Sunday 5 October 2014

REVIEW - KILL THE MOON

 Doctor Who Goes to the Moon and Meets Spiders!

With a pitch like 'Hinchcliffe the s*** out of the first half'', you knew something major was coming. It seems Strax was right all along when he claimed that they should be concentrating on wiping out the moon. +/- a hundred fifty years later and our inaction finally comes and spider-bites us in the ass.

First, if you haven't already, catch up here with DEEP BREATH
Catch up the 2nd episode of the series here with INTO THE DALEK
Catch up the 3rd episode of the series here with ROBOT OF SHERWOOD
Catch up the 4th episode of the series here with LISTEN
Catch up the 5th episode of the series here with TIME HEIST
Catch up the 6th episode of the series here with THE CARETAKER

Starting with a 'how we got here' scene, we quickly jump to what caused shit to hit the fan. Spiders on the moon, the moon collapsing and a sadistic choice that is put on the shoulders of Clara, Courtney and that astronaut woman whose name I can't remember nor care very much for.

A bit of Fires of Pompeii with a dash of The Beast Below and a smidgen of The Waters of Mars. Odd grouping, but it made for quite the exciting viewing. However, cleaning fluid being effective on the moon was rather a silly idea and more of a call back to The Moonbase. Speaking of which, where are those cool titles Doctor Who used in Series 7 to display the date and place. It looked so wonderful, yet here we simply get a cheap 'The Moon 2049'. Given how marvelous the visuals for this story was, bit of a letdown.

"Badass anyone?"

On the topic of visuals, the moon looked really realistic - which doubles as irony when you think about it. The CG for the episode was top notch and the spiders looked real. Well real for the amount of CG used to animate them.I love outdoorsy episodes so having half the episode take place outside on the Moon was just brilliant. Really raised my enjoyment of the episode.

The supporting cast, specifically the three astronauts that join the Doctor and company were somewhat of a letdown except maybe for that woman whose name I still haven't bothered to learn. It's like they were put there solely to be killed. Did anyone watching actually feel sorry for them? Let me know in the comments because I had no emotional attachment to them. The woman on the other hand managed to convey how hard life on Earth had become and just how world weary she had become because of it. I sympathized with her, hoping that she'd at least get a happy ending.

"And the review guy thought I was going to be the annoying one this week."

Before I get to the Doctor and Clara, feel free to rub it in my face that Courtney didn't turn into Angie 2.0. Instead, she managed to be portrayed as a very real child, becoming scared when she was supposed to be and brave when it was called for. However, the bit about her 'not being special' at the start of the episode was rather rubbish. Who cares? I don't care what some stranger I've just met thinks of me? Do you? I agree that Courtney's 'Am I special' was just used to set up the plot and I'm glad it improved significantly.

"Don't look at me like that. I didn't write the script."

The Doctor's decision to not interfere in humanity's choice to either kill the creature or destroy the Earth has been the source of a lot of heat. Some call it out of character and that he was being pointlessly cruel for forcing such a decision on Clara. However, the Ninth Doctor chose to take a step back in the face of a potentially apocalyptic event and left the choice up to humanity in Aliens of London. He also let Amy and and that other woman - whose name also escapes me - decide whether to allow the Silurians to co-inhabit the planet in Series 5 two-parter. How is this out of character? He has made rough choices like this before in The Beast Below, The Fires of Pompeii and The Waters of Mars. You really think he wants to repeat those mistakes and all the hurt it brings. Okay, it's unfair to force someone else to do it in your place which is what Clara is so angry about despite the fact that she wanted to do it to him, but the Doctor has a point about not interfering in every little thing humanity does. He even uses Hitler as an example. Because let's be honest: If the Doctor and Clara met Hitler, she'd be spouting all kinds of nonsense trying to get him to kill the Nazi. Although, she would never do the deed herself. If she kills, it would have to be via proxy.

"I don't care if I gave 7 billion people the choice, my feelings are all that matters."
Clara I enjoyed for the most part of the episode. Her 'decision' I enjoyed less. She unknowingly divulges some traits she probably shouldn't. First, she tells the Doctor to say Courtney is special even if he doesn't mean it, implying that lying to inspire someone is okay in her book. She also pushes the sadistic choice onto the Doctor because...well because he's done it before, so he can do it again. What she actually tells us is that she only wants to travel with the Doctor if he carries all the responsibility while she carries none of the liability. That is pretty selfish of you. She gets worse by continuously ducking the issue by putting it on other people. She goes against the astronaut lady and makes it a democratic decision for earth, stupidly thinking mankind wouldn't sacrifice one stranger. After they make their decision, she outright ignores it and still does what she wants. Let's all agree that Clara would make a very bad politician. She'd just ignore the voice of the people and listen to the voice of Clara. Her anger at the Doctor is a bit unfair since - as I mentioned - he did what she wanted to do to him. She even shows how much of an elitist she is by telling the Doctor never to shoehorn her in with the rest of the people on the planet because she is not like them. The way she says it implies she believes she's better than us.

And that is awesome! Thank you Doctor Who for finally giving us for bloody conflict! Even if it was two hypocrites arguing about something which has no right or wrong answer, but I am grateful for conflict. Thank you for showing Clara on the edge because she's been relaxing in the inland all this time. This blogger is so grateful for it. It's not perfect, but it is a step in the right direction.

"It's not as cool as walking on the moon, but it's still pretty badass."

Did you notice:
Stars are shown twinkling in the background of a couple scenes, which looks nice, but isn't actually astrologically possible since the effect is caused by viewing stars through an atmosphere. In case you don't know, the moon has no atmosphere.

How about the Jurassic Park shout out. The spiders' vision uses movement. They even tell everyone to 'Turn the light off!'.

Kill The Moon f**ked the shit out of the The Law of Conservation of Mass with the characters pointing out that the Moon's increased gravity is due to its mass increasing and then attribute that to the creature inside growing without giving any explanation of where that mass is coming from. That is rubbish! As if The Law of Conservation of Mass' ass wasn't sore enough, the creature somehow lays an egg that is bigger than itself, and apparently equal in mass to the Moon originally, seconds after it hatches. So much for that Law eh?

Rating this episode: 8/10. A solid story that proved to be out of this world.




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