Appreciating Kill the Moon

Mark McCullough takes another look at Peter Harness’ previous episode.

I’m going to be bold and set out my stall from the off, I don’t like Kill the Moon. At least I didn’t at the time of airing. However, I tend not to dismiss an episode lightly. I’ll give it time, numerous watches and a lot of thought. Sadly with Kill the Moon that didn’t work, I still don’t enjoy the episode, but I have a lot more appreciation for the narrative and what it tried to do. In fact, the way I see it now, it isn’t an episode to be enjoyed, and whilst that sounds strange I do think this is the very rare occasion where it is actually true. Kill the Moon turned into more than just an episode of Doctor Who, but was that ever the intention?

Note: Some formalities before I get into proper discussion: the bulk of this article is going to focus around the abortion themes that can be drawn from the episode. I would ask at this point to maintain caution in the comments sections, especially if you have strong opinions on the matter, follow the rules and respect that others may have just as strong beliefs on the other side. Personally I am going to endeavour to keep my own thoughts on the matter out of this analysis on how Kill the Moon handle the issue, and ideally approach this from a neutral point of view. (This article does not represent the views of DWTV in any way, just to reiterate that point.) Right, boring (but important) stuff covered, now we can begin:

Can What Happened in the Episode even be Paralleled to Abortion?

I do realise that the author Peter Harness has claimed that the parallels to abortion were not intentional within the episode. Fair enough, but I don’t think that is enough to justify overlooking something which I find to be obviously there. Furthermore given the divisive nature of the debate around abortion itself, it was hardly a surprise that Kill the Moon was the most polar episode of Series Eight, if not the entire revived series. Is it possible that Harness whilst searching for a moral dilemma to frame his narrative subconsciously opted to include elements of abortion? After all it is a potent issue in society, which makes it relatable to the audience. If he included it without intending to, then it is equally likely that our own beliefs on what is a widely discussed topic, could have influenced our opinions on the episode without us necessarily being aware of it. Which I do find more plausible than “bad science” suddenly being used to judge an episode when it wasn’t even considered for any of its predecessors.

The idea that the narrative is abortion based is not one that arose post-episode, personally it was something I considered when watching the episode for the first time. Granted I can’t speak for others, but I remember in the comments section on this very site, I read that I was far from the only one to pick up on it. To summarise what I’m talking about: the narrative places the Doctor with three female characters. They learn the true nature of the moon as an egg (containing an unborn baby). This leads to the moral dilemma of whether the mission to destroy the moon (and unborn child) should be completed. We are told that the consequences of allowing the baby to be born could have unknown catastrophic effects on the life of Earth. The Doctor is then removed from the narrative, whilst making a comment on how the decision rests on womankind (the moment that to me essentially confirmed my reading of the episode’s abortion theme). With the Doctor gone, the opinion of Earth is consulted in the beautifully powerful lights turning out scene, although the decision ultimately comes down to the three women in the room. They decide to let the creature be born regardless of the consequences and are lucky enough that another moon-egg is created by the creature’s reproductive system (more on that specifically later). The episode then ends on an argument between the Doctor and Clara because the former left the latter to make the decision on her own.

From that it’s easy to see where the abortion analogy can be drawn, by simply replacing the moon with a woman and scaling the consequences to a personal level you’ve got a perfect abortion story. I’ve already said that I put a lot of thought into this, so I have also tried to approach it from the null hypothesis that the abortion theme of the narrative does not exist. There may be enough evidence to accept this in the fact that there are no autonomy issues addressed by the narrative as there is nobody directly carrying the child, the entire population of Earth is in danger and not just an individual and the fact that no single is directly impacted by the situation. The fact that Harness did not intend for it to be read that way is also something I considered at this point. However the conclusion that I came to was that the parallels are simply too obvious to simply ignore. But that’s not a bad thing at all, in fact it is what adds a lot of depth to the episode which elevates the episode as mentioned in the introduction.

At this stage I still haven’t given you much to talk about. I won’t apologise for the extended background though, I need to have all that covered before I could analyse specific areas of the narrative. Now we’ve done that here goes:

Another Egg is Produced / Lack of Consequence

Again this was something which very much paralleled to the real world concept of childbirth, generally there is possibility of a woman having multiple children. Likewise when a woman has an abortion she is still able to have another child in future unless something goes drastically wrong. Within the narrative however, this concept is used to give an ‘everything is going to be ok’ dénouement, and that is a big problem in light of the episode’s lasting consequences. At face value this puts the episode dangerously close to trivialising the issue because there is always going to be another egg. That’s the negative view on what happens, but it’s not looking at the full picture. Because in reality it doesn’t take monumental disasters to bring someone’s life crashing down around them, it’s the strained relationships, their own moral compass leading to doubts about their decision and the fact that their decision will stay with them the rest of their lives. This is something Kill the Moon does superbly, the consequences only affect those who make the decision and by extension those who they have relationships with, whilst relegating the rest of the world to spectators. This is particularly reflective of how a real life scenario would go.

