Review of Death in Heaven
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.
I’m always wary going into a Moffat finale. His tendency toward emotional manipulation and complex story arcs concluded without full closure generally grate on me. Death in Heaven delivered as expected, with plot holes and saccharine scenes galore, and though it had enough enjoyable content to keep me from hating it entirely, I’m not in a rush to watch it again.
Having resolved one of the major questions of the series at the end of last week’s episode (“who is Missy?”), the story’s focus shifted to ferreting out her Master plan (sorry; couldn’t help myself). I have to admit, it turns out less rubbish than her track record would suggest, but I have problems with the whole “Cyber-pollen” thing on several levels.
To begin, since when has “every tiny particle of a Cyberman contain[ed] the plans to make another Cyberman”? (I believe, Mr. Moffat, you’re thinking of Borg nanoprobes…) Now granted, the idea that they can now assimilate convert dead bodies into new Cybermen is super creepy—kudos on that one—but I’m still scratching my head over some of the logistics.
I mean, we’re told every dead person around the world is undergoing Cyber-conversion, but we’ve also heard that cremation is “pretty much the default these days,” at least in the UK. [Content advisory: if you found Cyber-conversion of the dead personally troubling for any reason, you may want to skip the next four paragraphs.] At what point is there not enough identifiably once-sentient organic matter left? If, for example, someone was cremated and then their ashes scattered, would the Cyberpollen still activate any of that material? Would each speck become another Cyberman, or would the pollen somehow “know” only to activate a single Cyberman per former individual?
And then there are all the uploaded minds. Through the vastness of human experience, there had to be quite a few people who were insusceptible to Cyber-control. After all, we saw two right there in that one British graveyard. How many more were there? How many of them chose somehow to ignore their soldier-general Danny’s order to self-destruct, or was it really only the Brigadier for some inexplicable reason?
Oh, the Brigadier. I wanted so badly to love his little moment. It was a heroic return and a fond farewell to one of my favorite supporting characters—until you think about it a little too much. First is the retcon that it was his “big ambition” to get the Doctor to salute him. That doesn’t mesh with the way I’ve always interpreted the Brigadier’s character, or his relationship with the Doctor. Since it makes for a nice little story, I could let that slide. But when you realize that he is now a Cyberman—a self-aware Cyberman, fully cognizant of his life as an individual—it turns horrific.
The opportunity to make a noble sacrifice by burning up in the atmosphere to save all of humanity has already gone. What is left for him now? Virtual immortality, during which to agonize over the truth of what he’s become? Okay, yes, I get that his emotional inhibitor must be active, and that somehow—like Danny—the mere memory of his emotions for his daughter caused him to act, but that “love [is] not an emotion; love is a promise” crap just doesn’t cut it as an explanation, as far as I’m concerned. Even if I ignore the poor logic there, the implication that the Brigadier knows exactly who and what he used to be remains. How awful.
I suppose, in a way, it’s all a byproduct of Moffat’s less-than-subtle commentary on one of the most basic beliefs of a large portion of humanity: the existence of an afterlife. I know there’s a long tradition in Doctor Who of explaining human culture as a byproduct of alien influence, but this time I couldn’t help imagining the smug look on Moffat’s face, and I really just wanted to smack him into next week.
And speaking of wanting to do bodily harm to the writer, I was first crushed and then angry at the way he treated Osgood. I should have known as soon as the Doctor dropped his “just something for your bucket list” comment that she wasn’t long for this world—there is, after all, a long line of proto-Companions (e.g., Lynda-with-a-Y (Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways) or Rita (The God Complex)) who bite the proverbial Big One shortly after catching the Doctor’s interest—but I’ll admit I was shocked and incensed when she met her fate.
Later, after “AI interface” Seb literally squee’d over the Doctor’s TARDIS dive and came to a similar end, I got pissed. That’s twice in the span of ten minutes that Moffat vaporized the fanbase in effigy. On screen. Forget even that Seb was exhibiting a stereotypical (young) feminine behavior; Osgood was one of the few honestly strong female characters of recent years. She was intelligent and funny and pop-culture-knowledgeable and kind, all while being asthmatic and not a little insecure. In other words, Osgood read like a real person—a real woman—in whom a lot of fans could see themselves. And Moffat fridged her.
