Doctor Who: Dark Water & Death In Heaven

EDIT: I'm a little bit late on this one. To sum up why: video games. LOT'S of video games. Like so many video games!  

And so concludes Series 8 of Doctor Who. It's been a fun twelve weeks: we've had everything from swashbuckling with Robin Hood to raiding an intergalactic bank, and seeing Clara and the Doctor's relationship evolve over the weeks has been fascinating. I'm happy that they decided to end the series with a two-parter, while individually the episodes this season have been pretty good the somewhat swift 'get it done in 45 minutes and go' pacing has left me salivating for a more epic and intricate tale of old that you just can't express in under an hour, and that's without taking into consideration the myriad of themes and foreshadowing that this season has built up: what's up with Danny's past? Is the Doctor a good man? Will Clara be gone for good? Is this really heaven? I'm happy to report that as a whole, the finale works. I don't think it should have been a two-parter though...  

For the first part of a finale ‘Dark Water’ left me cold, it was basically set-up for ’Death In Heaven’ that didn't need to take up 45 minutes. Funnily enough, the only two parter this season didn't actually need to be a two-parter, this story would have been served much better as an extended hour long episode. A lot of 'Dark Water' feels inconsequential when viewed back to back with 'Death In Heaven', we didn't need an entire episode devoted to explaining the 3W's modus operandi and Missy's secret identity. 

Like Clara I think we all felt a bit shell shocked as Danny bit the bullet in a very real way before the credits even rolled. We knew he wasn't really dead of course, but damn that's how you open a story all about death! Unfortunately what followed was infuriating as Clara basically went crazy and chose the most aggressive and frustrating way to make the Doctor help her, which was totally unnecessary. Sure Clara, threatening to destroy the TARDIS keys near a volcano isn't AT ALL overkill, you go ahead. Why didn't she just ask the Doctor for his help first? He would have said yes, surely, because even AFTER she went all kamikaze on him he still wanted to help her! What's worse is that her 'betrayal' was never brought up again and didn't visibly impact their relationship for the rest of the finale, so what purpose did it serve in the overall plot? None, it's one of those ....BECAUSE DRAMA! moments. I'd be lying if the scene wasn't well played out by Coleman and Capaldi though, I just wish it held more weight than simple shock value. 

You really didn't think this through did you Clara?

Once we finally got away from the whole 'ultimate betrayal' thing the Doctor and Clara decide to visit the three words organisation. There were a lot of things about 3W and it's operations that left me scratching my head. How big is this compamy and why is it's base of operations inside St Pauls Cathedral? Also, how publicly known is it? There seems to be very little in terms of staff: not counting Seb we only saw Dr Chang briefly before he was vaporised. Shouldn't there be more people wandering about if the rich are willingly giving the bodies of the dead over to Missy? And how come they like to display dead skeletons inside giant water tanks, what was the purpose of that aside from the cool visual with the Cyber-reveal? What was the whole deal with Dr Skarosa, the supposed founder of the organisation? Was he an actual person or an invention of Missy? Why is the giant floating Nethersphere ball hiding in plain sight? Was it really that necessary to create a shell organisation just to fool the Doctor for about 10 mins, Missy? My head hurts. Either way a lot of this was simply build-up to the Cybermen showing up and didn't impact the story of the finale in any way, so why devote 'Dark Water' to explaining something that makes NO sense? 

While I liked Danny's scenes with Seb in the Neverworld I still think they could have compressed a lot of things down: the revelation of Danny's 'bad day' in 'Dark Water' wasn't anything mind blowing, and the Neversphere stuff was again just a place holder for the Cyberarmy reveal. This could be pretty much summed up with Seb being vaporised, he was inconsequential when you get down to it. Chris Addison was great comic relief though, so it wasn't all bad. And the kid Danny killed returned in a pivotal way for 'Death In Heaven', it gave the finale an extra gut punch that made Danny's sacrifice even more moving. If Danny's death holds, and I think it will considering his final scene (although there's still that Orson business to think about) this might be one of the few cases in Who where a main 'companion' dies permanently, another twist of audiences expectations.

Then we have Missy, or the Master reborn in female form. A lot of her screen time in ‘Dark Water’ was devoted to explaining the convoluted mechanics of the Nethersphere and basically acting weird. It’s difficult to gauge a characters personality when they're playing a cipher (Clara had this issue in Series 7), so we only really got to know her until after she was unveiled as the Master. While I didn’t have a problem with the reveal itself so much about the climax of ‘Dark Water’ felt underwhelming, her identity included. I mean, who DIDN’T figure that out? Ultimately the reveal fell that, if Missy was a returning character there were very few options: she was either the Master or the Rani, basically. And with a name like Missy, short for Mistress…I didn’t care much for that cliffhanger. ‘Oh look, the Cybermen are invading London…again. And the Master’s back trying to take over the world…again. And Danny’s grappling with the fact that he might want to delete his emotions…*SHRUGS*' It's made worse by the fact that show runner Steven Moffat categorically denied the Master’s return earlier this year. Yeah, don’t believe anything that comes out of that man's mouth. 

'If only I can recall where I've seen that bat-sh*t crazy grin before...'

So I didn't care all that much for 'Dark Water', but ‘Death In Heaven’ though? Now this is more like it!

First of all let's address the single best thing about this finale: Michelle Gomez as the Master. Now unleashed from her reveal she was killing it in pretty every scene, fully embracing the ‘bananas’ quality to the Master and threatening to consume the entire episode with her bravado and sheer madness. Considering that we only really got to see her incarnation in action during ‘Death In Heaven’ she was extremely effective in every glimpse we got of her, particularly when she dispatched Osgood. John Simm’s Master was equal parts terrifying and funny depending on the scene, and not afraid to kill someone for some random reason. I was happy to see that Missy is no less bloodthirsty she basically murdered the nicest, most adorable character in the episode (a returning character at that!) in the most brutal way possible. While certain aspects of that scene made NO sense: why didn’t the guards behind her intervene at any point (?) the shot of Missy stepping on Osgoods glasses hurt in a way that I haven't felt on Doctor Who in a while. I mean wow, that was grade A-nasty! 

