Doctor Who Death In Heaven Review

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Chris Addison, Clara Oswald, Cybermen, Danny Pink, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Death In Heaven, Doctor Who Series Eight, Ingrid Oliver, Jemma Redgrave, Jenna Coleman, Kate Stweart, Michelle Gomez, Missy, Osgood, Peter Capaldi, Rachel Talalay, Samuel Anderson, Sanjeeve Bhaskar, Seb, St Paul's Cathedral, Steven Moffat, TARDIS, The 12th Doctor, The Gate Keeper of the Nethersphere, The Master, The Nethersphere, UNIT

Death In Heaven

Review by Paul Bowler

[Contains Spoilers]

In 24 hours the human race will cease to exist. The Cybermen have invaded London, a new indestructible army built from humanity’s dead. Missy has been revealed as the Doctor’s arch nemesis, the Master! With Danny deceased, trapped in the Nethersphere, an impossible decision looms for Clara as the Cybermen close in. As the Cyber-Invasion spreads around the world, the Doctor joins forces with old friends, but can even the might of UNIT help the Doctor defeat this terrifying alliance between the Master and the Cybermen? The Doctor must his face the greatest challenge of all and difficult sacrifices will have to be made to save the world…

Death in Heaven concludes the exciting two-part series eight finale, as the Cyber-Invasion continues in this special hour-long episode, written by show runner Steven Moffat, and directed by Rachael Talalay. Now that the secret of the “Promised Land” and Missy’s true identity has been revealed, the dark and ominous tone of this this action packed season finale kicks into high gear as Steven Moffat engineers the mother all showdowns for the Doctor and his UNIT allies as they battle the combined menace of Missy and the Cybermen.

While Clara tries to deceive the Cybermen that she’s really the Doctor, the Cybermen hidden in the Dark Water tanks at the 3W Institute begin to emerge onto the streets of London, where the Doctor, still reeling from discovering that Missy is his old enemy, the Master, can only look on helplessly as the Cybermen march past St Paul’s Cathedral towards the unsuspecting civilians. Missy encourages people to take selfies with the Cybermen, giving the concealed UNIT forces time make their move, but even though they capture Missy the dome of St Paul’s cathedral opens and 91 Cybermen take to the air – except for one that remains and explodes over London to unleash a deadly cloud of Cyber-Pollen. Missy gleefully informs the Doctor, Kate Stewart, and Osgood the Cybermen will target the other key areas of significant population density in the UK to spread the Cyber-Pollen – something the Cybermen are now doing simultaneously on a global scale in every town and city around the world. As the dark clouds gather over graveyards, funeral homes, and mortuaries, the rain starts to fall and the Cyber-Pollen begins its heinous work – infusing the corpses of the dead and reanimating them as Cybermen.

Steven Moffat rounds off series eight of Doctor Who in fine style with Death in Heaven, building on the deeply unsettling premise established in Dark Water (Where all of Earth’s dead had been transformed into a Cyber-Army, their minds stored in the Nethersphere – a Gallifreyan Hard Drive – were their emotions are subsequently deleted before transplantation back into the Cybermen), to provide a harrowing and emotional roller coaster ride for the Doctor and Clara that will test their friendship to the limit.

Needless to say, Peter Capaldi is superb as the 12th Doctor in Death in Heaven. Here we see just how dark and uncompromising this incarnation can be, and Capaldi delivers an absolutely magnificent performance that will have you on the edge of your seat. Jenna Coleman is also brilliant as Clara Oswald, whose character has constantly evolved over the course of series eight, and the culmination of the events and decisions Clara ultimately makes in Death in Heaven makes this arguably one of Coleman’s best episodes to date.

Death in Heaven also marks the welcome return of UNIT to help the Doctor fight the Cybermen and Missy. Peter Capaldi’s 12th Doctor has constantly voiced his dislike of the military since his regeneration, which creates a really interesting dynamic here as he’s forced to work alongside the Brigadier’s daughter, Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave), together with Ossgood (Ingrid Oliver), now sporting an 11th Doctor style bow tie instead of the 4th Doctor scarf she wore in The Day of the Doctor (2013), and Colonel Ahmed (Sanjeev Bhaskar). The Time Lord takes to the skies as the newly appointed President of Earth, where he is given control of the worlds military forces and is expected to coordinate their retaliation against to the Cyber-Invasion.

Its good to see Jemma Redgrave return as UNIT’s chief scientific advisor Kate Stewart, she gets some really powerful scenes alongside the Doctor, even confronting the Cybermen in London where she throws the head of an Invasion style Cybermen – that originally featured in The Invasion (1968) – at the feet of their new counterparts to make her point. When Kate brings the Doctor, the TARDIS, and the captured Missy to a special UNIT aircraft that serves as its secret mobile headquarters (just like her father Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart used in The Invasion), there’s a great scene where the Doctor notices a portrait of Kate’s late father – its a fleeting moment; and one which resonates poignantly with events later in the episode.

Samuel Anderson gives a particularly moving performance in Death in Heaven as Clara’s boyfriend, Danny Pink, the former soldier turned Maths teacher, sent to the Nethersphere after he died, where Missy’s conniving assistant, Seb, sinisterly played by Capaldi’s The Thick of it co-star Chris Addison, now explains to Danny that he – along with the other minds of the recently deceased stored in this Gallifreyian data cloud – are about to be sent back from what they believed was the afterlife with an added upgrade…

Transformed into a Cyberman, the moment where Danny awakens in the Chaplet Funeral Home is genuinely chilling. He saves Clara from the Cybermen at the 3W Institute and takes her to a graveyard, where Danny’s role becomes even more vital, and the groundwork already established earlier in the series really comes to the fore. The traumatic event that caused Danny to leave the army, when he accidentally killed a young boy (Antonio Bourouphael), continues to haunt him in Death in Heaven while his love for Clara remains undiminished, despite her lies, and she becomes his guiding light as he later confronts the most heartrending decision of all.

The army of Cybermen created from the remains of every human being that ever died, is a deeply unsettling concept, and one from which Steven Moffat skilfully wrings every ounce of horror from as we witness Clara stumbling through a graveyard just as the Cybermen begin to rise from the graves. Danny’s Cyber-resurrection in the mortuary is another scary scene that’s sure to send a few chills down the spine before the realisation of who he actually is begins to sink in. The Cyber-Pollen is perhaps the most grotesque use of cyber-technology that we’ve ever seen in Doctor Who, used to weaponise the dead, the Cybermen have created the ultimate form of Cyber-Conversion, and the way its implemented in this episode is truly horrific. These Cybermen also have a new ability, the power of flight, and their chest units emit a scanning beam to try and validate Clara’s identity when she tries to buy herself more time by pretending to be the Doctor – a witty subterfuge that cleverly spills over into the opening titles of the episode to keep us guessing.

It doesn’t take Missy long to orchestrate her escape, she ruthlessly kills Osgood, and summons the Cybermen to attack the plane mid-air. I was really surprised when Osgood was killed, and the senseless nature of her sudden death left us with no doubt just how evil and manipulative Missy can be. When the Doctor confronts Missy he’s horrified by what she’s done to Osgood, but when the Doctor receives a call via the TARDIS from Clara whose just discovered that Danny is a now a Cyberman, Missy finally reveals that she was the one that originally gave Clara the phone number to the Doctor’s TARDIS in The Bells of St John (2013), and she also put advert in the paper in Deep Breath (2014). Missy is the person who brought the Doctor and Clara together, the control freak and the man that should never be controlled, and the irony of her grand design to keep them together really hits home as the Cybermen tear into the fuselage, sending Kate Stewart plummeting to her doom before Missy teleports away and the plane explodes. The special effects used to bring us the Cybermen’s attack on the plane are stunning, the action doesn’t let up for a single moment, and the aftermath of the aircrafts destruction throws the Doctor into a nail biting freefall towards the TARDIS.

