When Doctor Who Lied To You

this video is brought to you by squarespace the best way to launch your online presence today [Music] after doctor who's successful resurrection in 2005 it become a common place to make a christmas special between each series to bridge the gap however 2008 presented a unique challenge since the show was set for a gap year of sorts in 2009 with four specials planned to span the year this meant russell t davis had to write the 2008 special very early on and he didn't have long to do it after thankfully dropping tentative plans for a story star and jk rowling as herself davis decided on an episode about the iconic doctor who villains the cybermen in the equally iconic christmas setting of victorian london writing of the story was a bit of a disaster with constant delays nearly getting the entire thing canned however davis and his team persisted resulting in the next doctor a rather click-baity episode about the doctor teaming up with a man who also claims to be the doctor as the pair battle the cybermen i've always had a bit of a weird relationship with the next doctor because i've never really been able to get into it but over 13 years later is there more to this special than meets the eye or is it all style no substance i guess it's time for me to confront one of my least favorite christmas specials the next doctor jackson lake lost a lot of his memories and thought he was the doctor but do you know how he could have quickly remembered who he was if he had made a personal website with squarespace a lot of people are talking about squarespace and for good reason it helps you create your very own professional website for whatever purpose you need like a portfolio for your work or as a shop front for your brand new business there are a wide range of unique domains you can easily buy with no hidden fees and there are tools for mailing lists and site analytics so you can continue to optimize your website as you go within a couple of hours i was able to make a pretty slick website over at harbourworlds.co.uk squarespace's tools mean you can just select blocks and use presets so you don't need to be some expert it's just incredibly accessible along with it automatically tailoring your site for mobile which is so helpful i really recommend checking squarespace out so go to squarespace.com forward slash hardware walls right now for a free trial along with 10 off your first purchase of a website or domain having a website is a must for pretty much anyone these days so thanks again to squarespace for sponsoring this video and now it's time for the review the last we saw of the 10th doctor he was moping around on his tardis after the series 4 finale however the tone can be any more different as he gleefully soaks up the victorian christmas atmosphere i absolutely adore this setting it's so homely and sweet with a great swell of orchestral music it just oozes christmas and we can all relate to the doctor's pure joy that magical yet quaint and simple warmth of victorian christmas i mean in this day and age christmas seems to be synonymous with this time period thanks to cozy tales like a christmas carol and a muppet's christmas carol okay it's basically all because of a christmas carol however series 1 had already done dickens at christmas so this time they needed a different story for the setting indeed the doctor comes across rosita and the doctor i love how straight the scene has played it's a superb whirlwind of chaos and confusion the episode is called the next doctor and this scene definitely delivers on that since david morrissey has all the mannerisms of a modern incarnation of the character the pair of doctors do battle with a cybershade and an entertaining scene which is just pure fun there's not much to analyze about it it's just the doctor up to their usual hijinks however it's what follows that's the interesting part as the 10th doctor tries to establish who this future incarnation is and why he has no memory of him it's a good angle for a multi-doctor story the later incarnation with no idea of the previous one there's definitely something deeply wrong here because we learned jackson's memories are missing coinciding with the arrival of the cybermen it's a great mystery box to kickstart the episode something of substance for the doctor to dive into and figure out throughout the story this man walks like him talks like him but he has no memory of ever being someone else so the doctor essentially has to play along and pretend to be regular old john smith instead it's a very ambitious dynamic and plot thread to introduce and i think it is handled quite well in this episode i'm the doctor simply the doctor the one the only and the best as the late reverend fairchild is taken away for his funeral jackson takes the opportunity to sneak into his house only to find the doctor already inside i guess squatter's rights were fast moving back then i do love their exchange about sonic screwdriver since jackson's is just a regular screwdriver compared to the doctors which isn't a screwdriver but it is sonic i guess it's only ever one or the other at least jackson's works on wood though not even the doctor can claim his does we then learn more about what's going on since a man named jackson lake was murdered by the cybermen followed by the abduction of children sounds like the usual cheery december then i do find it interesting that the doctor exerts such trust and authority even another version of himself starts telling him everything despite not knowing him they can just influence anyone if they ask the right questions this familiarity leads to a lovely fake out as the doctor points out the fob watch on his counterparts person no you don't need me to tell you this but this is obviously a reference to the chameleon arch storyline in series 3 which saw both the doctor and the master hide their true selves inside fob watches to masquerade as humans it makes a lot of sense that this might be the explanation behind the lack of memories so i love the build up as it teases this dramatic reveal only for the watch to awkwardly