Episode #256 : Time Heist

Psi: I still don't get why you're in charge.

The Doctor: Basically, it's the eyebrows.

Episode #256:      Time Heist.
Companions:        The 12th Doctor and Clara Oswald.

Air Date:              20th September 2014.

The Twelfth Doctor and Clara receive a mysterious phone call, and find themselves in a maximum security bank, memories wiped clean and two more recruited strangers to accompany them. Their mission: to rob from a bank that lives up to the reputation of impregnability, but will they be able to find out what they've been recruited to steal and why before they get captured?

Essentially, Time Heist is a take on the Hollywood heist movies like Oceans 11. This time it is taken further and the heroes must break into a science fiction bank with extreme defences including an alien creature, the Teller, which can detect guilt and liquefy brains. It is a very odd story and at first glance doesn't seen very Doctor like but as we all know it gets explained near the end.

I'm not especially fond of this one. In fact I think it is quite forgettable. I obviously remember it but unlike nearly every other episode I couldn't recall the details when re-watching it for this review. It wasn't good enough to be memorable. No classic references although it does feel like the sort of adventure the 6th Doctor might have found himself involved in so I guess there is some sort of throwback.

I suppose that it just isn't well put together. The characters that the companions meet are okay but are only there for the story and they have little to pull you in to them. The episode itself is a mixture if scenes that seem slotted together and the overall twist at the end isn't all that surprising even if you don't work it out. It isn't the worst or most boring episode I have ever seen but sadly Time Heist falls short of what I expect from modern Doctor Who.

Episode #255 : Listen

"What's that in the mirror? Or the corner of your eye?

What's that footstep following, but never passing by?

Perhaps they're all just waiting, perhaps when we're all dead,

Out they'll come a-slithering from underneath the bed."

Episode #255:      Listen.
Companions:        The 12th Doctor and Clara Oswald.


Air Date:              13th September 2014.

The Doctor has been pondering a question: have people ever been truly alone? Does something lurk unseen beside us all? With Clara at his side, the Time Lord will find himself delving into familiar pasts and eerie futures. Just where does the answer to the old man's unanswerable question lie? Will he find the answers he's been searching for, or will his quest cost him his life this time?

Listen is a bit of an unusual story as it isn't really an adventure in the traditional sense of the show. Despite first appearances there are no enemies or villains for the Doctor and Clara to defeat. Instead it is a mixture of showcasing Clara's growing relationship with Danny Pink and a strange jaunt through time with the Doctor having a rather overactive imagination one day.

It tries to be a horror story of sorts and although it doesn't actually play out that way, Listen is an amazingly well written and suspenseful episode. Definitely one of the best of recent years and of the 12th Doctor's era of the show. Very clever. However, even though I happily grant Listen a 5 star rating, it has it's issues. They just are not worthy enough to ruin the enjoyment of this episode. Primarily, as I say above, there is no real story to this episode. Our heroes bounce through time in search of whatever the Doctor thinks is lurking under the bed and it doesn't reveal anything other that a possible for future for the family of Clara and Danny. Also, we don't get any answers to anything put forward in this episode - what was at the door of Colonel Pink's time ship at the death of the universe? Who or what was under the bed sheet and what promoted this strange adventure in the first place? Listen is great but I prefer these sort of episodes to give us some sort of answers.

One very interesting scene in this episode was not expected at the time of viewing. The TARDIS takes the travellers back in time to Gallifrey to a certain barn we saw in The Day of the Doctor, which turns out to be the childhood home of the Doctor and we encounter him in his first incarnation as a small boy having nightmares about something under the bed. Clara has this nice little speech that I guess is meant to show her setting him up for his journeys and adventures. It doesn't add anything to the actual episode but it is a nice addition that fits in well with Clara being the Impossible Girl.

This is probably my favourite episode of the first 12th Doctor season. Well written, good dialogue and a perfect edge of your seat feeling that more episodes of Doctor Who should have.

Episode #254 : Robot of Sherwood

"You stop bad things happening every minute of every day. That sounds pretty heroic to me."

Episode #254:      Robot of Sherwood.
Companions:        The 12th Doctor and Clara Oswald.

Air Date:              6th September 2014.

Clara is offered the chance to choose the next destination for herself and the Twelfth Doctor. They go and meet the English folk hero Robin Hood, much to the Doctor's disbelief in the existence of someone who's supposed to be a mere folk story character. Travelling through Sherwood Forest in 1190, they soon realise that something is amiss, as the cruel Sheriff of Nottingham and his malevolent robot knights set in motion a plot that could rewrite the course of history for the worst.

Here we have another historical story with a science fiction twist - that of Robin Hood, robot knights and a spaceship disguised as a castle. Perfect Doctor Who material and in that respect the story does quite well. We can easily accept any historical inaccuracies by counts of the Doctor's interference. It even has a bit of a The Time Warrior vibe what with robot knights and all. 

However, the reason I give this episode a 2 star rating rather than the average 3 star that it probably deserves is down to the some of the dialogue. Quite frankly the constant bickering between the Doctor and Robin Hood gets on my nerves and ruins an otherwise good episode. The 12th Doctor can come across as mean and grouchy a lot of the time but in this episode, where it is obvious he dislikes being proven wrong about the existence of Robin Hood (even though in the real world we know he was based on various true accounts to create the legend), it seems taken too far. Maybe I'm just not getting it but it spoils the episode for me.

Robot of Sherwood, as I mentioned above, does carry some good classic elements. Sometimes the new era of the show seems to forget it's roots but here we have a good example of an episode that would have fitted in well as an episode of classic Who. Maybe because it does feel a bit like The Time Warrior, I could easily see the 3rd Doctor running around in this story and wouldn't feel out of place.

There is a brief mention of the Promised Land, as we have heard mentioned before, but it is a passing remark. Not every episode needs a large tie in to the series arching plot. 

Not one of the best of the 12th Doctor's adventures but the first series of a new Doctor always has a couple out of sorts stories where the actors and writers settle into the new character. After this, the rest of the first season gets better in my book.