I’m the Doctor. Simply, the Doctor. The one, the only and the best. If you could stand back, sir. This is a job for a Time Lord.
‘The Next Doctor’ – the one with the rubbish, shaggy Cyber Shades and that nonsensical giant Cyberman at the end, isn’t it? Well, there is a lot more substance to it than that – if that’s all you got from it, well maybe take another look. It is a story about the trauma and ‘dissociated fugue state’ of one poor, decent man who has seen his wife die and his son kidnapped in extraordinary circumstances. He is a man who loses his own identity and memories in the process acquires new ones – he is also transformed into a hero. In some ways it is sequel to ‘Human Nature’, the John Smith story in reverse – actually closer to what starts to happen to Timothy Dean in that story – the tale of a human becoming a Time Lord or at least some of the characteristics of one. The story of how contact with ‘The Doctor’ improves all of us. In typical ‘Doctor Who’ fashion this is not through the bite of a radioactive spider or an experiment gone wrong – just by absorbing the ‘cleverness’ and knowledge of our lead character.
So, to my mind, there are two great ideas at the heart of ‘The Next Doctor’, both rather adult in their conception and both of which are played low in the mix, to allow for something that has to be suitable, upbeat family adventure entertainment on Christmas Day. The first is the exploration of trauma and ‘fugue state’ in the lead character – Jackson Lake/ The Doctor. The second is an intelligent woman attempting to better her position in life and avenge herself on the men who have not only kept her ‘in her place’, but it is strongly hinted that they have also abused her emotionally and sexually. The skill that Russell shows in taking these two core ideas, seemingly at odds completely with the core audience and the day/time slot that this piece of drama was to be aired and blend them with something that is pacy, action-packed, funny and well, for me at least, great entertainment, well that is something special. At the same time, he managed brilliantly to get extra publicity, in advance of David Tennant leaving, through the idea that David Morrissey might be the new Doctor after all.
Given that the story has always been enjoyed and appreciated in our household, I think I’d always assumed that other people liked ‘The Next Doctor’ as much as I did. Another surprise when I first delved into the world of online fandom. The story feels criminally underrated to me – people fixated on the Cyber-shades and the admittedly slightly ludicrous Iron Man, sorry Cyber King. There is far more substance below the surface of this one and frankly it is great entertainment, with two terrific leads and a great supporting cast.
One summer…
Back in 1983, when I was very young, two teenagers from Liverpool ran away to North Wales ‘One Summer’. Icky and Billy didn’t have much going for them – broken homes, petty crime, bunking off school – one of them illiterate, but they found friendship with a lonely gay man and Billy found his first love and heartbreak. Billy was played by an 18-year old David Morrissey and ‘One Summer’ by Liverpool playwright Willy Russell is one of the first TV plays that I can remember. I grew up with him as an actor – following his career just as I did with the likes of Chris Eccleston, John Simm, Robert Carlyle and Ian Hart – young actors from Northern Britain, usually appearing in socially conscious dramas by the likes of Jimmy McGovern, Peter Flannery, Paul Abbot and Ken Loach. David Morrissey was from my home town, an alumnus of The Everyman Theatre in Liverpool. Where I saw my first plays as a teenager and the old bistro and bar, that used to carry on serving until midnight when everything else, except clubs were closed, was the scene of quite a few drunken evenings. Morrissey has a string of great performances – State of Play, Blackpool, Red Riding, The Deal. I’d hoped since the show returned that one day he might play the Doctor. As a one-off in 2008, he was the ‘Next Doctor’ and I wish that he had stayed longer.
As ‘The Doctor’ – he has the command of every situation, reassuring presence and natural authority of Pertwee and is a man of action and adventure. The persona starts to crack over this story, as the fugue state becomes apparent, but what we see indicate that he would have made a fine Doctor.
I should introduce Rosita. My faithful companion. Always telling me off.
At this point ‘Our Doctor’ is travelling alone – having left Donna back at her home, her memories wiped. The ‘Next Doctor’, however has as companion of his own (‘The Doctor’s companion does what The Doctor says’ – typically this one doesn’t!) – the rather magnificent Rosita. Her name even reflecting our Doctor’s former companion, who he has just left at Bad Wolf Bay for a second time. She doesn’t take any of his nonsense, is headstrong, but also caring, taking charge of the children and she has obviously been looking after Jackson throughout the time since he lost his family and identity.
