Doctor Who’s Most Underrated Finale Is More Important Than You Think
This episode had a hard act to follow...
In 2015, the 9th season of Doctor Who proved that the casting of Peter Capaldi as the 12th Doctor wasn’t a fluke. It wasn’t just that Capaldi was a great version of the Doctor; in many ways, he embodied various versions of the Doctor all at once. He had the rudeness and brusqueness of the 1st Doctor, the moral indignation of the 10th Doctor, and the humor of the 11th and 4th Doctors. He even betrayed some of the deep-rooted scheming of the 6th and 7th Doctors, as well as the war-weary, PTSD-suffering soul of the 9th Doctor. In short, Peter Capaldi’s brilliance was playing a Doctor who blended all previous versions, while also creating the most complex version of his own take on the character. (The fact that he was a huge fan of the show as a younger man certainly helped.)
And, after a tour de force in one of the greatest Who episodes of all time (if not the greatest), “Heaven Sent,” Capaldi was given an opportunity to really prove that he was all the Doctors (up until that point) in one man. Released on December 5, 2015, “Hell Bent,” both then and now, is in the unenviable position of following the poetic, heartbreaking structure of “Heaven Sent.” While that episode was about one thing: The Doctor dealing with his grief while trapped in a time loop of endless dying and reincarnation, “Hell Bent” was about picking up all the loose ends, not just from Season 9, but in many ways, from the entire modern era, including aspects of the 9th and 10th Doctor eras, as well as “The Day of the Doctor.” And while “Hell Bent” isn’t nearly as good as “Heaven Sent,” it’s also not remotely bad, and remains one of the most underrated Who finales of the modern era.
Spoilers ahead.
Following the revelation that the Doctor’s ordeal in “Heaven Sent” was the work of the Time Lords, trapping him inside a confessional dial, in theory, the big reveal of “Hell Bent” should answer the question of “what or who is the hybrid?” This loose mystery box is probably one of the more forgettable features of Season 9, and in “Hell Bent,” showrunner Steven Moffat splits the difference by both giving an answer to this question and also kind of not giving an answer at all. Maybe the hybrid was the Doctor. Maybe the hybrid was Lady Me (Maisie Williams). Maybe it was all a lie. And in this non-ending, “Hell Bent” frustrated some viewers, who hoped for clearer dot-connecting. (Though oddly enough, some of this talk seems to predict the Timeless Child twist in the 13th Doctor era, five years into the future.)
But focusing on the hybrid question ignores literally everything else that is great about “Hell Bent.” Essentially, this episode finally reconciles the canon of both “The End of Time” and “The Day of the Doctor,” by revealing Gallifrey’s location in a pocket universe, as well as Rassilon (Donald Sumpter) and the General, a military Time Lord leader played by Ken Bones, who regenerates into T'Nia Miller. (This marks the first time a male Time Lord regenerated on camera into a female incarnation, prior to the 12th Doctor becoming the 13th in 2017.)
Much is made of the Doctor’s return to Gallifrey, and for those paying attention, nearly everything about the Time War is mentioned here, from the barn in “The Day of the Doctor,” to Rassilon and the General discussing the last days of the Time War, and even new Murray Gold arrangements of themes from the 10th Doctor era, here, rendered with a more militaristic flair.
The Doctor’s status as “the Oncoming Storm,” a fearful force who is also, somehow, a man of peace, is made clear in one moment: A Gallifreyan soldier says, terrified, “The first thing you notice about the Doctor of War is that he’s unarmed.” But, on a similiar note, maybe the best Easter egg in the episode is when the Doctor is ordered to “lay down any weapons on your person,” and the Doctor drops a spoon on a table, reminding us that yes, he has used a spoon in a sword fight, back in Season 8, when he dueled with Robin Hood in “Robots of Sherwood.” Why did we not get more of Capaldi's swordfighting with a spoon?
The Doctor and Clara say goodbye in “Hell Bent.”
Spoons aside, the idea that people themselves are the most dangerous weapons had been running through Who since the relaunch in 2005. And, in terms of the pairing of Clara (Jenna Coleman) and the 12th Doctor, this notion is explored in perhaps the most interesting way yet. All season long, the idea that Clara had become too dangerous for her own good was not-so-subtly stated. In fact, her apparent demise in “Face the Raven” was, in theory, a consequence of her recklessness. But what happens in “Hell Bent” is really all about the Doctor doing anything in his power to bring Clara back to life, even if he has to break all the rules to do it.
The theme of the episode connects to the Doctor’s defiance of authority, even his defiance of death. And here again, Moffat splits the difference on how much the Doctor can do, how far he can push it. Yes, he gets away with bringing Clara back to life, but at what cost?
The answer to that question is that if the Doctor even remembers Clara, at all, even a little bit, he will turn into a lunatic, tearing the universe apart. And so, the only solution is for his memory to be wiped. This, in a sense, was an inversion of what happened to Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) back in “Journey’s End,” but now, the Doctor was the one being denied memories of a powerful bond.
Sweetly, the episode is framed with the ending already in place. We know Clara is alive, and we know that the Doctor has lost his memory of her. But the pair connects all the same, with a line in the pre-credits scene representing one of the best moments in this era of Who: “Nothing’s sad until it’s over, then everything is.”
Capaldi’s Doctor would have several extended goodbyes after this, including an entirely new season with new companions in 2017. But with Clara’s departure, who had been around for the Matt Smith era, something shifted in the series. The Doctor lost his excuse for rage and irresponsible meddling, and, in a sense, became more heroic again. Clara’s final words to the Doctor, written on a chalkboard, echo her first words in the Matt Smith era: “Run you clever boy...”
The Doctor is then gifted a new sonic screwdriver, a symbol of restored hope and heroism, having lost his previous version at the start of the season, associating it, at the time, with failure, pain, and guilt. But, in the last moments of “Hell Bent,” the Doctor was reborn, and touchingly, this rebirth didn’t even require a regeneration.
