Doctor Who: Dark Water

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Michelle Gomez and Peter Capaldi in BBCAmerica’s “Doctor Who”

“I don’t deserve a friend like you.”

“Clara, I’m terribly sorry, but I’m exactly what you deserve.”

We’ll start with this: a GREAT episode. Not only did we get three top-notch performances (at least one of which is a personal best) but the script paid off and built on so much that it leaves us deeply impressed with the writing this season; so much so we’re thisclose to declaring it the best season showrunner Steven Moffat has ever put together. So much so that we’re comfortable saying this could turn out to be some genius-level work on his part. And he did it by listening to his audience, believe it or not. He just didn’t respond the way they expected.

Cast your mind back to before and immediately after Peter Capaldi was announced as the next Doctor and remember all the bad things that were being said about Moffat and the perceived downward trend in the show’s quality:

He has issues with women characters. The “Who is Amy going to choose?” question plagued her character right up to her last moments, long after it should have been put to rest. He writes the same “mysterious girl” storyline over and over, Clara being just the weakest, least developed example of the trope. She’s just a quirky, fast-talking paper doll. He’ll never cast a woman to play the Doctor. He’ll never cast a person of color to play the Doctor. Capaldi’s going to be a really nasty and dark Doctor. Capaldi’s too old. The sexual dynamic is going to feel gross.

And here’s what Moffat gave us in response: Clara gets defined to the point that she may actually be the most developed companion in the history of the show. An entire season-long arc was devoted to explaining who she is, both good and bad, and to exploring the growing romantic relationship with Danny (who is, perhaps not coincidentally, a man of color). Not only was there no question of which man she was going to choose, but the sexual aspect of her relationship with the Doctor is completely and openly dispensed with immediately. And her choice is reinforced by having her betray the Doctor for the man she loves. The 12th Doctor is shown to be not just a dark or angry man, but the end result of a vulnerable child’s nightmares with a need to save as many people as he can. He forges a deep, co-dependent bond with Clara and makes it clear he would do just about anything for her and forgive just about any transgressions she might commit against him. He is, in many ways, more tender toward her than The Doctor has ever been to a companion, including Rose and Amy. He is deeply grateful to her for the things she’s done for him, and he seeks to repay her by not just taking her on fun adventures, but by taking it upon himself to make her into a better person; the ultimate parental goal. And to top it all off, a male timelord regenerates into a woman. The entire season has been one big trolling of the audience by giving them everything they asked for; just not in the way they wanted it.

But all season long we’ve been noting with mounting excitement the darkly nuanced take on the relationship between The Doctor and Clara, while at the same time expressing quite a bit of worry that Moffat would hand-wave away the emotional consequences of what the story was saying and doing; a narrative sin he’s committed more than a few times. This was an amazing episode in a lot of ways, but our fears about the outcome are still in place. The actions Clara took this episode against the Doctor should really be seen as a game-changer in their relationship. The Doctor is clearly a better man than we are, because we can’t imagine a response to Clara that doesn’t include her getting fired. There’s an entire episode to go before we get closure on this, and it’s possible the Doctor is going to do this one last favor for her before setting her loose, but that’s not really how it played. “Do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?” That is lovely – and an example of what we mean about Moffat subverting the audience expectations for Capaldi. It’s almost superhumanly tender and forgiving, which we suppose makes sense for a superhuman character, but it feels emotionally unsatisfying.

It’s not that we want to see Clara punished. We can certainly understand that grief drove her to betray him and that she was deeply sorry to have done it, but that scene at the volcano was HARSH. There was no way of getting around the way she acted. It was brutal, it skated right up to the edge of villainy, and it was downright scary to see. The fact that he was one step ahead of her doesn’t change the way she betrayed his trust and tried to keep him from the very thing that defines his life. Even if you don’t want to look at the emotional aspect of it, from a purely practical point of view, she’s an admitted addict who tried to take control of the most dangerous ship in the universe. It’s just not a good idea to keep someone like that onboard anymore. She’s learned her lessons perhaps a little too well. He kept pushing her to be skeptical and not let her emotions rule her. She took his advice – and essentially damned Danny to hell. This is a woman who went to the afterlife to get back the man she loves – and then cut him off forever when he couldn’t coldly and scientifically prove his existence to her satisfaction. She’s as ruthless as The Doctor can be, but unfortunately, she has the short-sighted selfishness of a being that’s going to live no more than a century, at most. Look at what she said to her (adorable) grandmother about Danny’s death:  “It wasn’t terrible. It was boring. It was ordinary,” and “I am owed better.” That is damn close to sociopathy and we doubt it’ll be addressed, we’re sorry to say.

And we should make it clear that we don’t necessarily think Clara’s crazy or villainous; just that she has spent too much time on the TARDIS and it has affected her to the point that it’s imperative she not come back. Her humanity is starting to slip away from her.

But hey, even if Moffat doesn’t follow through on this, at least we got a terrific couple of scenes between Capaldi and Coleman, including  the very best work she’s done on the show so far. If she is leaving soon, she’s going out on an acting high note. We just have a feeling she’s going to leave of her own volition with no real examination of what she did; no scene where the Doctor lets her know how badly she acted. That sounds really harsh, as if we’ve got a bloodthirsty need to see Clara punished, but that’s not it. With all the great, nuanced word done on both characters this season, it would feel like a form of denial not to acknowledge his hurt or his need to send her back to her life. Ironically, for all the talk of how this is a crankier, darker Doctor, we can’t help thinking 10 or 11 would have fired her on the spot. This actually is, despite the external trappings, a more forgiving Doctor.

And in an episode with great performances, special kudos must be paid to Michelle Gomez, who offered up a Master/Mistress who was both sardonically funny and bone-chillingly scary at the same time. The look between her and Capaldi at the moment The Doctor realizes who Missy must be is just stunning for all the things both actors are managing to say with their faces; everything from horror to excitement to admiration to hatred to deep, deep fear, all done wordlessly in the space of a few seconds. Just gorgeous, gothic, Grand Guignol-style work from the both of them. A treat to watch – and so many miles ahead of the homo-erotic Joker/Batman take of John Simms and David Tennant. Ironically enough, despite the kissing and the “boyfriend’ terminology, this relationship in this form strikes us as completely sexless. Moffat has a clear fascination with officious women in dark, fitted suits, but this is one instance where this archetype was stripped of the pretense as soon as possible.

As for her (you’ll pardon the pun) master plan, it sounds pretty brilliant so far – especially since it’s hard to make the Cybermen scary or interesting – but we’re not entirely sure it makes all that much sense. Why the skeletons and the invisibility water? Why is the nethersphere just bouncing around inside… say, where are they, anyway? That’s clearly not the inside of Saint Paul’s Cathedral. Whatever. We’ll get our answers (or not, as the case may be) next week. Just about anything will seem less complicated than the freaking Toclafane. We’re just sorry that BBCAmerica gave away the reveal in all the promos, because the subtle visual clues in all the art direction were really clever. It would have been fun to figure it out before the reveal. We were a bit surprised that the Doctor appeared to be taken completely off guard by the reveal, but then again, that’s of a piece with the way this version has been shown to be an occasional bungler. He’s not the Oncoming Storm anymore.

[Picture credit: BBCAmerica]

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