The Doctor suffered an injury in “Oxygen” that may have big consequences for the rest of Doctor Who series 10.
WARNING: THIS POST MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR SERIES 10 OF DOCTOR WHO. TIME IS A TIMEY-WIMEY BALL, BUT THERE WILL BE NO GOING BACK IF YOU READ THIS. THIS POST IS A FIXED POINT IN TIME. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
I wasn’t terribly impressed with “Oxygen” as a Doctor Who episode. The episode might actually be my least favorite from Doctor Who series 10. It was the typical Doctor and companion on a creepy space station or space ship episode; we get one of those each series. That’s not to say that it was a bad episode, just that compared to how fantastic the rest of series 10 has been it was underwhelming.
The biggest takeaway from “Oxygen” is obviously that the Doctor is now blind. At the end of the episode, we saw Nardole fixing the Doctor’s eyes, but that apparently didn’t work. A blind Doctor is something we’ve never seen before. If the vault does contain who we think it does, then a blind Doctor is a very bad thing indeed.
We just hope that now that we’ve gone down this road we don’t throw it away. This may be the most daring thing Doctor Who has tried in a very long time. The key will be seeing if the Doctor stays blind or if he’s healed in two episodes.
More from Show Snob
- The Santa Clauses season 2, episode 6 recap “Wanga Banga Langa!”
- Lawmen: Bass Reeves season 1, episode 7 preview: Non-spoiler thoughts for Part VII
- Goosebumps season 1, episode 6 recap: “Night of the Living Dummy”
- Beacon 23 season 1, episode 3 recap: “Why Can’t We Go on as Three?”
- Upload season 3, episode 2 recap: “Strawberry”
Capaldi has been a revelation this series. He’s clearly created the best version of his Doctor in series 10, now he has this huge twist to work with. There’s a chance that this season could go down as one of the best in Doctor Who history, but now it’s all going to hinge on the Doctor’s blindness.
You can’t do a miraculous fix in two episodes and throw away this massive twist, you’ve got to lean into it or why did you do it at all. If you do “fix” the Doctor’s eyes you have to make something special out of it. Perhaps a villain and adversary using some regeneration energy to heal the Doctor? Now wouldn’t that be something?
What do you think about the Doctor’s blindness? Let us know in the comments below.