeds of Doom, or better yet, Conrad, meet Colin Baker and a coincidentally-placed acid bath. The Doctor’s assertion that Conrad is “exhausting” and “choke(s) our bandwidth” is completely contemptible and laughable, in total defiance of the whole concept of the Doctor being above humanity and just sounds ridiculously absurd, as if he’s just irritated at this conniving little man. Attempting to raise our morality a step towards the deistic heights of perfection, in combination with complaining about “bandwidth” size, is a brave choice; it takes courage to write the words that totally undo a story’s purpose and power in seconds, but Pete McTighe pulled it off.

The author himself can be seen regularly stating his own love of the Classic Series in non-specific ways, on the Behind the Sofa features. Lucky Day fits rather well with the idea of what a man as he would write - an attempt to be challenging and provocative, while continuously repeating the same looping notions that refuse any thought against themselves. A half-witted satire. As the thematic aspect’s shadow looms throughout, the plot falters to accommodate: UNIT just happen to have a Shreek right next to the main office, which just so happens to only be hunting Conrad, and doesn’t care about or attack anyone else. All aspects must correlate in contrivance to prove what McTighe wants the world to be; perhaps it is impossible to not be hypocritical when attempting a story of this kind. Having Conrad beg for forgiveness was completely unrealistic; then it transpires he was lying and the Shreek bites his arm, which amuses briefly but reveals how irrelevant the Shreek really are in the story. At least in using them for costumes in his fake invasion, a kind of reference was made to The Rescue, and the “Think Tank” is reminiscent of Robot.

Lucky Day entertained, more-so as it preceded, and much more-so than last week, gaining momentum as it gathered the puzzle pieces, but by its end, with the plot crumbling into dust, the Shreek made irrelevant and even the Doctor incapable of ever acting tough, just a pathetic shell of his former self, the episode falls apart, leaving a broken jigsaw of an empty painting frame.

A review of The Well, written from first impressions:

Well, well. Not exactly the best. To say the least I’d rather watch the first two again, I definitely enjoyed episode two more, for it was more fun and enjoyable. But this one, I feel much more strongly compelled to write about…

Now, I love Midnight. Fantastic episode, absolutely one of the best episodes ever - tense, frightening, sombre ending, claustrophobic, great dialogue (if a bit repetitive haha), overall, incredible, pretty much my favourite and most-watched episode of all. Naturally, therefore, I am a little more critical of this than usual, since I’ve spent years thinking about Midnight, about the mysterious entity, watching it carefully, reading the script, considering the metaphors and symbolism and ideas, how it creates effects, etc. This episode is deliberately playing into the greatness of that, featuring a little scene from it. Nice idea maybe but I didn’t like that, just showing the old episode, it’s kind of like they’re saying “hey, look, remember this old great episode? We’re doing that again!” A bit like that, just like the opening of The Star Beast. I don’t like that. It suggests they’re not so confident, sticking to where they are right now, they have to make a jump from over a decade ago, literally showing it, just to remind everyone. Maybe if one hasn’t watched Midnight for years it would be a lot more effective, but in my case of course, it was quite laughable, like a lot of it.

Great atmosphere for a while here, very much seeking inspiration from Aliens and a number of other DW stories (namely, The Impossible Planet with its equivalent big hole, more mysteriously arrived at and revealed there). Some nice music, although re-using the bit from Midnight (twice even?) was just as over-bearing and over the top as it was the first time. All quiet, subtle, then suddenly WHAM! Really loud crazy theme when everyone’s getting flung around. Reduces the fear, it kind of fits for Doctor Who but it takes away all the build-up. Same with the jump-scares. Every moment building up a sense of fear, relishing in anguish and torment, I love, but then every time there’s a big loud sound, it takes away completely. It’s (sort of) like a drop on a rollercoaster, like, there’s the big scary moment, now we can relax for a bit. Woah! Scary noise. Ok, now let’s calm down. Takes away the rising tension which Midnight handled a lot better over a longer sustained period. Since anyone can just walk out of this room that the creature-infected Aliss is in, it cannot hold such a sense of being trapped in a room, naturally.

This episode demands comparison to Midnight, it outright wants one to go back and watch that episode, it seems, based on showing it in the episode, directly referencing it all over the place. Why does the Doctor act so strange about it? All right, yes, it was a terrifying experience for him the first time, but inevitably in doing a sequel to Midnight, the power of both parts, here and there, are reduced. The compelling aura of Midnight, the name, the planet, the whole original story, is the mystery, much like the mystery of who the Doctor is - of course, showing more of the monster makes it less mysterious, in such a way as it would be very hard to do a sequel without lessening the impact of the original. This seems a lot like the writers wanted to do another go at it, having loved the first one (and since it wasn’t just written by RTD, I wonder which one had the idea), and then to show how massive a fan they are, they show a clip from the old episode. Halfway through, we find this out, it’s like the Sutekh reveal, like the Master reveal in Utopia, but it shouldn’t be, I don’t think. Why must we treat all these monsters like gods? Like the great evil of the universe?

