2nd Opinion: Death in Heaven
David Selby and John Hussey both give their verdict on the final episode of Series 8.
David’s Verdict
The result is a series of tedious affairs which almost ditches the key concepts altogether to focus on character-driven storytelling. This would be acceptable – if the concepts themselves weren’t so fantastic, and so unpardonably misused in the past as well.
2006 brought the Cybermen back in the superlative two-parter, Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel which saw Kit Pedler’s image of humanity’s ‘dark mirror’ restored via a technological revolution in a parallel universe. Dark Water/Death in Heaven effectively contradicts this premise by turning the Cybermen into weapons for the Master’s cause. Nonetheless, I was still intrigued to see whether this alternate path could inject some new potential into the classic antagonists.
Unfortunately, it failed to do so. What began in the first act of the episode as a chilling, eschatological reawakening turned quickly into a sloppy script (it’s worth mentioning the eschatological connotations here – such a notion as our dead returning needed scale to function at its fullest, but there was no scale here at all). To my mind, what makes the Cybermen so terrifying is that they are both people and not people. They are living, yet by sentimental philosophy, they are dead.
Allow me to clarify: when Danny asks for Clara’s help into switching on the emotional inhibitor, he retains his emotions because in the Nethersphere he has not given into Seb’s persuasion to ‘edit’ his mind. The problems arise when the emotional inhibitor is switched on but Danny has the ‘strength’ to fight it. This is both a cliché and by its nature a fault. If the Cybermen can be beaten by love, what is the use in them? Everything that makes them scary – their detachment from emotions, their ability to erase everything in seconds – is negated, all for the sake of some maudlin exposition (“Love is a promise”). Similarly, the Cybermen in the graveyard, wandering around as if waiting for a climax that never came, were a waste of time.
There were a number of other logic errors to be spotted which all robbed the episode of its much-needed credibility (but, if you have any answers that you think I may have missed, feel free to leave them in the comments):
- Do UNIT always hire guards who are blind, deaf and dumb? Missy’s guards are probably the two worst guards in the entirety of Doctor Who. They don’t notice Missy slipping out of her handcuffs, threatening to kill Osgood, or even applying lipstick after breaking out. Were they sharing a moment together or something?
- Why is that apparently only Danny Pink and the Brigadier, of all the people in the world, fight conversion by holding onto their emotions? Would there not have been other people who would be willing to endure physical pain to preserve sentiment, or who would stay true to themselves in the hope of returning to their loved ones? This is a transparent plot convenience.
- This is more of an observation that lacks complete clarification, but The Age of Steel establishes that the physical pain of becoming a Cyberman is so great that it cannot be lived with. Whilst Danny is evidently in pain, why is he not screaming out and dying in agony through the pain of his mutilated flesh? And even if the pain has been reduced, which is the logical reason, is the Brigadier also suffering in the same agony?
- What happens to the Nethersphere after the Cyberman blow up? If the world is dying, then where exactly do the uploaded minds go? Do they just cease to exist? Think about the logic carefully here. The minds must be re-uploaded as Danny communicates with Clara through a breach. Yet if the Nethersphere is capable of re-uploading minds, why is it dying?
- How does St Paul’s Cathedral host the 3W institute? Inter-dimensional engineering? Something at least resembling an explanation would be appreciated.
- How did the Master escape Gallifrey? Did he take on the whole High Council alone?
- How does the boy whom Danny murdered travel between dimensions, when his tangible form is dead (and presumably buried and decomposed)?
- How does water work as pollen – and how does this pollen not also convert other humans in the process of falling? Would a better plan not have been to convert the dead and the living as the ultimate army for the Doctor?
- How do exploding Cybermen create this pollen? And, more to the point: if the exploding Cybermen create the pollen, then how do exploding Cybermen also destroy it? You can’t kill fire with fire.
- It is established by a newsreader that people remember the Cybermen from their 2006 encounter. So why, I ask, do these same people take selfies with the Cybermen when they emerge from St Paul’s?
More positively, the episode’s handling of the Master has convinced me not just of the gender-switch (nevertheless, I would be devastated if the Doctor were to equally follow this pattern – but not for straightforward reasons) but indeed of the fact that John Simm’s take on the Master can be equalled. Michelle Gomez is a stellar actress in the areas of timing and delivery, and through this aptitude she crafts a spine-tinglingly evil villainess who has an even more intimidating presence than a male would. I will say, however, that the Mary Poppins iconography really needs turning down. It was charming at first, but Death in Heaven took it a step too far. Osgood’s death was a strong demonstration of the Master’s evil, but inferior to what the character deserved.
Death in Heaven wasn’t the kind of story to stop me from watching Doctor Who, but it was a long way from being anything exceptional. Series Eight has been, for me, a weak series too far outside of its comfort zone. The show should be adventurous, but I would rather it rein back in some cases. For every virtue there is a pitfall. I adored the twofold lies which led to the Doctor and Clara naturally parting ways – yet the more I think about Father Christmas in Doctor Who, the more the idea fills me with dread.