All things considered both parts of the finale were very morbid and uncompromising when it came to tackling really dark material, almost unsettling. In particular the 'Don't Cremate Me!' scene had very disturbing implications which was surprisingly never brought up again. So was that just something that happens to everyone trapped in the Neversphere or is it canon now in the Who universe that our minds remain attached to our bodies after death and can feel everything that's happening to our body? Because if that's the case, jesus that's dark! And that's before we get into the whole 'dead being brought back as cyberzombies' and the horrific make-up on Danny's cyberface...*SHUDDERS* All of this death was perfect for the Master though: a properly threatening villain that wasn't afraid at any point to kill people, something the Moffat era has been sorely lacking up until this point. This makes 'Death In Heaven' a most successful revive of the Master and a worthy successor to John Simm's portrayal. It's a shame we didn't get an explanation as to how the Master regenerated into a woman and escaped Gallifrey, but Missy has practically been confirmed to make a reappearance in the future by both the actor and the show runner (to quote Steven Moffat 'She escaped!') so maybe next time?

WARNING: THIS EPISODE WILL BE DISTRESSING TO MOST VIEWERS.

HEY DOCTOR WHO FANS! REJOICE! We finally have a Cyberman story that focuses on their grisly origins and not dumb them down into faceless robots that can be defeated by the power of love! Well okay, they still did some of that, but the important thing is that they got to the heart of what makes them an effective villain: they're hideous transformations of us. With Dalek's it's always 'WE WILL KILL EVERYONE!' whereas the Cybermen are very much 'you will become like us'. They're not robots, they're us, hideous transformations of us that have forgone all emotion by giving themselves up to technology. It's a chilling thought encapsulated perfectly in this two parter with the skeletons in the tanks, the Cybermen rising up night of the living dead style from the graves and Danny's horribly disfigured face. When you get down to it yes they were just a fighting force for the Master but I'm glad that Moffat kept what makes them so terrifying at the forefront, like when Clara had to switch Danny 'off'. I still think there's a great Cyberman story out there, I just wish someone would write it and slap it on the show. 

As for the denouement of the two-parter, I liked the twist on Missy's plan. This entire season the Doctor has been debating whether this incarnation of himself is a 'good man' because he's been unafraid to let someone die for the greater good and make morally grey decisions in a heartbeat (see: 'Into The Dalek', 'Time Heist', 'Mummy On The Orient Express', 'Kill The Moon'). The Master's idea is to basically take this to the extreme by giving him a Cyber army to conquer the galaxy and right wrongs, again toying with the notion that the Doctor is merely a general who makes people sacrifice themselves for the greater goo. And if he doesn't? Then the evil clouds will convert the entire human race into Cybermen...or something? Yeah, not clear on that. The Doctor doesn't go through with it of course, proclaiming he's an 'idiot' for not realising how awesome Danny is at demonstrating his love for Clara, to the point where he overrides his programming (Cybermen have REEEALLY got to sort their software out, that's a pretty big flaw!) and saves the world by sacrificing himself and the Cyberarmy to take out the clouds. According to Danny, this is the promise of a soldier: to keep people sleeping safely at night, which nicely resolves the Doctor's beef with soldiers. What a lovely way to encapsulate what this season has been about. This wasn't a finale with a lot of bombast or explosions but it definitely delivered when it came it putting a 'Fin' on all of the major plot threads. Considering a lot of Moffats finale's have had unresolved business or dangling arcs, this was a refreshing break.  

I have mixed feeling about the Brigadiers second post-death cameo, I certainly get the sentiment but seeing a Doctor Who icon being brought back from the dead and turned into a faceless Cyberman just feels...I dunno, wrong? It's a bit too cheap, the Doctor didn't have Missy's death on his hands because someone else, *COUGH* almost in a Deus Ex Machina kind of way *COUGH* did it for him. I'll allow it, the Doctor saluting the Brigadier was simply too good a moment to write that part off. My heart melted, job done.

We need a hug too after that scene!

Another great moment of the finale was that Cafe scene. Why are cafe scenes in Doctor Who so emotional? Watching Clara and the Doctor lie to each other thinking the other one knows better? Heartbreaking. The Doctor smashing up the TARDIS console was incredibly powerful and again really, really dark. And considering everything she's been through Clara hasn't had the best of endings has she? She lost her boyfriend and the Doctor to has distanced himself away from her, all because he didn't want to infringe on her supposed personal life with Danny. And that hug? That was made of strong stuff too. While we know that isn't the last we've seen of Clara (we'll at least see her in this years Xmas special) that was a severely depressing note to end the series on, and far from a happy ending. Or until Nick Frost of all people shows up, kitted out in full Santa gear of course. Way to ruin a moment there Moffat! To put it bluntly, I have my doubts about this year's Xmas outing, I just hope they're not jumping the shark by literally having Santa be a character, because without actually seeing the episode that sounds really dumb.  

While there are still missing holes in the story (what was up with St Pauls again? Where was Danny talking to Clara from at the end? Is the Masters TARDIS still out there?) ultimately 'Death In Heaven' was a satisfying resolution to the major themes from Series 8, a solid tale in a very solid season. It did lack that certain 'epic' quality that past finales have delivered in spades, but I kind of like that. Series 8 in particular has been all about going against the grain when it comes to what we expect, with numerous episodes like 'Flatline', 'In The Forest Of The Night', 'Listen' and 'Kill The Moon' tinkering with the established format in new ways. Bucking the trend 'Death In Heaven' had surprisingly little scope, concentrating on only a few key characters of this supposedly global event. Plane sequence aside it was also lacking action, and the universe was in no danger whatsoever, thank god. Sure I have a few hang-ups with 'Dark Water' but nothing in that was inherently bad, it just felt a bit pointless in the end. To sum up this story and Series 8 as a whole: I liked it quite a bit!  

Positives:

+ Michelle Gomez was fantastic
+ Themes and arcs of the season were satisfyingly wrapped up
+ Uncompromising view on death
+ A very morbid affair
+ The Cybermen were well handled
+ Missy was suitably villainous
+ Osgood and Kate Stewart are back!
+ That depressing scene in the Cafe
+ Seb was fun
+ Brigadier cameo

Negatives:

- Lackluster first part
- Missy's plan seemed needlessly convoluted and confusing
- Clara's 'betrayal' made no sense
- The finale wasn't all that epic compared to previous season enders
- A lot of 'Dark Water' was inconsequential in the finale
- Not enough Michelle Gomez as the Master!

