2nd Opinion: The Lie of the Land

Connor Johnston & Gustaff Behr give their verdicts on the eighth episode of Series 10.

Connor’s Verdict

One of the most moving moments of Bill’s first adventure with the Doctor, The Pilot, is a scene in which Bill ‘meets’ her deceased mother for the first time in the form of photographs the Doctor has taken for her. In this moment, the audience not only gauges a idea of Bill’s vulnerability as a character, but also witnesses one of the first major checkpoints in her ongoing relationship with the Doctor. Since that point, Bill’s connection with her mother has grown in both sentimental and emotional value – from being present to witness her daughter move in to her first share house in Knock Knock, to being a point of safety in Bill’s mind moments before her ‘death’ on Oxygen. With each adventure she shares with the Doctor, Bill’s dependency on the memory of her mother has strengthened immeasurably – so to as her friendship with the Doctor. The memory of Bill’s mother and the bond she shares with this ‘constructed memory’ has all season been an updating measure of her relationship with the Doctor.

This week however, the memory of her mother that Bill has devised takes on a much more prominent role in the narrative. Initially, it is Bill’s anchor to a world without the monks – a world embodying a freedom and prosperity that is tonally absent in the monk’s new earth: a world with the Doctor at its aid. Whithouse uses the first half of his script to effectively mirror Bill’s struggle with the world’s – her loss, her pain, and her struggle at the Doctor’s absence is utterly symbolic of the worlds in yet another example of Bill being the audience’s entrance point. It’s because of how invested that both Bill and the audience are in their trust and belief in the Doctor, that his apparent betrayal is so jarring and hurtful. This clever move by Whithouse, aided by striking performances by Mackie, Capaldi and Lucas, emotionally winds the audience early in the episode to slightly make amends for a predictable if not slightly over-confident conclusion.

This episode really is a stunning study into Bill’s own psyche – both figuratively in terms of the mammoth amount of character development it delivers her way, and literally in regards to the mental link established between her and the entire world. The Monks have from the get go asserted themselves as the most informed invaders of Who lore – and it’s true that no one can even stand next to them in terms of how effectively they’ve done their homework. In this way, they were never going to be a foe that could be outsmarted in their inevitable defeat that has been three episodes in the making. Instead their weakness eventually stems from the one concept that remains completely foreign to them – teased last week in dialogue that saw these ancient beings refer to humans as corpses: the concept of mortality, of loss and the fleeting nature of human sentimentality. A concept that is most strongly embodied by Bill’s devised relationship with her “mother”, something we’ve already established has kept her grounded in her defiance of the monks.

The finished product may not adhere to the same balance of adrenaline, wit and thought provoking narratives that have maintained this series’ wider audience appeal thus far; but it more or less makes up for its shortcomings with a stunning sense of relevance and character development. Aside from the wonders it does in both measuring and enriching the relationship between the Doctor and Bill, the future expansions it teases in regards to Missy’s morality arc. Gomez’s performance this week, even with the bare minimum amount of screentime, is utterly enchanting. If the Monk’s invasion and references to Bill’s mother are indicative of the interconnectedness Moffat is boasting towards the series’ conclusion, we’re in for something truly rewarding.

Gustaff’s Verdict

…Bill, meet Barry Allen. He likes to screw up the world too.

After the haphazard mess that was last week, this week we are presented with Toby Whithouse who is in charge of saving the Monk Trilogy. This means calling Bill out on her actions from last week, joining up with the Doctor, trying to make the Master into a good girl and defeating the Monks. Piece of cake.

There were a lot of standout (and some downright cheeky) moments this week: Bill’s mother becoming a big plot point near the end of the episode, thus enriching the previous seven episodes even further, the visual and CGI aspects of the inner pyramid, the wardrobe and especially the attention to detail of the Monk’s villain world. Not to mention that cheeky Flash reference about Missy wanting a particle accelerator, doubly humorous since The Flash borrowed “Reverse the Polarity of the Neutron Flow” for their finale.

