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| Episode: | 721 | | | Serial: | 176 | | | Writer: | Matthew Graham |
| | Director: | Euros Lyn |
| | Air Date: | 24-Jun-2006 |
This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's the 24th of June 2026, the 20th anniversary of Fear Her. So now I'm writing about it.
It was the fourth and final episode of season 2 to be directed by Euros Lyn. If you sort the season by IMDb rating, three of those stories are down near the bottom and one is right at the top. This is not the one at the top. Lyn came back for the Christmas special and then disappeared for most of the RTD era, only returning for two more stories, which are often regarded as being 'bangers'.
This time the writer was Matthew Graham and it was his only story for the Tenth Doctor, though he did eventually come back for an Eleventh Doctor story. His episodes aren't generally considered to be top tier Doctor Who, though he's had some success outside of the series. He co-created Life on Mars and wrote half the episodes for instance. Then he came back to that universe and co-created Ashes to Ashes, writing six episodes of that.
Incidentally the main character of Life on Mars has the same last name as Rose Tyler, because the guy's daughter was a Doctor Who fan and suggested it.
Okay I need to cut the trivia short as I'm going to go through the episode more quickly than usual, instead of examining every scene. There'll still be SPOILERS though. I won't spoil anything from the next episode however, even though the trailer did.
RECAP
The TARDIS appears in near future London, just before the Olympics. Then it disappears and reappears again to get the doors facing the right way. The heroes soon discover that children are going missing here and track down the source to a young girl, Chloe Webber, who likes drawing. She can trap people in her pictures and also unleash her creations upon others, like when she attacks Rose with a scribble monster. It turns out this is because a tiny godlike alien called an Isolus latched onto her when it empathised with how lonely she feels.
The Doctor works on the problem, but when he's drawn into one of the pictures it's up to Rose to save the day on her own. And she's got to hurry as Chloe is about to draw the entire Earth to give the Isolus some company. She finds the Isolus' spaceship under the road and throws it onto the Olympic torch as it passes by to recharge it. Meanwhile Chloe and her mother are threatened by the sketch of her abusive dad and sing a song to calm her and make him go away.
Unfortunately the torchbearer was apparently struck by lightning and it looks like the Olympic dream is over, but the Doctor picks it up and runs to light the flame. This generates enough positive emotion for the Isolus to fly off.
REVIEW
But it's a good thing I did, as now I can make proper observations. Like I noticed that this is the second episode this season to prominently feature a street covered in British flags where people are mysteriously disappearing. In the previous episode it was people who stayed inside and watched TV who were affected, while here it's the kids that went outside to play, so I guess what I'm learning from Doctor Who this season is that you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. Even if you go off to the Olympics you're not safe.
The episode's set during the London Olympics of 2012, which means that the Doctor and Rose have taken another trip to the near future of series 7, like they did in Dalek. Fortunately there's no danger of doing another Aliens of London and getting stuck 5 years ahead. Probably.
Anyway it's a good episode for fans of tidy English streets and mysterious cats.
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| Survival |
In fact there's a bit in Fear Her where the Doctor mentions being a bit nervous of cats due to an incident in his past... but then it turns out he's talking about the cat nuns in New Earth instead.
He also drops the bombshell that he was a father once, and does not elaborate. We already got a hint of this in The Empty Child when he related to Dr. Constantine losing his children and grandchildren, but this is the first that Rose is hearing about it.
I like that the series isn't just giving away his whole backstory, he's supposed to be a bit mysterious. Well, as mysterious as a guy who's been on TV since 1963 can be. Fans of the classic series already know he had a kid, as the first companion was his granddaughter.
There is a line about something reducing the temperature though, which actually makes perfect sense seeing as the energy-draining spaceship is under the road, forcing this poor guy from the council to continually try to repair it.
I had a memory of Kel the comedy council man being really irritating, or maybe someone just told me he was. Either way, he's only in it for like four scenes and he's actually fine I reckon. He just doesn't like it when people take council axes out of the council van.
