C+Q - Hell Bent (2015)
And so Steven Moffat delivers yet another finale that, despite being really fucking good, was at first a huge letdown due to its failure to meet the criteria it set itself. The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang made us think it would explain who blew up the TARDIS and then didn't. Dark Water and Death in Heaven made us think it would explain how Missy regenerated and escaped Gallifrey and then didn't. And now Hell Bent made us think it would explain about the hybrid and what happened to Gallifrey and then didn't. Yes it threw out some theories about the hybrid but it didn't confirm or deny any of them. To be honest I'm not too upset about this because I kinda guessed that the hybrid arc was a massive piss-take by the time the Doctor accused Osgood of being like the fifth hybrid he'd met this series. No, what I'm really upset about is the complete and utter waste of the 'quest for Gallifrey' storyline. The Doctor did nothing to get back to Gallifrey (yes he punched his way through the wall in Heaven Sent but he was going to have to do that anyway and he didn't know Gallifrey was on the other side. What I'm saying is that the Doctor never at any point TRIED to find Gallifrey). Disappointment aside, I do still love The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang, I do still love Dark Water and Death in Heaven, and I do still fucking adore Hell Bent.
I love it for a great number of small reasons. I love Clara's ending and that Steven Moffat was able to take 'Clara Who' to its logical conclusion by giving her a companion, a TARDIS, and an unusual number of heartbeats. I love the new/old TARDIS interior and how brave Doctor Who has got in its continuity references after recovering from its cancelation over a decade ago. But most importantly I love the way this episode left the Doctor and the show as a whole. This feels like the end of the beginning for the Capaldi's Doctor and he nails every second he's on screen. We're so lucky to have such an incredible actor who clearly holds the material in such high regard and I hope to Christ that he stays on well into the Chibnall era.
This is going to be one of those reviews that devolves into a list of shit I liked, so if you're not into that, bye!
I love how arriving on Gallifrey actually feels like coming home due to all the returning characters, like the General, Rassilon, and the Sisterhood of Karn, and the returning locations, like the barn and the citadel. As much as the build up was completely nonexistent and I'd have liked the search for Gallifrey to have been an active search, it's still very satisfying to be back and it doesn't disappoint. Now that it's back, I want to see way more Gallifrey stories in Series 10 and beyond. There's a sense of familiarity about it but it never stops being an alien planet, making it a much better alternative to having Earth stories every single week.
So it turns out that the "Regeneration in progress" line from the next time trailer doesn't refer to the Doctor as basically nobody believed, but actually refers to the General, who underwent the show's first on-screen sex changing regeneration. I say 'first' but Big Finish actually beat them by two weeks (although Big Finish is audio so it doesn't count as being 'on-screen' so whatever). Despite it not being for the Doctor, I think regenerations are just exciting events in 'general' (HA-HA! PUNS!). It's really difficult to pin down exactly why I enjoy seeing different interpretations of characters, like the Joker or James Bond, but it's one of the many, MANY reasons why I love Doctor Who. Ken Bones and T'Nia Miller are both superb as the General and I'd love to see more of the character as part of the regular 'Gallifrey family'.
Speaking of sex changing regenerations, I hoped Missy would be in this episode. Not because her presence would have thematically gelled with what was going on, but just because Michelle Gomez is amazing. She is mentioned though so that's nice.
That being said, it's not as if Moffat has an issue with just throwing in random villains for fear that they don't gel with the rest of the episode, as here we get cameo appearances from the Daleks, Cybermen, and Weeping Angels. Honestly, one of Steven Moffat's smartest bits of misdirection is tricking us all into thinking that one of his own creations is as iconic and integral to the show as the Daleks and Cybermen are. We've been conditioned through their cameos in episodes like The Time of the Doctor to associate the Weeping Angels with the A-list of Who villainy, even though they were only introduced less than a decade ago and have had three full stories in that time. Well played, Moffat. Well played.
Oh, and the new sonic screwdriver looks fuckin cool. That's basically all I wanted to say.