"Death in Heaven" -- Thoughts

[earlgreytea68]

• Loved this episode. I thought it worked brilliantly well as a finale, because basically what it did was clarify the entire season. I spent most of this season kind of lukewarm on Twelve, and finally by the end of this episode I felt like I *got* him. Like I got the real point of every episode that had come before, like the character arc made sense to me. He lost sight of himself for a little while, it started in the very first episode. And, in the process, I lost sight of him, too. I couldn't figure out who he was. And then, finally, I felt like by the end of the episode we all got there together.


• There's a piece of me that actually really kind of loves that Clara's superpower is apparently lying. Now hear me out. Lying has a very negative connotation most of the time, but, if we're going to stop lying, then we have to acknowledge that most of our basic human interaction survives on lying. Every once in a while, someone says, "Hi, how are you?" to me and I automatically say, "I'm good, how are you?" and then they launch into a twenty-minute story and these are not people I know, these are strangers, and I'm just kind of like, "...Okay, but actually you were supposed to just say 'good' to that." Not all lying is bad lying. Sometimes, telling the truth actually just causes needless, unnecessary hurt in other people. And I have to admit: I kind of like that Clara seems to get that. Sometimes, a good lie is exactly what you need. And I thought her attempt to lie about being the Doctor was actually a stroke of brilliance. I am very, very fond of Clara.


• OSWALD. AND HER BOWTIE. AND "BOWTIES ARE COOL" AS A CODEWORD. I know, we all loved Oswald, losing her was *painful.* Ugh. She would have been an awesome companion. I feel like the Doctor should go find a way to save her and let her be a companion. (Someone mentioned that maybe Oswald and even the Master aren't dead because we saw on "Time Heist" that they could just be teleported somewhere instead. I'm going to hold out hope.)


• "The only planet where we get to say this: He's on the payroll." I loved this sentiment, but I was kind of like, ...Really? Because he hasn't been doing such a great job lately...


• My main problem with this episode was actually that there wasn't enough Twelve/Clara. I JUST ADORE Twelve/Clara. They have been the high point of every single episode to me, and I missed their banter and chemistry in this episode.


• That said, though, I really loved Missy. I thought she was terrific. She was so insane and it made me laugh and squirm all at once. And I *loved* how many conversations she got to have with the Doctor. Like, really deep, detailed conversations about their relationship and who they were. The Doctor and the Master have this really complicated history and it should be a goldmine for drama, and much as I loved John Simm's Master, I always felt like he was kind of wasted on how extraordinarily cartoonish his episodes were. I've often said that "Last of the Time Lords" has five good minutes, and they start when the Doctor and the Master FINALLY get to have their actual confrontation. I really loved that, in this episode, we get A LOT of Doctor/Master discussion. I loved John Simm's version but I thought the Missy version actually kind of broke my heart. I mean, obviously she was a homicidal maniac, but, like, when she said that she wanted her friend back? She's an evil terrible Time Lord/Lady but I kind of got how, from her perspective, she had this friend, and they grew up and grew apart and he came to hate her and she didn't get it and she *missed* him. I mean, her whole speech at the end is clearly, like, "Look, I don't get what your problem is, we've always been a lot alike." And it's extra-poignant contrasted with the Doctor's origin story of their relationship was, "I had a friend and we grew up to be really different." Theirs is actually really a sad and tragic love story.


• At first I did not understand why they tranquilized the Doctor and then I was like, "Yeah, actually, he's pretty difficult and stubborn and never listens to anyone, so I can see why you just took the easy route there, good thinking, Kate."


• "Clara Oswald? Your assistant?" "My friend." OH MY GOD TWELVE AND CLARA I CANNOT EVEN.


• Kate's like, "Okay, you want Clara, have her brought here," and then the plane takes off. What the hell? How is Clara ever going to be brought to that plane? I feel like Kate says that almost tongue-in-cheek.


• "We don't want Americans bobbing around the place. They'll only start praying." HAHAHAHAHA.


