FULL DISCLAIMER: Before I start this entry, I should mention the elephant in the room. Or perhaps a more apt description would be the space dragon in the room. Yes, this story works well as an allegory for a certain subject. Yes, I acknowledge that there are compelling arguments on both sides of the discussion about what this story actually means with regards to that subject. Yes, I have an opinion about what this story means with respect to that subject. No, I will not be discussing it at all in this entry. Yes, this is me running away from an internet shit-storm. And finally, yes, I do think that there's something better to talk about with this story.
I will put on the record that I love Kill the Moon. It's not just because I enjoy the story, or the full and frank discussion about the subject matter, or even the amazingly strong performances in the story (there's something so joyous about Capaldi's line delivery of "The moon's an egg" - it's understated and excited at the same time). It's because of that final scene in the TARDIS. The scene that I'm talking about is where Clara finally loses her temper at the Doctor because she can't cope with the way that he treats her any more. It couldn't really work in any other episode, because this is one that's centred around Clara making a certain decision, and although the story later commends her for making that decision, she still doesn't want to let go of the fact that it's been a traumatic moment for her. So she lets it all fly out at the Doctor, blaming him for leaving her when she needed him and daring to pretend that it wasn't worth anything when it would prove to be one of the most important decisions ever to be made in the history of the human race. And that calling out of the Doctor is very important because he has been an absolute jerk in this story and it feels refreshing to hear Clara acknowledge it in such a visceral manner as she does in this particular scene.
And what impresses me about this scene is not just the emotion behind it (Jenna Coleman's performance in this scene is probably her best performance in the entire series, and there's a lot of strong competition in that particular category), it's the fact that it actually means something. In other stories, in virtually every other era of the series, this story would have ended up with everything being tied up with a nice bow, resetting everything to square one for next week's story. Kill the Moon dares to be different, it dares to end the episode on a cliffhanger where no character is in any danger but we're not so sure about their emotional state. I remember when I first watched this a year or so ago, I genuinely didn't know whether Clara was going to be in the next episode or not. Granted, that may have ended up contributing to some, shall we say, interesting feelings about that next story, but that's for tomorrow. For now, I think that we should just bask in the glory of seeing such an emotionally powerful episode that ranks as one of my series highlights.
Oh, and yes, this is the first time in 800-odd entries that I have sworn on this blog. I feel really passionate about avoiding internet shit-storms.
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