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Doctor Who: Dark Water

Doctor: 'Be strong, even if it breaks your heart.'

This was a wonderfully dark penultimate episode. I've always believed that Clara and Danny would one day end up together. Despite her occasional indecision and whoppermongering, it always felt like the desired endgame. Until now. Now, I haven't got a clue what's going to happen. Help!

The first ten minutes were thoroughly absorbing. Initially, it seemed as if Moffat was taking us on one of his trademark timey-wimey jaunts: with the intercutting of past, present and future to form a single broken timeline detailing Danny's death, Clara's grief, and the Doctor's eventual call to action. Then the story ground to a halt, and became something of a slow-burning exploration of mourning and death. Danny's silence on the other end of the phone was so powerful. I was certain it was another fake-out. It wasn't. Danny's dead. And Clara's on the verge of falling apart.

Clara's struggle to cope with his loss was so complex, yet while there was hope, she simply refused to be overwhelmed. In a last ditch attempt to force the Doctor's hand, she even threatened to lock him out of his own TARDIS (or, since the Doctor can open the TARDIS with a click of his fingers, perhaps she simply meant to lock out future companions). Regardless, seeing her hope turn to ashes as the Doctor told her to 'go to hell' was tremendously affecting. Jenna totally nailed those scenes. Clara had played her trump card and lost. Seeing her bereft of ideas, her head hung in despair, and tears in her eyes was to see Clara uncharacteristically defeated. Which made it all the more delicious when the Doctor stepped up to the plate.

The Doctor may not believe in the afterlife, but he absolutely believes in debunking myths. Yet, despite the Nethersphere not being quite what it seems, it's definitely not mythical. The afterlife is real: it's just technological rather than spiritual. What this means for Danny, I have absolutely no clue. Potential cyber-oblivion? I liked that Moffat chose not to make Danny's death a fixed point in time. The rules governing what the Doctor can and can't change are something of a mystery to me—sometimes it feels like the sole determining factor is how much drama not changing something might cause—but is Danny even rescuable? Even if his brain was uploaded to the matrix data slice, his body's still dead, right? Or is there hope while his body remains uncremated? Orson Pink has to come from somewhere, after all.

The Cybermen reveal was slightly ruined by last week's teaser. It had Cybermen in it! What kind of bullshit is that? This isn't Supernatural—stop ruining it for us! As soon as Doctor Chang mentioned 'support exoskeleton' and explained the effects of dark water, it was simply a matter of waiting for the tin foil maniacs to appear, and appear they did. That shot of the Cybermen stomping down the steps outside St. Paul's Cathedral felt like the perfect homage to classic 1968 episode 'The Invasion'. The mashup of Cybermen/Time Lord technology used to bring about this latest cyber-incarnation was also nicely done. In fact, the central premise behind this whole episode blew my mind.

Moffat's usual style is to play on childhood fears, imbue them with some sort of underlying truth, and then use them to scare the crap out of the under-twelves. Tonight, the themes felt far more adult-orientated. Since when did we become the targets? Playing on mankind's almost universal fear of death—and in particular, the horror of being burned alive—was a hideous master stroke. (Pun unintended.) I loved it! And the concept of creating a Cyber-army out of the totality of the earth's dead was unnerving to the extreme. How long the Mistress has been hatching her plan, and how the events of 'Day of the Doctor' affected her timeline, will hopefully be explored in the season finale.

On first watch, I thought the pacing of this episode felt a little laboured. On rewatch, it was easier to see how Clara's emotional response to Danny's death, the Doctor's reaction to her betrayal, and the overly info-dumpy nature of the episode needed time to unpack and breathe. This was an episode of pure setup. There was a lot of stuff needed establishing: from the nature of the Nethersphere, to the mechanics behind the afterlife, to the big Master reveal. (Which will undoubtedly give female-Doctor advocates something to gnaw on). Michelle Gomez totally knocked it out of the park as Missy. Good riddance, over-the-top, painfully laughable Master—hello totally bizarre, fucked-up Mary Poppins Mistress. She'd better not regenerate into somebody awful next week. Bieber, for example.

And, again, the Doctor and Clara were the focal point of everything good about the episode. Tonight Clara needed the Doctor, and instead of droning on endlessly about paradoxes, he simply laid his cards on the table, assessed the potency of Clara's determination, and on realising her intention to move heaven and earth to bring Danny back, agreed to help. I love that even a string of betrayals wasn't enough to break their bond of friendship. Why wouldn't she deserve a friend like the Doctor? After the sacrifices she'd made to save him, it would have been a travesty of justice if he'd refused. Instead, he told her in the gentlest way possible how much she meant to him—before telling her to get her shit together, cease wallowing in self-pity, and get her game face on.

