I really want to complain about the fact that the twists of these episodes were spoiled for me. Especially because two of them were spoiled by their own fucking network. Fine, John Simm coming back as The Master was probably going to be hard to keep a secret, but did you have to put him in all the fucking promos? Same with the Cybermen, you could have kept that a secret, don't promote it because all the way through the first fucking half of this finale I kept thinking "When the hell are the Cybermen and The Master gonna show up?" and that's not a good thing...
...But god-fucking-dammit the rest of this finale was really damn good. I'm gonna skip ahead to the very end of this finale because that's what stood out to me, namely The Doctor sacrificing himself to defeat the Cybermen and then outright refusing to regenerate. Here's the thing, I'm usually very much against the idea of The Doctor being against the idea of regeneration. Because regeneration is always hard on the audience. A character who we love, an actor who brought so much to it and is now passing on the torch to a new era, and I always feel like The Doctor should embrace that change in order to help the audience embrace that change...but 12 says "Fuck that shit!" and you know what? I agree with him! Because this is the first Doctor in a very long time to not be born with a burden. 9, 10 & 11, all had the Time War still on their shoulders, the pain that caused, the sacrifices they had to make, in a way it defined them, their pain and how they chose to handle it. But 12? He was born with hope. Knowing he changed history, he saved Gallifrey. Hence why the season long theme for 12's first season was identity, trying to find out who he is when he's spent so long letting his pain define him. By this point The Doctor knows who he is, and he likes who he is, and he can do a lot of good as he is. But to regenerate now? For an entirely new man to be born out of sacrifice, out of the death of a good friend, and your best friend/enemy betraying you, even after all you did to help them. What kind of Doctor would be born out of that? One of rage, and self-pity, he'd go straight back to who he was after the Time War, and no way is he going through that again, even if this is how he dies, he dies on his terms (Minus the stars-which was a really good fucking line by the way).
Yet the episode continues, he lands on a strange planet where of all people he meets...The 1st Doctor!...Which would have been a really huge twist if this wasn't also spoiled for me. Not by the BBC, by the internet this time, lousy internet. But this is kind of a genius move, at least on a thematic level. The 12th Doctor is technically the first of a new generation cycle, his character is more based on Classic Who style writing, and he "died" defeating the Cybermen, just as the 1st Doctor "dies". As well as the fact that these are clean slated Doctors. No burdens, no major tragedies yet, just two grumpy old men exploring all of time & space. My hopes for this is that his time spent with the 1st Doctor (Played by David Bradley) will encourage him to embrace the regeneration. To guide him through it so he doesn't enter a new life with the damage of the prior one, but continues that trend of being a free Doctor.
Then there is Bill Potts, in what is possibly the last time we will ever see her, and to that I say OH GOD NO! Don't do this to us Moffat. Don't give us three whole seasons of one of the blandest companions in Doctor Who history, and then get rid of a legitimately interesting, entertaining and unique companion after just one season. Especially after a finale like this which pushed Pearl Mackie's acting abilities to 11, (Or should I say 12? Puns!). Her abilities to encompass emotions like paranoia, anger and despair were outstanding, we got to see sides of Bill that we've never seen before, but it was still balanced out with moments of levity where we got to see Bill's usual chipper self come through. Granted, if this is the last time we see Bill, at least she gets to go out on a happy ending, but I really don't want to lose this character just yet.
But this finale is special for another reason, that being this is the first ever multi-Master crossover, and it was every bit as psychotic, villainous and hilarious as you could imagine. John Simm and Michelle Gomez are brilliant together, every scene, every line of dialogue, every aspect of them that is both similar and different makes then entertaining to watch, hell, this entire finale could have just been them and the Doctor having a conversation, and it would have been the most riveting episode of all of television. What makes them great isn't just their similarities, but their differences. Missy-while still an insane nihilist-also more open-minded and thinks her options through, she isn't bogged down by pride and does what it takes to survive, even if that means working with The Doctor-who considering is supposed to be their greatest enemy and best friend, actually treats him like that, when The Master always treats him like just the former. The Master is also fuelled more by burning rage than Missy, the way she described missing that passion and aggression describes Simm's portrayal perfectly. Also, while we know The Master obviously isn't dead, let's be honest. Two Masters stabbing each other in the back, laughing maniacally as the world is about to end, is exactly how The Master should go out.
Overall this finale was...solid. I feel like a lot of the character writing was pitch perfect, and for someone like me, I think that's the most important aspect of any story, especially a series like Doctor Who which has some of the best written characters of all time. However a lot of what surrounds the characters in this episode didn't really appeal to me. The Cybermen never came across as a threat, the villagers The Doctor & Co were protecting I never cared about, and because of that a fair amount of this finale feels invalid. Those weren't people they were protecting, they were just the thing to keep safe. Because of that, my investment felt quite minimal for a fair portion of the finale, but like I said, when the focus was just on the main characters is when I was most interested.
I'm giving this finale a 7/10.
The season overall...well, let's reflect. The big positive that I take away from this season is obviously Bill, which in case you haven't figured out, is about 1000x better than Clara in nearly every way. Her natural excitable personality both in adventure and curiosity of the unknown made her instantly appealing, her out of the box nature of thinking made her a great match with The Doctor, the performance from Pearl Mackie was superb, and she was able to break the cycle of a Doctor's second companion feeling like "sloppy seconds". The Doctor of course is still great, after they finally worked out the kinks with the character in the prior season and were able to create a unique identity for Capaldi's version, they just carried that over here and it still works well. Nardole was a much better character than I assumed he would be, especially when his appearance in the first Christmas episode was a disaster.
However, the season as a whole, and even on an episode by episode basis, not much stood out. Almost all of the episodes ranged from "meh" to "good" with the only exception being 'Smile' which was a really bad episode. There were no stand out moments, positive or negative. Compare it to last season which I felt had so many moments of both. There were plenty of scenes, or even entire episodes that I could point to and say were fantastic or awful, and that just makes the series so much more fun to write about. But even more than that it means there is stuff I would want to come back to. Maybe this is another reason why I want Bill to come back for another season, because there aren't really any episodes this season that I care to return to, and I want her to have at least one episode with Bill where I can come back. Because of that, this season feels just...average.
This season I'm giving a 6/10.
-Danny
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