Doctor Who 10x05: Oxygen

Oxygen was one of the episodes of Series Ten that I was most looking forward to watching. The episode's writer, Jamie Mathieson, has been one of the best new writers to be hired during the Peter Capaldi years. Each of his stories, Mummy on the Orient Express, Flatline and The Girl Who Died, had something great about them. Yet, somehow, this episode just didn’t work for me.

The Doctor has ignored Nardole's protests and taken the Tardis the mining facility of Chasm Forge in response to a distress call. The first act is similar to The Ark in Space in that the three regular characters are travelling alone across the Space Station. The Doctor introduces us to one of the more interesting ideas for the future where companies charge the staff for use of oxygen was an interesting one. It's a nice expansion on the modern idea of paying for heating or water.

Soon our heroes meet up with the sole surviving crewmembers, who, have very little in the way of personality, despite there only being four of them. The alien, Dahh Ren, was distinguished through having blue and that was it. There's no further sense of who he was. Ivan and Abby had no discernible personality. Ivan's girlfriend died in the pre-titles sequence but it does not seem to have affected his reactions much. Both of these characters were angry and suspicious anyway. I think I preferred the students from Knock Knock to these guys.

One of the problems with this episode was how it all felt very familiar. The Space Station, Chasm Forge, felt visually very similar to Space Ships or Space Stations we’ve seen in other episodes like the Pentallian of 42 or the Sanctuary Base of The Impossible Planet. Whether the Chasm Forge were filmed in the same location or used recycled sets, I don't know. Next time the production team could have go for a tonally different look.

At least the few new ideas that were featured in this episode were good ones.  The idea that these companies would go as far as to kill their own staff and to use automated suits to save money was also good. But the execution of these two ideas were a bit mixed. 

The highlight of the episode was the interaction between the regular leads. The Doctor was well portrayed by Peter Capaldi. We get to see his rebellious side when he steers the Tardis from Earth to answer the distress signal. We see his selflessness when he saves Bill. Ultimately he is blinded by his experience and brought back to Earth. His arrogance has cost him and it will be interesting to see how he goes on from here.

Bill was also put through the wringer this week, what with almost dying of oxygen starvation and almost being killed. The sequence where she died felt very real. Her last memories being her mum was quite sweet.  The moment when she needs comfort from the Doctor and he cannot give it is cool.

Nardole got a lot of good character development this week which was a highlight of the episode. He stole the fluid link and acted in the role of the Doctor's conscience. It is now clear that his whole body is mechanical and not just his head. Apparently he has had a girlfriend before now.

The direction was good. The decision to shoot Bill's loss of oxygen as a POV shot was an interesting decision. The outside space scenes were also effectively shot, giving a sense of non-gravity. 

The Doctor going blind was an interesting move. Quite how this will be worked into the forthcoming episodes remains a mystery. As with the previous episode there is a promising opening but a dull middle. Let's hope Extremis will have a good middle and an ending. 

6/10