Doctor Who: “Oxygen” and “Extremis” Reviews (Series 10, Episode 5)

I thought “Oxygen was the best episode of Series 10 so far…until I watched “Extremis.”

Much like “Thin Ice,” the setting for “Oxygen” was a familiar one for Doctor Who: A space station under siege. But rather than being under siege by aliens, the astronauts aboard the station were instead being picked off, one by one, by their own AI-equipped spacesuits. Yep.

You know what else was unexpected for an adventure such as this? Themes about capitalism. Again, yep.

And yet, it all worked really well. What made me like the episode so much was that the threats were…well…threatening. At this point, everyone goes into a Doctor Who story with the knowledge that, in the end, the Doctor and the companion(s) will be OK (unless it’s “Earthshock”), and “Oxygen” didn’t exactly change that, but the Doctor and Bill weren’t bulletproof to what came their way. Bill almost died…TWICE…and the Doctor sacrificed his sight saving her the first time. By the time we got to the conclusion, with the Doctor getting everyone geared up to die so they could throw a wrench in capitalism’s schemes, I almost believed they’d all die. But then the Doctor uses capitalism against capitalism and everything’s fine. Classic.

Speaking of capitalism, I thought that the way the messages concerning it were integrated in a way that wasn’t as cringeworthy as you’d think it would. It didn’t stop to preach about why business is bad or anything, but there warnings about how ruthless and unsympathetic businesses can become if left unchecked. And that’s good sci-fi. Also, nice touch adding a debit card keyboard to those oxygen-purchasing computers.

“Extremis.” That was an amazing hour of television.

Things started out pretty straight-forward: An ancient, forbidden Vatican text, called the “Veritas,” has been translated, and all the translators have subsequently committed suicide. The Pope wants the Doctor, still blind from the events of last week, to read it and find out just what caused them to take their own lives, and you’d assume that our usual brand of Doctor Who hijinks would ensue, wouldn’t you?

In a way, they do. There’s the moments of intrigue, the introduction of new wrinkles to the mystery, the funny parts (badass Nardole and Bill and Penny’s reaction to the Pope were great), but as the story chugs along, things start becoming more and more eerie until…

…the revelation that none of what we’ve seen is real and it’s all part of a lifelike, alien-created simulation to help plan an invasion. Good night, everyone.

But seriously, we need to talk about that. The “everything was just a simulation.computer game” twist is an old one. The go-to one, even. But I think that, after all the detail and creativity Moffat put into the story and the mystery surrounding the Veritas…it felt earned. What didn’t feel earned was the idea to have the simulation Doctor e-mail his recording of events to the real Doctor. Besides the obvious plot hole (How can I completely simulated pair of sonic sunglasses send e-mails to the real world?), it just felt like a grand deus-ex machina. I would’ve rather had the Doctor go into next week’s conflict blind (Even though he already is, literally. ZING.), but that’s just one small problem in a sea of good things.

Next week, the Doctor faces off against the mysterious invaders. For real this time.

 

Noah