Another ep about being stranded in space and poignant opening words from the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) about "Space: the final frontier, final because it wants to kill us, sometimes we forget that, start taking it all for granted, the suits, the ships, the little bubbles of safety as they protect us from the void but the void is always waiting..." Not at all like Star Trek, I say sarcastically, ha, but he lectures on the dos and don'ts of what you should do in space, as he draws a nice neat-ish skull on the blackboard! As if anyone but him is ever going to find themselves in space. But also cos he misses travelling. Perhaps one distress call he shouldn't have answered but of course as he said it's the distress call that shows how you react to it that shows your humanity. Well I paraphrased it quite a bit. This time Nardole (Matt Lucas) tags along cos he hasn't been doing much of anything lately, but also to remind the Doctor that he has to look after the vault since no one else can do it and he promised. Telling him he took out the fluid link from the TARDIS, however he's got the real one, so they can still travel. Reminding us too that the Doctor lies. Just incase you'd forgotten.
Another episode of course where they have to do a lot of running around on the space station outpost after everyone has been killed due to lack of oxygen in their suits and become walking zombies. Known as Chasm Forge, a copper mining community and as is explained by ?? they have a helluva lot of mining to do before they make any profit. Which should've sent warning bells sounding since they wouldn't be making much money and having 40 people there too. Thus a new commodity, oxygen. The life force of most every living creature on the planet and most definitely in space. Out of 40 people only 4 survived and he must find them since Bill (Pearl Mackie) and Nardole wanted to leave. Don't know why they feared being there, Bill and Nardole that is, not like they haven't been through anything worse than this. Though as a consequence of saving Bill, the Doctor suffers again. This time going blind, which he says is temporary. As her suit malfunctions quite a lot. Funny it should be hers and no one else's.
Some more references to discrimination and racism since the blue person, Dahh-Ren (Peter Caulfield) calls Bill a racist. Her replying she's the one who goes through it. Nardole adding "some of my best friends are blue-ish" in that typical 'I'm not a racist fashion, but I am really' people do! As well as Abby (Mimi Ndiwini) being rather uppity and not letting the Doctor do what he has to without questioning him. He was there to rescue them after all. Finding that the station is based on capitalism and money. Having to pay for the oxygen they use up. Then having their suits depleted of oxygen. As they run about from section to section, the Doctor demands to know what happened and needs a map of the station. Obviously they would be chased by the suits, again for money. Nardole saying he recognizes the voice of the Bill's suit as Emma, who is now Velma.
As the zombie chase ensues with the zombies after them to kill them, the Doctor realizes it wasn't about a hack or malfunction, the suits deliberately deprived the wearer of oxygen and the depleted oxygen was put back so that it could be sold off again. And as each section they escape to is by the zombies, they enter the air hatch but they need proper helmets to withstand the pressure outside, as they'll be exposed to the vaccuum of space. Obviously Bill's helmet can't be placed on her head (why was Bill a target? Just cos she got pot luck with that suit, the luck of the draw. But she also flashes back to her mother's photo from last ep.) As she can't move her arms. The Doctor and Nardole tell her not to breathe deep as she'll explode her lungs and as she begins to pass out, she comes too and is okay. Nardole telling her that the Doctor gave her his helmet, as he would and has suffered blindness as a consequence.
He has to struggle on as he always does and finally gets an idea, he plugs all five of them into the station supply, thus he explains they will die but it is better to die like this. As he tells Bill he has to leave her stranded with the zombies since her suit won't let her move and cos of the gravity she can't be carried. He tells them there's no rescue ship and the ship was dispatched before their distress call, which Ivan (Kieran Bew) confirms. Thus effectively it's their replacements that are being sent out now. More commodities for payment. Actually they were seen as organic and their suits telling them to "please remain calm whilst your central nervous system is disabled."
The Doctor tells the zombies they can't kill them otherwise the whole station will explode and it will cost them more to lose the station than it will to keep them alive. So the zombies give them their own oxygen and Bill didn't die really. He soldiered on with "no TARDIS, Sonic screwdriver, ten minutes of oxygen left and now I'm blind." The Sonic being bent out of shape when the zombie got hold of it and it clung to him. And the TARDIS being on the other side of the airlock, as it would be. He drops Abby and Ivan off at head office since they're going to complain.
He tells Nardole he can't see and the TARDIS couldn't fix his eyesight. But what of his guarding the vault now. (Yes sneak peak of Missy at the end!!) As Nardole is worried whatever's in there will pick up on his disability. Probably seeing (sorry) he's not strong enough to control it. Does this signal the start of his regeneration since his eyes are damaged. Or is it more a reflection on his inability to regenerate with his eyes not being restored.
Written by Jamie Mathieson, who also wrote the excellent eps, Mummy On The Orient Express, Flatline and The Girl Who Died. But my fave one was the mummy ep and this was similar in many ways as the Mummy on the train. As for the Star Trek references, there's also another cool part where the Doctor and Nardole speak of how the doors should sound when they open and Nardole refers to the "shuck, shuck" just like Enterprise! But the Doctor prefers the 'whoosing'. Nardole also admitting he does have a criminal past as he was on the run with his girlfriend, Emma and he got his 'new face' too.
Impressive speeches by the Doctor about "the end point of capitalism" and how this is it. "A bottom line where a human life has no value at all. We're fighting an algorithm, a spreadsheet...we're fighting the suits" Since that was a not so subtle reference, well metaphor, to corporations rather than the spacesuits. He said similar last ep about humanity and seems to be quite a theme this series.
Next ep reminds me Silence In the lIbaray what with River's journal, Missy too and the vast amount of books in the Vatican. How will the Doctor fare without his sight?
No comments:
Post a Comment