CS Weekly Archive> DVD > 09/14/07

The Strange Case of Mr. Stevenson

and Mr. Moffat

by jason davis

Technology, psychology, and conspiracy combine to create a suspenseful sequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale of man's duality in the BBC's production of Jekyll.

Jekyll

Steven Moffat

Suffering from something a bit more extreme than split-personality disorder, Dr. Tom Jackman (James Nesbitt) isolates himself from his beloved wife, Claire (Gina Bellman), hires psychiatrist Katherine Reimer (Michelle Ryan) to study his condition, and establishes a system of surveillance to reign in his violent alter ego, Mr. Hyde. As Jackman struggles to understand his dual nature, private investigators, sinister corporations, and a mysterious woman pursue his secrets for their own motives. Writer Steven Moffat (Coupling & Doctor Who) crafts a gripping six-part drama that simultaneously sequelizes and modernizes The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to create an engaging study of a man trying to understand himself.

With a skill worthy of P.T. Barnum, Moffat withholds the on-screen appearance of Hyde throughout much of the first episode. Instead, the audience is elegantly introduced to Dr. Jackman's paranoid existence—the protocols and technologies that allow him to keep tabs on his other self, the mutually destructive pact that insures Hyde will not kill and Jackman will not seek a cure, and the doctor's absolute terror that his dark side will discover his wife and kids. Every time a transformation is imminent, the script slips forward to Jackman awakening after Hyde's debauchery. The audience is kept in step with their protagonist and builds a rapport with Jackman before finally encountering his bad side.

When Hyde is finally revealed, he's not the slavering beast of other iterations, but rather a childlike embodiment of Freud's id imbued with an appetite for sex and violence. Moffat's characterization siphons off the evil of the character to replace it with a dangerous immaturity. Hyde is capable of great harm, but his behavior is motivated more by selfishness than malice. With each episode, Hyde continues to develop like a rapidly maturing child, and his relationships with Jackman (or "Daddy" as Hyde calls him), Claire, and Reimer are refined across the series to illustrate the character's evolution and to provide the fulcrum upon which the series' climax occurs.

Moffat's affinity for non-linear storytelling is particularly evident as the series' backstory is retroactively revealed in later episodes. Jackman's meeting with Claire is recounted late in the series and completely recasts much of the information unveiled in prior episodes. The narrative effortlessly bounces back and forth between the past and the present day without ever losing the viewer, delivering potentially tedious exposition in a stylish fashion. Each episode features a strong thematic underpinning that unifies the individual installment while building to the gestalt of the entire series.

- A Tale Retold featurette
- Anatomy of a Scene featurette
- Two audio commentaries

Several members of the production contribute to a half-hour featurette that charts the story's development from a vaguely defined horror program to a modern-day sequel to Stevenson's novel. Moffat is on hand to discuss both the narrative logistics of structuring the tale as well as the subtleties of the various characters' psychiatry. Moffat leads a commentary on the first episode where he candidly points out what he feels are the weaker moments of the script while offering insights into his creative process and displaying his near-encyclopedic knowledge of the story's source material.


Stephen King labeled Jekyll and Hyde one of the three (alongside Frankenstein and Dracula) iconic tales of the horror genre, and Moffat's television sequel successfully restates the archetypal struggle of man versus himself for a modern audience with no shortage of new flourishes for the long-time adherent of Stevenson's oeuvre.

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Jason Davis is the DVD Manager for CS Weekly, a contributing editor for Creative Screenwriting Magazine, and has written for Cinescape.com, MSN.com, and created the TV series Studio 13, which ran on Lorne Michaels' Burly TV network. He lives in the small space left over by his ever-expanding library of books, movies, and music.

Jekyll courtesy BBC Video

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