In the eighth series of Doctor Who, the second 50 years of the show begin, and a new Doctor takes over: Peter Capaldi. Was it a success? Let’s find out!
The Review
First off, let’s look at the scores I gave all eleven stories this season:
Flatline: 9.8/10
Dark Water/Death in Heaven: 9.5/10
Deep Breath: 9.5/10
Kill the Moon: 9.5/10
Robot of Sherwood: 9.3/10
Mummy on the Orient Express: 9/10
Listen: 8.7/10
Into the Dalek: 7.5/10
In the Forest of the Night: 7/10
The Caretaker: 6.3/10
Time Heist: 6/10
There is a clear cut-off into two halves of episodes. There is the amazing Flatline sitting on top followed by the three 9.5 stories, then two more stories round out the 9 range. Listen starts the ‘bottom half’, but is still quite good. The next four were weaker episodes.
Overall, Series 8 was fantastic. We discovered the Twelfth Doctor and got to see a lot of what makes Clara tick. Finishing it out with a duel against the Master was perfect and the series feels very cohesive in its themes and plotline. I can’t wait to see more Peter Capaldi!
Story 252, Episodes 811 & 812, Series 8 Episodes 11 & 12
Doctor: The Twelfth Doctor
Companion: Kate Stewart, Clara Oswald
The Doctor and Clara go to Hell and find some nasty robots, an old friend, and the afterlife in the finale to Series 8.
The Review
Danny’s last moment
This story is monumental, and starts with a bang. Danny Pink is dead, dying ordinarily in a car accident. Clara meets the Doctor again and tries to force him to break the laws of time to save Danny, but the Doctor gets out of it in a clever dream sequence. Clara takes the TARDIS to where she’ll Danny again, and it’s a creepy mausoleum with sitting dead bodies in water tanks. We meet a very kissy MISI and a Doctor who explains they’re at 3W. The dead live on and still feel what they’re bodies feel, so they are cared for in the afterlife by 3W.
Hello Master!
Danny’s not dead, well, he’s dead, but found himself in the Nethersphere. It’s just ‘more life’ than he was expecting. Telling Clara to stay away and seeing the kid he killed as a soldier, he heads to delete himself. The Doctor sees ‘MISI’ again and the bodies are seen to truly be Cybermen, MISI is really Missy. As the Doctor runs out of St. Paul’s Cathedral with Cybermen on his tail, Missy is really…the Master. He’s back! Well, she.
The Doctor and UNIT
Part two picks up there, starting with Clara saying she’s the Doctor to avoid death and the opening hilariously having her and Capaldi’s roles reversed. UNIT comes to confront the Cybermen and Missy. The Cybermen explode into clouds that start to infect graveyards. The new President of Earth Doctor is taken aboard UNIT’s plane where he learns: the dead are being turned into Cybermen. Missy darkly kills Tumblr-character Osgood, reveals she kept Clara with the Doctor, and buggers off.
All the dead are Cybermen
After a cool scene where the Doctor falls from cruising altitude into his TARDIS, Clara awakes in a graveyard as Cybermen rise from their graves, and sees she was saved by CyberDanny. The Doctor comes by and has to have Danny’s emotions inhibited to see Missy’s next plot. Missy flies in and reveals the truth: the army was for the Doctor. The Doctor rejects her, seeing that Danny loves Clara even without emotions. Danny takes command of the Cybermen and they destroy the clouds, ending the scheme.
“Hugging is just is a way to hide your face.”
Missy tells the Doctor where Gallifrey is and then is vaporized by a lone Cyberman…the Brigadier, saving the day one last time. Clara and the Doctor meet two weeks later and Clara says Danny’s back and everything’s fine, the Doctor saying he found Gallifrey. Both are complete lies. They part ways and the Doctor sits bleakly until Santa Claus bursts in and insists it cannot end like that! And that’s a wrap on Series 8.
