DRAMA "Death is not an end" is the promise of tonight's episode -- the start of a deeply troubling two-part season finale. Having shown the Moon and the Earth in a brave new (some might say ludicrous) light already this season, now Doctor Who toys with the concept of heaven, or at least a "Promised Land", as the action moves to the Nethersphere. In Dark Water, Steven Moffat seems to show us what happens to people after they've died. Whatever the later revelations, a lot of this episode will appear crass and in poor taste to anyone who's suffered a bereavement. Which is most of us.
There are positive aspects. Early on, there are harrowing scenes for Clara, Danny and the Doctor, which test their bonds to the limit. Chris Addison (Peter Capaldi's chum from The Thick of It) is terrific as Seb, the Nethersphere's prissy answer to St Peter, and Michelle Gomez is almost literally "to die for" as the quirky archvillain heretofore known as Missy. But who is she really..?
The right stuff?: page 12
Captions:
TIME TO MEET The mysterious Miss (Michelle Gomez) gives the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) a nasty surprise
CYBER INVASION The two-part season finale re-creates a classic scene (heralded in a 1968 Radio Times, below) when the Cybermen stormed past St Paul's Cathedral
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