Whovian Chatter: The Capaldi Years Series Nine

Ghost here, thanks for joining.

I'm going to be examining Doctor Who... every single episode.  I'm going to take you on a journey through the 50+ years worth of this show, showcasing the good and the bad along the way.  For each episode I'm going to give you a very brief rundown of the plot, how good/bad the story is, and anything interesting about the episode.  Basically I'll just talk about whatever comes to mind for each of them.  These will be a more in-depth overview of the series as a whole so you can see which stories or episodes (if any) you want to check out for yourself.  Today I'm going to be talking about

The Twelfth Doctor

Peter Capaldi

Series Nine

Series nine ran from September 19, 2015 to December 5 2015 and contained twelve episodes.  The last two seasons of Doctor Who were fairly unique from a format standpoint.  Series seven had no two-part stories and series eight had only a single two-part finale for the season as a whole; the new show up to this point had always had at least two two-part stories.  They apparently decided to make up for that with this season.  Now there is some slight disagreement as to how to best break up the stories this season.  I personally fall under the idea that there are 4 two-parter stories, followed by a single episode, then a three part finale.  Due to the very different setting/tone of some of these stories you may define them differently.  I will be breaking up ones that have a different setting or tone for the purpose of this review.

The theme this season is that of the impending hybrid; a creature that supposedly was in Time Lord lore as what will stand in the ruins of Gallifrey at the end of time itself.  According to this season, that is part of the reason the First Doctor left Gallifrey to begin with... his involvement with the hybrid.  While that's the intended story arch... honestly what becomes a more prominent story arch is that of death, immortality, and the fact that something bad is going to happen to Clara.  If you read my review of the David Tennant Specials you should know how I feel about a series constantly making references to the fact that someone is going to die/leave.  While this doesn't lessen my enjoyment of the stories all that much it is still annoying to have something in practically every episode point to the fact that this is Clara's last season.  Again, show, you are called Doctor Who not The Clara Show.

Episodes 1 and 2
The Magician's Apprentice / The Witch's Familiar

On a battlefield, a small boy is being surrounded by creatures called hand mines.  The Doctor attempts to save this boy from death, but upon discovering that the boy is a young Davros (one of the Doctor's arch enemies) the Doctor abandons him.  Elsewhere a creature known as Colony Sarff is looking for the Doctor across time and space and after failing to locate him, he decides to watch the Doctor's friends.  In 2015, Clara is called by UNIT when all of the world's airplanes become frozen in time. They discover that Missy is the cause of this as she is in need of Clara's help.  Missy is in possession of the Doctor's confession dial (his last will and testament) and needs Clara so the pair can go looking for him before he dies.  With UNIT's help they find the Doctor in Essex 1138 where he has been partying for three weeks.  Using a vortex manipulator, Clara and Missy reunite with the Doctor in 1138 only to find that Colony Sarff followed them there.  Sarff explains that the elderly Davros wishes to speak with the Doctor before he dies and takes the Doctor, Missy, and Clara to a floating hospital in space.  The Doctor is taken to the dying Davros as Clara and Missy find out that the hospital is actually the only currently visible part of the entire planet of Skaro, home of the Daleks.  The pair are captured by the Daleks who exterminate them and destroy the TARDIS.  Shifting to the past, a young Davros is still on the battlefield when the Doctor reappears behind him.  The Doctor is going to save his friend the only way he knows how.  He lifts a Dalek gun, points it at Davros and shouts exterminate!

Clara wakes up on Skaro where Missy explains she used the Dalek energy shot to power up her and Clara's teleporter and get to safety (the same way she did at the end of Death in Heaven.)  The pair try to rescue the Doctor and end up in the Dalek sewers which are filled with decaying Daleks.  They manage to kill a Dalek and use it to disguise Clara inside.  Davros it seems truly is dying and wishes that just once he and the Doctor could be on the same side.  The Doctor comforts Davros and the two share a brief moment of understanding.  The Doctor has compassion on his enemy and decides to use a bit of regeneration energy on Davros so that he could see the sunset one last time.  This turns out to be a trick and the machine begins siphoning regeneration energy into Davros and every Dalek on Skaro.  Missy arrives and saves the Doctor as the regeneration energy also begins rejuvenating the decaying Daleks who wish to destroy the functional ones due to their abandonment in the sewer.  While escaping, Missy tries to trick the Doctor into destroying the Dalek case with Clara inside but after Clara forces the Dalek unit to say "Mercy" he realizes what is happening and tells Missy to run.  The Doctor and Clara escape and then the Doctor goes back to the battlefield where we see he actually uses the gun to destroy the mines and take young Davros home out of mercy.

Well this was certainly an eye-opening way to start a season!  It's been ages since we've seen Davros and this is the only truly Davros-centered story we've gotten in the modern series.  There are so many good things in this episode such as Colony Sarff's search for the Doctor, the humorous banter and guitar playing of the Doctor, the dilemma of him choosing whether or not to save the young Davros, and the red herring that the Doctor seeming to use the gun on Davros.  It was also a nice call-back to Tom Baker's line about meeting a child who would become a ruthless murderer and whether or not you could kill that currently innocent child.  It was great to see Missy back again and doing a fantastic job!  The dynamic between her and Clara was good, though I do feel that Clara sort of became Missy's companion a little too easily.  All in all this was a solid way to start the season!

Episode 3 and 4
Under the Lake / Before the Flood

The Doctor and Clara arrive in an underwater base in the future.  The military personnel there have discovered an alien ship with strange markings on the wall.  Soon after, the leader of the group is killed by the ship and then he and an alien reappear as ghosts and are hunting down the others.  The Doctor gets the others to corral the ghosts into a Faraday Cage where he discovers that they keep repeating coordinates over and over.  The coordinates lead to the ruins of a church under the water where they find a deadlocked suspended animation pod.  The Doctor concludes that the ghosts exist as a sort of signal to that pod and are killing people to increase the signal.  The lake they are under exists only because a dam broke so the Doctor intends to go back to before the flood and see if he can make sense of what is going on.  Unfortunately, he is separated from Clara as they headed for the TARDIS.  Clara must stay behind in the base with Cass and Lunn while the Doctor goes into the TARDIS with O'Donnell and Bennett.  As they travel to 1980, Clara sees that a new ghost has just appeared in the lake... the Doctor.

The second episode being with the Doctor explaining the Bootstrap Paradox to the audience before landing the TARDIS in 1980 with O'Donnell and Bennett.  There they discover the alien, Prentis, still alive.  They also find out that the ship is a hearse carrying The Fisher King, and the writing is not yet on the wall.  Meanwhile, Cass realizes that the Doctor's ghost is not saying the same coordinates, but rather their names.  The Doctor calls Clara and tries to reason with his ghost but it instead unlocks the Faraday cage releasing the other ghosts.  In 1980, the Fisher King awakes, not really dead, and kills Prentis before writing the words on the wall.  The trio flee but O'Donnell becomes separated and is killed.  The Doctor sends Bennett back to the TARDIS which takes off to the future as he confronts the Fisher King and tricks him into leaving the church and stasis chamber behind.  The Doctor has rigged an energy cell to explode the dam and destroy the Fisher King as he hopped into the stasis chamber inside the church.  The Stasis chamber opens in the future and the Doctor steps out where he realizes that his ghost is actually a hologram programmed by the Doctor and has now lead all of the ghosts, O'Donnell included, back into the Faraday cage.  The Doctor and Clara leave.  The Doctor asks Clara who thought of what to program the ghost to say because he only programmed it to say that because he saw what his ghost was saying, drawing back to the Bootstrap Paradox.

This is the kind of Doctor Who stories I love seeing.  There's a big mystery with a legitimate threat, there's some weird time shenanigans going on, and there's learning about a funky concept.  This is the second Capaldi story that I could easily see happening in the classic show and being brilliant.  The idea of actual ghosts coming to kill you to increase their number is a fantastic idea.  This set of episodes also had (to my knowledge) the first deaf actress on the show and they worked that in beautifully (and for the occasional comedic effect.)  Before the Flood is also unique in the fact that the show dedicates a portion of the episode to have the Doctor directly speaking to the audience which isn't often done.  In fact, I believe the only other times were with the First Doctor in the most notoriously lost episode The Feast of Steven, and the Fourth Doctor in Pyramids of Mars.  Also it's nice to have a musical Doctor once again, which is something we haven't really had since Patrick Troughton and his recorder.  Basically these episodes are fantastic though I wish they had figured out a way to have the Doctor save O'Donnel by having her fake dying in Bennet's hands or something since they had a second round of that time stream but....we can't always have a full happy ending now can we?

Episode 5
The Girl Who Died

Clara and the Doctor land the TARDIS immediately after another adventure and are captured by Vikings and taken to their village.  Later, the vikings find themselves under imminent attack by the Mire, one of the universe's most powerful warrior races, after a young girl named Ashildr antagonizes them.  The Doctor tries to encourage the vikings to flee but after they refuse to leave their home, the Doctor beings training the vikings to fight the Mire.  All seems lost but then the Doctor comes up with a plan involving Ashildr.  The next day the Mire show up to fight and the Doctor steals one of the Mire helmets for Ashildr to use.  Using her imagination, she "hacks" into the Mire's other helmets and scaring them into retreating from a dragon which was actually just a wooden puppet.  Unfortunately the Mire helmet drains her of her life energy.  The Doctor morns her loss but then realizes where his face came from.  He shares the same face as a man from Pompeii whom Donna made him save.  The Doctor realizes he chose that face as a reminder that he doesn't have to follow the rules of time and space; he is the Doctor and he saves people.  He uses Mire technology to bring Ashidlr back to life before the pair disappear back to the TARDIS.  However, this technology has now taken away Ashildr's ability to die and she becomes slowly miserable over her eternal life.

This is a harder one to talk about in all honesty.  This is due to the fact that it's kind of the first episode of a two-part story where both episodes are totally different from each other.  As such this episode both exists by itself with a conclusion, but also feels like it exists only as a set-up for the next episode and later appearances of Ashildr.  However that's not to say there isn't good stuff here.  This is a quite hilarious episode with the Doctor giving the surviving Vikings nicknames and realizing they are completely inept at fighting.  There are also some really touching moments like the Doctor translating the cries of a baby and realizing he must stay to help.  Also it made me so happy for them to reference Pompeii and how Capaldi had appeared in the series before in such a fantastic way.  It's a good episode in it's own right, but if you sit down and think about it, it does feel like just a "set-up" episode.

Episode 6
The Woman Who Lived

The Doctor travels alone to London in the 1600's where he finds Ashildr who is now simply calling herself Me.  Since she has lost so many memories and loved ones to her immortality she now isolates herself from society, stealing for thrills.  She begs the Doctor to take her with him but he refuses.  Me then uses her backup plan, a lion alien with an amulet which will open a portal to another world but it requires the death of another to activate.  The lion and Me kill an outlaw by attaching the amulet to him.  However when the portal opens, the alien reveals he was using Me to bring his own people and conquer Earth.  The Doctor and Me use the extra Mire med pack to save the outlaw and close the portal, killing the lion alien in the process.  The Doctor explains better why Me must stay behind and he leaves to meet back up with Clara, where the Doctor sees a photo with Me staring at him in the background of modern London.

