MR 030: Seasons of Fear

"Do they have orgies?
CHARLOTTE POLLARD!
I went to an orgy once.... I didn't stay."

I could have sworn I heard Daleks at some point in this story. So Nimon huh? That's one of those monsters that I never would have thought would see a return, yet here we are. Horns of Nimon doesn't exactly have the best reputation from a less than stellar season. And looking at their list of appearances, yeah, they didn't make a return appearance any other time. Nobody's out here clamoring for the return of the Nimon in the 2020s?

Fortunately, though, that's not really the main focus of this story. The main focus is on one individual who has been granted immortality by his mysterious masters from beyond the stars, the Nimon, and his attempts at bringing them into the world over time and being foiled by the Doctor.

We meet Sebastian Grayle for the first time, for the last time in Singapore when the Doctor finally brings Charley there for her rendevous with her friend. He says that he's already killed the Doctor. It's an intriguing set up. A character that's battled the Doctor throughout time, but he's taken the long way round, living all this time, while the Doctor has jumped between points in history.

We get stories set in three different time periods. In the first, in ancient rome, we see Grayle in a cult to Mithras as a priest, but he doesn't believe in it anymore because of his connection to his alien masters, who he sees as gods. There's an interesting thread of faith through this story as we see Grayle's relationship to religion all throughout it.

We see him again in pre-unification Britain where he's a priest, but of course he doesn't really believe. He's extracted uranium and created plutonium to allow his masters to come through, but again the Doctor foils him, destroying his rudimentary transmat. I enjoyed the rulers in this one, they were clever and clearly enjoyed each other's company even though the king (and maybe queen) was gay.
And finally we see Grayle in the early 19th century as a wealthy businessman who runs the hellfire club (even just reminding me of Minuet in Hell... ugh, thankfully it's not as bad as that). He has no religion at all and only believes in himself: that the world exists to serve him. He continues to believe that his alien masters will grant him the world. The Nimon manage to make it through this time, but the Doctor flings himself and the nimon into the time vortex where they end up back in ancient Rome. There he gets the cult to Mithras to attack the Nimon and he convinces the younger Grayle to back down because of an encounter with his future self.

I definitely enjoy scenes like this where a character is horrified by what they will become. And Grayle shoots his future self when his future self tries to kill the Doctor.

There's a couple of interesting ending scenes for arc maintenance, Moffat style, here. The Doctor seems to be explaining what's happening to someone. He's been narrating the whole time. And then two of the characters from the third story get apparently eaten by something that seems to look and sound like Charley. Not sure what that's about. I'm sure we'll find out in the next few stories.

Yes, overall I quite enjoyed this one. I love the relationship between the Doctor and Charley now. They're needling each other as friends do and they're very clearly familiar and comfortable around each other. Charley even calls the Doctor her best friend. I liked when she said:

"You even did that thing where you pretend to be an idiot to get people to tell you their plans.

I do that?

I always thought you did."
It's a really satisfying narrative to follow this one person throughout time and see how he gets increasingly more and more lost in the sauce and convinced of his own superiority. Because he keeps living while everyone else dies so he believes he's the only one that matters. That's why I really love seeing the confrontation between his younger self and the person he will become in the end. Grayle has some great speeches here too about why he does what he does, how he's convinced himself he's the only god, ect ect. And all throughout he thinks that his alien masters will give him control of the Earth.

Just a really fun and really meaty script to chew on. I also quite enjoy how scrappy this script is. The Doctor even talks about "the bitchiness of time lord society" which is hilarious. I never would have imagined hearing the word "bitchiness" come from the Doctor's mouth, but here we are. Great story all around and excited to see how the rest of the arc goes.