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The Return of Doctor Mysterio (Grade & Discussion Thread

How do you rate this episode?


  • Total voters
    80
  • Poll closed .
It's odd I was thinking it was a bit meh at one point but by the end it had me really smiling. I liked the relationship between Grant and Lucy, loved the whole Nanny/baby monitor thing, I think Moffat;s sitcom experience helped a lot. And sue me, I like Nardole. Very cheesy and it looked quite cheap in places but it was sweet and funny. It probably sat somewhere between mediocrity and satusuma so as its Christmas I chose to round up. Satsuma.
 
Funny, entertaining. First 20 minutes took a bit of getting into, but then it sorta just rolled by, in a good way. Capaldi was good as always. My issues with Doctor Who of late had nothing to do with Capaldi, who is an amazing Doctor really. The stories just have been uninspiring. This one was, well, by the book really. A good book, but still......
 
I'd agree the first quarter to a third was a bit slow. But it was an ok episode, not the best Christmas Special but not the worst.
 
Especially considering I was expecting it to be fucking terrible, I was actually really pleasantly surprised. The obvious rip off Superman was a bit of an eye roll moment at first, but once you get over that it was actually a pretty good episode, likeable characters all round, good acting from Capaldi, Matt Lucas was actually fairly endearing this time around, which I was particularly surprised about. Plus my mum said it's one of the best ones in her opinion....you people seriously do not know how hard it is to please my mum in the world of Doctor Who.

Seeing the trailer for series 10 at the end though, I have very little enthusiasm. Bill seems......like not the sort of person who I'd have case shall we say. I hope the next series isn't too comedic, which the trailer suggests it may be. That said I've been wrong about so much (I thought Matt Smith was going to be a great Doctor, whilst I was really annoyed when Capaldi was first cast), so who knows. I hope we get more recurring villains than just the Daleks though.
 
The Daleks will likely always appear, sadly. But anyway.

I liked it, too. Its was certainly OK, and not very Doctor-centric, but I appreciated Capaldi's most Tom Baker-esque performance yet (seriously, Smith's Doctor was alien, but he's Alien with the capital on!). And I love Nardole! Hope he survives Moff's exit, actually.

Overall, an enjoyable fluff, fititng for the holidays. Its basically the most average Doctor Who Christmas story since 2011.
 
Ok, I know that the writers wanted to convince us that Grant was cute and whatever, but didn't he come off a little creepy? I mean, becoming a nanny for the woman whom he was secretly in love for 24 years?

And it was clear that was just an excuse to be near her. I'm quite sure that no psychoanalyst would say it is a healthy behavior. This is borderline stalking.
 
The Doctor setting up a Time Distortion Equalizer Thingy in New York. I take it he's fixing the Weeping Angel's time paradoxes from Angels Take Manhattan. That's why the TARDIS can now enter New York?
 
It was fun, with some good dialogue and character moments. Though I never expected that the weirdest character in a story about time travelers and aliens and superheroes would be the normal human reporter. What was the deal with that screaming squeaky toy??? And yes, Nardole was a lot less annoying than I feared he'd be.

Nice that the Superman comic the Doctor was reading was a John Byrne issue (not the same Johnny Byrne who wrote "The Keeper of Traken," "The Arc of Infinity," and "Warriors of the Deep," by the way). Since that was 24 years ago, or 1992, that's about right, assuming the issue was a few years old (his tenure on Superman was 1986-88). Did anyone recognize what issue it was, by any chance?

The Twelfth Doctor seems to have matured a lot over his tenure. Just a couple of seasons ago, he was this cold, hard-edged figure who barely seemed to care about people. He seems to be a much more committed, less grudging hero now, warmer than he was.


Ok, I know that the writers wanted to convince us that Grant was cute and whatever, but didn't he come off a little creepy? I mean, becoming a nanny for the woman whom he was secretly in love for 24 years?

And it was clear that was just an excuse to be near her. I'm quite sure that no psychoanalyst would say it is a healthy behavior. This is borderline stalking.

Seems more like extreme shyness to me. And wanting to be there for her in some way after her husband ran out on her and left her with a baby. Not everything has to have some cynical dark side to it, especially not in a superhero story.


But he still won't save Amy!!! :wah:

Does she need saving? She and Rory lived a long, full life together; it was just in the past.
 
Not bad. There's definite room for improvement, but overall it was reasonably entertaining, even genuinely funny in some bits. The stuff with Grant and Lucy did go a bit long, and the ending seemed rushed, but I at least stayed mostly engaged by it.

