Doctor Who The Lie of the Land Review

Tags

Bill Potts, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Extremis, Doctor Who Series 10, Doctor Who The Lie of the Land, Doctor Who The Lie of the Land review, Doctor Who The Monk Trilogy, Doctor Who the Monks, Doctor Who The Pyramid at the End of the World, Matt Lucas, Michelle Gomez, Missy, Nardole, Pearl Mackie, Peter Capaldi, Steven Moffat, TARDIS, The Doctor, The Monk Trilogy, Toby Whitehouse, Wayne Yip

Doctor Who The Lie of the Land

Review by Paul Bowler

[Contains Spoilers]

The entire world is in thrall to a collective delusion and only Bill Potts’ can see through this mass lie to the truth. With even the Doctor choosing the wrong side, it falls to Bill to persuade the Time Lord that the whole human race is in danger, because if she can’t convince the Doctor, Bill might have to kill her best friend to save humanity.

The eighth episode of series ten, The Lie of the Land, marks the Doctor Who debut of Director Wayne Yip, his previous credits include Secret Diary of a Callgirl, Utopia and Misfits, as well as episodes 6 & 7 of the BBC Three Doctor Who spin-off series Class. The Lie of the Land is written by Toby Whitehouse, his seventh script for Doctor Who, along with School Reunion (2006), The Vampires of Venice (2010), The God Complex (2011), A Town Called Mercy (2012), and most recently 2015’s Under the Lake / Before the Flood.

As the final chapter of the Monk Trilogy, The Lie of the Land presents us with a drastically altered present-day Earth following the aftermath of Bill’s “executive decision” in The Pyramid at the End of the World. Earth has been invaded by the Monks, history has been rewritten, and the Doctor is now seemingly on their side – as the Time Lord’s constant broadcasts of fake news would seem to attest. Unbelievers who do not accept the Monks as their world’s benefactors are imprisoned. However, the Monks have been on Earth for only six months, not millions of years as they’ve led humanity to believe. Only Bill can see through the global deception, with Nardole’s help – now recovered after his exposure to the chemical biohazard at Agrofuel Research Operations – she must rally the resistance against the Monks regime, but when Missy’s knowledge of the Monks is needed to help the Doctor, Bill, and Nardole to save the world their mission soon becomes even more dangerous.

Toby Whitehouse’s intense script plunges the world into a warped dystopian nightmare unlike anything we’ve quite seen before. From the chilling prologue, the Monks uncompromising rule is frighteningly reinforced by the Doctor’s rather creepy behaviour. Peter Capaldi excels in every scene, brining a dual edge to the role of the Time Lord, and giving arguably one of his strongest performances so far this season. Pearl Mackie also gives a sensitive and engaging performance as Bill Potts, who must now face the harsh agonies of this darkly reinvented world that she’s ultimately responsible for, and at times its affected her so much Bill’s even started to talking to her late mother (played by Rose Jane) to prevent her from loosing her mind. Nardole once more provides some much needed comic relief to dispel the gloom, Matt Lucas gets some great lines, and his characters key role here highlights what an integral part this TARDIS trio he has become.

Bill and Nardole finally manage to track the Doctor to a prison ship off the coast of Scotland, but to their horror it seems that he has really swapped sides and joined the Monks. This in turn forces Bill to make one of the most difficult decisions of all, and it’s a truly heart-in-the-mouth moment as Bill steps up to the plate and shoots the Doctor! From this shocking turn of events an early regeneration appears to be on the cards, but when the Time Lord’s sudden regeneration quickly stops, it becomes clear the situation on the ship is an elaborate ruse by the Doctor, Nardole, and the soldiers of the resistance to make certain Bill is free of the Monks influence. In order to learn more about the Monks though, the Doctor and Bill must return to the university to seek help from a certain Time Lady who knows a thing or two about how the Monks manage to subjugate entire worlds.

Michelle Gomez returns in The Lie of the Land as Missy, the female incarnation of the Doctor’s arc nemesis; The Master. This episode finally takes us inside the Vault where Missy has been incarcerated. It would appear Missy is going “cold turkey” from evil, but she still delights in revealing that to break the Monks psychic grip on the world they must find whoever opened the door for the Monks and kill them, which obviously isn’t good news for Bill! Just as in Extremis, Michelle Gomez turns in a slightly subdued performance that completely wrong foots our expectations about Missy. Her appearances bring added gravatis to the episode, together with a moving insight that once again shows her character in a somewhat different light, but has the Queen of Evil really changed her ways or is Missy simply playing her wickedly evocative brand of villainy to a different tune?

