Special Halloween Review: The Shining (1980)

DISCLAIMER: All images and videos in this blog review are owned by their respective owners.

Summary:

There is a hotel, the Overlook Hotel, amidst the mountains of Colorado. Built over a Native American burial ground, it is a huge hotel indeed, housing many rooms with almost endless amounts of sustenance, and a gigantic hedge maze in its grounds. It is a popular tourist destination, but its isolation makes it prone to blizzards and is closed from November to May. A winter caretaker is needed to look after the place, and writer/former alcoholic Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) applies for the job, bringing with him his wife Wendy (Shelly Duvall) and young son Danny...

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Happy Halloween everybody! Tis a night of spooks, candy, parties, things that go bump in the night, and many other frights. Some accompany their kids to go trick-or-treating, others decorate their houses for the season, children and even some teens and adults dress up in costumes of all kinds, other cultures focus more on the religious aspect of the day. And then there are those that watch horror movies. In the history of cinema we can't even begin to count how many horror movies there are. A lot of pop culture horror is derived from these movies, which are in fact derived from many sources like legends, novels, etc.

And its a genre that I'm not particularly fond of myself. Don't get me wrong, I can certain understand its appeal. I can see why people would like watching horror movies, like if they want a good scare and whatnot. I'm just not really into them like I am for Science Fiction, Fantasy, animated, and Superhero movies. I'm at the very least aware of the history of horror movies, from the iconic classic monsters like Dracula and Frankenstein's monster, to the bloody glory slashers like Jason Vorhees and Freddy Kruger. In my life I can count the amount of horror movies I've ever seen on one hand.

Why don't I like horror? Eh, I'm not really sure. Apart from them just not appealing to me, I'm not really into seeing stuff like people being cut up by a serial killer, jump scares, etc. Heck one of my least favorite film franchises ever is the Saw movies because of its overglorification of torture horror. It's just so squirming to me, seeing stuff like that in film, when we already have enough horrors and psychopathic serial killers along with horrors like terrorism in real life. I'm not above watching classical black and white horror films, or movies that feature horror monsters. But for me it seems that as the cinematic history progresses, horror movies just get worse for me.

But as I said, there are some horror movies that transcend their genre; they go beyond what is to be expected and, while it does have the trappings of horror, it is almost something entirely different. This is one such film: The 1980 classic The Shining, directed by Stanley Kubrick and based off the novel of the same name by Stephen King.

First a little background on the two key players who made this film possible. Stanley Kubrick is regarded as one of the greatest and influential directors of all time. His unique cinematography, realistic details, and adaptations of novels that do the written works justice define him. Highly memorable films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Dr. Strangelove, and Full Metal Jacket are all attributed to Kubrick's masterful filmmaking. The Shining is of course among them, but who wrote this particular novel?

Enter Stephen King. He has written more books than we can possibly count, and has tackled many a genre from horror to fantasy, to science fiction and suspense. To say that he loves his work is un understatement. To paraphrase Epic Rap Battles of History, he's a workaholic with a fiction addiction.

He is mostly known for his horror stories however, and is also known for having his books being adapted into various miniseries and movies. Such of these adapted movies/miniseries include of course The Shining, as well as Carrie, It, Misery, and The Tommyknockers. The 1994 masterpiece "The Shawshank Redemption" is also adapted from a story written by Stephen King.

When released, the adaptation of The Shining was met with mixed reception. But like many things, it was reexamined as time passed. eventually became regarded as one of the greatest horror movies of all time, but also one of the greatest movies period. I personally can't agree with the latter, but at least among the horror movies I've seen, I can agree with that. As one who has only seen the slasher, gory films of the 90's and 2000's, seeing something different like The Shining was really a treat. The film has been discussed to death already by so many people, students, film critics and writers, so for this review I'll just give my own thoughts and my likes and dislikes of the film as well as other aspects.
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The only other Kubrick film I've seen by this point is 2001: A Space Odyssey, so I'm not all that familiar with Kubrick's style yet. But right from the get-go the film starts off foreboding. Beautiful, scenic shots of Colorado, combined with some slow, haunting unsettling music and REALLY generic title cards set the mood; the kind of mood that makes you really feel uncomfortable. Already I can see a big difference from The Shining and other horror movies made today; a lot of horror movies are made with being the intention of being scared out of your pants and laughing from the experience. But The Shining can really make you feel unsettled.

We meet our three main characters straight away: writer Jack Torrance played by Jack Nicholson, and wife Wendy played by Shelly Duvall and their son Danny. Jack Nicholson is known for playing a lot of grumpy, angry roles, and this one is no exception. Jack sounds pleasant enough; he's an aspiring writer, but he did have an alcoholic problem in the past and seems like a guy that can be angered easily. Wendy is a caring mother but is pretty meek and seemingly a little weak-willed. Danny has...something to say the least. To further drive home the unsettled-ness of the film, Danny has an imaginary friend. Innocent enough right? Wait till you get to the point where he says, perfectly calmly, that his friend lives in his mouth. And twitches his finger while he's talking to it. And changes his voice to a raspy tone.

As the beginning of the film progresses we learn that Jack was hired by the Overlook Hotel to be the winter caretaker while it's closed during the snow season. Jack is OK with the job as the solitude allows him to focus on his writing, despite warnings and stories about a gruesome murder of a previous caretaker's family by the caretaker himself. It's not all that surprising as this hotel was built over a Native American burial ground. Because THAT'S how it always is isn't it? Horror must always come from a stupid person's decision to build something over a haunted and supernatural place. Wendy and Danny follow later, and we spend a good deal on how the hotel itself works, from the hedge maze, to the kitchen, to specific rooms, to an explanation to just why this movie is called The Shining.

This part of the movie may be regarded as boring by some, but it is supported by, again the unsettling atmosphere of the whole thing. This part of the movie, and other parts, are punctuated by title cards like "One Month Later" and "Tuesday". But they are all in silence, and placed in a way that almost make them seem scary in their own right. While there is a story going on, a lot of the movie is mostly a selection of moments that all serve to pay off by the end. And throughout these moments there are many things that happen, to just the characters interacting inside the large hotel, to some legitimately disturbing imagery, scenes and other moments that almost make you wonder if what you're watching is almost making you as mad and nuts as the characters are getting.

Cabin Fever is pretty much the term here, but we honestly don't know if it's even the type of Cabin Fever we are familiar with. Cabin Fever refers to an extended period of time when a person or two more are locked up in a secluded area. Eventually the situation leads to the character becoming insane because of the situation. In The Shining this changes things differently because we are in a large hotel, and cut off from the rest of the world by a blizzard. And on top of that we don't know if the characters of Jack and Danny are being driven nuts and acting strangely because of their own character issues or if it's the paranormal nature of the hotel itself and its horror stories. It's a fascinating setup that really pays off by the end when things really go down.

