Oxygen (TV story): Difference between revisions

From Tardis Wiki, the free Doctor Who reference
(→‎Plot: Cleanup/shortening)
Line 45: Line 45:


== Plot ==
== Plot ==
The Doctor, Bill and an angry Nardole travel in the TARDIS to follow a distress call to a deep-space mining station. When the TARDIS is jettisoned by the station's computers, the trio are forced to wear "smartsuits", robotic spacesuits capable of independent operation tied to the station. The suits are also the only source of oxygen, as the mining company does not provide an oxygen atmosphere inside the station, and every activity is measured in breaths. The surviving crew warn them that some suits have received instructions to "deactivate" their "organic components", killing the wearer via an electrical discharge but remaining autonomous. This signal can be carried by touch, which has caused most of the crew to be turned into zombies, enslaved to the suits' programming. The Doctor and the others plan to walk outside the station to an uncompleted portion not updated in the computer systems to hide. Bill's suit malfunctions during depressurisation and forces her to remove her helmet. To save her, the Doctor gives her his helmet as they spacewalk. He survives the vacuum of space, but has gone blind from the ordeal.
On the outer hull of the space station, Chasm Forge, workers Ivan and Ellie, working a technologically-advanced smart suits make their way to the top of the space station to make repairs. Ellie attempts to communicate to Ivan, with whom she is romantically involved, using her comms system, admitting to him that she is now ready to have a child with him, but he can't hear her due to interference with the communications systems. Ellie examines her air tank to discover that she is running low on oxygen and is required to purchase more. From behind her, two figures start walking toward her, also wearing suits but without their helmets and the humans wearing the suits are obviously dead. Ellie turns to see them advancing on her and she screams, but Ivan can't hear anything. Just as he finishes his repairs, Ivan turns to look behind him and sees the two figures along with a now dead, helmet-less Ellie advancing on him and he screams.


The computer discovers their location, but as they flee, Bill's suit again malfunctions and will not move. The Doctor leaves her behind, assuring her she will not die. She is, however, electrocuted when they touch her. The Doctor reveals the limit of breaths is an algorithm to stop people "wasting" oxygen, part of the company's automated profit-making system; killing the wearers was just the logical endpoint of corporate profit over human life. He hacks the station's systems to cause the station to self-destruct if they are killed, and convinces the others this is a "good death" and revenge against the corporation. The computers recognise this threat and recalculates the suits' programming, and the zombies turn over their oxygen supplies to the survivors. The Doctor then revives Bill, knowing that her malfunctioning suit did not have enough power to lethally shock her.
On Earth, the Doctor is in the middle of a lecture, which is supposed to be about crop circulation, but instead makes it all about space. After the lecture, Nardole approaches the Doctor and calls him out on his desire to go back into space. When working on the vault, he voices his concern that the Doctor has plans to take another unauthorised trip, but the Doctor rebuffs that, stating that he is still on Earth guarding the vault. Later in the TARDIS, the Doctor is telling Bill about the possibilities that exist with exploring space; he suggests that Bill select a destination for a trip, but then himself sets course to investigate a distress signal. At the point, Nardole arrives and insists that the Doctor remain on Earth and guard the vault. He presents a [[fluid link]] component he took from the TARDIS after one of the Doctor's lectures, under the assumption that it would render the TARDIS immobile. However, this was a lie on the Doctor's part as he then suddenly sets the TARDIS engines in flight, much to Nardole's surprise and chagrin, but to Bill's delight.


The TARDIS is recovered, and they drop the survivors off at their head office to confront the company; the Doctor notes there was a successful rebellion six months later. Nardole restores the Doctor's eyes, but when they return to the university and Bill departs, Nardole expresses relief that the Doctor survived the ordeal, however he scolds him for breaking his promise to stay on Earth to protect the vault, given something serious could have happened to him. Although, the Doctor, wearing his sonic sunglasses, does not look at Nardole. Nardole demands the Doctor look at him, with the Doctor claiming that he can not. He stands and reveals that he "can't look at anything ever again. I'm still blind".
The TARDIS materialises in a corridor on the space station and the Doctor, Bill and a very-angry Nardole emerge. The Doctor expands the TARDIS' air shell so that they can explore. Bill is amazed by the depths of space when looking out the space station's window, while Nardole is still moaning about the Doctor breaking his oath again. The trio then discover a man in a suit standing in the middle of the repair bay. Upon examining him, they discover the mean to be dead, but Nardole finds his air field is still up, meaning he didn't suffocate; Bill finds it rather distressing that the mechanical suit is keeping the dead man propped upright. The Doctor examines the computer logs and discovers the station was declared non-profitable after a majority of it's workers were killed.  
 
