The World Enough and Time written by Steven Moffat and directed by Rachel Talalay

This story in a nutshell: The Genesis of the Cybermen? 

Indefinable: When David Bradley as William Hartnell said in An Adventure in Time and Space that he could do it all with a look I thought he sounded insane. Until I saw the look in Peter Capaldi’s eyes when Bill was shot, suddenly and unexpectedly, in this episode. It’s one of sheer disbelief and horror. It chilled me to the core. The Doctor has high hopes that Missy can be helped, even if every fibre of his being tells him that she is incorrigible. I felt the weight of their history here, the fact that they have been friends a long time and that the Doctor is trying to forge a path to the relationship they once had. The Doctor and the Master had a pact once that they would go and see every star in the universe. The Doctor has lived up to that where the Master has just been trying to destroy them. 

Funky Chick: Oh Bill. Poor, poor Bill. Had Amy Pond or Clara Oswald been put through these terrors I probably would have applauded, but thanks to the warm performance of Pearl Mackie I have really warmed to Bill and that makes this episode quite a disturbing one.

You’re So Fine: I’ve always liked Missy and this is a great new angle on her character. We’ve seen her embrace villainy and madness but given this is the episode with the return of Simm it’s intriguing to note that she has never actually been written as opposing the Doctor or attempting to kill him, especially in comparison. Simm’s Master was all about humiliating the Doctor, making him see that his way is better. Missy caused a terrible Cyberman catastrophe in the series finale but it was in aid of handing the Doctor an army to command. She might have mistreated Clara terribly in the series nine Dalek spectacular but she was there as the Doctor’s friend, to help him. She has always stressed the relationship between them being a special one. He might not trust her, but she has never actively opposed him. So, this is her chance to step from the TARDIS and be him for an adventure. And what a jolly time of she has too, until people start getting killed. Can I believe that her time in the vault has had a serious effect on her and that she is genuinely on the road to redemption? Do you know I rather hope so. Because that would make this unusual arc (in the sense that it is not building up to some kind of calamity but the recovery of an old friend) something that was worth following and concluding. I would genuinely like to see Missy stand at the Doctors side, madness and all, and embrace the universe. In the meantime we get to enjoy her wit in insulting the Doctor’s companions and her shock as she comes face to face with her predecessor. It’s a good episode for her for sure, but as an indication of how strong this story is her story isn’t even the focus.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Look at them. They’re screaming in pain every second they’re alive!’

The Good:

· Talk about getting your attention in the pre-credits. It has nothing to do with this episode but it’s a teaser for how much this story will affect the Doctor’s regeneration. We’ve heard that Moffat and Chibnall have collaborated on the regeneration and that it is going to be a bit different than before. Teasing it in this way before the event itself is quite unusual regardless. That sure looks like the Antarctic, the setting for the first Doctor’s first traumatic change of identity. Will this tie up with that story somehow? The fact that I am speculating like this show that it has gotten it’s claws into me.
· Effects have come a long way since the show was brought back in 2005. Over the previous ten seasons Doctor Who has been a showcase for some gorgeous CGI and physical effects work. Some people have criticised the show since the Mill hang up their boots but I don’t think anybody can deny that the luxuriously long and detailed shot along the hull of the colony ship is one of the most impressive piece of effects work the show has ever put out. It reminded me of the opening Trial sequence, heralding something important and foreboding. Zooming through the windows into cityscapes and beautiful vistas is the sort of visual imagination that I associate with Doctor Who at its finest. After four weeks of plodding, it felt with one expensive sequence that the show was back at the top of its game again.
· He’s gone and done it. Or at least I hope he’s gone and done it. He’s killed a companion in a shock moment without a speech or fanfare (Clara’s death seemed to go on forever). My jaw hung as the camera panned down to the gaping hole that the shot had left in Bill. Cutting to scenes of the Doctor and Bill enjoying each other’s company in the most mundane of ways – had it been the two of them off exploring the universe it would have been trite somehow – really drives home the injustice of her death and how close they have become because he can confide his secrets to her. How the scenes intercut is beautifully handled by Talalay, I’ve seen a similar shock cut back to a mortal wound in an episode of Buffy (Selfless) but I think it was handled even better here. I was shocked by the gun going off because it was sudden and unexpected but the abrupt cut back to Bill, the life draining out of her, was just as wrenching.
· He comes in for some stick. Re-using old music. Drowning out important scenes. Overstating the drama with the chorus of doom. Etc, etc. However, Murray Gold has been a mainstay on the series for ten series now and has provided some beautiful, shocking, creepy, memorable music. Series 10 has seen something of a renaissance, the music has been one of the strongest elements and The World Enough and Time is possibly the zenith of the series. He’s perfectly in tune with the episode, suggesting the wonder of the colony ship, the joy of Missy’s misadventures, the horror of conversion and the importance of the closing moments. I particularly like how he plays disturbingly with a violin during the moments of medical horror, the sack clothed zombies truly disturbing in the wake of his discordant theme.
· Wait for me. A subconscious message left by the Doctor to Bill. I thought the direction of the moments where the Doctor haunted Bill in the hospital were exceptional, more than justifying the concept. However, the pay off at the climax, to what I thought was a moment of touching character conceit, lead to four words that will burn in my mind. I waited for you. It’s Moffat’s writing at its most shockingly cruel, and its finest.
· I said to my friend Jack last night that it feels like Moffat is finishing his era as he began right back in series one. There is definitely an Empty Child feeling to The World Enough and Time. Some chilling ideas, a slow-paced build up, time for some atmosphere and the director to flex their muscles and a riveting climax. Between The Empty Child and The World Enough and Time Moffat has verged between delivering genius and absolute drivel, depending on your tastes but it’s interesting to see him ditching all that noise, spectacle, clever cleverness, timey wimeyness and sex and just concentrate on a slow momentum, character and atmosphere. Where he began. He never should have stopped.
· Bill explores the hospital in some of the most frightening scenes we have seen in Doctor Who for a while. Partly that is down to the stunning direction and the lighting, and partly it is thanks to the concept of being able to turn down the volume of agonised patients screaming in pain and begging to be killed. These scenes are slow and suspenseful, quite the opposite of the deafening spectacle we are used to.
· I pegged that John Simm was playing Razor about ten minutes after his introduction, but the fact that it took that long is a testament to what he achieves here. Razor is a memorably bizarre character, reminding me of somebody that might show up in The Doctor’s Wife. Just on the right side of lunacy to be an ally, but not entirely to be trusted. He’s funny and approachable, until it is time for him to reveal his true colours. When you realise that the Master has been grooming Bill for the entire episode for a very important role, these scenes take on a whole new dimension.
· I love the visual gag of the Doctor and co freezing every time we cut from them to Bill in the hospital, to show how time is moving at two different rates. More importantly it stresses how long Bill has been in the hospital (years) waiting for the Doctor to rescue her.
· Those smoky, grimy, desolate, apocalyptic vistas are exactly how I always imagined Mondas to be. A planet drained of life. This is just a teardrop of the suffering that is being experienced by the planet.
· Will that go down as one of the most effective cliff-hangers in all of Doctor Who? If they follow through on its implications, definitely. As much as he has tried (and he really has), Moffat has fallen a little short of providing historical moments of Doctor Who but with this – the coming together of two Masters and the Doctor’s companion bringing forth the genesis of the Cybermen – surely qualifies. It’s a moment we may be talking about in years to come. As a scene, it’s outstandingly realised. I especially love the creepy as fuck original Mondasian Cyberman walking out of the darkness and the growing horror on the Doctor’s face when he realises who it is. So little of Moffat has left me desperate to see what happens next. This is almost redresses the balance. I’m chomping at the bit.

The Bad: It’s always nice to have Missy take the piss but if I never have to hear the words Doctor Who within an episode again it would be too soon. There’s making a point and labouring one. And it would be very remiss of me as a reviewer not to point out, despite how well I thought those elements were handled here (and they were handled extremely well) that this story is part of the Moffat obsession with looking back at the shows past rather than embracing what it could be without heavy elements of continuity. I think a whole season without a single reference to the past might be in order next year.