Jack Nicholson really, ahem, shines in his role here. The man seems to have made playing psychotic characters an art, and it's his role in the The Shining and the first Tim Burton Batman movie as the Joker where that's apparent. A lot of the greatness of the movie, at least the greatness that we can see with our eyes instead of the spooky weird stuff that is happening up to our imagination revolves around him. Jack Torrance seems like a nice guy but clearly has repressed issues, and the isolation and solitude stuck in the hotel might have made it worse, and again we don't know if it's his inner demons resurfacing or the supernatural energies of the hotel just messing with him. It's an endless cycle of wonderment and thought-provoking that makes The Shining so unique from its other horror movie brethren. It's par the course for Stanely Kubrick naturally, but combine that with Stephen King's work and you're in for a wild ride, to say the least.

By the end of the movie when we reach the climax, all the build up to everything up to that point comes crashing down as the movie, and Jack, descends into madness. It's here where the famous "HEEEEEEEERE'S JOHNNY!!!!" comes from.

And from there...I can even describe what happens. It's not indescribable because it's so freaking weird or the like, it's just that I don't even know how to describe it without doing it justice. This movie needs to be seen to be believed.
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Final Thoughts:

While I can say that The Shining is a wonderful, it really is a film that really has a stingy requirement to like it. You really need to be invested into the movie, you need to watch it in the right atmosphere, you need to buy into a lot of the things that are going on, etc. The movie really relies on a lot of elements to work like Jack Nicholson, the cinematography, the music, and the acting of everyone else. If even one of these elements was not there I think the movie would've really fallen hard. But the right combination makes it work, and if you can check off all those list of requirements, you're certainly in for a wild ride.

Anyway, this review has been going on for too long. I think by this point it's almost an essay. Go and enjoy your Halloween night!

My score: 4.5/5

Couch: Doctor Who: New Series 8/Season 34 Episode 10: In the Forest of the Night

DISCLAIMER: All images and videos in this blog review are owned by their respective owners.

Episode 9: Flatline
Episode 8: Mummy on the Orient Express
Episode 7: Kill the Moon
Episode 6: The Caretaker
Episode 5: Time Heist
Episode 4: Listen
Episode 3: Robot of Sherwood
Episode 2: Into the Dalek
Episode 1: Deep Breath

Summary:
One day, a little girl runs through a forest to find the TARDIS. The Doctor is aggravated when he sees the surrounding forest and the little girl running inside, and is further annoyed when he keeps aiming to go to London when the TARDIS says they are already there. Annoyance turns to shock when the little girl points out that they are in London, a forest as grown all around Trafalgar Square, and the Earth suddenly became green. A lot more green.
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As I said in my previous reviews, the three episodes that tie as my favorite of this season are "The Caretaker", "Mummy on the Orient Express", and "Flatline." On the other side of the spectrum however, three other episodes tie as the worst (or least good) of the season for me: "Robot of Sherwood", "Kill the Moon" and, this most recent one, "In the Forest of the Night".

This one seems to have the opposite of Robot of Sherwood. As much as that episode was dull and having nothing to call home about, it at least had a neat villain/threat of the episode in the form of the robot knights. In the Forest of the Night conversely has some good moments that happen in the episode, but it is contrasted with a rather boring story and one of the more...annoying elements of storytelling: caring about the environment. It's a subject that has been hammered into us since we were children and we have watched more than one movie or TV show that was either subtle about it or hammered into us.

It's hard to say if this most recent episode is either subtle or hammered in. On the one hand the environmental focus is not quite as apparent, but on the other hand the ideas The Doctor gets across are rather preachy. It is a combination of this, combined with a rather boring story, a mixed supporting cast, and odd character moments, that really make me uncaring about this episode.

The episode starts almost fairy-tale esque; a little girl is running through a lit forest. This is Maebh, and we later learn that she is...unique, to say the least. The Doctor discovers that she was part of a group of students that were at a museum, and her supervisors are none other than Clara and Danny. All the characters learn that a gigantic forest has grown overnight across the world, baffling the world governments. Clara immediately calls up The Doctor, and, following up on previous episodes, Danny is resentful of him and the fact that Clara lied to Danny again. The Clara and Danny relationship sub-plot is IMO one of the few strong elements of this episode, as it continues the themes throughout the season so far.

This episode is also filled to the brim with a child supporting cast; the students that Clara and Danny look after. As expected when it comes to child actors, most of them are not that great, though there a few that do all right.. Shame Courtney from a few episodes was not one of them; her snarkiness might have improved this episode. The two teachers and the students meet up with The Doctor just as Maebh runs away from the TARDIS, and Clara and the Doctor discover her leftover notebooks; the drawings inside them depict an angry sun-

No, not THAT angry sun!

 

bombarding the Earth with its rays. The Doctor also deduces that the trees must have been influenced by an outside force, possibly the sun itself. Clara and Danny further explain that Maebh has been suffering issues because of the disappearance of her sister a while back, thus putting her on medication. The Doctor takes this as a sign that Maebh must know something about the appearance of the trees, and the duo head out to try and find her, and Danny and the students following soon after.

 

After evading wild animals, everyone catches up to Maebh to find her flailing her hands. The Doctor takes this as a sign and uses his Sonic Screwdriver to make some fireflies appear. They say that they are the ones that created the forest, and the Doctor discovers that Maebh's drawings are a sign of another solar storm, similar to the one in Time Heist. In another good moment, The Doctor decides that he can save everyone present with the TARDIS, but Clara insists that The Doctor leave her. She doesn't want to abandon Danny and the children and become the last human being, much like how The Doctor is the last Time Lord. Bringing it full circle from Kill the Moon, the Doctor departs.

 

Inside the TARDIS the Doctor contemplates further on the forest, and has an epiphany. Returning to the teachers and students, he says that this isn't the first time the Earth experienced an over-growing of its foliage; the trees in fact overgrow themselves to protect the Earth from solar storms of the past. Using the TARDIS, Maebh convinces the people of the Earth to stop cutting down the trees, and the solar storm reaches the Earth. The trees protect the Earth and the day is saved.

 

And then out of nowhere as the forest ebbs away and the Earth goes back to normal, Maebh is reunited with her sister. This would be an emotional moment if the setup wasn't so dull.

 

Final thoughts:

If it seems that I'm being short with this review, it's only because it's deliberate. I hardly have much to talk about this one because this episode was, in the end, boring. Now that I think about it, I mentioned that Robot of Sherwood was the worst episode? Well, I change that now. In the Forest of the Night is the worst episode of Series 8 so far. And again, it's not that the episode was bad or offensive, it was just...there. Not a whole lot comes from this episode, there aren't any major indicators that this episode could play into future ones. It was just filler.

 

But I can appreciate this episode for one thing: It was a breather and quiet episode before the Part 1 of the Series 8 finale, and hoooooooo boy. Judging from the preview of the first part of the finale, "Dark Water", we can quote the 11th Doctor and say that it's going to be a whopper.

 

 

 

My score: 2.6/5

Couch: Doctor Who: New Series 8/Season 34 Episode 9: Flatline

DISCLAIMER: All images and videos in this blog review are owned by their respective owners.

