Doctor Who series 8 - Time Heist (episode 5) [TV Review]

I love these retro posters from the Radio Times.

The title of this episode made me wary. It is just too cliche, which I know might be a taboo thing to say about Doctor Who, but it really is. This is a sad fact since this is certainly a very good episode. 

Meet Mystique, I mean a mutant human named Saibra.

The Doctor, Clara, and two additional team memebers named Saibra and Sai, have been induced to break into the bank of Karabraxos. This bank is the greatest, most impregnable, bank in the universe.

4.5 out of five stars

This is certainly my second favorite episode of the season so far. I prefer Listen because of the creepiness of it. Both episodes do in fact do fun things with time travel though. With Doctor Who that is a good thing.

Yes, that is Saibra on the left as a business guy...

The whole episode is fun from beginning to end. The team dynamics, the plot, the desires... really everything but the alien design and the slightly too close to Mystique mutant human. Yes, she is different than Mystique, but the resemblance was uncanny (yes, I chose that word specifically).

This is as close as Doctor Who has come to Deus Ex.

The alien design was just odd. Something about it was very 'meh'-tastic. I understand in Doctor Who that you do not need to understand why an alien exists, just that it does. However something about this bugged me.  I would have preferred a machine, but I completely understand why they did not go that route. So the short of it is this; I did not like the alien design of the Bank Teller.

Everything else was spot on. Capdali's dialogue is always so fun. It is delivered so off the cuff but with such perfection that sometimes you just want to hear them again.

It was fun, and hopefully this is a sign that Moffat is back to writing good episodes. Yes, he was not alone this time, but the last two have certainly been a return to the good stuff. This is turning out to be a pretty solid season, I cannot wait for episode 6. 

A Bank Teller. In the far future it appears that yes, banks will be
considered criminal organizations, or insane asylums.

Previous reviews:
Previous Doctor Who Series 8 reviews:
- Episodes 1 & 2: Deep Breath & Into The Dalek.
- Episode 3: The Robots of Sherwood.
- Episode 4: Listen.