Doctor Who: Oxygen Review

"Don't Breathe. Don't even breathe. Breathe and you're dead. Don't cough, or yawn. Don't clear your throat. And don't breathe. Good luck."

The Doctor Who fan community have been eager to find the "New Steven Moffat" ever since the "Old Steven Moffat" took over as show runner. In Russell T. Davies' era Moffat provided six episodes - four stories for four seasons. These stories The Empty Child/ The Doctor Dances, Girl in the Fireplace, Blink and Silence in the Library/ Forest of the Dead each stood out in their respective seasons as being genuinely scary, complexly (but solidly) plotted and very witty. Moffat was Golden Boy, winning the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) three years in a row. He missed out in 2008 only because of Joss Whedon's exemplary web-series Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Since taking over the show in 2010, fans have been quick to label a number of writers his successor - the new Golden Boy. When Neil Gaiman won the Hugo for his episode The Doctor's Wife, Gaiman was nominated as the natural successor, but Gaiman's second episode failed to please fans. Complex time-tale The Girl Who Waited by Tom MacRae rang alarm bells for many fans but MacRae hasn't returned to the show since 2011. And in 2014, the Zygon two-parter, Invasion and Inversion by proven show-runner Peter Harness suggested that he may become the "New Moffat". Harness' first episode Kill the Moon divided fans, though. There's passionate loathing as well as love for it out there. The "New Moffat" needs to be flawless, Harness is no New Moffat.

Of course, the search for the owner of such a strange title is moot. Steven Moffat, writer of Listen, Hell Bent, (Hugo award winning) The Pandorica Opens/ The Big Bang and The Time of Angels/ Flesh and Stone remains the Steven Moffat of Doctor Who. What's more, he has gathered a core of fiercely dependable, recurring writers around him. The series' strength comes from the continued inspiration of Sarah Dollard, Toby Whithouse, aforementioned Peter Harness and the current fan-favourite for the "New Moffat" title, Jamie Mathieson. These writers bring their own patterns and themes to the show, recognisable by the idiosyncrasies of their own writing as Moffat was once identifiable by his. Dollard's episodes include influences of the procedural drama. Whithouse's always pit the Doctor against a foe who is a dark mirror of himself. Harness takes an current issue or moral quandary and pairs it up with a high concept foe.

Jamie Mathieson has now written four standalone Doctor Who stories - Mummy on the Orient Express, The Girl Who Died, Flatline and Oxygen. His patterns and concerns when it comes to writing Doctor Who have become more and more obvious with each one of these episodes. They are classic adventures with memorable monsters and often possess clever, logical solutions to their problems. Discounting The Girl Who Died which was co-written by Moffat his episodes follow a certain structure. A high-concept monster makes a kill in the pre-title sequence. The Doctor and companions are then free to have long and amusing conversations for 15 minutes while they discover more about the conflict of the episode. The Doctor is often compromised beyond the normal restraints of the show (he is trapped in a miniaturised, dying TARDIS in Flatline and in this episode, Oxygen he loses his sonic and his sight.) Mathieson is the writer of high quality, 45 minute science fantasy. He is thoroughly dependable, so what is in this episode to set it apart?

The first thought that I had following the climax of Oxygen was “wasn’t that brutal?” Admittedly, during the episode’s run; as the loved up hopeful mother is slaughtered, as Bill is supposedly suffocated and then poisoned, as the Doctor’s sightless eyes gaze past his companions, I thought “Isn’t this brutal?” as well. With the episode’s introduction and conclusion taking place as distinct scenes in Bristol University (and it’s nice to see that the location hasn’t been forgotten) Mathieson didn’t have much time to develop and explore his tale of dread. The futuristic, space-bound adventure reminded me most of Chris Chibnall’s 2007 story 42 - all of the components are there, just replace “problem with heat” to “problem with air”. Chibnall, however, begins his story with the TARDIS landing inside the doomed spaceship S. S. Pentallian from which point the episode’s lightning-quick pace doesn’t slow for a moment. Mathieson’s script, on the other hand, doesn’t see the Doctor land on space station, Chasm Forge until seven minutes have elapsed in the 43 minute run-time. Another episode that Oxygen has been compared to is Blink. The fairly superficial complaint is that “don’t breath” is just a gimmicky reworking of "don't blink." Oxygen more closely resembles Blink in its tightness - the writer's ability to set up and round off plot threads whilst not wasting a single concept that he introduces.

One of the most intelligent things about the script is the way in which threat looms over our heroes from a variety of disparate sources and how each of these sources bares on the plot at different points. The fleeting availability of oxygen, the suits, the “zombies”, Bill’s glitching suit, the deadly conditions of space and the Suits - which is to say the faceless corporation that represents Capitalism - all work into and play off the menace that the others bring to the episode. Mathieson weaves all of these elements together with great skill, each solution to a problem leads onto another problem. When the spaceship expunges the oxygen The Doctor and co. must climb into the Suits. When the Suits are worn the “zombies” are aware of them and begin to hunt them. To escape the zombies they must exit the craft but Bill’s suit malfunctions and the Doctor must sacrifice his helmet to save her, and so on. The problems have real consequences and instead of being contrived there is a genuine narrative flow that binds them together. Mathieson advertised the episode by saying it was “satirical” and “darkly humorous”. Indeed, there are numerous examples of this humour leading into terror. An example of this is when Bill's suit - which has been programmed to murder its inhabitant - won’t be lifted off the ground for reasons of “Health and Safety”. At any moment where the challenges facing our heroes threaten to stray into the realms of contrivance there is a piece of intelligently crafted writing in place to justify it.

