1.9-10: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
Synopsis: The Doctor and Rose follow a potentially dangerous piece of space junk to Earth, and find themselves in London during the Blitz. Rose happens upon the charming Captain Jack Harkness, who is from the future. He heals some of Rose's incidental injuries using nanogenes, tiny robots programmed to mimic a human template. Then, he attempts to con Rose and the Doctor into buying the piece of debris, insisting that it's a valuable warship, knowing that a bomb will soon fall on it.
Meanwhile, what appears to be a child in a gas mask keeps popping up, asking "Are you my mummy?" He seems to follow a teenaged girl named Nancy who takes care of some local orphans. The Doctor works out that there's a connection between the debris, the child and Nancy. Nancy refers him to the hospital where there is an entire ward of adults in gas masks, asking for their mummy. The gas masks seem to be fused to the faces, and the injuries are identical to that of the original child.
The Doctor blames Jack for the outbreak, since the space junk is his con, and began on the night when the debris fell. And in fact, when Jack opens the ambulance, it is laden with nanogenes. Their primary template was a dead child wearing a gas mask, and they went forth into the world and "healed" everyone who did not match their template, thus causing the outbreak.
A bomb will fall on the site at any moment, and opening the ambulance causes the afflicted to home in like troops called to battle. Captain Jack teleports out. Nancy's self-blame and the afflicteds' pursuit of her cause the Doctor to deduce that she is the mother of the original child. When Nancy hugs him, the boy's nanogenes surround them, recognizing the "parent" DNA, thus changing the template and returning everyone to normal.
Jack stops the bomb remotely, and later, the Doctor and Rose rescue Jack from its inevitable detonation, and he tags along on the next journey!
Golden Comic Moment: In a script by Steven Moffatt, it is almost impossible to decide on the funniest, cleverest moment. He is a master of awkward or random or nerdy one-liners, and when he doesn't have access to naughty language, he's even better! After this point, there are quite a few cool, clever scripts in the Moffatt tradition (though never quite as good), but this is the first of its kind.
Our favorites:
The Doctor asking about, looking for Rose in her very British tee-shirt, "I want to find a blonde in a Union Jack. I mean a specific one, I didn't just wake up this morning with a craving."
The Doctor and Jack in not their last boys-and-their-toys competition, "Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks 'Ooh, this could be a little more sonic'?"
Golden Fangirl Moment: "Nine-hundred years old, me, I've been around a bit. I think you can assume at some point I've danced." Here, the bomb has been dropped (pardon the little WWII pun) and the metaphor has been established. But much later, we witness the Doctor and Rose dancing! Holy Toledo, call the fanfiction brigade!
Cringeworthy Moment: "Half the street thinks your missus must be messin' about with Mr. Haverstock, the butcher. But she's not, is she? You are." Yes, there is a not-so-subtle sexual undertone in this story (the introduction of the omnisexual Captain Jack, Nancy's scandalously unwed motherhood and the very concept of the Doctor -gasp- dancing), but this may be a step too far. With all of the other innuendos and unconventionalities flying around, the idea that a pudgy local nobody with a sweaty upper-lip is "messin' about" with the butcher just seems gratuitous. And, as it causes the mental image of just a bit too much meat for our taste.
Golden Moment: As the infected army of gas mask folk advance upon them, the Doctor looks at Nancy with shock in his eyes, and then asks after her age. She sobs in remorse for causing the "Are you my mummy?" debacle, because she is, in fact, the child's mummy. This is the moment when all the pieces fall into place, when we realise the connection, why Nancy's in the story at all, and why she seems to know more than she's telling. It is a perfect example of Steven Moffatt's philosophy that in good storytelling, one cannot add a piece to the board in the final act. Nancy has been 'in play' for the entire story dropping hints and pushing the action forward, and it is the fact that she is the child's mother that allows the nanogenes to recognise superior DNA and override the template they have been using. It is very good storytelling, and a brilliant use of reality as a catalyst for making the sci-fi elements (the nanogenes) work.
Why I Beg To Differ: DWM gives us two Golden Moments in this story. 1) The moment when Dr. Constantine becomes afflicted with the gas mask plague, while still trying to help the Doctor solve the crisis. They name this as the first bit of "body horror" in Eccleston's reign, and something that sticks in the brain because it's, well, horrible. 2) The moment when the Doctor announces, "Everybody lives!" because these occasions on Doctor Who, throughout the ages, are so rare.
