Who Reviews Extremis by Jeffrey Zyra

“Doctor, will you read the Veritas?”

Written by Steven Moffat

Extremis is the first part of a three part story that is penned by Steven Moffat while the next two episodes will have different writers along with Steven Moffat.  I have to admit that I had to watch Extremis a couple of times to figure out what was going on as it was a typical Steven Moffat story with a lot of stuff going on.  In fact that is one of the reasons to watch it again as there was a lot going on that you definitely didn’t pick everything up on first viewing.  You might not get everything on the second viewing either but anyway Extremis was a better story than anything that Steven Moffat wrote for last season.

With Extremis I don’t really hate it nor do I really like it as it is the first part of three but if this was a standalone story that was leading into a story that came later on in the series then yes this was a really good story.  But I cannot really rate it until I see all three parts but from what I saw with Extremis I liked for the most part.  It was pretty entertaining and did open up possible scenarios that haven’t been done in Who before. For example the whole world inside a computer program with the simulants start killing each other when they figure out that they are just a simulation.  It has been done before in science fiction shows but not so sure it has been done in Doctor Who before.

I really liked the Missy storyline.  In that storyline we finally get to see who is in the vault.  For once it was not an over dramatic reveal or saved for the end of the series.  I really liked how we found out with The Doctor having to make a promise to watch over Missy’s body for 1000 years.  Plus, it was also clever if pretty predictable of a way for him to save Missy from death also.  Rewiring the machine of execution was predictable but really that was probably the right choice Steven Moffat could make in that scenario.  It also raises some questions too. Will the Doctor in the next two parts of this story free Missy from the vault to help with the impending invasion from The Monks?  Or will she just be in there giving him advice and not have much of a presence?  I’m sure we will find out in time but I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends escaping at some point. 

It will be interesting to see what happens from Extremis and how the next two stories will tie into it.  I really liked The Monks and how they are planning on taking over the Earth from the simulations but did they have to run it for over 2000 years?  I’m hopeful that we can get a new reoccurring villain from this story as that is something that the show needs.  So far, this story has started off pretty well and Extremis was one of the better Moffat stories and let’s just hope that the next two stories will be just as good.