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Assorted meta (Deep Breath, Into the Dalek, Robot of Sherwood)
As I hurt my foot rather badly Saturday morning, and thus had to sit still with my foot up, I finally bring you Doctor Who thoughts… Scattered and incomplete, but better than nothing hopefully. Pretty much written in one go, so apologies for being somewhat unpolished.
(‘Listen’ will be dealt with in a separate post. ETA: Possible spoilers [for Listen] in the comments, but none in the post itself.)
Assorted meta
I am Clara
(Clara’s reaction to the new Doctor)
I have *one* RL friend who watches Doctor Who. I shall call her ‘A’ and she is one of my work colleagues. (Well I know others, but none that I would ever really talk to about it.)
A likes Eleven best, and was apprehensive about the new guy.
(She is about as un-fannish as possible. She just watches the show and enjoys it, that’s as far as her involvement goes. So I find her a good touchstone for ‘average audience’ - she’ll have seen none of the interviews, the madness in the run-up to the launch, the speculation, the leaked spoilers etc. She just knew it was back on, and watched.)
On the Monday after Deep Breath aired I naturally asked her what she thought.
She hesitated a little, saying that she wasn’t quite sure about the new guy.
“Like Clara?” I asked, and she nodded eagerly: “Yes! That’s probably why they did it that way…”
“Her reaction was like ours,” I expanded, "so she helped us to get used to him.”
“That’s it!” A replied.
So, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it. I said that I was Clara, and I think most people were. Those of us in fandom of course had months and months to speculate and to soak up all information we could find - we pored over pictures of the new costume, read about how Twelve was going to be darker and fiercer and more like the old Doctors. We were prepared.
Most of the ‘audience’ will only have caught snippets of all this, yet by the very token of being watchers of Doctor Who they know the drill. New face, new personality, we’ve seen them come and go.
And Clara, too, knows the drill. Has met three Doctors, seen how they differ, seen all of them through her echoes. (Although it’s hard to tell how much she remembers.) Yet, why is she so thrown, people have asked. Why is she finding it so hard accept?
Well, I know that for me (like for A), it’s not easy. Eleven will always be my Doctor, and the short glimpse of him at the end nearly did me in. Of course the Doctor is the Doctor is the Doctor, but when something familiar is suddenly taken away, is it not normal to feel unsettled? There is a difference between knowing and understanding.
Remember, Clara did not have months and months to prepare. Didn’t get any memos about how the Doctor would change his personality quite so drastically. What Clara had was Christmas Day, which started out worrying about how her turkey wasn’t cooked. This segued into Trenzalore, which she knew was where the Doctor died… And she was left behind not once, but twice. She watched him age, from youthful face, to withered old man, who really looked about two thousand years old. All this in the space of a day.
She then solves the millennia old standoff, answers The Question, which leads to Gallifrey intervening, saving the day, and the Doctor.
And then the Doctor changes. The one thing she has held onto is suddenly a stranger who can’t tell her apart from a Sontaran. The person who came to find her, specifically, who asked her to travel with him because she was the one person in the whole universe that he wanted… That person is gone. (Or so it seems, at first.)
Eleven is my Doctor because he is Eleven.
I am beginning to like Twelve, he is different and interesting and I’m enjoying watching him. But he’s not ever going to be Eleven, and I will never love him in the same way.
I hope this explains things. At least explains where Clara is coming from, and why her reactions ring very true to me.
Eyes/Looking
If you missed my Clara meta (Schrödinger’s Companion) you might want to read that first. Because looking is very important…
If we try to delve into all the eye imagery, we have to go back to The Eleventh Hour and the Atraxi (an eye peering through a crack in a wall…), but I don’t think I have the energy to do that. There have been a LOT of eyes, a lot of observing. Just in Deep Breath we have the droid, taking a man’s eyes, and later burning the dinosaur for something valuable in its optic nerve.
But in terms of Clara and the Doctor the most important point comes at the end, after Eleven’s phone call:
“Well, he asked you a question. Will you help me?”
“You shouldn’t have been listening.”
“I wasn’t, I didn’t need to, that was me talking…. You can see me, can you? You- you look at me, and you can’t see me. Do you have any idea what that’s like? I’m not on the phone, I’m right here. Standing in front of you. Please just… Just see me.”
And she looks - and declares that yes, he is the Doctor.
Like I said in my Clara meta: To be seen is to exist.
He needs her to see him, to make him him.
(DOCTOR: Because you were the first. The first face this face saw. And you're seared onto my hearts, Amelia Pond. You always will be.)
From![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
the_royal_anna’s meta on ‘Damage’ (Angel episode, from oh so long ago):
We don't stop being human when we lose our hearts; nor when we lose our heads. And every last vestige of humanity can be drained from us, but as long as somebody, somewhere cares, we are not dust.
