Kill the Moon
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Brian Minchin
| 248 – "Kill the Moon" | |||
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| Doctor Who episode | |||
| Cast | |||
Others
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| Production | |||
| Directed by | Paul Wilmshurst | ||
| Written by | Peter Harness | ||
| Produced by | Peter Bennett | ||
| Executive producers | Steven Moffat Brian Minchin | ||
| Music by | Murray Gold | ||
| Series | Series 8 | ||
| Running time | 45 minutes | ||
| First broadcast | 4 October 2014 | ||
| Chronology | |||
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"Kill the Moon" is the seventh episode of the eighth series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 4 October 2014. The episode was written by Peter Harness and directed by Paul Wilmshurst.
Set in 2049, the episode has the school teacher Clara (Jenna Coleman), student Courtney Woods (Ellis George), and astronaut Lundvik (Hermione Norris) facing a time-sensitive moral dilemma over whether to kill a giant creature under the surface of the Moon—which is an egg, inside which the creature has been slowly growing—or to let the creature hatch, the three of them being uncertain what will happen to the people on Earth.
The episode received polarising reviews from television critics, though Coleman's performance and the final climactic scene between Clara and the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) received universal praise. Whilst some critics acclaimed the episode and labelled it the best of the season, others criticised the scientific inaccuracy and thematic content.
Continuity
The Twelfth Doctor takes Clara and her student Courtney on a trip to the Moon. They arrive in 2049 aboard a space shuttle filled with nuclear bombs on a crash course for the Moon. Captain Lundvik explains her crew is on a suicide mission to destroy the Moon; the Doctor deduces from the gravity that the Moon's mass has increased, causing massive high-tides everywhere on Earth.
They travel to a nearby mineral-survey base, finding the miners dead, entombed in webbing. The Doctor notices from the miners' photographs that the Moon is starting to break apart. They are attacked by a spider-like creature that kills Lundvik's crew, but the disinfecting spray Courtney brought kills the creature. The Doctor finds the presence of amniotic fluid near a crevasse outside. Returning to the base, the Doctor asserts that the Moon is and always has been an egg containing a giant creature growing inside, ready to hatch, with the spider being one of thousands of bacteria under its surface. Lundvik becomes even more insistent to blow up the Moon, unsure of the nature of the creature that might hatch.
The Doctor leaves Clara, Courtney, and Lundvik in the base to decide the creature's—and Earth's—fate. Lundvik primes a remote trigger for the nuclear bombs set on a timer. The three argue what to do and conclude by letting Earth's population decide. Clara pleads over broadcast channels for Earth to decide the fate of the creature by leaving their lights on to allow the creature to live, or turning off their lights if they should destroy it. They see the lights on Earth turn off over the next hour. At the last second, Clara changes her mind and stops the countdown. The Doctor arrives shortly afterwards, assures them that they have made the right choice, and evacuates them from the Moon as it starts to crumble.
The winged creature inside the Moon hatches from its shell and flies off. It lays another egg that becomes a new moon. The Doctor reveals that the sudden interest in the Moon will reinvigorate Earth's space programme. Clara berates the Doctor for forcing her to make a decision on the fate of humanity, while the Doctor asserts he cannot be allowed to make those choices himself. Clara tells the Doctor that she does not want to see him again, and takes comfort with Danny in the present.
The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) uses a yo-yo to test the Moon's gravity inside the shuttle. The Fourth Doctor used the same method to test gravity in the Nerva space station in The Ark in Space (1975).[1] According to executive producer Brian Minchin, Capaldi had requested the yo-yo to be similar to the one that Tom Baker had used before.[2]
The Doctor tells Clara that "Earth isn't my home", echoing the Fourth Doctor's statement in Pyramids of Mars (1975) that "The Earth isn't my home, Sarah. I'm a Time Lord. I walk in eternity."[1]
In "The Fires of Pompeii" (2008), the Tenth Doctor says that as a Time Lord, he can see both fixed and mutable points in time. The Twelfth Doctor says the same thing here, but that there are "grey areas", points in time for which he cannot see the outcome.[3]
The Doctor claims that Courtney will meet "this bloke called Blinovitch". This refers to the Blinovitch Limitation Effect, first mentioned in the Third Doctor story Day of the Daleks (1972).[1]
Production
Writing
The episode was originally written for Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor. An early working title for the episode was "Return to Sarn" (the name of the planet where a previous serial also shot in Lanzarote, Planet of Fire, was set); however, this was intended to be misleading. While briefing Harness on how to write the script, executive producer Steven Moffat told him to "Hinchcliffe the shit out of it for the first half", meaning, essentially, to make it frightening. This was in reference to Philip Hinchcliffe, who produced Doctor Who from 1974 to 1977, a period of the classic series that is recognised as especially frightening.[4] Moffat called the script "intense and emotional".[5] Harness said that the episode would see a large change for the show. "I still don't know how people will take it. I'm in this kind of limbo now waiting for people to see it, and I've no idea, really I do not know how it is going to go down."[6]
Filming
Filming for the episode took place in Lanzarote, near the Volcán del Cuervo (Raven's Volcano)[7] in Timanfaya National Park.[8] The last episode to be filmed there had been 1984's Fifth Doctor serial Planet of Fire.[9] Filming took place on 12–13 May,[10] while the park was closed to visitors,[11] with locals reporting that "they've erected a huge marquee, have trailers, toilets and a van".[8] Filming also took place at Aberavon Beach in Port Talbot on 21 May.[12][13][14][15][16][17]
Casting
Tony Osoba previously appeared in the classic serials Destiny of the Daleks (1979) and Dragonfire (1987).
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