We have finally reached our two slots of the Top 20 Countdown of 2015 and with the year coming to close tomorrow, let’s just say, time to end this year, the long way ‘round. And look at that, 3 episodes to talk about, so here we are at Number 2, it’s Doctor Who, “Face the Raven”, “Heaven Sent”, and “Hell Bent”.
We begin with “Face the Raven”, aka Jenna Coleman’s “final” episode playing Clara as she and The Doctor received a phone call from Rigsy, who returned since Series 8’s “Flatline”, talking about the tattoo he received and this no ordinary tattoo because that tattoo countdowns for no reason. And that’s where The Doctor and Clara are on there way to help out.
With Rigsy tagging along, him, The Doctor, and Clara had to find the source of where the tattoo comes from and why is it counting down where they found a secret town in an alleyway in London, full of random aliens and creatures living there. And when The Doctor, Rigsy, and Clara first came in, one of the creatures sense someone vile from Rigsy, which it has something to do with his tattoo. And guess who decided to drop in front of the three.
That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, Ashildr (or Me) is back and now she’s the mayor of this town. Not only that, but she’s also the one who put the tattoo timer on Rigsy. In which to Clara and The Doctor, the perfect opportunity to get Rigsy off the hook.
We did get an explanation of that tattoo...that tattoo is a death sentence for the crime they commit. As shown of that one guy who got killed off by the raven for stealing medical rations for his sick wife.
Of course, Clara got an idea that could be either sacrificial or something stupid. I am talking about Clara taking Rigsy’s tattoo from him and transferring into her. As in, now she’s taking the bullet. And by the time The Doctor, Clara, and Rigsy freed the woman that Rigsy been accused of murder, he’s free of charge and Ashildr was going to get rid of the tattoo from him but...Clara has it. And we just found out that if you give away the tattoo to someone else, that someone CANNOT give it back. So what I’m saying is...that’s it. Game over for Clara. The Doctor tried to tell Ashildr to fix the problem, but Clara said to stop since this is her problem, and she has to face the consequences. Has to face her permanent fate. And so, the countdown reached to zero.
Clara has faced the raven and she “dies”, follow with me here, but of course, not before telling The Doctor to not get angry over this. Telling him to not get mad, not get sad, don’t be mad at someone who’s responsible and takes revenge. In which The Doctor takes revenge on Ashildr for Clara’s death as he teleports away from the scene.
And of course, episode ends with Rigsy spray painting Clara’s memorial in the front of the TARDIS. And of course, that where’s “Face the Raven” comes to an end. And if you stayed at the end of the episode, this feels like it’s a two parter...actually...feels like a Three Parter because of “Hell Bent”, the Series 9 finale. Yeah, a three parter for the season finale. And of course, if you think Moffat has something to do with this episode, actually, it’s a guest writer who made this episode, it’s a guest writer that “killed” off Clara. Of course, you guys probably think this episode has a hint of Moffat written in the works. Yeah. But anyway, let’s head to “Heaven Sent”.
Yeah...a portrait of Clara on the wall...nothing creepy here, people. Anyway, The Doctor checked out the photo with a miniature magnifying glass to check out the photo, till the Grim Reaper arrives at the bedroom where The Doctor is at. And avoiding from getting touched by the reaper, The Doctor jumped out a window from I don’t know how many stories he jumped but it’s the only way to get off this predicament with the Reaper.
And what’s so weird about this is that when The Doctor fell to escape the Reaper, we cut to him entering the TARDIS. And to make things more weird, he sees Clara in the TARDIS, even though she’s dead. I’m guessing that he’s delusional yet in denial over the loss of his companion. Although, we did get an explanation of The Doctor’s escape when jumping off the window, he landed on the water and when you see The Doctor underwater, you can see piles of skulls on the ground underwater. Of course, Clara writes something on the chalkboard, writing questions like “What is this Place?” and “What Did You Say that made the Creature stopped?” and of course, “How are you going to win?” The three questions that The Doctor should know during this experience. But of course, The Doctor got out of the water, got into dry land and entering the room and see dry clothes for him to wear by the fireplace, in which he did put on the dry clothes and heads off to a garden.
He noticed something on the ground of the garden, a digged up hole and he starts digging. And when I first saw this, I thought he’s digging his own grave, sort of like symbolism. But of course, he kept digging, and digging, and digging till he hits something with the words, “I am 12”. And of course, the reaper comes out of nowhere again. And that jumpscare though...holy shit.