Result: ‘I waited for you…’ A ghoulish nightmare of an episode, an important moment in Doctor Who history, exceptional build up to the finale and a masterclass in pacing, atmosphere and delivering shocks, The World Enough and Time is the classic that a lot of people have been waiting for in series 10. It’s been heralded by many as the best episode ever and I can see why, it’s chillingly well done and about as close to on the nose horror that Doctor Who can explore in its teatime slot. Has a companion ever had to suffer the sort of indignity that Bill does here? Moffat is a clever bastard in that for one year he has focussed all of his energy on getting the companion good and likable, making the audience fall in love with Bill a little bit. Then he waited his season as we got to know her and then inflicted terrors most foul on her in the lead up to the finale. Whilst many of the big revelations of this episode were spoilt in advance – and I’ll chorus with everybody else that that is such a shame because it would have made this episode scream with surprises – the fate of Bill slipped completely under the radar and as such the moment she was shot, or worse, the cliff-hanger where she is revealed as the first Cyberman in existence are agonising viewing. I was genuinely short of breath watching. I’m scared that the time distortion effect on the ship is Moffat’s get-out clause for this incredibly brave act but for once I’m hoping that I’m wrong and this is her fate because it would be a far more memorable way to go than anything the finale could conjure up. It’s ghastly. Rachel Talalay has proven herself three penultimate episodes on the trot now (Dark Water was insidiously creepy and Heaven Sent features possibly the best direction of any Doctor Who story) and her work on The World Enough and Time more than matches up. I have long been a campaigner for the conversion of the Cybermen to be explored more vividly, to use them use as cut-price storm troopers and really focus in on the act of losing your humanity and being turned into a machine. I can’t imagine the series topping this for sheer creepiness. Some scenes left fingers running up my spine (‘Pain…pain…pain…’). I pegged a particular actor halfway through the episode in another guise but that didn’t detract from the performance or the surprise reveal at the climax. Those last five minutes truly got my heart racing in a way that Doctor Who hasn’t for such a long time. That last scene will go down in history: 10/10

The Star Men written by Andrew Smith and directed by Barnaby Edwards

What’s it about: Astronomical navigation is a tricky business. To help Adric with his studies, the Doctor sets course for Gallius Ultima – a planet on the edge of the Milky Way, housing one of the most impressive observatories ever constructed. But the TARDIS arrives to find Gallius U in a state of emergency, tracking the return of the Explorer-class ship Johannes Kepler from its mission into the heart of the mysterious Large Magellanic Cloud. A mission that met with disaster… To find out what overtook the crew of the Johannes Kepler, the Doctor and his companions must journey into the heart of the Cloud… and beyond, into the darkness of another reality altogether. The universe of the Star Men.

An English Gentleman: It feels very season 19 to have a token scene in the TARDIS stressing the domesticity of the crew before jumping straight into the plot as soon as they materialise. He hopes that one of these days that his three wayward companions will listen to him. The Doctor is so much more commanding now that Peter Davison is an older man, he has a natural gravity about him that was lacking in that squeaky voiced young man that piloted the TARDIS in the eighties. And I mean that as a real compliment.

Maths Nerd: Adric is attempting to learn how to fly the TARDIS but as it stands he has killed all aboard in every simulation to date. His mathematical excellence is really being utilised in a dramatic way, exactly the same sort of way he failed to engage in his TV stories. That is one of the joys of Big Finish, taking hold of these characters and using them in a more effective way than they were on screen. I guess that is the power of hindsight for you. Also, Smith is Adric’s creator so he has some authority on the subject. Waterhouse is a lot more comfortable reprising the role too, less of that floaty sing-song voice now and using more of his natural voice. He’s not so much pretending to be young but bringing to life an essence of the character. He’s had some heavy exposure to voice work with Big Finish of late, what with his involvement in Dark Shadows and has had a chance to hone his voice skills. He doesn’t want safe, he wants excitement. Adric gets something of a romance with Autumn but he awkwardly doesn’t seem to know what to do with her, except try and be brave around her. He proves himself to be quite the mental challenge, where other Doctor Who companions might have been taken over by the Star Men, Adric recites prime numbers to concentrate his mind and make a barrier. He knows the discipline of numbers and their power. At the climax, Adric is distracted by his feelings for Autumn, proving that he has a heart beating underneath all that cold maths after all.

Mouth on Legs: Tegan tries to have her customary whinge that she hasn’t made it to Heathrow yet but the Doctor quickly stops her in her tracks and informs her he is trying to broaden the horizons of her knowledge. About damn time.

Alien Orphan: Nyssa is very complimentary of Adric throughout this story, but there is no sense that she is attracted to him in any way. I’m pleased they didn’t go down that route because there wasn’t even a hint of romance between them on screen.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘This is a planet at the edge of the galaxy. It draws all sorts; the scientific, the spiritual, the adventurous and the curious.’

Great Ideas: A research station housing one of the most impressive astronomical observatories ever built is situated on Gallius Ultima. This is the point where humanity is contained within one system but before long they will start to spread. One month ago, the explorer class ship Johanas-Keplar left Gallius U to the large Magallenic Cloud charged with an important mission, which confirms this is a crucial time for humanities development. Now returned, it is clear that the ship has come under attack. Isn’t it marvellous how Andrew Smith drops you along with the TARDIS crew straight into an intriguing science fiction mystery with such economy. He skips over the launch of the ship and its overdue return and leaps straight to the moment it is first sighted, damaged, building a level of foreboding. Especially since the Doctor has already stated how crucial this time is to the future of the human race. The Keplar is deserted, lifeless and it’s heading towards the outpost at the speed of light. Something is interfering with the established timeline, according to the Doctor history records the first flight as a complete success. The end of episode one is very nicely achieved, not a moment of false jeopardy (as season 19 was infamous for) but the Doctor and Tegan heading off into the promise of possible danger. The bodies of Keplar crew have been taken over. The Tarantula Nebula is full of new stars, intense radiation and stellar winds, which is where the Star Men come from. They use the red cloud to envelop ships, to penetrate and smother the crew. The Star Men are new to this universe, altering human history as they are about to expand across the cosmos. They are not aggressors by choice, but the last of their energy in their universe is being depleted and they need a new source from this universe. Several new-born stars in the Tarantula Nebula helped to rip a hole between the Star Men’s universe and this one.

Audio Landscape: Walking on the surface of the gravelly surface of the planet, boots, sticking the floor of the Keplar, a medical laser, splitting coral, the coral spreading,

Isn’t it Odd: Beings from another universe (handled better in Cortex Fire later in the year). Another universe where the energy is depleting. Going from one reality to another to plunder. An enslaved species mining riches for their masters. Ships going missing. This story is literally built out of science fiction clichés.

Result: The Star Men gets off to a flying start with a riveting first episode, one that gets to the heart of a gripping mystery with real economy. Classic Who was always good at grabbing your interest in its opening episode but this is a particularly first-class example of how it should be done. I’m trying to put my finger on what it is that makes Barnaby Edwards direction a cut above everybody else. When I listen to a story he has directed I am almost always bound to enjoy it, even if the script is lacking because he weaves some kind of audio magic around it that makes it so engaging. He reminds me of Graeme Harper from the new series; he drives the best performances out of people, strong, energetic ones and there is always a feeling that the whole piece has been crafted by a master, each element (music, soundscape) painstakingly considered to create an overall effect. He directed The Chimes of Midnight and Dr Who and the Pirates, The Eleventh Tiger and Son of the Dragon, The Eternal Summer and Death in Blackpool. He’s quite my favourite Big Finish director and his work on the first episode cannot be understated, the pace of it means the performances have to be bang on and he has cast the story expertly. I’ve come to expect clinical science fiction from Andrew Smith these days and he doesn’t disappoint with The Star Men. It’s not the most innovative of stories but it does present some old ideas in a direct way. Like evolution in Full Circle and cloning in The First Sontarans, these concepts have been explored before but Smith has a way of bringing science to life. He’s certainly better at it than Bidmead, especially on audio. Episodes two-four aren’t are nowhere near as strong, they feel much more humdrum than the opening instalment but my interest was maintained by the execution. Other highlights were Peter Davison’s performance, which is typically strong and the characterisation of Adric, and I never thought that would be the main strength of a story. After episode one it feels as though The Star Men should have been a better story than it turns out to be, but it is still above average and entertaining: 6/10

The Eaters of Light written by Rona Munro and directed by Charles Palmer

This story in a nutshell: Rona Munro returns to Doctor Who after almost three decades…

Indefinable: Dare I say this out loud? There were times where I felt that Capaldi was phoning it in a little, almost as if he knew it was his last (and not particularly interesting) standalone and he had had enough of this role a little. It was especially apparent during the climax where the Doctor attempts to sacrifice his life for the umpteenth time in a spectacularly unconvincing fashion. There is an entire arc that is playing out around this season that hasn’t been anywhere near polished off, is the Doctor really going to sacrifice himself here and leave Missy to roam about the universe in the TARDIS causing mischief? To boil it down to something insulting, the Doctor simply is not going to give up his life to guard a portal and save a bunch of Romans. You know it and I know it and Capaldi knows it and yet he’s forced to say the lines to the contrary anyway and it doesn’t come off plausibly. He said in a recent interview that there were only so many ways you can declare the end of the world…and I think he might have come to the point where it has become a little tiresome. I enjoyed the opening scenes of the Doctor, Bill and Nardole arriving and arguing about the mystery of the missing Roman Legion. It’s a shame that Nardole felt the need to mention the vault again because Missy is spending more time out of it than in it these days and the arc intrusion, for once, felt unnecessary. Let this scene be what it is, the Doctor and his companions landing in history and debating a point. You might think the Doctor is too hard of Kar, but she is so stubborn and inflexible I thought he wasn’t hard enough. The 12th Doctor of season eight would have thrown her to the light eating alien and gone and had some tea. 

