The Twelfth Doctor in Retrospect: Series 9 (2015)
"LAST CHRISTMAS"
Following on from where Series Eight left off, 'Last Christmas' had the potential to be a fantastic Who special, balancing Clara's grieving over Danny with a base-under-siege story taking cues from 'Alien'. Sadly, the resulting episode was all that...for the first half-hour. As soon as Clara's said goodbye to Danny, the episode's emotional hook is lost, and the base-under-siege narrative turns into a Steven Moffat take on 'Inception', as the characters fumble their way through multiple dream layers before eventually - and I do mean eventually - waking up. Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman have some lovely moments together, but the ending feels a bit confused and inconsequential. That said, the first half-hour is still pretty darn good, with some strong horror moments and heartfelt emotional moments too. It's a shame that Danny Pink never worked as a character, but he had a strong exit from the show.
"THE MAGICIAN'S APPRENTICE" and "THE WITCH'S FAMILIAR"
An absolute mess of a story, this opening two-parter for Series Nine kicked this off by...not following directly on from 'Last Christmas', but by setting up a new status quo as Clara is back teaching at Coal Hill School, before meeting up with U.N.I.T and Missy to find the Doctor, who's disappearance has gotten everyone quite worried. In a story featuring Coal Hill School, the Sisterhood of Karn, the Shadow Proclamation, U.N.I.T and Medieval England, its amazing how none of it seems to fit together. It's not until the action shifts to Skaro that the story truly begins, and even then its very muddled at best. Peter Capaldi is given an opportunity to lighten-up in this episode, but his new quirky mannerisms don't quite play to Capaldi's strengths as an actor. His electric guitar entrance is great...when taken out of context. This is a Doctor who is anticipating his death (again), and yet the story never actually develops this. The most amount of development comes with the Doctor and Davros' dynamic, but given Davros' last appearance was being murdered on the Crucibal...how does this all fit in for him? In fact, what has he been doing with Twelve's sonic all these years? And how can he open his eyes again? Missy and Clara have an interesting dynamic for Jenna Coleman and Michelle Gomez to play around with, but part of their narrative hinges on the Dalek casings "translating" what the mutants inside say, which defeats the entire point of the Doctor's greatest enemies. How Steven Moffat can go from writing a wonderful speech for Peter Capaldi about what it means to be the Doctor one minute to stating that the Dalek mutants probably aren't evil after and it's just the casings boggles the mind. Even with the inclusion of the Confession Dial and reference to the Hybrid, the story doesn't actually start any kind of story-line for Series Nine, making the following "arc" all the more bizarre...
"UNDER THE LAKE" and "BEFORE THE FLOOD"
A wonderfully archetypal Doctor Who story as the Doctor and Clara investigate a mystery surrounding ghosts aboard an underwater base. The story itself is brilliantly structured over the two episodes, and feels tight and constrained. The second half lets the side down though, clearly having cut out important exposition and revelations that could've cleared-up the plot nicer (don't believe me? Take a look at a key deleted scene from this episode included on the box-set). Twelve regresses to his 'Last Christmas' balance of quirks and sternness, with the apology cards being a lovely inclusion, while the added character development for Clara feels like a nice follow-through from last series. Quite why this story wasn't the series opener, I have no idea. It flows much nicer from 'Last Christmas', and sets up the characters really well for their ongoing arcs. The Fisher King is a strange Who monster, but the ghosts are nicely creepy, while the whole story is of top-notch production: music, sound effects, direction, cinematography and production design all contribute to a very strong Doctor Who story.
"THE GIRL WHO DIED"
Honestly, I can't remember this one. By far Jamie Mathieson's worst Who in his three-year run, this episode tries to be a comic caper with unlikely Viking warriors facing off against an army of menacing warrior robots...but regrettably it's just not that funny. In fact, the whole piece feels oddly misjudged throughout, focusing instead of Maisie Williams as a "we'll come back to her later" character.
"THE WOMAN WHO LIVED"
The story here is actually pretty dull, with the lion-man being a very weak villain, and I don't particularly like Rufus Hound, but the character drama between the Doctor and Ashildr/Me was very interesting to me on a first viewing. They have some interesting scenes together, and its good to see Twelve sans Clara for an episode. I just wish it gave me a good reason to give it another watch.
