Who Review: Hell Bent
In a diner in Nevada, the Doctor tells the waitress his story, how he faced down the leader of a mob gang because of a war and the death of his best friend. At least that’s how he recounted his return to Gallifrey, and how he dealt with the welcome he received, first from the military, then from the high counsel, and finally from the President himself. As Gallifrey sits at the edge of time, there is fear among the Time Lords regarding the much-prophesied “hybrid”–a terrible being constructed from two warrior races that will bring about the end of all things. The Time Lords believe the Doctor knows something, but for the Doctor to help, he needs his friend. Yet she died on a hidden street several billion years ago…
SPOILER ALERT!! My comments may (and likely will) contain spoilers for those that haven’t seen the episode. If you want to stay spoiler-free, please watch the story before you continue reading!
The story for this final episode of the season seems to be the Doctor trying to save Clara from death. He manipulates the Time Lords into pulling her out of her time stream at a point between her final heartbeats. But the Doctor doesn’t want her to return, so he kills the army General and escapes to depths of the Citadel with her, eventually leaving by means of a stolen TARDIS (First Doctor style–that was nice to see). This act of murder goes against the Doctor’s pacifistic nature, especially since we had just seen soldiers laying down their weapons to side with him. He’s always the one who goes into battle without a weapon. The Doctor has been known to shoot when absolutely necessary. However, it’s questionable whether this time was absolutely necessary. After all, he could have just returned Clara to her time stream, couldn’t he?
It was the Time Lords’ fear of the prophesied “hybrid” that drove them to lure the Doctor to Gallifrey. They thought he knew something about it, but it seems the best he had was the theory that it’s Ashildr–the human/Mire hybrid. Ashildr’s own theory is more plausible, however: it’s actually two people, the Doctor and Clara, brought together by Missy, the maestro of chaos and destruction. I’ve been trying to think how Missy brought the Doctor and Clara together, going back to Season Seven with the Eleventh Doctor. I don’t recall the Master being a part of that at all. Maybe Ashildr was just referring to the first episode of this season, “The Magician’s Apprentice”? In any case, the idea of the Doctor and Clara being this powerful force, constantly pushing each other on to greater and greater deeds, leading ultimately to the end of time and space, works with what we know of them. It also gives good reason to why their partnership needs to end–Clara has to die.
Ashildr failed to persuade the Doctor to return Clara to her time stream, allowing him to simply wipe her memory and return her to Earth, hidden away somewhere. But Clara overheard the plan and reversed the polarity on the memory wipe device. It’s the Doctor who now forgets most of his time with Clara, while she is left to roam time and space with Ashildr, though without a pulse, it seems, in their Diner-TARDIS. I suppose it’s a nice idea that, between her last two heartbeats, Clara has adventures in her own TARDIS. But oh the questions this raises! Has she been with the Doctor long enough to know how to fly and maintain a TARDIS? Is this not like my thirteen-year-old daughter, who has traveled in our car countless times, taking the keys and driving off on her own? I shudder to think! Personally, I think Clara should have returned straight to her time stream and taken that final heartbeat. Let her go, Moff. Let her go.
In a comment prior to broadcast, Moffat said this episode will leave fans “devastated.” It was a good episode, but I can’t say I was devastated. What was I supposed to be devastated about? I enjoyed it, but I can’t say I was driven to emotional extremes. I think “The Angels Take Manhattan,” where Rory and Amy are taken by Weeping Angels, was probably the most devastating ending to a Doctor Who story, with Donna’s departure in “Journey’s End” not far behind. This one didn’t come close to either of those. I had already accepted Clara’s demise, so I was actually a bit disappointed to see her return. Let her go, Moff. Let her go. 🙂
Yay! The Doctor has a new sonic screwdriver. And it’s a redesign especially for the Twelfth Doctor, with lots of lights. I daresay it’ll be on shop shelves in time for Christmas.
So, that’s it for Season 9! The Doctor returns at Christmas with “The Husbands of River Song.” My review will follow a few days later.
