Time Heist

This episode is essentially a bank heist story on another planet. It has a mystery element and a time travel element. I find it rather quintessential Doctor Who in a number of ways. It has aspects of what makes the show what it is and what the Doctor stands for.

Time travel is used well in this plot without becoming totally illogical. Steven Moffatt's era far too often took time travel aspects too far so that they weren't logical or convincing for me whereas this plot basically makes sense. I love that it makes time travel central to the story because that is part of the essence of Doctor Who - it isn't just space travel it is time travel. The way the mystery is tied in with the time aspect is fun too.

The Doctor using his brains to solve a problem is a feature of this story and that is always a great thing, I think, as that is a key part of the essence of what makes the Doctor a special type of hero. Also the Doctor's compassion in trying to appreciate and help an alien 'monster' is a basic Doctor Who feature which is used well here.

The 'villain' being a banker is a great idea and should be used again in future as banking greed is something which makes perfect sense and relates to real life as well as making sense in alien or future worlds. Keeley Hawes is a very good actress and she plays her part as well as possible adding some class. The other guest acting is all of a good standard as well.

The only real flaw for me is that the supposedly impregnable bank is not all that convincingly portrayed. It hardly seems deserving of its immense reputation.

The adventure is not the most exciting or outstanding one ever but is good solid Doctor Who. The deeper themes of how people behave and how people are treated are thoughtfully presented making this a fairly strong episode overall.

My Rating: 8/10.

My Series 8 Episode Ranking: 6th out of 12.

Very like Ocean's Eleven, even the filming and music! But a nice episode though.

Finally an episode which creates some interesting characters and where all the praise does not go to Capaldi's performance (which was also excellent, isn't he good!).

Time Heist has the feel of an episode of the classic era, i.e confusion about time and more running about similar looking corridors, which is excellent. The characters of Saibra and Psi were brilliantly written and preformed, I really did start to feel a connection to those two and it would be great if they were to appear again at some point. What the resent series have been lacking is the creation of interesting characters that connect with the audience instead of just focusing on the Doctor, Clara or any other recurring characters. The plot had a confusing edge which kept me concentrated at all times. The Teller was a very interesting new monster which was a nice to see and Keeley Hawes perfectly suited the role of a scary business woman and she had an Umbridge-like feel to the character.

Overall not the best episode ever, but certainly one that can be remembered as a benchmark for more futuristic, weird time episodes which D.Who should be aiming for. Could this be the second step towards a return to form.

I love a good time heist, and this episode delivered with that. This season keeps getting better. Wowza! I love this season.

I feel like i'm watching a lower budget version of the film 'Now you see me,' it aimed really high, and for the best part it delivers, a few little flaws, the biggest one being the under use of Keeley Hawes. They did the same with the amazing Helen McCrory back in Vampires of Venice, for someone of Hawes talent I felt the character of Ms Delphox didn't hit the mark.

More positively Jonathan Bailey is awesome as Psi, please producers bring the guy back!! Also, Pippa Bennett-Warner is excellent as Saibra, I'd be interested to learn more of her story too. I liked the pace of the story too, it moves along very quickly.

It's different in some ways, and in others it feels a little repetitive, use of Androids, the Monster at the end (more then a little reminiscent of the end of Hide,) but all in all for me the pros outweigh the cons more so it gets a 7/10.