Of course, heading back to the TARDIS again, thinking on how he should get out of a situation like this when Clara wrote something on the chalkboard, saying, “Tell no lies.” And rewrites Question Number Two. In which he mentions his fear of death. And that’s where The Doctor begins to tell another one to the Veil, that the reason why escaped Gallifrey is not because he was bored, but it was because he was scared. And the Veil stopped again. And of course, found out that the castle is in the middle of the water, no land in sight.
And of course, when trying to find Room 12, he heads back to the teleporter where he sees a message in sand writing saying the word, “Bird”. And of course, found a skull. And as the wall opens, a staircase revealed and The Doctor heads to the roof and of course, he have found out that he has found Room 12 but there’s a wall in the way, thought it’s another trap for him to spill the beans again. And of course, he mentions the Hybrid when facing one on one with the Veil, that long before the events of the Time War, the Time Lords feared that the Hybrid is Half Dalek, Half Time Lord that will become this ultimate warrior. And of course, The Doctor knows about this, and of course, the Veil stops again, and of course, the castle begins revolving again. And that’s where The Doctor heads back to Room 12.
And of course, heading back to the TARDIS, this situation is getting majorly difficult for The Doctor to handle, stating that for once, he can lose this battle, but the chalkboard that Clara wrote says “No”. And that’s where grief steps in when he walks around and sits at the stairs till he felts something familiar on his face.
Yep, it’s the ghost of Clara motivating The Doctor at his time of need, telling him to get up, get over it, break free, move on, and telling him to win this for once in his life. And by the time that’s done, The Doctor begins punching the wall as the Veil begins to creep along towards him. Of course, he kept punching, and punching, and punching, but every time he does that, it’s hurting his hand. But of course, it’s too late because The Veil finally got him and kills him.
And as The Veil disappears, The Doctor is slowly dying and as he reaches towards the control panel of the teleporter, he has a lot of inner dialogue and by the time that Doctor dies, a new Doctor, which is the same as the beginning of the episode, comes out and do the same thing as the last, tours, getting chased, digs a hole, find a room, punched a wall, gets killed, and teleport again. And it keeps on going and going and going and going and going. About twenty something times he does that till he finally breaks the wall and got out of the castle. Which found out that castle is in the Confession Dial.
And of course, The Doctor landed on some planet and tells a little boy to tell “them” that he’s back and got something up his sleeve, and on his way. And this is no random planet that The Doctor has landed, and no, it’s not Mars.
He’s back on Gallifrey. That’s right, The Doctor finally...FINALLY found his home planet since 2013’s “The Day of the Doctor”. And just be thankful that finally it after 2 years. Or in Doctor Who terms, a long time. And of course, The Doctor says that the Time Lords got the whole thing wrong about the Hybrid. That the Hybrid is NOT half Dalek, half Time Lord. And thought that the Hybrid that is destined to conquer Gallifrey is “Me”. Thought he was referring to himself at first, but of course, he’s referring to Ashildr. But that’s enough for “Heaven Sent” and time to head to “Hell Bent” and I thought when this episode first premiered, thought we’re going to start off with The Doctor in Gallifrey, but no, we’re starting off in the middle of the desert in Nevada. Yeah.
So The Doctor enters the restaurant, that totally looked similar to the same restaurant that he once went with Amy, Rory, and River back in Series 6. He enters the restaurant and sees a waitress, revealed to be Clara, and begins telling the story of how got here in the first place.
That’s where we left off, The Doctor is back in Gallifrey and heads off to his childhood home, the barn. While that is happening, the High Council were notified that The Doctor has returned to his home planet, and of course got an unexpected visit from the Sisterhood of Karn. And the Lord President, Rassilon, who got a new face, sends the army to the Doctor. I mean, the guy just got back home and the Time Lords want him for something. Of course, The Doctor backed off the offer and Rassilon sends some members of both the High Council and the War Council to get him and again, The Doctor backed off till Rassilon arrives at the scene. The Doctor told Rassilon to leave the planet and Rassilon ordered the soldiers to fire at him, even though the General is against the idea of shooting The Doctor since he’s a war hero. The soldiers fired but missed The Doctor and begins siding with the Time Lord along with the General, kicking Rassilon out.
Of course, when The Doctor is back at the capital, he questions on why he was imprisoned in his own confession dial. Guessing it has something to do with the whole “Hybrid” situation. Time Lords still think that it’s Half Dalek, Half Time Lord, but The Doctor don’t think so. And The Doctor is using one of his lifelines, getting Clara for help. As in, stopping the moment that Clara was to get killed off by the raven. So it’s like Clara’s death never happen.
