Thoughts on Doctor Who 1x07 "The Long Game"

Doctor Who 1x07 "The Long Game"

Watched this episode last night. As with the previous six episodes, this was laced subtly (sometimes not so subtly) with social and political commentary. Or maybe I just see it that way.

Arriving at a space station called "Satellite 5" 200,000 years in the future, the Doctor and Rose attempt to wow their temporary companion, Adam, with their 'knowledge' of the future and technology. He is of course, impressed, but incredibly overwhelmed with the prospect of traveling through time. He has a little heart-to-heart with Rose, and suggests that he might be attracted to her, but that he would feel like he was getting in between her and the Doctor. All this while the Doctor tries to determine where they are and why all the inhabitants of the station are bustling about frenetically.

The Doctor runs into two "journalists" (Kathica and Suki) which he promptly goads for information by pretending to be a member of management. It turns out that the satellite station is the universal media hub for all of Earth, and the journalists are no more than computers to distribute this information. Our three travelers get a demonstration of an information 'spike' from the two journalists, which ends promptly when Suki is targeted by the "Editor" from floor 500 (of which the journalists believe the walls are made of gold) as being improperly there. He wishes to interrogate her, and has her come to floor 500 under false pretenses of promotion. But no one ever comes back from floor 500...

Suki promptly leaves, and it's time for Adam to have another heart-to-heart with Rose. He can't handle the future and decides to go "acclimatize" on the observation deck. He also throws in the fact that he can't come between her and the Doctor again. Upstairs, Suki finds a room full of ice, some dead bodies, and finally... the Editor! He exposes her true identity as the last surviving member of the "Freedom 15" (or Foundation) and *gasp* an anarchist, while showing video clips of her shooting automatic weapons from the jungle. She tries to threaten him with a phaser-weapon to find out what's really going on on Satellite 5 -- the information they are transmitting is being manipulated. Our journalist promptly gets eaten from above by the "Editor-in-Chief."

Adam is trying to interface with a computer terminal on the observation deck, probing it for information about the evolution of computers from his time until the present, when it throws an error and directs him to Floor 16. Rose and the Doctor are still questioning Kathica about her role in the news process, but she doesn't have many answers, because she doesn't ask questions (which is odd for a journalist), as the Doctor is quick to point out. He tells her that their technology is backwards by about 90 years, to find out that Satellite 5 began its broadcasts exactly 91 years prior.

Again Adam is wandering around and heads down to Floor 16, which he discovers is the medical floor, and out of his intense desire to know about his future for the return to his present (after a few poor excuses), he gets a Type 2 chip implant from an okay-looking but very sultry nurse. Back with Kathica, the Doctor and Rose are tearing apart a telco cabinet / heating duct to find out some more information about the station. Rose is hot. Kathica is nervous and doesn't want to get into trouble. The Doctor gets irritated with her. Up on Floor 500, the Editor can see the Doctor ripping into the wirework, and has his staff check his identity. Unfortunately for him, the Doctor has no identity, which perplexes the Editor because everyone in the empire is supposedly registered. He follows with, "We all know what happens to non-entities... They get promoted! Bring 'em up!" But not before the three downstairs determine that the place is damn hot because something upstairs is generating tons of heat, which is being pumped downstairs. Hence the ice-room, to where they head...

When they arrive, the Editor has an evil-but-charming speech prepared about the real head honcho (Editor-in-Chief), a stalactite-toothed, ceiling-mounted blob called a "Jagrafess", who has controlled humanity for the past 100 years by way of Satellite 5 and the media. He goes on to explain:

"When you create a climate of fear, it's easy to keep the borders closed. It's just a matter of emphasis. The right word, in the right broadcast, repeated often enough can destabilize and economy, invent an enemy, change a vote..."

He explains further that those who start asking questions within the system are promptly "promoted" and have their doubt crushed. We also find out that he thinks very little of humans, despite being one himself. He does represent a "consortium of banks," and so must think a little more highly of himself, anyways. What he doesn't know is that Kathica is lurking around the corner, listening to his tirade (the bad guy always gives away too many details when he believes the protagonist will certainly die... It's as though he wants to share his evil genius for appreciation). The Doctor knows she's there and so feigns to be verbally figuring things out, spilling the beans on the heating/cooling system. The Jagrafess needs to be kept cool, but generates a lot of heat via its metabolism, so they pump it downstairs and away from Floor 500.