ping out since it is just a real broken watch it's an absolutely wonderful piece of comedy and it's done just right a good misdirection because in itself it is also misdirection because the watch is important much later on as the jl reveals jackson's true identity although as we all know the best victorian era gal is obviously jaygo and lightfoot the pair then discover info stumps containing information about human history since being in a time period like this means they can't keep themselves sustained and updated so much for the evolution of humanity these losers have to inject themselves of information whereas i can just look it up on wikipedia real nice creation there lumec i bet they can't even play chess either i guess this confirms that v tubers are the true next evolution of humanity however jackson recognizes the info stamp from the night he lost his memories continuing to drip feed you information about this new incarnation and what happened to him the jew will then have to escape from the cybermen who also seem to be hanging around the house for some reason this burst of action is a solid way to inject some intensity into the episode i feel like davis did this a lot essentially mapping out episodes like action scene exposition scene action scene character scene and so on it's a handy way to keep things going very strongly and smoothly it's also in the scene that the doctor drops his john smith facade trying to get the sidemen to listen to him but they won't i mean come on they literally have a smooth brain it's no use reasoning with them even if you are a dab hand with a cutlass however they're defeated by jackson who overloads them with the info stump it's a clever way to use the stamps against the monsters because not only does it give him a simple out it's also useful for the bigger picture because he remembers doing it before so it starts to piece things together more and more for both the doctor and the viewer along with setting up how the doctor will save the day at the end you ripped open the car and broke the safety zap only the doctor would think of that as with pretty much every cyberman story they have a human liaison in miss hartigan who schemes with the cyber leader i'm not sure if i like or dislike this design it's kind of creepy seeing the brain inside and the black faceplate is reminiscent of classic cyber leaders but it just feels a bit too gimmicky for my tastes like they wanted another action figure to sell hartigan then rocks up at reverend fairchild's funeral like the harlot she is there was not mine we're disgracing the ceremony just like a harness i know right i bet she shows off her ankles too scandalous i do like how hertigan has this crimson outfit a stark contrast to the men in all black and the whiteness of the snow it gives her an entirely different presence sticking out in a wonderful way it's a really good visual miss hartigan is well written here as well calling them out for their fake acts of charity and just general fakeness they're kind of like the glazers who own man united pretend to care for maybe one day every couple of years and then it's business as usual as you exploit others and reap the rewards also i doubt russell t davis read a song of ice and fire but there are some similarities between hartigan and cersei they both share this fierce ambition they can't achieve because they're women in a male society although i would say cersei is a lot more interesting as a character and that's definitely not just because of her gigantic radiating dom energy there's again an action scene to balance out the exposition since the cybermen attacked the funeral massacring the funeral goers it's a beautifully chaotic moment adding some ferocity back to the cybermen restoring that relentless feeling they had in series 2 before they got punked by the the daleksi with one dalek jackson then takes the doctor back to his base for some exposition i think it's a good touch that they explain how jackson and rosita met it's just a little detail but it continues to drive home how this man thinks he's a doctor since their meeting sounds like exactly what we're used to when a new companion is introduced however before we can delve into the bad dreams jackson has they all go to the tardis which is just a hot air balloon it fits right at home with a sonic screwdriver and i love how they even have a new meaning for the acronym t-a-r-d-i-s it stands for tethered aerial release developed in style do you see it's the little touches like these that make the plot so good this scene also draws some nice parallels between the doctor and jackson both desperate to escape in their tardis to see the universe but still grounded by their sense of duty and responsibility i do think the doctor sees a lot of himself in this other man despite having long realized he's not actually the doctor indeed he's now worked out who his counterpart actually is so he goes on to explain that the cybermen from doomsday fell through time it's continuity like this adds so much this period in the show even a random christmas special in 2008 is firmly entrenched as a consequence of a previous story this direct aftermath not too dissimilar to the cult of scarro and dalek khan returning in series three and four davis didn't even need to he could have easily just left this explanation out but instead he makes sure to anchor it to a suitable explanation so i just really respect how it links itself to that previous cyberman story the doctor also reveals that this man is jackson lake not the doctor the biggest criticism most people have about this episode is how it's kind of shameless click bait to make you think the 11th doctor would show up and whilst that is definitely a disappointing thing about the episode i do really like the explanation as to why jackson believed he was the doctor it turns out the info stamp he picked up was the one all about the cyberman's least favorite time lord and just as a side note this moment has the eighth doctrine so that immediately makes the special a triple s rank 11 out of 10. the reason jackson believed he was