Well, to be fair Chloe Webber's not entirely to blame seeing as she's got an alien in her head. And even the Isolus is a sympathetic character, who just needs the love of billions of people in order to go be with its family. That's kind of contrived and weird actually, like the writer started with 'the Olympic torch saves the day' and then worked backward.
Anyway, she's not a monster.
It's the second story this season to feature a kid tormented by an abusive dad, but I don't think there was any danger of Rose telling Chloe to reconcile with this guy. When he's revealed, the camera tilts down to make sure you notice the fist. He was such a bastard that everyone is hoping he won't come back to life.
In fact, it's kind of weird that Chloe drew him at all and this is pointed out. Her explanation is that she keeps seeing him in her nightmares. This episode is actually kind of dark!
Unfortunately someone in production decided that it would be a good idea for the actress to whisper when the Isolus is speaking through her, and... well, it wasn't. That rarely works well even for experienced actors, and Abisola Agbaje was 11.
I'm more torn on the idea of the pictures though. People being trapped in a kid's artwork is a perfect idea for a kids show, one that's a bit Twilight Zone or X-Files in the kinds of stories it tells, as they get to play around with the creepy animated pictures. She didn't draw them sad, they just don't want to be stuck there, staring in from the wall.
But this tiny alien must have a hell of a lot of power to do this to the TARDIS, and then work on doing the same thing to the entire Earth. So that kind of threw me to a bit. There's a lifeform in space with near godlike powers and they travel in families of 4 billion?
Though the biggest problem I have is that this isn't a Twilight Zone, X-Files supernatural fantasy type of series, but it's got a little girl turning people into drawings! The Doctor tries to explain it by saying they're trapped in an ionic holding pen, but then what are the drawings about? Why does she need to finish them before the Isolus grabs someone? What's animating the pictures?
And why does Chloe have so many secret stashes of pencils in her bedroom?
Dude, if they can continue after everyone in the stadium, both athletes and crowd, all reappeared from the ionic holding pen, I'm sure they'll be able to cope without the guy with the torch.
This was actually a voice cameo by actual newsreader Huw Edwards, before people learned that he... wasn't suitable for children. The episode was taken off iPlayer for a bit until his voice could be replaced by someone else. So ironically he's the only one who actually disappeared from the episode.
He was replaced by an actress who's a lot better at seeming distressed by thousands of people disappearing. Though this does mean that the line "... Battle of Torchwood" is no longer audible. Well, I couldn't hear it at least.
This is all historically inaccurate however, as in real life it was actually Matt Smith who carried the torch... well, he was one of the 8000 people at least. Joanna Lumley also carried it, so there were two Doctors. Plus Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy, so there were two Professor Xs too. Though Huw Edwards did actually do the commentary during the opening ceremony, so they got that bit right at least.
Rose decides to tempt fate by saying that her and the Doctor can never be separated. The Doctor counters with a cliché, saying that there's a storm coming. So get hyped for the two-part finale!
RATING
It'd be fair to say that the fans didn't much like this one. Doctor Who Magazine readers have repeatedly voted it the worst story of the Tennant era, and of the 2005 revival series in general. It had a comfortable place in the bottom 10 episodes on IMDb until the Chibnall era.
But I've read that writer Matthew Graham wasn't all that bothered when he found out that people didn't like it. That's because it wasn't written for the fans, it was written for children. And yes it really was.
Unfortunately I'm an adult, so to me it's a below average episode with a ridiculous premise, an awkward whispery performance and a sappy ending. It's not unwatchable though. There's plenty of good in here too. So I'm giving it...
5/10
NEXT EPISODE
What did you folks think about Fear Her? Does it deserve its terrible reputation or did you like it?
This episode is the Doctor Who equivalent of "Spock's Brain" in that it's not a great episode by any means, but people make it out to be infamous, while it's really just a silly crisis that's given no setup and resolved too easily. It was less unpleasant to watch than the episode before it.
ReplyDeleteI was always a bit surprised at how much fandom hated this episode as I thought it was "okay" at worst.
ReplyDeleteBut then again, for some reason, I always misremember it as a Ninth Doctor episode, so maybe my opinion is not to be trusted.