Review "Time Heist"

"Time Heist".

Okay, that was a pretty good episode.

Spoilers follow, blah-blah-blah.












































































































Still there? You were warned...

















Clara's getting spiffed-up for a date while the Doctor lingers around in a vaguely creepy manner. There's a phone call from the TARDIS and... bam. Next thing everyone knows, the Doctor and Clara are in a room with two other people - Psi (a cyborg) and Saibra (a shapeshifter). Everyone's had their memories voluntarily wiped up to a certain point by memory worms.

A mysterious figure known only as "The Architect" explains in a recording that their little quasi-Ocean's Seven group is to rob the most secure bank in the galaxy.

What follows is a classic parody of a "heist film", complete with the stylized cut-outs and poses.

There's lots of timey-whimey stuff that makes one ask how the Architect got all kinds of little tools in place for the robbers. And opposing them are the bank staff, including a creature known as "the Teller" which can not only read minds, but melt brains (and skulls, apparently).

There's a few moments to reveal what Psi and Saibra want in a few scenes. Psi, a hacker, deleted all memories of his family and loved ones to save them when he was arrested. He wants those memories back. Saibra takes the form of anyone she touches, making physical relations nearly impossible. She wants a cure for her mutant powers.

There's sudden reversals in which it seems Saibra is killed by a "fail-safe" left by the Architect. Psi follows not too long after.

Then all is revealed as the Doctor and Clara confront the bank owner. It turns out the bank owner has her own clones operating the bank and has the mate of the Teller captive in order to get the Teller's service. The two beings are the last of their kind.

It turns out - predictably - that the Doctor is "the Architect". He gives the bank owner a way to contact him for when she's old and regretting all the terrible things she's done. She contacts him as he's dying, starting the chain of events that becomes the episode.

All in all, it was a fun romp. The story felt rushed and cramped in parts, but it was tons better than the naval-gazing nonsense from "Listen".