Part of me is still shocked that the Doctor actually bothered to chew Bill out for her frankly stupid, selfish decision last week. It’s harsh, but what cuts deep into the wound and makes the experience so cathartic is the fact that despite it all being a secret test of character, every word the Doctor says, from Romans to fundamentalism is all true. It’s no different than Clara stabbing the Doctor in the back (he easily forgave her), or River Song refusing to kill the Doctor (again he easily forgave her). While Bill also gets easily forgiven for being indirectly responsible for killing countless of innocent people, Bill is called out on her actions and we the audience are there to hear it. Even better! Unlike the former two mentioned, Bill actually owns up to her mistake. She takes responsibility – twice! In my eyes this puts her above River Song or Clara. She resorts to murder (though it’s still practical given the circumstances), but she also didn’t know her gun wouldn’t kill the Doctor. Last week’s episode put me off the character thanks to the ridiculousness of her actions, but The Lie of the Land goes a long way redeeming her.

In the same breath, the more television or films you watch, the easier it becomes to spot when a particular scene or line is only included to add shock and awe value to the trailer. Here we have the Doctor’s “regeneration” early on in the episode. It felt unnecessarily given that Bill doesn’t know what regeneration is and after the fact, we the audience don’t know if the Doctor just used one up to put on a flashy show. It’s cheap and does undercut the tension. Oh and we all know he makes it to the finale, so why even bother?

While this episode doesn’t suffer from as many idiot plot conveniences as last week’s, it does repeat Series 10’s most notorious mistake: Recycling plots. And I’m not even talking about Last of the Time Lords or Turn Left. Nope. This episode is basically an updated version of The Wedding of River Song: A new reality is created thanks to a woman who loves the Doctor who puts saving his life over saving everyone else’s. Only a few other characters remember how things used to be and they form a resistance against an alien race that has religious connotations who can manipulate the perception of people and have been observing Earth for thousands of years. Then we have an imprisoned Time Lord who is consulted for advice, the loving woman who shoots the Doctor who starts regenerating but escapes the assassination unharmed by manipulating some detail of his execution.

Missy has grown on me between Series 8 and Series 10, and her scenes in the Vault are effective at showcasing a very different side to the Master. There’s something unnerving about the Doctor and the Master having to work together. It always ends with the Master betraying the Doctor and part of me hopes this happens again, even if it is a long con or if the inclusion of John Simm’s Master is to set up a plot to help smack some evil sense into his future incarnation. Eliminating the Master as the Doctor’s enemy might be an original idea, but it only works in the short term as regeneration usually resets character development.

I especially enjoyed the Doctor and Missy’s clash of ideals about what it means to be a hero. Missy’s approach is effective, simple and pragmatic (like Bill shooting the Doctor), while the Doctor has the benefit of experience and refuses to take the easy way out. Missy’s words that he is arrogant and short-sighted have the ring of truth to them; which might very well pave the way for her relapse into evil.

Another important part of the episode to focus on is the Monks. In fiction, there is a balance to inventing enemies for the good guys to face every week. You won’t see physical heroes like Spider-Man or Batman have a Rogues Gallery of purely psychic villains as their skills and powers are useless against these foes. Villains and especially heroes who can warp reality are difficult to write for as they have effectively won the superpower lottery. But it’s not impossible as 2017’s Legion from earlier this year proves. In this regard, Doctor Who was always going to have trouble watering down the Monks’ power without undercutting their effectiveness as a villain, so it’s not much of a surprise that they failed. Because the Doctor can’t hope to defeat enemies like the Monks under normal circumstances, the writers chose to hide the Monks from the story for most of the episode which also had the side-effect of making them bland and stupid villains whose powers only work when the plot needs them to. This undercuts their effectiveness and breaks the episode’s internally set Suspension of Disbelief.

A rollercoaster of ups and downs, it’s difficult to gauge an episode like The Lie of the Land and because of this, it makes the Monk trilogy feel closer to a failure than a success. It has its merits and memorable moments, but the plot holes are glaring and unfortunately large enough to drive a truck through, rendering the trilogy more effective as three stand alone episodes rather than one coherent, closely-connected story.