Kill The Moon

Awesome episode.

HELL YEAH Courtney makes a great companion, not least because she starts the episode by telling him where he can get off for being a dickbag. I honeslty think this alone makes her a brilliant companion for Twelve. He needs Courtney (or Donna, or Martha) - someone who will call him on his bollocks. And I love that through seeing Courtney do this, Clara gets the gumption to do the same at the end: "Respected isn't how I feel!". Clara, meet Tegan, Tegan, Clara. As it should be.

Scenes like this make me feel better about the earlier episodes. There's a big difference between a character being a rotter as part of an arc, and accidentally, where the author is unaware of their character's flaws. Seeing that we're talking about the former makes all the difference. 

Everything about this episode is cool. The spiders are scary, and used sparingly enough that they remain so. They are a red herring threat to keep us entertained, until the story segues effortlessly into its true form. So the feminine Moon is this big, floating, abortion metaphor in space ("Your moon, your choice" says the Doctor, before leaving a room of women to decide). I love that. That's what sci-fi should be - exploring real world issues through a lens of unreality. And what a charming way to pass the Bechdel test too.

Courtney is brilliant, asking all the sensible questions like "did you bring guns". Being in space with Courtney illustrates Clara's double life far more poignantly than the previous episode, as she struggles to be a companion, and a teacher at the same time.

The Doctor has some beautiful lines in this one - the one about the little blinks especially. "Amniotic fluid - I have to go down there!" is brilliant Doctorism, and I love his barely contained glee as he pronounces "the moon is hatching", while the rest of the cast bring their game so the moment can be as serious as it is absurd. 

Fun trivia! I saw in the credits this was filmed at Timanfaya national pakrk. That's in Lanzarotte, last seen in Planet of Fire.

Doctor Who at its very finest. 9/10

(What a title. Kill the Moon.)