Doctor Who – Oxygen Review

‘Space the final frontier…’ I liked this episode from the moment it opened with the Doctor quoting Star Trek!

Now, before I start this review properly I’m going to give a spoiler warning. I don’t think it will be possible to write about this episode without talking about that last minute twist. So be warned!

Oxygen was essentially a base-under-siege episode. A classic Doctor Who story type that has been done many times throughout the shows history. Tonally I’d say this base-under-siege was most similar to 1977’s The Robots of Death and 2007’s 42. Oxygen has that constant sense of pressure and the constant building of obstacles and challenges much like 42. But it also has a similar tone to The Robots of Death with the thing that the mining crew rely on turning against them and picking them off.

Even though it was a fairly standard format for Doctor Who this episode definitely gave us something new. The concept at the heart of the episode - oxygen is being sold to space explorers - is an intriguing one. The episode did a good job of exploring what that would mean for humans travelling through space in that future. However admittedly it become reduced to just ‘we’re fighting space suit zombies’. Not that I mind, I have been saying for the past few weeks that I’ve been wanting proper monsters and this week I finally got them! But I would have actually liked to have seen the episode delve into the concept of oxygen coming at a price a little more, admittedly 45 minutes is a little too short to go too in depth but if Oxygen had been a two parter then that would have been interesting.

Peter Capaldi is nailing his performance as the Doctor each week. This is what I have been wanting from him since he took over the role. He had some speeches about saving people that wouldn’t have felt out of place in a Matt Smith or David Tennant episode. This is a Doctor enjoying saving the universe, something that we haven’t really seen much of from the 12^th Doctor prior to Series 10. He can be dangerous but he is also compassionate, funny and most importantly a hero.

As for the thing at the end of the episode that I mentioned at the start of this post… The Doctor is blind now. I did not see that coming, after all it’s not unusual for someone to get hurt during an adventure but it rarely tends to be permanent. Except this time it is permanent. The Doctor is now blind. I’m interested to see how that is going to unfold during the rest of the series.

So overall this was another solid episode that was reminiscent of Doctor Who at its best. I’m starting to feel that this season is almost giving us a Greatest Moments of Doctor Who and I am absolutely fine with that!