Wednesday, May 22, 2013

The Most MIND BLOWING REVELATION from 'The Name Of The Doctor' Everyone Missed ...




Before I share, what I believe to be, an interesting insight on Clara from the Doctor Who finale ‘The Name of The Doctor’, I want to make sure we are all on the same page as to the mechanics of Clara’s “Impossibility”.

Mechanics of Clara's "Impossibility"

Clara upon entering the Doctor’s timeline (or corpse, depending on your point of view) is splintered in time. What we see (and have experienced to date in S7) is not one Clara at multiple events, but many individual Claras born in different points in time and unaware of each other.

Clara-Prime (the original Clara, though the 3rd we’ve met. Timey-Wimey) by stepping into the timeline on Trenzalore is splintered. Thus there are multiple Claras born in multiple timeperiods, including the Victorian era. The Victorian era Clara helps The Doctor and dies.

Now for us to continue, you have to wrap your head around the fact Victorian Clara is a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PERSON than Clara-Prime. Are we on the same page?

Clara-Prime also splinters into Oswin from Asylum of The Daleks. She is also a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PERSON than Clara-Prime and Victorian Clara. She also dies helping The Doctor.

So the premise you need to walk away from, the concept that needs to be understood, is that what makes Clara “Impossible” is that she is born in multiple timelines. Born of different mothers. Different lives, but compelled to help The Doctor in each.

That’s why The Doctor is intrigued, mind you.

He’s met the same person in different historical eras (i.e. River Song). There’s nothing impossible about being in Victorian England and in a Starship named Alaska (at least not in the Doctor Who universe).

What made Clara impossible is that there were “copies” of a woman scattered throughout time, splinters. All people are born unique, but here was one person born over and over again, who was not.

So, if we agree on this, then I can share with you my insight on 'The Name of The Doctor'.

An insight that is potentially more mind-blowing than Hurt revealed as an unknown incarnation of a past Doctor.

INSIGHT

We agree that all the Claras we have observed in ‘The Name of The Doctor’ are not a single Clara travelling in time, but rather many different Claras.

Different Claras, born in different timelines, waiting to meet The Doctor (the way Victorian Clara is a different person than Clara-Prime and Asylum Clara). The Clara that chases after the Second Doctor IS NOT the same Clara that yells for the Third Doctor.

*Drum Roll*

So who is the Clara who tells The First Doctor which TARDIS to choose?

They’re on Gallifrey!!

Gallifrey, during a period where humans were not allowed on Gallifrey (see Doctor Who: The Deadly Assassin).

Clearly, the only assumption that can be drawn is that ... A VERSION OF CLARA WAS BORN ON GALLIFREY!

A Clara-Splinter, born on Gallifrey.

Think about it …

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

RANT about the last 5 minutes of The Crimson Horror



Now that enough time has passed that everyone has seen The Crimson Horror, can we talk about the last 5 minutes?


I HATE the last 5 minutes of TCH. Probably the laziest, most insulting piece of writing in Modern Who. Two children came to the realization their nanny is time traveling with an alien from Google Images. Really!?!

They found a random picture of people on a Russian submarine, DURING THE COLD WAR, and spotted Clara? Really?!?

Forgetting the odds against stumbling on that image, we’re to believe the Soviet Union released images of a Russian submarine that had TWO aliens on it and nearly caused WWIII? That’s not classified info? They found an image of a random nanny from 1892 that looks like Clara? Really?!? What Google search terms were they using?

I understand that the point of the scene is to give the children the leverage needed to demand a trip on the TARDIS  -- leading into Neil Gaiman’s episode.

There were ways to get there that would have been less insulting to the audience’s intelligence.

How about if the children had approached Clara and said “Hey we’ve noticed you walking into a Blue Box, on our front lawn, with some strange man and then box disappears? What’s the deal with that?”

Simple, logical and gets you to the same set-up for Nightmare in Silver.
That took me less than a minute to come up with.

It irks me when a silly scene is written when a logical one would have been just as easy.
I expect better from Moffat and crew.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Insight from Cold War Every Reviewer Missed


The great thing about Doctor Who is that even the episodes you’re not fond of usually have a moment that’s worth the price of admission.


There was one such moment for me in Cold War I’ve not seen any reviewers mention, so I’ll share it with you. It was a subtle moment that provided great insight into the character of The Doctor and connected back to an older adventure with the Ponds – Vampires of Venice.

Now Vampires of Venice is probably one of my least favorite Series 5 serials but it contained one of the greatest character insight scenes in the series.

Remember this quote from Rory?:

You know what's dangerous about you? It's not that you make people take risks. It's that you make them want to impress you. You make it so that they don't want to let you down. You have no idea how dangerous you make people to themselves when you're around.”

This revelation about The Doctor made sense in the context of The Doctor’s entire history, both Classic and Modern series. Especially in Classic Who (where companions weren’t always extraordinary folks who slept next to cracks in universe or lived multiple lives in different time periods) companions were ordinary everyday people who took incredible risks to travel with The Doctor.

So how does this all connect with Cold War?

Watch Cold War again and think about Clara in the context of Rory’s quote. She volunteers to single handedly confront a Martian Warrior (a monster in her eyes).

The Doctor protests: “You?! No. No, no way! You’re not going in there alone, Clara. Absolutely not. No, no, never.”. (Clara goes in alone). It’s clear he doesn’t mean it. He wants her to go.

After it’s over Clara asks The Doctor, “How did I do?”, Clara is looking for The Doctor’s approval.

Uncharacteristically, The Doctor responds, “It’s not a test , Clara.”.

Is The Doctor thinking back to Rory’s comment at that moment? Does he realize he manipulated her into putting herself in incredible danger?

Clara persist and asks again, “How’d I do?” and The Doctor responds with an approving touch and “You did fine.”.

It seems to me this was an intentional call back to Vampires of Venice. Is The Doctor trying to have a different relationship with Clara based on his experiences with the Ponds but falling inevitably back on old habits?

It’s an intriguing thought and one that makes you reexamine The Doctor and Clara’s relationship. Remember that The Doctor has already met two different versions of Clara and has been the catalyst for her death both times.

Then there is a second character insight scene for Clara in Cold War. For 50 years The Doctor has been telling companions to stay put:

The Doctor: Stay here.
Clara: Okay.
The Doctor: Stay here, don’t argue.
Clara: I’m not.
The Doctor: Right. Good.

Clara stays put. Something 50 years of companions have rarely done. What does this say about Clara-Prime?

She’s not reckless or fearless, in the way Amy was. She wanted to travel and see the universe (who wouldn’t) but she may not have signed up for the carnage and constant fear of death. It ceased to be a game for Clara when she saw the Russians torn to shreds by the Ice Warrior.

She’s not an adrenaline junkie the way Amy was … but she wants to please The Doctor.

So when you read other reviews that tell you nothing really happened in Cold War to advance the story of The Doctor and Clara, remember they’re wrong.