10 Reactions To Doctor Who: The Return Of Doctor Mysterio
9. Rehashed Plots And Tropes
By exploiting the casual viewer’s lack of encyclopaedic
knowledge of previous adventures, Moffat might have felt able to mine a few well-worn
plots and tropes, but dedicated fans will have quickly seen through the novelty
of the superhero conceit and New York skyline, to spot some very familiar patterns.
Most notably, the time travelling Doctor once again meets a child and returns years later to witness the longer term effects of his actions (or in Amelia Pond’s case, non-actions). It’s a theme we’ve seen multiple times, including Madam De Pompadour, Elton Pope, Amelia Pond and Ashildr.
The big baddies here, though lifted from the restaurant scene in last year’s Christmas special, are reminiscent of Russell T Davies’ Slitheen family, with their uncanny ability to appear human until they unzip their faces. And the similarities don’t stop there - both aggressors use the cover of an alien arrival to hide the fact that they are already on the Earth, and take over the bodies of government figures.
Of course, as the saying goes, there is nothing new under the sun, but usually Moffat has twisted past formulas enough to bring that novelty factor (as with the Alien influence in Last Christmas). Here it feels a little uninspiring in places.
You may be thinking, it’s a Christmas Special, most of the audience won’t be asking themselves ‘where have I seen that in Doctor Who before?’, but there is one trope that has been so overused in recent years, that it completely falls flat here – the almost obligatory ‘Doctor Who?’ line.