The Return of Doctor Mysterio [TV/2016.12.25]

★★★☆☆

  This right here is one of my most-revisited comfort stories. Something to watch as you kick back your feet and put on a warm smile, something with no mythos-shattering repercussions or heavy subjects. Sometimes, all you need is a silly little Doctor Who fun fair, and The Return of Doctor Mysterio fits the bill remarkably.

  When it comes to superheroes and their comic stories, I have a very positive opinion. When it comes to recent superhero movies (like the exploits of the Marvel Cinematic Universe), I have quite a few words to say about their dearth of imagination and cinematic polish; so many of them are made for the money and it shows, which is a great shame. That's neither here nor there in my review of this Doctor Who episode, though — what matters is that I find the concept of superheroes in Who delightful, and that Steven Moffat obviously wrote the script with love for the superhero genre. The Return of Doctor Mysterio turns out to be yet another example of Doctor Who's versatility, by showing how a mythos ranging from hard sci-fi alien invasions, deeply political power plays, full-blown fantasy epics to sitcom domestic dramas can also accomodate for a masked hero flying around New York. Credit must go to Justin Chatwin, who gives the character of Grant/the Ghost an undeniably cute and amiable quality. Peter Capaldi is fantastic as always, nailing the warmer Twelfth Doctor (by now a mile away from the cold, calculating man that he used to be in the earlier parts of Series 8) with ease — from interacting with kid Grant to pretending to threaten the Harmony Shoal with a burger, there's nothing this man can't pull off with style.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ  

  If I were to talk to someone who hasn't watched this Christmas special before, I'd advise them not to think of it as your typical new series Christmas celebration. I don't even have to mention the wonky CGI of the Ghost's magnificent powers, since they'd already know not to rag on about it if they know even a small bit about Doctor Who pre-2018 (just because the Chibnall era has brought some pretty darn impressive production values to the table). No, this is a short and sweet character tale about a child the Doctor accidentally turned into a superhero, with plenty of superhero cliches that pave the way for a sort of romance we've all seen before. That said... how can you resist liking the episode when it's just so sweet and cuddly?