Doctor Who 8.12 Death in Heaven
Yesterday was pretty exhausting for me as I was either hiking and admiring bears or following the 25th-anniversary-of-fall-of-wall celebrations, so by the time I was reunited with my tablet, I was too worn out to type a proper review. But en route to the place of bears and hikes, I did have the chance to watch the DW finale. Above cut: this may be my favourite Moffat season. Not without nitpicks, but no season (no matter the show runner) ever is, and I found enough to please me in this one that I'll get it on dvd when it's out in totem, whereas with the previous Moff seasons them being on the internatinal iplayer were enough for me because while I liked individual episodes, I never connected to a complete season. Of course, the downside with finally emotionally connecting that way is that you suddenly dread reading other reviews and their listings of wrongs, whereas previously you just shrugged.
Aaaaanyway. Onwards to the actual review.
As expected with any DW tale featuring the Master prominently, this one had a mad, mad, mad plot (by which I don't mean Missy's scheme but such stuff as the world wide goverments actually agreeing on anything, let alone putting the Doctor in charge), but in a way that's traditional for this show. (Hey, they even made him President in Gallifrey at one time, not that he didn't ran as soon as he could.) And while most of the emotional beats worked for me and made this a great finale in my eyes, not all did: as she had something of a reduced role in the episode compared to her strong presence in the season overall, I wish Clara's big moment hadn't already been right at the start. Alright, and also the continuation later, but it was really one scene interrupted, and while it was awesome and terrific and summed up so much that's been going on this season - Clara's "I'm the Doctor" bluff towards the Cybermen as the climax of the whole Clara-as-Doctor arc, and she's so sublimely concinving that she even has the audience doubting for a moment - she didn't have anything else to do for the remaining episode, other than reacting to Danny (and then being the catalyser for the final Doctor and Mistress moment). So I wish - I don't know how, but I wish her big bluff had been positioned later?
Before I get to the praise, the other thing that didn't quite work for me emotionally was the "oh, the bracelet actually allows for a return from the dead, but just one!" gambit. Not the "Danny gives his shot at true resurrection to the Afghan boy he killed" part of it, that concluded Danny's haunted-by-war-guilt story beautifully. But the sudden reveal that the bracelet, previously established as the MacGuffin the wearer controls the Cybermen with, also serving as a one time un-Cyberfied return from the dead thing. I can fanwank the principle of it, because after all Missy made it, and the Master always was superb as resurrection ploys, but the one time only thing plainly served no other purpose than to allow Danny to a) remain dead and b) atone for his personal guilt. I'm good with both (I'll get to that in the praise section), just not with the mechanics showing so plainly.
Now, on to the good stuff. (As always, for me, mileage will differ etc.) Michelle Gomez was a great Master/Mistress here. Since neither the Doctor (now he knows who she is) nor anyone else treated her any differently than the male regenerations of the Master have been treated in the past, and since there wasn't a single line of dialogue indicating the Doctor/Master relationship in the past was different with both of them male, even that lingering bit of concern in my mind is withdrawn. I also thought Missy manages to unite several specific elements of Masters past - the dancing and insanity of Simm, and Delgado!Master's "rule the universe with me!", which was Delgado but not Ainsley, let alone Crispy! Master or the American We Don't Talk About. You can speculate later regenerations of the Master also wanted this, but had given up on believing the Doctor would actually accept and hence were more into the taunting-and-tormenting part of the relationship. But Delgado, as far as I can recall, was the only Master who made the offer (repeatedly) in text and as many words. Given that Capaldi's Doctor is in many ways, not just because he's at the beginning of a new regeneration cycle, a callback to the Hartnell start, I find it fitting this version of the Master should also go back to the earliest version of the Master we've seen on screen. (No, I don't think the War Lord was the Master, sorry.) On a Doylist level, but also on a Watsonian one - after all, the last time they met before this occasion, the (Tenth) Doctor had pleaded with the Master to come with him and see the universe as he does. (While strapped on a chair, because that's how they roll.) (Okay, that was technically the last but one time, being before the showdown with Rassilon, but you know what I mean.) What Missy does is take him up on this and reflect it back, in a typically twisted Master way. When she put the Cyber-control device on him, I practically squeed, because yes, that is so them. And that was before we got "because I want my friend back".
What the Mistress isn't any better than the previous Masters at seeing that the bind she thinks she has the Doctor in (either he uses the army and thus admits he's just like her, or he doesn't, allowing her to destroy the verse, and thus also is responsible) is a false one, because it's based on either/or. And the Doctor, at his best, has always been a "neither" guy. So the pay off for the "Am I a good man?" question is "I'm not a good man. I'm not a bad man. I'm just an idiot in a box who tries to help now and then" and the Doctor neither accepting the power nor allowing her to use it but handing it over to Danny.