the doctor is because this info stamp beamed all these sorts and memories into his mind kind of the reverse of a comedian arch in a way it's an incredibly interesting idea and i think the clickbait title means people don't give the concept enough credit for being so creative it's similar to the dr donna a human becoming a time lord although this time it's a lot safer because it's merely a bunch of memories david morrissey is massively underrated in this scene since jackson lake just had his entire reality torn out from under him he feels like he's fake his identity was a lie he was never the doctor just an impostor it's quite understandable why he would feel so lost because of this revelation but it's great that the actual doctor is there to see the silver lining sure jackson isn't the doctor but he still did all these brave and wonderful things him being a human doesn't devalue that i think this is a good way for showing it doesn't matter who you are anyone can be the doctor if their heart is in the right place and they have that courage to sacrifice everything for the greater good of the universe it's just a nice moment of empowerment to reassure jackson that his life hasn't been a lie after all although he doesn't feel very empowered because he remembers his wife died the trauma causing him to lose his mind and escape into this fantasy of being the doctor you can't help but feel truly awful for jackson he was a simple man trying to make his way in the world who suddenly had everything ripped away even his identity and now he has to try and come to terms with that i am nothing but a lie however the simon's plan hasn't stopped because the main characters were having a sentimental moment no it turns out hartigan needed all the white house owners for their children marching them right up to the side men's door because what would be a victorian story without child labour eh gotta sweep those chimneys and toil away in the factories pit pip governor but just as the doctor and rosita are planning their way in they get confronted by miss hartkin and her stompy metal boys the simon finally remembering who the doctor actually is now the whole identity crisis storyline has been resolved i do find it interesting that the doctor assumes hodgkin has to have been converted because of how deluded she is but no she like many others chooses to align with assignment to further her own means this is a scene to further establish her coldness and hatred of the society she lives in since she'd gladly sell her own species out in exchange for power one of my main problems with the story is how she's a bit two-dimensional and not really fleshed out enough she even becomes quite screechy at times but this is a good scene to explore how lost in her delusions of grandeur she is also rosita warrants her which is much appreciated [Music] hartigan then brings forward the sideman's scheme now being rumbled by the doctor it's quite strange seeing how much sway she has over the cybermen but i guess that shows just how powerful she is as a character and a presence she can even bend the cybermen to her will which is no easy feat she's definitely a woman in control which um i want to see you what yes miss throughout the episode hodgkin has been banging on about the incoming court of the cyber king promising the rise of a new empire at the hands of the cybermen indeed the cyber leader takes her to her throat is it really hard again looks more like an electric chair to me not exactly the iron throne is it however it turns out hartigan herself is to become a cyber king which is such a shocking betrayal who could have ever seen that one coming the big bad monsters betraying their human ally near the end of the story preposterous the cybermen even turn on their sassiness receptors really sticking the knife in but you promised me you said i would never be converted that was designated a lie it makes an incredible amount of sense that they would see her as weak for her emotions in her eyes liberation was being given the power she believed she deserved but in the eyes of a cyberman liberation is to be stripped of emotion becoming free of the shackles that hold humanity down hartigan's entire motivation for helping them was born out of bitterness and spite lasting for this power but these are traits cybermen simply don't accept so i think their patrol is justified well since they want their leader to be just like them rather than a corrupted mind dictating their every move it's come up it's her attitude this entire time thinking she was better than everyone else but she was just blinded by power and underestimated the cybermen but hey at least she gets a cool headpiece and pitch black contact lenses however even with the conversion her mind was too strong she overpowered the programming a good way to again show her power remember this is an all-powerful race of cyborgs who can mend any human to their will and make them a mindless drone but heart of gun essentially reverses the position and uses her power to bend them to her will i also think there are some similarities to dalek seck who wanted to combine the traits of humans and daleks for the ultimate hybrid hartigan seeks to combine the logic and strength of simon with the fury and passion of humanity and you can't deny that's a scarier form of cyberman instead of invading to make everyone in the universe like them they would do it for power and ambition so it's a very interesting way to up the ante and you will obey me yes miss since jackson moved down to london he owns a house realizing if he ran into the cybermen they must have been there as well indeed when the trio arrive the doctor finds a dimension of all even more dalek technology stolen by the cybermen it's weird between this and the infostump of the doctor being from the darlix even now those monsters are making the cybermen look like chumps which is pretty awkward to say the least can't have sheep in the void poor cybermen they just keep getting handed elves left right and center the doctor of rosita and jackson then stumble upon the temple of doom child labor