Doctors are defined by their Companions - something Eleven took further than most when he became Amy’s ‘Raggedy Man’ (and he was always her Raggedy Man, from first to last) - but this is heightened by Clara, who of course has been there right from the First Doctor left Gallifrey. So she, more than anyone, should be able to detect inherent ‘Doctor-ness’, even though he has shifted sharply from Eleven to the opposite end of the spectrum.
Of course from his point of view Clara is endlessly mutable (Clara Who <- this is funny and accurate), so it’s no wonder that he’s a little confused.
The difficult thing is that the dynamic has been reversed. (Both for the characters and the audience.)
When we first met Clara Eleven was the known quantity and Clara was the mystery (quite literally). The second part of S7 was about unravelling the Clara mystery, and the Doctor’s focus (and ours) was on The Impossible Girl.
Then we had the two very heavily Doctor-centric episodes of Day of the Doctor and Time of Doctor, one dealing with his past, the other with his regeneration. In both, Clara plays somewhat of the ‘ur-Companion’ - smart, bright, capable, supportive and insightful. (There’s more to it of course - see my Clara meta - but for the point I’m making here, it’ll do.)
And then - Twelve. And abruptly the tables have turned. Now Clara is our point of reference, and the Doctor the unknown. Plus, he is no longer focussed on her the way he was. Oh he still needs her, but the energy is flowing in the opposite direction.
Our reference point is now Clara, not the Doctor - and this might be one of the reasons people suddenly seem to take to her more. (Also, of course, the dynamic has changed drastically. Their argument in the restaurant is one of my favourite things ever.)
I will try to get back to the seeing theme another time (Clara’s shirt full of EYES is screaming for some sort of discussion/interpretation), but I think I need to wait.
Also - for all those who say that Clara is so much more interesting *now* - go watch Bells of St John! (She hasn't changed - the Doctor has.) Which also contains the following charming parallel:
CLARA: You've hacked the lower operating system, yeah? I'll have their physical location in under five minutes. Pop off and get us a coffee.
DOCTOR: If I can't find them, you definitely can't.
CLARA: They uploaded me, remember? I've got computing stuff in my head.
DOCTOR: So do I.
CLARA: I have insane hacking skills.
DOCTOR: I'm from space and the future with two hearts and twenty seven brains.
CLARA: And I can find them in under five minutes plus photographs. Twenty seven?
DOCTOR: Okay, slight exaggeration.
CLARA: Coffee, go get. Five minutes, I promise.
Bells of St John
DOCTOR: Do you want to go get some coffee? Or chips? Or chips and coffee?
CLARA: Coffee. Coffee would be great. You're buying.
DOCTOR: I don't have any money.
CLARA: You're fetching then!
DOCTOR: I'm not sure I'm the fetching sort.
CLARA: Yeah. Still not sure you get a vote.
Deep Breath
A Good Man?
Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.
Marcus Aurelius.
This is what Clara is writing on the board at the very start of Day of the Doctor. The theme is not new - indeed it is one deeply embedded in the show. Focussing solely on Moffat Who, in S5 we wondered who the ‘Good Man’ was that River killed. S6 brought it into focus with ‘A Good Man Goes To War’, where the Doctor rejected the title. (“Good men don’t need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many.”) Following on from S6 he went on to erase himself…
Actually, let’s have a look at that.
In ‘Into the Dalek’ the Doctor asks Clara “Am I a good man?”
It is about definitions. The Eleventh Doctor declares himself to be ‘A Mad Man with a Box’, and Amy names him her ‘Raggedy Man’. But in Victory of the Daleks he defines himself in relation to the Daleks:
DALEK: I am your soldier.
DOCTOR: Stop this. Stop now. Now, you know who I am. You always know.
[...]
DOCTOR: You are my enemy! And I am yours. You are everything I despise. The worst thing in all creation. I've defeated you time and time again. I've defeated you. I sent you back into the Void. I saved the whole of reality from you. I am the Doctor. And you are the Daleks.
DALEK: Correct. Review testimony.
DOCTOR [OC]: I am the Doctor. And you are the Daleks.
DOCTOR: Testimony. What are you talking about, testimony?
DALEK 2: Transmitting testimony now.
The Doctor and the Daleks are so interdependent that they need each other in order to define themselves:
DOCTOR: But why? I get it. Oh, I get it. I get it. Oh ho! This is rich. The Progenitor wouldn't recognise you, would it? It saw you as impure. Your DNA is unrecognisable as Dalek.
DALEK: A solution was devised.
DOCTOR: Yes, yes, yes. Me. My testimony. So you set a trap. You knew that the Progenitor would recognise me, the Daleks' greatest enemy. It would accept my word. My recognition of you. No. No, no. What are you doing?
The Daleks are evil, so the Doctor is ‘good’. (This is why the Dalek’s words in ‘Dalek’ are so devastating: “You would make a good Dalek” - the Dalek sees in the Doctor the same destruction that Daleks excel at.)
