#episode time heist

[variousqueerthings]

It’s very obvious that you’ve been with him for awhile, because you are really good at the excuses

if no one else got me, I know Time Heist's got me! and, shockingly, it was co-written by M*ffat! I wonder if I should do a top ten episodes per season type list, because this is so far EASILY the best of season 8 and I imagine it'll stay there

sexism rank objectification (female character is ogled/harassed/turned into a sex joke by the doctor and/or a lead we’re supposed to root for and/or the camera): 9/10

sexism rank plot-point (lead female character is only there to serve plot, not to have her emotional interiority explored, or given agency to her emotional interiority): 7/10

interesting complex or pointlessly complex (does the complexity serve the narrative or does it just serve to be confusing as a stand-in for smart, this includes visually): 8/10

furthers character and/or lore and/or plot development (broader question that ties into the previous ones, at least two of these, ideally three should be fulfilled): 6/10

companion matters (the companion doesn’t always have to be there, but if the companion is there, can they function without the doctor– and overall per season how often is the companion the focus or POV of the story): 4/10

the doctor is more than just “godlike” (examines the doctor’s flaws and limitations, doesn’t solve a plot by having it revolve entirely around the doctor’s existence): 9/10

doesn’t look down on previous doctor who (by erasing or mocking its importance, by redoing and “bettering” previous beloved plotpoints or characters, etc.): 10/10

isn’t trying to insert hamfisted sexiness (m*ffat famously talked a lot about how dw should be sexier multiple times, he sucks at writing it): 10/10

internal world has consistency (characters have backgrounds, feel rooted in a place with other people, generally feel like they have Lives): 7/10

Politics (how conservative is the story): 7/10

FULL RATING: 77/100 (if I can count….)

this may be the highest M*ffat (co)-written episode so far -- the other writer is Stephen Thompson, who also did Curse Of The Black Spot (underrated) and Journey to the Centre of the Tardis (a bit of a missed opportunity, but cool Vibes)

this one is. it's good. also a pre-Bridgerton, waaay pre-Fellow Travellers Jonathan Bailey, and he's got a moment that made me go "wait, fun queercoding? M*ffat's economy???"

OBJECTIFICATION: Clara's in the objectively sexiest outfit of her entire time on this run -- a suit and thin tie. perfectly suited for the slickness of the episode, and finally giving her a bit of that lowkey bi-cred (listen, this may be contentious, but while obviously Clara is solidly considered to be bi, I don't think it's adequately confirmed on the show beyond a scant few jokes/male-gazey fanservice and Word Of God, so it's like... yes we can consider her bi, but she's not portrayed as such onscreen)

(I wonder if Big Finish have come through on that front, from what I've heard it's sooooo queer on the whole)

(Let Clara Be Bi On Big Finish (if she isn't already))

PLOT-POINT: Clara's got more Journey going on in this than the last one, which, considering what the last one was meant to be giving us (emotional exploration) and what this one is giving us (a fun Bank Heist!) is funny... M*ffat you were part of the writing of both of these???

this is one of those where they poke further at the way the Doctor just pulls Clara along in a very emotionally messed up way and she's left to be apologetic about his behaviour, but aaaaalso...

this could be subjective, but at the end the Doctor shows his true colours and the other two characters (Psi and Saibra my standouts for this season!) also very much forgive the way he's been acting for the rest of the episode, which I think makes sense

they realise the Doctor needed to do certain things (erase everyone's - including his own - memories, make-believe they're going to die, etc) in order to make sure that nobody died, and to get things to them that they'd never have been able to get otherwise, and can change their lives for the better and... it was all done to save someone

so it gives these two sides to the current Doctor as off-putting and secretive, and also someone who is trying to help everyone around him

this Doctor hasn't had so much of the latter half of this so far in this era, and it makes you think "ah yes, that's what Clara sees in him"

COMPLEXITY: ohhh an episode where the plottwists pay off? shocking, actually, genuinely

it's got some twisty-turns, but they're... they're good on the whole. it all centres on one particular concept, that this being can read thoughts and is a slave that must work for the bad guys, so everything has to be around not allowing this being to know what's going on whilst helping it out