factory complete with a random evil spiked ball for the sake of it once the steampunk engine has been powered up the cybermen seek to wipe out the children prompting the heroes to swoop in and rescue them as the doctor always does much like planet of the huge show the doctor really is the breaker of chains but not the mother of dragons however seeing all these children finally reminds jackson of what he lost his son frederick who was taken away by the cybermen and is now trapped so the doctor has to step up and rescue him i really wish jackson was the one to save frederick though it would be the ultimate way to prove his bravery even without the doctor's identity it would make a lot more sense these positions were reversed have the doctor try but get incapacitated so jackson has become the hero again taking the initiative to save his son that would end up being a beautiful way to prove the doctor right since earlier he stressed that the bravery was all jackson but when it really comes down to it jackson doesn't get to be the hero once he stops being a doctor he just kind of ends up being a chump sure it's really trumpfen and daring when the doctor does it but i can't help but feel as though it would have been better with jackson doing this heroic moment merry christmas at the end of army of ghosts mickey had mentioned the possibility of a cyber king being inside the void ship obviously at the time he was just being flippant but it's clear davis liked the idea so we finally get to see an actual cyber king in this episode yeah mate good thing you weren't there when there was a giant alien whale thing and make sure to avoid the dinosaur in a couple of decades yeah this time though the monster in the thames is a giant cyberman mecca yes indeed this is what a cyberking looks like and it's not great it looks incredibly goofy mainly because of its slender waist it's kind of like the later recon dalek they both look too thin in all the wrong places give them a burger or something get them some thickness the concept art of the machine is magnificent though and it really makes me wish we got that version of the threat instead of what we got since it looks so much more like a steampunk titan i can't help but adore the idea of it all although that's probably just because i love meccas in general who wouldn't love a gigantic stompy boy like this the doctor explains that this is a ship designed as the front line of an invasion complete with an integrated cyber factory ready to convert millions so it's a pretty big deal in the wider scheme there is an impressive scale to it as it easily strides across the city destroying everything in its path and blowing things up like it's some kind of video game boss it's a truly big time threat worthy of a special it's just let down by that design personally i like to believe it only looks this way because they had to cobble it together and make it with limited tech so this is just the scavenge steampunk version of a true cyber king which is why it's so awkward looking i'd love to see a properly realized cyber king one day since it is such an imaginative concept for the show we're always being told about the cyber wars and seeing implied cyber dominance so there's always scope to resurrect the concept in a better way at some point down the line the doctor then boards the tardis and takes to the skies to confront miss hartigan who doesn't take kindly to this interruption yet another man come to assert himself against me in the night uh no no miss hartigan i'm i'm sorry miss hartigan the doctor then does what the doctor always does offer a second chance even though as he once claimed no second chances i'm that sort of a man yeah that aged well indeed like he does with seemingly every villain he faces the doctor offers to use a dimension vault to give the sidemen a new empty world where they can live out their lives in peace without converting anyone to be brutally honest he's fooling himself if he thinks they'll just stay there and not try to spread back out amongst the stars to conquer especially because neil gaiman would later suggest the ones that do get transported into the vortex end up combining the mondashion sidemen leading to nightmare and silva i suppose it speaks to the desperation of this incarnation to see good in everything he just wants one adversary to actually change their mind and agree which is why he always tries it even with mortal enemies like davros he's so consumed by guilt for what he did in the time war that all he wants to do is save one enemy for once but he never can yes like all the others hodgkin doesn't see what she's being offered so the doctor has to resort to being a monster like always he uses the info stamps to overload hodgkin and open her mind it's quite similar to how he defeated the cybermen and age of still making them see the truth and letting that destroy them because it's the only way to free them from themselves except this time he's doing it with dramatic doctor hair however i do have to question the choice of how hardcore destroys a cyberman you have this incredibly strong-willed and powerful female character but she defeats the conquering cybermen by screaming in fear it just feels kind of weird and a slap to the face of how the character was written up until this point now that the doctor has defeated the cyber king it starts to fall onto the city below so he sends it to the time vortex to be disintegrated although you just know there are some humble farms there on a random planet that's now been levelled by a gigantic cyberking out of nowhere i'm not sure how i feel about this climax since it gets wrapped up so quickly and cleanly it just feels a bit sudden which is indicative of how davis wrote himself into a corner with the scale of the threat i mean you can't exactly have the doctor do battle in his own megazord and leave the fallen cyber king to crush the city so the climax was always going to be a bit unsatisfying even davis laments the ending having realised after filming that the better solution would have been hartigan making the cyber king disappear