The concept of a Doctor Who heist movie is undeniably smart. The opening scene, with the Doctor, Clara, and their newfound allies suddenly transported via memory worms, throws the audience headfirst into the story that promises all the enjoyable Hollywood tropes.

Unfortunately, the 45-minute runtime works against the episode, leaving it feeling rushed and underdeveloped. The hallmarks of the heist genre are often absent. The characters are thrust into the middle of the mission without the audience ever seeing the plan, which robs the story of one of the genre’s most enjoyable elements: watching the strategy unfold and anticipating how it might go wrong.

The episode relies on us caring about the guest characters’ fates, it’s difficult to muster much investment since there hasn’t been enough time to form a bond with them. The Doctor’s connection to the team feels thin.

Visually and structurally, the episode feels a bit disjointed. The constant scene changes and rapid cuts give the impression that chunks of the story are missing. There’s little sense of place within the bank, which detracts from the tension and atmosphere a heist story should have.

The twist—revealing that the monsters’ actions were motivated by a desire to reunite with their mate—feels  overly similar to the resolution of Hide from the previous series which creates an anticlimax.

This marks the first proper misfire in Peter Capaldi’s tenure so far. Despite his strong performance, Time Heist does not deliver on its premise.

As for Steven Thompson, this being his final contribution to Doctor Who is in my opinion a good thing. Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS, The Curse of the Black Spot and Time Heist all have interesting premises which are poorly delivered.

Enjoyed it, felt very RTD actually, Miss Delphox in particular seemed lifted out of one of his episodes.

That means it was slightly camp but it was entertaining - The Doctor robbing a bank was a fun concept and even though it was yet another non-linear story, which have basically become the hallmark of the Moffat era, I liked how everything came together and The Teller was a well done monster.

ill go to the satanic nebula then the lagoon of lost stars then brighton with u 12 <33333

Time Heist is one of my favourite Doctor Who stories. I’ve not watched or read many other heist stories, but I do love the way this episode commits to that style of story, particularly with the music. I especially love this because it’s given a twist: the main characters aren’t there to steal, but to rescue two oppressed creatures. I think this the perfect way to do a heist in Doctor Who: it’s not motivated by greed but by a desire to help someone in need.

One of my favourite things about the episode is the Teller. Firstly, it looks good and is quite intimidating as soon as it’s revealed. The Teller’s powers make it even scarier, putting the main characters in danger as even feeling guilty is a risk. But it’s also very easy to sympathise with it: it’s imprisoned and forced to torture people. When we find out the reason it’s there – the second Teller held hostage – it becomes even more tragic. It’s an intelligent creature that’s being exploited. I think the Teller is used very well: at first it’s a cool monster, then we realise that the whole episode revolves around it.

But there’s lots of other interesting characters in this episode. There’s the Doctor and Clara’s fellow bank-robbers, Psi and Saibra. Both are characters with cool abilities that serve not only as tools to break into the bank, but as their motivations: they have both experienced tragedies and need help. The heist is a rescue mission for them as well as for the two Tellers. And in some ways Karabraxos, the villain, is also rescued by the end, as we see her regretting her actions at the end of her life. She’s a great villain: we can see she does awful things, but we learn that over the course of many years she changes and learns to sympathise with those she harms. I think that’s really nice.

I also like how the episode uses time travel. The characters perform a heist and work out why they want to do a heist out of order. The heist is prompted by a future Karabraxos and planned by a future Doctor, who has to keep his past self in the dark to preserve the timeline.

It’s not a perfect story, of course. The Doctor is able to work out the identity of the Architect by the logic “I hate the Architect in the same way that I hate myself, hence the Architect is me”. This is nonsense. But the episode is fun enough that I don’t mind.

Yeah, it’s just really fun. That’s my main message. I had fun watching it and then it stuck in my brain and became one of my favourite episodes.

It is a wonderful concept for a story that just doesn't quite manage to secure a fully realized execution.

Time Heist is a fun story that deploys a pretty enjoyable cast of characters, a very fun setting and monster, along with a decently written story. I always like when we get a full crew of characters in stories like this or Dinosaurs on a Spaceship to change things up a bit. I definitely think Moffat sometimes goes for twists just for the sake of twists, and that sort of writing holds back the quality a bit, but it is a fun enough romp, and production does a great job at making the Space Bank feel Spacey. It is far from bad, but pretty aggressively average. It's amazing how much of the story I forgot my first time around.

EDIT: There are also some fun details in this video. A number of villains and other criminals appear in this episode as part of the bank's files, from the show, the comics, Torchwood, and the Sarah Jane Adventures. That's cool and part of a trend in Moffat's work to acknowledge and incorporate the wider franchise. I like that sort of world building and it makes the franchise feel both more lived in and connected.