Face The Raven: Review Round-Up

Andrew Reynolds is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

Never has a ‘…To Be Continued’ card felt more like a pause for breath – the sheer amount of material to unpack from this week’s Face the Raven will undoubtedly be examined and re-examined in the weeks to come but, as is expected, most of the reviews focus on the tear jerking, heart rendering finale.

Calling the episode a ‘gothic emotional rollercoaster’ The Independent praised the show for providing the kind of thrills that only Doctor Who can.

“We’ve had a lot of different styles of stories this, year, and the show has been all the better for it. We’ve delved deep into the relationships the Doctor has with enemies, investigated underwater ghost stories and foiled schemes with immortal highwaymen.

“Last week Mark Gatiss blended various horror tropes into a clever but not wholly successful episode, and while writer Sarah Dollard’s influences are clearly on show (its half JK Rowling and half China Miéville) this feels like an episode of television you could only ever see on Doctor Who. A heady mixture of science fiction, Gothic whodunnit and emotional rollercoaster, it doesn’t just leave you breathless – it leaves you wanting more.”

Sarah Dollard was also praised by Digital Spy – who’s assured work at keeping the myriad ideas together and building towards that gut-punch of a climax – is testament to the confidence and bravery of her, Moffat and the Doctor Who team.

“In one of the finest episode climaxes that Doctor Who has delivered in 10 years, Clara meets her surprisingly bleak end. While one of the episode’s few flaws is to overplay her final moments with a surplus of slow-motion, you’ll still be left gasping as the Doctor – now alone – disappears, his final destination unknown.

“Given all that it has to accomplish, and the vast array of ingredients it has to juggle, this is a remarkably confident and assured Doctor Who outing. Even more so considering it comes from a writer new to the show.”

However, the Radio Times found the stakes of Clara’s demise a little too small an actor who has come to typify the series co-lead status for companions.

“This year, it became obvious that her recklessness would lead to her demise. Clara’s readiness to help a relatively unimportant friend (Rigsy) whose life is threatened, her sense of invincibility and blind faith in the Doctor’s ability to solve everything are her downfall. And she accepts it with dignity and stoicism – dying alone, arms outstretched, while the Time Lord watches from afar, impotent.

But after all the scrapes they’ve been in, what befalls Clara in Face the Raven is unmomentous, unspectacular; the stakes are small. Couldn’t she have died saving the universe?

“Jenna Coleman and Peter Capaldi perform her farewell with conviction, all the more effective for their restraint. Several young viewers I know will be inconsolable. (I’ve warned their parents.) I didn’t shed one tear. I will miss Clara/Jenna but am ready for a shake-up; it’s time for a gear change in what Steven Moffat terms the ‘co-leads’”.

The restraint from both leads also impressed Den of Geek, who also praised Murray Gold’s score – who does much to rebalance the intrusiveness of The Zygon Inversion’s musical swell during Capaldi’s magnificent speech.

“With superb audio accompaniment from Murray Gold (and it really was something special), as the episode clocked past the 35 minute mark, both Jenna Coleman and Peter Capaldi earnt every penny of their fee. Look how they act this sequence out, with Capaldi’s eyes instantly filled with sorrow as he sees what Clara’s done, and Coleman’s gradually changing as the realisation hits her. Never mind the excellent dialogue for a second: just watch them.”

Refusing to eulogise Clara – due to the ‘misdirection’s within misdirection’s’ nature of Doctor Who’s casting announcements –  the AV Club instead looked upon the culmination of her legacy and found much to love.

“As much as I’ve had my issues with the show’s handling and characterization of Clara, that transformation really does work, mostly because the underlying person doesn’t actually change there. In both those stories, and in pretty much any story with Peter Capaldi’s Doctor, Clara is clever, perceptive, and willing to take risks—both with her life and with others’—and all that’s changed is how much she believes in her own abilities.

Last season’s Mummy On The Orient Express and Flatline started kicking around the ideas that Clara was addicted to the thrill of traveling with the Doctor and that she was beginning to act like the Doctor at the expense of some measure of her humanity. Those were fine ideas, though they got a bit lost in the shuffle as the show turned it attention elsewhere with “Dark Water”/“Death In Heaven,” and the attempts to revive those story arcs this season have often felt perfunctory….Until tonight’s episode.”

And finally, in a five star review, Games Radar singles out Capaldi for praise articulating the Doctor’s bottomless rage and his utter helplessness.

“Capaldi is just as magnificent giving his passionate speechifying in The Zygon Inversion a run for its money with some fearsome but increasingly desperate intellectual rage. When the Doctor growls “I will end you and everything you love” you’re in no doubt that his anger could raze planets. It’s a rare moment where the Doctor can do nothing but look on, stupefied and utterly unable to help. He can’t even comfort Clara. Instead he’s the one who receives all the words of advice and warm hugs from his companion. Quite what effect it will have on the Twelfth Time Lord remains to be seen.”

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