The final episode of Series 8 of Doctor Who aired last Saturday, just before Remembrance Sunday. Whilst the two are not comparable, there was a distinctly valedictory mood to the episode, with farewells, saluting soldiers and sacrifices leaving this the most bittersweet of Moffat's finales.
We were promised dark, and this was pitch black in places. Rather than analysing the episode in its entirety, I'm going to pick out those threads which will have people talking until Christmas.
1) Dan, Dan the Cyberman
(Yes, okay, a poor pun. But this post isn't going to be heavy on fun and giggles, so I've got to squeeze them in where I can.) As soon as we saw the Delete option on the iPad handed to Danny in the Nethersphere last week, we had a suspicion Cyber-conversion was on the cards for Pink. I admit I was worried. Not that he would get turned into a Cyberman, but that they would change him, then cop out.
It's even a meme. A MEME. |
When death becomes familiar and it loses its permanence then it becomes rather weak as a device. Moffat has finally realised this, and, being the Evil All Powerful Show Runner Overlord that Tumblr thinks he is, he asks the question HOW FAR CAN WE GO? The answer seems to be, pretty darn far, for a beloved, primetime family show.
Bleak is not the word. |
Danny's meaningless death in front of a car is, from the point of view of Clara's narrative arc, far more satisfying. Hear me out. Clara has been learning the reality of travelling the Doctor throughout this series. In amidst the moons and monsters are the dark parts of being the Doctor; the lies, the impossible choices, discovering the things you never wanted to know about yourself. Clara's reaction to Danny's cruelly mundane death was perfect, sadly realistic. It encapsulated the sense of emptiness one feels about the death of a loved one, with a companion's sense of disappointment that this death was pointless, and somehow less real because there was no great act involved. This fits perfectly with Clara's story as we see her becoming someone who would struggle to honestly answer the question, 'am I a good person?'. This would be the ultimate marker of her trajectory from someone who judges the Doctor to perhaps someone who sees that 'good' is a lot more subjective from the other side.
But not for Doctor Who. Although this a show that has always dealt with the dark, it always brings torch along to brighten the way forward. Here it is important Danny Pink is given the opportunity for noble sacrifice twice after his original 'death'. We finally see the soldier and the school teacher as one man as he uses his suffering to do the 'right' thing, and uses his ticket out of death for redemption instead. For the first time we see the similarities between the Doctor and Danny, and perhaps why Clara loves them both.
2) This Girl is On Fire
The Master is a fun but difficult character to work with. S/he is both mad and evil, needing to be both funny and scary. The Master is supposedly as intelligent as the Doctor, and yet must be foiled each time. This is a difficult balancing act to perform, and therefore there is a tendency to shy away from including the Master in episodes. John Simm did a excellent job as the Master, even when given some slightly preposterous things to work with (remember CGI Gollum-Doctor in cage?), making us believe this is a man who could hug you or stab you in back, and would probably do both at the same time, whilst singing something by the Scissor Sisters.
With this being the only Master experienced by most of the current audience, and the moustache-twirling of the classic series unlikely to cut the mustard today, there was a lot of pressure on Steven Moffat and Michelle Gomez to make Missy distinctly the same character yet fresh and compelling. Say something nice? Oh go on then. I think they did a rather excellent job. I wouldn't have minded seeing some more of Missy during Death in Heaven, but considering everything they packed into the episode, this would have been a tall order. Everything we saw was exceptionally good stuff however.
Missy was by turns disarmingly charming and then psychopathically callous, she knew how to use a situation to her advantage, could exploit the Doctor's weaknesses and could see just how to rub salt in his wounds. I liked that her 'master plan' was all just a way of making the Doctor feel bad about himself. It's just the sort of monumentally petty thing that a best friend turned nemesis would do. Especially if they were insane. There's always a sense that underlying the Master's stupidly complex plans, s/he is almost just doing it to get the Doctor's attention, like the silly things people to do to make a crush notice them. On that note, I'm glad they steered away from the whole 'the Master is a woman and therefore must fancy the Doctor' danger. The kiss last episode was completely excusable as there has always been a frisson of obsessive competitiveness and desire for ownership in the Master's relationship with the Doctor. This episode played this card well; instead of flirting, there was only the pathetically sincere sounding request for him to see how similar they really are.
No homo-erotic subtext between the Master and the Doctor? HAHAHAHA. |
3) Rule 1: The Doctor Lies
'Never trust a hug, it's just a way to hide your face.' |
P.S. Santa Claus! Nick Frost as Santa Claus! Hoorah!
I'm hoping they really explore this further next series. Onward!
P.P.S. little game; you get kudos points if you can name the 4 wives of the Doctor that Clara mentioned.