This episode is quite fantastic.  Where The Girl Who Died was more of a funny/silly episode, this one is a lot more dark and deep.  I really enjoyed the sort of beautiful tragedy of the lifetimes that Ashildr has lived while being "left behind" by the Doctor.  It's easy to see how someone who used to be so young, cheerful, and hopeful become a somewhat cold and callous person willing to do whatever necessary to escape this never-ending cycle.  The chemistry between Peter Capaldi and Maisie Williams in this episode was fantastic.  They play so well off of each other that I truly wanted him to bring her along in the TARDIS even if only for another couple of episodes because the pair work perfectly with each other.  It also had a fair bit of comedy with Sam Swift and his general banter.  Also this episode had the one moment in this season identifying that something was going to happen to Clara that I thought was beautifully done with Ashildr asking the Doctor about how long Clara is going to be with him and how many more Clara's will come after.  Then, towards the end of the episode, the Doctor just looks sadly towards his companion.  It was short, pointed and well executed.  Basically this episode was amazing.

Episodes 7 and 8
The Zygon Invasion / The Zygon Inversion

After the previous Zygon invasion in The Day of the Doctor, a peace treaty is established allowing 20 million Zygons to live peacefully on earth disguised as humans.  However, the Doctor recieves a text warning from Osgood that the Nightmare Scenario has happened with the Zygons.  He investigates to find that a small group of Zygons do not wish to live in the shadows and intend to take over Earth.  The Doctor heads to Turmezistan where Osgood was seen to be held captive while he sends Kate Stewart to New Mexico to investigate an outbreak there.  Elsewhere, Clara joins the UNIT troops in England to investigate malfunctioning elevators that actually lead to a hidden Zygon command center.  Clara reveals herself to actually be a Zygon named Bonnie having disguised herself as Clara and keeping Clara captive elsewhere.  She and the Zygons kill the UNIT troops as in New Mexico, Kate is attacked by a rogue Zygon as well.  The Doctor is able to rescue Osgood but as they are flying back to London, Bonnie fires a missile at the plane, shooting it down.

The Doctor and Osgood survive the crash thanks to a parachute.  Bonnie uses her connection to Clara's mind to learn of the Osgood Box, a box containing the solution to the human-zygon conflict, and that it is held at the Black Archive.  As Bonnie is taking the captive Clara to the Black Archive, she is able to use their mental link to text the Doctor her whereabouts.  The Doctor and Osgood are then joined by Kate who defeated the Zygon and returned to England.  The trio enter the Black Archive to find Bonnie angry over the fact that there are actually two Osgood boxes.  One fot the humans and one for the Zygons and each have two buttons simply labeled "Truth"  and "Consequences"  Pressing a button on the Zygon box will either force all the Zygons into their normal form or it will make them human permanently.  Pressing a button on the human box will either release a gas to kill all the Zygons or detonate the nuclear warheads underneath London.  Kate and Bonnie are both ready to press a button but the Doctor is able to talk them out of it recalling the truths and consequences of war.  Bonnie eventually realizes that the boxes are actually empty and just a ploy by the Doctor but she accepts the peace regardless.  The Doctor once again asks Osgood to join them in the TARDIS but she chooses to stay behind with Bonnie who now has taken the form of Osgood so that they can protect the Osgood boxes and the human-zygon peace.

Of all the things to get a sequel, I never thought that Day of the Doctor, the 50th Anniversary, would be getting a sequel since the Zygon portion was more of a vehicle to tell the story about the Doctors and the Time War.  However, the Zygon portion never really got a conclusion so I shouldn't have been as surprised as I was to see the "conclusion" to that portion of the story.  For the most part this is just a fairly standard set of episodes; there is nothing overly fantastic, but there's also nothing bad about it... it's just a solid and good story.   However, there is one outstanding portion.  The entire sequence inside the Black Archive with the Osgood boxes was amazing and would have been worth watching even if the rest of the story had been trash (which it wasn't).  It's that good of a sequence.  It was also great to see Osgood once again though I wish they'd stop teasing us and have her go in the TARDIS at least once! 

Episode 9
Sleep No More

The Doctor and Clara land on a space station in the future in orbit above Neptune.  While there they meet with a rescue team who arrived at the station to figure out why communications went suddenly silent 24 hours prior.  They eventually find Gagan Rassmussen, the last survivor and inventor of the Morpheus pod, a machine which gives you a full nights rest after only five minutes allowing you to work longer.  However, the pods also turn the sleep dust from your eyes into a life form called the Sandmen who seem to be the cause of the crew's deaths.  Gagan reveals that he is working with the Sandmen and intends to send the longest mutated Sandman to Earth to spread the virus and multiply the Sandmen.  The Doctor is able to stop his plan by causing the ship to crash into Neptune.  However, as the ship is crashing and the TARDIS takes off, Gagan reveals himself to actually be a Sandman.  He orchestrated the events on the ship and used the assembled footage recorded from the Morphues pod victim's vision to create an exciting video which held a hidden signal.  This signal would transmit the virus directly into the brain of anyone watching.

I... but... what??  This is the more experimental of the two new concept episodes this season and... this one is just weird.  It was a cool idea to take on the "found footage" genre with Doctor Who's own spin of strangeness, and strange it certainly is.  It's unique in the fact that there is no opening title sequence at all, the whole thing is found footage, and it's one of the few episodes where the Doctor loses without even realizing that he has lost in any way.  It's weird... there's nothing else I can really say about it other than the fact that it's weird.  It's one of those episodes you just have to watch for yourself to understand why I can't really say anything else about it.

Episode 10
Face the Raven

Clara receives a phone call from Rigsy who has no memory of the previous day and a strange tattoo that is counting down on his neck.  The Doctor examines it to see that it is a Chronolock and that Rigsy will die once it reaches zero.  In order to find the one responsible and save Rigsy, the trio search London and eventually find an alien community on a hidden street in the heart of London.  There, they discover that Ashildr/"Me" is the mayor of the street and Rigsy received the Chronolock as he was sentenced to death for murder.  While there, Clara discovers that a Chronolock can be transferred and takes it from Rigsy hoping to buy time and the Doctor's determination once he realizes she has it.  Eventually they find that Rigsy had been framed because Ashildr made a deal with an unknown party to have the Doctor teleported somewhere and so used Rigsy as bait.  Ashildr goes to remove the Chronolock but since Clara took it, Ashildr can no longer remove it.  The Doctor becomes furious but Clara begs him not to take revenge for her.  She walks out into the street and dies as the Doctor is teleported away.

This is an interestingly good episode.  The mystery of Rigsy's chronolock, whether or not he actually killed someone, and the revelation that this was a plot to trap the Doctor was all really good.  I do wish there was a little more "magic" or something involved in this episode since basically this is the Doctor discovering Diagon Alley from Harry Potter and running around inside of it... but what can you do?  One of the more striking scenes that I love (though the show tells me I shouldn't) is when the Doctor learns of Clara's fate and changes his demeanor entirely.  He tells Ashildr to fix what happened to Clara and that if she doesn't, he will rain hell upon her and everything she loves because the Doctor isn't there anymore... Ashilder is dealing with him.  Now we come to Clara.  This is Clara's final moments of life and despite my annoyance with how much the show had focused on her last season and how every episode kept bringing up that something was going to happen to her... I wasn't happy to see her go.  The moments leading up to her death and her death scene were powerful.  It was a moving end to a great companion.... or it would have been if the show's final episode hadn't happened the way it happened.... but I'll get to that later.  As-is this is a tragic and wonderful episode and made for a great end to a wonderful companion.

Episode 11
Heaven Sent

The Doctor emerges in a teleportation chamber in a strange castle, still very angry over losing Clara.  He soon finds out that he is being chased by a slow-moving creature intent on killing him.  He tries talking to the creature and after making a confession, the creature backs off and the castle shifts its form.  The Doctor tries to escape and after following some clues, realizes he must find Room 12.  After a couple more confessions, the castle allows him access to Room 12 which contains a wall of pure Azbantium, a mineral 400 times harder than diamond.  With a sudden idea, he begins punching the wall, but the creature appears behind him and mortally wounds him.  The Doctor crawls back to the teleportation chamber and uses his life energy to re-initiate the teleporter to bring his past self there to start the cycle over and over again.  After four billion years of hitting the wall and being killed over and over, the Azbantium wall is now weak enough to crack open.  The Doctor steps through to find that he was inside his confession dial the whole time and has emerged on Gallifrey.  He tells a nearby child to inform the high council that he has arrived the long way round.

This is the second of the more experimental episodes this season.  This is the first episode to only feature the Doctor (yes there is a monster but we never see its face nor does it speak) and it's also the first episode where a character says the word "ass."  This episode is mysterious, creepy, and keeps you wondering what's happening and what will happen next.  In a sort of nod to Moffat's other show, Sherlock, the Doctor uses a sort of mind palace to think things through in a quick moment similar to Sherlock Holmes.  There are only two negatives I can make about this episode.  The Doctor tells a story that the Brothers Grimm had written about the first second of eternity.... however the editing never has the entire story be said in one setting and there are a lot of repeats.  By the time he finishes the story you really can't follow/remember what he's said.  Also this has the unfortunate side effect that after you've seen the whole episode and know what happens, a second viewing of this story is significantly less engaging.  It's kind of a one and done, but that one viewing is beyond fantastic!

Episode 12
Hell Bent

The Doctor arrives in a Nevada diner where he sees a waitress physically identical to Clara and he begins to tell her a story about Clara though he doesn't remember what she looks like.  Back on Gallifrey, Lord President Rassilon attempts to have the Doctor imprisoned, but the military instead pledges its loyalty to the man who ended the Time War, the Doctor.  The Doctor has the Time Lords use an extraction chamber to pull Clara from her timeline one moment before her death under the ploy that she can help him find information about the hybrid that would stand in Gallifrey's ruins.  Attempting to save her, the Doctor takes Clara and a spare TARDIS and escapes Gallifrey hoping that once they get far enough away from Gallifrey her heart will start beating again.  They travel to the end of the universe, but Clara's heart remains still.  There, the Doctor encounters Ashildr being the last remaining person in the universe and the two eventually conclude that the hybrid is actually the Doctor and Clara being together.  The Doctor decides to remove Clara's memories of him hoping that might save her, but Clara alters the device causing it to affect the Doctor.  Back in the diner, the Doctor finishes his story and the waitress encourages him to keep going before heading into the back room.  It is revealed that the back room is the second TARDIS console room and the diner is part of that TARDIS.  Ashildr and Clara leave the Doctor and his TARDIS behind as they travel the stars together, with the intention of...eventually returning to Gallifrey so Clara can meet her end.