The gender reassignment for the Doctor’s old enemy, the Master, has given the renegade Time Lord a whole new lease of life as the gloriously twisted Mary Poppins-like incarnation known as Missy – the woman that we’ve seen welcoming the recently deceased in series eight after they’ve arrived in the faux afterlife of the Nethersphere. Michelle Gomez gives a wonderfully villainous performance as Missy, successfully channelling the sinister charm and menace of the Master with a mischievous twinkle in her eye as she revels in her evil scheme. The scene where she kills Osgood, initially taunting her, and then crushing her glasses underfoot after killing her is really cold. Missy’s scenes with the Doctor are the real highlight of Death in Heaven, especially when she taunts him about killing his friends and teases him with her claims that she actually knows the location of Gallifrey. The chemistry between Michelle Gomez and Peter Capaldi is positively electric, their verbal sparing perfectly captures the essence of the classic rivalry between these two characters, and it certainly makes for a fittingly epic confrontation between the 12th Doctor and this new version of the Master.

After using the TARDIS to reach the graveyard, where Clara is trying to activate Danny’s emotional inhibitor to end his suffering because even though he’s a Cybermen he has still retained his emotions, the Doctor is reluctant to help as he fears Danny will try and kill Clara after his emotions are deleted. The Doctor also needs to know what the rumbling storm clouds of Cyber-Pollen will do next, however, Danny informs him that in order to access the Cybermen’s hive mind his emotional inhibitor will have to be switched on. The Doctor reluctantly agrees and Clara tearfully says goodbye to Danny before using the sonic screwdriver to switch on the inhibitor. Danny reveals that a second rainfall is imminent, and this time all humanity will die and rise again as Cybermen. Missy teleports to the graveyard and offers the Doctor control of the Cyber-Army as a twisted birthday present for the Time Lord, so he can use them however he wants to save the universe from tyranny. Aghast that anyone should have such power, the Doctor rejects the offer, giving the control bracelet to Danny, whereby the former soldier takes command of the Cyber-Army and orders them to fly into the skies where they explode and destroy the Cyber-Pollen clouds.

These riveting final moments of the battle conclude with a furious Clara threatening to kill Missy with her own weapon, and she’s angry that the Doctor hasn’t done so before. The Doctor intervenes, saying he will kill Missy for her, but before he can act a lone Cyberman suddenly fires at Missy and vaporises her. The Doctor and Clara discover Kate Stewart unconscious on the ground nearby, she’s still alive, and was saved by the Cyberman. The moment when it suddenly dawns on the Doctor that the Cyberman that saved Kate is her father, the Brigadier, also resurrected by the Cyber-Pollen, is both haunting and deeply moving, and the Doctor’s farewell salute to his old friend before the Cyberman soars into the sky makes this beautifully poignant scene even more special.

Death in Heaven really shows what the Doctor and Clara are made of. We’ve seen over the course of series eight how both of them have been capable of making difficult choices that haven’t always necessarily rested easily with them, secrets and lies have also shaped and defined their adventures, so it is perhaps fitting that this series finale concludes with the Doctor and Clara not being entirely honest with each other. The coda that unfolds two weeks later as Clara meets with the Doctor to end her travels with him and say goodbye is tinged with sadness and deceit for both of them.

We know Danny found enough power in Missy’s bracelet to return to the living world, but Clara doesn’t tell the Doctor that Danny chose instead to send the young boy he accidentally killed when he was a soldier back in his place – sacrificing his last chance of being reunited with Clara – knowing she will help him put things right. Likewise, we see the Doctor take the TARDIS to the coordinates that Missy said were for Gallifrey – having claimed the planet had actually returned to its original location – only to find an empty region of space, where he flies into a furious rage inside the TARDIS at being given this glimmer of hope by his old enemy only to have it cruelly snatched away. After saying their farewells, unaware of the others lies, the Doctor’s solitary travels in the TARDIS are suddenly interrupted by a very unexpected and special Christmassy visitor…

I really liked how Dark Water and Death in Heaven were not quite as time twistingly complex as some of the previous season finales, instead we had the focus placed firmly on making it a more straightforward action-adventure, and I think that made these episodes all the more enjoyable. Sure, it’s not 100% perfect, few season finales ever are. The resolution to the cliff-hanger was initially a little stilted, with civilians taking selfies with the Cybermen, and I was really sad to see Oswin get killed. However, overall I thought Missy was an excellent foil for the Doctor, and the Cybermen were used effectively by the story and were really creepy in the graveyard scenes. Steven Moffat’s tense and exciting storyline was fast paced and skilfully brought all the elements of series eight together, and Rachel Talalay’s confident direction made this two-part series finale gripping viewing.

Death in Heaven was a great way to bring Peter Capaldi’s impressive first season as the 12th Doctor to a close. I’ve really enjoyed series eight, there’s been a great mix of stories, and the performances by Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman as the Doctor and Clara have been excellent. Samuel Anderson has also been exceptionally good as Danny Pink, and Michelle Gomez was superb as Missy. Peter Capaldi has completely won me over as the 12th Doctor, he’s proved to be a perfect choice for the role, and I can’t wait to see what happens next in the Christmas Special!

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Doctor Who Dark Water Review

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Andrew Leung, Chris Addison, Clara Oswald, Cybermen, Danny Pink, Dark Water, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Dark Water, Doctor Who Series 8, Dr Chang, Jenna Coleman, Michelle Gomez, Missy, Peter Capaldi, Rachel Talalay, Seb, St Paul's Cathedral, Steven Moffat, TARDIS, The 12th Doctor, The Gate Keeper of the Nethersphere, The Master, The Nethersphere

Dark Water

Review by Paul Bowler

[Contains Spoilers]

The finale begins… Somewhere, in the mysterious realm of the Nethersphere, a sinister plan has been devised. When the secret organisation known as 3W promises “death is not an end”, the Doctor and Clara must face the darkest day of all. Missy is about to meet the Doctor at last, soon an impossible choice has to be made, and it is during this blackest hour the Time Lord will confront his old enemies – the Cybermen!

Dark Water moves the action to the Nethersphere for the start of this two-part season finale, with a story written by show runner Steven Moffat, and directed by Rachel Talalay. This deeply unsettling and dark episode doesn’t pull any punches as Moffat’s grand design for series eight begins to fall into place, tackling concepts of heaven and the afterlife as the mystery of the “Promised Land” is revealed – delving with unflinching clarity into the chilling life-after-death experiences that await in Dark Water when someone dies.

When Clara decides to phone Danny while he’s on his way to her flat, tragedy strikes, and Danny is struck by a car and killed. Some time later, while Clara’s Gran (Sheila Reid) is visiting her flat, the Doctor finally answers Clara’s telephone call. Hiding her grief, Clara deceives the Doctor to get the TARDIS to a volcanic world, before attempting to force the Doctor to help her change what happened and save Danny – throwing the TARDIS keys into the lava each time he refuses to comply. However, the sleep patches Clara believes she’d managed to subdue the Doctor with have actually been used by the Time Lord to send her into a dream-like state, one that allowed Clara’s grief stricken scenario to play out – albeit harmlessly inside the TARDIS console room – so the Doctor could see how exactly far she was prepared to go to save Danny.

Dark Water gets this two-part series finale off to a cracking start, with its harrowing opening scenes testing the Doctor’s and Clara’s friendship to breaking point. Peter Capaldi is magnificent as the 12th Doctor in this episode, he dominates every scene he’s in, and the sheer gravitas that Capaldi bring to his performance is utterly compelling. Jenna Coleman is also superb in Dark Water as Clara Oswald, whose role has now become so integral to the ongoing narrative of this eighth season, and this episode really rewards us with some major turning points for her character.

Samuel Anderson also returns as Danny Pink in Dark Water, and his sudden demise in the opening moments initially leave you wondering if that’s his lot. Danny soon himself being welcomed to the unsettling realm of the Nethersphere, just like so many before him this series. Samuel Anderson gives his strongest performance yet as Danny Pink, his anguish at discovering he’s apparently dead, is heartrending to watch, and over the course of this episode we also discover the terrible tragedy that caused him to leave the army. Chris Addison (Peter Capaldi’s co-star from The Thick of it) is also excellent as Seb, a being who exists inside the Nethersphere as Missy’s assistant, and there are some terrific scenes between Seb and Danny as the real nature of this otherworldly realm is gradually revealed.

