Who is Clara?

So the two-part finale of Doctor Who starts this Saturday and the question that everybody’s asking is “who is Missy?”

I’ve decided to ask a different question. If you recall Moffat’s writing style for extended series like Doctor Who, he relies heavily on misdirection (which incidentally can be abbreviated to “Missy”), so I’ve decided to look into the possibility that there’s still more to Clara.

Now this isn’t exactly a genius move by myself, given the content of the finale trailer, but it’s still worth some theorizing.

So, Moffat was pretty clear when he cast Capaldi that he’d be using the fact that Capaldi already appeared in-universe as a plot point. This manifested in the first episode, with the Twelfth Doctor very much aware that he’d seen his new face somewhere before. This was actually an idea that Russel T Davies had when he considered casting Capaldi instead of Tennant.

But what if the in-universe idea is just that; an idea. A handy reminder that a Time Lord can take the form of someone who already exists. In this respect, we can ask the question of whether Clara is even Clara or just a Time Lord or Lady who’s taken her form. There are a few hints towards this idea; for example, Clara seems to have a working knowledge of which leavers to pull when she wants to stop the Doctor from flying the TARDIS. Is this just observation on her part or is she a Time Lord with no memory. The Doctor mentioned trading away a watch that Clara seemed quite familiar with (chameleon arch?).

Capaldi’s face would be a hint towards this, as would the amnesia he suffered post-regeneration. He said himself in “Deep Breath” that it was as though his subconscious was trying to tell him something by adopting this form. The idea that his whole new body is a clue from himself that his companion isn’t who she appears to be.

She doesn’t need to be a Time Lord/Lady either. She could be the Great Intelligence. Clara might have died on Trenzalore, when she jumped into the Doctor’s Grave and The GI could have taken her form when the Doctor went to save her, as it was shown to be able to do with Doctor Simian.

Incidentally, Clara (despite Moffat’s wibbly-wobbly explanation) should not exist in her present form since the Doctor’s death was erased from time.

So the questions I’m asking are:

Is Missy really that important?

And

Are the things that don’t make sense about Clara not meant to make sense?

Doctor Who: In the Forest of the Night.

A swing, but a miss.

So here we are at the episode before the finale starts and as expected, it’s a bit disappointing. The one saving grace of an episode like this, is that it’s general tone indicates that the finale is going to be nice and dark. It’s a common thing, with family orientated programs, to insert a lighthearted and friendly episode before doing something likely to upset the censors in the next one.

The main problem with this episode is that it’s been tailored to the young children in the audience (much like the episode “Fear Her”), with child actors having to carry a lot of the episode’s comedy as well as drama. That’s a big ask for actors who are so young and it shows. I’m not going to call them bad actors, but their inexperience shows through in a big way. For the children in the audience, this is likely not a an issue, but for anyone older, the attempts at drama and comedy alike fall flat.

The resolving message at the end of the episode is also very confusing. It seems to be that we should just get on with things and trust nature, in the face of natural disasters. That’s not especially well thought through; by the logic of this sentiment, we should do nothing in the face of a giant flood or hurricane and just trust that the planet has a plan.

Incidentally, the fact that there was never actually a threat (just like in “Kill the Moon”) is again absolutely stupid. It reminds me the Mitchell and Webb sketch “Once there was a fire in a house and it burnt itself out and everything was fine”

In summary; a flat episode that has a confusing message and relies too heavily on inexperienced actors.

Doctor Who: Flatline

Well that was fun.

This episode is a good example of taking something from the shady non-canon who and making bringing it to the TV screen. This was done before in Tennant’s era, with the Family of Blood, an adapted Who novel.

This episode opts to instead explore an interesting concept from the Eight Doctor’s non-television adventures. Specifically, the b-plot involves the TARDIS being shrunk and eventually rendered in a state that turns it into a small cube. Aside from the awesomeness of seeing the TARDIS in it’s true form, we also get more of the Doctor getting over his detachedness and seemingly finding a balance between the sterner aspects of his personality and the more heroic.

This is quite interesting as it’s a very similar journey to that of the First Doctor; starting as an anti-hero and gradually becoming more relatable and kind. It’s a good angle to take, especially as Capaldi is technically the second First Doctor.