Funky Chick: There’s a fine line between complaining about Bill harping on about her sexuality and somebody complaining that homosexuality features too much in Doctor Who and television in general. I do want to do the former, but I most definitely do not want to do the latter. I have met a lot of new people in past couple of years I don’t think I have had to explain my sexuality once, let alone several times as Bill has this year. The ‘get to know you’ scene smack bang in the middle of this episode where Bill and the Romans reveal who they sleep with felt very unreal, for once it genuinely felt like a political statement. Doctor Who is gay friendly and we want you to know it. That is a really wonderful thing and it should be embraced, but I personally don’t need scenes like this interrupting the flow of an episode to tell me that a Roman character takes it up the arse. Besides I wouldn’t want Bill’s character to be defined by her sexuality. What Russell T Davies did so cleverly in his era was to create vivid, real, memorable characters first and assign them a sexuality second. With this era does feel a bit like a token gesture without any of the substance. Beyond her sexuality and her mother dying, how else would you define Bill? I remember in interviews before the series came out there was an emphasis on Bill being gay not being important and just enjoy the series…but it is a point that is being made again and again by the people who gave those interviews IN the series. Hell, mostly thanks to the efforts of Pearl Mackie I really like Bill and I still think she has been the most successful female companion of the Moffat era. However, I do feel the character has lost some of her initial sparkle from the first half of the season, since The Pyramid at the End of the World the character has either been making really stupid choices or simply coasting. I hope she gets a really good send off in the next two episodes otherwise she will wind being a bit of a non-entity in canon terms. Odd, because you could hardly say that of the only other one season wonder, Donna. Why does Bill keep talking in that strange voice when she is being sarcastic? It was cute at first but she keeps doing it more and more these days. This is the first new series story to be written by a classic series writer and within 10 minutes Bill has gotten lost and fallen down a hole. There’s progression for you. No, that’s not fair, Bill is the one that drives the mystery, she heads off independently and she holds her own amongst a group of randy Romans. And to be fair to Munro she characterised Ace beautifully in Survival, giving her a predatory and sexual awakening and giving her a memorable homecoming. It’s not fair to compare the two as they are completely different types of story (aside from being obsessed with teenagers) but I’m a Doctor Who fan and it is what we do and Ace wins hands down in this category. Bill has a few charming moments in The Eaters of Light, but Ace was the beating heart of Survival. Bill’s decision to defy the Doctor at the climax and reminding him that he cannot take on every fight, was nicely done. She needs a few more moments like that, where she stands out and fights his opinion. 

Faithful Sidekick: The saving grace of The Eaters of Light as far as I am concerned, Nardole seemed to be the only character who was actually having any fun. I love how he steps from the TARDIS in a dressing gown and tea cosy and has no intention of getting changed, no matter how inappropriate. This episode is a nice chance to see how it would have been had the Doctor and Nardole gone solo this season. He tries to ingratiate himself with the local populace, which the Doctor finds nauseating. He sits around gossiping about future events whilst the Doctor is transfixed by the portal for a couple of days, irritating Doctor Who fans by offering a cheeky alternative theory to the disappearance of the Marie Celeste’s crew. In case the Doctor bears a grudge, Nardole knows 10% of the Doctor’s secrets (the dark ones) and he is the only one in the TARDIS who knows where the teacakes are.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘You’ll hold them back? What with your lollipop and your kiddie face paint and your crazy novelty monster killing tool?’ The Doctor can’t take these kids seriously either.

The Good: I don’t know if this story was shot in Wales or Scotland, but it sure looks rugged and beautiful. The landscapes on offer are an artist’s inspiration, the scenery offering more complex characterisation than the script. It looks exactly the sort of place where the TARDIS could plonk down, almost incongruously, and an adventure can begin. The windswept desolation brings to mind The Sontaran Experiment and the gorgeous autumnal glens reminded me strongly of The Mysterious Planet. The Doctor and Nardole discovering the great pile of bodies in the landscape is a moment that made me sit up and pay attention. Another visual that defies the slumbersome nature of the plot is the gate itself, a fearsome light show of spectres dancing given some welly by some Murray Gold bombast. 

The Bad: ‘Crows in the future are all in a huff?’ Every now and again Doctor Who loves to put out these cute ‘he talks baby’ moments. I didn’t mind the idea that crows can talk, it’s kind of creepy in how it was realised. What I do object to is the payoff to this idea and the reason the crows don’t talk in the future. Or only make one sound. My other half turned to me as they started screaming ‘Ka!’ at the climax and said ‘that’s just embarrassing.’ Kar is a character that should stand out for all the right reasons, a female warrior who is tired of the Roman arrogance to come and civilise the rest of the world. But as played by Rebecca Benson, I found her desperately unlikable, annoying even. There isn’t the weight of the slaughter on her shoulders, she just sounds like a whining teenager. And Dawn Summers taught us how irritating that can be. Listen to her dialogue, it makes a lot of sense but in complete opposition to The Empress of Mars you have actors that are sabotaging the complexity that is inherent in the script. The Roman characters were sweet but not particularly interesting, beyond their sexuality I felt as if I barely got to know them, just their situation. I’m wondering if it was the fact that I was dealing with two sets of teenagers that I had a problem with. If there had been adults involved I might have been able to have taken it more seriously. I’m sure Munro has researched this well and it is accurate, but it does have a feel of Doctor Who history 90210. Half the problem is that I never had a sense of real jeopardy here. The last time Charles Palmer directed an episode was Oxygen and every second I felt the setting and the situation tightening around the characters. But if the kids here can sit around and natter so much the desperation of the scenario is hardly apparent. And with a conclusion as easy as this, it could have been solved a lot sooner than it was. It’s rather amusing that Munro is a 7th Doctor writer and this has more than a touch of Paradise Towers to it, with two warring factions (including a teenage clan) coming together to fight their real enemy. It feels less triumphant this time around.

Result: This was the episode I earmarked for a watch with my very good friend Jack in Australia, we try and marry up one episode a season and we decided that it should be the episode written by a classic series writer. I wished we had gone for somebody more obvious like Matheson or Dollard, now. I wasn’t engaged by The Eaters of Light at all and by the end we watched Extemis just so I could wax lyrical about something this season. To give a balanced view I did find the first ten minutes, whilst never exactly riveting, set up the reasons the Doctor and company have arrived, luxuriate in a stunning location and introduce what appears to be an intriguing new monster. It’s everything that happens after that that is the problem. Not a great deal. There is a dearth of incident in this story after it is set up, a lack of tension, of pace and finally of a sufficient conclusion. The characters sit around and discuss this cataclysmic situation (and who they like to sleep with) and then join forces and step into a light. The end, there I saved you the need to watch this desperately mediocre slice of Who. Had there been some knockout characterisation, some confrontation with bite, some more insight into the light eater or even some logic behind how it was defeated, I might have been able to stay awake. It probably doesn’t help that Romans and barbarians and creating mythology in history isn’t really my bag, so I might have been onto a loser even if those things were in place. Series 10 has been a really mixed effort as far as I am concerned. Whilst there was a freshness with Bill and some initial excitement around an engaging new TARDIS team (The Pilot, Thin Ice, Oxygen and Extremis all working extremely well), there is also a tiredness in the writing and a feeling that this production team is trading on past glories rather than embracing the future of the show (and with the Cybermen and the Master appearing in the finale it looks like nothing is going to change). For me, there have now been more so-so episodes than good, especially since the middle the of the season. Practically every Doctor Who year ramps up towards its conclusion (look at the run up in series three and four) but series 10 seems to be limping to the finish line with a pair of disappointing Monk episodes, a love letter to the Ice Warriors and a failed attempt at attaching poetry to history. It’s hardly gathering momentum, is it? And if you think I am only hard on Moffat’s seasons, I think the run from Kill the Moon to Last Christmas is very strong, with only a few exceptions. Given the way Missy has been not-so discreetly shoehorned into so many episodes of late I would have thought this would have been her breakout episode before the finale. Even she seems less than impressed with this tale as she sums it up less than favourably in her five minute intrusion at the climax. Perhaps if this had taken place earlier in the season it would have felt more diverting. Somehow I doubt it. Think of some of the Capaldi standalones – Into the Dalek, Mummy, Flatline, The Girl Who Died, Fear the Raven, Thin Ice, Oxygen – why did this have to be his last one? This is Doctor Who in fatigue. It needs a creative defibrillator to pump some life back into it: 4/10

Empress of Mars written by Mark Gatiss and directed by Wayne Yip

This story in a nutshell: If you’re a classic series fan who is disillusioned by the new series…this might just be the one for you!

