Doctor Who 10.5: Oxygen

[selenay]

There is nothing I can say about this that isn't spoilery, so here we go!


Okay, I think my opinion on this episode might be heavily influenced by my dislike for zombies and thus getting really creeped out in places. Not kidding, this was way scarier than last week's episode for me. So it's probably not going to be my favourite of the season, even though it had some good points.

I'm also pushed for time, so it's bullet-points again:

• ZOMBIES. It cannot be emphasised enough how much this creeped me out. I know it was dead bodies in suits, but seriously, they were zombies.


• The commentary on capitalism and its dangers, though? Not subtle, but YAY DOCTOR WHO BEING ALL POLITICALLY RELEVANT.


• Also, while the racism angle wasn't tackled as well as it was in Thin Ice, I did get a kick out of it. Bill's uncomfortable realisation that she isn't immune, which made me squirm and then I realised why and squirmed some more. Nardole's "I have blue friends!". Nice to see that particular theme not getting dropped.


• I never actually thought Bill was dead, but I'd seen hints of a massive twist online before I watched this, so I was preparing myself for being wrong about not killing the companion.


• That major twist being the Doctor's sight? Okay, now I'm freaked out! I started to twig when he wouldn't look up at Nardole and then he confirmed it and WOW. It's got me really intrigued about next week's episode, which would have had me hooked with secret Vatican books anyway. Now I'm really intrigued. And I'm wondering how long they'll keep the Doctor's blindness going.


• Bill being so totally freaked out about basically everything was A+ and I was completely with her. That's an adventure that will need some major recovery time, I reckon.


• I think the only problem for me was that the zombies existed and it never quite felt like it gelled the way it should. Although I can't tell whether that latter point is my zombie issues bleeding over into everything or if it's a genuine issue.


• In conclusion, this is still my favourite Capaldi season so far, I love Bill more with every week, and I am ridiculously excited about next week's episode because VATICAN and that glimpse of MISSY and please don't disappoint me?

I am still overjoyed about this whole having new Doctor Who every week thing, guys. It's never going to get old.

Comments

[katlinel]

Sorry, behind on commenting. I found I liked the episode in spite of the zombies. (Zombies are still a big DNW for me.) I wonder if the production team were trying to get a very distinct look that was notably different from the data ghosts in spacesuits in Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead? Unfortunately, that did mean classic zombies, in movement and look. If the suit is moving the body, rather than the other way around, I am not sure what that means for the motions and rhythms of that movement.

Where it being zombies did work for me was as a critique of capitalism. I don't know the source, but there's this quote that's along the lines, "Vampires represent working-class fears about the upper classes; zombies represent the upper classes' fears about the working class." I think it ties in with the episode even if the zombies themselves weren't a rebellious mob and it's the survivors taking the fight back to headquarters who are to be feared.

I'm wondering how long they'll keep the issue of the sight loss.

Bill is still brilliant.

[selenay]

I listened to the Verity episode on this and it made me look at it in a different way, which got me past my zombie issues. I like it a lot more now!

I wonder if the production team were trying to get a very distinct look that was notably different from the data ghosts in spacesuits in Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead? Unfortunately, that did mean classic zombies, in movement and look.

That's an interesting thought. If they'd done the skeleton thing or the empty suit thing, I wouldn't have found it as frightening and zombie-ish. But then it would have resembled the data ghosts too much. But as soon as you've got an obviously-dead body moving around and that flat-eyed expression and so on, it turns into zombies. It was the bit where they were milling around in confusion, unable to access zone twelve, that really got to me and felt most zombie-ish. And the first suit that turned around, that made me recoil pretty hard. But those are all a combination of movement--the jerky, inhuman style is so closely associated with zombies--combined with the corpse that got me.

Where it being zombies did work for me was as a critique of capitalism

Oh, gosh, YES. The critique of capitalism really worked for me. It ties into that quote as well. The notion of workers as disposable and their continued lives as uneconomical is simultaneously horrific...and very plausible in the light of comments we read from bosses about the way they view their workers.

Bill will always be brilliant. I love her. She's definitely joined Ace and Donna as by FAVOURITE EVER, which I feel says a lot.

I'm wondering how long they'll keep the issue of the sight loss.

Longer than I expected! I didn't think it would go past this week, so this is interesting.