Kill the Moon is arguably the most polarizing episode of Doctor Who ever aired. Whilst the episode was, for the most part, critically acclaimed, many fans slate the episode consistently. It's difficult to understand quite why that is; this episode starts out fairly conventionally. It's bog standard Doctor Who. The Doctor and Clara land on the moon, something isn't right, they go to investigate and they find some alien spiders. But then Kill the Moon shifts; it veers away from conventional Doctor Who by taking one hell of a narrative left turn seemingly out of nowhere. And what follows represents 25 of the greatest, most powerful, interesting and heartbreaking minutes this show has ever aired.
Whilst this episode's opening half is good television in its own right (it's nicely written, with some stunning cinematography and a handful of genuinely scary moments), Kill the Moon's greatest accomplishments lie in its second half. Once the Doctor abandons Clara on the moon to make that difficult decision herself, the episode belongs to her. Many fans criticise Season 8 for focusing too much on Clara, but I fail to see why this is an issue. Doctor Who should not be about an alien man with an insignificant woman by his side, for the show's formula to work the two leads need to be equals, or at least close to equals. This season did a fantastic job of bringing Clara up to that level. And Jenna Coleman delivered, she performs excellently across all twelve episodes, but Kill the Moon is her absolute peak. She is breathtakingly good here.
As Clara and Courtney look out at Earth while everyone switches off their lights in order to signal their desire for the creature to be killed, the impending sense of doom just heightens and heightens. But the moment Clara steps forward and pushes the button to cancel the detonation, she evolves as a character. She, ultimately, made the right decision, but as she tells the Doctor in her heartbreaking rebuttal of him later on, it was not his place to leave her there without his support. The Doctor's abandoning of Clara is sudden, but it would not work without it; and it's not as if it hasn't been hinted at before (Remember the 10th Doctor wanting to leave Pompeii for everyone to die? Only this time, he went through with it).
Kill the Moon will have its criticizers, that's a given. It is the most divisive episode Doctor Who has ever aired. People tend to criticise the episode's scientific accuracy, but when has Doctor Who ever been concerned with scientific accuracy? Remember when the Daleks moved entire planets to a new location? Moffat and Davies are very different writers, and very very different showrunners. Each have their strengths and their weaknesses. It is time now for people to accept that Moffat will not confirm to Davies style of showrunning; the whole basis of Doctor Who is to shift and shake itself up every once in a while. People may try and tell you that Moffat's era is universally hated, but it isn't. The show is viewed globally now under his authorship, and he has brought the show to critical acclaim in it's current ninth year. This show is just as good now as its always been, and Kill the Moon is one of the most conceptually audacious episodes the show has tried yet.
More like this, please.
Whilst this episode's opening half is good television in its own right (it's nicely written, with some stunning cinematography and a handful of genuinely scary moments), Kill the Moon's greatest accomplishments lie in its second half. Once the Doctor abandons Clara on the moon to make that difficult decision herself, the episode belongs to her. Many fans criticise Season 8 for focusing too much on Clara, but I fail to see why this is an issue. Doctor Who should not be about an alien man with an insignificant woman by his side, for the show's formula to work the two leads need to be equals, or at least close to equals. This season did a fantastic job of bringing Clara up to that level. And Jenna Coleman delivered, she performs excellently across all twelve episodes, but Kill the Moon is her absolute peak. She is breathtakingly good here.
As Clara and Courtney look out at Earth while everyone switches off their lights in order to signal their desire for the creature to be killed, the impending sense of doom just heightens and heightens. But the moment Clara steps forward and pushes the button to cancel the detonation, she evolves as a character. She, ultimately, made the right decision, but as she tells the Doctor in her heartbreaking rebuttal of him later on, it was not his place to leave her there without his support. The Doctor's abandoning of Clara is sudden, but it would not work without it; and it's not as if it hasn't been hinted at before (Remember the 10th Doctor wanting to leave Pompeii for everyone to die? Only this time, he went through with it).
Kill the Moon will have its criticizers, that's a given. It is the most divisive episode Doctor Who has ever aired. People tend to criticise the episode's scientific accuracy, but when has Doctor Who ever been concerned with scientific accuracy? Remember when the Daleks moved entire planets to a new location? Moffat and Davies are very different writers, and very very different showrunners. Each have their strengths and their weaknesses. It is time now for people to accept that Moffat will not confirm to Davies style of showrunning; the whole basis of Doctor Who is to shift and shake itself up every once in a while. People may try and tell you that Moffat's era is universally hated, but it isn't. The show is viewed globally now under his authorship, and he has brought the show to critical acclaim in it's current ninth year. This show is just as good now as its always been, and Kill the Moon is one of the most conceptually audacious episodes the show has tried yet.
More like this, please.