Villordsutch reviews Doctor Who series 8 episode 5 – ‘Time Heist’…
The Doctor – “Why is your face all coloured in?”
‘Time Heist’, written by Stephen Moffat and Steve Thompson, can easily fall into two piles on a desk. You either “Enjoyed It” or you “Didn’t Enjoy it”. I was balancing on precipice between these choices and when I thought I made my judgement and began to base jump into my chosen pile something happened and I quickly scrambled back up and continued to sit there, waiting to make my final decision.
From last week’s fear inducing ‘Listen‘ we come to this, a bank heist story where a shrouded figured called the Architect has convinced the Doctor, Clara and two new companions – an Augmented-Human called Psi (Jonathan Bailey) and a Mutated-Human called Saibra (Pippa Bennett-Warner) – to rob the most fortified bank in the Universe, Karabraxos. Our would be robbers have no idea what they are to pilfer as they’ve all agreed to a memory wipe about the “Job” but through the mission clues and gadgets are left to aid them by the Architect. They are being tracked through this bank by a creature called the Teller who can sense guilt and promptly liquefy your brain at the command from the head of security Ms Delphox (Keeley Hawes).
Douglas MacKinnon who directed last week’s rather excellent ‘Listen’ also directed ‘Time Heist’ which is rather odd as I thought we had a new director to the world of Who at the beginning of this episode, due to the fact when the main four players “awaken” in the room the direction became far too hectic to the point it began to irritate me. This confused, messy direction continued up until the Teller melts the first brain then the pace slows back down but there are a few more moments like this scattered throughout. It’s like Douglas can easily deal with the tension of slow builds but when chaos starts or more than three people talk then he can’t keep the scene, which is where I feel people are jumping towards the “Didn’t Enjoy It” pile. The shame is that between these messy moments there are some enjoyable parts which build upon how good series 8 is becoming.
Another thing this episode had was the feeling of Old Who, mainly because of the same corridors and vents they reused. Here is one of the most secure and biggest banks in the world and all I can see is coloured lights in the same corridors repeated over and over. So, where I did fall on the desk in the end? Well it was the “Enjoyed It” pile, but not before cutting myself on a few rocks on the way down.
Next week the Doctor seems to want to know who the competition is in his life when he becomes the caretaker at Coal Hill School – where Clara and Danny Pink work – in The Caretaker.
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
Originally published September 22, 2014. Updated December 13, 2019.
