November 17, 2014

New Who Finales in Perspective: Series 8

THE DIVERGENCE

“That’s one Cyberman for every city and major town. It’s happening everywhere, all over the world, right now.”

Connor says… While the Cybermen have never particularly disappointed me in the 21^st Century, I’ve not been able to shake the feeling that they never achieved the level of presence and haunt that they have in classic serials such as “Tomb of the Cybermen” and “Earthshock”… that was until this 2 parter rolled around. If one lived in a perfect world, there would be no trailers or filming announcements that advertise the Cybermen’s return. Regardless of prior knowledge however, most of “Dark Water” still manages to keep the audience is suspense with the rising tension to the big reveal dictating most of the pace of the first half. The exposure itself comes attached to an incredibly clever twist on Moffat’s part that leads to one fist pumping in the air with victory and horror when the discovery regarding the importance of the episode title ‘sinks’ in. Their march on London is as intimidating as their presence in “Tomb”, as climactic as their assault in “The Rise of the Cybermen” and works incredibly well in terms of casting parallels to both images and themes of it’s essential ‘prequel’ “The Invasion”. In retrospect the Cybermen really didn’t have much screen time in the second part of the finale either, yet there still is a constant and present threat as a result of their new upgrades: both their flight and their ability to convert the dead. Ominous storm clouds of data gathered over cemeteries and mortuaries, “cyber rain” fell and brought the dead back to life. Bodies sat bolt upright on slabs. Hands emerged from graves. The tone and the imagery of the piece is perfectly in sync with the series’ darker direction. We’ll delve more into the Cybermen’s defeat a little later in the piece.

Mark says…. The story which made the Cybermen scary again: it didn’t quite live up to this particular promise, but it wasn’t all bad. The metal menaces found themselves subject to an upgrade (sorry!) in their abilities as they were finally equipped with flight capabilities. This set up what was arguably their defining scene of the episode, when they take down the UNIT plane. For the first time, nowhere is safe, and there are some particular jumpy scenes as they appeared at the windows of the plane. Unfortunately like in previous finale appearances they struggled to step out from under the shadow of the main antagonist, in this case Missy. Furthermore there is the issue that outside of the plane incident, not one person fell victim to the Cybermen. However their sense of threat is escalated in that not even death can save you from becoming one of them and any cell from a Cyberman is capable of converting a new one. I think it’s about time they were given a true chance to shine.

“Welcome to the only planet in the universe where we get to say this. He’s on the payroll.”

Connor says… “The Power of Three” kick-started what I like to call the second golden age of the Unified Intelligence Taskforce (The first of course being during Jon Pertwee’s era). What I mean by that is while the first 6 series of ‘21^st Century Who’ served up some interesting personalities, particularly Malcolm and Captain Erisa Magambo, for me UNIT never felt like UNIT until Kate Stewart returned with a passion and a mission that mirrored her father’s era so well. “The Power of Three”, “The Bells of Saint John” and “The Day of the Doctor” continued the trend of doing justice to the taskforce… and “Death in Heaven” certainly didn’t buck that trend. If you’re familiar with my own views, you’ll know it’s no secret that I believe the secret and driving force to UNIT’s winning run is the superbly written and impeccably performed Kate Stewart. Jemma Redgrave returns in the role with a punch and carried the pace of the first quarter of the episode. There’s a balance of class and guts in Kate’s character that mirrors that of her father’s; and not unlike the very present Brigadier, Kate and UNIT’s presence is strengthened by a handful of memorable personalities. These included the Colonel Ahmed and of course the adorkable fan favourite: Osgood, once again performing in a way to earn more signatures for the “Osgood for next companion” petition…. If only. The issue of Osgood’s death is one that has come across divisive among fans, but something I personally feel is one of the most effectively used scenes in the 2 parter for the very fact that it defines Missy as ruthless, unpredictable, bananas; shows nothing is sacred or safe in the episode’s plot and has a clear and evident effect on the Doctor.

Mark says…. It was a pleasure to see UNIT back in action once more. This time it was probably one of their strongest episodes as we see how they have evolved in scale and now have the authority to elect a president to act for the entirety of Earth. Not that the Doctor needed a title to occupy that position, but it was great to see him out do his nemesis’ accolade as Prime Minister of Great Britain. Despite the apparent growth in stature of the organisation, much of the focus is on the development of the characters. Much of the attention falls on Osgood who has changed a lot since we last saw her, she is more confident and actually earns herself an offer to be a future companion. This was the moment that sealed her fate as she succumbs to Missy not more than a scene later. Moffat had been getting some stick for not killing off characters, so this one silenced the critics, or in theory in should have. Instead it drew some criticism because of its apparent lack of impact. This would have been easily fixed by an additional scene where Kate finds out. A little disappointing, but didn’t detract too much from what was a great moment. Because Osgood received much of the development, Kate was left feeling like a passenger until the closing stages of the narrative. It is here that her inclusion becomes relevant as she affords the opportunity for one of the moments of the series. The tribute to the Brigadier is incredibly fitting and duly brings a tear to the eye.

