Doctor Who Review: What did we think of ‘Extremis’?
Credit: BBC
So you’re probably reading this Friday morning and thinking that I am way behind the curve. Eh, you’re probably right, and if it were any other week, I would forget the review of the episode and go on to giving you news about the next one.
But not this week.
Because this week was Extremis.
This week, we began an adventure that could very well be part of Moffat’s last hurrah, and I can’t very well sit while everyone else talks about it! (I won’t.) So come with me while we talk anything and everything Extremis. Here, nothing is off limits.
The Acting
I think what we need to talk about most in the episode is the high quality acting that we saw throughout the episode. Everyone was on their A-Game, in a way that I don’t think we’ve seen, even in the highlights of this season.
Of course, Michelle Gomez was as enjoyable as ever, and she did a fantastic job in the few moments we saw her. She always seems to have the ability to stand out, even if she’s hardly in it. Even when she’s kneeling to be executed, somehow she still has the ability to stand out and make the scene memorable. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed during an execution, but I’m not gonna lie, I laughed.
The star of the episode was Matt Lucas. I’ve always been a fan of him, but this week he took the cake with his ability to take what at first was a two-dimensional character and turn him into, well, a badass. I don’t know if this was intentional, but when he was talking to Bill, it almost seemed as though River was coming through him. It almost made me think that River had somehow been planted in his Android-head. (Let me dream.)
Even if that isn’t true, the fact that we saw a different side of Nardole, faithful to River and serious in protecting those he cares about and she cared about, it was nice to see a new side to a background character.
Credit: BBC
The Storyline
The storyline was definitely thought provoking, to say the least. It almost made your skin run cold. Even though it paralleled Inception to an eery degree, Moffat was still able to take it and make it even more sinister. And scary. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to guess a number again and not think twice about it. I think we all, at some point or another, think about if we’re real if we’re actually in a book or another game of Sims, or what have you. Moffat was able to take that subconscious wondering and name it.
So now, how do we fix it? We know we’re in a “shadow world”, and we know that the Doctor isn’t, well, the Doctor. The Doctor’s still blind. Does this mean another reset arc like The Big Bang? I can’t imagine any other way. Although, I’ve been saying that a lot this season.
I also saw a very distinct comparison between the Monks and the Silence. Think about it, the Silence were the priests, the Monks are…monks. Do they have anything to do with the headless monks?
The Vault
Okay, so I was wrong. Aaagain. But the way that Moffat dealt with the vault brought back something that I think some of us had forgotten: the Doctor doesn’t kill. During Capaldi’s tenure as the Doctor, the show has been so focused on being dark and serious, I completely believed that he would kill Missy if he had to. Having him change the machine in order to just make Missy pass out was incredibly heartwarming. To be honest, it gave us a pause to remember the Doctor is good at his core, no matter how different he’s played.
Overall
Overall, it was a fantastic episode. I think Moffat doing a three part episode arc will take away some of the issues of past arcs where everything seemed too rushed. There are still questions to be asked and answered, and more to explore. But we’ll get to that. We have two more episodes to watch.
Next: BBC to give Doctor Who at least four more series!