Bill gets his first proper trip in the TARDIS and in the vein of The End of the World, and The Beast Below, she goes forward. We meet an empty city filled with happy robots communicating with emojis. What could go wrong?
The Review
Valencia is one glorious place
After a brief cameo from Nardole, he leaves, and Bill and the Doctor go to an absolutely stunning alien city and look around. Seriously, the set of Smile is glorious. The first half hour really serves to deepen their relationship as they settle into a teacher/mentor role that works so brilliantly. Even though the audience knows what happened, seeing the Doctor lie about the robots being sent ahead of the humans before eventually seeing their bones ground to fertilizer is great. The little robots are adorable, looking very happy, but their most hilarious look is their thinking face. I can’t get enough of it. The idea of Bill returning to help the Doctor destroy the trap is great.
The Doctor fixes up the Vardy
Really the story is quite simplistic, but I think it actually works. When the Vardy (as the emojibots are suddenly named) first saw a death, there first was such profound sadness that their routines deemed the humans more useful as fertilizer than anything else. However, most of the crew was still in cyrosleep, and they understandably start to go and kill the Vardy. However, using the weaved storyline of the ‘magic haddock’ (it works, trust me), the Doctor resets the Vardy and deletes that part of the code. As the city is formed of Vardy (the emojibots are just the communication interface), the Doctor gets the humans to pay rent to them. Some found issue with that end, but I thought it was fine. The episode was just enjoyable, and again went somewhere unique.
I can see why people who are normally looking for The Waters of Mars every episode, didn’t enjoy it, but it took a fantastical tone and completely nailed it unlike the writer’s previous attempt In the Forest of the Night where literally nothing happens. Way to redeem yourself Cortell-Boyce.
9/10. The Doctor and Bill get to know each other better in a fantasy-like episode that will absolutely be looked at in the future as a very 2010s episode.
What are you going to do when evil emojis come for you?
Hey, an actual Doctor Who spinoff returns to our screens for the first time since the fifth season of the Sarah Jane Adventures. A group of high schoolers end up embroiled in an alien fight, and it’s kind of entirely the Doctor’s fault.
The Review
Tanya and April
Okay, I thought this would be some melodramatic teen romance show, and the references to ‘autumn prom’ certainly didn’t help. Boy was I wrong. The first half introduces us to Charlie, prince of a dead alien race, and his immortal servant, the former freedom fighter and very sardonic Ms. Quill. We meet young genius Tanya and Ram, who seems like douchey soccer-bro, but turns out to be an awesome guy. Then there’s April, just a normal girl who is kind of a loser. I feel for you when you found that Charlie was gay. They’re being menaced by shadows, the Shadow King even, and his heart becomes linked with April when Charlie saves Quill from using her to kill him. (The gun that kills Shadow Kings kills the user)
Peter Capaldi never phones it in as the Doctor
The best thing this episode does is it makes the characters really feel real and three-dimensional. Coal Hill (even featuring the Headmaster from Series 8) is actually interesting, and there’s barely melodrama. All the characters are at prom, then suddenly shit gets real when RAM’S GIRLFRIEND IS MURDERED IN FRONT OF HIM AND HER BLOOD COVERS HIM. Holy shit! I’d never seen gore like that in Doctor Who! Then he loses a leg at the knee! This is where we get an appearance from the always magnetic 12th Doctor who turns up the lights to get the Shadow people to leave. The special effects in this show also are up there with the best in the show. The Doctor had left Charlie and Mrs. Quill there, and basically wishes them luck.
Seconds before Rachel’s GRAPHIC MURDER.
Now, basically, this is all the Doctor’s fault. As established in The Caretaker and re-confirmed here, Coal Hill School (now re-modeled and looking much, much nicer), has had so much time travel around it that the bounds between the universe are weak. This is 100% the Doctor’s fault, and he does nothing to solve the problem! If Capaldi wasn’t so amazing, that just wouldn’t make sense. At least the high school squad has the brutal Doctor-lite Mrs. Quill here, whose fate as a warrior bound never to fight is very interesting. Basically, this show had no business being good, and against my expectations…it is. Let us never speak of the intro though.
