It's The Doctor Who We Get For The Year: "The Return Of Doctor Mysterio" Is Worth It!

The Good: Fun, Decent performances, Engaging plot development, Hints of character development
The Bad: Light on character development
The Basics: "The Return Of Doctor Mysterio" brings The Doctor back to Earth where he essentially acts as a sidekick to New York City's mysterious masked superhero . . . The Ghost!


When it comes to Doctor Who, the last few years have been pretty rough on the franchise. Peter Capaldi has stepped into the role of The Doctor and there have been few moments of brilliance in the writing equal to his talents. While there has been some restructuring on the creative end of Doctor Who, the show has been on hiatus, having taken the year since "The Husbands Of River Song" (reviewed here!) off. But now, Doctor Who is giving us a new Christmas special with "The Return Of Doctor Mysterio."

"The Return Of Doctor Mysterio" follows the events of "The Husbands Of River Song" as closely as it conceivably could, though this Christmas episode bookends the events of "The Husbands Of River Song" in a way that makes one want to go back and watch last Christmas's episode. Despite the connections to "The Husbands Of River Song," "The Return Of Doctor Mysterio" stands alone as its own entity with a mostly-new cast of characters. In many ways, "The Return Of Doctor Mysterio" is the superhero episode of Doctor Who and perhaps what is most surprising about the episode is how effectively it blends genres and makes a distinctive episode of Doctor Who!

Opening in New York City with The Doctor hanging from the rooftop of an apartment, dangling before young Grant's window, The Doctor asks the boy if he can come in. The Doctor is allowed in and he and Grant go back up to the roof where the Doctor is working on a device that would stop some of the temporal anomalies in New York. When The Doctor notices the boy is coughing, he offers him help and a glass of water and Grant mistakenly thinks the artifact The Doctor has given him is a pill and swallows it. The artifact bonds with Grant and gives him super powers and does not pass from him.

The Doctor returns to Earth with Nardole, whom he has taken as a Companion following his adventures with River Song coming to an end. In New York, the company Harmony Shoal is being investigated by reporter Lucy Fletcher, when she decides to sneak into the building one night. The CEO of Harmony Shoal has his brain replaced by an alien when Fletcher, The Doctor and Nardole sneak in. They are confronted by the aliens and are in dire peril when they are rescued by a new superhero, The Ghost. The Doctor quickly realizes that The Ghost is Grant and Grant is working as Lucy's nanny. When Lucy scores an interview with The Ghost, the aliens use that as an opportunity to lure The Ghost into a trap. While Grant works to keep his identity safe and not confess his love to Lucy, The Doctor and Nardole have to stop the aliens from destroying New York City and entrapping world leaders in their fiendish plan to conquer Earth!

The Doctor is initially presented as fun and kind when he first encounters Grant. The set-up with Grant very clearly establishes the tone and concept of "The Return Of Doctor Mysterio" as this is very much the Doctor Who adaptation and commentary on the current U.S. obsession with super hero films based on comic book heroes. "The Return Of Doctor Mysterio" is Doctor Who payback for Marvel/Disney hiring so many BBC actors for their new blockbusters. As such, "The Return Of Doctor Mysterio" utilizes a number of conceits and catch phrases from key comic books like Batman, Spider-Man, and Superman.

The villainous aliens are just practical enough to have a decent diabolical plan with a pretty awesome fail-safe in the form of an orbiting ship that is prepared to wipe out New York City. The aliens are absurd enough to feel a lot like a comic book villain and a Doctor Who enemy that makes things creepy. The brains are a pretty decent special effect.

Nardole returns to Doctor Who in "The Return Of Doctor Mysterio" as comic relief, which frees Peter Capaldi up to play The Doctor as very wry. "The Return Of Doctor Mysterio" allows The Doctor to have a very distinctive voice, separate from the character interacting with holdover Companions from prior incarnations of The Doctor and it works quite well.

