![]() ![]() The character of the Sandman, who helps people dream, is a folk tale figure dating back hundreds of years Danish author Hans Christian Andersen wrote a version of the Sandman story based on these tales back in 1841. The use of Indian and Japanese culture and language in this story, inspired by Mark Gatiss’s recent trips to those destinations, is reminiscent of the liberal use of Chinese language in Joss Whedon’s series Firefly. He’s also a character in the Matrix, presumably for the same reason in that he has the power to take people in and out of their computer-generated ‘dreams’. Morpheus, as Clara rightly points out, is the god of dreams in Greek mythology. The space station in this story is named after French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier (1811-1877) whose most famous achievement was using mathematics to explain discrepancies in Uranus’s orbit by correctly predicting the existence of Neptune, the planet being orbited here. Shearsmith and Pemberton also co-wrote and starred in Psychoville and Inside No 9. Reece Shearsmith, who plays Rasmussen in this episode (And wears a uniform rather similar to the ones worn in seasons three and four of Babylon 5), is probably best known as one quarter of comedy sketch troupe The League Of Gentlemen – along with Mark Gatiss, who wrote this episode, and Steve Pemberton, who played Strackman Lux in 2008 story Silence In The Library. Though the concept has been around since at least 1980 and the film Cannibal Holocaust, it was the release of The Blair Witch Project in 1999 that popularised the genre and spawned a whole wave of found footage films that includes the likes of Paranormal Activity and JJ Abrams’ Cloverfield. This episode adopts the ‘found footage’ style of filmmaking. The whole idea of a recording that you mustn’t watch because it will ultimately destroy you is surely inspired by the Ring series of films, based on the 1991 Japanese horror novel Ring by Koji Suzuki. The Doctor refers to ‘the Great Catastrophe’ though there is an event of this name in Big Finish’s Dalek Empire series of audios, writer Mark Gatiss has confirmed that this is in fact a reference to the collision between the Earth and the sun referenced in 1984’s Frontios. However, when the creatures reappeared in 1984’s Warriors Of The Deep not only was the Doctor back to calling them Silurians, but they had adopted the name themselves. This drew letters from fans, who pointed out that the creatures couldn’t possibly have existed during that era, and in 1972’s The Sea Devils the Doctor once again pins the blame on Quinn, telling Jo they were actually from the Eocene period – this, too, would be inaccurate. However, it was the Doctor who started calling them Silurians. In their first story, 1970’s Doctor Who And The Silurians, scientist and Silurian collaborator Dr Quinn (not that one) did indeed believe the creatures to be from Earth’s Silurian era, between 443 and 416 million years ago. The Doctor refers to the naming of the Silurians, implying that someone else named them, but this isn’t exactly true. The Doctor and his companion holding hands has been a common sight during the post-2005 series (particularly during the Rose Tyler era), but there’s precedent for it in the classic series the second Doctor and Jamie, and the third Doctor and Jo, were often seen hand in hand. The Sandmen aren’t the first blind foe the Doctor has fought in 2010’s Vincent And The Doctor, the Doctor, Amy and Vincent Van Gogh have trouble with a blind Krafayis. Presumably she took this to mean figuratively. In 2013’s The Day Of The Doctor, the Doctor talks about dreaming in his closing monologue, stating he’s already told Clara he dreams. Unsurprisingly, the series hasn’t spent much time over the years exploring the Doctor’s claim that he sleeps the only times we’ve seen him napping are when drugged/knocked out or following his fourth and tenth regenerations.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |