9.12 - Hell Bent

Yes this isn't what it needed to be. We wanted a story that involved the Doctor back on Gallifrey for the first time, that has been wasted now. Yes, Clara had a great exit in Face the Raven and her story should have ended there. But what we got wasn't bad; we were given a story that Moffat wanted to tell. It's not what we wanted and I still would prefer tl see what that could've been but i'm fine with Hell Bent, not the best, but certainly not the worst of Moffat's outings.

Can't recommend this at all. There is no entertainment value from this and ruins all the plot development from the previous story and the Cartmel Masterplan. It also features the unnecessary return of many characters, of whom nobody wanted to return.

Had a few good ideas and a lot of bad ones

Now when Hell Bent premiered I watched it with the expectation that it couldn't be as good as Heaven Sent which was amazing. Once it premiered I thought I liked it, but then I watched it a second time without as much hype around it and putting it lightly I hated it. But before I go into why I hated it let me go into the things about the episode that were actually decent.

First and foremost Peter Capaldi is a brilliant actor and Doctor, and his performance in Hell Bent is no exception. We get to see so much of his chops with the bad script. Secondly the direction is beautiful as Rachel Talalay continues to impress with her stunning camerawork.

Now onto the bad stuff with the story. First, the Doctor doesn't have any impact for the first half of the story. The first 30 minutes or so are devoted to the High Council led by Rassilon, who can't really be Rassilon, trying to find and execute the Doctor because of the Hybrid which is coming to destroy Gallifrey. Yes the Doctor is in it but he just sits in the barn with some mysterious woman. Then we get five actual minutes of plot with the Doctor telling Rassilon to bugger off and he does which is the end of the story. Then we spend the last 25 minutes of the run time with the Doctor basically rewriting Clara's death and making her immortal and travelling with Ashildir in a Diner TARDIS. This goes against everything that was laid down in The Woman Who Lived where the Doctor makes a point to say two immortals shouldn't really travel together. Also the fact that the Doctor doesn't remember Clara at all except some sadness, which some people have likened to Charley Pollard's exit, but with Charley, the Sixth Doctor still knew that he travelled with someone and knows exactly what that person did with them under a different name. It completely ruins the exit. You may also bring up Amy and Rory's departure, but at least with them they WERE NOT IMMORTALS.