Doctor Who: Extremis, series 10 episode 6: the Doctor meets the Pope

Doctor Who: Extremis
Doctor Who: Extremis Credit: BBC

Is the Pope Catholic? Yes. Is he in Doctor Who? Also yes. The Pontiff made a holy cameo in this head-spinning adventure, titled “Extremis”. Here’s all the talking points from episode six…

What in the galaxy was going on?

Lots to discuss in this episode, including Missy’s near-execution, Nardole’s badassery and that Papal visit to the Tardis. But first things first: what the merry heck was happening in this twisty-turny episode, written by timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly showrunner Steven Moffat?

Well, as we understood it, evil demons The Monks (they remained unnamed during the episode itself but that’s what they were called in the closing credits) planned to conquer Earth but first needed to learn about the planet and its human occupants, so created a sophisticated holographic simulation or “shadow world” - a giant computer game, on which they could practise invading. 

When the virtual Doctor worked this out, he managed to email a recording of the episode’s events to his real self, filling himself in on the Monks’ modus operandi and telling himself to save the world. Except he’s still blind, so might need the help of a certain friend…

Pope controversially used for comic effect

It’s rare enough for the Bishop of Rome to pop up in a TV drama, let alone for him to be deployed mainly for jokey purposes. Yet Moffat treated The Pope with flippant irreverence which could prove contentious among more devout viewers. 

The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) casually confessed to a brief fling with Pope Benedict IX back in 1045 (historically plausible for a Papacy that ran from 1032 to 1048). There have long been theories about female pontiffs during the Middle Ages, most notably Pope Joan, and this one was something of an Angelina Jolie-lookalike temptress. “Lovely girl, what a night,” mused the misty-eyed Timelord.

It felt distinctly Sherlockian when the current incumbent (played by Italian-English actor Joseph Long, who also appeared in 2008 episode “Turn Left”) arrived at the university to ask for the Doctor’s help with ancient book The Veritas, which was causing anyone who read it to commit suicide. How? By proving to the reader that they weren’t real.

The Doctor duly hopped into the Tardis to pick up companion Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie), who was busy on a date with new-found love interest Penny (NW’s Ronke Adekoluejo). The latter was feeling guilty enough about their sweetly tentative romance until The Pope arrived out of the blue, talking in sacred-sounding Italian. Small wonder we couldn’t see poor Penny for dust. 

Doctor Who: Extremis
Doctor Who: Extremis Credit: BBC

Doctor saved Missy from death penalty

This episode’s action was intercut with flashbacks to “A long time ago” and the execution of a Timelord. Moffat playfully let us think it was The Doctor’s before revealing that he was actually the executioner - and it was Missy (Michelle Gomez), the female incarnation of the Master, who’d received the death penalty. Off with her head!

Set in a Game Of Thrones-esque landscape with Rafando (Ivanno Jeremiah, aka Max the soulful synth from Humans) overseeing an inter-galactic death squad, this was spookily grandiose stuff. 

However, aided by wife River Song’s reminder from beyond the grave to be a virtuous “madman in a box”, The Doctor only pretended to stop Missy’s “two hearts and three brain stems”, instead imprisoning her in a quantum chamber and vowing to watch over her for a thousand years. The mystery of the vault was finally solved, it seemed.  

Missy was typically playful throughout, first begging for her life (“Please, I’ll do anything. Let me live… Teach me how to be good… I’m your friend”), then wisecracking with her captors (“Get off, I’ve just been executed. Show a little respect” and “Knock yourself out. Actually, do that. Knock yourself right out”). Another deliciously entertaining cameo from Gomez with, we trust, more to come.

Doctor Who: Extremis
Doctor Who: Extremis Credit: BBC

Nardole isn’t a valet, he’s a chaperone

As well as the mystery of the vault, we also got answers about the enigmatic backstory of valet Nardole (Matt Lucas, continuing to come into his own after a slow start to the series). 

Appearing at the execution disguised as a priest, Nardole explained that he had followed the Doctor from Mendorax Dellora (setting of 2015 Christmas special “The Husbands of River Song”) on River’s explicit orders - “and I have full permission to kick your arse”. 

Not so much a butler, then, as a shadowing chaperone, helping keep the grieving, angry Doctor on the straight and narrow. 

