Jekyll written by Steven Moffatt, directed by Douglas Mackinnon and Matt Lispey (2007))
24 July 2008I picked this series up because Steven Moffatt was a writer on the new Doctor Who, having written some great episodes, and who and who is becoming the new show runner for Doctor Who. It is also rumored that once Tennat leaves the show, either after the next 4 specials, or the 5th season, that Moffatt will replace Tennat with James Nesbitt, so I wanted to get familiar with these two, in the year long wait for the 5th Season of Doctor Who. And I am glad I checked out this series, because it is incredibly well written and put together, and Nesbitt is fantastic in his dual roles here. This is an amazing series and a must see, though I do wish that the DVD had been compressed better. IT has some ugly consistent noise throughout the blacks in the whole show. Oh well, it is still a must see. See it on BBC America if you can, or rent the DVD’s, it is well worth it. A really cool modern look at the Jekyll and Hyde story, which is not so much a retelling as an update, that spans the original story and brings it into modern times, it is in fact described by it’s creators as a sequel instead of a telling.
Tom Jackman (James Nesbitt) is a prominent scientist making a good living, who has himself a major problem, and has become estranged from his family because of it. The shot starts with him interviewing a psychologist Katherine Reimer (Michelle Ryan who was recently in the US remake of the Million Dollar Woman) which he is hiring to work for him, and his strange alter ego. It seems that Jackman in fact changes from himself to a version of himself much like his id, who is also physically stronger and taller, and thinner, who goes about having sex, and roughing people up and drinking. In fact Jackman always had a headache, but what he doesn’t realize he is in fact always hungover. And the alter ego keeps showing up more often, and Jackman has a chair with straps to keep him locked up and punish him at times. Jackman finds that his estranged wife Claire (Gina Bellman) with who he has two child with, has hired a detective named Miranda Calendar (Meera Syal) and her pregnant girlfriend Min (Fenella Woolgar), who didn’t reveal his alter ego to his wife, but does reveal that the black van following Jackman is not from her. Finally Jackman’s alter ego meets an American named Benjamin Lennox (Paterson Joseph) who works for an organization called Klein & Utterson, and who names the later ego Hyde.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Tom realizes he has to try and stay awake, so he can suppress Hyde, who has threatened his children, so he goes on the run. On the run he ends up meeting Mr’s Jackman (Linda Marlowe), a mysterious woman who claims to be his mother, and seems to know much of what is going on.
Tom returns home and finds that the organization that is tracking him is Klein and Utterson which is the company he worked for. He finds that in fact his boss and friend Peter Syme (Denis Lawson), was his keeper, and they were trying to get Hyde. Tom awakens covered in blood and thinks he has killed his wife, and gets taken by Klein and Utterson and put in a specially built box that he cannot escape from. In fact we learn that he killed Benjamin, and his wife is OK.
Miranda and Min go to Klein and Utterson and confront Syme with all their evidence, but when they say that the company cloned Dr. Jekyll because he had no children, the interview is ended because in fact they don’t know where Jackman came from other than being abandoned at a train track when 2 months old. We see in flashback Tom and Claire’s first meeting, and how Hyde appeared shortly thereafter.
Tom is believed dead, having been “cured” in the box, and ending up as Hyde. Hyde starts to get Tom’s memories, as well as memories of Henry Jekyll, and we learn that Jekyll never used a potion (which is what Klein & Utterson has been trying unsuccessfully to reproduce), and that it seems to have been caused by Jekyll’s maid who had an affair with and who looks just like Claire. Hyde then pretends that he will kill his wife, but then helps her to escape, so they can rescue their two children.
Tom and Hyde start to combine, to save their family. It seems in fact Claire is the clone, made to stimulate Tom’s transformation into Hyde, who they want to use to cure disease and use his superhuman skills and make unlimited money. The American woman, Ms. Utterson (Linda Marlowe) is going to kill Tom’s children, so Hyde sacrifices themselves to save them. Claire gets her children out, but they seem to have changed the containers that they were in, having used Hyde’s genes. With Hyde being gone, Tom and his family are safe, and back together.
6 Months later Tom goes to see his mother, to ask who he is if he was not a clone of Jekyll, and she explains that the gene’s of Jekyll were passed down from women, and she is in fact Ms. Utterson, who is her Hyde!
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Wow, this is a great series. I am really excited to see what Moffatt will do will with Doctor Who.
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