Doctor Who Season 10 episode 6

[eve11]

"Memories are so much worse in the dark."

So it's Missy in the vault, but this raises so many more questions. Why was she being executed? Why did the Doctor agree? How did she get captured? Who is holding him to the oath? etc. I mean, some of it could be a sense of duty. We did see him go through that dilemma at the end of Peter Capaldi's first season, and decide to pull the trigger on her then. But now he can't, so something has changed. He's lost more people now. Clara. River. He's stuck on Earth but adrift. (btw, some are saying Missy's been in the vault only 70 years or so, but actually we have no idea how long it's been; we only know that the Doctor has been at the University with the vault that long).

He has always felt a responsibility for the Master. One can certainly see him feeling the obligation to make sure Missy doesn't escape after he doesn't actually kill her, so the oath he's keeping may just be his own.

What's interesting though, is this turnaround from how Nardole sees the vault and its occupant, and how the Doctor does. Because the Doctor doesn't want anyone to know he's blind (this apparently includes both friends and enemies), but the first person he tells is Missy. Unless she can't hear him through the vault but it seems from "Knock Knock" that she can. Last episode Nardole was berating the Doctor for possibly getting sick or injured and reminding him that "their friend" down there would know, and presumably would prey on that weakness. The Doctor doesn't seem to have any misgivings about telling her now. But then again, he is awfully, awfully alone at this point. Missy is the one link he has to his past, and he can't bear to not treat her like a friend no matter how inevitable the betrayal will be at the end.

So now we have the Doctor, who has stayed put for a pretty long time now, guarding the vault, already missing his old life, adventures, space, and already feeling conflicted about his choices and plagued by the memory of what he had to do (there is so much sadness in the words of the oath he says after he pulls the lever, it's astonishing), now blind on top of all of that and fighting the memories and regrets in the darkness. First 4.5 billion years of torment in order to save and then forget his best friend, now this. Twelve is not having an easy go of things.

So, that was a lot to say about the first minute or so of this episode, but it sets the scene for this particular crucible. Which as it turns out is just a dry run of the crucible for a simulation that is not the Doctor at all, except in every way it matters. So I have a few nitpicks about the episode--but overall the plot picks are far outweighed by the theme. I am always one to sacrifice plot for the sake of the theme; stories are much better that way than the reverse, and it is very difficult to make both work at the same time, especially if you're working in 55-minute television increments.

I will likely have more to say about it later--like how much I loved the scenes with the CERN scientist, how much I loved Peter Capaldi in the whole episode but especially the end, and a few plot nitpicks that I will bring up despite my willingness to hand wave them away. For now I'll just say that I really want to see next week's episode.

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

Helloooo!!! *waves*

I also very much enjoyed Extremis, although I clearly don't have quite as much to say. :-) But I do have a Bill icon!

[eve11]

Ha I have another whole post about this episode too. I have been posting the past few weeks on LJ about the new episodes; I figured I'd cross-post them over here. I should probably do another mass import of my journal, and write and crosspost from DW to LJ. But I am very set in my ways.

[thisbluespirit]

Hee, well, 'tis only a website and a hobby in the end, you've got to do what works for you. Cross-posting is at least pretty simple, though, if you do get around to trying it. (Even I didn't have a problem with it so it must be!)

I think the last two eps have been pretty divisive, but I'm definitely in the crowd that loved Extremis. I didn't have major problems with this week's (we'll see how it all pans out in the end), but I didn't watch it till just now and it's always funny to see everybody posting such extreme opposite reactions when you don't know what's caused it! (I should have guessed it was Peter Harness again - that's the Kill the Moon and the Zygon two-parter guy. Heh.)

[eve11]

This week's was a bit of a mess in my estimate. I was pretty critical of it in my review, but I still watched it several times and was entertained by what it was. I just was under no delusions that it held together at all. I'm hoping next week is better.

[thisbluespirit]

It has Missy in it! It must be!

[clocketpatch]

Good to see you over here! (though I hope you're not here due to your lj being deleted. Apparently quite a few have vanished over the past few weeks. Something about a script developed to route out spam bots that got a bit too ambitious).

I'm also wondering what's holding the Doctor to his oath and who called for Missy's execution in the first place. And wanting to give Twelve a hug, because he's been having a really hard time of it.

[eve11]

No, my lj was not deleted, thank goodness! I just figured since I had some fannish things to say the past few weeks, I'd post them here as well. I guess I really should start cross-posting from dreamwidth. I need to somehow set up an RSS feed or something that will consolidate both DW and LJ flists into one thing I can check. I am very set in my ways.

But, hey, hello, it is good to hear from you!

Also hey hey, I did not know that you were posting so much recently! I guess I really should come over here more often. I'm all caught up now, glad to see you are doing well, love the con pictures, and agree with you on your thoughts regarding Extremis, especially I feel like I would dress up in a chicken suit and go out to the bar, or something equally wild. If everyone decided to just stay home and paint, wouldn’t that be just as good at wrecking the alien datasets?