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locker_monsterWell, that was interesting, I guess. I don't know. I suppose it's hard to top what they did in "Heaven Sent".
Might as well as lead with the biggie from this episode. So... mostly dead, time frozen Clara and Ashildr are now kicking around time and space in a TARDIS disguised as a 1950s diner? WTF?!?!? Couldn't Clara stay dead? When it seemed like she was gone for good, that had a huge impact on the Doctor and the storyline. It had weight. Now, this is just silly. It totally cancels out all of the heartbreak the Doctor went through. Yes, he doesn't quite remember it all, but we the audience can remember and it's still cheap. I was worried last week that Moffat would bring back Clara somehow and I was right to be worried. The man cannot leave well enough alone. I think the episode could have been way better if Clara had decided to go back to her timeline at the moment of her death. We could have avoided the whole memory wipe thing and she could have sacrificed everything again to save the Doctor. Before she went back, she could have told him to be a better Doctor and that would have motivated him to move on. Now, it feels like Clara learned nothing at all from "Face the Raven". I honestly don't know what Moffat was thinking. Like, he could cancel out the fan backlash by doing this. Oh, I'm sure the fans who really love Clara are happy in a way, but it still feels like a bad move.
And this episode had such potential. I really had hoped the entire episode would be the Doctor dealing with the Time Lord High Council for what they did to him. We would be back on Gallifrey and we would see how the population has coped since he saved everyone in "The Day of the Doctor". We do see a bit of that, but not enough for my tastes. Actually, at one point, I thought the Doctor wouldn't talk at all in the episode. Like, they were trying for one more unique storytelling twist. Alas, things took a turn for the weird. I did like that he went back to the barn from "The Day of the Doctor"/"Listen" and we did see how some people view the Doctor as a war hero, but it was over so soon. It all spiralled into the Doctor pulling Clara out of her timeline and trying to bring her back.
The whole hybrid thing is what brought down this episode. It had to be resolved. So the Hybrid all along was the Doctor and Clara? That it was their friendship that threatened Gallifrey and all of time and space? Huh? I guess anything is better than making reference to the fact that the Doctor is, potentially, half human on his mother side, but it was still too random. And what was the point of Ashildr besides having a fancy guest star to fill the role? She doesn't matter in the end. The sequence within the Matrix Cloister was also weird and random. So the Matrix can generate prophecies now? And the Doctor heard about the myth of Hybrid when he was just a kid and he got lost within the Cloister? Argh.
Not to brag, but I totally called Clara's fate way back at the beginning of the season. Honest. It's in my review. She left for the good of the Doctor and the Doctor was forced to forget the Companion. To be fair, it was the only scenario that made sense. The Doctor does make a good point. He went too far for Clara and he should never do that, even for a dear friend of his. So he had to forget her to move on. Though, does this mean now he'll be looking for Clara? Of course, he was meant to be looking for Gallifrey after "The Day of the Doctor" and we never saw him do that, so I'm sure it will never come up again until it's time for Peter Capaldi to leave the show.
Though, I am glad that the Doctor didn't go through his plan to mind wipe Clara and leave her somewhere. A) It would have been too much like Donna and B) that plan is a stupid plan and it should never, ever be an option. I'm glad Clara called him out on it. She got to say the words that Donna never got to.
As for the the frame story, with the Doctor in the diner talking to waitress Clara, I thought at one point it was just a delusion of the Doctor's and then I thought he had mind wiped Clara, but then it turned out to be neither. Every time they came back to that scene, it did keep you wondering, so it was a nice little framing device. So I guess there's a bit of time where the Doctor was left wandering around Nevada, trying to find the TARDIS and Clara. And he was playing the guitar to pay for food. :-) That'd be a fun fic to write, filling in that gap of time. I was happy that we got to see the Doctor playing the guitar one last time for the season. And he was playing Clara's theme music! That was a nice touch, if slightly meta. Oh, and before it was revealed that the Doctor was just mind wiped and Clara was just pretending to be a waitress, I momentarily thought that we had landed in an AU where the Doctor is a wandering musician and Clara is the waitress he meets while on the road.
Random thoughts: So, new sonic screwdriver. What was the bleepin' point of the sonic sunglasses then? Once again, it feels like a ploy to get the fans to buy more merchandise because you know the new sonic will be a toy that people can buy. Anyone else think that Clara and Ashildr should run into Mel and Sabalom Glitz? It's kind of the same story there. A former Companion and a former adversary kicking around space in a commandeered spaceship. So, does this mean that Gallifrey is back for good now? The Doctor knows where it's located and the Time Lords have TARDISes to escape that time period. There is the potential to have the Doctor run into other Time Lords. Like, the Council General lady. She seems like she'd be a hoot to see every once and a while. Rassilon regenerated? And why was he still President? You'd think everyone would have booted him from office. It was cool to see Twelve on a One-esque TARDIS set. I wonder if they took the TARDIS set they built for An Adventure in Time and Space and painted it all white. Aw, Rigsy's memorial on the TARDIS burned away. It will be interesting to see Twelve with another Companion. We've only seen him with Clara.
Okay, I have to admit that the Christmas Special looks fun. The Doctor is running around with River, there's a head in a bag, and River has a sonic trowel. LOL. A sonic trowel. Going off the title of the episode "The Husbands of River Song", I'm totally guessing that head in a bag guy is a some dude River married to con. She pulled a Saffron (Firefly fans will know what I'm talking about)! Also, the Doctor wearing reindeer antlers. :-D
Overall, this was an uneven season, story wise. Please go back to single part stories, Moffat.
