"Right, so when we're done with the report, we have to remember to do this or else it won't happen. Except it did happen! Ted, it was you who stole your dad's keys!" The Doctor ejected the Betamax tape from the TARDIS console with giddy excitement. That was how he was going to break in to the bank.
Spoilers up to the end of series 8 episode 5 of ‘Doctor Who’ follow…
This year's batch of Doctor Who episodes may be labelled 'series 8', but with fifty years of television and a number of 'seasons' before the new series, the history of Doctor Who is rich and varied. If you don't like something in Doctor Who, just wait a while, something else will come along.
With Peter Capaldi's Doctor Who, you don't have to wait that long. After last week's character study and legend-building, we end up with a mix of Hustle and Ocean's 11. It's not incredibly deep, but that's fine. Sometimes you need the 'caper' episode to romp along so you can appreciate the more thoughtful episodes. This is one of the strengths of Doctor Who. By adopting an anthology approach to serial storytelling (as opposed to a fixed point series such as 'The West Wing' or 'Game of Thrones') you can take your characters wherever you like. You open up the story possibilities, and you can build a new world every week for the viewers.
You have no idea where the Doctor will end up... which is interesting because neither does the Doctor - more so this week, as he and Clara snap awake to find themselves in a locked room, with two guest stars, and a mystery voice telling them they have to rob a bank. Oh and their minds have been wiped for 'security'.
The anthology approach does have a weakness. With each episode looking to be 'a bit different' front he previous episode, it's harder for the audience to quickly engage with the cast. There is no doubt that the Twelfth Doctor's character is settling down, and the show should heap as much praise as it can on Peter Capaldi's approach to the central role, but the material he has to work with does not have consistency. Putting aside the topsy-turvy nature of a regeneration episode, the show has presented the viewers with Die Hard (in a Dalek), The Zany Adventures Of Robin Hood, and bedtime stories by M. Night Shyamalan. Next week looks like 'a Hugh Grant Rom-Com.'
Contrast this with the approach of the 'classic' series where single stories stretched over four, six, or even seven episodes at a time. That provided a continuity from week to week, and the stories in each of those seasons tended to play out along similar themes and styles. When you talk about 'the Barry Letts era' or 'the Philip Hinchcliffe era' you bring to mind not just a mental image of specific Doctor/companion pairings, but also of the types of story (Letts focused on Earthbound 'action series' stories with a gentle line in buddhism running through Pertwee's Doctor, while Hinchcliffe worked within 'gothic horror' and the eccentric Tom Baker).
Television changes, and throughout its fifty years, Doctor Who has changed with the times and kept pace with developments, techniques, and style. From the early black and white episodes that were little more the theatre pieces with a camera to relay the image to the audience, through to the cinematic spectacle that is broadcast every week, Doctor Who changes.
That's the principle Time Heist reminds me of. Every week something new comes along. Every year something notable changes. Every few years a major change in the production team affects the program. And measured over decades, you can see societal changes reflected in the show.
Time Heist illustrates all of that, in a delightful 45 minutes that may not have been the most challenging, but it certainly provided an enjoyable romp.
Next Week...
It is a truth universally acknowledged that when one part of your life starts going okay, another falls spectacularly to pieces.
