Doctor Who: Series 10 Episode 6 - Extremis
Everyone who has ever read the Vertias has been found dead. In a library at the heart of the Vatican, the pope urges the Doctor to read the ancient text.
I should start off this week's review with an apology, I should have written this review yesterday but unfortunately, I fell very busy, hence why this review has been a few days delayed.
However, I re-watched the episode on Monday morning and everything is refreshed in my brain. It's probably the only episode so far this series I have actually watched more than once. But the reason for me wanting to watch it again was there were some bits I missed, not everything made sense, the episode was a bit hard to follow and I just wanted to make sense of everything as best I could in order to give the best review.
On first thoughts, it wasn't as good as last week's episode, but it is one of Steven Moffatt's better stories, that has to given merit for being at least that. However, there are still a lot of things which I'm left confused about as to what actually happened in this one, and the crossover between alternate scenes, and going back and forth between different scenes didn't help that. I can sort of understand why it was there in order to raise tension and suspense but to me, it came across as being distracting.
I did like the surprise cliffhanger at the end of last week which lead into this week, it's something which has never been addressed in Doctor Who before and causes a major problem, the Doctor is blind and therefore has to wear the sonic shades in order to give him some aspect of vision, this makes things in the episode all the more difficult for him, and I liked the way the episode started.
In terms of structure, this episode is not necessarily all over the place, it's just a bit out of sync with the rest of the main plot. The parts with Missy, although they were interesting to see, to go back and forth and have it so part and parcel helpings every now and again didn't do the story any favors. Stories should just be structured simply with a beginning, a middle and an end, but of course, I understand it doesn't necessarily have to be in that order. I think for me, I just found it hard to concentrate on watching it because I didn't know what to be paying attention to.
This story is not so much in it's simplest forms an easy one to just watch and sit back relax and enjoy. It's very much one of those episodes in which in order to enjoy it, you have to be in the right frame of mind to actually sit down and watch it and concentrate on it. And I was trying to do this and the more I was trying to keep interest, the more I lost interest, and part way through I just lost all interest because the amount of effort that was needed for me to concentrate on this one episode and everything that was happening, just proved a bit too much for me to handle, so I kind of dipped in and out and I got the premise of what was going on. I did enjoy it, and I was very impressed with various ideas that came in the story. For instance, I liked all the stuff with the monks and I think they look very effective, very creepy and mysterious. But will probably end up being another one of Moffatt's one-offs like the Whisper men.
Suicide and Catholicism, that's an interesting subject for a Doctor Who going out at 7:20pm on a Saturday night. I found it interesting that the Vatican appeals to the Doctor, the most hardline Christian community on the planet appeals to a character who completely disproves religion, it's one of those moments where I look it a bit puzzled and think 'huh, that's interesting'.
It was good to see Michelle Gomez back as Missy, glad to see Missy back as she's not going to be around after Capaldi leaves as Gomez has confirmed she's leaving when Capaldi leaves, it's been two years since Missy was on screen, the last we saw her was "The Witch's Familiar" so it's been a while. I didn't understand why she was being executed.
I didn't really like Bill that much in this episode, or Nardole, or indeed the Doctor. I didn't fully understand what the Doctor's purpose was in being in the episode. He can't really do much, being out of action and being blind, what did Bill do in this? and Nardole I can recall making the occasional joke but that's really all there is I can think of.
All the stuff with the computer and the random numbers, that was a clever idea, very cleverly portrayed and explained and worked into the story. I guess with this being part of a three part story, Moffatt doesn't want to give too much away just yet, I mean, we are half way through the series now and here we are slap bang in the middle of a mid-series three parter, enough has been told but not much kind of thing.
All I can say is, it'll be interesting to see where the story goes from here.
I'll give it a 7/10 because it was a good episode, if not a bit of a brain buster. I won't give it any higher than that. I wanted to give it six but thought, no, it was a good episode, best to give it seven and be done with it.
I don't know what to say about next week's episode, I'll just have to see what that comes of it.
