Maureen Flynn's Blog, page 11

Doctor Who Review: The Witch’s Familiar

Wow, two episodes into the new series, and I’m already a blog post behind… AGAIN. This is what happens when I go to Conflux. Anyway, the follow up to The Magician’s Apprentice is even better than its first act. Who doesn’t love a Clara/Missy double act, Skaro, Davros and tricksy moments between The Doctor and one of his more long running enemies?

Missy and Clara

I cannot emphasise enough how much I enjoy Michelle Gomez as Missy and would pay good money to see her in her own spin-off show. I quite liked seeing how Missy interacted with Clara as a ‘makeshift’ companion: from ‘make your own pointy stick’ to a lecture of respect, to making Clara climb into a Dalek, what a firecracker this character is.

I couldn’t help but wonder if The Doctor had signed Clara’s almost death warrant when he demanded that the Daleks produce Clara alive and never mentioned Missy once. The Master is jealous and cruel and doesn’t like to share. Moffat also did some nice foreshadowing by having Clara climb inside a Dalek early on necessary for both Clara and Missy to rescue The Doctor from Davros. It is horrifying when Clara tries to parrot Missy’s phrases (I love you, You are different to me, exterminate), yet Missy’s plan to infiltrate Davros ship makes sense.

It makes the final stages of the episode all the more powerful when Clara is trying to tell The Doctor that she is Clara Oswald and alive. if people thought that Moffat was allowing The Master to become too likable, this moment should have re-assured. For one frightening moment, I thought that the show was actually going to have The Doctor kill Clara thinking she was a Dalek and manipulated by Missy. Of course, the show could never really have gone there. Murder of his own companion is something that I don’t think The Doctor would ever recover from, but for one powerful moment, it seemed possible…

What’s In A Name?

The Doctor Who Watchalong group I frequent got caught up on the episode titles. I see them as allegory. The Magician’s Apprentice referred to The Doctor as magician teacher of Davros. In the first part, we thought he made Davros the villain he becomes in adulthood. The Witch’s Familiar flips that concept on its head. Instead, The Doctor teaches Davros compassion. The Witch’s Familar then, refers to Missy as The Witch and Clara as The Familiar, which makes me wonder very much how Clara will exit the show and whether she will leave it enemy or friend.

Gallifrey, Missy and The Doctor

This plot twist on why The Doctor left Gallifrey from the beginning seems to have split the fandom. I’m withholding judgement until more unfolds, but like The Wedding of River Song, there is scope for Moffat to get it very wrong. Still, I quite enjoyed Missy accusing The Doctor of being the one who had always run away before she ran off down a corridor and her un-nerving declaration that she had chosen Clara for The Doctor to show “In a way, this is why I gave her to you in the first place; to make you see. A friend inside the enemy, the enemy inside the friend. Everyone’s a bit of both. Everyone’s a hybrid.” was quite brilliant. Part Dalek, park Time Lord, though? And what exactly is The Doctor’s confession? Not sure if this is a terrible idea or genius?



Redemption or deception?

The quiet heart of this episode was definitely The Doctor’s dialogue with a dying Davros. Davros in The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End lacked conviction or power for me. This episode, he raises the ‘am I good man?’ theme which The Doctor faced from series 8;

Davros: Did I do right Doctor? Tell me, was I right? I need to know before the end. Am I a good man?

Davros even appears happy when The Doctor reveals that Gallifrey has been saved from the Time War.

Davros: If you have redeemed the Time Lords from the fire, do not lose them again. Take the darkest path into the deepest hell, but protect your own … as I have sought to protect mine.

Bizarrely, The Doctor and Davros even share a laugh together over Davros’ death bed:

Doctor: You really are dying, aren’t you?

Davros: Look at me. Did you doubt it?

Doctor: Yes.

Davros: Then we have established one thing only.

Doctor: What?

Davros: You are not a good doctor.

Such banter couldn’t help but feel tinged with unreality. The Doctor/Davros truce couldn’t last. I doubt many were all that surprised when Davros back-stabbed The Doctor, trying to use The Doctor’s regenerative energy to trap him. More surprising was The Doctor’s second guessing of Davros’ plan and his use of regeneration energy to contaminate the Dalek’s, causing ‘the sewers to revolt.’

Compassion, Doctor

We all knew that The Doctor wouldn’t really harm a small boy, regardless of who he grew up to hurt and what he later created. Does this mean the look on The Doctor’s face which Clara interpreted as shame, wasn’t shame after all?

The Doctor: I didn’t come here because I’m ashamed – a bit of shame never hurt anyone. I came because you’re sick, and you asked.

The lines in this section of the episode are simple and beautiful. At a Doctor Who panel at Conflux on the weekend, myself and other panelists discussed the fundamentals of the show and all of us agreed that the fundamentals of the show are what fellow pannelist John Blum termed ‘the adjectives’ – things like ‘never cowardly, never unkind, never give up and never give in,’ and now ‘compassion.’

Davros: It is so good of you to help me.

Doctor: I’m not helping you. I’m helping a little boy I abandoned on a battlefield. I think I owe him a sunrise.

The ending of this two parter was so simple and yet so beautiful. The Doctor destroys the hand mines and rescues a young Davros, contaminating him, and through him, his Daleks’ by showing young Davros compassion.

Doctor: I’m not sure any of that matters. Friends, enemies. So long as there’s mercy. Always mercy.

A strong episode because of its willingness to focus on character moments, quiet drama and relationships and made more interesting than its first part because of a clever spin on the true morality of The Doctor, The Witch’s Apprentice is a classic.

The Witch’s Apprentice: 11/10 inky stars

Doctor Who: The Magician’s Apprentice Review

Wow! I can’t believe it’s already time to be back blogging to schedule! I promise to review Last Christmas in the near future, but in the mean time it is so glorious to have new episodes of Doctor Who back and at Series 9 and counting too! Read on and expect spoilers!

The Magician’s Apprentice was glorious: unexpected, thought provoking and sparkling with fun, energy and great dialogue tempering the darkness which has characterized Capaldi’s Doctor. I felt that Capaldi worked for me as The Doctor from midway through Series 8 on, though the whole series last year felt more grown-up somehow, with the show unafraid to explore characters, allowing for moments of quite intense darkness and tackling some serious moral questions. For a show that’s now nine series in (and that’s just the new stuff), Doctor Who is certainly an example of a show that constantly re-invents. Some of this is the nature of the show itself (a show that has a time machine that can go anywhere in time and space offers a lot of scope to explore), but I also firmly believe that the current international success of the show is down to the work of Moffat. Say what you like about his ability to execute his big ideas, it is irrefutable that the ideas are there. Without his commitment to re-inventing the show, pushing viewers in unexpected ways and going against expectation as well as his audacious daring in messing with long-standing classic Who canon, I don’t think this opener would have happened at all.

