Oxygen is the fifth episode of series 10 proper of the revived series Doctor Who. It features the Doctor being blind and the return of Nardole in a regular role.
Now first of all regular viewers will know that this has been posted a day earlier than usual. I have to say this is because during the next six weeks I will be enduring my GCSEs. This means that will not have the time to watch an episode again with my review cap on as it were. However I do want to be able to keep you all updated on my views and I feel that if I write reviews after the end of the series as a whole my view on the earlier episodes would have changed somewhat, therefore I bring you the review now. Due to time restraints I also want be able to do the 'pros' and 'cons' section as normal. This is something I will do after the completion of the series for the episodes that I will miss.
First things first it is nice to have Jamie Mathieson write an un-altered script again. He was very good in series 8 but unfortunately had a bit of blip last year. Also this episode is a base-under siege story which is my favourite but I don't think the episode fully utilised the setting enough nor were guest actors used to their prime as they were during the RTD era. Lastly I was pleased to see Nardole in proper episode, the first since episode 1. He didn't have much to do here either as he probably was a late entry to this script as well but not so late that it can't be missed (Episode 1 was by Steven so he could edit quickly, the Christmas Special was filmed later on).
Doctor Rating
12th Doctor: 9/10 - Very good as per usual. I'm not sure I really like the idea of him being blind yet though
Companion Rating
Bill Potts: 8/10 - Despite the exciting things happening to her I can't quite say I thought she was as stand out this week
Nardole: 6/10 - Good to have him here but I don't think his dialogue is as funny as previous episodes. He was a bit wingy - no problem with Matt Lucas though
Enemy Rating
Space Zombies: 8/10 - Nothing new but they were a great threat and were visually terrifying.
Story Notes
Story: 7/10 - It was a basic run of the mill base under siege story with nothing to new apart from the evil capitalism view - is Mathieson a communist?
Seriousness: 10/10 - The Doctor is blind, Bill nearly dies, others do die, the sonic is destroyed and the TARDIS is lost into space
Scariness: 8/10 - I wasn't as scared as last week but the zombies did look scary and the space stuff was scary too but not as scary as it could have been
Comedy: 6/10 - Little humour moments here and there but I didn't really find Nardole's jokes funny this week.
Continuity: 7/10 - One problem I have is about Bill surviving and the extension of the TARDIS' force field which as extended greatly from last time
Rest of Cast
Ivan: 6/10
Tasker: 7/10
Dahn-Ran: 7/10
Abby: 6/10
The characters were very shallow and under-developed that not one of them did I care about when they died. In the RTD era I used to get upset when characters die and now I don't
Total: 95/130
1. Return of the Doctor Mysterio = 72%
2. The Pilot = 74%
3. Smile = 71.66%
4. Thin Ice = 73%
5. Knock Knock = 74.29%
6. Oxygen = 73.07%
Very interesting as I would say that Oxygen was marginally my favourite episode of the series so far. Before the series began I actually predicted this would be my favourite overall, hopefully we will get better episodes.
Scores out of 10
Return of the Doctor Mysterio: 7/10
The Pilot: 7/10
Smile: 6/10
Thin Ice: 6/10
Knock Knock: 8/10
Oxygen: 8/10
There we have it. Knock Knock and the Return of the Doctor Mysterio are at threat of moving down a score but I haven't firmly decided that yet.
Due to GCSEs, line count is another thing effected. I will do a line count later on in June along with all the other episodes.
Hopefully I will be able to review Extremis but don't hold your breath, especially if you are in space because your lungs will explode.
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