The three proceed further into the station and discover a suit with no operator doing work. Suddenly, a computer (whom Nardole remembers as an ex-girlfriend called Velma) states that there has never been oxygen in the station and the unauthorised oxygen from the TARDIS has been detected and will be expelled. The Doctor, Bill and Nardole race back to the TARDIS when the section starts decompressing the expanded air shell from the it. The Doctor seals the section off using the sonic screwdriver, but it leaves them unable to return to the TARDIS. A comms unit suddenly engages on the computer, and the voice on the other end introduces himself as Tasker. While the Doctor, Bill and Nardole are distracted, the suit propping up the dead man becomes active and starts advancing towards to trio. The Doctor tries to disable it with his sonic screwdriver, but it's magnetised out of his hand by the suit and crushed, disabling the suit as a result. Nardole looks outside an sees that the deceased workers a being operated by the suits and are advancing on them from the outer hull. The Doctor deduces that the oxygen is contained in the suits, so in order to survive, they put on the suits present in the repair bay.
 
While escaping from the Smartsuits pursuing them, the TARDIS crew are rescued by Tasker, Ivan and other survivors on the station, Abby and Dahh-Ren. The crew tells the Doctor that the suits are property of the company which has turned access to oxygen into profit, and that the suits have received instructions to 'deactivate their organic components'. All other crew were killed by an electric shock to their nerve systems, rendering them zombies. The crew make plans to retreat across the station's hull and escape to an uncompleted section of the station that isn't present in their station's mapping. Suddenly, the suits break into the section where the crew are hiding and kill Tasker with the electric discharge by touching him. The remaining survivors retreat to an airlock at the end of the section, all putting on helmets to protect themselves from the vacuum. During the process of decompression, the suit Bill took from the repair bay begins to malfunction, taking off Bill's helmet of it's own accord. The Doctor attempts to to release Bill's helmet from the suit's grip, but to no avail; he warns Bill that she is about to be exposed to the vacuum and to breath normally. The airlock opens and Bill loses consciousness when exposed to the vacuum. She briefly reawakens to find herself being walked across the hull by the Doctor, without his helmet and Ivan and Abby shooting advancing suits, before falling unconscious again.
 
Bill awakens alone in an empty section of the station. She looks up the hallway to see the suits outside the open door but not entering. Bill is approached by Nardole and Ivan, who reveal that the suits can't get into the section because it's a new area that isn't in their mapping system. Bill asks about the Doctor and Nardole tells her that he gave her his helmet and walked her to safety, but it did cost him. He tells her he's in Section 12, a statement which the suits register and begin trying to locate. Bill finds the Doctor sat alone in the section. He stands to face her and reveals that walking in the vacuum unprotected has blinded him. He ensures her that the condition is temporary and that his sight can be restored on his return to the TARDIS. The crew regroup and the Doctor makes plans on how to get them out alive, but Abby doesn't believe his capability, due to his inability to save Tasker and threatens him. At that point, the suits log Section 12 into their mapping system and come in, killing Dahh-Ren. Abby attempts to hold them off, but the crew end up fleeing.
 
Just before making it to the next section, Bill's suit malfunctions again, magnetising itself to the floor and rendering her immobile. Know that there is no way of getting Bill to the next section, the Doctor leaves her behind while the others escape and the suits approach her. Bill makes an appeal to her mum while the suits deliver the electrical discharge and seemingly kill her. The remaining survivors arrive at the station's power room, where the Doctor highlights on the suits operation being heavily established by a capitalist attitude. The Doctor claims that he is attempting to redirect the flow of water cooling the generators to convert it into oxygen, but instead connects the generators to their suit's life signs, meaning that if they die, the generators will overheat and explode. The Doctor insists that the suits be let it, seemingly as a grand statement about the inevitable downfall of capitalism, and Ivan reluctantly complies. As the suits advance and are about to kill them, the Doctor declares that their deaths would be expensive and the suits stop. The suits analyse the generators and conclude that the would be a greater loss for the company if the crew were to die and the station were to explode, so the suits remove their oxygen tanks and give them to the survivors. The Doctor also re-engages Bill's oxygen tank and Bill revives, her suit's battery having too weak an electric charge to prove fatal.
 