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Rug-Pulling

Moffat rug-pulling isn’t new and the last time we saw it was with the Missy reveal at the end of the excellent Dark Water. Moffat doesn’t waste time in pulling the rug out from under the viewer in the opening five minutes of The Magician’s Apprentice. There is a return of the war and soldier motif with a soldier trying to help a small boy surrounded by hand mines to escape an unnamed war zone. The soldier is exited. The audience pities the poor boy, feels his terror and prays The Doctor will come and avert the boy’s imminent death. The Doctor obliges.

The Doctor: Your chances of survival are one in a thousand… so here’s what you do… concentrate on the one… survival is just a choice.

So far, so good. The Doctor as a bringer of hope and of survival continues to go to form when he asks:

The Doctor: What’s your name? Tell me the name of the boy who isn’t going to die today.

The boy’s answer is a ‘jaw hit the ground’ moment, chilling and compelling.

“Davros.”

Not since The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon has an introduction episode felt so much like a finale.

Universe Continuity

One of the things RTD did well was making his series tie into each other so that the world felt connected and real. Moffat has done less of this, focusing more on concept story-telling and links to classic era Who, rather than emphasizing links to New Who. The Magician’s Apprentice feels richer for moving forward by looking back with a number of familiar places and people returning (The Maldovarium bar from Series 5 and 6), The Ood from Series 2, 4 and the Ten Christmas specials, The Shadow Proclamation and Davros from Series 4 and going back further, the sisterhood of Karn and the Dalek planet, Skaro, from classic Who). I, for one, would love to hear more from Karn and The Shadow Proclamation.

Clara Who?

I have never been keen on Clara. Governess Clara and Dalek Clara were just so much more interesting than modern day Clara. However, I did enjoy the show’s push in Series 8 to show a slow morph of Clara’s role in the show from mere companion to surrogate Doctor, culminating in her ability to perform The Doctor part in Death in Heaven pre-credits. However, in The Magician’s Apprentice I felt like Clara has finally come full circle as a companion and no longer has any place left to grow or go.

This series she is still teaching, this time Jane Austen, with a throw-away line about Austen being a great kisser (What adventure was this? Someone write the fan fic) and a command to the class to use the hashtag #planeshavestopped on Twitter. Clara is a confident and hip teacher, the cool English teacher we’ve all had at one point who nonetheless never made a lick of sense. Not only that, she’s the person UNIT calls when something’s gone wrong. She makes logical deductions rather than calling on The Doctor to make them for her (texting definitely isn’t The Doctor’s MO, planes frozen in time doesn’t equal an invasion, so logically it’s a call for attention). Alas, after she pairs with UNIT and Missy, her role becomes redundant.

The Twelfth Doctor

The Doctor is more fun this episode. Capaldi’s Twelve is still full of sadness and darkness, but there is a sense of Eleven underneath it all, made explicit when Twelve plays guitar on a tank Mad Max: Fury Road style and plays his audience with Missy like some kind of rock star. That doesn’t mean this Doctor doesn’t have gravitas. He’s just loosened up a bit since Series 8.  He teaches Medieval England the word ‘dude’ a few centuries early for heaven’s sake!

Best of Frenemies?

Oh, how glad I am to see an earlier than expected return of Missy. Michelle Gomez is an enormous asset to the series, able to play comedy, deranged mad woman, little girl lost and cold Time Lord within seconds of each other. Her pathetic explanation of how she survived Death in Heaven was suitable Delgado (“cutting to the chase… back again, big surprise), her tea session with UNIT and Clara awful yet entertaining (“NO, OF COURSE I’VE NAE TURNED GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD” followed by disintegration of some of UNIT’S lackeys), her deranged singing and dancing whilst held captive odd, but fun and her barbed comments entertainingly Master. There are too many great moments to recap, but the below was pretty great:

Missy: How’s your boyfriend? Still tremendously dead, I expect?

Clara: Still dead, yep. How come you’re still alive?

Missy: Death is for other people, dear.

One of the most interesting aspects of The Master as The Doctor’s distorted mirror has been the element of loving to hate each other, especially in New Who with both seeing themselves as the last of their kind. Though I enjoyed Simm’s Master initially, it felt like there was more to explore. Enter Missy and Moffat. Clara thinks The Doctor has sent his will to her and is mockingly rebuked by Missy (an echo of Madame Vastra in The Name of the Doctor. “The Doctor does not share his secrets with anyone. What makes you an exception?”) I loved Missy’s explanation of the long-standing friendship:

Missy: See that couple over there? You’re the puppy.

Clara: Since when do you care about the Doctor?

Missy: Since always. Since the Cloister Wars. Since the night he stole the moon and the President’s wife. Since he was a little girl. One of those was a lie, can you guess which one?

Missy: Try, nano-brain, to rise above the reproductive frenzy of your noisy little food chain and contemplate friendship. A friendship older than your civilization, and infinitely more complex.

When The Doctor plays to his Medieval audience, including Missy in his ‘performance,’ the two are performing parts that Clara has no part in, regardless of her deep knowledge of The Doctor and his history. Still, the script reminds us why The Doctor needs his human companions when Davros’ messenger tells The Doctor that Davros knows and remembers. Missy asks what the look on The Doctor’s face means. Clara already knows.

Clara: Shame. Doctor, what have you done?

The difference between Missy as The Doctor’s friend and a human companion is that whilst The Master can match The Doctor for intellect, shared history and culture and sheer bloody mindedness and audaciousness, humanity reminds The Doctor about the importance of emotions and why having heart matters. When The Doctor forgets his hearts, he is capable of horrendous things.

The Doctor’s Moral Choice

The Doctor: Davros made The Daleks, but who made Davros?

Who indeed? The heart of the darkness in this episode sits with Davros and his relationship with The Doctor. Davros is a real threat this time, less cartoonish as he was in The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End, scarier, more grounded and graver.

Davros: I approve of your new face Doctor… so much more like mine.

