TV Review: Doctor Who - Heaven Sent

The penultimate episode of Doctor Who this week wasn’t so much a television programme as a barn-storming showcase of BBC talent. Picking up where last week’s episode left off, after the tragic death of companion Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman), Heaven Sent saw Peter Capaldi’s Doctor tele-ported to a mysterious prison castle.

Pursued by a terrifying yet slow-moving cloaked monster, known as The Veil, The Doctor’s only escape is to confess truths to the beast just before it kills him, although this only really serves to buy him more time to try to solve the mystery of his surroundings. Heartbreakingly, in between run-ins with the creature and the discovery of clues, he imagines himself back in the TARDIS, telling Clara about his adventures whilst she kept her back to him, writing questions on the blackboard, in a fitting tribute to what had been her day job. Despite the fact that this was a solo Capaldi episode, Heaven Sent was as much about Clara as it was about The Doctor. 

As a companion, her character came across as quite two dimensional at the start, but her final series with the show has been no less than a tour de force. Coleman and Capaldi created something very special together, in a welcome move from the slightly-almost-romantic-but-not-quite relationship of previous Doctors and travelling partners. This episode allowed us to see The Doctor grieve – something we’re not always privy to as an audience, as companions have often departed in the final episode, with The Doctor returning a series later damaged, but very much on the mend. Heaven Sent showed us the anguish and mental torment usually glossed over.

Steven Moffat always writes his best work in single setting, claustrophobic environments, and this fantastically imaginative personalised hell allowed him to fully explore The Doctor’s emotional instability, as well as being one of the most inventive plotlines I think we’ve seen a while. As it slowly dawned on us as an audience that The Doctor has been stuck in this loop for a very long time, and the skulls at the bottom of the sea took on an eerie new significance, watching the Time Lord forced to take ‘the long way round’ to such an extreme gave the show a scale and emotional depth beyond compare.

If Peter Capaldi doesn’t win some sort of award for his performance in this episode, let alone this series as a whole, we’ll eat our collective hat. Equal parts angry, resigned, guilt-ridden and defiant, Capaldi’s performance here was an intense emotional journey, carried off with trademark ease. Between his extraordinary talent, Rachel Talalay’s able direction and Moffat’s stunning concept, all supported by a gorgeous score and fantastic set design, this episode could happily have been feature length.

Series 9 of Doctor Who has been one of the best in a while, with Capaldi settled into the role, and his companionship with Clara going from strength to strength. The two-parter structure has really helped, and I for one hope that it continues into the next series.

Although past follies remain unforgotten, the show seems to be on a role at the moment.

And frankly, te fact that television of this calibre is available as regular Saturday night entertainment serves as an excellent two fingers up to recent criticism of the BBC licence fee, and is reason enough to keep the Beeb going for many years to come. 

This is me signing off on Series 9, as Becky will be here with you next week for Hell Bent – it looks like it’s going to be a cracker.

Jen

Follow @AssortedBuffery on Twitter
Or like our Facebook page

TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - The Witch's Familiar

Not to intentionally start on a negative note, but The Witch’s Familiar was always going to be a bit of an anti-climax after last week’s excellent series opener.

Fortunately, however, the episode was good enough in its own right that said anti-climax is really just a side note – one of a few small niggles in what was otherwise a really rather good episode of Doctor Who.

As with Series 8, we’ve had an early appearance here for classic enemies the Daleks, albeit with a twist, as Davros (Julian Bleach) emerges as more the star of the show than his creations. Picking up pretty much exactly where The Magician’s Apprentice left off, The Witch’s Familiar (I’m with Becky on the series titles!) sees The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) still trapped at heart of the Dalek empire, with no sonic screwdriver, no TARDIS, no friends and, or so you’d think, no hope.

Except of course, he’s The Doctor, and his loyal friends Clara (Jenna Coleman) and er, well Missy (Michelle Gomez) too I suppose, aren’t too far away, having ejected themselves from the compound after Missy saw through its spaceship disguise. Whilst The Doctor chats with his nemesis Davros, providing us with some of the most compelling dialogue we’ve seen in recent series to boot, Clara and Missy steal their way action-movie style through the Dalek sewers in an attempt to rescue him.

Said dialogue provided ample and interesting opportunities for the ‘What makes a good man?’ question to come up again, and what that means when you can quite easily time travel back to the past and not save the life of a small boy who will go on to murder billions – to pluck one example totally at random. Both Capaldi and Bleach handled it magnificently. Capaldi in general has really settled into the role in this second series. Now that he’s not in anybody else’s shadow but his own, a new confidence is emerging, symbolised rather well by his new shades (more on those later). And despite such serious and poignant considerations going on in the foreground – it’s marvellously good fun.

