History Recap / DoctorWhoS36E6Extremis

** The simulated Doctor compares those who read the ''Veritas'' and learning about the simulation to ''[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]]'' learning he is a video game character.

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

The one where [[TomatoInTheMirror everything is a lie.]]

-->'''Cardinal Angelo:''' ''[translating):''' May God illuminate your path.\\
-->'''The Doctor:''' [[DisabledSnarker He could certainly give it a go.]]

'''The Doctor:''' [[DisabledSnarker He could certainly give it a go.]]

-->'''Simulant Doctor:''' I'm doing what anyone who needs help would do; I'm calling the Doctor.

* GoLookAtTheDistraction: The Doctor sends his companions to see if the priest who just shot himself is still alive and needs help. As the Doctor wouldn't send them to find a crazed gunman in the dark, Nardole realises the Doctor is trying to get rid of them so he can read the book. Just to drive the point home, as the Doctor asserts that they don't ''know'' that the priest is dead, we get a POV shot of his sonic sunglasses telling him that yes, the priest is ''definitely'' dead.

* ArcWords: Episode only: [[WhatYouAreInTheDark "Without hope, without witness, without reward."]]

** Angelo comments that the Doctor is [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E1TheMagiciansApprentice "more in need of confession"]] than anyone. He then says the Doctor refused the offer because [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent "It would take too much time."]]
** After previously expressing extreme distaste at the idea of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E1TheMagiciansApprentice turning good]], Missy swallows back her visible revulsion at the idea as she offers to learn how to be good if the Doctor will only save her life.
** Way back in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E13LastOfTheTimeLords "Last of the Time Lords"]], the Doctor was also faced with the prospect of guarding the Master, and brought up the possibility of having to stop travelling to do so.
* CaptainObvious: Nardole takes up this role [[InvokedTrope intentionally]] so the Doctor knows what's going on without letting anyone in on the fact that he's blind.

** The Vatican comes seeking the Doctor's help on a personal recommendation from Pope Benedict IX, written in 1045, similar to Queen Elizabeth I's "credentials" from [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]].

** This isn't the first time the Doctor has gotten people to back off by telling them to look him up. Apropos, as we also get a nod to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead "Forest of the Dead"]] with Nardole showing up with River's diary.

** The Sim-Doctor's reading device burns out part of his brain and compromises his future health/ability to regenerate. Add to that the process of donning it, attaching sensors to his forehead and all, and it's painfully similar to the many, many Doctors giving up their lives in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent "Heaven Sent"]] via the hotwired teleporter.
** The present day storyline turns out to be a simulation rather than reality, but it still has tangible effects on the real world. In [[Recap/DoctorWho2014CSLastChristmas "Last Christmas"]], everything but the final minutes of the episode was a dream the Doctor and Clara were having, the work of the Dream Crabs trying to consume their brains. But the process of escaping the shared dream also allowed them to reconcile after the events of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E12DeathInHeaven "Death in Heaven"]], and once awake they were happily reunited in the real world.

* CopiedTheMoralsToo: The simulation of Earth is so good that the simulations still have their personalities and full, uncontrolled self awareness. And the copy of the Doctor is so good that he's determined to thwart the people behind the simulation, and manages to send a message about everything to his real world counterpart.

-->'''Bill:''' Does it give you the fear when [the Doctor] says trust me?
-->'''Nardole:''' If I worked here, I'd cross me-self.

* FakeKillScare: The Doctor pulls the lever on Missy, who collapses to the ground...only to reveal that the Doctor sabotaged the device.

* HisStoryRepeatsItself: At least a century after the events of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E12DeathInHeaven "Death in Heaven"]] from the Doctor's perspective, he once again has the opportunity to kill a helpless Missy. Others want him to do so, and he knows that she will only cause more trouble if he shows mercy. But where he was ready to do so in "Death in Heaven" and sadly told Missy that she'd won because he was lowering himself to her level, and was only stopped because the Cyber-Brigadier shot first (of course, either way she would have escaped via Vortex manipulator), this time he chooses to let her live and accepts the responsibility of watching over her, knowing that this is the choice of a good man.

-->'''Cardinal Angelo (translating):''' May God illuminate your path.
-->'''The Doctor:''' [[DisabledSnarker He could certainly give it a go.]]

* 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, of which the real Doctor only 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; and 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...

* MeanwhileInTheFuture: The action shifts between Missy's execution, which takes place not long after [[Recap/DoctorWho2015CSTheHusbandsOfRiverSong "The Husbands of River Song"]], and the simulation -- and the Doctor guarding the Vault in the real world -- in ThePresentDay, which is at least several decades later in the Doctor and Nardole's timelines.

** Hidden threats: The Monks first appear in portals that turn up in walls (beings specifically hidden in or even ''being'' walls also turn up in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E2Smile "Smile"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E4KnockKnock "Knock Knock"]]).