This episode is pretty decent.  It was great to see Gallifrey properly again, the tension kept building with whether or not Clara could escape her fate or not, and it was cool to see some more of the Doctor's history and the Cloister Wraiths.  While other people may absolutely love this finale and I can see why many would, I personally found it to be a little disappointing.  Now I can't blame the show for half of my disappointment, and I shall explain.  The first disappointment was Clara.  Her ending scene was beautiful and powerful.  If you're going to kill off a companion, that is the way to do it.  However they just couldn't let her die and now we have her going around in a TARDIS with Ashildr and then just sort of popping back to Gallifrey at some point to die.  It undermined the whole story of Face the Raven and the care that episode went to give her a proper send-off.  The second disappointment was how Gallifrey just sort of appeared towards the end of time.  In Day of the Doctor they sort of sealed it off in it's own pocket dimension.  I had always assumed that an entire season was going to be dedicated to tracking it down.  The Doctor would find little clues throughout time and space after (or during) helping the peoples of those planets and times along the way to eventually lead him to bringing Gallifrey back out of the dimension during the finale.   Nope they just figured it out by themselves off-screen.  Yes this was an expectation that I had just made out of the blue, but I still think that would have been better.  Oh well.  It's disappointing but not a bad episode by any means.

2015 Christmas Special
The Husbands of River Song

The Doctor is spending Christmas on the planet Mendorax Dellora in the far future when he is mistakenly recruited as a surgeon.  His employer is none other than his former companion and wife River Song who has has tasked him with removing a valuable diamond from the head of the evil King Hydroflax.  The Doctor is surprised that River cannot identify his newest face and attempts to break the news to her in several ways with no success.  He also is having trouble coping with how River acts while on her own... and how many lovers she has.  Eventually the Doctor and River bring the head of Hydroflax to a starship to sell it.  After a series of events leading to River and the Doctor's capture by Hydroflax's independent robotic body, River finally learns the Doctors identity as the ship comes under meteor strike and crashes into the nearby planet of Darillium.  The Doctor has been avoiding Darillium for some time as it where the Doctor and River are fated to have their final date together before she heads to her death at the Library.  The Doctor finally gives in and arranges for a restaurant to be built on the planet.  The Doctor gives River her own sonic screwdriver and the pair have their final date... which will last 24 years as that is the span of a single night on Darillium.

What a great episode!  When we last saw River in The Name of the Doctor, everyone had just sort of assumed that it was the end for River since this was after her death.  It was sort of underwhelming but we all just sort of thought we'd never see her again.  It was really exciting to see her name in the upcoming Christmas episode and to see a nice and proper goodbye to a fantastic character.  While anything is possible and we may be able to see her again, the sort of finality to this episode about their time coming to an end made for a great send-off.  This episode is also properly hilarious with humor everywhere, the Doctor learning that River takes his TARDIS at times, and the Doctor getting to reenact the whole "it's bigger on the inside" scene and do it properly.  The final reveal of his identity to River was also perfectly done.  Basically this was just amazing.

Conclusion

That was series 9, and as of the writing of this post, this is all of the Doctor Who content we have.  Series Nine was one of my favorite seasons of the show.  This is generally due to the excellent quality provided as well as the experimentation and risk-taking.  It really feels like they are putting their all into the series and it shows.  Everyone I have spoken to also has agreed with me that this is one phenomenal season!  Please join me the next time we have more content to discuss as we continue to examine all of Doctor Who.

This is Ghost, fading into the darkness

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Whovian Chatter: The Capaldi Years Series Eight

Ghost here, thanks for joining.

I'm going to be examining Doctor Who... every single episode.  I'm going to take you on a journey through the 50+ years worth of this show, showcasing the good and the bad along the way.  For each episode I'm going to give you a very brief rundown of the plot, how good/bad the story is, and anything interesting about the episode.  Basically I'll just talk about whatever comes to mind for each of them.  These will be a more in-depth overview of the series as a whole so you can see which stories or episodes (if any) you want to check out for yourself.  Today I'm going to be talking about

The Twelfth Doctor

Peter Capaldi

Series Eight

Series eight ran from August 23, 2014 to November 8, 2014 and contained twelve episodes.  After three seasons of Matt Smith, we are given a brand new Doctor with Peter Capaldi.  Capaldi is a man who is an avid fan of Classic Doctor Who and I'm certain this is his dream job.  In fact, I remember listening to the commentary on one of the Classic Doctor Who DVDs were they were mentioning a young Capaldi coming by the set one day (which was recorded long before Capaldi was even suggested for the role.)  Capaldi's Doctor to me is still the hardest to pinpoint.  In many ways he's a teenager trapped in an older man's body but at the same time he's just sort of... him.  He's hard to describe.  Another interesting thing about the Twelfth Doctor is that other Doctors have really good episodes that are excellent from start to finish.  Twelve, however, is more of a "moments" Doctor.  Even in episodes that aren't really fantastic he has a moment or two here or there that are absolutely brilliant.  While there are some episodes that are more favorable than others, it's hard for me to pick out episodes because he has these excellent moments in basically every single episode.

This season's over-all story is about death and the afterlife as there is an ongoing mystery with people actually showing up somewhere after they have died with a mysterious woman named Missy.  There is also a little bit of a personal story going on with Clara as she is dealing with balancing her life with the Doctor and her life with her boyfriend.  Now Series eight is a season that I have a little bit of a problem with.  It has nothing to do with Capaldi but it has to do with the direction of the series as a whole.  Now don't get me wrong, I love Clara as a companion but the show is called Doctor Who... not The Clara Oswald Show.  Unfortunately far too much time is spent focusing on her personal life and on her in general that it does feel like she's the main focus of the show this season and it's to the season's detriment.   It's not a bad season it's just got it's priorities in the wrong place.  I have no concrete evidence for this but I feel this may have been due to the fact that Capaldi isn't a young "hot" actor and they may have been afraid for the show which caused this shift.  I could be very wrong with that idea but it's just a feeling I have.  Random Side Note - What's up with all the robots this season??

Episode 1
Deep Breath

When a dinosaur suddenly appears in Victorian London, Vastra, Jenny, and Strax investigate to find the Doctor had accidentally brought it there.  However, they find the Doctor to be newly regenerated, extremely volatile, and a completely different man than his previous incarnation.  Only Clara may be able to help him but she is dealing with the loss of of the man she new and loved.  When the dinosaur spontaneously combusts after a series of people doing the same, the Doctor takes on the case and disappears.  Eventually the Doctor and Clara find an advertisement summoning them to a restaurant.  Each thought the other had placed the ad...who really did?  They then find all of the customers are androids who lower the pair into their spaceship.  They discover that the space ship has the goal of reaching the "promised land" and that they have been slowly replacing their parts with human organs.  The Doctor confronts the leader who eventually falls to its death from an airship which stops the other androids from functioning.  The Doctor takes Clara to her time where she receives a call from the Eleventh Doctor before his regeneration and asking her to stay with his future self and help as he feels it may be "a whopper."  She agrees.  Elsewhere the android leader wakes up in a mysterious place where he is met by a woman named Missy who welcomes him to heaven.

Introductory episodes for a new Doctor can be difficult depending on the personality of the Doctor in question.  This was one of the more difficult ones.  It's not that this episode is bad.  I quite enjoy this episode.  It's just that the Twelfth Doctor is either in the middle of post-regeneration madness or no even present for a good 3/4ths of the episode.  Now you could argue that the same was true for David Tennant but when he showed up, he sort of showed up in a whirlwind that you could figure out his personality easily within those five minutes of screen time.  Twelve is far more subtle at first and by the end of the episode you still aren't quite sure what kind of Doctor he's going to be.  It was nice to see Vastra, Jenny, and Strax again and I would be lying if I didn't say that seeing Matt Smith one last time didn't tug on the heartstrings a little bit.  But that's when it kind of hit me that the show may be uneasy about their Doctor not being a young hot man anymore since the Doctor is surrounded by 4 characters we know well and his predecessor has shown up to tell Clara (and the audience) to stick around.  Just seemed a bit desperate and unneeded since Twelve is fantastic.  So... yeah this one's a bit of a mixed bag.

Episode 2
Into the Dalek

After saving a rebel fighter from a Dalek attack, the Doctor returns her to her space station where he is asked to attend a patient.  His patient is a Dalek that had been damaged and turned good.  The Doctor drags Clara away from a potential date with her new coworker Danny Pink and the pair are miniaturized along with several soldiers to enter the Dalek's machine (whom the Doctor calls Rusty) and find out what's wrong.  Eventually they stumble upon a large crack which started the malfunction but upon repairing it, Rusty realizes his true nature and begins exterminating people on the space ship and signaling Dalek Command where the hidden space ship is.  A soldier named Gretchen sacrifices her life to allow Clara and another soldier access to Rusty's mind and wakes up to see Missy in "Heaven."  With Clara turning back on certain portions of Rusty's circuitry, The Doctor links his mind with Rusty's to show him the beauty of the universe.  Unfortunately Rusty instead sees the Doctor's hatred for the Daleks and is inspired by this instead.  Rusty exterminates the Daleks on board.  After the battle, Rusty calls the Doctor a "good Dalek" and the Doctor and Clara leave.

It must be a rule that all Science Fiction shows eventually do their own Fantastic Voyage episode.  This episode had a lot of interesting ideas and nods.  It was great to see the inside workings of the Dalek machinery and how Davros engineered them to forget things that may turn them "good" and how that could be reverted.  It was also nice to see the subtle nod to the 9th Doctor Episode Dalek.  There he mentions a dalek will get rusty and that daleks says he would make a good dalek.  Here he nicknames the dalek Rusty and is called a good Dalek.  It also officially confused me about "heaven" since the android from last episode could have been just turned back on or something but this was a true human being just showing up after death.  A pretty solid episode.   Best Like - "Fantastic idea for a movie.  Terrible idea for a proctologist."

Episode 3
Robot of Sherwood

Clara has always wanted to meet Robin Hood.  The Doctor decides to take her to the twelfth century to prove he doesn't exist but is confused to find a man claiming to be the legendary hero.  Clara is having the time of her life but the Doctor remains skeptical even as Robin introduces his Merry Men.  Robin takes place in an archery contest against the Sheriff of Nottingham and splits the arrow to claim the prize.  However, the Doctor blows up the target in a challenge and the Sheriff orders their arrest.  Robin defends the Doctor and slices off a knight's arm only to reveal it is a robot.  Robin, Clara, and the Doctor and captured and Clara is taken to the Sheriff as their leader where she learns that the Sheriff had witnessed a space ship crash land.  He is helping the robotic inhabitants reach the promised land by providing them with gold to repair their systems in exchange for their help in taking over the throne in London.  The Doctor and Robin escape and eventually Robin confronts the Sheriff to a sword fight killing him in the process.  The Doctor then causes the space ship to explode harmlessly in the atmosphere, and reunites Robin Hood with Maid Marian whom he had found imprisoned by the Sheriff.

People like to talk smack about this episode but I absolutely adore it.  It was hilarious to see the Doctor being so convinced that something doesn't exist and refusing to believe the evidence of his own eyes.  The scene where they meet the Merry Men and he tries to do experiments on them to see if they are real cracks me up.  Let's not forget Robin and the Doctor's banter in the jail cell.  I guess some people found the amount of sass in this episode a bit overwhelming but I loved every second of it and it is one of my favorite episodes.  Side note - During this episode, the Doctor theorizes they may be in a mini-scope.  For New Who viewers this was just some techno babble, but for Classic Who viewers we know that this is a reference to a Jon Pertwee story "Carnival of Monsters" in which the Doctor and Jo get stuck inside a machine called a mini-scope.