A fine bromance
Morrissey and Tenant make a great team. They had already worked together on the excellent BBC series ‘Blackpool’. Morrissey playing a local, dodgy entrepreneur Ripley Holden and Tenant playing the brooding policeman, with designs on Ripley’s wife. They also look here like they are having a great time making this, which bleeds through into the production and imbue it with a real spirit and energy. This is particularly true in the action set pieces – the scenes chasing the Cybershade, being pulled up a wall and along the warehouse floor and also the scenes sword fighting with Cybermen on the stairs of a Victorian house.
Tennant is a fine, adaptable actor, especially when it comes to working as part of a team. Whether with female leads – Catherine Tate, Jessica Hynes, Olivia Colman or male – Michael Sheen for example, he just adjusts and fits in. What we get here is a ‘bromance’ – the two Doctor’s get on famously – in a way that almost prefigures his meeting Matt’s Doctor in ‘Day of the Doctor’. They are great fun to spend time with, Tennant initially content to play the companion role, slowly gathering information about this new Doctor. As the Next Doctor begins to crumble and is true state becomes apparent, Tennant’s Doctor slowly starts to take the more prominent role in the relationship, gently guiding Jackson Lake back into existence and helping to heal the tear in his psyche, restoring his son back to him. This aspect of the Tenth Doctor is often ignored – people talk about his cockiness and occasional smugness, but we hear less of his caring, sometimes gentle nature – in this we get this not just with Jackson, but also the ‘villain’ Miss Hartigan.
Fugue state, memory and loss
Dissociative fugue is a subtype of dissociative amnesia but is more commonly found in people who experience dissociative identity disorder. Dissociation is generally thought of as a defense against trauma that helps people disconnect from extreme psychological distress. A dissociative fugue state is a condition in which a person may be mentally and physically escaping an environment that is threatening or otherwise intolerable. The onset of a dissociative fugue state is usually sudden and follows a traumatic or highly stressful event. Dissociative fugues are associated with difficult events, such as natural disasters and wars
Effective treatment practices include removing a person from the threats or stressful situations that may have contributed to the development of a dissociative fugue state. An empathic, supportive approach to psychotherapy will help people who have experienced dissociative fugue feel safe and open to treatment.
(definitions from Psychology Today)
And this is very close to what has happened top Jackson – the Cybermen have violently murdered his wife and abducted his son. Those acts alone might be enough to trigger a fugue state in an individual, but here we have an additional trigger – his use of the Cyberman’s infostamp, A device which contains a ready-made new personality for him to adopt – that of the Doctor. In becoming a hero, he forgets about the loss of wife and child, but constructs a new life of sorts. A life to fight against those who have caused his state – the Cybermen. The Doctor in this case, adopts the ‘empathetic, supportive’ approach advocated in the definition above and gently uncovers his memories and allows him to confront the trigger for his current condition.
A woman scorned
No one’s ever been able to change my mind. The Cybermen offered me the one thing I wanted. Liberation.
On top of all of this, we have a brilliant central performance by Dervla Kirwan. She is righteous fury – a woman abused fighting back. It is more than just being a second-class citizen in Victorian society – it is rather about abuse. Her anger and resentment is just channelled in the word way – albeit one that allow her avenge herself on her abusers. Russell T Davie said of the character in DWM – “There’s clearly some terrible history of abuse with Miss Hartigan, as a result, she can’t help but sexualise everything”
The scene in the graveyard is visually stunning (great direction and cinematography), but also allows her, in as far as a family show on Christmas Day allows, her to catalogue the abuses and turn the tables on those who have wronged her. I’m not sure if a ‘villain’ within ‘Doctor Who’ has ever explicitly had this motivation before have they?
VICAR: Madam, I must protest.
HARTIGAN: Whatever for?
VICAR: A lady at the graveside is debatable enough, but your apparel.
HARTIGAN: Is it too exciting?
