Death in Heaven - Reaction and Discussion Post [SPOILERS!]

[jjpor]

After the beginning of the end and the end of the beginning, we proceed to...the finale! Yes, here it is - after what has imho on the whole been a rather successful debut season for the Capaldinator, can they stick the landing in the final episode? Time will tell, as always, but I think after last week's revelations and looking at the trailer and

Comments

[ravenskyewalker]

Well, the Capaldinator has thoroughly Capaldinated his way into my heart. I can't believe I love a New Who Doctor as much as I do him. He's actually made his way pretty far up my list of all Doctors.

I never cared about Danny, but he did well with what he was given in this. "You will sleep safe tonight" and his subsequent actions almost moved me to tears. I just wish I hadn't been expected to care for/about him, because I don't think the storyline ever did.

I enjoyed Gomez!Master. Truly bonkers, doing evil stuff to get the Doctor's attention -- in a more strung-out way than Delgado did with Pertwee, but quite similar; she didn't want to kill him so much as she wanted to have a berserk friendship with him again.

Loved the Doctor declaring that, really, he's just an idiot. There's the self-loathing again, except at least he's not so hung-up on whether he's a good man or not any longer. Not good, not bad, not a president, not an officer. Nope, 100% rebel Time Lord, my lad. I do, however, wish that New Who's determination to break the Doctor's hearts could've been avoided with the Twelfth, because for all that he puts on a fierce, bitchy attitude, he's not actually that well-off psychologically. (He's got PTSD from those hundreds of years at Trenzalore, and something kind of glitchy about the regeneration, possibly because he wasn't supposed to have it.) I assume that what he found at Gallifrey's coordinates was precisely nothing. Oh, that way he tried to be stoic, and then broke down... Capaldinated again. The way he and Clara were lying their heads off to each other at the end... I hope the Doctor actually realized that he was lying at that point and hadn't tipped over into delusion.

I'm sure there's something else I want to add, but I'm so tired that I'm falling asleep in my chair and, while I was briefly out, invented a bizarre new word (now deleted) with my phone keyboard...

[jjpor]

He's been great, hasn't he? I was kind of expecting that he would be, but it's good that he's more than lived up to those expectations.

I think Danny possibly needed more screentime for all of that stuff to be truly effective, but I'm not sure that Doctor Who should be spending that much time on character stuff as opposed to the story plots. It's a tricky one.

Very much enjoyed the Mistress/Master as characterised here and thought Michelle Gomez came good when it mattered. I'd like to see her back (because of course the Master always survives!) And that realisation was a great moment for the Doctor, one that he's been building up to ever since his last regeneration. My assumption about what he saw at the coordinates is the same as yours, and it's just the sort of cruel trick the Master would pull. Capaldi was amazing in his portrayal of the Doctor's reaction to that.