In fact, all that does not work exceptionally well is the initial mood for The Doctor in "The Return Of Doctor Mysterio." The Doctor's twenty-four year night with River Song has come to an end and he is supposed to be experiencing loss and that is not immediately evident as The Doctor pops up eating sushi while sneaking around Harmony Shoal. Capaldi manages to never make The Doctor sound or feel as ridiculous as Matt Smith's goofy portrayal of the character, but "The Return Of Doctor Mysterio" misses some real opportunities to make The Doctor moody as a result of his loss. After all, he had Clara as a Companion for only two years (with an additional couple months for her as Matt Smith's Companion) and he became so determined as to fight his way through Gallifrey's security system with the loss he felt for her! River Song is a much more significant relation to The Doctor and the fact that he arrives in the narrative without it appearing very clear that he is wrestling with something important - or that his time with River changed him in any demonstrable way - is troubling.

That said, "The Return Of Doctor Mysterio" is a lot of fun and allows Doctor Who to return to being something fun, smart, and engaging!

[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, please visit my reviews of:
"The Christmas Invasion"
"Voyage Of The Damned"
"Last Christmas"

8.5/10

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

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Quietly Exploring The Consequences Of Doctor Who With "The Woman Who Lived!"

The Good: Excellent acting, Good character work, Decent pacing
The Bad: Somewhat obvious plotting
The Basics: In a rarity for Doctor Who, The Doctor finds that the woman he made immortal is hardly living her life in a way he would approve in "The Woman Who Lived!"


Every now and then, there is an episode of television that is overwhelmed by the guest star or stars that appear in it. While sometimes the guest star is done as a cheap promotional ploy - Robin Williams and Billy Crystal appearing for an otherwise unrelated teaser in an episode of Friends comes instantly to mind! - the BBC is generally outside such concerns. But even the BBC is not entirely immune. The big casting news for this season of Doctor Who was the appearance of Maisie Williams in two of the episodes. The second episode Williams is featured in is "The Woman Who Lived."

"The Woman Who Lived" is the second part of the story that began in "The Girl Who Died" (reviewed here!) and the common element between the two episodes is the character portrayed by Maisie Williams. It is impossible to discuss "The Woman Who Lived" without referencing how Williams's character of Ashildr was left at the climax of "The Girl Who Died." As the name of the prior episode suggests, Ashildr died in the episode, but The Doctor resurrected her using an alien medical kit. The net effect was that Ashildr was left immortal and The Doctor and Clara went on their way.

Because of the mediocre nature of "The Girl Who Died," my expectations going into "The Woman Who Lived" were rather low. Fortunately, this was an episode that became an entirely pleasant surprise as a result.

On a lonely road in England, a carriage is held at gunpoint by a lone rider on a horse. The rider is identified by reputation as The Nightmare and they do not come alone - as the glowing eyes of the Nightmare's companion help scare the occupants of the carriage into acquiescing to the highwayman's demands. But the robbery is interrupted by the arrival of The Doctor, who literally walks through the carriage with a scanner, looking for a piece of alien technology. When the carriage moves along, The Doctor confronts The Nightmare and discovers the highwayman to be none other than Ashildr, now going by the simple name Me.

Me fills The Doctor in on her activities since the last time he popped into her timeline to observe her setting up a leper colony. Me is now after a rare gem that one of the locals has been bragging about and The Doctor suspects that it is the alien artifact that he himself is after. The two team up to rob Lucie Fanshawe of the gem. But after recovering it, The Doctor learns that Me is not working alone and her companion represents a danger to Earth that The Doctor must stop.

"The Woman Who Lived" is a quiet, character-centered episode much like the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode (reviewed here!) that works best when it is tightly focused on consequences of past actions. Consequences are seldom explored in a compelling way in Doctor Who. Die-hard fans might argue that many of The Doctor's actions in the Last Great Time War have real consequences that resonate throughout the first several seasons of the rebooted Doctor Who, but the truth is, those consequences never truly stick and they get rewritten over and over again with a sense that becomes nonsense when one tries to create any sense of continuity (just look, for example, at the Daleks!). "The Woman Who Lived" is all about consequences and it works for that.

