Dark Water. Series 8-Episode 11

Part two of my review.

Dark Water

Written by Steven Moffat

Director:Rachel Talalay

Producer:Peter Bennett

Executive Producer(s):Steven Moffat/Brian Minchin

Length:45 Minutes. Part one of two

Originally Broadcast:1st November 2014

Review

 Dark Water sees Steven Moffat, the mini afro-headed Highlander, redeeming himself with what has to be one of the best episodes this series.
With waning audiences and the lowest ratings since the reboot of the show, Moffat has at last, returned to his former glory with this two parter.
So, what was the big reveal? At first, I thought that Missy might be Susan ("you abandoned me") or even the Rani. So well done to Mater for correctly guessing that she is in fact the Master. Or as Missy herself explained, "Try to keep up. I'm Missy. Short for Mistress. Well, I couldn't very well keep calling myself the Master, could I?"

Missy channeling the spirit of Mary Poppins. ♪ A spoonful of sugar makes the hostile takeover bid of the Cybermen invasion, go down. ♪

Amazingly, this has caused an uproar within the Whovian community...no, really! Forget the recent Ebola outbreak, or the various wars taking place around the world, It seems that the idea of the Master regenerating into a female of all things, is too preposterous for some people to get their close-minded craniums around. People are actually threatening to boycott the Doctor as this can only lead to one thing in the future...a FEMALE DOCTOR! (cue sounds of people fainting around the globe and committing Hari Kari) All I can say to that is "Goodbye."
For me, Missy is one of the best incarnation of the Master since Delgado and later, John Simms. Like Mary Poppins on acid, Missy commands the screen and steals every scene that she is in.
As for the kiss that she plants on the poor Doctor, it was more like a full frontal assault than an act of endearment.

Eeeek! A woman!

So back to the story...I told you it was going to be a long review.
So as the Doctor ponders as to why anyone would want to preserve the dead in 'dark water', which only organic matter can been seen through it and Danny continues to do his impression of a bug eyed insect in deciding whether to push the delete button (for crying out loud Sappy, push the button!) to rid himself of all his emotions, (what? He has more than one?) we soon come to discover Missy's plan.

Danny getting all emotional

With a dramatic cry of "Humankind bring out your dead", the tanks in which the skeletons are entombed. activates and the dark water begins to recede showing the real occupants of the watery tombs, Cybermen.
It turns out that Missy had the ingenious idea of storing the consciousness of the dead into a Gallifreyan memory storage system known as the Matrix. And although the deceased believe that they are in the Nethersphere, their emotions are soon to be deleted, ready to be inserted into the new Cybermen army.

"DELETE...DELETE...um...I've forgotten the next line..."

We do at least get to uncover the reason for Danny's passivity and teary eyed expression, in a moving scene where he encounters the boy that he killed back when he was a soldier. And there's a wonderful performance from Chris Addison, who plays the Mistress' right hand man Seb.
One of the best scenes though, has to be the emergence of the Cybermen from Saint Paul's Cathedral,  (which may or may not be, Missy's TARDIS) which is a direct homage to the 1968 episode The Invasion starring Patrick Troughton.

Cybermen emerging from Saint Paul's Cathedral. The Invasion 1968

My only one complaint is that the Doctor tells Clara that the keys to the TARDIS can only be destroyed by volcano lava. But on more than one occasion, we have seen the Timelord open the TARDIS door with just a click of his fingers. Apart from that, a brilliant episode. Cannot wait for next week, though I have found that with Moffat's two parters, the build-up is always more exciting then the follow up...okay, two complaints.

*Favourite Missy quotes:

"Hello, I hope you're well. How may I assist you with your death?"

As the Doctor runs shouting through the crowds of people, trying to disperse them before the Cybermen make an appearance-"Sorry, another ranting Scotsman in the streets. I had no idea there was a match on."

Missy-"I've turned the lift off, though."

Doctor-"I presume you have stairs?"

Missy-"Well, I'm not a Dalek."

Cast

 Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Samuel Anderson, Michelle Gomez, Chris Addison, Sheila Reid, Andrew Leung, Bradley Ford, Nigel Betts, John Blackham, Antonio Bourouphael, Jeremiah Krage, Nicholas Briggs (voice of the Cybermen.