In a brilliantly scripted moment between the Doctor and Clara by Steven Moffat, were even treachery and betrayal fails to diminish their timeless bond of friendship, the Doctor resolves to help Clara bring Danny back from whatever hereafter might exist. With the navcom offline, the Doctor has Clara use the telepathic interface to locate Danny (just like she did in the episode Listen), which brings the TARDIS to a foreboding mausoleum, where the individual tombs contain seated skeletal corpses immersed in a clear fluid.

On closer inspection, the Doctor and Clara discover the mausoleum is the 3W Institute, and following their initial encounter with Missy (Michelle Gomez), who pretends to be a multi-function interactive welcome-droid, they encounter Dr Chang (Andrew Leung) – using the psychic paper to establish the Doctor’s credentials in a way that humorously references Capaldi’s former well known role as the foul-mouthed Malcolm Tucker from The Thick of it – who offers Clara the chance to talk to Danny Pink, via signals the institutes founder, Dr Skarosa, discovered in broadcast white noise signals that are believed to be telepathic messages from the recently departed. The horrific nature of Dr Chang’s and Seb’s claims, that the dead remain conscious and fully aware of everything that’s happening to them, provides a ghoulishly disturbing afterthought that takes this episode into some of the darkest territory that has been explored so far over this course of this series.

The Cybermen make a dramatic return in Dark Water. Ever since they made their first appearance in the 1st Doctor’s final story, The Tenth Planet (1966), the Cybermen have become one of the Time Lord’s deadliest enemies. The Cybermen have undergone several upgrades over the years. This latest version of the Cybermen, which debuted in Nightmare in Silver (2013), are sleek, fast, and have the ability to quickly adapt and repair themselves. In Dark Water the Cybermen are in league with Missy, and this time they have ingeniously hidden in plain sight. The skeletal bodies, which Dr Chang explained to the Doctor and Clara as being held in a support exoskeleton and suspended in a “Dark Water” solution that makes the exoskeleton invisible, are really the Cybermen – their metal bodies hidden because inorganic material cannot be seen in the liquid.

Dark Water illustrates just how inhuman the Cybermen really are, perhaps more so than ever before, revealing how little organic mater actually remains within them to make the prospect of Cyber-Conversion seem even more grotesque, transcending the horrific loss of emotions and individuality, and taking the concept of body horror to the ultimate extreme as we realise how completely their victims humanity is stripped away.

The tombs seen in the 3W Institute are reminiscent of the Cybermen’s frozen tombs in the 2nd Doctor’s adventure, Tomb of the Cybermen (1967), and when the Cybermen are unleashed in Dark Water, director Rachel Talalay portrays a Cyber-Invasion that re-creates one of Doctor Who’s most iconic scenes from the 1968 story The Invasion, were the Cybermen also invaded London and marched past St Paul’s Cathedral. Impressive set designs, especially the doors and offices in both the Nethersphere and the 3W Institute, also carry subtle hints of Cyber-Design. Along with the chilling scenes with the skeletons in the tanks, the impressive visual effects also give us our first glimpse inside the Nethersphere itself as Danny contemplates the afterlife.

Having established contact with the Nethersphere the Doctor leaves Clara to talk to Danny in the 3W Institutes office, having prompted her to question Danny to make sure that its really him she’s speaking too, while he goes with Dr Chang to investigate the tombs and finds that Missy is waiting for them. While a distraught Danny faces a fateful decision, one that will delete his pain and thereby all his emotions, Missy kills Chang and gives the command to drain the tanks and release the Cybermen. The Nethersphere is revealed to be a Gallifreyan Hard Drive that is actually contained within the 3W Institute itself, where the memories of the dead have been stored so their emotions can be removed before they are transplanted into the Cybermen in the tanks. The Doctor races outside where he is shocked to find himself standing outside St Paul’s Cathedral in present-day London. The Time Lord desperately tries to warn the civilians to flee the area as the Cybermen emerge, but there is one more surprise in store for the Doctor as Missy finally reveals her true identity…

Michelle Gomez gives a mesmerising performance as the villain known as Missy, or perhaps we should say Mistress… Yes, the big reveal of the identity of this mysterious Mary Poppin’s like character that has been welcoming the recently deceased to the Promised Land (one of the many names the Nethersphere is known by) over the course of this season, finally happens in Dark Water. Missy is The Master, the renegade Time Lord and arch enemy of the Doctor! Now the Master is back, as a new female version of the classic villain, having forged a frightening alliance with the Cybermen that will take advantage of mankind’s biggest weakness – the fact that the dead outnumber the living – to strike against humanity in the most horrific way imaginable. The Master’s love of disguises is also utilised in this story, when Missy pretends to be a multi-function interactive welcome-droid, and she even kisses the Doctor at one point!

Michelle Gomez and Peter Capaldi both give incredible performances in Dark Water, the chemistry between them is brilliant, and this episodes cliff-hanger sets up a fittingly epic confrontation between the Time Lord and Time Lady that is sure to keep us on the edge of our seats. With its dark themes, excellent performances all round, great story by Steven Moffat, and taut direction by Rachel Talalay, the first instalment of this two-part series finale is an exciting and thought provoking episode. Dark Water certainly lives up to all the hype, it was great to see the Cybermen return to the series in a more prominent role as well, and I look forward to discovering the full extent of the Master’s grand plan in the concluding part of the series eight finale: Death in Heaven.

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Doctor Who In the Forest of the Night Review

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Abigail Eames, Clara Oswald, Coal Hill School, Danny Pink, Doctor Who In The Forest of the Night, Doctor Who Series 8, Frank Cottrell Boyce, In The Forest of the Night, Jenna Coleman, Maebh, Michelle Gomez, Missy, Peter Capaldi, Samuel Anderson, Sheree Folkson, TARDIS, The 12th Doctor, The Doctor

In the Forest of the Night

Review by Paul Bowler

(Contains Spoilers)

As a new day begins in London, in every city and town around the world, humanity awakens to find the planet in the grip of the strangest invasion yet. Trees have moved back to reclaim the planet, forests have miraculously grown overnight, appearing all over the word, engulfing every city and every land across the globe. The Doctor, Clara, and Danny must take charge of pupils from a Coal Hill School trip to a museum as they venture into the mysterious forest that has engulfed the capitol, encountering wolves and tigers in their attempt to reach safety. The Doctor has never experienced an invasion like this before, even his vast intellect and technology is of little use against such a natural catastrophe, and this could indeed be the end of humanity…

In the Forest of the Night, the tenth episode of series eight is an enchanting story by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, the acclaimed children’s author, screenwriter, and writer of the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony. This delightfully paced episode, with its poetic references, allusions to William Blake’s The Tiger, and ecological themes is beautifully told and vividly brought to life by Director by Sheree Folkson.

The trees have moved back in and London has been transformed into a forest. When lost Coal Hill School student Maebh finds the TARDIS, she asks the Doctor for help, and the Time Lord soon realises why the TARDIS won’t start when he finds he’s landed in Trafalgar Square which is now overgrown with dense vegetation. The forests that have suddenly appeared from nowhere look set to become mankind’s nightmare, and soon all of civilisation is seemingly under threat from this bizarre ecological invasion that has mysteriously enveloped the world. Clara and Danny Pink are also trapped in London with their Year Eight “Gifted and Talented Group” of pupils, following a Coal Hill School sleepover in a museum. Clara phones the Doctor and leans that Maebh is with him, concerned that Maebh hasn’t had her medication (which she takes to alleviate the voices she’s been hearing since her sister, Annabel, went missing a year ago), Clara, together with Danny and the students, set off through the forest to Trafalgar Square to reach the TARDIS.