We see this quite a bit on RTD Who (Daleks are the main enemy in the finales of S1, 2 and 4), and it is easy to understand why the Ninth and Tenth Doctors (so very scarred from the Time War) are eager to grasp this simplified binary: They are not Daleks, so they must be ‘good’. But with the dawning of Eleven’s era, things get more complicated. The ‘enemy’ during Eleven’s run is The Silence, yet The Silence fights for peace. It wants to silence the Doctor because he is dangerous, and although the Kovarian faction is clearly using despicable methods, their aim is not evil. ‘Good’ becomes something far more tricky to define… River names the Doctor ‘the best man I have ever known’, yet she was created as a weapon to kill him. AGMGTW showed the duality, showed River pointing out how he had become ‘A Great Warrior’, how fearful people were. And all because of… stories.
The Eleventh Doctor was in many ways a fairy tale (sometimes a dark one) - he was stories, rippling across the universe, yet he couldn’t control them.
Every regeneration is a reaction against the previous one, so is it any wonder he reacts so badly to Robin Hood? From Asylum of the Daleks:
DARLA [OC]: First, there were the Daleks. And then, there was a man who fought them. And then, in time, he died. There are a few, of course, who believe this man somehow survived, and that one day he will return. For both our sakes, dearest Hannah, we must hope these stories are true.
When you are written by other people… What does that make you? When your very self-definition (in many ways) is that you are NOT a Dalek - what does the prospect of a ‘good’ Dalek mean, except a complete panic that the whole world is destabilised?
Note: ‘Good’ has two meanings: ‘Fit for purpose’ and ‘Morally good’. A chair cannot be good in the second sense, as a chair isn’t sentient. When The Last Dalek speaks to Nine, it is speaking in the first sense. When Rusty speaks to Twelve, it means the second. The Last Dalek sees the Doctor’s destruction, but Rusty sees the Doctor’s righteousness.
Of course there is also Asylum of the Daleks, where we saw another ‘good’ Dalek. The music is always important, and the moment when the Doctor revealed to Oswin what she really was has a score of its own - The Terrible Truth:
But that’s not all… The music at 41 minutes [of Into the Dalek] - when Rusty decides to act on the Doctor's hatred and turns on the other Daleks - is the same track! (1:34 minutes in)
Both Oswin and the Doctor had to face that what they thought they were might not be the reality. And in both cases (to tie back to the previous section) it’s about being seen. Eleven sees Oswin, and Rusty sees Twelve. The thing is, that’s not the end. Oswin fights the Dalek impulses (as does Tasha Lem later), and so - similarly - does the Doctor.
Now in ‘Asylum’ Oswin erased the Daleks’ memory of him, and for a while the Doctor was free - free to define himself however he wanted (Doctor Who?), except Trenzalore was waiting. And on Trenzalore the Doctor spent a thousand years fighting the Daleks. That is half his life. Is it any wonder his hatred is still burning brightly?
But as Clara says - it’s not what you are, but what you try to be. Facing hard truths about yourself is important, but that can only ever be a starting point.
The Promised Land
I like the theory that Missy is the Master. It would fit rather well, and be a very nice spin on the Master’s continued search for everlasting life. The past few seasons have focussed a lot on death (avoiding it, accepting it), so where do you go from there? Heaven, obviously. ;)
I don’t have a lot to say, really, but I didn’t want to leave it out…
So far, there are mostly unanswered questions. What does Missy want? How is she connected to the Doctor? (I don’t mean personally - if she’s the Master, then that’s obvious.) But what does she mean that she wants to ‘keep his [the Doctor’s] new face’? What sort of power does she have? Was she the person in the shop that gave Clara the Doctor’s number? Was she the one placing the advert? (Was she the person hacking the Doctor’s dream in the prequel to ‘Asylum’? Leading to the Doctor meeting Oswin…)
If the answer to these questions is yes, then why is she so keen to keep the Doctor & Clara together? (If you see my Clara meta, then you’ll notice that there are still unanswered questions - like, why is there what looks like a Time Beetle on a tree? Why is Clara’s leaf so important?)
But if someone might be using Clara (for whatever purpose we do not know), then that would explain a lot…
Also there is the question of which people are saved? Is it the Doctor’s victims/those who sacrifice themselves?
Plus, given Missy’s talk about Twelve’s face, I’m sure this is the part that ties into ‘Where do the faces come from?’ Which will be interesting. Did the Doctor ‘choose’ Caecilius’s face on purpose, and if so - why? What’s he trying to tell himself? (No idea where they are going with it, these are all rhetorical questions.)
But I shall leave you with this image, created bypromethia_tenk after Deep Breath aired (her brain has been working better than mine):
(‘Listen’ will be dealt with in a separate post. ETA: Possible spoilers [for Listen] in the comments, but none in the post itself.)