Class starts off with a premise that seems like it would be a disaster, but it becomes more about people rather than cringeworthy high school cliches. Will never forget Rachel’s death, rest in peace.
9/10. Honestly pretty great, I enjoyed it a lot. Though, just kind of forget that this is all the Doctor’s fault and he does nothing about. Even if he sees Danny and Clara’s names on a memorial board.
Charlie looks into the Cabinet of Souls, the home of his dead race
Bill Potts isn’t a student at St. Luke’s University in Bristol, but she can’t help but go to lectures by the eccentric professor known as the Doctor. After she meets a girl with a star in her eye, the Doctor may be the only person who can save her.
The Review
The Twelfth Doctor is too perfect as a college professor
The opening to this episode is pitch perfect. The Doctor’s office with the old sonic screwdrivers, pictures of his wife River and granddaughter Susan is just wonderful. Bill immediately comes off as smart, and the Doctor’s new rule is just perfect as he delivers enrapturing lectures on the universe. The mystery of Heather, the girl with the star in her eye, and her mysterious puddle are just odd enough to get you slowly enraptured. After Clara was very much engrained in the sci-fi part of the Doctor Who universe, Bill seems to be the first companion who just isn’t since Donna or arguably Martha, and boy does it work.
Nardole and Bill, an intriguing companion pairing
Where the episode starts to suffer is the second half. As a general rule, jumping from location rarely works, with The Magician’s Apprentice being an exception. Bill, who had been characterized as a smart woman suddenly loses 20 IQ points when she goes in the TARDIS and takes a long time to figure it out as we go from Australia to a planet in the distant future to 1979’s Dalek-Movellan war! I’ve seen criticism of the Daleks in this episode, but they’re a fine minor cameo. Bill having to let the gorgeous and very dead Heather go was properly sad, but the saddest moment was the little twinkling of Clara’s theme as Bill convinces the Doctor not to mind wipe her. Really, what I think could’ve been a classic just doesn’t pack as big a punch as it could’ve.
Heather/The Puddle
The villain, sentient ship oil that can go across the universe is effectively written and portrayed here. Her image is quite memorable, and the power of the puddle is shocking in how effective it is time-traveling within 60 seconds. Nardole gets a few funny bits but we are yet to have a full Nardole-focused scene that he desperately needs. Don’t get me wrong though, there’s a lot of intriguing things for the future here. What’s in the vault the Doctor is protecting, and who put him up to it? He promised not to leave after all. Will we ever know who made the puddle? I’d be fine with that one not being answered. This season will be interesting, it’s billed as a fresh start, but it’s also Moffat and Capaldi’s last and likely Bill and Nardole’s only season. It’s a hard tone, but let’s see if they can pull it off.
A pitch-perfect opening is marred by some mediocre scenes, and Bill suddenly turning into an idiot. However, she is so sweetly portrayed that the future is bright. Also she’s just gay and there’s no need to make a big stink about it. Good job Moffat.
8/10. Not the greatest start, but it’s good enough, and it promises greatness ahead.
She then turned into a puddle monster, but we’ve all been there.
After the Doctor creates a superhero one night in New York, he needs his help unearthing a massive conspiracy.
The Review
Meeting of Minds
The episode starts with a classically silly Doctor encountering a kid in New York as he works on something to help with the severe time distortion in the city in a call back to Angels Take Manhattan. What happens is that kid eats a gemstone that fulfills his wish of becoming a superhero. What follows is a lighthearted take on a version of the Superman myth with the Doctor educating Grant, Superman, as he is the nanny for the love of his life, Lucy. Once he saves Lucy and the Doctor from the face-splitting Harmony Shoal as ‘the Ghost’, things get complicated.
