Review: Doctor Who Season Finale

Doctor Who

Dark Water & Death in Heaven

I decided to do the finale of Doctor Who: Season 8 together, as they were best experienced back to back.

Dark Water, the first of the two episodes, finds the Doctor and Clara embroiled in a rather strange scheme that involves the dead, some rather interesting water, and Missy. Danny Pink, a character who seemed a little directionless in the season (besides being a soldier, which foreshadowed events in the finale) is killed off immediately in this episode catalyzing the events that follow. Danny's death leads to Clara acting out towards the Doctor in an attempt get him to change time and bring back Danny. The Doctor agrees, in a wonderful exchange about friendship. 

The Tardis locates where Clara and Danny's timelines were most likely to cross paths again - a building filled with underwater skeletons. Missy is there waiting for them and introduces herself as an android with a heart. We also get to meet the incredibly good looking Dr. Cheng. Here we learn more about the Nethersphere (where Danny Pink is currently learning about the afterlife). We also learn that Missy is up to no good with a plot to harness the dead to create an army.

The skeletons in the water, Dark Water to be exact, a water that Dr. Cheng says is x-ray water, allowing only organic matter to be seen hiding the exoskeletons that are keeping the skeletons upright, begin to come alive. As the water falls, it reveals the Cybermen! The return of a great foe! Who are working with none other than Missy, who also happens to be the Master! The return of another great foe!

Death in Heaven, the second episode, reveals what Missy's plan is and introduces UNIT back into the series. Missy, also known as the Master (who is wonderfully regenerated into a woman!) is planning on taking the dead of Earth and making them into a controllable army of Cybermen, including P.E. (that's Danny Pink)! This army will be raised by a cloud that rains cyber pollen on the Earth's graveyards, creating a storm of mechanical madness.

The Doctor, in the meantime, has been taken by UNIT to be the President of Earth. Clara stalls for time and is saved by the Danny Pink Cyberman. Missy is held captive and an Eleventh Doctor reference is made (bow ties are cool!). Some deaths occur and a reference to a long lost character is made to delight of fans.

In the end, things work out quite nicely. There is a wonderful monologue by the Doctor that harkens back to a question that has plagued the Doctor throughout this season, "Am I a good man?"

The answer to that question is yes. Yes, the Doctor is a good man, but he is so much more than that! 

Final Thoughts:

This was a good season finale that brought back some old enemies that deserved a revisit. It was especially wonderful to see the Master regenerated as a woman who just wanted her childhood friend back. Logic aside, it was a fun plan with two unlikely allies, the Cybermen and the Master. It also brought up some interesting ideas about the afterlife that left one wondering.