S8E7: Kill the Moon (SPOILERS)

Some moral ambiguity on the way!

Instead of killing the moon they should write "CHA" on it.

Let's put Chairface in a Doctor Who episode.

I thought it'd be a Strax episode. Disappointed sigh.

Cruel Angel wrote:

I thought it'd be a Strax episode. Disappointed sigh.

Would love to see an episode where Strax goes mad and becomes a villain trying to blow up the moon.

Maybe they're saving his reveal as the big bad for the episode?

Spiders!

After years of almost no continuity that orange space suit with the yellow helmet seems to be showing up again.

Would the New Series fans be that upset if Calpaldi stepped out in the spacesuit from Troughton's "The Moonbase" ? Or even went without a spacesuit and just put on the helmet from "Four to Doomsday" and frolicked in the vacuum of space?

Another good episode. Really liked the threat in this story and enjoyed the dark atmosphere; an abandoned space base miles away from earth, creepy spiders, decade old corpses, and they're about to explode. It felt very tense throughout. The spiders were cool and atmospheric but unfortunately underused.

I loved the moon scenes. All shots on the surface of the moon were beautiful! They looked really good and I'm glad we've finally got a Doctor Who story that shows off the moon like this one did.

Without getting too into it, I definitely think this whole plot was an analogy of abortion and pro-life vs pro-choice. I think it was in favour of choice, thus the Doctor leaving 'womankind' to make their own decision, but was trying to give the pro-life message that making the decision to not kill the baby alien would not turn out as bad as they thought and would actually benefit them better than if they killed it. As a pro-lifer, I liked that a lot. However, you could also look at killing the baby alien as being justified because "the mother's life was in danger" - the mother being the earth. Wait, I'm getting too into it... Well basically this story is definitely apt for picking apart and analysing in an English essay.

Clara's little fit at the end seemed really uncalled for and not very well acted either. It's a shame because I've really liked Clara this series, but she came across as unnecessarily whiny in this episode. Also, has she now left the Doctor and the TARDIS for good? I doubt she has but it seemed like that was what they were getting at. I hope she hasn't left because, as I said, I've really started to like her this series.

My only complaint about this story is that 45 minutes wasn't enough time to get into it, I really think that this would have benefited as being a two-parter. It felt quite rushed and thus felt as though it was missing something. I was kinda expecting more from this story. Overall though, it was definitely a good one and I really enjoyed both the darker atmosphere and also the inspiring social commentary and message that this episode makes.

I enjoyed the episode overall. Not at all plausible, but fun. I thought Hermione Norris in particular did a great job. I also really liked Capaldi in this story, and I felt that his Doctor, at the end, was trying to be frank and genuine with Clara, instead of hiding behind his "grumpy" personae, when she snaps at him.

And I wasn't too sure why she snapped. Was she too tired of him acting superior to her? Clara is the one who's always acting bossy like she's better than the Doctor, so it came across as a little hypocritical to me. Also, he's a TIME LORD, for pete's sake. Like many other things this season, it felt manufactured to create some drama.

Scary, not to get into it too much either, but it was very interested what you said about this story being an analogy for abortion. Food for thought when I watch it again.

Sidenote - has anyone else noticed that the Doctor no longer locks the door to the TARDIS? I can't remember the last time I've seen him use the TARDIS key.

Okay for me.

The premise was hokey. The good side for me was how the Doc handled it, by stepping aside and forcing the humans to make the tough call themselves.

I agree with Stetsons... Clara snapping like that was a bit weak. Here she has been on him all season about talkin bad about humans... and now he goes: ok, you do it for once. Her response- gets mad that he put her into that position, then falls to pieces. Just didnt seem in character for her.

I think it was just contrived that way to get Pink his 'I told u so' moment, plus its way too convenient that it happens the very next episode after he warned her the Doc might push her too far.

Honestly, all I could think of was the Night Vale/Thrilling Adventure Hour crossover that was released this week where the moon gets destroyed and the characters of both shows skip through time to create a paradox so the moon was never destroyed. (At the end, they pull a random ending from Back to the Future, and you can hear the TARDIS.)

I wish Capaldi had some REALLY good stories!!

Good episode but (oh my!), quite the subtext!

I really tried to like this one, i really did.  I'll never look at the moon the same way without thinking of a very large spray can of insect spray -Raid-

Hey the plus side we may get a male spider figure for the empress of the racnoss.  She looked lonely:)

Enough with the clara Drama, if i wanted drama i have no interest in , I would turn on E! And watch the karsdashians.