Back onboard the TARDIS, Nardole restores the Doctor's eyesight, and the Doctor gives Abby and Ivan the option of what they wish to do. They wish to be taken to head office to make a complaint about the company and the events that transpired on Chasm Forge, to which the Doctor complies. Later, back at the university, the Doctor tells Bill that the after effects of Abby and Ivan's complaint was the catalyst for the eventual downfall of space capitalism. After Bill leaves, Nardole emerges from the TARDIS, still furious at the Doctor's reckless behaviour. He berates the Doctor for endangering himself in a selfish gesture and points out to him that he knows the stakes of leaving the vault unattended, posing the possibility of him returning injured or sick or even dead, that there would be no-one to guard the vault effectively then. The Doctor refuses to look at him, and as Nardole continues to berate him, he rises and removes his glasses, claiming he 'can't look at anything, ever again'.  
 
He's still blind...


== Cast ==
== Cast ==
Line 56: Line 68:
* [[Nardole]] - [[Matt Lucas]]
* [[Nardole]] - [[Matt Lucas]]
* [[Ivan (Oxygen)|Ivan]] - [[Kieran Bew]]
* [[Ivan (Oxygen)|Ivan]] - [[Kieran Bew]]
* [[Tasker]] - [[Justin Salinger]]
* [[Tasker's Crown|Tasker]] - [[Justin Salinger]]
* [[Dahh-Ren]] - [[Peter Caulfield]]
* [[Dahh-Ren]] - [[Peter Caulfield]]
* [[Abby (Oxygen)|Abby]] - [[Mimi Ndiweni]]
* [[Abby (Oxygen)|Abby]] - [[Mimi Ndiweni]]

Revision as of 12:50, 1 March 2018

RealWorld.png

Oxygen was the fifth episode of the tenth series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales.

Most notably, in this episode, saving Bill robs the Doctor of his sight, rendering the Twelfth Doctor, potentially, permanently blind.

This shows the risks he often places himself in, in order to save his friends, but also the danger in which he might be leaving Earth, should he not return, alive and in good health. Oxygen represents a tipping point in the St Luke's vault arc, as the Doctor finally faces the consequences of not having taken his vow seriously.

Nardole joins the Doctor and Bill on this adventure, for the first time since The Pilot.

Synopsis

The Twelfth Doctor, Bill and Nardole investigate a strange space station, but are interrupted by walking dead in spacesuits... will they make it out alive? And how much does air actually cost?

Plot

On the outer hull of the space station, Chasm Forge, workers Ivan and Ellie, working a technologically-advanced smart suits make their way to the top of the space station to make repairs. Ellie attempts to communicate to Ivan, with whom she is romantically involved, using her comms system, admitting to him that she is now ready to have a child with him, but he can't hear her due to interference with the communications systems. Ellie examines her air tank to discover that she is running low on oxygen and is required to purchase more. From behind her, two figures start walking toward her, also wearing suits but without their helmets and the humans wearing the suits are obviously dead. Ellie turns to see them advancing on her and she screams, but Ivan can't hear anything. Just as he finishes his repairs, Ivan turns to look behind him and sees the two figures along with a now dead, helmet-less Ellie advancing on him and he screams.

On Earth, the Doctor is in the middle of a lecture, which is supposed to be about crop circulation, but instead makes it all about space. After the lecture, Nardole approaches the Doctor and calls him out on his desire to go back into space. When working on the vault, he voices his concern that the Doctor has plans to take another unauthorised trip, but the Doctor rebuffs that, stating that he is still on Earth guarding the vault. Later in the TARDIS, the Doctor is telling Bill about the possibilities that exist with exploring space; he suggests that Bill select a destination for a trip, but then himself sets course to investigate a distress signal. At the point, Nardole arrives and insists that the Doctor remain on Earth and guard the vault. He presents a fluid link component he took from the TARDIS after one of the Doctor's lectures, under the assumption that it would render the TARDIS immobile. However, this was a lie on the Doctor's part as he then suddenly sets the TARDIS engines in flight, much to Nardole's surprise and chagrin, but to Bill's delight.

The TARDIS materialises in a corridor on the space station and the Doctor, Bill and a very-angry Nardole emerge. The Doctor expands the TARDIS' air shell so that they can explore. Bill is amazed by the depths of space when looking out the space station's window, while Nardole is still moaning about the Doctor breaking his oath again. The trio then discover a man in a suit standing in the middle of the repair bay. Upon examining him, they discover the mean to be dead, but Nardole finds his air field is still up, meaning he didn't suffocate; Bill finds it rather distressing that the mechanical suit is keeping the dead man propped upright. The Doctor examines the computer logs and discovers the station was declared non-profitable after a majority of it's workers were killed.