The excellence I love in Midnight is the lack of knowledge. As Professor Hobbes says, “there is no history”. We know very little of the Midnight entity. We don’t know what it looks like, other than Claude’s description of it. Now we have a clear CGI image of it, well, all right then. Shame really. Just like the grey creature behind them in Listen. Showing it directly will always lessen the power of course. Why is it we treat this creature as though it’s the same one? This is set thousands of years later, isn’t it? Way, way after Midnight was set, and that was already a long time in the future. So why would one assume this is the same organism? Why does the Doctor talk to it as though it’s the same thing? Or that it’s evil? It’s just taken ahold of someone, Aliss, that’s how it operates, surely, maybe it’s just curious, not necessarily evil. But, oh, it smashed, or it made her smash, all of the mirrors. Did she forget this, was she possessed, did it do it and then take over her? I’ve only just watched The Well so I’m sure I’ve missed some particular pieces of dialogue, but whatever the explanation is, trapped to those results, not a very good look for poor Aliss. Since this being, behind her apparently, lives on her back, and makes people fly up in the air for some reason, kinetic force as someone says, well, that doesn’t make it evil, does it? Maybe it just has that effect on living organisms altered to its state? For all we know, only this species can survive in an Xtonic light. It acts nothing like the original creature so why does everyone, especially the Doctor, act like it’s the ultimate evil? Not much attempt to reason or comprehend or calm people down.

It doesn’t repeat things as before. Good to do something different, more interesting than a repeat of a repeat, but why treat it as the same organism? Ages and ages dedicated to characters standing around in a room, basically going, there’s nothing there. I just saw something, I swear! No, there’s nothing. No, I saw something. No, nothing. For ages. Predictable. Obviously there’s something, the more we know, the longer we linger, the less scary it is, especially when interrupted by jump-scare sounds, please can we stop having those?

Then people for some reason keep doubting the other people for no reason I see, and walk around the poor Aliss, and die. Predictable. Interesting notion in the sense that no one went “behind” Sky in Midnight, but that was a totally different system of operations. I thought they were going to use the talking function thing, have some kind of dialogue spooky action, using the screens, but nothing came of that, it seemed basically pointless to me. Actually totally pointless from a story perspective. The only one I had trouble understanding was Aliss and she was the only one without subtitles!

They make a huge deal of not walking behind Aliss (leading to a sort of pun, about not turning their back on her, that was fun). A bit like the Time Beetle in Turn Left. But this makes no sense. Someone walks behind her and gets flung, no one ever checks if maybe someone survived, it’s just assumed, oops, they died. I mean, think about it - this creature would be really profitable in a big outer space trampoline party! Flinging people all over the place, great fun! But no, no trampolining here, just everyone gets killed, no point checking apparently. People walk behind Aliss and fly up and back down, but there’s a bit midway through where someone tries walking behind her, leaving someone else directly, 180 degrees behind her, and Aliss turns around to face this person circling her. As she turns her back on the crowd, why don’t they each get flung up into the air? Hmm? What!? I didn’t understand that at all, maybe I missed something obvious. But if it’s behind her that’s the danger, then as she spins around, everyone should just get flung up, surely? I had a huge problem with this in particular, since they make such a big deal of it. Does the person have to be directly behind her, for several seconds then? Maybe she has to maintain that back-view for a while, maybe the creature has to decide to throw people. Calling the entity “behind her” was a little off, as well, I thought, it’s sort of attached to her, “behind” could suggest some unknown distance between her and the creature, rather than attached to her back as it seemed.

It’s left as a mystery exactly how this creature works, why it does this, but treating it like a sort of tutorial, a gimmick explaining the idea for most of the episode takes a lot of time, without really doing anything other than explaining in a slow, supposedly scary way. At least setting it in one room saves money, like a lot of great stories in the past have done. Really nice atmosphere in the first half more-so, good launch into the title sequence, a lot of little… well, some ideas I liked. I will re-watch this at some point and maybe comprehend some bit I missed that explained some of my problems. But overall, I really didn’t care for The Well. Disappointing after such anticipation. Maybe it’s not the best way to view Doctor Who, but somehow the knowledge that a lot of people apparently liked this episode made me even more opposed to it, since I just kept finding problems. Like at the end, when that lady falls back into the Well itself, she just leans back and falls in - gonna hit her head in a few seconds! At least jump into it. All the bits about the people not knowing what humans are, what Earth is, sort of interesting but not very well integrated into the plot. What were they, if not human? Digi-humans, proto-humans, human-ish like Cassandra says in The End of the World, perhaps.

Didn’t make much use of the Well itself, either, it was just in a room, fairly obviously leading to something, the final moment as it turns out. I like the idea of a slow-paced subtle scary story, as DW has attempted many times (loved that it was in a quarry!), but this was really a major failing in many ways. I think if I hadn’t watched Midnight so much, I’d like The Well more, but since the two desire to be linked (and hence compared), the answers as opposed to mystery, the plot confusion and nonsensicality, the simpler characters, the general repetition without much justification, and the general stand-still plot all are factors that negate the merits of the adventure, and my score. Knowing that not much happens, maybe understanding more of the ideas and intentions, maybe I’ll like it more (also from DW Unleashed) but from an initial sudden response, having just watched The Well, … I just didn’t really like it very much. 3/10 = 1.5/5.

Oh and the Doctor cries again.