Testimony Of A Lackluster Doctor Who Christmas Special: "Twice Upon A Time"

The Good: Performances are good, Some of the jokes land
The Bad: Dull plot, Forced sense of conflict, Many of the jokes do not land on a character level, Failure of chemistry
The Basics: "Twice Upon A Time" is fairly pointless, nostalgic Doctor Who that belabors a character conflict that cannot possibly go in a surprising direction.


One of the worst aspects of changing the actor who plays The Doctor in Doctor Who is that who the new Doctor is rapidly becomes the most spoiled information in science fiction at its time. While that might not usually be an issue - and the announcement of Jodie Whittaker being cast as the next Doctor was made months ago - it usually means that the final episode of the current Doctor must be treated with some finesse. After all, Doctor Who viewers already know who to look for at the episode's climax, so the episode's writer and director has to make it interesting to the viewer to get there. Sadly, for Steven Moffat's final episode as showrunner for Doctor Who, "Twice Upon A Time," he forgets all about subtlety and finesse.

Instead, "Twice Upon A Time" quickly establishes a ridiculous premise that the viewer knows cannot possibly come to pass as Peter Capaldi's Doctor refuses to Regenerate. "Twice Upon A Time" attempts, vainly, to get the viewer to believe that Capaldi's Doctor might well be the final incarnation and that rather than regenerate, The Doctor is ready to die. The instant failure of suspension of disbelief quickly turns to a joke-filled love note from Steven Moffat to his own prior works as "Twice Upon A Time" packs in references to prior Doctor Who episodes Moffat wrote and/or produced, like "Into The Dalek" (reviewed here!), "The Pilot" (reviewed here!), and - most recently - "The Doctor Falls" (reviewed here!). Despite the flashback nature of the very opening of the episode, "Twice Upon A Time" picks up right after the final scene of "The Doctor Falls."

The First Doctor, following an incident with the Cybermen, takes the TARDIS to the South Pole, where he refuses to Regenerate. There, he encounters the latest (Peter Capaldi) incarnation of The Doctor outside his TARDIS. The First Doctor, considering death instead of Regeneration, seems to be enough to stop time for everyone but the two Doctors and a confused World War I Captain who suddenly appears there. After a brief flashback to explain how the Captain arrived at the South Pole - after encountering a mysterious, glasslike form of a woman - the two Doctors and the Captain retreat to the TARDIS, where the First Doctor is critical of its style and upkeep. The TARDIS is abducted and taken aboard another ship. The First Doctor leaves the TARDIS and is miffed by how The Doctor is referred to as The Doctor of War. The current Doctor, recognizing the reference and Bill, who appears from a room on the ship, leaves the TARDIS and begins to question his Companion.

Bill is confused when she cannot find Heather (who she recalls rescued her from the Cybermen). The Doctors investigate the ship, which belongs to the Testimony. The Testimony is a time-traveling library that goes into the past and extracts people in the moment of their death, downloads their memories, stores them and then returns the significant individual to their moment of death. The two Doctors, Bill and The Captain retreat to the First Doctor's TARDIS, where they begin a quest to find who the Testimony's template is based upon. To that end, they travel to the center of the galaxy to access the biggest database in the galaxy and The Doctor encounters "Rusty" the Dalek who rejected the rest of the Daleks. There, The Doctor learns about Testimony and he and the First Doctor return to Earth to face their destiny.

"Twice Upon A Time" hinges a lot on the viewer having an expert level knowledge of Doctor Who which, admittedly, I do not. As a result, I feel unqualified to discuss the quality of David Bradley's performance. Bradley mimics some of the obvious mannerisms of William Hartnell's Doctor - based on the archive footage I've seen in prior episodes and clips - but whether Bradley gets the character's voice and attitudes right is something I am not qualified to evaluate. The unfortunate aspect here is that the First Doctor spouts a lot of racist and sexist lines and mannerisms that might have been a sign of the times in the early 1960s when the show began, but make no sense for a character from Gallifrey. Unless when The Doctor was born on Gallifrey black women were maids, for example, some of the jokes fail to land on a character level.

Even as a person only marginally fluent in the current (2005 and up) Doctor Who some of the episode's "big surprises" fail to land. The identity of The Captain is hardly surprising and outside his lineage and being miffed when The Doctor references "I" after referring to the World War, the character is somewhat pointless in "Twice Upon A Time." The Captain's presence is an obligatory nod to the history of the franchise, as opposed to a vital character in his own right.

"Twice Upon A Time" belabors the humor while poking fun at inconsistencies and issues within Doctor Who. The First Doctor calls the sonic screwdriver absurd and questions how The Doctor could wear sunglasses indoors. The Doctor repeatedly crow's Missy's early line "you know who I am" to the First Doctor and Moffat and director Rachel Talalay use the opportunity to play with un-armored Daleks. But the First Doctor's sexism and the jokes predicated on outdated attitudes quickly wear thin.

Thematically, "Twice Upon A Time" is all about people who are too afraid of death desperately trying to run away from their inevitable mortality. The First Doctor and The Captain are not ready to die and are afraid of what might come next and The Doctor recognizes that his life is on an exceptionally short fuse and he tries to solve one last mystery before his death. But the significance of any discussion of mortality and acceptance of it is lost because the viewer already knows The Doctor's decision. In fact, we know the First Doctor's decision (to regenerate), that Bill is already dead, and that the Captain is not a significant enough character to care about his impending demise. So, "Twice Upon A Time" ought to be The Doctor's acceptance of life and his determination to regenerate and continue, but it meanders around fairly pointlessly until it gets to where it always had to.

The theme of "Twice Upon A Time" offers a natural opening for David Tennant's Doctor to make an appearance and it is disappointing that he is only in archive footage. Tennant's Doctor essentially begged for more time before his end and thematically, that fits "Twice Upon A Time" exceptionally well. The lack of an appearance by River Song - technically, she never dies, so that makes sense, save that Moffat already brought an image of her back once following her demise - is similarly disappointing.

Finally, the plot conceit of "Twice Upon A Time" builds into something painfully familiar. The "tour around the Best Of" idea wears thin and when a long-gone character appears, it quickly reminds viewers of just how limited Steven Moffat's writing has become. The "dead character living for an adventure" conceit was, essentially, the whole concept behind Clara's final exit with Ashildr.

