After the emotionally replete ‘Last Christmas’ which saw Clara flip the middle finger at her haters and stay on for another year, and ‘The Husbands of River Song’ which brought a satisfying end to a storyline eight years in the making, tonight’s episode was always going to be up against it. How do you inject the same level of pathos into a story with no main returning characters (save the Doctor), minimal follow through narrative, and a premise as worn as Russell T. Davies’ plot devices? Simple, you bring back Nardole. You remember Nardole, the completely unremarkable character from last year’s Christmas special? Yeah, that guy.
