Now, say what you will about the series itself for good or bad. I'd like to take some time to point out a well done character in terms of concept, and acting. And that is,


Half Face Man, as the only title he is known by.

Spoiler Warning from this point on

HFM is a cyborg, or more specifically, originated as a clockwork machine android. Started out as a fully automated machine. The starship this particular machine was aboard time traveled and crash landed on ancient earth. These machines, running on basic protocols, began to break down over time and turned to organic parts to repair and sustain themselves.

Over the millennia following the extinction of the Dinosaurs and the emergance of humanity, HFM, at some point began to change. With the continous addition of Human parts added to himself, his basic programing began to alter.

The clockwork android is an intelligent, learning program. Through repeated exposure to human beings, and the addition of their parts to sustain itself, HFM began to develop a distinct personality and a new directive. Seek the promised land.

The promised land, for lack of any other term is essentially the afterlife. The machine is not aware of what the afterlife is, or even that it exists beyond "death." So pursues the promised land aimlessly while self sustaining itself with human parts.

What makes me appreciate this character so much is the subtle nature of him. At an earlier point in the episode, a dinosaur that is caught and dragged along with the doctors time machine is killed by the HFM and harvested for parts, which is discussed later in the episode and then reveals that this machine has existed for a very, very long time.

Essentially, this machine appears as a villian because it kills in order to sustain itself. But only because it follows its prime directive. That table is immidiately flipped when the machine displays anger, and visible distress when he mentions the dinosaur he killed.

"I killed that beautiful creature for an ounce of optic nerve!"

And later on when the doctor asks how the view is, HFM states that it is beautiful when lookind down upon the city of london.

The machine displays visible regret, and visible anger and stress which hints at an evolution beyond his origins, and yet he is still bound by his core basic programming which is to survive and continue. Eventually through talks with the Doctor, and a conversation that leaves the viewer wondering on if the machine is capable of lying as well, we're left a vauge end to the machine's death, either through being talked sense to by the doctor and committing suicide and self termination, or being pushed by the doctor as the machine resisted being shut down.

And finally, the machine reaches the promised land, which means the humanity it acquired was enough to count beyond his origins as a simple automated construct.


In Summarry:

What I enjoy so much about this character is that he touches upon something not often touched upon in media, games, TV shows, or movies. A lot of media out there only ever portrays the aggressive side of self aware machines, or machines that inherently started out as being programmed for "good."

HFM is a blurred line between what you could consider good, and bad. Caught in the binding contract of programming but beginning to become self aware and defined with visible sense of morals and feelings.

And what shines is the particular actors performance. Stiff, slow, robotic movements but very subtle movements of the head and eyes to communicate confusion, thinking, realization, and anger.

Regardless of your take on the show itself, I think it's important to appreciate good characters and concepts. And HFM is a particular character that stands out to me because of how complicated he is under the simplistic surface of an artificial intelligence out to kill.

So. Thanks for reading.

Talk about characters that stand out to you or you have an appreciation for if you want.

HFM sounds like the name of a porn magazine.

If anything, Ele, it's good to see that even though I have to try really fucking hard to focus my attention and memory these days on something, I haven't fallen down to your apparent level of scatter brains and therefore walking derailment of useless points.

Thank you for contributing to something.

Quote from: Elegiac on April 08, 2015, 01:54:43 PM

HFM sounds like the name of a porn magazine.

If anything, Ele, it's good to see that even though I have to try really fucking hard to focus my attention and memory these days on something, I haven't fallen down to your apparent level of scatter brains and therefore walking derailment of useless points.

Thank you for contributing to something.

I think the actual magazine I'm thinking of is FHM.

Good read. DW is generally overlooked, given the nature of the show and its intended audience. I wouldn't have typically expected that level of depth for any disposal character (for lack of a better word), especially given his screen time and only being featured in one episode.

The latest series as a whole seems to have taken a significant turn for the better. It's almost as if they're beginning to take themselves seriously.

The new series has some great undertones to it. It's a little more mature and darker. There's a hell of a lot of undertones dealing with lying, truth, and fear for obvious starters.

A heavy theme on soldiers and the doctor's apparent disliking of them despite questioning himself as to what exactly he is, good, or bad.

I'm actually rather sad that HFM was a disposable character because when you look at him he was done very well.