World of Who: Oxygen

We are going to change it up a bit and talk about what worked and what didn't work as opposed to the review we've been doing before which I felt have been a bit flat. This episode is the Doctor, Nardole, and Bill end up on a space craft where suits and computer are trying to kill everyone on board. I honestly feel this was a great story for Bill and even the Doctor and Nardole.

The Doctor 

I've always felt that if you can't like the Doctor in an episode then what good is the episode? Here the Doctor is showing how much he loves space. This makes sense as the Doctor has spent a lot of time on Earth and it feels a bit like the 4th Doctor in Pyramids of Mars and the 11th Doctor in Power of Three. He isn't someone who can stay still for long and as someone who comes from a species that has intergalactic travel for thousands of years, it make sense, especially for a maverick like him. His gallows humor here is used rather well this season as well as his intelligence which puts him steps ahead of everyone but not so far that you wonder why he hasn't figured this out ages ago.

Nardole has a Job to do

It's great to see that Nardole has a role to fill this episode and ultimately this season. I actually enjoyed his humor which felt a bit more like the opposite of River whose humor was sometimes more focused on how much fun she has but rather how sad his life has been in certain aspects. Nardole is what I honestly wanted in terms of where he is from, he isn't from the present day and he can explain things that the Doctor shouldn't have to because of how trivial it is. He also does a great job telling and at the same time not telling us about who is the in the vault who I'm pretty sure is the Master but I was hoping it would be the Doctor's next incarnation, or it could be the first Doctor still (maybe, probably not, who knows?).

Bill Being Racist

Pearl Mackie delivers a great performance dealing with a dead person for the first time as well as her fear at the thought of dying, and it makes Bill one of the best Companions in New Who. However, to me her best scene had to be when she meets Dah-Ren,a blue skinned alien who accuses Bill of being racist because she assumes he cannot speak proper English. I loved it not only for Bill's reaction but also because it is a nice bit of world building that also doesn't take too much away from the story.

The Enemy that is Capitalism

I kept wondering what the enemy would be that was trying to kill them and I loved/hated that it was a faceless corporate entity. This did in a lot of ways feel like a better version of the The Almost People story back in season six and reminded me a bit of the audio plays Judoon in Chains and Davros. The idea that big business corporations would rather kill it's employers over losing money but only save them when it the Doctor essentially puts a bullet to their head by blowing up the ship. It's a fun idea and corporatism is always a great enemy because you don't have to give it a face though you usually think of a group of people in suits sitting at a big table, most of them fat.

I Still Don't Know Who These People Are

If there was one thing that did not work this episode it was the supporting cast. There was an attempt early on to flesh one of them out but it never really went anywhere noteworthy. Compare this to the supporting cast that were at least memorable outside of there names and you feel this is just a weak spot. At the end of the day though this is rather harmless as the story itself I felt was rather good. The only character I actually remember in this episode was Dah-Ren as the only other notable character was the default "Person who keeps questioning the Doctor for no reason".