"Doctor, tell me what you knew or I'll smack you so hard you'll regenerate." - Clara Oswald
Writer Peter Harness made his Doctor Who debut in Series 8 and his episode would turn out to be one of the most hotly debated in the show's history. A title such as Kill The Moon was always going to create a stir amongst fans but it wasn't Clara being forced by the Doctor to make an impossible choice - to save Earth or its orbiting lunar surface (which in itself is a pretty big ordeal) - which sparked the flame of the episode's accompanying controversy. In fact, that dilemma resulted in one of the most memorable moments of the whole series as a betrayed Clara decided that enough was enough and gave the Doctor what for in an emotional outburst in the TARDIS. With Jenna Coleman putting in a stellar performance, the breakdown resulted in her storming out of the Doctor's life never to be seen again, though she would ultimately return as right as rain in the next episode, but more on that later... Back to Kill the Moon, and remember that 'suspending your disbelief' malarkey that failed to come into play for Robot of Sherwood? Don't expect it to make a return for this episode as it's discovered that the Moon is, in fact... an egg. And let's not even talk about the spiders that weren't actually spiders. Still, as with most, if not all, of Doctor Who's episodes, the bad majorly outweighed the good, with the episode's stunning visual representation of the lunar surface helping to give the story its grand sense of scale. The guest stars deserve a mention too, lead by Hermione Norris as Lundvik who was joined by recurring character Courtney Woods, played by Ellis George, adding a new dynamic to the proceedings. In a nutshell, or 'eggshell', which would be more appropriate in this case, Kill the Moon was one small thing for a thing, and one enormous thing for... thingything...
Dan Butler is the Doctor Who Editor at WhatCulture.com. When he isn't writing his own articles or editing other people's, he can be found trawling the internet for gifs of Steven Moffat laughing. Contact him via dan.butler@whatculture.co.uk.
And let's not even talk about the spiders that weren't actually spiders. Still, as with most, if not all, of Doctor Who's episodes, the bad majorly outweighed the good, with the episode's stunning visual representation of the lunar surface helping to give the story its grand sense of scale. The guest stars deserve a mention too, lead by Hermione Norris as Lundvik who was joined by recurring character Courtney Woods, played by Ellis George, adding a new dynamic to the proceedings. In a nutshell, or 'eggshell', which would be more appropriate in this case, Kill the Moon was one small thing for a thing, and one enormous thing for... thingything...