However,
a long gap can increase the desire to see new episodes and that
certainly was the case with me. I was eager to watch “The Return of
Doctor Mysterio” as soon as it aired. But I was also worried. I had
to watch it at my parents’ place, which meant making them watch it
too, and my parents have little love for Doctor Who
these days (despite my mom being a big fan of the original series).
By the end of the episode, my fears were confirmed. My parents talked
quite a bit about just how terrible the show is these days, and there
wasn’t much I could say to argue with them because I kind of
agreed—for this episode, at least.
On
initial viewing, I was not that impressed by “The Return of Doctor
Mysterio”. However, on
a second viewing a couple days later, my opinion improved somewhat
(which is a trend I’ve noticed happening with episodes by Steven
Moffat). I found more things to like about it, even though my initial
issues remained.
It’s
not really that bad
an episode.
There have certainly been far worse ones, but there have also been
much better ones, too. For a Christmas episode, it does what it needs
to do, which is provide light-hearted entertainment and be accessible
to casual viewers. It has
lots of fun moments, with some knowing nods to superhero tropes. Yet
at the same time, it has some rather paper-thin characterisations and
alien villains that manage to be both creepy and boring (their basic
concept is creepy, but they have no personality). Overall, it’s a
rather mediocre episode and not one that’s likely to prove all that
memorable, but it is
enjoyable.
SPOILERS
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