I thoroughly enjoyed this season, and the final two episodes, especially Death in Heaven, pretty much exceeded all expectations. I feel like Clara developed so far from her Impossible Girl origins that she felt like a completely different character, and Jenna Coleman knocked it out of the proverbial ballpark pretty much every time she was on screen.
Capaldi has been amazing as well, and his older, gruffer version of the Doctor perfectly suits the darker and more somber tone of so much of this season. It was the ideal season (and the right Doctor, much more so than Matt Smith's would have been) in which to bring back the Master, the Doctor's dark mirror. The final scene in the cafe, of Clara and the Doctor lying to each other to spare each other their own pain, WOW that was emotionally so powerful and resonant and bittersweet. Amazing stuff, and all the more gut-wrenching for its restraint.
One of the things that made the finale so wonderful is how every emotional beat was fully earned, having been set up from the start of the season (and before it). There was nothing gimmicky, no "gotcha!" stunts, nothing that came out of left field. I think this season might actually have had the strongest arc of the new series, certainly the strongest arc of Moff's Who--maybe even stronger than the Pandorica plot, which was excellent.
If I have one quibble, it's that I don't think Danny (and his relationship with Clara) was developed thoroughly enough for his fate in DiH to resonate on a gut level. With Clara, I felt her pain right down to my bone marrow. Danny, not so much. It felt more like an intellectual exercise than a deep, emotionally wrenching thing. Which isn't bad, it just made it a bit harder to care about him. His decision to return to life the kid he'd accidentally shot to death was so perfect, though. If this is the last we see of the character, he certainly was written out on a note of selfless, true heroism.
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branchandroot
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Date: Wednesday, 12 November 2014 05:18 pm (UTC)I thoroughly enjoyed this season, and the final two episodes, especially Death in Heaven, pretty much exceeded all expectations. I feel like Clara developed so far from her Impossible Girl origins that she felt like a completely different character, and Jenna Coleman knocked it out of the proverbial ballpark pretty much every time she was on screen.
Capaldi has been amazing as well, and his older, gruffer version of the Doctor perfectly suits the darker and more somber tone of so much of this season. It was the ideal season (and the right Doctor, much more so than Matt Smith's would have been) in which to bring back the Master, the Doctor's dark mirror. The final scene in the cafe, of Clara and the Doctor lying to each other to spare each other their own pain, WOW that was emotionally so powerful and resonant and bittersweet. Amazing stuff, and all the more gut-wrenching for its restraint.
One of the things that made the finale so wonderful is how every emotional beat was fully earned, having been set up from the start of the season (and before it). There was nothing gimmicky, no "gotcha!" stunts, nothing that came out of left field. I think this season might actually have had the strongest arc of the new series, certainly the strongest arc of Moff's Who--maybe even stronger than the Pandorica plot, which was excellent.
If I have one quibble, it's that I don't think Danny (and his relationship with Clara) was developed thoroughly enough for his fate in DiH to resonate on a gut level. With Clara, I felt her pain right down to my bone marrow. Danny, not so much. It felt more like an intellectual exercise than a deep, emotionally wrenching thing. Which isn't bad, it just made it a bit harder to care about him. His decision to return to life the kid he'd accidentally shot to death was so perfect, though. If this is the last we see of the character, he certainly was written out on a note of selfless, true heroism.