Fuck. You. Moffat.
When I stop and think about the parts I did like (and yes, there were some), the down sides tend to outweigh them. But I honestly didn’t come out of my first viewing feeling vaguely nauseous as I have after other “big” episodes. I mean, we got more of Kate Stewart, and of Osgood (even if it ended badly). We got an incredibly self-aware Mistress/Master who recognized she was “bananas” and used it to her advantage (and good god, she was working that Mary Poppins angle—obviously the rumors were true!). We (finally!) got a death that actually stuck. We got delightful little character moments like the Doctor putting seven lumps of sugar in his tea and then just drinking from the saucer.
But mostly we got Capaldi. The man is bloody brilliant. The Doctor’s emotions ran the gamut in this episode, and he hit each one pitch-perfect, from the relief at finally knowing the answer to his question of whether he’s a good man to the rage and betrayal at yet another lie by the Master to the heartbreak of leaving Clara behind.
And poor Clara. Even in middle of a self-righteous rant she can’t tell the truth to save her soul. Before she knows who stands in front of her, she tells the altruistic Cyberman that she’ll never “give up the Doctor” (telling word choice) because “he is the one man I will always forgive, always trust. The one man I would never, ever lie to.” Except she’s done it before, and she does it again when they part ways. (To be fair, he tells her a whopper of his own…)
That scene was so well done; just watch the way her lips quiver during the hug, and his eyes speak volumes. I couldn’t help but think of Tegan’s departure at the end of Time-Flight, when the TARDIS takes off from Heathrow without her. Thinking he’s giving her what she’s wanted all along, the Doctor regretfully leaves Tegan behind, but she’s crushed to see the TARDIS disappear.
And just like Tegan, I’m sure Clara will be back. I just wish she weren’t bringing “Jeff” with her.
nailed it
Wow, you really nailed this one. It’s just such a challenge – and has been so for some time – to wade through Moff’s emotional manipulation and saccharine attempts at fan service – to find a decent plot with at least some science fiction level of believability. Peter rocked it though, no question – and I look forward to next season and new opportunity for better episodes.
Thanks!
Thanks, Matt! Glad you enjoyed it.
Regardless of the storyline, one thing’s for sure: I can’t get enough of Capaldi. 🙂
season finale
I wrote a post about my feelings about Death in Heaven for another review of the episode on another site. It’s long and involved so I thought I’d just repost it rather than writing a new post about it. Hope you don’t mind.
Yeah, Cybermen. It’s a season finale so the entire Earth has to be in danger. Missy is going to cyberfy all the corpses on Earth, kill off all the living humans and cyberfy them too. Cybermen are going to rain cyberpollen down on the corpses which is going to turn them into Cybermen. Then they are going to insert the correct soul (pre corrupted by Missy) into each cyberbody to activate their brains (or something).
OK, it looked really cool but it didn’t make a lot of sense. How did they target the correct soul into each body? The rain looked good but it didn’t look targeted. I didn’t see any souls streaking around corners to find the correct corpse. But Danny’s soul was reunited with the correct body so it wasn’t just random either.
Missy’s plan was just stupid. She wanted to provide The Doctor with an army to corrupt his soul and make him evil. Absoulte power corrupts absolutely after all. Surely The Doctor would use his army to do good at first but then get power mad and turn evil himself.
Not only was that never going to happen but what good would it do Missy if it did? Wouldn’t the corrupted Doctor see Missy as a rival and use this handy army she gave him to wipe her out?
And there was a lot of faffing about with UNIT. Is it my imagination or are they completely useless in any sort of crisis situation. Cybermen, Sontorans, Talcofane, whatever, all they do is make the situation worse. It would be nice to think that the human race could form some kind of effective response to alien threats but apparently not.