Episode 8: Mummy on the Orient Express
Episode 7: Kill the Moon
Episode 6: The Caretaker
Episode 5: Time Heist
Episode 4: Listen
Episode 3: Robot of Sherwood
Episode 2: Into the Dalek
Episode 1: Deep Breath

Summary:
The Doctor has done it again; he once again (by accident) brought Clara to the wrong location, this time to present day Bristol instead of present day London. And of course, trouble is right behind them. There seem to be a string of disappearances in the area, coupled with mysterious murals of these missing people appearing on the walls. And whatever is causing this mysterious phenomenon is also shrinking the TARDIS to the size of a toy...with The Doctor still inside it. As such, it is up to Clara to solve this mystery. But is she ready to take charge in defending the Earth from a foe that even The Doctor doesn't know of?
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Among the Doctor Who fandom, there are many debates, some of which include:

Is there truly a worst actor who ever played The Doctor?
Are the classic enemies of the show being overused? Does the show rely too much on special effects?
Does showrunner Steven Moffet deserve to be hunted down because of his work on the show?

Some are thought-provoking while others are outright silly. One question that I will be examining a little bit, since it plays into this recent episode, is the question of "Do the companions have too much focus over the Doctor in the show?"

Some of the female companions over the decades

 

I only briefly touched upon the companions in my review of "Deep Breath", so I'll go more in-depth here. The companions are the main constant element of the show besides The Doctor and the TARDIS. They were often The Doctor's friends throughout his travels and they served a multitude of roles, from being taught by The Doctor, to serving as his moral compass, or else just being there along for the ride. Usually though, the companions serve as the "audiences surrogate", the person that the general viewing audience can identify with. As seen in the picture above, the companions were mostly female humans, though there were male companions, and some companions that were even robots or aliens. Perhaps the most unique companion out of all of them is this guy, and he only appeared in the Doctor Who comics:

 

Frobisher, a shape-shifting, thieving penguin

 

Like the different incarnations of The Doctor, there are companions that are universally loved, generally hated, indifferent, or forgotten. The classic series from 1963-1989 have given us a multitude of companions, but they were not what you would really call the "focus" of the show. They were there to just be with the Doctor and grow as characters. The revived series from 2005- Present though has put the companions in a much larger light. Entire seasons or episodes would revolve around one companion, or define a large part of one aspect of The Doctor's life. It is a criticism that is not without merit, as it has become a major point where there are accusations of the companions hijacking the show and it becoming less about The Doctor himself.

 

It is one that I can't give a real opinion since I haven't seen a lot of previous seasons to judge. But the reason I bring up the subject here is because this episode puts Clara at the forefront of the action, and The Doctor not doing much except staying in the TARDIS and giving advice. It is Clara that leads the supporting cast of the episode, Clara that wields the Doctor's technological devices, Clara who passes herself off as the hero, and Clara who has to make the tough choices.

 

Does that mean the episode is bad? HECK NO. While I have yet to find an episode this season that is truly bad or awful, this is another one that can be chalked up to being one of the greatest of this season. A very strong story, good supporting cast, excellent acting from the two main leads, good story elements that tie-in to the overarching plot of this season, and a truly terrifying enemy of the episode; perhaps the best "new" foes introduced this season. This is the episode Flatline.

 



Forget the robot knights, Moon Spiders, Skovox Blitzer, the Teller, or the Foretold, THIS is truly nightmarish

 

 

The episode starts off with The Doctor intending to take Clara home after an adventure...and ending up at the wrong place. But it was still the correct time period, so hey its better than nothing. As shown in "Into the Dalek", there are times when The Doctor accidentally ends up in the wrong place or the wrong time period, and that can be attributed to just The Doctor messing up or the TARDIS acting faulty. The show's lore during the later years of the classic series will show that the TARDIS is extremely fickle, almost to the point that sometimes its as if the TARDIS chooses the destinations and not The Doctor. A good scene in the episode to keep that tradition alive. To make things worse, the TARDIS has shrunk down to the size of a toy and only Clara manages to get out of it, while The Doctor is stuck inside. A common joke of the TARDIS, for those who look at it for the first time, is to say that it's "bigger on the inside". And in this episode, it definitely is an apt description. We get a few humorous moments throughout the episode where The Doctor's face is seen in the TARDIS door, or The Doctor's hand reaching out the TARDIS.

 

 



 

With The Doctor stuck and shrunk in the TARDIS, Clara is in charge of investigating the source of the disturbance. She comes across a graffiti artist, Rigsy, doing community service by painting over some graffiti he made. Rigsy mentions about the disappearances of some people and Clara goes to the flat of one of these persons with his help. Along the way they come across what looks like a mural of the missing people. At the flat, the place is seemingly undisturbed and nothing is amiss. They investigate a cracked mural on the wal until the duo hear the screams of a policewoman in another room. They arrive just in time to see her being dragged into the floor and disappearing, along with a strange mural of a tree appearing on the wall. 

 

While Clara and Rigsy are at a loss as to what happened, The Doctor observes the situation and deduces that these mysterious entities are from a two-dimensional plane. These unknown enemies actually travel through the flat surface of the wall and capture and kill unwary people. Yeah, that's right. Kill them. They don't hold them captive, they don't transfer their souls or anything like that, these folks are literally killed and dissected. And just to show how terrifying it is, the fancy mural that looks like a tree is actually that policewoman's nervous system cut out and displayed. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeesh...

 

To really make things bad, the room collapses from the inside out as the various furniture and the doorknobs are flattened and sucked into the walls; they are after Clara and Rigsy. All the while this is going on, Danny phones Clara to ask how she's doing. Danny hears the ruckus and immediately knows that something is not right. This leads to the Doctor discovering that Clara lied to him about travelling again, and he is not happy.

 

Clara and Rigsy meet up with Rigsy's boss, Fenton. To Rigsy's annoyance, Fenton is working to paint over the murals of the missing people. But with some additional clues and information now The Doctor discovers to his horror that the murals are actually the skin of the victims, being worn by the mysterious creatures. They come to life and travel by the walls to get more people. Clara, Rigsy and Fenton escape while one by one, Fenton's workers are taken and absorbed. Through a mishap, the TARDIS falls out of Clara's bag and is separated and accidentally crushed by a subway train. The TARDIS and the Doctor survive, but the power of the TARDIS is quickly running dry.

 

It is here, when Clara, Rigsy and Fenton are cornered, that we finally see the creatures come to life and learn how to traverse across three dimensions and escape from the walls:

 

 

Yikes.

 

Through a combination of Rigsy's artistic skills and the creatures' power to channel energy into making things shift dimensions, Clara gets the TARDIS working again and back to full size. Thus, with a murderous look on his face and after all the crap he went through, The Doctor steps out of the TARDIS and, using the information he has gathered, banishes the newly named "Boneless" back to their dimension.

 

They win the day, but it's bittersweet; many people have died, and The Doctor comments that the wrong people (Fenton, who throughout the episode acted like a jerky asshole) survived. Still, Rigsy parts with them on good terms, none the worse for wear, and The Doctor tells Clara that she did a good job under pressure. He says that Clara made an exceptional Doctor, but "goodness had nothing to do with it."

 

Elsewhere, Missy takes a look at an image of Clara, and gives a small laugh. She has chosen well...

