So in a little under nine hours, we should find out what is in The Vault, my money is on a post "End of Time" but pre-regen of The Master, but whom ever it is, I'm looking forward to finding out. Anyway, here is what the Radio Times says should be happening in the episode:
I've been looking forward to this three-episode story arc since it was first announced. Hopefully it's executed well considering three different writers are involved.
I've not paid attention to the new series and I didn't realise it was a three part arc starting tonight.
Pfft, didn't wanna do the threads anyway! Okay, so: Doctor Who has finally done a holodeck episode. Joseph Long (His Holiness) also appeared as Rocco Colasanto in Turn Left. They sure want their money's worth out of the oval office set. CERN resembled a harvester. It was the Master in the vault after all, to basically nobody's surprise. This is the BBC's answer to VOY: In the Flesh. Does this technically count as "it was all just a dream"? Long was clearly chosen to resemble Francis, whereas the dead POTUS was neither Trump nor Clinton.
What a wonderfully churlish thing to say and no one, most certainly me didn't say anything about you not starting them, just the ones you did were half-arsed. - By all means, do it next week though as I won't have the chance, I'll be in the motherland getting lashed. Well, we really enjoyed that and was one of Moffats better written episodes in a long time. I must admit, having read Bedlum by Christopher Brookmyre which had similar themes, I do find the concept in this episode and being in a simulation and not knowing, I find rather un-nerving, if not downright scary.
I can see this being divisive and though I came down on the side of enjoying it I did waver a couple of times. Very Moffat, and felt like an episode of Sherlock early on. Loved the Missy stuff (nice to see the guy from Humans) and some funny stuff with the Pope ruining Bill's date. It really is a shame we're only getting one season of this TARDIS team because they're a great unit. Love the notion of what would make scientists and priests both lose hope. Not sure about the Doctor emailing out of the simulation though. One last point, does this count as a Doctor lite episode?
The Android Invasion as a Voyager Holovel. (And outright lampshaded as such by Nardole!) Still, it was fun, and the regulars continue to be great.
Glad the simulation wasn't Missy's plan... Obviously learnt her lesson after Castrovalva! Simpaldi's emailing the info to the "real" Doctor was a punch-the-air moment I really needed this week. And who else thought Simm!Master was gonna be under the robes rather than Nardole? Who, by the way, was fucking awesome this week, hologram or not.
Now there's one for the scrapbook. I'm not pleased by how good it was so much as relieved at how bad it wasn't. We didn't have any creepy-voiced children, screwing with time or "spoilers" and the mystery box was put out of its misery early on, though there were still hints of further playing with regeneration. I'm just disappointed that no-one said "Computer, end programme!", though there's still the second part.
Fantastic episode and a great mysterious premise without being overly complicated. I love the idea of an alien species using a sophisticated simulation to test their invasion subjects without risking themselves, even to the point of expecting how some of the shadows would become self-aware. I also loved how they didn't predict the possibility of scanning the complex nature of The Doctor and how that self-aware shadow would not only turn on the testers, but succeed in warning the real Doctor, Even though they weren't real, it was great seeing Bill and Nardole working together without The Doctor and seeing how their rapport is just as fun as they are individually with The Doctor. No surprise about Missy being in the Vault, but it was nice to see how and why she was there, as well as how and why Nardole is working with The Doctor. Of course, it's all River's fault. Reaching out from the grave and still giving The Doctor a hard time. I approve. I wonder if we'll learn learn more about those people are who were in charge of the execution and if we'll see them again. Nice to see the sonic sunglasses serve a practical use for once and how they only improved The Doctor's sight in the smallest of fashions. I also loved this episode because it reminded me of Big Finish's The Natural History of Fear. Spoiler: The Natural History of Fear Not that it was a hologram all along, but that the our heroes weren't actually themselves, but a representation of them. In fact, The Doctor and his two companions, a female and a male, both times. A clever trick by the audio play because it wouldn't work on television because the physical characteristics of the people on Bortresoye weren't bipedal. The conceit works in "Extremis" because the trick is holographic, therefore it works on the visual medium. I'm betting it was the same set used in "The Impossible Astronaut" and "Day of the Moon." I wasn't too impressed by the rug, though. Heh, technically it is. Not only under the robes, but also the narration at the beginning. I was clearly projecting my expectations onto this episode. I expect we're done with the computer simulation and back to the real versions of The Doctor, Bill, and Nardole. How so? Seemed pretty straight forward.
About the three brain stems - Who fans will argue over ANYTHING. But, immediate thought, how come people taking scans of the Doctor haven't remarked on it when they HAVE been puzzled by the two hearts? But then we still have folks trying to explain why no-one spotted the double pulse when Hartnell was the Doctor (various "second heart is added by first regeneration" or "First Doctor's age meant second heart had stopped" things that have been invalidated by subsequent stories).
The TARDIS knows the Pope is meant to show up speaking Latin, so why spoil the show? Besides, translated from Latin, he sounds Welsh.
Perhaps the aliens didn't realize the TARDIS has a translation circuit and therefore didn't compensate. Ah, I see what you mean. No skin off my back, but you're right about Whovians (or fans in general).
Am I missing something, or did they explain where the Veritas originally came from? Did that ancient cult somehow figure out they'er not real earlier in the simulation and it just so happened to coincide with the Doctor's present day, or is it some inbuilt kill switch for the end of the simulation? If it's the latter then that seems like an unnecessarily complicated way to do it. I guess what I'm getting at is that I don't understand what the inciting incident is.
Of course, the most important question raised by the episode has to be... why does the Pope look like Angelina Jolie?
Perhaps the ones who put the simulation together didn't know about the translation circuit? And I agree, he sounded straight up Welsh.