Doctor Who Series 9 Episode 12 - Hell Bent - Review
Starring: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Donald Sumpter & Maisie Williams
Written By: Steven Moffat
Directed By: Rachel Talalay
QUICK NOTE - This is going to be a LONG spoiler-filled review...
In
the many years that he's been writing for Doctor Who, Steven Moffat
has created many engaging story lines and series arcs,
and me feel a range of emotions in each of his episodes. The beautiful story that was The Girl In The Fireplace
left me feeling heartbroken by the time the credits rolled,
while both The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang
left me feeling stunned at the vast scale it encompassed.
However, I can't honestly say I've felt angry or been left in a rage
after sitting through an episode he penned. Up to now, The
Beast Below and especially The Doctor, The Widow &
The Wardrobe have been his weakest episodes – but even they
don't make me mad, rather disappointed. Well, it only
took ten years of writing for the show, but for the first time,
Steven Moffat has made me livid. Coming directly after the
wonderful Heaven Sent, I am genuinely perplexed as to
how a writer can reach that level of success and then crash so far
and so heavy. Buckle up, because for the first time since Love
& Monsters, it's time to tear an episode to pieces.
Escaped from his confession dial, the Doctor has returned to
Gallifrey, hidden away at the end of the universe. His first priority
is to deal with Lord President Rassilon and the High Council, and their despicable
actions in the last great Time War. This confrontation will finally
bring both Gallifrey and the Time Lords face to face with the Hybrid
– a creature forged from two great warrior races that will stand in
the ruins of the planet. But who or what is the Hybrid?
From
that synopsis, it seems like you would have to try harder to make
this episode fail than you would to make it succeed.
However, the episode described is in no way the episode we eventually
got. All the trailers and promotional material pointed towards a
fiery confrontation between the Doctor and the Time Lords, one that
could even risk tearing Gallifrey apart. How can you get that wrong?
The episode we got instead was … a catastrophic mess, and what
makes it even worse is that its a mess that could have so easily been
averted.
Well,
before I get to the mountainous amount of things that this episode
got wrong, did it manage to get ANYTHING right? Well, I have to admit
that I did like the first twenty minutes of the episode - when it actually focused on what it should have spent all its time
on. The sequences where Rassilon runs scared of the Doctor, and keeps
sending decoys, such as the General or other members of the High
Council make for some great build-up to the actual confrontation
between the two Time Lords. The confrontation itself is also great to
watch, and well-written – and shows brilliantly how the Doctor and
his words are really the most dangerous weapon you could possibly
have, as in a matter of minutes, he is able to turn Rassilon's forces
against him. Donald Sumpter gave Rassilon a strong presence, and while it didn't quite top Timothy Dalton's
performance as Rassilon in The End Of Time, it was
still brilliant. These opening twenty minutes are also accompanied by
some gorgeous production values, and Gallifrey itself has never
looked more beautiful. Rachel Talalay's direction is just as
strong as it was last week, and it compliments both the interior and
location shots really well.
However,
the moment that Rassilon leaves Gallifrey, the episode goes
drastically downhill, and never finds its way up again. Anything good
that could be said about this episode has been said, and from now on,
it just becomes a long list of problems. Literally, most of this review will just be a list of problems. First up, following that
great scene where the Doctor is able to turn Rassilon's
forces against him, Rassilon is kicked off
Gallifrey on a shuttle, and that's it from him … for the rest of
the episode … he's not heard of again at all. Is this a joke?
Rassilon, the most powerful Time Lord and President of the High
Council, ever to live on Gallifrey is kicked off his own planet as
simple as that?! At the time, I was desperately hoping for the
episode to carry on and see something like Gallifrey entering a state of civil war,
with two factions, one supporting the Doctor, and the other
supporting Rassilon, battle it out for the remainder of the episode.
But no. Where's the unstoppable president that we saw throughout the
classic series and again in The End Of Time?
So,
twenty minutes in, instead of opting for the arguably simpler but more entertaining
route, what do we spend the next forty-five minutes doing? Well, the
Doctor orders the use of an extraction chamber, and the next thing we
see is Clara's death from the end of Face The Raven.
Before the Raven kills Clara, the Doctor extracts Clara from her
timeline, prolonging her life. NO!! NO!!! NO!!!!!! Don't go there!