"THE ZYGON INVASION" and "THE ZYGON INVERSION"
When I first saw this story, I remember liking it a lot, despite its obvious real-world influences. On reflection, as the last U.N.I.T story, it feels completely wrong somehow. The Zygons are re-characterised as terrorists, which doesn't quite match their presentation in either 'Terror of the Zygons' or 'The Day of the Doctor', and instead seem to be mocked constantly - Zygella anyone? The Doctor's big war speech is nice, but nothing that ever really stuck out too much to me. There's meant to be a sense of scale here, but the scale feels disingenuous, instead being more of a runaround than an actual large-scale event. The ending is also very confused, and makes the prior 90-odd minutes feel almost completely wasted. Again, I remember liking this one a lot on first-viewing, but upon reflection its one I have absolutely no interest in revisiting - despite Jenna Coleman making for a wonderful villain.
"FACE THE RAVEN"
Somewhere along the line, 'Face the Raven' went from a nice spiritual sequel to the previous year's 'Flatline' to Clara's big exit story, and I'm not entirely sure if the mix works. However, Rigsy's inclusion works to the story's advantage, and Sarah Dollard's script is brimming with ideas and world-building...it's just a shape it hasn't been expanded upon since. Clara's exit is brilliantly handled by everyone involved, with Peter Capaldi being a particular standout here, but the first half of the episode should by no means be ignored. Twelve's attempts to work out a way of nicely explaining Rigsy's situation is a wonderful moment of character-building, as is the way Clara's ultimate demise comes about through her own recklessness. Ashildr's inclusion is an interesting addition, but regrettably the finale forgets to explain some of the loose threads this episode (intentionally) leaves.
"HEAVEN SENT"
Rachel Talalay's third contribution to Doctor Who takes shape in one of the show's best episodes ever. Perhaps Moffat's script isn't perfect, but the execution of the relatively simple premise is, with some wonderful shots throughout, and a stellar performance from Capaldi himself. The visual story-telling here is phenomenal, and the complete dedication to making the episode a psycho-analysis of the Doctor (even down to the use of classical-style music as his own background music) is wonderfully executed. Sure, there are some minor plot-holes, but the narrative is so tight and focused that to explain it all in a satisfying way would've most likely been impossible. I love everything about this episode, even down to Twelve's red velvet costume, which made its debut last episode.
"HELL BENT"
This is the worst episode of Doctor Who I have ever seen. There, I said it. Filled with inconsistencies, plot-holes, out-of-character moments and the worst possible pay-off to both story and character arcs I have ever seen, it's difficult to find anything to like here. The first five to ten minutes are okay, with some lovely cinematography and stellar visual effects, but once Clara is brought back from the dead, the episode seems to do all it can to distract from its huge problems. Clara's resurrection breaks the rules of Doctor Who's universe. Not only can a character be brought back so easily, but such a character can be brought back permanently, un-ageing and without any consequences. Not only can Clara live for as long as she wants to, but neither the Time Lords nor the Sisterhood of Karn are interested in actually sorting the situation out. In fact, the Doctor wouldn't bring back Clara, given 'Heaven Sent' was essentially structured around one giant grief metaphor. His getting over Clara's death in 'Heaven Sent' was a beautiful scene, and one that 'Hell Bent' actively ignores in favour of...what, exactly? This is Clara's final episode, there's no story left to tell, no reason to bring back Clara at all. Everyone seems to get bored after a while, with Capaldi and Coleman seeming a little bit tired with the terrible material they're given. Oh, and just for good measure, Moffat builds a scene around the Doctor having survived four billion years in the Confession Dial...even though he didn't. It was a time-loop. He doesn't actually remember the four billion years, nor do the four billion years age him at all, and given it was in another dimension, its all relative anyway! Yet, despite this whole episode contradicting his very last episode, Moffat seems perfectly fine with such a dire finale. Oh yeah, remember the Hybrid? It was awkwardly threaded-through the series, and the final conclusion is...there is no Hybrid. Reason being? If the Doctor and Clara are the Hybrid, that defeats the entire point. A hybrid is two beings in one, not two separate beings who happen to be friends. Not only that, but the prophecy established in this very episode is never fulfilled. All I can think is that Steven Moffat just stopped caring, and to be honest, that's a little insulting to the millions of people who watched and still watch this show on a regular basis.
"THE HUSBANDS OF RIVER SONG"
Somehow, in putting very little effort into a forgettable and virtually plot-less episode, Steven Moffat writes one of his better Christmas Specials in 'The Husbands of River Song'. It's clearly been written in a weekend, but he's clearly had fun writing it in the one weekend, and the simple, ludicrous pleasures of this fun little festive outing is ultimately what makes me like it. There's nothing too complex and or even interesting, but its a lovely hour of distracting nonsense on Christmas Day. Peter Capaldi and Alex Kingston are lovely together, and their witty remarks propel the episode along until it reaches a heart-warming, emotional ending. Quite a nice way to end such a mixed series.
Comments
Post a Comment