If zombies were robots!
So we come to the finale;
Clara’s in trouble, the Master’s a woman and Cybermen are all over the world,
having been made from all the dead bodies.
This episode is very emotional,
while still managing to be quite fun. Although we do have the answer to the
question: is there a point behind all the repetition in this series?
The answer is no, there is
not. We’ve got all the way to the finale and we’re still getting the same get-out-of-jail-free
card. Danny can retain his humanity and memories because he loves Clara so
much. Which is in no way the same as Rory being able to retain his humanity,
when he was turned into a plastic thingy, because he loved Amy so much.
But enough complaining;
there’s plenty of good to be looked at. Both Jenna Coleman and Michelle Gomez
are on top form (as is Capaldi, but goes without saying at this point). Both
these women manage to steal most of the show, with Clara’s attempt to stay
alive by pretending to be the Doctor and Missy’s…Missy. As Capaldi is the
middle ground between the classic Doctors and modern ones, Missy is a mixture
of John Simm’s Master the Master of old. Old fashioned attire, with a penchant
for divulging evil plans to anybody listening, with just the right amount of
on-show insanity. Gomez puts to rest the question of whether well established
characters can still work with their genders changed. A high point for me was
when she killed Osgood. Now I quite liked Osgood (especially as she was an
in-universe Whovian), but killing her off really solidified Missy as a proper
villain. She’s not just going to kill the guards and a redshirt; she’s going to
kill well established and liked character.
That said, I can’t pretend I’m
not a little bit disappointed in her end goal. She wanted to orchestrate a
situation where the Doctor would have conquer the Universe. Her motivation for
this can be found (I think) in a line of dialogue from the Simms Master, who
described the Doctor as “sanctimonious.” This is essentially the Master picking
up that line and running with; trying to prove that the he/she and Doctor
really aren’t that different. That’s a pretty clichéd thing got a villain to
do, but you barely even notice since it’s so much fun watching Gomez’s dark
parody of Mary Poppins.
Now I know that this never
could have worked (unless Capaldi was going to be a one-series Doctor) but I
would have liked to see Missy’s plan work. I would have liked this to be the
birth of the Valyard. It would link up nicely with the classic era. Why was the
classic Master so helpful with the Valyard; because it was future version of
himself that made the Valyard. Practically that wouldn’t work, but hey, it
would have been a very ballsy move by Moffat.
Disappointed not to see what
Missy’s TARDIS looked like before she was vaporized (although let’s all just
agree that she teleported away at the last minute and not be surprised when she
comes back).
The Doctor as President of
Earth is an interesting angle, but it seems to be there just to give him
nothing to do while Missy and Clara carrying the weight of the show.
Now the Doctor as the person
who has to pull the trigger and kill Missy in cold blood. That’s something
worth watching. He was willing to do it; not because she was a threat, but to
spare Clara getting blood on her hands.
Danny’s ending speech is
cheesy, but the timing of this episode is not a coincidence and I think, the
idea that a normal soldier could succeed where a member of the most powerful
species in the universe couldn’t is a pretty good tribute.
The episode ends on a new
dynamic between Clara and the Doctor. When they first met, most of what the
Eleventh Doctor said to her was a series of lies designed to keep her around.
With the Twelfth Doctor most of what Clara tells him (with regards to her
personal life) is a series of lies designed to keep him around. The end of this
episode shows that we’ve come to a point where neither tells the other the
truth. Clara can’t tell the Doctor that Danny’s well and truly dead and the
Doctor can’t tell Clara that Missy was lying about Gallifray.
And there’s a teaser involving
Santa Claus….no not getting into that.
Got some holes in the story
but a good villain, worth watching.