I am Clara
(Clara’s reaction to the new Doctor)
I have *one* RL friend who watches Doctor Who. I shall call her ‘A’ and she is one of my work colleagues. (Well I know others, but none that I would ever really talk to about it.)
A likes Eleven best, and was apprehensive about the new guy.
(She is about as un-fannish as possible. She just watches the show and enjoys it, that’s as far as her involvement goes. So I find her a good touchstone for ‘average audience’ - she’ll have seen none of the interviews, the madness in the run-up to the launch, the speculation, the leaked spoilers etc. She just knew it was back on, and watched.)
On the Monday after Deep Breath aired I naturally asked her what she thought.
She hesitated a little, saying that she wasn’t quite sure about the new guy.
“Like Clara?” I asked, and she nodded eagerly: “Yes! That’s probably why they did it that way…”
“Her reaction was like ours,” I expanded, "so she helped us to get used to him.”
“That’s it!” A replied.
So, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it. I said that I was Clara, and I think most people were. Those of us in fandom of course had months and months to speculate and to soak up all information we could find - we pored over pictures of the new costume, read about how Twelve was going to be darker and fiercer and more like the old Doctors. We were prepared.
Most of the ‘audience’ will only have caught snippets of all this, yet by the very token of being watchers of Doctor Who they know the drill. New face, new personality, we’ve seen them come and go.
And Clara, too, knows the drill. Has met three Doctors, seen how they differ, seen all of them through her echoes. (Although it’s hard to tell how much she remembers.) Yet, why is she so thrown, people have asked. Why is she finding it so hard accept?
Well, I know that for me (like for A), it’s not easy. Eleven will always be my Doctor, and the short glimpse of him at the end nearly did me in. Of course the Doctor is the Doctor is the Doctor, but when something familiar is suddenly taken away, is it not normal to feel unsettled? There is a difference between knowing and understanding.
Remember, Clara did not have months and months to prepare. Didn’t get any memos about how the Doctor would change his personality quite so drastically. What Clara had was Christmas Day, which started out worrying about how her turkey wasn’t cooked. This segued into Trenzalore, which she knew was where the Doctor died… And she was left behind not once, but twice. She watched him age, from youthful face, to withered old man, who really looked about two thousand years old. All this in the space of a day.
She then solves the millennia old standoff, answers The Question, which leads to Gallifrey intervening, saving the day, and the Doctor.
And then the Doctor changes. The one thing she has held onto is suddenly a stranger who can’t tell her apart from a Sontaran. The person who came to find her, specifically, who asked her to travel with him because she was the one person in the whole universe that he wanted… That person is gone. (Or so it seems, at first.)
Eleven is my Doctor because he is Eleven.
I am beginning to like Twelve, he is different and interesting and I’m enjoying watching him. But he’s not ever going to be Eleven, and I will never love him in the same way.
I hope this explains things. At least explains where Clara is coming from, and why her reactions ring very true to me.
If you missed my Clara meta (Schrödinger’s Companion) you might want to read that first. Because looking is very important…
If we try to delve into all the eye imagery, we have to go back to The Eleventh Hour and the Atraxi (an eye peering through a crack in a wall…), but I don’t think I have the energy to do that. There have been a LOT of eyes, a lot of observing. Just in Deep Breath we have the droid, taking a man’s eyes, and later burning the dinosaur for something valuable in its optic nerve.
But in terms of Clara and the Doctor the most important point comes at the end, after Eleven’s phone call:
“Well, he asked you a question. Will you help me?”
“You shouldn’t have been listening.”
“I wasn’t, I didn’t need to, that was me talking…. You can see me, can you? You- you look at me, and you can’t see me. Do you have any idea what that’s like? I’m not on the phone, I’m right here. Standing in front of you. Please just… Just see me.”
And she looks - and declares that yes, he is the Doctor.
Like I said in my Clara meta: To be seen is to exist.
He needs her to see him, to make him him.
(DOCTOR: Because you were the first. The first face this face saw. And you're seared onto my hearts, Amelia Pond. You always will be.)
From
the_royal_anna’s meta on ‘Damage’ (Angel episode, from oh so long ago):We don't stop being human when we lose our hearts; nor when we lose our heads. And every last vestige of humanity can be drained from us, but as long as somebody, somewhere cares, we are not dust.
Doctors are defined by their Companions - something Eleven took further than most when he became Amy’s ‘Raggedy Man’ (and he was always her Raggedy Man, from first to last) - but this is heightened by Clara, who of course has been there right from the First Doctor left Gallifrey. So she, more than anyone, should be able to detect inherent ‘Doctor-ness’, even though he has shifted sharply from Eleven to the opposite end of the spectrum.
Of course from his point of view Clara is endlessly mutable (Clara Who <- this is funny and accurate), so it’s no wonder that he’s a little confused.
