Human nature
In this outing of Doctor Who, The Doctor is told by Clara to apologize to her student, Courtney Woods, for telling her that she's nothing special. Instead of directly apologizing though, he takes both of them on a trip to the Moon. A trip that takes them to the year 2049, where they learn that an astronaut team was sent to the satellite with one mission: DESTROY THE MOON!
I should point out that I had some weird flashbacks of Bryan Fuller's failed pilot that was retrofitted into a TV movie for SyFy called High Moon. While both of them do deal with discovering life on the Moon and wearing cool space suits, that is the only comparison that I can really bring up. But to that point, there is something on the Moon. And apparently the Mexican Space Station was the first to discover it. Or would've had the bragging rights to discover it if they weren't killed by that new form of life. And yay for Mexico for having a space station on the moon in the future. But the discovery of life on the Moon is actually why Captain Lundvik (guest star, Hermione Norris) is sent to destroy the Moon. That and other things.
Apparently the Moon has gained weight, and that is probably because of the new signs of life. It is this change of mass and gravity change that is effecting the entire planet. It has gotten so bad that Capt. Lundvik even states that her mission is intended to be the final mission to the Moon, because they have to blow it up in order to stop all the calamities from happening on Earth. But the Doctor discovers something else about the planet. The new life forms that they discovered are actually bacteria. Gigantic bacteria. The kind you would see covering an eggshell. The big revelation? The Moon is an Egg! And it is about to hatch!
Now comes the great problem that The Doctor, Clara, Courtney, and Lundvik are confronted with: kill the creature before it is born or let it hatch and possibly wreak havoc on Earth? That is a tough call. This is probably a very touchy subject that sounds like an abortion brought to an extremely epic scale. So this is really a powerful subject to have in the series as sort of an indirect way of bringing up the subject of abortions. The Moon is an egg about to hatch, with the embryo fully developed. And now here comes astronaut Captain Lundvik and her space shuttle filled with enough nuclear bombs to blow up the Moon. This is definitely an abortion brought to large scale. While the show really doesn't delve too much on the subject, because the subject is more directed towards the human need to survive.
The Doctor does something unthinkable and puts the decision in the hands of Clara, Lundvik and Courtney on whether or not they should kill the hatching Moon, while he goes off doing... what the Doctor does. So now the trio is left alone. Lundvik gives her points that the lives of millions of people are more important than the life of a single creature, who can possibly destroy the world or its hatching may cause more cataclysms. Clara brings up the point that there is always an alternative and that we don't know if the creature's birth will destroy the world while also bringing up that it is the last of its kind. While Courtney gives the most simplest argument and probably the one with the most meaning: She doesn't want to kill a baby. It is interesting how Clara seems to have the same view as Courtney but because she's an adult, she has to rationalize and make sense of things. Whereas with Courtney being a young girl, her view is simplified, but it is also the most profound argument of why not to kill the Moon.
I will not give the outcome here, but it should be known that the Doctor knew what the outcome was going to be all along. But instead of telling the trio the right answer, he forces them into a difficult decision in hopes that they would come up with the right answer themselves. It is this thinking that causes Clara to have a fallout with the Doctor. She couldn't believe that the Doctor would put her in that situation, a situation that could determine the very fate of the entire planet. Her anger is justified as The Doctor does know the outcome but the debate that Clara, Lundvik and Courtney had to go through put all of them through hell. It is fascinating how it took this moment to really show Clara how cold and calculating The Doctor is. Capaldi hasn't been acting as The Dark Doctor we've seen from the first three episodes of his run, but his decision to leave a life or death decision to three people is more darker than anything he's done in his run. So it is no surprise that Clara leaves The Doctor because of this. Yeah... she leaves him. And I have to say, Jenna Louise Coleman's portrayal of Clara during that final confrontation is the best acting I've seen from her in a run that has show just how much range she has. I just hope that her leave isn't permanent. If it is... well, the Doctor always moves on. And so must we.
SCORE: 9/10 - A powerful end to a strong friendship
STATUS: Continue to Watch - Time for some Solo Capaldi Episodes!
No comments:
Post a Comment