Of course, this was a ruse, the whole hybrid explanation from Clara is a ruse for The Doctor to save Clara and making the people and The General in the room being held hostage, he even shoots The General when leaving the room. Of course, The General is a Time Lord, so he regenerated...to a her. Yes, because “he” is now a “she”.
The Doctor took Clara to the cloisters and sees a lot of things from the Cloister Wars like a Dalek locked up in chains wanted someone to end his life, a Weeping Angel, and a Cyberman. Of course, while Clara and The Doctor have their chat, both The General and Ohila (one of the members of the Sisterhood of Karn) have the two surrounded. And while The Doctor head off somewhere, Clara fends off against the two and...yep, The Doctor took another TARDIS and taking Clara along with him.
And as The Doctor and Clara take off in a different TARDIS, the two has to make a pit stop first. And by pit stop, I mean visiting Ashildr in the far future.
Of course, The Doctor is mad at Ashildr for Clara’s “death”. And of course, Ashildr is bringing up the topic of the “Hybrid”. The Doctor thought it’s the Hybrid is someone, who is a human, with a piece of medical technology inside that person, hence, Ashildr. But Ashildr thinks that The Doctor might be a Hybrid, stating that he’s half human. Like we didn’t know that in the TV Movie in 1996. But however, we found out that there’s NOT just one, but TWO! Two Hybrids lurking around the universe. Thought it has something to do with both The Doctor and Missy (The Master) but Ashildr brought the ultimate truth bomb to the theory, him and Clara. Which lead to The Doctor preparing to wipe Clara’s memory of him. And...Clara overheard the whole thing from beginning to end when watching the monitor, hell, she even hears that The Doctor is going to wipe her memory. And the last time The Doctor wiped a companion’s memory of him was Donna. I mean, you can sense major chills coming from the Doctor Who fandom that we’re going to see a repeat of that. But what’s different between the two is that Donna got her mind erased telepathically and both The Doctor and Clara had to do it via button touching.
Of course, by the time the deed is done, Clara felt nothing, but The Doctor...got his mind erased. And if memory serves, if the person who got it’s mind erased remembers that person, that person who got it’s mind erased will die. Hope The Doctor won’t get to that. But then again, if that happens, he’ll just regenerate.
Which leads to where we are, the diner. Though he can’t remember her face, he remembers the adventures he and Clara shared. And before heading out, he remembered the time that he, Amy, Rory, and River went to the very same restaurant he is currently at when he faked his own death in his Eleventh incarnation back in Series 6. And by the time The Doctor leaves, the Restaurant disappears.
Finding out that it’s Clara’s TARDIS when Ashildr tells her that the Chameleon Circuit is broken, meaning that the TARDIS is going to be stuck in restaurant form. Just the way Clara wants it. And of course, before heading off, Clara tells Ashildr if the Time Lords are going to send Clara back to her time and place of death. And of course, Clara and Ashildr are heading to Gallifrey, as in not getting ready to face her death just yet.
As for The Doctor, he got back to his TARDIS, despite covered in paint that Rigsy made for the memory of Clara. And before heading off, two things. One, getting a new Sonic Screwdriver after abandoning the old one following accidentally giving it to the young Davros in “The Magician’s Apprentice”. And two, a message from Clara in the Chalkboard saying, “Run You Clever Boy and Be a Doctor”. And that’s where Series 9 comes to a close.
So why did these three episodes got the Number 2 spot in the Top 20 Countdown? Apparently, what I just saw with these three episodes was amazing to look at. A perfect way to close out the Ninth Season of the Revived Series. Not to mention, Jenna Coleman’s role as Clara Oswald. I mean, these episodes got it all, the feels, the suspense, the tension, the action, everything built into these episodes. And wow, what an ending these three has pulled. Kinda glad Clara is alive again...before sending her back to the time and place that she was suppose to be killed off. But of course, out of the three episodes of Doctor Who that made it to the Number 2 spot, I gotta go with either “Face the Raven” or “Hell Bent” because “Heaven Sent”, even though it’s the perfect stand alone episode for The Doctor and for Actor Peter Capaldi to show his acting skills to the max, “Heaven Sent” seems a bit confusing for me, rather a rewatchable episode to you guys. But of course, that’s my opinion. And of course, ready for Series 10 for Doctor Who. But anyway, that does it for the Number 2 spot. Stay tuned for the Number 1 spot tomorrow as we prepare to close out 2015 with feels, action, suspense, tension, and of course, counting down to that fandom’s time to end it’s run. As the Top 20 Countdown of the 2015 Fandom Season continues!
No comments:
Post a Comment