Episode 4
Listen

The Doctor is looking for a creature that he believes has developed the ability to perfectly hide.  He theorizes that this creature has been stalking mankind and causes the common dream of a hand reaching out from under the bed.  In order to help him track this down, he picks up Clara after a failed date with Danny Pink.  He hooks Clara up to the TARDIS telepathic circuit and the pair end up in the 1990's where they meet Danny as a boy and he is afraid.  The pair comfort him when an unknown entity finds its way in his room and eventually leaves.  The Doctor returns Clara to her date with Danny but it is failing yet again so she returns to the TARDIS to meet Orson Pink, a descendant of Danny.  The Doctor had picked up Orson who was one of Earth's first time travelers that ended up stranded at the end of the universe.  After a brief evening at the end of the universe with the supposed entity outside, Clara triggers the TARDIS to depart to an unknown barn where she finds a crying boy.  She hides under the bed to avoid detection and realizes that the child is actually the Doctor.  When he gets out of bed, she instinctively grabs his leg to stop him from discovering her and realizes that she is his monster under the bed.  She comforts the young Doctor and tells him that fear can be a constant companion that will bring out the best in him and that one day he will return to that barn during the moment of his greatest fear (the War Doctor and the Moment.)  Clara returns to the TARDIS and forces the Doctor to take off without seeing where they are.  He returns her to Danny Pink's apartment where the two reconcile.

I'm torn by this episode.  This has the single greatest opening segment to a Doctor Who episode to date.  It excites and sends chills!  Every part of this episode involving the search for the perfect hiders is fantastic.  There is so much tension, atmosphere, and mystery that it's hard to top.  Unfortunately it's broken up by scenes of Clara and Danny being awkward and hateful on a date.  Don't get me wrong I love the character of Danny Pink and I know it would be hard to keep the tension going for the whole episode but this date is too jarring of a break in the action and honestly made this episode weaker.  The searching parts of this story are brilliant and some of the best stuff the show has produced.

Episode 5
Time Heist

After receiving a phone call from the TARDIS, the Doctor and Clara find themselves somewhere else entirely with their memories wiped.  They are joined by Psi, an augmented human, and Sabre, a mutant human.  The four have been recruited by "The Architect" to rob the bank of Karabraxos.  The four collect the necessary tools but then witness a strange alien creature known as The Teller psychically turn the brain of a would-be criminal into soup.  The four break into the bank's lower levels but security is on alert and the Teller is sent after them.  Sabre is caught by the Teller and activates an atomic disintegrator to avoid the pain of the Teller's psychic abilities.  Psi also succumbs to the same fate to allow the Doctor and Clara a chance to get into the main vault.  Curious as to why they agreed to do this, the pair find the rewards for Sabre and Psi before heading to the Private Vault.  On the way they meet back up with Sabre and Psi who explain that the disintegrator was actually a teleporter.  The four find that the private vault is actually the home of Director Karabraxos and that a solar storm is about to occur which will destroy the establishment.  The Doctor begins to figure some things out and hands Karabraxos his phone number before she leaves in a private shuttle.  The Teller reappears and the Doctor asks it to awaken his memories; he does so.  The Doctor was actually contacted by a dying Karabraxos and sent him back in time to help save the Teller and the female of his species whom Karabraxos kept imprisoned from being destroyed.  They take the aliens to an uninhabited planet and head home.

I don't say this often, but this story could have been made more effective by making it a two-parter.  It's pretty decent as-is and it makes you question who the Architect was and what they agreed to do.  However for this to be the most impregnable bank in the entire galaxy, I was expecting a little more security and traps.  Also, had we gotten to really know Sabre and Psi over the course of the whole first episode their potential death scenes would have had far more impact because time would have been spent developing these characters more and we would have cared more about them.  As is, it was just a little rushed and underwhelming.  The mystery was cool and the end result was nice but it could have been better if it were two episodes.

Episode 6
The Caretaker

The Doctor is going under cover at Clara's school as a caretaker to track down a Skovox Blitzer, a dangerous robotic creature who has already vaporized a local police officer with ease.  The Doctor plans to set a trap at the school to send the robot billions of years into the future where it cannot harm anyone.  The Doctor meets Danny without realizing he is Clara's boyfriend, instead believing another teacher who resembles the 11th Doctor is her romantic interest.  The Doctor treats Danny with increased disdain once he finds out that he is a soldier.  Suspicious of this new caretaker, Danny accidentally messes with the Doctors trap causing the Skovox Blitzer to only be sent a couple days into the future.  The Doctor learns of Danny and Clara's relationship as Danny is finally told of Clara's double life and who the Doctor really is.  When the Skovox Blitzer returns, the three work together and trick it into deactivating itself.  Danny later warns Clara about the Doctor pushing her into dangerous actions as he had seen the same type of personality in his commanding officers at times.  Elsewhere, the local police officer killed by the Skovox Blitzer awakens in "The Promised Land" greeted by Seb, Missy's assistant.

This episode is fairly interesting, got a few good laughs out of me (especially the Doctor Whistling the lines "we don't need no education" at Clara in the school).  I don't want to talk much about the episode... it's a fine episode.  I want to talk more about Danny Pink here because this is the episode where I truly saw his ultimately wasted potential.  Danny is a strong likeable character with strong convictions and a past.  He and the Doctor don't get along... at all.  However, over the course of this episode he proves to the Doctor that he is worthy of Clara.  This right here would have been the perfect time to have brought Danny on board the TARDIS and let him come along for the next several adventures.  He could have done the same as Clara and go on an adventure then return to work the next day.  Since he and the Doctor argue so much, the drama and comedy practically write themselves.  But no, he doesn't join and gets shoved into the background as moral support or an oblivious distraction until the finale of the season.  It's just frustrating to not have the show capitalize on such a fantastic character.

Episode 7
Kill the Moon

The Doctor takes Clara and a student, Courtney, on a trip and they land on a space shuttle in 2049.  The shuttle is loaded with nuclear bombs and is heading towards the Moon.  The Doctor notices the Moon currently has much higher gravity than it should and learns from space shuttle Captain Lundvik that they have been sent on a suicide mission to blow up the Moon.  The Moon's increased gravity is causing sudden mass high tides threatening humanity.  After investigating some readings by previous colonists and doing some digging on his own, the Doctor finds out that the Moon is actually an egg and the creature inside is getting ready to hatch.  The Doctor then abandons Lundvik, Clara, and Courtney on the moon forcing them to decide whether or not to "kill the Moon."  The trio ask Earth for their decision and receive a unanimous vote to save the Earth.  Clara however intervenes and stops the bombs countdown.  The Doctor returns to rescue them before the egg hatches and lands them on the beach where they see the creature hatch, lay an identical egg and fly off safely.  Clara very angrily confronts the Doctor and tells him that Earth is important to him as well and it was just as much his decision.  She storms out of the TARDIS wanting to not travel with him anymore and is comforted by Danny.

As much as I hate to say this, this episode is honestly kinda dumb.  There are these spider things with multiple moving parts and different looking parts that are apparently germs... if you know anything about the actual biology of a germ you'll know why this is stupid.  It also has things like...the baby inside the egg shifting causing periods of weightlessness, and a standard space shuttle carrying far more nuclear bombs than it should be able to considering the weight of a nuclear bomb.  This also has the Doctor just leaving Clara and Courtney in a dangerous situation on purpose for no real reason.  Yeah sure he mentions some line about it being a gray area but this hasn't stopped him from interfering before, so here he's just being a douche.  Also there is no dilemma here really.  The life of one unborn creature verses the lives of ALL of humanity??  There is no question.  You blow up the egg.  It's just *sigh*  this is not one of their best or smartest episodes.  They should have scrapped this one and made Time Heist a two-parter.

Episode 8
Mummy on the Orient Express

Clara has joined the Doctor for one final outing before she stops being his companion.  They arrive on a recreation of the famous Orient Express in deep space.  Soon, the Doctor discovers that an elderly woman has been murdered seemingly by an Egyptian Mummy that only she could see.  Eventually, the Doctor investigates and finds that the creature is known as the Foretold and is invisible to all but the one it is about to kill.  The train's computer program, Gus, reveals that he had summoned the Doctor there to capture the Foretold and forces him to do so by threatening the lives of everyone on board.  By piecing together the evidence, the Doctor temporarily takes the consciousness of the Foretold's next victim so that he could see it.  In those brief seconds he discovers that the Foretold is a dead soldier being powered by future technology.  The Doctor stops the Foretold by surrendering to it.  The Foretold salutes and disappears permanently.  Gus thanks the Doctor but says that the survival of the train's occupants is not required and begins siphoning out the air.  The Doctor uses the Foretold's tech to teleport everyone onto the TARDIS and to safety.  After a long conversation, Clara decides she's not ready to give up life with the Doctor.

It's almost like they knew the previous episode wasn't that great because they followed it up with something absolutely brilliant!  This is the kind of inventive imagination and proper amount of weirdness that I would expect from a classic Who episode.  The mystery is great, the reveal of what's going on is interesting, the "monster" is threatening.  There's nothing bad I can say about this episode at all.  It's one of the best Capaldi episodes.  Also, when seeing the Foretold for the first time, the Doctor asks "Are you my mummy?" which is, of course, a reference to the 9th Doctor story The Empty Child.

Episode 9
Flatline

The TARDIS lands back on Earth but the Doctor and Clara find that the police box exterior has shrunk.  Clara gets out to investigate the nearby area while the Doctor stays inside to scan around.  When Clara returns, the TARDIS is now handheld with the Doctor trapped inside; something is leeching its external dimensions.  Clara encounters a young graffiti artist named Rigsy doing community service where they learn that people have been going missing and after they do so, their backs are suddenly painted underneath a bridge.  With the Doctor and Clara communicating through an earpiece, the Doctor theorizes that they are dealing with creatures from a two-dimensional universe who have achieved the ability of turning 3D things into 2D to better understand this universe.  The creatures, however are shown to be hostile and are grabbing people at will and using those people's broken-down components to as disguises; the people showing up under the bridge are actually the creatures using the bodies of the missing people in order to eventually become 3D themselves.  As Clara, Rigsy, and some community service people attempt to run from the creatures, the TARDIS begins to fail as it cannot function with lack of dimensions.  Clara and Rigsy eventually trick the creatures into restoring the TARDIS dimensions and the Doctor uses it's power to send the creatures back to their universe. 

This was a very unique episode.  It was good to see the Doctor trying to reason with the new lifeforms and eventually having to give up and defeat them since they seemed to be intent on being monsters.  It's just one of those concepts that, on paper, sound silly but really works and is legitimately creepy.  It was funny to see the TARDIS keep shrinking and the Doctor having to do an "Addams Family" to move the TARDIS off the train tracks.  Great episode overall!

