5. A Heist Story Should Focus On The Heist - Time Heist
For a story centred around the idea of Ocean's Eleven in space, there's remarkably little in the way of a traditional heist story in Series Eight's Time Heist. Instead of giving viewers all the fun aspects of a heist romp, like planning and witty banter, this episode focussed on the monster of the week and the bank robbers not being able to remember who they were. Those elements make for a partially diverting sci-fi tale but leave many viewers with the suspicion that an actual adventure using heist movie tropes to the fullest could have been so much better. What viewers actually got was a tale where a group of strangers break into the most secure bank in the galaxy with remarkable ease. Because, apparently, a bank equipped with guilt-sniffing monsters, lasers, and other deadly security measures doesn't seem to have old-fashioned cameras in several important rooms. If the heist story wasn't actually going to be an out-and-out heist story, then it needed to be something else equally as entertaining. Perhaps the plot twists were crazy and unexpected enough to compensate? Well, the reveals included Psi and Saibre not really being dead and the Architect turning out to be the Doctor... but these surprises aren't actually all that surprising. Hands up, who really thought the nice supporting cast were genuinely bumped off? And, when the Architect has to be one of the main cast for his mysterious identity to have any dramatic impact whatsoever, who else could the Architect legitimately have been other than the Doctor?