Kill the Moon (TV story)

Kill the Moon was the seventh episode in series 8 of Doctor Who.

It saw the Twelfth Doctor take Coal Hill School student Courtney Woods on a trip to the Moon following her discovery of his true nature in the previous episode. It also revealed the true nature of the Earth's natural satellite, which had been a fixture of many previous stories.

It revisited the Earth's environmentally disastrous mid-21st century as well as the concept of time in flux, with the Doctor choosing to take a step back and leaving the future in the hands of his human company, a choice that would lead to a divide between the Doctor and Clara.

Kill the Moon was also notable from a production standpoint. Lanzarote was utilised as a filming location for the first time since 1984 when it stood in for Planet of Fire's Sarn. The production team played upon this - early drafts of the script were titled Return to Sarn just to mislead those who theorised that this story would feature the return of the Master.

The concept behind the episode came to writer Peter Harness in 2011, so initially it was written for Matt Smith. Harness expressed a belief that the script better suited Peter Capaldi with the Doctor-Clara dynamic playing out better. (DWM 478)

Synopsis
The Doctor, Clara and Courtney goes to the Moon in 2049, where they discover that the Earth's constant companion is not what it seems...

Cast

 * The Doctor - Peter Capaldi
 * Clara - Jenna Coleman
 * Danny - Samuel Anderson
 * Courtney Woods - Ellis George
 * Hermione Norris - Lundivik
 * Tony Osoba - Duke
 * Phil Nice - Henry
 * Christopher Dane - McKean

Story notes

 * This episode's original broadcast was followed by a teaser for the second series of fellow BBC Saturday night drama, Atlantis, confirming that it would premiere on 15 November, the week following the Series 8 finale of Doctor Who.

Continuity

 * Like the Second Doctor, the Twelfth Doctor says "When I say 'run', run".
 * The Doctor tells Courtney to use a disk in order to bring the TARDIS to him. He also says that she should hold to the console so she won't be left behind. (TV: Blink)
 * The Doctor says that he wouldn't kill Hitler as an example of not interferring with the course of history. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus, TV: Let's Kill Hitler)
 * The Doctor finds amniotic fluid, from which life comes from. (TV: City of Death)
 * Earth of the mid-21st century is shown to be worse for wear enviromentally compared to the start of the century. (TV: The Waters of Mars, Aeolian)
 * The Doctor chooses to take a step back in the face of an potentially apocalyptic event, leaving humanity to choose the future. The Ninth Doctor initially took a similar approach upon witnessing what appeared to be humanity's first contact with alien life. (TV: Alien of London)
 * This is not the first time The Doctor has used a Yo-Yo to assess the gravity. (TV: The Ark in Space)
 * Clara mentions the previous time the TARDIS made an emergency dematerialisation. (TV: Cold War)

DVD releases

 * The episode will be released as part of the Complete Series 8 box set in November 2014.

Blu-ray releases
to be added