Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Donald Sumpter, Ken Bones, Clare Higgins, Maisie Williams, T’Nia Miller, Malachi Kirby, Linda Broughton, Martin T. Sherman, Jami Reid-Quarrell, Nicholas Briggs, Ross Mullan.
Living for a few thousand years would be enough for anybody of sound mind and disposition to start feeling the pressure of existence. When that person has been held captive, held hostage in a diabolical prison by the very people he saved, for over four billion years, it’s really not a surprise that the mind might fracture, that the one thing that kept the mind truly occupied during that time was the death of a much trusted and loved companion; it really is only to be certain that the mind is Hell Bent on revenge.
The final episode of the current series is not only a sumptuous affair of nods to The Doctor’s past but also one in which the future is not actually known. The long awaited return to Gallifrey, the showdown with those who the Doctor thought he destroyed, that he saw burn in the wrath of the War Doctor and to whom have been stuck at the end of time; all were offered to the viewer still reeling with the death of Clara Oswald.
It was an offering that was complicated, just as The Doctor’s relationship with his own race can be seen as frosty and fraught, and yet in between it all there was a story told to a young waitress in an American diner in which hearts would break all over again and the complexity that Time holds dear in ever rusting hands gave just one more question than answer and the realisation to the viewer that this has arguably been the best series overall since Doctor Who returned to television; if not in the long history of the tale a Timelord.
Peter Capaldi has surpassed any expectation in the role and alongside Jenna Coleman as erstwhile companion Clara, the series has really reached the type of high that it may never reach again. With Ken Bones and Donald Sumpter giving impressive performances as the General and The President and Clare Higgins reprising her role as one of the Sisterhood of Karn, the story took the viewer on a myriad of emotions that seemed always destined to pluck at the heart, to dig deeper into the viewer’s own personal judgment than at any other time.
A fantastic end to a brilliant series of arguably the finest television programme on the B.B.C., a truly auspicious conclusion.
Ian D. Hall