Episode 10
In the Forest of the Night

Maebh, a young girl, is running through a forest and encounters the Doctor who eventually agrees to help her after learning that a forest has grown in London overnight.  At the London Museum, Clara and Danny are leading a class sleepover and discover the forest as well as Maebh's disappearance.  Clara calls the Doctor who tells her to head towards Trafalgar Square.  The group arrives and the Doctor realizes Maebh is missing so he and Clara set out to find her.  They follow a trail she left and along the way discover that the trees have no rings and are fireproof.  They find Maebh and the Doctor realizes she's involved in what is going on.  Using his sonic screwdriver he gets the trees to speak through Maebh.  They reveal that an extinction-level solar flare is headed towards Earth.  The Doctor offers Clara a chance to take her, Danny, and the kids away but she refuses as the children would miss their families, Danny would never leave the children, and she will never leave Danny.  The Doctor leaves only to realize that the trees have grown and become fireproof to act as a giant airbag to protect the Earth.  The Doctor returns and enlists the kids to send a message to the world not to destroy the trees.  The Solar flare passes by Earth harmlessly and the new trees disappear as quickly as they came.

Well this episode... exists.  I mean it has it's good moments such as the mystery of why there's a forest in Trafalgar Square, the look of horror on the Doctor's face when all the children enter the TARDIS, and Clara telling the Doctor to leave and save the next planet.  Those were all great sequences, but the rest of it was just either bland, or didn't really go anywhere.  It's not great but it's not terrible... it's teetering between bad and ok.

Episode 11 and 12
Dark Water / Death in Heaven

While on the phone with Clara, Danny is struck by a car and is killed.  Clara, stricken with grief attempts to blackmail the Doctor into saving her by throwing the TARDIS keys into a volcano one by one destroying them.  It is only then that the Doctor removes her from the dream-like state he placed her in just to see how far she was willing to go.  He then hooks her into the TARDIS telepathic circuit to find where Danny is currently; The TARDIS placed them in a strange facility named 3W where they find themselves surrounded by skeletons in water tanks.  Elsewhere, Danny is in "The Promised Land" or "The Nethersphere" and is being consoled by Seb on his passing.  The Doctor opens an information book and is met by Missy who identifies herself as an android working for Doctor Chang.  Chang explains that 3W was created after scientists discovered the dead are actually still conscious and out there somewhere though they still can feel what their body feels.  He also shows them "dark water" a blue liquid which can only display organic materials.  Missy then begins to drain the tanks of the skeletons as Chang is able to find Danny's frequency.  Clara and Danny speak and she tries to get proof of his identity so she can kill herself and join him.  He refuses to allow that and Clara hangs up on him.  The Doctor and Chang leave Clara to her call and discover the draining tanks are actually filled with Cybermen and the dark water within the tank was only showing their organic skeletons.  The Doctor rushes out to tell everyone to flee the area but Missy tells him that it's pointless and reveals her true identity. Missy is short for Mistress; she couldn't really keep calling herself the Master could she?

Missy's plan now activated, the Cybermen inside 3W fly into the air and detonate themselves releasing Cyber Pollen that can transform the dead into Cybermen.  Their conscious minds having been uploaded into a Time Lord Hard Drive, the Nethersphere, could then return to their newly upgraded bodies having had all emotions wiped to cope with the grief of death.  Danny, who wasn't around long enough to have his emotions wiped is one of these Cybermen and is able to act independently.  He saves Clara from 3W and brings her to a graveyard.  Elsewhere, the Doctor and Missy are forcibly brought on an airplane by UNIT where the Doctor is made the President of Earth.  Osgood informs the Doctor that the Cybermen infestation is happening everywhere.  Missy is right where she wants to be and with her new Cybermen are able to kill Osgood and blow up the plane.  The Doctor survives by calling the TARDIS to him and he meets with Clara in the graveyard.  Missy arrives as well and gifts the Doctor with control over the Cybermen so he can conquer the universe.  The Doctor refuses to do this and tosses the controller to Danny who leads the Cybermen to fly into the air and destroy the Cyber Clouds and save the human race.  Missy is then seemingly disintegrated by a remaining Cyberman, the reanimated Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart who saved his daughter from the UNIT plane.  Afterwards Clara and the Doctor bid farewell to each other, both having lied so the other could pursue happiness.  Clara tells the Doctor that Danny found a way back though he really used his only chance to instead revive a small boy he accidentally killed while a soldier.  The Doctor lies that he found Gallifrey at the coordinates Missy gave him when in fact it was empty space.

Not only was this a great end to the season, it was also a very inventive use of the Cybermen.  It may have taken them a long time, but the show has eventually started making Cybermen be threatening again.  Michelle Gomez does a fantastic job as Missy especially with the modern show deciding that the Master is more of a madman/mad woman than space Moriarty.  She's probably my favorite incarnation of the Master.  I don't really have anything truly negative to say here.  Clara's tossing of the TARDIS keys was great, the reveal of Missy was just as great, and having the Brigadier show up as a Cyberman made me both happy and sad.  The episodes ended on a bit of a sad and sour note as both Clara and the Doctor are lying to each other and it left me with a bad taste for this...until the Christmas special came along.  All in all it's a good two-parter.  Best Line - "Do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?"

2014 Christmas Special
Last Christmas

Clara wakes up on Christmas Eve to find Santa Claus on her rooftop.  She denies his existence but the Doctor returns and takes her away in the TARDIS to the North Pole.  There, a group of scientists are trying to save their coworkers from being overtaken by strange crab-like aliens.  As soon as the Doctor and Clara arrive at the base, the crabs attack them.  However, the group are saved by Santa.  The Doctor then realizes that the creatures are Dream Crabs who attach themselves to the face of their victim and keep them in a happy state of mind while eating their brain.  Clara is attacked by a lone crab and ends up in a dream where Danny is still alive and they are living together.  The Doctor joins her in the dream and is able to pull themselves out of the dream with help from the dream version of Danny.  After additional investigation, the Doctor realizes that they are all inside of a dream that is inside of a dream and Santa is the last bit of their brain trying to fight back.  They collectively pool their dreams to have Santa fly them home on his sleigh; one by one each member of the group awakens in the real world until only Clara is left.  The Doctor goes to Clara's house and pulls the crab off only to discover it has been 62 years since they had last met.  However Santa appears one last time and the Doctor realizes the pair are still dreaming.  Finally back in reality, the Doctor finds Clara at her normal age and asks her to join him in the TARDIS once more.  She agrees.

What a Christmas Special!  The sins of the preceding season were basically undone entirely by this one episode doing its best to be amazing.  We got some true and heartwarming closer to Danny Pink even though it was only a dream.  The show wasn't just focused on Clara's personal life like the previous season had been, and the story was genuinely interesting.  Nick Frost did an amazing job playing Santa and his banter with the Doctor and the two elves made this episode absolutely hilarious.  The Dream Crabs were also legitimately creepy.  Basically this was wonderful and made me eagerly look forward to the next season.  Best line - "There's a horror movie called Alien?  That's really offensive. No wonder everyone keeps invading you."

Conclusion

Despite the show not utilizing Danny Pink to his full potential, and some idiocy on the Moon, this season was still pretty solid.  While this season didn't have as many outstanding episodes as other seasons, I still quite like the majority of what we got.  At that, Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor brings this charm and sass to the role in a way we hadn't quite seen yet.  At minimum he gets a paragraph of dialogue or a one-liner here and there in every single episode that make all of them worth watching even if it's just for his one zinger.  Capaldi came out better this season than she show did overall and that's perfectly fine because I love his performance.  Thankfully next season we're going to have less of a focus on the companion's personal life and more of a focus on the adventures, stories, and monsters we meet along the way.  Please join me again as we continue to examine all of Doctor Who.

This is Ghost, fading into the darkness

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Whovian Chatter: The Smith Years Series Seven

Ghost here, thanks for joining.

I'm going to be examining Doctor Who... every single episode.  I'm going to take you on a journey through the 50+ years worth of this show, showcasing the good and the bad along the way.  For each episode I'm going to give you a very brief rundown of the plot, how good/bad the story is, and anything interesting about the episode.  Basically I'll just talk about whatever comes to mind for each of them.  These will be a more in-depth overview of the series as a whole so you can see which stories or episodes (if any) you want to check out for yourself.  Today I'm going to be talking about

The Eleventh Doctor

Matt Smith

Series Seven

Series seven ran from September 1, 2012 to May 18, 2013 and contained thirteen episodes.  Similar to series six, the entire season was split in half, however this time it was the first five episodes, then a Christmas Special, then the last eight episodes.  Due to the nature of this season, the supplemental mini episodes that I feel add something to this season, and the two specials that came after this season was over, this will be the longest single entry of my Doctor Who talks to date...there's a lot to cover here folks.

This season is very unique with its episodes.  The first half of Series seven somewhat revolves around whether or not Amy and Rory will continue to travel with the Doctor and just how much they are drifting away from him into a normal life.  It's mostly just sort of hinted at with one episode being mostly about that dilemma....before their ultimate end of their time with the Doctor.  The second half of series seven however picks up a lot of new.  We have a brand new TARDIS interior, a brand new purple outfit for the Doctor, a brand new title sequence, and a brand new companion in Clara Oswald.  The mystery of this half of the season is....exactly who is the impossible girl Clara Oswald and why has the Doctor seen her die at different times in history.  Clara is a nice addition to the TARDIS...well this season anyway.  I have....issues with the show for the next two seasons but we'll get there eventually.  Now we're just here to talk about Series Seven.

Before I get started proper, I wanted to mention something that's not necessarily bad but it's just something that bothers me personally.  Towards the end of last season, the Doctor drops Amy and Rory off at their home seemingly for good.   This season he does pick them back up and they will go on occasional adventures together but for the most part it's a few romps in the TARDIS and then they are taken back home.  The same is true with the next companion... he drops her off back home after ever adventure.  Now this doesn't really change the dynamic of the actual episode's content but it changes a bit of the series as a whole because now rather than going on numerous adventures it's definitely one-off things with them.  It just sort of detracts from "adventuring in time and space" if he has to keep returning to England at the end.  It's not that big of a deal it just bothers me slightly... oh well.

2012 Online Supplemental Episodes
Pond Life 1-5

Amy and Rory are having a few little "adventures" of their own in the year after the Doctor reunited with them at Christmas.  Several times they receive calls from the Doctor about random adventures that he is on.  Other times he is showing up at the wrong time due to a TARDIS malfunction and leaves just as quickly.  He accidentally leaves an Ood with them for a short time who takes up serving them.  When the Doctor calls for the last time, nobody answers so the Doctor deletes his voice mail.  Unknown to him, Amy and Rory have been screaming at each other and Amy has kicked Rory out of the house, wishing the Doctor was there to help.

This is just a collection of humor with the exception of the last entry.  The last entry is there as a sort of prequel to explain what's going on with Amy and Rory in Episode 1 and that's the whole reason I even included it here.  Now that you've read this you don't necessarily have to watch them.  It's just something to help you not be confused when Amy and Rory are talking divorce at the beginning of the first episode.

