Comedian Rye Silverman Shares 5 Favorite Moments of Dr. Who Series 8

Published by Rye Silverman at September 17, 2015

series 8 dr who

Guest author Rye Silverman is an LA based comedian who has been documenting her journey living as a woman since long before Caitlyn Jenner graced the airbrushed pages of Vanity Fair. She has spoken and written frequently about the highs, lows, and everyday occurrences of the process. From being featured on ModCloth, to being attacked in the LA Metro, and all the pronoun confusion, support and insults in between. But she’s more than just “that transgender comedian.” Like all good comedians, her act goes well beyond gender and stereotypes and she’s also a giant Doctor Who nerd. In honor of the new season, Rye has shared her favorite moments from series 8. You can also catch Rye talking all things Whovian on the podcast “Laughing at Archaeologists.”

My Five Favorite Moments of Doctor Who Series 8

I will admit to this at the very start: as Doctor Who fans go, I consider myself a Series 8 apologist. I think perhaps no other season in the modern era of the show has been as polarizing as the debut run of Peter Capaldi. It wasn’t universally loved like Russell T. Davies’ parting bow of Series 4, nor generally shrugged at or reviled like the mess that was Series 7, which aside from some Amy and Rory feels, was only redeemed by the Day of the Doctor special. But with Series 8, for every friend I have who has said it made them quit the show entirely, another has said it was their favorite since Eccleston first swaggered around in his leather coat.

However you landed, it was a huge departure for the show, maybe one of the biggest in the history of the series. The switch from stories that focused more on the adventure to stories that focused more on the troubled, complicated relationship between this new Doctor, who we were just meeting, and in many ways this Clara, who we were just starting to actually like, was as much a change of course for the show as when Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor was exiled on Earth and working at UNIT. The course of Series 8 digs deep into the connection between Clara and the Doctor with a level of intimacy not seen even in the most blatantly romantic pairings such as with Rose or River. While Missy loomed from cutaway scenes and robots of all shapes and sizes yearned for the Promised Land, the real arc of the season was the Doctor’s relationship with Clara, and with his place in the universe.

As someone who loves this show and who loved this season, here are my favorite moments from every episode of Series 8, and yes some of them are much easier than others. If it needs to be said, everything that follows will be spoilers, sweetie.

“Just See Me,” Episode 1: “Deep Breath”

The premiere episode, “Deep Breath”, is an episode that is simultaneously Doctor Who at its best and worst. It contains a dinosaur, tonally inconsistent dialogue, mechanical men, some superb acting from Capaldi, and a restaurant scene that locks in his chemistry with Jenna Coleman as on-screen partners in crime in a way that half a season with Matt Smith never quite pulled off. But the moment that stands out for me is the final scene, where the Doctor lands his TARDIS in present day Glasgow, fully aware that his companion may abandon him, unable to deal with his new face or personality. After a well-timed phone call from the aforementioned Smith he pleads with her to see that he is still the Doctor, that he is the same man who phoned. He needs her to see him because he needs to believe he’s still himself as well.

This show has always gone to dark places, but up until now most of those involved actual monsters and threats: a war that threatened all of time, a bomb that threatened all of reality, farting aliens that threatened all of our suspensions of disbelief. What we normally don’t get is the darkness that comes from being isolated, alone, and unsure of one’s self. The Doctor that we see at the end of Deep Breath, literally begging his friend to see him, is perhaps the most vulnerable we have ever or will ever see him. This is Capaldi’s Doctor without the gruffness, without the walls. He’s not asking for one more regeneration, he’s not asking for more time. He’s just asking for a friend to be there, which may be the most relatable the Doctor has ever been.

What was under the blanket?! Episode 4: “Listen”

I have some friends who will be really annoyed with me for not picking the last moment of this episode with Clara comforting, and possibly even creating, the Doctor as a child. But it’s this earlier scene in the children’s home with the child version of Rupert “Danny” Pink that sticks out for me. The scene marks the return of director Douglas MacKinnon who has been given a lot of artistic license on series 8 to play with the filmmaking and crafts a chilling mystery scene with an unknown creature under the bed whose identity we’re never shown, and whose very existence we are left to question. It is a rare moment of the show not feeding the audience details and is genuinely one of the creepiest moments on the show since a little boy asked us if we were his mummy.

