The BBC has issued a new image and the synopsis for this year's Christmas special, Twice Upon A Time.

Twice Upon A Time is written by Steven Moffat, directed by Rachel Talalay, and executive produced by Brian Minchin. The 60 minute special guest stars Mark Gatiss as The Captain and Nikki Amuka-Bird as the voice of the glass woman, and will see Peter Capaldi’s Doctor regenerate into the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker).

The episode is due to be shown in the UK on BBC One on Christmas Day, followed by broadcasts around the world.

The BBC have revealed details of the regular cast who will feature in the next series of Doctor Who, due to be broadcast in the Autumn next year.

When Jodie Whittaker takes over as the Thirteenth Doctor she will be joined by three regular cast members, consisting of Bradley Walsh as Graham, Tosin Cole as Ryan, and Mandip Gill as Yasmin. Also joining the series in a returning role is Sharon D Clarke.

The new series will consist of a ten-week run of fifty-minute episodes, due for transmission in Autumn 2018, and kicking off with a feature-length hour for the opening launch.

New showrunner Chris Chibnall says:Jodie Whittaker added Bradley Walsh is best known in the UK for his appearances in the soap opera Coronation Street and for playing lead role of DS Ronnie Brooks in Law & Order: UK ; he also appeared in the spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures playing Odd Bob/Spellman in Day of the Clown. He currently hosts the ITV game shows The Chase and Cash Trapped. Walsh said: Mandip Gill is known for playing Phoebe Jackson in the soap opera Hollyoaks, as well as appearances in Cuckoo, Doctors, The Good Karma Hospital and Casualty. She said Also joining the team is Tosin Cole, known for his roles in The Cut, EastEnders: E20 and Hollyoaks. He said Matt Strevens, Executive Producer, BBC Studios says:Piers Wenger, Controller of BBC Drama saysSarah Barnet, President of BBC America, added:

This item contains spoilers from The Doctor Falls

Reaction to this year's Doctor Who finale, The Doctor Falls is overwhelmingly positive with most reviewers finding it a fitting end to the series.

A heartbreaking spectacular is how Digital Spy regarded the episode, singling out Peter Capaldi for praise "His "Where I stand is where I fall" speech is quite possibly the actor's finest moment on the series to date. With the Doctor, almost in tears, arguing why he always has to stand to fight, it just about pips even the famous anti-war rant from 'The Zygon Inversion'."

The Mirror felt the episode was an immensely satisfying conclusion with great storytelling and epic performances. "With all the teasers, build up and trailers it would have been so easy for The Doctor Falls to be a failure of a finale - but it really wasn’t. It was an immensely satisfying, packed, heart string tugging conclusion that comes together brilliantly for two simple reasons: clever storytelling and tremendous acting."

Radio Times also singled out the performances as one of the strong points about the episode. "Capaldi, Simm and Gomez are of course divine together. Peter Capaldi is magnificent as ever. This is truly his episode. His Doctor may fall but he stands tall among stiff competition. John Simm’s Master is an implacable bastard to the end but not the loon of seven years ago. Michelle Gomez is simply superb at the duplicity and the soul-searching and laughing at her own tragedy. Their dancing, flirting and backstabbing is to die for."

The the meeting of the two Masters and the Doctor is highlighted by The Guardian "I was overjoyed, on watching the confrontation between the three Timelords, that there was no soundtrack aside from the dialogue and some gentle birdsong. It was an example of less-is-more that I don’t think I’ve seen equalled in Doctor Who. As for that showdown, how else was it going to end? Two Masters stabbing themselves in the back (and front) was the perfect solution to evil coming up against itself"

The Telegraph also enjoyed the role of the two masters in the story "Together, Simm and the magnificent Michelle Gomez as Missy (who is a later version of the same rogue Time Lord) made a fantastic duo as they quibbled over whether to stand with the Doctor or continue their villainous ways"

IGN also enjoyed the dynamic between the two masters. "The way they’re sort of somewhere between brother-sister and boyfriend-girlfriend is suitably gross, and the Master’s presence and how it serves to draw Missy back to her old ways makes so much internal sense that Moffat doesn’t really even need to write it on the page"

Den of Geek paid tribute to Peter Capaldi's performance. "The majestic, wonderful, brilliant Peter Capaldi. If you needed a reminder of just how much he’s going to be missed when he finally departs Doctor Who at the end of the year, his outstanding work here was precisely that. When he was blasted, apparently mortally, and he kept holding off his regeneration , I found myself saying out loud “I don’t want you to go”."