The three proceed further into the station and discover a suit with no operator doing work. Suddenly, a computer (whom Nardole remembers as an ex-girlfriend called Velma) states that there has never been oxygen in the station and the unauthorised oxygen from the TARDIS has been detected and will be expelled. The Doctor, Bill and Nardole race back to the TARDIS when the section starts decompressing the expanded air shell from the it. The Doctor seals the section off using the sonic screwdriver, but it leaves them unable to return to the TARDIS. A comms unit suddenly engages on the computer, and the voice on the other end introduces himself as Tasker. While the Doctor, Bill and Nardole are distracted, the suit propping up the dead man becomes active and starts advancing towards to trio. The Doctor tries to disable it with his sonic screwdriver, but it's magnetised out of his hand by the suit and crushed, disabling the suit as a result. Nardole looks outside an sees that the deceased workers a being operated by the suits and are advancing on them from the outer hull. The Doctor deduces that the oxygen is contained in the suits, so in order to survive, they put on the suits present in the repair bay.

While escaping from the Smartsuits pursuing them, the TARDIS crew are rescued by Tasker, Ivan and other survivors on the station, Abby and Dahh-Ren. The crew tells the Doctor that the suits are property of the company which has turned access to oxygen into profit, and that the suits have received instructions to 'deactivate their organic components'. All other crew were killed by an electric shock to their nerve systems, rendering them zombies. The crew make plans to retreat across the station's hull and escape to an uncompleted section of the station that isn't present in their station's mapping. Suddenly, the suits break into the section where the crew are hiding and kill Tasker with the electric discharge by touching him. The remaining survivors retreat to an airlock at the end of the section, all putting on helmets to protect themselves from the vacuum. During the process of decompression, the suit Bill took from the repair bay begins to malfunction, taking off Bill's helmet of it's own accord. The Doctor attempts to to release Bill's helmet from the suit's grip, but to no avail; he warns Bill that she is about to be exposed to the vacuum and to breath normally. The airlock opens and Bill loses consciousness when exposed to the vacuum. She briefly reawakens to find herself being walked across the hull by the Doctor, without his helmet and Ivan and Abby shooting advancing suits, before falling unconscious again.

Bill awakens alone in an empty section of the station. She looks up the hallway to see the suits outside the open door but not entering. Bill is approached by Nardole and Ivan, who reveal that the suits can't get into the section because it's a new area that isn't in their mapping system. Bill asks about the Doctor and Nardole tells her that he gave her his helmet and walked her to safety, but it did cost him. He tells her he's in Section 12, a statement which the suits register and begin trying to locate. Bill finds the Doctor sat alone in the section. He stands to face her and reveals that walking in the vacuum unprotected has blinded him. He ensures her that the condition is temporary and that his sight can be restored on his return to the TARDIS. The crew regroup and the Doctor makes plans on how to get them out alive, but Abby doesn't believe his capability, due to his inability to save Tasker and threatens him. At that point, the suits log Section 12 into their mapping system and come in, killing Dahh-Ren. Abby attempts to hold them off, but the crew end up fleeing.

Just before making it to the next section, Bill's suit malfunctions again, magnetising itself to the floor and rendering her immobile. Know that there is no way of getting Bill to the next section, the Doctor leaves her behind while the others escape and the suits approach her. Bill makes an appeal to her mum while the suits deliver the electrical discharge and seemingly kill her. The remaining survivors arrive at the station's power room, where the Doctor highlights on the suits operation being heavily established by a capitalist attitude. The Doctor claims that he is attempting to redirect the flow of water cooling the generators to convert it into oxygen, but instead connects the generators to their suit's life signs, meaning that if they die, the generators will overheat and explode. The Doctor insists that the suits be let it, seemingly as a grand statement about the inevitable downfall of capitalism, and Ivan reluctantly complies. As the suits advance and are about to kill them, the Doctor declares that their deaths would be expensive and the suits stop. The suits analyse the generators and conclude that the would be a greater loss for the company if the crew were to die and the station were to explode, so the suits remove their oxygen tanks and give them to the survivors. The Doctor also re-engages Bill's oxygen tank and Bill revives, her suit's battery having too weak an electric charge to prove fatal.

