Extremis (Doctor Who)

270 – "Extremis"
Doctor Who episode
Promotional image for the episode
Cast
Doctor Peter Capaldi (Twelfth Doctor)
Companions Pearl Mackie (Bill Potts) Matt Lucas (Nardole)
Others Michelle Gomez – Missy Jennifer Hennessy – Moira Corrado Invernizzi – Cardinal Angelo Joseph Long – The Pope Ronke Adekoluejo – Penny Ivanno Jeremiah – Rafando Francesco Martino – Peiro Alana Maria – Pentagon Woman Laurent Maurel – Nicolas Jamie Hill – Monk Tim Bentinck – Voice of the Monks
Production
Directed by	Daniel Nettheim
Written by	Steven Moffat
Produced by	Peter Bennett
Executive producer(s)	Steven Moffat Brian Minchin
Incidental music composer	Murray Gold
Series	Series 10
Length	45 minutes
Originally broadcast	20 May 2017
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → "Oxygen" "The Pyramid at the End of the World"
List of Doctor Who serials

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Rotten Tomatoes (Tomatometer)	100%
Rotten Tomatoes (Average Score)	8.43
The A.V. Club	A
Entertainment Weekly	B+
SFX Magazine
TV Fanatic
IGN	8.6
New York Magazine
Radio Times
Daily Mirror
GamesRadar

"Extremis" is the sixth episode of the tenth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is written by Steven Moffat and was broadcast on 20 May 2017 on BBC One. "Extremis" received extremely positive reviews from television critics, with many praising Peter Capaldi's performance and Steven Moffat's script, though some commented on the complicated script.

The Vatican calls upon the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) to investigate the Veritas, a book whose readers typically kill themselves after reading it. When the Veritas is translated and leaked online, the Doctor must uncover the dark secret that the book holds. It is the first of three loosely connected episodes called "The Monks Trilogy".

The Doctor remains blind ("Oxygen") and wears his sonic sunglasses to provide limited sight while hiding his condition from Bill. He receives an email entitled Extremis that he views through his glasses.

The Doctor is met by the Pope and members of the Holy See to help deal with a recently-translated text called Veritas, that causes readers to commit suicide. The Doctor takes Bill and Nardole to a secret library inside the Vatican. They find a translation of the Veritas has been emailed to CERN. Bill and Nardole discover a portal leading to a hub of other portals, linked to CERN and the White House, among other places. Meanwhile, the Doctor temporarily regains his sight using Time Lord technology and tries to read Veritas, but is forced to flee into a second portal with the translation when the skeletal, corpse-like Monks appear. He is unable to read the Veritas before again losing his sight.

Bill and Nardole enter the portal to CERN, finding all the scientists are prepared to kill themselves. A scientist demonstrates that every time he asks them for a random number, they, along with the other scientists, all say the same one. The two flee back to the hub. Nardole realises the portals are actually computer projections, and when he steps out of the projections, he disappears. A distraught Bill follows a trail of blood through a portal, finding herself in the Oval Office of the White House, where the Doctor is waiting. The Doctor explains that Veritas describes a "demon" planning to invade Earth by creating detailed simulations of it to practice invasion. Simulacra within these "shadow worlds" can discover the false reality as they can only come up with pseudo-random numbers due to the nature of computers, leading them to commit suicide to escape the simulation. A Monk appears, and Bill disintegrates the same way Nardole did. The Doctor, aware he is a simulation, tells the alien that the Earth will be ready as he has been recording everything through his sonic glasses and emails the recording, titled Extremis, to his real-world self.