ReviewReviewI just watched "Time Rift", the fan-produced video by Jon Blum, A.C. Chapin, and Amy Steele -- Maryland-area Who fans who, in this production, portray the Seventh Doctor, Ace, and a Dalek-Killer named Ray. Excellent stuff.
The minor nitpicks first:
You can, of course, tell that this was an amateur production, as it was shot on a regular old home-video quality camera, and there are occasional problems with hearing dialogue due to ambient noise. The acting is variable, as is to be expected, but there was nobody who was just plain awful (though one or two came close); all manage to deliver their lines with at least some credibility, and many manage to do much better than that.
The script, while good, really hammers home its themes perhaps just a bit too often, as the Doctor has anguished monologue after anguished monologue. One or two of 'em could perhaps have been cut (and would have been, had this been made for broadcast--all the episodes except for Part Three over-run by several minutes).
The TARDIS is obviously made out of cardboard, and is the wrong color! (Mostly very light blue, with darker blue panels.) Next time they need to film in Los Angeles and use the Time Meddler's TARDIS. <grin> (For those who think they haven't seen it -- the Meddler's TARDIS, with McGann stepping out of it, was used in the TV Guide photo shoot. But I'm straying off-topic...)
And finally, who is that guy in the opening credits, whose face appears over the galaxy and winks at us? Nobody who looks remotely like him appears anywhere in the story. What, is this some sort of symbolic thing? He's supposed to be Guardian of the Galaxy, or Time's Champion, or something? I don't get it. <wink>
Now, the compliments:
"Time Rift" is as slick as a no-budget fan video can possibly be. It's very well edited and directed, and the score by Neil Marsh, while not quite up to the standards of a Mark Ayers or Dominic Glynn, is still rather good, and very Doctor Who. (It also leaves Keff McCulloch's stuff in the dust, but then, so does every other incidental music composer's in Who's history... <grin>) The visual effects are kept to a minimum, and are very simple, and all the more effective because of it. The only time the lack of budget really shows (other than the cardboard TARDIS) is a ray gun, which we never see functioning; the camera zooms in on the gun, with the end of the barrel just off screen, and we hear it firing; then we cut to someone dead on the ground. Fortunately, this only happens a couple of times, in Part Four.
The script is marvelous. The plot continues to surprise, right up to the last episode (and special kudos for managing to avoid makng Part Three the "padding" episode; important developments a-plenty continue to happen). The story deals very well with the Seventh Doctor's manipulativeness, and its consequences, both physical and emotional, for the Doctor and those around him, and the Washington, D.C. setting is used to good effect to underscore those themes. The chess theme, though a bit over-played here, is better handled than it ever was in any of McCoy's episodes. The relationship between the Doctor and Ace is very well handled, as is the rift the Doctor's treatment of Ray and Ace's friendship with her causes. And the Master is back to his old, cunning self, in scenes that seemed to have been written with Delgado in mind, and makes me wish that Jon, A.C., and Amy could write the next TV episode featuring the Master. There's one piece of dialogue in particular the Master has that cuts right to the heart of why he and the Doctor do what they do, and I found myself wishing that Matthew Jacobs had seen this before writing the film script. (It's a bit of a spoiler, I guess, to say the Master is in it -- but I knew it in advance, and was still surprised when he first made his presence known.) My only nitpick is the way the Master gives his disguise away to the Doctor; I simply can't believe the Master would have made such a fundamental error! [Personally, I think he did it intentionally. -- ed.]
The Doctor's dialogue deserves a special mention: the script nails the Seventh Doctor spot on with lines like:
"I never eliminated slavery, stopped the Nazis, cured the common cold -- because then it wouldn't be human history anymore."
"I've never understood that mentality -- rule the galaxy, conquer another, collect the whole set."
And several more.
The performances:
Jon Blum does an uncanny impression of Sylvester McCoy. In his first lines of dialogue, he goes way over the top, farther than Sylv's ever been, but quickly calms down. It's odd to watch a 20-something play the part; he's the same general size and build as McCoy, but Jon's young, not patricularly rubbery face takes some getting used to. However, the costume and the accent help, and Jon does an extremely creditable job. He doesn't quite manage to make the part his own; it never rises above inspired mimicry, but it's close enough, and a damn sight better than most other fan performances I've ever seen. Other than...
A.C. Chapin as Ace. She is fantastic, and easily does the best acting in the entire video. Her accent often slips, but it simply doesn't matter. She plays the part every bit as well as Sophie Aldred, and though she looks passably like Sophie, that's just an added plus. Even if she didn't look much like Aldred, her performance would be just as effective. She is good enough so that, unlike Jon's Doctor, you don't sit there critiquing the performance; you simply enjoy it.
Amy Steele as Ray, a Dalek Killer fallen through the time rift from the 22nd Century, is also very good. The character is a worthy addition to the long pantheon of supporting characters in Doctor Who, and she plays the part of the displaced teenager, brainwashed and technically augmented to fight Daleks, even when they're not there, very well. However, in Part Four, the character undergoes a transformation (which I won't reveal here), and Amy's performance goes a little too far over the top, jeopardizing her credibility. I think she should have reined it in a bit. However, this is a minor quibble, and she does a very good job in the rest of the story.
Itzy Friedman, as the Master, turns in a decent performance. His Master is by far the most calm and collected in a long time, and in both demeanor and appearance, he brings back pleasant memories of Roger Delgado. My only real complaint is that he was perhaps too calm and collected -- the polar opposite of Ainley's Master, who almost always seemed to be just short of foaming at the mouth. I can't see Friedman's Master ever dissolving into cackling, evil laughter -- he's simply too dignified for it. While this is a good thing, his performance through most of the video was a bit one-note; when the pressure was on, I wanted to see him crack just a bit -- to snap at people, and show a bit of impatience and disdain. Nothing major, just something to vary his performance a bit. Other than that -- a good job.
These four are much better performers than you'd expect from a fan-produced video, and Marsha Twitty as Brigadier-General Adrienne Kramer of UNIT turns in a competent performance as a military woman unsure whether this Doctor and his secrets can be trusted, though she could have upped her energy a notch or two. Everyone else, however, weighs in with performances that are at about the level you would expect from a fan video, from the not-quite-competent to the pretty bad. Fortunately, there are only a couple of other major characters (Captain Walker and Timothy Hartnel l-- who, for reasons the blooper reel makes clear, is played by two actors) -- and of all the major characters, they're the most minor, though the Hartnell character has a big role to play in Part Four.
The biggest compliment I can pay "Time Rift" is that it really does feel like Doctor Who. Over and over again, I got that same feeling, that same indefinable thrill, that comes with watching the series at its best. It typifies everything that was good about the McCoy era -- moral quandaries, character development, a sense of mystery -- while jettisoning much that was bad -- oblique plotting, lousy incidental music, and the feeling that the show wasn't always being treated as a drama by all involved. (Granted, this last trait had been pretty much eliminated by Season 26 anyway, but it still forms a major part of many people's impression of the McCoy years.) It isn't perfect, of course; there are flaws. But it's much better than you could possibly expect it to be.
I watched "Time Rift" one episode a day for four days, watching it at about the same time each day. Jon Blum & co. gave me honest-to-God new Doctor Who to watch, and recaptured much of the magic that made me tune in in the first place. And for that, I thank them.