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Doctor Who

Doctor Who: Death In Heaven by Steven Moffat (Doctor Who review)

Be careful: There may be some unintentional, alright deliberate because it is the last episode of the season, spoilers although I won’t give away the ending, only because I’m not that keen on Christmas. It’s a diabetic thing.

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‘Death In Heaven’ is actually a very good story but you have to pay attention. After all, the lead credit is to Jenna Coleman and Peter Capaldi the second. Who really is the Doctor? Then again, considering that Clara knows a lot of who the Doctor is, maybe he/she is. Assuming Clara’s accuracy, prior to leaving Gallifrey, the Doctor has been married four times. Considering that a single regeneration can last up to a thousand years, he could hardly not have a love life.

It’s a shame that UNIT is back so briefly and there are flashes of the Eccleston Doctor’s encounter with UNIT, just without the celebrity status. You would have thought they’d have made a better job of securing the Mistress. Why leave her in the cargo bay next to the Doctor’s TARDIS?

Kate Stewart really needs to be a companion, if only so we see more of the excellent Jemma Redgrave. Shame there was no reference to Torchwood. Does that mean it’s not there in any form anymore?

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The revival of the Cybermen is going to make a lot of people decide to be cremated in future. Their revival and climbing out of the graveyard had shades of ‘Tomb Of The Cybermen’. Then again, even the Doctor zapping the Mistress with her own weapon is its own Catch 22 as to is it really doing what it was supposed to do. Likewise, you would have thought the Doctor would have looked around for her TARDIS rather than leaving it lost in time and space. Less sure about the return of Gallifrey or the Doctor’s rage at seeing its return. Is he angry because they haven’t told him of their return or is it just the return of the planet but none of the Time Lords?

Looking more specifically at the Cybermen, they looked more like a cross between Robocop and the Sentinels from the X-Men this time. I’d still like to see the Telos versions appear at some time if only because this version keeps getting destroyed.

The Mistress’ intent now is not insane plans but to corrupt the Doctor which means there’s a change of plan for the Master now. Will she had a goatee beard next time?

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Interesting that both the Doctor and Clara lied to each other but at least there is no lost in a parallel dimension, in a secured part of the past or brain damaged this time.

Good performances from all of the cast but not giving them really enough to do and what really amounts to brief cameos than a real use of their time. A good finale but Steven Moffat really needs to be at this level all the time.

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Finally, dear Clara, please sort out what you’ve done to the SFC poll system so we can vote as to whether you’re going to have your own TV series or not. Thanks.

Geoff Willmetts

November 2014

UncleGeoff

Geoff Willmetts has been editor at SFCrowsnest for some 21 plus years now, showing a versatility and knowledge in not only Science Fiction, but also the sciences and arts, all of which has been displayed here through editorials, reviews, articles and stories. With the latter, he has been running a short story series under the title of ‘Psi-Kicks’ If you want to contribute to SFCrowsnest, read the guidelines and show him what you can do. If it isn’t usable, he spends as much time telling you what the problems is as he would with material he accepts. This is largely how he got called an Uncle, as in Dutch Uncle. He’s not actually Dutch but hails from the west country in the UK.

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