The moment that raven freezes and Clara flees to Gallifrey, the
episode becomes irredeemable. It just cannot be forgiven. This is
just purely insulting on Steven Moffat's behalf, as whenever you go
back and watch that amazing ending to Clara's storyline in Face
The Raven, it is now completely gutted of any meaning. When
you go back and watch Heaven Sent, from now on, it is
meaningless! The four and a half billion years that the Doctor spent
mourning Clara's death has no meaning. One of the very messages Clara
gave the Doctor in Heaven Sent was for him to stop
grieving over her death. Such a powerful message is now being
ignored, and the exact opposite is being done instead!
One
of the defences I've seen for Clara's return, is that there are in fact
consequences for the Doctor's actions. It's said in the episode that
the Doctor averting Clara's death risks fracturing time, threatening
the universe itself. While I see where this defence is coming from,
we never see that in the episode! The Doctor and Clara later go to
the end of the universe, and it's completely fine! It's seen dying of
natural causes, and Clara still being alive has had no consequences
on it at all. If you think about it, this now means that the Doctor now the power to save anyone who ever died across all of time and
space, and there are no consequences for him, the universe, or the
timeline! My god, this episode!
After
fatally damaging both itself and other episodes around it, Hell
Bent carries on throughout the rest of its run-time, in a
boring slowly-paced way that is littered with even more problems!
When the Doctor and Clara try to escape the extraction chamber, the
General tries to stop them, warning them of the consequences to their
actions (which we never see!). Intent on saving Clara, the Doctor
shoots the General. The Doctor … shoots the
General. What is happening here? I don't believe for a second that
the Doctor would actually do this, and it comes straight out of
nowhere. Just a matter of minutes ago, the General made the
decision to throw down his gun and join forces with the Doctor,
instead of Rassilon. The General made an active decision to stand by
the Doctor's side, and he just ends up shot by the man he chose to
serve. The only conceivable reason I can see for why Steven Moffat
thought this would be a good idea, is so that he could show the
audience that Time Lords can regenerate both into a different gender
and ethnicity. I have no problem with that, but why did you have to
shoot the General, and in such a poorly-handled way? While he didn't
contribute much overall, I really liked him and Ken Bones was
perfectly cast in the role.
With
the General shot, the Doctor and Clara escape into the Cloisters,
which contains the Matrix. Here, we get a proper look at the Cloister
Wraiths. But what was the point of them? They aren't scary or
threatening – they just slide around the place in Time Lord robes
and do nothing at all. So why do all the other characters keep
building them up as this huge threat? I'm not entirely sure if Series
9 has featured anything more pointless at this stage. These scenes in
the Cloisters build up a bit more on certain things that were said to
the Veil in Heaven Sent. The Doctor explains to Clara
that as a boy, he broke into the same Cloisters and learnt about the
Hybrid. Terrified, the Doctor ran away from Gallifrey and has
continued to do so ever since. Is it possible for this episode to get
any more wrong at this point? All I can say is, how dare you? Steven
Moffat, how dare you do this? It's been established since The
War Games in 1969, that the Doctor ran away from Gallifrey because he
was bored, and has since frequently shown that he disagrees with many
of the Time Lord's attitudes. By saying that the Doctor ran from
Gallifrey because he was scared, you make the Doctor less interesting
as a character and dare to re-write the show's core mythology. I
understand that Steven Moffat is the current showrunner, but there
was one before him and they'll be one after him. Create your own
stories, but what right have you got to tamper into the mythology of
the show and change it in such a drastic way?
To
rub salt into a wound, the episode keeps trying to distract us from
the obvious, glaring problems that it has by giving us fan-service.
While in the Cloisters, we see a Dalek, a Cyberman and Weeping Angels
captured by the Matrix. At this point, I will not be distracted that
easily from the major problems. The Dalek even says “Exterminate
me!”. Judging from the way Steven Moffat screwed up Dalek
continuity again in The Witch's Familiar, for all we
know, the Dalek could have really been saying “Love me!”. When we
eventually leave the Cloisters, it's through another TARDIS that the
Doctor steals. This TARDIS is a replica of the original interior that
we saw throughout the classic series. Under any other circumstances,
it would be great to see this again, but this episode has got so much
wrong, it just comes across as yet more fan-service to try and
distract us from the episode's problems.
