# Doctor Who: The Return of Doctor Mysterio **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 25, 2016, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-the-return-of-doctor-mysterio/775610 "2016-12-25T18:36:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2016, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-the-return-of-doctor-mysterio/775610/1 "2016-12-25T18:36:34Z")
Odd title for a Christmas Special, but OK. Anyone lucky enough to be watching now? It’s airs tonight here in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2016, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-the-return-of-doctor-mysterio/775610/2 "2016-12-25T19:08:19Z")
Yes. Since you haven’t seen it yet, I’ll just say that it was nice and very different from the normal Doctor Who. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-the-return-of-doctor-mysterio/775610/3 "2016-12-26T03:10:27Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Odd title for a Christmas Special, but OK. > > Anyone lucky enough to be watching now? It’s airs tonight here in the US. I thought it was cute, no daleks and that super hero could have been on anyone of CW’s stable of shows. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-the-return-of-doctor-mysterio/775610/4 "2016-12-26T03:50:05Z")
I liked the x-ray vision gag. A unique twist on puberty. LOL Glad they did a light hearted episode this time. I guess we’ll see the brain snatcher guys again? They made it clear the head brain was in one of the Unit soldiers. Maybe they’ll be back next season? ---
**Author:** ![Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uosdwis_R.Dewoh)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-the-return-of-doctor-mysterio/775610/5 "2016-12-26T03:52:55Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I liked the x-ray vision gag. A unique twist on puberty. LOL Let me guess. He was using his x-ray vision to look at boys because he’s gay. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-the-return-of-doctor-mysterio/775610/6 "2016-12-26T03:54:25Z")
No. That wasn’t it. I won’t spoil it for other people. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-the-return-of-doctor-mysterio/775610/7 "2016-12-26T04:00:48Z")
Weren’t the brain guys in last year’s Christmas episode, too? I seem to remember aliens on that spaceliner that peeled their heads open like that. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-the-return-of-doctor-mysterio/775610/8 "2016-12-26T04:01:49Z")
Oh, and I’m guessing that the reporter’s physical and mannerism resemblance to Amy Adams’s Lois Lane wasn’t coincidental. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-the-return-of-doctor-mysterio/775610/9 "2016-12-26T06:48:15Z")
I guess now is not the time to nitpick the overall plotline into which this episode falls. . . . . . . . . . (space for spoilers, sweetie) [SPOILER]So it seems this episode segues directly from last Christmas’ episode, and none of this year’s Clara plotline has happened yet? Or maybe it’s a parallel universe and El Doctor has two incarnations. Or something. Anyway, so he spent a 24-solar-year night with River Song on the planet with the singing towers, then came back to Earth and said he’s been away for 24 years. Why, if that was going to be an issue, didn’t he time travel back so that he’d only been away a day or something? And anyway he hadn’t been away for 24 years because he was there when Grant was, at most, 15 years younger. And why was that the last time he would see River? Has there ever been an explanation? Even if she dies in the library the next day in “real time”, he can always go back in time and see her again. A million inconsistencies and unanswered questions. That’s the trouble with a time travel show, time travel is only a maguffin and never a real-seeming thing.[/SPOILER]Anyway, cute episode. I too seem to remember brain guys like that from an earlier episode, although I don’t remember when. I will probably watch it again next year when they do the marathon before the next Christmas episode, because I kept getting interrupted and felt like I might have missed some things. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-the-return-of-doctor-mysterio/775610/10 "2016-12-26T07:21:42Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > So it seems this episode segues directly from last Christmas’ episode, and none of this year’s Clara plotline has happened yet? Or maybe it’s a parallel universe and El Doctor has two incarnations. Or something. There was no other episode this year. This is the first since last year’s Christmas episode. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-the-return-of-doctor-mysterio/775610/11 "2016-12-26T09:09:46Z")
Slight but fun. I liked the screwball comedy dynamic and the snappy dialogue, and Matt Lucas reprising Nardole as a companion makes a great change of pace. They had fun with the comic motifs, too: the Doctor’s heartless speculation about what would happen to anyone bitten by a radioactive spider was great. Do wish Capaldi would stop delivering his dialogue in stage whisper though, I can’t actually hear half of what he says. ---
