Here's my review for both Time Heist and The Caretaker.
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Two weeks ago, I decided that I would do a weekly review of each airing episode of Doctor Who Series 8. One week in, I botched it up by never bothering to write a review for Time Heist. As a result, I figured that I might as well get back to the swing of things by doing a two-part review.
With the airing of Time Heist, I am reminded that Doctor Who is a show that is all about change. Companions come and go, the Doctor regenerates and the showrunners switch around into other projects. As a result, there are that many more fans out there that can love Doctor Who, because it’s ultimately an eclectic show.
Unfortunately, change does not please everyone. Sure, nothing can please everyone, but change often frightens people. It’s understandable. After all, the new Doctors and companions tend to take awhile for the general fanbase to accept and appreciate.
I point all of this out because the changes that we have seen thus far in Series 8 have all been things that I have absolutely adored. Peter Capaldi’s weekly performances as the darker and more alien Twelfth Doctor has been exactly what I wanted from the show. I think it says a lot that my previous Top 3 Doctors before Twelve were Four, Seven and Nine.
The first half of Series 8 has been comprised of a blend of old and new. Every episode has featured a veteran Who screenwriter, all working with a brand new and very different Doctor. Everything has been either a romp or a character piece. The villains, aside from Rusty, haven’t been very interesting at all. However we’ve gotten to see a lot from Twelve already and Clara has finally been properly established as a singular and definitive character, rather than being an all-encompassing idea (“The Impossible Girl”).
I loved episodes like Into the Dalek and Listen, because they embraced the best and most interesting elements of Capaldi’s Doctor. These are bold and thought-provoking episodes. After all of the silly romps and adventures we had with the Eleventh Doctor, this was a great change for me.
Time Heist, like Robot of Sherwood, is an incredibly basic romp. Ms. Delphox and the two other members to the Doctor and Clara’s team are simple characters. There isn’t much to see about them, though I will give them credit for being better fits to the Twelfth Doctor than the Paternoster Gang were in Deep Breath.
It’s rather odd to think about how average this episode feels, because Doctor Who hasn’t ever really had a full-on heist episode before. By all accounts, this episode should feel far more exciting and original than it did.
Someone pointed out to me that a mistake the episode makes is having the Doctor trick himself and the rest of the team, rather than it being about the Doctor and the team tricking security the entire way through. The tension of the episode is inward, rather than outward. This would work brilliantly in a horror or psychological thriller episode like Listen or Into the Dalek, but it feels incredibly flat here.
I will give credit to the episode’s direction. When Peter Capaldi described this episode as being a “cross between Ocean’s Eleven and 2001,” I figured the latter comparison would be more of a reference to the incredible cinematography featured. In that regard, I completely agree with Mr. Capaldi.
Of the episodes that comprised the first half of Series 8, the three I looked most forward to were Into the Dalek, Listen and The Caretaker. While all three were episodes that had veteran Who scribes to their credit, these were scribes that had a habit of making interesting and dynamic episodes for the show, unlike the generic scripts of Robot of Sherwood and Time Heist.
The Caretaker is a tricky episode to talk about, because it tries to be to Twelve what The Lodger was for the Eleventh Doctor, while also trying to set up the plot for the second half of Series 8. As a result, it leaves me with mixed feelings like Deep Breath did at the start of the season.
Don’t get me wrong, The Caretaker has plenty of hilarious moments. Gareth Roberts comes up with some very interesting and memorable jokes that are well delivered by the cast, whereas Mark Gatiss’s decidedly average script for Robot of Sherwood was elevated entirely by great acting. There’s something that I feel is far more rewarding and memorable in seeing the Doctor whistle Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” than the squabbling that comprised most of Robot of Sherwood.
As with Into the Dalek and Listen, The Caretaker is very much a character piece. We finally get a lot more to see from Danny, we see Clara’s struggle in attempting to prevent her three lives (personal-human, personal-Doctor and professional) come crashing together and we get a little bit of a better understanding how nasty Twelve can get.
The core problem with this episode is Danny and Clara’s relationship. I enjoyed watching the seeds of their romance being planted in Into the Dalek and Listen, but The Caretaker breaks the rule of “Show, don’t tell” in order to move their relationship into a more ‘serious’ position. If you pay close attention to Danny’s dialogue when he speaks to Courtney’s parents and cross-examine that with the dialogue said in Into the Dalek, you’ll learn that there has been a subtle year long time-skip somewhere in-between Listen and The Caretaker.
Presumably, this was all done in order to add credit to Clara’s declaration of love to Danny during the three-way argument between them and the Doctor that occurs in the middle of the episode. While it helps a little bit, it still doesn’t change the fact that this episode is forcing us to like Danny, as well as his relationship with Clara. We’re informed that they’re in love, rather than actually getting to see it for ourselves throughout the series thus far.
As stated before, The Caretaker gives us a bigger view into the darker parts of Twelve’s personality. He’s incredibly grumpy and more than a little bit manipulative. Not to mention his previously established disliking of soldiers, which results in some pretty big tension between him and Danny. Furthermore, we see how envious and jealous the Doctor is of Danny and his relationship with Clara.
The other weak point of the episode is the Mons- er, Robot of the Week. It’s just there. Sure, this episode isn’t supposed to be about the robot, but it felt like a waste of a really good design. Maybe next time!
With the first half of Series 8 out of the way, I now turn towards the second half with a great deal of excitement and eagerness. From what I understand, the final shifts into what will really define Peter Capaldi’s era as the Doctor will be made in next week’s episode, Kill the Moon, which is pinned by the first of three new writers, Peter Harness. I am eager to see how the new blood will influence the show and Capaldi’s run, especially since it is supposed to transition into a much darker and scarier direction, which is exactly what I love about Doctor Who.
Remember fellow Whovians: Change is a part of the show.
Time Heist: 7.5 out of 10
The Caretaker: 8 out of 10
Topic: Doctor Who v. Patrick Troughton (Read 116835 times)
