A Guest Blog by Hevy782

Usually when an episode disappoints me these reviews give me an opportunity to get it all out of my system and then look forward to the next episode with a somewhat positive frame of mind. This episode however I just want to forget about as soon as possible and immediately move on to the strangely appealing Christmas special, The Husbands of River Song. I mean I’m usually not a fan of the more whimsical specials but this one’s got River Song instead of Clara so that’s a definite plus straight away. Admittedly I’m not the biggest River Song fan out there but she’s been growing on me as of late and I’m really interested in seeing the tour de force of Capaldi and Kingston, especially because she won’t know who he is to begin with. It’s also got a shouting head for a villain so what’s not to love there? Okay, so I guess I should stop talking about The Husband of River Song now as I do want it to appear as if I’m taking this review somewhat seriously. So then, let’s actually start talking about the few positives and many negatives of Hell Bent.

Now I think it’s safe to say that this episode turned out in a way that none of us were expecting it to. For some that’s a good thing but for many like myself it’s a very big negative. This was supposed to be the grand return of Gallifrey after so many years of absence but it instead ended up being yet another departure for Clara and an unnecessary one at that as we had already experienced a fitting end to her story in the form of Face the Raven. I mean there was so much potential here for an epic Gallifrey story with the Doctor trying to bring down Rassilon and yet the most legendary Time Lord of all time just gets on a shuttle and leaves because the Doctor told him to. And it is from that point which the story goes down hill for me.

Now it’s only fair that I dedicate this next section of the review to the episode’s positives as believe it or not I do believe it has some. Most of them come from before Rassilon gets on a shuttle and flies off though. Peter Capaldi is of course one of them and while his performance may have taken a step down from last week it is still nothing short of incredible and it’s amazing how much he gets across without saying a single word. There’s also some good comedy there as you get into the routine of the woman going to the Doctor, the Doctor going outside and then the Doctor immediately going back in again. The General was also a welcome return from Day of the Doctor and Ken Bones did a good job expanding on the small role he was given there and he turns it into quite a likeable character actually. The female version was good too but I honestly don’t see why we had to get rid of the magnificent Ken Bones for what was ultimately nothing more than a cheap political move. It was also nice to have the Sisterhood of Karn back in this even if they didn’t do a whole lot.

Some of you may be a bit confused as to why I left Donald Sumpter’s Rassilon out when I was talking about the positives and it’s not because he was poorly acted but because the character just wasn’t written like Rassilon should be in my opinion. He was portrayed as more of a standard Time Lord as opposed to the legendary one he’s supposed to be. But anyway, let’s now talk about where this episode ultimately went wrong and that was when it bought back Clara. I didn’t care much about her before and I care about her even less now. The way it was written feels as if I’m supposed to care more for the Doctor and Clara and see the Time Lord’s as the villains but I was actually cheering the Time Lords on during this. It really did make Clara feel selfish in the way that she put herself before the safety of the timeline and when she called the Time Lords cowards for hiding at the end of the universe I was just sat there thinking that they’ve gone to the end of the universe so that the Time War doesn’t restart. As you can imagine, none of this rubs off well on Clara but hopefully now that she’s gone it’ll be a fresh start for the Doctor, especially since he won’t be able to remember her. Speaking of that, I’m glad they didn’t wipe Clara’s memory instead as that would’ve just been a blatant rip off of Donna’s fate so that’s another thing the episode has going for it, I guess.

Overall, I’m going to give Hell Bent a four-out-of-ten and now that I’ve done that I can go back to talking about my odd sense of anticipation for The Husbands of River Song. Maybe it’s just because I’ll take anything after watching this episode or perhaps I just want a light romp after all the serious stories we’ve had in series nine but either way I’m looking forward to watching this one on Christmas day. So then until we see it a few weeks be sure to sound off your thoughts on either this episode or if you’re like me and you’d prefer to talk about the next one instead then you’re welcome to do both in the comments below.