Having played the Monk in the first two parts of this trilogy, Extremis and The Pyramid at the End of the World, Jamie Hill (The Foretold in 2014’s Mummy on the Orient Express and a Silence in series six) is back, this time as the Giant Monk for The Lie of the Land. After being given pure consent to take over the world by Bill in the previous episode – to save the Doctor and restore his sight – these cadaverous looking red-robed Monks have shaped the world to suit their own twisted Orwellian designs. Now they are part of the very fabric of humanities development, they’ve guided our history, the technological advances, and even protected us from alien invaders. Although the Monks don’t actually say or do that much in The Lie of the Land, we do see more of their energy powers as they defend the interior of their main pyramid, where the Giant Monk sits overseeing a giant central broadcasting chamber that maintains the psychic mass-delusion.

Along with the terrific performances from Peter Capaldi, Pearl, Mackie, Matt Lucas, and Michelle Gomez, The Lie of the Land also features a great supporting cast, featuring Solomon Israel (Richard Curnew), Stewart Right (Alan), Beatrice Curnew (Group Commander), Emma Handy (Mother), Athena Droutis (Girl), Amanda Mealing (Connie), and Tony Marshall (Noel).

The Lie of the Land has distinct echoes of The Last of the Time Lords (2007) and Turn Left (2008) about it, both were episode which also depicted the Doctor’s companions (Martha and Donna respectively) taking a more central role in a another stark dystopia version of the world. The Doctor’s opening monologue about the Monks exploits in The Lie of The Land include glimpses of a Dalek from Into The Dalek (2014), a Cybermen in Nightmare In Silver (2013), and a Weeping Angel from Blink (2007), later we see scenes from the Pilot, and in the Monks cathedral we see other still images displayed from the current tenth series. The brand Magpie Electricals – originally introduced in 2006’s The Idiod Lantern – is also quite prominent in this episode. Missy plays some of Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No 1 on the piano and later some of Scot Joplin’s The Entertainer. Perhaps most notably, aside from a brief glimpse when Bill mentally battles against the Monks in the cathedral, the TARDIS doesn’t feature at all in The Lie of the Land, not something that often happens in modern Doctor Who – 2008’s Midnight is another fine example of a TARDIS-less episode from the programmes current era.

The episode builds to a rousing finale as the Doctor, Bill, Nardole, and the rebel commandos fight their way into the central chamber of the Monks main pyramid, where the Giant Monk resides over the psychic broadcast controlling the population via the signals emanating from the giant statues the Monks have strategically built around the world. When the Doctor’s attempt to link his mind to the Monks systems and override their control fails, Bill steps in, despite his protests, and prepares to sacrifice herself by taking his place to mind-link with the Monks. Bill’s memories of her mother being overriding the Monks broadcast, and it is this loving memory that ultimately awakens humanities hope and causes them to rise up against the Monks control. Defeated, the Monks abandon Earth, later the Doctor and Bill discovers everyone has forgotten about the Monks, and back in the Vault it would seem Missy is finally beginning to feel genuine remorse for all the people that she’s killed…

As well as providing us with a great new monster, The Monk trilogy has brought an intriguing change of pace to series ten, and skilfully dispelled any kind of mid-season lull. The leads all give exceptionally powerful central performances that make The Lie of the Land extremely compelling viewing at times. A great set up during the first half of the episode skilfully builds the tension and the plot gradually draws us into the heart of the Monks grand designs. Although the conclusion does fall back on some rather familiar tropes, it nevertheless provides a satisfying resolution to the trilogy overall. Toby Whitehouse’s intricately crafted script, together with the strong direction from Wayne Yip, ensures The Lie of the Land presents an extremely challenging adventure for the Doctor and his companions, and an exceptional finale to this thrilling mid-season trilogy.

Here’s the Next Time trailer for The Empress of Mars

Been looking forward to the return of the Ice Warriors!