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Final thoughts:

This episode, along with the previous Mummy on the Orient Express, were written by Jamie Mathieson, one of the new writers of this season. He seems to hit all the right notes because this and the previous "Mummy" had all of its elements work together. I really hope to see him in later seasons, and its sad that this is his second and last episode of Series 8. But his mark was made.

 

Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman performed their roles as The Doctor and Clara respectively well. Capaldi as always was excellent. Despite not seeing a lot of action because of being stuck in the TARDIS, whenever it cuts to him you can really see him shine. Jenna Coleman is at the forefront this episode, and she plays her role good. The supporting cast, the two who played Rigsy and Fenton, also did well.

 

The story of this episode was also solid, and the Boneless were the stuff of nightmares. They really acted like zombies, which, considering the month of October, is almost fitting. I can't help but feel that this month we've gotten a lot of threats that were Halloween related; the Boneless acted like zombies, there was the Mummy, and then Moon Spiders. If that was the intent of the season they sure did it well. I hope this isn't the last we've seen of the Boneless, because they are a great newly introduced enemy.

 

As for the overarching story, things are definitely coming to a head now that The Doctor and perhaps Danny are privy to Clara's lie. As we creep ever closer to the series finale, I can only hope that the payoff will be good. Missy also returns here, and the mystery of who she is builds with her being aware of Clara and having a connection to her. It deepens.

 

All in all, Flatline was a most excellent episode. It's a good done-in-one episode while at the same time having plot points and continuing the personalities and characters of The Doctor and Clara. The right combination of elements really hit bulls eye, and for me, this makes it one of the best episodes of Series 8.

 

My score: 5/5





Couch: Doctor Who: New Series 8/Season 34 Episode 8: Mummy on the Orient Express

DISCLAIMER: All images and videos in this blog review are owned by their respective owners.

Previous episode reviews:
Episode 7: Kill the Moon
Episode 6: The Caretaker
Episode 5: Time Heist
Episode 4: Listen
Episode 3: Robot of Sherwood
Episode 2: Into the Dalek
Episode 1: Deep Breath

Summary:
A few weeks after the harrowing events on the moon, The Doctor and Clara travel aboard an intergalactic Orient Express train across space. Clara is determined to make this the last hurrah for her and The Doctor after what happened, but their troubles have to be put on hold. Aboard the train people are dying under mysterious circumstances, to a killer only the victims can see. All the victims can say is that a mummy kills them in under 66 seconds, and The Doctor and Clara have to put a stop to it before any more die...
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Fandoms are really...fickle, to say the least. Fans of any ongoing series of any medium, be they books, TV shows, movies, comics or video games, can turn their opinions and stances on a dime. The worst I've witnessed in the many years I have been part of various fandoms is the ever classic declaration of "This new installment sucks! I am never going to like this again!". While I'm sure it's exaggeration, it really does annoy me that people can act this way because of the freedom of the Internet. Just because I advocate different opinions doesn't mean I advocate poorly written, poorly thought-out, immature ones.

The point I am making with this? Well, last week's episode...really turned a lot of people off. Sure there were those folks who said they're willing to sit the season out, but then you got that small, yet very vocal group who loves to whine and complain like brats and pretty much right the equivalent of shouting when it came to last week's "Kill the Moon". While I admit I did not like the ending to that and the supposed "pro-life" message to the episode, there were those who took it way too far. Any time people say "they will quit" I just laugh because very rarely does it play out. They always come back anyway.

But yeah, this latest episode "Mummy on the Orient Express" deals with The Doctor and Clara aboard a space train and solving an issue of an invisible killer mummy. They do this while we have the B-plot of Clara still coming to terms with her actions last week and the determination of this being her last trip. These two plots, combined a very intriguing story of this episode, the mysteries of the mummy, the supporting cast, and the big plot twists made this a REALLY good episode. If there is any bad, it is again the ending, but unlike last time the ending actually makes sense in a context, and could possibly have major repercussions later on. I know I sound like a broken record, but this episode continues to pile on the success of this season, and possibly supplant "The Caretaker" as my favorite episode so far.

If this episode plot sounds familiar, that's because it is. This story was inspired by the mystery novel "Murder on the Orient Express" written by famed author Agatha Christie.

If this episode plot sounds familiar, that's because it is. This story was inspired by the mystery novel "Murder on the Orient Express" written by famed author Agatha Christie (Who funnily enough appeared as a character in the show). One of the strong points of this episode is its usage of the sense of foreboding and fear. Whether or not it's because of the Halloween season, it is still a very effective usage. An example of this is when the mummy appears to claim its next victim. A timer counting 66 seconds appears on the screen and with each passing second, you can feel that tension rising as it gets closer to zero. We the audience knows what it means, but for the characters in the episode, it's unknown until much later, and it adds to the creepy factor. Major props to that.

As said, the character plot of Clara and The Doctor revolves around them after their argument last episode. The Doctor in most of this episode is rightfully focused more on thwarting the mummy, so a lot this plot falls onto Clara. She seems to have taken Danny's advice in the previous episode to not part on bad terms with The Doctor and calm herself down, so she decides that this trip on the Orient Express would be her final one. While I am annoyed that we still have to go through the whole "Can I trust The Doctor?" shtick again, it still is one of the major plot elements of the story, so credit where credit is due for not making the thing so tiresome and that annoying. It's rightful to think so anyway; this version of The Doctor is so different from the past two ones, and is a major changer for the Revised Series and newer fans. So a shake up to the status quo in this case is good, if slightly tiresome given that we're a few episodes away from the season finale.

One minor note here, is that Jenna Coleman as Clara this episode really looked pretty. It's a tradition of Doctor who for the characters to dress in the time period they are in or relatively close to. In this episode it's 1920's, and Clara in this episode really looked great in the dress and the bob cut. Kind of makes you wish this was her regular hairstyle.

 

It is here where Clara meets Maisie, the granddaughter of one of the victims killed by the mummy. Both encounter a suspicious room that is locked by Gus, supposedly the artificial intelligence of the train. We know something is not right because Maisie is barred from at least seeing the body of her grandmother. The Doctor meanwhile meets Perkins, the chief engineer, and Professor Moorhouse, expert on alien mythology. Moorhouse and the Doctor discuss the legend of the Foretold, a mythical mummy, and how the legend states of those who fall under the Foretold's gaze die in 66 seconds. This is conveniently juxtaposed with one of the chefs of the train seeing the mummy and dying, no matter how much he tries to run from it. Whether or not this episode was made because of the Halloween season or because it was a coincidence, this is still a very effective mystery and creepy image of the stalker killer mummy.

