New Who 8.12 Death in Heaven

I'm still hideously busy for all sorts of reasons, including a new one which I may write about tomorrow if I have time and the inclination. But I did at least get to see Death in Heaven on live broadcast, which I think I've only managed for about 50% of this season. That evening on Twitter, I opined that it was "genuinely, and easily, the best New #DoctorWho season finale I have ever seen!" Not, you will carefully note, the best New Who episode ever - just the best finale. It was a hasty judgement, of course, but LJ offers the opportunity for a more considered appraisal against the competition, so let's take that opportunity:

• The Parting of the Ways (2005) - classic deus ex machina ending in which Rose turns into a goddess and magics everything better. Didn't seem too bad at the time, because it was all new, but in hindsight it was the start of a very regrettable trend.
• Doomsday (2006) - actually, I quite like this one. A bit hand-wavey, and the business of Rose and the Doctor being trapped in parallel universes gets mawkish, but it follows its own internal logic and delivers some thrilling moments.
• Last of the Time Lords (2007) - a real let-down after *that* moment in Utopia. The solution to the problem essentially turns out to be that everyone on the entire planet really loves Doctor Who, which is pretty narcissistic, while the magic re-set button which then causes them to forget everything which happened felt like a cheat.
• Journey's End (2008) - even if I could forgive the fact that new Who's best companion to date had her entire memory and everything which she had gained from travelling with the Doctor wiped arbitrarily, the awful spectacle of 10.5 and Rose kissing on the beach would utterly kill this episode for me. As far as I'm concerned, it never happened.
• The End of Time (2010; I suppose this counts, since it concluded the 2009-10 specials) - yeah, not bad actually. Ten's extended death scene is a little self-indulgent, but the music is amazing and after 5 years both the characters and the production team of the RTD era had earnt it.
• The Big Bang (2010) - altogether too timey-wimey and cheaty. Took RTD's magic reset buttons, dei ex machinis and Total Bollocks Overdrive and doubled all of them. I still don't understand how or why the TARDIS exploded, or whether that is going to matter again at any point in the future, either.
• The Wedding of River Song (2011) - the time folding in on itself and parallel universe bits of this were quite fun in a cracky sort of way, but I've never liked River, and liked seeing her reduced to endangering the universe because she is so 'in love' with the Doctor even less.
• The Name of the Doctor (2013) - a bit different, as its real job was to set things up for the anniversary special, so it didn't need to offer definitive plot resolutions in the same way as most of the others. As such, not too bad, especially for the presence of the Paternoster gang, although Clara hadn't yet been well enough developed for her decision to jump into the Doctor's timeline and become the Impossible Girl to really convince.

Conclusion - it turns out there are two previous season finales which I like better than I had remembered: Doomsday and The End of Time. But on the whole I'm right in my basic view that they collectively tend to stretch credibility too far with their cheaty magic reset buttons and dei ex machinis, and regularly end up trampling all over female agency to boot.

By contrast, the ( resolution to Death in Heaven really did feel quite plausible )

Meanwhile, we got some ( fantastic moments )

Of course, ( spoilery sad stuff was sad )

Meanwhile, Clara ( was great )

Finally, the previous episode left me ( confused on a few points )

On the whole, then, I am definitely happy to name this season finale amongst my top three, but would need to re-watch Doomsday and The End of Time to decide which is actually the best overall. In the meantime, though - OMG IT'S SANTA!!!!

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