COLE: You’re disgracing the ceremony, dressed like a harlot.
HARTIGAN: Oh, and you should know, Mister Cole.
COLE: How do you know my name?
HARTIGAN: You’ve walked past me so many times, all you good men of charity, never once asking my name.
SCOONES: It’s Miss Hartigan, isn’t it?
HARTIGAN: Oh, you noticed. I saw you looking, you cheeky boy.
VICAR: I’m sorry, but who is she?
HARTIGAN: Matron of the St Joseph Workhouse, your humble servant. Oh, I’ve watched you all. Visiting, smiling, bestowing your beneficence upon the poor while I scrubbed down their filthy beds.
VICAR: I must insist that you depart.
HARTIGAN: But that’s why the late Reverend Fairchild had to die. To gather you all in one place. Where better than a funeral? Man that is born of woman hath but a short time to live. Although I’ve got some friends who might disagree with that. Would you like to meet them? Hark! I can hear them now.
In the denouement, the Doctor admires her strength of will and intelligence, whilst reluctantly pitting himself against her:
DOCTOR: Miss Hartigan? I’m offering you a choice. You might have the most remarkable mind this world has ever seen. Strong enough to control the Cybermen themselves.
HARTIGAN: I don’t need you to sanction me.
The key to this plot thread, is when she confronts the Doctor and says – ‘Yet another man come to assert himself against me in the night.’ It explicitly explains her motivation, but is played pretty low in the mix. In the end, the Doctor is forced to break her connection with the Cybermen, so she can become aware of what she has become.
Around the World in 80 Days meets Oliver!
As things escalate, the workhouse children are rounded up and put to work by the Cybermen. It acts as a critique of Victorian child labour and the work house system of care. The Victorian setting (London 1851), allows the story to show all of those trappings Victorian Christmas, introduced by Prince Albert and used in Dickens, but also to delve, albeit lightly into the other side of ‘Victorian Values’.
However, in depiction it all start to turn rather into Oliver the musical at this point, which feels anther sop to the Christmas Day slot. In the process though Jackson has his son returned and the trauma causing his fugue state is at least partially dealt with. This is Christmas though and we don’t get to dwell on that, as when that is done – well we have the Cyber King striding all around London like a steampunk version of Ted Hughes’ ‘The Iron Man’! It’s not entirely for me – but I imagine went down well with most families watching on Christmas Day. And then the Doctor takes to the air in an air balloon and it snaps back into adventure mode, before switching back to deal with Miss Hartigan and then back to Christmas celebration mode, with Jackson acting as a narrator for the huddled masses:
Well, I’d say he used that Dimension vault to transfer the wreckage of the CyberKing into the Time Vortex, there to be harmlessly disintegrated. Oh, I’ve picked up a lot.
Ah, but here. Ladies and gentlemen, I know that man, that Doctor on high. And I know that he has done this deed a thousand times. But not once. No, sir, not once, not ever, has he ever been thanked. But no more. For I say to you, on this Christmas morn, bravo, sir! Bravo! Bravo! Bravo, sir!
And the ending is lovely, the Doctor wants to disappear as usual, but rather touchingly Jackson manages to persuade him to stay for a Christmas dinner bromance. David Morrissey plays all of this very deftly, with just the right lightness of touch, especially for an actor better known for heavier roles – he would have made a fine Doctor.
LAKE: That offer of Christmas dinner. It’s no longer a request, it’s a demand. In memory of those we’ve lost.
DOCTOR: Oh, go on then.
LAKE: Really?
DOCTOR: Just this once. You’ve actually gone and changed my mind. Not many people can do that. Jackson, if anyone had to be the Doctor, I’m glad it was you.
LAKE: The feast awaits. Come with me. Walk this way.
DOCTOR: I certainly will. Merry Christmas to you, Jackson.
LAKE: Merry Christmas indeed, Doctor.
So, give this one another go. To my mind it is one of the best Christmas Specials. It is handsomely filmed (Gloucester cathedral and around Monmouth) manages to combine a thoughtful central premise, terrific performances, with action adventure, humour and a great spirit of joie de vivre. A Merry Christmas to you Jackson.
A Journal of Impossible Things 