Canary Duty - Dracula Episode One (Spoiler Free)

If my War of the Worlds review has taught me anything, you can't judge a full series just by one episode.  So obviously what I say here can only reflect on the single episode I saw at the BFI's preview for this series, but I can say right now that this episode on it's own knocks it out of the park!  Steve Moffat (who was there with co-creator Mark Gatiss and many of the cast and crew) did the usual thing he does at these preview events and asked us very nicely not to give away any big surprises, including whether or not there are big surprises, so I'm going to do my best to avoid any here.  I won't go into any big reveals, nor whether or not I guessed anything ahead of time, nothing like that, just the shape of this one's storyline, the performances, and the feel of the production.  If even that is too much of a spoiler, my TL/DR version is as follows; this is a full blooded production, great scares, surprising number of laughs, feels true to the book and character whilst bringing some new things to the table, a must-watch recommendation from me.  Right, now all of that's out of the way, let's go right in.  Carpe Jugulum!

So this opening mostly focuses on naturally the opening act of the novel, Jonathan Harker's journey to, and imprisonment in, Castle Dracula (which in this version is, by coincidence, portrayed by the same one used in 1922's Nosferatu; Orava Castle in Slovakia).  There's a lot here that's familiar, including certain details from the novel that not every adaptation uses, and there are a few nice little shout-outs to previous versions of the story.  However, as we might expect from the creative team, the story doesn't follow things slavishly, and introduces quite a few new twists and ideas, including some fantastic new horror set pieces.  By the halfway mark, the story has taken on a very different shape to the original, with what was a very minor part of the novel given much more weight and importance.

The biggest change though is with Dracula himself.  In the book, he's often a very off-screen (erm, off-page) presence, but he gets far more to do on screen here.  There's an effect I've noticed with some revamps of characters in that creators feel like they have to "one up" previous versions, making them more powerful say.  Just look at how ludicrously OP some superheroes have gotten over the years.  For this version, Gatiss and Moffat don't go down that path, they realised that all they had to do was remind everyone how powerful Dracula already is.  All the tricks he pulls in this episode are straight from the original book, but some are done in different ways.  There is perhaps one new thing, but it is just an extension of what's already been established.  Also, there are some fantastic new wrinkles to vampire lore in here, making it even more the stuff of nightmares than it already was.  Finally, Dracula has far more personality in here; he plays with his food, he has a particular sadistic side, and they give him plenty of opportunities to show it off.  Seriously, this might be one of the goriest takes on the character in years, with some imagery that really got under even my skin, and we're only on part one!  Gatiss said in the Q&A that horror needs to be transgressive, has to push boundaries to say fresh, and boy are there moments in this episode that do just that.  I really wouldn't be surprised if on disc this ends up an 18!

Cast and crew at the BFI Q&A, talking to the person who asked a question right behind me.  From left to right, writers Steve Moffat and Mark Gatiss, star Dolly Wells, a box of jelly babies, star Claes Bang, producer Sue Virtue, director of episode one Jonny Campbell, and interviewer Boyd Hilton.

In terms of character and performances, Claes Bang is as instantly iconic as the Count as both Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee were.  There are a few moments when he pays tribute to both, but this is definitely his own spin on the character, and he gets some wonderful dialogue and set pieces to play with.  Plus his hair naturally forms that sort of widow's peak shape Lee and Lugosi had; bonus!  As for the rest of the cast, this opening has quite a small number of main characters; the most screentime goes to John Heffernan as Jonathan Harker, and he's fantastic, not least because he gets quite an arc in this one.  Sometimes he's the eyes and ears of the audience, others he's the butt of some very dark humour, as we obviously spot certain things we don't, and other times... I wouldn't dream of revealing that!  The other big character here is Dolly Wells as Sister Agatha; that character was a very minor presence in the book, barely in a few scenes, but she gets a pretty appropriate promotion in here, and Wells brings her to life wonderfully.  All of the cast though do a great job with not just the story's horror, but its humour; no, it's not a full horror comedy, but there are great laughs in here, which help to release the tension from certain scenes, and makes the horror hit that much harder.  After all, the more fun you have with characters, the more impact it has if something bad happens to them...

So yeah, I really dug this!  I will say that it has a few of Moffat and Gatiss' literary fingerprints all over it, like hidden meanings of turns of phrase being revealed, characters making clever deductions and such, but the original book plays a lot like a detective story too, with the characters trying to work out the truth behind Dracula and his plans, so it fits well here.  However I know that this sort of dialogue and writing style isn't everyone's cup of tea, so if you found that irritating in Sherlock, this probably won't convert you.  Talking about things not to everyone's tastes, in looking up people's reactions to the BFI preview, I noticed a few people already complaining about it "going woke and SJW"; that pleases me immensely, anything that gets such creatures annoyed gets a pass in my book (again, not going to spoil in what way it does that).  This is likely to be major event television, I highly recommend seeing this live on New Year's Day, it's going to get a lot of people talking.  My one annoyance; all y'all who see it then will have to wait only a day for how its cliffhanger resolves, I'm sat here having to wait an extra three weeks!

Dracula will air on BBC1 at 9pm on January 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and then be available on iPlayer and Netflix worldwide.