The Argument

The previous paragraph adds yet another fascinating layer to the already sublime argument between Clara and the Doctor. Here we see the Doctor claim that he was respecting Clara by allowing her to make her own decision, if that was his intention that in itself is admirable. His execution of this intention was somewhat lacking and it did appear at points like he was patronising Clara (more on that later in the article). Maybe this can be dismissed as the naivety of him not being human, but what’s interesting is how many sided with him. Last year DoctorWhoTV held a poll to see who was right in the argument and 56% of us (myself included) sided with the Doctor. As you may be able to tell I have changed my mind since then, but why did I initially side that way? Again it comes down to the abortion parallels which once seen, cannot be unseen. Therefore the Doctor’s actions confirm with the idea of the woman’s body so the woman’s decision, and it not being a man’s place to interfere. What Kill the Moon teaches us however is that this does not mean the male should remove himself from the process altogether, instead support the person making the decision come to the decision which is best for them. Another very good message delivered by the narrative

Inversion of the Concept

Now we reach arguably the best aspect of Kill the Moon, a single scene which sets it apart from anything that has ever attempt to translate the abortion debate into a strong narrative. In the 12 Great Moments article for this episode, there are two amendments which should now be made: and it’s an inversion of the top two. The excellent argument scene undoubtedly deserves all the praise it gets, but it was outdone by an often overlooked scene. The scene in question could actually go down as one of the best in the shows entire history, the only thing holding it back as I’m sure you’re tired of hearing me say is that it was pure luck that it ended up so good. I am of course referring to the scene where the light of Earth go out…

Before you dismiss that absurd claim, hear me out: With the abortion debate in our society, it is very much the case that those who choose to have terminations face social stigma, particularly from the church. What Kill the Moon is able to do with the concept of the lights going out is change the situation so as the social pressure is now in favour of ‘aborting’ the egg meaning in choose to let it live Clara would have faced the same stigma had the outcome not been so favourable. What is just so smart about this is the commentary on how everyone can have an opinion on what should be done, but in reality when placed in the shoes of the decision maker ultimately they defaulted and made the same decision. There was also some talk at the time of the episode about those in control of the electric making the decisions. This is something we will never know, but it is worth looking at towards Italy to see the position of the light of the Catholic Church (I’ve only used that as an example here because they are their own state, so if a government cut the lights it was the church themselves).

Where does it all come Tumbling Down?

Up until now I’ve been mostly positive about the episode, and I’ve keep my personal views to a minimum. Both are about to change! In the show’s first Christmas special, it was established that six words (Don’t you think she looks tired?) can be enough to completely destabilise something. Kill the Moon suffers from the same in that one line undoes all the good the episode has delivered. That might sound a bit drastic to you at first but when the Doctor tells Clara he thinks she made the right choice things change. No longer do we have the open debate where the narrative doesn’t choose a side, yes the individual characters made their own decisions. And that’s exactly what they were, their own decisions, and they were respected as so, and not judged for what they decided.

With one simple line this is reversed, and to make it worse the line in question is delivered by none other than the Doctor: our role model within this universe. So now we have a sticky situation where Kill the Moon is encouraging viewers to one side of the debate, which in my opinion is a big no no. The introduction of morality by the same line too brings the: what is right versus the autonomy of the person debate into focus, with the episode pitching its tent firmly in the ‘do what is morally right regardless of the cost’ camp. Perhaps an even worse crime is that it drastically oversimplifies the decisions that a woman faces when considering an abortion. Again this is something I have to give the episode a bye-ball on because it was purely co-incidental as per the wider abortion parallels, so like with the Doctor in the argument scene I have to consider intent. In all likelihood, the only intention from the author was to so the Doctor offering support to Clara. It is my opinion that he did so in the worst possible way. It looks like the Doctor is pitying Clara and offering her what he thinks she wants to hear. As far as I am concerned, you cannot truly respect someone (like the Doctor claimed he was) that you pity. So I do think Harness made the wrong decision with the inclusion of a line which doesn’t fail to make my stomach turn every time I see the episode (which has been a lot of times to write this article to a suitable standard – hopefully)

Conclusion

To draw this article to a close without taking from the episode or painting it in an overly negative colour, I think it is best to say: there are some episode which are not designed to be enjoyed, rather appreciated. Kill the Moon falls firmly into the category because it’s a challenge, it’s not easy to sit back relax and enjoy (but that’s not to say that isn’t possible). Challenges are a good thing, and Kill the Moon asks you to think about what is a fairly potent topic within our society. Normally that is something I would highly commend, that a writer is brave enough to attempt it. Unfortunately that cannot apply here, as the intent was not present. However I do feel the episode deserves praise regardless and feel that bad science criticisms doesn’t really do the episode justice.