Doctor Who's "Kill the Moon" Is a Mess of Pseudoscience

harpere

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Doctor Who's "Kill the Moon" Is a Mess of Pseudoscience

The Doctor takes Clara and Courtney, one of her students, on a lunar field-trip. It's no surprise that things go terribly wrong.

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Evil Smurf

Admin of Catoholics Anonymous
Nov 11, 2011
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First.

It's been the best episode of the season, mind you it was not fantastic, merely good, and enjoyable.
Clara was not so Mary Sue, we almost had a space abortion, and it leaves area for expansion, what will the giant space bug do now? Will we see it again?
 

Tanis

The Last Albino
Aug 30, 2010
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I liked it.
It's not the best episode of the season, but beyond the stupid science, it was a fun romp.

Also:
Did Doctor Who SERIOUSLY have an abortion episode?

Wow.
 

Biran53

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Apr 21, 2013
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I thought It was pretty enjoyable. Not quite "Listen," or "The Caretaker," but a decent spin on the standard narrative tropes of the Doctor Who formula.

The idea of the moon being an egg for a space dragon is wonderfully absurd, and kind of works against the back drop of serious character drama.
 

Somethingfake

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Oct 22, 2008
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I've been looking at other reviews of this episode and most of them have been giving high marks and I simply can't understand it. The episode was fucking terrible. Good god was it a waste of time to watch.
 

castlewise

Lord Fancypants
Jul 18, 2010
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I didn't like it until I thought about it a bit. I think the thing with the egg dissolving and everything working out is supposed to be total BS. See, the practical choice is to kill the moon creature, it has to be. Sometimes you have to sacrifice for the good of the many (ask Typhoid Mary) and its sad but it happens. Only someone with the Doctor's knowledge and foresight could know that things would turn out OK. Its total BS that it does turn out OK, but that's the point. Clara (and the audience) couldn't have known things would turn out well if the creature was saved. But she did what the Doctor would have wanted her to do, against the wishes of the entire planet even. That's why what she does is so annoying and why she's so mad at the end. The Doctor is making her like him, except she doesn't have the capacity to do that kind of thing responsibly.
 

TravelerSF

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Nov 13, 2012
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I really don't think it's required to make the Doctor a total a-hole in order to paint him in a more morally ambiguous light. I've always thought that the Doctor's addiction to danger and his tendency to constantly drag new companions with him despite how badly the others have ended up is a good enough reason to question his heroic status.
 

unacomn

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Mar 3, 2008
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All through that episode, I kept thinking "Can we Adric Courney?"

Back in my day, when you showed someone the vastness of outer space first hand, they kind of stopped being awful people.
 

Adraeus

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Sep 6, 2013
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Doctor Who's "Kill the Moon" Is a Mess of Pseudoscience [...] Unfortunately, the action is often spoiled by the science, which even by Doctor Who standards is pretty slip-shod. [...] This is basically Doctor Who's version of Armageddon except Armageddon was probably more scientifically sound.
You're looking for hard sci-fi in the wrong TV series about aliens who travel through space and time in police boxes.
 

luvd1

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Jan 25, 2010
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Didn't like the dr's attitude? Really? A jerk? Not someone who's basically inpatient with stupidity. He was right though with Clare. Why was she asking him to sort it? There was only two choices, it didn't need him to pick it for them so they can ride his coat tails, he just invoked the prime directive. He's a Dr with the balls to say what most people been thinking for years.
 

Flatfrog

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Dec 29, 2010
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harpere said:
This episode is a string of scenes that don't make a lot of sense, but are vaguely held together by virtue of the fact that they all happen on the same channel in the same one-hour period
Now that's about as damning as reviews get :)
 

V TheSystem V

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Sep 11, 2009
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Somethingfake said:
I've been looking at other reviews of this episode and most of them have been giving high marks and I simply can't understand it. The episode was fucking terrible. Good god was it a waste of time to watch.
This. Me and my housemate were watching it, and he was shocked with all the scientific inaccuracies and the plain stupidity of it all. Plus, they all would have died when the shuttle crashed on the Moon anyway!

Besides that, an episode centred around whether to kill an unborn alien? No wonder it was being shown close to the watershed here in the UK (though that allegory may well go over children's heads). Whilst the conclusion was serviceable (killing the alien would have left a massive corpse in the sky and no moon), IT LAID A FREAKING EGG AFTER BEING BORN. I...am nearly done with this show. Or I would be if Capaldi weren't as good as he is.
 