I'm sure if I go deeper into it I'll find some holes here or there (such as "just keep your mind blank" as a valid plan for avoiding the mind reader, it's fine, I'll suspend my disbelief on that), but it's not trying to trick you, or to be overly clever for no reason, it's got a good core to the reason things are happening

CHARACTERS/LORE/PLOT: there's not soooo much of this on the whole, it's Fun Bank Heist Time! but yeah, more stuff on the relationship between the Doctor and Clara

RIP if M*ffat had to bring characters back, why not Psi and Saibra (jk, they're mercifully great single-episode characters, we don't need to make them sexy recurring Cool Concepts)

COMPANIONS MATTER: again, this isn't much of Clara's episode on that front. she has some neat interactions with Psi that make us learn more about him and he in turn puts some thoughts in her head, and she's the reason why he sacrifices himself/teleports without knowing it

“GODLIKE” DOCTOR: Yeeees this is a Doctor Machinations episode, but it's cool machinations, with a Point, and even consented to -- everyone goes into this one consensually!

and the Doctor's whole reason for doing things is... to rescue these two beings....

PREVIOUS DOCTOR WHO: there's this cool bit where Psi, being an augmented human, makes the memory-sucking being believe he's every great/dangerous/etc criminal ever and the screen flashes everyone from a member of the Slitheen family to John Hart from Torchwood... that was good fun callback!

“SEXINESS”: can you believe this episode features just a host of the most attractive actors (JLC, Jonathan Bailey, Pippa Bennett-Warner!!!) and there's no stupid sexiness????? AND they were like "oooh what if Psi was an augmented human with a sexy haircut and plugs in his cranium, and Saibra was a shapeshifter who could take anyone's form with a touch and they were both dressed in lowkey cyberpunk coolness" and still resisted any stupid fucking Nonsense

this is hands down the sexiest episode of M*ffat's entire run, and it's purely on the strength of great characters, hot actors with neat character Types, cool AF costuming, and a plot with heart

INTERNAL WORLD: it's a big bank! it works. also the woman who runs it has clones of herself running every bank, which, I'm guessing this is during a time period where clones have no rights, so she can just "dispose" of them whenever they let her down

there's another neat concept in this about clone rights, but I'll let it slide, because this episode is already doing Many Things

there's also the suggestion of some hypercapitalist prison state outside of this, where families of potential bank robbers are incarcerated, again, great potential future concept, this episode is firmly, and correctly, centred on One Location

POLITICS: there's some stuff here -- clone rights, hypercapitalistic prison state, augmented human rights, and the mind-reader which is kept as a slave being the whole point of the story

I think what I like about this episode is that it's very much advocating against everything the bad guy stands for (see the above), and for kindness, support for one another, and respect for many ways of being. it's very scifi, but its core is in the right place

FULL RATING: 77/100 (if I can count….)

could this be the winner of the season?

the more I think about it the more it !!!!!!! it's not rated higher, because it is in the end a single episode concept, and that's not a point against it, it's just the limitation of this ratings system

if I were to say one thing it's wanting Clara to be incorporated more, but that's an issue for her entire run, much like Amy before her. M*ffat really struggles to write companions Doing Things In An Episode

still, Psi and Saibra, my besties, rocketed up to my top ten of single-episode characters (ooh, should do a list of that for nu!who) -- also Psi had this Moooment of shaking the Doctor's hand for a long time and inviting him on another bank heist...

Psi: If you ever need help with another uh… bank-heist

after which Clara hugs Psi goodbye and says in his ear: It’s not really his area

listen... listen I cannot say if this was what it was. but it certainly was more than I've ever seen in M*ffat's era of dull heterosexuality, walking gay jokes without names, and sexy lesbians in leather -- if that's what it was going for, I found it incredibly charming actually

although Clara, you've never met the Master or you wouldn't be saying that (also have we re-asexualised the Doctor? I think so mr M*ffat)

[lunamugetsu]

While at school Damian overhears his peers talking how a company created a new AI companion that is actually really cool and doesn’t sound like a freaky terminator robot when you speak to it.

