The Shock Of My Life

Monday evenings a pal of mine usually phones. His opening question is usually the same every time: “Well, what did you think?” You can guess what it’s in relation to. From his opening gambit, you can probably guess the subject matter.

He’s a fan of Doctor Who, although I should point out that he actually doesn’t laud the show unreservedly and can be quite critical of the most god awful episodes – or as they’re more commonly known, the opens that have ‘Written by Russell T Davies’ in the opening credits.

That aside, the Monday calls pretty much ends with him in stitches as he prods to see how much the weekend episodes wind me up. When I stopped watching for a couple of weeks, I think he was quite put out that I failed to provide the requisite entertainment.

This evening I beat him to the punch and yelled down the line, “It was a complete and utter contrivance!” He agreed. But it still didn’t change the fact that he liked the episode, simply because it brought back The Master. He may be the most poxy villain ever, but for the fans there is always a place on the hallowed Doctor Who altar for him.

There was no point trying to convince him otherwise, especially once he asked if I had caught the audio clips of Roger Delgado, who originally played the character. I hadn’t. And I really didn’t care that I hadn’t. Since it was broadcast, he’d watched the last five minutes of the show over and over much the same way that I’d watched the last five minutes of The Sopranos finale. Which means on quality and sheer brilliance, I win!

He was surprised that I knew what the final two episodes of the season were leading up to. I wasn’t something I actively searched for. I had simply been checking the BBC’s Press Office and came across the big deal reveal. Perhaps he was disappointed that I didn’t give a damn what was going to happen. It looks obvious that Captain Twat is going to shoot someone as well. If I’m actually sat watching it in two weeks time, I hope he turns the gun on me.

After briefly talking about Jekyll, the conversation turned to Moffat and the simplicity of last week’s Blink. He was still taken aback that I had enjoyed it. Why do Moffat’s Doctor Who scripts work? Having connections to people on the inside, pal related that Moffat’s the only one that actually stands up to RTD. Moffat, after all, had a career beforehand and will certainly have a career afterwards. He doesn’t need to write overwrought fan fiction.

After the call I watched The Time Of Your Life. I actually watched a ITV drama that didn’t involve an English country detective. A girl waking from a coma after 18 years may have been a contrivance, and the fact that she could climb out of bed and walk without any physiotherapy or other rehabilitation had to be taken with a pinch of salt. But written by Charlie Martin it had some wonderful understated character moments and the conceit beautifully illustrated how little school friends who get back together have in common with each other any more.