• Danny shows up and is like, "Hey, stop lying, Clara Oswald, you're only lying to keep yourself alive!" OH MY GOD, THIS IS EVERYTHING THAT ANNOYS ME ABOUT DANNY. YES. SHE'S LYING TO KEEP HERSELF ALIVE. SORRY SHE IS NOT AS ~~NOBLE~~ AS YOU, DANNY. Ugh ugh ugh. I haaaaaaated Danny in this episode. Granted, I hated him for most of this season, but he drove me so extra-crazy in this episode that I actually said, *out loud,* *twice,* "Oh, my God, Danny, *shut* *up.*" So, I am just going to say: Oh, my God, thank *God* the Danny Pink era of Doctor Who appears to be over. I was so, so, so worried he was going to stick around and be a companion and I'm so relieved he's gone.


• "We do have files on all our ex-Prime Ministers. She wasn't even the worst." Ha! I did like what a great job this episode did continuity-wise with previous Master storylines and previous UNIT storylines.


• It made me laugh that the advice we heard from the news was to just kind of let the Cybermen be. Ha! Remembr the last time that creepy Cyberman-looking things showed up and you called them ghosts and you let them hang out in your houses? IT DIDN'T TURN OUT WELL, HUMANITY. It just made me laugh. We never learn on this show.


• The Brigadier storyline was so sweet and made me cry.


• Other person I was sad died: Seb. I mean, I guess he was never really alive, but still, he was a particular favorite of mine.


• "Now she's trying to tear the world apart and I can't run fast enough to hold it together." I loved this speech so much from the Doctor. So, so, so, so much. Like, when Danny is his usual condemn-y, judge-y self and is all, "Shame on you, Doctor," and he's just like, "Yes." Oh, God, poor Doctor. I spent a lot of this season making the Danny error of not giving you full credit, but that speech just broke my heart and I wanted to give him all the cuddles. (And then of course Danny reacts by being all like, "WHATEVER, DOCTOR, KILL ME SO YOU CAN GET YOUR TACTICAL ADVANTAGE SO THAT I CAN BE RIGHT ABOUT HOW HORRIBLE YOU ARE BECAUSE YOU'RE JUST AWFUL AND, CLARA, PAY ATTENTION TO HOW AWFUL HE IS, WATCH WHAT I AM GOING TO DO TO HIM." Ugh, Danny, just ugh. And then after all that, all that taunting and meanness and cruelty, what information does Danny give? NO USEFUL INFORMATION. But I guess it was useful that he was a Cyberman so that he could give his little speech at the end and then save the planet?)


• The one part I didn't like about this episode was Clara blaming the Doctor for Missy's craziness. Mostly because I wanted to be like, "Clara, you're right, the Doctor usually doesn't want the Master to die. However, the Master dies A LOT. It doesn't matter." But I did like that Clara made sure the Doctor didn't need her for the Gallifrey coordinates. Even when Clara's angry and lashing out, Clara loves her Doctor. I just love those two.


• "You win." "I know." OH MY GOD. LIKE WHEN HE WAS DYING IN TEN'S ARMS AND HE SAID, "I WIN," AND THEN TEN SOBBED AND SOBBED OH MY GOD. ::loved this bit::


• The Clara/Doctor parting was SO PAINFUL. I mean, *beautiful,* because they are so beautiful together, but so painful. THEY LOVE EACH OTHER SO MUCH. Clara being like, "Don't worry about me and Danny, we'll be fine, go be home and be a king or something." ::sob:: And that line about not trusting hugs, God, maybe the most brilliant and heartbreaking line of the season.


• The scene where the Doctor tries to go to Gallifrey and opens the TARDIS door and it's not there and he has that breakdown OH MY GOD. I got all teary-eyed over that. I think it's my favorite Twelve moment of them all. Also my favorite Capaldi moment of them all, to be quite honest. He killed that scene.


