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By Ken Parker
Doctor Who is on a roll in my opinion.
Not since the second half of season 7 when we saw a few really good
episodes in a row has the show enjoyed a consistent quality. Nothing
has been absolutely spectacular mind you but nothing has been bad.
We don't have too many silly head shaking moments that Doctor Who has
become famous for. Peter Capaldi has steadily become the Doctor and
Clara continues to do her part as the companion. The stories have
ranged from the light-hearted to the dark but all have had some nice
double meaning and underlying themes that have been strong and well
executed. The episodes have not been these frantic runaround stories
designed to confuse and misdirect from script shortcomings. They
have been direct and simple enough without too many gimmicks. What
of "Kill the Moon"? Are we due for the seasons first clunker of a
messy script?
Spoilers
Spoilers
It is hard for Doctor Who to have a
perfect episode. Many series can pull it off but Doctor Who, for
some reason, always seems to have something in the way to keep it
from consistently being excellent. "Kill The Moon" has that shocking
set up of NASA being sent to the moon to blow it up? In what
possible situation could this happen and why is their gravity on the
moon along with cob webs and spider like creatures? Well, there is a
creature being hatched out of the moon. The spider creatures are
bacteria and the heaviness of the creature is creating a heavier
gravity. The science behind this episode is probably not the most
accurate but one could argue that Doctor Who never really has that
Another problem with this story is the
reset at the end where the moon is destroyed and yet another one just
appears. Is it possible that the creature is able to create a new
moon out of thin air like that, perhaps and since we know little
about this creature and the universe in general, I am okay with the
idea but again, the writers are taking time in an absurd idea of the
moon hatching and giving us an absurd answer for the moon to return
so any episodes that take place in the future (like The Moonbase)
still make sense. The writers can't always do this and get away with
it except in Doctor Who where audiences do tend to be more forgiving
I suppose.
Now, the decision is very interesting
and is the primary point of this episode. My first viewing of this
saw it for what the Doctor said. It was a decision that humans
should make for their planet. By all means it would have been great
to see the Doctor leave the decision to humanity and the astronaut
Lundvik but they ended up making the wrong decision and Clara made
the right one. The idea that the Doctor could allow history to
unfold as it should is not a new idea and happened all the time,
especially with the historicals but in this case, it was all about
Clara. (See Clara's meltdown later in this review). It is as if the writers of this season are trying to make the Doctor less appealing (his hatred or soldiers and throwing Clara to the wolves).
So the Doctor taking off like he did
appeared to be more of a jerkish move, especially in Clara's eyes,
than anything and there didn't seem any good reason why he chose to
do that right then and there and not in the past. Unless......there
was an agenda here.
After the second viewing I got it stuck
in my head that the destruction of a newborn creature and the
decision to carry this out is a decision that might be in better
hands of the woman or in this case, three women. Three women of
varying ages are left by a man to make the decision. Humanity makes
the decision to destroy the baby because of the potential problems
that it could cause for everyone, including destroying lives and yet
Clara and Courtney appear to be the only ones sympathetic to the
baby's cause. And why humanity, who decided to kill the creature
would suddenly want to travel out into space with high hopes after
seeing that beautiful creature seems a bit of a stretch.
The fact that the decision could be a
commentary on pro-life in today's world is a bit heavy handed for the
writer and while I am all for agendas and such, they probably are
better when they are less obvious and make better sense in the story.
It wasn't horrible but the Doctor leaving it up to the women was
never fully convincing and seemed forced.
Now why would Clara decide to save the
creature and potentially destroy the Earth? I think this is more
about reading the Doctor and his decision to leave. If the Doctor
thought the Earth was in danger he would have been doing something
about it but he didn't. He left it to Clara to make the right
decision. I would expect that he would have stopped the wrong
decision from being made. This was a test of sorts and this is yet
another reason for the Clara meltdown (see below). Clara has faith
in the Doctor and just accepted that the decision to allow the
creature to live based on the Doctor's actions and not by instinct or
if it was the right thing to do.
I want to end this review with a few
positive points. First off, I loved the settings and effects. The
moon surface was highly affective and well done. The shuttle
dropping off the edge and the moon hatching were all excellent
effects. The visuals of cobwebs on the moon and spiders were also
nice.
It was excellent to have Courtney Woods
in this episode. She had some good moments and acts as a good
sounding board for the story at times. Ellis George played the part
well as did Hermione Norris as the astronaut Lundvik.
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Peter Capaldi has some wonderful
moments including talking about the gray areas of time and humanity
venturing out into space. His interaction with Ellis's Courtney have
been excellent two episodes running. The Doctor's first moments when
confronted by the astronauts on their shuttle was also good.
I am sorry some of you fans there, but you continue to
miss the boat on this one. Jenna Coleman delivers another excellent
performance and her meltdown at the end was logical and made all the
sense in the world on an emotional level. She cannot get the Doctor.
Sure, she may be a little selfish by claiming that it was unfair for
the Doctor to do that but I am glad not every companion has to follow
blindly to what the Doctor does. She and Courtney were put in danger
to prove a point really and Clara is real enough to allow that
situation get to her. Some fans may not like this because it sort of flies in the face of what it is like to be a companion and how a companion should follow the Doctor and the Doctor is always right. She will more than likely come to her senses
but it certainly may be the start of her leaving. That is also a
very real emotion and reaction if that is the direction they want to
go. Hopefully, for your sake, fans that dislike Clara, they will follow her up with a
more stable, fake character that may even fall
in love with the
Doctor.....
Thank you Jenna for delivering one of
the best acted scenes in the series!!!
So with the good and bad of this
episode, I felt this story could have been better as could they all
but there was enough good to give it a pass. I think the writers had
some trouble with the concept and perhaps allowed an agenda to steer
the script to a rocky spot of writing. I like the fact that this
episode is perhaps good material for discussion and that different
people will have a different way to see it. I am not sure what the
writer was trying to prove though with the vote by humanity and
Clara's decision. If she was not swayed by the Doctor's inaction
then her choice seemed irresponsible. I guess the entire human race
could have admitted they were wrong and wanted to venture out into
space and obviously the writer's mini commentary on the declining
space program is a neat little jab.
I may find this episode in my top of
the season and part of that might depend on what the follow up is and
how the Doctor and Clara's relationship changes because of it.
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