 

It is at this point where we get the huge  twist of the episode. Clara and Maisie enter the forbidden room and discover a sarcophagus, and are trapped. The Doctor meets the train captain, Quell, and bears witness to more deaths. The Doctor, ever the sharp mind, notices that all the passengers on board the train are related to a specific field of scientific study. The one truly in charge is the AI, Gus, who lifts the veil. Gus was the one who brought the Foretold on board via an ancient scroll, and these scientific minds were brought together to study how to stop it as an experiment. And just to prove that Gus means business when The Doctor attempts to get help from Clara via phonecall, Gus de-pressurizes the kitchen and kills all the kitchen staff in space. Again, very effectively setup about who is the real antagonist of the episode. Yes, the mummy is killing people, but Gus is the one that set the thing loose. It's enough that we have a mummy, but a killer AI too? Awesome touch that brings to mind Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

 

Via research, they discover the mummy's pattern; it attacks those who are either sick, unwell, or suffering from any type of aliment, be they big like old age, or small like the common cold. It is in this way that Professor Moorhouse and Captain Quell fall victim to the mummy, and just to show how callous The Doctor can get, he asks the two to describe what the mummy looks like and other aspects for clues. While Perkins and other people present are horrified by The Doctor's behavior, Gus can only applaud The Doctor for taking the experiment so seriously. Things only get worse when they discover that Maisie is the next victim. Clara again can only be aghast and enraged at The Doctor using another innocent life to stop the mummy, but The Doctor then takes Maisie's grief and implants it into him so that the Foretold will come to him instead. The Doctor's behavior in this episode again continues themes seen in previous episodes of the season, from using other people's lives (specifically those who are pretty much doomed to die), to being uncaring at how people react to his behavior and sacrificing. It is a shocking thing to be sure, and one which I applaud again, because it goes to show how different The Doctor is from the past.

 

Through a series of, admittedly, confusing events, The Doctor deduces that the mummy is actually an ancient undead soldier that never finished his battle. With near death, The Doctor says that he surrenders to the mummy soldier. The soldier complies, and crumbles to dust. Gus, ever the callous AI, congratulates on the success of the experiment and proceeds to kill all of them anyway. The Doctor manages to save all the surviving passengers in time before the train explodes, transporting them all to another planet.

 

After Perkins declines an invitation to join the TARDIS, the Doctor and Clara talk, and we get the conclusion of the events of last episode. It's the ending where I have mixed feelings, though as I said, this one is much more favorable, more to the point, and can possibly have much larger repercussions than the one last week. Clara asks The Doctor about his behavior on the train, and The Doctor gives it to her straight, that he can't sugercoat things just for the sake of being good, and that tough choices and decisions need to be made. He reassures Clara though that he's not a monster, and that he felt sorry he couldn't save those who died. Regardless though, even if he couldn't save one, he would've tried again and again, using more and more passengers, until Gus was defeated, because he couldn't stand what Gus has done to them. The Doctor pretty much makes impossible choices, and it's something that he's never tired of doing.

 

Clara's decision on leaving seems to connect to that, as she starts viewing her trips with The Doctor as an addition because she seems tired of it. When she gets a phone call from Danny however, she says a lie. A lie that will most definitely have repercussions when we reach the season's end. Clara lies to Danny in saying that its her final adventure, and Clara lies to The Doctor in saying that Danny approves of her continuing to travel with him. Clara is not willing to give up travelling after all, which again is rather anticlimactic since, if we know Clara is leaving, we would have news of it. But anyway, yeah, The Doctor and Clara, their friendship restored, switch the TARDIS on and the adventure continues.

 

Final thoughts:

Mummy on the Orient Express is a most excellent episode, boasted by the two main leads, a good supporting cast, a strong, creepy story held by strong villains, and an ending that, while mixed, is obviously going to set up things that will happen later on and have major consequences. The episode continues the trend of our two main characters having major flaws about them that can bite them back, and continues the trend of building thematic elements of this season despite this season not having a story arc. Past seasons of Doctor Who tended to revolve around story arcs that connected every single episode one way or another. This one does not, and the connections are much more subtle. Subtlety is king this season to be sure.

 

I put this episode roughly the same as The Caretaker. That episode and this one tie for me as the best of this season so far.

 

My score: 5/5

Couch: Doctor Who: New Series 8/Season 34 Episode 7: Kill the Moon

DISCLAIMER: All images and videos in this blog review are owned by their respective owners.
Previous episode reviews:
Episode 6: The Caretaker
Episode 5: Time Heist
Episode 4: Listen
Episode 3: Robot of Sherwood
Episode 2: Into the Dalek
Episode 1: Deep Breath

Summary:
In the year 2049, something is seriously wrong with the Moon. The Earth is wracked with devastating tidal disasters, and the remainders of the space program need to head to the moon to destroy it. Who should stumble across this situation then, but The Doctor and Clara? But after this adventure, is Clara that willing to be The Doctor's friend anymore?
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In a franchise about traveling in space and time, it was inevitable that traveling to our own native satellite would be the subject of an episode. In the 50+ years of Doctor Who, the Moon has been the subject of a multitude of stories, whether on TV, in books, or in audio stories. As such there are bound to be inconsistencies with how the Moon is portrayed in the show. In addition, there are also bound to be weird things that happen to the Moon. For example previous episodes would have the Moon be colonized, or home to alien species, etc. It's just another day for Doctor Who. But as far as weirdness goes, I think this latest episode of New Series 8/Season 34, takes the Mooncake.

Kill the Moon...

This episode was REALLY good...until the ending, which bogs the whole thing down for me. This episode is also a hot topic among fans and discussions because of an extremely sensitive issue some "claim" this episode talks about. Combine this unnecessary reading between the lines and this really polarizing ending, then this episode which is really good is just "plain good" in my mind. Which is a huge shame, because this episode had The Doctor and Clara be good per usual, the side characters memorable, the message and underlying theme a good one, and a very creepy and foreboding atmosphere.

Our episode once again starts out great. Presumably a short time after the events of The Caretaker, Clara tells The Doctor about Courtney Woods, the delinquent student from last week who discovered The Doctor & the TARDIS. Ever since their foray into space in last week's episode, The Doctor told Courtney she was not special and she took it extremely hard, drinking and complaining. To shut her up, The Doctor decides then and there to take Courtney and Clara to the Moon so Courtney can feel special as the first woman on it. This is a great scene as it continues to build up on events of last week.

As always, the trip isn't all what it seems, and instead of the Moon in the present, the faulty TARDIS takes them to a space shuttle heading for the Moon in the year 2049. They come across three astronauts with an arsenal of nuclear weapons to, as the title of the episode says, kill the moon.

No, not THAT moon. But I can imagine that people want this moon dead as well.

 

 

The moon is supposedly the cause of various tidal catastrophes that are bring the Earth to near-ruin, and the astronauts have been tasked to discover why this is happening and to destroy it. Once again, The Doctor's leadership skills are called into question, as the other two astronauts are pretty quickly killed off by an unknown alien entity. The Doctor's uncaring nature for it again builds upon the earlier episode and ties into the theme I'll be explaining. Reaching an abandoned mining base, they discover its previous inhabitants all dead and preserved in cobweb. They also discover pictures of the moon's landmass radically altered and conclude that the Moon is disintegrating. The supposed source of this calamity? Alien moon spiders. LOTS of alien moon spiders.