The Doctor made Ashildr immortal and tried to provide for her by giving her the option to make another person immortal as well. While The Doctor accounted for loneliness, he did not factor in the boredom a smart person might face with 800 years in times before humans developed interesting technology or could easily get away from an area they felt trapped! Me complains to The Doctor and she has a very simple, reasonable solution: to be able to leave Earth with The Doctor after they recover the gem. She just wants off Earth and that makes a lot of sense.

The Doctor is unsettled by Me and Peter Capaldi plays that quite well. It's unclear why he rejects taking Me with him, especially given that he could easily wait until his relationship with River Song has run its course in his timeline before taking up indefinitely with Me. The only other aspects of "The Woman Who Live" that do not truly work are the caper scene and the overly complicated explanations. The Doctor seems surprised that Me knows he came in a ship and is "the one who leaves;" but Ashildr spent time with Clara and it seems reasonable that they talked. Plus, Ashildr's people found The Doctor at the TARDIS and it seems reasonable some of her people told her about it. The break-in of the Fanshawe house seems utterly ridiculous. The pair lights a candle and talks while inside a chimney, both of which would carry sound and light . . . and Mr. Fanshawe awakens ridiculously easily in a manor house that would have carried the sound of the servants moving around and was probably not modern weathertight.

The minutaie falls away against the strength of the performances by Peter Capaldi and Maisie Williams. "The Woman Who Lived" is the reason Williams was cast; Ashildr might have been a simple, unremarkable character who baffled viewers as to why The Doctor bothered to save her, but Me is clever, smart, and Williams infuses her with the appropriate amount of sadness to her. Williams and Capaldi have excellent on-screen chemistry in the episode and "The Woman Who Lived" leaves fans hoping that after Jenna Coleman's inevitable departure, and after The Doctor's tenure with River Song, the writers will have The Doctor revise his final monologue to Me and take her as a Companion.

Ultimately, "The Woman Who Lived" does what good science fiction is supposed to do: it makes a statement on the human condition and relationships, using the fantastic setting or concept to make those statements. The Doctor is seldom reflexive, but "The Woman Who Lived" forces him to put a face to his actions and beliefs and it becomes an engaging hour of television. In fact, "The Woman Who Lived" does what ignoring Danny Pink('s death) has failed to do this season, which is show compelling repercussions for the way The Doctor moves through the Universe. And the episode proves that mining that territory can be pulled off exceptionally well with the right talents in play.

For other works with Gruffudd Glyn, please check out my reviews of:
The Martian
The Theory Of Everything
Thor: The Dark World

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

8/10

For more Doctor Who reviews, please check out my Doctor Who Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Low Stakes And Flashbacks That Steal The Show Mar "The Girl Who Died!"

The Good: Character moments, Good performances
The Bad: Dull plot, Somewhat pointless adversary
The Basics: The next Doctor Who two-parter starts with "The Girl Who Died" and gets the pairing off to a mediocre start.


Before the current season of Doctor Who began, there was a great deal of excitement over the casting news that was leaked. Doctor Who fans were thrilled that one of the two-parters in the season would feature Maisie Williams. Williams is (so far) best known for her portrayal of Arya Stark in Game Of Thrones (Season 1 is reviewed here!). After months of pointless speculation on the role that Williams would play, she was revealed to be playing a guest star in the two part episodes "The Girl Who Died" and "The Woman Who Lived." "The Girl Who Died" has now aired and one has to hope that the second part uses Williams better.

Almost entirely disconnected from the prior episode, "Before The Flood" (reviewed here!), "The Girl Who Died" is one protracted set-up episode that is almost entirely overshadowed by the use of past footage. Peter Capaldi, who has taken up the mantle of The Doctor, appeared in the prior episode "The Fires Of Pompeii" a few years ago, while David Tennant and Catherine Tate shared the TARDIS. "The Girl Who Died" rehashes the epiphany The Doctor had when interacting with Capaldi's prior character and suggests to the current incarnation of The Doctor just why he chose the face he did.

