Doctor Who Recap -- 09/20

In tonight's episode "Time Heist," Clara is preparing to go on a date with Danny when the Doctor drops by. Suddenly, the Tardis' telephone begins ringing. Only a handful of people in the entire universe have that number, so an intrigued Doctor answers. Suddenly, they find themselves in a room with two other people after having their memories wiped. A garbled voice belonging to someone known only as the Director informs them they have agreed to rob the Bank of Karabraxos, the most secure bank in existence. The Doctor and Clara then get acquainted with their new associates: Psi, a cybernetically augmented hacker/thief, and Saibra the mutant who assumes the form of anyone she touches. Each of them has agreed to rob the bank for their own reasons, but at the moment, none of them can remember.

They go into the bank and immediately see another man halted by Ms. Delphox, the chief of security. She sics an aquatic-looking alien called the Teller on him. The Teller telepathically searches for his guilt and then turns his brain to soup. Undaunted, the group uses a dimensional shift bomb to venture into the deeper sections of the bank. Down there, they find a gift from the Director. They open the case and find a series of hypos. The Doctor pretends not to know what they're for, but later reveals they're disintegrators in case of capture. Saibra gets attacked by the Teller and uses one on herself, leaving only three of the original group.

They make their way to the vault where Psi proceeds to hack the lock. However, the Teller arrives and begins chasing them. The Doctor and Clara split up, but the Teller soon finds her. Psi sacrifices himself to save her, but they still don't have a way into the vault. Suddenly, the planet is hit by a solar storm which disrupts the lock. The Doctor realizes this heist could only have been planned in the future by someone who knew the storm was coming. They enter the vault and find safe deposit boxes meant for the fallen members of the team. Inside them are a neophyte circuit which can retrieve Psi's lost memories he had to delete to protect his loved ones, and a gene suppressant for Saibra. They are then captured by the Teller and taken to Ms. Delphox who orders her flunkies to dispose of them. But the flunkies turn out to be Psi and Saibra. The disintegrators were actually teleporters!

The four of them make their way to the private vault where they find the bank's overseer, Madame Karabraxos. She looks just like Ms. Delphox, and the Doctor deduces they are clones. He also realizes he is the Director, and he just needs to recover his memory to put the last pieces in place. But the solar storm is about to destroy the bank. Karabraxos then leaves (after accepting the Tardis phone number) and the Teller arrives, and the Doctor lets the fishy alien accost him to get his memories back. He then remembers that it was Karabraxos who called him at the beginning to ask for his help correcting her greatest mistake. They open the final vault and find the Teller's mate; they are the last two of their species. Happy with this outcome, they free the two of them, and Clara goes off to her date.

I enjoyed tonight's episode. It was clever, touching, and makes me very hopeful for this season. It was also refreshing to see the ancillary companions survive. I've see too many Doctor Who's where the guests didn't make it.