Doctor Who: Oxygen (2017) - Written Review
First off, the horror elements of the episode, bar maybe the pre-credits sting, were definitely lacking. Despite some scary moments, darker lighting and a confined setting, the episode never created a feeling of claustrophobia, and any tension created by the space-suit zombies was ruined in the third act. The fake-out with Bill's "death" was very poorly-executed, especially given how the episode tried the same trick twice. Bill's initial space-walk was really well-executed, but her final attack felt tacked-on to build tension...but didn't, because we all know as the audience that Bill won't die in episode five of a twelve episode series. Granted, the same goes for the first case, but in that first case the tension was there. Towards the end, it made me think that none of the zombie characters had actually died, because if they all had, surely Bill had too? The episode instead decided to throw that away with a comment on the battery to Bill's spacesuit being too low to kill her, but that didn't feel earned as a resolution.
As a character, Bill didn't have much of a role in the story, serving more as a functional purpose than an actual character. She added little to the episode, and that felt a real shame. There's no real dynamic between her and Nardole, and her and The Doctor dealing with trust issues feels like an odd direction to take the characters so early on in the series - but one they want to delve into further next week. I also felt the acknowledgement of racism with Bill and the blue-skinned character didn't work very well, as it seemed really tacked-on, almost like a joke, but wasn't humorous in the slightest. It felt like a misstep on the part of the script to include such a scene.
Nardole finally got a main role in this episode, and regrettably Steven Moffat seemed to have re-written a lot of his lines, with ongoing references to the A.I.'s voice being that on an actress Nardole dated. It felt so out-of-place in the episode, not proving particularly funny but distracting enough to lessen the tension. When given actual drama, Matt Lucas shines as Nardole, particularly with the beginning and end of the episode. Lucas can carry the more tense moments, but only when he's not being given on-the-nose jokes that don't work. His more subtle, probably add-libbed humour is the best, as it rarely takes away from the story.
The Doctor in the episode seems to be developing a new arc to continue on into the next few episodes, with his less trusting nature, and its one I don't really like. He's gone on four adventures with Bill, so suddenly throwing in tension where there was none feels like lazy writing. There's no build-up to such a plot-point being thrown in. The exact circumstances behind The Doctor's blindness felt vague, and given how the character has come out of worse unscathed it felt like a way for the episode to build the stakes...until The Doctor explained that it was easily-fixed. Granted, this initially added an extra level of tension to the episode, but then The Doctor continues to solve the situation without his eye-sight. He can wonder around, look at other characters and do lots of technical things with no difficulty, apart from in very brief moments when he's being helped down a corridor. It's setting up a key plot-point, and then contradicting it. The Doctor being blind adds literally nothing to the episode. It feels like a re-write on the part of Steven Moffat to create the tacked-on cliff-hanger to be important next week, but it doesn't work. It's not set-up well, it adds nothing to the story and they can't even resolve it properly in the end. The scene building up to the last reveal was irritatingly Moffat, with the whole "look at me" and "no, I can't" just being such a lazy build-up to a cliff-hanger that does nothing for the episode. Not to mention, cutting to black before The Doctor's finished his line is a terrible way to end the episode.
As for the main story itself, it made sense to focus more so on The Doctor and Nardole than Bill, even if she feels underdeveloped compared to previous episodes, and the whole base-under-siege story is always nice to see in Doctor Who. The space-ship itself looked fantastic - both the interior sets and the exterior CGI shots - and I was interested in the idea of paying for oxygen in the far future. Sadly, the episode resorted to making this a statement of "capitalism is bad" throughout, instead of actually exploring the idea through the narrative or thematically. We never get to see who actually set the space-suits to attack the crew-members, nor do we get a satisfying resolution in the end. The surviving crew members are just going to complain? That's...anti-climactic. It feels like we get a small glimpse into an adventure we didn't get to explore in full, and that's a shame because the actual story itself is fantastic from Jamie Mathieson.
The score by Murray Gold was...weak. I don't remember anything off the top of my head, and the direction was okay at best. There were some nice shots in there, but the director never played on the gravity or lack thereof, the shape of the space station or anything like that. It's not bad, it's just bland and feels like anyone could have done that.
I guess I'm just disappointed with Oxygen. The themes are so on-the-nose, the stakes felt artificial and lacking and generally it just lacked anything to make it stand out. On the other hand, the lead actors are great, there's some wonderfully scary moments here and there, the premise is fantastic and the visuals look great too. Oxygen is an episode I want to revisit, but for now I just felt it was lacking. 6/10
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