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Legion contributor Angelique Toshi is recapping and reviewing the Doctor Who finale ‘Death in Heaven.’ Follow her on Twitter @angeliquetoschi.
When we last left Clara she was at St. Paul’s being approached by a recently activated Cyberman and The Doctor was outside on the steps with Cybermen flooding the streets of London, and every major city of the world. He is also confronted with the return of his archenemy and childhood friend, The Mistress, formally The Master. In the Nethersphere, Danny Pink is contemplating deleting his emotions while being confronted with his past.
Clara, confronted by a Cyberman, tries to reason with him in an attempt save her own life by telling him that she is, in fact, the Doctor and that Clara Oswald never existed. Back on the steps on St. Paul’s the people of London are taking selfies with the invading Cybermen. In a clever ruse Kate Stewart, Osgood, and UNIT show up to capture Missy just as she releases 91 Cyberman into the sky which proceed to form clouds that then “rain” down on graveyards and pollinate the graves of the dead, turning them into Cybermen with their newly returned souls harvested from the Nethersphere. UNIT proceeds to capture Missy (and The Doctor) and take them into custody – by tranquilizing them both.
When the Doctor awakens he is bound to a chair in an undisclosed location. Kate Lethbridge-Stewart releases and debriefs him on the situation, saying he has the whole military at his command because he has now been elected the President of Earth, and it is up to him to save the human race. Meanwhile, as a newly reawakened Cyberman, Danny Pink has found Clara, who is still trying to convince the other Cybermen she is the Doctor. She keeps insisting that she is a good liar. Danny agrees with her and in the first instance that shows that he has retained his memories and emotions, stuns Clara and kills the Cybermen in the room.
Back on the plane, Missy has a secret and she wants to tell Osgood. Osgood hesitates, knowing it would never been a good idea to get too close to Missy, but her desire to help The Doctor overcomes her and Missy whispers into her ear that she is going to kill her. Things quickly escalate when Missy frees herself and vaporizes after torturing her with a sadistic countdown to her demise. The death of Osgood is heartbreaking for the fans. Over the two episodes she has been in Osgood came to be representative of the Doctor Who fandom in general in the way she idolizes and wants to please the Doctor. Unfortunately, this desire to please The Doctor killed her in the end because Missy can’t have her around; she wants the Doctor to herself. With that she uses her wrist controller to have the Cybermen begin attacking and pulling apart the plane they’re all on.
Back on solid ground, Clara awakens in a graveyard with Cyberman Danny, but doesn’t know it’s him yet. When Danny finally takes off his Cyberman mask and reveals himself to Clara it’s to ask her to finish the Cyberman conversion process for him and turn on his emotional inhibitor. Clara calls the Doctor for help but the Doctor, knowing that completing this will remove all emotion from Danny and possibly kill Clara, pleas with her not to do it.
Back in the air Missy is telling the Doctor that he is just like her and it is revealed through flashback that she’s the one that brought and kept him and Clara together; “the control freak and the man who can’t be controlled”. In another stunning display of how she hates anyone that the Doctor is close to she opens the hatch of the plane and Kate is pulled out, falling to her apparent death. With the plan now fully pulled apart by her minions Missy disappears to the Nethersphere and The Doctor is in a freefall. Luckily the Doctor has one more trick up his sleeve and is able to call the TARDIS to grab him before he falls to the ground.
The TARDIS brings him to the graveyard where Clara is still trying to figure out which switch will grant Danny his wish. The Doctor once again pleas with her to not do this and tells Danny that pain is a gift, it means he is still human and has control. Then the Doctor asks Danny what Missy’s plan is. Unfortunately, Danny isn’t fully integrated into the Cybermen hive mind and can’t give him that information. So the Doctor is faced with a dilemma. Does he turn on Danny’s emotional inhibitor and find out Missy’s plan in order to save the human race, or does he save one man?
The Doctor needs to find out Missy’s plan but can’t bring himself to be the one to flip the switch. Clara steps up and agrees to do it and, taking the sonic screwdriver she points, thinks, and the emotional inhibitor is switched on. Then, not caring that Danny has turned into a killing machine, she embraces the Cyberman who, unlike others we’ve seen before, returns the embrace.Like a deranged Mary Poppins, Missy floats from the sky with a black umbrella over her head. She has come to give The Doctor a birthday gift, an army full of Cybermen that he can control, with just a bracelet. All Missy is trying to do is show him that they are the same because she needs her friend back. In this we get the final puzzle pieces of who this reincarnation of the Doctor really is: not a good man, not a bad man, not a hero or an officer, just an idiot with a box and a screwdriver, passing through, helping out, and learning.
Unlike Missy, he also realized that Danny and Clara’s love for one other helped Danny keep his promise to Clara not to harm her and meant that Missy couldn’t control him. This is the piece of information the Doctor needs to save the world. Danny, ever the soldier, is the only person he can trust to not abuse the power of control. When he throws the bracelet to him Danny knows what he must do, burn the sky of Cyberman by burning up himself. Heartbroken, Clara picks up Missy’s other device (which we have previously seen both kill and transport her) and points it at her. The Doctor, not wanting her to take this final step and become a murderer, begs her not to kill Missy, and if he needs to kill her to keep Clara from taking that final action, he will. But before can do this she evaporates in a blue light, leaving us unclear if she is alive or dead.
The groups’ attention is then drawn to a single Cyberman who points out a still alive Kate Stewart, lying on the grass. The Doctor realizes that the Cyberman must be her father, and former Doctor Who companion the Brigadier, another man of unbridled compassion and love who didn’t allow his emotions to be eradicated in the conversion. The Brigadier finally gets his salute from the Doctor, before incinerating himself along with the other Cybermen.
Fast forwarding two weeks in the future, Clara is awoken by Danny’s voice calling her. He figured out that the bracelet had enough power left for one person and one trip back across dimensions. In an act of unselfishness he sends the young boy through that he killed in battle, asking Clara to help him, and says his final goodbye.
Another two weeks pass and Clara is sitting in a restaurant with the Doctor. She has something important to tell him, but before she can do so he interrupts her, assuming that she and Danny are together again and she can no longer travel with him. He then proceeds to lie to Clara and tell her that it’s okay; he’s found Gallifrey using the coordinates Missy gave him before she disappeared, and is going home. In a very “Gift of the Magi” moment these two best friends lie to each other that everything is wonderful and as it should be. Giving one last hug to the Doctor, she finds out the reason he dislikes them so, because you can hide your face. In parting Clara thanks him for making her feel special on her travels with him. He replies, “Thank you for the same.”
Later on, in space on the TARDIS, Santa interrupts the credits to tell the Doctor that Clara’s not okay and he’s not okay, so what does he want for Christmas?Leading into the Christmas episode, we still have a few questions left unanswered. Is Missy dead? What was the big news that Clara wanted to tell The Doctor? And how can Santa resolve the Doctor and Clara’s unhappiness?
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