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Dark Water was the eleventh episode of the eighth series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales. It saw the return of the Cybermen and the Master, and the Twelfth Doctor's first encounter with them.
Dark Water showed an aspect of the Time Lord's regeneration process that had been mentioned but never seen before on screen: that a Time Lord can actually choose to change his or her gender during regeneration. This aspect of regeneration is important as the mystery surrounding Missy's identity is finally revealed, with the shocking claim that she is the first female incarnation of the Master, now going by "the Mistress" to fit the gender switch.
As such, this marks the first time (if one does not count the audio episodes and other non-TV sources) in the history of Doctor Who that a Time Lord, who had been portrayed by male actors up until 2014, had been portrayed by a female actor. The Master also appears again in a Doctor Who story for the first time since her predecessor's last story in The End of Time, leaving the cause of the regeneration unknown.
Synopsis
When Danny is involved in a terrible accident, Clara and the Doctor travel to a mausoleum where the dead are not all that they seem - and they discover the true identity of Missy.
Plot
Clara’s ready to confess to Danny the adventures she’s been having with the Doctor, despite telling him she wasn’t. She’s about to tell him over the phone, when Danny steps out into the road and is killed by an oncoming car. Unable to deal with her grief, Clara calls the Doctor for help with the intention that he’ll change events.
The Doctor picks up Clara asking her where she wants to go, almost immediately sensing something is wrong. She asks the Doctor to take her to a volcano, all while collecting up the TARDIS keys that are hidden in the console room. After the Doctor sets the destination, Clara uses a sleep patch on him.
The Doctor seemingly wakes on a volcanic planet, and Clara tells him whats happened and that she is holding the seven TARDIS keys hostage. Clara then reveals that knows lava can destroy them and if the Doctor doesn't let her try to save Danny she'll throw them all into the crater in order to prevent the Doctor from ever re-entering the TARDIS, proving that she's serious by throwing one straight away. The Doctor point-blank refuses to save Danny since his death is part of her personal timeline, trying to take control of the situation by telling her to throw another key in the lava. Clara then throws all but one in, and when the Doctor still won't help she throws the last in before suddenly being overcome by the enormity of what she's done. The Doctor then reveals that she didn't actually knock him to sleep (the two are still in the console room), and this has been a telepathic test to see how far she’d be willing to go to be with Danny again. Seeing the extremity of her desire to see him, the Doctor agrees to do everything he can and connects her to the TARDIS’ telepathic circuits, as her timestream’s connected to Danny’s. The TARDIS takes them to wherever she thinks Danny now is...
Danny wakes-up in the Nethersphere, and is greeted by Seb, who informs him of his death.
The TARDIS has taken the Doctor and Clara to the 3W, where they see skeletons seated in watery graves. They’re greeted by Missy, who kisses the Doctor, and claims to be a MobIle SyStems Interface. Missy lets the Doctor feel her hearts.
In the Nethersphere, Seb asks Danny if he’s ever killed someone, due to a request from someone Danny could have killed in the army. Remembering his “bad day”, the child Danny accidentally killed is revealed to him.
Chang reveals the Dark Water to the Doctor and Clara. When submerged, only organic matter can be seen - the skeletons are inside something else, hidden by the water.
Danny meets with the child, who runs away when Danny tries reaching-out to him. He and Seb hear a man screaming, which Seb explains to mean he left his body to science.
Chang then explains to the Doctor and Clara that the 3W was established after a discovery from television static, that their founder, Dr Skarosa, translated to be distant voices. Believing them to be the voices of the dead, Skarosa isolated some of them. Chang plays a recording of the voice that inspired 3W’s founding: “Don’t cremate me”. Chang tells them the dead are still conscious, and aware of everything that happens to their body.
Seb is explaining the same to Danny, who constantly feels cold because he’s still connected to his body, which is being kept in a cold place.
The Doctor states that the dead don't come back, and Chang establishes a communication signal to the Nethersphere, and Clara is able to speak to Danny, with Seb’s assistance. The Doctor tells to Clara to ask Danny questions only to-which would he know the answer.
Missy activates the tanks, and the skeletons stand. When Chang and the Doctor arrive, Missy reveals she was only pretending to be an android, and kills Chang. As the tanks begin to empty, the Cybermen are slowly revealed...
Clara asks Danny to name the restaurant of their first date - he can’t remember.