The revelation of Nancy's relationship to her son is more pivotal, in my opinion, because, really, of Nancy herself. Her character is brilliantly portrayed and extremely well-used - no moment onscreen is wasted, no word of Nancy's dialogue is displaced or used as filler. She is a neat-and-tidy character, almost an embodiment of the structure of the episde itself! So that when she breaks down in tears and we all realise why, it makes perfect sense that Nancy should be at the centre of everything, and the one who saves the day.
Meanwhile, what appears to be a child in a gas mask keeps popping up, asking "Are you my mummy?" He seems to follow a teenaged girl named Nancy who takes care of some local orphans. The Doctor works out that there's a connection between the debris, the child and Nancy. Nancy refers him to the hospital where there is an entire ward of adults in gas masks, asking for their mummy. The gas masks seem to be fused to the faces, and the injuries are identical to that of the original child.
The Doctor blames Jack for the outbreak, since the space junk is his con, and began on the night when the debris fell. And in fact, when Jack opens the ambulance, it is laden with nanogenes. Their primary template was a dead child wearing a gas mask, and they went forth into the world and "healed" everyone who did not match their template, thus causing the outbreak.
A bomb will fall on the site at any moment, and opening the ambulance causes the afflicted to home in like troops called to battle. Captain Jack teleports out. Nancy's self-blame and the afflicteds' pursuit of her cause the Doctor to deduce that she is the mother of the original child. When Nancy hugs him, the boy's nanogenes surround them, recognizing the "parent" DNA, thus changing the template and returning everyone to normal.
Jack stops the bomb remotely, and later, the Doctor and Rose rescue Jack from its inevitable detonation, and he tags along on the next journey!
Golden Comic Moment: In a script by Steven Moffatt, it is almost impossible to decide on the funniest, cleverest moment. He is a master of awkward or random or nerdy one-liners, and when he doesn't have access to naughty language, he's even better! After this point, there are quite a few cool, clever scripts in the Moffatt tradition (though never quite as good), but this is the first of its kind.
Our favorites:
The Doctor asking about, looking for Rose in her very British tee-shirt, "I want to find a blonde in a Union Jack. I mean a specific one, I didn't just wake up this morning with a craving."
The Doctor and Jack in not their last boys-and-their-toys competition, "Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks 'Ooh, this could be a little more sonic'?"
Golden Fangirl Moment: "Nine-hundred years old, me, I've been around a bit. I think you can assume at some point I've danced." Here, the bomb has been dropped (pardon the little WWII pun) and the metaphor has been established. But much later, we witness the Doctor and Rose dancing! Holy Toledo, call the fanfiction brigade!
Cringeworthy Moment: "Half the street thinks your missus must be messin' about with Mr. Haverstock, the butcher. But she's not, is she? You are." Yes, there is a not-so-subtle sexual undertone in this story (the introduction of the omnisexual Captain Jack, Nancy's scandalously unwed motherhood and the very concept of the Doctor -gasp- dancing), but this may be a step too far. With all of the other innuendos and unconventionalities flying around, the idea that a pudgy local nobody with a sweaty upper-lip is "messin' about" with the butcher just seems gratuitous. And, as it causes the mental image of just a bit too much meat for our taste.
Golden Moment: As the infected army of gas mask folk advance upon them, the Doctor looks at Nancy with shock in his eyes, and then asks after her age. She sobs in remorse for causing the "Are you my mummy?" debacle, because she is, in fact, the child's mummy. This is the moment when all the pieces fall into place, when we realise the connection, why Nancy's in the story at all, and why she seems to know more than she's telling. It is a perfect example of Steven Moffatt's philosophy that in good storytelling, one cannot add a piece to the board in the final act. Nancy has been 'in play' for the entire story dropping hints and pushing the action forward, and it is the fact that she is the child's mother that allows the nanogenes to recognise superior DNA and override the template they have been using. It is very good storytelling, and a brilliant use of reality as a catalyst for making the sci-fi elements (the nanogenes) work.
Why I Beg To Differ: DWM gives us two Golden Moments in this story. 1) The moment when Dr. Constantine becomes afflicted with the gas mask plague, while still trying to help the Doctor solve the crisis. They name this as the first bit of "body horror" in Eccleston's reign, and something that sticks in the brain because it's, well, horrible. 2) The moment when the Doctor announces, "Everybody lives!" because these occasions on Doctor Who, throughout the ages, are so rare.
The revelation of Nancy's relationship to her son is more pivotal, in my opinion, because, really, of Nancy herself. Her character is brilliantly portrayed and extremely well-used - no moment onscreen is wasted, no word of Nancy's dialogue is displaced or used as filler. She is a neat-and-tidy character, almost an embodiment of the structure of the episde itself! So that when she breaks down in tears and we all realise why, it makes perfect sense that Nancy should be at the centre of everything, and the one who saves the day.