The Return of Doctor Mysterio

With great power comes great responsibility. No ‘man’ worthy of the title leaves a baby alone

The Twelfth Doctor

Synopsis

The Doctor joins forces with a masked superhero for an epic New York adventure. With brain-swapping aliens poised to attack, the Doctor and Nardole link up with an investigative reporter and a mysterious figure known only as the Ghost. Can the Doctor save Manhattan?

Review

2016 was an eventful year, full of political turmoil, and on a personal note, my own wedding. As this post goes out closest to my wedding anniversary, my mind is drawn back to that first Christmas together as a married couple. We spent Christmas together that year in our flat, in part as I had to work on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. It was an unusual year for Doctor Who too, as The Return of Doctor Mysterio was the only episode of Doctor Who to be broadcast that year. The Doctor did briefly crop up in the short-lived spin-off Class, but otherwise, we had not seen him since he was due to spend his night on Darillium with River Song. The Return of Doctor Mysterio will always have a place in my heart as the first new story to be broadcast following my marriage and take me back to a certain time and place.

Why do they call him “Spider-Man”? Don’t they like him?

He was bitten by a radioactive spider, and guess what happened?

Radiation poisoning, I should think.

No. He got special powers.

What? Vomiting. Hair loss. And death. Fat lot of use.

The Twelfth Doctor and Young Grant

The Return of Doctor Mysterio is a pastiche of the superhero genre, owing a huge amount to the Richard Donner Superman movies, which writer Steven Moffat openly acknowledges. The relationship between Grant and Lucy owes a lot to the relationship between Clark Kent and Lois Lane, and plays into the farcical nature of misunderstanding around Grant’s dual identities. Moffat might not have anything necessarily new to say about superheroes here, but he does make it a lot of fun. The scenes of the Doctor mocking superheroes like Spider-Man for not being realistic are great fun and makes a superhero work within the Doctor Who universe. I think that your reaction to this story will very much depend on whether or not you are onboard with superheroes.

If there is something that doesn’t really work about this story it is the villains. Harmony Shoal are certainly set up to be a great foe in the vein of an Invasion of the Body Snatchers way, but they aren’t really given any real depth or development to truly make them feel intimidating. The idea of sentient brains being put into world leaders’ heads, replacing their own, is one that has been done to death here, but there is something very creepy about the brains having eyes and the flicker that affects their eyes. It’s all rather vague and one-dimensional; we get no idea of whether Harmony Shoal have been successful in their Sword of Damocles tactic on other planet, nor what they are waiting for. The Doctor states that he is activating their plan early, but we are not provided with a reason why they are waiting to trigger this event that would secure their ascent to domination of the Earth. I think that Tomiwa Edun and Aleksandar Jovanovic are good with what they are given, but the script does not serve them that well. That being said, that final shot of Dr Sim’s hollow body as one of Harmony Shoal escapes UNIT is one of the most sinister and affecting of this story.

One of the strengths of the episodes are the performances of Justin Chatwin and Charity Wakefield as Grant and Lucy. Their relationship is very much at the heart of the story, with Grant being nanny to her child, Jennifer, and they bring real emotional resonance to the story. The dual identity story line works thanks to the fact that Chatwin is able to make himself look completely different as Ghost and Grant. The emotional centrepiece of the story is the rooftop interview in which Lucy realises that she has feelings for Grant, and both actors play their parts to perfection.

He’s the Doctor. He’s very brave and he’s very silly, and I think, for a time, he’s going to be very sad. But I promise, in the end, he’ll be alright.

Nardole

I was unsure about Matt Lucas returning to Doctor Who following The Husbands of River Song, but his story in this episode does go some way to bringing me around on the character. He is a side character here, but he does have some of the best lines in the story, and I love the idea of his misguided attempts to get the TARDIS to pick up the Doctor from the New York headquarters of Harmony Shoal, via 12th Century Constantinople. Nardole states that the Doctor reconstructed him as he did not want to be lonely, which is something that would be developed further in the next series. Nardole feels more rounded in this story than he did previously, and whilst he doesn’t entirely justify his inclusion as the Doctor’s companion here, I definitely felt more positively about his recurring role in the next series following this story.

Peter Capaldi continues to shine as the Doctor here. His dynamic with the younger versions of Grant radiate with warmth and the Doctor turning a child into a superhero inadvertently feels in character for his Doctor. Having last seen him with River Song on Darillium, he feels emotionally affected by finally seeing the end of her journey and emotionally raw on returning to business as usual. There is a sense that Capaldi’s Doctor is enjoying himself again, despite the pain that he obviously is in.

Verdict: The Return of Doctor Mysterio is probably the least Christmassy Christmas special, but is fun. 6/10

Cast: Peter Capaldi (The Doctor), Matt Lucas (Nardole), Justin Chatwin (Grant & The Ghost), Charity Wakefield (Lucy), Tomiwa Edun (Mr Brock), Aleksandar Jovanovic (Dr Sim), Logan Hoffman (Young Grant), Daniel Lorente (Teen Grant), Sandra Teles (Reporter), Tanroh Ishida (Operator) & Vaughn Johseph (Soldier).

Writer: Steven Moffat

Director: Ed Bazalgette

Producer: Peter Bennett

Composer: Murray Gold

Original UK Broadcast Date: 25 December 2016

Behind the Scenes

• The name Doctor Mysterio is the name of Doctor Who in Mexico, which Steven Moffat and Peter Capaldi discovered on a world tour. Capaldi was particularly taken with the name and Moffat decided to use it in an episode title.
• This is the first Christmas special since The End of Time not to feature a companion from the Eleventh Doctor’s era.

Best Moment

The phone call between the Ghost and Lucy, which has been edited into comic book panels, with the Doctor, Grant and Lucy all shown in that style. It’s a wonderful scene, really nicely directed and edited together, and a good example of this story having fun with the idea of being in a comic book universe.

Best Quote

Things end. That’s all. Everything ends, and it’s always sad. But everything begins again too, and that’s… always happy. Be happy. I’ll look after everything else.

The Twelfth Doctor

Previous Twelfth Doctor review: The Husbands of River Song

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