C+Q - The Return of Doctor Mysterio (2016)
This episode suffers a lot from being the only Doctor Who episode released in 2016. The Return of Doctor Mysterio isn't bad, nor is it particularly mind-blowing. It's a perfectly fun and acceptable adventure with a fun premise that it does well, but it just isn't enough. This is less like an episode of Doctor Who and more like a tribute to Superman. I'm perfectly fine with that, especially given that this show has a long and storied history of slamming different genres together and to see what works. The problem is 2016 desperately needed some Who. This episode would've felt more appropriate coming at the end of a full series or as a regular episode in the middle of a run rather than as a one-off hour-long special released a full year after the last one.
That being said, I like this episode a lot more than I thought I would. It's full of nice Doctor Whoy touches, particularly in the soundtrack. Thankfully, after Children in Need released a preview clip with fucking terrible stock music (hey composers: do us all a favour and delete the file on your computer called 'Comic Relief Theme'. I don't care what show it's for or what it sounds like. It fucking sucks), the music used in the actual episode is actually quite good and has some lovely Radiophonic Workshop-esque synth. There are also some nice continuity references, including an attempt by the Doctor to repair the time distortion surrounding New York, completely unprompted. This is great to see, and it's this sort of clear action on the Doctor's part to achieve one of his goals that the 'search for Gallifrey' arc was clearly lacking.
The addition of Nardole from last year's Christmas Special as a regular companion is clearly tacked on and it's obvious that it wasn't planned this time last year. It almost seems like a slap in the face that the Donna lightning finally struck twice and a throwaway one-episode character has once again been upgraded to full-time companion status and it was fucking Nardole. But, as much as his return feels out of place, and it definitely does feel out of place, we at least got the best version of 'Nardole as a regular companion' that we possibly could have got. He's a lot more genuine here than he is in The Husbands of River Song, with a few quieter moments like his aside about River at the end. Matt Lucas' main mode, comedy, actually does entertain me this time around. He gets a few really good lines in (after a particularly bad start with a literal toilet joke). But the main thing I love about Nardole and by extension Matt Lucas is how surprisingly fun he is to have in the TARDIS. One of the highlights of the episode for me was when Nardole and the Doctor are chugging tea and rushing around the console room, trying to locate the alien ship in orbit. They're clearly having so much fun together and I'm so glad we've managed to avoid the Doctor's miserable git 'I've just lost a companion' phase for Clara.
It's also refreshing to have a full-time Doctor Who companion who isn't from modern day Earth and who's well versed in sci-fi lore. Nardole understands how aliens and spaceships and the TARDIS all work because he's part of that sci-fi world. He's able to make throwaway references to the Time Lords because he knows who they are and what they're about. I get the sense from their scenes together that Nardole and the Doctor are genuinely good friends. They're on the same page. They have a laugh together. The Doctor can say things to Nardole that other companions wouldn't understand. That alone gives me a lot to look forward to in Series 10, along with the addition of Bill. I'm a big fan of larger TARDIS crews, and the Twelfth Doctor strikes me as an incarnation who'd work best with a crowded console room. Right now Nardole suffers from Steven Moffat's recurring problem of deciding after the fact to increase a character's screentime without giving them enough additional depth to make the transition work, but I'm confident he'll at least be a fun addition to Capaldi's crew. I didn't expect to be saying this but I actually can't wait to see more of Nardole.
As much as I like both the Doctor Who elements and the Superman elements in this episode, they mostly fail to connect with each other. This isn't really a Doctor Who version of Superman, it's just a Superman story existing in the same space that Doctor Who occupies. This becomes very apparent towards the end when the Doctor Who stuff and the Superman stuff are operating completely independently of one another. The love triangle farce stuff with Grant's double life is fine but it just isn't as fun or engaging as whatever the Doctor and Nardole are doing. In 2016, the Doctor cameoed in both the first episode of Class and in The Return of Doctor Mysterio. He wasn't the main attraction in either of them. This episode is a fine hour of TV, but there should've been more Doctor Who in that hour. I say this as a big fan of superheroes and as a supporter of them turning up in Doctor Who. This is a TV show about whimsy, optimism, and fun; clearly superheroes belong in the Whoniverse. I'd just rather have a Doctor Who adventure in Doctor Who's time slot than a superhero film.
Next: The Pilot