Doctor Who Series 10 Episode 6 - Extremis - Review

Starring: Peter Capaldi, Pearl Mackie, Matt Lucas & Michelle Gomez

Written By: Steven Moffat

Directed By: Daniel Nettheim

The run-up to Extremis has been full of curiosity and intrigue. The title, Extremis, meaning “in the farthest reaches” didn't give much away, and neither did Steven Moffat, who just said that this would apparently be another episode that played around with what the show can explore. All we did really know was that the Doctor would still have to deal with losing his vision, that the Pope would be making an appearance, and that this episode would mark the start of a loosely-connected trilogy of stories featuring “the Monks”. So, was the final pay-off worth all the mystery?

 

The Doctor, still blind from the events of Chasm Forge, is visited at the university by the Pope and other cardinals from the Vatican. The Church calls upon the Doctor for help in dealing with a recently translated text that's been leaked online and comes from the Vatican's secret library – the Haereticum of forbidden knowledge. The text is called the Veritas, and the words found within its pages causes every one of its readers to commit suicide within twenty-four hours. The Pope asks the Doctor to uncover the dark secret of the Veritas, and to find out what could be so terrible in a book that could cause so many people to kill themselves...

 

Extremis quickly finds itself a firm foothold from which to hook its audience in with the Veritas. A mysterious book, with a title that translates as “truth”, and that drives its readers to suicide, is such a simple yet incredibly engaging plot device to centre an episode around. Steven Moffat then builds on this premise to provide a good, proper mystery story. There's very few loose threads, self-gratuitousness or it being overly long and drawn out, as plenty of his mystery stories have shown in the past. Instead, it's got focus and hands you clues and pieces of the puzzle at a decent rate until a satisfying pay-off comes along at the end of the episode. (Skip ahead now to the next paragraph to avoid spoilers!) That twist ending of the simulated Doctor sending the recorded message to his real self works really well, and holds up on re-watches. I also appreciated the attention to detail in that the static transition used to take us out of the simulation and back to the real world, is the same one used earlier in the episode to take us into the simulation. It's admirable that Extremis is able to tell a compelling mystery story, whilst also exploring some surprisingly deep and philosophical ideas about what constitutes reality. When Extremis was originally broadcast, I was preparing to sit my Philosophy A-Level exam, and the most interesting things on that paper were exactly the kind of ideas Extremis plays around with. While I personally doubt we'll ever find a definitive answer, I find ideas and theories on the nature of reality pretty interesting, and simulation theories have become increasingly popular in recent years. I was wondering how far Steven Moffat was going to integrate this idea into the Whoniverse. Was he about to say that the past fifty-four years of Doctor Who have all been a simulation? I've learnt not to put anything past him after Hell Bent, so who knows?

 

However, what's even better about these ideas is that they're made to feel grand and significant in scale. I remember hearing someone compare Extremis' use of religion, philosophy and conspiracy theories to 2006's The Da Vinci Code, and while Extremis is something far better, it's not a bad comparison to make. There's a sense of importance made possible thanks to the great variety of locations in this episode. From CERN in Switzerland, to the Pentagon and White House in America, to the secret library of the Vatican, the episode borders on being its own mini global adventure. The noticeable presence of religion, and specifically the Pope, was also handled with care and respect. You wouldn't perhaps expect the Church to call on the Doctor for help, but in the context here, it makes sense and the episode never insults any of its religious viewers. They even manage to create what is possibly the funniest moment of the series so far with the help of the Pope. The moment where he walks in on Bill's flat whilst she's on a date is honestly one of the best jokes from Steven Moffat's time on the show.

 

We're also introduced to the Monks, who'll be with us for the next couple of weeks in a trilogy of loosely-connected stories. While they are definitely in need of more development in the coming weeks, for now they're off to a reasonably solid start. They do feel somewhat recycled from previous villains, with their plan being a bit too similar to that of the Silence. Their design, while very well realized, is also reminiscent of both the Silence and the Sibylline High Priestess from The Fires Of Pompeii. However, if the Monks are as powerful as they're made out to be, then now is a good time in the series to introduce them. Pitting a blind, weakened Doctor against such a powerful enemy is a great move, and it results in some genuinely scary scenes of the Doctor struggling to navigate his way out of the Haereticum with the Monks in pursuit. Just as he did last week, Peter Capaldi continues to play a blinded Doctor convincingly and appropriately, and his blindness does for the first time give Nardole something to do. Nardole acting as the Doctor's eyes and keeping his secret from everyone is the first proper use he's actually had, as well as the first time the Sonic Sunglasses have any reason to exist too. Blimey, if I'm saying something positive about the Sonic Sunglasses, you know this episode's got something right. Although I'm glad Nardole has his first actual role in this episode, that still doesn't means his comedic moments get a free pass, especially not that cringey moment of him lecturing Bill.

 

While the majority of critics have lapped up Extremis, dishing out plenty of five-star ratings, the biggest criticism I've seen from this episode's detractors is that Steven Moffat's script is too complex. While this is far from being an original complaint, and usually I tend to agree, for once I don't think the over-complexity necessarily lies in the script. I'd personally argue that Extremis is more complicated than it needs to be because of its layout and the way it's been put together. (Skip ahead to the next paragraph now to avoid spoilers!) The story is essentially divided into chunks – the scenes of Missy's execution, the real world segments at the start and end of the episode, and the simulation where the majority of the episode takes place. The problem is that every five minutes or so, we keep being taken out of the main story to cut back to the scenes with Missy. The constant shifts back and forth between all the different locations make what should've been a reasonably straightforward story more complicated than it needs to be. To me, it would've been better to get the scenes with Missy done all in one go at the start of the episode, and only then proceeding with the main story.

 

Missy's return proved to be another big talking point of Extremis, and while fans of her character were obviously glad to see her back, her return left me feeling a bit colder than I would've hoped. While Michelle Gomez is doing as brilliant a job as ever, and the character does seem to be turned down ever so slightly, Missy's return was naturally going to prompt a few questions, but they never even get addressed. When we last saw her in The Witch's Familiar, she was surrounded and about to be killed by a group of Daleks, only to proclaim that she suddenly had a “very good idea”. Well? What was the idea? Is it just me who wants to know how she escaped? A simple throwaway bit of dialogue could fill this gap, yet there's not a single ounce of effort to try and provide an answer. While we're on the subject, who exactly were those executioners, and why specifically were they executing Missy? Would anyone else appreciate answers like this, or is it just me? It really doesn't take much effort, and once again it could be fixed with just a few lines of dialogue. (Skip ahead to the next paragraph now to avoid spoilers!) One answer we do get in Extremis is to the question of who's in the Vault, and it's … Missy. I … am really conflicted on this. On the one hand, Missy being in the Vault feels incredibly easy and underwhelming. Yet if it absolutely had to be Missy in the Vault, at least it was revealed this soon instead of it being prolonged for later in the series where the disappointment would be greater still.

 

On the whole, for an episode that is essentially setup for the next two weeks of stories, Extremis works pretty well. Thanks to the engaging and well-constructed mystery that accompanies it, it never really feels like you're just watching setup. Together with this we have plenty else going on with existential themes and philosophical content, a decent sense of scale to events and a reasonable introduction to the Monks. With the exception of the iffy structure and an underwhelming resolution to the Vault arc, Extremis is a solid episode.

Extremis

 

7/10