Who View (3) : S8 E7 - Kill the Moon

Title: Kill the Moon
Written by: Peter Harness
Directed by: Paul Wilmshurst
Air Date (UK): 10/04/14


In the near future, the Doctor and Clara find themselves on a space shuttle, making a suicide mission to the Moon.

Crash-landing on the lunar surface, they find a mining base full of corpses, vicious spider-like creatures poised to attack, and a terrible dilemma.

When Clara turns to the Doctor for help, she gets the shock of her life.

BEWARE! THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS AS TO KILL THE MOON (S8 E7). DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE YET TO SEE THE EPISODE!

No, no, no, no, no...no

This is officially the first episode in this season, but maybe ever, I straightly disliked. Not only did it not make me as excited as it usually does, I found both the Doctor out of character and Courtney and the spiders merely a filling thread. In fact, I think the only thing that I considered - though this was very much it - entertaining or brilliant is the Moon being an egg. That was quite the idea.

Courtney - sorry, not sorry

To me Courtney felt like she was only there so that she could have an adventure. She spent a big part of the show in the TARDIS and even when she went along with the Doctor and Clara she did not add anything to propel the plot forward. As a person she was okay. Nothing outstanding; big pants when in fact she was not quite so brave, but have a soft spot for the egg as it was a kid, too, which was sweet.

Not a crescent, but an egg!

So the Moon is an egg about to hatch. Wow. That was just so unexpected and brilliant, it shell-shocked me a bit in a positive way.

Characters out of character

The first point when I shouted out no was when the Doctor left. Simply sauntered into the TARDIS without a second thought, saying it's their decision not his. Solve it. For me it didn't work for more than one reasons. Firstly, there have been numerous kindred situations, when it wouldn't have been his task to solve, but he did for the sake of humankind or for his companion in some cases. He is the Doctor because he helps. It's part of his personality, his promise as he said in the Name of the Doctor. I understand that he's more unpredictable than his previous incarnations, but the aid aspect had been mutual before and in my opinion, it needs to stay that way.

Still, let's suppose this time it really was not his place to decide - though it still doesn't sit well with me. He should not have left Clara there. I totally get why she was so upset. He basically left her in the middle of a life-threatening situation to solve something bigger than she's used to all of a sudden - all of it on purpose. If I didn't know better I would think he doesn't care.

I get that you are making a point of the Doctor being more of an alien and Clara being more capable, Moffat, but this is not how you do it, okay? Just no.

Overall

It was a dramatic episode, however, it had a quite of the century. This blew my mind: