The Who Wars Podcast #016 (19 November, 2014)

00:00 The Who Wars Podcast Theme

00:30 Introduction to the show by Rob @WhoWars before he, Lex @Lexerness and Kate @Kamiduu give some initial thoughts now that they've seen the second half of Series 8 of Doctor Who. Then they tackle each of the six episodes individually.

04:01 Kill the Moon - The Doctor takes Clara and Courtney on a trip, where they arrive in 2049 on a Space Shuttle to the Moon with one hundred nuclear bombs. Noting the Moon's higher gravity and meeting Captain Lundvik, the Doctor questions her, where he's told that her team are on a suicide mission to blow up the Moon. A sudden mass high tide had threatened humanity's existence, the cause being the Moon. Their mission was the only way to save the planet. Colonists are found entombed in spider webs, and the Doctor finds through the readings that had previously been taken, noting an increase in the Moon's mass - the cause of the sudden tidal shift. A spider-like being attacks the group, and the Doctor realizes that they are only germs. The Doctor determines that the Moon is an egg, with the creature inside ready to hatch. The Doctor abandons them, forcing Lundvik and Clara to decide on their own. They call upon Earth to make the decision, receiving an unanimous vote to save the Earth. Clara intervenes and stops the bombs' countdown, and the Doctor rescues them from the Moon. From Earth, they watch the creature hatch and the shell disintegrate, with the creature laying a new egg as a new Moon. Clara angrily confronts the Doctor, claiming that it was his decision to make too, since Earth is important in his life as well. She leaves the TARDIS and the Doctor, to be comforted by Danny.

13:14 Mummy on the Orient Express - Clara rejoins the Doctor for one last outing before she leaves the TARDIS and the Doctor for good. They arrive on a train named the Orient Express which travels through space, a distant future remake of the famous train. The Doctor soon discovers that an elderly woman has recently been murdered by a creature only she could see – she described it as an Egyptian 'Mummy'. The Doctor insists that she died of old age, but when a member of the kitchen staff dies in the same way, the Doctor realizes that the 'Mummy' (known as the Foretold) is invisible to all but the one that it is about to kill. Once it is seen, it kills its victim in exactly sixty-six seconds. The train's computer program, 'Gus', reveals to the Doctor that he has tasked him to capture the Foretold or face the death of innocents. The Doctor takes the consciousness of the Foretold's next victim to see it, and discovers that it is a dead soldier powered by future technology with unfinished business. The Doctor discharges the soldier by surrendering, and the train's occupants are saved. Gus declares that the survival of the train's occupants is not required, and begins removing the train's air supply. The Doctor uses the future technology from the Foretold to teleport the train's occupants to safety, just before the train explodes. Later, Clara calls Danny and decides she is not ready to leave the Doctor.

 

23:34 Flatline - Arriving in Bristol, the Doctor and Clara find the TARDIS has shrunk on the outside. Clara gets out to investigate the area, while the Doctor stays in the TARDIS until it has shrunk down to a handheld size, theorizing that something was leeching its external dimensions. Clara encounters a young graffiti artist named Rigsy, and communicating through an earpiece, the Doctor tells Clara that the thing they are facing is an alien from a universe that's solely two-dimensional. The creatures have achieved the ability to make 3D objects 2D, and Clara, Rigsy, and community service people attempt to run from the creatures. The Doctor is soon able to create a device that can change the dimensions of objects similarly to the creatures. However, the TARDIS cannot function with a lack of dimensions, and the Doctor powers it down into a 'siege' mode. The creatures have also learned to make themselves 3-dimensional, and assume demented guises of the people they have absorbed into two-dimensions. With the help of Rigsy, Clara is able to trick the creatures into powering the TARDIS once more and restoring it to regular size. The Doctor uses its power to send the creatures back into their dimension. Clara and the Doctor part ways with Rigsy, and after she asks if she was a good doctor, he tells her that she was an exceptional doctor in his place but goodness had nothing to do with it.