 

Courtney is, understandably, unnerved, and wants to head home even after she uses detergent to kill one. The Doctor, being busy (or uncaring) just tells her to stay in the safety of the TARDIS. The detergent being able to kill the spiders though gives the Doctor an idea, and he, Clara and the other astronaut go to once of the moon crevices. Clara confronts The Doctor on this, knowing that in the future The Moon is still around. But The Doctor is just as lost as she is and can only find out what's happening after they go to the source of the moon's collapse. After diving into the crevice, The Doctor and the others reunite with Courtney at the moonbase and The Doctor drops a bombshell.

 

What they thought was the Moon is actually...an egg. That's right, the moon is an egg. What we thought was the moon forming billions of years ago was actually an alien laying an egg, and by 2049, it is hatching into an alien creature thingy.

 

...

 

 

 

Eh, still not the weirdest thing this show has done.

 

Anyway, we then get into one of the strongest points of the episode, yet also one of the most frustrating. The Doctor argues about how what they're doing is basically killing an innocent creature, which the astronaut intends to do for the safety of humanity. Courtney, still young, wants to save the creature without hesitation, while Clara is unsure. The Doctor gives an ultimatum, to Clara's shock. The Doctor, not from Earth, cannot simply decide for them. He simply departs in the TARDIS to say that the decision is in their hands, and whatever decision they make will be a monumental one.

 

I really loved that, because it goes to show that, as much as the Doctor goes about righting the wrongs in the universe, there are some things he simply just cannot do because they're not his right. He leaves it up to actual human beings to make a decision about killing a newborn creature. Now some might chalk this attitude up to this version of him since previous incarnations might have reacted differently, but I don't like to think so. Just because The Doctor has a time machine doesn't mean he should change the past all the time. He cites some major moments in history, like Hitler, being so terrible, but he can't change them because of how much the course of the Earth is altered. This scene was just good and great, and the only complaint I have with it in relation to this episode is what happens in the end.

 

Where it gets frustrating though is when fans and reviewers read between the lines about what this episode's theme entails. Because the humans have an innocent, yet-to-be-born life in their hands, what do some people equate this to? Pro-Life and Abortion. Yes, SERIOUSLY. I won't and should not press this argument further because I admit I'm not versed in a sensitive topic like that, but I will say that, unless showrunner Steven Moffat or this episode's writer flat out admits that's what this episode is going for, I'm chalking this up as just a simple viewpoint, not to be taken seriously. Especially since, as much as I like Doctor Who, I don't think it's the right vehicle to talk about Pro-Life and Abortion.

 

But hey, even if they are talking about it, at least Doctor Who has more qualifications to talk about it than...

 

THIS.

 

Using the moonbase's communications array, Clara gives the people of Earth the rundown and activates the 40 minute timer for the bomb, saying that they have a choice: Turn Earth's lights off, and they detonate. Leave Earth's light on, they deactivate the bomb. When the time elapses, the Earth's response is to kill it. But Clara, at the last minute, shuts it off herself. This is apparently what The Doctor was looking for, and the takes them down to 2049 Earth to see the Moon hatch into the creature, and another, creature-less Moon is created in its place. The astronaut thanks The Doctor for showing it, especially since The Doctor says this is the moment where humanity sets its sights on the stars and heads back into space to colonize it.

 

Upon returning to the present, Clara says goodbye to Courtney before she angrily confronts The Doctor. And this is the point where the episode was nearly de-railed. Clara berates him for not helping when he could have, and why she had to be burdened with such a choice, nearly killing everyone present and herself. The Doctor's patronizing argument with her leaves Clara further rattled, and she lashes out at him, saying that The Doctor knows nothing about what it means to be human despite being with them for so long. Despite The Doctor's pleas, Clara leaves the TARDIS and ends their friendship, wishing to never see or travel with him again.

 

This ending was utterly terrible. It's understandable that Clara would be angry at being thrust upon a deathly situation like that, but the show's angle about this ending is that Clara is complaining about how The Doctor is not the same Doctor as before, and once again showing why Clara can't cope with this new version of him anymore. Uhhh...wasn't this argument resolved already in previous episodes? Furthermore, Clara has been traveling with the Doctor for some time now, both in his current and previous incarnations. Shouldn't she know better? Furthermore, this argument pretty much amounts to false drama because episode descriptions of the next few episodes still reveal that Clara is still with The Doctor. So by the end, what is this ending?

 

Well, OK, I snark, but it's not entirely pointless. It does lead to the scene which saves it. Clara composes herself in her empty classroom, when Danny Pink comes in and asks her what's wrong. Despite Clara saying otherwise, Danny tells her that the extent of affection she has for The Doctor still isn't gone because The Doctor can still drive Clara angry. He also advises her not to fully quit just yet, as he knew full well what being fully angry without a calm train of thought can make people do. Danny says that Clara can quit when she is fully ready to, and when she is calm, and dead certain.

 

Final thoughts:

Kill for the Moon started strong and plateaued, only for it to fully slide down the mountain and into the bottomless pit, only for it to be saved by the end and climb back to a reasonable height. It really is not a good sign when the ending makes you forget what exactly went on in the actual episode, and the good themes and symbolism people can see are buried and forgotten under possible false examinations and reading between the lines.

 

If not for Robot of Sherwood, I would rank this episode as the "least good" of the season so far. Everything was just so good, and the ending completely messes up that goodness. I hear how bad endings in any form of media are usually defended by "It's the journey, not the destination, that counts." It's one I can agree with, but just not this time, because the ending practically almost makes you forget that wonderful journey.

 

But hey, next episode looks to be tons of fun. The Doctor, possibly by himself, goes on a Victorian-era train where its passengers are stalked by a killer mummy that gives its victims 66 seconds to live. Oh, and the train travels not on rails, but in space.

 

My score: 3.9/5







Couch: Doctor Who: New Series 8/Season 34 Episode 6: The Caretaker

DISCLAIMER: All images and videos in this blog review are owned by their respective owners.

Previous episode reviews:
Episode 5: Time Heist
Episode 4: Listen
Episode 3: Robot of Sherwood
Episode 2: Into the Dalek
Episode 1: Deep Breath

Summary:
Clara Oswald's life is pretty good: she has a stable job as a teacher and a boyfriend named Danny Pink who loves and supports her very much. It's just too bad there's complications of her being a companion to The Doctor, and always going off on adventures that leave her exhausted to the point that Danny starts getting suspicious. So you can imagine her dismay when The Doctor ends up going undercover to her school as a (badly disguised) caretaker in order to stop the threat of a killer robot from outer space. Just another day in the life of The Doctor, but for Clara, and especially Danny, they are in for a huge change.
------------------------------------
The Doctor and his relationship with the planet Earth is...complicated, to say the least. He may be a protector of the planet, but doesn't like spending an extending period of time on it. Although he finds humans as a species fascinating, he also finds them irritating. He may look human, but he often goes out of his way to say that he is not a human and doesn't think much of their culture and way of life.

As such, when he ends up spending a set amount of time on earth at Clara's school in order to stop a killer robot, he doesn't think much of his undercover mission beyond secrecy for secrecy's sake. He is extremely detached that it's become an understandable point of irritation for Clara. Things are further complicated when her boyfriend Danny gets caught up on this mess, and from there things just spiral downward.

Nobody is safe...