Overall Score: 8/10

Interstellar

If you're wondering what all the hype is about, 'Interstellar' is an enormous movie. There's no two ways about it: you HAVE to see this film in the cinema, it's just one of those films. 

We were shown a live interview with director/producer/writer Christopher Nolan before the film and he made two things VERY clear: 1) the less you know about this film, the better and 2) he's aiming for something up there with the all time film greats, we're talking '2001: A Space Odyssey', 'Star Wars', 'Close Encounters Of The Third Kind' ect... science fiction that impacted cinema by showing us worlds that we had never seen before, a visual experience that no other form of media can create and suck us into the experience. While 'Interstellar' is not a perfect film, I believe I've seen an extraordinary film that lives up to the legacy of those classics. 

This movie is gorgeous, every frame will burn itself into your cerebral cortex and stay with you for days afterwards. The alien worlds and various spacecraft are well realised, it also has the most unique design for a robot I've seen in a film. Prepare for some stunningly beautiful (and tense as hell) space sequences, between this and 'Gravity' we've been quite frankly spoiled. Nolan's penchant for having as little greenscreen as possible has clearly paid off, everything looks real because it is real. If you have a theater showing this in Imax, you lucky bastard. Aiding the phenomenal visuals is Hans Zimmers bombastically operatic score, which while effective as f*ck when it comes to ratcheting up the tension seems determined to destroy your eardrums with every instrument in the orchestra, including an organ. Maybe it was the cinema but certain sections (like the rocket take-off scene) were so loud the seats shook. I advise you bring earmuffs with you! 

So pretty...

It's difficult to talk about the story because I'm sworn to secrecy (and the movie hasn't even come out yet), but it's so vast and intricate I doubt I could tell you anyway. This movie crams so much into it's three hour run time I felt mentally and emotionally exhausted coming out from it, everything from father/daughter relationships, various space-time concepts, gravity theories, other dimensions, ghosts, black holes, wormholes, life on other planets, survival, good vs evil, heart vs mind, sustainability of our planet's resources, paradoxes, to human instinct are touched upon.....what doesn't this movie talk about? As I said this is a monumentally massive film in both scope and scale, it's amazing it turned out as good as it did considering it's trying to cram 20 different threads into one movie. The focus of 'Interstellar' is all over the place, threads prominent in the beginning will be dropped halfway through and then become relevant again an hour later. The glue holding this behemoth of tangled concepts together is Matthew Mcconaughey's character Cooper, a space cowboy whose relationship with his daughter Murph back on earth serves as the beating heart and drive for the rest of the story. Mcconaughey gives one heck of a powerhouse performance in this film, which is saying something considering everyone in this cast is giving it their all. Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, *SPOILER* and Mackenzie Foy are all fantastic and brilliant in their own right but this is Mcconaughey's film. His desire to return to his family, much like Leonardo Dicaprio's Cobb in Nolan's previous film 'Inception', grounds the film emotionally as it risks involving only your brain instead of your heart. And no, Nolan can't make a film without having Michael Caine cry at some point, you'll be blabbing as well during that scene.  

Nolan's eagerness to present audiences with challenging material should be lauded but he might have gone a step too far here. In order to keep up with the mad intricacies of the plot you MUST pay attention at all times or else you'll be lost. I did my best but I completely lost the thread by the time the ending rolled around. Without spoiling anything I just don't see how A + B = C. That ending made no sense for me at least, which may or may not be my fault as by that point my brain was dribbling out of my ears thanks to the sheer onslaught of everything that happened in the two hours and a half beforehand. Suffice to say it pulls several cards out from under its hat and left me guessing as to where everything was heading. Once you finally reach that destination though, good luck figuring out what just happened!  

Also this film is long, it feels like I was stuck in that cinema for a day, like they somehow managed to distort space and time when the film started. It starts at a fairly brisk pace but suffers a bit from prolonged second and third acts packed with several moments that feel like they're building to the climax but actually aren't. It's never boring or any less than engaging, but be prepared for things to slow down a bit before the ending comes and blows your mind. 

'Interstellar' is a visually stunning epic that will transport you to the far reaches of space and back again. It's one heck of a ride that demands a lot from you so be prepared to have your socks blown off on several occasions. Christopher Nolan remains a master of his craft and blows the doors off any other movie I've seen this year. He's an incredible visionary of modern cinema, I can't wait to see his next project. 

Positives:

+ Matthew Mcconaughey, stellar cast in general 
+ Incredibly stimulating visuals  
+ Ambitious, unique script 
+ Really tense in parts
+ Several powerhouse moments
+ Intelligent, thought provoking 
+ Powerful score

Negatives:

- I didn't really understand that ending at all
- Wait, what just happened?!
- Slow middle
- The music is so loud it gave me a headache

Overall Score: 9/10

Doctor Who: In The Forest Of The Night

'In The Forest Of The Night' starts out wonderfully as we see a little girl running through a forest in a trademark red coat. Unfazed by any of this she stumbles upon a blue telephone box and decides to knock on the door. The grumpy old man inside is surprised to find a schoolgirl alone in the middle of nowhere. He tries to take her back home but it appears they're already there: the TARDIS is not in a remote forest at all, but in the middle of Trafalgar square in London! It's a great reveal that capitalises on strong fairytale imagery, like other fairytales though you have to take things at face value, if you start questioning to yourself why the wolf in 'Red Riding Hood' can talk and walk then the only answer you're going to get is 'because fairytales, duh'. Frank Cottrell Boyce's 'Forest Of The Night' is a lot like that, if you start questioning the events of this story then it falls apart completely. 'Kill The Moon' had some extremely flimsy science going on but at least it attempted to make events appear plausible, here it's outright magic with little to no explanation given. So yes, suspension of disbelief is extremely necessary to enjoy this episode. 

