2nd Opinion, Take 2 “Space Babies” – Dumbing Down
J.C reviews the first episode of Series 14.
The first episode of Series 14 (sorry, I refuse to call it “Season 1”) is clearly aimed primarily at young children. Which is particularly ironic when you consider then that this released at midnight here in the UK, the 60-year priority home of Doctor Who until the Disney started footing the bill. But after staying up late to watch it, all I could think was, “what on Earth did I just witness?” and “I should’ve gone to bed”.
I mean, I shouldn’t be surprised, really. An episode entitled “Space Babies” was never going to be serious Doctor Who sci-fi fare, but I expected something, anything, that would engage my brain more so than it did. Just because an episode is tailored more towards kids, doesn’t mean it has to be quite so childish.
This felt like a dumbed down script for Disney kids and viewers who’ve never seen Doctor Who. RTD used to write scripts that catered to all viewers: young, old and in-between. Diehard fans, or newbies. Also Davies used to understand that kids aren’t actually stupid and can enjoy stories beyond just snot, fart jokes and other toilet humour. Of course, he delivered plenty of silliness in his first era, but even most of those episodes had thought-provoking material beyond the surface, and a better balance between the serious and the silly.
Anyway, once you got past the exposition overloaded opening, and the flippant butterfly effect moment, the initial arrival on the ship was actually somewhat intriguing. When the TARDIS pair discovered the test tubes, it seemed to hint at some interesting places for the story to go. Then we got a rehash scene from “The End of the World”, which was pretty good, even if the former did it better.
And then the talking babies arrived and, my god, did it all go downhill after that. I struggle to even think who thought this was a good idea. It doesn’t help that the realisation of the talking babies was done so poorly. The baby actors, if we can even call them that, didn’t even have the right expressions to match, so it was just jarring. It reminded me of Disney’s The Lion King remake, where the mouths moved without expressions, and it robbed so many scenes of any sincerity or emotion as a result.
The Bogeyman could’ve been a cool, scary monster. It was at least decently designed, and it looked great in some shots, but to reveal that it was literally made of snot immediately degraded its fear factor as things went back into farce. And then to add insult to injury, the Doctor (illogically) chooses to spare it. Suddenly it’s no longer a murderous monster and inexplicably howls like a nice little wolf. Er, what?! I feel like we missed something there.
My opinion on Ncuti Gatwa hasn’t changed much after his second full episode. There are some parts, usually the bits when he’s required to actually act like the Doctor, that work very well. I’m talking about scenes where he talks about his past, the snow scene, or giving Ruby some ground rules on why they can’t go back to see her mother. But then are other moments that come across as though Gatwa is just playing Gatwa, not a character called Doctor. And don’t get me started on the Doctor calling people “babes” etc. Those also feel more like RTD attempting to channel “young people language” (“How do you do, fellow kids”).
In my review for “The Church on Ruby Road”, I remarked that Ruby was far too nonplussed in light of the crazy circumstances she was being thrust into, and that is still a problem here. Whether she’s seeing test tube babies, a monster, or in extreme danger, but it’s also evident with her relationship with the Doctor. This duo has good chemistry, but they are acting like besties already. It’s more like people who have been travelling together for other years, but in reality, it’s been, what, a day! It just doesn’t feel earned. And this was exacerbated further in “The Devil’s Chord” (but I’m getting ahead of myself. Stay tuned).
Overall, “Space Babies” was a weak start for this new era. Let’s hope it gets better. Oh, I already know the answer to that…
Asides
- “I don’t have a purpose or a cause, or a mission” – really. Does saving the world not count? Apparently not.
- “No-one like me exists” well except the 14th Doctor, and seemingly all the bi-generated Doctors!
- Apart from the babies, the CGI was decent. That’s where the Disney money is most apparent.
- Why was there no visible regeneration energy in the butterfly revival scene?