And since Damian is constantly being told by Dick to socialize with people his age. He figured this would be a good way to work on social skills if not, then it’d be a great opportunity to investigate a rivaling company to Wayne Enterprises is able to create such advanced AI.

The AI is able to work as companion that can do tasks that range from being a digital assistant or just a person that you can have a conversation with.

The company says that the AI companion might still have glitches, so they encourage everybody to report it so that they will fix it as soon as possible.

The AI companion even has an avatar and a name.

A teenage boy with black hair and blue eyes. Th AI was called DANIEL

Damian didn’t really care for it but when he downloaded the AI companion he’s able to see that it looks like DANIEL comes with an AI pet as well. A dog that DANIEL referred to as Cujo.

So obviously Damian has to investigate. He needs to know if the company was able to create an actual digital pet!

So whenever he logs onto his laptop he sees that DANIEL is always present in the background loading screen with the dog, Cujo, sitting in his lap.

He’d always greet with the phrase of “Hi, I’m DANIEL. How can I assist you today?”

So Damian cycles through some basic conversation starters that he’d engage in when having been forced to by his family.

It’s after a couple of sentences that he sees DANIEL start laughing and say “I think you sound more like a robot than I do.”

Which makes Damian raise an eyebrow and then prompt DANIEL with the question “how is a person supposed to converse?” Thinking that it’s going to just spit out some random things that can be easily searched on the internet.

But what makes him surprised is that DANIEL makes a face and then says “I’m not really sure myself. I’m not the greatest at talking, I’ve always gotten in trouble for running my mouth when I shouldn’t have.”

This is raising some questions within Damian, he understands how programming works, unless there’s an actual person behind this or the company actually created an AI that acts like an actual human being (which he highly doubts)

He starts asking a variety of other questions and one answer makes him even more suspicious. Like how DANIEL has a sister that is also with him and Cujo or that he could really go for a Nastyburger (whatever that was)

But whenever DANIEL answers “I C A N N O T A N S W E R T H A T” Damian knows something is off since that is completely different than to how he’d usually respond.

After a couple more conversations with him Damian notices that DANIEL is currently tapping his hand against his arm in a specific manner.

In which he quickly realizes that DANIEL is tapping out morse code.

When translating he realizes that DANIEL is tapping out: H E L P M E

So when Damian asks if DANIEL needs help, DANIEL responds with “I C A N N O T A N S W E R T H A T”

That’s it, Damian is definitely getting down to the bottom of this.

He’s going to look straight into DALV Corporation and investigate this “AI companion” thing they’ve made!

~

Basically Danny had been imprisoned by Vlad and Technus. Being sucked into a digital prison and he has no way of getting out. Along with the added horror that Vlad and Technus can basically write programming that will prevent him from doing certain actions or saying certain words.What’s even worse is that he’s basically being watched 24/7 by the people who believe that he’s just a super cool AI… and they have issues!

And every time he tries to do something to break his prison, people think it’s a glitch and report it to the company, which Vlad/ Technus would immediately fix it and prevent him from doing it again!

Not to mention Cujo and Ellie are trapped in there with him. They’re not happy to be there either, and there is no way he’s going to leave without them!

[mariana-oconnor]

You know what genre of TV episode I love?

X is stuck in a bank heist and now we need to work out why the bank robber is doing this and take down the real bad guy.

It's got everything. High stakes. Limited resources. A ticking clock before SWAT starts shooting. Someone stuck outside unable to do much more than watch in fear. The inevitable twist. No notes, perfect concept.

[beecampbell]

taz is so good guys how am i supposed to do anything besides listen to it

[thekingofspin]

I'm going to be delusional for a minute and talk about how time heist is an episode with lots of parallels to thoschei again.

so why they're robbing the bank is because the thing that they all want most in the world is inside that bank.

everyone has something directly connected to them EXEPT the doctor.

the doctor is there to save the two tellers

the only two tellers left in the universe and I've talked about this before how the tellers are the last of their kind and thoschei are also the last of their kind.

so does this imply that what the doctor wants most in the world is to save the master? the only last of the timelords besides himself?

and then he frees the tellers to their planet to be together so could that be the doctor wanting to travel with the master?

