One fat geek's SUCCESSFUL attempt to regenerate into a not-so-fat geek by watching the entirety of Doctor Who while walking on a treadmill

All I Got From It Was Déjà Vu, And All I Got From It Was Déjà Vu

Jan 24 2019
All I Got From It Was Déjà Vu, And All I Got From It Was Déjà Vu

We had a heck of a storm this morning, let me tell you. I mean, it was not a hurricane or anything, but it was the heaviest rainfall I can remember in quite a while. I almost used it as an excuse to skip the treadmill, but then I reminded myself that the sooner I got it done the sooner I would never have to watch K9 again. You know what's really tragic, though? Here in the penultimate episodes the series is finally stringing together some good stories.

Angel of the North

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

The most interesting thing about this story is that it was written by Bob Baker, who co-created the character of K9 back in the day, and who had not written a Whoniverse script since Nightmare of Eden back in 1980. So how did he do after taking thirty years off? Pretty dang good, actually. Twenty three episodes in, and we finally get some back story on where the space time portal came from (a crashed alien spaceship in the northern Canadian tundra, the titular Angel of the North). The space time portal has started acting up, coinciding with activity in the remains of the wreckage over in Canada. Professor Gryffen deduces that there is a missing component that he needs to retrieve, and then Inspector Thorne arrives to take him there with the assistance of a special "virtual reality enhancement suit" that allows Gryffen to overcome his agoraphobia and make the trip.

And yes, Inspector Thorne is up to something nefarious. But there is so much more going on in the story that it doesn't feel like the cheap story crutch that has been used endlessly in previous episodes.

It turns out the ship is a Korven spacecraft, and there are multiple surviving Korven waking up and preparing to stage an Earth invasion. After much to-do, plus a rescue mission with Starkey and K9 via the space time portal, Gryffen recovers the missing component and they all safely return home. At this point all of the seeds are planted for the series finale the next several episodes will build towards.

This episode had great visuals, and a surprising level of complexity compared to most of the series to date. Much like Typhony and the Time Loop, the story gives some meat to several characters' back stories and builds on themes set in place back at the start of the show. For once it felt like there was an actual weight to the storytelling, and that there is a genuine lurking menace beyond cartoonish villains. No joke, I straight up enjoyed this one. Will wonders never cease.

The Last Precinct

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

Speaking of adding weight to the storytelling and adding meat to character back stories, this one really fleshes out Darius as a character and also reveals important information about Gryffen Mansion. Thing one: It seems Darius' father was a London cop, and in fact one of the last human police officers prior to the police robots taking over. Not only that, Gryffen Mansion is actually the location of the very last London police precinct and where Darius' dad worked. Two years ago Daddy skipped town in order to lead a group of vigilantes to fight the robot takeover of police work.

Now PoliceDaddy has taken over Gryffen Mansion in order to make a last stand against the Department, and is using an alien virus to take control of the robots and lead an uprising against the Department. Which, of course, puts our heroes right in the crossfire.

I mean, it's not quite Assault on Precinct 13, but it's pretty dang good and at the very least it is a very different story than anything else this show has done. Ultimately the standoff ends with K9 absorbing some of the alien material from the space time portal and using it to inoculate the alien virus. PoliceDaddy is arrested in the end, but K9 is able to provide some leverage to ensure that he will at least get a fair trail and not be shuffled off by Thorne to some gulag somewhere.

Again with a complex and weighty story that gives several characters some real beefy acting protein to work with. Again with a story that I genuinely enjoyed. it is almost enough to make me wish the series had gotten a second shot to grow out of its over-sanitized roots and turn into something more. Ah, well.

So tomorrow I reach the end of this one. I am really sincerely hoping that the final two episodes stay in this vein. I think the odds are good, since these final four are kind of all one unit. Failing that, at least after tomorrow Inspector Thorne will never be up to something nefarious ever again.

STATS:

Companion(s): K9, Starkey, Jorjie Turner, Darius Pike, Alistair Gryffen
Episode(s): Angel of the North / The Last Precinct
Steps Walked: 7,557 today, 4,320,156 total
Distance Walked: 4.03 miles today, 2,260.54 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 0 today, 10,200 total
Sit-ups Completed: 200 today, 4,265 total
Weight: 265.04 lbs (five day moving average), net change -42.26 lbs

 


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