When you typically think of Doctor Who Christmas specials you usually think of something like The Christmas Invasion or something like A Christmas Carol to name but a few. Yet one of the specials that doesn't really get alot of love from people is also the very special that i'm going to be reviewing for you all today as well it really is something that does need to be seen to be believed and so then join me as I review the episode that basically sees The Doctor team up with Superman with the episode in question being called simply just "The Return Of Doctor Mysterio" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is years after he accidentally gives a boy superpowers The Doctor and Nardole go to New York City where they have to team up with a news reporter and her secretive babysitter to help defeat an evil corporation. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. With this episodes plot being a fairly decent episode plot wise but in saying that tho it's clear as day that this episodes writer Steven Moffat was running out of steam with this episode as it's just not as fun and as memorable as any of his other Christmas specials are with this episodes plot feeling like it's trying to tell a Doctor Who story and a superhero story at the same time and while on paper that does sound great where it fails is in the execution as the episodes plot does feel to dumb even for a Christmas episode where you have the freedom to go to those more absurd places that you can't go to in a typical episode of the show but to the episodes credit it's plot is still full of the whimsy and charm that alot of the best Doctor Who Christmas specials do seem to have with the thing that let's this episode down is the fact that the episodes plots isn't strong enough to support an entire special episode of the show maybe it could have made for a decent charity sketch but that's really it with the plot of this episode being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Peter Capaldi as The Doctor , Little Britain star Matt Lucas as Nardole and Charity Wakefield as Lucy Fletcher. Also starring in this episode is Dragonball Evolution and Shameless USA star Justin Chatwin as Grant Gordon / The Ghost , Adetomiwa Edun as Mr Brock , Aleksandar Jovanovic as Dr Sim , Logan Hoffman as Young Grant , Daniel Lorente as Teen Grant , Sandra Teles as A Reporter , Tanroh Ishida as A Operator and Vaughn Johseph as A Soldier.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. As you can tell that all of this episodes are indeed trying there best to turn in a good performance and alot of them do manage to do just that as Peter Capaldi is of course as The Doctor and Justin Chatwin is solid in this episode but in saying this tho the episodes acting does for some odd reason feel a bit awkward almost as if none of the actors have that great a chemistry with each other and as such alot of them do come of more as being friends then anything else which is fine for Peter and Matt as there meant to be playing friends but Justin and Charity are meant to be playing people that secretly love each other and yet they come off more as being fiends and that's it this is despite the fact that both actors are really solid in this episode it's just that there chemistry together is all wrong with the episodes best actor being of course Peter Capaldi who is just a joy to watch as The Doctor and even tho you can tell that he's kind of over playing the character at this point as there are times where it feels like he's just sleepwalking through his performance his still an actor that is really committed to playing this character and he does his best to play the character as best that he can do with even his scenes with Matt Lucas being really enjoyable to watch as we get to see him have some good banter with Nardole with the acting that's in this episode not really being helped by the fact that this episodes script is just so bad as it gives none of this episodes actors absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does harm the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.
Doing the CGI for this episode is the legends and the greats that are currently over at BBC Wales VFX and Real SFX. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty OK at best as even tho you can tell right away that the makers of this episode had a very tight budget they do still do the best that they can do with this episodes VFX with them really only using CGI when they need to like when there showing Grant flying or using his powers for example which is something that cannot be done for real with them even throwing in CGI shots of New York which was something that did get a little bit distracting as they add in a CGI building when it would have been more cost effective to just build that building as a miniature an then add that to a shot filmed in New York with the episodes CGI not being all that bad for the tiny budget that they quite clearly had for this episode but it's also the budget that holds the episodes effects back a lot as well as this is an episode that really did need to be more effects heavy then the typical episode of the show did just due to the fact that this episode features a superhero which means that they gave to show of all of his powers and they can't do that on a tiny effects budget as all that does is make the effects surrounding his powers look incredibly cheap which they do in this episode as alot of the effects when Grant is using his powers look like they thrown together in five minuets and yet if the effects team had a bigger effects budget to work with then they could have had some really good looking effects in them.
Peter Capaldi himself compared this episodes tone to that of the 1978 comic book film Superman which is not true at all. As that film basically had three tones all working for it as when it was on Krypton is that of a political thriller , yet when they get to Smallville the film becomes more of a family drama and then when we get to Metropolis the film becomes a comic book brought to life where as here the episode seems to be more lighter in tone then even the Metropolis set scenes in Superman 1978 were as that film at least had all of that build up to let us get to know Clark as a character where as with Grant we only get one scene with him before he gets his powers with the rest of the episode being him as a superhero with the rest of the episode telling his backstory in one flashback scene and that's it as the rest of the episode still does have t be a Doctor Who episode where as if the Grant character and the whole superhero idea was held off for another Steven Moffat project then it would have more time to breathe as here it's clashing with the Doctor Who aspect of the episode and while Doctor Who Christmas episodes do typically have more lighter tones then the rest of the show here tho it felt like they were taking it a bit to far into comedy where as with Superman 1978 they knew when to tell a joke and when to be serious which did allow for that films more dramatic moments to hit all the more harder where as here the moments where Nardole does talk about River's passing and how The Doctor might be effected by that can't land as well as they could have done as just a few moments before that they were cracking jokes with there needing to be a good balance between to as something like Doctor Who's take on A Christmas Carol did prove that they can do comedy and have those dramatic moments in them but because they lean a bit to far into the comedy in this episode it does mean that the episode can't be as dramatic as it once to be.