* SadisticChoice: As in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E12DeathInHeaven "Death in Heaven"]], the Doctor is faced with either executing a helpless Missy and failing to be his best self, or letting one of the most dangerous people in the universe live when he has no reason to trust her pleas that she can learn to be good. While he was ready to pull the trigger in that story, he '''really''' didn't want to, and this time he decides to let her live. While she ''will'' be under lock and key for 1,000 years, at the end of that time she will be freed.

* SeriesContinuityError: 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?

* TemporaryBlindness: The Doctor is still blind following the events of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E5Oxygen "Oxygen"]], apparently has no means of curing it, and he's determined to keep it a secret -- even from Bill, possibly to spare her guilt (since he lost his sight by way of saving her life). It still counts as temporary for the Doctor because he will be able to see again at some point in the future, which at the latest will be when he regenerates.

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

* GoLookAtTheDistraction: The Doctor sends his companions to see if the priest who just shot himself is still alive and needs help. As the Doctor wouldn't send them to find a crazed gunman in the dark, Nardole realises the Doctor is trying to get rid of them so he can read the book. Just to drive the point home, as the Doctor asserts that they don't ''know'' that the priest is dead, we get a POV shot of his sonic sunglasses telling him that yest, the priest is ''definitely'' dead.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see the RadioTimes magazine poster for this episode:]] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/extremis_4.jpg ''[[WhatYouAreInTheDark "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]]

* 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?

** Nardole also compares the simulation to the holodeck in ''Series/StarTrek''.

* OneWordTitle: "Extremis", which according to Merriam-Webster is Latin for "in extreme circumstances; especially: at the point of death."

* {{Pun}}: The CERN scientist Bill and Nardole talk to, who along with his colleagues is getting drunk before committing suicide as a group after reading the Veritas, says "{{In vino|Veritas}}, ''[[InVinoVeritas veritas]].''"

* TitleDrop: "Extremis" is used as a code phrase several times, including by the Pope; Nardole, when he's telling the Doctor that he promised River he'd look after him; and the Doctor himself, when the simulated version sends the real deal the emailed memory-print. In all cases, it's used to indicate the severity of the situation.

* ReImaginingTheArtifact: The Doctors [[BaseBreaker Base Breaking]] Sonic Sunglasses from the previous season are now needed to help him see in spite of his blindness.

* GoLookAtTheDistraction: The Doctor sends his companions to see if the priest who just shot himself is still alive and needs help. As the Doctor wouldn't send them to find a crazed gunman in the dark, Nardole realises the Doctor is trying to get rid of them so he can read the book.

* SpotOfTea: Bill brings home a girlfriend. Moira 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.

* DrivingQuestion: Many interconnected ones, some specific to this episode and others to the larger StoryArc of Series 10:
** What does the ''Veritas'' reveal that drives all of its readers to suicide? (The world is a computer simulation created by hostile aliens in preparation for their invasion of Earth.)
** How will the Doctor survive reading the ''Veritas'' when no one else has? For that matter, how ''can'' he read it? (He ultimately resorts to a text-to-speech program on a laptop. Also, he's not really "alive" to begin with -- he's just a simulation, not the real Doctor.)
** Who is the prisoner in the Vault, why are they imprisoned, who imprisoned them, and why is the Doctor their guard? (Missy, who was supposed to be executed on unknown charges. The planet that carried out the sentence had rules requiring that the Doctor do it, but he refused. However, he still swore an oath to watch Missy's body for a thousand years, as per the regulations of the executioners.)
** The episode ends with one of these: Now that the Doctor knows what's coming, he asks "How can I help my friends when I'm lost in the dark?" While he now has the aid of his sonic sunglasses, that may not be enough for his blindness not to hinder him.

* {{Pun}}: The CERN scientist Bill and Nardole talk to, who along with his colleagues are getting drunk before committing suicide as a group after reading the Veritas, says "{{In vino|Veritas}}, ''[[InVinoVeritas veritas]].''"

* InnocentlyInsensitive: The Pope had absolutely no clue how absurdly à propos his blessing was...

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: While Missy brings up River Song upon meeting the Doctor again, even offering condolences when she realizes River is dead, she never brings up -- in this or '''any''' other Series 10 episode -- Clara Oswald, even though she was personally responsible for bringing the Doctor and Clara together in the first place, possibly as a ploy to create the Hybrid and corrupt the Doctor. Although she knows that the Doctor and River were living together (apparently from the Daleks!), she doesn't seem concerned as to what became of Clara to allow that to happen. Moreover, the Doctor never expresses any resentment towards Missy over her manipulation of his and Clara's relationship.

'''Executioner:''' ''[leaving; results are ''still'' coming]'' [[ScrewThisImOutOfHere Have a nice day, then.]]

* ReImaginingTheArtifact: The Doctors [[BaseBreaker Base Breaking]] Sonic Sunglasses from the previous season are now needed to help him see to spite his blindness.

** In an interview, Moffat named ''Literature/TheNameOfTheRose'' as an inspiration, especially with the labyrinthine library.