{"id":7318,"date":"2019-06-10T13:00:25","date_gmt":"2019-06-10T20:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=7318"},"modified":"2019-06-08T12:41:38","modified_gmt":"2019-06-08T19:41:38","slug":"mark-watches-doctor-who-s10e06-extremis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2019\/06\/mark-watches-doctor-who-s10e06-extremis\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Doctor Who’: S10E06 – Extremis"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the sixth episode of the tenth series of Doctor Who<\/i>, the Doctor and Bill are brought to the Vatican to read a secret text. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Doctor Who<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For discussion of internalized homophobia, suicide, and ableism.<\/b><\/p>\n

I realize a lot of us who have been watching Doctor Who<\/i> for years have had issues with Moffat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s choices. I just realized, however, that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been one episode each series since series eight where Moffat has just knocked it out of the park for me. I adored the personal, circular nature of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Listen,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and I still think \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Heaven Sent\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is the best episode of series nine. Both of them were ridiculously<\/i> ambitious, frightening, disorienting at times, and managed (in my opinion) to execute ideas that could have easily fallen apart.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bit of a similarity in those episodes within \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Extremis,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but it is still very much its own thing. And oh my god, I LOVED THIS SO MUCH. In hindsight, I can now see the exact moment when the story switched from our world to the Shadow world, and knowing that helps me to wrap my mind around this experience. Because lord, this is an EXPERIENCE, one that is largely mystifying until Nardole is the first one to piece together what everyone else discovered when they read Veritas<\/i>. There are a lot of pieces here, and I want to discuss as much of this as possible, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m gonna branch out to various topics at this point. LET US START WITH<\/p>\n

Bill and Penny<\/b><\/p>\n

One of the truly great things about the writing for Bill is how casual the scripts have been about her queerness. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lesbian, and yes, that matters to her identity and her story, but there are no after-school-special type lessons to be taught. Which doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean there aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t things to learn from her story! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just that she gets to be a part of these complex narratives as a whole character, and her being a lesbian is one aspect of that.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I loved that she brought Penny home, first of all. (I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember who her flatmate is, though. Like, her name, I mean.) In that, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a beautiful interaction that is something I have been through myself as both<\/i> parties. After I first came out, I was Penny; I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been dealing with years of internalized homophobia, much of it caused by a religious upbringing. I am not even exaggerating when I say that when I was nineteen, I had a guy tell me that I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to feel guilty for having sex with him. He saw it; he felt it; he knew exactly what I was going through because he<\/i> had gone through it. Years later, I was seeing someone who was older than me, but still struggled with that same guilt, and I had to assure them that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d done nothing wrong. This moment between Penny and Bill is so short, but it meant the WORLD to see it on screen, to see how caring and sympathetic Bill was. Also, as an ex-Catholic, the sudden appearance of the Pope was so fucking FUNNY to me. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even imagine experiencing that, IT WAS TOO MUCH.<\/p>\n

Heretics<\/b><\/p>\n

So, I said this on camera, but BOY, would I ever love to read the heretical texts that the Vatican has. I am certainly not a Catholic anymore, but I still want to visit the Vatican? Something tells me with my big ol\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Crossbuster tattoo on my neck, they won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let me in, but look. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just so much DRAMA in that church! And I like their buildings! Aesthetically, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all very pleasing to me. I just have a problem with\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, literally everything else.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not what this is about! Moffat does a clever thing here by creating tension with his use of the Vatican in this context. The Pope seeks out the Doctor, which we already know is an exceedingly rare thing. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just that; Moffat builds the tension by slowly revealing the strangeness around the Veritas<\/i> text: it was written long ago, but no translations exist. Well, until<\/i> some translators all succeeded in translating it, and then immediately killed themselves. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a horror trope I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen before quite a few times. (I think the Masters of Horror <\/i>episode \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Cigarette Burns\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is probably my favorite use of this trope, and lord, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s REAL fucked up.) So, naturally, the tension changes: What does Vertias<\/i> say? Why is it so horrible that it compels people to commit suicide afterward? Will the Doctor and Bill suffer the same effect if they<\/i> read it, or is there something else going on here?<\/p>\n

However, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the whole idea of the heretical library that really made this work for me. I love where this is set, and the set design is gorgeous. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a massive library that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dark, easy to get lost in, and contains the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153banned\u00e2\u20ac\u009d texts of an entire religion! Thus, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the perfect<\/i> place to stage so many important scenes pivotal to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Extremis.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d While watching it, it appealed to the ex-Catholic in me. But in hindsight, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fucking BRILLIANT. Where else would a computer program \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hide\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the text that reveals what it is? It works on a real-world and<\/i> a story level, and I admire that.<\/p>\n

Unraveling the Truth<\/b><\/p>\n

Another aspect I enjoyed in this episode was how much time Bill and Nardole spent together without<\/i> the Doctor. Moffat also unravels the truth through them, too, right up until the big reveal scene in the Oval Office. The Doctor only provides the final piece. Instead, Nardole and Bill are the ones who venture through the device that the creatures (what do you even call those corpse-like things???) used for projection to piece together what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually happening around the Veritas<\/i> text. But before they step through one of those portals, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a fascinating scene where Nardole scolds Bill for not doing as he says. In that, we discover so much more about who Nardole is and why he is around. Well, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that coupled with the flashbacks to Missy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s execution, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get there in a bit. Nardole is here because River Song specifically asked him to watch over the Doctor, to make sure he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do anything too extreme after her death. It puts his actions in a new context, particularly since he is so quick to criticize the Doctor! HE MAKES SO MUCH MORE SENSE NOW.<\/p>\n

Anyway, hi, the scene in CERN wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t okay? Like, there was such an intense combination between giddiness and sadness in that room, and it made for a bizarre, unsettling experience. I admit that I still had not figured out what this was during that whole bit. Nardole had to spell it out, and even then, I still didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get it.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Practice<\/b><\/p>\n

So, I also said this after the episode was over, but despite that this episode happened in a Shadow world that was a COMPUTER SIMULATION SO SOME UNNAMED ENTITY COULD PRACTICE DOMINATING EARTH (!!!!!!!), the events here matter<\/i>. And I love that. I love that even though it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all a simulation, Moffat found a way to give the story weight and meaning. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not all erased in the end, and this is not an episode without consequence. No, the framing device is right there in the beginning! The Doctor receives an email with the subject, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Extremis,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and then what we watch is his recording of events. So, at some point in the future (I hope it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the next episode???), the actual villain will reveal themselves, and now, the Doctor is prepared for their arrival. But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a real great moment in this that I appreciated more than anything else: the Doctor telling Bill that Penny is not out of her league and to reach out to her. YES. I LOVE IT. I love that he recognizes that Bill deserves a personal life and he also learned not to interrupt it!!!<\/p>\n

One other thing: I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still curious what people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thoughts are on the Doctor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s blindness. Again, not my lane, but there were moments where the Doctor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s blindness had some negative coding? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know, I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite put my finger on what exactly triggered that response. He isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t magically cured (yet), and he regains his vision briefly by trading something from his future, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if other folks would consider this meaningful representation, you know? I doubt it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to remain, and thus, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more like a temporary disability for\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 what? Entertainment? A metaphor?<\/p>\n

The Master<\/b><\/p>\n

OH MY GOD I ALSO LOVE THE FLASHBACKS. Every part of this episode feels like it belongs here, and the reveal of Missy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fate works so much. It had to happen here so that we could get that moment at the end of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Extremis.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Can we trust the Master? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to say that we could, and there was something deeply touching about her saying, without reward, that she was the Doctor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s friend, just before her \u00e2\u20ac\u0153death.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, these two characters have been through so much, and the Doctor couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t truly kill her. And thus, the oath is revealed: he promised to watch over her body (one that happens to be living) for a thousand years.<\/p>\n

And with whatever horrible thing on its way to take over earth, the Doctor told the truth: he might need Missy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s help. The question is: will she give it? Will she be good and save Earth, or will she forever choose herself over others?<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Extremis\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– The paperback edition of my debut, ANGER IS A GIFT, is now OUT!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"