The best thing about 'Forest Of The Night' is it's set-up. A forest consuming the entire earth overnight is a super intriguing idea that gives the episode a unique visual flare that the previous episode 'Flatline' didn't have. The production team did a fantastic job of conveying a lush landscape peppered with London landmarks: the image of Nelsons column surrounded by green is an iconic image (aided by Murray Golds whimsical score) that once again shows how Doctor Who can separate itself from the rest of the TV landscape by being just plain bonkers when it comes to out-there ideas. The direction from Sheree Folkson, DW's first female director in a LOOOONG time, is inventive and adds a lot of personality to proceedings. I particularly adore how massive she made the TARDIS look using wide angle lens to replicate how the TARDIS would have appeared to young Maebh. It's another gorgeous looking episode. 

Aiding the fairytale-esque theme is the drove of schoolkids featured in this episode. It's a shame we didn't see Courtney again, but Abigail Eames is endearing as Maebh, the super-powered girl who can hear the trees and looking for her lost sister. The other kids are hit and miss but they're given believable/funny dialogue and aren't as intrusive as I thought they would be. Maebh aside they're mainly used as a tool to demonstrate the differences between Clara and Danny. Samuel Anderson continues to be really likeable and surprisingly parental compared to Clara, who cares more for the excitement of adventure than doing her job. I was shocked at how he brushed her lies aside, despite building up to a confrontation of some sort he wasn't really that bothered with it. Huh, ok. I like his explanation for not wanting to travel onboard the TARDIS (he doesn't want to see more, he wants to see what's in front of him more clearly). Again Doctor Who seems obsessed with flipping the script and turning established tropes on their head. Who wouldn't want to travel in the TARDIS? Well Danny apparently. It's a shame we didn't see more of him exploring the forest with the kids, the bits we did see was rather entertaining and it would have been fun to see him adventuring on his own. Maybe we'll see more of Samuel Anderson in the finale? 

That beach chair feels out of place, it's never that sunny in London!

As for Clara, 'Forest Of The Night' feels intentionally like the opposite of 'Kill The Moon' in a lot of ways. In that story Clara is furious with the Doctor for abandoning her and putting her in an impossible situation, but here she coyly manipulates him into leaving before the earth is once again struck by a natural event that could wipe us all out. Clara opts to die with the rest of her species than escape in the TARDIS, and she lied to the Doctor about leaving specifically so he would go back to the TARDIS. The Doctor refuses to leave though, and repeats word for word what Clara said at the end of 'Kill The Moon', a nice indication of how much he's changed since then: 'This is my world, too. I walk your Earth. I breathe your air'. It's a powerful moment and a great concept: the Doctor forced into abandoning the earth by his companion because he can't save us. I love that the tables have turned now, Clara is the one manipulating the Doctor whereas before it was the reverse. She's even predicting his thought patterns which is slightly concerning. Is this the control freak Clara 'Deep Breath' was going on about? She seems to be proficient at manipulating the Doctor into doing things he doesn't want to do at any rate. 

And just like 'Kill The Moon' the earth is saved by the Doctor....doing nothing whatsoever! The problem solved itself, good thing the Doctor came to this realisation in the nick of time, we'd be doomed otherwise! Not. The lack of threat is interesting, aside from a decent chase scene involving escaped zoo animals there isn't really any sense of danger present in this story at all. I can't really say the story needed a threat, the mystery of the forest was enough to keep the viewer hooked. Until we were shown what was causing the forest to grow at an alarming rate...

So those....Fairies? Pixies? Magical firefly thingies? What was up with them?! Apparently all trees have an eternal 'lifeforce' linking them together that in times of crisis can miraculously cause forests to pop out of nowhere and save the day. Erm...okay. These magical trees are going to save us from a solar flare by acting as an oxygen blanket or something (SCIENCE!) to negate the effects of the radiation/heat. In what fantastical alternate reality am I going to buy something like that? A solar flare of that magnitude wouldn't just require an excess of vegetation to brush it off surely? It's radiation, we'd all burn to death! Then at the end Maebh's lost sister shows up out of nowhere hiding under a magical bush. Did the trees magic her back somehow or has the sister literally been hiding in that bush the entire time? Either way I didn't feel anything for that scene at all, only puzzlement. Oh and Danny getting rid of the tiger thanks to shining a flashlight in it's eyes? Sure, that'll work...

Don't you just love Capaldi's facial expressions?

Despite everything 'Forest Of The Night' has going for it I couldn't fall in love with it: there's too much BS here to simply brush it to one side. Having said that I like the visuals, I thought the supporting cast was a ton of fun and there were a lot great interactions between Clara, Danny and the Doctor. This episode is unconventional and different in a lot of ways, so it's a shame everything was resolved by magic in the end.

Positives:

+ Strong visuals
+ The leads are still consistently great
+ Fairytale vibe
+ Interesting, unconventional story      
+ Continues to build the Doctor/Clara relationship dynamic 

Negatives:

- The kids are a mixed bag
- No semblance of 'science' whatsoever, completely fantastical
- Ending scene makes little sense

Overall Score: 8/10

Doctor Who: Flatline

The central premise of 'Flatline' is fascinating, between the Foretold and 'The Boneless' writer Jamie Matheson is the guy to call when it comes to inventive monster ideas. Apparently Matheson offered up four different story idea's with drawings of four different monsters. Moffat picked the 'Flatline' one and was so happy with Mathesons script he asked him to do another episode: 'Mummy On The Orient Express'. After this episode I really want to see his other ideas on screen! 

This week Clara has to tackle beings that exist in another dimension, ones that only perceive the world in 2D. Outside of the Futurama episode '2-D Blacktop' I don't think this idea has been explored before, so to extrapolate it into terrifying beings who suck us into the walls is a great premise. The Boneless start taking physical form by leeching off of the TARDIS's external dimensions, shrinking it's exterior to a size very similar to that of the toys you can currently find in Toy's R Us (this is an ingenious way to promote the merchandise, intentional or not). It also enables the director/writer to go crazy with the sight gags, hence Clara putting the mini-TARDIS in her handbag or the Doctor using his hands Thing style to get the TARDIS away from danger. These moments are either ludicrously silly or clever depending on your resistance to slightly out there sci-fi idea's but if you can buy the 'bigger on the inside than the outside' bit then why not extend your imagination a little further?