The result is that Moffat guts much of his own creation on his way out. After finding amazing chemistry for The Doctor and Bill, they return stiff in "Twice Upon A Time" and the regeneration into the first female Doctor occurs without any reference to Missy or commentary on why The Doctor would regenerate as a woman this time (did it just not occur to him before?!). The result is something of an obligatory bridge episode that lacks a spark or genius and merely muddles through to the inevitable.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Tenth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season of Peter Capaldi as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

For other Doctor Who Christmas episodes, be sure to check out:
"The Return Of Doctor Mysterio"
"Voyage Of The Damned"
"Last Christmas"

3.5/10

For other Doctor Who episode and season reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Tragic Irony Of Doctor Who Season 10

The Good: Good characters, Decent performances, Some very engaging plotlines, Good writing for Peter Capaldi's Doctor
The Bad: A couple of wonky episodes that do not live up to the rest
The Basics: Doctor Who Season Ten finally finds the right voice for Peter Capaldi's incarnation of The Doctor . . . right before his tenure ends.


Whenever there is a casting announcement for Doctor Who, fans have a tendency to get very polarized. When Peter Capaldi was announced as The Doctor, though, a lot of people - who knew his other works - were very excited. Unfortunately, after two seasons of Doctor Who where Capaldi's talents were used poorly on Steven Moffat-plotted seasons where the writing did not match Capaldi's abilities, a lot of Doctor Who fans were disappointed. After almost a year without new Doctor Who episodes, Doctor Who returned for a tenth season, which was announced early on as Peter Capaldi's final season as The Doctor.

It was not long into the tenth season of Doctor Who before those who had initially been excited about Peter Capaldi being cast as The Doctor began to hope that Capaldi's impending departure was a bit of deception from the BBC on the order of the promise that Clara was leaving the series after Capaldi's first season as The Doctor. In other words, in the tenth season of Doctor Who, the writers managed to find both the right voice for Capaldi as The Doctor, a Companion who was smart and interesting enough to hold her own with The Doctor and plots that were generally engaging again. It's almost like Steven Moffat loped his way through his time as Executive Producer of Doctor Who and was determined not to leave the series completely hated by the fans, so he actually put some effort into producing the tenth season.

The tenth season of Doctor Who retained Nardole as a Companion for The Doctor and introduced Bill, a young woman who worked at the University where The Doctor has been teaching for decades. Doctor Who Season Ten begins at a very different place than the prior seasons; having loved, adventured, and lost River Song, The Doctor has returned to Earth where he teaches at a University and guards a mysterious vault in the basement below his office. Accompanied only by Nardole from the prior period in his life, The Doctor is acting as Earth's defender to fulfill a promise to River Song.

But, after meeting Bill and realizing she is not a complete moron, The Doctor starts to feel reinvigorated and he makes exceptions to his rule about not traveling off-world. Soon, he is showing Bill important places in time and space on his usual type of adventures. As a result, The Doctor, Bill, and occasionally Nardole, find themselves at distant human colonies in the future, encountering sea monsters in the past, surviving a haunted house, and visiting a space station and Mars. In the process, The Doctor is blinded and Bill sells Earth out to an alien race . . . which ultimately leads the trio to a distant colony ship where they encounter one of The Doctor's most deadly foes and he and Bill are put in mortal peril.

The Tenth Season of Doctor Who is nowhere near the best of the series, episodes like the witless trip to Mars with ancient British soldiers are still disappointing, but the writing is much better for the key characters of the series than in the prior seasons. The Doctor has leveled out in his mood; he is snarky without being mean and he has moments where he does not posture over his compassionate instincts.

In a similar vein, Nardole becomes more assertive in an interesting way and the new Companion, Bill, is instantly characterized as smarter and more capable than many of the prior Companions. Bill figures out most of the Doctor Who tropes on her own without needing The Doctor to explain them to her, which is refreshing. Bill, who also happens to be a lesbian, is fortunately granted a characterization that separates her from the prior, moon-eyed Companions who inevitably develop romantic feelings for The Doctor.

Pearl Mackie and Matt Lucas break out in the tenth season of Doctor Who. The two relative newcomers play off Peter Capaldi and Michelle Gomez (who appears in many of the episodes in the latter half of the season) quite well. It is refreshing to see Lucas play Nardole as someone who is not simply used for comedy relief. In the tenth season of Doctor Who, Nardole acts often as The Doctor's conscience and forces him to keep his word to the departed River Song. Pearl Mackie plays Bill as a credible young woman, who has lost her mother, and is drifting along with the day to day until The Doctor arrives in her life. She is given big, emotionally-complicated moments to play - like having Bill at a point where she is forced to make an unholy deal with aliens who want to enslave humanity. For a one-season Companion, Mackie makes the most of her time as Bill and makes the character's brief arc memorable and one that pulls at the viewer's heartstrings.

More than anything else, though, the tenth season of Doctor Who unleashes the performance potential from Peter Capaldi that went terribly underused in his prior two seasons. When Capaldi is forced to play blind, Capaldi rises to the occasion and when The Doctor is cautiously optimistic about rehabilitating Missy from her psychotic tendencies, Capaldi plays his reactions to Michelle Gomez with complexity and subtlety.

Ultimately, Doctor Who Season Ten might not be perfect, but it is the best season Peter Capaldi had and it is enough to make fans wish he had more time in the role of The Doctor.

For more information on the content of this season, please check out my reviews of the episodes contained in it at:
"The Return Of Doctor Mysterio"
"The Pilot"
"Smile"
"Thin Ice"
"Knock Knock"
"Oxygen"
"Extremis"
"The Pyramid At The End Of The World"
"The Lie Of The Land"
"The Empress Of Mars"
"The Eaters Of Light"
"World Enough And Time"
"The Doctor Falls"
"Twice Upon A Time"

7/10

For other Doctor Who episode and movie reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Endings Are Such Sweet Repetition When "The Doctor Falls"

The Good: Decent performances, Ties the season together well, Good effects, Good character moments
The Bad: Repetitive plot and character elements from other Steven Moffat works
The Basics: "The Doctor Falls" puts Bill in mortal peril and The Doctor, Missy, Nardole and The Master in a situation that might spell all their doom.


Steven Moffat's run as showrunner of Doctor Who has been an erratic one. While a lot of fangirls came to love him, I was not a fan of Matt Smith's tenure as The Doctor. I was actually super-excited by Peter Capaldi being cast as The Doctor, but his three season run as The Doctor, which was separated by (essentially) a year off while the production team tried to figure out its next direction, was marred by pretty terrible writing. So, there was something of a "fuck you" quality to Steven Moffat's final season as showrunner as the writing suddenly got good and the production team finally figured out how to write and develop Peter Capaldi's version of The Doctor. Moffat's penultimate episode writing and executive producing Doctor Who with Peter Capaldi as The Doctor is "The Doctor Falls."