AV Club called it s pitch perfect finale. "This is a Doctor who knows exactly who he is, played by an actor who knows exactly how he wants to play the part, facts that are ultimately absorbed into the narrative with the Doctor’s refusal to regenerate and turn into some new person. "

Vulture also paid tribute to the lead actor. "And then there’s Peter Capaldi. That speech! That grand speech he gives to the two Masters! If that doesn’t deserve to go viral, then I don’t know what does. That’s the speech we need for today, delivered with passion and vulnerability in the same episode that dares to name Donald Trump an inevitability. "

Slightly bucking the trend Ars Technica enjoyed the episode but felt it was a little cramped. "Plenty of action was squeezed into this hour of solid telly. But Moffat's decision to pack it so tightly, not only with the battle between Missy and the Master, but also with the onslaught of the Mondasian Cybermen, a heartbroken CyberBill (or RoboMop), and a small cast of country bumpkins living on a spaceship meant that the whole thing felt a little suffocating at times."

Finally Flickering Myth thought it was a fitting end to the series. "Everything about this final episode sums up everything that has been perfect about Series 10. Our main cast of Capaldi, Lucas and Mackie have been a fantastic trio within the four outer walls of the TARDIS. They’ve gelled exceptional well. Peter Capaldi is a magnificent Doctor, a person who captures the wisdom, madness, caring and frustration of a two-thousand year old Time Lord. Matt Lucas’ wit is spot on for the TARDIS, but when needed a look can make you wonder. And along with this we had the brilliant Pearl Mackie who is a blast of pure energy in the Companion line-up, with emotion, humour and humanity. All three have made Series 10 something wonderful to watch."

The BBC have released a number of new publicity images to promote this week's episode of Doctor Who, The Doctor Falls
This week BBC One will show Doctor Who at 6.30pm.

Main Broadcast Details
United Kingdom	BBC One	Sat 1 Jul 2017	6:30pm BST
Middle East	BBC First	Sat 1 Jul 2017	9.20pm AST	(Sat 7:20pm BST)
United States of America	BBC America	Sat 1 Jul 2017	8.30pm EDT	(Sun 1.30am BST)
Canada	SPACE	Sat 1 Jul 2017	8:30pm EDT	(Sun 1:30am BST)
New Zealand	PRIME	Sun 2 Jul 2017	7:30pm NZST	(Sun 8:30am BST)
Finland	YLE2	Sun 2 Jul 2017	11.25pm EEST	(Sun 9:55am BST)
Australia	ABC	Sun 2 Jul 2017	7:40pm AEST	(Sun 10:40am BST, also on ABC ME)
Brazil	SyFy	Sun 2 Jul 2017	8:00pm BRT	(Mon 12:00qm BST)
Latin America	SyFy	Sun 2 Jul 2017	10:00pm CDT	(Mon 4:00am BST)

Full listings here

This item contains spoilers.

Reaction to this week's episode of Doctor Who: World Enough and Time, is overwhelmingly positive, with many reviewers describing it as the best episode for years, if one of the darkest.

The Telegraph called it a dizzying ride. "Doctor Wow, more like. This two-part finale marks showrunner Steven Moffat’s last regular episodes and he’d saved the best until second last. It was darkly thrilling, mountingly tense, genuinely scary and brimming with smart ideas – but stayed just the right side of over-clever, as Moffat is often criticised for being."

The Mirror was impressed with the way the Cybermen were used. "The true grit of World Enough And Time is the rise of the Cybermen and their creepy conversion hospital. It's as close to horror-film than Who has gone to in a long time. Anyone who wondered if the 60's low tech Cybermen could scare modern audiences needn't have worried. Bill awakening on a hospital bed with chest full of retro cyber-tech, rows of half converted patients screaming in pain, the show's own take on Nurse Ratchett silencing the victims' volume dial - it's chilling"

Macabre and riveting is how Radio Times described the story, also focusing on the return of the original Cybermen. "What horror, what disfigurement lurks beneath the knotted bandages of these proto-Cybermen? It really is clever how Steven Moffat embraces the perceived weaknesses of the original 1966 cloth-and-plastic design – scorned and abandoned after their only screen outing in The Tenth Planet – and makes them sting."

