TV Review: Doctor Who Season 8 Episode 12 “Death In Heaven” (UK, 2014)

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If you’re like me, you’re still trying to figure out whether or not you liked the Doctor Who season finale, “Death In Heaven”. Yes, arguably it was one of the stronger episodes in terms of its writing, but was it worth the amount of gravitas given to it in the week preceding? Perhaps not. Almost perfectly, “Death In Heaven” is a fitting ending for Peter Capaldi’s first season in the TARDIS – strong, but not consistently so.

As Doctor Who season finales have traditionally gone since the reboot, it’s delivered in a two-parter format and looking back at previous finales, they’ve been worthy of the episode split. The coupling of “Dark Water”/”Death In Heaven” isn’t the same and unfortunately, “Death In Heaven” feels like more of a filler episode until a good 20 or so minutes in. The two episodes, had they been condensed, would have made for one brilliant adventure, but the padding of “Death In Heaven” was all too obvious. The scenes with The Doctor and UNIT onboard the aircraft could have been halved to have the same effect. He didn’t need to be made President of Earth to be given control of the situation and it really didn’t do him well in the end. The crux of “Death In Heaven” success came back to the question The Doctor asked Clara in the first episode, ‘Am I good man?’. By the end of the episode, you get an idea that he knows exactly the type of man he is.

The use of the Cybermen in this episode was clever, the idea that Earth’s dead population would be brought back and ‘upgraded’ as Cybermen was unnerving. It also meant that little explanation into their presence was required. You got the hint during “Dark Water” that this was the fate Danny was ultimately headed towards and by the end of the episode, you were still more intrigued into the reason why Missy was so hellbent on destroying humankind with her new army. The fact that this new Cyber-army was a warped birthday present from her to The Doctor was even more brilliant a plot point.

The relationship between The Doctor and Missy/The Master in this episode was a great piece of TV to watch. Michelle Gomez plays the role with such insanity again, she teeters on Fatal Attraction clinging to hers and The Doctor’s past and with a Scottish snarl, she’s the supervillain fans of this show can’t help but love. And yet, The Doctor still can’t bring himself to instantly kill her, despite the amount of destruction she’s caused and still stood to cause. It’s an interesting dynamic which had been beautifully developed between David Tennant and John Simm, but between Capaldi and Gomez, there’s more pain. When he realises she’s lied to him about Gallifrey, he hurls himself at the TARDIS console in anger. He’s trusted her again and she’s abused that trust, again. Will he ever learn? Probably not, but I’d put money on it that we’ve not seen the last of Gomez in this show. And that makes me happy.

Did anyone else feel slightly awkward when Clara delivered her speech to Cyber-Danny about not leaving The Doctor, before she realised who he was? Like come on, the guy can’t get any more crushed. It was the perfect reveal for these two characters however, finally they were both standing in the sun (or overcast conditions) for the people they are. She, the loyal companion and time traveller and he, the now-unwilling soldier and as this season of Doctor Who has shown, an un-willing participant in their adventures. I’ll admit, I was never sold on the Clara-Danny relationship, but when he and The Doctor have their stand off in the graveyard, I felt for the guy. For a character who wasn’t given proper development and fleshing out, Danny if nothing else, showed he was able to make the hard decisions when the others couldn’t. How the show will address his and Clara’s descendants will be interesting, however.

Jenna Coleman deserves acclaim for her performance in this episode. Here, more than ever, she’s proved herself as The Doctor’s equal, but remains incredibly vulnerable as well. The change of the opening titles was unnecessary, though I get why they did it. We understand more than ever that the dynamic between Clara and The Twelfth Doctor is far more complicated than that of Season 7 and I hope to God we haven’t seen the last of these two yet. The ending of “Death In Heaven”, which leaves Clara aimlessly walking down a street after she and The Doctor have both lied – shock, horror – to each other again, feels too much like a cop out for it to be legit, so I hope Nick Frost and the Christmas Special can make good on this.

“Death In Heaven” was a solid story and highlighted how dark Doctor Who can get. The murder of Osgood (I’m still not over that) was harsh, as was the apparent death of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. Osgood, though! After being offered ‘all of time and space’, to be shown the door in that way was not cool, Moffat. Having Kate sucked out of a plane was hectic as well, even if the first thing I thought was, ‘You can’t do this to a REDGRAVE!’. Thankfully, the Brigadier-as-Cyberman (that whole plot point is purposefully being left out of this discussion) saved her and earned a cute moment with The Doctor before blasting back off into the sky.

The episode didn’t end on a happy note and it’s worrying, given the Christmas Specials are generally quite strictly standalone. I’m hoping Clara and The Doctor are reunited, the kid that Danny sent back from The Nethersphere finds his parents and we have some stronger scripts next season. The recent quality of acting we’ve seen needs more quality scripts to sink its teeth into.

REVIEW SCORE: THREE AND A HALF STARS OF OUT FIVE.

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