Chris Addison and Michelle Gomez were fantastic
The first part was a thrilling set-up, and though part two did not quite hit those heights, it was fantastic too. This story had a brilliant female Master, exhilarating action, and a personal look at death and love. The Doctor isn’t a good man, he’s just a good man with a box who helps where he can. The sad conclusion of lies was the inevitable end to the series. In a story packed with deep exploration of themes and amazing acting, this finale really delivered.
Steven Moffat turns out a spectacular conclusion to Peter Capaldi’s debut as the Doctor. From Cybermen rising from old graves to Missy’s promise to kill Osgood in exactly a minute to ‘Don’t Cremate Me’, Dark Water/Death in Heaven rose to the occasion.
9.5/10 Peter Capaldi is good. REALLY good.
Nick Frost as Santa Claus is what I want for Christmas
The green planet is looking a little greener and a little girl has stumbled in the TARDIS. This time, there is no solution in sight.
The Review
Danny and the kids
This episode is an interesting one, but it’s not typical frenetic Doctor Who. It’s far more laid back and an almost leisurely stroll through a big forest. Trees have erupted overnight, and the Doctor crosses paths as Maebh (one of Clara and Danny’s charges), finds him. Turns out she’s in league with Life itself, and Life has decided to tree-up the Earth. There’s a great scene as with a solar flare incoming, Clara has the Doctor leave by himself, saying the human race was now saving him. If the show ever needed an end, that was it.
Running in the forest
The ending of the episode is that the trees were put there by Life to protect humanity from the solar flare. It comes, the trees rebuff it, and Life removes the trees. Now, people looking for realistic sci-fi in the show are 1. watching the wrong tv show, and 2. this episode was far more fantasy. This is the closest to fantasy the show has ever gotten, and although the cynics might hate kids and fun, this episode was good. Missy made a laconic appearance at the end, and Danny said that Earth is sometimes more beautiful than the universe.
A melodic fantasy based episode is uncharted territory for the show, but there’s something just inherently likable about the episode.
7/10. A fantasy journey through the forests of London.
The TARDIS is ever-shrinking, and people are disappearing. This is a problem that has many dimensions…
The Review
They’re in the walls!
The idea behind Flatline is genius, two-dimensional beings killing those in three-dimensions. Like most mysteries, it starts slowly. A shrinking TARDIS, disappearing people. The big change is Clara is put into the Doctor’s usual role as the Doctor is stuck in the TARDIS. She learns about the choices the Doctor has to face. As the creatures advance and the Doctor is inconvenienced, Clara has to decide what she will do, not what the Doctor will do. It’s easily her best episode to date, showcasing her skills and her abilities. With the help of a graffiti artist and the not-help of an extremely awful old man, Clara saves the day.
Dimension’s just a number
The monsters are greatly realized, awkward rapidly shifting masses that are the poor recreations of humanity they are. The climax is brilliant, the monsters try to give dimension to a realistic 2D drawing and charge the near-dead TARDIS. The Doctor bursts out and takes out the monsters brilliantly. Some awkward Missy watching of Clara on a white iPad 3/4 and that’s a wrap on an episode that hit all the right notes. Series 8 has been the start of a new era for the show in more ways than one and it’s been up to the challenge.
Flatline is anything but flat as an invigorating episode hits the high notes once again. The Doctor is the man who fights monsters.
There have been many trains to bear the name Orient Express. But only one…in space. The Doctor takes Clara on a farewell tour that goes a little awry.
The Review
Are you my mummy?
The intro sequence shows a 66-second counter as an old lady is killed by a mummy only she can see. The Doctor and Clara hop on board the train to say goodbye to the good times, and things start to go south quickly. Talking to a mythology expert, the Doctor learns of the ‘Foretold’, a space mummy who is said to kill in 66 seconds. The Doctor realizes that the train is full of science and history experts and the train façade falls away to show a lab with materials provided by the AI ‘Gus’. Then the story kicks into high gear as more people start dying as the Doctor tries to solve the mystery of the Foretold.
