Sleazy, funny, and lurching between melodrama and pulp romp, MoffatsJekyllproved that he had ideas to spare.
Look at me, it says, for six attention-seeking episodes.
They dub him Mr Sexy-pants.Thatshow Moffat-y this is.
Nesbitts Hyde is a prototype for Andrew Scotts Moriarty inSherlockand Michelle Gomez Missy inDoctor Who.
As villains, all three are essentially highly dangerous children, alternating violence with impishness, psychopathy with petulance.
Two of that villainous trio even share the same line.
Later inJekyll, Hydes superpowers make him cross over not with Moriarty, but Sherlock himself.
Alternatively, as Jackman, Nesbitt reins it in and plays it straight.
Or as straight as is possible with a script this fond of puns.
He has to go home and change.
Hes always keeping the wolf from the door.
He used to have an ego but it got so big it left him.
Then again, Claire is preoccupied.
Which she was fired from.
For liking innuendo too much.
Ever the comedy writer, Moffat cant resist a good gag inJekyllor a bad one for that matter.
(Hyde asks Claire, All day, every day without killing someone?
What kind of life is that?
Her ba-dum-tish response: Its called marriage, honey.)
You could have knocked me over with a feather.
Which, oddly enough… Moving on cuts in Miranda.
Quite as youd expect, theJekyllscript is stamped all over with Moffats trademarks.
But theres also the poetry.
How often does the sun rise in this world on something new?
one character asks, and how often do we mistake a miracle for a monster?
All of which givesJekyllits unique character.
Parodies aside,Dr Jekyll And Mr Hydeisnt a funny story, but Moffat makes it so.
Its not situated in a larger sci-fi context, but Moffat places it there.
Clever is exactly whatJekyllis.
Too clever for its own good, perhaps.
It certainly has more ideas than room for them.
Moffat was given a BBC One sci-fi drama series and threw every trick in the book at it.
