“Get
back in your lonely bloody TARDIS and you don’t come back!”
Kill
the Moon is here and if you go from the trailer it looked like it was supposed
to be really scary. Behind the sofa kind
of scary that makes you scream out in fright.
Steven Moffat was quoted as saying to writer Peter Harness to
“Hinchcliffe the $#@% out of it.” That
gave me some hope for this episode as I really enjoyed the Philip Hinchcliffe
era of Doctor Who with its Gothic horror and smart storytelling. Let’s face it. After the two light hearted
stories we have had lately it was time to get the scares back into the show. So bring on the scares and give people
nightmares as I’m ready for a scary one.
Well
we did get some scares but I don’t think the writer was all too successful in
Hinchcliffe the crap out of it. Yes it
was scary but not as scary as it could have been. Plus it wasn’t really dark and Gothic
either. But it was pretty darn good none
the less. I really did like Kill the
Moon and I loved the alien spiders that were causing a menace to those on the
surface of the moon. Their appearance did deliver the scares and I really loved
that especially the way they eliminated their prey. We are lead to believe that the spiders are
the main threat to The Doctor, Clara, Courtney and Lundvik but in reality they
were the least of the problem. No it is
something far worse. In fact we find out
that the moon is in fact coming apart and it is opening up like an egg. So the big problem solver for this week is what
to do with the creature that is hatching out of the moon which is an egg. Ok. Got all that. The moon is an egg and The Doctor leaves
Lundvik, Clara and Courtney to sort it all out while he takes off and does
something else.
Now
this is not something the Doctor would normally do. It was very out of
character for him to just leave it to Clara to sort it out but you can see why
he did it. The fate of the Earth should
be left to the humans that live there and not to him. Especially when the options are to kill the
newborn hatching out of the moon or let it live and kill billions on the earth
below. This has Clara all perplexed and
really pissed off at The Doctor. I think
anyone would be but The Doctor has done similar types of things with his
companions before. Martha comes to mind
when she spent a year traveling the Earth in Last of the Time Lords but this
one was a bit different as if they decided to kill it the atomic bombs would go
off and they would be dead but I don’t think The Doctor would have let it come
to that. This turn of events was pretty
intense as you did not know what they would eventually do and the way they came
up with the decision was ok but only half the planet voted the side that was
facing the sun did not really have a chance to express their opinion. I guess this was just a minor thing but when
you watch it again it is something funny to notice. It didn’t really matter anyway as Clara went
against the Earths decision anyway.
I
did like the way Clara told The Doctor off for what he did but it did seem to
be a bit much. God help us if she ever
traveled with the 7th Doctor she would be mad forever. It just seemed to be a tad much with her
going on and not really listening to what The Doctor was trying to explain to
her. She came across as being a bit of a
spoiled girl who didn’t get her way. It will be interesting to see how The
Doctor and Clara’s relationship will be like for the rest of the series.
Even
though I have pointed out what I did not care for in Kill the Moon I did like
this story. I liked the horror of the
spider especially when one attacks The Doctor.
That was pretty intense and did make me jump even if it was predictable
that it was going to jump out of the crevice.
I liked how they did something different and have The Doctor abandon his
companions and makes you wonder about this new Doctor. It did seem pretty familiar to the 7th
Doctor in the books and Big Finish audios jerking the companions around. I kind of like it in a way as he can see what
his companion is made of and it showed that he trusts them to make the right
decision. The story was pretty good and
having the moon being an egg was pretty clever but having the creature lay
another moon for the Earth did seem a tad predictable but clever none the
less. Peter Capaldi gives us a really
good performance and his Doctor finally gives that big speech. He delivers it with such conviction and
panache that it really stands out to the viewer as one of the highlights of the
story and having the beach setting with a great blue sky did help make it more
memorable.
So
far Kill the Moon has been the strongest story in this series
with lots of game changing scenarios to set up the end of series 8. It is the type of story you will not forget
as it makes us question what we would do in Clara and Lundvik’s position. Would we kill the new born creature or would
we take a chance and let it live?
Hermione Norris was excellent as Lundvik and so far has the best co-star
performance in Series 8. Kill the Moon
delivered the goods and the scares even though it was not in the Philip
Hinchcliffe style. I was really
entertained by Kill the Moon and it has me thinking plus it has my interest
level up as to what will happen between The Doctor and Clara in future
episodes.
Grade
A –
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