**Spoilers** Series 8, Episode 12 - "Death in Heaven"

pixelburp

I have a sneaking suspicion that with Christmas just around the corner (ergh), this finale is going to end on a bombshell, or some form of cliffhanger anyway. Can't see them tying everything together and letting the Xmas special just hang around with nothing to do.

Quite happy to see

the return of UNIT; Kate Stewart has been a good addition; ditto Osgood who'd make a good companion, though I'm not sure she'd work well against Capaldi's Doc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFZaqsaJ4eE

Mr Bloat

Thanks for posting but I'm not going to watch this trailer. I was annoyed with myself for watching last week's one because it spoiled the Cyberman reveal and don't want anything spoiled for this episode.

Axwell

Here. We. Go!

TheDoctor

How much?

TheDoctor

Manscout

Angron

Balls, was cooking and missed the first 15 minutes.

Angron

Awh, it's a bit touching to think the Doctor would salute the Brigadier.

TheDoctor

That was poor enough

TheDoctor

Santa Claus in the Christmas episode..... dear lord

Lord TSC

I....I....I loved it. Awesome.

Busi_Girl08

Hugely underwhelming I thought. And was that Clara's exit?

yaines

TheDoctor wrote: »

That was poor enough

Agreed. Poor Osgood though.

FloatingVoter

Busi_Girl08 wrote: »

Hugely underwhelming I thought. And was that Clara's exit?

Nah...Santa (Nick Frost) told him she's wasn't alright. She'll probably be back for Christmas.

Hashtag_HEEL

I have only one major gripe. OSGOOD!

TheDoctor

Clara is in the xmas episode, been confirmed

Manach

From the trailers and the episodes up till now, excepted fireworks. Instead got a damp squib. Schmaltzy and disjointed in pace and tone, with pop-culture references taking the place of plot and resolution. As for the ending, truly face palm worthy.

TheDoctor

It was cringe

flazio

Gutted about Osgood, I'm only hoping that was her Zygon and the real one is still out there.

lynski

Very much enjoyed in this house by all.

Ginny

Poor Osgood! It was very Meh, in fairness Danny redeemed his crappiness so far. Actually looking forward to Nick frost though!

BuffyBot

Could well be the counterpart..

As a whole it had a few really cracking moments, but suffered from a bit too much over wrought emotions.


As for Santa, it kind of reminded me of Donna's arrival on the TARDIS. Sad mopey doctor. Unexpected visitor etc.

Ginny

For a second I thought it was Chris Addisons voice.....:)

DirtyBollox

Afraid it's not osgoods counterpart, made a big show about in that episode that the counterpart didn't need the inhaler.

flazio

DirtyBollox wrote: »

Afraid it's not osgoods counterpart, made a big show about in that episode that the counterpart didn't need the inhaler.

And I don't recall Osgood using her Inhaler here.

Beano

flazio wrote: »

And I don't recall Osgood using her Inhaler here.

she was shown using her inhaler

The_Valeyard

My review.


'Meh'

Das Kitty

That was fairly disturbing and mawkish. I don't know how that's possible...

Witchie

Really enjoyed it and cried 4 times. Dammit I must be very hormonal.

Busi_Girl08

Right. I've had a chance to think about it:

A lot of unanswered questions about Missy/Master. For one thing why did she suddenly put on a Scottish accent a quarter way into the episode? (My housemate was jabbering to me at the time so I couldn't hear what the guy said about it)
How the sam willy heck did she survive? - Also was Gallifrey *meant* to be at those co-ordinates?

How did the Brigadier Cyberman defy Danny's commands to stop and save Kate? Lovely scene as it was.

Oswald was another victim of the mid-episode invite to join the Doctor curse

Still overall......eh. Wasn't too bowled over by the "Clara no, he'll kill you!!!....Actually he won't" ending. The image of the Cyberman leading the others to death was pretty cool though. And I did like the Doctor's speech.

Christmas should be ..interesting. It was only a matter of time until we got Santa. What are we thinking, Santa's an android?

Witchie

Busi_Girl08 wrote: »

Right. I've had a chance to think about it:

A lot of unanswered questions about Missy/Master. For one thing why did she suddenly put on a Scottish accent a quarter way into the episode? (My housemate was jabbering to me at the time so I couldn't hear what the guy said about it)
How the sam willy heck did she survive? - Also was Gallifrey *meant* to be at those co-ordinates?

How did the Brigadier Cyberman defy Danny's commands to stop and save Kate? Lovely scene as it was.

Oswald was another victim of the mid-episode invite to join the Doctor curse

Still overall......eh. Wasn't too bowled over by the "Clara no, he'll kill you!!!....Actually he won't" ending. The image of the Cyberman leading the others to death was pretty cool though. And I did like the Doctor's speech.

Christmas should be ..interesting. It was only a matter of time until we got Santa. What are we thinking, Santa's an android?

I thought she always had a slight Scottish accent.

