The Lie of the Land

It's a bit reminiscent of something before, that used Archangel Network to keep the rapport, with Bill playing Martha, equally candour, after three episodes you expect a bit more.

Missy's involved which enlivens the chats, though it's Bill who initiates the final combats, to free people-kind of controlling dictats, from ventriloquist monks acting as autocrats.

So, just who are the monks? Why did they want? What did they want with our obedience? We have never seen a  more "motivation-less" villain in Doctor Who than these Monks. Granted they have been filmed brilliantly but their raison d'etre was never revealed. Ho hum.

The Lie of the Land brought the monk's trilogy to a conclusion and it was a tepid conclusion. Love conquers all apparently, including the monks. I don't want to give the ending away. Suffice to say, the Doctor and Bill prevail. Of course they do. They have to return next week.

The episode started out showing how the monks had taken over the world and replaced the history of the planet with their history. We had an Orwellian squad of "Memory Police" patrolling the streets and painting a view of a dystopian society. Comparisons to 1984 aside, it was well crafted and brought genuine terror to the story. With a nod to a necessary six-month recovery for Nardol due to exposure to last week's toxin, he and Bill plot to rescue the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) from the clutches of the monks. In a lengthy speech the Doctor extols the virtues of the monks and how they have saved humanity from themselves. It's a sinister, snarky speech aimed at Bill (Pearl Mackie). It is totally over the top.

Bill's reaction is over the top too and ill-timed. Without spoiling it for those who may not have seen it, what she does is uncharacteristic, needless and utterly pointless other then to trigger a fake regeneration of the Doctor. A more dramatically ill-judged moment of Who is difficult to recall.

I'm glad the monks are gone. I hope they never reappear in Whovian lore. While filmed brilliantly with a sinister speech pattern, they ultimately proved as useless as an older generation dalek faced with a flight of stairs.

Next week we see an old enemy return. The Empress of Mars brings back the Ice Warriors since Matt Smith met them in 2013.

This loosely structured three parter certainly came across as uneven as story strands were discarded from the previous episodes. What did the Monks learn from that Earth simulation they have been conducting for centuries?

As Bill did a deal with the Monks we learn that Earth's history has been rewritten with the Monks always having been there as a benevolent presence since the start of humanity guiding them each step of the way. (It seems the Silence have been forgotten.) Indeed the Doctor pops up on television screens telling us so. Each town has many statues of the Monks that have been erected.

The Memory Crimes Act 1975 punishes those who dispute this version of history. Yet this is all fake news, riffing George Orwell's novel 1984, the Monks have only been control for six months and in that time turned humanity into obedient slaves through mind control.

Bill however needs to find the Doctor and with Nardol's help she finds him off the coast of Scotland. Once they escape, the Doctor turns to Missy for help and she has dealt with the Monks in the past. The solution it seems may lie with Bill and he own set of fake memories.

A political subtext from writer Toby Whithouse with elements borrowed from Series 3 'The last of the Timelords' we even get music cues from that episode.

The episode was lavishly shot but lacked coherence because of the different writers being involved in the three story arc. We got to know so little about the Monks and whatever their motivation was to invade the planet in this way.

It is really impressive … how, in this episode, they managed to put every single thing deep into the uncanny valley of amateurishness. Especially since it's not due to the budget. The story, the dialogues, the behaviour, the look… there is *so* much narm in there… you can't help but feel second-hand embarrassment. Which itself is quite the feat, given how unsurprising and hence bland the whole thing is. Doctor Who really died with the last episodes. Like going down a slide of badness. I will not watch this show again, unless I know that the core team … the culture there … has been replaced. Thank you for ruining it … Moffat.

It seems a while since we've had a what if story, some memorable ones, turn left, sound of drum etc, this one poses the question 'what if the monks had been with us since the start?'

Some very interesting elements, The Doctor needing to ask Missy for help, the question of free will, and a companion that wasn't only willing to shoot the Doctor, she did so multiple times. Mackie has been sensational all series, but I see this as her best episode to date, her performance was impeccable, I've not witnessed such emotional engagement since Donna. I loved the scenes with Missy once again, especially those remorseful scenes at the close of the episode. I thought the images of the statues were excellent, as were the stories of the monks having always been here.

The disappointment I feel comes from the monks, during the first two instalments were led to believe that these Monks were virtually all powerful, able to influence free will, control weapons, infiltrate technology etc, and yet there was none of that here, they stood around passively, even the ending, this massively powerful race undone.....by a photograph.

I'm sure many of you will have spotted the electrical shop, Magpie, I always love a reference back to a previous episode, a nice touch. Is Maureen returning one day I wonder.

I enjoyed it, the trilogy deserved a little more 6/10.