Let's look at "Extremis", which has starts off as a decent story. The Doctor meets the Pope and gets to solve a mystery of why everyone is killing themselves after translating this document called, "Veritas". Then enter the evil looking Monks, who oddly resemble other Dr Who monsters. I think the special effects guy got kind of lazy and made them look kind of like the Mummy in "Mummy on the Orient Express" crossed with the Sycorax from the "Christmas Invasion". After the Doctor finally figures out what is going out, we learn that this is just a computer simulation that the Monks have been running on our planet with hopes of invading. Well, there's 45 minutes that are pretty much meaningless in the Dr Who World. I mean come on, couldn't they have done that in a shorter time?
The other big reveal from "Extremis" was that we finally learned who is in the Vault. What a shock, it's Missy. Yawn. I wished that was part of the simulation and it really didn't happen, but it looks like it did. I was also wondering if the Doctor tricks Missy's captors in not killing her, why didn't he trick them into not guarding her body for a 1,000 years? Couldn't he just create a vault on his Tardis? Why did it have to be Earth? Doesn't make sense to me at all.
Onto "The Pyramid at the End of the World". I was sitting there watching it and couldn't figure out if I liked it or not. Again, it's hard to judge this episode without seeing the conclusion. The plot was ok, but was not great. The Monks don't seem like a big challenge for the Doctor, but maybe that will change in the next episode. I did enjoy the ending, where Bill sacrificed our world to save the Doctor. She was returning the favor for when the Doctor sacrificed his eye sight to save Bill. Other then the end, I was not too impressed.I will hold out in grading these two episodes since we need to see the end.
I do want to address one thing about these two episodes. I was reading about someone on Twitter that complained about Dr Who being taken over by the politically correct police. They sited that Dr Who this season has added Lesbians, Short People, and Trump & Church Bashing. So obviously this person has never watched Dr Who, because they would have learned that Dr Who since it came back in 2001 has successfully tried to be more inclusive. Which I commend them for. One problem with Classic Who is that they were not very diverse and took some criticisms for it. I think the New Who has done a fantastic job of including everyone in their universe. I am greatly pleased when I go to a comic book convention and see lots of African-Americans wearing Dr Who shirts. I think a lot of that had to do with the inclusion of Martha Jones as a companion. Now onto the Trump & Church Bashing, Dr Who has always made quick jabs at political and famous people. It's one of the nuances of the show that I enjoy. I personally did not see any church bashing in "Extremis" myself and I don't think calling Trump "orange" is at the degree of "bashing someone". Lastly, this idiot complained about "short people". The character of "Erica" was just a character. She wasn't written to be a short person, but instead they found a great actor, Rachel Denning, to play her who happened to be short. So for this person who has complained about these aspects of the show, there is a think called a "remote control". If you don't like it, just click over to reruns of Hee Haw and leave us be.