Peter Capaldi’s 12th Doctor is as magnificent as ever during this episode. In the Forest of the Night shows that the Doctor is at just as much of a disadvantage here as Clara, Danny, and the Coal Hill School pupils – he’s not exactly used to dealing with overgrown forests, wolves, and tigers. The sonic screwdriver isn’t much use to him in this situation either; as it can’t affect wood. In many respects the Earth is also the Doctor’s home, but this bizarre ecological catastrophe has essentially rendered him powerless. The Time Lord is baffled by the inexplicable forests that have suddenly grown worldwide in a day, throw in the added threat of the deadly solar flare racing towards Earth as well, and it’s fascinating to see him faced with such an unusual dilemma.

When Maebh becomes distressed and runs off into the forest again, seemingly because she hasn’t had her medication, the Doctor and Clara have to find her, but the vegetation is overwhelming Nelson’s Column, making it dangerously unstable, government service teams attempting to burn down sections of the forest find the trees are completely resistant to their flamethrowers, and the wildlife which the Doctor believes has escaped from London Zoo is now stalking them all through the forest. Fortunately Danny and the other students are on hand to offer assistance when the Doctor, Clara, and Maebh find themselves corned by a Tiger, so when they all eventually catch up with Maebh it becomes clear the Doctor was right about the voices in her mind and finds that she does indeed have some connection to the source at the heart of the forest.

In the Forest of the Night is another great episode for Jenna Coleman, there are some excellent scene for Clara, and it’s good to see Samuel Anderson return as Danny Pink for another adventure. This story provides some great moments for Clara and Danny, their relationship continues to flourish, although things do hit a bit of a snag when Danny rumbles that Clara went off to phone the Doctor instead of the school and the parents – and later, after Danny finds Maebh’s school book in the TARDIS, he begins to realise that Clara hasn’t been entirely honest with him about finishing her time travelling adventures with the Doctor either.

Clara’s troubled pupil Maebh Arden (played by the excellent Abigail Eames), also has an important role to play during this episode, she has some wonderful scenes with the 12th Doctor, along with her fellow Coal Hill pupils – a great group of young actors – and they all have to find a way to work together in order to survive their adventure in forest. There are flashbacks to their lessons at Coal Hill School as well, and these fun scenes really help to define their characters. I also like how Clara’s group of gifted and talented students manage to overcome their individual problems and differences over the course of this story, they all have own unique attributes and personalities that makes them special to her, and its lovely how Clara explains to the Doctor how she believes that these traits are all superpowers in her eyes if they can be used properly. It’s also fun to see how the children seem almost completely unfazed by the TARDIS interior, before virtually taking over the Console Room as they rush around to explore, with the incredulous 12th Doctor completely out of his depth with all these kids suddenly charging around in the TARDIS.

The pictures the Doctor sees Maebh has drawn in her school book are remarkably similar to the impending solar flare threatening the Earth. It seems that Maebh also believes she created the forest following a dream she had after her sister went missing, but when they are close to the source in the heart of the forest, the Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver to reveal a swarm of tiny glowing energy creatures surrounding her. They speak using her voice, explaining they have existed throughout time, and were summoned by Maebh’s dream to create the forest as they have apparently done many time before in the past.

In the Forest of the Night features some amazing special effects. The panoramic scenes of London, with its famous landmarks overgrown with vegetation, are spectacular, and really engrain the stories premise in your imagination. The way the global effects of this crisis are relayed by a series of television broadcasts are also handled very effectively. There are some good scenes with Maebh’s mother (Siwan Morris) as she sets out to look for her daughter, that also effectively show the vast scale of the forests impact on the capitol. We get to see some very impressive wildlife as well, wolves lurk in the shadows, and a tiger also makes a spectacular appearance.

When it seems there is no hope of saving the world from the solar flare, Clara’s initial suggestion to use the TARDIS as a lifeboat is just a ruse to get the Doctor to save himself, knowing the children would never want to be separated from their parents, even if the world is ending. Clara doesn’t want to be saved either and become the last of her kind like the Doctor. The Time Lord departs in the TARDIS but inspiration strikes as he monitors the solar flare, he returns for Clara, Danny, and the children, explaining how the trees have saved Earth before. The Doctor refers to events in Tunguska, 1908, and the mysterious blast that struck the Siberian region of Russia. He also mentions Curuca, another suspected asteroid impact, this time in Brazil, 1930, and he’s convinced the forests have appeared again; this time to save Earth from the solar flare.

The conclusion of In the Forest of the Night sees the children’s class project to save the Earth become a global broadcast, where Maebh calls on the nations of the world to stop using defoliating agents on the trees so they can protect the planet from the solar flare. She also includes a message for her sister, asking for her to return. Knowing the world will be safe, and having also reached an understanding with Danny, Clara decides to accompany the Doctor in the TARDIS and observe the solar flare from orbit as it strikes the Earth, watching in awe as the trees protect the entire surface of the planet from the effects of the fiery impact.

The ending does feel a little rushed, with the world being saved by the trees and the return of Maebh’s sister feeling perhaps less poignant moments than they should have been, although the intriguing, though brief, interlude with Missy (Michelle Gomez) does give us plenty to ponder over as she watches these events unfold. However, the moment where the Doctor and Clara watch from the balcony of her flat as the trees miraculously disperse, were the Time Lord states that humanities superpower to forget will make these events fade away just like the other natural catastrophes in Earth’s history – to become fables and fairytales – does stretch credibility as it wraps everything up using an evergreen reset switch of epic proportions.

In the Forest of the Night is markedly lighter in tone, the majority of episodes in series eight have been much darker, and as a result this episode does feel slightly at odds with what has gone before. The story by Frank Cottrell-Boyce makes for an engaging and poetic episode, and while its doesn’t quite realise the full potential of its intriguing premise, the excellent characterisation and the solid Direction by Sheree Folkson ensures In the Forest of the Night remains an exciting and entertaining adventure. There’s still lots to enjoy here, and the thrilling next time trailer sets the scene perfectly for an incredible looking series eight finale.

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Doctor Who Kill The Moon Review

Tags

12th Doctor, Clara Oswald, Courtney Woods, Danny Pink, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Kill The Moon, Doctor Who Series 8, Ellis George, Jenna Coleman, Kill The Moon, Paul wilmshurst, Peter Capaldi, Peter Harness, Samuel Anderson, TARDIS

Kill the Moon

Review by Paul Bowler

[Contains Spoilers]

After Courtney Woods figured out the Doctor’s secret in The Caretaker, the Time Lord finally grants the Coal Hill School pupil another opportunity to travel in the TARDIS when he offers Courtney the chance to visit the Moon in the future – despite Clara’s reservations. When the TARDIS arrives in 2049 the Doctor, Clara, and Courtney find themselves on a recycled NASA space shuttle with a crew on a suicide mission to blow up the Moon. The shuttle crash lands on the lunar surface, where they discover a derelict mining base full of corpses smothered in webbing. With horrible spider-like creatures scurrying in the darkness, a frightening dilemma must be faced, but when Clara needs the Doctor’s help the most her faith in the Time Lord is severely tested, leaving her wondering if this man she’s trusted so implicitly is really the hero she believed him to be…

Kill the Moon continues the darker, more mysterious tone of series eight, in this exciting seventh episode, from Peter Harness the writer of BBC One’s Wallander and the channels forthcoming adaptation of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, this story transports us to a time where the Moon has become a deadly threat to the Earth. Our nearest neighbour has changed somehow, growing denser, the effect on Earth has been devastating, and giant tidal surges threaten to wash away all of civilisation on the planet. Directed by Paul Wilmhurst (Whose many credits include Silent Witness, Law and Order UK, Strike Back, and DaVinci’s Demons) Kill The Moon is an incredibly tense and darkly atmospheric episode where what began as a straightforward trip into the future to allow Courtney to visit Earth’s satellite suddenly becomes an all-out battle for the survival of the human race.

From its adrenaline fuelled opening, as the space shuttle crash lands on the Moon, the Doctor, Clara, and Courtney are thrown into an uneasy alliance with the ships crew. The base, with its sinister webbed interior and gruesome dead bodies, heightens the tension even further as they explore and something ominous begins to stir in the shadows. Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman have built up a brilliant chemistry between the Doctor and Clara, the Time Lord’s friendship with his companion is brought into even sharper focus in Kill the Moon, especially when his actions during this episode give her real cause for concern about her future with the Doctor. Ellis George delivers another impressive performance as Courtney Woods, the Doctor’s newest travelling companion, and her first proper adventure in the TARDIS certainly opens Courtney’s eyes to the sights the universe has to offer – but she also discovers just how dangerous the Doctor’s and Clara’s adventures can become.