"The Doctor Falls" follows immediately upon "World Enough And Time" (reviewed here!) and it is impossible to discuss without some references to where the prior episode went. After all, "World Enough And Time" put The Doctor, Nardole, and Bill on a massive alien ship near a black hole and when Bill became separated from the others in a section of the ship moving at a radically-different rate of time, she falls prey to one of The Doctor's worst enemies.

"The Doctor Falls" opens with a tremendous burden upon it. "World Enough And Time" returned The Master, the John Simm version of The Master, to the Doctor Who narrative and because he came in so late in the prior episode, there was no burden in that episode to explain how The Master appeared. Missy has perfectly good reason not to recall being on the space ship in the form of The Master, as she has had more than a thousand years of being isolated wherein she has been able to dwell on many other things. But The Master in "World Enough And Time" defined himself as being the "former prime minister." How The Master ended up in deep space after being killed in "Last Of The Time Lords" (reviewed here!), but before being resurrected for "The End Of Time" (reviewed here!) bears an explanation and as "The Doctor Falls" opens, Doctor Who is stuck trying to make a satisfactory explanation for how that could occur. "The Doctor Falls" manages to remind viewers that The Master was not previously killed; he just went off with the Time Masters and his end was left vague before he popped back up as Missy. "The Doctor Falls" creates a new, weird, problem when it puts into play yet another TARDIS. The Master, after returning to Gallifrey, got his own TARDIS. So, despite there being a TARDIS graveyard in a prior episode, the implication that The Doctor's TARDIS was the last one, by the end of "The Doctor Falls" there are three in play in our universe - The Doctor's, Ashildr's, and The Master's. More satisfying than the explanation of how The Master got away from Gallifrey, "The Doctor Falls" closes the loop on The Master/Missy and the Cybermen. When Missy was first introduced, she was using Cyberman technology in her bid to take over Earth using the dead; how she got that technology makes perfect sense given where "The Doctor Falls" leaves The Master.

Picking up on level 507 of the ship, the humans on the colony ship are living in a holographic simulation of farmland on the solar farm level. They are using proto-Cybermen who have made it up to that level as scarecrows to keep the children from wandering. Back on the bottom level, The Doctor is confronted by The Master and Missy, having just learned that Bill has been transformed into a Cyberman. When The Master and Missy attack The Doctor, he has just enough time to reprogram the Cyberman computer to recognize Time Lords as eligible for Conversion. As the Cybermen converge upon the heroes, Nardole manages to get all of them away with Bill's help.

Reaching Level 507, Bill wakes up in a barn where she is alarmed by how the colonist children are terrified of her. She looks in the mirror and is confused by why she appears to be a Cyberman. Together, Bill, The Doctor, Nardole, Missy and The Master prepare Level 507 for a Cyberman siege as they skyrocket up to the level. But, as the Cybermen invade, The Master and Missy betray The Doctor and they have an escape plan on The Master's damaged TARDIS on the lower levels of the ship. In stopping the Cybermen, Nardole reprograms the holographic fields as weapons and evacuates the humans to a higher level. That leaves The Doctor and Bill to thwart the invading Cybermen, but The Doctor is wounded and his life hangs in the balance with no way out.

"The Doctor Falls" is quite good, especially as it winnows The Doctor's allies down. Ironically, as the episode began, I found myself rooting for Nardole and being surprisingly impressed over how vital the character managed to become. Matt Lucas rose to the occasion of being a full-fledged Companion and it was nice to see him become something more than a punchline.

The irksome aspect of "The Doctor Falls" is that Peter Capaldi's version of The Doctor suddenly becomes indispensable and incredible . . . right around his apparent end. The other disappointing aspect of "The Doctor Falls" is Steven Moffat's repetition for his own ideas. The moment Bill appears on Level 507 looking like Bill, it is hard for the seasoned Doctor Who viewer not to see exactly what is going on. Steven Moffat used the exact same reversal with (proto) Clara when she was introduced in the "Asylum Of The Daleks." It is tremendously disappointing and obvious to see Bill given the exact same arc with her new Cyberman body and The Master and Missy doing their usual betrayals of The Doctor.

In a similar way, Moffat wusses out on resolving Bill's character arc. Moffat seems terrified about giving a character a bad end . . . so he again recycles his own material. Fans who saw how Clara was ultimately written out in "Hell Bent" (reviewed here!) will instantly feel a sinking feeling the moment Bill sees her love interest from "The Pilot" (reviewed here!). Moffat's penchant for reusing material is disappointing in "The Doctor Falls."

That said, Pearl Mackie does incredibly well as Bill. Mackie might be working off a script that is familiar to Doctor Who fans, but she performs the material in a way that suddenly makes those who refused to invest in her character (Mackie was spoiled early on in the season as being a one-season Companion) completely care about her. Bill believed in The Doctor and she got screwed; her character was barely around long enough to learn about Regeneration - The Doctor never satisfactorily explained to her The Master. Bill's sense of hope is heartbreaking and Mackie lands the moment of epiphany.

Peter Capaldi's version of The Doctor is everything fans have wanted from him in "The Doctor Falls." Viewers are likely to wonder where the hell Moffat's talent was for giving Capaldi's character a unique voice up until this point.

All that said, "The Doctor Falls" is a powerful set-up for Peter Capaldi's final bow as The Doctor . . . and it is enough for fans to hope that Capaldi's leaving with the arrival of a new Executive Producer is a fake-out, much like the BBC did when announcing Jenna Coleman's departure an entire season in advance of her actual leaving.

For other Doctor Who season finales, please check out my reviews of:
"The Parting Of The Ways"
"The End Of Time, Part 2"
"The Big Bang"

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Tenth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season of Peter Capaldi as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

8.5/10

For other Doctor Who episode and season reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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"World Enough And Time" Begins Capaldi's Final Arc Exceptionally Well!

The Good: Very well-plotted, Decent acting, Good effects and direction
The Bad: Light on theme
The Basics: "World Enough And Time" opens the final arc of Peter Capaldi as The Doctor by killing Bill . . . only to resurrect her in a new form of danger!


As Peter Capaldi's tenure on Doctor Who rushes towards its end, there is something ironic about the resurgence of Missy in the narrative. Missy is the latest incarnation of The Master and replaced the John Simm version of the character. Simm played The Master during the final arc of Russell T. Davies's run of Doctor Who before Steven Moffat took over as showrunner. So, with Moffat's run winding down, there is something ironic about both Missy and The Master, as portrayed by John Simm, returning to the narrative in "World Enough And Time."

