Day 807: Kill the Moon

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.

Day 806: The Caretaker

Let's talk about Danny Pink, the new regular for Series 8. He's an interesting character to have as a regular because he's defined as someone who doesn't get on particularly well with the Doctor, mostly due to their difference of opinion about war and soldiering. And this difference of opinion is explored throughout The Caretaker, which proves to be quite an intriguing story.

As a story, The Caretaker sets itself up as the generic romp where Danny, as Clara's boyfriend, discovers that she can travel through time and space. So we get a fairly light hearted opening 20 minutes or so, leading up to the point where Danny discovers the truth. And when he does, he doesn't take it particularly well, in part because the Doctor has left a bad first impression on him due to their aforementioned difference in opinion over soldiers. And from this point onwards, the story changes to an argument between the two characters, with a generic romp happening in the background.

And the argument is great because neither character is put in a winning position by the story; instead on both a writing and directing front the episode is kept totally impartial. We continually see the Doctor put forward his beliefs that Danny is not someone to be particularly liked, because of his military nature and admiration of killing people who attack him, instead of searching for the peaceful solution. It's an opinion that's best read in a post-Day of the Doctor series, where we know that the Doctor had taken up arms and become a soldier, and that he has lived with that regret every day after that point. But the story doesn't dwell on that, preferring instead to dwell on Danny's argument, which it knows is the harder one to sell to the audience. And Danny's argument is that the Doctor is just as bad as he is, even defining him as an Army Officer. It's a cruel thing to do, and it's cruel of Danny to continually refer to the Doctor as 'Sir' throughout their first meeting specifically to irk him but it's entirely justified. And when the Doctor meets with Clara to discuss their plan to take down the Skovox Blitzer, it's done in such a way to emphasise that the Doctor is clearly giving Clara orders to follow, like a Sergeant ordering about his troops. It all makes for a very interesting argument to watch.

And that's what I really like about this episode, and Series 8 as a whole. From this point onwards, it's going to refuse to take sides, preferring instead to tell a story that has conflict and no clear winner. And we will, of course, see more of that in tomorrow's episode.