No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on July 3, 2017

Only in darkness are we revealed.
Goodness is not goodness that seeks advantage.
Good is good in the final hour, in the deepest pit,
Without hope, without witness, without reward.
–River Song from Doctor Who:Extremis written by Steven Moffat

The next episode scheduled for Christmas is the last one for Peter Capaldi as the Doctor and I will be sad to see him depart for so many reasons including this, to me, is the best season of New Who so far.

Spoilers are under the cut and possibly in the comments so fair warning if you haven’t seen this episode.

This was a hard one to watch especially knowing where we are heading but it was one of the best ends of a season of Doctor Who.

The acting was top notch across the board. Each actor had at least one scene written for them to shine and they did.

My one complaint is that it was a little dark and not just in tone. I wasn’t expecting the villains to fight in the daylight but this blue murky light they used was made it hard to see what was going on but on second viewing, I had a better idea what I was looking at.

This was a clever episode in both the good and bad version of the word. At some points they out clevered themselves.

I will miss the characters that have departed. I will miss Moffat and his oeuvre although I am looking forward to what he gets up to with Gatiss regarding their version of Dracula. I expect Sherlock meets Doctor Who but they could surprise me.

It is the almost end and we await the final words of this Doctor and find out who is next.

River’s words come back to haunt us in this episode as we watch the Doctor fall alone without hope, without witness, and without reward. She has honestly been a ghost in this season. A specter to remind the Doctor of who he truly is.

One of the most brilliant things they did was that Bill saw herself as she was not as a Cyberman. It allowed for her to do so much more and it was scarier when we saw it from the outside point of view especially the ‘don’t get angry’ sequence.

I could watch an entire show of the Master and Missy just puttering about the universe causing chaos. Alas that was not to be. How they went out was more than fitting. Peter and I decided that it could be declared a suicide since he did kill herself. Of course if they had gotten it on, that would have been mášŧûrbáŧìøņ which sends me to a weird place I really don’t want to go but I am sure that the fanfic writers either have done or will do.

I find it sad that the Doctor never found out that Missy chose to stand with him and that Bill got her happy ending.

I do like they left the door open for Bill to come back.

And the Doctor fighting against himself on so many levels.

I thought Capaldi’s acting on the speech about kindness was some of his best work. Right up there with the war speech in the Zygon episode.

I will miss Nardoll who is not totally gone but more benched until someone wants to play with him again. Matt Lucas did so much with so little. We know a lot and a little about the character at the same time.

So the toys are almost back in the toy box for the next show runner but we still have one more episode to say good-bye and I think it is going to be hard to do.

I am grateful to this season’s cast and crew for such an excellent set of episodes which are now my bellweather that I will compare all other New Who to.

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