I
missed being on the last episode of ESW due to scheduling
difficulties, so it was good to be back for the big finale of the
season.
This
season of Doctor
Who has
been a roller coaster for me, but I’ll get more into that when I
write about our forthcoming season wrap-up episode. For now I’ll
just say that I was hoping for an epic conclusion and have no plans
to buy the Blu-ray when it comes out.
Episode
two – “Death in Heaven” – was a lot more entertaining. I
thought the opening with the Brigadier was excellent and that
Michelle Gomez was fantastic as the Master. Things moved along really
quickly and I think that’s when Doctor
Who –
and the Doctor himself – is at its best.
And
then the inevitable happened and they did a thing that was not
necessary to the plot and did not advance anything in any way and
proclaimed that the Doctor was the President of Earth. It was stupid
and groan-inducing and it ground my enjoyment of the episode to a
halt. It’s that kind of pointless absurdity that is keeping me from
fully enjoying this era of Doctor
Who.
Those things that are out of character or don’t make any sense and
don’t contribute to the narrative, but it is apparent that somebody
in charge wanted to make a joke or create a situation and just said,
“Fuck it, I want to make that joke about the Doctor calling the
President and idiot and then he’s the President.”
It
also really bothers me that the Master has to be crazy and silly now.
I hate
this. It was kept to something of a minimum (compared to John Sims,
anyway) in this episode, but to me the Master is evil, sinister, and
very together. Gomez was very
good, but I didn’t like the parts where she was acting crazy and
referring to herself as “bananas” or whatever. Thankfully the
climax of the episode avoided that sort of behavior and I actually
thought the Mary Poppins visual was funny. I’m shocked they didn’t
ruin it by having her say (in Adam Sandler voice), “Look
at me! I’m evil Mary Poppins!”
Other
things I enjoyed were the homages to James Bond, Night
of the Living Dead,
and The
Twilight Zone.
And the story was very strong. I like the idea of this artificial
afterlife and the Master using it to create undead and seemingly
undefeatable Cybermen, only to give them to the Doctor to test his
resolve as the purported “good man”.
There’s
more, but you’re going to have to check out the newest episode of
Earth Station Who to hear it all, as well as the thoughts of the rest
of the ESW crew!
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