Wolf at the Door

Once more it seems I am behind schedule, and I apologise for that dear readers. This post was supposed to go up yesterday, seen as though I spent all day at work musing over it, but due to a nasty encounter with the air-conditioning I have developed the flu and so spent yesterday evening sneezing and ommiting a low-frequency groaning noise. As a result, today's intended post concerning iDLEWiLD, the Jagoroth, the Mara and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop will have to be delayed a little.

Anyways, with the imminent transmission of the 'revelation' episode Bad Wolf this evening, I thought I'd throw my hat into the ring with some ideas concerning the season's narrative enigma. Firstly, lets examine the evidence: the 'Bad Wolf' tag has so far been used in relation to two seperate comments, some graffiti, a security sign, a TV station, a poster, a bomb and a power station. Now by the law of averages some of these are going to be red herrings and I feel the biggest one of these is the graffiti on the TARDIS. In my opinion its just too obvious. However, the term seems to be related to some form of 'device', whether that be human or otherwise. So could it be a situation? An event? A 'thing' (for want of a better word)? A person? The BBC website points to the latter, and something archaic at that due to its references to ancient mythologies. This, naturally, points to The Doctor as he is over 900 years old and, by definition, an alien and therefore mysterious. So if the revelation does relate to the Doctor it could be interesting as it would help to add to the mysticism of the character for further seasons. After all, the criticism of the series as it ended in 1989 was that he had lost any form of mysticism and thus become over-familiar. This would also fit in well with the Time War theme, as he could be responsible for some action that he's trying to avoid.

However, I would ideally like to see the revelation to relate to either Mickey or Adam. Now Mickey's been a bit of a stooge over the whole series and, in all honesty, he got on my nerves something chronic in Rose. However, after Boom Town I've changed my opinion as I felt some form of graviats in his character. Moreover, he's certainly got motivations: The Doc pinched his lady and he might want revenge. Furthermore, it might explain why The Doctor refers to him as Ricky; is he not really what he seems. Alternatively, it could refer to Adam because, and as the BBC site points out, he downloaded the entire history of humanity into his head during The Long Game and could well use that. Plus he doesn't like the Doctor since he dumped him back on Earth with a hole in his head. Additionally, he's familiar with the Daleks; could they possibly track him down?!? The only flaw in this idea is the fact that Bruno Langley is listed nowhere in the cast list for the two episodes, so unless a wonderful secret has actually been concealed, this would be wrong.

What's more, we are apparently promised the return of a character from Dalek History (perhaps this should be a new GCSE topic. Can you imagine it? "Mum, I don't wanna do History, I wanna do Dalek history, its far more interesting"!). We're assured it's not The Master, nor another Time Lord (but Omega would've been v cool), neither is it Fenric (?!?). Thus, its gotta either be Davros or the Supreme Dalek. I really hope its the latter, as to re-introduce Davros would see the Daleks get bogged down in all that continuity from the past, and that could be really rather messy, especially when the programme is already in a state of transistion (more on that next time). Of course, I could've made a gross miscalculation but personally I think it'd be cool to see a character not seen since the almighty Evil of the Daleks.

Aside from that, there are questions to answer regarding the cliffhanger at the end of the episode: what will it be? The revaltion of the Daleks as the plotters? Hopefully not, since that was given away by the trailer at the end of Boom Town. Perhaps the revelation of the Bad Wolf enigma? Probably, especially if this relates to one of the main characters or theories I've forwarded above. Or maybe the revelation of the 'returning character'? That would make for a great dramatic ending, and be very different to the two previous cliffhangers we've had. Either one of those will do! However, knowing the episode is in the directorial hands of Joe Aherne counts for a lot. His work has been expcetional so far, so let's just see how things go...

On a different note, I feel there's a storm of abuse for RTD brewing in the fandom for the way he represents the Daleks. I mean, this is why Terry Nation's estate were reluctant to use them in the series after all, and there are bound to be comparisons to Rob Shearman's superb re-examination of the Dalek Condition. So prepare for abuse on their behaviour, dialogue, general menace, and anything else that can possibly be picked apart. Personally, I'll be interested to see the Dalek ships and how they're designed in comparison to their crafts in Rememberance, Revelation and Resurrection etc.

Oh, and just one final note: you can tell Who is cool again. On eBay you can bid for buttons of psychadelic Cybermen and Scaroth. Ah, the Jagoroth. More on them next time...