Grant gets his date with Lucy
Compared to the previous Capaldi Christmas specials that had a twinge of darkness, that is absent here. Only the surprising return of Nardole from the last episode, now a full companion, serves to remind the Doctor how lonely he is. Much of the double life of Grant is played well in increasingly confounding circumstances, with the Doctor amusingly telling Grant he’s jealous of Lucy’s love of…himself. The return of the split-brained Harmony Shoal are fine, if not spectacular foes.
Lex Author analogue loses his head
Really, the special is a solid Doctor Who episode, not much more to it. And that is a very good thing indeed. A temptation to rate it too high comes from the astounding year that we had to wait for this episode. But like Nardole says, the moment the Doctor figures out his plan to save the day, and we see that massive smile on his face, we know we are in for a treat. The episode was fun, showed a flummoxed Doctor doing ridiculous stuff, and gave us what we wanted.
In a decidedly non-Christmastime Christmas episode, the strengths of The Return of Doctor Mysterio lie in giving us that return as well as some heartwarming moments.
8.5/10. Never make us wait a year again BBC!
Lucy’s interrogation with the pain-feeling ‘Mr. Huffel’, classic
The Doctor happens to run into his wife, but he doesn’t like what he finds.
The Review
Doctor Song to You!
The Doctor is dropped off on a human colony, and is recruited for surgery. He meets River, who does not recognize him, and is lovingly married to King Hydrolax. Hydrolax has a diamond in his head that is killing him, and River wants it removed. The Doctor later learns that it is to take the diamond, and a funny/exciting sequence leads them to get Hydrolax’s living head. River gets in the TARDIS, and the Doctor has to act like he’s shocked at the ‘bigger on the inside’.
King Hydrolax!
They land on a spaceship for genocidal maniacs, and the buyer of the diamond is a fanatic for Hydrolax. With his robot body menacing them and wanting the Doctor’s head, River pours her heart out saying he does not love her and is not here for her, until realizing that he’s been with her the whole time. (She only had the original cycle faces). The ship crashes, but the two survive in the TARDIS.
The Last Dinner?
What follows is an emotional dinner where River gets a Sonic, and realizes she’s near the end of her life. It’s sad that it will end, but it’s happy that they lived. The whole episode had been a very entertaining romp, but it ended up putting the Doctor and River’s relationship in better perspective than any previous episode. River worked better as a sort of match for the Doctor, and not as a mystery. For somebody who never wanted River back, this episode was very fun and made the relationship real.
Christmas provided a fun episode to have another trip through the universe with River, and put their relationship in perspective. They may not live ‘happily ever after’, but they’ll live happily.
9/10. Alex Kingston is great as she meets Peter Capaldi on the list of Doctors.
Stories 260-262, Episodes 823-825, Series 9 Episodes 10-12
Doctor: The Twelfth Doctor
Companion: Clara Oswald
In what may be one of the most impactful Doctor Who stories ever, we find out what it truly means to be the Doctor. From the streets of London, to a far-flung castle prison, to Gallifrey itself, this story is about the Doctor.
The Review
The Mayor
First off, Rigsy calls the TARDIS, he has a new tattoo on his neck…that’s counting down. He joins the Doctor and Clara, and they set off on a mission to find a hidden street in London. The sequencing is a load of fun, and includes Clara loving being on the edge of death. They find it, a street that is a refugee camp for aliens being run by Ashildr…who else? Apparently Rigsy murdered a woman, and he’s been sentenced to time-based death by spiritual raven.
The Truth is Uncovered
The Doctor works out that Ashildr has framed Rigsy for some reason, because he knew him. Clara takes the countdown to death from Rigsy, because it will force Ashildr to retract the sentence. Using the prophetic nature of the murdered’s daughter, they learn that the woman Rigsy killed is still alive. To get her out, the Doctor has to get a teleportation bracelet stuck to him, but there’s bad news…Ashildr can’t save Clara.
