Doctor Who: The Return of Doctor Mysterio (2016)

Very well executed

One of the best films i have seen

Best movie of this year hands down!

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

If this, the latest special, is any indication, then new show runner Chris Chibnall can't get here quick enough. This is without question, the worst special episode of the New Who and inarguably the single worst episode of the run yet. And I am in no way a Moffat hater. Last year's special, with the exception of the horrid Matt Lucas, was the best ever. Moffat has shepherded, in my opinion, one of the show's finest eras and has written shome of the show's finest scripts. This is not one, and it's extremely low quality in all respects was shocking. This is Moffat Doctor Who? Was it supposed to parody the super hero genre, or pay homage to it? You simply don't know. I feel it would have been better if Moffat had turned this over to someone with a better grasp of the genre, because he seemingly has none. The superheroics are extremely lame as is the very generic menace. Of all the characters that could have been brought back from previous seasons, we get the astonishingly obnoxious and hateable Nardole, played by the equally obnoxious and hateable Matt Lucas. And the moment he asked for the little boy's room? That was without doubt, the single most disturbing television moment of 2016. I simply cannot believe that passed the script editing process. What's next for the show, an appearance by Gary Glitter? I sincerely hope the series did not jump the shark. But even if it didn't, this one had the show strapping on the skis. An absolute new low for Doctor Who, a total insult to the fans and the hard work of Peter Capaldi. I pray it doesn't get worse than this. Jerry Warren's "Wild World of Batwoman" did superheroes better. And yes, I know how horrific that sounds. Doctor Who may be in for his greatest threat yet, Moffat's final season.

So, it's been a year since The Husbands of River Song, with only the spin-off, Class, to enjoy in a year of mad politics and no Doctor Who. But this Christmas blockbuster felt fresh from the Christmas specials of the recent past where the characters were the sole focus rather than stories with Christmas as the backbone and the focal point. Here, Moffat created a story, ironically ripping-off a DC Superman movie and putting it in a Doctor Who episode. Hilarious comparisons include Lois Lane becoming Lucy nee Lombard Fletcher and that scene with the telephone conversation and the screen splits paralleling the comics.The prolonged pre-title sequence was very cute but worked tremendously. The pacing of the episode worked well with decent directing by Ed Bazalgette (The Girl Who Died / The Woman Who Lived).Peter Capaldi, once again displayed his wonderful acting skills with his wit, his ignorance of popular culture and pure Doctor-ness. For me, Capaldi is becoming very close to knocking a certain David Tennant off the top of my favourite Doctor rank. Overall, this pretty 'un-christmassy' Christmas special proved how far Doctor Who can go in its wide range of styles and genres making this episode, in my opinion, Moffat's best ever Christmas Special after 2014's 'Last Christmas'

Okay it's Christmas time so let's tick off the checklistNice Xmas card from Bob The Moo ? Check Ton of food from a kitchen I work in ? Much better than the food at the care home last year . Check DOCTOR WHO Christmas special ? Check Don't get your hopes built up about it ? Check My enthusiasm if not my addiction to the show has become increasingly diluted over the years . This is entirely down to the direction of the show under Moffat and catching a couple of trailers late in the day I noticed thus year's special revolves around superhero mode . Well let's be honest and like them or not Super-heroes are very popular in popular culture but does DOCTOR WHO have to follow trends ? Especially since it has been rewriting icons from the show such as The Master played by John Simm all the way back to the RTD era as literal comic strip characters That said this special remains rather low key compared to many of the other specials and overblown season finales . It's basically a run around type of adventure involving an alien invasion where the aliens have all ready landed and it's up to the Doctor and a masked hero to save the day . There's not much you haven't seen here before but one noticeable thing is that the villain isn't a White Anglo Saxon Protestant type . Foreign type dude wants to destroy New York in a big explosion . Don't worry about any controversy because it's a family show so that makes it all right In all a relatively enjoyable though forgettable special . Of course it always helps that you're not expecting too much of a feast

I thought the Return of Doctor Mysterio was a nice, well rounded episode. I still like the Husbands of River Song much more, but these two specials are completely different episodes with different objectives. They're both light-hearted for the most part, but Husbands focuses more on the Doctor and River's story while the Return of Doctor Mysterio just wants to be an entertaining hour of television that continues Doctor Who's tradition of having a Christmas special. What I really liked about this episode though was that it wasn't afraid to be fun. Capaldi and Nardole made a great team, and their words to Lucy and Grant at the end of the episode were probably the highlights of the episode. I do think that the best parts of this episode stemmed from the references to the Doctor and River Song's relationship and her death at the Library though. Those small, yet deeper moments really made this episode for me, and it's nice to see Capaldi's Doctor develop a bit more and show that he really is attached to those who travel with him and to see that Nardole has different sides to his character. While I wasn't a huge fan of director Ed Bazalgette's episodes in series 9, I liked how he made this episode feel like a comic book and how there was such a long pre-credits sequence. I think he did a great job directing this episode. The writing seemed a bit weaker in this episode than usual: the Doctor's "Plan B" seemed rushed and was a bit hard to follow in the moment, and there were a few lines here and there that felt unnecessary. Aside from that, Grant and Lucy were good characters and it would be cool for them to come back in the future of the show. The actors who portrayed them were good and the Doctor has obviously impacted their lives in a big way. The villains weren't really threatening though and to be honest I'm not that excited to hear that Osgood might be coming back. I hope that the cliffhanger with the brain aliens is developed a bit more next series though.Overall, I think that the Return of Doctor Mysterio was a nice episode. It wasn't anything spectacular, but it was funny, adventurous, well acted and directed, Matt Lucas and Peter Capaldi were great, and it had a pretty nice ending as well.