Indefinable: Jon Pertwee is stunning in this adventure, one of his most commanding performances. What do you mean the Doctor is played by Peter Capaldi? Long term fan Capaldi has clearly seen his Peladon stories and studied Pertwee’s Doctor and he gives a terrific retro turn as the Doctor of old, trying to negotiate peace between humanity and the Ice Warriors and tearing his hair out at the stupidity of both sides. 

Funky Chick: Oh bless Mark Gatiss, it feels as though he hasn’t been watching the rest of the series at all. Because of course Bill has been dropping pop culture references all season, as though that is the latest in thing. And where was the reference to her mother? I didn’t think an episode could by without one…or did they lean on that so heavily in The Lie of the land that they thought they would take a break this week? After two weeks of Bill behaving in a very unusual fashion (surrendering the Earth and shooting the Doctor and all), it is very pleasant for her to simply play the role of the plucky companion for one week. In fact, given she wasn’t really Bill in Extremis, Oxygen was a powerful drama and Knock Knock featured her as the lead, this is her first chance to simply have some fun with the Doctor since Thin Ice. She throws herself head first into danger and is quick with a one liner or two but essentially this could be in companion in the role. And do you know what? That’s okay sometimes for a breather and that’s exactly what this is. Nothing distinctive but nothing offensive either. And let’s consider that a step up. Although I do wonder about a series that can present a character that goes through the sort of soul destroying actions that Bill has and have no fallout whatsoever. She’s back to her good old self this week. Just don’t let her think that the Doctor might side with the Martians. She might blow his head off.

Faithful Sidekick: Nardole is such a sweetie. I know people who have been quite resistant to the character, calling him just Matt Lucas in space and the like, but I think he has been handled extremely well in series 10. He’s been given dramatic moments (confronting the Doctor at the end of Oxygen, the reveal that he isn’t real in Extremis), funny moments (I loved his little scream after he threatened Bill in Extremis) and cute moments too (‘Cuddle’). I don’t think he has been overplayed but his presence has been felt (and explained well) throughout. It’s a shame that he had to be surgically excised from Empress of Mars so awkwardly because it feels as though he should never have been there in the first place. He bookends the episode, disappearing with the TARDIS (a very classic series device, cutting the Doctor off from his ship) and reappearing at the end to ask ‘what’s be going on? I did find his method of returning to them obvious but intriguing and the final scene with Missy in the control room gives the season arc a bit of a shove. Most of all I have found Lucas appealing in the role, my heart sings every time he is on the screen.

The Good:

· Dost my eyes deceive me or are there actual hot blooded (and cold blooded come to think of it) guest characters with personalities that hog some screen time from the regulars? One thing that series 10 has lacked in abundance is the presence of a decent guest cast in its episodes – I appreciate that this is the only season where we will get to play with this set of (generally) very strong regulars but the supporting characters add so much colour and detail to the stories too. Admittedly this bunch aren’t particularly skilfully written, there is some god awful Victorian cockney that I could barely stomach and they are painted in very broad strokes (victim/bad/coward covers the three main speaking parts) but I appreciate the effort to pad out the situation with some characters all the same. This is one of those cases where the actors chosen to play them add extra depth that isn’t there in the script and kudos to Anthony Calf, Ferdinand Kingsley and Ian Beattie for their heroic turns as Godsacre, Catchlove and Jackdaw. Despite the lack of complexity in their dialogue, I felt as though they were living, breathing people who had lives outside of this story. I haven’t felt that way about supporting characters all year. I particularly liked Catchlove, not the subtlest of villains but the way he smiles his way through every threat and insult makes him an imminently hissable one. As a poster child for British Imperialism, he’s no heart, all attack. Straightening his hair to ensure he looks his best whilst he descends into madness, I can imagine most of his problems spring from the fact that his name is Neville. He even gets the line ‘sod this for a game of soldiers’ after throwing one of his men to the slaughter.
· I’m very fond of the Ice Warriors despite the fact that they are occasionally very cumbersomely directed. How can you cumbersomely direct somebody I hear you ask…well go and watch certain scenes in The Seeds of Death and The Monster of Peladon where they look as if the heavy costumes are going to lumber over and fall on the camera at any minute. They’re actually much more effective (in the classic series) when they don’t move, with their imposing bearing and striking costumes (and unusually they look better in black and white). I love the game that Terrance Dicks plays with them in the Peladon stories, presenting them as allies (albeit ones the Doctor is suspicious of for some time) before reverting to type in the latter story and having them give the story a damn good kick up the arse by massacring as many miners as possible. They are a race that work both as characters (the original Ice Warrior featured some pleasingly individual creations, Izlyr from Curse) and as a race of menacing monsters. They were denied a reappearance in the 80s thank to the culling of the original season 23 and whilst Mission to Magnus transpired to be as camp and outrageous as people feared (and it can now be heard thanks to the efforts of Big Finish), I’m fairly certain that John Nathan-Turner would have done them proud, at least visually. It’s little wonder they featured so heavily in the spin of material in the nineties. Gatiss’ last stab at writing for them was the forgettable Cold War, which had all the hallmarks of a classic Doctor Who base under siege adventure but failed to inject much interest in the Ice Warriors. They certainly didn’t have a rush return, which seems to be the norm with the more popular monsters. They are particularly well realised in Empress, the soft light of the tunnels gleaming from their green armour. They seem to have learnt the art of picking up the pace, which leads to a very tense moment when the Doctor is confronted with Friday. The Empress is a fine addition to Ice Warrior mythology and Adele Lynch gives a wonderfully snarling performance that is worthy of a place alongside The Racnoss Empress for sheer over the toppiness. I think she’s wonderfully watchable, literally as though she has stepped out of 70s Doctor Who. Love the dreadlocks, she must go to the same hairdresser as the Movellans. I’ve heard criticism about the comic book way the Ice Warriors murder people in this story (bring back Mirrilon, declared one) but I think it’s rather grisly and ingenious. I’ve certainly never seen anything like it before and it must be agonising to have your bodied folded up into a ball in such an unnatural way.
· Victorian soldiers on Mars, now that’s a whacky idea that Doctor Who of old would brazenly try and pull off. As unlikely as it may seem, it feels as natural for the show try something this bonkers as Queen Victoria (who makes a small cameo) and werewolves. The small details of the tents and the afternoon tea on the Red Planet are just sublime.

· Trapped in the caves, firing a laser at rock, Ice Warriors dashing about and Alpha Centauri popping up…if you squint really hard you can actually turn this into The Monster of Peladon.
· Things get terribly exciting in the last third when the Ice Warriors attack and the Empress gives the order to thaw out her army. NuWho has been running short on genuinely iconic scenes of late but this must surely qualify, even if it is a riff on Tomb of the Cybermen. It might not be original, but it is visually arresting and dynamic and the release of the Warriors from their hives plugs a gap in continuity (How did the Ice Warriors become a member of the Galactic Federation?) to boot. A special mention for Wayne Yip who I was fairly dismissive of last week, he seems a lot more comfortable bringing out and out action to life and the attack scenes are given some real pace and punch. The Warriors bursting from the floor is just delicious.

