Doctor Who Series 8 Episodes 6-7 Review - The Caretaker/Kill the moon

It's been a few days, but we're back, and we're looking at the last 2 episodes of Doctor Who

The Caretaker 

So, the Doctor goes under-cover in Clara’s school to stop generic robot #359 and hijinks ensue. Yeah, it’s gonna be one of those episodes

That’s not to say this episode was terrible, but it was played a little too much for comedy, to the detriment of the story, much like Robots of Sherwood. The major difference is the episode doesn’t suffer from logic problems, rather it’s a tad slow in the pacing department, and the villain is entirely generic.

And the Doctor is played rather dumber than he should be as well. I don’t mind him not getting immediately that Clara and Danny were dating (although that gag was badly overstretched) but I do find his ignorance of calling Danny a PE teacher (also, Clara should’ve called him up on it much quicker) kind of irritating

The big event of the episode is that Danny finds out about the Doctor and all to do with it, including the TARDIDS (yeah, I’m not gonna put dots between all these acronyms, it’s tiring) and he eventually accepts although is not all that fond of being lied to for so long. I do like his advice, and there’s still more to find out about him, which will prove most interesting.

We’re also introduced to Courtney; her purpose in the episode is to… Be irritating and get a ride with the Doctor at the end. Essentially a comic relief character in what’s already basically a comedy episode.

Rating 6/10

Kill the Moon

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Sorry, I just can’t get over the concept of this episode: The Moon is an egg pfft hahahahahahahahaha

If I had a week, I couldn’t list all the reasons why this episode’s conceptually makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, which is a pity because at its core, this episode is emotionally engaging, and relatively satisfying.

It’s a fairly standard setup for Doctor Who: it’s about the relative merits of taking a life that could potentially kill millions (Clara vs one girl with a bomb). If you’re getting a sense of déjà vu, it’s because it’s pretty much the same plot as the Zygons in the anniversary special. The main difference is the Doctor chooses not to get involved, and tries to allow the humans to make their own decision, without the needed knowledge of the consequences.

Honestly, if they intended this to be a horror episodes, it failed rather spectacularly in that department because the horror part really wasn’t carried through past the spider attacks at the beginning of the episode (what kind of bacteria are they anyway?)

We also have Courtney, her purpose in the episode is to…, she…, what was the point of writing her into this episode? She literally does nothing, aside nearly getting killed, and making Clara think about her safety.

Then there’s the ending. No sign of the Promised Land this week, but we do have Clara deciding that the Doctor has pushed her too hard, and she leaves the TARDIS, falling into Danny’s arms. If we want this conflict to work, Mummy on the Orient Express should not feature Clara and the Doctor together until at least the end scenes.

It’s a pity really that this is the episode for this to happen, regardless of the concept being ludicrous, it’s a little too soon after Danny’s speech last week, I could’ve done with this waiting another episode for it to be satisfying

Rating 5.5/10

For more reviews click here

Images used in this review are from Doctor Who and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use.