Season 2. 24 Jun 06. BBC 1, 7:00 pm
DIRECTOR: Euros Lyn WRITER: Matthew Graham
CAST: David Tennant (The Doctor), Billie Piper (Rose Tyler), Abisola Agbaje (Chloe Webber), Edna Dore (Maeve), Nina Sosanya (Trish Webber), Tim Faraday (Tom's Dad), Erica Eirlan (Neighbour), Stephen Marzella (Policeman), Richard Nicholls (Driver), Abdul Salis (Kel) & Huw Edwards (Announcer)
When the TARDIS lands in 2012, The Doctor plans to show Rose the London Olympics... but they discover that children on a housing estate are vanishing into thin air...In preparation for the budget-busting finale, Doctor Who provides the obligatory "filler" episode; a simple story with minimal locations and special-effects. Fear Her is written by new Who writer Matthew Graham, co-creator of the BBC's recent time-travel hit drama Life On Mars. Unfortunately, this pedigree doesn't translate into a quality episode, with Graham struggling to pull the plot together into a coherent and plausible whole.
The premise is very reminiscent of various Twilight Zone episodes, whereby a seemingly innocent child hides supernatural powers that affects the world around them. Here, lonely Chloe Webber (Abisola Agbaje) is able make things disappear by drawing them, only to see them magically appear as "living pictures" on her paper. It's a decent enough basis for a mystery episode, and Fear Her has its moments, but it's ultimately a little bland and uninvolving.
The 2012 London Olympics are omnipresent throughout the show -- the Olympic Torch itself due to pass by the housing estate (Dame Kelly Holmes Close, tee-hee) -- but the manner in which the Olympic angle is belated used to solve the dilemma is quite irksome. At its heart, this is a simple story and should have been content to focus on its main theme (of a girl possessed by an alien child with good intentions, but unreasonable actions). Instead, Fear Her shoehorns in a resolution that provokes one of the unintentionally ridiculous moments on Doctor Who this year, and almost destroys the whole show.
David Tennant is nearing the end of his first year as The Doctor, and is still playing a one-note character full of enthusiasm and misplaced envy of the human race. It's about time The Doctor's hard edge and cynical side, semi-present last year with Christopher Ecclestone, was returned. As it stands, Tennant is struggling to make the persistently chipper attitude anything more than mildly watchable. The Doctor should be a mix of conflicting styles and emotions, always keeping the audience on their toes, but we've had none of that this year.
Billie Piper is quickly becomes tiresome and predictable as Rose. Her character and relationship with The Doctor is really stagnating now, and it's coming as something of a relief that Piper is set to be replaced for the third series. The show really does need an injection of new companion blood --– worryingly, this is coming after just 25 episodes. The writers should take heed and ensure the next companion has more shades to their character than just a do-gooder.
The supporting cast for Fear Her are fine, but nobody really stands out. Abisola Agbaje is fairly good as Chloe, particularly in a spooky Exorcist-lite scene between her and The Doctor. Nina Sosanya is criminally wasted as mother Trish Webber, while other actors play neighbours pushed into the background for expositional purposes.
Visual effects are minimal, beyond a few animated sequences of "living drawings" and a quite unlikely "scribble creature". The production design is quite limp, just a standard red-brick street of houses and quite weak attempts to replicate the excitement and fervor of a capital city awaiting an Olympic Opening Ceremony.
Overall, Fear Her is a bit of a mess. The general idea is sound, and the alien explanation interesting (yet convoluted), but the final resolution is just completely mishandled and unintentionally hilarious. The plot lashes about, content to downplay any threat with some weak "comedy duo" interludes with The Doctor and Rose ("keep 'em peeled"). There are a few moments that work -- the possession scene, the "monster in the cupboard", and occasionally on-target laughs ("fingers on lips!"), but not enough to rescue a meandering and tonally awkward story.
NEXT WEEK: The end is near. The Doctor and Rose discover Torchwood...