Like Missy, Davros becomes a mirror reflecting the possible inhumanity of The Doctor (we’re not so different, you and I. The Doctor goes to be with his human children to die, Davros to Skaro with his Daleks). What a conceit it was on Moffat’s part to riff off an old classic like Genesis of the Daleks, but it is a conceit that pays off. The lines, “If someone who knew the future pointed out a child to you, and told you that that child would grow up totally evil, to be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives, could you then kill that child?” are infused with a new horror. Could The Doctor, the hero of our show, really have created a monster, and knowing that he had, would he go back and change his past, murder a child, to prevent a more horrific future, and if he did this terrible thing, would he still be The Doctor?

Watching Clara get played with by Davros’ children is equally chilling.

Davros: See how they play with her. See how they toy. They want her to run. They need her to run. Do you feel their need, Doctor? Their blood is screaming kill, kill, kill! Hunter and prey, held in the ecstasy of crisis. Is this not life at its purest?

It is that moment that pushes The Doctor to the brink.

The Doctor: Why have I ever let you live?

Davros: Compassion, Doctor. It has always been your greatest indulgence. Let this be my final victory. Let me hear you say it, just once. Compassion is wrong.

Davros doesn’t hear The Doctor say it, but in this cliffhanger, actions speak louder than words with The Doctor going back along his time line to kill the boy who grew up to create The Daleks and cause The Time War. Will The Doctor follow through, and if he does next week, will he still be The Doctor as we know him? I don’t know. But I’ll be glued to the screen next week to find out.

The Magician’s Apprentice: 10/10 inky stars

Doctor Who Re-Watch: Death in Heaven Review

This finale was reminiscent of RTD era Who finales in many ways: great set-up with a not so great kitchen sink final follow up. Having said that, there was still enough Moffat touch in this finale to prop the episode up and catapult it into one of Moffat era Who’s best finales. Besides, Missy doesn’t add a lick of fun to an episode… SAID NO ONE ABOUT MICHELLE GOMEZ EVER. Ahem. As you were.

Clara Who?

Clara Who returns with a vengeance this episode with Clara pretending to be The Doctor, having gained enough knowledge and having the fast talking skill to almost get away with it.

Clara: Clara Oswald is a cover story – a disguise. There is no Clara Oswald.

Cyberman: Identify.

Clara: Oh, don’t be so slow, it’s embarrassing. Who could fool you like this? Who could hide right under your nose? Who could change their face any time they want? Hmm … You see, I’m not Clara Oswald. Clara Oswald has never existed.

Jenna Coleman also made Whovian history with her name appearing before Capaldi’s in the opening credits. Regardless of how one feels about Clara (and she certainly isn’t one of my favourites), it is undeniable that her character has left an enormous impact on the way we understand the role of companions and has changed the face of canon forever.

An RTD Feel?

Let’s get this out of the way. The big, bad cybermen plot felt more than just a bit silly, in the same way Daleks have felt since Series 2. There was something about pollen and rain birthing more cybermen to cover and conquer all of earth. Or something. There’s silliness with UNIT in an airplane with one UNIT employee who exists to say 2-3 lines before a quick dispatch (pointless, no?) and the irritating return of Doctor worship which I thought we’d left behind with Ten (The Doctor as President of Earth). Clara and Danny do have some touching moments but cyber-Brigadier was a bit weird and ‘this is the promise of a soldier’ stuff more than un-necessarily dramatic. I can’t get past it. Clara and Danny were never as operatic a couple as Amy and Rory. Having said that, the series 8 dedication to a continuing theme and characterization proved beautiful and effective.

“Am I a good man?”

The thread that began in Deep Breath and Into the Dalek is finally faced head-on in this finale. Missy’s plan is proven to have nothing to do with world domination for power’s sake at all, but is rather a birthday gift for someone whom she wants to reclaim as friend. It is a chilling moment, the completion of Kate’s claim that The Doctor is the chosen President of Earth in danger. The Doctor could take Missy’s cyber-human hybrid gift and become like her. He could go forth with his army and in the name of universal and intergalactic justice, force peace and understanding via bloodshed and fear. He could do it all claiming he was a good man, a hero, a President. The Doctor doesn’t.

Missy: Armies are for people who thing they’re right. And nobody thinks they’re righter than you! Give a good man firepower and he’ll never run out of people to kill… Every battle, every war, every invasion. From now on, you decide the outcome. What’s the matter Mr. President? Don’t you trust yourself?

The Doctor: Thank you! Thank you so much! I really didn’t know. I wasn’t sure. Did I say sometimes, thank you! I am not a good man. And I’m not a bad man. I am not a hero. I’m definitely not a president and no, I’m not an officer. You know what I am? I am an idiot! With a box and a screwdriver, passing through, helping out, learning.

It was a very classic Who moment and it catapulted an otherwise average episode into brilliance.

Missy as dark mirror

We get to see more of Gomez’s Missy here and she is shown to be more chilling and violent than even her appearance in Dark Water. Though it is left to our imaginations as to how Missy escapes her bonds without security reacting, her capture of Osgood is horrible. A part of me kept insisting the show wasn’t going to go there with such a cruel death, but they did. Missy played with her food like a spider and then pounces as Osgood starts to plead pathetically for her life.

Missy: I’m going to kill you in a minute. I’m not even kidding. You’re going to be as dead as a fish on a slab any second now all floppy and making smells. But don’t tell the boys! This is our secret girl plan.

I was grinning at her psychopathic propensity for humour even as I felt sick at the cruelty she displayed and maybe this is why Missy felt so scary. Even as the audience is entertained by her actions, we become complicit in her villainy. When she dispatched Kate from the plane I was shouting furiously at the TV, but a part of me still wanted Missy to get away with it. Missy’s reveal that she’d pushed Clara to be with The Doctor was intriguing and sick:

Missy: ‘Cause she’s perfect, i’n’t she!’ The control freak and the man who can never be controlled. You’d go to hell if she asked, and she would. The phones ringing Doctor, don’t you hear that? Now that’s the sound of your chain being yanked. Heel Doctor! Help me Doctor, help me. Help me, Doctor!

Not since the Delgado incarnation has there been such an effective Master. Missy mirrors The Doctor back on himself and reminds him of all the things he has been and can be and most of all is afraid to ever be again. It is perhaps the reason why he is so hesitant to shoot her and why a part of him wants to find her again. It is also why there is such pathos and sadness in the below lines delivered so beautifully by Capaldi.

The Doctor: I had a friend once. We ran together, when I was little. And I thought we were the same, but when we grew up, we weren’t. Now, she’s trying to tear the world apart and I can’t run fast enough to hold it together. The difference … (puts his hand on Danny’s heart) is this. Pain is a gift. Without the capacity for pain, we can’t feel the hurt we inflict.