Quellist

Migratory coconut
Oct 7, 2010
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I think 1 1/2 stars is overly generous. The episode was dire, the series is dire. The difference between this and Tennant-era before Moffat took control is drastic.

They should just take the horror out and put this on at 4pm with the other kiddie shows because thats what this series is becoming
 

Welshdan15

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Aug 18, 2011
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V TheSystem V said:
Somethingfake said:
I've been looking at other reviews of this episode and most of them have been giving high marks and I simply can't understand it. The episode was fucking terrible. Good god was it a waste of time to watch.
This. Me and my housemate were watching it, and he was shocked with all the scientific inaccuracies and the plain stupidity of it all. Plus, they all would have died when the shuttle crashed on the Moon anyway!

Besides that, an episode centred around whether to kill an unborn alien? No wonder it was being shown close to the watershed here in the UK (though that allegory may well go over children's heads). Whilst the conclusion was serviceable (killing the alien would have left a massive corpse in the sky and no moon), IT LAID A FREAKING EGG AFTER BEING BORN. I...am nearly done with this show. Or I would be if Capaldi weren't as good as he is.
I was struggling to decide whether the "Moon's a egg" thing was genius or ridiculous. After the "baby" laid another egg, I decided it was neither, it was in fact the dumbest thing I've ever seen. I like this Doctor, because his serious, uncaring personality is a interesting change from 10 and 11's silly fun guy personalities, but this series is pretty crap so far. Dinosaur in Victorian London, Robin Hood, the spaceship being sent out of orbit by a gold arrow (Which WOULD NOT hit the damn thing, it's gold, which is heavier than a normal arrow), and next week, a train in space. I want to make it clear I do like Doctor Who, but this series is making it difficult to.
 
Feb 28, 2008
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Worst episode of the series so far, redeemed only by that great scene at the end between Clara and The Doctor. Otherwise it was utterly ridiculous (not in a charming ridiculous way either).
 

G00N3R7883

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Feb 16, 2011
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I felt like I wasted an hour of my life.

I really like Clara, honestly this season I like her more than the Doctor. If we had this Doctor combined with any other companion I'd have seriously been considering stopping watching the show after 3-4 episodes this season. But her decision was just so stupid. All the evidence she had suggested "kill the egg, or let everyone on Earth die". She got the whole planet to vote so that she didn't have to have it on her conscience, and they made the only possible decision. But still she couldn't do it. Yeah it turned out okay in the end (typical BBC cop out rubbish), but there is no way she could possible have known that*. It was the worst gamble anybody could ever make. Sometimes killing is necessary. Please, give me Jack Bauer in that situation.

*But then it turned out the Doctor knew everything and he could have solved the situation in 5 minutes but he couldn't be bothered.
 

Makabriel

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May 13, 2013
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The Doctor didn't know everything. That moment in time hadn't been written. Whenever he tried to think about the earth's moon, all he could recall was grey parts of his memory. The outcome only happened after they made their decision. That's when his memories came flooding back.
 

small

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Aug 5, 2014
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i find it really interesting to be honest.. oh not the episode, this series or capaldi. its watching moffat with total control completely crash and burn, he constantly amazes me. i dont think the episodes can get worse and yet here we are, a giant alien moth thing that lays an egg bigger than it is in the time it takes the camera to look away and then look up again.. oh and after the alien was shown flying away.

the other thing im noticing is that jenna coleman really looked like she was enjoying working on the show last series but yeah this series she looks frustrated? annoyed? just wants out maybe. i dont know if its capaldi she doesnt get on with (although there is no chemistry there) or moffat.
 

shadowmagus

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Feb 2, 2011
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Oh boo-hoo. The Doctor isn't a funy and cheeky alien there to whisk maidens around the galaxy. Stuff it. You should have known the type of Doctor we were going to get when they cast Capaldi. Not that he can't do a certain amount of levity but seriously, have you seen the roles this guy takes?!

No, honestly, I like this Doctor. No BS, no smiles and rainbows. The universe is a hard place where hard choices have to be made. Maybe he's just tired of making them for everyone else?

As for the episode itself, it really wasn't great.