The post break-up scene Episode 8 “Mummy on the Orient Express”

The previous episode ‘Kill the Moon” featured perhaps the most reviled moment of the season, where finally pushed to the limits, Clara tells the Doctor off and storms out of the TARDIS perhaps never to return. This could arguably be the most hated moment of the season. For what it’s worth, I thought if nothing else it was an interesting new angle to take and even if it didn’t land perfectly, I’d rather the show take these sort of risks ten years into its revived run than try to tread by on what it already has done.

Perhaps I’m biased though because I loved this opening scene of “Mummy on the Orient Express” so much that I am more willing to forgive the episode that got us there. Without any hesitation this is my favorite episode of Series 8. It’s very willing to be silly, it has a cool conceit for its monster, the 66-second death clock that is adhered to, and first time show writer Jamie Mathieson perfectly nails the new Doctor’s voice, walking Capaldi expertly across the tightrope of cranky yet still a hero. The scene I’m here to praise though, Mathieson admits was mostly written by Steven Moffat. The quiet conversation that the Doctor and Clara have as they gaze out at a dead star dances back and forth between talking about and not talking about the fight that “Kill the Moon” ended on is a pitch perfect depiction of a break up.

“I’m the man who stops the monsters.” Episode 9: “Flatline”

Once again, a round of applause for Jamie Mathieson for creating a unique and very scary monster in the form of invaders from a two-dimensional universe. A second round for crafting a “Doctor-lite” episode that doesn’t feel like one at all. This is overall a great, great episode, one of my favorite in the history of the revived series. If it hadn’t already won me over multiple times, the clincher would have been the climax scene, when the Doctor comes storming out of the TARDIS midway through his first true monologue moment of Capaldi’s run, and declares himself “the man who stops the monsters.” If there was even a shred of doubt left as to whether this man was still the Doctor, he erases it with the flick of a sonic screwdriver.

Missy kills Osgood Episode 12: “Death in Heaven”

A strange choice coming from me because my friends are aware of just how much I adored Osgood and the noises I made when Missy kills her and even ends it all with a triumphant and extra cruel slam of her foot down on the poor lady’s glasses. But frankly, that’s just how good Michelle Gomez is as Missy. The murder of one of my favorite recent characters is a scene that is just so overwhelmingly enjoyable that I let that detail slide. Beginning with her (improvised and personalized) rendition of Toni Basil’s “Hey Mickey” and following through her process of teasing, threatening, and taunting of the UNIT scientist, this is the scene where Gomez is finally allowed to completely let loose with her “bananas” take on the Master. For a series that was admittedly heavier on the feels and lighter than usual on the fun, Gomez completely flips the script and revels in the sheer joy of being a villain. She’s as much a contrast to the gloomy Great Intelligence or all-business Madam Kovarian of previous seasons as Peter Capaldi is to the Matt Smith Doctor who faced them, and this scene is that in a nutshell.

Honorable Mention: “Last Christmas”

DOCTOR: Clara, could you fetch me the dead one?

CLARA: Maybe I could fetch you a cup of tea while I’m at it.

DOCTOR: Ooh. Yes, and a punch in the face, too.

CLARA: My very next suggestion.

DOCTOR: Fair enough.

Technically as part of the Christmas special, this is not part of series 8, but this banter between Clara and the Doctor was my take away moment from the special. The season was full of heavy moments between the two: the Doctor leaving her on the moon, Clara throwing his keys into the magma only for him to tell her she matters more than her betrayal could undo, and the two of them lying to each other at the end of “Death in Heaven” to hide their own sadness and hope the other is better. This moment between them is the aftermath of all of that. It’s friendly sniping between two people who get each other quickly and easily now. As much as I loved the shifted focus of Series 8, I’m excited for the prospect of a new season that sheds this angst, which the end of “Death and Heaven” and the entirety of “Last Christmas” makes me optimistic for, and this moment is the relationship between Clara and the Doctor I want to see moving on from here.

The highly anticipated ninth series of Dr. Who begins this Saturday, September 19, 2015 on BBC One.