The first episode takes the show back to square one again - something a series that has run as long as Doctor Who has to do occasionally. I love this aspect and the wittily titled The Pilot is a strong opener for Peter Capaldi's final series. In some respects, this freshness offsets the build up to his departure with Pearl Mackie's Bill offering new takes on old companion tropes through the entire run.
Favourite episodes are many but I would pick out the aforementioned The Pilot, together with The Eaters of Light (A straightforward self-contained historical mystery with some great character moments) and World Enough and Time (a story that mixes humour and tragedy in exactly the same way that the adventures in series eight didn't.)
My primary issue with the series though comes with the trilogy of episodes concerning the Monks. It starts off with the imaginative Extremis and promptly goes hill as the Monks' plot is revealed and implemented. The first two stories come across as dual scene-setting prologues setting the scene for a bigger adventure. But this final part deals with the crisis too quickly and desperately needed a second episode to flesh out life under the Monks' control before resolving the situation.
On a personal note, I had a heart attack on the Saturday that Oxygen was broadcast. Ironic that - being stuck in casualty on real oxygen whilst the episode went out.
Ho hum. Life is a beautiful irony.
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