Doctor Who – Oxygen

By: Sharon Kurack

Space, the Final Frontier…that wants to kill us. We open Episode Five with a monologue from the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) during one of his lectures at the university. As he is lecturing to the class about space, we watch a scene between two astronauts unfold during what looks like a routine repair. However, we quickly find out that there’s nothing routine about it with the oxygen levels depleting as they work with one of the suits malfunctioning. As the woman astronaut approaches her teammate (boyfriend?), two “others” sneak up on her and all we see if a floating helmet as though we were watching Gravity.

Does the Doctor miss space? You bet your sonic sunglasses he does! His lecture was supposed to be about crop rotation! Oops! Having listened in on the lecture, Nardole (Matt Lucas) speaks with Twelve as he worries that he’ll take another “trip” away from guarding the vault. Each week we seem to be teased about this vault and its importance so the big reveal ought to be coming soon. Whatever is in there can’t be let out, which is why he’s supposed to guard it. Ignoring Nardole’s warning, Twelve tells Bill (Pearl Mackie) to pick any place to go. At first, she picks a relatively safe place, but then the Doctor moves the coordinates and finds one with a distress call. (TARDIS signal? Where can I get one?) They travel to the source of the distress signal with Nardole in tow because he somewhat understands “Rule #1” (The Doctor lies) and wasn’t fooled by being sent away.

Regardless of the “extra, less-than-pleased companion,” they arrive at the space station with no oxygen. No worries! The TARDIS is able to not only expand the gravity field around it, but also the oxygen air shield, giving them the ability to take a little stroll along the space promenade. Although inside doesn’t seem “space-y” enough to Bill, once she looks outside that stellar smile tells all. Our travelers continue exploring (with Nardole pouting) until they open a door to reveal an astronaut in a suit that looks like he either came from “Game of Thrones” or “The Walking Dead.” Either way he is not alive, but is moving around thanks to the technology of the suit. This piques the Doctor’s interest as out of a crew of forty it seems thirty-six are pronounced terminated according to the data. With the oxygen tank still full, the question lingers as to what killed them (if not suffocation) and why? Bill and Nardole, clearly disturbed by this, wish to return to the TARDIS, but Twelve reminds them how we show our true face by how we respond; they’re going to help whomever sent out the distress call.

The Doctor continues down the hall, exploring when he stumbles upon an “empty” suit performing similar tasks to the suit with someone (albeit) dead inside it. It’s capable of speech as an A.I. seems to control it, but isn’t answering the questions well enough. However, an important fact comes out about the oxygen in the station; there was never any oxygen in the station, only in the suits. Moreover, any “unlicensed oxygen” will be automatically expelled according to the A.I. This gives trouble to the Doctor plus two as the decompressing causes them to separate from the TARDIS via a now sealed door used to stop said decompressing. (One of three losses to the Doctor this episode.) As they’re trying not to panic, the crew’s drill chief (one of the 4 survivors left) calls to them on a comm and warns to get out of the repair bay. The “Dead” suit from earlier comes after them and when Twelve tries to use his sonic the suit breaks it. The sonic screwdriver is BROKEN! It turns out the suits have one command: “Deactivate your organic component” means kill the people in them. Okay, avoid putting on a suit, right?

Problem is though, if the three want to keep breathing they have to put on those suits. Here is capitalism in space, where you pay for the air your breathe. (Side note of the name of the suit: Series 12. A lot of 12 references here in this episode.) Thankfully, the three suits they use are not online because they were in repair so the “kill” command did not reach them. Suiting up, each receives 2500 breaths and quickly realize that panicking causes death to come faster as you tend to breathe more when your panic. Also, those thirty-six zombie suits? They’re giving chase as calmly as possible. They get to the corridor where the four survivors await them warily. After quick introductions and the Doctor establishing himself in charge (as usual), Bill’s suit starts to glitch. One of the survivors helps her get her arms down from a “zombie position” (All I could think of in this scene was Randy from A Christmas Story, yelling “I can’t get my arms down” while in his snowsuit) and she finds out that someone hacked into the suits’ network to give the kill command, which is why there are dead crew members. They survived because the suits were all offline at the time the command was given. There’s been no help from their employers and the distress call was a botch (albeit a very fortunate one).

Before they have time for any more discussion, the suits figure out a way to open the door to the corridor causing our group to keep moving to another not on the map. As they move, one crew member is taken, his central nervous system “deactivated,” causing him to join the zombie suits. The Doctor, Nardole, Bill and the rest of the survivors get to the airlock to cross to the “hidden” corridor 13 and put their helmets on. With beautiful timing, Bill’s suit starts to malfunction again causing her to freeze in place and remove her helmet, just as they’re all being exposed to the vacuum of space. Twelve warns Bill not to hold her breath as they move, but she passes out yet not before the Doctor gives her his helmet. Thankfully, he was able to hack into Bill’s suit to save her and move her to safety. Unfortunately, because Twelve walked in the vacuum for so long, he was blinded (hopefully temporarily). The TARDIS has a cureall, right?

As the Doctor thinks of a plan, he frustratingly walks into things and makes jokes to help the mood in classic Twelve fashion. Two not-so-good things: 1) The zombie suits are able to get to everyone (and we’re down one more survivor) 2) Bill’s suits glitches again, making her unable to move. With quick thinking and luck (Bill’s suits doesn’t have much power keep in mind), Twelve asks Bill to trust him as they leave her to the zombie suits to “deactivate” her. As such, she follows the crowd of suits after the “living,” who are running to the reactor.

The plan? A very risky one. At this point the blind Doctor is messing with and tangling wires to connect the reactor to everyone’s suits and vitals, guaranteeing the while station will explode if they die. What if the suits and communications weren’t hacked? What if there isn’t a rescue ship on the way, but their replacements? The station wasn’t productive lately Twelve theorizes so instead of wasting the oxygen on them, a new crew would be sent to replace the zombies. Except now because of his actions, everyone’s deaths will be too expensive. Because of the knowledge, this stops the suits. Bill is also brought back because her suit was indeed low on power so it’s “deactivating” ended up not being lethal. The zombie suits give the living the rest of their oxygen and it seems they’re saved (and are able to bring it in for a hug!).

After finishing up on the station, on the return trip to Earth, the Doctor drops off the remaining two survivors to HR to complain loudly. Their actions end up causing a rebellion to stop “capitalism in space.” After Bill leaves, Nardole starts chiding the Doctor for risking everything due to his antics. What would happen if the Doctor dies? Who would guard the Gallifreyan vault? What if whoever or whatever in that vault realizes that the Doctor is weakened one day? Seriously, who or what is in that vault? (I still say it’s Missy. Only she could find glee in capitalizing on the Doctor’s misfortune.) Nar-don’t want anymore excuses, and asks the Doctor to continuously look at him as he is speaking, except, Twelve can’t. Despite the TARDIS normally able to heal, the Doctor is still blind from being exposed to the vacuum of space.

Is this, along with all of the “12” signs in this episode, the start of the Doctor’s journey to regeneration? He does mention it little by little in each passing episode. Also, will the person behind vault number 12 find out about the blindness? Is it permanent? So many questions that will hopefully start to make sense as we continue our journey with the Professor and Student.