I've intended to write down my feelings about each episode in this series, but every time I do, the post reaches tl;dr territory and I lose interest before I can hit "Submit."

And I think that's the greater sin.

Sure there have been a buttload of problems in every episode, but they're also kinda boring. There's definitely a gem of a good (or even great) idea in each one, but the execution is so lackluster that it's hard for me to even complain.

"Kill the Moon," though, is probably my favorite. I don't think it's good, just better than every other episode so far. For one thing, the better elements of this episode reminded me of the better elements of "The Beast Below," but instead it's the Companion who's angered by dreadful decision she's being forced to make. The story is also simple enough that it doesn't feel rushed over the 40 minutes, which I've found to be a frequent issue for much of Moffat's time as showrunner.

The astronaut, Lundvik, really worked for me. She reminded me of Adelaide Brooks from "The Waters of Mars." I also like Courtney. I like how the dynamic between her and the Doctor played. Although her actress isn't the greatest, Courtney feels like she would be well suited to travel with the older and very prickly Doctor. Certainly it makes more sense to me than Clara and the Doctor. I've never cared much for Clara, but from what we know of her character, I don't see how she can abide the Twelfth Doctor. Her blow-up in this episode would have made more sense to me if we'd been seeing her struggle to get along with Twelve despite the phone call from Eleven at the end of "Deep Breath." But their differences have largely been glossed over in the jumbled mess of episodes that followed. Now she's angry, and while I like her anger, the build-up to it just wasn't enough for me.

That really is my major problem with this episode. Rather than building up to this dramatic choice Clara has to make, it should have been building up to Clara getting totally fed up with the Doctor. The stupid giant germs were a distraction and the resolution with the second moon egg felt like a cop-out, but it's the inconsistent character work that bothers me most.

JP12x,

Let's toss out "masterpiece" and instead stick with "great work of art."  I wouldn't call Kill the Moon a masterpiece, because what does "masterpiece" mean within the context of television, but I would call it great and I would do that because I watched it, received it on the terms that it established and was stunned by perhaps the greatest episode of Doctor Who I have ever seen (to be fair I haven't seen the back half of classic Who).  The fact that many, many other people were similarly taken with this episode suggests that, yes this episode was indeed on to something.

When you say that a story cannot be great if it does not work for you, how can that be interpreted as anything other than you, Jp12x, are the final arbiter of what is great and not great.  I truly don't mean to be antagonistic, but how else can one read that? 

I would also add that you frame the discussion in terms of Kill the Moon (and Gravity) as being a "story."  To that I say, that television shows and movies are "films."  The difference being that the former term emphasizes the narrative aspect of the work while the latter acknowledges the importance of the visual aspects. This isn't hyper-relative to the discussion at hand, but I would suggest that by focusing on the narrative aspects of a work of film, one limits the myriad of ways in which movies and (to a lesser but increasingly more common extent) television can create different modes of expression.

Clearly (Cotterpin's damning faint praise aside) I am the only one posting here who actually feels good about this episode, and I felt very good indeed about it.  When you are the lone voice in a group, either you end up on the defensive, or you are a troll.  I hope I'm not coming off as either, as I respect that for most of y'all this is a disappointing episode of a show that you care quite a bit about.  I just loved it so damn much.  It's a great episode, it just happens to be a great episode with fairy tale science (and a complicated abortion subtext).

I'm gonna chime in just so Issac doesn't feel alone in his corner.

I'm a fan of this episode. Maybe not as much as Issac, but it definitely seems that I liked it more than most here. Then again, I am a bit of a Who-apologist.

Does it have it's flaws? Sure, of course it does. But honestly, it's pretty much all fridge logic to me. When I was actually watching the episode, I thought it was a really fun and enjoyable 45 minutes. I loved the idea of the moon as an egg (the idea more than the execution) and whilst I was a tad iffy with how it was all resolved, it certainly didn't seem any worse than usual.