A Guest Blog by Hevy782

Since I was nice last week and started off by discussing the death of Clara I think it’s only fair that I be a bit mean this week and leave this week’s big event, the return of Gallifrey, until the end. But being mean isn’t the only reason for doing this. I’m also doing it because Gallifey’s return doesn’t really feed into this week’s story like Clara’s death did last week. In fact this episode could very easily be considered a stand alone one similar to the way The Girl Who Died and The Woman Who Lived can be seen as two stand alone episodes. But anyway, I’ll wait until next week until I say whether or not I think it’s a stand alone as it doesn’t seem as simple as that at the moment. So then, this story has been of great interest to me for a while now, ever since we found out it was a one hander. I was intrigued by how they were going to handle it and to just simply have a showcase of Capaldi’s amazing acting skills. And obviously coming out of this Capaldi’s acting is one of the things you most remember. Then we had the trailer and I was really liking the otherworldly quality it had to it. I mean a story about the Doctor trapped in a castle which rearranges itself while a nightmarish creature is slowly pursuing him, what’s not to love about that?

Well this may surprise some people given the amount of positively this episode has got but I do feel there are some things not to like about this episode. Starting off with a simple one, the montage goes on way too long. I get what it was trying to do but it was basically five minutes worth of everything we’d seen up to that point on a loop. Two minutes worth would’ve been enough to get the point across nicely, three at a push. Another thing that annoyed me about this episode was the Sherlock-esque sequences in the Doctor’s mind. It broke up the flow of the story in my opinion and while it was more tolerable on a second viewing I still felt that they were unnecessary and the point could’ve easily been got across in a line of dialogue or so. And then inside his mind he’s trying to impress Clara, which is a bit creepy but that’s not my criticism here. My criticism here is that Clara is dead and the show’s still trying to convince me that she is the most amazing woman in the universe and no-one has ever come close to her and no-one ever will. Now it’s not that I don’t want her death to affect the Doctor but I would prefer the show not to treat her as the Doctor’s whole world. He’s had many companions before and will probably have many companions after, each are special in their own way so stop trying to push Clara as the god of all companions. It just feels forced and makes me like her even less, which is saying something as she’s already dead. Now I know I’ve been quite negative up to this point but I did like this episode really. It’s just that negatives are a lot easier. What I’m basically trying to say here is that if I haven’t mention it up to this point then I think it’s brilliant. The Veil and it’s slow but constant pace is a terrifying creation. The fact that it’s point of view is displayed on the screens only adds to that. I’m just happy that Steven Moffat’s come up with an original idea for once and done a good job executing it. Seeing as a lot of his previous scripts as of late have been rehashing his quite a few of his old ideas this one’s a breath of fresh air.

So now we come to the moment you’ve probably all been waiting for, the return of Gallifrey. Given that it’s going to play such a big role in next week’s episode there’s little to actually talk about in relation to it here but I will try my best as I’ll need as much room as possible next week to talk about all the other hopefully awesome things that may happen in that episode. So then the most obvious question to begin with would be am I happy that it’s back? And the answer to that would be of course I am! However, I’m not very happy with the reveal. Partially because it was spoiled by really bad marketing which revealed it weeks in advance. Secondly because This is Gallifrey from series three wasn’t playing during the reveal. It’s some of the best music the show’s ever had and would’ve made the scene so much more epic compared to the rather standard incidental music that we ended up getting. Hopefully we’ll get to hear it next week as that theme is simply beautiful. Look it up if you’re not sure what I’m on about. Now one more thing before I rap this up, I’m going to put a theory out there. Remember how Skaro was invisible in The Magician’s Apprentice? What if Gallifrey was invisible in Death in Heaven and Missy was telling the truth after all. Just think about it for a bit.

Overall, despite my review seeming quite negative on reflection I did really like this episode. In fact I’d go so far as to say its a eight-out-of-ten in my eyes. Now there were a couple of other things which I didn’t mention here that slightly bothered me but depending on how Hell Bent turns out I could be fine with them so I’ll give this episode the benefit of the doubt in that respect. So hopefully Hell Bent will provide a satisfactory conclusion to those loose ends as well as providing us with a simply epic finale, something which I feel we haven’t had since The Big Bang. So until we see it next week be sure to sound off your thoughts on the episode in the comments below.