"World Enough And Time" follows on the events of "The Eaters Of Light" (reviewed here!), which put Missy on the TARDIS in the role of Chief Engineer. While Nardole and Bill do not trust Missy, The Doctor has decided to take a chance on her and he is working actively on rehabilitating her. "World Enough And Time" is a proper Missy mission for Doctor Who.

Opening with The Doctor, with much longer hair, landing the TARDIS in an ice field, then coming out to collapse into regeneration, "World Enough And Time" flashes back. The TARDIS lands on a four mile long colony ship that is holding station near the mouth of a black hole. Bill and Nardole accompany Missy out of the TARDIS; The Doctor has Missy on a test run for being decent and not killing. Unfortunately, no sooner has the team stepped onto the colony ship's command center than they are addressed by someone elsewhere on the ship and a moment later, a blue man appears on the bridge. The alien holds Missy and her Companions at gunpoint and demands to know which of the group is a human. When Bill admits that it is her, The Doctor rushes out of the TARDIS to try to defuse the situation. Unfortunately, the alien shoots Bill and kills her.

Moments later, the lifts arrive on the bridge and mysteriously-wrapped humanoids come for Bill. They claim to be able to fix Bill and before they can be stopped, they take Bill's corpse away to the furthest reaches of the colony ship. There, Bill wakes up with a mechanical heart in her chest and she is told by the roguish Mr. Razor that she has been recovering there for weeks. While Bill explores the mysterious hospital and the polluted world of the bottom of the colony ship, horrified to discover humans are being altered in a hideous conversion to evolve them to survive the trip to higher levels. Meanwhile, The Doctor, Missy and Nardole figure out how the colony ship is experiencing time dilation and they prepare to make a journey to rescue Bill.

"World Enough And Time" is a set-up episode and it puts a big burden on the next episode, though it is astonishingly good in and of itself. In fact, the issues "World Enough And Time" has in the larger continuity of Doctor Who need not be addressed in this episode given that they work to place the important characters in the story, as opposed to trying to place the episode in the larger continuity. That said, "World Enough And Time" starts as a lively Missy episode and they quickly turns into a Bill episode whereby she is put into an increasingly dangerous situation and she comes to understand the nature of the setting that The Doctor and his team are walking into.

Missy reaches the logical point in her season-long character arc as The Doctor takes a chance on her redemption and the idea that Missy has spent more than a thousand years in isolation make her fuzzy memory in the episode work. "World Enough And Time" marks the return of the familiar and delightful Missy; she is crazy, witty and fun to watch for almost her entire time on screen.

Bill, sadly, is killed early in the episode and the mechanical method of her return is well-foreshadowed even for those who did not have the revelation spoiled by the episode preview last week. Bill waits and waits for The Doctor while she slowly comes to understand how the people on level 1056 are dying and just what Conversion is. It is a slow descent into horror for Bill's character and it is hard not to feel bad for the brief Companion when she is shot clear through her chest. The viewer easily feels worse for her by the episode's end, though in this way the larger continuity of Steven Moffat's tenure of Doctor Who becomes a little bit of an issue; Moffat created a virtually identical reveal for Bill's fate at the climax of his first real Missy episode.

"World Enough And Time" takes time to explain the gravitational physics of time - though the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Blink Of An Eye" (reviewed here!) did something very similar - near the black hole and that keeps The Doctor and his team out of much of the narrative. Instead, this is very much Bill's episode as she gets to know Mr. Razor, who seems quirky and like a weird lifeline for The Doctor's Companion.

"World Enough And Time" is well-directed and clever, even if it is light on any sort of themes. The episode is plot-heavy and works on multiple character revelations, but it is insular within Doctor Who; it is not making any form of larger statement, which is a hallmark of great science fiction. But for the first time in a long time, Doctor Who delivers a truly solid and truly great episode, even if it is somewhat limited to being essential only to fans of the series itself.

For other works with John Simm, please check out my reviews of:
"Utopia"
"The Sound Of Drums"
"Last Of The Time Lords"
"The End Of Time, Part 1"
"The End Of Time, Part 2"

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Tenth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season of Peter Capaldi as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

9/10

For other Doctor Who episode and season reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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"The Eaters Of Light" Reminds Viewers How Doctor Who Can Be Fun!

The Good: Good development for Bill, Good ending, Decent performances
The Bad: Mediocre/Derivative CGI, Somewhat predictable plot development
The Basics: "The Eaters Of Light" is a fun episode of Doctor Who that does a generally good job of utilizing the characters currently in play.


There's something ballsy about the current season of Doctor Who. The show opened the new season with the announcements that the current season is the final one for Peter Capaldi as The Doctor and the disappointing aspect of that was that Capaldi's Doctor has been much maligned and much-misused. So, the idea that a new showrunner was taking over was a glimmer of hope for fans that perhaps Peter Capaldi's Doctor would be better-written and better-developed . . . but, as has become the habit, new executive producer, new Doctor. So, Peter Capaldi - great actor - is given the short straw on content for The Doctor and a severely limited challenge in that he has not had much material to rise to his talents. Similarly, Pearl Mackie's tenure as The Doctor's Companion Bill was quickly announced as a one-season character. These observations come at the outset of the review of "The Eaters Of Light" because the episode finally finds a pretty brilliant way to write The Doctor, Bill, Nardole and (even for her brief part) Missy. In other words, "The Eaters Of Light" is a bit of a "fuck you" to fans of Doctor Who; showing viewers the potential of Peter Capaldi's Doctor and the Companions unique to his tenure . . . a mere couple of episodes before they're all gone.

"The Eaters Of Light" follows upon and (eventually) references "Empress Of Mars" (reviewed here!) and is enough to remind fans of Doctor Who how excited they were about Peter Capaldi being announced as The Doctor. "The Eaters Of Light" is a pretty typical "invader from another dimension" episode of Doctor Who, but writer Rona Munro and director Charles Palmer manage to make it feel fairly fresh, even if it cops out in the first of the episode's two climaxes.

The Doctor, Nardole and Bill arrive in the 2nd Century, Scotland, where Bill is excited because there is a historical mystery in Cairn. The Ninth Legion of Roman soldiers abruptly disappeared and Bill believes something mysterious happened. The Doctor points out, when they arrive, that five thousand Roman soldiers retreating ought to be visible, from their landing point. When Bill goes in search of the Ninth Legion, The Doctor and Nardole head off in the opposite direction. Bill finds a Celt, who chases her and she falls down a hole, where she meets a Roman soldier. The soldier tells her that the Ninth Legion was wiped out by a monster and only the deserters survived.