Episode 1
Asylum of the Daleks

Amy, Rory, and the Doctor are kidnapped by the Daleks and taken to their parliament where they explain that the planet they use as an asylum for mad Daleks must be destroyed but to do this, its force field must be disabled from inside.  The reason for its destruction is a small breach in the planet's force field by the crash landing of a young woman, Oswin Oswald, one year previously.  The Daleks give the trio special bracelets to protect them from the planet's defense mechanism which turns all non-Daleks into Dalek puppets.  Once they they are contacted by Oswin who seems to have not been converted and she guides them through the complex towards her and the force field controls.  Unfortunately the converted corpses of Oswin's shipmates steal Amy's bracelet.  The Doctor slips his on her without her knowledge and goes to find Oswin leaving Amy and Rory to deal with their relationship issues.  Due to the events with the Silence, Amy can't have any more children and wouldn't tell this to Rory; she just sent him away out of love so he could have a family.  The two make up and notice the Doctor's actions.  The Doctor makes his way to Oswin who claims to be able to bring down the force field and even hacks into the Dalek psychic link to remove all traces of the Doctor from all of the Daleks minds.  The Doctor then discovers that Oswin has been fully converted into a Dalek but she still believes herself to be human.  She ultimately realizes her situation and lowers the force field allowing the Doctor, Amy, and Rory to escape before the planet's destruction.  On board the Dalek ship, the Daleks have no memory of the Doctor and he along with his companions fly off int he TARDIS.

This was a fairly interesting episode.  It was cool to see the Daleks turning towards their arch enemy for help.  Also the human Daleks puppets were a neat idea that actually was able to escape Moffat's "set it and forget it" method of Dalek stories.  However another element doesn't escape that fate really.  Oswin is able to erase the Dalek's memory of the Doctor together.  This is an interesting twist in their relationship.  However it's undone the very next time we see Daleks so yet again it becomes pointless.  Also this is our first introduction to the new companion though we won't know it yet so her appearance here isn't quite as impactful... but it will be!

Episode 2
Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

The Doctor is alerted to an unmanned spaceship heading towards Earth in the future.  The ship's cargo consists of live dinosaurs, but the authorities on Earth intend to destroy the vessel if it gets too close.  Hoping to avoid this end, the Doctor recruits Queen Nefertiti, a big-game hunter John Riddell, Amy, Rory, and unknowingly Rory's father Brian.  The Doctor and his group discover that the ship is actually a Silurian ark that was designed to carry the Silurians as well as the flora and fauna of the time period away from Earth to avoid what the Silurians thought was the end of the world which was actually the Moon coming into orbit.  They find a human named Solomon on the ship and discover that he had murdered the Silurian inhabitants in order to sell the dinosaurs on board to the highest bidder.  He then shifts his attention to Queen Nefertiti after seeing her value.  By this time Earth has fired rockets at the ship's homing beacon.  The Doctor saves Nefertiti but not until he secretly switched homing beacons with Solomon's ship.  The missiles destroy Solomon and the Doctor pilots the ship to an inhabitable planet where the Dinosaurs can live in peace.

This episode is fun and kind of silly.  It's not taking itself seriously and you will enjoy it more if you don't take it seriously either. I mean with a title like Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and a scene where the guys ride on a triceratops chasing down grass covered golf balls...what do you expect?  However this episode also does include the Doctor intentionally causing someone's death which further proves the episode "The Doctor's Daughter" wrong, so that's pretty fantastic.  If you come looking for fun, you'll find it!

Episode 3
A Town Called Mercy

The TARDIS lands in the town of Mercy in the American West around 1870.  They find a strange perimeter around the town and a Gunslinger asking for "the doctor."  They discover that the town's doctor, Jex, is an alien and is the one the Gunslinger is after.  The Doctor sneaks out of the town and investigates Jex's ship where he learns that Jex was a scientist who experiments and brutalized volunteers to help create cyborgs in order to end a war on his home planet.  The Gunslinger was one such volunteer and is seeking revenge for what was done to him claiming that everyone in the town will die if Jex isn't handed over.  The Doctor is faced with the moral dilemma of handing over Jex to the Gunslinger or not.  Eventually the Doctor devises a plan to allow Jex to escape but he decides to commit suicide so that no other innocent people can be harmed from his actions.  The Doctor then convinces the Gunslinger not to self-destruct but instead to become the marshal of Mercy.

If memory serves me correctly, this is only the second time the Doctor has gone to the Old West and both times have been a very unique story.  While the story structure of someone seeking revenge isn't all that new for the show, having the Doctor face a real moral dilemma is certainly more so... especially a moral dilemma that he can identify with.  He's having trouble seeing Jex as both the butcher and the savior at the same time that he has become mostly because of his own disgust that he too can be both.  There's also a lot of nice/funny moments such as a transgender horse joke, Jex's religious beliefs that he must carry the souls of all he has wronged in the afterlife, and his final words of hoping those he wronged will be kind to him when he meets them again.  It's just a unique experience worth watching.

Episode 4
The Power of Three

Amy and Rory are wondering which life they should ultimately pick... regular life or "Doctor life."  The next morning, tons of small black cubes land all over the world with no explanation and they aren't doing anything.  The Doctor decides to stay with Amy and Rory to investigate but after several days of nothing happening, the Doctor leaves UNIT, headed by Kate Stewart (the Brigadier's daughter) in charge.  A full year goes by with the Doctor popping in occasionally when suddenly the cubes begin activating with completely random features before stopping the hearts of at least 1/3rd of the human race.  The Doctor, Amy, and Rory eventually track down the cubes to an alien race known as the Shakri who intend to wipe out humanity before they can colonize space.  The Doctor reverses the electrical change to re-start peoples hearts and send the surge back to the Shakri destroying their ships.  Amy and Rory return as full-time companions.

This one is odd and is mostly played for humor up until the last 15 minutes or so.  It's basically the Doctor being bored by not hopping about in time while a bunch of cubes do absolutely nothing... then suddenly everything goes berserk.  However the shining inclusion into the show was the introduction of Kate Stewart.  Moffat, I believe, attempted to make up for the fact that they never got Nicholas Courtney to portray the Brigadier in the modern series and has given the Brigadier's daughter his job.  Kate is pretty awesome and is as good of a fit for the type of job that her (and her father's) position eventually became with the new show.  It's just an ok episode with an interesting introduction.  It also somewhat bothers me that a chunk of the episode involves Rory's dad becoming concerned about Amy and Rory's eventual fate then suggesting they become full-time companions again right before what's about to happen.

Episode 5
The Angels Take Manhattan

The Doctor takes Amy and Rory to Central Park.  While the Doctor is reading Amy a detective novel, Rory is captured by a Weeping Angel.  In 1938, Rory meets up with River who is posing as a private investigator.  It is then that the Doctor reads about Rory in the book and realizes this book is a novelization of their upcoming adventure.  They use the book to be break their way into time-locked 1938 New York and find River and Rory who are investigating the Weeping Angel's takeover of Manhattan.  They make their way to the Winter Quay hotel where they find an elderly Rory who dies before them.  The angels are using this hotel to keep their victims there indefinitely to maintain a constant source of energy to feed on.  In an attempt to escape that fate, Amy and Rory jump off the top of the hotel to their deaths causing a paradox that erases the Angels and hotel.  Waking up in a graveyard with the TARDIS, Rory notices his own grave and is taken by a single surviving Angel.  Rescuing him a second time via paradox would rip New York apart.  Amy bids the Doctor a tearful goodbye and allows the Angel to take her to Rory.  Her name appears on the grave as well.  Later the heartbroken Doctor reads the afterword of the novel written by Amy which tells him they lived a wonderful life and for him not to be alone.

While this isn't necessarily an awful episode, it's certainly a bad ending to my favorite companions of the modern show.  Most Whovians agree with this sentiment.  What's good about it: the Doctor wearing glasses, weeping angels not having to look like angels anymore, the Doctor reading a novelization of an adventure he's currently having, the weeping angels creating a no-escape hotel to have energy, and Amy and Rory jumping to their deaths together to create a paradox.  What's bad?  Well there's only 2 big things but boy are they gigantic.  The first one is that the Statue of Liberty is a weeping angel and was able to make it several blocks to some hotel... I'm fairly certain I don't have to tell you why that's stupid.  Second is the explanation for why the Doctor can't go back and save them.  Apparently creating another paradox would wipe out New York because their names were written down on the grave stone and that particular time period had too much time disturbance.  Well we've seen him change a fixed point in time where things were written down and physically saw the writing change after he interfered in The Waters of Mars so that's out.  Also if that particular time in New York was bad then why not land before that and chill out for a few years, leave them a clue to leave New York and head there, or just let them live in the past for a few years and pick them up.  They wanted a companion "death" but they didn't have the guts to just kill them heroically on screen and it made so many logic gaps that the TARDIS could fly through it.

2012 Online Supplemental Episode
P.S.

Brian, Rory's father, is at home when the doorbell rings.  An older gentleman is there with a letter and instructions to bring the letter to him at that time.  Brian opens the letter to find that it is from Rory explaining what happened and that they will never see each other again.  As a post script, Rory informs his father that the man who has delivered this message is his grandson.  The two men embrace.

This is the scene that was never filmed.  Throughout The Power of Three, Brian voices his concern about Rory and Amy joining the Doctor and feared for their fate.  In the end he was the one who prompted them to return to the Doctor while he waited for their return.  All of us wanted to see this scene happen despite it's extreme sadness.  It was eventually intended to be shot but due to actor unavailability it never was.  However, the outcry for this scene was so large that they released it in storyboard form.  It's sad and beautiful.

2012 Christmas Special
The Snowmen

The Great Intelligence has landed on Earth as a sort of snow-like material that can mirror the thoughts of those around.  It attaches itself to a young man named Simeon and forms a symbiotic relationship with the boy that lasts into adulthood in the Victorian Era where the two are planning the creation of an army of ice people incapable of melting.  Meanwhile, the Doctor has hidden himself away there out of depression from losing Amy and Rory.  While there, he runs into a barmaid named Clara who he helps get rid of some evil looking snowmen who appeared.  However he refuses to investigate the snowmen further as he is finished saving the world.  Clara follows him to his hidden TARDIS but keeps herself out of his sight.  She returns to her job as a governess at a mansion where she learns of the Great Intelligence's plan of using the ice's imprint of the children's drowned previous governess as the template for his army.  She returns to the Doctor for help and thanks to her charm and her use of the word "Pond" he decides to take action once again.  Together with Madame Vastra, Jenny, and Strax (who have made Victorian London their home) The Doctor and Clara stop the ice governess template but not before Clara falls to her impending death.  The Doctor rushes to Simeon's and severs his link with the Great Intelligence, but the Great Intelligence has been in existence too long and no longer needs someone to feed off.  However, the family crying over the dying Clara overwhelm the psychic snow surrounding the mansion and the Great Intelligence causing him to melt.  The Doctor returns to say goodbye to Clara where he learns her name is Clara Oswin Owald.  He comes to the realization that this is the same person he met in the Dalek Assylum and that she is most likely still alive in some other place and time as well since he'd seen her die in two separate times and planets.  He leaves off in the TARDIS to find her.

What an interesting Christmas special.  Not only do we get to see the origin of The Great Ingelligence from the 2nd Doctor's run, but we also get a gigantic mystery involving our upcoming companion.  While there's just a bit too much coincidence going on... sometimes that just happens and I'm ok with it.  Again, I'd like to say that I enjoy Vastra, Jenny, and Strax more than probably most people do.  I find their dymanic, determination, and strangeness to be the perfect combination for the show.  What I didn't mention above is that Strax actually died in Demon's Run but came back as a blithering idiot almost to the point of mentally disabled in some aspects.  Basically he's there for comic relief and supplies it steadily.  This was a pretty good episode with a lot of good elements brought in for the remainder of the season.

