“Hell Bent” was the most explicitly feminist episode of Doctor Who I have ever seen.
This wasn’t just a story about the Doctor losing a companion, it was a story that questioned the Doctor’s worst, most overbearing, most patriarchal impulses after he loses a companion. It was entirely about questioning the lengths the Doctor will go to avoid that pain and the harm it causes everyone around him. It was the most explicitly feminist call-out of the Doctor’s behavior I have ever seen.
If that wasn’t enough, we also had the most epic, satisfying conclusion to the “Clara Who” arc I could’ve hoped for. We had incredible appearances from both Me and the Sisterhood of Karn, with women supporting each other and fighting for each other’s autonomy over their lives. And we had another Time Lord regenerating from a man to a woman, with one of the most hilarious post-regeneration one-liners ever seen on-screen (Please leave your hate messages regarding the General’s “ego” quote here).
Between “Face the Raven,” “Heaven Sent,” and “Hell Bent,” the Series 9 finale is my absolute favorite finale arc of Doctor Who.
The Time Lord Victorious
The Doctor’s sense of authority and his occasionally overwhelming ego have always been some of my favorite flaws in his character, when handled well. It makes sense that a character as powerful, clever, and seemingly invulnerable as he is would have a bit of an inflated sense of self. He has lived so long and involved himself in so many universe-altering conflicts that legends and myths have sprung up around him. The mere mention of his name can summon an army or turn it away, depending on his whim.
These qualities make the Doctor an incredible force for good, but it can also lead him to be overbearing, manipulative, and patriarchal. He acts in what he believes to be his companions’ best interests, often ignoring their own wishes. He can go to extreme lengths to get what he wants and will ignore the consequences of his actions. And he can be petulant and cruel when challenged.
We’ve seen these qualities examined and challenged before during the Time Lord Victorious arc — but I would argue that the Series 9 finale actually went further than that arc in challenging the Doctor’s behavior, and it did it while respecting the autonomy of the Doctor’s companion.
The Doctor and Clara’s Hybrid arc closely parallels the Time Lord Victorious arc. With his companion facing a life threatening situation, the Doctor has to decide whether to erase their memories in order to save their life. Meanwhile, the Doctor is desperately attempting to escape a prophecy. And at his most egotistical, desperate moments, when he is attempting to bend the laws of time and space, someone knocks four times to remind him that he is not all-powerful.
But there is a crucial difference between the Hybrid arc and the Time Lord Victorious arc. I would argue that the Time Lord Victorious begins with the Doctor erasing Donna’s memory — the crucial moment he decides he has the right to violate Donna’s express wishes and bodily autonomy to erase her memories and keep her alive. From there, the Doctor is willing to go to even more extreme lengths to attempt to “save” his companions. By “The Waters of Mars,” he’s assuming power over the laws of time in order to alter a fixed moment and save Captain Adelaide Brooke and her crew. He flagrantly ignores Adelaide’s objections and disregards her concerns about the impact his actions will have on the future. Her suicide — her challenge to his authority — forces him to acknowledge that he went too far.
But the decisive confrontation between Clara and the Doctor occurs at the very end of the Hybrid arc, a nice reversal that means that the Doctor’s female companion isn’t killed or otherwise horribly changed to further his emotional arc. And while the Doctor descends further into his rage and petulant anger, his friends have the opportunity to call him out on his behavior and point out exactly how it is hurting the one person he claims to be saving.
A lot of this criticism specifically comes from the other women in this episode, particularly Ohila and Me. When the Doctor claims that the universe “owes” him Clara’s survival, Ohila shoots back that the universe doesn’t owe him anything, and that his selfish actions will only hurt Clara. And it is Me who points out that his dislike of endings — whether it is the end of the universe or the end of Clara’s life — is selfish and childish. Instead of celebrating and remembering a life that was well-lived and fulfilling, he focuses only on his own pain and sadness. And when the Doctor confesses his plan to erase Clara’s memories, it is Ashildr who stands up for Clara’s autonomy, pointing out that Clara may not want to sacrifice her memories to live longer and that “we have no right to change who she was.”
And this is essentially the same argument Clara tells the Doctor: “These have been the best years of my life, and they are mine. Tomorrow is promised to no one, Doctor, but I insist upon my past. I am entitled to that. It’s mine.”
I can’t even begin to tell you how much I love this line, because it is everything I wish Donna Noble had been able to yell at the Doctor before he erased her memories.
As awful and heartbreaking and tragic as it would’ve been had Clara died on Trap Street, who’s to say it would’ve been any less awful to erase one of the most significant parts of her life and leave her in some out-of-the-way place on Earth, without the adventure and excitement she craved? Maybe she could still have a happy and fulfilling life — but it wouldn’t have been a life that she chose for herself.
And that’s the crucial part of this entire conflict. Clara’s memories and her life are hers and hers alone. If she wanted to live longer, and was willing to erase her memories to do so, then that would be her choice to make. But she doesn’t want to, and the Doctor’s impulse to try to manipulate Clara into using the neural blocker is selfish.
The Doctor tells Clara that all of his actions have been to keep her safe. And it brings us back to the idea that the Doctor believes he has a “duty of care” for Clara. The idea that he has a “duty” to protect Clara is fundamentally paternalistic. You may feel concerned about a friend or loved one’s safety, but saying you have a “duty” to protect someone goes beyond that. There’s an implicit assumption being made that your judgement is superior to the judgement of the person you’re protecting, which seems to be reflected in the Doctor’s constant attempts to send Clara away from risky situations. And when their safety is your personal responsibility, you will be more willing to ignore their judgement and follow your own instead.
