12.32: Oxygen

In which Doctor Who brings down capitalism.

Broadcast: May 2017

Watched: May 2022

“Capitalism in space.”

Perfect. In form, it’s a style of story they’ve been doing for years ((like Impossible Planet or Kill the Moon, it’s about space being inherently f*cking terrifying), if not decades (a base, under siege). But it’s got a radicalism to both its politics and its approach to the characters, and honestly, it’s note-perfect.

Which is why I’m just going to list a bunch of stuff I bloody love about this episode.

• It begins with a monologue from the Doctor quoting Star Trek, and then saying (I paraphrase), “Well that’s a load of bollocks, it’s horrible out there”, while we watch some bodies apparently float off into space. 

• The opening is bloody terrifying actually – and the transparent emotional manipulation (“I want to have a baby”) actually works for once.

• Then, the Doctor lecturing about how space will kill you, and god we could watch entire episodes of that. Ditto Nardole’s futile efforts to keep him in line. (“What do you want from me?” “The truth.” “Don’t be unreasonable.”)

• Before the TARDIS takes off, the Doctor strongly suggests that he was utterly bullshitting Ian and Barbara in the first Dalek story. Just, casually, like.

• The conceit with the suits is basically a scientific way of having zombies, isn’t it? Literal, technological walking dead. (Some of the “died of asphyxiation make up” is *horrible* by the way.)

• “Great, we rescued a racist” is one of my favourite lines in Doctor Who. “Some of my best friends are blueish” is great too. 

• Come to that: “What happens if I throw up in my helmet?” “Colour and smells.” This one is incredibly funny considering how terrifying it is.

• The way it dramatises Bill passing in and out of consciousness, with flashes of action between moments of darkness, is not only a great effect, it’s a pretty neat way of cutting the price of an action sequence.

• “Bill, do you trust me.” “Whhhhy are you saying that?” feels a lot like Bill has got the hang of being a character in a Doctor Who story. Actually that whole sequence of Bill’s “death”, the bit where she asks the Doctor to tell her a joke and then cries out for her mum. Oh god.

• Also watch Nardole in the background of that sequence. It’s the moment I realised how great Lucas he is – even though he’s the comic relief (”Cuddle”), he really sells the horror of the situation without saying a word.

• Then there’s the bit where it seems like the Doctor is going to blow up the station, just to piss the company off (“This is the moment you’ve been waiting for since the day you were born”). Then, “A bottom line where human life has no value at all.” And “But above all, our deaths will be... expensive!” Oh god I just want to quote all of this one.

• The best bit of the entire episode: the moment when it turns out Bill isn’t dead, and Ivan says his partner’s name as her suit gives him her oxygen, and there’s just half a second when you can see him hoping she’s somehow still alive – just one of my favourite moments in the whole bloody show.

• Oh right, and the Doctor brings down capitalism. This is extremely cool, but also presumably is there to explain why oxygen is a problem here but nowhere else in the show?

• Nardole’s rage at the Doctor in that final scene – see above – followed by a cut to black just before the Doctor says “I’m still blind”. 

God it’s good. 

Anyway, the trailer for Extremis looks huge, too. This season really kicks into gear around now.