The one difference between Missy and The Doctor then is one’s capacity to feel pain, and the others persistent suppression of that pain.

The Clara/Doctor relationship

The last twenty minutes of this episode were really strong. There was again beauty in The Doctor parting with Clara to find Gallifrey even as Clara stayed home to be with a returned Danny. Only both friends lied to the other because they believed it was the only way to give the other what they supposedly wanted. Danny gives up his own chance of renewed life for the Afghani boy meaning Clara is all alone and in a very sad sequence, The Doctor travels to Missy’s Gallifrey co-ordinates to find empty space. We feel his agony as he smashes in rage at his TARDIS console. Not for a long time have we seen a Doctor display such raw emotion.

But at least he and Clara leave each other on a heartfelt moment of shared friendship:

Clara: Thank you for making me feel special.

Doctor: Thank you for exactly the same.

With the best villain New Who has seen in years, some beautiful character and thematic development and beautiful lines of dialogue which remind us why we watch a show about a mad man with a box, Death in Heaven transcends its silly villain of the week storyline to become a more operatic look at the nature of The Doctor and why it is we care about him.

Death in Heaven: 8/10 inky stars

Doctor Who Re-watch: Dark Water Review

I have watched this episode the most of all of series 8 and it is by far my favourite. It is the episode where we get Missy unleashed, Danny and Clara find their emotional centre, Samuel Anderson learns to act and some lovely characterization occurs. Oh, and the story is dark and horrifying to boot. What’s not to love? The only bad part the first time around was that a friend told me the fate of Danny before I’d viewed the episode.

Dark Water is the perfect example of the return of Moffat rug pulling. He is the master of diverting your attention one way while he does another thing. I certainly had no idea that Danny would get fridged before the opening credits just as Clara told him the truth about how she felt. Kudos to Jenna Coleman for some great acting in the phone call scene and the subsequent scenes with her grandmother (who incidentally is a great character and I’d love to learn more about her next series). Jenna definitely shines alongside Capaldi in a way she never did with Matt Smith. There was poetry and sadness and pain in the following lines:

Clara’s grandmother: It was a terrible, terrible thing. You both deserved better. You deserved better.

Clara: It was boring. Ordinary… nobody deserves anything… but I am owed better… I am owed.

There was a quiet yet terrible conviction in Clara’s voice which felt just as frightening as anything Missy devised.

The Clara/Twelve Friendship

When Clara reunites with Twelve, we get to see control freak Clara in action, the Clara who doesn’t give a damn about the rules (time can be re-written with great precision and care and I don’t care). The lava and the disintegration of multiple TARDIS keys was truly terrifying and the first time around I genuinely had no idea of how Moffat was going to write himself out of the problem. For once there was storytelling purpose behind the attention grabbing start, with The Doctor wanting to know how far Clara will go for Danny.

When Twelve tells Clara to go to hell, she thinks it is literal, but The Doctor means to find Danny and when he realizes his mistake and explains, Clara questions his sudden kindness to her. I haven’t always been sold on Twelve, but the latter half of the series saw him deepen beyond the mere curmudgeonly. The line, “did you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?” is one of the most poignant lines I’ve ever heard on Doctor Who. What a beautiful affirmation of true friendship!

The Doctor’s assertion to Clara that they will search the afterlife for Danny is also telling. His shocked face when the TARDIS actually brings them to a location indicates that he didn’t really think his plan would work and later, his comments to Doctor Chang when he says “the dead are dead” reinforce that he had no faith in finding Danny. He had no faith, but he tried anyway. For Clara and for the friendship they share. For the sake of helping his hurting friend to heal.

Clara: I don’t deserve you.

Doctor: I’m sorry Clara, but I’m exactly what you deserve.

Again, lines delivered as quiet drama, but somehow far more powerful than battles and explosions.

The Danny/Clara Relationship

For the first time since the end of Listen, I believed, really believed in the Danny/Clara relationship (when he was dead!) Dark Water sees Samuel and Jenna play a lot of scenes apart and I think the separation did them good. There was no real chemistry between the two and I found Samuel Anderson to sound too whiny in scenes where he talked with Clara (even in Dark Water I noticed this when Danny first began to speak to Clara over the iPad). In death, he found new lease of life and I found it in me to care about what happened to him. At episode’s end, when Danny continued to repeat “I love you” in an attempt to prevent Clara from finding a way to the afterlife, it is truly sad and truly noble. He knew control freak Clara too well and would have done anything, anything at all, to prevent her from finding herself in the hell he was in.

Dan, the soldier man

Dan, the Soldier Man, was always someone we were told about and told to care about far more than we were ever shown. Though some may feel it was too little too late, Dark Water finally showed us Danny’s past, and allowed Samuel to highlight his character’s vulnerability, crippling guilt and rage over the accidental murder of a young child. The callous way Seb reunited the two was chilling, his calm, yet mocking explanations of Heaven cruel and difficult to watch.

Missy’s Heaven 

The Nethersphere/Heaven/The Promised Land was all an illusion – a hideous mockery of human belief in life after death, so nightmarish because of its alignment to earth style bureaucracy. Hologram Seb in his white suit and surrounded by plain, yet pristine, white walls, felt like a government official out of the Department of Human Services.

The bureaucracy hides an even darker purpose. Danny is shown a traumatic memory to help him on his journey to become a Cyberman. The supposed choice is simple: die screaming giving your body to science or have more life than you expected facing your deepest fears and insecurities. Faced with such a choice, it is no wonder people chose to delete their human emotions.

I’m not sure where Missy’s lovely garden so similar to The Girl Who Waited fits – perhaps her TARDIS after all?

Missy’s Diabolical Plan

Oh, and what a plan Missy had. When we were first introduced to Missy, I prayed that she wouldn’t be the next incarnation of The Master. I’d had my fill of the character as John Simm hammed up the role with an abhorrent script in The End of Time so badly, I couldn’t picture the character genuinely frightening again. I was so wrong. Michelle Gomez as Missy/Mistress/The Master is funny (Ranting Scotsman and I’m not a Dalek) at the same time as she is callous and frightening (Now let’s not dwell on horrid things… I’m not going to kill you until you say…something…nice). She reminded me of a poisonous spider – fascinating yet very dangerous.