I do find it very interesting how split the reaction to 'Kill The Moon' has been though. Every now and then you'll get what could be considered as a 'bad' episode and you'd have the usual fringe of people trying to defend it, but outside of this forum it seems to me like this one is split much more in the towards the middle.

I've not put much thought in to this, but this just popped in to my mind, so I'll throw it out there and see how it goes. Perhaps a lot of the negative reaction to this episode is not specifically due to the episode itself and it more just the boiling point for those who haven't been a fan of how Moffat has been running the show as of late? If this had occurred earlier in the run (and obviously for that to work, the whole Clara/Danny thing would have to be altered), would the reaction have been different?

As I said, these have only just popped in to my mind, so I don't have any sort of responses to my own questions just yet. I'm not even saying I believe this to be the case, but the thought does intrigue me.

Who cares if the characters behave consistently and have believable motivations, they're not real people.

EDIT: C-Spin sniped me, but I agree with everything he said.

I'm gonna have to take some time on your last question since I'm not such a Who nerd that I can just pull exact examples at will.

But to your earlier point about questioning a character inside the the universe, and the idea of a character being canon simply by being written. And I always come back to the thought of "What if I were in this universe watching things happen?" As Saniss has pointed much more eloquently than I the characters are written all over the place, they're up, they're down, they're mad, happy. A lot of the time for seemingly inexplicable or simply non-exsistant reasons. So then here's me, in this universe watching that character. Personally I'm going to be wondering what the hell is wrong with them? Are they mentally ill? id they get hit on the head really hard and everyone else is just refusing to acknowledge it? Because as Saniss has also pointed out, the characters, Clara in paticular, since we have comparison points for her from last season, is all over the place, completely unlike how she was written last season (In this same universe). The Doctor on the other hand, is also all over the place, but hey, new Doc, that could be just the way he is now...except no one actually really comments on it, it's just absorbed and accepted, in a way that feels unnatural to the characters around him.

In a weird way it ties into the idea of Hanging a lantern. These characters are all over the place, but no one in universe ever goes "Gee's guys, are you okay? You're actin all manic depressive-y over here." If they had that, idf they could at least acknowledge that the characters are acting weird, and not try to keep trying to convince us that "this is how they are guys, no seriously", I'd be fine with it, cause supposedly they'd have a reason for it. But as is, it comes off as nothing more than lazy writing.

And to your first point. It's been touched on here and there in here. But Doctor Who is about the universe, there is WEIRD SHIT out there man, but it's alien, it's bizarre, there are things at work we can't understand this far out on the edge. But through all of that Earth is shown to be... Earth. Plain and simple. Earth is earth, it's the place we know, weird stuff sometimes comes and visits, but by and large the fundamental physics that we all know still govern this area of space. So when DW just decides to stroll into our neighbourhood and tries to tell us that actually no, one of those core scientific understandings we have about our section of the galaxy actually doesn't hold true, and we aren't even going to give you a reason why, just go with us. We have to call bullshit. I mean we can literally see Earth from the moon, this isn't some far distant weird section of space where physics behave differently. It's the frickin moon for pete's sake.

It's THE primary issue I have with the Robin Hood episode you all seem to love so much. The entire environment of that episode is so completely and entirely unlike that era of earth, that it completely undermines the entire point of the episode.

Basically...you can't say you're showing me my backyard and tell me there isn't a shed there. I know there's a frickin shed there, I built it, I can literally see it there. Stop trying to tell me my shed isn't there, you're making yourself look like an idiot.

I'm joining the party late. Not really sure what has been said... but I will chuck in my two cents about Dr Who all the same. Loved Ecc and Ten to the point of weirdness... Matt smith is good... but, I lost interest under his reign. Is it a him thing or a me thing? I am bestt mates who work at 'The Farm' and work on Dr Who. Talented geeza hi is but he can't help my weigning love for the show.