“This is not a good day. This is Earth’s darkest hour. And look at you miserable lot. We are the Fallen. But today, we shall rise. The army of the dead will save the land of the living. This is not the order of a general, nor the whim of a lunatic. This is a promise. The promise of a soldier!”

Connor says… Contrary to ‘loud’ (though I’m not sure I would say popular) belief, the resolution to the finale; including the revelations regarding Missy’s true motivation, the Cybermen’s defeat and the conclusion to ongoing character arcs; is to me one of the most rewarding and perfectly paced resolution any Doctor Who finale has ever had: and that’s an achievement that isn’t rewarded lightly. Missy’s motivation is sweetly sinister and seamlessly connects the themes and developments of the “Am I a Good Man?” arc. Missy’s been up and down the Doctor’s timeline, meeting people who have died for him, watching a live stream of his life and attempts to show him that in essence they are the same – she’s come to the realisation that what he really needs is an army at his disposal and the fact that the thought sickens the Doctor to his core is what really proves his own morality. The resolution and defeat of the Cybermen is inspired: It’s full of heart, logic, a killer atmosphere and just reeks of invested and unexpected storytelling. Danny’s speech to the dead induces chills and goosebumps: the music, performance and themes of the scene build it to a stunningly epic crescendo. A few criticisms of the scene regard the fact that Danny really didn’t need to “convince” the dead as they were under his definite control, but what one might not realise is that “convincing” the Cybermen isn’t the point of the scene. Danny RESPECTS the dead. He doesn’t cheapen them to being just mindless drones and order them to fly up, he tries to encourage as well and treat them as the individual persons they once were. He’s leading them to a suicide mission, but he values them as people not as Missy’s pawns.

Finally, a few further complaints regard comments that “The Cybermen were destroyed by love …again”. Now I’m sorry, but comments like these seem to make out that love is some cheap insignificance force, which it’s not at all! Love is what drives us, what separates and defines us away from Cybermen and something so crucial to our humanity and identity should not ever be underestimated. The message that “Love is more than an emotion, it’s a promise” is equally as powerful and rewarding as any timey-wimey or dues-ex-machina resolutions of finales past. Its an ending that not only does justice to two departing characters in the form of Danny and The Mistress (I know – temporary fix!) but also does justice to an impressive run of episodes that preceded it.

Mark says… The resolution to the episode is a strange one, on my first viewing it appeared somewhat a cop out and an anti-climax. Since then on subsequent viewings I have found it a lot more tolerable, in fact I have really warmed to it. The reveal behind Missy’s intentions was unusual because it was on a personal level, something not really tried in a finale before and for that reason I really admire it. Danny’s demise was fitting of the character too, respecting the Cybermen who were about to make the ultimate sacrifice before sacrificing his chance to return and be happy with Clara in favour of correcting his mistake with the young boy. Likewise the parting of the Doctor and Clara is fitting as the liars are kept apart by one last lie each. The Gallifrey arc is also touched on, but in typical Master/Moffat fashion it turns out to be a dead end leading to the beautiful scene I have mentioned above. A solid resolution to a solid finale..

At the end of the day, when an episode can bring as much discussion, debate, moral questioning, emotion and completely overwhelm the audience in the way “Dark Water” and “Death in Heaven” has I’d aim to say that in making a definite splash among the audience as finale’s are meant to – it’s succeeded tenfold. Whether you love it or hate it, forgive it for its mistakes or struggle to find any at all; there’s no doubt what a game changing and influential piece of event television the two parter was for both Doctor Who’s past and it’s direction for the future. Such a controversial example of storytelling brings to the end our series today.

Tomorrow we’ll give you the chance to vote and here you have the opportunity to contrast, mirror or perhaps subtly modify the ratings of our own 10 contributors featured below.

RATING

The following ratings were achieved by taking a sample of ten people and getting them to rate the finales by each of the five criteria assigning a rating out of ten to each. This allowed us to come up with an average for each of the categories and then an average score for the episode. Whilst ten is quite a small sample size, regression to the mean was beginning to show. The results for this finale are as follows: