The Problems with Death in Heaven

Guest contributor Stuart Hakin on his issues with the Series 8 finale.

Let me begin by saying I love Doctor Who, so for me to criticise it is, sadly, very difficult. But nevertheless after watching Death in Heaven (three times) I felt compelled to write this article.

Before I address the bad points I must say Death in Heaven wasn’t a complete shambles. The pairing of Michelle Gomez’s Missy and Peter Capaldi’s Doctor was a match made in Heaven (pun intended). Missy’s transformation from kooky Mary Poppins in previous episodes to unhinged maniac in this one was just perfectly executed. Capaldi’s Doctor, who has been accused of being overshadowed by Clara this series, really took centre stage this episode. His performance in the graveyard scene especially was phenomenal matching that of some of Matt Smith’s epic scenes/speeches. The reappearances of Osgood and Kate were also strong points showing defiance to Missy and the Cybermen respectively. Jenna Coleman’s acting was again sublime: her bluff of being the Doctor, activating Danny’s inhibitor and her gut-wrenching goodbye to the Doctor were her strongest scenes. I personally think it was good that Clara didn’t feature heavily in this episode as she has developed so much this series and Jenna’s acting has been first class that I felt she needed an episode where she took a very secondary role.

Now, the bad points. There was so much wrong with Death in Heaven for me that I simply cannot address all issues as fully as I’d like to (such as past Claras being uploaded to the Nethersphere and why exactly the Brigadier’s Cyberman was immune to Danny’s command and didn’t fly into the sky at the same time as all the others did) given the word limit, but I will try my best to get to the main issues:

Missy’s Plan

As I understand it (and please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) Missy created the Nethersphere and raised the dead as Cybermen simply to give the Doctor an army with which he could ensure good would always prevail and so he could save people. I don’t understand exactly why she would do this. I’ve wrestled with the theory that she wanted her friend back and this was her somewhat twisted way of attempting to reconcile with him but still it doesn’t satisfy me. In The End of Time, the Doctor gave the Master the chance to travel with him but he (to put it politely) declined, so between then and now what has changed (apart from regeneration obviously) to make the Mistress want to make peace with the Doctor? I know the Master helped the Doctor in the aforementioned episode by taking down Rassilon but this does not make them bosom buddies.

I know Missy is unhinged so she doesn’t think or act rationally, but she knows the Doctor believes in helping people and tries to be good, so if she was trying to reconcile with him why would she murder Osgood and Kate (I know Kate didn’t die but at the time we didn’t know otherwise) as well as threaten to wipe out the entire human race? It makes no sense. It also makes no sense to give the Doctor an army of animated corpses as he would never take the offer, it would go against his basic moral code. I know that has been challenged a lot this series but I still cannot see him captaining an army of Cybermen animated from dead humans. The Mistress would surely have known this.

It is implied up until the moment Missy places the bracelet on the Doctor that Missy plans to use the Cybermen to wipe out the human race and conquer the universe with her army. This theory would have been plausible and believable, but the actual plan was just ridiculous and the motives for it were flimsy and poorly explained.

The Dead Upgraded

My biggest issue of the episode was the implications of the dead being upgraded as Cybermen. This meant every companion of the Doctor who died and was buried (Amy and Rory being my biggest examples) was resurrected as a Cybermen. Amy, Rory and countless others (let us not forget potential past Claras) became Cybermen and none of this was touched upon. The Doctor did not seem really that fazed that the graves of his former companions were about to open and from them would emerge Cybermen potentially with their consciousness still intact. It also defiles the memory of all those characters. I know one could argue these bodies would have been nothing but bones but even still the idea of Amy and Rory emerging from their graves as Cybermen really cheapens the emotional impact of their departure in The Angels Take Manhattan and makes me feel like a massive problematic issue was overlooked in the planning of this plotline.

Is it possible that every single person who has died and been buried in a graveyard throughout all of history (and I am sure there have been millions) had their souls transferred into the Nethersphere? If this is the case when exactly did Missy start uploading people’s souls into the Nethersphere? I know Missy has a TARDIS but how exactly did she begin the process and how exactly did she upload every single living soul? It wasn’t fully explained and it is something that I felt needed addressing as Moffat could not rely on the intelligence of his audience in this case to fill in the gaps as the questions raised were too numerous and the answers too unattainable without full knowledge of the plot device of Heaven.

I also do not feel the Cybermen were used well enough. Sure the plane scene was dark and atmospheric as was the morgue scene but they only killed one person on screen, they didn’t pose any real threat and in fact ended up saving the world rather than being thwarted trying to destroy it. They showed such promise in the final scenes of Dark Water that I was excited to see them become creepy and scary again and was sadly left disappointed at their tameness.

The Woman in the Shop

The flimsy resolution of the woman in the shop story arc was another issue. How exactly did Missy know Clara was a control freak? We as an audience didn’t find out until this series, it is possible that Missy used her TARDIS to travel along Clara’s timeline but that raises massive questions as Clara’s timeline is complex given that she jumped into the Doctor’s time stream and splintered herself across all his lives so surely Missy’s TARDIS would encounter problems trying to accurately follow Clara’s timeline. But even still, how could Missy know about Clara’s controlling nature and how could she be certain Clara would try to control the Doctor? I just felt like the reason could have been better and had a more fleshed out explanation.

Danny & the Resolution

The woodenness of Samuel Anderson grated with me as well. I know he was meant to be a Cyberman but I just think either he was poorly written or he didn’t act to the best of his ability. His anger towards the Doctor annoyed me as I didn’t understand his problem and even his rousing speech to the Cybermen left me feeling underwhelmed. I think he was basically just there to serve as a way for the day to be saved without either the Doctor or Clara dying, or by the use of some deus ex machina.

Also I was confused by the fact that the world was saved in exactly the same way it was threatened: the Cybermen exploded, created clouds and pollinated the graveyards of Earth and later the Cybermen exploded and made the clouds disappear, no pollination occurred. Perhaps I am just simply stupid and have missed something obvious here, so please do feel free to enlighten me if I have.

Further points include the massively underused and throwaway use of Sanjeev Bhaskar as Colonel Ahmed I still don’t know exactly what purpose he served. We may as well have had some random unknown actor in his part.

Clara & Doctor’s ‘Goodbye’

Lastly, the final scene with Clara and the Doctor just didn’t sit well with me. This was obviously not going to be Clara’s final appearance, as the mystery of the issue which she was going to tell the Doctor was left hanging. Also the fact that Santa implied to the Doctor that Clara wasn’t alright and he couldn’t just leave it like that suggests it is something that still needs resolving. So it wasn’t an emotionally satisfying final scene compared to past finale end scenes. I can’t fully explain why the ending left me disappointed each time, it just did.

And that about wraps up my main problems with the episode. Thank you for reading my first article. I welcome all comments, compliments and criticisms but please bear in mind all what I have written are purely my opinions, I am not aiming to antagonise anybody.