what we did on tuesday night
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
We hugged for a little longer than we usually do when I got home.
We made poached eggs, and served them on top of thick cut Deli Ham – pink and salty-sweet, with the faintest tracing of fat – which was in turn placed atop rounds of lightly toasted, melted butter smeared white bread, and accompanied by Heinz baked beans, their sweet mushiness complementing the crisp salt-sweet blandness of the poached egg towers.
We talked about Theresa – how we both felt so shocked at how quickly she’d gone; how we both felt guilty that we didn’t get round to see her ‘For a slice of cake and a cup of tea,’ like she’d asked. We wondered whether she’d known she was going, and if that request had been code for ‘Come around so I can say goodbye.’ We fell silent, and ate, savouring each mouthful, newly aware of how vitally important the little things – like slices of cake, or gelatinous yellow yolks, are.
We watched Doctor Who: The Invasion of Time.
“You know,” I said to Him, “When I was a kid I loved Doctor Who. But I don’t remember this story.”
“It’s Tom Baker,” he replied, “Leila’s last story. With the Sontarans.”
Still nothing. We lay on the sofas and watched all six half hour episodes.
Oh. Dear. Lord.
Tom Baker is wonderful – mugging for all he’s worth, and really getting some scary anger on screen for one or two of the scenes. His knowing Naughty Schoolboy routine is proof that Mr Tenants currently acclaimed Doctor has a direct lineage back to Mr Baker, and his wild curly hair is a site to behold.
Some of the script:
Sontaran: “I am commander Stok, of the Sontaran Supreme Space Shock Squad.”
Doctor: “Stock? Of the Sontaran Supr- That’s a lot of alliteration, isn’t it”
Is sharp and funny and clever(ish). The exchanges between the Time Lords – a bunch of bitchy camp old queens in a very fancy version of The Quebec, if their phrasing is anything to go by – are joyously cutting. But the pacing. Dear Lord, the Pacing. At one point the Doc and a secondary support character have the same conversation twice. In immediate succession. With Every Line being repeated by the other. Immediately after it’s spoken. And this happens Twice. In a conversation. Between the Doctor and someone else. Some, I don’t know, secondary character. And you know how annoying that can be. Basically, what could have been a very sharp three (or four, max) parter is stretched out to six episodes for no obvious dramatic reason.
And the design – apart from a bunch of reused costumes – is school production bad. The makeup on the Sontaran Villain makes him look like a bloated bald Amy Winehouse after a night on the gear (not to mention the fact that he sounds like a bad Bruce Forsythe impersonation), and the three secondary villains turn out to be Shiny paper from the planet Bacofoil, whose humanoid manifestation is a trilogy for whom the phrase the banality of evil might have been created.
A shame it was so ropey, but the two of us, dozing on the sofa, newly aware of the fragility of all that we hold dear, loved every second.
