“Extremis” is episode six of season ten of the new Doctor Who.
So, at the end of the previous episode, “Oxygen”, it wasn’t quite a cliff-hanger ending, in regards to the primary story anyway, but there was a new problem – the Doctor hadn’t managed to fix the blindness caused by going out into the vacuum of space without a helmet. Although he did have a low powered force field covering his face, or he would likely have been worse off.
This episode therefore starts at a totally different place, with the words ‘A Long Time Ago…’ A narrator is saying that there are one billion species in this galaxy alone, and killing every single one of them is a challenge. Killing a Time Lord, even more so. The Doctor is visiting a planet where a man, said narrator, is telling him how he will permanently kill him, including disabling his regeneration. The Doctor’s body will then be placed under armed guard for a thousand years to ensure it doesn’t come back to life. The people on this planet really don’t seem to like life.
In order to carry out the execution of the Time Lord, it must be done by another Time Lord. This is, naturally, Missy (the Master). However, the execution is not that of the Doctor, but of Missy. It then goes back briefly to the present where the Doctor is outside the vault, then back to the past where Missy is, sort-of, begging for her life (is it the Master inside the vault? At the end of “Knock Knock” it was clearly someone that the Doctor felt comfortable enough around to share a take away with, but also someone who was cheered up at the thought of a bunch of students being killed – the Master would be an obvious choice. Unless he’s dead – although being dead hasn’t always stopped him in the past).
Back again in the present (although there are clips from the past events throughout the episode; including the mention of the word ‘Extremis’) and the Doctor receives an email, titled ‘Extremis,’ to his sonic sunglasses. In his lecture hall, the Doctor is approached by representatives of the Vatican. They want his help. He isn’t terribly interested but Nardole tells him to listen – the Doctor has been personally recommended by Pope Benedict IX (in the 11th century). Apparently the Pope wants to speak to the Doctor. So he says the Pope should just come and see him. Apparently he has. He says the word Extremis.
There’s a text in the Vatican Library in an unknown language. It was translated by an early Christian sect, but the only part of the translation that remains is the word ‘Veritas’ – the truth. Every member of the sect committed suicide. The text was then translated again, recently, it was translated again. Every person who read it killed themselves (all of them quite devout apparently, and suicide is a mortal sin in Christianity). Except one. Who is missing. The Vatican wants the Doctor to read Veritas.
Bill has returned home with another girl when she hears the TARDIS materialising in her bedroom. She is not that happy. Then the Pope walks out of her bedroom and she is really not happy. Which pretty much kills the mood, especially when she finds her bedroom full of priests (pretty funny really). The Doctor is covering up his blindness from Bill – in fact, from everyone but Nardole. The sunglasses are enabling him to see.
At the Vatican, the Doctor goes into the Hereticum, the Library of Forbidden and Heretical Texts, a secret library founded by Benedict IX. Something else has gained access to the library (hint: getting separated from the rest in a potentially dangerous place is generally not a good idea).
Whatever Veritas says is apparently terrifying to everyone who reads it. Fatally terrifying. The truth apparently does not set you free.
Nardole and Bill work together well at injecting an element of humour and there’s a twist that may be totally unexpected. Once again, although one element of the story is concluded, a new one opens up – and it’s a whole lot bigger than the last.