Moffat is a very brave man. Perhaps a little too brave. Last week's episode caused controversy and complaints due to its controversial view of death. Ha. That was nothing compared to this week's. There's so much I want to say about this episode. A lot of moments are staying in my mind, and not all of them for good reasons. I think I'll need a rewatch pretty soon. But here is what I have to say.
I really enjoyed this episode. It provided a very dark and realistic viewpoint and conclusion to the themes we've been seeing throughout the series. It would seem that the very well written characterisations, especially of Clara, were the real Series 8 story arc. Moffat once again drew many threads together, and then left the ends of them intriguingly loose. The Doctor's understanding of whether he was a good man came together very nicely. Both Coleman and Capaldi as well as Gomez and Anderson gave exceptional performances (especially Gomez) and the ending was very well written.
One major, major niggle now. Something has been bothering me. Remember when in the olden days, things actually all made sense by the end of a series? That was nice, wasn't it? And then more recently, if things didn't make sense by the end of a series, at least it was made obvious that there were still questions. Now, it seems as though some ideas weren't quite finished off properly, and I'm not sure whether I need to wait for a resolution in later episodes or complain that certain ideas were underused. For example, it seems like Clara's story is over now (which I very much doubt given the evidence), however we've definitely not had closure. And Missy's "death" (or as I would like to think, teleportation) wasn't addressed very much at all. She just died and the characters were like "meh, here's a more interesting thing to talk about." We're lacking closure on a number of thematic issues too, like what happens next in Clara's life. Will she ever be content? Will the Doctor ever be content? (Admittedly we have all the time in the world to watch that one play out).
Basically, when an audience member still has questions and the answers seem largely ignored on-screen, it worries me that it could mean that they've been forgotten about or not developed properly. What we need is a character at the end to say "and what about...?" to keep us satisfied that at least this ideas is still going to be important. Did anyone else get that from this episode? No closure?
Oh, and one more thing. Having the opening credits make Clara look like the Doctor was gimmicky and pointless. It seemed like the whole pre-credits scene could have been far more dramatic than an obviously cheap trick.
Ok, I've finished complaining now. Let's talk about the good stuff, which there was plenty of. The idea of cybermen converting the dead is very original and clever, as well as giving them back the creepiness that they deserve. And in practice, this was very well executed. I also thought that the idea of Danny being a cybermen was very clever and well realised.
Missy's cruelness was also masterfully written. The death of Osgood was very brave, as she was a fan favourite. And so it was brave of Moffat to do what he did (although some may argue he was only doing it to prove that he COULD permanently kill people off) but it was effective. It didn't feel like there was much time to mourn her though, although it was probably realistic to assume that given the circumstances, the characters on screen definitely wouldn't have had time to mourn her either. But after she had died, nobody said anything more about it.
Danny double sacrifice (burning to save the world, forfeiting his place in the world for the boy he killed) was a great way to round off his character, especially as his last scenes mirrored his very first scene in the show. It would be a terrible, terrible shame now if Moffat decided to bring these two deceased characters back in some way, as this kind of pay off is what this series needed.
The music was incredible, though. The Doctor's theme was developed as he flew through the sky in a very Pertwee-esque manner and the music added to the tension and the terrifying sense of madness that Missy created. This series was, as ever, Murray Gold's best to date.
I also thought that, viewing this series as a whole, having the Doctor's defining moment, which normally comes in their first episode, appear in the last episode of the series was brave but effective. The graveyard scene, for me, was when Capaldi summed up his previously very complicated character as the Doctor. And again, this was masterfully done.
It's just a shame that Santa Claus had to walk in at the end and spoil the mood. Why do they always insist on ruining the dark endings of series with corny adverts for the inevitably cheap and forgettable Christmas special to come later in the year?
Sorry. Have I been grumpy? I really did enjoy this episode, don't get me wrong. It was incredible, in fact. And that goes without saying, which is why I haven't said it here as much as I should have done. I just feel like Moffat doesn't deserve to have this episode called perfect yet. All credit to him though for a non timey-wimey, uncomplicated story arc that was still just as intriguing, yet totally understandable.
Join me next week for a look at series 8 as a whole, and a look forward to this Christmas.
9/10
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