Missy’s plan is complex in some ways, but for the most part fiendishly simple. Using Time Lord technology she uploads the souls of the dead into the Nethersphere and then, on earth, spreads stories of cremation affecting the dead and torturing them beyond the grave so that humanity will give her bodies (the dead remain conscious… the dead are fully aware of everything that is happening to them – made worse by Danny’s affirmation that he feels cold because his physical body is somewhere cold). The front of 3W (three words – don’t cremate me) is ingenious. The reveal of the Cybermen created from this mixture of soul and body is so clever that we know that Missy is a force to be reckoned with this finale. We also are reminded of The Master in classic Who as the perfect Doctor troll. Missy makes a mockery of death, of human belief and of our penchant to commemorate lives with her Cybermen plans.

Frightening, horrible, and dark, yet simultaneously poetic, tragic, moving and beautiful, Dark Water is one of my favorite episodes of Doctor Who in a long time.

Dark Water: 11/10 inky stars

Doctor Who Re-Watch: In The Forest of the Night Review

This review is very delayed, largely because I thought this episode was the worst of the season by far and I was putting off having to re-watch and partly because my family and I recently discovered the excellent (if depressing) crime drama, Line of Duty. I couldn’t keep shirking forever though so here I am.

To be honest, I’m actually not all that clear on what this episode was about. The first half follows Clara and Danny doing the obligatory zoo sleepover with their students, but with a twist. A giant forest comes to London and the children and teachers wander around aimlessly. Meanwhile, one student, Maeve, gets separated from the others and finds The Doctor (aside: strangely though the giant forest takes over London, there are surprisingly few people about for students to bump into). Then there’s something about people destroying trees and something about earth getting destroyed and something about the trees loving earth and saving it and pretty gold dust stuff and the power of the mentally ill to find lost things and… yeah… I don’t know… as I said… a big mess.

Companions who never were?

Child actors generally don’t bode well for companions of the week (see Nightmare in Silver and Courtney) but Maebh was quite good even if her storyline was rubbish. Her plaintive ‘everyone knew everything but me’ felt quite honest and I liked the way she thought differently to not just her teachers and fellow class mates, but also The Doctor. The most interesting scene for me in the whole episode was the one where Maebh told The Doctor that the trees were communicating silently and he didn’t believe her because he couldn’t hear them speak. I can’t find the exact quote online, but she basically pointed out to him that people communicate non-verbally all of the time and it was a pretty neat put down.

Clara and Danny

Urgh, these two are just no Amy/Rory no matter how hard this show tries to sell them to me as such. I genuinely don’t give a damn about Danny until Dark Water (which is pretty ironic as you’ll see in my write-up next week) and imo Clara is too good for him for the most part. The decision to have Danny constantly question Clara’s choice to travel with The Doctor, essentially forcing her to lie to him about still travelling in the TARDIS drives me insane every episode.

Danny: You said you haven’t seen him in months

Clara: Something like that

Clara, the fact you have to keep lying should be telling you something!

Danny brings out the worst in The Doctor too. When Maebh first meets The Doctor and tells her story he pettishly replies with, ‘Mr Pink was looking after you… that explains why you’re lost.’

Finally, Danny gets extra irritating this episode when he tells Clara why the TARDIS isn’t for him.

Danny: I don’t want to see more things. I want to see the things in front of me.

Yes, I get that Danny was a soldier and saw and did awful things. The problem is, we’ve been told about it, not shown it and I simply don’t buy his comments. Who wouldn’t want to travel the TARDIS? Really? (Ok, so I know Rory didn’t want to, but he loved Amy so much he did it anyway and found hidden reserves inside himself he didn’t even know existed. I love Rory. Danny just stagnates)

The Doctor

Harsh Doctor is back in full force this week. Take when Maebh first turns up. His response to her unexpected appearance on his TARDIS doorstep is, ‘You need an appointment to see The Doctor.’ Callous, much? Though this Doctor does seem to have travel differentiating between adults and children and tends to lump all humans in terms of functionality in the same basket.

Capaldi is also given the opportunity this week to dig into his softer side in time for the finale and the Christmas special. He tells Clara he can use his TARDIS to save Clara from the destruction of earth.

Clara: I don’t want to be the last of my kind.

The Doctor: This is my world too.

The conviction and quiet delivery of the lines is quite beautiful. I think Capaldi is also very good when he says that the human super power is forgetting, sounding sad, thoughtful and relieved all at once.

Mental illness, fairy stories and un-earnt denouements

In general, the main problem for me with this episode is the lack of real conflict. However, where everything really started to go pear-shaped was when the script writer thought it would be a good idea to imply that mental illness equated to some kind of magical ability that could inexplicably bring back lost things. Wow, way to perpetrate stereotypes much! The fairy story tone didn’t actually give the writer a get out of jail free card as some episodes got in series 5 because tonally it didn’t match the rest of Capaldi’s run. I simply felt cheated when Annabelle turned up in a bush by Maebh’s house. Furthermore, Maebh’s imagination (depicted through her coloured drawings) felt too Fear Her for my liking and the reveal that she’d created the tree plague felt pretty random. When The Doctor says that the forest is mankind’s nightmare (hello Into The Woods), it’s actually Maebh’s nightmare (or deep desire), but none of these reveals really gel or feel earned. Look, maybe I’m just sensitive, but this whole concept felt like a hot mess.

Missy

Missy turning up, even if for a minute, is always welcome. This episode I just felt confused. Why was Missy surprised that the trees saved earth? Or was she actually implying that she was surprised at The Doctor’s choice to remain on an earth about to be destroyed? Why? Does anyone know what this scene was about? Please help.

On the plus side, next week is Missy in crystal clear abundance and one of the best episode’s of the season.

In The Forest of the Night: 2/10 inky stars

Garth Nix Workshop: @garthnix presents at @asauthors

InkAshlings:

A great write-up of a course I attended yesterday – Garth was incredibly generous with his time and advice!

Originally posted on Write or Wrong:

Yesterday I had the great privilege of attending a workshop run by speculative fiction juggernaut author Garth Nix through the Australian Society of Authors.  Garth Nix has been described as the James Bond of the speculative fiction author world. And for good reason. He’s  smooth, he’s witty, he is internationally successful  and, he knows his business in and out. Coupled with the fact that he rarely does workshops he truly has a reputation for being an international man of mystery.  I jumped at the chance to go, because quite frankly I’d book in to see him read the yellow pages, it’s Garth Nix. However, the question lingers, is he reclusive because he can’t teach or simply because he is so incredibly busy writing, drinking expensive spirits and fighting crime. I can now confidently tell you that it is most certainly the latter.

