The Idiot's Lantern [TV/2006.5.27]

★★★☆☆

  The Idiot's Lantern seems to be positioned in a lot of 'love it or hate it' conversations these days, and for once, I know exactly why. Tommy's encouraged -- by Rose, of all people -- to run and join his abusive father and have a moment of "reconciliation". Understandably, this rubs up people the wrong way, and looking at it now, it is a bit jarring with how Tommy's dad is depicted practically every moment he's in the episode... but me, it's (for better or worse) a rather faithful depiction on the type of morality televised Dr. Who was operating on in 2006, the one where almost all (not all, mind) are still allowed some form of redemption. To be frank, that's been the core of Dr. Who forever, with varying scales on how writers feel about certain issues, and Mark Gatiss seems to be on the more tolerant side. I don't really find this to be the nadir of Dr. Who morality, I really don't -- but it does bother me a little bit because the episode goes so such lengths to show how much of a bellend Tommy's dad is. Rather jarring, even with the context that Rose has a complicated thing with dads.

  So anyway, The Idiot's Lantern is pretty harmless. I don't have a particular disliking towards it, though Euros Lyn really pushes my optical tolerance with shooting more than 90% of the epsiode with Dutch angles. It's the sort of new series episode that reminds one of just how condensed these stories have to be to fit the 45-minute runtime. This feels like a television episode that contains a story just waiting to be expanded like mad -- perhaps for a future Target novelisation? It would've benefitted greatly from more breathing space to be its own thing rather than your typical Dr. Who runaround. I dunno, it just felt really apparent to me with this rewatch. What's unequivocally good about this episode has to be the costumes. Well, that and David Tennant getting to show everyone just how good he is at being righteous and terrifyingly angry.