Who in Heaven

I can’t believe that this series of Doctor Who has already come to an end. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity from the 50th anniversary and Christmas episodes the series seems to have flown past. The Dark Water / Death In Heaven two-parter has brought a close to what, in my mind, has been an excellent series. In many ways this end of season finale has brought home much of what I felt about this year as a whole in that it feels much more in touch with the classic series but with a thoroughly modern makeover.

Dark Water was a great build up for the episode. Danny’s death in a road accident must be a stark warning of the distraction of mobile phones. I tried to point this out to Raymond but apparently he doesn’t use his phone whilst on the street. I had hoped that this was due to safety concerns but apparently he doesn’t want to pay for data on the move (tight git!) The scenes that followed with Clara seemingly stranding the Doctor in a volcano might have appeared to be a bit of a cop-out but I think we saw more character development between the Doctor and Clara here than at any other point during the series. What followed was new territory for Doctor Who – a trip into the underworld.

It was clear from the outset that the Nethersphere was going to have a Sci-Fi rather than supernatural explanation for the afterlife but it was still rather dark territory for a family drama. In spite of the controversy over the cremation story I thought the script writers stayed within the boundaries of taste but I must admit that the “Don’t cremate me” idea made me wince. Clearly it was integral to the plot but it could have been a bit much for someone who had suffered recent bereavement. However, what happened to the reanimated corpses inside the cybermen is a more disturbing concept to me.

As for the identity of Missy – well, I did have a guess at that right at the beginning. That doesn’t mean it was a poor reveal – in fact it rather adds to the delight of finding out for certain and so far I think Michelle Gomez is perfect for the role. Whilst I like John Simm as an actor I found his portrayal of The Master to be over the top and I felt he was too young to feel right in the part. However, Missy is a delightfully sinister realisation of the role and at times she seemed to be channelling Roger Delgado’s urbane charm into the body of Mary Poppins from Hell. I’m hoping that this isn’t the last we see of her – I suppose anything is possible in Doctor Who.

Death In Heaven was more of a straight forward action piece and whilst I liked it, it didn’t quite live up to the set-up as much as I’d hoped. However, given that I think the series is harking back to the classic stories here was an episode that would have fitted right into the Jon Pertwee era: huge action sequences, UNIT roaring out with all guns blazing and the Master being as dastardly and deceitful as ever. I always thought that the life expectancy of a UNIT soldier was pretty poor (and Sanjeev Bhaskar may as well have shown up wearing a red jersey) but there was never a possibility that anything untoward would happen to the regulars. Now it’s a case of all bets off and I’m still cursing them for zapping fangirl Osgood – partly as I liked the character and possibly because I quite fancy Ingrid Oliver. In fact the body count was pretty gruesome and I did feel that a few of the characters were bumped off for no particularly good reason – I was hoping for some greater revelation about Seb but at least he met his maker with Jazz hands.

Season arcs in Doctor Who have never worked that well: lots of anticipation with the build-up but with an anti-climax at the end. The classic series didn’t bother with them for the most part and when they did, such as the Key to Time and the Trial of a Timelord the payoff was always rather disappointing. I think this has also been the case with the new series but at least I felt this ended in a largely satisfactory way. The only thing that bothers me is that there seem to be several oddly hanging plot threads, particularly from the episode Listen, which should have been addressed. No doubt these will be resolved in future episodes.

So how do I feel about the 8th series of the revived programme? I had worried that the show would flounder without Matt Smith but I had high hopes when Peter Capaldi was announced. He is both a great character actor and a supreme fan of the series. I don’t think he has disappointed but it’s not just his contribution that has heightened my enjoyment of this series. Something seems to have jelled with the production team, writers, producers, directors and, not least, the supporting actors during this series. I’ve had a couple of niggles: The current arrangement of the theme tune is a bit insipid and I really couldn’t get over that whole Moon as an egg thing but aside from that I really don’t think there has been a duff episode – there has also been a huge variety of them ranging from the comic to the series, the cerebral to the action-packed, the mundane to the profound: something for everyone and every mood.

Now we are at the end of the series I’ve been able to delve a bit deeper into the fan forums to see what everyone else has been thinking about it. The first thing that struck me is what a miserable bunch of sods the hard-core Whovians can be. When the series disappeared in 1989 I really didn’t think I would ever see it on TV again. When the series was re-commissioned in 2005 I was delighted and I have remained delighted ever since. I think the main problem is that the sort of core fandom that spends hours on internet forums (and I would include myself in that) will never be happy – mainly as many of them think they should be writing the series themselves (this is nearly always a bad idea). Personally I would far rather run the risk of an occasional clunker rather than have the same format trotted out week after week or have the whole thing reduced to a glorified soap opera which seems to be the death-knell of so much modern Sci-Fi and fantasy television.

However, it’s interesting to see how much of a lack of perspective some fans have: One claimed that the Kill The Moon episode was the end of the world for him (I’m assuming a “him” and surely it was the end of the Moon?) Many others seemed to take a dislike to the Forest In The Night episode which surprised me. I’ve watched it again and it was refreshingly different – poetic Sci-Fi in the kind of Wyndhamesque cosy catastrophe that we rarely see these days. However, I have also seen many other fans who have been delighted by series 8 – many claiming it to be the best since the series returned. I think I am very much in that camp. In every series there have always been one or two episodes that I haven’t really been bothered with (with the possible exception of Matt Smith’s first series although I would tend to agree with Steven Moffat that The Beast Below was “a bit of a mess”). With this series I have found myself re-watching every episode within a few days of the original airing. They all stand up to repeat watching and I can see myself watching the whole thing again.

So that’s it until Christmas Day. Until them we have Atlantis in the Saturday night “Doctor Who slot”. I quite enjoyed the first series of that one but if I waver, I suppose I could always watch Flatline again…