Doctor Who Season 8 Finale Review: Big Damn Heroes
Doctor Who S08E12: "Death In Heaven"
After last week's "Dark Water" took the time to move Doctor Who's various pieces around the proverbial chessboard, "Death in Heaven" took the chessboard and blew it up into an action-packed finale that brought back a few familiar faces (Hi, Osgood!), tied together several ongoing themes and storylines, like whether the Doctor is a good man, and finally put the Doctor on the course to Gallifrey. In hindsight it's possible to see how the entire season was building up to the reveal of the Master, and like I suspected last week, the Doctor finding Gallifrey, but I wish we'd taken a less circuitous route to get here. It feels like we spent an awful lot of time running in place, but the end result was mostly enjoyable. From the Master's instantly classic Mary Poppins moment to a sort-of cameo from Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, the episode brought everything back into focus. And so while I have a few grumbles about the journey the show took this season, the destination was worth it in the end.
Peter Capaldi's first season as the Doctor might not be the most fondly remembered, but it won't be because of anything he did. Capaldi truly is, if I may steal Nine's favorite word, fantastic in the role. He brings a sense of depth and anguish to the character as he runs from one place to the next, just trying to maneuver in this world like anyone else. A lot of the stuff involving UNIT on the plane was just exposition, but it showcased the deep madness hiding within the Master (and also kind of made me wish for a Master-centered spin-off?) and pointed out that the Doctor has what the Master always wanted—the power to rule the world—and he didn't have to scheme and plot his way to the top. The Doctor's past heroic behavior has rewarded him with the role, even if the Doctor doesn't A) want it, or B) think he deserves it, and that's truly what sets the Doctor and Master apart.
The Master claims she created an entire army of Cybermen for the Doctor ("Armies are for people who think they're right; Nobody thinks they're righter than you") so he could win every battle because he's always got to be a big damn hero. But the Doctor doesn't need an army—he never has—he only needs his friends, his companions. Underneath the ravings of a lunatic, the Master really just wanted her friend back and wanted to rule the world with him. She organized this entire scheme involving the Cyberman in an attempt to force the Doctor to admit that they're not that different (and, of course, to tie together the show's ongoing theme involving soldiers and commanders and what part the Doctor plays in all of it). The Doctor is forced time and again to make difficult, sometimes horrible decisions to save the world, and even though having an army of his own would probably come in handy, no one person should have the kind of power the Master was offering up.
Last week I wished the show had spent more time exploring Danny and Clara's relationship so the events of "Dark Water" felt more tangible, but "Death in Heaven" did a relatively fine job showcasing the differences between Clara's relationship with Danny and her relationship with the Doctor and her role as his companion. Her comment to Danny (even if she didn't know it was Danny at the time) about the Doctor being her best friend and being the one man she will always forgive and never lie to was telling. No matter how much Clara loved Danny, the Doctor was probably always going to win out. And Samuel Anderson did a fine job displaying the hurt and pain Danny felt as a result of his relationship with Clara, and of her relationship to someone that he viewed as cold and calculating and unwilling to get his hands dirty.
The Doctor needed to know what the purpose was of the cloud hanging out above all of the world's landmasses to figure out how best to stop it, but in order to tap into the hive mind of the Cybermen Danny had to turn on his inhibitor, the one thing the Doctor didn't want to do because to feel pain is to live. "Pain is a gift," the Doctor explained, meaning, as we've always known, pain is what makes us human and separates us from the Cybermen. But Danny didn't want to feel pain anymore, and begged Clara to switch on the inhibitor. This episode made strides to dive into the Cybermen and the truly awful, despicable things that happen to the people who are inside. I'm not completely sold on the "love is a promise" of it all and Danny's ability to not only not harm Clara, but to take control of the entire army of the dead to save the land of the living, but everyone did such phenomenal work in this episode that I'm willing to accept the whole "love conquers all" idea. Even if it's a little cliche, it's a nice message.
But Danny wasn't necessarily wrong about the Doctor, because he's not a good man. Of course, he's also not a bad man either. The Doctor is not a hero, nor is he a president—he's a single man who's just passing through, helping out, and learning as he goes, which makes him no different than the rest of the human race. The difference is that the Doctor has a TARDIS, is far, far more clever than everyone else, and he's always, always looking at the big picture. His brain is always a step ahead of everyone else trying to calculate how best to save the world in any given moment, but that doesn't automatically make him a hero. Danny might not like the Doctor, but he's certainly better than the alternative. And if the Doctor is always looking at how to save the world and not just a single person, the Master is the opposite. She always fails to take into account the rest of the world. Everything she does revolves around the Doctor, and she has tunnel vision to the point where she's so focused on her diabolical plans that she ultimately fails to notice the flaw in her design: the single Cyberman who wasn't under her control, and it became her undoing.
There are always causalities in war, and although there wasn't an intergalactic war this finale, there was a war for the future of the human race. And unfortunately, in order to save the world from the Cybermen, Danny Pink had to die for good this time. It was rather poetic that Danny died a soldier, and it gave him the redemption he needed. He had the chance to come back, but ultimately chose to save the child who he'd killed during combat, proving that Danny Pink is actually better than all of us. He was unselfish in death, and say what you want about his character while he was alive, but he was a better person than most of us could ever hope to be. He gets a lot of hate from the fandom and I think much of it is unwarranted. The character of Danny Pink was necessary because he shined a light on the Doctor's lesser qualities. But at the end of the day, the Doctor will always play the hero (except for those times he doesn't), and the Master will always play the villain, but it was Danny who saved the world.
"Death in Heaven" was a pretty remarkable end to a really wobbly season. The Doctor hasn't found Gallifrey, but is on the hunt for it, which is a storyline loaded with promise and something I'm very much looking forward to exploring next season. The addition of the Master back in to the fold was a pretty clever means of bringing the Time Lords back, and you won't find me arguing against Michelle Gomez in the role, because she brought her all and made it her own. Every line out of her mouth was laced with the malevolence and crazyness of the Master and I wish there was a way for her to stick around for awhile.
After tearing Clara apart in Matt Smith's final farewell episode last winter, I'll be sad to see her go, too. If that final scene in the cafe in which Clara didn't correct the Doctor about Danny not returning is any indication, it certainly appears that Jenna Coleman's time in the TARDIS is coming to an end. But if the Christmas special is her final episode as a companion, I'll actually miss her. Clara's journey this season made her more Doctor-like and resulted in that somewhat silly scene in which she proclaimed, "I am not Clara Oswald. Clara Oswald has never existed," which certainly made for good promotional trailers, but not much else. But in the end she evolved beyond the Impossible Girl, and her love for Danny and his for her ultimately ended up saving the world. You did good, girl.
NOTES
– In case you haven't seen it, here's the teaser for the Christmas special:
– The idea of the Doctor being voted the President of Earth feels only a few steps removed from President of the Galaxy, and surely someone out there has already written Doctor Who/Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy crossover fanfiction, right?
– "Nice bowtie." "Bowties are cool." I'm really going to miss Osgood. Especially after the Doctor made the comment that "all of time and space" could be on her bucket list. She really was too precious for this world.
– If all the dead returned to life as Cybermen, that means in addition to Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (who saved Kate) returning, that Amy and Rory were technically Cybermen, too. So many fallen friends.
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