After learning the grisly fate of the Mexican crew of the mining base, the Doctor, Clara, Courtney and Lundvik become cornered by one of the creatures inside the base. When trying to evade the spider, Courtney is momentarily separated from the others and uses the antibacterial spray she had in the TARDIS to kill the vicious arachnid. Unnerved by her experience, Courtney wants to go home. The Doctor begrudgingly takes Courtney back to the TARDIS, where she passes the time by posting pictures of the Doctor on Tumblr. However, when Clara suggests to the Doctor they should leave as well because she’s been to the future and knows the Moon isn‘t destroyed, the Time Lord gravely reminds her there are some moments in time that even he cannot see – and this is one such grey area that whatever happens to the Moon hasn’t been decided yet.

The human astronauts are led by Captain Lundvik, played by Hermione Norris (Spooks, Cold Feet, Wire in the Blood, and In the Club), who together with her team: Duke (Tony Osoba, who also appeared as Lan in the 1979 story Destiny of the Daleks, and Kracauer in 1987’s Dragonfire), Henry (Phill Nice), and McKean (Christopher Dane), are determined to complete their mission and destroy the moon using the shuttles payload of nuclear bombs. Even though the Moon is threatening all life on Earth, when the Doctor discovers the secret within the satellites interior it brings him into conflict with Lundvik and Clara. When Courtney decides she wants to help the Doctor instructs her to use a special DVD that will bring the TARDIS to the mining base. As the surface of the Moon starts to break up the horrifying spider creatures swarm to the surface. The Doctor knows the time has come for him to depart in the TARDIS, leaving Clara, Courtney and Lundvik to make this momentous decision alone, even though his actions place them all in terrible danger.

The Moon has been a popular setting for many of the Doctor’s adventures, the second Doctor battled the Cybermen in The Moonbase (1967) and the Ice Warriors in The Seeds of Death (1969), the 3rd Doctor was sent to a penal colony on the Moon in Frontier in Space (1973), and in Smith and Jones (2007) the 10th Doctor and Martha Jones were transported (along with the Royal Hope Hospital) to the lunar surface where they faced the Judoon and a hungry Plasmavore. The production team returned to the scene of an old adventure to film Kill the Moon, travelling to Lanzarote, where the 5th Doctor story Planet of Fire was filmed in 1983, where the island featured as itself and also doubled for the volcanic plant of Sarn. Kill the Moon makes good used of this location, the stark volcanic landscape provides a really effective double for the lunar surface, and the finished result is seamlessly blended with visual effects to create some amazing scenery for the story.

The Doctor also uses a yo-yo to test the local gravity during this story, something the 4th Doctor did on the Nerva space station in The Ark in Space (1975), and he also practiced tricks with one in The Brain of Morbius (1976). Clara’s instance that she knows the Moon isn’t destroyed in the future mirrors a similar quandary raised by Sarah Jane Smith in The Pyramids of Mars (1975), where the journalist is certain Sutekh didn’t destroy the world in 1911 because she’s from 1980, and the 4th Doctor shows her an alternative time where Sutekh has in fact destroyed the world to illustrate why they can’t just leave in the TARDIS.

The spiders in Kill the Moon are a really creepy and menacing. For the most part they actually keep to the shadows, emanating an unsettling clicking sound as they stalk their prey, before suddenly leaping out to attack. After Courtney manages to kill one the Doctor examines the Prokaryotic Unicellular Life form, and when the Time Lord discovers traces of amniotic fluid on the lunar surface, his suspicions are later verified by a scan of the Moon’s interior. The spiders are like a kind of bacteria, and they’ve been living on a much the larger creature that’s been growing and evolving inside the Moon itself. The Moon isn‘t just breaking up, it’s actually hatching, the Moon is a gigantic egg and a new life form is about to be born into the universe.

Clara faces a life-changing situation to make for all humanity when it seems like the Doctor has abandoned them. With Lundvik’s help, Clara manages to send a message to Earth, one that is broadcast worldwide, where she asks everyone on the planet to help them decide – by either turning their lights to off destroy the Moon with the nuclear bombs or keep them on to allow the creature to hatch and survive. When they see the lights go out around the world, Lundvik arms the bombs, but Clara stops the countdown at the last moment. The Doctor returns and takes them back to Earth in the TARDIS, where they witness the Moon break up as the beautiful winged creature emerges – leaving something very special behind for the Earth as it flies off into the depths of space.

The Doctor knew this was a decision that only humanity could make, he couldn’t do it for them, and he was sure Clara would make the right choice in the end. From this point onwards, during the mid 21st century, the events of this day would inspire humanity to reach out to the stars, and they would ultimately set out to explore the universe. After returning Courtney to school, the Doctor is ready to set of on another adventure, but Clara brings the TARDIS to a halt and angrily confronts the Time Lord about what happened. Jenna Coleman is absolutely terrific in this scene, Clara’s furious diatribe even catches the Doctor off guard, and after she’s stormed out of the TARDIS it doesn’t take Danny Pink (Samuel Anderson) long to figure out what’s happened and offer his advise as he knows all too well what she’s going through because of his experiences in the army.

The Doctor’s reasoning for leaving Clara, Courtney and Lundvik on the Moon, telling them it’s their choice, is quite unlike anything we’ve seen the Time Lord do before in this kind of situation. Kill the Moon highlights just how alien and detached this 12th incarnation can be. Peter Capaldi is magnificent in this episode and the Time Lord’s actions here are sure to have long lasting repercussions for the rest of series eight.

Kill the Moon is a dark, thrilling, and emotional roller coaster ride of an episode from Peter Harness. Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, and Ellis George all deliver brilliant performances in this episode, they make a great team, which makes the resolution of the crisis at the heart of this adventure seem all the more bitter sweet as a result. Paul Wilmhurst’s excellent direction masterfully builds the tension and suspense during the first half of the episode. The dark and sinister atmosphere is heightened even further when the spiders emerge, the Doctor’s and Clara’s friendship is tested to breaking point, and Wilmhurst keeps piling on the shocks and scares right up until the climatic final scenes that will leave you wondering where the Doctor and Clara can go from here.

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Doctor Who The Caretaker Review

Tags

12th Doctor, Clara Oswald, Coal Hill School, Courtney Woods, Danny Pink, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Series 8, Doctor Who The Caretaker, Ellis George, Gareth Roberts, Jenna Coleman, Paul Murphy, Peter Capaldi, Samuel Anderson, Skovox Blitzer, Steven Moffat, TARDIS, The Caretaker

The Caretaker

Review by Paul Bowler

[Contains Spoilers]

Clara is just about managing to keep her life under control, with her job at Coal Hill School, her adventures in time and space; a new boyfriend, and the Doctor, things are all ticking along nicely. However, when the Doctor needs to go undercover in Coal Hill School as its new Caretaker, things get decidedly complicate for Clara. With strange events happening near the school, the entire world is soon at risk as the terrifying Skovox Blitzer prepares to wipe out all humanity, and if that wasn’t enough for the Impossible Girl to deal with Clara’s well organised world is suddenly thrown into complete turmoil when Danny Pink finally meets the Doctor…

Coal Hill School takes centre stage in The Caretaker, the sixth episode of series eight, co-written by Gareth Roberts and Steven Moffat, and directed by Paul Murphy (Robot of Sherwood). The school played a prominent role in the very first episode of Doctor Who in 1963; it was revisited by the 7th Doctor in Remembrance of the Daleks (1988), before featuring in the 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor (2013), and again most recently in the 2014 eighth series episodes Into the Dalek and Listen. Gareth Roberts has written several Doctor Who stories: including The Shakespeare Code (2007), The Unicorn and the Wasp (2008), the Lodger (2010), and Closing time (2011), Roberts has also written many episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures (co-writing the pilot episode Invasion of the Bane with Russell T Davies) and co-wrote the second story in the Doctor Who series of specials in 2009, The Planet of the Dead (also with Russell T Davies). The Caretaker has some similarities with The Lodger, from Matt Smith’s first season, when the 11th Doctor moved into Craig Owens flat to defeat a hidden alien menace, where the Doctor’s attempts to blend also were far from successful.

