Spoilers: Doctor Who series 8’s finale didn’t let the side down after the excellent Dark Water.

Here’s our review…

This review contains spoilers.

Our spoiler-free review is here.

His joy when he landed a role in theDoctor Whofinale proved to come with a sting.

Thems the breaks, a phrase weve no intention of ever using again.

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Mind you, he was in good company.

Ive been married four times, all deceased.

Whilst you wouldnt quite call Danny Pink a companion, hes been a major character inDoctor Whothis year.

And there was no ultimate get-out clause for him, at least not one that he took.

Danny Pink is dead.

As far as dead goes inDoctor Who, anyway.

was killing people was something of a shock.

The one that really got us in the first half of the episode was Osgood.

Were still devastated, in truth.

What had poor Ingrid Oliver done?

It was sudden, and there was no get out.

We want her back.

Evenmorepeople were brutally murdered.

Kate Lethbridge-Stewart was chucked out the plane.

Seb the funny AI interface was blasted (well miss you inDoctor Whoas well, Chris Addison).

And even the Doctor was left plummeting to what looked like certain doom.

Well, until the daft-but-hey-its-Doctor-Who homing TARDIS key kicked in.

And yet it worked (even if it stretched things a little).

In fact, a soldier saved the day, not for the first time this series.

And appreciating that Elevens already said one final goodbye to the Brigadier, we certainly didnt begrudge another.

He was thoroughly deserving of his literal final salute he got.

In the nicest sense though, lets hope thats the last one.

But back to the brutality of the main foe here.

There were bits of the Missy explanation that will no doubt earn further investigation.

Its more interesting than just trying to take over the world, certainly.

Even if she might just have been lying.

Shes proven shes good at that.

That said, those of us who have stuck withDoctor Whoa long way have happily worked with less.

Who knew?).

Even a broken old-style Cyber helmet gave us a lovely nerd moment early in the episode.

And crucially, less convincing.

But Danny the Cyberman?

Clara, watch this.

This is who the Doctor is, he said, with pretty much perfect delivery.

He was the heart of the episode.

Well, along with Clara.

you could almost hear the chuckles of Steven Moffat with his pre-credits jape, too.

You never had to go far on the internet to find someone calling the show Clara Who.

Mind you, the resolve of her own characters descendant remains unclear.

Some websites would have you believe that she might have been pregnant.

But still: theres the small matter of a Danny/Clara offspring to resolve.

For now, we cant help but heap more plaudits on Jenna Coleman.

Right back inDeep Breath, we thought she carried the bulk of the work in the episode.

Once again here, the emotional moments she excelleed in.

Not through anything overt, either.

Coleman has excelled in this series.

So has Peter Capaldi, of course.

He gave a look of a man almost destroyed by the choices he had to make.

It wasnt much of a surprise, granted, but it was nicely played, as always.

And we still suspect outright warmth wont become a prevalent quality in Twelve.

Thats your answer for everyhting isnt it?

Its helped enormously that this particular story has developed and been explored over 100 minutes of screen time.

There were bits where it perhaps felt it slowed down a bit too much.

But then came Dannys moment.

And that, in turn, led to his ultimate sacrifice.

In doing so, Kleenex presumably sold a few more boxes of tissues around the UK.

Im going to kill you in a minute.

Im not even kidding!

So where does this leave everyone?

To all intents and purposes, Clara and the Doctor have said farewell.

Theres a strong chance, of course, that the Christmas special may reunite them.

That Clara withholds at least one last secret from the Doctor seems apt as well.

Shes left walking down the street, to a life with neither the Doctor or Danny in it.

Again, at least for now.

As for the Doctor?

Well, hes moved forward, but still far from happy.

It tells you much that both of them do that.

Whatever comes next, were already looking forward to seeing it.