Garth Nix did something very rare in…

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Doctor Who Rewatch: Flatline Review

This is Jamie Mathieson’s second episode, and it is also enormously fun, adventurous and inventive. Flatline sees the TARDIS, with The Doctor trapped inside, shrink and Clara take up The Doctor mantle. There are some suitably nasty aliens, and one suitable nasty human, and some great throwbacks to classic Who style stories and other popular culture references. The episode asks us what happens when the 2D tries to infiltrate the land of the 3D – read on to find out…

Alien of the week presence

This is one of the few Series 8 episodes which deals with a proper alien invasion. The episode opens in creepy classic Who style with a man sucked into a house wall. It is also very Eleventh Hour with the cracks in the wall. I liked the clever touch of the people on The Estate disappearing and re-appearing as wall mural art. I also liked that the episode entertained the notion of friendly or naïve aliens for all of five seconds with The Doctor saying, “Maybe the aliens don’t know we need to live in 3D… innocent aliens a first?” Later he amends his wishful thinking. “I tried to reach out… to understand you… but you don’t want to understand, you don’t care.”

The Doctor

The Doctor takes a back seat this episode, though he has a few good moments, from his Addam’s Family spoof moment as his hand made like Thing to get The TARDIS off the rail line, (“I’m on a train line and there’s a train coming, of course”) to his mean comments about the episode’s companion who never was, ‘pudding face’ Brigsy.

I also enjoyed his comment to Clara early on as she muses about the shrunk TARDIS:

The Doctor: Could you not just let me enjoy this moment of not knowing something? It happens so rarely.

Twelve fights back with a vengeance at episode’s end when he tells the aliens that “this planet is protected” (Hello Matt Smith reference) and he introduces himself as “the man who stops the monsters.” His sombre statement that, “a lot of people died and maybe the wrong people survived,” (like Ashes to Ashes guest star douche bag) is poignant and sad and reminds the audience that this is a much darker Doctor.

Danny and Clara

It doesn’t matter how many times I re-watch Series 8, I don’t care about Danny until Dark Water, especially in the middle of the series when he acts like he owns Clara. Why is Danny so insecure that he can’t have Clara leave her personal things on the TARDIS? Why does Clara feel that she has to lie to Danny about having adventures with The Doctor? (though the contrast between Clara’s phone conversation and the events unfolding around her was quite entertaining). I just find Danny/Clara a little uncomfortable, especially when compared to Rory/Amy.

Clara Who?

This episode is perhaps most important for its exploration of Clara Who? This series has been all about companions becoming The Doctor and the human cost that entails. With The Doctor out of action in Flatline, it falls to Clara to ‘act’ the role which makes for interesting viewing.

“I’m The Doctor. Doctor Oswald. You can call me Clara… I think I call myself The Doctor because it makes me sound important.”

Not only does Clara perform The Doctor role, she also questions it and his relationship to companions. I liked the implication that companions were either people in the wrong place at the right time or the right place at the wrong time and how that linked to Clara’s lies to Danny.

The Doctor: Excellent lying, Doctor Oswald… lying is a vital survival skill and a terrible habit.

Clara: Does it count as lying if it’s for someone’s own good?

The Doctor: What’s next, Doctor Clara?

Clara: Lie to them… give them hope.

Lying is depicted as a key part of The Doctor’s role to people, as is wild, last minute ideas. When Clara uses a hair band to keep the train gear on it was both as mad and as clever and as simple as the best laid Doctor plans.

This episode, too, Clara is truly alone in her decision-making.

Clara: Doctor, what would you do now? No, what would I do now?

Clara has never been my favourite companion, but in series 8 her level of agency has increased threefold and her place of power in the story could become very interesting.

Missy

Who doesn’t love Missy? Who? I actually got shivers down my spine at the denouement to this episode when this exchange happened:

Clara: Just say it. Why can’t you just say it? Why can’t you just say I did good?

The Doctor: Talk to soldier-boy.

Clara: It’s not him. Come on, why can’t you say it? I was the Doctor and I was good.

The Doctor: You were an exceptional Doctor, Clara…

Clara: Thank you!

The Doctor:  ..goodness had nothing to do with it.

That exchange of dialogue followed by Missy’s, “Clara, my Clara, I’ve chosen you well” is chilling and horrifying. The Twelfth Doctor is darker and more cynical. He reminds us that there is a dangerous side to The Doctor, the one that is good at making split second decisions to save the majority, even as he buries his guilt over the fallen minority. This is much more Le Carre territory than fairy story, even if Eleven did have similar ‘darker’ moments, they never felt this brutal. As a continuation of Rory’s comment about fearing what The Doctor does to people, how he changes them, this is a very interesting place to go. More next series thanks!

Flatline: 9/10 inky stars

Next week: In the Forest of the Night

Poem: The King Sends Three Cats to Gwenivere by Marjorie Allen Seiffert

I have always been obsessed with the historical Merlin and Arthur and devour Arthurian literature and pop culture. I am currently researching Welsh legend and history for a Merlin verse novel set in Dark Ages Wales, and found this truly wonderful, but creepy verse poem. What do you think and what are your favourite Arthurian poems?

The King Sends Three Cats to Gwenivere

Marjorie Allen Seiffert

Queen Guinevere

Three sleek and silent cats

Bring you gifts from me.

The first is a grey one,

(I wanted a white one,

I could not find one snowy enough

Queen Guinevere,)

He brings you purple grapes.

The second is a grey one,

(I wanted a sleek one,

Where could I find one sleek enough

Queen Guinevere?)

He brings you a red apple.

The third one, too, is grey.

(I wanted a black one,

Not Hate itself could find one black enough,

Queen Guinevere,)

He brings you poison toadstools.

I sent you three grey cats with gifts—

(For uniformity of metaphor,

Since Bacchus, Satan, and the Hangman

Are not contemporaneous in my mythology)

I send you three grey cats with gifts,

Queen Guinevere,

To warn you, sleekly, silently,

To pay the forfeit.

Doctor Who Re-Watch: Mummy on the Orient Express

This episode sees the debut of newcomer writer, Jamie Mathieson, who wrote two of the most fun and most original episodes of Series 8. Mummy on the Orient Express sees The Doctor and Clara on board Christie’s famous train in space, even down to the 1920s attire and the gang of suspicious intellectuals. The episode gets bonus points for a zany plot and pace which none the less made perfect sense and the Queen remake, Don’t Stop Me Now.

The Return of Good Old Fashioned Who Horror…

The episode kicks off with a clock starting a countdown on screen from 66 to 0 before death at the hands of an invisible mummy and the tension doesn’t let up. For a fun episode, there is a lot of dark death, flickering lights and even an empty sarcophagus. Creepy stuff.