The Doctor and Nardole, in the meantime, meet up with the local tribe, who informs them that the Romans have been wiped out by a creature and The Doctor visits the gate that the Celts are guarding. There, The Doctor identifies the invaders and recognizes that they will eat all of the Universe's light if they are able to break through. As the two communities meet again, The Doctor and Bill have to convince them to work to save the world.

Almost entirely disconnected from the rest of the episode is a final scene that involves Missy that works to set up the next episode of Doctor Who and it enhances the promise represented in "The Eaters Of Light." "The Eaters Of Light" develops Bill's character exceptionally well; Bill realizes that The Doctor or the TARDIS are responsible for how she can understand other languages when she encounters Romans and recognizes that she is understanding Latin as English and speaking English, while the Romans she speaks with hear Latin. Bill figures out what The Doctor usually explicitly has to tell his Companions, which is very cool.

In a similar fashion, The Doctor is written as witty, resourceful and a decent blend of crabby and clever in "The Eaters Of Light." Peter Capaldi rocks as The Doctor in a way that he has seldom been allowed to do. The plot might not be the most original idea for a Doctor Who episode, but Capaldi makes it feel fairly fresh. Similarly, Matt Lucas's Nardole continues to grow and be more intriguing, as opposed to simply used as comic relief.

The creature design and special effect for the interdimensional being seemed incredibly familiar as opposed to audacious and the effect was a little less refined than some of the other effects in Doctor Who. But for the most part, "The Eaters Of Light" is a solid episode that makes viewers wish The Doctor and Bill might stick around for quite a bit longer.

For other Doctor Who episodes directed by Charles Palmer, please check out my reviews of:
"Oxygen"
"Family Of Blood"
"Human Nature"
"The Shakespeare Code"
"Smith And Jones"

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Tenth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season of Peter Capaldi as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

6/10

For other television episode and season reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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"Empress Of Mars" Is Another Disappointing Episode Of Doctor Who

The Good: Most of the acting is fine
The Bad: Obvious, overdone, predictable plot, No real character development, No truly big performance moments
The Basics: "Empress Of Mars" shifts direction for a random Mars episode that illustrates that Mark Gatiss truly has no new ideas to contribute to Doctor Who.


When Missy was definitively revealed to be the occupant of The Doctor's Vault in "The Lie Of The Land," the pressure was put on the writers and executive producers of Doctor Who to pay off that character's return in an way that made Missy vital and interesting again. Missy is a fan-favorite villain in Steven Moffat's tenure of Doctor Who, but her return had her in a markedly different role than in her prior appearances. Isolated for centuries, visited only by The Doctor and Nardole, Missy reappeared without any of her spark and wit from her prior appearances. So, as "Empress Of Mars" begins, Doctor Who has a momentum of intrigue to it to make Missy's return worthwhile.

And yet, "Empress Of Mars" does not do that. Instead, it's random bottle episode time and the truth is, "Empress Of Mars" has little to distinguish it from a vast number of other episodes that have virtually identical plots.

"Empress Of Mars" picks up after "The Lie Of The Land" (reviewed here!) and it diverges pretty radically from the prior episodes and does not use Missy in an integral way. Instead, Doctor Who takes a left turn and returns the Martians to the narrative. It's almost like, as Moffat's tenure was winding down he shepherded episodes that used Doctor Who aliens he wanted to revisit before he left the show. The Martians in Doctor Who are an ancient race of Ice Warriors and outside "Cold War," they have been absent from the revived Doctor Who.

The Doctor, Nardole, and Bill visit NASA when the U.S. is standing by for a transmission from Mars. The imaging system that NASA is using reconstructs a message on Mars: "God Save The Queen." So, The Doctor, Bill and Nardole take the TARDIS to Mars, 1881 where they believe the message on Mars originated. While Bill and The Doctor investigate an area underneath the martian surface where there is atmosphere, Nardole disappears with the TARDIS.

Under Mars, The Doctor and Bill discover the Ice Warrior, Friday, along with a small squad of British soldiers. The leader of the soldiers informs The Doctor that they found the Ice Warrior on Earth and were lured to Mars with the promise of gemstones. The British are mining Mars for Friday, but have not found any gems thus far. Shortly after The Doctor's arrival, the British uncover a sarcophagus with Iraxxa, the Martian Queen. When one of the officers attacks Iraxxa, she awakens many of the Ice Warriors and prepares to wipe out the British on Mars.

"Empress Of Mars" is the same episode Doctor Who viewers have seen many, many, many times before. This is the "someone awakens an ancient evil" plotline and it progresses exactly as viewers might expect. The Doctor and his Companion encounter a hapless group of people who have no real attachment to anyone or anything else in Doctor Who, something is awakened and they have to convince the awakened population not to wipe out Earth and/or the people who woke them up.

"Empress Of Mars" seems to take ridiculously long to get to waking up Iraxxa and the set-up feels particularly lacking in consequences. The British on Mars is a fairly absurd premise and there is an additional wrinkle in that the leader of the military force escaped death and . . . who cares? The British officers in "Empress Of Mars" are generally indistinct and it is hard to care whether or not the Ice Warriors let them live or wipe them out entirely.

Ultimately, "Empress Of Mars" is a low-stakes episode that is worthwhile truly only for the final scene which has potential but is entirely disconnected from the rest of the episode.

For other works with Ian Beattie, please check out my reviews of:
Game Of Thrones - Season 1
Game Of Thrones - Season 2
Game Of Thrones - Season 3
Game Of Thrones - Season 4
Game Of Thrones - Season 5

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Tenth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season of Peter Capaldi as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

1.5/10

For other television episode and season reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Proper Return Of Missy Comes In "The Lie Of The Land"

The Good: Decent performances, Moments of character, Themes
The Bad: Entirely predictable plot, Unsatisfying penultimate scene
The Basics: "The Lie Of The Land" finds Earth enslaved by the Monks and The Doctor is forced to turn to Bill and Missy in his attempt to save the planet.


