In which the Monks have totally subjugated the Earth. Giant statues of them have been set up in every town and city. The Monks have rewritten history to include themselves in every significant event - the truth now being that they visited the Earth in prehistoric times and have been benevolently guiding the human race ever since. Not everyone believes these lies, but security forces - Memory Police - root out anyone who tries to deny this history. They are rounded up and despatched to internment camps, or simply disappear. The Monks are aided in their deception by the Doctor, who regularly broadcasts their propaganda to the world. He was taken away by the invaders, and Bill no longer knows where he is.
She is depressed and isolated, unable to recall events after she had given consent to the Monks at their Pyramid.
She is visited by Nardole, who informs her that he has managed to locate the Doctor. He is being held on a ship in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland. He has arranged for them both to travel out to the prison vessel on a supply boat.
They make the journey and manage to get on board. At one point they had encountered one of the Monks, but it had allowed them to pass. They locate the Doctor's room, but instead of welcoming them he calls for armed guards and then notifies the Monks. he tells Bill that the human race only have themselves to blame for their situation. They deserve subjugation by the Monks, who have brought peace to the planet. When he explains that he has willingly joined with them. Unable to accept this, Bill seizes a weapon and shoots him. he begins to regenerate - but then halts the process. he has only been testing her - to make sure that she is not working under the Monks' influence. He is in league with Nardole and this group of guards as part of an escape plan, and needed Bill to join him. She is angry at his trick, but eventually accepts he felt his actions were necessary, as the Monks control so many peoples' minds. The gun held only blanks, and he has sacrificed a small amount of regeneration energy to test her. They take over the ship and set it on a collision course with the nearby coast.
They make for the university in Bristol and access the Vault, where Missy is held captive in a glass cage. The Doctor needs her assistance. She has had previous knowledge of the Monks, and may know a way of defeating them. She explains that she encountered them on another planet once, and learned that the only way to beat them was to disrupt their connection with the subjugated population. This is achieved through a psychic link with the person who gave them consent and allowed them in in the first place. She had killed the person who held this position - a young girl whom she had pushed into a volcano. To stop the Monks she states that Bill has to die, as she is their link to the rest of the human race. The Doctor suspects that there is another way - to exploit the link rather than destroy it. He, Bill and Nardole meet up with members of the resistance and head for London, where the Pyramid has settled in the middle of the city. The Doctor deduces that whatever they use to generate their lies is based within it.
They break in, but come under attack by the Monks. They are able to produce shields which protect them from their weapons. To counter the Monks' influence, they use a tape recording of Bill reassuring them over and over again that the Monks are not their friends. Nardole's is damaged, and he attempts to kill the Doctor, and he is forced to knock him out. They manage to reach a central chamber, in which one of the Monks sits with a headset, seemingly oblivious to what is going on around them. This being is generating the false memories to the world.
When the Doctor takes the headset and tries to use it, the Monk fights back and he is stunned. When he comes to, Bill has taken his place. The Monk tries to access her memories in order to exploit them, but she has fixed on the single image of her mother. This is then generated across the globe into everyone's mind. People start to wake up to the truth and turn against the Monks. Realising that they have lost their power, they rapidly depart.
Bill notices that everyone seems to have forgotten all about the Monks very quickly, and the Doctor explains that their massive statues - now all destroyed - contained boosters for their mental influence.
In the Vault, Missy is overcome by emotion as she starts to think about the evil deeds she has committed...
The Lie of the Land was written by Toby Whithouse, and was first broadcast on Saturday 3rd June 2017. It forms the conclusion to a three episode story arc involving the Monks, begun by Steven Moffat with Extremis and continued by Peter Harness with The Pyramid at the End of the World.
Moffat wanted a story in which the villains had already invaded Earth and taken over - something not seen since Day of the Daleks - and in which the Doctor appeared to be colluding with the invaders.
The sort of society which had resulted from this was inspired by George Orwell's 1984 - with Big Brother and the Ministry of Truth, which had "revised" history.
"Fake news" was very much in the real news, thanks to Donald Trump's 2016 Presidential election campaign.
Right from the beginning, Whithouse planned to open his episode with a Public Information film, like a party political broadcast, presenting a version of history as created by the Monks - but narrated by the Doctor. The Monks would be inserted into artworks, movies, newsreels and even old episodes of Doctor Who.
This idea of aliens inserting themselves into history is hardly original, even for the Series under Moffat, as he had already employed this trick with the Silents (even if there they really were influencing the human race from the beginning, but the imagery is the same).
The fake regeneration trick, to fool the audience into thinking that there's a regeneration coming up, knowing that the lead actor is leaving the series, had also been employed before - by RTD in The Stolen Earth.
Another similarity, again with RTD scripts, are Last of the Time Lords and Turn Left - where we see the companion having to live a depressing existence in a world that has been turned upside down.
It's not just the seeming unoriginality which has gained this episode - and the trilogy overall - a poor reputation with fans. The second and third instalments fail to live up to the promise of Extremis; the motivation of the Monks (quite why they want to invade and what they actually get out of doing so) is never really clear; and the terribly rushed and unsatisfying ending have all added to its unpopularity.
The pacing and structure of the trilogy as a whole are badly thought through.
As far as the guest cast goes, it is a small one, as the episode features primarily the regulars. Michelle Gomez plays a more prominent role in the season from this point on, and her attempted rehabilitation by the Doctor becomes a new story arc.
Two of the resistance members / guards are played by Stewart Wright (Alan) and Solomon Israel (Richard). Jamie Hill once again plays the principal Monks.
Emma Handy plays the woman arrested by the Memory Police near the start of the episode.
Overall, it's a huge anti-climax. After two episodes of build-up, the Doctor and company wrap everything up in double quick time - easily breaking into the Monk HQ and overturning their rule, and everyone just forgets it all happened. The Monks simply run away. Capaldi and Mackie give great performances - but they are entirely wasted.
Things you might like to know:
- This is one of only eleven stories which do not feature the TARDIS at all.
- The episode was broadcast ten minutes earlier than originally scheduled due to a line-up change for BBC 1 - a special fundraising concert for victims of the Manchester Arena bombing. This was due to be shown the following night, opposite the final of Britain's Got Talent, but ITV moved this to the Saturday to avoid competing with it. The clash with BGT meant very low ratings for this episode - around 3 million overnight - making this the lowest rated episode since Battlefield Part One in McCoy's final season.
- Originally, it had been planned that a scene from the medical soap Casualty - but with a Monk present - might feature.
- It had been intended that an image of Winston Churchill in the Monk HQ chamber would depict him as portrayed by Ian McNeice (Victory of the Daleks etc.), but they decided late in the day on an image of the real one instead. However, it was the McNeice Churchill who appeared in preview copies sent out in advance of broadcast.
- The Monk with the headset in the HQ chamber was originally supposed to be gigantic in stature.
- Some questions. If Bill is so important to the Monks, why isn't she also imprisoned somewhere? What would happen were she to fall ill or have an accident, if her role is so crucial? Why does the Monk on the ship take notice of her, then ignore her? There are only a handful of Monks on Earth, so surely they all know who she is.
- We see a Magpie Electricals shop - the company first introduced in The Idiot's Lantern.
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