I’ve made it no secret that I’m no
fan of Stephen Thompson’s writing.
His first attempt, The Curse of the
Black Spot, is what I consider one of the worse episodes of the show
period, whereas 2013’s Journey to the
Centre of the TARDIS was the weakest of Series 7, and his work on Sherlock has been hit-and-miss in terms
of quality. Combine that with Steven
Moffat, who wrote the two worse episodes of this series so far, and you
have what should be the worst episode since 1984’s The Twin Dilemma. But surprisingly, the duo have managed to up
their capacity for story writing when together here. Granted, it’s far from
either of their best work, or even Moffat’s
old-school fare, but Time Heist was
at the very least watchable.
Let’s start off with Peter Capaldi, who since Deep Breath has been very enjoyable to
watch, as the titular Doctor. Here, whilst still doing a very good job, he
seems somewhat off, as he seems to have lost a bit of his mannerisms such as
his lack of care for his allies. He seems to have reverted back slightly to how
he was in Deep Breath: all Matt Smith-y. The writers seem to be
playing too much on the size of Capaldi’s
eyebrows too, losing the effect of the jokes made in Deep Breath but also the brief sighting in The Day of the Doctor. He didn’t feel very Twelfth Doctor-ish here.
As for Jenna Coleman as Clara, it’s
nice that she has a bit more of a backseat here like Into the Dalek. She has the right blend of focus and silence,
although it could be argued that she had no purpose aside from being distracted
from her date and giving Psi (Jonathan
Bailey) someone to talk about the Doctor to. Speaking about Psi and Saibra
(Pippa Bennent-Warner), they seem to
fall for sacrifice-reversal syndrome, although kudos for not bringing them back
to Missy like with the first two stories. Both are somewhat underused and their
inevitable deaths are overdone. Saibra’s special ability – a blend of X-Men
Rogue and Mystique – is used fully only twice, one of which to show off said
power, so is easily removable, whereas Psi is a bit like DC’s Cyborg but with unwilling
to follow orders (making no sense when the Architect is revealed).
As for the villainous Keeley Hawes…she wasn’t very
intimidating. She starts off just repeating the same malarkey of “oo my boss is
going to kill us if we don’t catch them”, and doesn’t get much chance to really
show off how evil she can be. Hawes has
proven herself to be a great actress in the past, so it’s just a pity that she
was reduced to a rather simplistic role (or should I say roles) as all-talk and
no-do. The Teller is interestingly designed, but barely scary as he lumbers
about incredibly slowly. It adds another Moffat
motif with “Don’t ____”, this time with thinking, which is too soon
following Listen and Deep Breath doing the same thing, but
again isn’t much of a threat when considered it’s only being forced to. As for
the mysterious Architect; incredibly predictable outcome. Another case of timey
wimey stuff.
Story-wise, it is probably the best
to come from Thompson in terms of Doctor Who, as the Doctor and co. have
to break into the universe’s most secure bank, which just so happens to have no
major security when actually in the bank. It’s played out in the style of Ocean’s Eleven, but there seems to be
very little exciting within it, despite the whole idea that it’s a bank heist.
Those tend to be interesting, but here it returns to corridor running; a staple
for Who, but unneeded for this
particular story. Plus, the twist about the caller was a bit of a copy for Inception – an old person filled with
regret is very much the role of Saito in the 2010 film.
Time Heist may be an improvement on Stephen Thompson’s part, and for Moffat following last week’s Listen,
but side characters and villains are lacklustre, with an unnecessary role for
Clara and Capaldi’s first off-day in
the role. The story was engaging enough, if not tiresome at times, but low on
humour and twists. 5/10.
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