The difficult thing is that the dynamic has been reversed. (Both for the characters and the audience.)
When we first met Clara Eleven was the known quantity and Clara was the mystery (quite literally). The second part of S7 was about unravelling the Clara mystery, and the Doctor’s focus (and ours) was on The Impossible Girl.
Then we had the two very heavily Doctor-centric episodes of Day of the Doctor and Time of Doctor, one dealing with his past, the other with his regeneration. In both, Clara plays somewhat of the ‘ur-Companion’ - smart, bright, capable, supportive and insightful. (There’s more to it of course - see my Clara meta - but for the point I’m making here, it’ll do.)
And then - Twelve. And abruptly the tables have turned. Now Clara is our point of reference, and the Doctor the unknown. Plus, he is no longer focussed on her the way he was. Oh he still needs her, but the energy is flowing in the opposite direction.
Our reference point is now Clara, not the Doctor - and this might be one of the reasons people suddenly seem to take to her more. (Also, of course, the dynamic has changed drastically. Their argument in the restaurant is one of my favourite things ever.)
I will try to get back to the seeing theme another time (Clara’s shirt full of EYES is screaming for some sort of discussion/interpretation), but I think I need to wait.
Also - for all those who say that Clara is so much more interesting *now* - go watch Bells of St John! (She hasn't changed - the Doctor has.) Which also contains the following charming parallel:
CLARA: You've hacked the lower operating system, yeah? I'll have their physical location in under five minutes. Pop off and get us a coffee.
DOCTOR: If I can't find them, you definitely can't.
CLARA: They uploaded me, remember? I've got computing stuff in my head.
DOCTOR: So do I.
CLARA: I have insane hacking skills.
DOCTOR: I'm from space and the future with two hearts and twenty seven brains.
CLARA: And I can find them in under five minutes plus photographs. Twenty seven?
DOCTOR: Okay, slight exaggeration.
CLARA: Coffee, go get. Five minutes, I promise.
Bells of St John
DOCTOR: Do you want to go get some coffee? Or chips? Or chips and coffee?
CLARA: Coffee. Coffee would be great. You're buying.
DOCTOR: I don't have any money.
CLARA: You're fetching then!
DOCTOR: I'm not sure I'm the fetching sort.
CLARA: Yeah. Still not sure you get a vote.
Deep Breath
Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.
Marcus Aurelius.
This is what Clara is writing on the board at the very start of Day of the Doctor. The theme is not new - indeed it is one deeply embedded in the show. Focussing solely on Moffat Who, in S5 we wondered who the ‘Good Man’ was that River killed. S6 brought it into focus with ‘A Good Man Goes To War’, where the Doctor rejected the title. (“Good men don’t need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many.”) Following on from S6 he went on to erase himself…
Actually, let’s have a look at that.
In ‘Into the Dalek’ the Doctor asks Clara “Am I a good man?”
It is about definitions. The Eleventh Doctor declares himself to be ‘A Mad Man with a Box’, and Amy names him her ‘Raggedy Man’. But in Victory of the Daleks he defines himself in relation to the Daleks:
DALEK: I am your soldier.
DOCTOR: Stop this. Stop now. Now, you know who I am. You always know.
[...]
DOCTOR: You are my enemy! And I am yours. You are everything I despise. The worst thing in all creation. I've defeated you time and time again. I've defeated you. I sent you back into the Void. I saved the whole of reality from you. I am the Doctor. And you are the Daleks.
DALEK: Correct. Review testimony.
DOCTOR [OC]: I am the Doctor. And you are the Daleks.
DOCTOR: Testimony. What are you talking about, testimony?
DALEK 2: Transmitting testimony now.
The Doctor and the Daleks are so interdependent that they need each other in order to define themselves:
DOCTOR: But why? I get it. Oh, I get it. I get it. Oh ho! This is rich. The Progenitor wouldn't recognise you, would it? It saw you as impure. Your DNA is unrecognisable as Dalek.
DALEK: A solution was devised.
DOCTOR: Yes, yes, yes. Me. My testimony. So you set a trap. You knew that the Progenitor would recognise me, the Daleks' greatest enemy. It would accept my word. My recognition of you. No. No, no. What are you doing?
The Daleks are evil, so the Doctor is ‘good’. (This is why the Dalek’s words in ‘Dalek’ are so devastating: “You would make a good Dalek” - the Dalek sees in the Doctor the same destruction that Daleks excel at.)
