The beauty of Doctor Who, the thing that's kept it going for half a century in one form or another, is that it goes with just about anything. Doctor Who is a genre in and of itself, and the really creative writers know how to mash it up well with other genres and tropes. Doctor Who meets Robin Hood? We did it two weeks ago. Doctor Who meets a Western? We did that. Twice, in fact. This week's high concept pitch is "Doctor Who does a bank heist". On paper, it's exciting. The fun part of seeing Doctor Who interact with these established scenarios is to see how the usual tropes play out with the Doctor, and eventually get subverted by his usual cleverness. Bank heists in film and television always require lots of plotting and co-ordination between the involved parties in order to outwit the people in charge, and who doesn't want to see the Doctor do that? Canonically he's a bit of a thief and an anarchist, running off with his own time and space machine all those years ago. As for being willing to pull off a bank heist, well... It's still too early to tell if the 12th Doctor is an appropriate incarnation for that. I could see the 2nd or 7th Doctors in a bank heist scenario, easily; the 2nd being a symbol of the 60's counter-culture and rising up against authority, and the 7th being a master plotter who's always one step ahead of everyone (sometimes even himself). Of course, this is hardly an ordinary bank heist.This is a time heist.
The motive for the Doctor going off to casually commit crime is an interesting one, in that neither he nor the audience know it until the climax of the episode. See, the bank of Karabraxos is the supposed "greatest bank in the galaxy" with numerous security defenses that do horrible things to intruders... one of them being a "guilt detector" (more on that in a bit). In order to break into the bank, they can't know too much about what they're doing. Therefore, we open the episode with the Doctor and Clara, along with their two accomplices, having their memories wiped and receiving a video message from the mysterious "Architect" telling them to go rob the bank. They have no idea what they need to steal, but they have no real choice but to go through with the plan. The Doctor has to pull double duty here; not only does he have to rob the most secure bank in the galaxy, but he has to actually figure out how to do it on the fly... as well as try to figure out why in the hell he agreed to rob the bank in the first place. We keep up the trend of "the Doctor doesn't know everything" and amplify it even more in this episode; he's just as lost and confused as his three co-conspirators, but he has enough skill to take charge of the situation and lead them deep into the bank. And eyebrows. Attack eyebrows.
As for his criminal buddies, we've got two new faces; an augmented human named Psi and a mutant named Saibra. Again, they're interesting concepts on paper; Psi has computer chips attached to his head, can delete his own memories as he sees fit, and download information from terminals in the bank. Saibra is sort of a fusion of Rogue and Mystique from the X-Men; whoever she comes into physical contact with, she transforms herself into for as long as she likes... but the transformation is involuntary so it's a burden on her. With the many DNA scanners in the bank, Saibra and her unique ability allow the group access to begin with. Psi's mechanical mind allows him to do useful things like tap into the bank's security system and try to open up the vault. That leaves Clara, who... doesn't do much of anything in this episode. It's a damn shame, considering how essential she's been to resolving the plots of the previous four. She bought time with the half-faced man and got him to reveal his plot, plugged in the proper nodes inside Rusty the Dalek to reawaken his memories, got information out of the Sheriff of Nottingham, and calmed scared children down after nightmares. Here? The best she manages to do is apologize for the Doctor and chat with Psi. It's unfortunate. At least the whole dress jacket and white shirt with loose tie thing she's got going make her look like a stylish bank robber.
The Bank of Karabraxos's staff are some big rich future jerks. We have the brains behind security at the bank, Miss Delphox. Your standard amoral businesswoman who gets the job done... but what an enforcer she has. The bank isn't just the most secure because of its DNA scanners and alarm systems. It's got the perfect "guilt detector"; a creature known only as The Teller that Miss Delphox keeps in her employ. The design of the thing is really damn cool, and it's another Doctor Who monster that follows rules. It detects guilty thoughts in your head and feeds on them. You can delay it by trying not to think, but you can't not think forever, and that's when it gets you. And by "gets you" I mean it liquifies your brain and leaves you as a walking husk with half your head caved in like a spoon. We see this happen to an unfortunate would-be crook early on, and it's not a pretty sight. Worse yet, the bank keeps the brain-dead people locked up and on constant camera display as a reminder to the employees or something. Make no mistake, these people aren't nice at all. Especially the Director. It's difficult to talk much about the Director as that deals with the final act. I don't like spoiling the outcome of the episodes right away, so for now let's just say that the Director is part of the reason why the heist happens in the first place.All in all, this episode gets a pass. It's not an outright classic, but it's a servicable bit of fun. The concept is entertaining and its memory wipe twist leaves the audience guessing along with the characters. Capaldi gets off some great dialogue; I'm thinking of the bit near the end where he works out who the Architect is and keeps telling everyone to shut up. Very Malcolm Tucker. Cinematography wise, the corridors of the bank are lit in different colors as we go deeper into the bank, and it sets a mood... along with some odd scene transitions and "mental" scenes when the Teller is scanning people's minds for guilt. There are a few "plot hole" questions that a dedicated nitpicker could ask (like how the Architect got those briefcases full of things into the bank for the Doctor and friends in the first place), but with a show like this one needs to follow the MST3K treatment, turn off their brain, and try to relax.
Next week: Looks to be an episode focusing on Clara's double life of running around in the TARDIS and dating Danny Pink. Also the Doctor becomes a caretaker at their school and there's a monster. It could be good. I hope it's good.
AND NOW WHAT I THINK... NOW
(As always, spoilers are below. Beware!)
I don't think I have very much to add this time. Time Heist is an episode that improves on exactly one rewatch, and that's because on a second viewing you know that the Doctor is the Architect and he's been playing himself the entire time. That's a very McCoy-era twist; the only one smart enough to outplot the Doctor is his own future self. I think that actually happened at some point in the McCoy era. There's almost an "everybody lives" moment in here until you realize that A) a bunch of people got their brains fucking liquified by the Teller and B) the brain-dead prisoners probably then all burned to death when the solar storm destroyed the bank. What a fun show this is! I guess while I'm here I could echo Phil Sandifer about the leaked version of Time Heist. Supposedly it's better in black and white because for the second half of the episode all they did was shoot the same hallway with different lighting. I haven't seen the Marcelo Carmago leaked episode, but now I kind of want to in order to see how it holds up to the color version. Then again, I'm a sucker for mood lighting and I did kind of dig the mood lighting here in Time Heist. Boy, it really is disappointing that Clara is a fourth wheel in this episode, huh? The Doctor is a clever man in charge, Psi has hacking, Saibra gets them in there in the first place... and all Clara does is ask questions and talk to side characters. It's a real drag, but she is dressed in absolute style. One last thing, though. The mirror/reflection theme sort of came back! Saibra mentions how her shapeshifting curse makes anyone she touches have to look back into their own eyes... like a mirror! Director Karabraxos employs her own clones because she only trusts herself. Mirror images! Even the Doctor is revealed to be the Architect, and after 35 minutes of throwing shade at the asshole who set him up with this bank heist, he realizes that the Architect is him. Like looking into a goddamn mirror! Holy shit, I really hope this theme keeps coming back because it gives me more stuff to talk about. That's Time Heist. It's a fun way to spend 45 minutes, but it doesn't set the Doctor Who world on fire. The show is full of okay episodes like this. Hey, at least it isn't a stinker.
Next time: Gareth Roberts! Woooooo!
The reveal that Karabraxos worked for me. The reveal that the Doctor was the Architect was so incredibly obvious basically from the first scene that I was just annoyed that they insisted on pretending it was going to be a surprise of any sort.
ReplyDeletethat Karabraxos had hired them rather.
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