• "Thank you for making me feel very special." "Thank you for making me feel exactly the same." OH THESE TWO.


• So is Clara pregnant? I assume Clara's pregnant.

Comments

[np-complete.livejournal.com]

Missy seemed almost nonchalant about being killed, and someone pointed out that Missy glowed blue when she disappeared, not red, which is usually a sign of teleportation.

I want people to call Seb "the Sebroutine".

I hope the Brig didn't go into the stratosphere and blow up. I hope, if he's sufficiently himself to save Kate and "kill" Missy, that he's out there doing good of some kind.

Why did Danny take her to a cemetary and then stand off to one side? What was the point of that?

And I'm assuming that either Danny will return, or Clara is indeed pregnant, because otherwise, how would Orson Pink come about?

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, you're right, she did turn a different color!

I saw a Moffat interview where he said that his favorite thing about the Master is how he dies at the end of every single one of his stories and then when he comes back he's just like, "Hahaha, I escaped!" and everyone just moves on. So I now think that's totally his intention.

Ha! Sebroutine!

I also hope the Brig is out there doing good. That would be lovely.

I actually had a whole bullet point about how I didn't understand why Danny took Clara to the graveyard and what was the point of that. But then as I was watching I figured out that I *think* Danny intended to have a huge confrontation with her and then kill her? But then couldn't go through with it? I think? Why this couldn't all have happened in the 3W place, though, who knows?

And yeah, the Orson Pink thing means there must be more going on. Unless time's been rewritten...

[np-complete.livejournal.com]

It occurred to me later that, given that the Doctor scanned Clara with the screwdriver and called her a "mess of chemicals" (or whatever), if she was pregnant, he'd presumably know. But he didn't make any reference to it.

If he thought she didn't know yet, it would lend a little more motivation to his leaving her with the presumably resurrected Danny: she would want to stay home and gestate once she found out (he might believe). Or at any rate, not go gallivanting around the universe putting herself in danger.

Clara becoming a mother probably would be the end of their partnership: she never moved into the TARDIS full time, and it's one thing to stand up Danny or appear soaking wet in a party dress after running out of the TARDIS and into a cab, but it's quite another to do that when you have a child waiting for you.

It pains me to think that adventuring isn't compatible with hands-on motherhood, but unless you are married to a Time Lord (like a certain fictional character we know) it probably isn't.

[in-comescompany.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately as soon as the Doctor said 'All of Time and Space, think about it' I knew Osgood was a goner. I can't think of many times when the Doctor has invited someone to travel with them mid-episode and they survived to do it. (Maybe just Amy Pond.)

I literally said, "Oh, fuck you" when Danny started going on about, "Yes Clara, see how the Doctor really is, I mean I know he's tearing up and trying to save my humanity and also trying to save Earth but those two things are in conflict and it is a really difficult decision that he is presenting to the both of us without lying about it, what a terrible person to be around." And after Clara offered to do it and he still somehow blamed the Doctor for "not wanting to get his hands dirty" because I guess the Doctor manipulated Clara into wanting to do it herself, even though Danny wanted her to do it in the first place and now Clara understands what it means?

I mean I guess we have an advantage over Danny in that we see a fuller picture of the Doctor, but I also feel like the narrative wasn't condemning or disproving Danny's assertions, so is that how we're also supposed to feel about the Doctor? I mean there's the moment in "Dalek" (which they showed a flashback to) when the Doctor realizes how much hate he still carries around for the Daleks, but I thought that was part of Nine's growth (because in The Parting of the Ways he wouldn't destroy everything just so he could destroy the Daleks). I did like that the Doctor finally found his place in the universe again (and idiot with a box) but even in recent episodes I don't feel like the Doctor has gone around saying "I need to find some really difficult decisions to meddle with" and then finds the worst, impossible decisions to prove his morality or whatever. I've always gotten the impression that "trouble was just the bits in between," like the Doctor was primarily an explorer but if there's something bad happening he's not going to shut his eyes to it.

