Doctor Who Series 8 Episode 7 - Kill The Moon - Review

Starring: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Ellis George & Hermione Norris

Written By: Peter Harness

Directed By: Paul Wilmshurst

 

With Kill The Moon, we come to a point in Series 8 where writers that are new to Doctor Who get to showcase what they have to offer. Newcomers Jamie Mathieson and Frank Cottrell-Boyce have scripts coming up in the next couple of weeks, while this week's episode is penned by Peter Harness. While I've not really seen much of his previous work, I have heard in interviews that much of his work apparently has a rather bleak feel to it, and judging from Kill The Moon's 'Next Time' trailer, he seems to be bringing this bleakness to Doctor Who...

 

The Doctor takes Clara and Courtney, the Coal Hill schoolgirl, to the Moon in 2049. They arrive in a human space shuttle on course to crash into the Moon with nuclear warheads. The crew are on a suicide mission to destroy the Moon, following a change in its gravitational pull which has caused mass tidal waves to wipe out most of humanity. However, when the group encounter multiple giant spider-like creatures, the Doctor suspects something more is going on. The answers will leave humanity faced with a dilemma that may possibly lead to their complete destruction...

 

After a string of episodes that have begun with the Doctor and Clara seen on brief snippets of adventures, or discussing where they might visit next, Kill The Moon drops us straight into the heart of the action, as Clara sends an urgent message to Earth for help. It grabs you in almost immediately, and appears to promise a base-under-siege-like story. “Gritty” isn't a word I've been able to apply to a Doctor Who episode since ... probably The Waters Of Mars, and Kill The Moon reminded me of just how much I've missed the grittier Doctor Who episodes that Matt Smith's tenure sadly lacked. Despite the polarizing reception Kill The Moon has generated, and for all its many, many flaws, there's no denying that it at least looks the part. Using the volcanic plains of Lanzarote as a double for the surface of the Moon was a fantastic move on the part of the production team, and the location work is easily the biggest highlight of this episode. The shadowy, dimly-lit bases look great too, as does the CGI used to bring the hoards of spiders to life.

 

It's a shame therefore that while Kill The Moon has the looks, almost everything that concerns the story falls flat on its face. One thing that has bugged a lot of people is this episode's grasp of science, and understandably so. It rarely bothers me too much when the show stretches plausibility or takes a couple of scientific liberties, if it benefits the story. However, to put it bluntly, Kill The Moon royally takes the p*** with this. (Spoiler Warning!) Believe it or not, my problem doesn't necessarily lie with this episode's revelation that the Moon is an egg – it's literally so far-fetched and implausible that it somehow just about works. It's the simple scientific errors, the ones that are so easy to correct, that are the problem. For example, eggs actually decrease, not increase in mass as they age, so the Moon wouldn't be getting heavier as it gets closer to hatching. It's also entirely impossible for something as large as those spiders to be single-cell bacterium, and for the creature that hatches out of the Moon to replace it with another egg seconds later, is a very tall and convenient ask.

 

The science is terrible, but even worse is Kill The Moon's moral dilemma. The episode sets itself up as big allegory for abortion, and the pro-life, pro-choice debate. (Skip ahead to the next paragraph now to avoid spoilers!) While I welcome Doctor Who's exploration of such a relevant political topic, here it doesn't work for two reasons. First is the fact that the episode seems to contain some uncomfortable support for the pro-life argument. Kill The Moon makes the argument that the creature shouldn't be “aborted”, going so far as to paint Lundvik, the astronaut arguing the case for terminating the creature, as the cold-hearted baddie. Yet Lundvik is completely justified in arguing this – for all anyone knows, when the creature hatches, its shell may cause even more serious damage to the Earth, or what's to say the hatchling won't attack Earth? The risks in letting the creature live are enough justification for it to die. I'm not saying that should be an easy choice, but arguing that point of view shouldn't automatically make someone the baddie. Yet that's what Kill The Moon heavily implies, and for a show like Doctor Who to come out in support of a pro-life argument like this is very worrying. The second reason why this allegory doesn't work is due to the huge gaps in logic. The best example of this is when Clara gets the people on Earth to vote, and to switch their lights off if they think it should be killed. This is incredibly stupid for a number of reasons. 1) You can't just switch off every light like this – people still need it to see what they're doing. 2) Only half of Earth is facing the Moon, so only half the world gets to vote. 3) It's been established that people on Earth are experiencing power losses because of the Moon's erratic behaviour, so the vote may not even be accurate. Kill The Moon is another one of those episodes that just falls apart the second you start to think about it.

 

It's therefore a small saving grace that when you're in the moment watching this episode, it's able to deliver some genuinely unsettling scenes and occasional moments of horror. Steven Moffat told Peter Harness to “Hinchcliffe the s*** out of” Kill The Moon, and you can definitely see that kind of influence in the finished episode. While not on the same compelling level that Hinchcliffe could often create, the spider bacterium, for all their scientific inaccuracies, are still big monster spiders at the end of the day. An arachnophobic's worst nightmare, they look pretty good in CGI form, and the moment where Peter Capaldi has to wrestle with a rubber spider prop is just pure Doctor Who and I love it. The sight of dead bodies being wrapped in cobwebbed cocoons is a good bit of sci-fi horror, vaguely reminiscent of scenes from the Alien franchise, although obviously not as graphic.

 

Kill The Moon also picks back up in its closing five minutes, with the much-praised scene of the Doctor and Clara's argument. Their debate works so well precisely because both sides have a valid point of view. Though it may have seemed like a nasty thing to do, the Doctor's reasoning for leaving Clara, Courtney and Lundvik to make the decision makes sense. But Clara's anger at being left alone and out of her depth with such a huge decision makes complete sense too. The performances from Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman in this scene shine, and even director Paul Wilmshurst understands the nature of the characters' conflict, never once putting them together in the same shot – a small but crucial technical detail. I've said in my previous reviews for this series that Clara's characterization has been improving from what it was in Series 7, and now we're seeing a more raw, vulnerable side to her, it's probably the most genuine her character has ever felt.

 

However, I can't even begin to say the same for the rest of the supporting characters, who together make up what is probably the weakest and most forgettable roster of characters so far this series. I will never understand how anyone thought it was a good idea to bring Courtney along in the TARDIS. The justification for it is incredibly flimsy and bulls*** too. I don't believe for a second that someone like Courtney would feel like they had a “big hole” torn in their lives because the Doctor told her she wasn't special. It's total crap! So does she contribute anything to the episode now she's here? Nope, she's literally just here for the sake of it, taking selfies on the Moon, complaining she's bored and just generally annoying the hell out of me. Her presence really brings back bad memories of Angie and Artie from Nightmare In Silver – who were similarly pointless and annoying. Mildly better is Hermione Norris as Lundvik. Although, as I've said, Lundvik is wrongly painted as a baddie, the character herself does feel rather empty and flat. Hermione Norris seems rather bored in the role, although given the lack of content she has to work with, I suppose it's understandable. The other two astronauts, whose names I can't even remember, are almost the definition of red-shirts, with zero development and here for nothing more than to be killed off in a matter of minutes.

 

Overall, Kill The Moon is an episode with some serious problems, and there's more than enough here for me to justify calling it a bad episode. However, even with all its issues, part of me still likes it and is able to enjoy what it gets right. After all, it's beautifully made and directed, features two brilliant lead performances and even has giant spider monsters! It's just a shame that so much of the important stuff misfires too, with underdeveloped supporting characters, poorly-handled social and political themes and massive gaps in logic. I can certainly understand why some people really don't like this one, but to me, I can just about call it OK.

Kill The Moon

 

6/10