Missy shows the Doctor the Nethersphere, which is a part of the Matrix housing minds of the deceased in edited forms, while their bodies are used for Cyber-conversion. The Doctor knows the Nethersphere (actually a small sphere within 3W) which is containing the neural patterns is actually Gallifreyan technology, and Missy reveals that she is indeed a Time Lord... or rather, a Time Lady as she prefers to be called. The Doctor asks her which Time Lady she is - she’s the one he “left for dead”, without expecting her to “find [her] way back”. The Doctor runs out of the 3W, which is St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Clara asks Danny more information about her and tells him that if he is Danny, she is determined to find him in the netherworld and threatens to hang up if he says "I love you" one more time instead of answering her questions. Danny tells Clara she must continue her life and not follow him - he again says "I love you", and she disconnects the communication signal, thinking him to be not be the real Danny Pink. Seb gives Danny the option to delete himself, which would relieve him from the pain of Clara not knowing who he is.
In the 3W, Clara turns around to see a fully-revealed Cyberman in the water tank. The Cybermen activate, and begin marching down the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral. The Doctor yells at civilians to run away, but he’s dismissed as an angry Scotsman. The Doctor demands that Missy tell him who she truly is, and Missy reveals that her name is short for “Mistress” as she couldn't keep calling herself by her previous title... the Master. The Doctor initial reaction is disbelief that is quickly replaced by horror when he realises she is telling the truth and his nemesis has returned.
In the Nethersphere, Danny is on the verge of disconnecting himself, and sees the child he killed reflected in his iPad...
Cast
- The Doctor - Peter Capaldi
- Clara - Jenna Coleman
- Danny - Samuel Anderson
- Missy - Michelle Gomez
- Woman - Joan Blackham
- Gran - Sheila Reid
- Seb - Chris Addison
- Dr Chang - Andrew Leung
- Fleming - Bradley Ford
- Boy- Antonio Bourouphael
- Cyberman - Jeremiah Krage
- Cyberman - Ryan Armstrong (Uncredited)
- Mr Armitage - Nigel Betts
Crew
| Executive Producers Steven Moffat and Brian Minchin |
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| Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources. |
References
Individuals
- Clara's birthday (23rd November) is used by Danny to convince her that he is genuine and not a computer program. This date is the original broadcast date of the first ever episode of Doctor Who, An Unearthly Child on 23rd November 1963. This birth date was previously mentioned on Clara's gravestone in The Snowmen.
- Upon being asked by the Doctor whether there are stairs in the 3W base, Missy replies that she isn't a Dalek, referring to the Daleks' famous inability to climb stairs in their earlier forms.
- When asked about having Ipads by Danny, Seb responds by saying that they have Steve Jobs.
Story notes
- The Cybermen walking from St Paul's Cathedral and through the London streets emulates a famous scene in the 1968-1969 story The Invasion.
- This episode marks the first on screen instance of a Time Lord changing gender through regeneration, although the possibility had been alluded to in The End of Time, The Doctor's Wife and The Night of the Doctor.
- TARDIS keys can only be destroyed by being thrown in lava. The Doctor had previously told Clara this at some unseen point.
- The Hyperscape Body Swap Ticket used to get Clara and the Eleventh Doctor into the Doctor Who at the Proms (2013) is shown on Clara's bookshelf among her sticky notes.
Ratings
to be added
Filming locations
Production errors
- The memorial on the street where Danny was hit has the same picture of him twice; one is just in black and white.
Continuity
- Clara tries to use a mood patch to put the Doctor to sleep. (TV: Gridlock)
- In Clara's flat, there are numerous sticky notes with references to many events of her life and alternate lives. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks, The Snowmen et al)
- This isn't the first time that the Cybermen have hibernated in tombs. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen, Nightmare in Silver et al)
- A female incarnation of the Master was previously mentioned to be among his various incarnations who were captured by the Sild. (PROSE: Harvest of Time)
- The Doctor uses the TARDIS's telepathic interface, using Clara to find Danny. (TV: Listen et al)
- Clara attempts to force the Doctor to go back in time and avert Danny's death. This isn't the first time he has been asked to do so. (TV: Earthshock, Father's Day)
- The Master previously had an assistant named Chang Lee that he also killed, although in that case the effect was temporary. (TV: Doctor Who)
Home video releases
DVD releases
Doctor Who Series 8 Boxset
Blu-ray releases
Doctor Who Series 8 Blu-ray Boxset
External links
to be added