What Was Good About Doctor Who: Series 8?

The Best of Series 8

Doctor Who: Series 8 - End of Series Review by Nathan Brooks

Nobody hates Doctor Who more than Doctor Who fans. Sometimes I feel like the only Doctor Who fan who actually likes the programme. So, whereas most ‘Whovians’ right now would be thinking of another reason to decapitate Steven Moffat, I’m going to look back at what the Doctor Who crew gave us this year and decide what truly shined in series 8.

Best Change: The Doctor

Oh Nathan, you picked the Doctor as the best change, how original! 

Capaldi doing the hand thing.
I don't get it either.

Okay, hear me out. The Doctor in this series probably had the biggest change he’s ever had since Doctor Who’s 2005 revival. Although each Doctor since Eccleston has all been different, they’ve also all had at least one thing in common. They were, more often than not, nice people. Capaldi on the other hand, is extremely different. A lot of the time he treats the people he’s working with as idiots and as if they are all beneath him. He can often be pretty cruel to Clara, but fortunately he’s not unlikable because of this. You can tell that every time he does insult someone, it’s just his natural way of acting and doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s feelings. If the Doctor does sometimes go a bit too far, Clara is usually there to sort him out which often allows for some interesting conflicts between the Doctor and his companion that you haven’t really seen before (more on that later). Sometimes Capaldi’s cruel nature is actually quite funny and is where most of the comedy comes from with this Doctor. 

After Matt Smith’s extremely light hearted Doctor, I can see why a lot of people may not like Capaldi that much. I was certainly a bit sceptical, considering Matt Smith was (and still is) my favourite Doctor and I was definitely unsure about this drastically different Doctor. Yet now I think Capaldi was the perfect successor to Matt. If the next Doctor was just as nice and light hearted as Matt was (and the previous two as well) it would start to get boring. We needed something different to the previous three and Capaldi’s character is exactly that. The Doctor this series is the best change, because it came at the best time.

Best Improvement: Clara

Probably the main reason series 7 (at least the second half) was so weak was because of Clara, the Doctors new companion. The problem with Clara was that there was absolutely nothing unique about her "character".   It was as if she was created from a step-by-step guide to creating a Doctor Who companion for dummies and then anything emotional or interesting was just thrown out the window. I mean, her emotions ranged from happy to mildly confused by The Doctor and/or whatever the heck was going on. 

Clara receiving archery lessons
from Robin Hood himself

Now, with Capaldi’s arrival, she’s very very different. When she was with Matt’s doctor, they never seemed to have a single conflict with each other, which meant their relationship was never tested, which is boring. With Capaldi, Clara interacts very differently. As I mentioned earlier, Clara often has to keep the Doctor under control if he ever gets too rude and/or cruel, which is often quite funny, considering this Doctor is pretty full of himself. Eventually, these situations can end up in fall outs between Clara and the Doctor which (at least in new who) we’ve never seen on such a large scale before. Halfway through the series, Clara starts to question whether she can stay with the Doctor or not and almost ends up leaving him out of anger, rather than, I dunno, getting trapped in New York or another dimension or something. The only time we’ve ever got close to this was when Martha made the decision to leave David Tennant’s Doctor because he “barely notices her.” Even that was more out of acceptance that the Doctor clearly didn’t fancy her as much as she does him, as opposed to actual anger towards the Doctor. 

Another addition to the series that allows for some improvement with Clara is new character (and love interest) Danny Pink. Admittedly the love story here isn’t as strong as other character’s, such as Amy and Rory, but it does give someone for Clara to have some actual emotions towards, allowing the audience to also feel some actual emotions towards Clara. What’s also interesting is when Danny and the Doctor fall out with each other. Danny is a former soldier and the Doctor is famous for having a dislike of soldiers. Because of this, the Doctor feels that Danny isn’t good enough for Clara and will treat him pretty harshly, meaning Danny often gets very angry. Clara usually ends up in the middle of it all, leaving her in a very difficult position that she would’ve never have ended up in in series 7. These conflicts mean the Clara as to regularly make difficult decisions that test her character, allowing for much more development that before.