We see this quite a bit on RTD Who (Daleks are the main enemy in the finales of S1, 2 and 4), and it is easy to understand why the Ninth and Tenth Doctors (so very scarred from the Time War) are eager to grasp this simplified binary: They are not Daleks, so they must be ‘good’. But with the dawning of Eleven’s era, things get more complicated. The ‘enemy’ during Eleven’s run is The Silence, yet The Silence fights for peace. It wants to silence the Doctor because he is dangerous, and although the Kovarian faction is clearly using despicable methods, their aim is not evil. ‘Good’ becomes something far more tricky to define… River names the Doctor ‘the best man I have ever known’, yet she was created as a weapon to kill him. AGMGTW showed the duality, showed River pointing out how he had become ‘A Great Warrior’, how fearful people were. And all because of… stories.
The Eleventh Doctor was in many ways a fairy tale (sometimes a dark one) - he was stories, rippling across the universe, yet he couldn’t control them.
Every regeneration is a reaction against the previous one, so is it any wonder he reacts so badly to Robin Hood? From Asylum of the Daleks:
DARLA [OC]: First, there were the Daleks. And then, there was a man who fought them. And then, in time, he died. There are a few, of course, who believe this man somehow survived, and that one day he will return. For both our sakes, dearest Hannah, we must hope these stories are true.
When you are written by other people… What does that make you? When your very self-definition (in many ways) is that you are NOT a Dalek - what does the prospect of a ‘good’ Dalek mean, except a complete panic that the whole world is destabilised?
Note: ‘Good’ has two meanings: ‘Fit for purpose’ and ‘Morally good’. A chair cannot be good in the second sense, as a chair isn’t sentient. When The Last Dalek speaks to Nine, it is speaking in the first sense. When Rusty speaks to Twelve, it means the second. The Last Dalek sees the Doctor’s destruction, but Rusty sees the Doctor’s righteousness.
Of course there is also Asylum of the Daleks, where we saw another ‘good’ Dalek. The music is always important, and the moment when the Doctor revealed to Oswin what she really was has a score of its own - The Terrible Truth:
But that’s not all… The music at 41 minutes [of Into the Dalek] - when Rusty decides to act on the Doctor's hatred and turns on the other Daleks - is the same track! (1:34 minutes in)
Both Oswin and the Doctor had to face that what they thought they were might not be the reality. And in both cases (to tie back to the previous section) it’s about being seen. Eleven sees Oswin, and Rusty sees Twelve. The thing is, that’s not the end. Oswin fights the Dalek impulses (as does Tasha Lem later), and so - similarly - does the Doctor.
Now in ‘Asylum’ Oswin erased the Daleks’ memory of him, and for a while the Doctor was free - free to define himself however he wanted (Doctor Who?), except Trenzalore was waiting. And on Trenzalore the Doctor spent a thousand years fighting the Daleks. That is half his life. Is it any wonder his hatred is still burning brightly?
But as Clara says - it’s not what you are, but what you try to be. Facing hard truths about yourself is important, but that can only ever be a starting point.
I like the theory that Missy is the Master. It would fit rather well, and be a very nice spin on the Master’s continued search for everlasting life. The past few seasons have focussed a lot on death (avoiding it, accepting it), so where do you go from there? Heaven, obviously. ;)
I don’t have a lot to say, really, but I didn’t want to leave it out…
So far, there are mostly unanswered questions. What does Missy want? How is she connected to the Doctor? (I don’t mean personally - if she’s the Master, then that’s obvious.) But what does she mean that she wants to ‘keep his [the Doctor’s] new face’? What sort of power does she have? Was she the person in the shop that gave Clara the Doctor’s number? Was she the one placing the advert? (Was she the person hacking the Doctor’s dream in the prequel to ‘Asylum’? Leading to the Doctor meeting Oswin…)
If the answer to these questions is yes, then why is she so keen to keep the Doctor & Clara together? (If you see my Clara meta, then you’ll notice that there are still unanswered questions - like, why is there what looks like a Time Beetle on a tree? Why is Clara’s leaf so important?)
But if someone might be using Clara (for whatever purpose we do not know), then that would explain a lot…
Also there is the question of which people are saved? Is it the Doctor’s victims/those who sacrifice themselves?
Plus, given Missy’s talk about Twelve’s face, I’m sure this is the part that ties into ‘Where do the faces come from?’ Which will be interesting. Did the Doctor ‘choose’ Caecilius’s face on purpose, and if so - why? What’s he trying to tell himself? (No idea where they are going with it, these are all rhetorical questions.)
But I shall leave you with this image, created by
promethia_tenk after Deep Breath aired (her brain has been working better than mine):
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I really like the chemistry between Peter and Jenna. I'm liking this Clara dealing with job and the Doctor. I feel like we're seeing the human aspects of the character and I appreciate that much more than walking enigma!impossible girl. I like teacher!Clara.
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And re. Clara, then we have seen more of her home life than any other companion. (And here are the numbers!) Of course it helps that we're not constantly trying to puzzle her out... :)
ETA: And thank you for reading! It's something of a rambly mess, but that can't be helped. ♥
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Anyway I'm liking Capaldi. I can't say that I love him or that he makes me feel the way Smith used to, but he's a good and interesting change. I'm optimist.