There were laugh out loud moments peppered through the episode, “The only other chair on Skaro”, “Course, the real question is ‘Where did he get his cup of tea?’” and the now infamous “pointy stick” to name but a handful. Michelle Gomez’s continued presence no doubt adds to this general atmosphere of amusement, with Who now unimaginable without her.

She also provides an interesting contrast with Jenna Coleman’s dutiful Clara, who can’t help but come across as much more than a walking hairdo next to her eccentric antics. What Missy is really up to though, remains to be seen. The fact that you can’t help but watch her from the edge of your seat is in part due to the brilliant energy of her performance, but also because at any moment she could drop the mask and dramatically change the status quo. Or you know, just find a new pointy stick.

The episode’s most memorable moment for many will be that of Clara trapped inside the Dalek, itself in many ways a call back to Soufflé girl, and through it our learning about how Daleks translate and channel their emotion into killing. Turns out “Exterminate” isn’t just a catchphrase, it’s their way of re-loading. Who knew? It also gave her a much needed angle, in what was otherwise fast becoming a tea party of The Doctor and his biggest nemeses.

We learn too, that Missy has, or at least had, a daughter at some stage, which, coupled with her seemingly genuine efforts to save The Doctor, leave us wondering just how many gaps need to be filled in our knowledge of their friendship, as opposed to what we already know about how many times they’ve tried to kill each other. Hopefully this reference means we’re going to find out more.

On the downside, I’m not sure quite how to feel about the ‘wearable technology’ instead of the screwdriver. It all felt rather too James Bond for my liking, much as I do like the sunglasses as a fun accessory. The sewers were a bit mad, too. Interesting idea to have decaying Daleks down there, but I couldn't quite understand why they were so angry. Surely, as Daleks, they would understand that they are ultimately just expendable killing machines? And with the spirit of self-sacrifice for the Dalek cause which so many of them have shown over the years, you'd think they'd understand that it's all for the greater good of Skaro? Or maybe this is all part of the development of their emotional side, hinted at frequently in this episode.

Will the show continue down this intriguing vein of balancing on knife edge between fun and sinister? Will we find out more about The Doctor and Missy? What will Clara’s hair be doing next week?

Becky will be with you for all this and more.

-Jen

-        

Follow @AssortedBuffery on Twitter
Or like our Facebook page

TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - Death in Heaven

After what has been a really cracking series, last night millions of us tuned in for ‘Death in Heaven’, the Doctor Who Season 8 finale. And what a finale it was.

Picking up largely where last week’s ‘to be continued’ episode left off, with mercifully only the shortest of re-caps, we re-join The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) outside St Paul’s Cathedral with the newly revealed The Master, otherwise known as Missy (Michelle Gomez). Meanwhile, Clara (Jenna Coleman) is still trapped inside with a particularly menacing looking Cyberman, calmly attempting to talk/lie herself out of danger whilst Cyber-beings descend on every city on Earth.

With the entire planet in danger from extra-terrestrial beings, naturally it wasn’t long before UNIT turned up, this time in the form of the brilliant Osgood (Ingrid Oliver) as well as worthy leader Kate (Jemma Redgrave). Together they hauled both The Doctor and Missy off onto ‘Earth Force One’ an aeroplane with a distinctly presidential feel, as it turns out that in this sort of turn of events, The Doctor sort of becomes Earth President apparently. And with the Cybermen raising a terrifying new army, he hasn’t got a lot of choice but to get on with it.

With so much going on, this episode really benefited from its hour length. For one, we had Missy prancing maniacally about in her Victorian nanny grab, heartlessly killing people left, right and centre one second, and firing off icy, barbed one-liners the next. All credit to Michelle Gomez for her role in this series, she really has been fantastic, and a worthy nemesis for fellow Scot Peter Capaldi, who’s Doctor has developed extraordinarily well into a version of the character we haven’t really seen before. This finale allowed him to come to terms with who he is, a question that’s been hanging over the whole series arc. Turns out he’s just an idiot with a box and screwdriver, which is all we really wanted to hear. 

As well as packing a serious emotional punch through Clara and Cyber-Danny’s heart-wrenching goodbye, (after all, you can’t have a Doctor Who finale without a few tears these days) the episode was brimming with so much action that at times it felt more like a Bond film than an episode of Doctor Who. It certainly carried it off well, mind. From THAT flying scene, to the destruction of the plane to the jet-packing villains, it was real edge-of-your-seat stuff, although mixed with elements of genuine sci-fi horror as the Cybermen went all zombie on us. 

Speaking of emotional punches, it seems that, although the ‘is she or isn’t she’ departing Clara is at least returning for the Christmas Special (more on that in a moment), we have indeed said goodbye to Danny Pink (Samuel Anderson) for good. Not only has he been a great returning character, but he had the unique opportunity of dying three times, twice of which were in incredibly selfless, heroic circumstances. Not only did he save the entire human race, but when given an opportunity to be re-born, sacrificed his own life for that of the young boy he once killed in Afghanistan. It was a fitting tribute to a brave and loyal soldier, particularly given the strong military themes present throughout this series. The only final sadness was that The Doctor never got to find out quite how selfless ‘P.E’ had in fact been, although again it did seem fitting that Clara and The Doctor both parted on a lie. At least for now.