With the Doctor trapped inside the TARDIS Clara is on her own, but thanks to a handy neuro-uplink the Doctor can see what Clara sees, and for once take on the role of observer. This handy metaphor is a great role-reversal as it reveals just how much Clara and the Doctor are alike. I continue to be amazed at Clara's character growth this season, Clara's trajectory is the main drive of the show now. As for Jenna Coleman's and Capaldi's performances, they're predictably amazing and the highlight of every episode. Everyone moaning about this series being 'Clara-Who' are right, she literally becomes the Doctor in this episode. All the hallmarks are there: lying, excessive use of the sonic, the 'I'm the only one who can save you' speeches, turning people into soldiers, she even has her own companion in Rigsby, the only decent supporting character. She's good at it, but to quote the Doctor 'goodness' has nothing to do with it: she's very good at lying to people and being manipulative, particularly in the scene where Rigsby wants to sacrifice himself to become the hero. These past couple of episodes are really taken with the morality of behind the Doctor, past seasons have shown that the Doctor takes ordinary people and makes them better. Yes this has the unfortunate side effect of turning them into warriors willing to put themselves into harms way (Rigsby) but they're still better for it, a symbol for humanity. Clara, (while no where near to anything resembling a bad person) is the antithesis of this, her experience with this Doctor is making her worse, even if it is necessary in order to survive. The Doctor picks up on this, he doesn't seem proud by her actions at the end of 'Flatline' at all. She's no longer his 'carer', acting as his conscience, she now actively gets his way of thinking (thanks to the beach scene at the end of 'Mummy') and starts developing similar traits. All of this is a whirlwind away from the Clara at the end of 'Kill The Moon', angry at the Doctor for leaving her to make the tough decisions. Now she's a bit of an adrenaline junkie, addicted to making these kinds of choices. I wonder if this is how she leaves? Perhaps she becomes so much like him he can't stand the sight of her and leaves her behind? Maybe this was just an interesting detour for this episode, but with only three episodes left her excessive lying to Danny and the Doctor is going to come to a head soon. Also, what's up with Missy and her ipad? She chose Clara? In what way?

Only on Doctor Who!

Visually this episode is a bit bland (not counting the SFX). The story takes place on a council estate in Bristol, so there's no flashy recreations of the Orient Express or moon walking here. The dreary choice of environment is unfortunate because every episode of Series 8 so far has had a distinct location that sticks out whether it be Victorian London, the Bank of Karabraxos, Sherwood forest or the overgrown London we're going to see next week. Most of 'Flatline' is set inside a subway tunnel (creepy but generic) so the only thing that returning director Douglas Mackinnon can do is latch onto the idea idea behind the monsters i.e they can come from anywhere. He succeeds in making them visually interesting and scary, although you might want to credit the CGI team for that. They excelled at making a potentially laughable idea creepy, apart from their '3D' form. How to describe them? They look like a video game glitch that's been crossed with a zombie covered in clear gello, it's difficult to discern but the crappy CGI might just have made them look more unsettling, they definitely have a unique look at any rate. It's hard to feel anything towards them though when the characters they're chasing after for most of the episode are bland redshirts that exist solely to be picked off.

The worst thing about 'Flatline' is it's supporting cast, which is surprising because Matheson's last episode had a pretty decent line-up of supporting characters that were fleshed out quickly with a few lines. Here it's perhaps to much to even call them characters, half of them barely get a line in. Christopher Fairbank's Fenton is a grade A arsehole. I know it's intentional but he doesn't evolve at all, he's quite simply a dick to ram home the fact that better people are dying while he's still walking, a message that NuWho has treaded on before (almost line for line) in 'The Voyage Of The Damned'. The other three community service workers have about five lines between them before they're gruesomely dispatched by being 'flattened'. Anyone else? Well the police woman was OK, and the train diver guy seemed....nice? They're given no real personality at all, Rigsby is only one who seemed half decent. Jiovian Wade does a really good job breathing life into a character who's only defining trait is 'graffiti artist'. Everyone else was pure cannon fodder. Considering this episode ran three minutes shorter than normal they had the time to put a bit more into the supporting characters, maybe a conversation or something? But no, they're too busy being chased to be given any backstory. This is probably why I felt uninvolved on my first viewing, if I don't feel anything for the characters being chased then why should I be scared?

Who are those two other guys again?

Another thing that bugged me was the Doctor's speech before wiping out The Boneless. It feels out of place with Capaldi's character, 12 doesn't seem one to boast and it's odd that he would blurt it out now, nine episodes into the series. Add to that the fact that we've seen this speech a dozen times by now (and better), I think we should call these 'I AM THE DOCTOR!' speeches a day for a while. It was also poorly written: 'I AM THE DOCTOR AND I FIGHT MONSTERS SO.....I WILL FIGHT YOU!' Really? The speech and the fact that he basically sonic-ed them away took the wind from the episodes sails a bit. 

'Flatline' leaves me in an unusual situation because I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. On the one hand we have another great monster idea coupled with further development for Clara and the Doctor's ever evolving relationship, but then it gets mired down by a weak supporting cast and the fact that it is essentially one long chase scene. I recognise there's some good stuff here but I felt slightly uninvolved while watching it. Maybe after a few re-watches my opinion of it may change, but it's certainly not the best of the Series like some are saying. Having said that, Jamie Matheson should still be brought back for Series 9, he seems like he gets the monster-side of Who at any rate. 

Positives:

+ Excellent monster idea
+ Clara-Who
+ Mini-TARDIS!
+ Addams family gag!
+ Rigsby was OK

Negatives:

- Supporting cast was barely there
- Fenton was a caricature
- One-note episode
- Painful 'I AM THE DOCTOR' speech we've heard a million times
- Did the 3D Boneless look silly or scary?

Overall Score: 7/10

Doctor Who: Mummy On The Orient Express

With a title like this do I really need to explain the plot? There's a mummy lurking about on a gorgeous recreation of the Orient Express, and it's picking people off one by one. The Doctor has to find a way to stop it before they all fall victim to the Foretold...