It's difficult to judge two-parters after just one episode. It's impossible to tell whether the setup will pay off, or whether future explanations will make sense, but so far I'm encouraged. Danny's still a concern. His final words to Clara were lovely. Unable to bear the thought of Clara dying to be with him, he said the very thing he knew would push her away—'I love you'. I've grown a little cool towards Danny over recent weeks. He's felt like something of a bit player, and the reveal that he shot a child in the line of duty, although terrible, felt predictable. Yet I couldn't help but feel sorry for him as he sat sobbing over his iPad. Is he really Clara's Danny, or is it another trick? Why couldn't he answer Clara's questions? Hopefully next week will bring answers, and a resolution we can all live with.

Other Thoughts:

—I loved the Doctor explaining the paradox of saving Danny. Paradox loops are a real pain in the arse. They win every time.

—How apt that one of the Doctor's TARDIS keys was hidden inside the pages of The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

—Great call-back to 'Listen' with the use of the TARDIS' telepathic interface.

—Was the reference to Xylo Jones meant to be significant?

—How awful that the Doctor didn't grasp the implication of using dark water in swimming pools. Even Clara couldn't be bothered to roll her eyes.

—When someone says to you 'I'm not going to kill you until you say something nice', a word from the wise—don't say anything nice. Idiot!

Quotes:

Doctor: 'You betrayed me. You betrayed my trust, you betrayed our friendship, you betrayed everything that I've ever stood for. You let me down!'
Clara: 'Then why are you helping me?'
Doctor: 'Why? Do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?'

Doctor: 'This is it, Clara, one of those moments.'
Clara: 'What moments?'
Doctor: 'The darkest day. The blackest hour. Chin up, shoulders back. Let's see what we're made of, you and I.'

Clara: 'I don't deserve a friend like you.'
Doctor: 'Clara, I'm terribly sorry, but I'm exactly what you do deserve.'

Clara: 'Are you forgetting why we're here?'
Doctor: 'We're here to get your boyfriend back from the dead, so buck up and give me some attitude.'

Doctor: 'Can you just hurry up, please, or I'll hit you with my shoe.'
Missy: 'I'm sorry, everyone. Another ranting Scotsman in the street. I had no idea there was a match on.'
---
Also posted at The Time Meddler.

7 comments:

  1. The Doctor's comment that Clara's betrayal didn't make him care for her any less already made the episode for me. Without the last few weeks of development, I doubt Clara would have the guts to threaten the Doctor that way. Everything else in the episode is icing. Can't wait for next week!

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  2. Re Orson Pink: Clara could already be pregnant.

    Just a thought.

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  3. I just loved this episode. Any thoughts I had about whether Clara actually cares for Danny were eliminated as we watched her try and man up and tell him everything. And then they broke my heart.

    The scene at the volcano was mesmerizing. I hated Clara for pulling a stunt like that, but also completely understood where she was coming from. She's very lucky the Doctor is so smart. I know he can snap his fingers and open the door but Clara doesn't, and the keys must still be important if he hides them every where. The way he forgave her and explained why was amazing.

    And the Mistress. That brought out some good old fashioned shouting at the TV. As did the doors closing, which is when I figured out it was Cybermen. So glad I skip the previews!

    Can't wait for next week. And very glad my impatience at switching to weekly viewing from binging was rewarded. So many great moments.

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  4. The BBC received some complaints about this episode, and reading the article, I'm not surprised. (I'm not watching Doctor Who any more, but I bet this episode would have upset me.)

    http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/bbc-responds-doctor-who-episode-747027

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  5. @Billie - interesting that people reacted this way since I thought the messages to not cremate or donate your body to science were based on the Mistress's need for bodies for the Cybermen/women. I understand why you stopped watching but this season has actually turned out to be pretty good. Clara is now one of my favourite companions which I certainly didn't expect and this was a creepy, surprising (I don't watch trailers) penultimate episode. I can't wait until next week and I wish there were more episodes.

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  6. To be fair, the Doctor and Clara were repeated warned that what they were going to hear may be distressing. It was also debunked by the end of the episode as it was clear that it was just the Master's way of convincing people to delete their emotions. Although it may not have been clear enough for some people so I can understand why some people were distressed by it. I don't have a problem with it but maybe it would have been a better plot for Torchwood.

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  7. I like Missy quite a bit, Delgado is still my favorite Master, but she's more interesting than Simms' take on the character. I too liked Osgood, so although Missy's nonchalant execution fit the character, I still was not happy at that, although that may well have been the Zygon double.

    I get why people were upset about the idea of feeling pain even after death, but this is sci-fi/fantasy and not a documentary, so it didn't bother me. Of course I also have listened to death metal since it came into existence in the 80s, so I may be more used to such things in the 1st place.


    Turning the dead into cybermen works here, although I don't overall dig the idea, and the next episode has a lot of issues that I'll bring up when I get to it.

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