After Listen, Time Heist had a lot to live up to. I was hoping for a Doctor Who meets Hustle style episode and I think we just about got that.
I loved the episode, the look and overall visual quality of it was absolutely superb. Douglas McKinnon again providing us with some beautiful direction. Can he stay forever please?
The pre-title sequence was one of the more random but equally brilliant ones I have seen for a long while, starting off with the (kind of) time vortex whirling around until you see the Doctor’s face staring at Clara’s washing machine. Technically, it was excellent. The Doctor’s phone rings, with ‘the woman in the shop’ mystery still floating around it was intriguing who could be phoning him. I thought perhaps it might be Missy, Gatekeeper of the Nethersphere, or even River at a very far stretch (I wish though). The moment the Doctor answers the phone we are instantly transported to the Doctor and Clara, sat at a table with two strangers apparently agreeing to rob the most impenetrable bank in the universe. Queue titles. Faultless. One of the best pre-titles for a long time.
Psi, the augmented gamer come bank robber, and Saibra the mutant shape-shifting human, were honestly some of the best supporting cast we have ever had besides River and The Paternosters. Supporting cast members have always been hit and miss, the good ones usually coming to an untimely end, or being generally forgettable. Psi and Saibra were for me the best we have seen in years. Truly holding their own and making me feel like I could see the pair of them have their own spin-off. Jonathan Bailey (of Broadchurch fame) was brilliant, who knew augmented humans can be so attractive? (sorry-not-sorry). I felt like Clara and Psi could be together, I certainly ship them, more so than Danny. Saibra was a great addition adding some sassy, sharp intelligence and gravitas to the situation. Maintaining the moral high-ground sometimes over the Doctor. I am glad they didn’t actually die, they are definitely ones I would love to return in a future episode.
Time Heist provided us with the sleekest looking episode for a very long time. I’ve said once before but I honestly believe the LOOK of this series is absolutely first class. I cannot fault the quality of the episodes, in every sense of the word. Slow motion showing Clara, The Doctor, Psi and a transformed Saibra walking into the main bank was like something out of Oceans Eleven, beautifully done. As they try and keep their calm walking through the main building an intruder alarm goes off, another slow motion shot establishing one of the more cleverly written monsters for a while, The Teller. Slowly striding out in a straight-jacket, this monster looks like something not to be messed with. A creature that can detect guilt? Genius. Latching onto another man, he wipes his mind and turns him into a vegetable. I loved the effect of the caved in head.
Accompanying the Teller is the villainous Ms Delphox, played by the wonderful Keeley Hawes. Ms Delphox, was billed to be one of the best ‘baddies’ for a while, Moffat hyping her up to have lots more significance than we thought. Another over-hyped character I feel. I still loved the character, Keeley did a magnificent job with her, and Director Karabraxos. That woman can do no wrong. However I felt that the characters didn’t REALLY do much, and they weren’t really that integral to the plot, particularly Delphox. I would’ve liked to have had some more depth into Karabraxos’s character.
‘The Architect’, meanwhile, has been laying out some clues throughout the layers of the bank ready for Clara, the Doctor and co to find. What made me think was, if the ‘Architect’ was able to get through to the actual vault on his own, why did he need the others in the first place? Or am I missing a point here..
As the gang head through some ventilation shafts (love a good ventilation shaft me, would’ve liked to have actually seen them crawl through them.) They end up in the Teller’s chamber. In a box very very much like the 456’s box from Torchwood Series 3, the Teller is in forced hibernation, but Clara’s guilt is detected and he soon starts waking up. When you see Clara trying to clear her mind we see her face, scared or anxious. Is that what she is thinking about? Is that where the guilt is coming from? Or is that what the Teller sees from his perspective? Is that going to be significant? Or again am I missing a point… As they try to escape it latches onto Saibra instead, unable to let go from it’s telepathic force, she asks the Doctor to give her one of the ‘exit strategy’ shredders they found in a previous layer of the bank.
“Do one thing for me Doctor? The Architect, kill him.”
“I hate him. But I can’t make a promise like that.” - and then, Saibra is gone.
As the gang get down to the lower levels of the bank nearer to the vault. The security of the bank becomes more compromised, and a concerned Ms Delphox releases the Teller into the tunnels. The Doctor, Clara and Psi in a desperate attempt to get to the vault find the computer system, where the Architect has left them another clue. As Psi patches himself into the software to trip the system, they soon realise the Teller is down with them. So in order to lessen the thought track it’s following they split up. Clara once again finds herself a bit like a damsel in distress, with the Teller latching onto her guilt. This time however she can’t escape it, and Psi, hearing her struggle, finds the Teller and uses another shredder, and sacrifices himself to release Clara.
With the Teller seemingly gone, the Doctor and Clara are once again the last two standing. They realise that one last security protocol hasn’t worked, meaning the vault cannot open. However, the Doctor soon has a brainwave, and it’s revealed that it’s not just a bank heist, it’s a time heist.
At about 15 minutes into the episode, I figured out the Architect would be the Doctor. It was so obvious the moment he started describing him. Given that, at the point where Clara and the Doctor are standing by the vault, I thought that a future version of the two of them would appear behind them, I was wrong. A solar storm trips the system, meaning that the vault can finally open. As they walk through a maze of different storage containers, they find the things that Saibra and Psi wanted most, for Psi, to have his memories back, and for Saibra a gene suppressant enabling her to become normal. But what are Clara and the Doctor’s rewards?
Oh look, the Teller isn’t gone, and it’s found them. A quick cut to Ms Delphox’s office where they’re now captive shows Delphox’s darker side. As she leaves to put the Teller back in hibernation, she orders their execution, but oh wait.. Psi and Saibra aren’t dead! Hoorah! The shredders were in fact teleports, but it was never revealed where they actually teleported to, but it doesn’t matter because ‘Team Not Dead’ are indeed, not dead.
Why couldn’t The Teller have just latched onto Karabraxos or Delphox’s thoughts and turned her into soup?
The team decide to head down to the private vault, where they find themselves in a treasure trove. Goods of high value scattered across the room and antiques on display. It’s revealed that Director Karabraxos is in fact Keeley Hawes. Not literally, but it’s revealed Karabraxos has clones of herself in every facility, hence Delphox. A nice little plot twist, but one in all honesty I wasn’t too fussed about. For a moment I thought we might’ve either had Missy in the airmchair, or a future version of the Doctor.
The scene is well played out, a nice little speech from the Doctor as the Teller grabs onto his thoughts is great. “Big scarf, bowtie; bit embarrassing.” It did heavily remind me of Series 7’s Rings of Akhaten where the Eleventh Doctor says “Take my memories”.
It is revealed that the Doctor is in fact the Architect, and that it was an elderly and regretful Karabraxos ringing the Doctor in the past. Clever editing explained this well. I am still a touch confused by it all though.
For my own sake here I am going to try and summarise the plot: Basically the Doctor, after getting a call from old woman Karabraxos, finds and recruits Saibra and Psi because of their skills, then goes on his own into the bank on the date it is at it’s most vulnerable because of the solar storm and lays down the clues for himself, then drags Clara, finds some memory worms, records and creates the Architect guise and they all apparently wake up at the table after touching the worm none the wiser. So they basically did all that all because Karabraxos felt guilty cooping up another secret Teller in a vault the other Teller knew the code to all along? Why couldn’t it have just latched onto Karabraxos or Delphox’s thoughts and turned her into soup, securing his and his lady friends release? The Doctor and Clara still didn’t get a reward either, so the pair of them did it all for nothing, or was the satisfaction of saving two of the last Teller’s enough for them? At least they all got Chinese at the end of it.
The whole episode was despite all that, brilliant, and actually was better second time round. I can overlook the slightly nonsensical plot because of the quality of it all, the acting and the direction. I still liked it, just a bit (for want of a better word) meh? after it.
Next week’s episode The Caretaker, looks cracking.
Onwards chums!
8/10.
Comments
All opinion pieces and reviews published on this website are the personal opinions of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of this website as a whole.
Any articles based on rumours will come from a variety of sources and may be true, true in part or completely false, they should not be repeated as fact nor taken as anything other than the rumours they are until there is confirmation from official sources.
