The Stage

TV review

Published Monday 23 November 2009 at 13:05 by Harry Venning

“I really ought to leave,” David Tennant kept repeating throughout the first 20 minutes of Doctor Who - The Waters of Mars.

And it was hard not to agree with him. In fact, he should possibly have gone already.

Tennant’s long goodbye from the role of Doctor Who - four one-off specials to ease the pain of parting - has, I’m sorry to say, lent an air of ‘the party’s over but the cab is yet to arrive’ to proceedings. Tennant’s Doctor is taking longer to kill off than Rasputin, his elongated death throes distracting from whatever story he’s involved in. Put succinctly - we loved you David, you were up there with the best, now budge over and let the new chap have his go.

As for Waters of Mars, it was an atmospheric, powerful and disturbing drama that stretched the bounds of family entertainment to breaking point.

Mars’ first manned space station, Bowie One, was being overrun by a malevolent and irresistible water-based life form, one drop of which transforms humans into a horrific combination of zombie and fire hydrant.

Recognising Earth as the aliens’ ultimate target, using human hosts as transport, the heroic crew of Bowie One choose to sacrifice themselves rather than jeopardise their home planet.

And where was the Doctor whilst all this heroism was going down? Walking back to the Tardis, unable to interfere, because, apparently, their deaths were fixed in time and therefore immutable.

Eventually the Doctor decides that he can get involved after all, because he is the Time Lord Victorious. I have no idea what this means, but have long since learnt to switch off during all the pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo and just enjoy the simple pleasures of clever plots, smart scripts, special effects and star turns.

Science fiction of a very different kind, courtesy of Misfits. Episode one saw our quintet of young offenders engulfed by a bizarre electrical storm that left them with superhero powers. Rather than joining forces to fight crime the Marvel Comic way, they killed their probation worker and buried him in a shallow grave. Although, in fairness, he had been transformed into a psychopathic zombie, intent on their murder.

Episode two was no less eventful, with the Misfits obliged to do voluntary work amongst the elderly. Gobby Nathan - still to discover his superpower, unless it is to really annoy people - enjoyed a very passionate affair with the young and beautiful Ruth, only to have her revert back to her octogenarian self mid-coitus. That pesky electrical storm playing its tricks again.

Age-wise I am probably just outside Misfits’ target audience, by 30 years or so, but I am already hooked. Funny, irreverent, subversive, clever and scary, Misfits contrives to be obnoxious and irresistible at the same time, and succeeds totally.

Great scripts, great cast, great series.

Well done Children in Need for raising millions for good causes. Only a miserable churl would point out that the banter between presenters Terry Wogan and Tess Daly was never less than excruciating, and that in purely entertainment terms the quality control went AWOL for long stretches of the evening.

PROGRAMMES

Doctor Who - The Waters of Mars BBC1, Sunday, November 15, 7pm

Misfits E4, Thursday, November 19, 10pm

Children in Need BBC1, Friday, November 20, 7pm