Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Hermione Norris, Samuel Anderson, Ellis George, Tony Osoba, Phil Nice, Christopher Dane.

Space for so long has been a conversation of banality to many, the interest in what lurks, glides and happens beyond our own atmospheric layer is not as awed as it was during the great Space Race or during the early use of the Space Shuttle programme. The Sun and The Moon seemingly as remote now as it was to ancestors who prayed to them as deities.

The Moon though harbours a secret, one that eclipses it being made of cream cheese, it has become the one thing that could wipe out existence on Earth and three astronauts have been charged with committing planetocide and only Clara, The Doctor and schoolgirl Ellis George have a chance of stopping it in Peter Harness’ absolute chiller but ultimately reward of an episode Kill The Moon.

There have been many that have derided Jenna Coleman’s time as the companion, perhaps it should be said in other’s eyes with a certain foolishness attached to their somewhat blinkered outlook. How many companions though have ever had the temerity to take the Doctor on, to give them a piece of their mind and with some justification for way in which The Doctor made Humanity grow up, made it make a decision in which it would fall or rise by and the result was a blistering fall out in which eclipsed the crumbling of Earth’s satellite.

If anything could win over the persistent doubters of Clara Oswald, of Jenna Coleman, then Kill The Moon is the best vehicle for it to happen. This was emotion, pent up raw rage towards a man she obviously adores but who has changed perhaps more than she can truly cope with. No longer playing the affable but highly intelligent fool, this is a man with much on his mind, much to teach and to witness him and the most important of all companions fall to pieces was the most touching and harshest of all moments.

There will discussions no doubt in years to come of which is the defining episode of Peter Capaldi’s period in the role of the Time Lord, Kill The Moon will surely feature heavily within those heated discussions to come. A classic in the making which is on a par emotionally with the likes of Last of Time Lords and Castrovalva, as brutally clinical as Inferno and as enjoyable as Let’s Kill Hitler. Peter Harness captured the brief laid out before him with impeccable style and with the right amount of horror and thought as is possible in 45 minutes. A significant moment in the series and throughout the long history of the programme!

Ian D. Hall