The Poison Sky

Dear Gary—

I’m beginning to resent the glossy finish New Who is putting on to cover some glaring flaws. It does it with such wit and charm that I enjoy the show despite myself, and it is only with repeated viewings and afterthought that I begin to realize that the vague unease I felt upon first watch has real basis. (Thus it has only been since this recent round of viewing that I came to actively dislike Rose.)

Classic Who has its glaring flaws, to be sure. Take a serial like The Stones of Blood for instance. It was only after repeated viewings and afterthought that I realized this story makes little sense; but I don’t mind. It has no pretense, and the wit and charm that covers the glaring flaws is organic to the show. It is thoroughly enjoyable even upon analytical afterthought. And then there are some truly awful stories, stories like The Twin Dilemma; but again there is no pretense and the awfulness bears up as entertaining camp.

Fast forward to The Poison Sky. The Poison Sky demonstrates what is wrong about New Who; the Poison Sky tries so hard to be good and right and true. That is the difference: it tries so hard. It does have good intentions, which is a point in its favor, but so often those intensions lead it astray. (Case in point: the “who do you think made your clothes” exchange in Planet of the Ood.) So often good intentions lead to shortcuts and justifications; the ‘it’s OK to bully a bully’ mentality. (Something, by way of being fair, that I fault Classic Who for in Timelash.)

All of this is a long winded way of saying that I am beginning to dislike this Tenth Doctor. He has such good intentions and he tries so, so hard, and he has such wit and charm.

I touched on this with the first part of this two part story; and I think the fact that UNIT is involved has brought it to the forefront.  I don’t care for the bull-in-a-china-shop arrogance the Third Doctor displays; the Tenth Doctor has more of a wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing arrogance about him. The Third’s seems more honest.

Donna asks the Doctor where he is going and he replies, “To stop a war.” All well and good and noble. But let’s take a look at that ‘war.’

UNIT calls the Doctor in to consult on a possible alien incursion. The Doctor promptly disses UNIT and proceeds to conduct his own investigation while keeping UNIT, in particular Colonel Mace, out of the loop (all done in part one, The Sontaran Stratagem). The Sontarans unleash their toxic gas into the air via the ATMOS system (tautology aside) and UNIT prepares a defensive strike against the spacecraft they detect overhead. The Doctor rushes in and condemns UNIT even though he has never offered any viable alternatives for them.

Now we enter into the Doctor’s diplomatic phase. Brushing Mace aside, the Doctor proclaims that he has the proper authority to speak on behalf of the entire planet—“I earned that a long time ago,” he states. Really? Even if his prior deeds have garnered the respect and rights that he is claiming his present actions towards Mace and UNIT do not warrant it. And what does he do with his self-declared power? He insults and goads General Staal of the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet. The thing is he does it with such a casual, laid back, feet on the desk flippancy. Compared to the tight-lipped, rigid Colonel Mace he comes across as the heroic antihero, but in reality he’s just being a jerk. He does not open a dialogue between the two sides, he offers no reassurances to UNIT, and he gives no options to the Sontarans. He conducts his own secret mission without letting anyone else know what he is intending, including Donna who is supposed to figure out on her own what his cryptic comments mean, and then he rushes back out leaving Mace and Staal to carry on the war as they see fit with no true guidance or insight from the Doctor.

Not to worry, though. Evil Clone Martha has her finger on the trigger keeping the nuclear launch at bay. With UNIT stymied the Sontarans invade the ATMOS factory in order to protect their operative, Evil Clone Martha along with the original Martha who is keeping Evil Clone Martha alive. The Sontarans had some phenomenal luck there—it was a piece of cake for Martha to hijack the launch program and UNIT personnel have no means of tracing where or how this major security breach occurred. At any rate, we finally have some battle scenes between this powerful military organization and mighty warrior race. Except not really.

The Sontarans march through the deserted halls with no sense of urgency or purpose; it almost seems as though they are simply on a guided tour of the factory. When they do confront UNIT it becomes a massacre. “This isn’t war; this is sport,” Skorr exults as the Sontarans gun down the helpless and fleeing soldiers. So much for the honor and glory of war in this one-sided bloodbath.

However the tables are quickly turned when Mace begins to act like the leader he supposedly is. With no direction from the alien expert he had called in for the job, Mace decides to make use of the Valiant to dispel the noxious fumes and to attack the factory that is now full of Sontarans and empty of humans. Then with the aid of non-copper bullets the UNIT soldiers begin to plow down the Sontarans who are suddenly the helpless ones. So much for the probic vent being their only weakness. The glorious return of the Sontarans to Doctor Who has taken an inauspicious turn. The lowlight is when Skorr stops and faces Mace with lowered weapon and offers no resistance. He simply gives up and allows Mace to shoot him in the head. (I guess Mace is a take no prisoners type of guy.)