Digital Spy felt the number of plot points revealed in advance diminished the impact of the story. "You don't have to be a Doctor Who super-fan, trawling every spoiler thread on every message board, to know that the Mondasian Cybermen and John Simm's Master are in this episode – even if you somehow missed the news, they both appeared in last week's Next Time trailer. The former reveal isn't such a problem. The episode plays the arrival of the Mondasians more as dramatic irony, an open secret it's teasing throughout. It's more a chilling inevitability than a jaw-dropping twist. But Simm's return? That was clearly intended to be a secret."

TV Fanatic agreed "Oh, to live in a day without spoilers. Most of the time, I don't mind them so much, to be honest. But no two ways about it: Doctor Who Season 10 Episode 12 would have been perfect without all the spoilers. Two of the big reveals at the end of the episode -- the returns of the classic Mondasian Cybermen and John Simm as the Master -- were both spoiled by the BBC's own promotional material! How frustrating."

Den of Geek, while also bemoaning the number of spoilers released for publicity reasons, felt the episode was impressive. "I thought World Enough And Time was at several times quite superb. Director Rachel Talalay and Steven Moffat are clearly a potent creative combination, and the middle of the episode in particular, as Bill creeps through a hospital evoking memories of The Empty Child and Asylum Of The Daleks was tonally outstanding."

Games Radar enjoyed the episode but felt the pacing in the middle act was too slow. "The sections with Bill in the hospital and the pre-Cybermen converts are utterly fantastic in terms of pure sci-fi, with the scares bordering on unwatchable for young children but it’s just too slow and filled with exposition."

IGN enjoyed the exploration of the characters of the time lords in the story "Much is also done to explain the bond between Missy and the Doctor. It does make sense that the enormous life experience of Time Lords would lead to a connection between them that other species could never fathom. But that relationship will be tested during the climax of the episode -- and in next week’s finale, no doubt"

AV Club felt the story was bursting with ideas. "None more fascinating than a massive colony ship caught in different time zones because of the gravitational distortion of a black hole. There’s the mad conceit of having Missy pretend to be the Doctor, with Michelle Gomez pulling off the seemingly impossible by making a whole string of “Doctor Who” gags not utterly cringeworthy. There’s the horrific plight of those stuck at the decaying bottom of the ship, which gets closer than any family-friendly Doctor Who story ever has in understanding the true body horror the Cybermen represent."

Ars Technica felt it was a return to form for the series. "We're back on firm ground with World Enough and Time. It's a very strong episode that manages to weave an agreeable timey-wimey spaceship yarn into the climax of this season's gently brewing Missy story, complete with Cybermen. The big reveal doesn’t disappoint, either"

Finally, Flicking Myth thought the episode was one of the best. "You know when you’re watching a fantastic episode of Doctor Who when the credits roll up at the end and you’re convinced that forty-five minutes can’t have passed that quickly. World Enough and Time plays with your emotions from start to finish, from the opening moments where your jaw falls and is left-hanging, and to Missy owning the show ,and again we’re back to silence as we’re left in a state of true shock."

Doctor Who News Review can be found here.

Press reaction to this week's Doctor Who, The Eaters of Light, is mixed, with most reviews calling it a solid, if flawed, episode.

Radio Times enjoyed the story calling the script beautifully written. "What’s often rewarding about Doctor Who is that – beyond rewrites, budget constraints, casting and performance – it allows an authorial voice to sing through. It happened for Munro in 1989’s Survival and does so again in The Eaters of Light. It’s a beautifully written script that feels at one with half-remembered Celtic myths."

Digital Spy agreed the story had a both a strong sense of place and a formidable grasp on character. "Some fantastic location work – many evocative shots of a moody, misty Scotland – helps bring Munro's script to life as she milks the 2nd-century setting for its worth. She finds both humour and pathos in the past, such as the Doctor's using a totally anachronistic bag of popcorn to frighten the natives, followed by Bill's horror at the shockingly low age of soldiers on the battlefront."

