Doctor Perseus Reviews: "Dark Water" *SPOILERS* · 4:09am Nov 2nd, 2014
In this week's episode of Doctor Who, a terrible tragedy leads to the Doctor and Clara seeking to save Danny from the other side. However, their journey to save him will cause them to learn the secrets of the afterlife, the mysterious workings of the organization known as 3W, and come face to face with someone from the Doctor's past...
Now THAT'S how you start off a season finale! I was enthralled with this episode from beginning to end and...THAT ENDING! Needless to say, I loved this episode.
The Doctor had a lot of great moments in this episode, both serious and funny. I love how the Doctor cares for Clara so much that not even her betraying him will make him stop being her friend. Though, granted, he could understand her reasons for doing it and that's probably why he was so willing to help her. I also loved the little moments with Capaldi's Doctor acting oblivious to romantic (and sexual) references, such as when Missy made out with him and when Dr. Chang took delight in the thought of using the Dark Water in swimming pools (creepy much?). This was a very character-driven, dialogue-heavy episode and all of the Doctor's conversations were splendid. However, I do hope we see the action kick up a notch in the next episode (as it probably will).
Now let's talk about Clara...oh boy. This episode certainly started with a nice punch to the gut. Danny dying and a mourning Clara going so far as to threaten the Doctor in order to attempt rewriting history. So, it appears that Clara hasn't turned evil (though, we still haven't reached the whole "Clara Oswald has never existed" scene yet). At first, Clara jumping straight to betraying the Doctor's trust caught me completely off guard. However, it didn't come off as out of character for me. Like the Doctor, I can understand why she did it. She was mourning over the loss of someone she loved dearly and she saw an opportunity to bring that person back (since, you know, her best friend has a freaking time machine). Sure, Clara went pretty far; but as Regina Mills said on Once Upon a Time, "She is a woman who's had her heart broken. That can make you do unspeakable things." And it was clear that Clara immediately regretted her actions (or rather the actions she would have taken) and was willing to take full responsibility for what she had done and accept any punishment the Doctor would give her. This led to a brilliant moment between the Doctor and Clara with Clara saying that she doesn't deserve the Doctor as a friend and the Doctor replying by saying that he's exactly who Clara deserves. I do have to admit that I gave a pretty huge sigh of relief when it was revealed that the whole volcano scene was just a dream state. No TARDIS keys were harmed in the making of this episode! Yay! Moving on, Clara continued to have some great moments throughout the episode. From her hilariously awkward response to seeing Missy make out with the Doctor to her cold, skeptical conversation with Danny. I'm really looking forward to seeing what lies in store for Clara in the second half of this finale!
Moving onto Danny...wow. Moffat sure threw a curve ball by killing Danny off so quickly. I predict (or hope) that the Doctor and Clara are going to find some way to bring him back in the next episode since the afterlife he's in isn't the true afterlife. Still, Danny had a lot of moments to shine in this episode. We got to dive into Danny's dark past and finally see what his "bad day" was. It was a very emotional and powerful moment seeing Danny being forced to sit across from the innocent boy he had killed in battle. The scene with him crying after his final conversation with Clara and getting ready to wipe away his emotions was extremely heartbreaking. Like with Clara, I'm interested in seeing what lies in store for him in the next episode and if he's even going to survive this finale. I saw somewhere that he's part of the cast in the 2014 Christmas special so there's a chance that he may live to see Christmas.
Now let's talk about Missy...aka the Mistress...aka the Master. OH. MY. GOD! The Mistress/Master theories were right! I have a feeling that this reveal is going to be very divisive in the fanbase; but, then again, what isn't divisive in the Doctor Who fanbase nowadays? As you can probably tell, I fall into the camp that absolutely loved this reveal. Michelle Gomez was splendid in the role and, after finding out who she is, I can really see traits from previous Masters within her. She has a bit of the craziness that was in John Simm's Master while keeping the sophisticated deviousness that was in Roger Delgado's Master. As of now, we are still pretty much in the dark as to why Missy/the Mistress/the Master has gone through so much trouble to store human souls in a false afterlife in order to turn their bodies into Cybermen. I'm assuming it's another take over the Earth plan but there might be something else going on here. I'm especially interested in learning about how she was able to escape Gallifrey. But, it happened people. We've gotten our first major sex change on Doctor Who. Why do I get the feeling that a female Doctor may no longer be as far off as we originally thought? We first saw Clara take on the role of the Doctor in Flatline and now we have a new female incarnation of the Master. I think Moffat may be throwing hints about the BBC's plans for Doctor Who's future our way. Also, I think it's safe to assume that all Time Lords are bisexual now. Now that we know that Missy's the Master, it makes her make out scene with the Doctor (and her referring to him as her boyfriend back in Deep Breath) all the more awkward and uncomfortable. However, I'm assuming that those were most likely her just toying with the Doctor. Anyway, I loved the reveal and I'm looking forward to seeing Capaldi's Doctor and Gomez's Mistress continue to face off in the next episode!
