Gridlock

"Gridlock" was the episode it paid NOT to be a fan to enjoy. At every turn, the streak of Doctor Who that runs through my DNA thwarted me. Normal people ("norms") would probably have been thrilled that beneath the New New York traffic jams lay a pit full of snapping killer crabs! What a great idea! Me, I stumbled (it has to be said, unintentionally and to the best of my efforts) on the secret news that 1967's lost foes the Macra were returning some weeks ago, and have, ever since, been both biting my tongue to keep it from the rest of the unknowing fan world and imagining all sorts of epic episodes.

You see, I thought "Gridlock" was one big red herring. How I secretly chuckled when my other half shared reservations about this episode, traffic jams and cat people and all. Ah! He didn't know that it was really a "return of the Macra" episode under wraps. I confidently expected the true foes to be revealed about twenty minutes in, whereupon the whole episode would be transformed into a thrilling monster-fest, complete with people being stalked through dank corridors by those evil crabs, mind control, and the fulfilled promise of an old series story about which we know next to nothing except that the tapes have been wiped.

I think the reality dawned when (i) the half-hour mark ticked by and they hadn't yet appeared fully and (ii) they were revealed to be completely CGI rendered. Being a FAN, I know that this costs by the second, so the Macra were only ever likely to appear in 'cameo', such was the case. A neat throwaway feature of the episode therefore became a disappointment, knowing what we had before and were 'denied' this time. The ending of "Gridlock", too, was also completely ruined by being a fan. Knowing what I do both about the history of the show and certain other rumours currently flying around (and again I stress, I don't go looking for these rumours; I actively avoid them! But still to no avail!) the Face of Boe's "secret", the resolution of a plot strand that stretches back a whole year, was a massive anti-climax. As the seventh Doctor might babble, "I worked that one out ages ago"! I at least expected some detail from the 'ol Face - and for the Doctor to take him seriously. Even not being a fan, I still think that something built up to be such a revelation should have been treated as being a bit more important than it was, being brushed aside by the Doctor as untrue.

In truth, "Gridlock" was a fun episode, diminished only by the fan factor. New Earth was far more interesting this time round, the grimy streets and brilliantly rendered air-car motorways being far preferable to the cat Nun hospital of its previous story. The story's biggest success came about through what it had to say about our own society; all the stuff parodying motorway tailbacks, closed junctions and horrendously long journeys was very satisfying indeed. The guest cast were also on top form, particularly Ardal O'Hanlan. If anything, the only complaint with the actual episode was that the CGI traffic jams had clearly eaten up most of the budget, so the remaining action was confined to the cramped interiors of the air cars. This was a story set in a briefly glimpsed and massively difficult to reveal metropolis, where all the action took place in the equivalent of a lift. You couldn't help but wish the Doctor could explore the rest of the grimy ghetto's in the city, but then (being a fan) we all know we don't have the budget of "The Empire Strikes Back", the production that "Gridlock" most paid homage to.

So a decent episode, then, albeit the clear inferior of both "Smith & Jones" and "The Shakespeare Code". This years "Fear Her" may have been best tucked away towards the season end, not shuffled out the way so early on. Unless of course you weren't cursed with being a fan, in which case I expect it was great...