|
Fear Her Format Reviewed: TV Review Fear Her takes the backdrop of the final days before the Olympics start in London in 2012. The topic would have been big news around the time the stories were being commissioned and written as that's around when the successful bid was announced. So, it really shouldn't come a s massive surprise that it managed to work its way into one of the stories of this series. The story starts with a child mysteriously disappering from a front garden in full view of many other people, whilst a girl in a house accross the street is drawing a picture of the lad that 'comes to life'. This is the latest in a series of disappearances, and the Doctor and Rose land in this neighbourhood and get embroiled. The Doctor and Rose discover that Chloe is behind this, and then make contact with a part of a gestalt entity, Isolus, possessing Chloe and really causing the damage. Rose eventually finds the solution by finding Isolus' pod and reactivating it allowing Isolus to leave, returning all those who have been captured into drawings. In terms of the overall series, Fear Her can be seen as another filler before the final spectacular end to the series that occurs in the last two episodes. There is a bit more to it here though, but the plot is rather one dimensional. There doesn't seem to be much depth to it, and many of the themes were used earlier in the series in The Idiot's Lantern, such as sweeping strange occurances under the carpet before a major event. This one is the Olympics, the last one was the Coronation. There is little explanation that I can see of how and why the events are happening, and this means to me that the story is somewhat superficial. I also thought the bit concerning the torch and the Doctor were awful, and should never have been included. Some of these problems were probably exacerbated by the press revelations about Billie Pipers immediate future with the show that came out around the time this story aired, but that is no real excuse. On the other hand, the episode does have something that is quite rare, a great performance from a child actor. Abisola Agbaje who plays Chloe does remarkably well, and manages to be believable, whilst retaining a sinister edge when neccessary. Nina Sosanya who plays Chloes mother also does well, and fans of the series Teachers would also be pleased to see her nice bottom onscreen again! The Doctor is once again slightly subdued here, and Rose comes to the fore again. Billie Piper really has shone more and more as the series has gone on. David Tennant is an excellent Doctor, but Billie Piper has really come on as an actress I believe in this series. There are more positive aspects to this story. Despite being fairly superficial, it is quite a good watch. I don't think it will stand up to too much repeated viewing, at no point does the time drag. The story itself also has an interesting villain, with a rogue part of a gestalt entity causing problems. This for me could have been gone into much better, but in essence it was a good idea. Overall, Fear Her leads in to the end of series spectacular, and is likely to be overshadowed by the more high profile other stories of the series. It is a fairly pleasant way to spend 45 minutes to watch this, but there are issues I have with some aspects of the story and production. Rating:  |