I just...didn't understand how I was supposed to feel about those things Danny was saying during the inhibitor chip sequence. Mostly I was just angry because I felt like what he was saying actually didn't apply to the Doctor. Like, the one thing that sticks out to me this season that he didn't handle super well was the Moon-Egg thing, but he was immediately called out for it and it wasn't really the same thing Danny was warning Clara about. At least, not the way I saw it.

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

Seems to me that this was Moff's response to the whole soldiers-are-bad theme we have had running through the show for years. Soldiers are not inherently bad, they are necessary and sometimes they have to do the least bad thing. Danny was the epitome of the conflicted soldier, but I felt he just channelled his angst into playing power games of moral one-upmanship with others. It's Moff's reply to the ludicrous anti-violence of Journey's End. I feel now the Doctor's learned to live with himself and he's ready to go home. And I am sure it's no coincidence that this story was so much a homage to the Brigadier, who finally gets to blow himself up and do good stuff in the process.

Like you I really disliked Danny - to me he represented the sanctimonious side of DW at its worst. I'm glad he's gone. The subtitle of this one should have been "Doctor Who and the Problem of Evil." It exists, and it's often twisted around with the good.

[glowing-fish.livejournal.com]

"The scene where the Doctor tries to go to Gallifrey and opens the TARDIS door and it's not there and he has that breakdown OH MY GOD. "

Is it not there? I got the impression that it was something more complicated than just the Master lying about it being there, because why would the Doctor get so upset/be surprised that the Master had lied? The reaction makes me think it was something especially tricky, although I don't know what that would be.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Oh. Huh. I just assumed that he had hoped-against-hope she wouldn't be lying, despite himself, and then he was so angry that he fell for it but he was still disappointed.

[arcanetrivia]

I've seen a suggestion that it was a Cyberized Gallifrey, which would certainly be maddening, but how he would tell that from way above I'm not sure. (Would it still have its... whatchamacallit, transduction barrier?)

[glowing-fish.livejournal.com]

I've read that as well, but then the question is...if the Master had an entire planet of Cyberized Time Lords, wouldn't be be doing a lot more damage?

[arcanetrivia]

Or there's always this idea, I suppose (poor bastard!).

[arcanetrivia]

...Really? Because he hasn't been doing such a great job lately...

Eh, I doubt they have much opportunity for performance reviews with him. ;)

Theirs is actually really a sad and tragic love story.

I agree.

"We don't want Americans bobbing around the place. They'll only start praying." HAHAHAHAHA.

Be fair; praying and shooting. :)

I really don't get how we're supposed to find any chemistry or anything with Danny and Clara either. (Maybe we're not supposed to? I dunno.)

The Brigadier storyline was so sweet and made me cry.

I've seen other people float headcanon that Handles is the Cyber!Brigadier. My husband said something like "No, because then I would cry too much."

Other person I was sad died: Seb.

I think Missy really only tolerates her own insane squeeing, heheh.

"You win." "I know." OH MY GOD. LIKE WHEN HE WAS DYING IN TEN'S ARMS AND HE SAID, "I WIN," AND THEN TEN SOBBED AND SOBBED OH MY GOD. ::loved this bit::

!!! inorite?

The scene where the Doctor tries to go to Gallifrey and opens the TARDIS door and it's not there and he has that breakdown OH MY GOD. I got all teary-eyed over that. I think it's my favorite Twelve moment of them all. Also my favorite Capaldi moment of them all, to be quite honest. He killed that scene.

I was kind of angry at him like HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY BELIEVE ANYTHING THAT COMES OUT OF MISSY'S MOUTH YOU JUST RATIONALIZED IT BECAUSE YOU WANT IT TO BE TRUE **SO BADLY** ARGH ARGH ARGH but dramatically speaking, I suppose that's good - he has this deep, desperate, foolish hope in him, would give just about anything for it to be true, has to grasp for the tiniest chance.