Clara’s ‘not’ exit

Last episode, Clara had all but committed to leaving the TARDIS behind forever until push came to shove on the phone with Danny and she opted for one final adventure… as The Doctor says, the Orient Express is, ‘a good one to end on.’ We have the theme of Clara’s innate anger with The Doctor continued. The Doctor is confused by her smile being a sad one and she responds with, ‘I hated you for weeks… hatred is too strong an emotion to waste on someone you don’t like.’ Though I’d warmed to Clara by this series, I wasn’t a fan of this direction – it made Clara seem a bit too bitter and unkind – but she soon bounces back by next week’s Flatline. I also wasn’t a fan of The Doctor’s comment that Clara couldn’t dump him because he wasn’t her boyfriend. Enough with these kinds of comments already show!

Companions Who Never Were

Is that Mary from Sherlock? Either way, who didn’t love Maisie opening a door lock with her stiletto? Perkins was also a wonderful character (What are you a Doctor of? A question The Doctor isn’t asked often enough as the episode points out) and I enjoyed his quiet Doctor rejection, ‘riding the TARDIS could change a man.’ As usual this series, characters inner lives reflect moral dilemmas of The Doctor and his companion. Maisie’s feelings about her mother are a case in point with her feelings mirroring Clara’s feelings about The Doctor.

Maisie: Do you ever wish bad things on people? I just felt really guilty, picturing her dead for years, just picturing it, not really meaning it, and now I feel like I did it.

Clara: People, difficult people, make people feel complicated things.

It is Maisie’s story which helps Clara to understand her relationship with The Doctor. Later, after Clara claims she isn’t friends with The Doctor any more, Maisie responds with, ‘life would be so much easier if you liked the people you were meant to like, but then I guess there’d be no fairy tales.’

By the end of the episode, Clara understands.

Learning About 12

Now that we’re mid way through the series, loads is happening with 12: the man who doesn’t like soldiers yet acts like one, the man who can’t find his way back to Clara, the man who likes to solve puzzles coldly and dispassionately even when human death is involved, yet still does so with a strange innate humanity. I love that The Doctor introduced himself as a ‘nosy parker’ and offered a professor jelly babies. I loved it when he told the train manager, ‘if people did their job descriptions you wouldn’t be drinking into your cup’ and his follow-up of ‘why am I even bothering?’ (to lecture you) before he goes away to start solving The Foretold problem. I also quite like this colder Doctor. He gathers the scientists and professors together and uses the deaths to ‘study our own demise’ to discover that The Foretold picks off those it considers weak through disability, PTSD and illness first. I was reminded of Into the Dalek when The Doctor tells one man, ‘you are probably next… good for us, you’re going to die.’ This colder Doctor is offset by a kinder ending where he offers himself to the mummy with a reference to Moffat’s two parter in Series 1, ‘I will be your victim this evening. Are you my mummy?’ I like that Twelve is a quieter hero than previous incarnations and Capaldi does quiet pain well. I was deeply moved when he admitted to Clara, ‘I didn’t know if I could save her… sometimes the only choices you have are bad ones, but you have to choose.’

Clara’s Addiction

This episode continues the trend of Clara finding The Doctor’s life in the TARDIS a hard addiction to shake. She convinces Maisie to follow her to her potential death and later says, ‘is it like an addiction?’ Her final exchange with The Doctor is the stuff which makes Doctor Who such an alluring concept:

Clara: Have you ever been sure?

The Doctor: No

Clara: Then let’s go.

Unresolved Threads

Correct me in the comments if I’m wrong, but this episode has Gus painted as the villain trying to lure The Doctor to the exploding Orient Express at the intervention of another hidden entity. Who made Gus malfunction? Missy or some other hidden hand? Perhaps Series 9 will reveal more.

Mummy on the Orient Express: 10/10 inky stars

And The Ten Times Spooks Got It Right…

Last week, I wrote a blog post listing 10 times where I felt Spooks had lost its way in its ten series run. Here is my promised ten great Spooks choices write-up. I have tried to distribute the love evenly across series though my favourite Spooks series (as made clear in the previous post) were Series 1-4 and 7.

Despite my previous post’s disclaimer, one person did get miffed at my criticisms of the show feeling that I was complaining for complaints sake and trying to prove that the whole show had failed. That wasn’t what I was doing at all. I subscribe to the view that my fave can be problematic. Spooks was one of my faves. It was also very problematic. Take Agatha Christie. I’ve read all of Agatha Christie, including the biographies and the Mary Westmacott. It doesn’t mean that some of her books aren’t incomprehensible drivel and/or classist and racist and anti-semitic. I am still an Agatha Christie fan even as I acknowledge these flaws in her body of work. To say otherwise is plain wrong. So let’s make this clear once and for all. All of my criticisms on this blog come from a place of love and a belief that art does and should drive a personal response, good or bad. Make of that what you will, dear reader…

The Ten Times Spooks Hit The Sweet Spot

1. Spooks introduced us to some great lesser known actors

I first discovered Spooks when my Mum and I needed a quick fix for Keeley Hawes withdrawals after Series 2 of Ashes to Ashes finished airing. Not only did we discover a young Keeley, we also discovered such lesser known silver screen actors as Matthew McFayden, Jenny Agutter, David Oyelowo, Nicola Walker (especially Nicola Walker), Hugh Simon, Hermione Norris, Miranda Raison, Gemma Jones and Raza Jaffreys. Time and time again, the show renewed itself with strong character actors who made even the silly seem somewhat believable. Though some of these excellent drama actors were given less to work with than others (poor Miranda!), all of them had stand out moments.

2. Spooks had Consistently Good Guest Stars

This was a trend that continued all of the way through from series 1 to series 10. To make a complete list would take me forever as there were often several a series, but some stand outs included Kevin R McNally as an abusive and violent racist, Hugh Laurie as a sardonic MI6 Head, Alexander Siddig as a defector with compassion and heart (a strong contender for best ever guest performance on Spooks), Anna “duckface” Chancellor as Juliet in s4 and 5, Robert Glenister as a Home Secretary with political acumen and moral conviction, Iian Glen as Lucas’ confessor and unraveller in Series 9 (even if nothing else about this storyline made sense, for the longest of times Iian did his best to hold it together) to Jonathan Hyde and Alice Krige as Ilya and Elena Gavrik respectively as well as Martha Forde, the best guest star example of the unwitting civilian dragged into secrecy against their will for the greater good, played by Lydia Leonard (who was also excellent in Ashes to Ashes as a left wing workers rights protester). There really are many more and too many list, but these immediately spring to mind as I type this.