With a three-part television show, there are usually seeds of the plot resolution in the first of the three episodes. So, for example, on Star Trek Deep Space Nine, the show did one proper three-parter and in the first part, it introduced a new character who shook up the space station crew. The resolution to "The Siege" (reviewed here!) hinged on Li Nalas taking a stand. Doctor Who has reached the climax of its three-parter with "The Lie Of The Land" and its plot structure has been unfortunate. In the first part, "Extremis" (reviewed here!), had a mirroring plot with The Doctor being tested by an alien species in preparation for their invasion and The Doctor carrying out sentence on Missy. Missy, then, was noticeably absent from "The Pyramid At The End Of The World," the second part. So, in some ways, the writers and executive producers made it seem like the resolution that would come in "The Lie Of The Land" would have to involve Missy . . . just to make her appearance in "Extremis" make sense.

From a plot perspective, it made a lot of sense that Missy would be involved in resolving the alien invasion in "The Lie Of The Land" because she is a variable that the alien monks could not have included in their calculations and models of how to conquer the Earth.

"The Lie Of The Land" follows on the events of "The Pyramid At The End Of The World" (reviewed here!) and it is impossible to discuss the new episode without some references to where the prior episode left off. After all, "The Lie Of The Land" begins with the Earth falling under the dominion of the alien monks after Bill surrendered to them in exchange for The Doctor's eye sight. "The Lie Of The Land" instantly creates a sense of menace in that The Doctor presents a propaganda video extolling the virtues of the Monks while a house is raided for creating "anti-Monk propaganda."

Bill witnesses the rounding up of people on the streets and retreats to her home. There, she confesses the truth to her mother (who is not actually there), that six months prior, she made the sacrifice to save The Doctor, but has no idea what happened next. Nardole visits Bill and explains how he survived being poisoned by the bacteria. Bill is confused as to why the Monks altered the past and Nardole explains that if people think things have always been one way, people will not resist. Nardole has tracked The Doctor down to a prison boat and the pair infiltrate the supply boat that resupplies the prison ship.

There, Bill finds The Doctor and when he freely admits that he is working with the Monks to enslave humanity, Bill reluctantly shoots The Doctor. Of course, The Doctor is testing Bill to confirm her loyalty and because he has recognized that some humans have the ability to resist the two sets of memories they have as a result of the Monks' influence. Returning to the University, Bill and The Doctor access the Vault where The Doctor asks Missy about her encounters with the Monks. Missy explains how the Monks exert influence and her information leads her to conclude that the tether the Monks have on a planet must be killed in order to end their ability to control the populace; in this case, Bill. The Doctor refuses to accept that Bill must die and he, Nardole, and Bill head out to find the main transmitter the Monks are using to psychically influence the populace. Together, they work to remove the Monks from Earth and restore humanity's memories.

"The Lie Of The Land" is good, but the truth is it is exactly what fans of Doctor Who would expect of the show. The Doctor, heroic, is obviously not about to let down humanity and allow them to be enslaved. So, when the episode begins with Bill seeing flashes of the Monk's alternate history and her having a conversation with her dead mother, director Wayne Yip manages to illustrate well that memory - if not reality - has been altered.

"The Lie Of The Land," though, is like virtually every other "Earth is invaded" plotline on Doctor Who. The Doctor and his Companion work to stop the invaders without killing anyone. The solutions in Doctor Who are cerebral, not military. "The Lie Of The Land" is not different from, say, "Last Of The Time Lords" (reviewed here!). In fact, it is hard in some ways not to see "The Lie Of The Land" as a retread of "Last Of The Time Lords" as it is Bill, not The Doctor, who bears most of the responsibility of saving the world and working as The Doctor's proxy during the occupation.

Missy's return is a subtle one; Missy has been attempting to un-evil herself without interacting with the world. She is fairly brutal still, seeing life without actually caring about the people who might stand in the way of her goals. Michelle Gomez is able to flesh out Missy well; she is a fairly broken Time Lord in "The Lie Of The Land." Her final scene sets up either an excellent opportunity for Missy to transform as a character or for Michelle Gomez to play a future reveal that restores her version of The Master to being witty, fun and unsettling to watch.

Doctor Who has a decent sense of ethics and theme to it, but in its climax, "The Lie Of The Land" reveals how skittish the writers are. Doctor Who works within the confines of our world as best it can; the writers and producers are unwilling to transform the world and create an alternate present where cataclysmic events like the invasions by the Monks resonate with effects and consequences.

Ultimately, "The Lie Of The Land" is a good episode of Doctor Who that likely would have been a great episode of a series with lower usual standards.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Tenth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season of Peter Capaldi as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

For Doctor Who episodes written by Toby Whithouse, please check out my reviews of:
"Before The Flood"
"Under The Lake"
"The Vampires Of Venice"
"School Reunion"

6.5/10

For other Doctor Who episode and movie reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Rough Middle Act Of "The Pyramid At The End Of The World"

The Good: Good performances, Moments of character
The Bad: Pacing, Very little happens on the plot front
The Basics: "The Pyramid At The End Of The World" brings the promised alien invasion from the monks who experimented upon The Doctor, with a stated benevolence from the alien invasion.


Sometimes, the best surprise a show can do is to truly upend the expectations from what comes before the latest episode. In the case of Doctor Who, the show has an often-formulaic development. As "The Pyramid At The End Of The World" begins, viewers had reason to expect that the next big alien invasion was imminent. In preparing for "The Pyramid At The End Of The World," it occurred to me that arguably the most creative way to approach the threat made by the aliens in "Extremis" would be to have their attempted conquest of Earth already foiled at the outset of the new episode. "The Pyramid At The End Of The World" does not actually do that.

"Extremis" (reviewed here!) led into "The Pyramid At The End Of The World" and it amped up the momentum for both the next alien invasion and the return of Missy. Missy, however, does not make an appearance in "The Pyramid At The End Of The World" (which could be a very unfortunate element that highlights exactly how The Doctor will resolve the problem that is presented at the episode's climax). "The Pyramid At The End Of The World" is the plot macguffin that allows the aliens from "Extremis" to make their move. "Extremis" essentially introduced the monk creatures who want to take over the Earth; "The Pyramid At The End Of The World" is how they execute their plan.

Bill and Penny are out on their date when the Secretary General Of The United Nations arrives, searching for The President. Bill, thus, learns that in times of crisis, The Doctor is the President Of Earth. The Secretary General is alarmed because a 5,000 year-old pyramid has materialized on Earth in Termezistan, in between the Russian, Chinese, and U.S. militaries. While Bill, Nardole, The Doctor and the Secretary General are flown to Termezistan, a scientist for an agrofuel company is headed to work when her glasses get broken. Erica arrives at work and one of her coworkers has to mix the next experimental compound. While that compound is tested, The Doctor and his team investigate the mysterious new pyramid.

