#EVERY writer for s1 wrote something during the wilderness years

[eighthdoctor]

[image of a tag that reads: #I think I.M. Foreman should show up in the last episode]

not tagging this person bc i can't think of a way to say this that isn't snarky but! two problems with this!

im foreman has already shown up in dr who in a book which is more goncharov than most people can really handle

there's not gonna be a 'last episode'. we tried that already and it didn't stick. what happened instead is that the fans went off and started writing their own stories so aggressively some of them became canon.

[anotheruserwithnoname]

Looking back at Mark Gatiss’ episodes

If there’s one writer who gets more grief from some fans than Steven Moffat, it’s Mark Gatiss. Despite the fact he was responsible for An Adventure in Space and Time (a project he attempted to get done for the 40th anniversary) which is why the concept of David Bradley playing the First Doctor again someday is even a thing. And despite the fact he’s one of the writers who helped keep Doctor Who alive during the wilderness years, his episodes get a lot of dislike.

With Gatiss announcing that he expects his next episode, The Empress of Mars, to be his last for the series, in theory ending a professional association with the franchise dating back more than a quarter century (even longer then Moffat’s link), I thought I’d give my comments about his episodes after the break below. I could also talk about things like his Virgin New Adventures novel Nightshade (still one of my favourites), or the made-for-video spin-off series PROBE that focused on Caroline John’s Dr. Liz Shaw in the 1990s, and I could write an entire article on the excellent An Adventure in Space and Time, but I’ll just stick with the Doctor Who episodes...

The Unquiet Dead (2005): A very important episode as it reintroduced reviewers to the concept of the Doctor going back in time. Casting Simon Callow was a stroke of genius (and delightfully meta as he’s a noted Dickens expert in real life who’s played the author before). It was the first Christmas episode, and helped set the groundwork for one of Torchwood’s major elements (the Cardiff Rift). We also learned that the Time War wasn’t just something involving the Daleks and the Time Lords - it was huge. The episode was also just plain scary. One of the best S1 stories.

The Idiot’s Lantern (2006): The idea of visiting the 50s and using a metaphor of TV controlling people was sound, and every time we see the name “Magpie” (most recently in Lie of the Land) this episode is being referenced, and it’s clear the Doctor and Rose are having a blast (well, until Rose gets captured!). But I don’t care for it. Not because of Gatiss’ story or the script but because I found the Wire, with her incessant “FEEED MEEEE!” yelling, the most annoying Doctor Who villain since the Candyman. And I’m afraid that’s down to the directing and the performance.

Victory of the Daleks (2010): People forget that Gatiss only wrote twice for Davies. It was 4 years before he came back to write, and Victory of the Daleks is one of the most controversial episodes the show has ever done because of the decision to introduce the “paradigm Daleks”. But take them away and the episode is actually quite good, with Gatiss’ version of Winston Churchill being fun and likeable and I like the idea of him and the Doctor being friends. And while the concept of a subservient Dalek is taken right from Power of the Daleks, it worked well here. It was almost as if, once the paradigms were introduced, it became a different episode. I don’t know the history of the episode. Maybe it’s all on Gatiss in which case he’s guilty as charged, but my feeling is Moffat was the more responsible party. 

Night Terrors (2011): A creepy, atmospheric standalone that didn’t contribute to any real arc or anything ... basically the type of episode fans are acclaiming in Series 10. So what’s the problem? None that I can see. Is it a classic? No way. But it does the job and the dolls are just creepy.

Cold War (2013): Something I just realized as I wrote this up is I think Mark Gatiss wrote more Doctor-Clara episodes than anyone else other than Moffat. And Cold War was terrific, reintroducing the Ice Warriors and expanding upon them, yet keeping true to the characters as we last saw them back in the Pertwee era. This was also the first episode in which Clara found herself truly acting independently, setting her on the long road to becoming a Doctor in everything but name. And we also got the dynamic between Jenna and David Warner that at times, in retrospect, felt like a test drive (minus romance aspects) for Twelve-Clara.

The Crimson Horror (2013): One of my all-time favourite episodes. A great pastiche of Hammer Horror films, with an amazing retro-style flashback sequence. It has romance (this was the episode that solidified ElevenClara for me), comedy, pathos, Rachael Stirling and Diana Rigg. Plus, it was a “backdoor pilot” (to use the US term) for a Paternoster Gang TV series - one I wish we’d have gotten instead of a certain other spinoff that was chosen instead. Gatiss proved he could nail the characters of Vastra, Jenny and Strax. If he’d taken on the show it would have been great.

Robot of Sherwood (2014): Another episode I love even though it gets a lot of knocks from people. Its only sin was in coming a bit too early in the Twelfth Doctor’s first series, when we were still getting a feel for him and his dynamic with Clara. But between the costumes, the knowing humour, the spoonfight, Clara in full control freak mode when she isn’t fangirling over both the Doctor and Robin Hood, the former providing some solid early Whouffaldi moments ... this is the type of episode I was hoping we’d actually see more of in Series 10 now that a lighter and funnier Twelve is in play. Still waiting.

Sleep No More (2015): A failed, but not unworthy experiment. I like this episode because of the interaction between Twelve and Clara, first and foremost. My main complaint about Series 9 is that they were separated too much. This is actually one of handful of episodes before the finale in which we see clearly how it’s deepened into the romance Capaldi himself acknowledged in his Wil Wheaton interview. The concept of the Doctor and his companion actually being fully defeated for the first time didn’t sit well with a lot of people, but I thought it was very refreshing. This episode’s major sin was that it was an experimental standalone, and ultimately the only standalone - in a season of two-part and three-part stories. It would have worked better in Series 8 where there were more standalone episodes. As such because it’s a failed experiment it stands out all the more for it.

As for Empress of Mars (2017): the jury is out of course. I’m a bit leery because of the utter cheesiness I saw in the Next Time trailer (I’m hoping another Idiot’s Lantern scenario isn’t about to unfold), but Gatiss has surprised me before.

All told, I’m not a Gatiss hater. His episodes have been a mixed bag over the years (as have Moffat’s), but of that list I can only think of one episode I actually disliked, Idiot’s Lantern, and that was mainly because of the performance of the monster. And three of the episodes, Unquiet Dead, Crimson Horror and Robot of Sherwood, rank among my favourites. So I’m going to miss him if indeed he does not come back to work for Chris Chibnall. Hopefully, though, Big Finish will get him back to write some stories (he’s done two) or maybe he’ll have time to tackle another Doctor Who novel.