Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor is fondly remembered by countlessDoctor Whofans as one of the all-time greatest incarnations of the legendary sci-fi series’ titular Time Lord. Not only did Capaldi deliver a brilliant performance as the Doctor, he also starred in some of the modern series’ strongest episodes, from the impactful anti-war story “The Zygon Inversion” to the harrowing character study “Heaven Sent,” to the chilling reinvention of the Cybermen in “World Enough and Time.”
Of course, in a long-running episodic series likeDoctor Who, even the best Doctors have their share of bad episodes, and Capaldi is no exception. However, one of the weakest story arcsin the Twelfth Doctor’s runis notable for having an incredibly strong first act, which is soon followed by one disappointment after another. So without further ado, it’s time to dive into Series 10’s Monk Trilogy and figure out why it’s such a mess.
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Going To Extremis
The first episode of the Monk Trilogy, “Extremis,” is one of the strongest episodes of Series 10, and arguably one of the best stories in Capaldi’s entire run. The episode features the Doctor — now blind after the events of the previous episode, “Oxygen,” — attempting to unravel the mystery behind an ancient text known as the Veritas, which seemingly drives anyone who reads it to madness. It’s a tense, atmospheric story,with the mystery buildingand building over the course of the episode until the truth is finally revealed. The entire episode has taken place within an elaborate simulation, and all the characters are nothing but AI copies created by the mysterious alien Monks.
“Extremis” is much darker and more experimental than the average episode ofDoctor Who, and it stands out all the more because of it. The episode ends on a cliffhanger, with the simulated Doctor sending a warning to his real-world counterpart. The real-life Doctor is then forced to seek an alliance with his arch-nemesis the Master, aka Missy (Michelle Gomez), in order to combat the coming threat of the Monks. It’sa downright gripping conclusionthat promises even greater excitement in the following installment. However, the next episode, “The Pyramid at the End of the World,” fails to live up to the promise of its predecessor.
The second part of the trilogy feels strangely disconnected from “Extremis.” Despite the cliffhanger ending setting up her return, Missy is not mentioned once, nor is the Monks’ simulation. In the episode’s finale, the Doctor’s companion Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie) is forced to choose between letting the Doctor die and allowing the Monks to conquer Earth. Ultimately, she chooses to save the Doctor, essentially selling humanity out to the Monks to ensure the Doctor’s survival.
The final act, “The Lie of the Land,” picks up aftera six-month timeskipin which the Monks have placed humanity under totalitarian rule, brainwashing them into believing a false history in which the Monks have always ruled the planet. While the Doctor initially seems to have allied with the Monks, he quickly reveals that it’s all a ruse, and he rejoins Bill to save the world. In the end, Bill manages to break the Monks’ control over humanity by hijacking their brainwashing with an imaginary memory of her mother. Somehow. It should go without saying that this is a decidedly anticlimactic ending to a storyline that got off to such a strong start.
Monkeying Around
The most obvious problem with the Monk Trilogy is,of course, the Monks themselves.Despite their creepy appearance, they’re incredibly generic antagonists without any personality or identity to distinguish them. The only unique thing about them is their desire for consent to conquer worlds, seeking to rule through love rather than fear. However, this detail is immediately tossed by the wayside in “The Lie of the Land,” in which the Monks are depicted as brutal despots like any other.
Most confusingly, despite their name and appearance, the Monks aren’t monk-like in any way, shape, or form. They aren’t worshipers of any higher power — they’re just typical alien invaders. They could bereplaced with the Daleks,Cybermen, or Sontarans, and hardly anything about the story would change. In fact, with their memory-altering methods, lightning powers, and vague religious motif, the Monks feel like a second-rate version of the Silence from the Eleventh Doctor era.
However, the Monks are far from the only issue with this arc. The characterization of Bill and the Doctor also takes a major hit in the latter part of the storyline. Most egregiously, Bill agreeing to let the Monks conquer Earth in exchange for the Doctor’s life is a startlingly short-sighted move, and feels very out of character for an otherwise responsible companion. It feels as if the writers didn’t realize how callousit would be for a companionto condemn all of humanity to tyranny in exchange for a single life — even if that life is the Doctor’s. If it was the entire world at risk, then this moment would feel appropriately desperate and tragic. But with the Doctor alone at risk, he’d sacrifice himself for the greater good any day. Violating that sacrifice feels much more selfish on Bill’s part than the writers likely intended.
But alas, Bill isn’t alone in behaving with uncharacteristic cruelty during this arc. In “The Lie of the Land,” when Bill first confronts the seemingly villainous Doctor, he launches into a bitter tirade about how humanity doesn’t deserve free will thanks to theirhistory of atrocities and injustices.He even calls Bill out for being the one who allowed the Monks to conquer Earth in the first place — which, of course, she was. Of course, it’s soon revealed that the Doctor never turned evil at all, and that his earlier words were just a test to make sure Bill wasn’t under the Monks’ control. But even so, the Doctor comes off as needlessly vicious during his rant to Bill.
A Great Big Monk-Filled Mess
Frankly, the Monk Trilogy doesn’t feel like a coherent story arc. “Extremis” is a moody, existential exploration of faith andthe nature of reality,while “The Pyramid at the End of the World” seems like it’s trying to say something about how people embrace tyranny for stability during times of crisis. However, these ideas are never properly fleshed out. Finally, “The Lie of the Land” has hardly any substance to it at all. There’s a shoehorned-in attempt at commentary on fake news, but it’s painfully surface-level, lacking real understanding on how fake news works to undermine truth.
Eventually, the day is saved by a hackneyed “power of love” deus ex machina. Not only does it fail to make sense on a logical or emotional level, it’s essentially justa retread of the finalein Series 7’s “The Rings of Akhaten.” And perhaps most damningly of all, Missy appears only briefly to deliver a bit of exposition. Despite the strengths of “Extremis,” the Monk Trilogy as a whole is a disjointed mess with boring antagonists and borderline-offensive character writing that ultimately fails to deliver a central theme. It’s a good thing that Series 10 ends on a high note with the Mondasian Cybermen arc, because it would be a shame for this to be the note Capaldi went out on.
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