The Pyramid is housing the monk aliens who learned all about humanity from their simulation. The monk aliens reset every clock in the world to 11:57, based on the Doomsday Clock. The leader of the aliens tells The Doctor that they will take over and rule the world, with the consent of humanity. After The Doctor and Secretary General get the leaders of the three major armies together, he attempts to make a show of force, which the aliens foil. The military leaders declare peace. Sadly, the clock keeps ramping up toward doomsday, with the Secretary General attempting to consent to the aliens, and being killed in the process. While The Doctor searches for a way out of the predicament, he recognizes that the aliens are involved in misdirection and he, Nardole, and Bill begin to hunt for an alternative to consenting to alien domination.

"The Pyramid At The End Of The World" is a bridge episode between the episode that explains why an alien invasion would be coming and the episode that resolves the invasion. So, essentially, this is yet another Doctor Who "aliens invade the world" episode. This time, the aliens come with our consent and it seems entirely off that none of the characters point out that: 1. the monks are not giving them the ability to make informed consent and 2. No leader of the world has the authority to consent for all of the citizens of the world. As a result, the set-up wherein the aliens demand consent in order to be able to take over the world (in order to save humanity from itself) is inherently problematic. It is an idea that sounds far more clever than it actually is.

The far more clever aspect of "The Pyramid At The End Of The World" is the misdirection aspect of the episode. Initially presented as a random subplot, of course what is going on in the agrofuel lab turns out to be the most important aspect of the episode. The moment Erica's coworker, Douglas, removes his contamination suit hood, it is hard not to see that the episode is pointing toward a blatant issue that will make that b-plot relevant. For sure, director Daniel Nettheim does an excellent job of making the decimal point problem visible long before it is made explicit, but its importance takes exposition to make relevant.

The Doctor has a good character moment late in "The Pyramid At The End Of The World." The Doctor has been blinded and Peter Capaldi plays him as blind fairly well for most of the entire episode. In fact, Capaldi's performance of The Doctor blind helps to characterize Bill as youthfully oblivious. The Doctor is not quite looking at Bill when he removes his glasses and when a bright light comes through the nearby window, Bill squints, but The Doctor barely does. Faced with certain death, The Doctor feels compelled to finally be honest with Bill.

Nardole has a good outing in "The Pyramid At The End Of The World." Nardole correctly deduces what is actually going on and where the end of the world is likely coming from. Strangely, "The Pyramid At The End Of The World" has an utterly nonsensical ending. Bill's final moment makes some sense from a character perspective; how and why the alien monks believe she has the authority to make any form of planetary decision is ridiculous.

Ultimately, "The Pyramid At The End Of The World" is a "necessary evil" episode, one that pays off a promise and seeds the resolution to that major plot event. To execute the plot event, though, the aliens have to make a banal demand and the threat hardly seems as menacing as, for example, the Earth's atmosphere being poisoned by aliens. That makes for one of the more average alien invasion episodes of Doctor Who.

For other works with Andrew Byron, please check out my reviews of:
The Monuments Men
28 Weeks Later

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Tenth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season of Peter Capaldi as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

5/10

For other television episode and movie reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Vault's Contents Are Revealed In "Extremis!"

The Good: Decent performances, Interesting plot reveals, The moments of character, Good special effects
The Bad: Somewhat limited character development
The Basics: "Extremis" marks the return of Missy and the revelation of what is in the vault in a surprisingly well-executed twist-based episode of Doctor Who!


When it comes to Doctor Who recurring characters, there are few whose returns are as eagerly anticipated as The Master. Last seen, The Master was Missy and she was on the Dalek homeworld in "The Witch's Familiar" (reviewed here!). So, when the first previews for "Extremis" featured Missy in them, fans were naturally excited. Fortunately for Doctor Who, the return of Missy in "Extremis" is not simply a vague tease; "Extremis" is a clever episode that manages to be one of the very best of Peter Capaldi's run as The Doctor!

"Extremis" follows on the heels of "Oxygen" (reviewed here!) and it is impossible to discuss the new episode without some references as to where the prior episode ended. After all, "Oxygen" ended with The Doctor returning to the present, blinded. While Nardole is aware of his condition, Bill is not and Nardole was deeply concerned that whatever is in the vault in the basement could exploit The Doctor's blindness. "Extremis" is easily one of Steven Moffat's best-written Doctor Who scripts in years as it does not simply hinge upon the final reveal; it cleverly builds its own story and arc that maintains a tone of intrigue through the reveal and the episode's resolution.

The Doctor and Nardole are recovering from their adventure in space when The Doctor returns to his classroom. There, he is met by emissaries of The Pope and The Pope himself. The Pope has a mission for The Doctor; he wants The Doctor to come and read a heretical text called Veritas, which has led to the suicide of all who have read it. Still blind and, obviously, unable to read it, The Doctor and Nardole commit to a trip to the Vatican to examine the text. En route, the TARDIS arrives at Bill's home, interrupting her first date with Penny.

The trio arrive at the Vatican where they are brought into the secret catacomb of forbidden works. There, The Doctor and his Companions find the book that leads to suicides and a missing translator. Their guide disappears abruptly and the translator almost immediately kills himself. While Nardole and Bill track down the corpse of the translator, The Doctor uses a device that might temporarily restore his sight to read the Veritas. But Nardole and Bill find a portal in the Vatican basement instead of the translator and they take it to somewhere truly fantastic and The Doctor's attempt to read the forbidden book puts him at the mercy of strange, new aliens.

Blended throughout the main narrative of "Extremis" are scenes that feature The Doctor and Missy. Set in the distant past, Missy is given a death sentence that The Doctor is expected to carry out. Not wanting to die, Missy appeals to The Doctor's better nature and The Doctor is visited by Nardole - who has River's journal and a message from The Doctor's late wife. The scenes with Missy play into the end of the episode with a fairly well-executed reveal of what is in the vault The Doctor and Nardole have been guarding.

"Extremis" is a set-up episode that does not feel like much of a set-up; it holds up well on its own. Unlike the surreal "Heaven Sent" (reviewed here!), "Extremis" tells a pretty solid story on its own that makes a lot of sense and has a clear structure, as opposed to being a mood piece that largely depends upon the final revelation at its end. Moreover, the flashback scenes in "Extremis" play a chord within The Doctor's presence, like nagging little triggers that help him piece together the truth of what is going on with the forbidden work. One suspects "Extremis" is an episode that can be returned to many times for viewers to find more and more clues within it.