The Caretaker sees the Doctor taking a new job as Coal Hill School’s new Caretaker, Mr John Smith (A popular alias used by many of the Doctor’s incarnations over the course of the series, and first used by the 2nd Doctor in the 1968 story The Wheel in Space), much to Clara’s horror, and soon the grouchy old Time Lord is causing all sorts of problems for her when he moves the TARDIS into the Caretaker’s storeroom at the school to investigate a new threat facing the Earth. Peter Capaldi has some brilliant comedic moments as the Doctor in this episode, its great fun to see his grumpy and impatient incarnation of the Time Lord trying to get on with his mission, but he soon finds that “boring little humans” and everyday life at Coal Hill School have a way of upsetting his carefully mapped plans to defeat the Skovox Blitzer.

With an increasingly exasperated Clara trying to stop her life imploding around her, matters are complicated even further when events draw Coal Hill pupil Courtney (Ellis George) into the fray. We first saw Courtney momentarily in Deep Breath and Into the Dalek, in The Caretaker we get to know her a bit more, she turns out to be something of a kindred spirit for the Doctor, and she can be every bit as blunt and direct to the point is the Coal Hill’s cantankerous new caretaker.

Clara Oswald is busy living two completely separate lives, having exciting adventures with Doctor one moment, before returning to her life as a teacher at Coal Hill School, while also dating ex-soldier turned maths teacher, Danny Pink. So, when the Doctor postpones Clara’s next adventure because he’s busy with something else, she’s far from impressed when the Doctor later walks into the staff room at Coal Hill School and introduces himself as the new Caretaker. While a Police CSO (Nigel Betts) investigates a disturbance in a nearby abandoned building, only to discover something extremely nasty hiding in the shadows, the Doctor instigates his plan to scan for the alien technology that is threatening the planet. Meanwhile, Clara’s frenetic attempts to keep the Doctor from meeting Danny ultimately prove unsuccessful, and results with a series of misunderstanding between all three of them.

Series eight has shown that although Clara still travels with the Doctor, she‘s still very much a control freak, insisting the Time Lord returns her to her own time moments after she left so that she doesn’t miss out on events happening in her own life. However, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for Clara to balance her normal life with her time travelling adventures, things start getting really chaotic in The Caretaker with the Doctor working at the school, especially now that she’s also dating ex-soldier Danny as well. Having set up a circle of time mines around the school to deal with the alien threat, the scan reveals the Skovox Blitzer’s location, and the Doctor finally explains to Clara how he will use a special watch that can make him invisible to lure the machine creature back to the school where the Chronodyne Generators will drag it into time vortex – sending the Skovox Blitzer billions of years into the future. But when Danny finds some of the devices and accidentally deactivates them, the Doctor’s plan only manages to send the Skovox Blitzer three days into the future – leaving Clara with some serious explaining to do now that Danny knows about the Doctor and the TARDIS, and Clara’s mortified when Danny initially believes she’s an alien and that the Doctor is her space dad!

Samuel Anderson also returns as Danny Pink in The Caretaker, and with all the strange happenings at the school it’s not long before Danny figures out what’s been going on. So, when the one thing that Clara has worked so hard to avoid finally happens, naturally all hell breaks loose as Danny Pink meets the Doctor for the first time. The Doctor is very rude to Danny, particularly after he discovers Danny’s a former-soldier, something the Time Lord has voiced reservations about since his regeneration, and this episode goes some way to addressing the Doctor’s stance on this issue – which has seemed somewhat at odds with the character especially considering his past friendship with UNIT and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. There’s a magnificent scene where Danny uses the Doctor’s watch to make himself invisible to observe the Doctor when he’s with Clara, but when the Time Lord notices Danny a furious argument breaks out between them inside the TARDIS – one that offers us an entirely new perspective on the Doctor’s relationship with his companions when Danny compares the Time Lord’s attitude to that of a military officer.

The Skovox Blitzer (Jimmy (Vee) is one of the most deadly and efficient killing machines ever constructed, its ruthlessly efficient, following its programming to the letter, and has hidden itself near Coal Hill School as it prepares to bring about the destruction of all humanity. The Doctor states the Skovox Blitzer homed in on this location because of the high concentration of atron emissions that have accumulated in and around this area over the years, probably due to its special connection with the Time Lord’s many adventures, and that it has enough explosive firepower in its armoury to take out the entire planet.

When the Skovox Blitzer reappears earlier than expected during Coal Hill School’s parents evening, the Doctor has to act quickly or everyone will be killed. With Clara acting as a decoy to draw the Skovox Blitzer to the storeroom, and with Danny’s timely intervention to distract it, the Doctor is finally able to shut the lethal machine down before it self-destructs. As the Doctor sends the deactivated Skovox Blitzer into space and welcomes a newfound friend to the TARDIS, Clara and Danny reach a mutual understanding about her adventures with the Time Lord, and somewhere in space and time a new arrival reaches the Promised Land.

The Caretaker is a fun, action-packed story from Gareth Robert’s and Steven Moffat. Peter Capaldi is really making the role of the 12th Doctor his own now, and he seems equally at home playing the lighter, more comedic elements as he does with the darker aspects of the Time Lord’s character. There are some great scenes for Jenna Coleman and Samuel Anderson as well, especially when Clara and Danny team up with the Doctor against the Skovox Blitzer, and director Paul Murphy strikes a perfect balance between the humours moments and fast-paced action sequences.

The Caretaker also features a coda where the Police CSO killed by the Skovox Blitzer finds himself in minimalist office situated in vast white corridor, where he’s greeted by the a sinister man, Seb (Chris Addison). When asked, Seb tell him this place has a number of names: heaven, afterlife, the Promised Land, and the Nethersphere. Missy (Michelle Gomez) enters the corridor from another door, but she says nothing and walks away. It would seem she is too busy to see the latest arrival to her realm, and as he looks out of the window, the Police CSO is visibly shaken by what he sees. This unsettling scene continues to build upon the mystery surrounding this uncanny Mary-Poppin’s like character, presenting us with even more tantalising questions about what she’s up to, and this time her demeanour is darkly sever and far from welcoming.

Although the threat of the Skovox Blitzer is resolved a little simplistically, its alien technology still presents a very unusual menace for the Doctor and Clara to battle. The Caretaker really puts Clara’s friendship with the Doctor to the test, which provides lots of fun moments throughout the episode, especially when the Doctor gatecrashes one of her lessons and later mistakenly thinks Adrian (Edward Harrison) is Clara’s boyfriend because he looks similar to the 11th Doctor and wears a bow-tie. However, now that Danny has met the Doctor, and with Courtney also discovering the Time Lords secret, it looks like Clara’s delicately balanced double-life as school teacher and time traveller is about to become even more hectic than ever before.

