9.12 - Hell Bent

Moffatt does it again - takes a potentially great storyline with a brilliantly acted Doctor and high production values and spoils it with ludicrous plot choices.

Number one is the undoing of a main character death YET AGAIN. Clara, who was killed 2 episodes earlier is saved by the Doctor usurping Rassilon and getting the Timelords to allow him to remove her from the moment of death, supposedly to gain information before returning her to her death but he then escapes with her! Moffatt reverses the apparent deaths of companions and/or the Doctor an unbelievable 34 times in his 83 episodes as Showrunner!!! Absolutely bonkers and lame storywriting as well as cowardly in not ever standing by killing off a character. The manner in which this is done with the Doctor meddling with time, abusing Timelord technology and using a gun to shoot a Timelord who had just been helping him make this even worse! It is so out of character for the Doctor (apart from Moffatt's era when his character is made to mess with time recklessly several times and the Colin Baker era when John Nathan Turner had the Doctor turning violent). It also brings a lame culmination of all the build up of yet another silly long term story arc from Moffatt. Incredibly Moffatt's story arcs in 4 of his first 5 series involved prophecies - the TARDIS exploding, the death at Lake Silencio, the death at Trenzalore and now the Hybrid - and this Hybrid prophecy arc ends with a vague idea that the Doctor was running from a notion he might bring destruction to the Timelords, more vague ideas that the Hybrid may be Ashildr, Clara or a combination of them and an inexplicable idea the Timelords would keep the Doctor in a prison for 2 billion years just to get an answer to a question of what he knows about the Hybrid without ever directly asking him! Then a few words from him causes the overthrow of Rassilon and a suggestion Clara has information on the hybrid causes the Timelords to allow him to take her from her moment of death.

Not content with that, Moffatt also throws in lots of other messy story elements and meddles with the Doctor's history a little bit. He not only causes the Doctor to act totally out of character he overly complicates things and has a muddled idea about 'the Hybrid' that just does not really work.

Clara's return is cheap but it also is compounded by the way she then goes off in a TARDIS with Ashildr/Me. Having been a reckless companion with a invincibility/superiority complex which lead to her demise she again gets away with it and then is handed a TARDIS so she goes off convinced she is some sort of superhero! This would be a dangerous turn of events unleashing 2 reckless people with the power of travelling around all of time and space.

All the great acting, spectacle, excitement, humour and drama of this episode is high quality and should make this a terrific finale but Moffatt's storytelling lets things down badly once more so this sadly for me can be no higher than 4/10.

Yes, I know that this episode is super controversial. I know some people hate it, and actually I can understand why they do. However I love it! Again, Capaldi is amazing. He and Jenna are spectacular here! I think a lot of people think The Doctor breaks his own rules to save Clara, which must mean Clara is the most important companion and hate that's she's so important. I don't agree w/ that. I think this plays off of The Girl Who Died and The Woman Who Lived where The Doctor is tired of losing people in his life. He has had so many friends and he ends up losing them all and after seeing what just happened to Clara he can't take it anymore. I think that's why he does what he does, not Moffat saying look how important Clara is. I frankly love that The Doctor goes bezerk and out of character here as that's the point. I also think that killing off a companion is a very bad idea (I know Adric). This is a show about hope and love and to just have a companion killed off I feel is out of tone and goes against what the show is about. So I love that Clara got this extension, and for me it doesn't detract from her heartbreaking death in FTR

Im sorry but this episode just contains so many things i hate and acts as a great example of some of the worst aspects of moffats writing including giving clara a good send off in face the raven and bringing her back 2 episodes later then making her a semi immortal with her own tardis. How moffat managed to write the brilliant heaven sent one week and then this piece of shit the next week i will never know.