Episode 6
The Bells of Saint John

The Doctor eventually finds another version of Clara in the present day after she was given his number by some woman in a shop.  After meeting her, he discovers that there is something wrong with the Wi-Fi.  A Miss Kizlet is sending out robots into the Wi-Fi to upload people's souls into a data cloud under the claims that it is to preserve humanity for her client.  The Doctor saves Clara from this fate and modifies a robot to resemble himself and infiltrate Kizlet's office.  There he causes the robot to download Kizlet's soul into the data cloud which forces her to have her employees return all the souls to their bodies.  It is then revealed to the audience that her client is the Great Intelligence who has been using the uploaded souls of humanity to feed on and grow stronger.  He erases Kizlet's mind leaving her in a child-like state.  The Doctor invites Clara to be his companion but she asks him to come back tomorrow so she can think about it.

This one is... odd.  The Doctor is trying to track down Clara and he becomes a monk in the 11th century for whatever reason.  While I realize that it is the Great Intelligence living in the Wi-Fi that's causing some of this stuff but to have the ability to freeze and control people who are in the field of a Wi-Fi connection is not exactly how Wi-Fi works.  I'll buy that the robots can upload their souls more than I can buy that.  However it's got some nice little moments including a very unsettling scene where the adult Miss Kizlet is basically reduced to the mentality of a 4 year old.  Not bad just weird.  I also want you to remember that Clara got the Doctor's number from a woman in a shop.  We don't know who this woman is but we will find out next season.  This is the ONLY plot arch to even carry over into next season and this is the only time it's ever mentioned really.

Episode 7
The Rings of Akhaten

The Doctor decides to investigate Clara's past before returning to get her and discovers nothing unusual about her at all and providing no answers as to why she has died twice in different times.  He does learns that her mother died when she was young. He returns to pick her up and she requests to see "something awesome."  The Doctor takes her to the Rings of Akhaten, a group of planets orbiting a large sun which the local religion believes is the source of all life and the currency of the planets is items of sentimental value.  Clara and the Doctor get separated and Clara runs into a young girl named Merry who is about to be sacrificed in the "Festival of Offerings" to appease The Old God.  The Doctor and Clara save Merry and discover that the Old God is actually just a parasite feeding of memories and sentiments of people living on the planet.  The Doctor offers his many lives to stop the Old God from destroying Akhaten but it isn't enough.  Clara then offers the parasite her treasured leaf that caused her parents to meet and that there are infinite possibilities to every choice.  The infinite nature of this offering is too much and the parasite dies leaving Akhaten safe.

I adore this episode.  It's got a perfect mix of weird, heartwarming, awesome, and threatening.  The idea of offering sentiment as currency and appeasement to a "god" is a very interesting idea that pays off.  The Doctor gives one heck of a speech about all of his pain and adventures across his lives that's beautiful and tragic at the same time.  Not to mention the song that Merry and the crowd sing as the Doctor is confronting the parasite is one of the best pieces of Doctor Who music created.  Basically this is great!

Episode 8
Cold War

The TARDIS accidentally lands in a Russian submarine in 1983 and then takes off without the Doctor and Clara to avoid the hostilities on board.  The Doctor discovers that a lone Ice Warrior named General Skaldak is on board, having been thawed out of the ice after 5000 years of being frozen.  Unfortunately the Russian captain is not trusting of the Doctor and Clara and forces Skaldak into chains.  This forces Skaldak to believe humanity as a whole has declared war on the Ice Warriors and after receiving no word from his race, he believes that he is the last Ice Warrior alive.  He then exits his suit and begins killing and analyzing the human bodies.  Eventually Skaldak learns of the circumstances surrounding the Cold War and intends to start an alternate timeline by firing a nuclear missile from the submarine.  Eventually Clara is able to convince Skaldak that it would be wrong to slaughter innocent lives.  An Ice Warrior ship comes for Skaldak and he shows mercy by releasing the missile controls.  With the danger gone the Doctor's sonic screwdriver tells him that the TARDIS HADS (Hostile Action Displacement System) had been activated and caused the TARDIS to travel to the South Pole away from the Ice Warrior.

Two old enemies of the Doctor not seen in decades in the same season??  Someone must have been looking at my Christmas list!  This is a fairly standard story without many surprises to the actual story structure.  The star of the show honestly is the Ice Warrior because now they have been established in the new show again, and this is the first time we've ever seen one outside of it's protective armor.  It's also great to see David Warner (a very underrated actor by the way) in an episode of Doctor Who.  Just a solid normal episode.

Episode 9
Hide

Believing that a visit to empathic psychic Emma Grayling may be able to shed light into Clara's unique existence, the Doctor lands in 1974.  There they meet Emma and her future husband Prof. Palmer who are investigating a ghost known as the Witch of the Well in a haunted mansion.  After the house grows cold and the words "help me" appear, the Doctor borrows Palmer's camera and uses the TARDIS to take pictures of the house's exact location over thousands of years.  Because of this he learns that the figure is not actually a ghost but a time traveler named Hila who got stuck in a pocket dimension where time is running at an incredibly slow rate.  He also discovers that Hila is running from a hideous creature.  The Doctor creates a psychic amplifier for Emma that allows him access into the pocket dimension where he helps Hila escape but becomes trapped there as Emma can't keep the portal open for long.  Clara convinces the TARDIS to fly there briefly to collect the Doctor who hangs on to the exterior and back into the regular universe.  Pulling Emma to the side, the Doctor asks about Clara to which Emma says there is nothing altogether different about her.  Emma also explains that she feels a strange connection to Hila; the Doctor explains that she is a descendant of Emma and Palmer's.  As he starts rambling about love, the Doctor sees another creature inside the mansion and realizes it's mate was the one in the pocket dimension.  He returns to save it as well.

What is it with single-word title episodes that make them so good?  The show had tried to go the ghost route before with the Cybermen in Series Two, but THIS is how you do a ghost story.  It's creepy, in a mansion, and it's simply dripping with atmosphere and chills.  The only problem I have comes from being a classic show fan and most fans of the modern show wouldn't notice it at all.  The device he creates for Emma uses a blue crystal from Metebelis III.  If you've seen the Pertwee Era or read my posts you'll realize that's a problem.  The Third Doctor took a crystal from there and it causes massive problems on the planet resulting in gigantic psychic spiders, so he took the crystal back to stop everything and died in the process.  He died doing the right thing.. and now either we learn he forgot to leave it behind or went back and stole another one.  Oh well... aside from that nitpick, it's a good episode.

Episode 10
Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS

The TARDIS is picked up by an intergalactic salvage crew, accidentally causing Clara to fall into the depths of the TARDIS and damaging the TARDIS badly.  The Doctor needing to rescue her offers the salvage crew the salvage of a lifetime, but once they get inside he locks the doors and sets the self-destruct to 30 minutes to ensure their cooperation.  Clara, meanwhile, is being chased by a molten humanoid creature all through the TARDIS.  Eventually the Doctor, Clara, and the salvage crew meet up and everyone rushes to the engine room to stop it form exploding.  The Doctor sees the molten zombie creatures and realizes they are future echoes of what they all will become by staying too long near the Eye of Harmony.  After the salvage crew are turned into molten zombies, the Doctor and Clara escape and make it to the engine room which has already exploded but is locked in a time loop to try to save everyone.  The Doctor confronts Clara about her other lives but she has no idea what he's talking about.  The Doctor is pleased to hear this and finds a fracture in time from the engine exploding.  He creates a device and tossed it into the time fissure to his past self to activate causing the TARDIS to never be picked up by the salvage crew and none of this to have ever happened.

This one is pretty decent.  It's insane, but it's decent.  While there is some character development with two of the brothers treating the third brother like he's a robot when he isn't, the main focus is the various rooms and workings of the TARDIS.  When it comes to the TARDIS we generally just see the console room, corridors, and maybe the occasional bedroom.  However there have been a few instances where we see more to it and those are always exciting.  I loved seeing the Doctor have a big library and a nostalgia room as well as seeing the weird rips in time caused deep in the TARDIS when it's malfunctioning.  The only confusing thing is that the Eye of Harmony is still on the TARDIS.  That was always meant to be a singular thing on Gallifrey to power time travel for all of the time lords so what is it doing here on the Doctor's TARDIS?  I mean, I guess the Doctor had to have a small version of it on board to continue traveling without Gallifrey or something but it's still confusing to a classic fan.  It's not the greatest episode, but it's still pretty decent.

Episode 11
The Crimson Horror

Madame Vastra, Jenny, and Strax are investigating the "Crimson Horror", a condition where bodies are being found petrified and completely red.  Vastra recognizes the symptoms as the venom of an ancient leech which hasn't been seen since before the Silurians went into slumber in prehistoric times.  Another investigator shows Vastra optographs (images from the eyes) of the Doctor screaming and red as well.  The local area of Sweetville, run my Mrs. Gillyflower, is especially suspicious as people go in but nobody comes out.  Vastra sends Jenny to investigate where she finds him a victim to the venom but still alive due to his Time Lord nature (he and Clara had also been investigating).  She helps reverse the process as Vastra and Strax appear.  The group rescue Clara from her suspended animation much to Jenny and Vastra's confusion as they saw her die at the mansion.  The group confront Mrs. Gillyflower and discover "Mr. Sweet" a leech working with Mrs. Gillyflower.  They plan to fill a rocket with Mr. Sweet's venom and "preserver humanity" by exploding the rocket.  However Vastra and Strax have removed the venom from the rocket as it launches and Mrs. Gillyflower falls to her death.  The Doctor refuses to answer Vastra and Jenny's questions about Clara and takes her back home.  There, the children she is looking after have discovered pictures of her from various time periods and threaten to tell their father unless they get to time travel as well.

What an interesting episode.  It's not often that we get started with characters who aren't the Doctor or his companion that aren't Doctor-Lite episodes.  This episode feels like an homage to the Avengers.  No not the Marvel superheroes, but the British show, the Avengers due to just it's overall mystery, a little bit of camp, and the hand-to-hand combat seen within.  This is helped by the fact that the episode was written specifically for Diana Rigg (who was in The Avengers) and her daughter Rachael Stirling to be on screen together.  It's also got a bit of humor with a man constantly feinting, some of the melodrama going on, and the Doctor seemingly "turned on" by Jenny's leather catsuit.  What is less than favorable was their attempt at a GPS joke, and the kids Clara looks after blackmailing her into taking them time traveling... because that's certaily how THAT works.  I'd be more irritiated by the latter if the next episode wasn't of such quality.  This episode, however is pretty great.

