Doctor Who: Season 8, Episode 7

Doctor Who

Episode: “Kill the Moon”

Channel: BBC

Director: Paul Wilmshurst

Writer: Peter Harness

Genre: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

Runtime: 45 min

Rated: TV-PG

Original Air Date: October 4, 2014

“Kill the Moon” seemed like two episodes mashed together into something that just didn't really work. A fairly creepy set up with skittering aliens, corpses and a dilapidated moon base could have made for an interesting story. Hit a commercial break and then you're watching an overwrought melodrama, belaboring the value of one life versus many. I'm not sure if the audience was supposed to view the situation as an abortion metaphor or not, but if so previous Doctor Who episodes that have contained some sort of social commentary have done so in much more subtle ways, without smashing the viewer in the face with it.

Clara is tasked with making what is presented to her as a huge decision, perhaps sacrificing humanity for the sake of one life. She makes it thinking there will be dire consequences, and instead everything is right as rain. What follows is a huge argument, one in which their relationship may be irrevocably damaged. I'm not going to tackle which side was right and which was wrong, I will only say that the whole thing felt contrived and misplaced; in the episode as the first half was presented to us, and in relation to what the audience knows about the characters.

We've now passed the midway point of the season, Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman are both holding up their end of the bargain by delivering on the acting front, but so far the writing is letting them down. I know they're trying to show the audience what kind of Doctor number twelve is, but they're doing it in a haphazard fashion, through forced emotional blow ups. How about letting things happen, tidbits through the course of their adventures, and let the audience form their own opinions?

Conclusion: A promising start comes to a catastrophic end. Not for humanity, or physically for any of the principle characters involved; there were actually no consequences to be found there really, only the fates of a couple of extras early on. Day-time TV level melodrama shows up in the second half to really drag this episode down.

Rating: 5/10