Images Belong BBC

Follow @paul_bowler

Doctor Who Extremis Review

Tags

Bill Potts, Daniel Nettheim, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Extremis, Doctor Who Extremis review, Doctor Who Monk Trilogy, Doctor Who Monks, Doctor Who Series 10, Matt Lucas, Michelle Gomez, Missy, Nardole, Pearl Mackie, Peter Capaldi, Steven Moffat, TARDIS, The Doctor

Doctor Who Extremis

Review by Paul Bowler

[Contains Spoilers]

The Doctor must investigate an ancient mystery in Extremis. Within a secret library of the Vatican, there is a book of dangerous power – The Veritas. History accounts how anybody foolhardy enough to read it has subsequently taken their own life. After a new translation appears online, The Vatican asks the Doctor for help. But will the Time Lord read The Veritas, and can even the Doctor endure the terrible truth it holds?

Extremis is a dark, brooding tale, written by Steven Moffat, and directed by Daniel Nettheim – who also helmed The Zygon Invasion / The Zygon Inversion (2015). This sixth episode of series ten also features the return of the 12^th Doctor’s arch nemesis, Missy (the female incarnation of the Master), played by Michelle Gomez. Last time we saw Missy she was surrounded by Daleks in their crumbling city on Skaro in The Witch’s Familiar (2015), but now she’s back and this time it seems like her luck might be about to run out…

Following Oxygen’s shock cliff-hanger, where the Doctor secretly confided in Nardole that he was still blind, the Time Lord doesn’t want his enemies to learn of his sight loss, and he’s adamant that Bill shouldn’t know either. Extremis is also something of a major turning point in series ten as it forms the first episode in a linked trilogy of stories were the world comes under threat by an emaciated corpse-like order of sinister Monks.

When Bill’s date night with Penny gets embarrassingly gate crashed, she’s soon off on her next adventure in the TARDIS with the Doctor and Nardole, and this time it concerns the Pope and an ancient text called The Veritas held in a secret Vatican library: the Haereticum. The Veritas is older than even the church itself, with its language and translations seemingly lost after a sect’s bizarre mass suicide. Now the Veritas has been translated again, however, everyone that worked on the translation online has mysteriously killed themselves. At the behest of the Pope himself, the Doctor has been called upon to solve the dangerous mystery surrounding the Veritas, but in doing so he must also grapple with his own hidden agonies.

Essentially two stories in one, Extremis, with its secret libraries, mysterious portals, and international conspiracies, is one of Steven Moffat’s most ambitious episodes to date. Taking in Rome, CERN, Washington, and a visit to a distant planet, Moffat infuses Extremis with elements of The Ring, The Da Vinci Code, The Matrix, and The Name of the Rose, effortlessly splicing them with the core underlying themes of series 10, and the end result is an assured adventure that make for a remarkably compelling and thought provoking episode.

An ominous sense of impending dread gradually builds throughout Extremis. Peter Capaldi’s Doctor – sporting his trusty enhanced sonic specs – must draw on every ounce of his resolve to deal with the enigma of the Veritas. Once inside the Vatican’s secret library of blasphemy, the Haereticm, where strange portals are forming, they discover a priest has emailed a copy of the Verita’s translation to the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) before killing himself. After sending Bill and Nardole to investigate, the Doctor borrows from his own future to temporarily restore his sight to enable him to read the Veritas, and soon finds himself in deadly danger as undead-looking Monks close in to seize the Veritas for themselves!

Bill and Nardole discover another portal that leads to a collective hub of portals controlled by an unknown form of alien technology. Following a brief sojourn to CERN, where a chilling game of random numbers with scientists about to blow themselves up ensues, but after fleeing back to the hub Bill is horrified when Nardole realizes the portals are actually computer projections and watches him slowly fade away – a fate she also shares when she finally catches up with the Doctor inside another projection that simulates the Oval Office inside the White House. Pearl Mackie continues to impress as Bill, and she constantly brings a refreshing sense of vitality and compassion to the role of the Doctor’s companion. Matt Lucas gets to play a tougher side of Nardole as well in Extremis, his character really steps up, especially when he’s teamed with Bill, and his reasons for being with the Doctor also start to become more apparent as Extremis unfolds.

Along with Joseph Long as the Pope (Long previously appeared in the 2008 Doctor Who episode Turn Left as the Italian newsagent, Roco Colasanto), the guest cast in Extremis also includes Corrado Invernizzi as the Pope’s trusted aid Cardinal Angelo who turns up at the university looking for the Doctor, Ivanno Jeremiah as Rafando, Laurent Maurel as Nicholas Rorke Adekoluejo as Penny, and Jennifer Hennessy as Billd’s foster mum, Moria.