30:45 In the Forest of the Night - Maebh, a young girl, is running through a forest when she comes across the TARDIS. She knocks and is answered by the Doctor, who realizes that a forest has grown over London. Meanwhile in London Museum, Clara and Danny lead a group of kids out into the new forest after a museum sleepover. Clara immediately calls the Doctor, who reveals he is already aware of the forest and tells Clara to meet him in Trafalgar Square. Upon arrival they attempt to figure out the truth behind the forest, and the Doctor realizes Maebh is missing, and he and Clara set out to find her. Following a trail she has left, they find her, only to be cornered by and rescued from wolves and a tiger which have escaped the zoo. The Doctor realizes Maebh is behind what's going on, and uses the sonic to get the trees to speak through her. They reveal an extinction-level solar flare is heading towards Earth. Heading back to the TARDIS, the Doctor offers an escape route. Clara says she would never leave Danny, Danny would never leave the kids, and the kids would miss their parents. The Doctor leaves, before realizing the trees have grown to protect Earth like a giant airbag and the solar flare wouldn't kill anyone. He heads back to Earth, where he recruits the kids to send a message to the world to not destroy the trees. The solar flare passes by harmlessly and the excess trees disappear, their job done.

41:52 Dark Water - While Clara attempts to gain the courage to tell Danny about her life with Doctor, Danny is hit by a car and is killed. Clara is comforted by her family, until she calls the Doctor. She attempts to blackmail the Doctor into saving Danny by throwing the TARDIS keys into a volcano one by one. The Doctor removes her from the dream state he placed on her and uses her memories for the TARDIS to find Danny. They are brought to a facility named 3W, in which skeletons are contained in a blue liquid. Elsewhere, Danny is being consoled by Seb for his death. The Doctor opens an information book, read by a hiding Missy, who claims that she is a droid. Meeting Doctor Chang, he explains that the dead are conscious and also shows them "dark water", a substance which can only display organic material. Meanwhile, Missy awakens the skeletons and the tanks begin to drain. Clara talks with Danny, and she tries to find proof of his identity, but Danny refuses to let her be with him in death, so Clara ends the call. The Doctor and Chang exit into the hallway to see the tanks drain, revealing the skeletons are actually Cybermen. The Doctor and Missy exit and find themselves on the steps of St Paul's cathedral. The Cybermen begin to march out of the cathedral, and Missy tells him that his efforts to evacuate are pointless, and that Missy is short for Mistress, revealing that she is the Master.

52:12 Death in Heaven - As part of Missy's plans, Cybermen detonate themselves around London, releasing "Cyber pollen" that reincarnates and transforms the dead into Cybermen. Danny is one of these, and rescues Clara from 3W. UNIT bring the Doctor and Missy aboard a plane, where the Doctor is given control of Earth's armies as "President of the Earth". With the help of the Cybermen, Missy overpowers UNIT and blows up the plane. The Doctor survives by calling the TARDIS to him and reunites with Clara in a cemetery, where Clara has discovered the Cyberman who saved her is Danny. Danny reveals that a forecoming rainfall will convert all living people to Cybermen as well. Missy arrives and gifts the Doctor with control of all the Cybermen so he can conquer the universe. The Doctor refuses and gives control to Danny, who leads other Cybermen into exploding and stopping the rainfall. Missy is disintegrated by a final Cyberman, a reanimated Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. In the aftermath, Clara and the Doctor bid farewell with lies to each other: Clara tells the Doctor that Danny has reunited with her when he used his only escape attempt to return a child he killed to life, and the Doctor tells Clara he has found Gallifrey with coordinates Missy gave him when they led to nowhere.

1:14:20 Summary; Rob @WhoWars Lex @Lexerness and Kate @Kamiduu give their thoughts on Series 8 of Doctor Who now that it has screened in its entirety.

1:21:28 The Who Wars Podcast Credits (including how to get in touch with the show)

1:22:13 Bloopers and studio chatter. Shhh... ;)