Doctor Who: Time Heist

PinPeter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman in BBC America’s “Doctor Who”

This is the second episode in a row that required a second viewing in order to truly understand it. Last week’s “Listen” spurred repeated viewings because it was making some fairly complex points about the characters. This week’s episode, we realized after the second hour, was simply confusing in that way that characterized the worst parts of season 7: extremely rushed character introductions and a setup that got introduced with a metric tonne of hand-waving, with lots of running and shouting and talking very, very fast in order to keep the viewer confused. To be honest, it was one of the things that ruined last season for us and we weren’t particularly overjoyed to see it now, since season 8 has been relatively light on that kind of stuff, going for a slightly darker and more contemplative Doctor, with stories that had enough meat to them that they didn’t require that kind of directorial sleight of hand. Is that harsh? Very well then. But if the story this episode had been told in a more straightforward manner and slowed down even for a second, the entire thing would have fallen apart very quickly, because the identity of the Architect would have been obvious from the second he opened his mouth. All the shouting and rapid cuts and loud noises were meant to distract from a script that was extremely straightforward in a lot of ways.

Having said that, it really is an enjoyable, if occasionally head-spinning hour, with a setup that could rightly be characterized as “irresistible.” The Doctor agrees to a memory wipe and engages in a classic heist story? We are so there; especially when the guest characters are really interesting AND they manage to remain alive through the entire story. Maybe this seems strange to say, but for our money, Psi and Saibra were the best parts of the entire story and we found ourselves imagining a version of this show where the 12th Doctor acts as a Xavier-like mentor to a small team of young adventurers, rather than one about an old man who hangs out with one pretty young girl and repeatedly attempts to interfere with her love life. Don’t get us wrong, we love Clara (a LOT more than we did last season) and the Coleman/Capaldi team has some pretty great chemistry going for it, but the two temporary cast members this episode gave the show a real shot in the arm and had the perhaps unintended effect of highlighting how played out the “Doctor + one pretty girl” setup has become in the modern era. Put another way: Capaldi comes alive when he has multiple people to play off of in a scene and is bouncing through multiple relationships (antagonizing Psi, encouraging Saibra, barking orders at Clara) as he gives one of his patented Doctor monologues. It’s interesting to note how competitive and antagonistic this Doctor is with men. He hated Robin Hood on site, spent this episode antagonizing the only male in the room other than himself and he clearly doesn’t like the idea of Clara dating (although we think there’s a larger story at play there and we suspect the Doctor knows more about Danny Pink than we do). That could be an interesting thing to explore with a male recurring character; the idea that the Doctor actually has issues with other men and works better with women. It certainly was a telling moment when the Doctor blurted out that he hated the Architect. His self-loathing has been mentioned before, but that line seemed like it could be a bit of foreshadowing, when you put it alongside his aggressive attitude toward other men and toward soldiers this season. It appears Danny will be on the TARDIS soon enough to explore these issues further, but we wouldn’t mind if Psi and Saibra became this Doctor’s version of the Paternoster gang, i.e., his intermittent companions.

Of course it helps that he’s cute and she’s fabulous. We’re shallow that way.

In other news, the modern Who era sure does have an issue with bitchy women in business suits, doesn’t it? Miss Delphox and Madam Karabraxos can take their place in the pantheon alongside Miss Kizlet from “The Bells of Saint John,” Madam Kovarian from most of Season 6, Matron Cofelia, the Adipose nanny, and probably several others we’re missing, going all the way back the farting Slitheen that impersonated the mayor of Cardiff in season one. This one can officially be declared a Who trope, much like, oh we don’t know …  characters running up and down the same short hallway set and pretending they’ve moved great distances.  They hilariously didn’t even bother trying to hide that this episode – and why should they? It’s worked for the first 50 years, after all. Although as much leeway as we’ll give them on the whole budget-saving aspect of it, for such an impenetrable bank, it sure did seem to have a lot of large ducts and conveniently placed vents, didn’t it?

There is one modern Who trope we’d like to see die for a little while; the “Twue Wove” ending. We had a feeling early on in the episode that the Teller (great monster, by the way) either had a mate or a child being held hostage by the bank and kinda hoped they wouldn’t go in that direction again, since they just did it in last season’s haunted house tale, “Hide,” and there’s just been way too many stories (in the Moffat era especially) where the love of a parent or the love of a spouse conquers all. We realize Doctor Who stories should have a sense of child-like wonder in their bones, but ultimately “love saves the day” or “the monster did it all for love” are pretty lazy ways to end a story.  Similarly, we found ourselves pretty bored with the “Don’t THINK!” part of this episode. Come on. We’ve done the “Don’t blink” and “Don’t breathe” episodes. This is just scraping the bottom of this particular trope’s barrel.

But we’re probably whining too much. It’s been known to happen. This was a fun, energetic episode, even if it did seem awfully familiar in a lot of ways. A scary monster, fun and interesting sidekicks, and lots of hallways to run up and down. What’s not to like?

[Picture Credit: BBC America]

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