**Author:** ![Vicsage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e68b1a/32.png) [@Vicsage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vicsage)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-the-return-of-doctor-mysterio/775610/12 "2016-12-26T17:26:14Z")
To answer Femm’s question about why he can’t go back a see her again. River didn’t recognize the Doctor in the last episode together. If he went back to see her in his current form, he would then be recognizable to her in the last episode when they began their 24 year honeymoon. This would be a paradox. Assuming River went to the library right after the honeymoon, there would be no time to squeeze in another meeting. Now why Matt Smith couldn’t visit Amy and Rory after the Angel episode, that I never got. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-the-return-of-doctor-mysterio/775610/13 "2016-12-26T17:46:03Z")
Contracts. The reason is always contracts. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-the-return-of-doctor-mysterio/775610/14 "2016-12-26T23:30:02Z")
Cute episode. I liked it. The news reporter woman was pretty weird though. Tell the truth or the squeeze doll gets it! Can someone remind me who the bald guy companioning the Doctor was? He seems familiar, but I’ve forgotten. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-the-return-of-doctor-mysterio/775610/15 "2016-12-26T23:46:02Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Can someone remind me who the bald guy companioning the Doctor was? He seems familiar, but I’ve forgotten. Nardole, played by Matt Lucas, was also in the previous episode “The Husbands Of River Song”. He was accompanying River and ended up with his head removed and placed into [a giant robot](http://www.scifipulse.net/dwo-matt-lucas-reprising-nardole/). ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-the-return-of-doctor-mysterio/775610/16 "2016-12-26T23:49:07Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Can someone remind me who the bald guy companioning the Doctor was? He seems familiar, but I’ve forgotten. Matt Lucas as Nardole, the same character he played in last year’s special, The Husbands of River Song. He worked for River and briefly got incorporated into her husband’s robot body. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2016, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-the-return-of-doctor-mysterio/775610/17 "2016-12-27T02:32:02Z")
Also enjoyed the show as a fun bit of the silly. What struck me though was the commercials - who the heck does BBC America believe is their viewership demographic for this show? Do you have ovarian cancer? Have used talcum powder in your lifetime? Join our class action suit! Weird. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2016, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-the-return-of-doctor-mysterio/775610/18 "2016-12-27T02:38:49Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I liked the x-ray vision gag. A unique twist on puberty. LOL So unique it was ripped right from an early episode of Smallville. I’m not entirely sure it was even original then. Overall it was a fun episode. Harmony Shoal sounds a bit british for a company HQ’d in NYC, though. If the CEO was supposed to be American, the actor’s accent didn’t quite convince, though the actress playing the reporter was fortunately much better. “Grant” was quite good, and if they ever did a Spider-Man movie where he’s an actual adult (like in the era when Todd McFarlane or Erik Larsen were drawing the book) he’d be a good Peter Parker. But in the coming soon preview… that new companion just looks cringingly awful. I really hope this is a case of previews always lie. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2016, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-the-return-of-doctor-mysterio/775610/19 "2016-12-27T02:41:42Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Cute episode. I liked it. The news reporter woman was pretty weird though. Tell the truth or the squeeze doll gets it! > > Can someone remind me who the bald guy companioning the Doctor was? He seems familiar, but I’ve forgotten. Wasn’t he [the guy](http://community-sitcom.wikia.com/wiki/Toby_Weeks) that tried to kidnap Abed at the Inspector Spacetime con? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2016, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-the-return-of-doctor-mysterio/775610/20 "2016-12-27T03:12:03Z")
So, now there’s officially a superhero in the Who universe? I know Grant said he’s retiring from being the Ghost. But I suspect he won’t be able to stop entirely. Saving people in trouble is pretty hard to walk away from. I wouldn’t mind seeing him again in another episode. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-the-return-of-doctor-mysterio/775610.md?page=2)