Doctor Who: The Lie of the Land (10x08)

Ah. So we've arrived. The first truly disappointing episode of the season. Let's just get started with this.

Cons:

The Monks have taken over the world and rewritten history so that all humans will think that the Monks have been there all along, and that humanity needs to obey their benevolent overlords. Most people buy into the lie. Bill is resisting, hoping that the Doctor will be able to return and save the world. Nardole shows up, and he and Bill sneak in to find the Doctor, who is apparently working with the Monks and broadcasting messages about their benevolence. Bill shows up, and is horrified to find that the Doctor really does seem to be working with the Monks, and is not planning something to free the world. In despair, Bill gets a gun from one of the guards and shoots the Doctor. The Doctor then starts to regenerate, but it turns out the whole thing was a trick so that the Doctor could be absolutely sure that Bill wasn't under the Monks' influence. From this point on, we pivot and the rest of the episode features the Doctor, Bill, and Nardole working together to rid the world of the Monks.

Before I go in to the rest of the episode, there is just so much stupid shit to deal with in this first section. I was actually enjoying the story up until the point where we find the Doctor and it turns out that he's "really working for the Monks." There were a couple of different directions this could have gone. The stupid, boring, predictable direction is that the Doctor is faking and has a master plan. Ding ding ding! That's what they went with. Other possibilities include: the Doctor is brainwashed, or the Doctor is biding his time and doesn't really have a plan, and is pissed off that Nardole and Bill have shown up and put themselves in danger. Or the Monks had some way to replicate the Doctor and fake those TV broadcasts. But no. They went for the predictable outcome.

Even more egregious than that is the way this whole moment is played off as a joke. Bill actually takes up a gun and shoots the Doctor, okay? I mean, yeah, the bullets were switched out with blanks, but Bill certainly didn't know that! I'm not convinced that the moment was totally earned in the first place. Would Bill really have gone so quickly to the nuclear option like that? Regardless, the episode should have treated this moment with a lot more gravitas. I'm okay with the Doctor tricking Bill in order to test her true allegiances. Sure, it's a little tired and boring, but whatever. But in that case, the Doctor should have felt devastated at the necessity of the deceit. It should have been really hard for him and Nardole to put Bill through such trauma. Instead, the Doctor laughs about it. Bill spends two seconds getting angry at Nardole for the act. And then we breeze right on by. What the heck. I'm really annoyed about this.

Moving on from that point, the Doctor needs help to figure out how the Monks control the world. So, he goes to Missy, who he figures might be able to help. She does indeed have an answer. Apparently the Monks use a telepathic link to control the citizens of the worlds they are conquering. They do this through the person who first gave consent to the dominion. This means, basically, that Bill has to die in order to break the Monk's control. The Doctor is obviously not okay with that option. What bothers me about Missy's involvement here is that there are no real consequences to getting her help. We learn that she is making a sincere effort to be a good person, which, okay... but she gives them answers and then there's really nothing else. I didn't want to be disappointed in the secret of the vault. I even had high hopes when Missy was revealed. But as of right now, I'm feeling kind of... meh about her.

The buildup to the Monks taking over the world was so good, that it just makes this episode all the more disappointing in contrast. They take over everybody's mind to gain dominion over this world, but we never learn why they would want to do such a thing. At some point we learn that there are only a dozen or so of the Monks, and so their dominion really is entirely dependent on their control over the people's minds. Even so, it's very disappointing that the Monks turn and run the moment everybody wakes up to the truth. They ended up being extremely weak villains, which is so disappointing after all that buildup!

In the end, the day is saved because Bill basically plugs herself in to the machinery that is being used to control everybody, and she projects images of her mother, as she imagines her. This image is so pure and full of love or something that the Monks can't touch it. I don't necessarily have a problem with this, as cheesy as it is. What I do have a problem with is the Doctor over-explaining what's happening during the climax. I couldn't help but think that there was probably a more clever, visual way that Bill's strength could have been depicted. Instead, we get the Doctor explaining it to us with a big speech about how brilliant Bill is - and then he pivots and says something about how he saved the world by giving Bill those pictures of her mother. Yikes. Apparently Bill is fine once it's all over, which is something that's never explained. All those stakes being set up about Bill needing to die, and then... I guess not! She's totally fine.

I'm going to talk in the "Pros" section about Bill and the Doctor's relationship, and how much I like it. There was one moment that I disliked a lot, though. After the Monks are dispelled, the Doctor and Bill are talking about how humans are doomed to never learn from their mistakes. The Doctor says that this is an annoying thing about humanity, and Bill asks why he puts up with them. The Doctor says that every once in a while, there's someone like Bill, and "that's why I put up with the rest of them." NOPE. Sorry but NOPE. I'm okay with the Doctor being a bit of a grump, but the Doctor loves the human race. That's like one of his main things. I think I've just identified another reason why Moffat's version of the Doctor bugs me so much - he really does seem to think he's better than humanity, and he has no problem with that belief. Ugh. So frustrating.

Finally, before I stop my complaining, I want to say that this episode suffered from a pacing issue. We've had two episodes building the Monks up, and then they take over for just one episode and are quite easily expelled. It's a bit of a letdown, to say the least. We see bits at the beginning where a woman is being taken out of her home for resisting the Monks, we see the effect of a whole world believing the lie... but that's it. If we'd had a whole half of an episode to spend with Bill while she lives in fear and despair, and then maybe ended part one with the Doctor's first appearance, I feel like the stakes would have been better established.

Pros:

As you can gather from that extensive complaining session, I was really not a fan of this one. That's not to say that it was devoid of good ideas or moments.

As I alluded to, I actually liked the start of the episode. Bill was so discouraged and confused, the world seemed so desperately lost... and the relief I felt when Nardole showed up was palpable. The buildup was actually very good, it's just the payoff the failed.

Despite being a bit disappointed in Missy's role, I continue to think Michelle Gomez is amazing in the role. She really milks every second she's on screen. I liked her speech to the Doctor about how she's making an honest effort to be good, but she's never going to be sentimental like he is. She wants to save the world from the Monks, but she doesn't mind that Bill will need to die for that to happen. Does that make her evil? There's an interesting tension to be explored here. Missy doesn't have a great deal of empathy, but that doesn't make her irredeemable.

Also, like I said, I still do enjoy the relationship between Bill and the Doctor. Bill understands, pragmatically, that her death will save the world, but the Doctor is not willing to consider it. The Doctor says that he wants Bill by his side because it's the safest place in the world for her to be, and Bill remarks that this is how the Monks' plan will succeed. They have this exchange, which I found perfectly heartbreaking:

Bill: "I don't want our last conversation to be this."

Doctor: "I don't want this to be our last conversation."

The Doctor's desperation to save Bill's life was very touching. In some ways it still feels like we're in the introduction episodes for Bill, but in other ways I feel like the deep love between the Doctor and Bill has a strong foundation already. This episode only furthered that impression.

Ultimately, as I expressed at length in the "Cons" section, I was disappointed with this episode. How much cooler would it have been if we'd had to see Bill and Nardole struggle to save the world without the Doctor's help? Or even with the Doctor's active resistance? There were so many times when I could think of a cooler or more nuanced direction for the episode to go, but we didn't get any of that. I hope we get back to the good episodes next week. I suppose there had to be at least one complete flop in the mix the season.

5/10