To give this episode some credit it does do alot of the superhero cliches that you'd expect to see in a comic book movie. Be it from the hero first getting there powers to them having a crush on a reporter or the hero having to struggle between there normal life and there hero live they all present in this episode and the episode does have some fun with them but at the same time tho the episode doesn't go as far as they could have done with the cliches that they show in the episode like for example the episode points out that any one can work out that Clark Kent is a Superman apart from Lois who is a reporter with Grant himself falling in love with and be in the live in babysitter for a news reporter who doesn't know that he's The Ghost with the only thing added to his disguise being a pair of glasses but it would have been more fun if the episode even called that out at the end not in a bad way but in a way that's very tongue in cheeky and very fun to watch as they could have had Nardole who was being used for alot of the episodes more comedic moments make the connection or why not have a scene where we see Grant trying to use his powers as that's something that's in alot of modern superhero movies these days and it would have been in keeping with this episode being more of a superhero episode then a straight up Doctor Who episode bottom line there's more to be done with the superhero genre that this episode could have lightly poked fun at whilst also being a superhero episode in it's own right and yet for one reason or another the episode doesn't do any of that when this is the only episode of Doctor Who that could do something like this as it would have felt out of place in an episode of the main show but for a christmas episode it would have felt right at home.
To be frank the episodes main villains Mr Brock and Dr. Sim are perhaps one of the more weaker villains in Modern Doctor Who. As there grand scheme is to get all of the worlds leaders into one building and then drop a giant nuclear reactor on New York thus vaporising them and leaving both Brock and Sim free to take over the world which granted is typical for a comic book villain but it's also something that doesn't really all that well for a Doctor Who villain as neither character are presented as being that threatening which fair enough is something that is fitting for a Christmas special of Doctor Who but you still do want the character to have some form of menace to them and them holding Lucy hostage near the end of the episode isn't going to cut it as they do nothing with her that makes them scary as villains heck even them kidnapping her kid would have made them more scary as villains as then the characters would have an extra sense of urgency to the matter as then they'd have to find them to get the baby back as well as stop the reactor from going off and destroying New York which is something that would have gone a long way to making them more threatening as villains as would having them kill of Lucy as then it would say to us the audience that these two characters actually might achieve their goal as she's a main character in the episode and even the makers of the episode could have found a way to make sure that she wasn't dead by the end of the episode but because of the fact that they do neither of those it does mean that both of the characters come across as bein really weak and forgettable characters.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and twenty two seconds. Which is a perfectly solid running time for a Doctor Who Christmas episode to have and to be fair this episode does have the right amount of plot there to really cover that amount of running time but in saying this tho the episode really doesn't use it's running time all that wisely tho as the episode really doesn't take the time to fully develop the plot of the episode with the episode just adding in things to it's plot for rhyme or reason with the episode being more focused on giving us superhero cliches then it is giving us a well thought out plot with it being made clear as day that Steven Moffat was getting tired and running out of ideas for the show at this point as there was no thought and effort put into the episodes plot with this even effecting the characters character development as well as none of the episodes get any kind of character development which is something that does make sense for both the Doctor and Nardole as they have the main show to get there character development but for characters like Lucy and Grant they really did need some form of character development and yet the episode gives them nothing as we know as much about them coming out of the episode then we did coming into the episode when the episode really should have taken the time to give there characters some kind of character development as these characters are just exclusive to this episode yet because the episode doesn't give them any kind of character development they end up as being really blunt characters but I really will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action show that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. With the episode having some really good action in it whilst none of the episodes action really take full advantage of the fact that one of this episodes main characters is a superhero by putting him in an action where he has to use his powers which is something that would have helped to make this episodes action be all the more better as all of this episodes action does come across as being really bland with the only action scene also being the episodes best action scene as when The Doctor and Nardole are investigating a spaceship they then have to try and stop the reactor from leaving the ship and destroying the earth with the whole thing being a pretty solid action scene but at the same time for something that does have a superhero as its main character and yet they don't do that which does make it pointless to have a superhero be the main character of the episode as Grant does nothing from an action point of view other then have a pretty solid entrance where he saves The Doctor , Nardole and Lucy from being shot at at the start of the episode when the episode could have had him take part in an action scene as then we the audience would get to see the full extent of his powers in the first place but to be fair tho this episodes action scene was as well done as it was either really going to be in my freaking opinion anyways / at least.
Overall whilst this episode might have some fans that doesn't mean that it's good episode as this is an episode that doe feel like a waste of a good idea as the idea of having a superhero themed Doctor Who episode is a good idea it just needs the right creative team to pull it off is all and that's something that this episode just didn't have in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 6.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Amazon . Co . Uk , Tardis . Wiki . IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very review being the really great Tardis . Wiki really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Tardis . Wiki are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.