Goodbye Clara…
Clara convinces the Doctor that everything will be okay, walks out, and is killed. That’s it. Dead. She’s gone. To add insult to injury, the Doctor is teleported away. The first episode of the story really succeeded in being a well-paced, great mystery, supported by more furious acting from Capaldi. Narratively, Clara’s death just makes sense. It’s heartbreaking, but it’s how it has to be. Then things starting getting even better.
The Veil, it never gives up
The Doctor is alone, trapped in a castle haunted by a slowly moving monster who will kill him with a touch. It never stops, inevitably the Doctor will die. Frequently consulting his memory of Clara, he reasons that the monster stops with confessions about the ‘Hybrid’ that will re-arrange the castle. The episode is one hundred powered behind Capaldi, who acts his ass off. It is enthralling, and the Doctor finds an escape behind twenty feet of super-hard rock. All he needs to do: confess one more.
The Long Way Round
Eventually, the Doctor pieces it together: he’s been here before, thousands of times, and died every single time. But each time he’s punched the rock, inching closer to breaking it. When he dies, he creates another copy of himself from the teleport, and after billions of years punches his way through in one of the show’s most triumphant moments. The other side? Gallifrey. The Doctor tells a boy to warn the Capitol: he’s back.
Rassilon, now former President
Rassilon wants him dead, and the Doctor goes to his ‘family’, and refuses to lay down his arms until he convinces everybody to banish Rassilon. He convinces the General that Clara can help with the Hybrid, so they take her and instant before her death, and the Doctor shoots the General, and goes rogue to save Clara. Breaking all his rules, he runs to the Cloisters to break into the Matrix. All to steal a TARDIS, grab Clara, and run to the end of time where she should be brought back to life.
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
At the end of the universe though, Ashildr was waiting for him. They chat about the Hybrid, and bounce around some ideas, but the main result is the Doctor promising to wipe Clara’s mind to save her. Clara hears it all and switches the memory device to work backwards to try and convince the Doctor not to save her. They end up gambling on who’s mind will be erased, and it’s the Doctor’s. It brings us to the frame story of the Doctor telling this tale to Clara in a Nevada diner, but when we thought Clara couldn’t remember: it was the Doctor.
Clara Who: Episode One
Clara walks into a backdoor where Ashildr is in there with the stolen TARDIS console. The restaurant phases away, leaving the Doctor his old TARDIS, where Rigsy’s graffiti of the dead Clara’s face allows the Doctor to piece together what happened. While Clara and Ashildr go off on their new journey through time, the Doctor goes off as well. This finale seemed like it would be about Gallifrey, and explosions, but it was about the Doctor…and now that includes Clara.
The Doctor’s TARDIS
Really, this story was great from start to finish. The opening frame was expertly done, and had a gut-punch ending. Capaldi pretty much acted the entire middle piece by himself, an amazing story of perseverance, escaping an inescapable problem. From there, we conclude with the Doctor going to great lengths to save Clara, and ultimately giving her new life while losing her. All along, Clara was very similar to the Doctor, and as her tenure on the show continued she became almost his equal. And now she is.
There may have been a bit of pacing issues, but superb writing, direction, and acting, acting, acting, made this a finale to remember. This episode was Doctor Who at its finest, and wrapped up an amazing run. From uncovering a mystery in London, to dying for billions of years to punch through rock harder than diamond, to meeting the end of the universe to save one life…Doctor Who has never been better.
9/10: Clara gets the greatest exist for any companion, and the Doctor finds a bit of humanity perhaps. Remember, when the TARDIS appears, it may now be Clara and Ashildr to your rescue.
It’s the 38th Century, and we’ve finally found a way to conquer sleep. But what if sleep is saving us from something far more dangerous?
The Review
The Man Behind Morpheus
This episode uses entirely perspective-based camera work, either from the point of view of some characters or from security cameras. It creates a very unique effect as the Doctor and Clara stumble upon a rescue team, and a base that is being overrun by sleep dust monsters. You know, the stuff that gets in your eye? Semblances to the Flood aside, and weirdness of the idea aside, it somehow worked.
