I can’t
say what a relief it is to genuinely enjoy watching new episodes of Who again. Not that the last few seasons haven’t had
good episodes, of course, but there’s been a lot of frustrating, nonsensical,
and/or unsatisfying stuff to wade through as well, meaning that even with the
good ones, I got into the habit of waiting for the other shoe to drop. While this season isn’t perfect, its general
thrust has been much of what I love about Who,
and I’m so glad to be seeing that on my screen.
Despite
Nardole’s protestations (what with the season arc “vow to guard the vault” and
all,) the Doctor takes him and Bill on a joyride to outer space. The Doctor’s joyrides, naturally, involve
distress calls, and team TARDIS finds itself on a mining ship where workers are
forced to buy the oxygen they breathe.
Their rogue high-tech spacesuits have started trying to kill them (don’t
you hate it when that happens?), and our heroes need to try and keep calm while
saving the day, because in the vacuum of space, every breath counts.
This is a
cool, claustrophobic thriller from Jamie Mathieson – not quite as good for me
as either of his series 8 offerings, but still the fine storytelling I’ve come
to expect from him (further cementing my suspicions that it was the “&
Steven Moffat” part of the writing credit that led to the shakiness of “The
Girl Who Died” in series 9.) It takes
something so basic, the need to breathe in space, and creates a full narrative
out of it. I love the little details
like the surviving crew members measuring distances in breaths rather than feet
or meters, and the whole thing with Bill’s malfunctioning suit ups the
creepiness factor. It would be so freaky
to have your movements controlled by what you’re wearing rather than your own
body (and to then expect said malfunctioning suit to protect you from the
vacuum? Forget about it.)
This is
the first time Nardole has worked for me as a character, let alone a
companion. Up to now, he’s mainly swung
between “goofy in an undefined way that gives you no indication of who he
actually is” and “killjoy trying to keep the Doctor on Earth.” Given “the vow” and the vault, the latter
part has to remain as part of his function, but here, he feels like a person
trying to accomplish the Herculean task of keeping the Doctor in one place
instead of just a minor obstacle for the Doctor to avoid without any defined
character traits of his own. I can see
his irritation at the Doctor’s tricks and increasing desperation in his
attempts to get them all back to the TARDIS, but at the same time, when the
killer spacesuits show up and everything hits the fan, he does commit to the
adventure and does what he can to help; it’s not an “I told you so”
pouting-in-the-corner situation.
The
Doctor and Bill are both tested pretty hard here. Bill’s already seen plenty of scary stuff
traveling with the Doctor, but this episode brings her the closest yet to the razor’s
edge, and the Doctor asks her to put his faith in him in a serious, serious
way. I like that she spends so much of
this episode severely freaked out, because what’s going on is super scary and
she’s basically in survival mode for most of it. As for the Doctor, I’m impressed with his win
here: a true, last-second photo finish
that’s very clever. He takes his usual
insane risks in the episode, but this time around, the consequences might be
wider-reaching than he anticipated.
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