Doctor Who S34E12: "Death In Heaven" Spoilers

[B5B7]

Well re: the cybermen clambering around the plane, they were obviously channelling 'Nightmare at 20,000 Feet' ie they were "gremlins".

[Pelranius]

So is Missy dead or not? The Cybermen bolts (at least Danny's) usually resulting in the target blowing up, not vanishing into a blue haze (just like Missy's teleport).

[InsaneTD]

It made my girlfriend and I sad when they killed Osgood, especially after the doctor tells her to put travelling in the TARDIS on her bucket list. We really wanted her to be the next companion at that point.

[mr friendly guy]

Missy was self-admittedly nuts, and she has known the Doctor for a long time, I wouldn't be surprised if she counted on him summoning the TARDIS to save himself and just threw him out of the plane for shits and giggles.

Was dubious at the beginning but the episode grew on me, even if nuts Missy kept getting on my nerves throughout, and hey, thanks for bringing back Osgood (I didn't even remember respirator girl had a name) just to pointlessly kill her off.
I only know the Brigadier by nuWho references but I too was touched by the Doctor saluting him at the end.

And who the hell wears red shoes with a black suit?

The Brigadier's picture is on the plane. If you want good Brigadier stories from classic Who, I would suggest those within the Pertwee and Tom Baker era.

[Iroscato]

I actually really enjoyed it. Missy tempting the Doctor with an unstoppable army was ingenious, and Danny's scenes were very well done. 12 beating the TARDIS console in frustration at the end broke my freaking heart.
No idea what the hell's going on for the Christmas ep though...

[Broomstick]

About Danny never hurting Clara, and the Brig saving his daughter....

We have seen a Cyberman break programming before, in one of the earlier episodes with them ("Age of Steel"? It's been awhile). British loyalist goes to her conversion muttering "Queen and country" then later turns on other Cybermen, saying "for Queen and country!" over and over.

Apparently there are some types of loyalty that can break through the cyberprogramming. Not often, but there is precedent. So I'm not troubled by it showing up now and again.

How much such a Cyberman is capable of acting outside of that loyalty or cybercommand is unknown. It could be that the CyberBrig, once his daughter is safe and he receives no further commands, will simply sit down in a corner somewhere and do nothing. Or he took himself off somewhere that he would be unlikely to hurt someone. Or he went off to kill himself rather than continue as a Cyberman. We just don't know.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Does anyone know, what was the significance of that kid that Danny sent through instead of himself? It looks like he died in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

[Crazedwraith]

Does anyone know, what was the significance of that kid that Danny sent through instead of himself? It looks like he died in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

it's the same kid that asked to meet him in the previous episode 'Dark Water' and the implication is that's a kid Danny killed when he was a solider in Afganistan.

[Enigma]

I actually really enjoyed it. Missy tempting the Doctor with an unstoppable army was ingenious, and Danny's scenes were very well done. 12 beating the TARDIS console in frustration at the end broke my freaking heart.
No idea what the hell's going on for the Christmas ep though...

Yeah that scene where the Doctor was hoping to find Gallifrey and didn't..... heart wrenching.

As for the Christmas ep. there's a one minute trailer for it but I don't know what is going on since I can't hear very well.

[Tychu]

I liked it. As a season finale it worked well. It had all the scenes that finales for NuWho have (flash jumps to key words).

Besides the Clara/Pink crap, I would like to know if I'm insane. I don't get the hub-bub surrounding Osgood. I thought her character for the 50th anniversary episode fit nicely. That episode was fan service that had an integral place in the Doctor Who universe. But when I saw her in this I audably said "WHY"?!?!

[NecronLord]

About Danny never hurting Clara, and the Brig saving his daughter....

We have seen a Cyberman break programming before, in one of the earlier episodes with them ("Age of Steel"? It's been awhile). British loyalist goes to her conversion muttering "Queen and country" then later turns on other Cybermen, saying "for Queen and country!" over and over.

Apparently there are some types of loyalty that can break through the cyberprogramming. Not often, but there is precedent. So I'm not troubled by it showing up now and again.

It's happened once or twice in the old series as well, IIRC, it was in Tomb of the Cybermen (only a guy being mentally conditioned, not fully converted though) and Attack of the Cybermen, I think, I'm not sure though.

[Crazedwraith]

We have seen a Cyberman break programming before, in one of the earlier episodes with them ("Age of Steel"? It's been awhile). British loyalist goes to her conversion muttering "Queen and country" then later turns on other Cybermen, saying "for Queen and country!" over and over.

