History Recap / DoctorWhoS36E6Extremis

** The Monks made their simulation of Earth extremely realistic. So realistic, in fact, that as the simulated Doctor points out, the technology within is "too good", enabling him to send a warning to the real Doctor.

* DrivenToSuicide: The fate of all readers of the ''Veritas'' is to kill themselves. Why they do so is given several explanations: they think they are escaping, that they are saving the world, or that they're seeking death out of despair.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see the RadioTimes magazine poster for this episode:]] http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/extremis_4.jpg ''"Goodness is not goodness that seeks advantage. Good is good in the final hour, in the deepest pit without hope, without witness, without reward. Virtue is only virtue in extremis."'']][[/labelnote]]

-->'''Cardinal Angelo:''' Please, [[StayOnThePath stay close to me]]. The layout is designed to confuse the uninitiated.
-->'''The Doctor:''' [[DeadpanSnarker Sort of like religion, really.]]

The Doctor leans upon the Vault he's been watching over. He is afraid, in despair, and is desperate to hide his new vulnerability -- his blindness -- from the world. He has modified his sonic sunglasses to give him some means of perceiving the world around him, but right now he is focused on a message with the title ''Extremis''...

* DeadlyBook: The Veritas contains undeniable proof that the reader, the world and everyone in it are computer simulations, being run by an alien race in preparation for an invasion of Earth, a revelation so shocking that nearly everyone who reads it (except the Doctor) is DrivenToSuicide.

* DoAndroidsDream: The Doctor claims they, and all simulations including video game {{Mooks}}, can think and feel.

** Bill asks if Nardole if he feels afraid when the Doctor says to trust him. In the previous episode, the Doctor did this before leaving Bill to be electrocuted by killer zombie spacesuits.

** The Vatican maintaining a library of "forbidden knowledge" is nothing new to the ''Doctor Who'' mythos; several of the Literature/VirginNewAdventures and Literature/VirginMissingAdventures featured or contained references to such a library, called the Library of St. John the Beheaded. ''All-Consuming Fire'', the main novel that features it, and has a plot driven by one of the forbidden documents getting loose in the world, also begins with the Pope making a personal appearance to request the heroes' aid.

** The Doctor gets a very unusual but awesome Badass Boast in a series of single word answers to the executioner.
--->'''The Doctor:''' Do me a favor. The Fatality Index. Look up "[[RedBaron The Doctor]]".\\

'''The Doctor:''' Under cause of death.\\
'''Executioner:''' ''[device clicking]'' You do seem to have an impressive number of fatalities connected to you. ''[device keeps counting]'' [[OhCrap A truly remarkable record.]] ''[device clicks faster, the guards begin leaving]'' Where are you going?! He's unarmed! You are unarmed?\\

'''Executioner:''' ''[leaving]'' [[ScrewThisImOutOfHere Have a nice day, then.]]

** To Music/TomLehrer -- one of the scientists in the mass suicide at CERN proclaims "We Will All Go Together When We Go".

* NeverFoundTheBody: Cardinal Angelo informs the Doctor that all of the translators who worked on the ''Veritas'' killed themselves -- except one, whose body was never found. The Church assumed he'd committed suicide like the others, but the Doctor displays his [[GenreSavvy genre savviness]] by pointing out that since they haven't found the body, he may not be dead. They find him in the Haereticum, just after he'd sent the translation of the Veritas to the world's most important institutions.

* DeadlyBook: The Veritas, a book which is sealed away in a secret library within the Vatican filled with books that the Catholic Church has deemed heretical, and which drives everyone who reads it to commit suicide. The Veritas contains undeniable proof that the reader, the world and everyone in it are computer simulations, being run by an alien race in preparation for an invasion of Earth.

* SuicideIsShameful: Cardinal Angelo notes that everyone who is known to have read the ''Veritas'' were devout Catholics who were aware that suicide would be considered a mortal sin... and they still chose Hell after reading the book (because they learn that they're only computer sprites and therefore ending their own existence won't send them to Hell, Heaven, or anywhere else).

* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: When the Doctor's companions read the email-client screen on the translator's laptop, beyond the top-screen mail from CERN, it's ''filled'' with references to the world being not what they thought it was and requests to pray for them. Some of the French ones say things like "Pray for us all", "The world is not what we think" and "We've all been tricked by the devil"...

* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: When the Doctor's companions read the email-client screen on the translator's laptop, beyond the top-screen mail from CERN, it's ''filled'' with references to the world being not what they thought it was and requests to pray for them. Some of the French ones say things like "Pray for us all", "The world is not what we think" and We've all been tricked by the devil"...

[[caption-width-right:350:Will you read the ''Veritas''?]]

* ForgotAboutHisPowers: Regarding the Doctor's blindness: So the Doctor has a TARDIS that can take him anywhere in time and space, and he can't find help? While Nardole did remind him he has to keep guarding the Vault, at the same time his disability makes it ''harder'' for him to do so, and the TARDIS has been unusually good about making sure his other adventures don't keep him away too long of late. Partially justified: He guards the Vault only because he has made an oath, not because he considers the prisoner an enemy.

