‘Doctor Who’ | What to expect from ‘Oxygen’ S10E05
This week, 'Doctor Who' brings us ‘Oxygen’. The TARDIS hones in on a distress call from a spacecraft where oxygen is a precious commodity, while the grumpy Nardole (Matt Lucas), Bill (Pearl Mackie) and the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) find themselves on a mission to save the surviving crew from their zombie-like crewmates.
It’s a dark premise, and a rather dark episode. Beyond the location in the dark void of space, there’s the spacesuits out to kill, several near-death experiences for Bill, and a particularly nasty twist for the Doctor by the end.
Mackie is brilliant in this episode, with poor Bill flipping quickly between enthusiasm and outright terror. Prepare yourself for some tense moments where Bill is exposed to the vacuum of space... Will she make it out alive? Dying in space, it appears, isn’t much fun.
The supporting cast, including Kieren Bew, Peter Caulfield, Mimi Ndiweni and Justin Salinger are suitably desperate to be rescued, although we learn very little about them.
Unfortunately, this episode lacks originality. What we see here, we’ve seen it all before. Still, the writers manage to make the most out of recycled material, giving us a rather tense adventure on a spaceship, complete with space zombies, and some terrifyingly polite spacesuits (“Please remain calm while your central nervous system is deactivated”).
The Doctor’s blindness and the reveal by the end of the episode is abrupt, but makes for interesting development. How long will he be forced to continue without his sight? Is it true that the TARDIS really cannot cure him?
Next week’s episode, ‘Extremis’, is written by Steven Moffat. What new everyday object can Moffat make us fear this time?
Watch ‘Doctor Who’ every Saturday night at 7:20pm on BBC One; 9pm on BBC America; and Sundays at 7:30pm on the ABC and iView in Australia.