They are wasting capaldis potential !!!

Ladies and gentlemen, this show is on a budget.

I liked the story. An interesting idea, although a bit strange, but it made me think about Game of Thrones where they've said one moon cracked open and that's where dragons come from. Perhaps someone was a fan of the Song of Ice and Fire novels? If so that's a pretty awesome tribute.

Evil Monkey Pope wrote:

Instead of killing the moon they should write "CHA" on it.

?

This episode fell apart in the end. Clara was right that the Doctor had no business withholding information that would've aided in the decisionmaking process. Once he saw that it contained a Space Whale (an Acanti for you X-Men fans) from "The Beast Below" he should've explained that the baby would be benign at least & incredibly helpful to humanity's future at best. (Also, wouldn't blowing up the nukes on the Moon's crust just cause a different gravitational problem that might not even prevent the hatching?) The issue was framed to Earth & the audience as a choice between the lesser of two evils because the Doctor willfully misled them them. There wasn't even any negative consequences to letting the hatching occur because somehow none of the Moon debris caused any damage & the Acanti immediately laid a perfect replacement Moon. So the entire Earth panicked & voted wrong because the Doctor didn't say if they waited it out it'd be greatly beneficial to the human species. There would've been a bigger quandary if this was set as soon as the Moon rumbling started wreaking havoc on Earth so that short term vs. long term consequences could be weighed. Then there's the whole abortion debate theme which muddles things further.

I agree with the Doctor that he shouldn't make all the important decisions for Earth. This, however, doesn't mean he should keep crucial decision-making info from humanity. The only point in allowing  humans to freak out in such a situation would be to frighten them into making the wrong decision & then getting indignant about how destructive humanity is. So either the Doctor is a prick or committed to showing rather than telling that he's gone senile.

I thought the ep was great. The knowledge of the baby being harmless would have spoilt the decision. The point was that it MIGHT have destroyed the earth. The doctor telling them there would be no negative effect from it hatching would have made the decision for them. Part of them making the decision for themselves is doing so without future knowledge. If I am deciding whether or not to ask a girl out, and someone from the future says that said woman will go on to marry me and we will live happily ever after, that choice has for all intents and purposes been made.

That was a space-whale?

I thought this episode was the best yet. Not sure about that polka dot shirt, though.

I think it was supposed to be some kind of butterfly or dragon.

So, humanity made it's choice, and once again, it was wrong. That seams like something the Doctor has been saying for a long time. Only Clara and Courtney, two people who the Doctor has inspired, got it right.

I loved the look of the Moon, very well done. I don't understand why the "germs" were so large, just because the egg was large?

The Mexican Moonbase looked good, especially in the dark. Nice and spooky.

But, you can't fly a space shuttle to the moon!!

Oh man, this was fantastic. Yes, subtext was pretty heavy, but there's some really brilliant stuff. I really liked Courtney. The sense of "recreating" the Hartnell era is certainly all there. Capaldi's performance was brilliant, as ever. Very much Tom Baker by way of Bill Hartnell this time out. Look at Capaldi's face when Clara starts to flip out and you'll see a little Hartnell sneaking through. The story itself felt very Baker-era.

Surprised so many people seem to not understand why Clara's upset. The Doctor literally comes back when Clara makes the "right" decision. As far as Clara knows, he may not have come back for if she did let it all blow up. Her gripe is that he knew. Or had an inkling, at least. He knew something and yet wouldn't even tip her off. And while we as the audience know The Doctor would never leave a situation like that, 12 is a different type of Doctor and a different type of Doctor compared to 11. Eleven would never have left Clara to make the choice alone, Twelve does. And that scares Clara. Especially in light of the events of "Caretaker."

This is still the strongest stretch of episodes in a very long time. "Robot of Sherwood" being the worst in quality so far but not all together bad.

And... wasn't the Mexican moon base the set from Impossible Planet?

The Doctor did not give the humans enough information to come to an informed decision. Think about it as if he was your medical doctor & said you had a tumor. He says you can go in for chemo & have a risky opperation to remove it but that doesn't guarantee you'll be cancer free. The other option would be to not upset you quality of life & make the best of the time left without extra medical intevention. You stress out over the choice & nearly have a nervous breakdown before deciding. He then tells you he read the biopsy results before talking to you & the tumor is benign. You'd have grounds to sue him for malpractice & intentional infliction of emotional distress.

I think the point was that he didn't have the right to help them with that choice. Or something.