'Mummy On The Orient Express' is one of those episodes where everything just works. On the surface this episode looks like a light romp, which it still is, but it also deals with a lot of the leftover baggage from 'Kill The Moon' and turns an inventive premise into something rather special that feels fresh. The acting, direction, plot, set-design...everything is well executed and adds up to a satisfying whole. Jamie Matheson's script is no sloucher either, he manages to feature a lot of supporting characters that are given a surprising amount of characterisation in little screen time AND build upon the Doctor/Clara dynamic in the wake of last week (he's another 'fresh blood' writer that's been brought onto Doctor Who this season to shake things up and is penning next weeks episode 'Flatline' as well). I was surprised at how adept the guest cast was, they all deliver straight performances that imbue their character's with believability. David Bambers' Captain Quell comes off as your stereotypical 'NOTHING TO SEE HERE!' type of guy but backs down after the third death: 'Three, the amount of people that have to die before I stop looking the other way'. It's a small thing but it stops the character from being a caricature. Another neat moment was Professor Moorhouse's death, him breaking down after he realises the Doctor isn't going to save him was juicy as hell. Then we have Mrs. Pitt, an innocent that the episode uses to turn Clara against the Doctor again before he saves the day. And Perkins was a fun character that was again played surprisingly straight by comedian Frank Skinner. Skinner is a die hard Who fan so to finally see him feature in an episode of the show is a delight. I hope we see Perkins again someday because there was definitely something going on with the intelligent engineer in a boiler suit. I mean where does he come from? Who is he exactly? How come he knows so much about 'phasing' and doesn't seem to be fazed too much by the TARDIS? Interesting...    

The main 'gimmick' here is that only the victim can see the Foretold and they only have 66 seconds left to live, played out in real time thanks to a handy timer on the corner of the screen that's ticking down til' their untimely demise. It's a genius twist on a classic movie monster and the Mummy itself is superbly realised, heaven knows how long it took for actor Jamie Bell to get done up in those bandages. Every encounter with him is a thrilling ride that captures a morbid fascination as the various victims succumb to their death. The episode isn't content to stop there however, something nefarious is going on, a neat little mystery other than the identity and motive of the Mummy itself which literally turns the rest of the story into set-dressing. There's no resolution to it, things have clearly been left dangling for another time, I wonder if this *GUS* will pop up again sometime soon?  

That's one creepy looking mummy alright.

Threatened with death unless he figures out the Mummy's secret places this Doctor in another situation that makes good use of his ability to completely detach himself from the situation emotionally. His seemingly callousness nature is justified for once though, which makes him even more compelling. He's a dick, but only so he can save you. That line at the end about how he might've just saved Clara and everyone else perished is wonderfully ambiguous, you genuinely get the sense that with Capaldi's Doctor anything can go. His unpredictable nature has been a big draw of this series so far. What's he going to do next?

My only disappointment with this episode is what's NOT in it: we skip ahead a few weeks from 'Kill The Moon' where Clara has softened up a little and is once again travelling with the Doctor. Interestingly ALL of the marketing materials for this episode have kept Clara's involvement in 'Mummy' a secret, giving off a false pretence that this was a companion-free episode. Notice her absence on the poster up above? That's just the BBC screwing with you! It's jarring to see her show up on relatively chummy terms with the Doctor again so soon after last week, it's seems that Danny's line about never being finished with someone whilst you're still mad at them is the only breadcrumb we're going to get about her total 180. This isn't to say the events of last week are ignored, Clara spends the entire episode pondering over whether or not she should leave the Doctor for good, the Mummy adventure supposedly being their 'last hurrah' together. 

New Who sure likes it's beach scenes...

Fans of the show are complaining that the show has recently become 'Clara-Who', putting Clara at the forefront of every adventure and leaving the Doctor on the side-lines. While I agree, the show is infinitely better for it. Jenna Coleman continues to be a revelation, every scene she has alone with the Doctor is complete dynamite thanks to an emphasis on a more 'talky' Who. Seriously, I got chills during that beach scene. Her decision to stay with the Doctor at the end (and blatantly lying to him) adds another interesting spin to their dynamic, that will probably have consequences with her relationship with Danny. The finale is just around the corner and Danny's words at the end of the Caretaker: 'Lie to me about your safety again and we're finished', has to lead to something because Clara has done exactly that. They might as well put up a sign saying *FORESHADOWING*. 'Is it like an addiction for you?' Clara asks. 'Well you can't really tell if something's an addiction until you try and give it up. Tell me how it goes'. Telling words indeed. 

Positives:

+ Thrilling Mummy encounters
+ Intriguing mysteries
+ A surprisingly good guest cast
+ Capaldi's Doctor is morally ambiguous 
+ Perkin's was a fun character
+ Great set-design

Negatives:

- Clara's departure at the end of 'Kill The Moon' is surprisingly muted
- A teasing loose end

Overall Score: 9,5/10

Doctor Who: Kill The Moon

The second half of Series 8 (Eps 7-10) is populated with a bunch a new writers/directors who are as of yet unproven when it comes to working for Doctor Who. It's an attempt from the show-runners to inject fresh blood into the show, giving new writers the reins to let themselves loose with the unlimited scope of the show. 'Kill The Moon' is the first of these episodes and newcomer Peter Harness has crafted a morally complex tale that will undoubtedly have major ramifications on the rest of the series.

The first half is chock full of atmosphere and verging more on the scary side of Doctor Who. The thing that becomes immediately apparent to the viewer right away is how good this episode looks. The moon actually looks like the moon! This is a result of some great location shooting in Lanzarote, it's volcanic wastelands seem perfectly suited for the moons surface and give the show that cinematic edge. Newcomer Who director Paul Wilmshurst has a great visual eye, he perfectly captures the eerie, cobweb infested moonbase as well. The moon spiders are quite terrifying for arachnophobes such as myself, largely due to some spectacular sound work of them scuttling in the shadows. Inspiration has definitely been taken from 'Alien', they even have a small second mouth! They're also unusually vicious for Doctor Who, the episode quite clearly shows a shot of a redshirt's spacesuit lashed open, ribcage bones exposed. Unfortunately the spider threat gets diminished somewhat by their embarrassing weakness: dettol bacteria removal. It's a fun joke but immediately diminishes their scare-factor for me. It's a shame but like most episodes of Moffat Who they're not the focus here.