This episode for me has overtaken "Listen" as the best episode of the season. On the surface, and thanks in part to the previews and setup, it does kind of have a comedic focus to it with the Doctor going undercover and wacky hijinks ensuing, with the boyfriend discovering the girlfriend's double life. But in truth, while there are funny moments and there is a comedic tone to it, this episode really succeeds in the character department, focusing less on the overall threat of the episode and more on exploring more of the characters and seeing the next step in their evolution, now that we are halfway through Series 8. As I am a huge sucker for character relationships and interaction in any story, this episode really appealed to me. Sure some may find that it's not as good as "Listen", and I can agree that "Listen" can be considered the far superior episode because of its setup and atmosphere, but I dunno. I just like this one more.

Our stinger features a montage of Clara facing the challenges of a normal life and a time-travelling wife, increasingly getting exhausted and trying to make up stories to Danny for looking tired or otherwise looking odd. This is a good scene because it establishes how long The Doctor and Clara have been traveling together. We are not just limited to the episodes shown on-screen, we can see that off-screen Clara has been having other adventures as well. It continues to make The Doctor's relationship with her all the more believable. What follows is scene where a random policeman is killed by the monster of this episode, the killer robot Skovox Blitzer. More on that robot later.

Just when Clara thinks she has time to herself when the Doctor says he needs to go undercover for a while, he suddenly shows up as the new caretaker. His disguise, as the video showed, was just him putting a janitor's coat over his normal outfit.

Oh Doctor, you troll...

 

The Doctor gives Clara the rundown: Blitzer was attracted to Earth, specifically Clara's school, by a high number of time travel emission waves over the years, and aims to destroy it. The Doctor went undercover in order to try and lure it away, and tells Clara to just get on with her life and pay him no mind. With little choice, Clara agrees to it, and is annoyed when The Doctor barely makes an attempt to actually act like he's undercover, messing around with the school's electrical systems, and randomly butting in her classes. Things aren't made better when The Doctor meets Danny and is disdainful of him being a math teacher. The Doctor keeps insisting and calling Danny a PE teacher because of his soldier background, and remember, we've established that The Doctor doesn't think highly of soldiers.

 

It is because of this setup that a lot of the comedy of the episode comes into play. A recurring thing in this story is one of the students of the school, Courtney, gets very suspicious of The Doctor and starts snooping around. When The Doctor and Courtney confront each other, the two outright insult each other, and The Doctor continues to be uncaring about the whole thing, especially when his "Do not disturb sign" is actually:

 

 

 

 

I feel the comedy in episode works much better than Robot of Sherwood. For me, the comedy of Robot of Sherwood mostly revolved around The Doctor and Robin Hood sizing each other up and showing off just to show who is the more badass guy. That just doesn't work for me because The Doctor strikes me as an individual who already knows he's badass and doesn't need to prove it. Here, the comedy is more focused around the setup and the Doctor's awkwardness about his situation, and things like his disguise, his GO AWAY HUMANS sign, and interactions with Courtney help with that. It gets a big and hilarious payoff by the end of the episode.

 

We then get into character interaction overdrive as Danny inadvertently ruins The Doctor's plan to stop the robot. The plan was to set up devices to lure the robot in and send the robot in time in the far flung future. But because of Danny, the plan goes awry and only sends the robot a few days into the future. The episode gets really great by this point when Danny discovers everything and is struck by everything and Clara living a lie. We get a good scene where Clara and Danny talk it over, the later asking why she even travels with her. Clara says it's because she gets some enjoyment out of it, and flat out denies that she even loves The Doctor. This is a good thing to add in as it continues to break away from the Clara of last season where she was romantically involved with the 11th Doctor.

 

The Doctor in turn is not approving of Danny because of him being a soldier, especially when Clara says that she love Danny. Danny is equally disdainful of him after finding out that he is a Time Lord, and here is where I feel to be the best scene, when The Doctor and Danny argue with the mentality of a soldier and an officer, showing how both have their issues about the military and war in general. This calls back to previous episodes of the season and past seasons of the show as well. To add a cherry on top, after Danny and Clara leave the TARDIS and The Doctor in a huff, Courtney confronts The Doctor again. The Doctor, whether it's because he's taken a liking to the delinquent or because he's in a foul mood and feels like trolling, tells Courtney his secret and shows her the TARDIS, even offering her the chance to become a companion in the future.

 

 

Things come to a head when the robot returns. Just when The Doctor and Clara's plan to capture and deactivate the robot goes badly, Danny comes in at the last second and distracts it long enough for The Doctor to stop it. Because of this, The Doctor says that he and Danny are cool, but The Doctor still has his doubts. Danny tells Clara, while together back at his apartment, to not keep anymore secrets and always tell Danny when something is wrong so he can support her. He also gives her a warning about The Doctor, that Danny knows all too well how commanders act, prompting their soldiers to go beyond how they normally act without fear. He warns her that, if The Doctor goes too far and Clara continues to withhold secrets from him, they are through. It's yet another good scene as it changes the Clara and Danny dynamic, and puts Clara's own actions into question. Could The Doctor really go that far? Or does Clara, after that ultimatum, have any thoughts on leaving? We can only guess as the show progresses.

 

And what is the Doctor up to during all of this? He lets the deactivated robot lose into space while showing it to Courtney. The sheer size of the universe and space is too much for her, and she runs back inside the TARDIS and promptly vomits.

 

But wait, what about that cop who was killed? This is where Missy comes back, and we get a few more things: One, the place Missy resides is called The Nethersphere, and two, the people who come here are indeed dead and are in the afterlife. The mystery deepens.

 

 

 

Final thoughts:

Overall, I really enjoyed this episode. The robot action was nice and all, but the true core of this episode is the characters and seeing them change throughout this episode. This is much better example of the show trying to have a breather episode. It doesn't feature a lot of sci-fi elements and doesn't have some world-wide cosmic threat, but it does exist to serve as a way to bring these characters together. I'm a huge sucker for character relationships in stories, and this episode delivered it in spades. This is a good episode for the halfway point to start; The Doctor has changed, Clara has changed, Danny has changed, we have a possible new supporting cast member, all around good.

