I probably should have mentioned in the previous review, the reason why i'm doing these Doctor Who reviews on different days is because really each episode has enough content for me to do a full review on rather than having one over stuffed review. Especially when all the episodes are really self-contained stories...also i have nothing else to fill up these days, might as well.
In this episode we see The Doctor on an adventure on his own, he has been teleported into his own personal hell, a prison designed specifically for him, based on his nightmares and a never ending mystery. In the end The Doctor realises that he has been trapped there for thousands of years, just repeating the same day over and over again until after 2,000,000,000 of repeating the same day he's finally able to escape.
So where do I begin? Let's actually go with the directing and tone of this episode, this is one of the most creatively directed episodes i've seen Doctor Who do in a while, The Doctor only having a split second to think of a plan imagines himself back in the TARDIS with Clara helping him figure out a plan, asking the right questions, remembering the right notes, like a good teacher would. I especially love the first time they do this, making you think it was a time skip ahead and now they're going to recount it, but in fact the entire thing is his fantasy and we're watching him figure it out as it's happening, that's actually really clever. Not to mention holy crap this episode was terrifying! Now i'm not one who gets scared at Doctor Who, believe it or not i didn't even get scared at Blink, and i was only 12 years old when that came out...holy shit that episode is 8 years old, what the fuck. But back to this episode, the monster in this episode named The Veil is a reflection of The Doctor's nightmares he had as a child and it terrifies him as much as it terrified me, and what's great is even when there are jump scares, they really aren't, you're always aware of it's presence due to cameras and the flies, but that made it even more intense, hearing the buzz of the flies and you instantly know it's nearby, it was fairly horrifying to watch and certainly made my heart skip a beat on several occasions.
Then of course there is Peter Capaldi, not only does it show how talented this guy is how even when he's the only character with dialogue for the episode and even then half of it is exposition that he's explaining to himself, that's not usually good writing, but good god this guy keeps your eyes glued to the screen. Every line, every scene, he is just giving his all and just the range of emotions he goes through, from his typical cocky smartass to fearful and confused, to broken down and depressed, his exploration of his grief over losing Clara and his eventual breakdown. This is truly the best performance Capaldi has ever given in his career. I already liked him as The Doctor but seriously, if there is anyone out there who still is not convinced this man is The Doctor, you need psychiatric help.
Then there is the punching of a diamond wall, for 2 billion years, The Doctor punches away at a diamond wall, okay it's actually 400x the strength of diamond but nevertheless, an impressive feat. Fact is not only is this most definitely a Doctor thing to do, dedicating 2 billion years to one cause, each day slowly working at it to eventually achieve your goal and never giving up, but again, this is something in the episode that was really well handled. After all the pieces had come together and The Doctor had realised he had just been reliving the same day, there was a brief time there where i thought "What's he gonna do? Is he giving up? The Doctor doesn't give up! Has he just accepted the fact he's gonna be reliving his life over and over again?" But then you see it fairly quickly, which is another brilliant thing about this episode, you're still guessing as long as The Doctor is guessing, you never figure it out before him, this episode has you on the ropes for almost the entire run time and then finally you get your answers alongside him.
Also brilliant music in this episode, Murray Gold has done a lot of phenomenal-and I mean phenomenal-work on Doctor Who but I actually feel like he hasn't done that much great stuff recently and none of Capaldi's tunes have done anything for me. This episode finally redeems that and we have a dramatic, moving, fitting and impactful track to go along with The Doctor punching the diamond wall-as previously mentioned.
Oh and yeah I guess The Doctor has found Gallifrey. Neat.
Both fans and critics alike are considering this to be one of the best episodes of the season. I agree. They say it's one of the best of the revival. I agree. They say it's one of the best of all time. I agree. This episode of course gets a 10/10, it's damn near perfect.
-Danny
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