Courtney was another addition to the episode, even if she didn't really contribute much outside comic relief, admittedly something this episode needed. She's a nice addition who doesn't come off as annoying (thank god) and I liked all of her scenes. 

It's almost impossible to talk about this episode without discussing the somewhat amazing second half, but the main jist of it is this: in the year 2069 the moon has suddenly got a LOT heavier causing widespread natural disasters and chaos on earth. Commander Lundvik (played by Hermione Norris) and her team of ageing astronauts are sent up with 100 nuclear bombs to basically blow up the moon, because science. The Doctor, Clara and Courtney (the 'disruptive influence' from last episode) stumble upon them just before they land on the moon. There they find a deserted moon base filled with corpses and creepy moon spiders crawling around. Yes you heard that right: giant spiders, on the moon. God help us all. However all of this is merely set-up for what's really going on, thus the spoiler filled second half. What starts out as a typical base under siege story quickly evolves into a complicated debate: would you end an innocent life for the sake of mankind or suffer the unknown consequences? Doctor Who is rarely morally complex, I don't think we've seen a thorough exploration of an ethical dilemma in a episode of Doctor Who for quite a while, or at least not one that's being mined to this degree. The Matt Smith story 'Cold War' had a similar debate about the survival of the Silurians. One of my favourite Who episode ever, 'The Waters Of Mars' has David Tennants Doctor confronting an equally impossible situation and suffers the consequences of his actions as a result. 'Kill The Moon' is just as complex as any of these stories and comes off as the antithesis of 'The Waters Of Mars'. I can't discuss further without serious spoilers, so make sure you watch the episode before scrolling down...

Moon walking.

Based on the first 20 minutes alone I would've called 'Kill The Moon' a horror-tastic base under siege story but the episode takes a stark turn when it reveals what is causing the moon to become unnaturally heavy lately: 'The moon...is an egg!' explains the Doctor. 'And it's hatching...' Science be damned, eh? So they have two options: blow up the moon, destroying the alien baby inside or let it hatch and see what happens. Both options are potentially catastrophic for the human race, so what to do? Clara turns to the Doctor for help but he's having none of it. 'This is humanity's decision' he claims, and then buggers off in the TARDIS, leaving Clara, Courtney and Lundvik stranded on the moon with an impossible choice to make. This is a brilliant twist, in 'The Waters Of Mars' the Doctor tries to leave the members of Bowie Base alone but eventually recedes, changing history in the process. Here the Doctor DOES leave the humans to their own devices, in both cases you can argue he goes to far. Interestingly now the Doctor is out of the picture you have no idea what's going to happen, either choice could change the future of humankind forever. Hermione Norris is pretty compelling here, Lundvik has some really great points to counteract Clara's arguments.

So what does Clara do? She tries to do it democratically, sending a message to earth asking them to vote via lights on/off whether they want to destroy the creature or let it live. This is a pretty dumb idea, what about the side of the earth that's in the daytime? And everyone on the dark side should be asleep by now so how could they 'vote' if all this is happening while they're in bed? Also the entire planet earth managed to coordinate together in under half an hour? BULLSH*T! *SIGH* let's just let that go, okay?

The result is unanimous, mankind wants to blow the motherf*cker up (or at least the people controlling the electricity grids). But Clara overrules humanity's decision and presses the abort button at the last possible second, so....f*ck democracy? The Doctor shows up again and takes them back to earth to see the outcome. Clara made the might choice, the creature bursts out of its eggshell (handily disintegrating so no moon chunks come flying at earth) and flies away unscathed. In fact everybody wins, the baby somehow laid another egg that looked exactly like the moon it had just burst out of. HOW MIRACULOUS. Look, again that's kinda bullsh*t. Aside from the fact that your enjoyment of this episode largely rests on your suspension of disbelief there's no consequences here. Saving the baby is indisputably the right choice. The baby dragon pulls another moon out of it's ass, everyone is saved horaay! This is even good for the future of mankind, according to the Doctor:

'The mid 21st century. Humankind starts creeping off into the stars. It spreads its way through the galaxy to the very edges of the universe and it endures to the end of time. And it does all that because one day in the year 2049, when it had stopped thinking about going to the stars, something occurred that made it look up, not down. It looked out there into the blackness and it saw something beautiful, something wonderful that, for once, it didn’t want to destroy. And in that one moment the whole course of history was changed.'

Spot the odd one out.

It's too tightly wrapped up, to neat. And the science holding this thing together is wafer thin at best. In 'The Waters Of Mars' the Doctor suffered for his actions, his arrogance directly causing Adelaide Brooks to commit suicide. That had real emotional weight, and could hardly be considered a happy ending. That episode had balls. The consequences here is Clara abandoning the Doctor but that would have happened regardless of her decision. Anyway point being: Clara made the right choice while the rest of humanity chose poorly. This is all down to the Doctor's influence (if he's to be believed) but he has gone too far to prove his point. So Clara flips out at him: 'It was cheap, pretentious and bloody ignorant' she sobs, threatening to slap him so hard he'll regenerate. This entire scene was amazing, echoing Martha standing up to Doc No 10 in Series 3 only on a much larger scale. Clara is outright furious with him, and the Doctor doesn't seem to register why. You can see where he's coming from but he knew the 'correct' choice and knew that she would choose correctly, he just didn't tell her that. So Clara is 100% justified in telling him to f*ck off and leaving, a first for a Who companion. She'll obviously be coming back at some point but if the trailer for 'Mummy On The Orient Express' is any indication it won't be any time soon. 

Look, this episode has holes. The science is wonky at points, the outcome is wrapped up too nicely and the Earth voting via lights was a dumb idea even if it resulted in another cool slo-mo-let's-run-down-the-corridor explosion scene. But the social debate, acting, direction and Clara confronting the Doctor are elements to good to ignore, it looks and feels like hard sci-fi even if it creaks around the borders, and it's something that TV needs more of. So for that alone I commend Peter Harness, it's a ballsy début and his eagerness to push the boundaries of the show has me eager to see him again next season. 

