I felt underwhelmed through much of this episode.
The first problem was the extreme idea of the Pope coming to the Doctor. I thought the Doctor was trying to keep a low profile, so it seemed strange to have the Vicar of Christ and a number of cardinals appear on his secret doorstep.
Additionally, I was left wondering why the Pope couldn't speak English, nor could his Italian be translated by the Tardis - or why the book couldn't simply be brought into the Tardis to be automatically translated. Possibly that's due to the grand idea revealed near the end - that the aliens didn't know - but I'm still not so sure if it wasn't just a simple script oversight.
The basic concept of a simulated reality was good - but it took half an hour to get to the point of the Doctor actually reading the book. Compared to the Tennant episodes there's a serious lack of energy in these Capaldi ones.
The Missy flashbacks seemed a little gratuitous - a big set up for an execution that never happens, thus rendering the set-up pointless. I was left scratching my head at that.
There was a clever idea in here, but it felt like it could have been a little more engaging. That's just my opinion, though - the rest of the family seemed to enjoy it.