I’m sure there are lots of things I didn’t mention, but that’s what you’re here for! Use the comments to talk about what you liked and didn’t like.
To answer your question about how Missy united the Doctor and Clara. She is the woman in the shop that gave Clara the number that rang the Tardis back in the Bells of St. John.
I was devastated by the episode. Just the fact that the Doctor lost all his memories and how that mirrored Donna’s departure. I was like “WHYYYY WOULD YOU DO THAT AGAIN?????” Donna was bad enough. I needed comfort food afterwards. LOL
Ohhhh yes–you’re right! I remember now about Missy being the woman in the shop!! Thanks for that memory jog, Patricia. And, yes, I got the similarity to the memory wipe the Doctor did on Donna, which he alluded to in the episode. I guess I wasn’t devastated by it for a couple of reasons: 1) Donna wanted to stay with the Doctor forever, and travel the cosmos. Now, she doesn’t even remember who the Doctor is, nor does she have any memory of saving the universe. While losing memory of Clara is tragic, the Doctor still remembers all his other companions, and all the countless times he’s saved the universe; and 2) he does still seem to have a vague recollection of Clara, even though he can’t connect her face with the girl in the diner–so it’s not a complete memory loss.
That’s my perspective, anyway. It was still sad, I’ll grant you that.
Ha – I knew Moffat wouldn’t let his baby get killed off by some other writer without sticking his paws in. 😉
It was cool, in general. I liked this season. I’m delighted the sunglasses are gone, and I kind of dug the Clara and Ashildr spinning off into space thing, though I agree the diner didn’t technically make much sense (Clara was all through his timeline, though, so I assume she knew it from that?). I thought it was a bit derivative – the losing memory thing was a kind of less-potent shout out to Donna, the escaping Clara was a bit like the Doctor’s Daughter – and I agree with you that shooting someone coldly was out of character. I guess my biggest complaint is that Moffat was again trying to make his creation (Clara) be the Most Important Thing in the Universe by telling us, not showing us, that the Doctor and her together are the super dangerous force. Why, though? The Doctor’s relationship with Clara was patchy at best. She was inexplicably hostile to him at the beginning of his new regeneration and the Danny Pink storyline had them apart emotionally the whole of that season. I don’t buy that over the course of a few eps this season he was suddenly so attached that he would go to universe-destroying lengths to save her, more than any other previous companion (are we supposed to buy that he cared more about Clara than Rose?). So… I don’t know. I hope the ‘Hybrid-as-Doctor+Clara’ was misdirection and there is a bigger and better plan for that storyline.
It’s funny how the differences affect us. I was over Amy pretty badly by the time she left so her exit with Rory didn’t hurt me. They got to live their lives together, happy. The show never gave us any indication that they had anyone in the present day and time they especially cared about who they would miss (except the Doctor, obviously). So it was pretty much a happy ending for them. Donna, though, that was a bloody tragedy. She got her entire character arc erased, her experiences and growth and her deeds all taken away. Horrible. And I can’t watch Doomsday without blubbering (I know at least Rose got a David Tennant to live out her life with later, which is almost her happy ending, but it was still a devastating ending to S2).
In a way, yes, Clara “the Impossible Girl” was very important to the Doctor throughout his timestream, but again, he hasn’t totally forgotten her. But it does seem as if Moff’s been building her up this season as the most important companion he ever had. And yet, in “The Ice Warriors,” the Second Doctor refers to Jamie and Victoria as “two people I happen to have a great deal of affection for.” The most Twelve would claim for Clara is some kind of guardianship responsibility. You could put this down to his Scottish tough image, but as we’ve seen, he’s not above becoming quite emotional.
With Amy and Rory, I agree, and actually think it was a nice way to complete their story arc with Amy choosing a life with Rory, and not the Doctor. That’s not where she was when she started. But this was devastating for the Doctor, and it was also devastating that Amy even had to make that choice.
Great comments. Thanks, Sam!