The Bad:
· Where the pre-credits was just about the best thing in The Lie of the Land, in Empress it is the dead weight at the beginning of a rather fun episode. I can see why it was thought to be a neat conceit, but it reminded me too much of the HELLO SWEETIE scrawled into the side of the mountain. It’s a little too up its own arse and self-consciously British. In storytelling terms it makes perfect sense, I just didn’t think the story needed the hook. It would be perfectly serviceable without it. Plus, I found the way the Doctor and his companions so smugly wandered into NASA and took over to be an unpleasant reminder of the Matt Smith era. That witless overconfidence that grates on the nerves. It’s a big, bold notion and its very Doctor Who but it just didn’t sit well for me. I thought we were on our way to third clunker…and it took me a little while to recover from that feeling. I would have poured the money from the (impressive) NASA sets into the effect of creating Mars.
· I very much enjoyed Godsacre living up to his cowardice and running scared during the climax. His redemption a few minutes later when he saves the day left a sour taste in my mouth. This story isn’t allowed even the slightest amount of shade.
· ‘We can stand together!’ declares Bill, holding Friday’s hand. Almost as trite as Sarah’s women’s lib speech to the Queen. The Empress’ quick turnaround after Godsacre’s sacrifice of Catchlove is equally unconvincing. That’s the sacrifice you make when you squeeze an entire narrative into 45 minutes, more often than not the climax of the story is rushed and unimpressive.
The Shallow Bit: I read a comment online where a fan of this episode said he thought the Empress was a bit of alright. He’s been sectioned now, but I thought I would share the reason why.

Result: ‘Welcome to the universe!’ Total hokum really, but massively entertaining for the most part and it serves to plug a big gap in continuity. The action was well staged and dynamic, the Ice Warriors looked better than ever (and the Empress was spectacularly realised) and the guest characters provided some reasonable support. I thought the setting was quite vivid too and whilst there was nothing particularly standout in their characterisation, the Doctor and Bill were engagingly handled. Like a said about The Magician’s Apprentice/The Witches Familiar and Hell Bent, this is Doctor Who aimed squarely at the fans. The pleasing touches throughout; the painting of Queen Victoria, RHIP, Victorian values (a follow up on Sarah Jane Smith’s ‘You’re still living in the Middle Ages!’) and Alpha Centauri all tickled me too but I have to wonder what a not-we would have thought about this. My friend texted me immediately afterwards and said she just wasn’t feeling it and I wonder with its leaning towards continuity the show has lost a portion of the audience that enjoyed the more open-door storytelling of the shows first four years. I’m pleased to hear in a recent interview that the show will be veering dramatically away from that and embracing the regular audience again, so I’ll take these massive kisses to the past whilst they are here. I’m sure there are fans out there declaring this the greatest episode since the show returned because they have been paid lip service but for me this story has a slight plot, shallow characters and a weak resolution. It looks great and I got really caught up in the action and the Ice Warrior porn. It’s is a nice story for Gatiss to go out on, like the best of his work elsewhere it has some really fun ideas and more than a touch of nostalgia (The Unquiet Dead, The Crimson Horror) whilst avoiding the clichés and blandness of his lesser episodes (Victory of the Daleks, Cold War, Sleep No More). He got to write a real love letter to the Pertwee era and Moffat indulged him. Somehow as a breather before things get turned up to ten again that feels entirely appropriate. I would take the stompy Ice Warriors over the Monks any day of the week: 7/10

Series Ten

The Pilot: Welcome back Doctor Who after two Christmas specials that have erred on the side of high camp entertainment and the show has been off our screens, seasons wise, for longer than the hiatus is 1985. The Pilot would have felt like a welcome return even if it had turned out to be shit but the fact is there is much more to this than your standard Doctor Who episode. Whilst this will receive the same mark as both of those Christmas specials (Husbands had a glorious last ten minutes and Mysterio was one of the cutest pieces of television ever) because it has a number of issues holding it back, this is far more my kind of Doctor Who than either of them. The pacing is lethargic in the first half but that is just to give us time to get close to Bill and drawn into her relationship with the Doctor but things really pick up from the halfway point and it is ghoulish attacks and a whirlwind tour of the universe until the touching conclusion. As I’ve stated elsewhere, Bill Mackie is a revelation and I think this is the biggest surprise, in the eyes of fandom, since Catherine Tate turned out to be one of the strongest actresses to ever appear in the show. She’s effortlessly good and extremely watchable and much of the episode relies on you liking Bill and wanting to stick close to her so that is a really good thing. I love how much she questions and doubts whilst employing a keen mind and allowing herself to be afraid. Clara I know everything and nothing bothers me Oswald she aint. Gough’s direction is worth noting for its atmosphere, he gives The Pilot a lightness of touch and still manages to throw in a couple of effective scares. This is a very easy piece of television to like. Downsides? The Bill/Heather relationship never really came alive for me so I never truly felt anything when they were forced to part, there are the trademark unanswered questions that might frustrate the casual audience (my other half was baffled that so much was left hanging) and looking forward with Smile also being a little low key it is a very gentle introduction to the season. I wouldn’t expect a newcomer to be particularly knocked off their feet. But overall this is a triumphant return for the show in what feels like reboot before the reboot takes place. It’s funny how the introduction of a new companion can give the show a massive facelift and The Pilot confirm my suspicion (which I stressed in several reviews last year) that Clara simply hung around for too long. This opener belongs to Bill and Bill is fabulous and that means Doctor Who is fabulous for me again. Go figure, when Moffat said the show is all about the companion perhaps he was right. I’m optimistic once again: 7/10

Full Review Here: https://docohobigfinish.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/the-pilot-written-by-steven-moffat-and.html

Smile: ‘We’re in the utopia of vacuous teens…’ You said it, mate. So much of Smile relies on the interaction between the Doctor and Bill because very little happens in the first half beyond them exploring the empty colony. Barry Letts once said that the Doctor and companion should have an appeal that carries the story even when what is on screen isn’t particularly engaging and this is the living embodiment of that approach. I just think the show should be aspiring to something a little more riveting in its tenth season than a story that solely relies on the charisma of the leads because the story it is telling is so slight and dull. People have made allusions to the fact that this episode is a bit like The Happiness Patrol (forced happiness) and a bit like The Ark in Space (the clinical atmosphere of finding a human colony in slumber) but in truth beyond the ideas they have very little in common. For a start both of those stories have some substance and interest about them. When I compare one story to another I am often talking about direct steals or similarity in tone but Smile only has the most insincere similarities to those classic Doctor Who adventures. The pacing of Smile is way off balance; the first 30 minutes plays out like a really plodding classic series first episode and the last 10 minutes is a manic fourth episode condensed down. It flies from one to the other with a scene of painful exposition in between. I always applaud Doctor Who’s attempt to do something a bit different and Cottrell Boyce has tried that twice now and I clap my hands at the braveness of having two Doctor Who stories taking a less suspenseful and more cerebral approach. However, both episodes failed to engage me because of the lack of action, their lack of interesting guest characters, their unconvincing climaxes and their failure to do anything interesting with their core concepts. It’s almost as if the notions of the forest of London and the deserted colony are enough. This is aping the pace and tone of the classic series but it is failing to remember the one core ingredient, the engaging narrative. And don’t get me started on the Doctor almost randomly destroying the human race and the robots that murder because they don’t recognise a frown. The ideas Smile does flaunt I simply could not buy in to. This episode rests almost entirely on the characters of the Doctor and Bill and their reactions to pretty much nothing and it is a testament to their partnership this early in the season that this doesn’t bomb entirely. When episode one and two are both quiet, unassuming stories with small guest casts you have to wonder if the series isn’t losing its nerve a little. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Bill had asked the Doctor to take her home because travelling to other worlds is a massive yawn: 3/10

Full Review Here: https://docohobigfinish.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/smile-written-by-frank-cottrell-boyce.html