 

My score: 5/5

 

My episode ranking so far:

The Caretaker>Listen>Into The Dalek>Time Heist=Deep Breath>Robot of Sherwood

Couch: Doctor Who: New Series 8/Season 34 Episode 5: Time Heist

DISCLAIMER: All images and videos in this blog review are owned by their respective owners.
Previous episode reviews:
Episode 4: Listen
Episode 3: Robot of Sherwood
Episode 2: Into the Dalek
Episode 1: Deep Breath

Summary:
The Doctor decides to just spend a day traveling with Clara in the TARDIS. One phone call from the TARDIS later however, the two find themselves in an intergalactic bank with two others with no memory of how they got there. A mysterious being called The Architect has tasked them to rob said bank, said to be the most impregnable bank in all of creation. But there are still some fundamental questions: Who is The Architect? What are they stealing? Where in the bank is the item? When did they get there? Why are they stealing it? And how are they going to steal from the bank and its most powerful anti-theft weapon: The Teller?
-----------------------------------------
In the entertainment industry, one of the most popular genres is the "Heist film". The Heist film typically follows a ragtag group of experts and miscreants coming together to accomplish a robbery and loot some valuable treasure. I think everyone has seen a Heist film at one point or another, and they are usually characterized by the following:

1. The preparation of the heist; getting the gang together, setting up stories, planning the heist, etc
2. The partaking of the heist; seeing the plan put into motion
3. The peril of the heist; plot twists galore, putting the pieces together, various forces against the heist, etc

Even in non-heist movies these elements seem to be present. It really is one of those genres that transcends its origin, but it really is in actual heist movies where we see the full three-act structure put into motion. Despite heist movies following the same formula, what makes them so popular is just the amount of creativity put into them and how varied each of the three acts can be. One of my favorite heist movies of all time is Christopher Nolan's "Inception" where-in they need to steal an idea instead of money, and instead of robbing a bank, they rob a person's sub-conscious by delving into dreams. Creativity like that keeps the Heist genre alive, though of course standard Heist movies are good in their own way, like "Ocean's 11".

1963's It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, an example of a comedy movie with heist elements

 

 

So what happens then when you cross this genre with Doctor Who? A rather creative scenario with science fiction elements, twists, an assorted group of misfits, a ruthless villain, and character evolution. While this episode is overall enjoyable, it does suffer the same problem that "Robot of Sherwood" had in that, in the grand scheme, this episode does not really progress the story. Not that it really matters since Doctor Who Series 8/Season 34 is not meant to have an arc compared to pats seasons. When you take that element out of the picture all you have is to just give an episode that highlights what's fun and creative about Doctor Who while showing our protagonists in a positive and enjoyable light. And unlike "Robot of Sherwood", I felt this episode did that loads better. It is rather hard to follow given the time-travel nature of this episode, but it's by no means bad if you're willing to give leeway on the confusing nature of time travel.

 

 

 

 

After another stinger that shows Clara continuing to bond with Danny Pink, The Doctor just barges into Clara's apartment after her date to just take her travelling. I just love how The Doctor unceremoniously waltzes into his companion's lives either to ask them for a favor or to just take them traveling for funsies. It goes to show how, for all the heroism The Doctor can do, his basic things like human interaction is severely lacking. Which is understandable since The Doctor isn't human anyway. Now one might think the companions would protest, but I'd like to think that they know its a moot point because The Doctor has a time machine anyway, and by their relative time would only be gone for a few seconds.

 

Anyway, they receive a phone call, but upon picking up the phone they find themselves in a dimly lit room with no memory of how they got there. With them are two other people, a cyborg-human hacker named Psi, and a shape-changing mutant-human named Saibra. Both also suffer memory loss, but they and The Doctor & Clara are brought up to speed by a device by The Architect, a man who has given them a mission: Rob the bank of Karabraxos, the most impregnable bank in the universe where the high class store their most valued possessions. Right away they are faced with a few problems:

 

1. They can't back out of the heist, they are already in the bank.

2. They don't know exactly what they are stealing.

3. They have no memories of how The Doctor and Clara met Saibra and Psi, so the pairs distrust each other.

4. The head of the bank, Ms. Delphox, and her secret weapon, the alien being known simply as "The Teller", who can reduce one's brain to literal mush.

 



The heist begins

 



 

As the heist continues and they get to various points using their abilities, the group finds more devices and useful equipment left by The Architect, including atomic shredder devices; used as a mercy killing instead of suffering a worse fate by The Teller. Throughout this we learn more of Psi and Sabira, like the former's cybernetic implants preventing him from recalling his previous life, and the latter's inability to have personal contact with others because of her abilities a la X-Men's Rogue. By the time they reach the main vaults, Psi and Saibra sacrifice themselves. To Clara's irritation, The Doctor doesn't feel much for their deaths, echoing similar sentiments as seen in "Into the Dalek". This again builds up on The Doctor's and Clara's relationship. To make things more interesting, while The Doctor can't muster sadness, he does muster hatred and curses The Architect for the waste of lives and the situation they were all put in.

 

Upon the bank being struck by a solar storm that makes the banks's electrical system go haywire, The Doctor realizes something. This isn't just a simple bank heist, it's a time heist. The Architect is from the future, and put them in the bank at that time in order to rob it when its at its most vulnerable. Furthermore, they discover that they are stealing more than one item; a card left by the architect reveals three vault numbers, one for Psi, one for Saibra, and one for The Doctor & Clara. The first two vaults contain items that are meant to help cure the two's problems, but The Doctor & Clara's is trickier because their item is in the more heavily-secured private vault. They are however too late, and are caught by bank security and brought to the bank head, Ms. Delphox.

 

It transpires that the solar storm is deadlier than they thought and will wipe out the whole bank. As Ms. Delphox leaves to put The Teller into hibernation, she orders the guards to kill The Doctor. As it turns out the guards are actually Psi and Saibra in disguise, and that the "suicide" devices were actually teleporters. Eventually the foursome reach the vault to discover the true head of the bank, Ms. Karabraxos. Ms. Delphox is simply a clone. With the bank almost destroyed, The Doctor has a sudden inspiration and gives his TARDIS phone number, telling a departing Ms. Karabraxos to call if she has any regrets in the future. With the bank almost deserted, all that are left are the gang and The Teller. The Doctor gives himself up to The Teller to get to the bottom of all that has happened and have his memories unlocked.

 

It's here where we finally see what happened. The mysterious phone call at the beginning of the episode came from an elderly and dying Ms. Karabraxos, full of regret and asking The Doctor for help. It turns out that The Doctor, in fact, IS The Architect, having prepared ahead of time where to place the necessary equipment, getting in contact with the best people for the job, and erasing their memories so that they'll have a less chance of getting caught by the guilt-triggering bank security systems and the abilities of The Teller. The key to the whole thing was The Teller himself, as he was needed to get to the final vault where the ultimate goal is. The item is a female of The Teller's species, meaning that The Teller was thought to be the last of its kind.

 

What a twist!

 

 

In the end, The Doctor leaves the Teller and his mate on another planet to repopulate their species, Psi and Saibra are cured and brought back home, and The Doctor and Clara have done another good deed, Clara happy that she's had a good day and is about to go on a good date with Danny.

 

Final thoughts:

 

All in all, "Time Heist" was enjoyable episode. Like Robot of Sherwood, it's self-contained and doesn't mean much in the overall narrative, and is probably an episode used to highlight The Doctor's status as a heroic individual. But unlike Robot of Sherwood, this one actually contains an interesting premise and greater twist to its story. This episode also does delve more into The Doctor's psyche, specifically his hatred. We've seen in previous episodes his hatred for the Daleks and his hatred against those who harm innocents, but it's an entirely different thing to see The Doctor declare his hatred for himself. Remember, The Doctor and The Architect are one and the same, so the complexity of the Doctor is still a mystery. Just how much hatred does The Doctor have in him?

 

And speaking of mysteries, once again, Missy is a no-show. Just who is she, why does she bring people who have died in relation with The Doctor into her fold? We can only continue watching.

 

My score: 4.4/5