Doctor Who – The Pyramid At The End of The World Review

A tale of misdirection in this week’s Doctor Who.

The Pyramid At The End Of The World carries on from last week’s episode Extremis. It opens with one of the most entertaining previously recaps that Doctor Who has ever done, we saw clips from Extremis contrasted with Bill going on a date with Penny. After that the episode then unfolded following from the promise that was set up in the conclusion of Extremis. The mysterious Monks are now ready to enact their plan and take over the world. I wanted a big alien invasion and that’s what we got, however it’s an alien invasion unlike any we have seen before.

At first it appears as if the Monks are manipulating the world’s most powerful armies but it turns out that was just a distraction. The significance of the scenes in the lab weren’t initially obvious, but then we learnt what the actual threat was and suddenly it fell into place. By the end of the episode we still don’t actually know what the Monks are really after. I always find Doctor Who stories that have twists and turns throughout to be enjoyable and this was one of those types of episodes. Much like Extremis I think this is an episode that would benefit from a rewatch.

The Monks are definitely one of the weirdest adversaries we have seen in Doctor Who and I suspect they’re going to end up being one of the most well remembered monsters. In my first few reviews of this series I kept mentioning that I wanted to see an interesting new monster and a real big bad, the Monks definitely fit that description! They’re clearly very powerful and very cunning but we still don’t really know that much about them. The scariest thing is often the unknown and the Monks are definitely something of an unknown quantity. Where did they come from? What is their ultimate end game? Why have they chosen Earth as their target?

Bill has been awesome since week one. Every week I keep praising Pearl Mackie’s performance as Bill Potts and this week was no expectation. For every companion there tends to come an episode where they are forced to make a difficult decision without the guidance of the Doctor. Think Martha Jones in 42, Amy Pond in Amy’s Choice or Rose Tyler in Dalek. I think The Pyramid At The End of The World was that episode for Bill Potts.

I’d like to know more about Penny – Bill’s date from last week and this week. It would be really irritating if the first Doctor Who companion to be in a homosexual relationship whilst travelling in the TARDIS didn’t get a properly developed relationship. Obviously it seems that Bill and Penny are just on a first date at the moment, but no one wants to see a repeat of Mickey Smith and Martha Jones randomly being paired up in The End of Time after no interaction between the two of them for what feels like little more than just ‘they’re both black and both single’.

I was a bit disappointed to find out that next week’s episode is continuing the overarching story that started back in Oxygen. On the one hand it is creating a truly epic tale with lots of twists and turns but at the same time I was enjoying having standalone episodes like we got at the beginning of the season. I guess we’ll just have to wait until it’s all concluded to decide for certain if it was worth linking (at least) four episodes together like this.

In conclusion, this week Bill continues to shine in an intriguing story that was not quite what it seemed as the TARDIS team faces one of the weirdest and most powerful enemies in Doctor Who.

Doctor Who – Extremis Review

Spoiler warning, it probably is impossible to talk about this episode without giving a few spoilers. This episode is best watched without knowing what’s going to happen so please only read this review after watching the episode.

First off, Pearl Mackie once again was excellent as Bill Potts. Bill is a really likeable companion and she brings a great sense of excitement as she sees new things. But Pearl is also great at delivering the emotional beats that are necessary, there’s more to Bill than her one-liners.

Speaking of companions, I like Nardole. He’s been a good addition to the main cast and Matt Lucas brings a welcome dose of humour which is something that has been missing from the programme over the past couple of years. I also liked the revelation in this episode that River Song sent him to look after the Doctor. It’s nice to get a reminder that even though River has gone she certainly hasn’t been forgotten.

I think the plot of this episode can best be described as the Doctor Who version of The Matrix. But before we got to that twist this was an episode about a mysterious book that should not be seen. I liked the mystery aspect of Extremis, it was an intriguing concept which was interesting to watch unfold. I simultaneously wanted Bill and the Doctor to read the Veritas to find out what it was but also really didn’t want them to. I also really liked the twist when it turned out that everything we had been watching was actually a simulation and the Doctor was really sat outside the Vault all along. This is one of those episodes that will be good to re-watch once you know how it all ends.

Extremis has filled us in on what’s in the Vault. I was really hoping that the Vault was going to turn out to be a series long arc and so I was disappointed that we got a more or less full reveal in episode six. After Knock Knock it was not a surprise to learn that it was Missy lurking in the Vault but it was still interesting to learn the how and why. I really don’t like Missy but she wasn’t actually that irritating in this episode, the flashbacks to her where nicely used throughout the episode and I liked the way that they contrasted what was happening as the story unfolded.

Missy wasn’t actually the main villain for this week. Instead we got some zombie like creatures – I don’t know what they’re called yet but the BBC Doctor Who website is calling them the Monks. Their design kind of reminds me of the humanoid form of the Pyrovile’s from 2008’s The Fires of Pompeii. After the first few weeks lacked proper monsters these were interesting creatures to see. We don’t know much about them yet which is intriguing to watch. However they are clearly very powerful and they are planning a massive invasion of Earth.

I don’t know if it’s just because I’m out of the loop but I was surprised to find out that this episode leads into next week’s episode, I thought it was another standalone story. I actually really like the way that Oxygen, Extremis and The Pyramid at the End of the World will all link together. It reminds me of how back in 1975 The Arc In Space, The Sontaran Experiment, Genesis of the Daleks and Revenge of the Cybermen all linked together. Each one can be viewed as a story in its own right but they all link together.

In conclusion, this was an interesting episode with an intriguing concept and finally some really cool monsters! Extremis also did a good job at tying up several dangling story threads whilst also setting up a second half. Once again Series 10 has given us another solid episode of Doctor Who!

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!