Thin Ice: The best episode since Heaven Sent, almost 18 months ago. Admittedly there have only been 5 episodes in between (which I voted 3, 7, 7, 7, 3 respectively) but it has felt as though Doctor Who has been coasting for some time now, albeit coasting fairly entertainingly. Thin Ice scores on several levels for me; the atmospheric and playful setting, the unusual reversal of the creature being misjudged, the enjoyable characterisation of the Doctor and Bill (three for three on that score), the drama of asking the question of whether the Doctor has killed somebody and dealing with the emotional fallout of that and the astonishing production values. Countering that is the fact that there is nothing truly original happening here, it’s old ideas (jokes about wandering through history, exploitative villains, a deadly creature that turns out to be nothing of the sort, the Doctor’s chequered past) presented in a new way. But given they are presented so stylishly, who cares? Thin Ice is just shy of being an out and out classic because of this but it achieves what it sets out to do to a very high standard indeed. If this quality was the average week in, week out, we would be in really good shape. You could watch this with the sound down and marvel at the beauty of the direction. But then you would be denied Dollard’s exceptional ear for memorable dialogue, her ability to get inside Bill’s head in a very emotive way and miss out of one of the best presentations of Peter Capaldi’s Doctor yet. He’s effortlessly pleasurable to watch. I simply cannot re-instate enough how much I am enjoying Pearl Mackie’s performance and with each episode I am hoping she hangs around to bridge the gap between Capaldi’s departure and the new Doctor’s introduction. I love how she underplays the drama, she makes Bill’s reactions to the horrors that she faces really count. Whilst this is the most dramatically presented of the three episodes so far this season, they have all been fairly intimate tales. It feels like we are being escalated through the season, the stories becoming punchier as they go. If things continue in this vein, the finale should be explosive. All I’m asking for now is a plot with a bit of substance. Thin Ice is a story that is well crafted, well characterised and well filmed. Take a step out of the TARDIS and enjoy a night at the Frost Fair of Old London Town. One to savour: 8/10

Full Review Here: https://docohobigfinish.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/thin-ice-written-by-sarah-dollard-and.html

Knock Knock: Knock Knock had all the trappings of a great mini horror movie and I walked away with a bad taste in my mouth because it didn’t follow through on its promise. To say I shouldn’t have walked into this episode with pre-conceptions is fair but the trailer, the preview reviews and the first fifteen minutes all convinced me that this was going to be the most chilling Doctor Who of all time. Instead it falls way short of that when it decides to morph into an undercooked character drama in the last third. My favourite scenes were in the middle section of the episode with victims in the walls and the house locking itself shut and bugs stealing their first victims. For ten minutes or so Knock Knock does live up to its premise and attempt to get under your skin (hoho). Like the last three episodes though, it comes undone (and this is probably the worst example) in its climax. In this case it is because nothing is adequately explained (What were the bugs? Why did the Doctor seem to take such an interest in them and then just walk away from them? How can Eliza forget about her son? How do they re-constitute people?) and all the characters depart alive and well. It leaves you wondering what the point of the whole episode was, unless Bill’s friends are going to be recurring characters. In which case I hope they are characterised with a bit more chutzpah than they are here. I don’t remember a defining thing about any of them. Gosh, don’t I sound like a moaning Minnie? What did I like? The direction was generally sound; pacy, atmospheric and (in the opening third) fun. I think he captured the juxtaposition between young (the kids and their search for student lodgings) and old (the house and its creaky owner) very well. It’s a bit of a thankless part but David Suchet is absolutely superb as the Landlord and works extremely well when he is just a creepy old man that seems to be killing off young’uns to feed the house. Certain scenes did generate a sweat and my friend Alison I was watching with did jump at one point. And the make up for Eliza is quite out of this world, reminding me of the Pyroville from Pompeii (like a human being but quite unlike a human being and visually disturbing because of it). And there’s the secret weapon of series ten of course: the Doctor and Bill. I think this would score a point lower if it was in the hands of any of the other regulars in Moffat’s time. Knock Knock wasn’t a great episode, but it was entertaining enough. I’ve said this four times now though, series ten has had four relatively unassuming episodes in a row. I think it’s time for a blockbuster…and its certainly time for Nardole to take a bigger role. A disappointing horror tale but a fair piece of entertainment, Knock Knock should have had the courage of its convictions and sent the kids to bed traumatised. It is following the form of so many horror movies of late by having a decent atmosphere but taking a dive when it comes to revealing the nasty. Mind, most haunted house tales don’t undermine their genre in the final reel. That really is boggling: 6/10

Full Review Here: https://docohobigfinish.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/knock-knock-written-by-mike-bartlett.html

Oxygen: ‘Bill I’ve got no TARDIS, no sonic, about ten minutes of oxygen left and now I’m blind. Can you imagine how unbearable I’m going to be when I pull this off?’ Oxygen is Doctor Who firing on all cylinders. If there was any doubt that the series could reach the heights of its NuWho heyday then this was the proof. Whilst it was extraordinary, I can’t include Heaven Sent because it was such an unusual experiment. Oxygen is honest to God, nuts’n’bolts Doctor Who, refined and pitched to perfection. I mentioned in my review of Smile that FCB doesn’t write my kind of Doctor Who (that isn’t to say there aren’t others who find his tensionless sermons perfection itself) and in contrast Jamie Matheson writes exactly my kind of Doctor Who: bold, original, clever, tense, beautifully paced, characterful, funny and satisfying. In the Capaldi era his is the benchmark that everybody else is working to, just as Moffat was the standout under the previous administration. What you have is a threat on the inside (the oxygen suits that are working against you) and the outside (the dead-eyed zombies attacking en masse) and two companions that are allowed to be absolutely terrified. It’s the tensest the show has been in many years, probably since the Moffat era began. And it’s a formula for success that the show traded in for many years in the classic series that I thought had been long forgotten. Add in an already terrifying environment and you have a Doctor Who episode that ticks every single box when it comes to putting the willies up you (oh get a room). This is the bonding exercise that the Doctor, Bill and Nardole needed too, a race to survive together and a feeling that they are a group of friends working together. Each of the regulars gets their best moment of the season to date involving blindness, oxygen starvation and the killer line ‘Look at me!’ Oxygen holds back from being indulgent or overly spectacular like so much of this era, it focuses on a tricky situation with a small group of characters and some dastardly clever ideas. When Moffat makes the joke that he has finally figured out how to show run Doctor Who just as he is leaving is not only very funny in its self-deprecation but also quite true. Charles Palmer directs with exactness, capturing the claustrophobia and terror of the setting with the precision of scalpel. The performances are first rate. The music underscores rather than overwhelming the action. And the final scene is a doozy. I think Oxygen is a modern day classic Doctor Who. I genuinely got short of breath watching this: 10/10

Full Review Here: https://docohobigfinish.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/oxygen-written-by-jamie-matheson-and.html

Extremis: ‘I’m calling the Doctor…’ One of Steven Moffat’s tightest scripts, that pretends it is a scattering of ideas and random scenes for its first half and that coalesces beautifully around its big twist. I was frustrated, then I was shocked, then I was impressed and now after subsequent re-watches I’m ready to declare this one of the strongest of the season to date. How the clues are staggered throughout the episode (the static in the titles, the absurdity of the Pope visiting the Doctor, the nature of the Veritas and its suicidal effect of people, the first window of light in the vault, the apparently random skip to the Pentagon and SERN, the room of projections, the zombie Monks…) is expertly done with each step taking us closer to the truth. It’s an episode the rewards subsequent viewings in that respect. But along the way there are great lines, an intriguing plot, some real belly laughs, further examination of the Doctor’s blindness, some gorgeous moments between Bill and Nardole and terrific production values. It is the last ten minutes that astounded me; Nardole confronting the truth of reality, Bill struggling to come to terms with her situation and the Doctor proving that he is the hero no matter how he has been constructed. These are some of the most shocking, disquieting and triumphant scenes since Moffat returned to the show. If the series had been this on form for the past six seasons I would be hailing it the Golden Age of Doctor Who. Is this really the same writer who gave us The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe and Time of the Doctor? Astonishing. The icing on the cake is the return of Missy and the knowledge that she has been in the vault all this time, hardly a surprise but it means that we can finally move on with the arc plot as well. Moffat couldn’t be cheekier…fandom has often accused him (rightly or wrongly) of taking liberties with the series and now he has written a script where he is able to get away with any damn thing he wants. And instead of taking the piss to give the game away, he writes the regulars and the episode at large as efficiently as possible to disguise his twist. As a prelude for the next episode, I couldn’t be more excited. Bring on the Monks!: 9/10

Full Review Here: https://docohobigfinish.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/extremis-written-by-steven-moffat-and.html