My major complaint is actually somewhat ironic given how much I criticize Moffat for his time travel shenanigans, as this time he's gone and done the exact opposite by not taking into account the Doctor is a time traveler. Specifically, we get references to the fact the Doctor has taken a twenty-four year leave of absence because of the night he spent with River at the Singing Towers. Apparently this is why he hasn't seen Grant at all for twenty-four years. But as a time traveler, this shouldn't matter, he could easily have dropped in on Grant any time during his childhood after the quarter-century night with River, and likewise others shouldn't be able to notice a time traveler taking a twenty-four year leave of absence, how would you know unless you were somehow linked with his subjective timeline? Which, no one in this episode was, with the possible exception of Nardole.

And one final oddity, American UNIT forces answer to Osgood now?
 
And one final oddity, American UNIT forces answer to Osgood now?

Not answer to -- consult with. She's the scientific advisor, so they turn to her when they encounter something weird that needs investigating, like a corpse with a big hole where its brain and eyes should be.
 
Not answer to -- consult with. She's the scientific advisor, so they turn to her when they encounter something weird that needs investigating, like a corpse with a big hole where its brain and eyes should be.
She's the science advisor to UNIT's UK branch, the US one should have its own science advisor. Unless her and her Zygon double have since split up taken on the two science advisor positions.
 
Ok, I know that the writers wanted to convince us that Grant was cute and whatever, but didn't he come off a little creepy? I mean, becoming a nanny for the woman whom he was secretly in love for 24 years?

And it was clear that was just an excuse to be near her. I'm quite sure that no psychoanalyst would say it is a healthy behavior. This is borderline stalking.

Yes. That was pretty clear.
But he still won't save Amy!!! :wah:

Well, once the Equalizer thingy's done its work, perhaps Amy and Rory's adopted son will need a nanny... :whistle:

OK, no. The Doctor's had enough time away now to get some perspective, and recently losing River's no doubt another reason he'd want to somehow reconnect.

If nothing else, the door has now been opened (just a, ahem, crack) for The Amy Pond Adventures if/when Karen Gillan's movie career slows down.
 
Not bad. There's definite room for improvement, but overall it was reasonably entertaining, even genuinely funny in some bits. The stuff with Grant and Lucy did go a bit long, and the ending seemed rushed, but I at least stayed mostly engaged by it.

My major complaint is actually somewhat ironic given how much I criticize Moffat for his time travel shenanigans, as this time he's gone and done the exact opposite by not taking into account the Doctor is a time traveler. Specifically, we get references to the fact the Doctor has taken a twenty-four year leave of absence because of the night he spent with River at the Singing Towers. Apparently this is why he hasn't seen Grant at all for twenty-four years. But as a time traveler, this shouldn't matter, he could easily have dropped in on Grant any time during his childhood after the quarter-century night with River, and likewise others shouldn't be able to notice a time traveler taking a twenty-four year leave of absence, how would you know unless you were somehow linked with his subjective timeline? Which, no one in this episode was, with the possible exception of Nardole.

And one final oddity, American UNIT forces answer to Osgood now?

I don't think we're meant to take it that way, that the Doctor not visiting Grant for 24 years was the time he was away with River. Rather, it's a coincidence that the time between visits with Grant is the same length of time that he was with River, thus bringing up the memories of what has just transpired for the Doctor. Frankly, after he left young Grant in high school, determining the boy's DNA was now changed by the gemstone thing, there wasn't a whole lot of reason for the Doctor to return to him. There was nothing more he could do for the boy, and no great threat to be dealt with.
 
She's the science advisor to UNIT's UK branch, the US one should have its own science advisor.

Even so, one doesn't "answer to" an advisor, scientific or otherwise. The reason they're called advisors is because they can't give orders, just suggestions. (Well, the Doctor basically ran the show as UNIT's scientific advisor, but the Brigadier was still officially in charge, and there were times when the Doctor's advice fell on deaf ears.)

The Doctor did say he'd tipped UNIT off. Maybe he tipped off Osgood and she was the one who contacted the US branch. So they coordinated with her because she was already involved.
 
The Doctor did say he'd tipped UNIT off. Maybe he tipped off Osgood and she was the one who contacted the US branch.
Wouldn't it make more sense to contact Kate Stewart? She actually runs the UK branch, and therefore likely has more pull when making requests of other UNIT branches than a science advisor would.
 
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