Hell Bent

Memories become stories when we forget them. Maybe some of them become songs.

I have a strong feeling that I'm in the minority with my opinions of this one. It was good, but I didn't like it as much as many of the other folks out there. More so because of use of the get out of jail free card used on Clara. Yes, she will die eventually in the trap street with the Raven; but she is not aging, nor is Ashildr, so they are free to roam about as long as they want so long as they go back to Gallifrey for Clara to die in the end.

To me, the poignancy of Face the Raven and especially of Heaven Sent, is the way the Doctor has to deal with the loss of Clara; to know that you can do all the right things and sometimes bad things happen and we suffer loss. Pulling Clara out and letting her effectively get away with cheating death seems like a cop-out. Granted, the Doctor did suffer loss and that is sad, but knowing that Clara and Ashildr are roaming the cosmos will mitigate the feeling of loss the audience has.

It was again, just too much of not wanting to deal with hard choices. Contrast this to The Girl Who Waited. There was no magical solution there. The Doctor made a choice that saved Amy, but he thrust Rory into the position of making the hard choice of deciding which Amy will die. That is the type of Kobayashi Maru situation that leaves a lasting impact and makes the drama that much more powerful. Similarly, Heaven Sent had great heft because the Doctor was forced to sacrifice himself many times, accepting the pain and death of each iteration to complete the final solution. It landed with impact because of what we saw the Doctor was sacrificing to achieve what was needed. Clara's escape from death cheapened both her original death and the Doctor's sacrifice in the two previous episodes, in my opinion.

With that out of the way, I did like the rest of it. There were a lot of comedic moments, especially in the interplay between the Doctor and Rassilon. I especially loved Rassilon's quip wondering how many regenerations they gave the Doctor and then saying he has all day. There were a lot of Western motifs in the first half of the story and that was also quite enjoyable.

One side note that bothered me was the presence of the Sisterhood of Karn. They were there to provide exposition but with Gallifrey having been transported to the end of time, how did the sisterhood get from Karn in a more or less contemporary plane to Gallifrey some many billions of years in the future? I suppose they could have been brought by another Time Lord, but the impression given is that the Time Lords are still in a bubble and unable or unwilling to leave their position. It's just odd.

I did enjoy the repartee regarding fan theories between Ashildr and the Doctor. The Doctor suggesting that Ashildr is the hybrid while she counters with the idea first proposed in the Doctor Who Movie that he is half human. That the hybrid question is left unsettled and ends up being something of a maguffin to the story is fine and neither helps nor hinders the story. It made for witty discussion.

I realize that most of my comments have focused on the negative and that is unfortunate. I enjoyed the episode overall and would happily watch it again. I just felt that the great impact of the previous episodes, the whole season even, were just undercut by the ending. It was well done, but it still leaves an unpleasant aftertaste in what had been such a good set up. Unfortunately, aftertaste is what tends to stick with you after the meal is over.

Overall personal score: 4 out of 5