3. Spooks had some Powerful Character Moments

Who knew that a show about melancholy spies could be so Shakespearean in its tragedy and so beautiful in its moments of compelling humanity? Though I said in my previous post that some series were better than others at developing character and character moments, all of the series had at least one moment that hooked me. I’ve picked my favorites from each series for the sake of finishing this post before tomorrow. Series 1 had many wonderful moments, though two stick out for me: Tom slipping the fake ring off his finger as he silently mourned Helen and Tessa sitting in her room after Johnny Marks has left her the data disc, just sitting and thinking and saying nothing at all, but her eyes speaking loud for her. Series 2 has too many to count, but Danny and Zoe drinking vodka out of a teapot has always been one of my favorite moments, as was Ruth stabbing scissors in the wall only to be told by Tom that when the lights come back on she’ll be the most important person in the room. Finally, who can talk about character moments without mentioning Tom wading into the ocean and Ruth sobbing and Danny and Zoe just contemplating the ocean line to Jenny Muskett’s beautiful Hold Me Tight. Series 3 is a strong contest between two moments in 3.5: Zoe trying not to succumb to morning sickness as she and Danny must kill their first man and Ruth stalking a man at his choir with Malcolm walking in on her watching a sad romance film. Series 4 had a lot of wonderful Ruth moments including “Can I hit him again, Adam?” but it was her lies in 4.10 amid claims of ‘born spook’ that sticks in my mind the most. Series 5 isn’t one of my favorites, but the entire hotel episode was excellent and Ros in particular has some great moments, though best moment of the series goes hands down to Zaf who promises Ruth after she’s been burnt from the Grid that he’ll smile at all of the pretty girls in memory of her.

Series 6 I’d be surprised if everyone didn’t mention Jo, the Redbacks and “It’s just what they do to women they capture.” Series 7 has a number of great character moments, but my money is on Jo running till her feet are bloody and Harry contemplating to classical music as glass crashes around him. Series 8, there is only one real contender with Ruth’s return and George’s death, with Ruth’s hysteria one of the most difficult things I’ve ever viewed on TV, though Ros exits with dignity in 8.8. Series 9 and 10, moments are fewer on the ground, though kudos to the writers for Ruth’s “I can’t feel” line in 9.7 and Ilya’s grave but truthful “What do you have? I have a wife and a son and a tortoise in the garden” Harry rebuttal in 10.5.

4. Tom Quinn’s story arc

He was the original Spook and one of the best. Tom’s story line was melancholic, beautiful and terribly sad. First he loses Ellie and then dates some crazies before ending up with the equally beautiful and equally damaged Christine. I found Tom’s wade into the ocean thanks to internal explosion tragic yet plausible given his characterization to that point. It is also possible to see multiple moments where as a character Tom starts to come unstuck.

5. Jenny Muskett’s Gorgeous Incidental Music

I’m the sort of freak who always notices musical cues in TV and film thanks to eight years on the Cazbah music program and theory lessons. Though all of Jenny’s work on Spooks was good, I can’t listen to the wonderful Hold Me Tight without feeling awash with sadness, regret and mournful pain.

Hold Me Tight

6. Allowing the Ruth/Harry slow burn to march on unscripted

I first noticed Ruth mid way through Series 2, and really started to buy into her character in series 3. I first started noticing her properly in relation to Harry. It was never originally scripted or planned, but the romance angle played out covertly by Nicola Walker and Peter Firth proved to be a valuable asset to the show, giving us a break from angst, sadness and trauma with a small side show of old fashioned British stiff upper lip romance. Many may not have liked where Ruth was taken in relation to Harry post 8.1, but it is difficult to deny the power of the early spontaneous ship.

7. Ros Myers

I acknowledge that there are many great characters on Spooks and that everyone will have their own opinion on who is best, but I find it hard to go past Ros Myers for adding a special something to later Spooks. Though predisposed to hate her thanks to an unfortunate introduction in early series 5, I soon found her sarcasm, quick quips and natural knack for leadership refreshing. By the time she exited the show in 8.8, I enjoyed her as one of the most powerful female characters I’ve ever seen depicted on TV: flawed, cold, a born leader, loyal, stubborn, sarcastic and high in Harry’s favour. Who could forget the time she stabbed someone with a fork? Brought Malcolm back a detached finger? Sat calm with blood splattered up her face? Put down Tariq, voicing the same thought we were all thinking, how had someone so young got into service? Series 9 was poorer for its lack of Ros.

8. Spy!Gran

One of the only good aspects of Series 6 aside from Ros Myers was the introduction of Spy!gran aka Connie James played by the wonderful Gemma Jones (a fond character nod to Connie from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy). From the moment she sprayed perfume about after a hard swig of alcohol, to the moment she spoke rough and blunt to Harry, I loved her. The reveal in Series 7 pushes the series into one of the best series Spooks ever made. I still get shivers remembering the cold way Connie slitted Ben’s throat with bra wire and hissed at Harry citing ‘tick tock’ goes the clock to put the team on edge. She was a wonderful character who filled the void left by Ruth in Series 5. Which leads me to…

9. All of Series 7

I’m not joking. I don’t know what the writers went on between Series 6 and 7, but the two are completely different beasts. Series 6 was so bad I almost gave up on the show, while Series 7 ranks up there as the best thing Spooks ever did. Suddenly writers remembered to write characterization again, Jo’s rape wasn’t brushed under the carpet, Connie was excellent, Ros acted effectively as Section Head, displaying far better chemistry with newcomer Lucas North (Richard Armitage) than she ever did with Adam Carter, Richard Armitage had a great back story around Russia and the plot twists came thick and fast. Also, the beginning of the adage, ‘it iz alwayz ze Russians.’ Finally, who doesn’t love some Le Carre homage.

10. Ruth’s character progression post 8.1 through to 9.8

It was the character development I didn’t even know I wanted till I got it! I was one of those who felt that teasing out Ruth’s story line separate to Harry’s was a good move and it was one of the only aspects of s9 that I liked. I loved her shock return in 8.1, calculated to be one of the most brutal possible, and I swear that Nicola was a much better actress post pregnancy. Her scenes in 8.1 and 9.7 and 8 in particular stand out. I also agree with other fans that her scenes with Lucas in 9.8 were the only well played parts in the whole finale and were so good for a few seconds they almost sold me the Lucas is John reality. Almost. Besides, I liked the nifty parallel between Ruth crying over Tom in 2.10 and Ruth crying over Lucas in 9.8