It is often the case with Doctor Who that even when characters leave, we never truly feel that they are gone, gone. (The Master him/herself being a classic example). And it seems that this also will be true of Clara, particularly given the jokey feel to the final credits, including the appearance of Nick Frost (!), as Father Christmas in the Christmas Special prequel.

Frankly it can’t come around quick enough. This series has been excellent, and I can’t wait to see what Christmas and Series 9 have to offer. 

Jen

@jenniferklarge

Follow @AssortedBuffery on Twitter
Or like our Facebook page  

TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - Mummy on the Orient Express

 After last week’s trip to the moon, (read Becky’s review here), Doctor Who went all Agatha Christie this week, although naturally there was a non-Earthly twist or two.

‘Mummy on the Orient Express’ provided yet another state the obvious title, although admittedly quite a charming one. Dressed in a gorgeous 1920s flapper dress which I don’t even need to Google far to know caused many a Whovian fan-boy heart to flutter, Clara (Jenna Coleman), joined The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) for what turned out to be their ‘last hurrah’, despite last week’s colossal, and completely called for, row. Anyway, as this was an episode of Doctor Who, and not Downton Abbey, despite what the lavish surroundings would suggest, all is not quite what it seems on board the beautiful space train.

In actual fact, and again you probably got this from the title, there is a Mummy on board, picking off victims one by one, with one particular grandmother murdered even before the opening credits. Phewf. From the moment the victim sees the Mummy, and they alone see it, as, chillingly, it is invisible to everyone else, they have exactly 66 seconds to live. A little specific, The Doctor is quick to establish. Perhaps this is more than just your average Ancient Egyptian monster?

In typical murder mystery fare, it turns out there are plenty of smart alecs aboard who are willing to help, including professors, doctors and ex-soldiers, continuing the running theme of the series. Also on board is Frank Skinner, in a star turn as chief train engineer Perkins. Whilst it wasn’t necessarily  a bad job from the comedian, far from it, he could happily turn up again and it would totally work, you couldn’t help but feel that, unlike other guest turns or even the tiny cameo from the uber cool singer Foxes at the start of the episode, the show was doing more a favour to him as a Whovian than it was to audiences. But ho hum.

Whilst ‘Mummy…’ was good fun, and certainly one of the more visually memorable situation specific episodes of recent times, it didn’t really contribute a whole lot to, well, anything really. As I mentioned earlier, Clara’s ‘wobble’ of last week, is all but ignored as she walks straight into shot just a few minutes in, virtually arm in arm with The Doctor. Her later U-turn on her original feelings, whilst not remotely surprising given her evident reluctance to walk away as the episode went on, did her a disservice as a companion shaping up to be just a little tougher, and more confident in her own mind than previous doe-eyed travel pals have been. She’s had quite a few chances to shine in recent episodes, and all credit to Jenna Coleman for some really cracking performances, it just that this wasn’t one of her character’s better moments.

The monster, and indeed its architect, whilst clever in concept during the middle chunks of the episode, weren’t really explained by the end, leaving us wondering, and perhaps hoping, that something more will come of them later. This was another episode lacking in the Missy department, so perhaps they’re in some way connected with her? 

All that said, the episode did deal well with the elements of this new, slightly reckless Doctor that we’re still getting used to just as much as Clara is. In what was probably one of the best scenes of the episode, Clara, having once again lost her faith in this Doctor who blatantly lies to her face and asks her to do the same, awakens to find herself on the beach of a far-off planet, wrapped in a chintzy blanket. (Perhaps it will turn up as a blouse later?) Still not entirely sure what’s happened, when she asks about their fellow passengers survival, she’s met with exactly the sort of darkly sarcastic reply that only Capaldi can really pull off: ‘No, I just saved you. I let everyone else suffocate’. Whilst a brilliant line in itself, this also showed a wonderful awareness of The Doctor’s increasingly callous attitude, and isn’t a line we’d really have heard from any other recent incarnation of the character.

So, whilst I had a few issues with ‘Mummy on the Orient Express’, and its brushing under the faux 1920s carpet of several key things, I’m not going to argue too much with an episode that included the line Are you my Mummy?, to a mummy, in what was generally an excellent script from newbie Jamie Mathieson.

Next week’s ‘Flatline’ looks like quite a Clara-centric episode, which might give us some much-needed answers as to her future in the police box and stop me harping on about it too much.

But Becky will be telling you all about that, so keep an eye out for her review!

Jen
@jenniferklarge

You can check out Becky’s thoughts on Time Heist  here.

Follow @AssortedBuffery on Twitter
Or like our Facebook page