In
an attempt to restore Clara's pulse and escape the Time Lords, the
two travel right to the end of the universe. There, they meet Ashildr.
Seeing as Ashildr is now immortal, it makes sense to see her here.
However, other than provide a conclusion to the Hybrid story arc,
there is no point to her being here. Just like Ohila's reappearance,
it isn't necessary and ends up adding very little to the events of
the actual episode. However, Ashildr does provides us with a supposed
conclusion to the Hybrid story arc. Up to now, much like Series 9
itself, this story arc has been pretty good. But again, like Series
9, it's brought down drastically by this conclusion. The supposed conclusion
to this story arc, is that the Hybrid isn't half-Dalek, half-Time
Lord, but it is in fact the Doctor and Clara. This in itself is
incredibly underwhelming, but what makes it even worse, is that it's
not even a final answer. The Hybrid being the Doctor and Clara is
something that Ashildr just guesses, and the rest of the characters
are just happy to go with this. Last year's arc involving Missy
keeping the Doctor and Clara together was underwhelming enough, but at least that arc had a definite answer and a
conclusion that made sense! Here though, the Hybrid story arc has
just become easily the worst one since the show's return.
Beginning
to realize that he's gone too far, the Doctor realizes that there is
no way he and Clara can continue traveling together and keep the
universe safe at the same time. As a result, he tries to use a neural
block to try and wipe Clara's memory of him. However, Clara tells him
that she reversed the polarity of the neural block, meaning that if
the Doctor uses it, he could be the one who ends up forgetting Clara.
While it could be argued this is a re-tread of Donna's departure,
it's actually the Doctor who ends up forgetting Clara. By now, this
episode makes me want to go and punch a wall until it caves in. If
Heaven Sent wasn't rendered completely pointless
already by now, it certainly has here. The impact of Clara leaving
him, the billions of years that the Doctor suffered in the confession
dial, and all the growth that these two characters shared over the
course of Series 7, 8 and 9 is now completely gone. For the Doctor,
it never happened, and that might as well mean that it never happened
for the audience. When Clara leaves, it's the Doctor that the
audience are going to be following, not Clara! I hope I don't even have to
explain why this episode is so damaging to both previous episodes and
future ones.
So,
now that the Doctor has forgotten Clara, it's time for her to pilot
the stolen TARDIS from the Cloisters back to Gallifrey, so that she
can return to the Trap Street where she died. Rather than finish the
episode there, Steven Moffat has one last terrible move to make. Rather
than go directly back to Gallifrey, both Clara and Ashildr pilot the
other TARDIS, now stuck in the shape of an American Diner, and choose
to go the long way round. Over the course of Series 9, it was made
apparent that Clara was becoming more and more like the Doctor, and
as Face The Raven proved, this has dangerous
consequences, eventually leading to Clara's death. This was a
powerful message, and showed why there should never be more than one
Doctor – because it gets people killed. Rather than finish off with
this poignant message, Steven Moffat has given Clara her own TARDIS.
Not only does this overpower her as a companion, just as she was in
The Name Of The Doctor and Listen, but
this sends out much weaker messages. It's now okay to be exactly like
the Doctor and have your own adventures in time and space, with no
consequences! I really, really need to get to the conclusion now before I lose the will to live.
To
try and sum up, while Heaven Sent showcased Steven Moffat's writing strengths, Hell Bent does the exact opposite. I have
never known an episode with as many problems as Hell
Bent
and
it is by far the weakest series finale to date. Episodes
like Love
& Monsters and
The
Doctor, The Widow & The Wardrobe are
pretty bad and arguably even worse than this episode, but at least
their poor quality was self-contained. Hell
Bent is
the most damaging episode of Doctor Who there has ever been. It dares
to re-write established mythology dating back to the 1960s,
completely screws up the story arcs of Series 9, and wastes
Gallifrey's return by instead choosing to spend more time ruining
Clara's ending – an ending which was superb by itself! I dread to
think what the near-future now holds for Doctor Who, as Gallifrey's
return is now completely wasted and has no foreseeable way of being
rescued. Just as the series got back to the kind of quality it should be at, it has been
torn down and left to rot again. I only hope that the upcoming
Christmas special, The
Husbands Of River Song, can
salvage some of the mess that's been left here. But to end on a slightly
happier note though, I did like the Doctor's new sonic screwdriver.
That was something …
Hell Bent
3/10
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