John’s Verdict
‘Death in Heaven’ was a somewhat unsatisfying conclusion to what was near enough a perfect debut series for Peter Capaldi. ‘Deep Breath’ established Capaldi’ Doctor rather well, with the inclusion of the Paternoster Gang as a nice little reference to the past to keep people connected. We then had a lovely build up throughout the series of great to superb stories up until ‘Flatline’ where for me the series took an unfortunate turn for the worst in terms of writing. ‘Dark Water’ nearly brought the series back up to scratch but Moffat too fell into the bad writing camp and for the first time really disappointed me and made me question his decisions.
The biggest complaint I had over this finale was the pointless announcement of the Master becoming a woman. Now I honestly did try to accept Missy as the latest incarnation of the Master but unfortunately bad writing let the game down for me because I couldn’t see many moments throughout the story I could generally see the Master onscreen. This wasn’t down to the fact that the Master was a woman (well maybe a little bit) but down to the fact that the character of Missy wasn’t written as the Master rather a Moffat creation. Missy felt more like her own character and it made me believe that the Master thing was tagged on at a late stage in development to make her character more shocking and perhaps likeable. Even the few scenes which did make some very interesting character developments to my favourite villain I just couldn’t find them believable through the performance of Missy.
Most will disagree with me; I get that, but please just try and consider my feelings into consideration before making judgement. I’m not saying Michelle Gomez’ performance was bad but that her debut wasn’t handled well. Heck maybe had the writing been better I would’ve maybe had a bit more acceptance over this radical change. I am in fear for the character’s return because I feel the Master is being mocked by a silly change that isn’t being handled well. Part of me wants to get on the bandwagon and accept things but the rest is more than happy with things staying traditional, which is perfectly acceptable because tradition isn’t a bad thing especially when those traditions aren’t with faults.
I thought the Cybermen were half handled right at least. The whole concept of them being created through the minds of the dead before rising from graves really gave a new spin on horror within the show. It made the story that bit darker and really gave an edge to Moffat’s promises of a more serious show. Grim really came to mind watching ‘Death in Heaven’ and I felt there were no moments the story felt safe or getting closer to a happier ending. In fact the story didn’t really gain a happy ending which is something different for Doctor Who because normally the Doctor wins and the day is saved, but you didn’t really feel that by the end of the story. Yes victory was gained but not for the best of all the characters and the world around them.
Anyway, back to the Cybermen. What let the Cybermen down was the fact there was a complete lack of threat through their invasion. Apart from the attack on Boat One there wasn’t any indication of the Cybermen invading the Earth which would’ve really added to their terrifying threat, gained through the fact that the world’s loved ones have become monsters. That could’ve been the ultimate dilemma but it wasn’t really emphasised enough, pushing this serious plot-point out of the window somewhat. At least the implication of the Cybermen having an endless resource for recruitment was made apparent which gave a little bit more threat back to them. I guess it was disappointing to see them become a mere back- drop for the entirety of the graveyard scenes.
What was disappointing about this finale was the fact that Moffat’s originality is falling fast. I enjoyed his first two finales more in a sense (though ‘The Name of the Doctor’ will always be my favourite because of its fantastic story) because they felt more personal to Moffat’s ideas. Now he’s just throwing away original concepts like his take on Heaven in order to utilise a cheap return for both the Cybermen and the Master which didn’t really get a good enough execution. The Cybermen kind of worked but I felt concepts and villains would’ve benefited from being more original.
It was also sad to see characters underused or simply as a tool for story development. Kate Stewart and UNIT didn’t add much to the story and poor Osgood was bopped off for no better reason than to make Missy more insane. This was all unfortunate. Even the Doctor didn’t seem to do much. It kind of emphasised that the Doctor was powerless but not in the unique way you felt this in ‘The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords’. In this case it just felt like the story was all over the place and didn’t quite know what it was doing or where it was heading. It almost didn’t feel like a continuation to ‘Dark Water’.
Even the reveal of Missy’s intentions didn’t quite make sense or make any real impact. I think had the Master’s character been handled better I would’ve appreciated the intentions of him trying to get his friend back and to also make him realise he’s the same as him. But due to not seeing Missy as the Master, this moment and character development was spoiled. Fortunately I do like the handle over the Doctor’s conclusion of whether or not he’s a good man, which showcased him finally realising what kind of a man he is. It was one of Capaldi’ best scenes and I believe this scene will help push his character forward. As to why Missy brought the Doctor and Clara together (which I figured back at the end of ‘Deep Breath’), this made less sense after it was revealed Missy was the Master. Why would the Master potentially create the person that continuously brought about his every defeat? Hopefully this is explained in the future.
In conclusion ‘Death in Heaven’ just felt like a bit of a mess and although there were good points, it was certainly one of Moffat’s worst stories and one of my least favourite finales because it was unsatisfying and didn’t conclude the series very well. At least the Christmas special looks to be giving me hope that my favourite show hasn’t gone to the dogs just yet.