Meanwhile the Doctor uses his secret weapon (Donna) to fix the teleport so that he can get the TARDIS back and so that he can zip over to the Rattigan Academy where all the equipment is on hand for him to slap together a gizmo that burns the poisoned atmosphere. It’s an impressive effect that miraculously doesn’t burn anything except the gas. Next, after a quick goodbye to his companions, he whizzes off to the Sontaran ship. He is no UNIT commander, though. He doesn’t do salutes and he doesn’t do orders and he doesn’t carry a gun. He does carry a device that he rigged so that it will explode the Sontarans out of the sky; however he is delivering it in person because, as he says, “I’ve got to give them a choice.”

I’ll skip over the fact that when he had Staal on spaceship to mobile UNIT hookup he never offered the Sontarans any choice; never made any threats or warnings or ultimatums; never hinted at any resolution to the conflict. I’ll also skip over the fact that he could contact them again by the same method to let them know about his gizmo and give them that choice he is so keen on delivering now. And I’ll skip over the fact that he has his TARDIS back and could probably somehow use that to board the Sontaran ship, quickly throw his device out the door, retreat back in and communicate his ultimatum before exploding his device and escaping via TARDIS. I’ll even skip over the obvious fact that the Doctor knows full well that the Sontarans will never give up regardless of the choices offered.

What I can’t skip over, however, is Evil Clone Martha. Evil Clone Martha with her finger on the trigger. He doesn’t need his fancy gizmo. He has Martha’s phone. Just hit Yes. Launch the missiles.

It is a complete waste of Evil Clone Martha. She is merely a distraction and an excuse and never really figures into the meat of the plot. The Sontarans are dead set on protecting their operative, or so they say, but never show signs of doing so. They simply walk through the factory shooting everybody in sight. They went to great lengths, too, to clone Martha. They must have somehow known that UNIT was going to show up at the factory and that they were going to launch a nuclear strike from that site and that Martha would be allowed to waltz off with the launch sequence in her phone.  But then all she does is hit No occasionally; good thing she never accidentally pocket Yeses the launch. I keep expecting the invading Sontarans to locate her and perhaps get the phone into their own hands—guard the phone rather than guard the operative. Also, the Doctor knows all along that she is Evil Clone Martha; so much more could have been made of their exchanges. He should have gotten information out of her much sooner; he could have also used his knowledge against the Sontarans, perhaps held her hostage. Likewise, she could have worked more actively to thwart the Doctor.

Evil Clone Martha is simply a plot device; she could have been Evil Clone Captain Marion Price just as easily.

The only good that comes from Evil Clone Martha is when original Martha meets her twin. This is the only time there is any life or meaning given to Evil Clone Martha. It is a touching moment, but it isn’t justified enough; there is no real build-up to provide any interest or significance to Evil Clone Martha and to give the scene the added depth it cries out for.

Let’s not forget Luke Rattigan. Luke Rattigan, the petulant young man who stomps his foot when he doesn’t get his own way. It’s a great moment of comeuppance when his tracksuit friends turn on him, except that like the Evil Clone Martha scene above, there is no background depth to round it out. This group of extras has no sense of purpose. They are just standing around hitting the No button on their Luke Rattigan phones. Luke is the only one making the scene work, and he puts that Doctor Who glossy finish on it that manages to cover the blemishes upon first view.

In fact, Luke Rattigan is a standout in the serial. All of the depth of character lacking elsewhere is focused on him. His utter dejection at betrayal turned to vengeful triumph over the Sontarans is wonderful. “Luke, do something clever with your life,” the Doctor tells him. Clever, that is, while spending the rest of his life in jail I would hope, being a mass murderer and all. But Luke has other ideas. The something clever he does conveniently gets the Doctor off the hook and out of harm’s way while blowing up the Sontarans and Luke. “Sontaran—Hah!”

I am saving the best for last, though; and that would be Donna. Donna is the one true and honest element in the episode. “What do you need me to do?” Donna is always at the Doctor’s right hand with that question. She isn’t the brightest or the strongest, but she is close to being the bravest of the Doctor’s companions. Alone on an alien ship and terrified, Donna asks what the Doctor needs done. She has no reason to expect that she will succeed and has every reason to expect she will die. With ice cold terror running through her veins, she picks up a mallet and exits the TARDIS determined to face unimaginable danger. Even through the petrified calmness Donna’s personality shines in little moments of victory.

I could say much more about Donna, but I’ll simply echo Wilf and tell her, “You go with him, that wonderful Doctor. You go and see the stars.” Donna is deserving of those stars.

With that I will leave you, Gary. You go and see the stars . . .