The Pyramid at the End of the World: A bit of a struggle, actually. This is a largely empty affair that feels once again like set up for the main event rather than the meat in a three-part sandwich. The Pyramid at the End of the World sacrifices its characters to the plot, a typical trait in this period of the show. There are a wealth of guest characters in this story but I at no point felt as if I got to know them, they are simply functions of a glacial plot. I’m not sure what to think of the Monks. On the one hand it is novel to have a different kind of invasion story, one where they will only invade once humanity has given its consent. However it doesn’t make them the most exciting of monsters, fondling their tendrils and hanging about waiting for a duff move to be made on humanity’s part. And they’ve featured in two episodes now and feel as I know absolutely nothing about them, their motives or their history. The first ten minutes feel fresh and interesting, the idea of the 5000-year-old pyramid that appears overnight is striking but I expected the initial talk to give way to some action that never comes. It doesn’t help that things are boiled down to their most simplistic level with both the disaster that will bring the world to its knees being insultingly signposted and the bringing together of the military leaders failing to work on any plausible level. This is The Sound of Drums. It’s The Day of the Doctor. It’s Heaven Sent. It’s the middle of a three-part Doctor Who epic and yet it feels so conversational and paceless. The Pyramid at the End of the World is trying to do something different, which should be applauded. However, within it’s intriguing premise it is plodding and childish and the talk there is lacks punch. Let’s hope that Bill’s ridiculous decision shifts things into a more engaging gear. A few extra points for some powerful visuals: 5/10 

Full Review Here: https://docohobigfinish.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/the-pyramid-at-end-of-world-written-by.html

The Lie of the Land: It’s a tough competition, for sure. The previous three ‘trilogies’ closed on Last of the Time Lords, Time of the Doctor and Hell Bent, three episodes that haven’t exactly gone down well in Doctor Who history. How does the The Lie of the Land fare against these damp squibs? It fits right in perfectly! Toby Whithouse has proven himself to be a very competent writer but all good sense seems to have abandoned him here and what emerges is his weakest instalment of Doctor Who. I’m not sure where to start with the bad; the Monks fail to make any impression despite appearing in the equivalent of a classic series six parter, their rule of tyranny is barely established before it is ignored in favour of all the (rotten) character work, the Doctor and Bill are mis-characterised to a factor of ten (it is hard to believe that their interaction could be fudged this badly given the excellent ground work in the season to date), the episode is paced inconsistently with nothing truly exciting happening throughout (and a five minute interlude with Missy intruding in the middle) and the ending, which in a long line of ‘love conquers all’ climaxes does fit a pattern in this era of the show but proves to be as unbelievable and annoying as all the others. No more so because it has two episodes of set up to drag down with it. Not to mention how this entire three parter is wiped from humanity’s memory rendering the whole exercise moot. It’s rare for a story to start as strongly as this did with Extremis and haemorrhage continuously until it limps to such a bothersome conclusion. Not to mention this episode plays out like an amalgamation of much better episodes, being a pale retread of the Master three parter in series three and Turn Left. I think Pyramid and Lie both have their emphasis wrong, the middle part should have dealt with the heavy characterisation and the climax should have been a lot heavier on plot, whereas the reverse is true. Especially when the characterisation here is so lacking, with both the Doctor and Bill coming out of the story with plenty of egg on their faces. I wonder why Capaldi didn’t object to the shooting scene. The last thing you should be thinking at the end of a three-part epic is ‘what was the point of that?’ The Pyramid at the End of the World and The Lie of the Land sit like a dead weight in the middle of series 10 and that is a real shame. My points are for the stunning pre-titles sequence (I wish the episode could have been more in that vein), a wonderful five minutes with Missy and for Pearl Mackie’s valiant efforts. She’s one hell of a find. The rest is drivel of the highest order: 4/10

Full Review Here: https://docohobigfinish.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/the-lie-of-land-written-by-toby.html

The Lie of the Land written by Toby Whithouse and directed by Wayne Yip

What’s it about: Thanks to Bill, the Monks have managed to conquer the Earth. Let’s take a look at the consequences…

Indefinable: There is something distinctly off about the Doctor throughout this story. I don’t think he has been this mis-characterised since Hell bent where Moffat tried to turn him into some kind of reckless avenging angel. The 12th Doctor has been exceptionally handled this season and Capaldi has delivered some of his finest work (I thought Tennant was at his zenith during his third year too…mind you I thought Matt Smith was at his weakest at the same time in his tenure, as if he had forgotten all the things that made his Doctor work) so why is he suddenly being written as an unconvincing villain who has sided with the Monks? For an audience that is already struggling to like this Doctor (and the lowest overnight in the shows history reflects that), should they really even be suggesting that he has gone over to the other side? It was a similarly stupid act when they did it with Colin Baker’s Doctor in Mindwarp, just as the audience might have started to warm to him suddenly he is misbehaving in an unjustifiable fashion again. It’s not Capaldi’s fault and I would have thought that he would have played the nasty guy well but there is too much of a maniacal twinkle in his eye for it to convince. After his attempt to play bad and his disgusting trick on Bill (no Doctor has ever put a companion through something as torturous as convincing them to kill him), we then see him clinging to the front of the ship and laughing like a lunatic. This combination of behaviour just makes him seem unhinged and unlikable. And none of it is defensible in the script, it’s the Doctor acting like a lunatic simply because he wants to. Boo hiss. When the Doctor grins out of the screen in the pre-credits sequence he looks positively evil. 

Groovy Chick: Thank goodness Pearl Mackie is as good as she is because this episode (and Pyramid) have done some serious damage to the character. Somehow, she manages to salvage some the loathsome characterisation that Bill receives. Not only did Bill (for whatever reason) choose to hand over the world to the Monks, a decision so exceptionally stupid she should probably be sectioned but in this episode they trump that by having her shoot the Doctor! Actually pump lead into him! For a moment I thought that the whole Bill finding the Doctor on the boat had to be a set up that they were all in on, that the only way this could possibly make sense would be to have her in on the ruse and be firing blanks. To discover that it was a ruse but at Bill’s expense makes this the dumbest scene to feature in NuWho to date, and that is against some stiff competition. Let’s take a second to consider this for a moment. The Doctor’s companion attempts to murder him. That’s a phenomenally dramatic act and one that would have severe repercussions for both her and their relationship. How can she go from wanting him dead to accepting that the whole thing was a con? How can he ever trust her again? How can she not feel the deepest shock and remorse? It’s appallingly handled the way they skip over the act because the plot has to keep on moving. It’s unforgivable mischaracterisation and a scene I simply cannot get out of my mind. The story hasn’t shown us enough of Bill suffering under this new regime to act in such a homicidal way and the Doctor hasn’t done anything that inexcusable that he deserves to be pumped full of lead. So the act is not justified by the story…and then the consequences are not dealt with in the story. So what was the point of it except to create a moment of false high drama? Mackie struggles gamely during this (but not as much as Capaldi, who even at his level of acting skill cannot make the Doctor’s actions make sense) and is very sincere, but she is let-down totally by a script that betrays what the relationship between the Doctor and companion is about. I’ve found Bill’s faith in her mother one of the most winning aspects of her character this season, it’s something that has been alluded to in practically every episode as has begun to define her as a person. When she thought she was going to die in Oxygen, Bill cried out to her mother like a lost child. It was very touching. Perhaps I wouldn’t have been so optimistic had I know it would lead to an episode where she has imaginary conversations with her mother and, worse, another love saves the day climax where her passion for her mother is enough to drive the Monks away from the Earth. It’s overplayed here, it feels like there is little to Bill aside from her paternal love. To have a companion miss a loved one is poignant and allows us closer to them, to have her explaining the plot to their deceased parent throughout the story is bizarre and pushes them further away again. 

Faithful Sidekick: I found the scenes between Bill and Nardole very sweet again. They are a very watchable pair. Until I realised that he was the one who had lead her to the Doctor and his horrid scheme and then I questioned whether this was a friendship after all.

The Good:

· The pre-titles sequence is tricky because it fools you in to thinking you are going to get a certain kind of episode, a much better one than The Lie of the land turns out to be. Watch the sequence, it is loaded with creativity and imagination (both visually and verbally). Seeing the Monks in Neil Armstrong’s visor or welcoming the lizards that first crawled out of the ocean on their way to becoming humanity is terrific fun. It sets up a Monk infested world, a world with a shared history and partnership, extremely well (but briefly) and then that harmony is cut through immediately by showing us somebody who is not under the illusion having her home invaded and being arrested. I thought to myself we were well on our way to a brutal dystopian future. Weirdly, in an episode that disappointed me as much as this, it might be one of my favourite pre-titles since the show came back.
· Similarly, the five-minute sequence with Missy in the middle of the episode is so infinitely superior to everything going on around it that you have to wonder why they didn’t let her have a more active role in the story. Is she genuinely repenting for her actions or simply playing along with the Doctor until she can escape? She seems to think she could pop off any time she likes but that has yet to be proven. I rather like the idea of Missy genuinely mending her ways and helping the Doctor in his adventures. That would be a truly novel idea, especially since she would continue to mock, belittle and lash out. You can’t change a leopard’s spots completely. Michelle Gomez seems to relish getting the chance to play something a bit different and the result is a far more interesting take on an already fascinating character.
· There was a beat of emotion just before Bill plugged herself into the Monks machine where the Doctor tries to convince her not to kill herself that felt genuine. It’s the performances that sell it.