** Bill asks if Nardole if he feels afraid when the Doctor says to trust him. In the previous episode, the Doctor did this before leaving Bill to be electrocuted by killer zombie spacesuits!

* TheDeterminator: The Sim-Doctor declares that he doesn't need to be real to be the Doctor -- anyone can be the Doctor so long as they never give up.

* ExactWords: The Doctor swore an oath that he would guard Missy's body for a thousand years, but he didn't mention her having to spend that time dead. Or even in the Vault!

* GondorCallsForAid: An unusual example, as the Doctor receives a summons for help from himself, or at least a simulacrum that was just a little too well made!

* HonourBeforeReason: The Doctor cannot bring himself to execute Missy but will hold to his ExactWords, so now he is (mostly) stuck on TheSlowPath guarding the Vault she's imprisoned in. If he slew her, he still would have had to stand vigil in case her corpse came back to life, but instead she's alive and well all along, could escape at any time to wreak grisly havoc, and will eventually be freed. And he gains ''absolutely nothing'' for his choice, but as River Song's diary reminds him, to truly be Good requires total selflessness.

* KnightOfCerebus: Two. Until [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E5Oxygen "Oxygen"]], the adventures of Series 10 were relatively light -- especially for the Twelfth Doctor -- and even "Oxygen" continued the trend of one-off antagonists, "villains" who weren't actually evil, and happy endings for the rescued. He's on good terms with his companions, one of whom is primarily comic relief, and sure of his identity with no major anxieties plaguing him. But [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E5Oxygen "Oxygen"]] rendered the Doctor blind as a consequence of his recklessly risking himself and his companions' lives, and now two examples of this trope are introduced. Steven Moffat says that this dramatic shift was intentional, as Bill wouldn't have stayed a companion for long if she'd immediately been plunged into stories like "Oxygen" and this. The knights are:
** The Monks, who appear to be walking corpses and whose purely EvilPlan ''first'' involves making a simulation to run through all possible ways they could be stopped. The real Doctor knows they're coming thanks to the HeroicSacrifice of his sim-counterpart, but also knows that they're one of the worst threats he and humanity may '''ever''' face.
** Missy, the Twelfth Doctor's ArchEnemy, is back. Right now she's safely sealed in the Vault, but the Doctor needs help to face the Monks, especially now that he's blind...

* ObliviousGuiltSlinging: The Pope couldn't have known how inappropriate his timing for coming into Bill's flat was!

* PleaseIWillDoAnything: Missy says this to the Doctor as he prepares to pull the switch. She'll even learn how to be good!

* ContinuitySnarl: The Doctor and Nardole teamed up in the wake of Missy's "execution", which is implied to have been shortly after River Song's death -- so why doesn't Nardole, who ''hates'' the Doctor being away from the Vault, bring this up at all in [[Recap/DoctorWho2016CSTheReturnOfDoctorMysterio "The Return of Doctor Mysterio"]]? Why is the Doctor's grief over River's death so fresh in that story if he'd already been guarding the Vault for several decades? However, Nardole didn't seem to mind the Doctor having an adventure on Earth in the present day [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E4KnockKnock before]], and protecting the planet ''would'' protect the Vault by extension. His grief can be chalked up to the mention of "24 years" opening an old wound. It's possible that "The Return of Doctor Mysterio" is set ''during'' the events of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E1ThePilot "The Pilot"]], which unfold over several months. (As for when the solo Doctor met Grant Gordon and checked up on his adolescence, that easily could have happened between [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWho2015CSTheHusbandsOfRiverSong "The Husbands of River Song"]].)

Written by Creator/StevenMoffat and directed by Daniel Nettheim, this is the start of the "Monks Trilogy", a three-part adventure continued in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E7ThePyramidAtTheEndOfTheWorld "The Pyramid at the End of the World"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E8TheLieOfTheLand "The Lie of the Land"]].

* TheBusCameBack: Missy returns, marking her first appearance since [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E2TheWitchsFamiliar "The Witch's Familiar"]] way back at the top of Series 9.

* SpotOfTea: Bill brings home a girlfriend. Moria says not to do anything she wouldn't do. Instead of a GilliganCut to lesbian snogging, we have Bill pouring Penny a cup of tea.

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: The episode explores this concept. All of the characters are revealed to be part of the simulation, including the Doctor, Bill, and Nardole. The Doctor explains that even though they are part of a program and are shadow copies of the originals, they are so real that they have self-awareness, being capable of the same thoughts and decisions as their real counterparts. The Shadow-Copy Doctor manages to use this to his advantage and email a recording of the Monk's EvilPlan to the Doctor in the real world.

* InTheHood: Nardole pretends to be a priest under a cowl that hangs over his face so he can deliver River's message.

* HypocriticalHumor: Nardole claims to be a BadAss, then squeals on seeing a dead body.

* ChickMagnet: Nardole says, "You old dog" on catching sight of the painting of Pope Benedict, an [[JustFriends old friend]] of the Doctor's.