Episode 12
Nightmare in Silver

The Doctor takes Clara, Artie, and Angie to Hedgewick's World of Wonders in the future, however he discovers that it has long been abandoned due to the Cyber Wars and the disappearance of the Emperor of the region.  After meeting two men named Wibbly and Porridge, the Doctor sees some strange insects and decides to stay and investigate.  The insects are actually cybermites, an upgraded smaller version of cybermats who latch on to the Doctor, graft cybernetics to his face and give him a second personality, Mr. Clever the Cyber-Planner.  The Doctor and Mr. Clever decide to play chess for control over their mind/body.  Meanwhile Cybermen who have been massively upgraded to be faster, sleeker, and more efficient have captured the children and are overwhelming the planet.  Mr. Clever caused the Doctor to sacrifice his queen in order to release the children; he does so.  The Doctor then proceeds to bluff Mr. Clever into utilizing the combined calculating power of the Cybermen to see how he will be beaten in three moves allowing the others on the planet to get to safety.  The Doctor then uses a neural shock device to fry the headpiece.  The Doctor then realizes there is no escape except for blowing up the planet.  Porridge is revealed to be the missing Emperor and he voice activates a bomb on the planet before calling a ship to rescue them and the TARDIS.  The Doctor returns everyone home.

After seven seasons, This right here is how you do a Cyberman story and make them threatening.  In the classic show, the Cybermen were fairly threatening, but in the new show they'd always just sort of been bumbling robots that somehow managed to get the job done.  Here, they are terrifying.  These new Cybermen are insanely fast and are able to upgrade themselves instantly to overcome any weaknesses.  Electrified water shorted one of us out?  No problem, just initiate an upgrade and now we can't be harmed by that.  The rest of the episode with the kids, the theme park, and Warwick Davis playing Porridge were good as well but the Cybermen and the battle over the Doctor's brain stole the show and made the Cybermen terrifying.  Neil Gaiman needs to write for the show more often because he always knocks it out of the park!

Episode 13
The Name of the Doctor

Madame Vastra is told by an imprisoned murderer that the Doctor's greatest secret will be taken to his grave and it is discovered.  She uses a special sleeping agent to bring herself, Jenn, and Strax into a dream-state conference call.  She then sends a letter to Clara in 2013 to include her into the conference as time travel is possible in dreams.  River Song (the version stuck inside the hard drive in the Library) also joins and explains Vastra misunderstood the message.  It's not his secret that is discovered, it's his grave.  Strange creatures called Whispermen then kidnap Vastra, Jenny and Strax waking them up.  Clara also awakens and tells the Doctor of what she learned leading them to the prophesy about the Silence and the planet of Trenzalore.  The Doctor's final resting place is his now giant TARDIS which is dying and losing its ability to contain the "bigger on the inside."  They go inside where the Great Intelligence having a body is waiting for them.  It demands that the Doctor speak his true name to unlock the control room.  He refuses but River, who maintained a psychic link which Clara and has been following them since speaks it (inaudibly to the rest) to save them.  Inside they find not his body but his timeline, all the days that have and haven't yet passed.  The Great Intelligence steps into his timeline sacrificing his own life to destroy all of the Doctor's victories.  One by one the star systems go out and every right he has done has turned wrong.  Clara follows after it to help guide him towards victory once more and becomes splintered across his timeline many times including the Dalek Asylum and Victorian London.  The Doctor intends to go in after her and reveals he'd been able to see River the whole time.  He kisses her goodbye and vanishes into his timeline to retrieve Clara.  He finds her but also discovers a previously unseen incarnation of the Doctor.  Clara asks who this is and the Doctor identifies the man as himself but he's not The Doctor.  Hes the man who broke the promise that goes along with the title of The Doctor.  The War Doctor turns around and states that what he did was without choice in the name of peace and sanity.  The Doctor answers "but not in the name of The Doctor", turns and leaves his timeline with Clara.

What??? WHAAAT???!!  That was my genuine reaction to the last five minutes of this episode.  While the Whispermen, the dream conference call, and the march through Trenzelore to find the Doctor's grave were all good, the rest of the episode becomes eclipsed by the ending.  From the second the group and the Great Intelligence enter the dying TARDIS console room, the whole episode becomes fantastic and shocking.  We finally get to see the mystery of Clara and it's a pretty great moment before she jumps into his timeline to save all of him.  Also at this point we truly figured this would be the last of River as this happens after her death, but thankfully we were wrong and I'll get to that in series 9.  Basically the big shocker was the reveal of John Hurt playing a Doctor that we had never seen.  We weren't sure if this was pre-First Doctor and the reason he ran from Gallifrey or if he was in between 8 and 9 as we never saw that regeneration.  There were thousands of questions to lead us into the 50th Anniversary episode helped by this fantastic ending to a good episode.

2013 Mini Episode
The Night of the Doctor

During the Time War, the Eighth Doctor attempts to rescue a pilot whose ship is crashing into the planet Karn.  When she realizes he is a Time Lord she refuses his aid.  He swears he has nothing to do with the Time War but she won't listen; the Doctor refuses to abandon her and both are killed in the crash landing.  The Doctor's body is taken to the Sisterhood of Karn who briefly revive him with their elixir of life and offer him the ability to regenerate before his limited time expires.  Eventually they convince him to take action in the Time War before all of reality is destroyed.  He decides to do so realizing there is no need for a doctor anymore and asks for a potion that will regenerate himself into a warrior.  He drinks the cup and painfully regenerates into the War Doctor.

I was wondering when Moffat or someone else on the production crew would remember Karn existed.  The Doctor had gone on for so long being "alone" when he had the Sisterhood of Karn who were basically cousins to the Gallifreyans.  It's not exactly his people but it's better than nothing.  I was also pleased to see Paul McGann once again being a fantastic version of the Doctor.  I swear I wish we had more of this man on screen and he would probably be my favorite Doctor.  Here we got the answer to who the War Doctor was and it prepared us for the event to come.

50th Anniversary Special
The Day of the Doctor

The Eleventh Doctor and Clara are called by UNIT to help investigate strange three dimensional paintings which have suddenly lost their occupants, one of which is depicting the Time War on Gallifrey.  Back during the Time War, the War Doctor has stolen an ancient weapon known as "The Moment" and intends to use it to eliminate all of the Time Lords and Daleks from existence.  However, The Moment has a consciousness and it takes the form of Rose Tyler from his future.  Realizing his intentions, she shows him how its use will affect him by opening time tunnels for him to meet his future selves.  The Eleventh Doctor and the War Doctor convene in 1562 where the Tenth Doctor is tracking down a Zygon chasing down Queen Elizabeth I.  The three are captured and discover the Zygon plan to implant themselves in the three dimensional paintings and escape into the future when Earth is more comfortable.  Together, the three of them stop the Zygon invasion by enacting a peace negotiation between humans and Zygons.  The Doctor sees the kind of man he will become and realizes the good that will come from using The Moment.  He returns to use it but the Moment allows the Tenth and Eleventh Doctor with Clara to enter the Time War.  They decide to use the Moment together but Clara convinces them to try another way.  The Doctor then coordinates with all his past lives, as well as one future life, to trap Gallifrey in a pocket universe similar to the manner in which the Zygons invaded the future.  Gallifrey disappears and the Daleks kill themselves in the crossfire.  In the end the War Doctor and Tenth Doctor return to their timelines and will lose memory of these events.  The War Doctor regenerates into the Ninth Doctor as the Eleventh Doctor is told by the mysterious curator of the museum (who resembles the Fourth Doctor) that his mission now is to find Gallifrey.

I can't begin to describe how much I enjoyed this special.  Although I do wish it had taken a look back at the classic series just a tiny bit more, it does have it's nods here and there.  It calls back to the classic series by having the original opening sequence, showing Totter's Lane, Clara teaching at Coal Hill, the Zygons returning after only appearing once in a Tom Baker story, and referencing the Brigadier and the Doctor's time with UNIT.  It makes references to the past 7 seasons of the show by mentioning Malcolm from Planet of the Dead, finally having closure on why Queen Elizabeth I wanted the Doctor dead, brought back Billie Piper and David Tennant, and explained more about the Time War and what happened.  However it also looked to the future as Kate Stewart and Osgood would become recurring characters as well as the General of Gallifrey.  I haven't even yet mentioned the amount of humor, and heartwarming scenes throughout the episode.  John Hurt is a phenomenal actor and portrays the War Doctor perfectly to the point that I want more of him on screen as well!  And I'm not afraid to admit the scene where all thirteen Doctors (including new audio for the First Doctor by the man who portrays him in the Big Finish Audio Adventures and Peter Capaldi's first appearance as the Doctor) show up to save Gallifrey makes me a bit teary.  Brilliant episode and a must watch!

2013 Christmas Special
The Time of the Doctor

There is a message echoing through all of time and space coming from the planet of Trenzalore where the Doctor is supposed to die.  With help from the Papal Mainframe, the Doctor and Clara are able to travel to the village of Christmas where they discover the message is actually a question... Doctor who?  It is from the Time Lords in their pocket universe and is being echoed through the cracks in reality.  If the Doctor speaks his real name, the Time Lords will return.  However, all of the evil in the universe has shown up to stop that from happening, so the Papal Mainframe decides to guard the planet and make sure the Doctor doesn't say his name... silence will fall.  The Doctor tricks Clara into returning home in he TARDIS where he spends several hundred years fighting and defending Christmas from all manner of aliens.  With help from the Papal Mainframe, Clara is able to return to Trenzalore to find the Daleks are the last remaining enemies and the Doctor is an ancient man with no regenerations left.  He is on the verge of dying from old age as he slowly walks to make his last stand against the Daleks.  Clara speaks to the crack telling them that his name is the Doctor and if they love him they'll do something to change his fate.  The Time Lords give the Doctor a new regeneration cycle and the Doctor uses this massive influx of energy to wipe out the Daleks surrounding Christmas before returning to his TARDIS.  Clara follows to find a rejuvenated Doctor about to finish his regeneration into a new man.  He says goodbye to Clara and hallucinates a final goodbye to Amy Pond before regenerating.

I will be completely honest with you.  After seeing Christopher Eccleston regenerate after a big fight with the Daleks and seeing David Tennant regenerate after the giant epic that was The End of Time, I was fairly underwhelmed here and honestly didn't like this episode on first broadcast.  It was just the Doctor sitting around in a town for years until he almost dies of old age.  However once my expectations were lowered by knowing how his regeneration happens, I was able to sit down and actually begin enjoying it.  It's a more subtle regeneration with him finally finding a place where he needs to stay and doing his best to allow Clara a normal life away from him by sending her away.  It also brings to a close all of the mysteries of the Silence, the cracks in the universe, and the location of Gallifrey that had been haunting 11's tenure.  It's a nice send-off and the scene in the TARDIS before his transformation is one of my favorites in the entire show.  I should also mention... remember how the Daleks forgot who the Doctor was thanks to Clara's involvement at the beginning of the season?  Yeah that's done away with as they "extracted knowledge of the Doctor" from someone off screen.  It's good but it's a different kind of good than I was expecting.

Conclusion

What a whirlwind of a season!  So much happened with so many unique and interesting ideas being played out.  Although I've genuinely enjoyed every season of the show this one may be my favorite just because of all these unique ideas and the inclusion of the 50th anniversary as well as it being my favorite Doctor.  Amy and Rory's departure was mishandled but everything else was solid or even fantastic.  There's really nothing else I can say and at the length of this particular blog post, I'm sure everyone is glad that I've run out of words.  Please join me again as we continue to examine all of Doctor Who.

This is Ghost, fading into the darkness

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