This is a lot messier than the first half of the story, but it satisfyingly hits so many huge and dramatic beats that it is still a joy to behold. The soldier storyline, while it hasn't been my favourite series arc, is very well handled and Danny Pink is given a good send off. When I first watched this in 2014 I did not like the inclusion of a cyber-Brigadier at all, but I have softened on this considerably and now think its a sweet touch.

The real star of the show is Michelle Gomez's Missy who elevates proceedings by several factors. Her magnetic performance puts a magic spin on anything it touches. Ideas which might have seemed a bit of a stretch in the hands of another actor, in her hands look perfectly natural. Missy's plan in this story, to give The Doctor a dead army, is both clever but also actually quite sweet. I love that she just wants The Doctor's attention!

The Doctor has had the realisation that he is "an idiot" which I'm hoping confirms that he will not be returning to this darker, moodier mode which has dogged this series. I love the neurodivergent man who does not know how to give and take compliments, but I don't like The Doctor as a bully.

I rewatched this recently, and it's better than its reputation. Michelle Gomez is incredibly giving a chaotic evil performance for the ages, her murder of Osgood is just cruel and evil. Peter Capaldi matches her every step of the way in a great performance where he's filled with horror and dread until his jubilant realization at the end. The climax of the 'soldier' story arc with the Doctor and Danny is thematically perfect. Finally, the heartbreaking ending paying off the Doctor's dislike of hugs with him and Clara both lying to make the other one feel happy, it's devastating and beautiful.

(Also the gag with Jenna Coleman's eyes in the opening rules)

(Oh, and the Doctor falling and making into the TARDIS is badass)

I don't know about that one really, need to watch it again. Absolutely loved last week but didn't feel it was a fully satisfying conclusion to that story.

There were some fantastic character moments for The Doctor especially in there, Moffat is great at that sort of stuff but the actual plot itself didn't quite make ends meet for me. I get what they were going for with The Master creating a Cybermen army for The Doctor's birthday, she's obsessed with him and it's a nice change to to the usual ''take over Earth'' story but it was all a bit underwhelming and didn't seem to make that much sense to me.

Danny Pink I'm so f**king sorry

While I haven't reviewed Dark Water yet, the first part of this story, if I reviewed the whole series in order I think I would really struggle to keep at it. So, I'm going to just focus on Death in Heaven for now. Yay me, I guess, but it leaves me to talk about the more fun part later.

Yes, I follow the generally trend of ratings here, where I think Death in Heaven is a weaker conclusion to the strong set-up of Dark Water. Still, though, there is a lot to like here. I love Michelle Gomez as Missy and she is still extremely fresh and fun here. Twelve and Clara have a lot of great moments - my favourite being the two of them outright lying to each other at the end of the episode. It's pretty haunting and a thing rarely done with companions in Doctor Who. I won't be the first to say this and this won't even be the last time I will say this about a Doctor Who episode, but this would have been a very memorable ending to Clara.

Oh well. The episode does have its problems. Some of the acting around Danny or the writing of the "Brigadier's cameo" felt a little ham-fisted and overblown. It is understandably dramatic, but it falls flat after so much nonsense around Danny's character up until this point. He felt more like a nuisance than a person. That being said, that ending with Clara saving the boy instead of Pink was well done, and feeds into the episode's very memorable ending. It's not even the only memorable aspect of how the story resolves - that Missy was doing all this in some ill-conceived attempt to connect with her old friend. It is touching even knowing how horribly Missy abused people's lives and well-being, including Osgood's death (or at least one of them) which I also found really well done.

All told it is an episode with more strengths than weaknesses, but it isn't completely strong either. Like many Moffat scripts, it feels a little overwritten in some parts and underdeveloped in others. But, just like all of those scripts, it's hard to forget this writing, either, or write it off as pointless. There's a lot of creativity and energy to Death in Heaven that really helps carry the episode and make it something worthwhile.