The Telegraph also appreciated the Direction. "Director Charles Palmer made full use of the sweeping Highland landscape, while the script had fun with the Scots theme, with references to the permanently damp weather and a fatal absence of sunlight being “death by Scotland”. By the end of the episode, Capaldi even wanted to stay."

The Mirror felt the story was safe filler material with some niggles. "The Light Eaters are visually glorious and using them sparingly helps build the tension for their screen appearances. This series of Doctor Who continues its tightrope act of exactly how gory can corpses get before the watershed and this is pretty gruesome. The bodies of the fallen soldiers and villagers are truly unpleasant, but more than enough to punctuate the danger for anyone who crosses the Eaters' path."

AV Club praised the script written by veteran Doctor Who writer Rona Munro "She skillfully mixes the political and the personal here: The Roman army is a weapon premised solely on overwhelming force, one that relies on taking hundreds of scared teenagers and siccing them on a bunch of peaceful farmers who are in the way. The empire is terrible and vast, but only in aggregate, and that reality makes the cowardice of the surviving soldiers all but inevitable."

Ars Technica felt the story was a good introduction to the series "There's a portal that has trapped a hungry beast between dimensions; the Doctor jigs his way through problem-solving while reminding Nardole and the audience that he's an old hand at this kind of thing and a classic Who story device features, sidekick Bill is separated from her time-travelling pals for much of the episode—leaving her to untangle yet more of the Time Lord's powers, such as the telepathic link from the TARDIS that auto-translates any language to English."

However Games Radar felt the threat in the story was confusing "Unfortunately the monsters are pretty badly explained; we know they eat light, but somehow being exposed to light in great amounts is their greatest weakness. They serve no other purpose than to be the baddies of the episode, and are (as usual) billed as a threat to the entire universe. No nuance, just lots of teeth and Medusa-y tentacles"

Den of Geek also felt the episode was missing something. "What The Eaters Of Light lacked for me was a sense of threat, a strong monster or force to push against. The creature we got was an impressive looking beast for the most part, the one who keeps popping through a portal when able and allowed to wreak havoc. But whereas there are moments in this run of Who that have really dug under the skin and been quite creepy, this time it felt like we got a decent enough creature, yet the sense of peril didn’t come across for me."

IGN praised the supporting cast "The supporting players of Romans and Scots are all pretty good and an improvement over many of the guest stars from earlier this year. Bill’s interplay with Lucius (Brian Vernel, who Star Wars fans might recognize from The Force Awakens) regarding his romantic intentions is pretty funny, and the pain of the girl Kar (Rebecca Benson), who has lost everything, rings true."

The Reel Bits felt the episode was old school Doctor Who "The Eaters of Light’ is a solid if not outstanding historical adventure. Spinning its wheels slightly, it’s reminiscent of the show’s original ethos of being an educational outing for kids. Indeed, if the special effects and outfits hadn’t been updated, a episode that primarily hangs around in a handful of locations with Roman soldiers in stock BBC costumes would fit right in with the original series."

Finally TV Fanatic felt it was a solid episode. "There was plenty to enjoy here, from Nardole "blending in" with the natives to the Doctor's speech about crows being in a huff to Bill's realization about the TARDIS's translation feature. Though once the Doctor volunteered to guard the gate, every likely viewer knew that someone else would stand up and do the job in his stead. Seriously, there are two more episodes left in this season after this one!"

Press reaction to this week's Doctor Who, Empress Of Mars, is generally favorable, with most reviewers enjoying the episode.

Radio Times appreciated a well-crafted story "Gatiss provides a cast of guest characters with more than a smidgeon of depth – hard to pull off in the 45min format and lacking this year. The Ice Warriors aren’t just stock monsters. They are, as they’ve always been, since Bernard Bresslaw played Varga in 1967, relatively complex beings; warriors that act with honour, strength and loyalty but open to reason and negotiation."