Now Danny is the nth Cyberman who resisted Cyberfication through the Power Of Love, and yes, it's getting old, but he also resisted through the desire to save the world, so I didn't mind. Especially not because the Doctor's OTT soldierphobia this season finally got a pay off that I hadn't expected. (That Danny would somehow be involved in saving the day, I had.) Again, Mileage may differ, but I thought the entire Cyber outing was worth it, too, for giving the show the chance to provide us with a goodbye scene between the Doctor and the Brigadier without having Nicholas Courtney at their disposal anymore. When the Doctor found a surviving Kate, thus figuring out who the second, non-Danny, Cyberman retaining his will had to be, and said "of course - in Earth's darkest hour, where else would you be?", they looked at each other and the Doctor saluted him, I melted.
(Hopefully not in cybermen producing liquid.)
This also made the Brigadier the answer to Missy's "but who will save your soul?" question. Naturally. Mind you, the Master never is truly dead on this show, it's his (now also her) specialty to return (with appropriate flair). But in the highly hypothetical case that no show runner after Moffat wants to use the character again, I'd be totally okay with the Brigadier killing him/her. Of all the Companions, the Brig has first dibs on that one, due to length of aquaintance and "protecting the Earth, as best I can" motto.
The Doctor and Clara both lying to each other in order to enable the respective other to return to a (they think) happy life: settled it for me even before Santa Claus showed up that Clara would be in the Christmas special, at which point presumably we'll get one last adventure together and then a less angsty and more honest goodbye, unless all those "this is Jenna Coleman's last season" announcements were a fake out, which I doubt. Which makes sense; that way, whoever the next companion is will get introduced with the new season, not with the Christmas special. (Yes, Donna had her debut in one, but Donna at that point wasn't planned to become a regular.) Again, both lying for the same reason emphasized the season long intermingling of their roles, and thus it was fitting for this particular finale, but I wouldn't have wanted it to be their actual last scene ever, so I look forward to the Christmas special.
More thoughts: this actually is one of Moffat's darkest stories ever. Not because he finally kills recurring characters the audience likes without resurrecting them (not only Danny but Osgood!), but because if the Doctor's theory is correct - and the episode nowhere implies it isn't - then all human religion with the idea of an afterlife in it in the Whoverse is the result of the Mistress time travelling to pull off her long term con and mindgame, and all those minds ended up caught in a Gallyfreian matrix as a result. (I heard the BBC had to put out a disclaimer after the last episode that no, what Seb said wasn't true but a con. I wonder what the disclaimers will be this time?)
Trivia: Osgood quipping that Harry Saxon wasn't even the worst Prime Minister Britain had made me briefly wonder whether Moffat had anyone specific from the last decade in mind for that dig. But the problem is that the Whoverse hasn't had the same PMs as reality did since New Who started - there was no Blair, there was the guy who got replaced by a Slitheen in Nine's day, then there was Harriet Jones, then Harry Saxon, then Brian Green, then Denise Riley. The Tenth Doctor once mentions Margaret Thatcher, so she did exist in the Whoverse, but if John Major did, he never got mentioned.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1028929.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
Aaaaanyway. Onwards to the actual review.
As expected with any DW tale featuring the Master prominently, this one had a mad, mad, mad plot (by which I don't mean Missy's scheme but such stuff as the world wide goverments actually agreeing on anything, let alone putting the Doctor in charge), but in a way that's traditional for this show. (Hey, they even made him President in Gallifrey at one time, not that he didn't ran as soon as he could.) And while most of the emotional beats worked for me and made this a great finale in my eyes, not all did: as she had something of a reduced role in the episode compared to her strong presence in the season overall, I wish Clara's big moment hadn't already been right at the start. Alright, and also the continuation later, but it was really one scene interrupted, and while it was awesome and terrific and summed up so much that's been going on this season - Clara's "I'm the Doctor" bluff towards the Cybermen as the climax of the whole Clara-as-Doctor arc, and she's so sublimely concinving that she even has the audience doubting for a moment - she didn't have anything else to do for the remaining episode, other than reacting to Danny (and then being the catalyser for the final Doctor and Mistress moment). So I wish - I don't know how, but I wish her big bluff had been positioned later?
Before I get to the praise, the other thing that didn't quite work for me emotionally was the "oh, the bracelet actually allows for a return from the dead, but just one!" gambit. Not the "Danny gives his shot at true resurrection to the Afghan boy he killed" part of it, that concluded Danny's haunted-by-war-guilt story beautifully. But the sudden reveal that the bracelet, previously established as the MacGuffin the wearer controls the Cybermen with, also serving as a one time un-Cyberfied return from the dead thing. I can fanwank the principle of it, because after all Missy made it, and the Master always was superb as resurrection ploys, but the one time only thing plainly served no other purpose than to allow Danny to a) remain dead and b) atone for his personal guilt. I'm good with both (I'll get to that in the praise section), just not with the mechanics showing so plainly.