This is probably the best written of all of the episodes that we have seen this year. Unlike the previous episode, Knock Knock - a similarly structured story with a group of people confined in a deadly environment - it feels as though nothing is wasted. Capaldi’s “lecturer Doctor” returns in full force with his speech on the dangers of space both perfectly setting up the consequences of his forthcoming spacewalk and calling back to the likes of Listen and Before the Flood. These episodes began with lectures that brushed up against the fourth wall too. Also, unlike Knock Knock, all of the threats tie together with logical consistency. I wouldn’t, however, say that Oxygen achieves the honour of becoming a personal favourite episode of Series 10. It’s purposefully harsh tone prevents it from being as much fun as The Pilot or Sarah Dollard’s wonderful Thin Ice.

The story calls back to politically charged Doctor Whos of the past, from Jon Pertwee’s era when environmentalist Barry Letts ran the show to the anti-Thatcher, Sylvester McCoy story The Happiness Patrol. For many, the anti-capitalist themes might be a little hard to swallow with many considering escapist entertainment to be ideally suited to escaping from the woes of the present but the story wouldn’t function without it. I’ve seen complaints made that this story - which is about technology designed to help humanity turning fatal - is too similar to Episode 2, Smile (and the idea certainly isn’t new to the Moffat-era) but what they're failing to appreciate is that this story is the exact opposite. The suits are designed to kill, that is their purpose. First humans are sent out to mine ore and then, when their usefulness dries up, they are disposed of as nothing more than unprofitable "organic components”. The episode possesses a running misdirect that leads the viewer to believe they are watching a well worn Doctor Who trope but when this is turned around the twist inverts the entire story, and says something relevant about the world we live in. That's the mark of strong writing.

Oxygen is classic “what if this continues” science-fiction. It speculates on the future, following the strands of the current state of affairs into our tomorrows as Bradbury, Orwell and Huxley did before. What is so monumentally depressing is that we already live in the dystopic world created by Capitalism. We live in a world where scientists are given gagging orders by the President of the United States because he thinks business is more important than the planet we live on. We live in a world where sweat shops are commonplace, the cost of HIV medication can be raised 5000% on a whim and oil spills caused by slovenliness are treated with a slap on the wrist. Human life is worth less than money when corporations are allowed to get away with skimming a couple of million off the top. That’s a fact, we didn’t need to take a trip to the furthest reaches of space to see that.

Another sci-fi classic which strongly resembles Oxygen is Alien, the 1979 Ridley Scott horror. The most successful Alien films combine the visceral horrors of Other-ness from beyond the stars with the callousness of business. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mathieson had Alien or Aliens on in the background when he was typing up his final draft of the script. The Xenomorphs of Alien may gnaw their way through human flesh but the stories wouldn’t be complete without those monstrous characters who work in the corporate interest of fictional mega-company Weyland-Yutani - Ash (the secret android of Alien) and Burke (slimy suit of Aliens) who is told by Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley

“You know, Burke, I don't know which species is worse. You don't see them fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage.”

What makes a monster and what makes a man, indeed... I’ve read a review recently which states that this is what’s lacking from Oxygen, a character to represent the callousness of the corporation - the Scrooge to count coins and be verbally abused by Capaldi’s hippy-Doctor.

The episode is all the stronger for lacking such a character. We’ve seen the Doctor take out his issues on a number of unfortunate characters who represent his grievance of the week. Tennant viciously bullied Colonel Mace in 2008’s The Sontaran Stratagem for trying to defend his planet from a militarised race with weapons. Peter Capaldi recently spurned Steven Robertson’s Pritchard in Under the Lake for trying to make sure the character's company’s costly venture didn’t leave them bankrupt. The problem with inserting such characters is that The Doctor just ends up fighting against an innocent middle-man who is a victim of the same sets of circumstances as he is. Either that or the character is so ludicrously evil that they come across as nothing but flat and cliched in their sub-45 minutes of screen time.

It is a point in the episode’s favour that there is no face to the real villain. Capitalism is a man made concept, it has no face. It isn’t a thing and the people who propagate it are as much at its mercy as anyone else. At the end of the day, the Doctor was facing faceless boardroom suits. And the Doctor was facing faceless space Suits as well. It’s such an insane, Moffat-era piece of writing - to make your physical threat a gag metaphor for the antagonistic concept - it feels so ridiculous and yet so natural. It’s the sort of thing that I will miss most about him when he’s gone.

There are complaints to be made about this episode but it’s left me with such a sense of good will that I don’t really want to go into them. I could say that Bill’s natural characterisation is a little weaker this week. I could say that The Doctor’s “banter” with Nardole is getting a little tiresome and that I’d really like to see another side to their relationship beyond

N: “Vault.” 

D: “No. Make tea.” 

N: “Something Racist about humans.” 

I could also, as everyone else has, complain about the thinly written supporting characters but I just don’t see the need. Mathieson’s episodes aren’t really about the characters, they’re about the concepts and the clever logic that creates and resolves problems. They’re about the build up of tension and the mind-bending imagination. Perhaps the delightful hug between our heroes in the final scenes of the episode - which was just silly enough to offset the horror without being overly twee - is a sign of a fully rounded TARDIS team that will grace the screens for the rest of the series.

And did you see Space? They did that on a BBC computer! Beautiful.