Liar, Liar! Death in Heaven reappraised (spoilers)

Sunday 9 November

Now I have seen Death in Heaven a second time, and I'm slightly more positive about it.

There are some weak points. The Cyber-pollen made a bit more sense second time around, but I still don't understand how Missy's magic bracelet/vortex manipulator/teleport could bring the boy Danny killed in Afghanistan back to life in Clara's flat. 'Time Lord technology' really isn't a good enough explanation.

Whilst Danny and the Doctor have never really got on, I found the way Cyber-Danny seemed to equate the Doctor with the officer class he despised a bit forced. It seemed as though Steven Moffat was trying to shoehorn in a reference to the old 'lions led by donkeys' view of the First World War.

On first viewing, I didn't register the significance of lying. We all know that rule number one is 'the Doctor lies' and that Clara has been lying to Danny for much of this season, but this really came to a head in Death in Heaven.

Clara lies to the Cybermen.

Seb lies to the people uploaded to the Nethersphere.

Missy lies to everyone, but particularly to the Doctor.

In the end, the Doctor and Clara lie to each other.

I don't know quite why Santa Claus has turned up, but with all that lying going on, I doubt that it's to fill the Doctor's Christmas stocking.

Death in Heaven: Initial thoughts (spoilers)

So what did I do?  I turned off everything connected to the internet and sat down to enjoy Partners in Crime and Fires of Pompeii, of course, and to be honest, I enjoyed them both rather more than some of the more recent series.

When the husband finally reappeared, he announced that we would watch Death in Heaven  straight away. This may have affected my appreciation of it, as I was half asleep by then.  I'll need to watch again to confirm my impression of it.

First impressions though:

As with many season finales, there was too much going on. The action was rushed in places, whilst there were also pauses for emotional scenes that didn't always work, and the plot was somewhat hard to follow in places.

Positives:

• I like the Missy incarnation of the Master. She's totally bonkers, but also recognisably the same person as the John Simm version.

• Osgood was excellent, and her death was shocking, although it was clear that the writing was on the wall when the Doctor appeared to offer her a trip in the TARDIS. 

• The Cyber-Danny also worked well, and was a logical continuation from Doomsday where the converted Yvonne still performs her 'duty to Queen and Country.'

• The pre-credit wind-up with Clara pretending to be the Doctor (which carried over into the opening credits).  It was obviously done so that they could have a clip in the trailer of her saying that Clara Oswald never existed, so full marks for an excellent fan teaser.

Negatives:

•  Earth Force One and the Doctor-President. (I never cared much for the Valiant, either). The whole idea of a planet-wide response to anything is implausible, and UNIT really ought to know by now that the Doctor doesn't do positions of responsibility.

• I didn't really get the point of the cyber-pollen turning the dead into Cybermen.  The original point of Cybermen was that they had replaced parts of their bodies with cybernetics, so why would they need real skeletons, when they could easily use artificial ones? And why harvest human minds to populate the bodies, when they have to delete the emotions that make them human?

• The magic bracelet or whatever it was that allowed one person to 'cross back over' with a living body didn't make sense.  Yes, it worked as an emotional climax to the episode, but how was it possible, given that the bodies had been cyber-converted?

• The Cyber-Brig: I suppose it was a nice idea, but I find it somehow disrespectful.  And if any of UNIT had to survive, I would have preferred Osgood to the annoying Kate.

In retrospect, I suspect that the theme was designed to fit in with the broadcast on the weekend of Remembrance Day, but at the moment, I think Family of Blood addressed this far more effectively.

So what should 'A'do?

I have a problem. The husband,  the one who is responsible for my Doctor Who obsession, has managed to arrange a night out tomorrow.

Without me. Which is fine, obviously, but as tomorrow night is the season finale, Death in Heaven, I'm left with a problem.

Should I:

a) Nobly stay away from the TV and the Internet until Sunday when we can watch it together;

b) Watch it anyway, but pretend I haven't?

c) Watch it anyway and tease him with spoilers?

I haven't decided yet, so watch this space.

***
Update:

Husband is confident that I will go for option A.

Meanwhile, I have thought of option D: watch something else but tweet random comments about Doctor Who  and Peter Capaldi to wind him up.  The Fires of Pompeii  should do nicely.

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Further update:

He's gone. It's making my mind up time.