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Good, isn't it? (I love stuff like that...)
But I thought that Clara was more "advanced" than us. XD
No, she is just a character, has no access to the Doylist insights that we can claim. (And it has to be said that War Doctor and Ten were both sweet & adorable. Twelve is... abrasive in a way that is new to her.)
Anyway I'm liking Capaldi. I can't say that I love him or that he makes me feel the way Smith used to, but he's a good and interesting change. I'm optimist.
Oh I'm on board with the grumpy old man. Change is good and all that. Plus I like the arguments. :)
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And my Doctor was Four, way back in the day, which might explain why I was less Clara in this case. Though you make good points about it being only a single day for her.
And the link back to Victory of the Daleks for Doctor-Dalek definitions is a good one. And how with Asylum he was able to break that dalek-bound definition, for a while...
And hurrah for meta!
And I would comment in much more detail except that the thing that worries me now is whether the spider-like thing apparently clinging to the side of the console at 39:04 of Listen when Clara does a thing is really there and/or related to the Time Beetle on the tree earlier...
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Yes, I don't think she remembers - or that she could. If there are millions of them, her mind would never be able to contain them all. (Sidebar: Someone pointed out that at least Twelve didn't try to choke her. *g*)
And my Doctor was Four, way back in the day, which might explain why I was less Clara in this case. Though you make good points about it being only a single day for her.
Yes, it's easy to forget how long & stressful things have been for her. Poor Clara.
And the link back to Victory of the Daleks for Doctor-Dalek definitions is a good one. And how with Asylum he was able to break that dalek-bound definition, for a while...
I feel like I'm only scratching the surface, but at least I've pulled out some of the important points.
And hurrah for meta!
Thank you. It was better than nothing. (This is THE busiest time of year at work. I've had no capacity for just sitting down & writing.)
And I would comment in much more detail except that the thing that worries me now is whether the spider-like thing apparently clinging to the side of the console at 39:04 of Listen when Clara does a thing is really there and/or related to the Time Beetle on the tree earlier...
Oooooh, I did not see that! Must check it out. (Also 'doing a thing' was something I kept forgetting. It's important. You'll see why.)
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I got the Clara-missing-and-mirroring-Eleven-from-Flesh-and-Stone angle (“How?” “I'll do a thing.” “What thing?” “I don't know. It's a thing in progress. Respect the thing.”), but I will look forward to the other layers...
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ETA: Meant to use this icon! (I have an icon for EVERYTHING.)
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Are there screencaps of the Aztec brooch shared between Cameca and One somewhere? Because I really wanted the brooch Clara was wearing to be referencing that somehow, but my Google-fu was insufficient.
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And... I don't know. I've yet to see more than a tiny handful of One's adventures, so I can't help you, sorry.
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More later.
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(Looking forward to your thoughts. This is... so late, and stuff keeps happening and I can't keep up. What's this deal with NEW SHOW every week? Whose crazy idea was that? *g*)
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I DON’T KNOW. WHO AUTHORISED THIS?!? I WANT MY BRAIN BACK. :-)
Anyway, hello! I hope your foot is getting better. I am absolutely definitely not re-reading and replying to your meta whilst I’m at work and supposed to be checking contracts…nope….*ahem*. This is going to be reeeeealllly long and rambling and spread over several comments.
Of course the Doctor is the Doctor is the Doctor, but when something familiar is suddenly taken away, is it not normal to feel unsettled? There is a difference between knowing and understanding.
Thanks for writing this. These were all my thoughts exactly, only expressed in a coherent and structured manner. <3 Clara’s reaction to the new Doctor was something I had to think about and explain to myself quite a lot in the immediate aftermath of Deep Breath, because from a Watsonian POV it did initially feel jarring* – of ALL the companions the Doctor’s EVER had barring Romana, surely Clara is the MOST equipped to deal with the concept of Regeneration. But all of the reasons you list here – the fact it was all one day** for her; the fact she was unprepared; the fact that *knowing* a thing intellectually is different from *feeling* a thing; the fact that her memories of her other lives may be hazy at best; the fact that Ten was in many ways similar to Eleven and War was hardened and grumpier than Eleven but not as abrasive as Twelve; the fact that the Doctor suddenly can’t tell her apart from a Sontaran….once I’d worked through all of that in my head, it all made so much sense. And you articulate it so clearly here. Eleven was *her* Doctor – as she says in The Day Of The Doctor, “I never thought *you* did it.”
(*From a Doylist POV it was absolutely perfect – my boss is a geeky DW fan, and her 15 year old daughter who fell in love with Ten and Eleven was DEFINITELY Clara whilst watching Deep Breath.)