Might as well as lead with the biggie from this episode. So... mostly dead, time frozen Clara and Ashildr are now kicking around time and space in a TARDIS disguised as a 1950s diner? WTF?!?!? Couldn't Clara stay dead? When it seemed like she was gone for good, that had a huge impact on the Doctor and the storyline. It had weight. Now, this is just silly. It totally cancels out all of the heartbreak the Doctor went through. Yes, he doesn't quite remember it all, but we the audience can remember and it's still cheap. I was worried last week that Moffat would bring back Clara somehow and I was right to be worried. The man cannot leave well enough alone. I think the episode could have been way better if Clara had decided to go back to her timeline at the moment of her death. We could have avoided the whole memory wipe thing and she could have sacrificed everything again to save the Doctor. Before she went back, she could have told him to be a better Doctor and that would have motivated him to move on. Now, it feels like Clara learned nothing at all from "Face the Raven". I honestly don't know what Moffat was thinking. Like, he could cancel out the fan backlash by doing this. Oh, I'm sure the fans who really love Clara are happy in a way, but it still feels like a bad move.
And this episode had such potential. I really had hoped the entire episode would be the Doctor dealing with the Time Lord High Council for what they did to him. We would be back on Gallifrey and we would see how the population has coped since he saved everyone in "The Day of the Doctor". We do see a bit of that, but not enough for my tastes. Actually, at one point, I thought the Doctor wouldn't talk at all in the episode. Like, they were trying for one more unique storytelling twist. Alas, things took a turn for the weird. I did like that he went back to the barn from "The Day of the Doctor"/"Listen" and we did see how some people view the Doctor as a war hero, but it was over so soon. It all spiralled into the Doctor pulling Clara out of her timeline and trying to bring her back.
The whole hybrid thing is what brought down this episode. It had to be resolved. So the Hybrid all along was the Doctor and Clara? That it was their friendship that threatened Gallifrey and all of time and space? Huh? I guess anything is better than making reference to the fact that the Doctor is, potentially, half human on his mother side, but it was still too random. And what was the point of Ashildr besides having a fancy guest star to fill the role? She doesn't matter in the end. The sequence within the Matrix Cloister was also weird and random. So the Matrix can generate prophecies now? And the Doctor heard about the myth of Hybrid when he was just a kid and he got lost within the Cloister? Argh.
Not to brag, but I totally called Clara's fate way back at the beginning of the season. Honest. It's in my review. She left for the good of the Doctor and the Doctor was forced to forget the Companion. To be fair, it was the only scenario that made sense. The Doctor does make a good point. He went too far for Clara and he should never do that, even for a dear friend of his. So he had to forget her to move on. Though, does this mean now he'll be looking for Clara? Of course, he was meant to be looking for Gallifrey after "The Day of the Doctor" and we never saw him do that, so I'm sure it will never come up again until it's time for Peter Capaldi to leave the show.
Though, I am glad that the Doctor didn't go through his plan to mind wipe Clara and leave her somewhere. A) It would have been too much like Donna and B) that plan is a stupid plan and it should never, ever be an option. I'm glad Clara called him out on it. She got to say the words that Donna never got to.
As for the the frame story, with the Doctor in the diner talking to waitress Clara, I thought at one point it was just a delusion of the Doctor's and then I thought he had mind wiped Clara, but then it turned out to be neither. Every time they came back to that scene, it did keep you wondering, so it was a nice little framing device. So I guess there's a bit of time where the Doctor was left wandering around Nevada, trying to find the TARDIS and Clara. And he was playing the guitar to pay for food. :-) That'd be a fun fic to write, filling in that gap of time. I was happy that we got to see the Doctor playing the guitar one last time for the season. And he was playing Clara's theme music! That was a nice touch, if slightly meta. Oh, and before it was revealed that the Doctor was just mind wiped and Clara was just pretending to be a waitress, I momentarily thought that we had landed in an AU where the Doctor is a wandering musician and Clara is the waitress he meets while on the road.
Random thoughts: So, new sonic screwdriver. What was the bleepin' point of the sonic sunglasses then? Once again, it feels like a ploy to get the fans to buy more merchandise because you know the new sonic will be a toy that people can buy. Anyone else think that Clara and Ashildr should run into Mel and Sabalom Glitz? It's kind of the same story there. A former Companion and a former adversary kicking around space in a commandeered spaceship. So, does this mean that Gallifrey is back for good now? The Doctor knows where it's located and the Time Lords have TARDISes to escape that time period. There is the potential to have the Doctor run into other Time Lords. Like, the Council General lady. She seems like she'd be a hoot to see every once and a while. Rassilon regenerated? And why was he still President? You'd think everyone would have booted him from office. It was cool to see Twelve on a One-esque TARDIS set. I wonder if they took the TARDIS set they built for An Adventure in Time and Space and painted it all white. Aw, Rigsy's memorial on the TARDIS burned away. It will be interesting to see Twelve with another Companion. We've only seen him with Clara.
Okay, I have to admit that the Christmas Special looks fun. The Doctor is running around with River, there's a head in a bag, and River has a sonic trowel. LOL. A sonic trowel. Going off the title of the episode "The Husbands of River Song", I'm totally guessing that head in a bag guy is a some dude River married to con. She pulled a Saffron (Firefly fans will know what I'm talking about)! Also, the Doctor wearing reindeer antlers. :-D
Overall, this was an uneven season, story wise. Please go back to single part stories, Moffat.
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