The supporting cast was also really good. Seb was a very enjoyable character picked right out of a dark comedy. I especially loved it when Danny questioned him about there being iPads in the afterlife and Seb replying by saying that they've got Steve Jobs himself. It was nice to see Clara's grandmother again and Mr. Chang had a fittingly short role. I'm also interested in seeing if the whole thing with the boy Danny shot continues on into the next episode. Guess we'll just have to see.
I think it's safe to say that this episode was very, very dark. The afterlife we're shown in this episode was very interesting. The design of it was neat with it being a massive city located inside a large sphere. The moment where the 3 Words were revealed was also very chilling. "Don't cremate me." Just the idea that the dead can still feel what's happening to their body back in the world of the living is an incredibly disturbing concept. Thankfully, that only appears to be a side effect of Missy's afterlife. I must also say that I liked Seb's talk about what life to an embryo must be like and how that also applies to life itself. It was a very thought-provoking concept about how life continues on after death in this world.
I liked when we finally learned the meaning behind this episode's title: Dark Water. The effects on the skeletons were well done and incredibly creepy. Heck, the effects used throughout this whole episode were fantastic. The Cybermen reveal was also well executed. Though it wasn't much of a surprise since the Cybermen's role in this finale was spoiled long before Series 8 began. Still, I'm looking forward to seeing a good old Cybermen invasion next week. Man, next week's episode is sure going to be busy. Kate Stewart, Osgood, UNIT, the Master, and the Cybermen all in one episode. Thank God it's going to be 60 minutes. Hopefully, that will be a long enough run time to give this 2-parter (and Series 8 by extension) a satisfying conclusion.
Other things to note. I really liked the wall of post-it notes in Clara's apartment that detailed previous events throughout all of Series 8. Also, it hasn't been officially confirmed that Missy was the woman in the shop who gave Clara the Doctor's phone number. The mastermind behind the mysterious "Gus" back in Mummy on the Orient Express also continues to be unknown. Will Missy turn out to be the culprit behind both or will these two elements continue on into larger story arcs? And I'm also really interested in learning Missy's connection with Clara and how she knows that she "chose well" in relation to Clara.
Overall, I absolutely adored Dark Water. It was dark, emotional, thought-provoking, and had one hell of a cliffhanger. Next week, Series 8 of Doctor Who comes to a close with Death in Heaven!
And...since there was no next time trailer for Death in Heaven, here's a behind the scenes look at Dark Water! Enjoy.
I recall you mentioning a rumor that the Master was going to appear in Series 8. I guess you were right.
I was pleasantly shocked at the reveal that Missy is the new regeneration of the Master!
And also find the sexual tension between her and the Doctor interesting. I recall that that last Master also had a bit of that same tension with the 10th Doctor. Now that the Master is a woman, it can finally blossom. I guess that confirms that Time Lords can regenerate as a different gender. Perhaps we will see the Doctor regenerate as a woman in the future. It has sort of happened already.
Well, I'm certainly excited for part deux of the finale! It's going to be preceded by the BBC America premiere of Sherlock. That's worth checking out if you've never seen Sherlock. That's a great show.
I loath cliffhangers, especially ones done this well... I really hope they don't just simply kill the Master off this time, there's so many more possibilities. Especially now that he's turned to a she, maybe Doctor/Master could be canon. Though I doubt it.
The scene with Danny deciding whether or not to click 'delete' was done incredibly well. It made me wonder what I would've done.
Anyways. It was great, up until the cliffhanger. I watched all the previous seasons off the internet, so I never had to wait a week to see both parts. This is horrible.
As 2569312 points out, genderswap regeneration seems to be a thing that Steven Moffat has had on his mind for a long time. He threw it in as a joke in The Curse of Fatal Death, and he had "Man or woman?" named explicitly as one of the choices for the eighth Doctor's regeneration in The Night of the Doctor to which the Doctor doesn't even blink, as if that's nothing out of the ordinary. And now there's "Missy".
Personally, I hope Moffat stays on long enough to make a female Doctor happen, but realistically I think that the Master's female regeneration has made it less likely to happen in the short term even while laying the groundwork for it in the long term.
Edit: Wouldn't you know it? Barely an hour after writing the above, I'm watching episode 6x04 (The Doctor's Wife) where the Doctor casually mentions another Time Lord, named the Corsair, who had both male and female regenerations.
A bit? She took John Simm's craziness and put it up to 11! Wait, no, Simm's craziness was already a 12, so...she took it up to 13! That makes sense, right?