to redeem herself so this ending is just an all-round disappointing one however it's worth it for jackson giving this rousing speech about the doctor never being thanked it's such a beautiful moment for some reason it always makes my eyes water it's that feel good factor these specials are always meant to bring out such a lovely ending of triumph and joy summing christmas itself up in a way everyone coming together to celebrate it's also actually an important moment for the doctor as a character this is still that moody post time war incarnation with nothing to live for and nothing to lose jackson you've got your son you've got a reason to live when you haven't he's fresh off that climactic series finale where he's forced to say a final goodbye to donna and rose along with being faced with a genocidal meta-crisis doctor he's raw and volatile so he's fine with risking it all since he's the last of the time lords he's just lonely but this outpouring of support and gratification is kind of like an ego boost to the character in last of the time loss he was happy that everyone forgot him since he'd rather do what he does without recognition but here he almost revels in the praise it's a sign that he's starting to go down a vainer and darker path of doing things for glory and ego a far cry from the 12th doctor's mantra without witness without reward it probably wasn't intentional by davis but i feel like this simple moment of thankfulness is one of the sparks igniting the tenth doctor's journey into becoming the time lord victorious a good way to link it to the other specials to come [Music] [Applause] the day has been saved so jackson reflects on the events he's no longer the doctor and has to return to his life as a father something he hasn't dealt with for a very long time i do find it weird that the doctor doesn't offer any explanation as to why there was never any accounts of a giant steampunk mecha in the thames you'd think some random guy would write a diary like yo some giant mechanical thing started stomping around london today that was weird but i suppose it ties back into this era's recurring theme of nobody remembering alien invasions at any point in history because we're too ignorant as a species and don't like entertaining such possibilities whether it's witches and elizabethan england or daleks at canary wharf people will always find a way to ignore or forget it regardless i do love the magical moment of jackson finally stepping aboard the real tardis and his mind just breaking as a result it's a fun little sequence since even though he had the doctor's memories he still can't fathom the existence of such a machine like he says it's wonderful nonsense two words that essentially sum up doctor who as a show completely not a wonderful nonsense however the mood then shifts as jackson inquires about all the companions in the doctor's life addressing this gaping hole this is another good moment of showing where he is at this point in his life he's lost everything in one way or another and these specials are the longest run of episodes without a set companion so i like how they bring it up especially with tenants wonderful delivery of they break my heart the consequences of journey's end are more emotionally painful than we originally thought so this further shows that downward spiral throughout these final episodes despite initially refusing he then accepts jackson's offer of christmas dinner and the two walk off into the night together i guess at their core the doctor can't resist a good roast dinner just as long as sylvia noble isn't the one cooking the next doctor is one of those difficult to rank episodes because it's fine for what it is but it's not particularly memorable or an episode i find myself scrambling to watch however i will say it's not as bad as i remembered it being it's got an incredible central premise this doctor who isn't the doctor but the addition of the cybermen is a questionable call since the monsters don't really do a whole lot and end up just kind of disappointing miss hartigan is a fascinating antagonist wonderfully acted by dervla kawan although i'm not sure i like how the character ends up during the climax there's a lot of missed potential with things like the cyberking but the initial premise is enough to keep the episode afloat along with a really nice authentic victorian christmas atmosphere jackson lake is an interesting character who is believable as a doxer and rosita is a good companion kind of like a blend of rose martha and donna all in one person i think the next doctor is worthy of a c rank on the specials tier list as i said it's just kind of fine it's paced well with some fun and entertaining moments throughout and the soundtrack is stellar but you don't tend to remember the episode for the right reasons it's either that clickbait episode or that episode with the weird cyberman mecca so it doesn't exactly leave a great lasting impression although that being said the episode has some good setup for the 2009 specials and it touches upon that aftermath of journey zen but it just always takes a lot to actually make them want to sit down and watch the next doctor which regrettably is never something you want to say about a doctor who episode and i'd like to give an extra special thank you to all my gold level patrons alex marston calvin daniel shiloto fallon cortes franz horne ak line vortex george john stephen evan miller and william jewell thank you so much for your support

Channel: Harbo Wholmes

Views: 75,804

Keywords: weeping angels, harbo wholmes, doctor who, harbo wholmes doctor who, doctor who season 4, doctor who series 12, doctor who 2005 series, doctor who 2008 series, dr who, doctor who series 4, doctor who rose, doctor who finale, doctor who best ending, doctor who best endings, doctor who season 4 review, series 4 best moments doctor who, doctor who next doctor, doctor who new doctor, doctor who christmas, doctor who special, doctor who regeneration, doctor who cybermen

Id: e-FCUgQxp6E

Length: 28min 43sec (1723 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 10 2021