Sherlock: The Six Thatchers
by Mark Gatiss; dir. Rachel Talalay (BBC, 2017)
The beginning of the end, as Gatiss and Company run out of easily adaptable source material and instead take Sherlock in new, more darkly improbable directions. The Six Thatchers works in the little moments but is overly frenetic, fast-compressing major character arcs.
Doctor Who: The Star Beast
by Russell T. Davies; dir. Rachel Talalay (BBC, 2023)
Russell T. Davies returns to Doctor Who as if on a season pass he misplaced for fifteen years, and brings David Tennant and Catherine Tate along for the ride, scripting a fun, tonally frivolous special that nevertheless checks assumptions at every turn.
Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time
by Steven Moffat; dir. Rachel Talalay (BBC, 2017)
The Christmas special has some touching performances (Mark Gatiss) and ends on a high with Jodie Whittaker’s first scene, yet for the most part spends too much time prepping the audience for the handover and trying—quite shamelessly—to manipulate our emotions.