Saturday, September 20, 2014

Doctor Who: Season 8, Episode 5


Doctor Who
Episode: “Time Heist”
Channel: BBC
Director: Douglas Mackinnon
Writer: Steve Thompson and Steven Moffat
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Runtime: 45 min
Rated: TV-PG
Original Air Date: September 20, 2014

This was a fun one-off episode. The Doctor answers a mysterious phone call, and then wakes up in a room with Clara and two strangers, with no memory of where they are or for what purpose. What follows is an exciting heist episode with shades of the Ocean's movies, complete with a slow motion entrance by the crew. Douglass Mackinnon uses camera angles reminiscent of those movies to heighten the similarities, without it feeling like a rip-off.

The story itself is fairly straight forward, with some decent action and tense moments. The object of the heist was predictable, but still leaves the audience with a feel good attitude by the end. The other members of the Doctor's crew were fun and well-acted, without some of the wooden moments that we've seen from other guest stars this season

At the very end we see that the Doctor might have an ulterior motive for all of these last minute excursions with Clara. I'm actually a little excited to see this side of him. Sometimes with all of his grand plans and time/space hopping it's easy to forget that he might suffer from the same pettiness and insecurities as the rest of us. As long as Mr. Moffat and company don't overdo it I think this will be a fun avenue to pursue

Conclusion: Despite some predictability this is an entertaining episode that looks to be leading the Doctor in a fun direction. It's not the best one-off episode they've done, but it's more than serviceable; fun and enlightening regarding the new Doctor's personality.

Rating: 7/10

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