I got SO annoyed with everybody at the end. The world was ending and they had to stand around talking about their feelings. And Danny, get over yourself. He got all hurt because Clara described The Doctor as her best friend instead of him when it was obvious she was saying that to keep a Cyberman who she didn’t know as actually Danny from killing her. Don’t hurt me! You’ll piss off my good friend The Doctor who you fear. But Danny got so sad he wanted to blackmail Clara and The Doctor to erase his feelings. Poor Baby! Passive agressive much? AARRGGHH!!!
Then everybody was standing around pointing guns at Missy and trying to save eachother’s souls by not allowing the other to kill her. She’s a sociopathic mass murderer with access to godlike technology and power. Killing her would make you a hero, not stain your soul with evil. Just disintigrate the bitch and dance on her ashes! But as it happened, neither The Doctor nor Clara had to do the deed. The Cyberfied Brigadier happened to wander by and do it for them. They can both continue to be good people, untroubled by having rid the universe of a deadly threat.
And finally The Doctor and Clara lie to eachother and let the other believe they had a happy ending when it was just the opposite. They can both go off and be miserable by themselves and it’s no less than they deserve because they’ve spent the entire season lying to eachother and everybody else they’ve talked to. If either had tried telling the truth they could have consoled eachother for their losses and gotten some comfort from somebody they cared about. Instead they both walk off lonely, into the sunset, being all noble and depressed.
It ends with Santa Claus because I thought Doctor Who just couldn’t get any stupider and they had to prove me wrong.
Dark Water was so good. And Death in Heaven was so bad. What a shame.
I’d give it a D. The FX were pretty and the acting was top notch but the script and dialogue were a mess. It’s sad when such talented actors have to say such dumb things and try to make it good.
similar thoughts
[Apologies for the late response; this week’s been kicking my butt.]
It sounds like you latched onto a lot of the same points I did, though by the tone of your comments, they stuck in your craw more thoroughly than they did in mine. 🙂 Overall I concur: Dark Water was phenomenal, and Death in Heaven was a classic 2nd-half let down.
I’ll be interested to see what kind of character development they give Capaldi’s Doctor from here!
The salute
The idea that the Bragadier wanted The Doctor to salute him is silly. The Doctor was a scientific advisor to UNIT but he was never in the military with a rank or anything. The Brig seemed to want a little more respect from The Doctor but since he wasn’t a soldier it wouldn’t be signafied by a salute.
The Doctor’s final salute to the cyberfied Brigadier was artificial and left a bad taste in my mouth.
Eeyup
Just so.
Death is not the end
At least with the Grand Moff it usually isn’t.
Where to start? Well let’s hope that Osgood has either ended up in the Nethersphere and will be liberated before it shuts down or it was Zygon Osgood who turned up for work that day, hence the comment about her not smelling as much (or whatever was said) and the scarf wearer is ready and waiting to board the TARDIS sometime soon.
Other commentators have been quite positive about the cyber cameo for the Brigadier. I was very uncomfortable about it given that Nicholas Courtney only died in 2011. Unfortunately the image that came into my mind was that of a decaying cadaver which did not feel much like a tribute then. I think the concept of the nanobots converting the dead would have worked better if it had been limited to the recently deceased. Logically there was a cyber Adric in all of this and I kept looking for previous versions of Clara, newly cybertised to turn up.
It does seem as if the Moff moteif is to manipulate emotions and whilst not the worst ever episode I felt it was let down by poor plot logic.
It’s funny, I could rewatch much of the Classic series but I feel less inclined to do so with Nu-Who. Not sure if that says more about me.
Two gags I did like, firstly the doctored (sorry) titles and secondly the deliberate mistake re Cloudbase as I bet Twitter went crazy as people wanted to correct the mistake.
Oh well roll on Christmas episode. Has the title been announced yet?
Osgood
You’re right; in the Whoniverse, a character’s death is never guaranteed to be permanent. It wasn’t the Zygon Osgood, though—she was using her inhaler.
There was a lot about the cyber-conversion of “all” the dead that troubled me, but I just don’t have the oomph to say any more about it. ~smh~
To the best of my knowledge, the title of the Christmas episode has not yet been released. The Children in Need clip did not boost my confidence (though it was fun to see Dan Starkey’s own face, for a change).
I must rewatch the 50th
As I recall, maybe incorrectly that Osgood picked up the inhaler after tripping Zygosgood with the scarf, after Zygosgood had commented about hating the ones with faults. Subsequently Osgood passed the inhaler to Zygosgood during negotiations. Like I say, a good excuse to rewatch Day of the Doctor to check if my memory is cheating 🙂
Wham
Apparently we can look forward to “Last Christmas “
Xmas
Using the phrase “look forward to” very loosely…
Hence
The use of the word “Apparently ” 🙂
Sorry, I’ve Done it Again, and furthermore….
Just remembered something else I wanted to add – how brilliant is Peter Capaldi? My favourite scene is where he shows his anguish at discovering the Master had lied about Gallifrey. I need to revisit that scene again as someone has commented that the Doctor swears at this point
Capaldi
Capaldi is f***ing brilliant. His Doctor doesn’t swear, though (except possibly on psychic paper). [I did go check the scene; there are some exclamations of exertion, but no actual words.]
That’s a really powerful scene, and as pointed out on Verity!, you know the Doctor had to be in a horribly bad place to beat on the TARDIS like that. Disturbing to watch. Seriously good shit.
I was looking forward to your
I was looking forward to your review of this episode all week – in spite of my dislike of darker episodes I loved it, and I was optimistic that you were going to write a glowing review about how Moffat finally nailed a final. Imagine my surprise when I saw this! So I’ve waited, rewatched, and thought before commenting. I think we both – hell I think everybody but Moffat – agree(s) that he needs to go. The series was wildly uneven, the ratings are down, and really as The Doctor regenerates every so often so should the man or woman behind The Doctor. That said I think people are falling overly victim to blind rage and hatred. I see a lot of complaining that he can’t write women, but I see articles all the time about River Song and how she was an amazing figure of woman empowerment. I see complaints that he rewrites Doctor Who history too much, but in a show that’s 50 plus years old I think that’s difficult NOT to do. I liked the deaths in this episode; for once they made me feel like something was actually in danger. Anyway, that’s just my two cents……..
I didn’t hate it
I’ve heard wildly differing opinions on this episode, and I understand both sides, actually. While I didn’t love it, I didn’t hate it, either, but I’ve found it’s easier for me to point out flaws than merits when there’s an episode I’m kind of “meh” about. : So maybe my review doesn’t quite do it justice, but I did find it rather a let-down after Dark Water.
I also agree that it’s good to have some deaths that actually seemed to stick. I just… disagreed with the choice of victim(s). As I see it, Osgood got offed because Moffat picked a character out of a hat to kill in order to make Missy seem like a real threat. I suppose he accomplished that, though I personally found it more spiteful than dangerous. ~shrug~
Time will tell whether or not my view of this episode mellows over time. I will say, though, that I think it’s better than any of the other Moffat era finales. 🙂
Ugh finales
Just disappointing but it’s what I’ve come to expect from the Moff and for me personally disappointment was the theme of the season. I expected more. I liked Missy but felt she was a bit over the top. Loved Capaldi but dear me what a brutal Doctor he is. That final scene in the TARDIS…never took the Doctor for an abusive husband. And I will also never forgive Moff for killing Osgood. Knew she was gone the second the Doctor offered her a TARDIS ride but kept hoping…some great guards in that scene as well.
Ups & downs
I’ll admit, finales are hard. And nothing is ever going to please all the fans.
For me, this series has been the best since Moffat came on board as showrunner, but I know others (like you) who found it mostly disappointing. Objectively, I figure if there’s about an even number of fans who say “this is utter crap!” as those who say “this is the best thing evar!”, it’s about on track (even when I’m one of the folks in the Crap Camp—which is not this year).
I guess I’m going to keep watching, and keep crossing my fingers that future stories trend ever toward my particular tastes. If not… Well, hope springs eternal. 🙂