Time Heist: Ranking - 272

  Time Heist

(Series 8, Dr 12 with Clara, 20/9/2014, showrunner: Steven Moffat, writers: Stephen Thompson and Steven Moffat, director: Douglas MacKinnon)  

Rank: 272

Telepathic scary alien to checkout one please, I'd like to report a robbery...

Or 'Twelfth Doctor, Oceans Eleven' if you'd rather. We're in the section of the list now where nothing much goes that wrong. 'Time Heist' would be a pretty decent bit of sci-fi drama if seen as a one-off or as part of another series - it just lacks the sparkle compared to a lot of DW. Here the Dr and Clara have been drugged and, alongside an android and a mutant we've never met before, have been charged with robbing a bank protected by a telepathic alien who can read their thoughts. In theory its an exciting action-packed episode that gives us the chance to see our heroes acting as cod-villains for a change in a high-tech arena filled with gadgets and lots of curious new aliens to gawp at. In practise the Dr's acting a bit gruff, which means Clara's in a bit of a huff and the aliens don't get that much of a chance to strut their stuff. It all looks pretty good though, especially the Teller monster whose kind of a telepathic Jar-Jar Binks, but done right.

Positives+ Lots of spoilers, so look away now if you need to: The twist at the end is great. It turns out that the whole thing isn't the fault of the monster at all (who, rather sweetly, gets to run off with a Mrs Teller by the end) but...The Doctor! He put this gang together using a timeloop when the governor of the bank he's stealing from asked him for help and he wiped everyone's memories including his own just to be sure that what she was telling him was true. So despite acting so grumpy all episode, even for him, he was actually doing the right thing all the time and forgot. Very 12th Doctor that!

Negatives - It's a heist movie. I mean, you see one you've seen them all and they're all pretty boring. I mean, at this sort of level in real life the biggest impact would be on someone impossibly rich who'd probably consider the robbery takings small change and make them back up in a month, so its hard to get too concerned by it all. At most a few workers might get laid off but then you'd hope that they'd find better jobs elsewhere anyway. This is just the same as that, only slightly better because it's in space with aliens. Even so, the money still is going out to the people who need it and its hardly Robin Hood is it? Or even Robin Ood. Now there's a programme I'd like to see...