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Doctor Who Listen Review

Tags

Clara Oswald, Danny Pink, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Listen, Doctor Who Series 8, Dougulas Mackinnon, Jenna Coleman, Listen, Orson Pink, Peter Capaldi, Samuel Anderson, Steven Moffat, The Doctor

Listen

Review by Paul Bowler

[Contains Spoilers]

Clara continues to balance her everyday life as a teacher with her time travelling adventures with the Doctor in the TARDIS. Now, with Clara off on her first date with former soldier-turned-teacher, Danny Pink, the Doctor is left wandering inside the TARDIS alone, lost deep in through as he travels through space and time. So, what is it that really scares the Last of the Time Lords, and what terrors are lurking under the bed? Ghosts from the past and the future begin to spill into the Doctor’s and Clara’s lives: the petrified Caretaker in a children’s home, the last man in the known universe afraid of a door that must never be opened, and the lonely child that doesn’t ever want to join the army. The Doctor and Clara must embark on their most frightening adventure yet, one that will take them to the darkest edge of the universe itself and beyond…

Listen takes this fourth episode of series eight well and truly back into the realm of darkness, in this chilling tale written by show runner Steven Moffat, and Directed by Douglas Mackinnon, whose previous directing credits on Doctor Who include The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky (2008), The Power of Three (2012) and Cold War (2013). Steven Moffat has brought us some of the new series most fearsome creations: the gasmask children from The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances (2005), the terrifying Weeping Angels debuted in Blink (2007), the shadowy Vashta Nerada lurked in Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead (2008), and the Silence warped perceptions to invade stealthily in The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon (2011). Now he’s gone one step further, addressing possibly the most primal fear of all, the inimitable, creeping horror of what might really be there when we think we are alone, that unthinkable something that’s always secretly present, waiting to reach out and grab us from the shadows under the bed.

We join the Doctor as he ponders to himself in the TARDIS: “Why do we talk out loud, when we know we’re alone?” Peter Capaldi’s grave tone here as the Doctor speculates about the possibility of evolution spawning a creature that is always secretly with us but somehow remains unseen, instantly captivates the imagination and draws you into this episode. Here we see the Doctor alone with his own musings while Clara is away on her date night, but what does this more volatile incarnation do when he has no great menace or alien invasion to fight, alone and with only dark his thoughts for company, what is it that really frightens the Doctor?

Clara finally gets to go out on her date with Danny in this episode. However, when the conversation moves to Danny’s time in the army, they inadvertently wind up offending each other, and when Clara returns home she’s soon off on her adventures with the Doctor in the TARDIS again. Although she’s initially sceptical about the Doctor’s theory that every living being has a silent companion, and that we’ve all shared the same nightmare, where we’ve woken up and thought there was something nasty under the bed, Clara eventually agrees to help. The Doctor gets Clara to use the TARDIS telepathic interface so that the time machine can extrapolate her time line and lock onto the same nightmare from her own childhood, but Clara’s thoughts drift back to Danny momentarily when her phone suddenly rings, causing the TARDIS to arrive instead outside a children’s home in Gloucester in the mid-90’s. The Doctor sets off to investigate alone, encountering a frightened Caretaker, Reg (Robert Goodman) along the way in a scene that also features the return of the psychic paper that was often used by the 9th, 10th and 11th Doctors, while Clara goes to visit the young boy, Rupert Pink (Remi Goodin), who has just waved at her from his bedroom window.

Jenna Coleman continues to make Clara a hugely resourceful, intelligent, and really interesting character, especially now she’s teamed with Capaldi’s new Doctor, and her role in Listen become even more vital than either of them could’ve expected. When Clara meets Rupert Pink, the boy is frightened there’s something hiding under the bed, and she realises Rupert is really the young Danny Pink (he changed his name when he was older because he didn’t like it), they both hide under the bed in order to convince him there’s nothing there, but it soon becomes apparent they are not alone when an unseen entity rises from the bedspread. These scenes, where the Doctor arrives and gets them all to stand by the window and turn their back on the horror that must never be seen, is brilliantly directed by Douglas Mackinnon, the tension here is almost palpable. I think it’s ingenious how the Doctor handles this fearsome encounter, and the scene afterwards, where Clara places the toy soldiers under Rupert’s bed to guard it and he names the Colonel “Dan”, is another magical moment, one that inexorably links Clara’s time line with Danny Pink in the most sublime way imaginable.

In an attempt to right things with Danny, Clara gets the Doctor to return her to the restaurant moments after she stormed out, but just as her date goes pear shaped again for the second time in one night, a space suited figure walks in and beckons at her to return to the TARDIS. Believing it’s the Doctor (having seen his previous incarnation wear a similar space suit in the 2013 story Hide), Clara confronts the figure in the TARDIS, but this is not the Doctor, it’s a time travelling pioneer from one hundred years Clara’s future, Colonel Orson, the pilot of the first human time shot – who also happen to bear a striking resemblance to Danny Pink. The Doctor takes Clara and Orson back to the planet where the Time Lord found Orson stranded in his capsule, a world at the very end of time itself, where even though nobody even exists anymore Colonel Orson Pink always keeps the door locked to keep out the horrors that bang relentlessly on the hull at night.

Samuel Anderson returns as Danny Pink in Listen, and the character has a lot more to do this time around. Although Danny remains a good source of humour, especially during his date with Clara, it’s good to see the character featuring in some of the episodes dramatic moments as well. Danny is inevitably drawn into the Doctor’s and Clara’s adventures in this story- albeit unwittingly because of the TARDIS homing in on various elements from of his own time line. Indeed, the former soldier is clearly smitten with Clara, something that’s sure to impact on Clara’s friendship with the Doctor, especially considering the Time Lord’s moral stance where it comes to soldiers travelling in the TARDIS are concerned. Listen is a great episode for Danny Pink: we learn more about Danny’s time as a soldier, travel back in time to meet Rupert Pink in the children’s home, and learn about the voyage of future descendant Colonel Orson Pink (also played by Anderson) who unavoidably becomes entwined with the Doctor’s quest to unravel a mystery at the very end of the universe.

The Doctor orders Clara and Orson into the TARDIS as he prepares to open the door and face what ever is outside. Orson presents Clara with a very special family heirloom before he rescues the Doctor and brings him back inside the TARDIS. With the Doctor incapacitated and the Cloister Bell tolling as the sinister forces outside try to get in, Clara uses the telepathic circuitry to fly the TARDIS to safety. Clara steps out of the TARDIS and finds they have materialised in a barn where a child is crying in a bed underneath the covers, the child is the young Doctor, and when Clara has to suddenly hide under the bed to avoid being seen she accidentally sets in motion a chain of events that will change the Doctor’s destiny forever.

Steven Moffat has excelled himself with this episode, and the way these final scenes link into the 50th Anniversary special are simply stunning. From the moment we see a brief glimpse of the War Doctor (John Hurt) from The Day of the Doctor (2013), it becomes apparent that this barn from the Doctor’s childhood is also the same place he would one day revisit on the Last Day of the Time War to activate The Moment. The scene here as Clara sets the Doctor on his path in life, with its moving dialogue resonating beautifully with the origins of the series itself in the very first Doctor Who serial An Unearthly Child (1963), and the gift of a toy solider so brave it doesn’t need a gun to save the world is utterly brilliant and extremely moving.

Peter Capali and Jenna Coleman both give terrific performances in this episode. The dynamic between Cara and this darker, more unpredictable incarnation of the Doctor bring an added edge to their friendship. Clara isn’t afraid to stand up to him though, and the Doctor even threatens that she will never travel in the TARDIS with him again when she refuses to follow his orders at one point. He’s not someone that’s used to being told what to do, certainly not by his companion, so it is perhaps fitting then when this incarnation of the Time Lord that adamantly doesn’t do hugging, finally receives a well deserved hug from Clara at the stories resolution.

Listen is a brilliantly crafted tale from Steven Moffat, one that draws its influences from a similar dark vein as Blink, playing to our most primal fears and anxieties – and there are some really exciting and fast-paced action sequences as well. It also cleverly explores the Doctor’s character in a very different way, while also delivering a very poignant message that actually turns out to be quite poetic. Peter Capaldi is magnificent in this episode, he brings so much to the role, and his 12th incarnation of the Doctor is quickly becoming one of my favourites. Dark, sinister, and with an exquisite timey wimey twist, the stories unsettling premise blends seamlessly with the striking visuals created by Director Douglas Mackinnon to make Listen a truly memorable episode. A blanket on a bed suddenly becomes the most terrifying monster of all, the TARDIS interior seems hauntingly cavernous, and the unseen terror knocking on the capsules door are just some of the many highlights amidst the plethora of creepy moments in Listen that are sure to have you checking under the bed tonight.

Don’t look round… Listen!!