Opening in space where Clara's space suit is infested by an alien parasite, The Doctor distracts Clara long enough to escape the TARDIS's attackers and rescue her. The Doctor has the desire to clean his shoes off after killing the parasite and lands the TARDIS on ancient Earth in a Viking village. The Doctor and Clara are quickly captured by Vikings and taken back to their village. There, The Doctor attempts to impersonate Odin . . . when Odin appears above the village and abducts the strongest warriors in the crowd. Clara and the young woman, Ashildr, are taken as well.

Clara and Ashildr find themselves aboard an alien vessel, where the Vikings are being harvested for their testosterone. Clara and the girl manage to escape and they confront Odin and his armored alien warriors. Clara is about to get Odin to leave when Ashildr throws down the gauntlet with the false god. Odin sends the pair back to the village and gives them a day to ready for battle with ten of his warriors. The Doctor tries to convince the villagers to flee, even listening to a baby's mournful cry to try to change their minds, but Ashildr and her people remain adamant. The Doctor begins training the villagers to fight while trying to come up with a way to defeat the Mire.

It is always refreshing to see character development on Doctor Who and "The Girl Who Died" actually has some character development, even if it is somewhat rehashing the past. At one point, Donna Noble convinced The Doctor to save a single Roman family and the current incarnation of The Doctor suddenly recalls the valuable lesson he once learned, that there is merit in saving even a single human life. The Doctor applies that lesson to Ashildr and the viewer has to wonder what the hell makes he so special. The Doctor explains it to Clara blithely in the episode as deja vu in reverse. But there is nothing particularly special about Ashildr and given how the Doctor's adoring fan, O'Donnell, was pointlessly killed proximate to him in the prior episode, it seems like rubbing salt into the wound that he has the remembered epiphany in this episode.

In fact, outside the big epiphany, The Doctor seems very un-Doctorly in this episode. The entire prior season was peppered with The Doctor loathing soldiers until he begrudgingly took the role of Commander in the season finale. After briefly encouraging the villagers to flee, The Doctor takes up the mantle of drill sergeant with remarkably little internal conflict.

"The Girl Who Died" is further marred by the sudden conceit of The Doctor's Almanac. Out of nowhere (apparently) The Doctor produces a diary of the alien races he's met over 2000 years in order to identify the Mire. Why? Because he is separated from the massive database aboard the TARDIS for the episode (it's a two-day hike/boatride away). From this, we are meant to believe that The Doctor is frantically navigating the TARDIS, rescues Clara and after landing the TARDIS on Earth, while he is fairly desperate to get the dead sprite off his shoe, he grabs his diary and sticks it in his coat pocket, where there is also a yo-yo and his sonic sunglasses.

All that said, "The Girl Who Died" has interesting character development. The episode continues the seeding of Clara as a bisexual or sexually open-minded (in the season premiere, she referenced Jane Austen as a "good kisser" and in "The Girl Who Died" she offers to fight The Doctor for Ashildr), but the more interesting bits come in The Doctor's scenes where he simply talks. He talks to Clara about the value of life and the responsibilities of time travelers, he talks with Ashildr about the impending fight. The current Doctor is written with some incredibly good lines that are well-delivered by Peter Capaldi, even if they do not add up to a good, solid or cohesive story.

Maisie Williams is fine as Ashildr, but in "The Girl Who Died," the character is utterly unremarkable. The longer "The Girl Who Died" went on, the more the viewer wonders just how the hell the episode will be made a two-parter. The answer is in Williams and the constancy of her character. "The Girl Who Died" is not horrible, but it is simplistic and puts a lot of pressure on the second part to justify the use of such an unimpressive character for two episodes. While Ashildr's bland character is not Williams's fault, portraying her does not use much of the actress's talents, which makes one hope that the second part will utilize her better.

For other works with David Schofield, please check out my reviews of:
Valkyrie
Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Gladiator

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

5/10

For more television reviews, please check out my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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