Clara’s character really let down series 7 and I’m sure a lot of people feared that she would also ruin series 8. Instead, the writers decided to give her some actual character as well as a story arch with some actual emotions in. Thanks to all these improvements, Clara has become a much more believable character who is now more welcome in the Doctor Who Universe than she was before.

Best New Character: Missy

For this section, I was split between two characters; Danny Pink and Missy. 

Samuel Anderson as Danny Pink

I first thought that Danny was the obvious choice, considering how prominent he was in most episodes and how much he managed to add to the series, mostly to Clara’s character. I did think, though, that Danny felt a bit like he was just there for Clara and if you looked past his relationship with her, there wasn’t much left. The show could’ve explored the fact that he used to be a soldier, which they didn’t really do until the finale and even then there wasn’t a lot about it.

Michelle Gomez as Missy

So that’s why I then went over to Missy. Being the main villain of this series, I thought it would make sense to include her. She’s also performed well by Michelle Gomez, who does a very good job of acting completely insane. However, Missy only made a big appearance in the series finale and wasn’t seen that often in the rest of the series. She also isn’t technically a new character, so she doesn’t properly fit into this category, but I don’t care, this is my blog, I can do what I want.

After a lot of thinking, however, I’ve decided that I’m going to go with Missy. Her insanity was very enjoyable and the humongous reveal of who she actually was was pretty surprising. She was also a much more darker character than usual, even going as far as killing another character that I thought was going to survive. It also helps that I really enjoyed the series finale, but more on that later. Missy, despite only being a semi-new character, is still the best.

Best Episode: Dark Water/Death in Heaven

Unlike the last section, I was certain about the best episode of this series. Now, before I start explaining my reasons why, I’d just like to point out that I count 2 parters as 1 episode. Well, now that’s out of the way, why was this particular episode so good? Actually, each part was good for different reasons. 

Dark Water Radio Times Poster

Part 1, Dark Water, was good because it was so creative. The concept they came up with for the afterlife was very clever and also quite enjoyable. Doctor Who hasn’t been this interesting since the debut of the Weeping Angels. What’s also good is that the concept also wasn’t confusing. With some episodes in series 7, such as Angels Take Manhattan and Name of the Doctor, it was difficult to get your head round the ideas presented in those episodes. Now don’t get me wrong, I still love those episodes, in fact Angels Take Manhattan is easily one of my favourite ever episodes. However, the fact that the concept they came up with in this episode was clever, yet simple to understand, is a huge bonus. 

Death In Heaven Radio Times Poster

Part 2, Death in Heaven, was good because it was dark and dramatic. I could definitely tell that this series was trying to go for a darker tone than previous series and no episode represented that more than Death in Heaven. What happened with Danny in this episode was a huge shock and was so unexpected. Missy was also very dark and insane too, as I mentioned earlier. This episode was also very dramatic, most of the episode being in either a crashing plane or in a graveyard full of cybermen. The only problem I have with this episode was that its ending was a bit too predictable, but other than that I still managed to enjoy this episode a lot.

This episode is possibly the best Moffat finale, with great drama, lots of creativity and a uniquely dark tone. In a way, it kind of summed up this series. Personally I think the first part was better than the second, probably because I enjoy Doctor Who more when it's interesting, as opposed to when it's dramatic.

Final Thoughts
If you value your life, don't ever become a Doctor Who show runner. No matter how good anything you do is, your 'fans' will still hate you. Unless that fan happens to be me, who for some reason actually likes Doctor Who. I know, it's ridiculous. There's obviously the odd, not as good episode, but this post is supposed to celebrate the positives of Doctor Who, so I'm going to leave that out. Instead, I'm going to leave you with my final rating of Doctor Who, series 8.

Overall: 9/10

The Doctor, still doing the hand thing