He had caught and saved Kate before Danny took control.

Mr Bloat

That was poor in a lot of respects and quite depressing too. Why did the Doctor and Clara lie to each other at the end? I get that they were both trying to let the other down gently but what was the point of it, story wise? We've already had an episode ending with Clara telling the Doctor to eff off and everyone presuming that she wouldn't be around for the next episode because she wasn't shown in the trailer (the Orient Express one) and now it looks like the same is going to happen here.
It really annoyed me that all of the stuff we saw in the trailer for Dark Water regarding Clara declaring that 'Clara Oswold never existed' was only a ruse to fool the Cybermen in the end. The trailer had us all (well, quite a few anyway) thinking that she wasn't who she seemed to be all along. The actuality of it was a bit of a damp squib. It shows how poor the plot of the finale was when they had moments like that in the trailer, when it wasn't a major part of the story. The trailer showed Clara saying she never existed and attempting to destroy the Tardis keys, leading many to think that that would be the plot of the finale, whereas both scenes really had nothing to do with the overall story.
I'd imagine there will be a fair bit of fan irritation at Osgood's death. She was 'one of us', a fan of the Doctor, enjoyed a bit of cosplay, a bit geeky and to give her an undignified death like that was poor, I thought. Just before the Master threatened her, I had been thinking that she would make a good companion!
What was the point of bringing back a major enemy like the Master and having her obliterated at the end? I don't understand why the Moffat would bother doing that when there was major plot holes/questions over how the Master could have gotten back from a time locked Gallifrey in the first place, only to have the character destroyed utterly at the end. Surely there can be no coming back from that kind of death for the Master, it'll be extremely crappy if the find a lame way to write him/her back in to the story in a future episode. What a waste of a character. It would have made more sense to have Missy be someone like the Rani (or anyone at all, just not the Master), whose death in the end wouldn't have matter too much in the grand scheme of things.
All in all, I expected a lot more from this. Peter Capaldi was, once again, the only saving grace in the whole thing. I think it's high time that Moffat took a back seat in the script writing duties. He has written some of the best episodes in the revival of Doctor Who but in my opinion, he is losing his touch.

ixoy

Disappointed myself and felt that there were too many moments thst, if not plot holes exactly, were just poor plotting.

Oh well I did smile at Clara's birthday and Missy saying "Oh my giddy aunt" presumably made some of the fans of the older seasons laugh too.

BlitzKrieg

Really only one point that really really really sticks out to me. Why did the master put Clara and the doctor together? It didn't effect this story at all from what I saw.


Also I really hope the umbrella was Missy's tardis

misslt

Yeah a big "meh" from me too. So much potential but it just didn't deliver!

Wasn't even a little bit moved with the whole Danny thing, I never did warm up to him. Found his whole "dead for a few days" makeup a bit creepy though.

Bold move for one writer to kill off the master, no? Assuming that she is really dead and not just de-materialised to somewhere else (which would not surprise me, although I don't know where since it can't be the afterlife )

Wibbs

Da F did I just watch? Moffat seemed to be channeling RTD at his daftest. Plot holes all over the place, obvious stuff is obvious coming from miles away. Osgood getting iced an example(TBH for me no loss, she kinda irritated me). The whole master thang didn't really work either, as BlitzKrieg said why put him and Clara together, it did nada for the plot or the master's plan? Made zero sense internally. The master getting out in the first place is dubious and he/she nicked a tardis too, so where was that?

As for the master surviving? Easy peasy to make that happen. The Brigadier cyberman wasn't, it was the masters tardis, that rather than vapourising him transported him inside and then flew away.

But he didn't kill the master... it was the same transporter-colour disappearance as earlier in the episode, or I was positive of it anyway ... rewatching it now so I'll see again at the end.

Osgood

Missy kept changing accents randomly to accentuate the "I'm crazy" thing e.g. when first captured, talking about the phone call, etc, and I think the scottish accent was to make fun of the doc

I thought it was good and missy really acted it perfectly - didn't like her in the previous short bits but she did an awesome job in this episode.

It's true there were plot holes e.g. crowing about bringing them together and then wat?

I did like the "love isn't an emotion it's a promise", and I did like danny's defiance of him to the last. I waswatching skeptically during his speech when his emotions were supposed to be gone but I can't flaw that bit - it wasn't emotional I think

What's the story with clara claiming she knew the name? Did I miss that somewhere

Mr Rhode Island Red

*whispers under all the hate* 'i liked it'

Mr Rhode Island Red

Mr Rhode Island Red wrote: »

*whispers under al the hate* 'i liked it'

me too dont worry

hey cmere... i have to tell you something ... no ihave to whisper it... it's like, SO, important?!

lol

DirtyBollox

And lads even if missy died she was wearing a bracelet like Danny used to bring the lad back from wherever he was at the end so master isn't dead and gone just yet

Busi_Girl08

And another thing! Worst. Guards. Ever.

