Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
That's a very good question. I honestly couldn't tel you. I doubt
they've even gone into that level of detail at this stage.

It'll depend on whether the split over the co-production deal was on
amicable or acrimonious grounds. If the former then there's no
reason why Disney wouldn't be open to keeping a distribution
arrangement in place, for any additional Xmas special at least.
  

    
I searched for info, and what I found said that it's undetermined at
this point - maybe BBC America.
  

    
Maybe.

I'm certainly not surprised that it's "undetermined" at this point.
I get the feeling that the Disney execs have lost interest in this
minor side project and have wandered off to attend to other other
more pressing matters in the Mickey realm.
  

    
I just saw that they have five new MCU shows coming up...
  

    
Marvel seems to be the only franchise that Disney cannot get enough
or, or tire of. Unfortunately I have long since reached and passed
that marker.
  

    
Yep.
  

    
It got a little lost in the rush before and around Christmas, but
the BBC aired the latest Doctor Who spin-off entitled The War
Between The Land And The Sea. We've talked about it in the
<whovians.> conference but I promised to post some thoughts about it
here as well, so here goes.

This five-part (one-hour episodes apiece) spin-off from Doctor Who
is the last product from the BBC/Disney partnership, which has now
been sadly wrapped up. While the BBC has aired the show in the UK,
Disney Plus has yet to put a date on when it will start streaming
worldwide. So, I'll try and avoid any overt spoilers here for the
meantime until everyone else has had a chance to watch it. But if
you DO want to remain completely unblemished, then it may be avert
your eyes until you've seen it.

The mini-series does NOT feature the Doctor in any way, shape or
form not even as a brief walk-on-cameo. But some familiar figures
from the main series do have significant role, particularly Jemma
Redgrave as UNIT commander Kate Lethbridge-Stewart along with
Alexander Devrient as Colonel Christofer Ibrahim and Ruth Madeley as
Shirley Bingham. The plotting and battle of nerves between UNIT and
the world governments over how to tackle a full invasion is one of
the major plot elements.

But at the heart of the story is Russell Tovey as Barclay
Pierre-Dupont, a low-level UNIT transportation logistics manager who
finds that as the result of his manager having resigned to take up
another job in recent months, he's been unwittingly named as a key
part of plans in the event of an alien invasion for which he has no
training or experience. That ironically makes him the perfect person
so take a balanced, fair approach for how to do it while everyone
else is plotting and scheming.

Even so, he's sidelined until the moment that the alien threat
emerges and shows up for a fireside chat. They are revealed to be
what we originally knew in Doctor Who as "The Sea Devils" from a
1972 story of that name, which stared Jon Pertwee as the Doctor.
That nomenclature now been updated and corrected to Homo Aqua for
this series and they don't look anything like they used to in the
classic series, thanks to the massive Disney budget boost in makeup
and prosthetics. The one leading the negotiations with the humans
calls herself Salt and is played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

While there is undoubtedly an epic quality to the show as humans and
Homo Aqua manage to fall out rather badly through a series of
misunderstandings, much of the emotional side of the mini-series is
carried by Barclay and Salt as they reach an understanding between
them that may be the only way to save both species if they are to
share stewardship of planet Earth. If that's even possible.

There are certainly some spectacular moments in the five episodes
and I could certainly see where the Disney dollars had gone in the
creation of the first two episodes. Showrunner and creator Russell T
Davies also knows when to vary the pace and slow things down - the
middle episode is largely set in a diving bell as Barclay and his
human colleagues descend to the ocean floor to parlay with Homo
Aqua. They sit around in a circle and discuss their hopes and fears
for what might happen, while we cut back and forth to the surface to
see bellicose military officers gearing up with some very different
intentions for the encounter.

If I'm going to be honest, I felt the story lacked a compelling
character at the heart of it - a Doctor, in other words. It just
didn't have enough to drive it at the very centre. The story
(co-written by RTD with Pete McTighe) also writes itself into a
corner and I'm not sure that they really knew how to resolve the
issues and the world-ending situation it writes itself into. I will
be interested to see what other people think and whether they agree,
or if I'm being too demanding and picky.

So - have you seen it yet? What did you make of it? I'd love to hear
from everyone who has been watching, either here (you can email
inkwell at well.com) or in the <whovians.> conference if you're a
member (it's easy to sign up for a trial.)

Look forward to seeing you here. Or there. Or, you know, anywhere...