Death In Heaven..Cybermen And A Psychotic Missy

Rebirth Of The Cybermen.

The Story Continues....

In part one of the series finale, Dark Water, we learnt that Missy (aka The Master), had been collecting the minds of the deceased to use as a new army of Cybermen.

In Death In Heaven, her reason for going to all this effort is revealed. No sooner have the Cybermen marched down the steps of St Paul's Cathedral, than the U.N.I.T. team arrive, led by Kate Stewart, daughter of the late, beloved Alistair Lethbridge Stewart for those who aren't familiar with that particular relationship. The Cybermen blast off into the air and explode to create an ominous looking dark cloud. To me, this make the Cybermen way too overpowered. I know we have seen flying Cybermen before but this simply makes them more like the Sentinels (Marvel comics robotic mutant killers).
I've always felt that the Cybermen were far more frightening when they showed an "organic" aspect of themselves. Despite advances in make up and costume, I still find the 10th planet Cybermen and to a lesser extent, the Earthshock models far more chilling.

Both the Doctor and Missy are tranquilised and taken aboard an Air force One style aircraft where the Doctor discovers that the enactment of emergency protocols have made him President Of Earth. The minds that have been harvested by Missy are then used to seed the cloud and it begins to rain on cemeteries around the world. This "rain" is actually something that is similar to nanobots that have the complete blueprint information to turn the dead into cybermen. The Doctor informs the U.N.I.T team that there is simply no defence against an army that can weaponise the dead.

The Death Of Danny Pink (for good no kidding).

Danny Pink started off as a fairly likable character but when writer Stephen Moffat continually used the character to berate the Doctor over morality and whether the Doctor was in fact a good man, he quickly became annoying

The dynamics between Danny and the Doctor became nothing more than two Alpha males beating their chests to try and impress Clara the female, Jane Goodall would've been impressed.
In 3W, Clara has been trying to convince a group of Cybermen that she is actually the Doctor in order to avoid being deleted. She gives the Cybermen the galactic coordinates of Gallifrey and a lot of other information relating to the Doctor. This scene was not thought out at all, in his attempt to write a clever scene, Moffat has ignored the fact that the Cybermen can simply scan her to see if she has two hearts. A cyberman materialises besides her and destroys the Cybermen and then teleports itself  and Clara to a graveyard. Upon removing it's faceplate we see it's Danny.

I did find Danny's  slightly zombie look horrifying and I give high praise to the costume and make up department for giving us this chilling vision of what it means to become "upgrated". Danny's emotional inhibitor hasn't been activated so he can still feel, especially his love for Clara. By this time the Doctor has arrived after Cybermen destroyed the plane and Missy escaped. In a really badly written scene the Doctor is falling to earth when he gets collected by the TARDIS.

The Doctor warns Clara that if she activates the inhibitor Danny will be fully Cybernised and will destroy her. Danny tells the Doctor to do it but he refuses (leading to another angry exchange between the two which nullifies any tension or sadnees from the situation).

Happy Birthday Doctor!

Missy arrives and the whole reason for her scheme is revealed. Yes it was Missy that brought the two of them together, she simply wanted to see how a control freak like the Doctor would be able to work alongside someone who couldn't be controlled. This does go towards some way to explain why I was never comfortable with the Clara character and why she was difficult to warm to but it does seem like a ridiculous reason when Moffat himself has built up the character so much.The Doctor tells Danny he needs to have the inhibitor switched off so Danny can gain access the hive mind and discover the Cyber plan. Finally, Clara switches off the inhibitor but Danny doesn't kill her because Moffat whacks us over the head with the Hallmark Card notion that loves is stronger than anything. That may have been a nice touch thirty years ago but it's been overused since then.

Missy explains the Cyber army is actually a birthday present for the Doctor to prove that they really aren't so different after all and now the Doctor can go and save all the people he wants to with his own army. The fact that the Doctor actually thinks about it is disturbing, OK, we have a darker Doctor but there is no way the Doctor would use the dead in any of his incarnations. He gives the Cyber control bracelet to Danny who goes into soldier mode to order the cybermen to fly into the cloud and destroy it and themselves as well.
Clara wants to kill Missy naturally, (seen that before with Martha Jone's mum). The Doctor tells her not to or she'll be no better than Missy, ho hum, been there done that etc. Missy is then conveniently  killed by a lone Cybermen who turns out saved Kate Stewart from falling to her death from the U.N.I.T plane. Why did this Cyberman save her? Because it was created from the skeleton that was her father Brigadier Alistair-Lethbridge Stewart in a piece of writing that has both angered and outraged fans.

Final Thoughts.

I'm not going to mention the farewell between the Doctor and Clara, I'm just glad she's gone. This Doctor should have had his own companion and not a left over one right from the start. Stephen Moffat felt his character was so big and important she was virtually given precedence over the Doctor all season. Somehow I don't think Clara Oswald will ever make the fan's list of top ten companions. This series was so patchwork in quality that I didn't look forward to each episode as I had in the past. The finale was cobbled together with loose ends quickly explained as though they were a minor issue. What I cannot and will not forgive the writers for is the way they have shaken my certainty in Doctor Who. I can now never truly believe a character is dead or a villain has been defeated since the producer constantly raises them like Lazarus, thus robbing the show of any genuine tension and making any death seem like a minor inconvenience.
Let us all hope the cobwebs from this series are finally swept away when the new season comes to our screens.

For another in depth review check out one of my favourite sites..Stranger Views