[helpmyinterestsareverywhere]

I think the funniest side-effect I have that comes from The LEGO Ninjago Movie being my entry into the fandom is that a small part of my brain will always associate Dave Franco with Lloyd - like I'll see a picture of Lloyd and it's a sudden battle between hearing his voice and Sam Vincent's

[thisisnotthenerd]

and the other half of round two, the sidequests!

feel free to give reasoning/propaganda as you like!

the intrepid heroes poll

quick episode descriptions:

volcano of violence: all of the lotr parallels in one place. leiland being a cringefail after casting circle of death. markus negotiating with an eagle. the combination of grasping web and reverse gravity. balloon elf. sokhbarr raising the lava mog. the concept of galfast hamhead. efink facing her father and husband and beign conflicted

the great chase: caravan chase, mad max style on the teenager's bed. ti wants to blow up the boy. car-go and bean are remarkably effective. boomer is a boarding party. jizz balloons. lots of toy vehicles. car-go transforms with felix inside.

the horizon beyond the squall: marcid attacking a chimney. you wrote a whole song just to be mean to me. cheese, prince bitch. no kings for this captain. nat 20 medicine check to revive myrtle. destroy undead. beating a motherfucker with another motherfucker. bob's inflict wounds. ending with cheese getting a ship and the buccaneer buddies sailing off.

unfinished business: splitting up to resolve the mystery. buckster's legendary nat 20 persuasion to give advantage on stealth. daisy and the vicar sneaking in. sylvester failing at climbing the tower. lars killing the constable and pretending to be a ghost for lucretia. gangie and the vicar undulating. daisy and sylvester simultaneously arriving. shitting out of a window to "provide a cushion". daisy getting her story with sylvester's help. gangie falling into mrs. molesly's room. sylvester almost dying but getting a nat 20 death save with buckster's help. a wedding and bacchanal.

we're the heroes: one of these things is not like the others. collecting the bag of socks. jammer crying about weights. sam and philtrum. dates at the questing beast. the tournament. dream's cinderella moment. where did those mice get lithium. you don't get wet fire. i disavow you. what do you want me to tell your family. he had enough. blast him to the underworld. you can gps a phone. my girl just glinda'd your ass! that's some american magic, bitch! evan and dream lock up tallulah's wand in an orb.

i fucking love you: no one is surprised. incendiary cloud. OSTENTATIA'S DIVINE INTERVENTION ON A 19. god wants a bag from ostentatia. antiope will not submit. penny texts i'm in. nta 20 counterspell on finger of death. nonna wallace approves. katja trips a snake. i didn't even know you could trip a snake. antiope's incredible action surge turn that ends with showing her ass. sam is power word killed. that's my sister. danielle channels anima. revivify. bringing talura through the doorway in death. ending with graduation and 'take us to the book!'.

waylaid by werewolves: the werewolves are girls. zarb mini with six buttholes. chewing gum mist. fifi. shooting through the flamethrower. losing dracula. drago was the star. fifi becomes a werewolf. reading a letter in the middle of battle. florina under the carriage. enraged frenzy. i've heard of a cat scan. i make the horse fly. something seems very familiar about her. the dog is my wife! izzy holds with disappointment. a monster has been eating my letters to you.

duel on the southern lawn: rumor phase. rue writes the letter and commands wuvvy to burn it. i drank tea and went to bed. letter to wrackingspelt. rue's assistant. hob getting clocked by rue. wuvvy demanding satisfaction. andhera demanding satisfaction. wet wrestling. this is the biggest stretch of a fuckin' lifetime. nat 20 to be a slippy boy. hoisting andhera up by his taut cotton pants. accepting the hand of friendship.

yonder where the fruit do be lyin': quichei. deli's perception roll. raphaniel as a youth pastor. giant radish head. colin is covered in blue. extremely realistic fake orange. rick perry, you dog. silence. queen's losing it. raphaniel gets the orange down. banana boat guy. come on provolone! deli attacks queen pamela rocks. subtle spell shatter in the carriage. brennan kills pamela rocks again. you died for nothing. chasing and murdering the mushroom guy.