Forming an intrepid double act with Bill, Nardole also dropped further hints that he’s not quite as harmlessly bumbling as he first appears. “Are you secretly a badass?” asked an impressed Bill, to which he replied: “Nothing secret about it, babydoll.”

Doctor Who: Extremis
Doctor Who: Extremis Credit: BBC

Hello, Harry Potter. Plus a Star Trek nod for second week running

Last week’s episode “Oxygen” opened with “Space, the final frontier” and Moffat slipped in a more overt reference here, with Nardole comparing the shadow world to “the Holodeck in Star Trek”. Moffat is something of a Trekkie and once said he’d to a Who/Trek crossover “in a heartbeat” - although he had some conditions: "It would have to be real Star Trek. It has to be the Doctor meets Mr Spock - that's the one you want.”

Indeed, this script was liberally sprinkled with pop cultural references. In the Haereticum - the Vatican’s secret library of blasphemy - Bill wondered aloud if JK Rowling’s novels were in there. “Harry Potter!” she exclaimed. “Language!” admonished the Doctor. There were also echoes of films with a simulated reality theme, such as The Matrix, Tron, Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, and the writing of Philip K Dick.

Gaming did't get left out either, with Nardole comparing the shadow world to Grand Theft Auto and the Doctor using a Super Mario analogy. Further evidence of the show’s increased efforts to appeal to a younger audience, perhaps. 

Monks were sofa-hidingly scary

Doctor Who: Extremis
Doctor Who: Extremis Credit: BBC

“Something is coming. Something big and something very, very bad.” In a classic case of keeping the monster unseen for as long as possible, we didn’t get to meet this story’s antagonists until past the episode’s halfway point. When we eventually did, they were suitably terrifying: clad in blood-red robes, with creepy claw-hands and zombie-esque faces which recalled The Mummy film franchise. 

Combined with the trippy setting and the Doctor’s disorientating blurred vision, it lent a woozy, nightmarish quality to events in the library. Moffat loves a creepy atheneum, as evidenced in his shadowy 2008 frightener “Silence in the Library” .

The Monks’ shudder-inducing voices were provided by Tim Bentinck - best known as David from The Archers and also, fact fans, formerly the voice of "Mind The Gap” on the London Underground’s Piccadilly Line. Commuters in the capital might have experienced an extra shiver of familiarity.

Talking of scares, the “Shadow Test” synchronised chanting of random numbers at the CERN laboratory was also seriously macabre - and recalled another 2008 episode, “Midnight”, when a mysterious entity possessed Lesley Sharp and she repeated everything the Doctor said. Brrr. 

First non-self-contained episode worked well

This episode opened a loose three-parter billed as “The Monks Trilogy”, continuing over the next fortnight. It seems a smart move for a wider-ranging story to straddle the middle of the series. 

If there’s been one complaint so far, it’s that the self-contained 45-minute adventures have had rather rushed endings. Now we were back into classic Who territory, complete with slow-building pace and cliffhanger endings. 

This story took advantage of its broader scope with lots of international location-hopping - from the university lecture theatre and Bill’s house, all the way to the Vatican, the Pentagon and CERN in Switzerland, plus that unnamed execution planet. 

Not forgetting that climactic scene set in the Oval office, where the US President - or at least a virtual one - had committed suicide after reading The Veritas. We imagine Donald Trump would be safe, though. He’d get someone else to read it for him anyway.

Script crammed with cracking lines

There was typical Moffat wit and verve to the dialogue, which kept what could have been an overly complex episode fizzing along nicely. 

A few favourites? Bill’s foster mother telling her “I have very strict rules about men” and lesbian Bill’s retort: “Probably not as strict as mine.” Nardole’s weary sigh at The Doctor and Cardinal Angelo;s wordplay: “You’d be wizard at writing Christmas crackers, you two.”  

And finally, the Doctor’s digested review of Moby Dick: “Honestly, shut up and get to the whale.” 

Walk like an Egyptian next week 

The Monks Trilogy continues next Saturday with “The Pyramid At The End Of The World”, which sees an Ancient Egyptian structure suddenly appear at the centre of a warzone - before an alien invasion like no other. 

Will “the scary handsome genius from space” get his sight back? Will Missy reappear? And will Bill and Penny finally get to enjoy tea-for-two without the Pope interrupting? It looks to be another head-scratchingly exhilarating story, so see you back here for a debrief. 

 

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