Wednesday, 4 March 2020

Who Reviews The Haunting of Villa Diodati by Matt Rabjohns



When Mary Shelley first conceived the notion of Frankenstein, The Modern Prometheus, I wonder if she could possibly have known what massive resonance her story would have for years and years to come. A timeless monster story about a twisted professor of science totally subsumed with the feat of defeating the ultimate unknown: death. A scientist who creates a monster from the dead of the human race and animates it with the raw electricity of nature. It’s a ghoulish and unsettling notion and a good reason why the story is definitively hailed as a classic. And it is easy to draw parallels with the Cyber Race and Mary Shelley's story. ​
The Cybermen have long and away been my favourite Doctor Who monster. The thought of a human being dehumanized, shoved into a steel suit of armour and with pain inhibited as well as all emotion is frankly a nauseating and horrific concept. Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, in creating the Cybermen gave Doctor Who one of its most enduring and implacable villains. Whereas if the Daleks caught up with you, you'd just be either exterminated or enslaved, its a far deadlier and creepier kettle of fish with the Cybermen. The Cybermen will change you into mindless automata, fixated with the notion of survival. But if the Cyber race have ever announced they are emotionless, it’s obvious then that they lie. The desire to survive and extend one's life is too an emotional drive, not just a physical one. Why otherwise do so many Cyber leaders chant Excellent!? It is clear that the power rush to live on must indeed be fuelled by emotion: the emotion of one wanting to hold back death. To survive. So these Cybermen are just masking the plain detail that they do still own some emotion. If they did not then they'd truly be just total machines.
The Haunting of Villa Diodati. Well what does this story do for the Cybermen? Well, Ashad, the single lone Cyberman foretold by Jack Harkness, is a case in point. He's a Cyberman who’s not yet been fully converted. More than that, he doesn't even seem to think he needs completing in his conversion. He is mean and brutish and his resonant anger and determination to capture the Cyberium is very very menacing indeed. He is apparently the first Cyberman not to have been appalled by his half conversion. So, we are presented with a Cyberman who still owns at least half a soul. But that soul is rather black and evil. Patrick O'Kane is simply superb as this most driven of Cybermen. He is powerful and his routine slayings of both the manservant Fletcher and Elise are reminders of how potent and fearful a race of aliens the Cybermen are.
Mary Wolstencraft Godwin, soon to be Shelley too, is also sublimely portrayed by Lili Miller. Although as a massive fan of Big Finish's range of audio stories one can’t help but feel a little betrayed by the fact that the modern TV era seems to set itself flat out to confuse what is and isn't canon at will. The Eighth Doctor in audio also met Percy and Mary and Byron, and Mary joined the Doctor on his travels. But this notion is totally unmentioned in The Haunting of Villa Diodati. Lili portrays a quite sympathetic embodiment of Mary within this story, and she does get her moment to shine towards the climax of the story when she is brave enough to face the Cybermen and try to break through his conditioning. Even though she somewhat fails, she does have the moral high ground on this occasion.
Maxim Baldry also gets to unnerve for a while as Dr Polidari. And Jacob Collins Levy is rather odious and and rather pompous and self-righteous as Lord Byron. A particularly great little moment of this story is when he mentions to the Doctor that she is quite lovely in a creepy situation and the snappy and needle-sharp retort she gives him is brilliant and definitely gets my full backing in the back off you promiscuous little devil department. ​
The plot thread of the haunted house and Percy Shelley too unfolds well and at a decent pace. The mood of this story is one of quiet fear and palpability. There are plenty of scares that I'm sure Mary Shelley herself would have been proud of.​
Bradley Walsh is given so much beautiful light relief comic moments in this episode and again he is such a delight to watch as Graham. Mandip Gill as Yaz and Tosin Cole as Ryan though once more are the companions in the not given too much to do department once again and its starting to become a bit of an irksome trait. They are all such good characters, but maybe the notion that four is maybe a crowded TARDIS isn’t too far from the truth. As with almost every episode of series 12 there is always the lesser utilised companion run throughs. Mind you it is still a great credit to the whole trio that they always perform at the height of their game and deliver superb performances every single time. Maybe I'm just being a wee bit nit-picky.
And maybe Ryan's declaration of Percy Shelley being one man against the lives of everyone in space and time does smack of a bit of coldness that doesn't fit his overall character very well in my opinion. But the look of shame on his face when the Doctor berates his condemning of Percy is sublimely played by Tosin and one is glad he knows when he's spoken without thinking. Gives me that extra oomph factor to keep liking him even with his little verbal slip ups.
And Jodie Whittaker? Oh well. I just absolutely adore her Doctor. There are still plenty of happy go lucky flashes in her as she had in abundance in season 11 but with season 12 a deep and dark shade of Doctor 7 has crept into her performance and started to make her a more meaty and mysterious incarnation yet again. Jodie is truly proving what she can do with the role, and the Sylvester McCoy-ish nods come with a round of applause and a whoop of joy from me as Sylv also happens to be one of my favourite ever incarnations of the Doctor. The pain and the grief of trying to keep her friends safe from the genocidal threat of the Cybermen is so wonderful to see on screen. Jodie is absolutely knocking the ball right out of the court with her take on the Doctor. I feel so moved when watching her attack the role with her own unique energy and gusto. It’s so invigorating and amazing.
What I get from The Haunting of Villa Diodati is a return to the trusted Doctor Who formula of a small human outlet besieged and under threat from a nasty and fearful alien menace. This time its the house next to Lake Geneva in 1816 where the seeds of the series 12 finale are being sown. The story may not be completely wholly original but it is extremely stolid and reliably entertaining indeed. The performances are all exceptionally good and the period feel is very prominent. But one comes to expect no less of the BBC given their penchant for exceedingly good period dramas. And I would say even just the one Cyberman present in this story gives more menace than the new modern era type cybermen have for me for quite some time. Absolutely top marks go to Patrick O'Kane. Exquisite performance of the Cyberman: the modern Prometheus if you will.
Come and seek out this 50-minute tale to curdle the blood and quicken the beatings of the heart...​






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