Back onboard the TARDIS, Nardole restores the Doctor's eyesight, and the Doctor gives Abby and Ivan the option of what they wish to do. They wish to be taken to head office to make a complaint about the company and the events that transpired on Chasm Forge, to which the Doctor complies. Later, back at the university, the Doctor tells Bill that the after effects of Abby and Ivan's complaint was the catalyst for the eventual downfall of space capitalism. After Bill leaves, Nardole emerges from the TARDIS, still furious at the Doctor's reckless behaviour. He berates the Doctor for endangering himself in a selfish gesture and points out to him that he knows the stakes of leaving the vault unattended, posing the possibility of him returning injured or sick or even dead, that there would be no-one to guard the vault effectively then. The Doctor refuses to look at him, and as Nardole continues to berate him, he rises and removes his glasses, claiming he 'can't look at anything, ever again'.

He's still blind...

Cast

Uncredited cast

Crew

General production staff

Script department

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics

Movement

Casting

General post-production staff

Special and visual effects

Sound



Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.


References

Physics

Chemistry

Biology

Technology

Medicine

  • The Doctor claims he has "stuff in [the TARDIS] that'll cure anything".

TARDIS

  • The Doctor once told Nardole that the TARDIS can't go anywhere without the fluid link K57. However, he reveals this to be untrue (or, at least, no longer true).
  • The air shell room in the TARDIS can provide oxygen to enough of the space station for them to stroll around.
  • The Doctor is familiar enough with the layout of the console room that, despite apparently being blind, he is able to hide this and control the TARDIS as though he still had sight, including, it is implied, accurately piloting her both to Ganymede's head office and back to the university.

Travelling

Units of measurement

Locations

Business and economics

Currency

Resources

  • Chasm Forge is a station for mining copper ore.
  • The managers of Chasm Forge are seeking a bottom line for oxygen usage, and are seemingly prepared to kill off and replace workers if they're using too much of it.

Foods and beverages

  • The Doctor says that in five whole minutes, "we could boil the hell out of an egg."
  • Bill mentions lasagna when giving examples of what a restaurant review is.
  • The Doctor sent Nardole out for crisps.
  • The Doctor tells Dahh-Ren he sent him out for a latté.
  • The Doctor says the phrase "the universe is your crustacean".

People

  • Nardole recognises Bill's smartsuit's interface voice as his ex Velma, and remembers her as a "nice girl, actress. Bit orange, left me for an AI at a call centre."
  • As a result of saving Bill from dying through exposure to the vacuum, the Doctor has now become blind. An attempt to return his vision was made, but only the colour in his eyes returned.

Time Lords

Literature

Culture

  • The Doctor uses the phrase "fun fact!" in his lecture.
  • The Doctor mentions, amongst other things the smartsuits can do, updating Facebook.
  • Dahh-Ren cannot understand why Bill would experience racism herself. He suspects her to be racist because of her reactions to his blue skin.
    • Nardole says that "some of my best friends are bluish".
  • The Doctor insinuates that the purpose of jokes, in general, is to distract people from whatever's about to kill them.
  • The Doctor jokes that "too many rescue ships" is a "first-world problem".
  • The Doctor quips that he thought he was just tweeting, rather than locking the crew out of the subroutine.
  • Bill wonders whether the (missing) man in the working suit has "his tunes on", when he doesn't respond.

Story notes

File:Jamie Mathieson, Mimi Ndiweni & Kieran Bew - The Aftershow - Doctor Who The Fan Show File:Series 10 Teaser - Doctor Who - BBC

Cast

Allusions

  • Two references to Star Trek are made:
    • The Doctor makes a speech about space being "the final frontier", quoting the monologue that opens each episode of Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation.
    • Nardole mentions the "Swish Swish" sound the doors always make. The Doctor says he hates that noise.
  • While standing with Dahh-Ren, Nardole states that some of his best friends are "bluish". This joke, of calling a blue person "bluish" as if it is their race, was first seen in the 1969 Beatles animated film The Yellow Submarine, where it was used by a Blue Meanie in an attempt to identify if the Beatles were a member of their ranks. The original use was meant as a satire of the then-common phrase "you don't look Jewish", but it was not intended to be derogatory.

Ratings

  • 3.57m (UK overnight)
  • 5.27m (UK final)

Filming locations

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

to be added

Continuity

The Fifth Doctor makes his way through the vacuum of space, in TV: Four to Doomsday.

Home video releases

DVD releases

to be added

Blu-ray releases

to be added

Digital releases

to be added

External links

  1. BBC Doctor Who website (13 May 2017). Oxygen: The Fact File. BBC Doctor Who. Retrieved on 14 May 2017.