Doctor Who 10x00: The Return of Dr Mysterio

The 2016 hiatus is over at last. The companion introduction was nice, as was the Doctor’s cameo appearance in Class, but there’s nothing like a full episode of Doctor Who to satiate the viewing appetite. The Return of Dr Mysterio is a fairly lightweight episode by Steven Moffat's standards, but even his average scripts can still be more vibrant and entertaining than those middle episodes of Class.

Doctor Who has tackled many genres over the years, from horror to romance, but a superhero story has never really been done properly. The Second Doctor met a superhero called the Karkus in the Mind Robber, but that was very brief. The Doctor himself has had superpowers on occasions over the years, but a costumed hero has never been the focus of the story. Nowadays people can’t seem to get enough of superheroes, what with all the TV shows and films being churned out by Marvel and DC so it makes sense to do this story now more than ever.

The superhero of this story is the Ghost and the pre-titles sequence gives us his origin story.
On Christmas Eve in the 1980s, a young comic book fan Grant meets the Doctor and swallows a gemstone which he mistook for medicine. The gem bonds with Grant, giving the power of  flight and super strength. Twenty or so years later, Grant is grown up. By day he works as a nanny for journalist Lucy Lombard. By night, he is the Ghost, a superhero with a costume similar to Superman’s and with the voice similar to Batman’s. He and the Doctor meet again when the Doctor, Nardole and Lucy are investigating an organisation called Harmony Shoal.  The Ghost rescues Lucy. What follows is a farce between Grant and Lucy while the Doctor and Nardole continue to investigate Harmony Shoal.

The Ghost and Lucy relationship is clearly inspired by the Superman and Lois Lane relationship from the Christopher Reeve/Richard Donner movies.This is a wise move as they are better as family friendly movies than some of the modern darker fare. The dinner scene witht he Ghost and Lucy is similar to the scene in Superman. There's also a nice namedrop of Shuster and Siegel, Superman’s creators. Sadly the budget does not seem to stretch to a flying scene for Lucy and Grant. Justin Chatwin is likeable enough as Grant Gordon or the Ghost. The Ghost is Superman with the voice of Batman. Grant himself is a bit of Rory as the guy who waited. As in some of the best comic books, the hero underneath the mask is more interesting than the hero. Lucy Fletcher nee Lombard was a good enough character if an obvious riff on Lois Lane. At least this is a reporter who is also a single parent, a nice riposte at the comic book creators of the 90s who seemed to think that their heroes couldn’t have families.

While Grant and Lucy are busy, the Doctor and Nardole uncover Harmony Shoal’s plan.
This is to explode their spaceship, forcing the world leaders to flee for refuge in their laboratory where they can swap brains Given the state of current political events, it would hardly be surprising if this had really happened. It's somewhat similar to Aliens of London, with aliens disguised as humans orchestrating a spaceship crash, although the tone works better than the other, slightly wonky, story. This plot also feels slightly disconnected to the superhero plot.  Perhaps a comic book style super-villain would have been more appropriate for this story.

The two plots do eventually come together at the end as Harmony Shoal attempt to gain the Ghost’s body. It all ends on a bit of wish fulfilment as Grant reveals his true identity to Lucy before he and Lucy dispose of the falling space ship. The Doctor dismisses Harmony Shoal rather too easily, although they promise to be back. We’ll see if future episodes end up showing this.

Peter Capaldi is as great as ever as the Doctor. He is much more of a fun figure this time around, which makes sense for a Christmas episode, but I still miss the rebel Time Lord of Series 8. At this point in his timeline the Doctor is still mourning the departure of River Song. It is odd that Clara’s departure is not mentioned through.

Nardole turned out to be a lot better than I as expecting.  The character has undergone a bit of revision and time around he has some insight into how the Doctor thinks. He gets to be the one who tells Grant and Lucy about River Song. It is arguable that he was not entirely needed in the episode as anyone could have been there for

The monsters of the story, Harmony Shoal, were a creepy idea, though their representatives, Dr Sin and Mr Brock, had very little personality. It seems they are related to the Shoal of Winter Harmony from The Husbands of River Song. It seems like an odd connection, unless Moffat is planning an ongoing thread through his Christmas specials from now on.

The best moment came from the idea of superheroes going through puberty. I don't know if Smallville ever did the X-Ray eye gag but it should have done.  The little visual gag about teeenage Grant 'rising' when he sees teenage Lucy was a nice touch

Overall this was a good Christmas special. Nothing extraoordinary. nothing terrible but plainly in the middle. It reminded me very much of Planet of the Dead. A lone event which had to fill up the show until later.

8/10

Class: The Lost

After last week's arguments split our characters apart, something big was needed to bring them all back together again this episode certainly goes for big. As if the murder of Ram's father and Tanya's mother by the Shadow Kin in pre-titles sequence wasn't enough, we find out that Miss Quill has become pregnant. It's a shocking opening, though I am slightly disappointing that we won't be seeing any more of Ram's father. I quite liked him.

To deal with the impending threat, our characters are forced into different roles. April must look after Ram and her own mother. It's interesting that April and Charlie's decision to ignore violent solutions has lead to a drastic situation.

Tanya learns to cope with her grief by learning self-defence from Miss Quill. It's a good development for a character that has been on the sidelines.

The story concludes when Charlie finally uses the weapon to destroy all of the Shadow Kin. The point perhaps that although he has lost his people he still has his friends. April  sacrifices herself to stop Corikanus. However she ends up in the body of a Shadow Kin. What will she do?

Could this really be the end of the Shadow Kin as antagonists? They've not exactly been the most exciting of villains. If this show does come back for a second series, the one thing it can definately do better is to better recurring villains.

The episode ends on a positive and negative. We finally learn a bit more about the Governors  who are allied with the Weeping Angels. It's sad that Dorothea Ames had to die since this was another character that could have stuck around.

The series has been alright. Not terrible not fantastic but alright. It has taken elements of Buffy but not quite been as astounding as that show. Hopefully, the show will get a second series so it gets the chance to enhance itself.

8/10