The main foes in Extremis are the Monks. These withered, burgundy robed creatures, with their clawed hands and menacing presence are hell bent on taking over the Earth, and it seems it’s something they’ve been planning for a long time. Seeking the Veritas for their own ends, they are a marvellously creepy and effective adversary in this episode. These super-intelligent beings have used their technology to craft this huge VR simulation, where even the Doctor and his friends are just simulations in something akin to a highly sophisticated video game which the Monks have been using to assess Earth’s capabilities and weaknesses before launching a perfectly calculated invasion. The Monk the Doctor faces in Extremis is played by Jamie Hill, he also appeared as the Foretold in 2014’s Mummy on the Orient Express (as well as one of the Silence creatures in series six), and the chilling voice of the Monks is provided by Tim Bentinck. Bizarrely, it’s interesting how the Monks are slightly reminiscent of the Silence, with their long fingers and ingenious invasion plans, yet they speak with their mouths agape in a way that’s also similar to the original Mondasian Cybermen.

After all the build up, hints, and speculation, Extremis is the episode of series ten where we finally discover who is inside the Vault that the Doctor and Nardole have been guarding at the university on Earth, and it turns out to be – Missy! Yes, even though we’d probably already half-guessed this big reveal, it doesn’t diminish it to finally have it conformed in Extremis. This all ties in with the numerous flashbacks that permeate every aspect of the episode, where Missy is a prisoner on Carnathon awaiting her execution which will be instigated by non other than the Doctor himself, and her body then subsequently placed inside a waiting Quantum Fold Chamber which the Doctor has solemnly vowed to watch over for a thousand years.

Michelle Gomez makes a welcome return as rogue Time Lady and self styled Queen of Evil, Missy in Extremis, with a surprisingly restrained and vulnerable performance, and her characters impromptu return to the series really heightens the drama in this episode. Extremis also presents Missy in a completely different light, she even begs the Doctor to help her change her ways at one point, and Gomez is excellent throughout as ever. However, the full extent of Missy’s role and her fate remains somewhat unclear, at least for now…

There are a number of references that pertain to River Song in Extremis, most notably when Missy mentions she’s heard rumours amongst the Daleks of the Doctor’s retirement and “Domestic bliss on Darillium” (a planet first mentioned in 2008’s Forest of the Dead), where the Doctor and River went to see the Singing Towers in the 2015 Christmas Special: The Husbands of River Song after defeating King Hydroflax. Missy also offers the Doctor her condolences on River’s passing. Nardole also turns up as a Cleric at Missy’s execution in Extremis to meet the Doctor, having been given special permission by the Doctor‘s late wife, and he also has River’s distinctive TARDIS styled diary (first seen in 2008’s Silence in the Library) which she used to keep track of her out-of-sequence adventures with the Doctor and their haphazard timelines. The Doctor also mentions as he is part of the Prydonian Chapter, first mentioned in the Deadly Assassin (1976).

Extremis concludes with some truly powerful scenes, when the Doctor is confronted by a Monk in the simulation of the Oval Office. The Time Lord reveals he is fully aware that he is also a simulation, but warns the creature that the Earth will be ready for them as he’s been secretly recording everything via his sonic sunglasses and has just emailed the file to his real-world self guarding the Vault. This all entwines with how the Doctor outwits Missy’s captors and death sentence to spare her life, explaining why he’s been overseeing her incarceration in the Vault. It all collectively builds towards the episodes thrilling cliff-hanger, where the real-world Doctor gets the email sent from his digital self and asks for Missy’s help through the doors to fend off the invasion.

Although in retrospect Extremis is actually just a set up for the “Monk Trilogy” of stories, there’s still a wealth of exciting developments in this episode, with terrific performances from Peter Capaldi, Pearl Mackie, and Matt Lucas as the new TARDIS team faces their greatest challenge so far. Steven Moffat’s scrip is audaciously epic in scope and scale, presenting just as many questions as it does answers, and director Daniel Nettheim offsets the striking visuals with a darkly atmospheric edge – especially during the library scenes. Extremis is a great episode; it places the world in dire peril, and sets everything up for the next stage in this intriguing saga!

Images Belong BBC

Follow @paul_bowler