DOCTOR WHO LIVE: A REVIEW (****NB. THIS REVIEW CONTAINS VAGUE SPOILERS****)
Lots of excitable children running around in Cyber masks: Check. Men of a certain age sporting Begonia Pope inspired scarves: Check. An exact double of Moss from The IT Crowd: Check. This could only be Doctor Who Live. An unfortunate aside could be - Only three quarters of the seats taken due to rather extortionate ticket prices: Check. Cynical Reviewers: Check. (Though not here.)
Half plot, half an excuse to show off the music and monsters that are such a part of Doctor Who, this extravaganza was hosted by Vorgenson (a particularly hammy Nigel Planer) who, as it turned out, was the son of the Lurman Vorg who featured in the 1973 Third Doctor Adventure Carnival of Monsters. Now there’s continuity for you. He was in control of a glove that controlled a Minimiser, a direct descendant of the Miniscope owned by his father. Or is it? Brought out to a slowly waking up audience, first the Scarecrows and then the Judoon make their way through the crowd, resulting in some amusing footage on the big screen of young children looking genuinely terrified. Those further away from the action jumped up and down in excitement. Accompanying all of this is an orchestra conducted by an energetic Ben Foster and really here you find the star of the show, certainly in the first half - the music. Murray Gold’s scores have suffered some criticism for overpowering the drama but here, as at the Proms, it comes into its element; toe tapping over exuberance the result. The newest theme tune, the one that everyone sat baffled at on Easter weekend, was magnificent. At this point it is very much a greatest hits evening.
Plot wise, things start developing when Vorgenson traps Winston Churchill (a splendid Nick Briggs, giving a wonderfully nuanced brief performance, a welcome contrast from the parading and flouncing of Vorgenson) which introduces the Doctor to proceedings, courtesy of an amusing moment in which Churchill borrows a mobile phone from a cameraman. The Doctor works out what is going on, and off we go on 10 minutes of actual drama - including an excellent segment with the Weeping Angels wiping out four policemen led by Nick Briggs - which ends with a cliffhanger and the Doctor trapped.
The second half follows a similar pattern as the robots from The Girl In The Fireplace, the Smilers from The Beast Below and the Cybermen march around between the seats, while the Doctor disappears within his prison. In the programme there is no mention of the Daleks appearing, but of course they do, and as the Doctor reveals that there is someone behind Vorgensons’ plan, who else could it be, and as the lights start to flash and the music rises to a crescendo, a red Dalek appears, and somewhere a ring modulator springs into action as Nick Briggs clears his throat. This was genuinely brilliant. Naturally the Doctor triumphs as the Daleks and Cybermen battle and all end up back in the miniscope. At this point though there was a brilliant twist, as a White Dalek appeared - twenty feet in the air!! The initial shock of this caused the children near me to gasp. In fact the Dalek was positioned at the end of a crane-type device. Matt Smith’s performance on camera really added to the zest of the evening, as he performed all the ticks and quirks that are already so expected from his Doctor.
There was a lot of nothing in this, and anyone expecting a twisty-turney timey-wimey kind of plot will be disappointed. What you get is an unashamed celebration of all things Doctor Who, including a montage of all the regenerations of the shows 47 year history. Very interestingly, a huge roar of affection went up from all the children in the audience as David Tennant appeared from the fire within the TARDIS as the Tenth Doctor replaced the Ninth. We should never forget what he did for the continuing success of Doctor Who. More pantomime than dramatic theatre, it’s very hard to be cynical about this, and should be viewed as a great celebration of this great TV series. And a great way to make the BBC an awful lot of money in merchandise sales. See, there’s always space for some cynicism.