It’s The Flood/Sleep Dust
People fall one by one, gravity shields fails, the Morpheus inventor is found, killed, then survives again. The cameras are tiny pieces of the sleep dust monsters. At the end, the inventor is revealed to have been in cahoots with the monsters, and is killed by Ngata, the only rescue team member who lives.
The End?
But the twist is that the inventor was making a great story for people to watch this ‘found footage’, and it contains a digital bug that will make more sleepy creatures. And the Doctor doesn’t know. And that’s it! Really, the episode kept me guessing the entire way through, and had an ending that left it completely wide open. The Doctor loses! The end! I thought the cinematography was fun, the fact that the monsters win was fun. Overall, I was quite entertained.
Although moving a bit fast, and with some bizarre villains (although the ‘Mr. Sandman’ song for the sleep-destroying Morpheus chamber was cool), Sleep No More proves to be another great episode. And in the end, the bad guy wins! The Doctor so often has his pawns, but in this episode he was thoroughly made one.
9/10. ‘Found footage’ makes for a fun departure for normal Doctor Who, and the Flood actually wins this round.
Story 258, Episodes 820 and 821, Series 9 Episodes 7 and 8
Doctor: The Twelfth Doctor
Companion: Kate Stewart, Clara Oswald
The Zygon peace treaty has been broken, and now the Zygons aim to wage war on all of humanity. The only hope for both sides in the Osgood Box, said to have the power to end the war…for good.
The Review
The original Osgoods aka Peace
The Doctor gets the call: the shapeshifting Zygons have violated the ceasefire and waging open war. Soon things become clear that it is a splinter group tired of being forced to live in humanity, and Clara and the Doctor get roped in with UNIT. Kate goes to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico where she is ambushed by a Zygon who has wiped out the town. The Doctor goes to some foreign country where soldiers are lured to their deaths by Zygons, but he finds the surviving Osgood (Missy killed the other) and a prisoner.
Bonnie, Zygon general
The whole time in London, Clara has been helping UNIT find the Zygon base, except she’s actual the Zygon Bonnie, leading them into a trap. She then fires an RPG at the Doctor’s plane, but interference from Clara’s subconscious gives the Doctor and Osgood time to escape. The race is on to get to the UNIT Black Archives and the ‘Osgood Box’, and all five major players reach the Box, will boxes. Two boxes, two buttons inside, all varying levels of everybody dies.
Peter Capaldi gives the speech of his life
There, the Doctor gives one of the show’s best speeches. He talks about his past as a warrior, and just how awful war is and how many lives it ruins. The delivery is so incredible that it causes both Kate and Bonnie to back down. Bonnie ends up becoming the new second Osgood, and the Zygon peace is restored. So much happened, and so much amazing.
Clara and a Zygon in awe
The build-up in the story is perfectly executed, and the threat of the Zygons seems very real. Osgood, Clara/Bonnie, Kate are all very well realized, but as usual the Doctor steals the show. His speech against war is so impassioned and brilliant, it will easily be held in the annals of great Doctor moments. There have been many alien invasions of Earth in Doctor Who history, but the Zygon Invasion of 2015 may be one of the best.
The Zygons return from the 50th Anniversary, and an episode with many parallels to recent debates on immigration will thrill anybody. With great writing, direction, and acting, this story is another classic.
9.8/10. Series 9 is proving that Doctor Who is maybe the best it ever has been, night in and night out.
Doctor Who returns to the Mountain Time Zone, this time to New Mexico!
Stories 256 and 257, Episodes 818 and 819, Series 9 Episodes 5 and 6
Doctor: The Twelfth Doctor
Companion: Clara Oswald
The Doctor remembers who he is in a small viking village, and ends up causing a tidal wave affecting all of humanity. Also this ended up getting classified as two different stories.