The Mirror felt it was a good story with a decent threat. "At the heart of the story is The Doctor trying to pull off a balancing act between reckless humans and an alien race. Yes, it’s been done before with stories like Silurian two parter Hungry Earth/Cold Blood but here The Doctor is placed more on the side of the resident Martians. It is, after all, their planet the humans are bumbling around on. It's almost as if Doctor Who met the film Zulu on Mars."

The Telegraph enjoyed the realisation of the Ice Warriors. "The biggest new addition, though, was the queen of the species and titular Empress Iraxxa (played with over-the-top relish by Adele Lynch). It’s been a week of female leaders hogging the headlines but at least Iraxxa didn't try to consolidate her icy power by calling a cold snap election. "

IGN also liked the look of the Ice Warriors. "The fact that the episode fully embraces the plastic lizard look of the aliens’ exoskeletons brings a certain nostalgic air to this segment which tracks nicely with the overall feel of the one-shot story. At the same time, there are some modern sensibilities pushing through here if you care to take notice, as when the Empress asks to speak to fellow gal Bill because they’re “surrounded by noisy males.” She has a point."

Digital Spy felt the Ice Warriors worked but had doubts about the human element of the story. "It's a wonderful set-up – Redcoats on the Red Planet, going up against green Martians. A strong visual, and so delightfully Doctor Who. Unfortunately, Gatiss has got a little carried away. His passion for the period, or rather films like Zulu that evoked it, is a double-edged sword. He's clearly working hard to replicate that Bank Holiday Monday movie feel, and while that enthusiasm is infectious, an unfortunate side effect is that the stiff-upper-lipped British soldiers are all a bit… well, stiff."

AV Club felt the episode had interesting ideas which didn't quite come together. "Some of the problem could be that one theoretical strength of the episode cancels the other out. The stated dilemma of the Doctor being forced to side with the aliens against the invading humans isn’t really compelling if the latter present no threat, and a bunch of 19th century soldiers aren’t about to pose much danger to a bunch of cybernetic reptiles. "

Den of Geek paid tribute to the supporting cast. "It’s hard in a 45 minute episode to make a supporting guest character really strike home, but credit to Gatiss and Anthony Calf for making Godsacre stand out. A man who was supposed to have been killed for an earlier act of cowardice, coming to terms with his desertion, and ultimately making amends. A little arc that just gave the episode an extra something."

Ars Technica felt the story was a great improvement on the Mok's trilogy. "I do think this is one of Gatiss' more successful scripts, mostly because his love for the Ice Warriors shines through. The nerdy attention to detail on these Martians' motivations makes the Monks look even more misplaced in the Doctor Who canon. It's also a lovely touch to have a cameo appearance from Galactic Federation Ambassador, Alpha Centauri, voiced by original actor Ysanne Churchman. "

Finally, Games Radar called the episode stoic and dependable. "As the episode descends into the predictable fight between humans and extraterrestrials, the fellow in charge, Godsacre (Anthony Calf), ends it with a shining performance. Throughout the episode he and his deputy Catchglove (Ferdinand Kingsley) have been convincing, patriotic soldiers without descending into pantomime accents, with Kingsley doing an excellent job at turning from a charming officer into a slimily-ambitious cad"

Link to Doctor Who News Review

Press reaction for this week's Doctor Who - The Lie of the Land is mixed, with a number of reviewers finding it the weakest story in the season so far.

The Mirror found the conclusion to the Monk trilogy confusing but praised the performances. "Thank Omega for Missy, because it's the only plot strand in The Lie Of The Land that makes any sense and moves us along.The always excellent Michelle Gomez is finally getting the chance to stretch her portrayal of Missy. Her game of hot and cold with her sparring partner, mentions of pushing a small girl into a volcano and piano interludes create a Silence Of The Lambs vibe that I could watch an entire episode of."

The Telegraph also praised the actors "Pearl Mackie put in another marvellous performance here: authentic but controlled, never histrionic, equally convincing whether she was threatening to “beat the s--t” out of Nardole or saying a fond farewell when she thought she was sacrificing herself. "

However Radio Times felt the episode to be misjudged in getting the companion to fire a gun at The Doctor. "It presents the Doctor, Bill and Nardole in a very poor light. It’s blocked awkwardly. The actors look uncomfortable. Moreover, it’s horribly misjudged to show Bill turning a gun on the Doctor and firing not once but four times. We’ve seen nothing that would push her to such an extreme act. It cannot be rationalised or condoned."