The episode is not without fault though. The supporting casts are alright, with the standout being Joivan Wade as Rigsy, but Rigsy’s boss/parole officer seems unnecessarily mean. Jamie Mathieson writes him in very one-dimensional way, as a man who does not like small time offenders. I have no doubt that people like this exist, but why they would be working in a job that involves supervising community remains a mystery.

One nice twist is that the “they’re just trying to communicate” excuses of the Tennant and Smith days gets openly jettisoned, during the Doctor’s get-off-my-planet monologue. Capaldi, as ever, delivers this speech in just the right way; no apologetic, regretful send off, just “you made your choice and now I’m going to kill you.”

It’s a great side to the Doctor and it’s only getting better now that the writers and Capaldi are moving him to a balance between his new grumpy self and the heroicness of the younger version of the character.

Clara and Danny’s relationship continues to go, but to be honest it didn’t need to be in this episode. Unless Danny is actually contributing to the story I don’t see why it’s necessary to have him show up and remind everyone that he exists.

The Boneless are sort of an effective villain; we never find out their motivation, but that’s kind of the point. It comes down to “Are you trying to learn from us? Are you trying to communicate with us? – it doesn’t matter, you’re a threat.”

A good episode, hopefully next week’s trees will be bale to follow it up.

Doctor Who: Mummy on the Orient Express

A lot better than it’s title.

With a title like that, I was half expecting this episode to be this series’ “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship,” ergo it would make me very angry that someone got paid money to write it.

Thankfully Jamie Mathieson appears to know how to write a script that doesn’t rely on using up the special effects budget and being very loud. The result of this is an episode of awesome quality right where you’d expect to find filler.

To summarise, the Doctor, intent on taking Clara on a “last hurrah” after they epically fell out during the last episode, takes her for a ride on the orient express…in space. As an aside, with Jenna Coleman’s new haircut, I wasn’t immediately aware that it was her and wondered if the Doctor had just decided to pick up a randomer to be impressed by him.

But anyway, they quickly find that the passengers of the Orient Express are being killed off by a Mummy, which can only be seen within the 66 seconds that it takes to kill you.

This to what is possibly Capaldi’s most awesome fan moment of the series as he channels Tom Baker in order to have a conversation with himself. That along with a Jelly Babies reference adds a nice bit of nostalgia to the episode.

Moving on, we’re getting closer and closer to a villain with actual motivation. The Mummy in this episode is actually an ancient augmented soldier, who’s biological parts have died. Now he’s just the machine dragging around what’s left of the decomposing humanoid. It kills because that’s what it’s programmed to do. The other villain “Gus” who orchestrated the whole thing as a science experiment has the motivation of trying to reverse engineer the technology that the Mummy uses. Since the Doctor isn’t actually able to track down Gus by the end of the episode we’re no doubt in for a sequel involving him, maybe even next week’s episode.

Difficult to say anymore, going on the title, I wasn’t expecting a very good episode; well written, very well acted and absolutely recommended.

Doctor Who: Kill the Moon

So something that sits around in space just being there is actually a living creature…might have said this before, but yeah Doctor Who has already done this one. We’re moving from familiarity to a solid “meh” reaction.

The main difference that Peter Harness throws is the moral dilemma about whether it’s acceptable to kill such a creature when it’s hatching/migration threatens to kill all of humanity.

The spiders of the trailer make a surprisingly small appearance, which could be the product of a limited special effects budget or that they’re a bit of a red herring. Either way, the lack of meaningful villains in this series is starting to get to me.

The other story running through this episode is that of the Doctor and Clara clashing. It’s unusual, after years of Tennant and Smith (Doctors who had to throw their two cents into everything) to see the new Doctor sitting on the fence and letting humanity decide.

The supporting cast isn’t exactly fleshed out. They seem to be a collection of redshirts and Hermione Norris’s Lundvik who’s an angry woman with a several bombs.

Clara’s anger (a result of having enough of the Doctor’s new detached attitude) seems like a significant development in whether or not she’ll be around next series. Given that she has a heart-to-heart with Danny after, suggests it’s something that’s been bothering her for a while. Like Amy and Rory having marital problems, it would have been better of we’d seen this rather than been told about it after. Danny saying “it happened, didn’t it” seems a bit stupid. As I have always said, I like the character development to happen on screen.

Oh and the alien that was inside Moon/Egg laying another Moon/Egg (thus resolving the problem – and meaning there was never a threat to start with) is really stupid.

Other than that, this episode is serviceable and has a few good scares, especially for sufferers of arachnophobia.