Last night's finale of Doctor Who finished the series off of twelve consecutive weeks, and closed Peter Capaldi's first full on series as The Doctor. It's a bit sad to see the series end personally, as it's been one hell of a rollar coaster, I can't help but feel that the series has passed too quickly.
Obviously through the series we have had many little snippits of the
whole nethersphere storyline, building upto the finalie. Now that we
actually are there now, we finally get to understand what that storyline
is all about.
Before I begin this review, this review is going to be filled with
spoilers, so if you haven't seen the episode and you don't want it to be
spoilt, you best stop reading.
Okay, you've scrolled down now so you've either seen it or haven't seen it but still want to know what happens. But don't say I didn't warn you.
So, what did I think of 'Death in Heaven'? It was pretty lacklustre,for me. It didn't do anything for me unfortuntly.
The episode starts off where last week left off. The Cybermen surround the streets of St Pauls, and UNIT barge in and take control. Meanwhile Clara is cornered by a Cyberman and says she's The Doctor as a diversion to stay alive. We are then treated to a daft title sequence with Jenna and Peter's names swapped around, and Jenna's face in the title sequence, and not Peter's. That's just daft. I watched that and thought 'Oh come off it, are you serious?'
UNIT take the operation into their stride and take The Doctor and Missy captive, they take The TARDIS and put The Doctor and Missy on a plane. Missy is left detained while The Doctor becomes president of the group on the plane. It's on the plane we see a big photo monument of The Brigadier, a photo of the old brig from Battlefield, I can recall. I thought that aspect was quite nice. I didn't really get the whole point of the plane, why it needed to be there, what was the point of it, why did they have to be on a plane? I suspect it was there for The Cybermen attack later on and for it to blow up later, for the sake of dramatic interest. Nothing more, other than that don't really get why the plane was there.
Meanwhile Danny gets upgraded into a Cybermen, and kidnaps Clara and takes her to a graveyard, weirdly.
Clara communicates with the cyberman who turns out to be Danny. However, I find it hard to understand how Clara could tell which Cyberman was the one who brought her to the graveyard, if she's surrounded by Cybermen which look exactly alike. Anyway Danny Cyberman is in pain, he requets Clara to switch on the emotional inhipitar, but is Clara does that then Danny will not be Danny anymore, she will be an emotionless machine. Clara doesn't know what to do, so she rings The Doctor.
On the plane, Missy escapes and kills Osgood (Thank god) and two guards. Cybermen then attack the plane and the plane goes down. The Doctor falls out of the plane, lands back in the TARDIS and joins Clara in the graveyard. Where everything reaches it's climax. Death in Heaven was very lacklusture for me. The majority of it was a massive pile of crap! I mean seriously, 1 hour
was no where enough time to untangel a very complex knot after last
week. Never mind 'Deep Breath' this should of been the 75 minute
episode.
For me, personaly I needed more from it, and not
something which was below par. It's disapointing that nothing was really
explained in full. Just a complete mess, a hole in the ground which was
filled by the way with soppy sentimentality and a unsatisfactory plan.
There were some good moments it though, like the
deaths of Kate Stewart and Osgood which were done really dramatically, however after the ending I'm left slightly confused as if to weither or not they're actually dead
anymore.
Some Cybermen scenes were done really well, like the bit in the graveyard with Clara, where they drag
themselves out of the graves and emerge in the morgues. I'm sure that would of given young children watching the shivers.
Michelle Gomez
was wonderful as the Master and was just an excellent villain
, this demonstrated that we do seemed to have passed the stupid Moffat stereotype woman of snoggin
g
and getting hot for the Doctor, and had an actual cold hearted villainess.
The
people she killed, and with such splendour, and were done very Master-ly, I must say! The
Doctor's scene in the TARDIS was excellent and the Master truly had the
last laugh (how could she not?)
The trouble is, Moffat didn't bother to explain how the Master, could change into female form. The fact that she was
the Master was only occasionally brought up carrying no weight or
legitimate reason for being there, so Moffat only made him a woman
pretty much for the sake of it and to artificially give last week's
cliffhanger some weight. It was just one of those moments 'Oh Hi, I'm Steven Moffat. I can make The Master a woman and not explain any logic behind it, because I'm excutive producer of Doctor Who. I can do whatever the f*ck I like! Now if she was the Rani, it would have been much
better, and would of made a lot more sense.
Clara's surprise departure at the end was actually handled really
well and much better done than Amy and Rory's farewell. It was kept simple, and to the point and also very affectionate.
Overall, after watching 'Death in Heaven' I think that, Steven Moffat just needs to go! A lot of the episode was
really slow and whilst I love the idea of the Cybermen being able to
convert the dead, was it really all just for the Doctor to bring back
Gallifrey, or something else?
Either way, Gallifrey's return was
surprisingly so unexciting because there was little to no momentum and
the climax was just... there. It actually had nothing to do with the plot at all, so why was it there? In the time that was spent fussing about Gallifrey, Moffat could of just used that time to explain how The Master survived the void in 'The End of Time'. How he became a she?
The
Cybermen were completely unthreatening, in some places handled
incredibly poorly, espeically when Cyber Danny
acted like a regular soldier and commanded all of the Cybermen like
proper, human soldiers. Also, the new flying was quite odd, and didn't help the fact that they look like Iron Man.
Call it what you like. It just wasn't a
proper Cyberman story and Steven Moffat really can't write for the best
monsters... and as Missy proved, villains either! Despite weither it was a good twist or not, he ruined The Master. Just like Iron Man 3 ruined The Manderin.
Clara pretending to be the Doctor was just poor taste as
it was only done to make the episode look far more dramatic than it actually was.
Just, what did actually happen? Nothing or hardly anything happend in this. I'm still left asking questions about Missy and indeed the whole Heaven arc etc.
The little boy coming back was wishee, washee, namby, pamby soppy sentimental nonsense. It was Danny commiting a selfless act rather than come back and be with Clara again. It didn't need to there, and waitsed scene time. I'm baffled that that scene was in the final cut and not an explination as to how or why The Master is back, and back as a woman!
Though the final scene in the cafe was brilliantly suttle and well acted, I am so gutted about Clara! I really liked her! I'm sad that this is the end for her. Farewell Clara Oswald! One of my favouite companions of the new series, since Donna.
Overall, It was just a massive pile of crap! I could hear the nails being hammered into Steven Moffat's coffin as I watched it. 0/5 Giving the Series 8 Finalie 'Dark Water / Death in Heaven' 3/10. Such a Shame, getting fed up with Moffat now.
The Christmas Special Teaser was nice. I literally have no idea
what's going to happen next. So let's just wait and see. Nick Frost is Father Christmas. It'll be
Christmas before I know it.