Digital Spy called the spisode a decent climax to a middling trilogy. "The Lie of the Land works hard to have its audience – like Bill and her compatriots – second-guess everything we see. Has the Doctor turned? Is Missy really trying to help?For the most part, its attempts at ambiguity are enjoyable. The Missy scenes are perfectly-pitched and while the Doctor's turncoat moment is unconvincing on a plot level, it's powerfully performed."

Den of Geek Enjoyed the first part of the episode, but felt thinks went downhill after the Doctor faked his regeneration. "This three-part story has been really successful at building up some huge stakes, and huge challenges, but less successful at satisfyingly resolving them. I can't shake the feeling that it's a slightly frustrating episode this, one that didn’t quite pay off for me. "

AV Club was also disappointed in the episode feeling the skills of the lead actors outpaced the quality of the script. "There’s Pearl Mackie, who comes damn close to making the whole thing work in spite of herself. There’s Peter Capaldi, who is as great as ever but whose talents are sometimes misused in service of ideas the story won’t commit to. And then there’s Michelle Gomez, who is reliably great as Missy. "

Ars Technica also disliked the script. "The narration and lack of action are jarring, and while the BBC producers behind Doctor Who are generally pretty good at this sci-fi on a shoestring budget thing, Lie of the Land really deserves a bit more investment—particularly in development of the script, penned by Toby Whithouse"

IGN bucked the trend by enjoying the story and its conclusion "The episode proves to be a pretty good one, satisfyingly wrapping up the overall story while also charting some new ground, providing more than a couple of thrills and head-fakes, commenting on current events in a not at all subdued way, and further advancing the vault/Missy storyline just enough to keep us on the hook."

While Games Radar again praised the performances. "Pearl Mackie has this uncanny ability to transition between emotions flawlessly, with each change so natural that you realise how you’d probably react in the same way. Her acting in the scene above with Capaldi perfectly matches how you’ll feel when you watch the scene, going from despair to anger at the Doctor’s hypocrisy."

Link to Doctor Who News Review

Ingenious, breath-taking television is how Radio Times described this weeks episode of Doctor Who, Extremis. "Once in a while a Doctor Who story comes along like no other you’ve seen before. One that keeps surprising, and amusing, and tantalising from start to finish. Extremis is one of those stories"

The Telegraph felt this week's monsters were suitably scary "In a classic case of keeping the monster unseen for as long as possible, we didn’t get to meet this story’s antagonists until past the episode’s halfway point. When we eventually did, they were suitably terrifying: clad in blood-red robes, with creepy claw-hands and zombie-esque faces which recalled The Mummy film franchise."

While The Mirror enjoyed the episode, it found the script to complicated. "The problem with Extremis isn’t in the watching of the episode. The problem with Extremis is afterwards, when you stop and think about the episode. Yes, I’ve got a case of Moffatitis"

Digital Spy agreed the plot was to difficult to follow. "This week's outing feels like a step backwards. Starting and ending in two totally different places, and leaving the audience baffled in between, It's anything but straightforward, going against the back-to-basics ethos that previous episodes have adhered to."

The script was not a problem for IGN, which enjoyed the complex nature of the story. "Moffat jumps around quite a bit with “Extremis,” aligning a variety of elements to get this first part of the story off the ground, but of course the return of Michelle Gomez as Missy -- and the revelation that, yes, it’s her in the vault -- is of particular note."

Den of Geek also enjoyed the story as a prelude to a multi-episode tale. "Extremis isn’t action-packed, isn’t jammed with effects, and doesn’t need extensive explanations. Its idea is in fact beautifully simple: it’s a dry run for something very big, and very nasty."

AV Club called the episode a great, experimental Doctor Who and in particular praised the lead actor. "Peter Capaldi is perilously close to becoming my unqualified pick for favorite Doctor, and the overriding reason is on display as he gently breaks it to Bill that neither of them nor anything else in this world is real. He underplays the moment, making small choices to signal both his compassion and his heartbreak."

