By: Steven Moffat & Stephen Thompson
**Spoilers**
If you have not yet seen this episode, please go and do so before proceeding.
I was worried about this one. Stephen Thompson has, to date, only ever provided one coherent script for anything I have ever watched that he has worked on (The Reichenbach Fall from Sherlock) and Steven Moffat has left me less than pleased recently. I have come to the conclusion that he doesn't do well whenever he has too many irons in the fire and a whole series arc to try and pull together. Even Listen which is, in my humble opinion, some of his best work since Series 5 is - at its core - simply a rehash of old Moffat tropes. It works, but I think too many more of those and they're going to get old fast. Like the 'Don't ____' catchphrases. Come on, Moffat! 'Don't Blink' is a classic! 'Don't Listen' is a stretch. How about 'Don't Ruin It By Beating A Dead Horse'?
Needless to say, I went into this episode with VERY low expectations and came out with...a slightly better experience than I planned on?
Favorite Moments & Random Thoughts:
- Love the way The Doctor is still being deliberately obtuse about Clara's relationship with Danny.
- If that woman in the shop who gave The Doctor's number to Clara doesn't turn out to be some manifestation of River (or Donna Noble) I am going to be seriously angry.
- Okay, so like the return of the memory worm, but I'm beginning to have serious issues with Moffat's women. I've defended him in the past, saying that he can write decent female characters and I still stand by that. He can...it's just a question of if he will. Reinette Poisson? Very classy and cool. Sally Sparrow? Quietly determined and resourceful. River Song? Sassy and a lot of fun. Amy Pond? Fiery and loving. Clara Oswald? Ehhh...we're getting there. It's like watching a devolution! Moffat used to write wonderful, three-dimensional characters who may be there to serve The Doctor's story arc, but who had lives outside of their association with him. But now with these River/Madam Kovarian clones that have been cropping up (though, with all fairness, I think the Miss Whatsherface from this episode had a bit of Miss Foster in her too) I think I am going to have to start mourning Moffat's ability to write women and write them well. He seems to be trying to duplicate River and, with every attempt, only gets further away from what made her work and further towards the downsides of her character. I am disappointed!
- The Architect sounds like a Time Lord name...hmmmm...wonder who The Doctor hates so much?
- "Good day to be a bankrobber." There was something very...Sherlock about this episode. Not surprising, seeing as how both writers work on that show, but I'm still not sure if that was a help or a hindrance.
- That weird eye-stalk creature reminds me of a mix between the Judoon and the god from The God Complex.
- Ummm...even if your brain was turned into 'soup', as The Doctor terms it, your head still wouldn't collapse like that because your skull is in there to hold the juicy bits in place. That utterly ridiculous moment really took me out of the episode and left me laughing instead of feeling tension about our team being caught.
- I still want to know why The Doctor was so determined to rob the bank. I know that 12 is slightly more morally grey even than his predecessors, but what was the purpose of it? They had agreed, yeah, but they have no memory of doing so and now they have an opportunity to walk away. Why would he insist that they stay? And why were there no security cameras in that 'safe deposit' box?
- "Still don't understand why you're in charge." "Basically, it's the eyebrows."
- Why are Clara and that augmented dude taking time to have a heart-to-heart while the intruder alert went off? And how did they catch up with The Doctor so fast? And "Don't Think"? Seriously?!
- The shapeshifter girl is like a mixture of Rogue and Mystique. She even calls her abilities a 'mutant' gene. What are you saying there, writers? Her story took a surprisingly dark turn whenever The Teller locked onto her and The Doctor gave her their exit strategy. Were those supposed to be like cyanide pills? Gosh. Such a wasted potential of a character! I wanted to know more about her powers. Was she literally just there to be an easy 'in' to the bank? Talk about a plot device!
- Again. No security cameras anywhere in this highest-security bank. Why is it so hard to locate The Doctor & Co? Because the builders of this bank were STUPID!
- They should have worn gloves. They're leaving incriminating fingerprints everywhere.
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| Nice Torchwood reference, though. |
- Oh gosh. They just tried WAY too hard to make the 'deaths' emotional in this episode. It would have been easier to get teary-eyed if the people getting killed off were actual characters, not just there for the sake of the plot. What was the points of them, anyway? Even The Doctor wasn't concerned by their deaths. I have to say, though, whenever we found out they were still alive (despite the heroic music) it just felt like a cop-out.
- ENOUGH OF CHARACTERS WHO ARE THE LAST OF THEIR KIND! We KNOW that The Doctor is no longer the last of his, so STOP WITH THE COMPARISONS! That got old during the Davies era!
- "We're getting sanity judgement from the self-burner..."
- The climax in this episode was rather...meh. Not bad, not terrible, but trying a little bit too hard. And the reveal of the clones felt like an afterthought.
- Still, I did wonder if The Doctor would be more immune to The Teller than humans because he too is telepathic. Or maybe that made it worse? At any rate we got some nice references to past regenerations and a nice bit of tension as we waited to see whether or not that magnificent brain would be turned to mush.
- I could see the 'twist' about Madam Kovarianclone coming from a mile off, though, and as soon as The Doctor deduced that The Architect was from the future, I figured it was either The Doctor himself or The Master in disguise, so that was no surprise either. Am I the only one who is tired of the timey-wimey stories? Can't we have something like The Empty Child again? I think Moffat needs a reset. Especially since he recycled the 'monster love story twist' from the forgettable Hide.
In short, this episode is okay. Not great, not terrible, just okay. I don't think I'll ever go back and re-watch it, but it was an okay experience the first time around. The twist was rather predictable, the relationship with Danny - while comedic at The Doctor's expense - added nothing, and the side characters felt like filler. Hopefully next week will be better. I think Moffat needs a break. Time Heist is a 3/5.
What did you think? Do you agree with my rating? If not - what would you say differently?
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