Positives:

+ Intriguing moral dilemma
+ Excellent location work
+ Creepy spiders
+ Courtney was fun
+ Unpredictable
+ Clara's outburst
+ The Doctor's dickery
+ Cold Lundvik
+ Like 'Listen' it's trying to do something different, pushes the boundaries of the show

Negatives:

- The moon dragon laid another egg, REALLY?
- The whole 'turn your lights off/on' made no logistical sense
- Painfully bad 'science'

Overall Score: 8,5/10

Doctor Who: The Caretaker

Gareth Robert's previous Who stories 'The Lodger' and 'Closing Time' don't really have a plot. His episodes are perfectly content to plop the Doctor into everyday human life and watch the sparks fly with a poorly developed monster sneaking around on the outskirts. 'The Caretaker' is no different, this time around he's undercover in Coal Hill school, the same school from Doctor Who's very first episode way back in 1963. Why? He's looking for the Skovox Blitzer, a supposedly deadly killing machine that's attracted to the numerous deposits of artron energy scattered around the area. Hijinks ensue but the main crux of the episode is Clara dealing with two parts of her life that have collided with one another, aka Danny and the Doctor. 

I'm going to start off with listing my the only negative of this episode: the Skovox Blitzler. The bad guys are always the weakest link in any Gareth Roberts story, they barely register as a threat. The Blitzer isn't a sin to humanity unlike the way he treated the Cyberman in 'Closing Time' but the machine's design is incredibly weak and is dispatched with little to no effort from the Doctor, who's plan boils down to imitating the Blitzers superior so he can shut him down. And that cringe-inducing Olympic grade somersault from Danny? *SHUDDERS* He jumped higher than his body height! The Blitzer is barely a threat and despite dispersing flashy pyrotechnics he comes across as a giant remote controlled toy, another robot amongst a sea of robots in this series with barely any personality other than the standard 'SEEK. LOCATE. DESTROY!'. I recognise that the monster isn't the focal point of the story (it's simply an excuse for the Doctor to go undercover) but come on man, you can do better than this! You're clearly not interested in crafting a decent threat so why not have one at all? Isn't the Doctor checking up on Clara's everyday life reason enough? 

Thanfully the Skovox Blitzer is barely in the episode so it's horribleness is immediately side lined by everything else, particularly the excellent character work on display. It's impossible to deny how entertaining the rest of the episode is, Roberts has a fantastic grasp on the relationship between the trio of leads. I've been saying this for weeks now but the Capaldi/Coleman dynamic is getting better every episode. Capaldi continues to be an amazing screen-presence giving us what we've all wanted from his Doctor: Malcolm Tucker-lite, seething with grumpiness and general disdain for the people around him but somehow keeping intact the core values of his character. He does want to save the school from the Blitzer and clearly cares for Clara, 12 is a Doctor that pretends to hate everything but doesn't really. A perfect example of this is with a sup-plot involving disruptive influence number 1 in Coal Hill school: Courtney Woods. The Doctor pretends to brush off this smart alec but (surprisingly) ends up spilling the beans and takes her on a quick trip into space, despite never showing any affection towards her over than 'GET LOST!' I love this Doctor so much.

'GET OUT. Just....there's the door. Leave.'

Meanwhile this is Jenna Coleman's best episode yet, Clara once again proving to be the perfect foil to Capaldi's simmering grumpiness, bursting with enthusiasm and wit that used to be given to Matt Smith's Doctor. Together they're the perfect odd couple which is why the episode is so smart at pairing them off one another without a pesky plot to get in the way. That amazing restaurant scene in 'Deep Breath'? This episode fulfils the potential of that scene with the intro alone. They're so good together I'm hoping the rumours of Series 8 being Clara's last are fake, we've struck gold here.

And then we have Danny Pink, an ex-soldier who for the most part seems like a nice bloke. Unfortunately this new Doctor HATES soldiers with a passion so when the two of them meet sparks inevitably fly. 12 is incredibly nasty to Danny, refusing to believe a soldier could ever become a maths teacher and brandishing him as an idiot. Danny throws one back at him though, he's smart to compare the Doctor to a general barking out orders, essentially branding him as a hypocrite. Previous boyfriends (Mickey and Rory) started off as wimps who over time grew into bigger shoes, Danny comes pre-packed with baggage and his alpha male qualities makes him another great match for Capaldi's Doctor. I especially loved the scene where Clara tries to convince him that her and the Doctor are just putting on 'a play' and he completely sees through it. Mr. Pink is clearly no fool. Samuel Anderson is also given a lot more to work with this time around and delivers a solid performance. He's very good at portraying an average joe, a very naturalistic performance.

'The Caretakers' ace in the hole are the scenes with Danny and Clara discussing their relationship now that Clara's second life has unearthed itself. They're short but both scenes are extremely well written because in a short amount of time you buy their relationship: Danny is hurt about the lies Clara has told him and wants to know what Clara is really like around the Doctor because if you found out your girlfriend was going on space adventures with an older man inside a police box wouldn't you be concerned? He's also troubled by the danger the Doctor puts her in. If Clara lies again, their relationship is over. It might come off as controlling but Danny is concerned for her well-being like pretty much any person would be in that situation. 

Missterious goings on...

'The Caretaker' also advances the series arc, introducing a new gatekeeper to heaven called Seb played by Chis Addison. The arc is extremely confusing at this point, I mean what the F*CK is going on in this weird depiction of heaven and how can the Doctor possibly be aware of it? Right now my theory is that none of these people have actually died and were instead teleported away a split second before their death, thus making them think they did die or something convoluted like that. I don't think Doctor Who would go so far as to represent the true afterlife at any rate, this 'Nethersphere' has to fake somehow. Something is going on but no clues have been given, guess we'll just have to wait for the finale then...

'The Caretaker' is probably my second favourite of the season so far, it's hilariously constructed, brilliantly acted and all around a fun episode. It edges out on being a classic simply because once again we have a poorly conceived monster that adds nothing of value to the story but writer Gareth Roberts is clearly a master at these fish out of water stories.

Positives:

+ Fantastic comedy
+ Great dialogue
+ Back to Coal Hill school!
+ The Clara/Danny/Doctor relationship dynamics
+ Courtney Woods
+ The Doctor's fish out of water escapades
+ Danny's bullsh*t detector
+ Heavenly goings on

Negatives:

- The Skovox Blitzer
- The cring inducing somersault at the end

Overall Score: 9/10