Seriously. They missed her take off her cuffs, slip them in her pocket and threaten to kill and then kill Osgood.

I dunno. I think I'm just pissed off that my theory that Seb was really the master didn't come to fruition

Angron

Busi_Girl08 wrote: »

And another thing! Worst. Guards. Ever.

Seriously. They missed her take off her cuffs, slip them in her pocket and threaten to kill and then kill Osgood.

I dunno. I think I'm just pissed off that my theory that Seb was really the master didn't come to fruition

Yeah, when they didn't do anything I'd thought that they were secretly with the Master. Turned out they were just terrible at the one thing they were supposed to do.

Ginny

Yeah I thought it was going to turn out she'd already killed the guards and they were just somehow kept in position. Other than all the plot holes another annoyed me, so Clara loves Danny, Danny dies, she's devastated. Somehow he comes back to see her for a few minutes and nothing from her, barely any emotional reaction, and even less when she's "killing" him?

aunt aggie

DirtyBollox wrote: »

And lads even if missy died she was wearing a bracelet like Danny used to bring the lad back from wherever he was at the end so master isn't dead and gone just yet

No that was the same bracelet the doctor gave to Danny. I dont think she is dead and while this episode wasnt up to the same standard as Dark Water I felt it was setting up a lot of things for Christmas and the next series; Gallifrey, the Master returns and we might eventually figure out why Clara is so important.

At least that's what I'm hoping...

Pretty certain Missy will be back. As said, you don't kill the mistress that easy.

Pretty certain thus was another episode that set up the fact that the doctor can regenerate as a woman. Maybe not the next one, but it'll happen soon.

I also think the doctor is going to harbour hate for killing Missy. After all, she told the truth for the first time just before he killed her.

Delighted that Clara's time is up. Gutted that Osgood was killed off. She would have made a great assisstant.

8mv

You're a tough crowd to please. Have to say I liked it for what it was.

Das Kitty

The brig Cyberman killed Missy, we were supposed to believe. To save the Doctor's soul or summat.

Nah, she was zapped to her TARDIS.

I realised what bothered me so much about cyber Danny. It's a grim concept and is pretty much a lift from Robocop.

I wasn't sold on Clara and Danny's relationship, so it felt very forced to me.

What I did like though was the idea that The Master sat down and thought, "Hmm, how am I going to get my buddy to be friends with me again?" And then came up with a plan to give him an army of dead humans to fix the universe with. Hahahaha.

Seemed to me that was the concept Moffat liked. The rest seemed phoned in.

Das Kitty

Oh, and Missy was Scottish all along. She just cranked it up from time to time.

So Scot Moff has made both the Doctor and the Master Scottish in a clear display of bias. I am outraged. :mad::pac::p

aunt aggie

Das Kitty wrote: »

Oh, and Missy was Scottish all along. She just cranked it up from time to time.

So Scot Moff has made both the Doctor and the Master Scottish in a clear display of bias. I am outraged. :mad::pac::p

I love it, bet it confusing the **** out of the poor Americans

Mr.Saturn

Since RTD left, I feel like Angela Carter has slowly taken over Doctor Who. That was like a critical retelling of a lot of notes already hit in Nu-Who, but just outright robs you of an easy answers.

Yeah, yeah, some of it was clumsy, and I'm not sure I got all of it, but after the initial 'well....', it's a grower.

doctorwhogirl

I'm going to sound very stupid but didn't she lie about gallifrey? Someone posted that she told the truth now I'm afraid I've missed something.

General episode feeling...meh

General series feeling....meh

It's just not pulling me in like it used to. I remember being on the edge of my seat in previous series, dying fir the next episode. Not so much here.

tommy2bad

Well that was good. Tied up lots of the themes and motifs in the series so far, tossed some balls in the air for the next series and managed to add some new possibilities to the Who universe. Though as the laws of physics or logic don't apply their, I suppose it only alluded to what possibilities it might opt for. The who universe seems to operate in a framework all it's own.
Poor old Danny dead and gone, where he's gone is anyones guess but he got to send back someone from wherever it is. Danny is a super actor, far better than most, what was lacking was any chemistry between him and Clara. He totally convinced as a soldier with regrets who given the opportunity would jump into action and save the day.
Clara circled her controlling, lying and doppelgangers the doctor arch, ending up alone?
I suspect whatever she wanted to tell the doctor will be revealed yet. Possibly the xmass special, if their is a santa, their should be a kid in the story?
I doubt Missie is gone for good, it would be a shame to waste such a great character. No point trying to work out how she could survive, they never explained it this time either.
The episode looked fabulous, best visuals so far. The plot was a bit let down by the coda with Clara and The Dr. I thought they could have left that for the next time. I ruined the pace of the finally.
Capaldi is an excellent doctor, just right for the part. Now get him some scripts he can really let go on and we will have something special. Clara is going, I'm sure of it now so looking forward to a new companion next year, I suspect xmass will be her swansong.