The Bad:

· Questions that aren’t answered satisfactorily…
· Why suggest that Nardole is in a deadly situation at the cliff-hanger to the previous episode if he is going to be up and running at the beginning of the next episode? It’s false jeopardy that just makes him look stupid in the first place for not wearing a protective suit when entering the laboratory.
· Why does feel so familiar? Because Bill on a mission to rescue the Doctor in a dystopian future mirrors Martha’s quest in The Last of the Time Lords. The Monks ability to change people’s memories has more than a passing resemblance to the sub-wave network that the Master employs to make people fall in love with him. There are giant statues erected…just like the Master had built. Scenes of people being dragged from their homes by the police…the Jones family suffered a similar fate. In all these cases the material from season three was fresher and more dramatic. The labour camps bring to mind Turn Left, so does taking the Doctor out of the action. But The Lie of the Land could do very little to touch that episode. And the love conquers all ending can also be seen in Night Terrors, Closing Time, In the Forest of the Night and many other loathsome examples. Almost to take the piss The Last of the Time Lords is actually referenced in the script.
· What if things might be better under the veil of the Monks? The Doctor makes a case that the Monks bring about peace and order, albeit through control. We’re in a world where abortion rights are being abolished, labour camps for gay men are being erected and the environment is being made a mockery of by those in the highest positions. Let’s not pretend for one second that our lives aren’t controlled anyway; socially, financially, sexually, creatively. Perhaps a more interesting angle would have been that things were genuinely better off in the Monks control and returning things to how they were, whilst being the right thing to do, would be worse for humanity.
· Who are the Monks and what do they want? What is their motive? Where are they from? What is their history? My previous point is irrelevant because this three-part adventure introduces a spanking new villain and tells us absolutely nothing about them. I think I had through knowledge of the Sontarans in the first episode of The Time Warrior, the Zygons leapt from their debut story visually stunning, with a history and a strong reason for wanting to invade the Earth and even races as obscure as The Eternals were given substance through the people they interacted with and a reason for wanting to play. I understood those villains. The Monks has emerged as one of the weakest Doctor Who bad guys because they are so obscure, so intangible and lacking any kind of backstory. They came just because, they did what they did just because and they left just because. I find it impossible to understand why nobody spotted that this race was so insubstantially handled, especially when it went through three writer’s pairs of hands.
· What was the point of the faux regeneration? It sits in the centre of this episode like an ugly cancer infecting everything around it. It isn’t funny, clever or believable. I think it was included simply to have something enticing to show in the trailer for the season. I know Doctor Who has played some indulgent hands to get people to watch (the human Dalek on the front of the Radio Thames, titles such as The Doctor’s Wife and The Doctor’s Daughter) but this is the most cynical and sell-out example yet. Just as the episode itself makes a mockery of the previous two episode because it makes them count for naught, the reveal that the Doctor was tricking Bill all along makes a mockery of the last ten minutes worth of material.
· Why do we see so little of the world that the Monks have created? After the pre-titles that is your lot as we focus purely on the regulars from the second that the camera swings up the street and lands on Bill. No guest characters to show how bad things are. No overseas glimpses to show us how far things have spread. No faked news reports to show how far into the fabric of society the Monks have sunk. We’re told instead of being shown and that simply isn’t good enough.
· Why does the person who gives consent have to be pure of mind? That is never explained adequately.
· Why does killing the person who made the deal weaken the Monks grip on the world? We’re asked to accept these grand ideas with no evidence, no substance, no rationale.
· Why does the script keep mooting much more interesting versions of this story? The Doctor suggests that if he plugs himself into the Monks wavelength he could completely re-write human history. Imagine if he was tempted to do so? What would that version of humanity look like? When it comes to the moment he only has one thing in mind, saving the planet, but what if the story had included Missy and she was the one who had to plug herself in? It could be the true test of whether she seems redemption or not. It would certainly would be preferable to the love is the greatest force in the universe ending that we get.
· Why alter what little we already know about the Monks at the last minute? Remember when the Doctor took the mickey out of the shows budget limitations in Terror of the Zygons because there were only a handful of Zygons trying to take over the world? The Monk three parter is that idea taken to an extreme but it’s pointless. Doctor Who has the budget to superimpose as many Monks as you like now. So the only reason to suggest this is a small number of protagonists making you believe that they are much larger in numbers through thought manipulation is…because they’re a bit rubbish and frightened of being seen diminished in numbers.
· What was the point of Extremis? If the Monks have mapped out all of human history and examined it to see the most effective way to take over…why are they frightened off by the love one woman has for her mother? Was that eventually not played out? Because they only had to take a look at the events of the past couple of years to know that the power of love conquers has inexplicably seen off many an alien menace. · Is love such a dominating force that it can see off an entire alien invasion? The trouble is that is a good thing that the show is promoting. How can suggesting that the power of love is unstoppable be a bad thing? It’s just as the final solution in a complex plot it comes across as an insultingly easy solution. The next time I’m threatened I’ll just think very hard about somebody I love and hopefully the situation will just go away. Love is worth celebrating but it has to be executed in the right way. I think the best example of this kind of ending comes in The Angels Take Manhattan where the paradox is broken by the long-awaited decision by Amy Pond to choose her husband over the Doctor. It’s very satisfying on a personal level because of the two and half seasons worth of build-up. The worst examples are everybody around the world chanting the Doctor’s name in unison (Davies truly buying into his myth a little too literally) and this episode where they plaster a picture of Bill’s mother looking angelic and reaching out for her daughter with a smile on her face and plant it in the mind of everybody to undo the Monk’s control. It’s so saccharine I think I can feel a toothache coming on. It’s too obvious, it’s too simple and it’s twee. As a momentous conclusion to three episodes worth of material, it’s insulting.
· If this story ends with the human race doomed to never learn from its mistakes…what was the point? Remember when Moffat started shoving some Davies’ extremes such as a Cyberman stomping around on Victorian London down Amy’s crack never to be seen again? Well now he’s doing it with whole invasions, in the episodes they feature in.

Result: It’s a tough competition, for sure. The previous three ‘trilogies’ closed on Last of the Time Lords, Time of the Doctor and Hell Bent, three episodes that haven’t exactly gone down well in Doctor Who history. How does the The Lie of the Land fare against these damp squibs? It fits right in perfectly! Toby Whithouse has proven himself to be a very competent writer but all good sense seems to have abandoned him here and what emerges is his weakest instalment of Doctor Who. I’m not sure where to start with the bad; the Monks fail to make any impression despite appearing in the equivalent of a classic series six parter, their rule of tyranny is barely established before it is ignored in favour of all the (rotten) character work, the Doctor and Bill are mis-characterised to a factor of ten (it is hard to believe that their interaction could be fudged this badly given the excellent ground work in the season to date), the episode is paced inconsistently with nothing truly exciting happening throughout (and a five minute interlude with Missy intruding in the middle) and the ending, which in a long line of ‘love conquers all’ climaxes does fit a pattern in this era of the show but proves to be as unbelievable and annoying as all the others. No more so because it has two episodes of set up to drag down with it. Not to mention how this entire three parter is wiped from humanity’s memory rendering the whole exercise moot. It’s rare for a story to start as strongly as this did with Extremis and haemorrhage continuously until it limps to such a bothersome conclusion. Not to mention this episode plays out like an amalgamation of much better episodes, being a pale retread of the Master three parter in series three and Turn Left. I think Pyramid and Lie both have their emphasis wrong, the middle part should have dealt with the heavy characterisation and the climax should have been a lot heavier on plot, whereas the reverse is true. Especially when the characterisation here is so lacking, with both the Doctor and Bill coming out of the story with plenty of egg on their faces. I wonder why Capaldi didn’t object to the shooting scene. The last thing you should be thinking at the end of a three-part epic is ‘what was the point of that?’ The Pyramid at the End of the World and The Lie of the Land sit like a dead weight in the middle of series 10 and that is a real shame. My points are for the stunning pre-titles sequence (I wish the episode could have been more in that vein), a wonderful five minutes with Missy and for Pearl Mackie’s valiant efforts. She’s one hell of a find. The rest is drivel of the highest order: 4/10