Time Heist

Listen felt like Steven Moffat moving away from his wildly successful “regular items and concepts as monster” approach by giving us a fresh ending: the revelation that actually there was no monster, just a string of coincidences. Time Heist felt like he was moving away from his second most beloved trope: time travel. Albeit in a different way. Instead of putting a fresh spin on the time travel trickery he passed the idea out to another writer and made do with a co-writer credit.

Yes, Steven Moffat actually resisted the temptation to write a story involving time travel as a plot point. Although he has been credited with coming up with the idea and he did (in theory) edit the script, so it’s not likely he completely disengaged. Nevertheless this indicates that Moffat still finds the idea of time loops in Doctor Who interesting without wanting to write anymore himself. For now, at any rate. Perhaps he feels he’s done all he can with them or that he should let someone else have a go.

Writer Stephen Thompson was tasked with this script. He avoided laying it on as thick as The Moff with the time trickery. In fact it was mostly included to keep the plot moving, as opposed to being one of the primary focuses of the episode. Thompson seemed more interested in trying to turn his one-off characters Psi and Saibra into interesting people. Which he achieved.

In fact they were both significantly more interesting than Clara, who again spent more time snarking than being relatable or likeable. It takes a certain kind of writer and actress to pull off what the Doctor Who team are trying to do with Clara. Jenna Coleman is not that kind of actress and Moffat is only sometimes that kind of writer.

This was the best episode since Deep Breath. The direction, set design, music, supporting cast and Capaldi’s performance have all been fine since then, always sailing above acceptable levels. But the script quality and central ideas have wavered dramatically. Time Heist was not one of the much ballyhooed event episodes. It didn’t boast the first full appearance of a new Doctor, the token appearance of Daleks, a “historical celebrity”, or… whatever we were supposed to enjoy about Listen. It was just concerned with being a good episode. And it was all the better for it.