Last night, Death in Heaven, the final episode of season 8 of the new Doctor Who aired in the US, marking the end of Peter Capaldi's first season in the role.
A season that I would say was very successful although not without its dodgy points. In my humble opinion perhaps the best season of Doctor Who since the initial season of the new series with Christopher Ecclestone as the Doctor. The success of the season is in part due to changes in the series direction but largely due to the outstanding performances of all the actors in recurring roles. The show was exciting, intense, and intensely funny. At its highest points it made me enjoy the series more than I have in years.
Laying bare my own biases I was predisposed both for and against the new doctor. In his favor was his age. The playing of the doctor by progressively younger actors and placing him into a series of almost romances with various companions were both, quite frankly, annoying. The surprising and welcome change to an actor in his fifties seemed like to generate new directions in the doctor's relationships with humans.
On the other hand there was this promise of a 'darker doctor' which was promoted endlessly in promotional material. And I am sick of darkness in popular entertainment. I don't know what it says about western civilization at this point in time but we seem obsessed with narratives of guilt, death, and general gloom. So anyway the idea of a darker doctor didn't sit well with me.
My expectations for an older doctor seem quite vindicated and, in many ways, the older doctor allowed for some of the season's greatest successes. Jenna Coleman had never been given much to do (in terms of emotional range) in season 7 but in season 8 the story was completely different. Clara was a companion that the doctor needed as a capable ally and that dynamic drove many of the episodes this season. The 'Clara is the doctor' joke that started the last episode was a theme that had been building all season. Even more than Romana, an actual time lord, Clara was revealed as a companion who was an awful lot like the doctor: curious, clever, resourceful, quick thinking but also slightly devious and a bit too independent of others for own good.
Danny Pink was also a revelation. He seemed a bit of a non-entity at first but his perspective on life, very different than that of Clara and the Doctor, was developed over time and really added to the fundamental conflict. Who is the doctor? Is he a scientist who helps out when needed? Is he a god? Is he an authority figure? Is he just an inverted dalek? More on that later. Danny's perspective, as a former soldier who would now just like a quiet useful life with Clara, is portrayed sympathetically although clearly antithetical to that held by both the Doctor and Clara.
But what about the darkness? Well the finale of of season 8 took me back to the 90s and to rather magnificent finales of season 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and season 2 of Angel, some two years later. Both grim to be sure but not a wallowing in despair grimness. And that's what I saw in season 8, for the most part. There was the grim but not the moping about that made the end of David Tennant's time as the doctor almost intolerable. Certainly no one could describe the end of 'Death in Heaven' as upbeat but it lacked the soap opera qualities that have marked such transitions in the past.
And how about Peter Capaldi? Just an astoundingly good choice to play the doctor. Alien, intense, touching (in a very alien way), and hilariously funny all at once. At this point I'm hoping he plays the doctor for years.
The writing also seems better or at least taking a better direction. The pacing seems less frenetic and the stories seem to be based more on a sequence of interactions rather than just a rapid series of events. Less running and shouting. This was never more evident than in the two part finale. The season finales have generally been the least successful part of new who. They tend toward the grandiose to put it mildly. Dark Water/Death in Heaven had cybermen over-running the earth and attacking planes but the main action was in the rest of the story.
There are some criticisms to be made of the season. Stephen Moffat has said that he thought of Doctor Who as a modern fairytale which has resulted in some compelling stories and some that are, quite frankly, rather ridiculous. While Doctor Who has only ever been science fiction in the most tenuous sense of the term some of the recent story lines violate logic at such a fundamental level that it would be better to just throw off all pretense at science and just invoke magic. The moon as a giant egg. Plants that produce excess oxygen to ignite in the atmosphere as protection from solar flares. And in the finale cyber pollen that turns all the dead on earth into cybermen. That's fine for all the still possessed of a physical body dead but not so practical for those whose atoms are now cycling in the world's ecosystems. And where did all the metal for those buried cybermen come from?
I'm also getting a bit tired of the hagiography of (the late) Lethbridge Stuart. I always much preferred the gentle everyman Sgt. Benton back in the day And I can't believe they killed off Osgoode. Such a waste - I would like to see her pop back in for a cameo every year or so.
The Master (aka Missy) as a character that has changed considerably over time. I admit that I am a huge fan of Roger Delgado's original version but Michelle Gomez did an excellent job.
On a final note I want single out for praise my two favorite episodes of the season. Listen was astonishing - up there with Blink as Moffat's finest work but with more emotional depth. And on the other extreme, Robot's of Sherwood, was the most entertaining episode of Doctor Who I've seen in a I don't know how long. I had a huge grin on my face when it ended and that is nothing to be sneezed at.