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TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Doctor Who Season 10 Episode 11: World Enough And Time

June 25th, 2017 by Todd Black Comments

Say what you will about Stephen Moffat, but one think you can’t deny is that he loves the past when it comes to Doctor Who. And in “World Enough And Time” you’ll see just how much he loves it. But that love can be a problem at times, and that’s why despite it being the penultimate episode of Capaldi’s run, this episode wasn’t the best.

The setup was brilliant, we got our first look into Capaldi’s regeneration, and boy is he not happy about it! Now, you can argue why they did this NOW, but hey, it’s Moffat, he likely has a reason. Then, the idea of the Doctor giving Missy a chance to do good and see where it goes is very cool…except they cut it off short to let this be a focus on Bill.

This is another case of a good premise destroying what could’ve been. Space station in a black hole? Brilliant! Mysterious occupants, that weren’t there before? Brilliant! Actually talking about REAL time space perception? Brilliant! Bill dying (technically) and the Doctor failing to save her? Brilliant! Spending the rest of the episode focusing on Bill’s new life once she’s resurrected? …what?

What makes this episode so sad in many ways is a few fold. One, we’ve scene this before. Bill “waiting” for the Doctor was literally the first season of Moffat’s Doctor Who in “The Girl Who Waited.” Then, her becoming a Cyberman in the end? Well, that’s “Death in Heaven” in regards to what happened to Danny. It’s honestly nothing new. But the fact that we literally spent 3/4’s of this episode watching Bill in this new life was honestly very boring. Especially since…

We knew it was coming! Both the episode previews, season previews, and even mid episode previews basically spoiled everything that was in this episode! Mondassian Cybermen returning (as in the ORIGINAL Cybermen), John Sims The Master (from the Tennant run) coming back, it was all spoiled! Heck, the promo art for this episode showed the two Master’s together! What’s the point of surprises if they’re all spoiled?!!?!?

But to me, what’s worse, is that this is one of Peter Capaldi’s last episodes, and he only had one really good scene, which was a flashback with Bill and Nardole where he talked about why he wanted to save Missy from herself. It was a beautiful way of showing the “friendship” that’s been mentioned throughout the series while also adding new layers to it. Like how Capaldi talked about the “pact” they made to see all the stars, “but he was too busy burning them…I don’t think he saw anything…” that was lovely, but that was it.

This was more about Bill, and while you can guess that she won’t return either, she’s had a lot of focus this season already, let the Doctor be the one to shine in the final episodes.

Now yes, was the Master’s arrival cool? Sure! I didn’t think that he would be Mr. Razor, and him “teaming up” with Missy at the end was really fun, and it’s exciting to think about where it’ll go next, but that was honestly the most exciting thing about this episode.

So, what happens now? The Doctor is up against potentially TWO Master, a legion of Mondassian Cybermen, and we know something is going to happen that leads to his regeneration. Tick tock, the clock is counting down.

3/5 Nerds

Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!