Now, on to the good stuff. (As always, for me, mileage will differ etc.) Michelle Gomez was a great Master/Mistress here. Since neither the Doctor (now he knows who she is) nor anyone else treated her any differently than the male regenerations of the Master have been treated in the past, and since there wasn't a single line of dialogue indicating the Doctor/Master relationship in the past was different with both of them male, even that lingering bit of concern in my mind is withdrawn. I also thought Missy manages to unite several specific elements of Masters past - the dancing and insanity of Simm, and Delgado!Master's "rule the universe with me!", which was Delgado but not Ainsley, let alone Crispy! Master or the American We Don't Talk About. You can speculate later regenerations of the Master also wanted this, but had given up on believing the Doctor would actually accept and hence were more into the taunting-and-tormenting part of the relationship. But Delgado, as far as I can recall, was the only Master who made the offer (repeatedly) in text and as many words. Given that Capaldi's Doctor is in many ways, not just because he's at the beginning of a new regeneration cycle, a callback to the Hartnell start, I find it fitting this version of the Master should also go back to the earliest version of the Master we've seen on screen. (No, I don't think the War Lord was the Master, sorry.) On a Doylist level, but also on a Watsonian one - after all, the last time they met before this occasion, the (Tenth) Doctor had pleaded with the Master to come with him and see the universe as he does. (While strapped on a chair, because that's how they roll.) (Okay, that was technically the last but one time, being before the showdown with Rassilon, but you know what I mean.) What Missy does is take him up on this and reflect it back, in a typically twisted Master way. When she put the Cyber-control device on him, I practically squeed, because yes, that is so them. And that was before we got "because I want my friend back".
What the Mistress isn't any better than the previous Masters at seeing that the bind she thinks she has the Doctor in (either he uses the army and thus admits he's just like her, or he doesn't, allowing her to destroy the verse, and thus also is responsible) is a false one, because it's based on either/or. And the Doctor, at his best, has always been a "neither" guy. So the pay off for the "Am I a good man?" question is "I'm not a good man. I'm not a bad man. I'm just an idiot in a box who tries to help now and then" and the Doctor neither accepting the power nor allowing her to use it but handing it over to Danny.
Now Danny is the nth Cyberman who resisted Cyberfication through the Power Of Love, and yes, it's getting old, but he also resisted through the desire to save the world, so I didn't mind. Especially not because the Doctor's OTT soldierphobia this season finally got a pay off that I hadn't expected. (That Danny would somehow be involved in saving the day, I had.) Again, Mileage may differ, but I thought the entire Cyber outing was worth it, too, for giving the show the chance to provide us with a goodbye scene between the Doctor and the Brigadier without having Nicholas Courtney at their disposal anymore. When the Doctor found a surviving Kate, thus figuring out who the second, non-Danny, Cyberman retaining his will had to be, and said "of course - in Earth's darkest hour, where else would you be?", they looked at each other and the Doctor saluted him, I melted.
(Hopefully not in cybermen producing liquid.)
This also made the Brigadier the answer to Missy's "but who will save your soul?" question. Naturally. Mind you, the Master never is truly dead on this show, it's his (now also her) specialty to return (with appropriate flair). But in the highly hypothetical case that no show runner after Moffat wants to use the character again, I'd be totally okay with the Brigadier killing him/her. Of all the Companions, the Brig has first dibs on that one, due to length of aquaintance and "protecting the Earth, as best I can" motto.
The Doctor and Clara both lying to each other in order to enable the respective other to return to a (they think) happy life: settled it for me even before Santa Claus showed up that Clara would be in the Christmas special, at which point presumably we'll get one last adventure together and then a less angsty and more honest goodbye, unless all those "this is Jenna Coleman's last season" announcements were a fake out, which I doubt. Which makes sense; that way, whoever the next companion is will get introduced with the new season, not with the Christmas special. (Yes, Donna had her debut in one, but Donna at that point wasn't planned to become a regular.) Again, both lying for the same reason emphasized the season long intermingling of their roles, and thus it was fitting for this particular finale, but I wouldn't have wanted it to be their actual last scene ever, so I look forward to the Christmas special.
More thoughts: this actually is one of Moffat's darkest stories ever. Not because he finally kills recurring characters the audience likes without resurrecting them (not only Danny but Osgood!), but because if the Doctor's theory is correct - and the episode nowhere implies it isn't - then all human religion with the idea of an afterlife in it in the Whoverse is the result of the Mistress time travelling to pull off her long term con and mindgame, and all those minds ended up caught in a Gallyfreian matrix as a result. (I heard the BBC had to put out a disclaimer after the last episode that no, what Seb said wasn't true but a con. I wonder what the disclaimers will be this time?)
Trivia: Osgood quipping that Harry Saxon wasn't even the worst Prime Minister Britain had made me briefly wonder whether Moffat had anyone specific from the last decade in mind for that dig. But the problem is that the Whoverse hasn't had the same PMs as reality did since New Who started - there was no Blair, there was the guy who got replaced by a Slitheen in Nine's day, then there was Harriet Jones, then Harry Saxon, then Brian Green, then Denise Riley. The Tenth Doctor once mentions Margaret Thatcher, so she did exist in the Whoverse, but if John Major did, he never got mentioned.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1028929.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.