As in all things there are some Doctor Who stories which are neither loved or hated. Heck they’re not even liked. Hate is not the opposite of love; apathy is. Such stories are merely tolerated, then dusted off and put in a corner somewhere.
In this vein the Tour is putting forward a new set of caps for Fear Her. David Tennant’s first season back in 2006 built upon the first season in nu-Who by being quite ambitious in storytelling terms, but at the cost that some episodes were clearly more lavished upon than others. Certainly Love & Monsters falls into this category, as does Fear Her. A story which takes place in August 2012 but was so clearly filmed during a much colder time of year.
Quite quite domestic and mostly done with people talking to each other in rooms and on the street, this is about as modest a story as Doctor Who has attempted since returning in 2005. And while it doesn’t fail spectacularly like Love & Monsters, Fear Her tries to get by mostly on charm, but isn’t ultimately reclaimed by it. The Lodger during Matt’s Smith’s first year at least had a lot of quirkiness to fall back upon. In Fear Her the pencil was mightier in than the horde.
Classic Capitology beckons once more. Get your head on a swivel for this one … next week.