It was Doomsday and the head of Torchwood.

It couldn't be Age Of Steel since that was set in a monarchy-less parrallel dimension.

[Eternal_Freedom]

NecronLord: Yeah, it was Lytton in Attack of the Cybermen. He'd already been duplicated and conditioned by the Daleks previously, so it may be an result of that that he was able to resist the Cyberconversion.

[Starglider]

As my wife put it, it summed up series eight quite nicely; strong concepts and visuals that were squandered by disconnected plot, lack of direction/pacing and Clara being annoying. I would have preferred Kate to get a heroic death instead of Osgood being executed followed by excessive Brigadeer fan-service; would have been more fitting and Osgood had more room for character development. It more entertaining than most of the season, but still a bit unsafisfying.

Overall series 8 is tied with series 3 as a low point of the New Who series (although I did like Martha and the ending was excellent; series 4 OTOH was pretty good right up to the awful ending). I know River annoyed some fans, but I liked her and my wife thought she was great; strong outrageous character that had credible explanations for getting away with what she did and was well characterised without being overused. This season Clara got away with constant bullshit, agnst and bad decisions justified by writer fiat. Frankly the writing and to some extent the production just seemed lazy this year; Moffat had a great run with Matt Smith, but despite a strong effort from Capaldi it just didn't work well this time.

[NecronLord]

Also, the Doctor's job as 'President of Earth,' I get the strong feeling it started off in the script as 'dictator' at some point, and then someone changed it. Would be interesting to know if my intuition is correct.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Something random just occurred to me. When they're on the plane the Doctor asks if they're taking him to "Cloudbase," Kate asks if he means the Valiant, and she explains that it's "too conspicuous" as opposed to "it got shot down by the Daleks."

So either Stolen Earth crap didn't happen (or the Valiant somehow survived, which seems unlikely) or they rebuilt it.

[NecronLord]

I was also pleased to hear the news announcer say "these are called cybermen ... unlike the previous times we've encountered cybermen they can now fly." At least the humans have remembered this time.

I would be interested to know how these cybermen fare against daleks, if the Master's claim that they could break people out of dalek concentration camps is accurate, that presumably implies it's no longer a matter of 'pest control.'

[Eternal_Freedom]

That makes me suspect that these are Cybermen upgraded with Time Lord technology courtesy of Missy/Master, and not just the regular upgraded power-armour.

[Enigma]

Somehow I doubt Missy's Cybermen can compare to the Mondas Cybermen in "Nightmare in Silver".

[Bedlam]

Somehow I doubt Missy's Cybermen can compare to the Mondas Cybermen in "Nightmare in Silver".

I actually wondered if these were the forerunners to those, the upload / download from the necrosphere could lead to a more hive minded race as seen in Nightmare.

[DaveJB]

It'd certainly explain how the "Nightmare in Silver" Cybermen were so absurdly wanked-out. Hell, maybe Missy even incorporated some technology from the Raston Warrior Robot.

[Enigma]

Unless Missy's Cybermen time travelled, I seriously doubt it.

[Sharp-kun]

I didn't overly mind it, though the Clara focus continued to grate on me. At least she's gone. Had some nice bits.

Cyber-Brig did bother me though. When watching Dr Who as a kid the Brigadier was awesome and one of my favorite characters. I was really sad when Nicholas Courtney passed away. He's a character that should remain dead, not be resurrected in a form the Doctor has said on several occasions is horrific for the person in it. Just didn't sit right with me and its not like it added anything.

[Korto]

What got me was the contradiction, where the writers were trying to make UNIT seem competent with their, well, being there, prepared and all, and then their complete and utter incompetence with Missy.
She should have been strip-searched, body cavity searched, X-rayed, and stuck in prison pyjamas, all while still unconscious. Bloody TSA could do better than that bunch of clowns.

[dragon]

It's confirmed Missy to return

Michelle Gomez has said that she’ll be returning for Series 9.

Gomez is asked in the new DWM whether or not Missy be back next year and she replies, “Yes.”

Adding: “‘Yes’ is my answer. I’ll be back. Can I say that? Am I allowed? If not… well, I guess we’ll have to see how she’s received…”

The interview also reveals that a decoy version of the reveal in Dark Water was shot in case any members of the public overhead. In this version Missy said she was actually the Rani.

The dialogue was as follows: “You know who I am. I’m Missy. Or, if you’d prefer, Random Access Neural Integrator. Rani for short.”

link