In my opinion this is the worst doctor who story ever

Hell Bent was one of those stories that remain in people’s mind for a long, long time. Either people love it or people hate it, and for most people, the latter is law.
Hell Bent had so much potential. The Next Time trailer at the end of Heaven Sent promised Gallifrey, Time Lords, Rassilon, the Doctor taking back Gallifrey in a storm of contempt. To be honest, if the Next Time trailer was considered a story in itself, it would have gotten 10/10 universally.
Yet what we got changed the way people look at the show. It made people hate what had happened, hate the characters, and hate Steven Moffat.
I think what must be emphasised here is Steven Moffat. As a writer, what he did to Doctor Who was childish. Yes, he was a good writer, but as a show runner, well, he shouldn’t have gotten the job.
I want to describe the plot, I really do. But this story has no discernible plot. I’m trying really hard to condense it, but there’s nothing to condense. Oh well, I’ll have a crack at it. The story is literally this: The Doctor arrives on Gallifrey and eats soup in a barn with randoms watching him. He is then found by the Counsel of Time Lords and it is revealed that the Doctor sent for their reinforcements, or summat like that. Then the Doctor talks of the Time War and then breaks his character immediately, taking Clara from time and killing a Time Lord General who was on his side. The Doctor and Clara steal a TARDIS and go to the end of the universe, where they meet Ashildr (not going to called her Me) and the Doctor realises the silly git he is and removes all his memory of Clara. It sounds even worse written down!
The story has a few main gripes that makes people angry, I’ll just go through them briefly:
1. The Doctor’s character. I love Peter Capaldi as the Doctor and I feel sorry that his era is marred with this crap. The Doctor goes way out of character here, breaking the laws of time for no reason and then killing one of his own kind.
2. The Politically Correct Regeneration. I for one have no problem with cross-gender regeneration, but it’s terrible here. The only reason it is here is to show that a white male can turn into a black female. After regenerating, the now female General makes some terrible sexist statement: “Back to normal, am I?”, “How do you cope with all that ego?”. Worst thing is, it’s written by a man!
3. Half Human Spiel. In 1996, the Doctor teased he was half-human, but that was later retconned. Yet, Moffat digs the grave up and brings the nonsense back to light. “Why do you spend so much time on Earth, Doctor?”, “Couldn’t the hybrid be half-human, half-Time Lord?” Ooh it’s infuriating watching this!
4. The Hybrid Arc. Series 9’s arc has to be the worst arc ever. The best arcs are simple and explain it all for you. If you want to do a subtle arc that is important later in the Series, then explain it and have it understandable. Yet, the arc here is terribly done. Basically, there’s a prophecy that says that the Hybrid, an amalgamation of two warrior species will stand in the ruins of Gallifrey. The Doctor goes all really angsty about it and thinks he’s gonna die for some reason. We’re supposed to be like “Oooh, could it be the Doctor? Could it be the Time Lord Daleks? Could it be Ashildr (still not calling her Me)? Could it be Clara? We never even get an actual answer to who the Hybrid is, but I’m just going to explain it how I think of it. The Time Lords know that the Doctor cares for Clara so much, that when she’s gone, he will come to Gallifrey and try to get her back from time. They agree with Ashildr to separate the Doctor and Clara. When Clara does go, the Doctor gets mad and goes to Gallifrey anyway. The Hybrid is the friendship between them, a friendship between a Time Lord and a Human. Yet, even this arc has hole. Neither the Time Lords nor Humans are classified as warrior races, so it doesn’t make sense. It’s just so convoluted and nonsensical that it’s just the worst arc ever.
5. Clara. So basically, this story is Steven Moffat’s way of saying “If you don’t like Clara, my creation, f*** you!” Not many people love Clara, but this episode infuriates me. Why is Clara suddenly so powerful and in control of the Doctor? Why is she so important to the Doctor? To spite everyone who hates Clara, we get the Doctor breaking character to save her. And then, she gets her own TARDIS and companion, and Capaldi utters the words “Clara who?” as if we’re supposed to go SPINOFF ALERT!!!
My only positive for this story is that I love the look of the sets, but that’s not enough to save it. The worst New Who story. 1/10.