Time Heist

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

Stand and deliver, your psyche and your life, if you cross stalks with The Teller and intend to pull a heist. Stand and deliver, show us what you've got, then once The Teller's probed you you'll be left with not a lot. Stand and deliver, there's nowhere you can get, but just to spice things up a bit we'll make sure you forget. Stand and deliver, says the banker not the thief, just who is the bank robber, with the ransom and the grief.

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.

Time Heist revolves around The Doctor and Clara who finds themselves in an unlikely team joined together to rob the most secure bank in the world. This episode had given me mixed feelings while it was running. It started off with a fast paced tone and we instantly go to the bank heist. Everything is absorbed by the audience immediately and it felt a bit rushed. The episode goes at different directions every time which then makes the episode more interesting as it progresses. However, The Doctor was quite different in this particular episode. He had the Benedict Cumberbatch Sherlock mood all through out the episode. There are even a couple scenes, and one in particular that The Doctor depicts the High Functioning Sociopath. I am not against this, but if this certain thing goes on. The Doctor might just steal the spotlight from Sherlock in the years to come. Peter Capaldi brought another brilliant performance, I would love to see an episode where he is in a limited place and just stuck and have to talk to people and insults popping out everywhere (An episode like Midnight) because he never fails to entertain while on screen. Clara still remains to be a main stay in both the show and the audience's liking and the new characters introduced who will most likely return for more future roles yet to be explored. The villains portrayed in the episode were interesting enough and the scenes depicting Clara scared and terrified and each turn the episode takes add to the intensity of the episode. Having the most secure bank in the world to be robbed was an interesting idea alone, but in Doctor Who. An ordinary episode just isn't enough.

It isn't a perfect episode, but it was thrilling and quite refreshing. An enjoyable episode with different turns in the narrative. A solid performance by Capaldi who has great potential to be in the top 5 list of Doctors.

Verdict: 8.1/10

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.