Doctor Who Review
The Return of Doctor Mysterio
2016 Christmas Special
Warning: This review contains spoilers.
Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all made rather Merry yesterday and that you had lots of nice food and drink. Did you watch any good TV? I didn't. I missed the Doctor Who Christmas special when it was broadcast, I've just watched it this morning.
So, after a year of no Doctor Who, we get this... "The Return of Doctor Mysterio" from what the description says on the BBC Iplayer it's "an epic New York adventure, the Doctor and Nardole link up with a reporter and a masked superhero. Can the Doctor save Manhattan from aliens?" So it's a story which is set in new york and has a superhero in it as well as an invasion of earth subplot added into it.
I think the thing with where Steven Moffatt was going with idea was that he wanted to do a Christmas special which wasn't heavily Christmas themed, there are a few Christmas references to this but not many. And that at Christmas time, there's always a superhero movie on, which is true. I think maybe even last Christmas The Avengers was on. Moffatt has always loved Superheros and he wanted to combine two of his favourite things by putting a superhero in Doctor Who.
Superheroes in Doctor Who... I'm not sure how comfortable I feel about that. And there were lots of links with The Ghost and Superman. The Ghost is a mysterious vigilante who is like Superman with the fact that he looks pretty ordinary and has the same powers as Superman, and Lucy is basically Lois Lane with the fact that she's a reporter.
I didn't care much for the story, partly due to a massive chunk of it was ruined for me by an interview Steven Moffatt gave to the Radio Times, which basically told me the Ghost is a child which the doctor helps and gives him super powers. I would have rather that had been told to me through the story telling.
As a story there didn't really seem that much to go on to be perfectly honest, I'll start off with the bits I did actually like about it first, I liked all the stuff with the ghost in the fact that I liked his outfit, how he moved and how he interacted with The Doctor and stuff like that. The cinematography was good too. I liked Peter Capaldi's performance as the Doctor, I liked how the episode started with it looking like a comic book and then the camera widens into a wide shot of New York, and certain establishing shots were good.
That was the stuff I liked, everything else I didn't like. I didn't like Lucy. I don't think there was much in her as a character, Nardole was annoying and I hated his little speech he gave at the end and how he'll be there to look after the doctor, there's me thinking we've seen the last of him and now I am stuck with him. The aliens or the monsters in this though they looked a little sinister, they reminded me of those brains in jars from the Keys of Marinus. I don't like the fact it was set in New York because that meant it would have annoying Americans in it. which it did. Tomiwa Edun's acting has to be one of the most dire performances I have ever seen in a Doctor Who episode. I think for me, I just didn't like this whole idea enough, I didn't like the invasion of earth subplot too much, the humor in it was not to my taste. There was a bit at the end where things just felt to me a bit unsolved because UNIT come in to close of the main headquarters to the aliens and one of the soldiers turns around to reveal that his head has been cut open.
No, this just wasn't really my kind of story which is a shame because I do love Doctor Who and I feel that the show has lost its way and it doesn't excite me as much anymore as it used to. I don't think much for series 10 either. Things are not looking to good at the moment. I'll give this 2/10.