Screen Rant admired the premise of the story, "The hour has fun with its exploration of the Truth and in slowly pulling the rug out from under both audience and character. The reveal that the Doctor, Bill, and Nardole are in a massive computer simulation meant to test possible outcomes for an imminent alien invasion gives Moffat the chance to deliver a handful of delightfully unnerving scenes, culminating with a mass suicide at CERN"

Finally Games Radar thought the Doctor Who deosn't get much better than this. "When you realise that nothing you’ve seen is ‘real’, you see how fooled you were from the very beginning like the Doctor, Bill, and Nardole. You see that the suicides, initially looking like a bit of cheap intrigue, were a clue all along. The book Veritas isn’t just a plot device used to introduce the monsters, it’s the key to the entire episode."

Press reaction to this week's Doctor Who episode Oxygen is in with most reviewers enjoying the episode.

The Telegraph called the story terrific and tense. "It was suitably scary, right from that eerie 2001-meets-Alien opening scene when shadows loomed up behind poor Ellie (Katie Brayben), before Ivan (Kieran Bew) saw her helmet slowly floating past. The lurching zombie army had a real sense of menace, claiming three victims on-camera, with genuine jeopardy for Bill. "

The Mirror called the story a claustrophobic treat "Writer Jamie Mathieson has proven his worth in the Whoniverse, with previous outings including Flatline and Mummy On The Orient Express. The sense of impending doom is notched up skillfully, from cutting off the TARDIS, leaving the leads no choice but to get into the 'death suits' and jaw-dropping moments where The Doctor leaves Bill to her apparent fate not once but twice."

Digital Spy felt the episode was bloody brilliant. "it's a story told with a great deal of wit and place, is stylishly produced, and does most everything you want Doctor Who to do on a Saturday evening. From the off, returning writer Jamie Mathieson displays a real talent for economical storytelling – with a strong, evocative opening that quickly establishes its two characters, their connection and why we should care about them, then follows up with a chilling execution."

Den of Geek also liked the story "I’d argue it was as good a standalone episode of Who as we’ve had this run. Given that there’s not been a duffer, that’s no small feat or backhanded compliment, either."

Radio Times felt the story was creepy but the premise absurd. "I struggle with the central conceit that in the future, in space, oxygen will be a commodity that you pay for dearly, even with your life. It lends a wry, more literal meaning to such everyday phrases as “Save your breath” and “You’re wasting your breath”. But I don’t really believe it. "

Ars Technica gave the episode a B- "Overall, Oxygen (written by Jamie Mathieson—whose previous credits include Flatline and The Girl Who Died) is another very good episode for series 10 of Doctor Who, with a dark foreboding that ought to remind the Doctor that fear makes companions of us all."

AV Club says the episode bites off way more than it can chew feeling the story should have been spread over two episodes. "Oxygen is at its best when it is straightforward, verging on over the top—the Doctor’s line about fighting an algorithm is great, as is the immediate follow-up about how they’re fighting the suits—but there are other, subtle critiques threaded throughout the episode that pass by so quickly they don’t quite register as part of a larger message."

Doctor Who Watch again praised Peter Capaldi's acting "I thought this episode let Capaldi shine in a way we haven’t seen before. In one of his most human moments, doing something for one of the most human consequences, he still does it, despite the risk. He plays throughout this episode in a light-hearted manner most of the time, but serious when he needs to be. This episode brought out the perfect balance between personalities."

IGN had a mixed response to the story "The episode itself is not one of Season 10’s strongest outings. There’s a lot of busy work involving the spacesuits which keep the Doctor and his pals alive, but what should be the most effective dramatic moments of the segment -- Bill’s “death” and the Doctor’s being struck blind -- don’t quite land."

Screen Rant likes this year's story arc. "Framing the Doctor’s yearning for adventure and freedom with his obligation to watch over the vault is a clever way of serving the needs of the season’s mysterious overarching storyline with the recurring theme of institutions operating in bad faith."

Finally, Games Radar thought Oxygen was marvelous praising Pearl Mackie's performance as Bill. "Seeing her scream for her mum when the Doctor leaves her behind is guttural and heart-wrenching. Pearl Mackie’s acting is consistently honest, raw at times, and never, ever whimsy." Link to Doctor Who News Review