WARNING THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
There’s no denying I had a big problem with last week’s Dark Water. From the unneeded death of
Danny Pink to the sex change of the Master, it was all a big mess leaving no
hope for the hour-long conclusion seen
tonight. And while Death in Heaven was
somewhat of an improvement, it was still ultimately a letdown when considering
it’s the big finale for the series.
The story is all over the place, desperately trying to be
coherent but toppling over itself with every attempt. In one hand, you have the
Doctor/Missy dynamic, something which I’ll touch upon later on but can easily
be described as uninteresting. In the other you have the criminally underused
UNIT team back following their stint in 50th anniversary special Day of the Doctor, with Kate Stewart and
Osgood (Jemma Redgrave and Ingrid Oliver), in which they come out
of nowhere, add little to the story, then disappear again. Moffat does add some
drama to their scenes, mainly with Osgood and her confrontation with Missy – a
scene which could be improved if those guards could actually use their ears –
but it’s just padding. It also adds Sanjeev
Bhaskar in a role there only for additional stunt casting a la Foxes a few weeks ago with his
‘talk-and-dash’ tactic. Think of it as one of those villain capture moments in
films such as Skyfall, The Dark Knight and The Avengers, just done poorly.
There’s also the Danny/Clara storyline, in which his
cliffhanger of having his emotions removed was completely forgotten about.
Heck, even the little boy who ran off from him suddenly came back acting like
everything is fine between the two of them. Perhaps there were some scenes cut
because of the cremation complaints made about Dark Water, but it doesn’t seem likely. Anyway, as expected Danny
didn’t delete his emotions and somehow became a magic Cyberman. Why do I say a
magic Cyberman? Because he not only appears to be one of two Cybermen to keep
his emotions – which somehow means he has complete control of himself – but
also has some form of teleportation as he manages to appear out of nowhere in
every instance we see Cyber-Danny onscreen. Not the worst thing we see the
Cybermen do in the episode, but an element which does require addressing. But
their time together is very forced, very much in the same way that their relationship
as a whole has been. Clara’s final goodbye to him drags on and you do wish the
story would push through; a pity when considering that Samuel Anderson has done well with his multiple roles this season
despite the quality of the writing.
Returning to the Doctor/Missy dynamic, there isn’t really
anything to say aside from the fact that the Master, who Missy supposedly is,
is not actually in the episode. When you look at Missy, you see nothing of the
Master there, just another bog-standard Moffat villainess in the veins of
Madame Kovarian, Ms Delphox and River Song. You don’t feel the 40 year
connection between the characters aside from comments about their childhood,
but even then they clash against the non-existent chemistry between the two
characters. Add a forced snog between the two of them there only for the
shippers, and it doesn’t add to a much-desired return for the villain, it just
makes you crave a return to the old days. Heck, I’m sure Eric Roberts could do a better job. It doesn’t help that Missy (Michelle Gomez) is an unlikable villain
as a whole, with her entire plan being an absolute waste of time – she attempts
to kill the Doctor by destroying the plane he’s on thousands of feet above
Belgium despite the Cybermen being a gift for him - and her sense of humour
terrible (a cringeworthy moment to hear her sing). If there was some form of
explanation of how she escaped from Gallifrey then it could be feasible that
she is the real deal, but for now she’s just a poor man’s imitation of his former
self.
Perhaps the worst thing to come out of this episode are the
Cybermen, which is a major drop in quality when considering they initially had
a smart plan in the form of taking the dead. When their designs were leaked
online, there were many comments about them looking like Iron Man. And now that
they fly in the same way, they’ve become a mockery of themselves than they were
when under the penmanship of Neil Gaiman
in Nightmare in Silver. They
have also become full-on robots, being under direct command of Missy-Master the
whole time (the squadron in The Five
Doctors would be furious by such a motion) and later Danny-Cyberman who
somehow survives full Cyber conversion again.
There’s also further anger that the late Brigadier, who had a perfect goodbye
in 2011’s The Wedding of River Song,
pops out of nowhere as a Cyberman to inadvertently save the day. Many have
complained about the notion, and it was particularly irritating when adding the
constant references towards him throughout the episode – even featuring a
literal shrine towards him on the plane – just for this small moment. It’s not
what could be an insult to the character, but it is rather far-fetched for the
show to reel him back in following the lovely goodbye he already received.
In comparison to Dark
Water, this episode is a slight improvement. Peter Capaldi is great as a whole in the story even with the
forceful nature of the Doctor at times, Jenna
Coleman is left to her own devices when working around with Cyber-Danny,
and the episode doesn’t consist with as many insults to the past as previously.
That said it is still a majorly flawed story filled with the wrong decisions by
Steven Moffat. He hasn’t coped well
over the last year and the two parter has been clear evidence of this,
combining various elements from the series and combining them into an
incoherent mess. Slightly more bearable, and thankfully leaving no major
questions for the next series aside from Gallifrey’s location, Death in Heaven leaves the series off
with a small 3/10.
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