ANDREW'S
DOCTOR WHO REVIEWS 
If Heaven Sent was pared back – simple and in a small set
with one actor – then Hell Bent throws an awful lot of stuff at the viewer as
Steven Moffat attempts to wrap up all the loose threads of plot from this
season, and there is a lot – Gallifrey, Clara, Ashildr/Me and the Hybrid which
is mentioned throughout the season and is the one thing that we never really
work out properly. You are left at the end wondering whether Clara is dead or
not, she goes off with Ashildr/Me ostensibly to go back to Gallifrey but there
is an implication they are just going to travel on forever, both immortal in
their own way what Clara describes as “the long way around”.
The Doctor has been trapped in his confession dial for four
and a half billion years and he emerges on Gallifrey. Here he stages a coup and
removes Rassilon (Donald Sumpter) from power to become President himself. He
then orders Clara to be removed from time in the seconds before she dies. She
has no pulse and although the Doctor pretends he is going to find out about the
Hybrid from Clara, in fact, he does a runner in a TARDIS with her onboard.
His idea is to travel far enough away that he can get her
pulse to resume and she won’t need to be returned to the moment of her death by
the Time Lords. This, of course, fails so instead they travel to the furthest
end of the Universe in the far far future. Here they meet Ashildr/Me waiting in
the ruins of Gallifrey and she posits that the Doctor and Clara between them
form the Hybrid. The Doctor reveals he intends to wipe Clara’s memory hoping to
hide her from the Time Lords. Clara overhears his plan and insists that the
mind wipe should be performed at random on either the Doctor or herself. Before
submitting the Doctor suggests that he has become the Hybrid trying to save
Clara. They operate the mind wipe.
The Doctor wakes up in the Nevada desert. Here he comes upon
a diner and inside he talks to the waitress and tells her his story. He has
pieced together everything except what the lost girl Clara looks like. The
waitress, who is Clara who has all her memories intact, leaves the Doctor in
the desert – the diner is a TARDIS operated by Clara and Ashildr/Me. They leave
to return to Gallifrey and send Clara to the moment of her death - eventually.
The Doctor’s TARDIS is waiting for him behind the diner once
it dematerialises.
So, we reach the end of Clara’s story and, to be honest,
it’s not overly satisfying. It’s not that I mind Clara not having died – it
allows the possibility of the character and actress returning in the future if
that is needed, but it does take away the impact of Face the Raven and feels a
bit like a cheat. Similarly, Ashildr’s story is not really finished. She just
goes off with Clara and although she is reconciled to some degree with the
Doctor, there is no satisfying conclusion.
This story feels like it takes the long way around to get to
the bit we actually need to see – the Doctor and Clara wiping one of their
memories and the end of Clara’s story. There’s a lot of stuff on Gallifrey and
shouting and waving around of guns that, to be honest, adds nothing but time
and noise to the plot.
The best bit of the whole thing is probably that quiet scene
at the end in the diner with Clara in her waitress uniform with her memories
intact and the Doctor struggling to find his own memories, doodling on his
guitar and playing Clara’s theme (which we’ve heard often over the last few
years). Both Capaldi and Coleman are on top form here, and it helps to remember
what a good pairing they’ve been.
Overall, the main thing that lingers here is saying a final
farewell to Clara; a much maligned companion who I liked from the start and
continued to be impressed by throughout. The rest of the story is just white
noise.
NEXT UP: THE HUSBANDS OF RIVER SONG
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