The Doctor meets the Foretold
The Doctor’s ruthlessness is on full display as he seems to keep allowing people to be killed. However, he beats the mystery making himself the victim and realizes that it is a soldier and finally surrenders to it. Everybody still alive is saved from Gus, whoever that is, and Clara goes to leave the Doctor. However, she just cannot leave him, and eagerly decides to keep going with him. The tension is top notch, and the mystery has a great payoff. Classic Doctor Who through and through.
Mummy on the Orient Express picks up on a plot line from 2010’s The Big Bang and creates a tense mystery. A mummy only the victim can see…
The year is 2049. A spaceship of three astronauts is sent with 100 nuclear bombs. The fate of the entire human race is race. And the Doctor is on the scene, as usual. But the decision this time is not easy. The human race…for the moon?
The Review
The Moon
This is one of the most important episodes of the show ever made. Let’s cut straight to the chase: the moon has been changing, and Earth’s at stake. The moon is one large egg, and it’s about to hatch. Humanity can destroy it, but should they? The Doctor is here to provide the moral guidance as usual, but this time he leaves Clara, Courtney, and an astronaut to figure it out themselves. They save the moon, as the Doctor knew they would, and a new moon is created. The day is saved, right? Well…no.
Everybody Lives? Well, other than the red shirts.
The thing is, the Doctor could’ve help! Clara even says should’ve. But the Doctor does not always help, he hasn’t killed Hitler. There are some times where humanity has to decide its own fate. And Clara rages at him and storms away because of it. The Doctor, the savior to humanity, leaves them to find their own way. He isn’t there to stop every calamity there is, sometimes humanity has to find its own way. And that is a tough lesson to swallow, one many fans are left struggling with. Is the Doctor a good man? I don’t know. All I know is that maybe it’s good he leaves some stuff to us.
Clara leaves the Doctor because the truth of the Doctor is revealed: he isn’t always there. Humanity needs to find its own way. And some, that is a truth too uncomfortable to admit.
9.5/10 The message of Kill the Moon will resonate in the show and outside it: the Doctor won’t always save you.
Clara’s relationship with Danny is growing stronger and the last thing she needs is the Doctor bumbling in. Well, surprise!
The Review
Clara and Matt S–er Adrian react to the ‘Caretaker’
This episode reminded me a lot of Spider-Man, with Peter Parker’s role being taken over by Clara. One character struggling to balance two lives is put through the ringer when they collide. There’s Danny and teaching and the Doctor and adventuring. The Doctor intrudes on Coal Hill School and is out to defeat a Blitzer Robot trying to kill everybody. After thinking Clara’s dating a Matt Smith lookalike, and disliking Danny being a soldier, things come to a head when Danny ruins the plan. Danny has a hard time accepting that Clara has lied to him all this time.
Danny and the Doctor Meet
When Clara uses invisibility to show Danny her with the Doctor, the Doctor sees through it. Danny ends up saving the day and they seem to reluctantly like each other. I just feel this episode could have been so much more, it just felt like a wasted opportunity. There was character development and it was Clara-centric, it just felt like it needed more. It felt similar to Time Heist in that it was a good idea, but not enough soul. The monster was unneeded, and it just wasn’t all there. The Caretaker had massive potential, and it seems wasted. What could’ve been a great character episode is a middling one. We do a look at one of Missy’s assistants and another look at Heaven, white halls and all.
Doctor Who steps into unchartered territory as the show takes on a bank heist in its characteristic way.
The Review
The Teller can tell your guilt
The Doctor picks up Clara right before she goes on a date and the TARDIS phone rings. Next moment they are with two others getting instructions from an ‘Architect’ to rob Kalabraxos Bank, the universe’s most secure bank. One is a Time Lord, one is a shapeshifter, one is a cyborg, and Clara… well I’m not going to complain about her outfit. They head into the bank and outwit Ms. Delphox and her guilt-telling captive the Teller who will absorb your mind and turn it to goop. It doesn’t get much deeper than this. That’s not to say the episode was bad, it was just forgettable.