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Doctor Who Into The Dalek Review

Tags

12th Doctor, Ben Wheatley, Clara Oswald, Daleks, Danny Pink, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Into The Dalek, Doctor Who Series 8, Jenna Coleman, Peter Capaldi, Phil Ford, Samuel Anderson, Steven Moffat, TARDIS

Into The Dalek

Review by Paul Bowler

[Contains Spoilers]

In a remote corner of the galaxy a Dalek Saucer hunts down a lone spacecraft. The Doctor saves a soldier, Journey Blue, seconds before the vessel is destroyed and returns her to the rebels command ship, the Aristotle. The rebel’s hidden base contains the human forces last hope of survival, a Dalek captive, one afflicted with a bizarre malfunction. The Doctor must travel into darkness, on his most dangerous adventure yet. A miniaturised squad of troops, along with the Doctor and Clara, begin a fantastic voyage into the Dalek. With the Dalek fleet closing in, the Doctor must look to his conscience as he confronts a decision that could alter the Dalek race forever…

Into The Dalek takes the Doctor to one of the most dangerous places in the universe, a place where even he’s weary of visiting, the inside of a Dalek itself! With its exhilarating story by Phil Ford (co-writer on The Waters of Mars (2009), writer of the animated Dreamland (2009), and contributor to the Sarah Jane Adventures) and show-runner Steven Moffat, and Directed by filmmaker Ben Wheatley (Kill List and Sightseers), Into The Dalek sees the new Doctor confronting his old enemies, the Daleks, and the Doctor finds he needs Clara by his side now more than ever.

Returning to Earth to collect Clara from Coal Hill School, the Doctor and Clara are soon back on the Aristotle. The humans last chance rests with their “patient”, a Dalek, one so battle damaged that it has actually become good. The Doctor and Clara are taken to meet the Dalek prisoner. Intrigued by this Dalek’s unusual behaviour, the Doctor agrees to help them and find a way to use this malfunction against the rest of the Daleks. The Doctor, Clara and a special team of soldiers are miniaturised and injected into the damaged Dalek through its eyepiece on a mission to find the cause of this sickly Dalek’s altered moral state. The Dalek seems willing to cooperate, but can it really be trusted?

No Doctor ever really seems like the Doctor until they’ve battled the Daleks. Peter Capaldi’s first run in with the Daleks in this second story of series eight is a fittingly action-packed adventure. Capaldi delivers a towering performance as the Doctor. Faced with a chance to strike back at his old adversaries, the Time Lord must soon confront some unpleasant home truths about himself, while also getting miniaturised and sent on a mission inside a Dalek to boot! Of course, this isn’t the first time that Doctor Who has ventured into the realm of The Fantastic Voyage (1966), Tom Baker’s 4th Doctor and his companion Leela (Louise Jamerson) also got miniaturised and injected into the Doctor’s brain to defeat the Nucleus of the Swarm in the 1977 story: The Invisible Enemy. Into the Dalek sees the Doctor placed in the most dangerous situation imaginable. The scenes inside the Dalek are really effective, offering a fascinating new perspective on the universes most feared supreme beings, and Peter Capaldi brings so much gravitas to the role of the Doctor that you are left hanging on his every word after he’s miniaturised and sets about exploring the Dalek’s interior – where he gravely surmises the technology that has refined hatred into an evil beyond all imagining.

Into The Dalek is another good episode for Clara, as she is miniaturised along with the Doctor and the soldiers, and quickly finds she’s right at the heart of the action when their mission becomes a desperate battle for survival. Jenna Coleman is excellent Clara, and she’s involved in many of the stories key moments. The scenes in the TARDIS where the Doctor asks her if her to be a “pal” and tell him if he’s a good man, which featured so prominently in the series eight trailer, is finally put into context here, and there is a nice moment of levity between Capaldi and Coleman as well, when the Doctor later introduces her as his carer! Clara is still getting used to the new Doctor, there’s a really interesting dynamic developing here, and she’s not afraid to stand up to this more argumentative incarnation either. There’s also a hint of romance in the air back on Earth for Clara when new maths teacher, and ex-soldier, Danny Pink (Samuel Anderson), starts work at Coal Hill School, and despite the awkwardness of their first meeting, she eventually asks him out for a drink.

The crew of the Aristotle: Journey Blue (Zawe Ashton), Colonel Morgan Blue (Michael Smiley), Gretchen (Laura dos Santos), and Ross (Ben Compton) are all fairly well developed characters, and you get a real sense of how desperate the situation has become as these human survivors make their last stand against the Daleks. Once miniaturised and inside the damaged Dalek, nicknamed “Rusty” by the Doctor, there are some really tense encounters with the Dalek antibodies along with a heroic act of self-sacrifice as well.

Into The Dalek initially conjures up memories of the Robert Shearman episode Dalek (2005), from series one, which also featured a lone Dalek prisoner. Into The Dalek, while not exactly peppered with references to other Dalek stories, certainly embodies aspects from a few episodes that immediately spring to mind: that familiar Dalek heartbeat sound effect, a mainstay of nearly every Dalek story since their first appearance, which begins once the miniaturised team are inside the Dalek, seems even more ominous in this setting, the Doctor also reflects on his first encounter with the Daleks on Skaro, Rusty screeches “Death to the Daleks” at one point, the title of the third Doctor story that featured the Daleks in 1974, and we see moments of destruction from Journey’s End (2008).

The moment that really strikes a cord happens after the Doctor repairs the Dalek, and its original moral setting gets inadvertently restored. Clara gets to see a much darker side to this Doctor, especially after they’ve fallen into the Dalek’s organic refuse disposal, the way she challenges the Doctor when he’s about to give up on Rusty is superb, she also plays a key role in helping reboot Rusty’s memories, enabling the Dalek to once again experience the miracle of seeing the birth of a star and the endless rebirth of the universe. The Doctor manages to link into the Dalek’s mind, helping to open its thoughts to accept the truth of the Daleks, but Rusty is soon overwhelmed by the Time Lord’s ingrained hatred of the Dalek race. Rusty turns against the Daleks attacking the Aristotle and exterminates them, before leaving in the Dalek ship to continue its mission to destroy the Daleks. Though victory may be his, the Doctor is left troubled by the hatred the Dalek saw within him.

The Daleks are back, as hell-bent on universal domination as ever, and exterminating everything in sight. Phil Ford’s and Steven Moffat’s exciting scrip, with its intriguing central premise, engineers some fantastic moments for Capaldi’s Doctor, as he confronts a fascinating moral dilemma. With its disturbing insight into the concept of Dalek purity, unnervingly friendly lone Dalek (Barnaby Edwards), and titanic showdown between the Daleks (Voice of the Daleks by Nicholas Briggs) the Doctor’s old enemies are as menacing and as ruthless as ever.

Journey Blue endures the loss of her brother and her adventure inside the Dalek is fraught with challenges. Through it all she finds an unwavering trust in the Doctor, she asks to join the Doctor on his adventures, but he sombrely declines because she’s a soldier. With Clara taking a shine to Danny Pink it will be interesting to see what the Doctor makes of his companions blossoming relationship with this former soldier. There is also another brief interlude featuring the mysterious Missy (Michelle Gomez), a bizarre character who seems to be gathering up people that have recently died or sacrificed themselves for the Doctor.

With excellent Direction by Ben Wheatley, Into The Dalek fully embraces the darker tone of series eight, the underlying tension between the Doctor and the captive Dalek is positively electric, and Capaldi’s performance is riveting. The miniaturised crew’s exploration of the Dalek’s interior provides some really tense and claustrophobic scenes; there are moments of dark psychological horror, and some great character development for the Doctor and Clara. The special effects and big action set-pieces are truly spectacular, and by the time the Daleks begin gliding through the airlock you’ll be completely immersed in the spectacle of it all.

Into the Dalek provides a great second adventure for Peter Caaldi’s new Doctor, with its bold storyline, great dialogue, and impressive visual effects this episode is a sure fire winner. Dalek stories are always something special, the trick is finding new ways to feature them and keep them interesting, and Into The Dalek with its good script and excellent direction provides a fittingly action-packed adventure for the return of the Daleks!

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