Doctor Who: Kill the Moon S8E7

So it's officially official, I suppose... Ozzie Loves the Squaddie!

Or at least, that's what it appears to be. Clara and Danny are dating now. But what happened to "no hanky panky in the TARDIS"? So far none of that's going on in the TARDIS, so at least there's that. Which works, because the last two episodes show a clear division between Clara and the Doctor. It's almost heartbreaking to witness, simply because she made a promise to help him. Clara's purpose, literally her life's purpose, was to help the Doctor. 

In the most recent episode, Kill The Moon, Clara and the Doctor, along with the ever-abnoxious Courtney, end up going to the moon, because the Doctor told Courtney that she was "no one special", and Clara tells the Doctor that Courtney is becoming self-destructive because of him. So, the Doctor decides to make Courtney the "first woman on the Moon". But there's a problem (of course there is, haven't you been paying attention?): The moon has increased mass, causing increased gravity, and it's throwing things into chaos on Earth. The Doctor and his companions are met by astronauts sent to the moon with nukes to blow it up; a previous mission to the moon resulted in the deaths of the previous astronauts, who were found as corpses preserved in what seems to be spider webs. And did I mention the moon is breaking apart? The astronauts are armed, and the Doctor seems to antagonize them a bit (or make them feel silly for pointing weapons at him, which alot of times is the same thing), and eludes to the possibility of having unlimited regenerations.

It doesn't take long before one of the astronauts is killed by a spider, and Courtney has a close call but saves herself using some kind of disinfectant, causing the Doctor to realize that they aren't spiders at all, but germs. Understandably, Courtney's ready to leave. Not in 5 minutes, not 5 minutes ago, NOW. So Clara takes her back to the TARDIS where she should be safe. When she returns, she tells the Doctor that she knows the moon isn't destroyed, because it's there in the future, where she's already been. He imparts that it could be a hologram, and admits that he has no idea what is going to happen: The events taking place are a fluxed point, as opposed to the fixed points we have seen many times throughout the show. Anything could happen.

An investigation of a nearby crevice turns up the body of the astronaut that was killed earlier in the episode, and the Doctor himself is attacked. When the sunlight touches the spider-germ, it retreats back into the crevice (sunlight kills germs, it makes sense). So what does the Doctor do? OF COURSE he just jumps right in, to go take a sample. There's no catchphrase, no GERONIMO... he just jumps right in (we were a bit disappointed in that, but whatever). When he returns, he says that he has found amniotic fluid, and that the moon is an egg trying to hatch. The astronaut, Lundvik, wants to proceed with the plan to blow up the moon. The Doctor, not being from the Earth or the moon, chooses to remain impartial. Understandably so, because it's really not his choice to make, it's not "his" people, and it's really a horrible decision to have to make.. kill a living creature to save an entire planet, or potentially kill an entire planet to save one creature that has taken millions of years to grow large enough to hatch. Courtney wants to return, to have a say in what happens, and the Doctor instructs her how to bring the TARDIS back to him, which she does, and he leaves the three of them, Clara, Courtney and Lundvik, to make the choice. Clara argues in favor of letting the creature live, but Lundvik's interest is humanity only. Courtney also argues in favor of the creature, saying it's just a baby. Earth finally makes contact with them, and Clara tells them, all the people of the Earth should have a say: turn your lights off if you want to kill the creature, or leave them on to let it live. After the timer has elapsed, the people of Earth cast their vote: kill. Lundvik primes the detonator, and Clara hits the override control. The Doctor returns, and takes them into the future to see what would happen: They end up on a beach to watch as the creature hatches (it looks rather like a space version of a manta ray). In its place it leaves a replacement moon and flies away. The Doctor tells Lundvik that because of their actions that day, humanity spreads to the corners of the galaxy, that the day marked the point where humanity stopped looking down and began looking up again, to the stars. 

Lundvik remains behind in her own time, and the Doctor and his two companions return to Coal Hill School, where Clara confronts him. I don't believe I have ever seen her so livid.. she threatens to smack him so hard he'll regenerate. Her anger seems to stem from the fact that there was a huge choice to make, and they (she, Courtney, and Lundvik, along with everyone on the planet) could have died and he'd abandoned them. His responses make her feel like he's patronizing her, that her feelings aren't valid. She tells him to go away, that she never wants to see him again. When the TARDIS leaves, she's alone in her classroom doing her best to cover up the fact that she's been crying when Danny comes in and she's forced to tell him what happened. Danny, being the wisened one, tells her that she's not done with the Doctor, because she's still angry with him. Clara, at the end of the day, goes home to a glass of wine and stares out her window at the moon. 

The future of the show at this point, or rather Clara's future on the TARDIS, looks uncertain. To think that she could cut ties and leave the Doctor, rather than help him and be the friend and the guidance that he still so obviously needs, is unthinkable. This Doctor isn't like 9, 10, or 11, he's something different. He doesn't have the emotional compass of the last 3, in fact, he just has a switch, and it's either off or it's on, and most times it seems to be off. That doesn't mean he's a bad Doctor, it just means he's different. Should he have abandoned them on the moon? No, but it was obvious he couldn't be impartial.. his point was that no life is more important than another. He's killed enough, or so he thinks, which leads me to believe that the episode where the robo-guy ended up impaled after falling out of the steampunk balloon ship, the guy jumped, the Doctor didn't push him out. Should Clara be pissed that he made them make the decision themselves? No, I don't believe so... but I think she was well within her rights to be upset that he abandoned them. He could have easily just separated himself from the situation, gone into the TARDIS til a choice had been made. Is this the beginning of the end of Clara and the Doctor? Maybe. I think Danny was right. Anger is an emotion you feel when you want to fight for something, when there's still something there worth fighting for. There are still many adventures left for the two of them. I think the thing I liked most about this episode is Courtney.. I'm not a huge fan of her whatsoever, she's obnoxious. But having her join in on the adventure this episode was a nice change, the writers letting her have some character development rather than just being a peripheral character with no depth, and letting the character impact who the Doctor can be. That's the sort of thing he needs right now, and I really hope that Danny will get to join in on a few in the near future. 

Next week: The Orient Express meets Boris Karloff's The Mummy. Or something like it. I'm really loving this horror-esque feel the show seems to have this season. 

Sidenote: Could people seriously just stop casting their social justice/gender equality arguments into the mix and enjoy the show already? I swear if I hear the term "Bechdel test" one more time, I'm going to really lose my shit.