Most of the thematic and character elements of "Extremis" are actually presented in the flashback scenes. The "present tense" story is plot-heavy and allows Nardole, more than any other main character, to show off his talents and intelligence. Indeed, for a change Nardole reaches the correct conclusions well in advance of The Doctor and Bill, even at great peril to himself. The Doctor's relationship with Missy serves to reinforce his long-standing ethics, but the reveal in the flashback plot is actually more satisfying than frustrating. Indeed, had it been written less well, "Extremis" would have been a big let-down to viewers.

Instead, "Extremis" allows Peter Capaldi to actually play The Doctor blind and he rises to the occasion in the few scenes where his eyes are visible. Matt Lucas lends force to his performance of Nardole acting with more authority during The Doctor's wounded period. Pearl Mackie is even granted an opportunity to show off more range as she portrays Bill with a lack of self-confidence and an elevating sense of fear throughout the episode.

The performances, plot development and the episode's few moments of character and theme are accented with cool special effects to make a pretty incredible Doctor Who episode.

For other works with Joseph Long, please check out my reviews of:
Dracula Untold
"Turn Left" - Doctor Who
Chasing Liberty

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Tenth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season of Peter Capaldi as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

9/10

For other Doctor Who episode and movie reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Long Way To Go For Its End: "Oxygen" Is Disappointing Doctor Who!

The Good: Some of the acting is all right
The Bad: Another simple problem, complex solution episode, No real character development (until the last moment), Awkward direction, Dull pacing
The Basics: "Oxygen" is a Doctor Who episode built around its final reversal and it does not entertain, excite, or even make much sense.


It has been a while since Doctor Who did an episode set on a space station. In fact, Capaldi's Doctor has only been on a space station in "Kill The Moon" (reviewed here!) and Matt Smith's incarnation of The Doctor only briefly appeared on the occasional space station ("Asylum Of The Daleks" is the only one that comes to mind for Smith's Doctor, with other vessels being only debatable as space stations). But for a proper episode where the setting is a space station for the bulk of the episode, it has been quite a while. Doctor Who is about due for a space station episode and writer Jamie Mathieson delivers one in "Oxygen."

"Oxygen" picks up the adventures of The Doctor, Nardole and Bill following "Knock Knock" (reviewed here!), but does not reveal what is going on in the vault The Doctor has established on Earth. Instead, The Doctor starts to feel the pull to go back to space and in the process, he, Bill, and Nardole end up in a painfully contrived episode. When we were done watching "Oxygen," my wife likened it to the Frasier episode "Enemy At The Gate." And she's right; the anaology is a solid one. "Enemy At The Gate" is an episode that features Frasier and Niles stuck in their car at a parking garage where Frasier is taking a moral stand against paying the parking fee for just entering the garage and turning around. In the process, Frasier misses the beginning of his radio show and Roz has to go on the air. The episode keeps Fraiser off the air until he bursts into the show and, unprepared for what Roz has been saying, makes a hilarious confession about his experience that had a double entendre for what Roz has been going through. In other words, the entire episode is a twenty-one minute set-up for a one minute punchline. The episode works the first few times because the punchline is absolutely hilarious, but the more one watches it, the more it might seem like a long way to go for a single joke (no matter how funny that joke is).

"Oxygen" is just like that for Doctor Who.

In fact, just like the situation Niles and Frasier are in in "Enemy At The Gate" would have been quickly resolved if Frasier had just paid the $2.00, "Oxygen" has a painfully simple solution. Instead of executing that solution, though, The Doctor makes a grand statement that costs him dearly.

When The Doctor starts feeling the pull to go into space, he encourages Bill to pick a place and time and space to visit. The Doctor sees a distress call on the monitor and he, Bill, and Nardole go to that point in time and space. That places them on a space station that is devoid of oxygen. Cut off from the TARDIS, The Doctor realizes that the miners on the space station only receive oxygen through their space suits. The space suits have killed thirty-six of the forty people aboard the station and the corpse-filled space suits are not hunting the four survivors and three visitors. The Doctor comes to realize that the station is galactic capitalism at its most extreme and as he and the others flee through the station, The Doctor recognizes that Bill's defective space suit might be her undoing. As he works to save lives, The Doctor is forced to make a real sacrifice.

"Oxygen" is written to be much smarter than it ends up being and directed to be unfortunately dumber. The smart aspect of "Oxygen" comes when the corpses begin to attack the survivors on the space station. Astute viewers will note that the suits "deactivate" the central nervous system of the people they attack. So, when The Doctor begins to correlate that the suits are money-driven and he gets control of the station's computer system, the solution seems like it would be obvious; The Doctor is going to convince the suits that the station is profitable again, fool them into believing there is money in everyone's accounts to pay and then the suits will simply reactivate the nervous systems of all the people they have deactivated.

But no, that's not how it goes. "Oxygen" is not that smart, it's just vamping for time until the last two minutes of the episode.

And, sadly, in those last two minutes, the writing is minimal, but the direction is terrible. The direction in the last few moments of the episode makes an implication that it quickly contradicted by The Doctor and his dialogue. Without spoiling the episode's resolution, "Oxygen's" penultimate moment is directed to imply that the viewer is seeing out of The Doctor's eyes, when that is not the case.

Matt Lucas is fairly good as Nardole in "Oxygen;" Pearl Mackie is not given anything truly substantive to do. Peter Capaldi is set up to fail in "Oxygen." In his performance, Capaldi does not significantly differentiate between The Doctor sighted and blind. That undermines the magnitude of The Doctor being blinded in "Oxygen."

Moreover, Capaldi is set-up to fail by the writing in "Oxygen." In "The Angels Take Manhattan," River breaks her own wrist to escape a Weeping Angel and she is healed by The Doctor, who utilizes some of his regeneration energy. Unlike other times when The Doctor seems to only have some regenerative ability proximate to his recent Regeneration, The Doctor is able to provide limited healing power by tapping into his regeneration energies. So, why is The Doctor temporarily blinded to save Bill in "Oxygen?" According to the mythos created in "The Angels Take Manhattan," The Doctor should be able to use some of his regeneration energy to fix his own eyes while the team waits for Bill to regain consciousness . . . or the viewer deserves a satisfactory answer as to why that is not the case in "Oxygen."

"Oxygen" is initially creepy, but while the viewer waits for a satisfactory explanation to the original set-up, they are strung along to a disappointing punchline that fails to land . . . even on the first viewing.

For other Doctor Who episodes set on space stations or space ships, please check out my reviews of:
"The Waters Of Mars"
"The Long Game"
"42"

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Tenth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season of Peter Capaldi as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

1/10

For other Doctor Who episode and movie reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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