Suddenly, Superhero!

After "The Husbands of River Song", which was, really, the end of an era for the story of Amy Pond and her whole family, Doctor WhoThe longest running sci-fi franchise (at least in terms of sheer seasons), Doctor Who has seen cancelations, relaunches, and reboots, but the core of the series remains the same: a madman in a box traveling through time and space. needed to recalibrate. We still had the 12th Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and showrunner Steven Moffat was still in charge, but the show did feel like it was going off in a new direction, weirdly freed of everything we'd come to expect from the series. You could argue that, at that point, a bit of a palate cleanser to let the series find itself again.

The does lead is into the second special between Series 9 and Series 10. Where "The Husbands of River Song" gave us closure for a long time character, "The Return of Doctor Mysterio" wants us to just sit back and enjoy some silliness. The episode isn't designed to set up new storylines, or give us new, long term companions. It's just there to let us relax and realize that Doctor Who will continue even if every character from the Matt Smith era is finally gone.

On that front the episode does work. It drops us right into a story about the Doctor (Capaldi) falling off a building, having to be rescued by a small kid on Christmas Eve. The Doctor was there to set up a device to protect the Earth and he gets the help of the kid, Grant, to finish the structure. But when he gives Grant, who has a cough, a wish-granting stone and a glass of water, Grant mistakes it for medicine and drinks the gem. The gem then, over time, bonds to his body, giving Grant his truest desire: to be a superhero.

Cut forward 24 years and Grant (Justin Chatwin), now and adult, is working as a nanny for Lucy Fletcher (Charity Wakefield). He takes care of her one-year-old kid while Lucy goes to work as a reporter. Secretly, though, Grant is also the Ghost, a superhero protecting New York City. Not that he's supposed to be using his powers as the Doctor has warned him, time and again, that the world isn't ready for a superhero. And yet, when aliens try to take over the world, only one man can save the day. And, no, it isn't the Doctor.

"The Return of Doctor Mysterio" feels like it was created to do one thing: introduce the idea that superheroes could exist in the world of Doctor Who. Moffat clearly wanted to show it could be done, and for some reason he decided to do it in a Christmas episode. Like, I get the reasoning behind that -- this special came between seasons of the show and it was as good a time as any to pull that off -- but it does seem... weird. Normally the show celebrates the season in its holiday specials, but this is the least holiday story the show basically could have done, all just to say, "hey, superheroes!"

As far as superhero stories go, this one is honestly pretty rote. A superhero who protects, and then falls in love, with the journalist pursuing him is a trope so old even SupermanThe first big superhero from DC Comics, Superman has survived any number of pretenders to the throne, besting not only other comic titans but even Wolrd War II to remain one of only three comics to continue publishing since the 1940s. originally plagiarized it. Sure, making Grant a nanny instead of another reporter, or a cop, is an interesting choice, but it really just means the show only needs Lucy's apartment as a major set so that over fifty percent of the episode can be filmed there easily. It's an obvious cost-cutting measure that doesn't really feel like it does much for the characters.

Meanwhile, his alter ego as the Ghost feels especially under developed. He gets his powers from a wish stone, a McGuffin that isn't really clearly defined before it's swallowed. And then, what, it gives him any power he wants? Flight and super strength and, we assume, invulnerability. Is it every power he could have or just specific ones? And does he have any weaknesses? At all? The show never gives him any so he seems, basically, like a god. Even Superman has limitations but, as far as we know (because the show never bothers telling us otherwise) Ghost doesn't have any at all.

The villains, too, don't really get nearly as much development as they should. These aliens, who remain nameless here, are the same aliens we saw near the end of "The Husbands of River Song". They have heads they can split open, exposing their brains (and also convenient storage space). Their goal is to find people of prominence and implant their brains into their heads (naturally losing their brains in the process. The fact that these people would then, suddenly, have giant slits down their face is never addressed. No one thinks this is weird at all. And then, once they have enough power, the aliens intend to explode a massive part of New York, faking an alien attack, so that the aliens that are already on Earth can take over. It's... well, pretty stupid, really.

I like the idea of reusing the villains from a previous story. In "The Husbands of River Song" they were creepy, strange aliens with a disgusting ability. They didn't appear for long, and were just one of many foes that River and the Doctor had to deal with. That was fine then. But by bringing them back the show really needed to flesh them out. Why are they conquering other worlds? Is it because their home world is gone? Do they have a galactic empire? Do they just want to strip the world for parts. We don't know their motivation. Hell, we don't even know their names. And when the Doctor sees them again he doesn't even recognize them. It's just bad writing on the part of the episode.

Still, what works about "The Return of Doctor Mysterio". It's a light, fun, and silly episode that absolutely doesn't take itself seriously. It has a number of amusing moments, and good interplay between the Doctor, returning companion Nardole (Matt Lucas), and Grant and Lucy. None of it has depth, sure, but it it fun to see the Doctor dropped into such a weird, dumb story just for the sake of getting his reactions to everything that's going on. Does it have greater impact of the series? Not in the slightest, but not every episode needs to.

I suppose, the, "The Return of Doctor Mysterio" works in a way. But then it really could have worked at any point, in any season, of the show. Rewrite it a bit and this could have been a Clara adventure, or a Bill adventure later in Series 10. Making it a holiday special is odd, but at least it's fun. And it does reset the status for the series, letting us know that Twelve and Nardole will be back. After a year of waiting between episodes, perhaps that's all this special really needed to do. It's simple, it's a little empty, and it's not really much of a holiday episode, but it does show us that the Doctor will continue on no matter what.