The universe’s richest woman
There was not as much as soul in this episode as the previous one, and it was typical midseason fare. It ends on a high note as we find out that it was a time heist the Doctor himself planned. The bank was destroyed and years later a dying Kalabraxos felt guilty about the Teller and arranged the Doctor to save him and his imprisoned mate to save their race. It’s hard to say what didn’t work in this episode other than it just felt flat. But it was a good shot at elevating a bank heist to a ‘Time Heist’, and we see that the Doctor does care.
Time Heist falls flatter than the previous Series 8 episodes as a bank heist is surprisingly devoid of interesting moments.
A highly anticipated new standalone story by Steven Moffat takes us into our deepest fears. Are we really alone?
The Review
Is there a perfect hider?
I am not overstating when the opening to Listen is the best in the show’s history. The Doctor asks a question: “Why is there no perfect hiding in nature?”, and gets a clue in a mysterious message. From there we pick up Clara after a disastrous date with Danny to head to he childhood to find the hider in a dream where her leg was grabbed. Except they end up in Danny’s childhood and a hider does appear under the bedsheets. They look away and it vanishes. Another bad date attempt and Danny’s time-travelling grandson Orson later, we at the end of the universe. Orson has been enduring solitary nights, where he swears he hears noises outside. As Clara and Orson retreat to the TARDIS, the airlock starts to turn open…
The Doctor’s quest for a monster
Although I swear I saw a glimpse of a shadowy man, when Orson rescues an unconscious Doctor from death, there is nothing there. Clara tries to fly the TARDIS to save him, and ends up at a crying child’s bed: the DOCTOR’S! Forced to hide under his bed, when the Doctor stands up, Clara grabs his leg. Clara then tells the Doctor that there is nothing to be afraid, and convinces the Twelfth Doctor not to see when she landed. It’s a powerful scene (John Hurt pops up!) where we learn the Doctor was always searching for something that was never really there. It wasn’t the episode the intro promised me, but it was good. I still want to know about the hider, but maybe like the Doctor I’m chasing things that don’t exist. Maybe.
8.7/10. An episode pondering the questions of evolution turned into a dream catching episode to a ghost hunt at the universe’s end to a look into the Doctor’s physche. All good, but I still swear I saw a shadow…
In a modern Doctor Who staple, we travel into the past to see a famous figure from history. However, this time we cross the line into myth. Was Robin Hood real?
The Review
Robin Hood and the Doctor
It is often that Doctor Who is a funny show, some of its best moments are jokes. But rarely is an episode as hilarious as Robot of Sherwood is. While it does not reach Dinosaurs on a Spaceship levels, you will find yourself laughing your way as the Doctor discovers that Robin Hood was real. From his fighting with a spoon to obsessively testing the Merry Men, the story is full of hilarity. The crowning moment is when the Doctor proves to be Robin Hood’s equal in an archery contest. At the end of the episode Robin Hood has the Doctor fire a climatic bow shot, and the Doctor admits he uses homing arrows.
Things don’t go totally to plan
The villain is a very-Mastery Sheriff of Nottingham, and his presence adds a lot of fun flair to the episode. Through all the antics the episode has a serious heart as Robin Hood admits he, like the Doctor, does not think he has a hero. All the matters is that others believe he is. Robin Hero’s existence is a way to show that the Doctor’s heroic side is still in existence. The Doctor may doubt himself, but at the core he truly is a hero, and that is the important take-away from this episode. With some ‘Promised Land’ references tossed in, we’re on the way to a great series.
Robot of Sherwood is the cleverest of Mark Gattiss’ numerous scripts on the show and is absolutely hilarious.
Reviewing Doctor Who from Start to Finish 