Adam sneaks into a room with an information spike chair, and decides to give his new cannula a go. He calls home first, to transmit the data he receives to his mother's answering machine. Unfortunately, by means of his selfish ways, he's giving the system everything he knows about the Doctor and Rose. The Editor shares his new-found knowledge and the Doctor gets a little upset and possibly a little too excited. But being the quick-under-fire Doctor that he is, he berates Kathica around the corner about humans not asking questions, believing lies, etc. This motivates Kathica enough to tap into the spike, save Adam from having his brain fried, turn off the heat-pumps, and save the day. Of course Rose has to get the Doctor out of his manacles with his very own Sonic Screwdriver thing. The Jagrafess explodes, and the travelers leave, but not before the Doctor states how much he hates "clean-up."

Adam is promptly delivered home, and the Doctor destroys his answering machine and lectures Adam on how he could've changed history by being selfish. At least his mother gets to see his head open up.

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What do I make of this episode? Well... The recurring theme here seems to be manipulation of the media and subversion of humanity. Not very subtly, this theme has a direct reflection on the current climate in our present. The Doctor even agrees that having the ability to control the media from one single source is to have a tremendous amount of power, especially when those working for that source have little to no idea they are passing on information that has been tampered with. He definitely doesn't agree that it's the right way to go, because he sees how humanity hasn't changed in 90 years, since the inception of Satellite 5. Something is wrong with the way people are thinking, he says... "The great, bountiful, human empire is stunted." This might be a little bit of predicted foreshadowing for society if we continue to let big, corporate conglomerates dominate our media network. The emphasis here is utilitarian in nature: don't manipulate people for the benefit of the economy; let the individuals distribute the information, as long as they are doing it for the betterment of others.

Suki and her Freedom Foundation knew about this and she was able to successfully infiltrate the Satellite as an employee, but apparently her progress there wasn't well planned, because she totally botched the mission. If she was so tough, why'd she stand there while the Jagrafess descended upon her? Needless to say, she was not a very dynamic character. Marking her character as an anarchist, however, may not have been a great choice on the part of this episode's writers, however.

In terms of the show, I'd give this episode a 6 on a scale of 10. It wasn't nearly as exciting or emotionally involved as the previous episode, 1x06 "Dalek". I also don't like to see low-budget props in any show, and there were a few here (the manacles, the keypad in the elevator, etc.) so that turned the number down a bit. As well, while I enjoy Christopher Eccleston's portrayal of the Doctor, sometimes he's just too forceful in the scenes where he's irritated or deep in concentration. It's like he's being condescending without trying to mask it, like most people might. Additionally, the story in this episode was a bit like an aside, as if it didn't have much to do with the development of meta-story.

So, should we start calling Rupert Murdoch the Jagrafess?

Comments

[Psychophil]

Rupert Murdoch the Jagrafess? So you're saying Fox News is the single controlling source of all media on the planet?

As for low budget props, thats what makes 'Doctor Who' 'Doctor Who'. Cheesey sets, props and costumes. In many cases I actually found myself a bit disappointed by the higher quality of the props/sets. It just didn't seem to fit Doctor Who.

Finally, The Doctor is very condescending towards humans. He always has been through the history of the series. He's always complained about humans then states how he can see our 'potential'.

[Odhinn]

While News Corporation does operate a largesse of the international media scene, it was really just a joke. Not a very effective one. E[

Admittedly, I do remember the older series of Doctor Who being very low-budget, though it has been quite some time since I've seen any of them. The only thing I don't understand is how they could spend such a great deal of time on the Dalek (other than its integral part of the story) and hardly any time on some of the other obvious details.

I know the Doctor is condescending most of the time, there's just something about the way the Christopher Eccleston character expresses this that doesn't sit well with me. It doesn't matter, though, because it'a a great series. While I'm here, though, and you seem to have seen the new episodes, I wanted to ask what the deal with the new Doctor for the next season is all about?

[PsychoPhil]

Well, they say that whoever the first doctor it is that you see, they end up being your favorite. I guess thats why Tom Bakers remains my favorire (though I was very impressed with Eccleston, I think he did a great job).

I'd venture with the Daleks, since they are THE Doctor Who enemy, the props people went the extra mile to make them look good. Who knows... all the money going to the daleks could also explain why they had so little left over for the 'background' props. I'm looking forward to seeing the Cybermen next season.

I'm not clear on your question about the new Doctor. I'm assuming you mean why a new one after one season? Eccleston has stated that he was worried about being typecast so would only do one season. Thats a shame because as I've said, I like his character.