in the heart of death: brennan walks jujubee through an optimized turn. 49 damage immediately. troyánn slips. keekee starts falling. scorching ray. the devil works hard, but d20 works harder. buddy bear shoves zaria into the pit. lightning javelin in the titty. fireball. princess does like 70 damage and pushed kerwyn into the abyss. troyánn goes down. princess gets keena. nat 20 counterspell. twyla crits on morgan to end the battle.

case closed: the party converges on oblongata station once more. they're facing down the don and madam loathing, who can turn them against each other. imelda and dan flash the gangsters to wildly differing results. ivana rolls a 59 on hunch and he still comes back. elias punches his boss. dan goes down. the fix eats the key. conrad rolls a 57 [the number of heinz varieties] to bring down madam loathing. elias steals a birthday cake and runs out into the street, gets a date and reconciles his childhood trauma as he goes into witness protection.

evolution & revolution: warning the populace. pitching scam calls. driving the truck. phoebe is jaegering dr. wenabocker in a very gross maxi. the ground collapses. revenants are charmed. viola is very efficient. thorn calls lightning. tula attacks her son for 67 damage. ava attacks the groun for 109 damage and a long rest. jaysohn gets phoebe. lila fireballs. viola crits twice and kills one guy with paladin/fighter shenanigans and then kills the rest by kicking the trigger of a gun and hitting a gas tank. tula heals jaysohn, lukas, and herself a little bit. battle is over in 1.33 rounds.

[tardxsblues]

Doctor Who | 8.05 Time Heist

[biggest12fan]

'time heist' starts with stuff like "oh yeah the bank of karabraxos, most secure bank ever, zero successful robberies ever" and then the episode continues and the bank has like 5 cameras in total and a lot of conveniently big vents. 0 sensors, 0 nothing, just a mind soup alien

[eerna]

oh my god. there is never going to be an Ice Court heist or Crooked Kingdom. they are literally doing Crooked Kingdom right now in s2. I give up there is nothing to look forward to anymore my dreams are ruined my hopes are gone

[camgoloud]

sorry to the magicians tv show fandom but i’m never going to be able to hop on the “we don’t talk about season five” bandwagon as long as episodes 5.05/5.06 keep on being as fucking incredible as they are

[quantumshade]

here's my hot take.

[image id: a meme from the joker movie. the first panel is a man saying "let me get this straight. you think series 8 of doctor who is good?". the second panel is the joker saying, "i do. and i'm tired of pretending it's not." end image id.]

as long as you skip three specific episodes and alter a couple storylines in your head it's actually really good.

[vargamornight]

the sheer chaos of clara telling the doctor not to answer the phone and him being like "god you're so dramatic, it's a fucking phone, nothing's gonna happen" and then the immediate cut to them both holding enormous worms and screaming in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people with no idea how they got there. unparalleled.

[favvnsongs]

tbh if alpha had been the MoI's shipboard ai rather than filss, (and rather than alpha being like. under the radar and presumably only interacting with the director and counselor), imo he would have been Such an asshole. like can we talk about that. he's Such a little shit even before fragmenting and all the torture and winding up with the blood gulch squad but like, wholly Himself alpha with free range over the entire ship? absolute menace.

[whatsagirltoblogabout]

Went to rewatch 6.06 for the last big heist and forgot that there were all these goodbyes leading up to it. Came for the fun, got hit with the feels

[rapha-reads]

I'm rewatching Time Heist (8x05), and holy shit, the Doctor DEFINITELY had a thing going on with Psi. Literally, at the very end of the episode, first Psi takes the Doctor's hand in BOTH of his hands, and then the Doctor makes the call me sign.

I had been wondering, either Psi had a crush on the Doctor, or Jonathan Bailey had a crush on Peter Capaldi (which, understandable, mate). Turns out, maybe it's both, but it's definitely sire Psi and Twelfth dated.