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Saturday 1 November 2014

Doctor Who 8.11 "Dark Water" Review

                                               
Clara (Jenna Coleman) calls, Danny (Sam Anderson) telling him to "shut up, shut up, shut up." As she needs to tell him things about her, her secrets after she' stuck Post Its everywhere, like Miniature Clara, Boneless, etc. deciding she doesn't want to lie anymore.  He walks in the park and she tells him that she loves him.  Not just something you'd say casually but really loves him.  He's it for her, he's the only one she'll say those words to, then she can't hear him on the other end and she tries to speak but he doesn't reply.  Cos obviously we knew he was going to get knocked down by a car.  Did you hear the tapping on the phone. The four knocks, signature of the Master, the four beat sounds of the drums which he called "the drums of war."  Which In the End of Time was described to be the heartbeats of a Time Lord.  Or maybe it was just me who thought that.  A woman then answers the phone and says he's not there, he got run over by a car out of nowhere.  Yeah how realistic a coincidence was that.  He was a soldier, survived the war, came home, got run over after meeting Clara.

Clara runs to the scene with ambulances everywhere, then her clothes change and we see a memorial for Danny.  With the voice of the  headmaster of the school breaking the news to everyone and how it was obvious that he and Clara were an item.  She's at home when the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) calls her, but she lets it ring.  Talking to an old woman about what's happened.  Then she finally answers the phone but doesn't tell him what's happened.  He was busy so couldn't call her back.  She gets onto the TARDIS and takes all of the Doctor's keys, asking him about his sleep patch cos she needs one as she can't sleep.  He asks her where she wants to go, she want to see a volcano, the lava.  After talking all the keys, she knocks him out with one of the patches.

She stands at the edge of the lave flow and drops a key into the lava cos he told her that's how to destroy his keys.  She wants him to bring Danny back, go back in time cos time can be altered.  But he refuses saying it can't, it needs to be precise.  If he goes back in time,then she won't be here telling him to bring Danny back.  She throws another key into the lava and then all of the keys.  All seven. He tells her she hasn't thrown them all and to look at her hand.  She has a patch on the palm of her hand and he says they're not sleeping patches they just induce a dream-like state.

Danny reaches the Promised Land, The Nethersphere.  Where he's asked by Seb (Chris Addison) if he wants a cup of coffee, the good stuff will take a while, as well as needing to fill in some forms and if he wants to be cremated.  He doesn't want that but he's never thought about it.  But Seb opens the door to shout there's a burner for room 12.  Danny doesn't quite realize he's dead, or where he is, so Seb has to explain a few things to him.  Like why he's cold, as his body can still feel things from the other place, about his soul being here.

The Doctor agrees to help her find Danny even though she betrayed him cos he cares about her.  "Do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference."  Even if there will be all these paradoxes.  As long as she doesn't do that thing with her eyes.  He doesn't know how she can make them so big.  She needs to tune herself into the TARDIS so she can locate Danny.  She was able to do that before when she found him, found Danny as a boy in 8.4 Listen; so the TARDIS will take them to his location.  The TARDIS moves and the Doctor says the thinks TARDIS thinks Danny's somewhere.  They come to a mausoleum, where the Doctor says this is where her and Danny's paths will intersect.

They see skeletons behind glass tanks and he wonders what tanks would be doing in a mausoleum. He takes a virtual cube out of a book which tells them about what they do here, the 3W programme. But he knows there's someone behind the glass and asks if it's easy to read backwards.  Missy (Michelle Gomez) reveals herself but describes herself as being a robot. The Doctor isn't aware of what they offer here so she kisses him to make sure he receives the 3W package news.  Asking Clara if she'd like the same.  She's very intimate and tells the Doctor she has a heart too and it's maintained by the Doctor, him asking "Doctor Who."  Yes that line again! ha.  She puts his hand to her heart. Which is maintained by Dr Chang (Andrew Leung).  Clara having to tell the Doctor to can put his hand down now.   Dr Chang takes them away to show them more and the skeletons turn and watch them.

He talks of  Dr Skarosa who was the mastermind behind the programme.  They don't know what this is but then they shouldn't be here.  The Doctor uses his psychic paper again and it's another government inspection.  Chang asking why all the swearing there.  The Doctor replies he's very angry.  Clara will be allowed to speak with whomever she's lost.  He says that Dr Skarosa found some voices through the white noise and he heard actual people.  One of them saying he doesn't want to get cremated. Showing that the afterlife doesn't mean death, but their conscience still goes on and they feel pain. The Doctor adding that Dr Skarosa was an idiot. Clara gets to speak with Danny as the Doctor wants to find out more since something isn't right and he feels he knows Missy.  Telling her to ask Danny questions only he would know.

Seb tells Danny there's someone here to see him.  Asking him if he ever killed anyone as a soldier. Flashback to Danny as a soldier and he opens the door to a house where he shoots inside.  A boy sits with him and he doesn't let Danny touch him, then leaves.  Danny's sorry.  He obviously had killed someone which is why he evaded the question on his first day at school.  That's why he no longer wanted to be a soldier, but to teach children instead, to change their lives in some way.

Clara questions Danny but he can't tell her anything, except she can't come here cos there's only one way she can be here.  He doesn't know what to say to her questions.  Missy tells the Doctor he knows her.  She kills Chang after she hears something nice from him, which he shouldn't have said and kept himself alive longer, but there you have it.  He gets vapourized and Missy sets the tanks to drain, talking of how she got to make the Cybermen through cyberspace.  The Doctor tries to make a run for it and uses the Sonic to open the door and finds they're in London, St Paul's.

Clara can't get Danny to say anything to her so she disconnects from him.  Seb giving him the iPad back with the delete button on it.  What he was meant to say, other than 'I love you,' was what she said to him, that he's the only one for her, but obviously he didn't hear the rest of the conversation. Missy reveals her two hearts like him, but she's not a Time Lord, a Time Lady and Missy is short for Mistress as opposed to the master.  The Doctor runs around trying to get people to get away as the Cybermen walk down the steps.  Dr in the tank also reveals himself and Clara calls for the Doctor.

Oh darn they gave away the Cybermen with that characteristic music of theirs.  If you've read my past Doctor Who reviews, you'll know what I mean as I describe it as music from Carry On Screaming. Eeww, the Master kissing the Doctor!  Lots of quotes from Missy, such as, "the key strategic weakness of the human race, the dead outnumber the living."  So ample material for creating Cybermen.  Also it was expected she was the Master, speculation and rumours aside.  3W referring to "3 words" as Chang tells them.  Those three words being, "don't cremate me."

Think Steven Moffat has an obsession with swimming pools, another Sherlock reference, me thinks, ha. Especially for the series 1 finale, The Great Game.  The Dark Water being the liquid that was able to have an effect on organic matter.  Which Chang says they should use for swimming pools.  As for Clara's "Danny I love you and you're the last person who's ever gonna hear me say that."  That was a dark foreboding if ever there was one.  If you hadn't already guessed, Clara was in the dream-induced state, not the Doctor as she thought and we were meant to think too.

I wouldn't exactly call Steven Moffat's foray into the question of the afterlife and whether people actually feel pain, as being scary or cold, it's just questions that have been asked for a long while now, yet not really put into such a context in such a show.

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