In 2015, the 9th season of Doctor Who proved that the casting of Peter Capaldi as the 12th Doctor wasn’t a fluke. It wasn’t just that Capaldi was a great version of the Doctor; in many ways, he embodied various versions of the Doctor all at once. He had the rudeness and brusqueness of the 1st Doctor, the moral indignation of the 10th Doctor, and the humor of the 11th and 4th Doctors. He even betrayed some of the deep-rooted scheming of the 6th and 7th Doctors, as well as the war-weary, PTSD-suffering soul of the 9th Doctor. In short, Peter Capaldi’s brilliance was playing a Doctor who blended all previous versions, while also creating the most complex version of his own take on the character. (The fact that he was a huge fan of the show as a younger man certainly helped.)
And, after a tour de force in one of the greatest Who episodes of all time (if not the greatest), “Heaven Sent,” Capaldi was given an opportunity to really prove that he was all the Doctors (up until that point) in one man. Released on December 5, 2015, “Hell Bent,” both then and now, is in the unenviable position of following the poetic, heartbreaking structure of “Heaven Sent.” While that episode was about one thing: The Doctor dealing with his grief while trapped in a time loop of endless dying and reincarnation, “Hell Bent” was about picking up all the loose ends, not just from Season 9, but in many ways, from the entire modern era, including aspects of the 9th and 10th Doctor eras, as well as “The Day of the Doctor.” And while “Hell Bent” isn’t nearly as good as “Heaven Sent,” it’s also not remotely bad, and remains one of the most underrated Who finales of the modern era.
