Doctor Who: Hell Bent

Does anyone stay dead in this series?

Steven Moffat is often compared to George RR Martin, for his penchant for killing off popular characters. I’ve never really understood this; he doesn’t kill off characters; Amy and Rory didn’t die, Osgood didn’t die; the only popular character he’s ever killed off is the Doctor.

It’s not that bringing Clara back doesn’t work; it does. But why does she survive and basically become the Doctor at the end of the episode? It’s just so annoying how writers for this show drum up heart wrenching deaths for the character and then chicken out. Davies did it in Journey’s end with Donna. It’s a cop out; it’s like Star Trek where only the redshirts die.

Aside from that pretty huge point, this a good way to end the series. Gallifray is back and the Time Lords up to their old tricks. Donald Supter is now playing Rassilon presumably as a result of the Timothy Dalton version being killed by the Master. He’s well played, ditching the outwards anger of his predecessor, for a more, conceited personality, whose anger is kept just below the surface.

Story wise, it’s a pretty good turn that the Doctor doesn’t actually know any specifics about the Hybrid and was just bluffing to get Clara back. The change of coat, to imply the move towards the Valyard didn’t need to be expressly stated however and would have preferred it to be a purely visual message. The General regenerating into a woman (although it comes of the back of the Doctor properly losing the plot) seems a bit gimmicky. Kind of like Moffat is saying, “look we made another female time lord.”

There’s a nice twist at the end with the bookend style and the reveal that it’s actually Clara’s flashback and not the Doctor’s, as he can’t remember her. One thing I would say is that this is far less epic than you would expect a finale to be. The idea that the Hybrid could be the Doctor and Clara combined is interesting, but doesn’t really have any time to be explained before we get to the emotional goodbye bits.

Overall, I’d say this is a bit like The Time of the Doctor for Jenna Coleman, where Moffat has written the story around saying goodbye, instead of fully making sense.

It’s not bad, just not what I was expecting.