But Clara never asked for the Doctor to serve as her protector, and he can never guarantee her safety. Maybe he could’ve erased her memory and dropped her off to live her life as a waitress in rural Nevada… and she could’ve still died in a tragic, everyday accident. Tomorrow is promised to no one. But Clara does have a whole life behind her, filled with wonderful adventures and amazing friends. And the Doctor has no right to change that.
Clara Who
As if the Hybrid arc wasn’t enough, Clara’s departure was probably the most epically feminist subversion of the fridged woman trope I’ve ever seen. In fact, I have to go back and apologize for the short-sightedness of my review of “Face the Raven.” The only fault I could find with her death was that, despite setting up Clara’s actions as something clever that the Doctor himself might have done, the narrative wouldn’t go quite as far to save her from her mistake as it would to save the Doctor. Although she is the protagonist of her own story — the star of Clara Who — she isn’t actually the lead character of this show. No matter what risky situation the Doctor is in, he has to survive, but Clara doesn’t need to.
I have never been so happy to be so incredibly wrong, because the narrative literally bent over backwards to allow Clara to survive. It was the most Doctor-ish way to cheat death that could’ve possibly happened.
Some early reviews suggested that perhaps “Hell Bent” robbed Clara’s death in “Face the Raven” of some of its emotional impact, but I couldn’t disagree more. Though it may not be quite as devastating, it is still incredibly compelling, in large part thanks to Sarah Dollard’s amazing dialogue and Jenna Coleman’s absolutely incredible performance. It doesn’t undermine or change the Doctor’s choices after she dies, and it certainly doesn’t undermine Clara’s bravery or her character development. Had the Doctor removed Clara’s memories and left her in rural Nevada, I might agree, but instead Clara was allowed to defend her life and her memories.
Furthermore, I think we need to recognize and appreciate how rare and wonderful Clara’s return to life is. Female characters almost never come back to life after they’re killed off, but it happens all the time with male characters. Clara’s death not only subverts the “Fridged Women” trope, it also upends the “Dead Men Defrosting Trope.”
I also think Clara’s death is the perfect ending to the Clara Who arc. Clara is no longer Doctor-ish — she truly becomes a character equivalent to the Doctor.
There are some obvious call-backs to the Doctor’s origins. Just like he did so many years ago, Clara flees Gallifrey in a stolen TARDIS. In his final moments where he is capable of remembering her, the Doctor passes onto Clara his own instructions for being a Doctor: Never be cruel, never be cowardly, always make amends, and never eat pears. She leaves the Doctor in the same position most of his companions end up in, alone and left wondering where Clara is and what adventures she’s up to now. And when Clara leaves Earth for her first adventure with her new companion, her TARDIS is stuck in the first disguise it picked up on Earth. She becomes the immortal traveller and trickster, having adventures on her journey back to Gallifrey, the long way around.
But what I like most about her ending is that Clara is now in a narratively similar position as the Doctor. He is a practically immortal being, and his life is full of unlimited potential stories. It’s how this show has survived for so long, and in so many different formats. Even when one Doctor is replaced by another, a fanfiction or a novel or a Big Finish audio can be slipped somewhere into their story. And even if this show is eventually cancelled, fans will fill that space with all the stories they can possibly imagine. And now Clara’s life has unlimited potential stories too. Her story could go on forever and ever, in the eternity between one heartbeat and the next.
Here Comes the General
And if all this wasn’t brilliant enough, we also had another example of a Time Lord regenerating from a man into a woman. And I couldn’t possibly love her any more.
Let’s briefly address the biggest controversy that erupted after “Hell Bent.” A small but very vocal group insisted that the General’s comment about men’s egos was sexist. Anyone who truly believes this needs to take a seat and shut up, because oh my god did you even watch the episode, are you really that oblivious?!
The General served two presidents of Gallifrey during his tenth regeneration, Rassilon and the Doctor. The first walked around announcing himself as “Rassilon the Resurrected” and was egotistical enough to think he could trap the Doctor in his own confession dial, torture information about the Hybrid out of him, and then kill him and get away with it. The second was referred to as “The Man Who Won the Time War,” wouldn’t come out of his bedroom unless Rassilon himself marched out to the Dry Lands to see him, deposed the President and the high council, and then was egotistical enough to think he could extract Clara from her time stream and alter a fixed moment without any consequences. I mean, really?! The General served probably the two most egotistical men in Gallifrey’s history.That line didn’t come from nowhere.
Now let’s focus on what was truly remarkable about the General’s regeneration: how completely normal it was. Other than a brief moment where Gastron fumbles over the new pronouns to use, none of the other Time Lords present seem startled that the General regenerated into a woman. Even the General is only mildly surprised and happy to discover she is a woman. Beyond that brief moment, it’s not a huge deal, and everyone quickly gets on with trying to stop the Doctor. I personally hope that the Doctor has a brief moment to be excited about her new regeneration when she eventually becomes a woman, but beyond that, everything continues as normal.
I also have to appreciate Moffat’s continuing insistence that Time Lords can change their gender upon regeneration. I don’t think that anyone can truly doubt at this point that Moffat has been serious about incorporating this into canon. Now I’d like to see us move beyond the question of if the Doctor can eventually regenerate into a woman and start focusing on when and how. With incredible characters like Clara and the General paving the way, she’ll have a lot to live up to.
I feel I can reblog this without seeming self-serving. It is a thoughtful analysis and brings excellent context to the episode. It’s refreshing to read these perspectives. It’s a challenge to be presented a script and wonder what parts will offend which audience. I saw this episode as a love letter to Doctor Who and its fandom, but knew it would polarize.
And I really appreciate the ‘not listening’ link. Might need one of those.
say you love me 