The Review
Odin is outwitted
Captured by vikings, the vikings, the Doctor, and Clara are instantly greeted by Odin who takes up viking warriors to his sky ship and murders them. Clara and a young girl, Ashildr, survive and challenge Odin and his Mire warriors to a battle. The Doctor tries to teach the dopes left to fight, but it doesn’t work. Until he talks to Ashildr, where he comes up with a complex plan on the spot using electric eels to down Odin and the Mire. Clara records them running from a fake serpent to Benny Hill music.
The Doctor and Ashildr
Ashildr died defeating Odin, and the Doctor agonizes about it. He realizes he took Caecilius’ face to remind himself to always save people, with a flashback to the 10th Doctor and Donna no less. He uses tech to repair Ashildr, but she is made immortal. In the next episode the Doctor appears in the 17th century and runs into Ashildr. She is desensitized to the world and callous, but the Doctor helps her steal an alien amulet from a home.
Ashildr and the lion…person
Ashildr is using the amulet to help a fire-breathing lion man go home, and she’ll go with him. She goes to Sam Swift’s execution to kill him to open a portal with the amulet, and does it even as the Doctor tries to dissuade her. The lion guy is calling an invasion, so the Doctor has her use her second immortality thing to save Swift and the save the day. Ashildr says she’ll protect the Doctor’s ‘Leftovers’, and when the Doctor re-unites with Clara sees her in the background of a selfie Clara took.
The Doctor creates an immortal, maybe two, and has to leave her alone as she’s too similar to himself. The stunning reversal with the ephemeral love from Clara clashing with the infinite coldness of Ashildr sets up a debate on immortality’s merits.
9.5/10. A few minor rushed points in the first episode stop Series 9’s perfect streak, but make no mistake, another slam dunk.
Story 255, Episodes 815 and 816, Series 9 Episodes 3 and 4
Doctor: The Twelfth Doctor
Companion: Clara Oswald
Another two-parter sees the doctor confront one of the most insidious situations he’s ever faced, deep underwater in 22nd Century Scotland.
The Review
The Doctor’s deductive reasoning
Deep underwater, the Doctor and Clara find a base with scared crew members. For good reason, the base is infested with ghosts trying to kill them after they found a spaceship on the lakebed with strange writing. The first part of the episode, the annoying Pritchard is drowned by the ghosts, and the Doctor tries to think about how this situation can be. The ship had a pilot locked in stasis, and a missing power cell. And the whole ghost thing.
Tivolis, open for enslavement
The ghosts are repeating the same phrase, but the Doctor, O’Donnell, and Bennett are separated from Clara, the deaf Cass and her interpreter Lunn. The Doctor goes back to before the flood that the base is built in, while his ghost appears to Clara, signaling his future death. In the 80s the Doctor finds that the ship is a hearse driven by the future first ghost carrying the body of the Fisher King.
The Fisher King
Communicating with Clara, Doctor sees his future ghost, and gets a list of their names. Returning to the 80s, the Fisher King killed the undertaker and then O’Donnell. Bennett and the Doctor try to leave, but the TARDIS won’t let the Doctor. The Doctor decides to take on the Fisher King and floods the base with one power cell, and jumps in the stasis chamber to awake in the 22nd century and trap all the ghosts in the chamber they can’t pass through with his ‘ghost’, a hologram.
Lunn, Clara, and Cass
There is SO MUCH MORE I didn’t even cover like the words in the ship being an eye worm that sticks in your mind. The whole episode was dramatic, tense drama, that provided the Doctor with one of the most impossible situations I can remember. A healthy dose of bootstrap paradox, and Peter Capaldi acting out of mind, and you have another classic right after the last one. Toby Whitehouse does it again!
The opening to Before the Flood has a 4th Wall breaking explanation of a bootstrap paradox involving Beethoven ending with a rock version of the theme song. Yes.
10/10. Now I know I just gave the preceding story a 10/10, but I always try and think about things I would’ve changed about the story for why it would be not be a 10, but this story had it all.
Reviewing Doctor Who from Start to Finish 