Doctor Who Series 10 Episode 8 - The Lie Of The Land - Review

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

Written By: Toby Whithouse

Directed By: Wayne Yip

 

And so we arrive at the final part of the Monk Trilogy – The Lie Of The Land. So far the trilogy has varied from good to meh, and this last instalment is penned by Toby Whithouse, who's currently in my good books after the brilliant two-parter he delivered in the last series. With this in mind, as well as some promising trailers that teased the kind of thing I was hoping to find in last week's episode, I've been cautiously optimistic about The Lie Of The Land. So can this episode wrap things up neatly and deliver a satisfying end to the trilogy?

 

Six months on from The Pyramid At The End Of The World, and the Monks have control of Earth. They have ingrained the idea that they have been on Earth for millions of years, guiding and protecting humanity's development, into people's minds. Anyone who breaks free from their mental conditioning is executed or sent to labour camps. Worse still, the Doctor appears to have sided with the Monks, praising their protection of humanity and distributing propaganda for them. Bill is one of the few people still aware of the truth, and together with Nardole, goes to find the Doctor and put an end to the Monks' regime.

 

If there's been one consistent thing to come out of this trilogy, it's been the fantastic ideas and concepts, and The Lie Of The Land is no exception. This is made clear in the episode almost immediately, with possibly one of the best opening sequences so far this series, together with Oxygen. We see how the Monks have re-written human history and weaved themselves throughout it, which is not only an interesting story idea, but something that makes sense for an invading race to do anyway. As Nardole quite rightly says: “However bad a situation is, if people think that's the way it's always been, they put up with it”. It's reminiscent of Last Of The Time Lords, and the first act of The Lie Of The Land provides exactly the kind of thing I'd wanted to see last week, and to see it so well realized on screen is just brilliant. I've heard one or two complaints that the opening scene where we see the Monks at different points in human history, looked quite cringey and fake, but I think that was the point. The Monks have literally photoshopped themselves into the world, which is why it doesn't look real when they're seen stood next to Albert Einstein or Winston Churchill, but their mental control of the population prevents people from seeing that. This opening scene with the Monks also sees the Doctor supposedly having joined sides with them, and while Peter Capaldi is great with the creepy, manic grin he gives to the camera, you also start to wonder if he has really joined their side and it's not just deception. It's not like he hasn't got a reason to – as he says, human society has stagnated and is starting to regress, which, if you look at what's on the news lately, isn't a million miles away from the truth.

 

(Skip ahead to the next paragraph now to avoid spoilers!) I really have very little to complain about in the opening and first act of The Lie Of The Land. HOWEVER, it very suddenly becomes clear when things start to go amiss, and in fact I can pinpoint where this episode goes wrong. It's at about seventeen minutes in, and it's the Doctor's fake-out regeneration after being shot by Bill. My immediate reaction to this moment was me shouting “OH F*** OFF!” at the screen, and I stand by that reaction today. It's a moment that's completely uncalled for and it makes the Doctor look like an out-of-character prick. Bill's gone through months of resisting the Monks' control, made effort to find and get to the Doctor, been driven to the point where she wants to shoot and kill him, and the Doctor and the rest of the people in that room laugh it off, calling her a “good girl”?! Never mind beating the s*** out of Nardole, Bill, for once I'd justify giving the Doctor a bloody good smack – I know I'd want to in her situation. What's even worse is that not only is this a horrible move towards Bill on the Doctor's part, it's insulting to the audience too. This episode may have been penned by Toby Whithouse, but the contempt this one scene shows for the audience reeks more of Steven Moffat. All this regeneration does is make the series trailer look better, but in context, the scene in no way needed to go that far, and it doesn't do anyone any favours.

 

Someone else who didn't get many favours in this episode was the Monks themselves. It's astonishing to think that the Monks have now been through the hands of three different writers, and not one of them has provided any information about them. It's simply staggering how anyone though the Monks in a state as undercooked as this, could work across three different episodes. I get that ambiguity can imply power and mystery, but it doesn't do either here – the Monks are simply reduced to vacuous plot devices. The proof of this? They don't get a single line of dialogue in The Lie Of The Land. Not one. By the time they leave Earth, there are still so many unanswered questions surrounding them. Who are they really? Why did they want to invade Earth? Why do they travel around in a pyramid? Where do they come from? (Spoiler Warning!) This supposedly omniscient race is not even defeated in a particularly impressive way either, as after three episodes of build-up, they're kicked out once again by the power of love. Admittedly the “Love conquers all” ending is done better than in Closing Time or The Rings Of Akhaten, but it's still a disappointing ending. To top it all, we learn in one of the closing scenes that the Monks erased themselves from everyone's memories when they left, so no-one learns anything from any of this. So what was the point of it all?!

 

It's such a shame that The Lie Of The Land wastes so much of its potential in the second and third acts, because it honestly has the looks nailed. Wayne Yip directs this week's episode, after previously working on Class, including the standout visual episode of that series: The Metaphysical Engine, Or What Quill Did. Just as the visuals were so vivid in that episode of Class, the same is true of The Lie Of The Land. There's a fantastic dystopian world seen throughout this episode, that feels reminiscent of something from 1984. With armed soldiers wearing the Monks' “truth” logo, and taking people off the streets, the messy, grey washed-out surroundings, and people wearing all black, this is some gorgeous world building. Wayne Yip is set to direct next week's episode, Empress Of Mars, too, and I'm looking forward to seeing it as he has a real knack for vibrant and eye-catching visuals.

 

Carrying on the trend from last week (and seen throughout most of Series 10 really), there's also plenty of political commentary to be found, this week addressing the issue of propaganda and fake news. It's once again a topic that I wholeheartedly welcome the show addressing, and it does so with no shame and no holding back. When the Doctor enters the central chamber of the Monks' pyramid, his first words are “fake news central”. Rather appropriately, in all those images floating around of different famous figures standing with the Monks, if you look closely enough, there's also a brief appearance of an image of Donald Trump. Thanks to Trump and his administration's blatant disregard of fact and truth to suit their own means, the issue of fake and manipulated news is more relevant than ever, and The Lie Of The Land makes the most of it. Like I've said however, we could've done with seeing more of this beyond the first act, as while the first fifteen minutes puts these themes across beautifully, the rest of the episode slowly starts to fall into the trap of telling the audience, rather than showing them.

 

It's fitting that The Lie Of The Land brings the Monk trilogy to a close, as in some ways, it reflects the best and worst of the whole trilogy: great ideas and great visual execution, but sadly not as developed or effective as it could be. Many people have called The Lie Of The Land the weakest instalment of the three, but because it brought the overall story almost to a standstill, The Pyramid At The End Of The World still takes that title for me. At least this week, we get on with it a bit, despite the disappointment of the Monks and that cheap, fake-out regeneration. The Monk trilogy overall has been a very middling affair, and certainly could've been better. The fact that it takes up a quarter of the series, when really it could've all been told in the space of two episodes, creates quite a lull in the flow of the series, and I'm really hoping for a return next week to some good, standalone stories.

 

The Lie Of The Land

 

6/10