TV Review: Doctor Who Series 10 Episode Five - "Oxygen"

"You Sent Out A Distress Call, You Should Be Expecting Company..."

When half of the population of the UK tuned into BBC One last night to get ready for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, they probably would have witnessed a concluding scene of this week's Doctor Who which left our time travelling hero in a state which can only be regarded as less than desired after a 45 minute science fiction spectacle which mixed in elements of horror, capitalism and a very rare sense of unapologetic threat which put our leading heroes in one of the toughest situations of the series so far. With (SPOILERS INCOMING) our beloved Time Lord suffering from the effects of being exposed to the vacuum of space in order to save Bill from a similar or even worse fate, "Oxygen", written by Jamie Mathieson, the creative mind behind two of Series 8's best episodes in the form of "Flatline" and "Mummy on the Orient Express", served up the most thrilling story yet, placing our leading trio within the confines of a claustrophobic future space station where the crew have been replaced with a literal incarnation of the walking dead and the oxygen levels are determined by wealth rather than the importance of the human life. Cue a distress beacon and an eagerly excited Doctor, "Oxygen" proves that Mr. Mathieson is one of the leading writers of the moment when it comes to contemporary Who.

Directed by Who veteran Charles Palmer, "Oxygen" is arguably the most beautifully shot episode of the series so far, with the set design and outside shots of space a real positive of the episode, highlighting how far Doctor Who has come since the days of rubber Sea Devils and hokey dinosaur special effects. Whilst not directly the main villains of the episode, the scenes in which our heroes are being stalked by the deceased corpse's of the station's previous occupants is eerily effective, taking cues from previous Who episodes such as Series 9's "Under the Lake" and "Sleep No More" whilst the narrative structure of the Doctor being trapped aboard a lonely vessel is a blueprint of which many of the classic Who tales are wholly indebted to, particularly "The Ark in Space" and one of my personal classic serials in the form of "The Caves of Androzani". When the concluding twist does arrive, the notion of the Doctor's blindness is an interesting development, particularly with the upcoming regeneration not exactly far off, and in a similar vein to Peter Davison's regeneration within his final story, Capaldi's incarnation could be set for a slow burning regeneration within a series which continues to impress.

Overall Score: 8/10  

TV Review: Doctor Who Series Nine Episode Six "The Woman Who Lived"

"You'll Have To Remind Me, What's Sorrow Like?"

If last week's episode of Doctor Who attempted to cram in as much craziness as humanly possible, with electric eels, spider mines, testosterone craving alien race, and of course, Arya Stark, then this week's concluding half of the story of Ashildr, was much more composed and carefully designed to focus on the possibility of immortality from someone else's point of view, rather than that of the wandering Time Lord who seems all too secure with the notion that he may just carry on travelling around the galaxy for eternity. What "The Woman Who Lived" attempted to embrace was the notion that immortality and the chance to live throughout Earth's long and arduous history is in fact a terrifying nightmare, with young Ashildr, played tremendously once again by Game of Thrones' Maisie Williams, facing the fact that all her gift brings her is heartbreak and pain. Kudos must surely go to not only the writers and the actors, but the general distributors of this particular episode in the form of the BBC who even though are continued to be getting a hard time in the press, continue their argument for success with the balls out approach in releasing an episode of Doctor Who that wasn't all spaceships and mud monsters and instead focused on the coldness of loss and the painful nature of death.

Such a notion of death and loss was clearly emphasised to reach out to the impending departure of Jenna Coleman as long-serving assistant Clara Oswald, who even though only showed up in the last few minutes of this week's episode, had just enough screen-time to emphasise that her bubbly demeanor and classy Blackpudlian accent will well and truly be missed by everyone, particularly The Doctor himself, who ended the episode staring at our beloved companion with a sense of sadness in the knowledge that he well and truly knew the answer to Ashildr's question of how many Clara's had been lost throughout the Doctors' own long lifespan. Ultimately, the slight reservations of the episode was when it duly swerved off course from the deep characterisation study and then remembered it was in fact a science-fiction show, resulting in a concluding act that felt rather rushed and wholly out of place for an episode in which the first half was truly something rather genius in retrospect and different from the usual swing of Doctor Who, something of which we look like getting more of next week with the return of the Zygons. Solid Who once again, this season is one to keep an eye on.

Overall Score: 8/10

TV Review: Doctor Who Series Nine Episode Five "The Girl Who Died"

"Immortality Means Watching Everyone Else Die..."

Five weeks into this latest series of Doctor Who and it is fair to say that this week's episode, written two-fold by both chief writer Steven Moffat and Jamie Mathieson, the mastermind behind two of last series' best episodes in "Mummy On The Orient Express" and "Flatline", is completely bonkers. Not only are we rushed straight between space, spider mines, and Vikings within the space of five minutes, but "The Girl Who Died" also featured not one, but two fake reincarnations of Odin, with the latter screaming an oath to Valhalla in a similar vein to the War Boys in Mad Max: Fury Road, an alien battle fleet known as the Mire, and Game of Thrones' Maisie Williams as the mysterious Ashildr, who although carried speculation of being someone of vital importance to the Doctor such as Susan Foreman or someone of similar familiarity, simply was in the end, a Viking girl, albeit a rather extraordinary one who is set to feature quite a bit in the concluding part next week.

In the midst of all this complete and utter mayhem, which although was pretty darn fun from the outset, resulted in a overly flashy, if rather underdeveloped episode in terms of certain aspects such as character development and plot threads (I mean is it just me, or did the reasoning behind the creation of the massive eel thing seem rather brushed over?), is the performance from Peter Capaldi who once again showed the flawless nature in which he can divert his incarnation of the travelling time lord from the humorous, sarcastic stick insect, to the snarling, emotion-riddled old alien that he is, with the speeches in which he explains the curse of immortality and the realisation of why his face is something in which is overly familiar, a real standout of the episode. As for immortality, this week's cliffhanger showed how such may have affected one young viking girl in particular with next week once again setting up a whole new range of questions that need to be adequately answered. Man, I'm glad these two-parters are back.

Overall Score: 8/10