(**So…I hope when he landed back in Glasgow and then abandoned her on a quest for coffee it was a few days before Christmas, and she managed to get back home on time – otherwise the last her family sees of her is when she runs away from Christmas dinner – ‘everybody stay put!’ – and then disappears for days! It’s ‘Have you seen Rose?’ all over again!)
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This, as I said at the time, is beautiful and perfect. I am continually amazed at HOW MUCH MORE RELEVANT it keeps getting – ‘Listen’ was something else, and I can’t WAIT to talk about that with you. SO MANY EYES. So much soul-searching…Aaaaaaaaah. Eleven concentrated his energies on trying to properly ‘see’ Clara and figure out who she is, but now Twelve is unsure of his own identity and needs Clara to see him. The whole beginning of Listen shows him bopping round the universe observing things, but in order to make any sort of sense of it all, he needs someone to come along and observe him. We’ve had Schrodinger’s Companion, now we’re onto Schrodinger’s Doctor…BUT I’m getting ahead of myself. Listen, and all the meta related to it, needs its own post, as you say.
Sticking to the Deep Breath ending….I loved that scene on a purely emotional level, as well as a meta level. Watching Eleventy talking on the phone, and Twelve hovering so uncertainly in the liminal space at the doorway of the TARDIS, and then watching Clara really SEE him…I found the same thing happened to me. Throughout the episode prior to that moment, I had been studying Twelve, picking out bits of his behaviour - this gesture was just like Eleven, and thatintonation was just like Four and this mood reminded me of One, etc etc etc – and in the moment when Clara is invited to ‘see’ him, that was when I really ‘saw’ him too. As The Doctor, not just as a disparate set of connections to past Doctors. Watching Eleven and Twelve at the end was like…it was like two blurry images coming together and sliding into focus. And suddenly there he was. And I could see that he was Eleven, and I could also see that he was his own man. <333
But in Victory of the Daleks he defines himself in relation to the Daleks. The Doctor and the Daleks are so interdependent that they need each other in order to define themselves […] Now in ‘Asylum’ Oswin erased the Daleks’ memory of him, and for a while the Doctor was free - free to define himself however he wanted (Doctor Who?), except Trenzalore was waiting. And on Trenzalore the Doctor spent a thousand years fighting the Daleks. That is half his life. Is it any wonder his hatred is still burning brightly?
This is great. So succinctly put. It’s a whole new take on ‘love your enemy’…and a great rationale for their continuing inability to just KILL each other. There’s always some reason – the Dalek is weakened, or needs the Doctor’s help, or the Doctor has seen enough death for one day – but ultimately, deep down, its because neither the Doctor nor the Daleks can bring themselves to destroy one of the things that defines them. (The other things that define the Doctor being Gallifrey, the TARDIS and the Companions – like points on a compass, they are the home he runs from and destroys and searches for, the home he runs IN and keeps him safe and always finds him, his closest friends who help him see the good in the world, and his worst enemies who bring out the worst in him. And in the centre, his past selves, who he both learns from and reacts against, as you say.)
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This is clearly the theme of this series. We’re leading up to some sort of confrontation and shattering of the false Doctor/Soldier dichotomy that the Doctor has built up in his head (which was partially broken down when he accepted that the War Doctor was the Doctor after all…but then he spent 1000 years as a soldier, and I guess he grew sick of it again.) The Doctor needs to face the hard truth that he may not be a foot soldier – he doesn’t take orders – but he does give the orders, which merely makes him a HIGHER RANKING soldier. He’s the Colonel. Danny, and this woman he has killed (who I am betting was some kind of doctor – an army doctor?) is going to force this confrontation.
As for Missy…I hope she’s the Master too. I’ve noticed there’s been a LOT of comments about gender in these first few epsiodes – lots of misgendering from the Doctor and Strax in Deep Breath, lots of throwaway comments about appearance as relating to gender like ‘you’re built like a man’ and some others I noticed at the time and can’t remember offhand. I’ve been wondering if these are subtly leading up to the revelation of a female Master.
Argh I had so much more to say but have forgotten it all. And I should get back to work now. Three comments is enough!
In conclusion, META. THOUGHTS. FEELINGS. EYES. HELP. Also, Promethia’s diagram is fab. And you’re fab. <3
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Stacey
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On the upside, meta! Writing!
And thank you. x
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Stacey
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But yes, a little break is nice. (No pain, no gain. *g*)
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Stacey
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Can just about hobble about now, but not very fast and not very far. :)
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Eleven is my Doctor because he is Eleven.
I am beginning to like Twelve, he is different and interesting and I’m enjoying watching him. But he’s not ever going to be Eleven, and I will never love him in the same way.
None of them are meant to be enjoyed the same way, but I know what you mean.
I don't think it is so much he doesn't need her (because he has begged for her help in his own Doctory way three times at least within the first two episodes), but because he expects her to always be there because SHE ALWAYS HAS BEEN.
This makes sense to me. And we know her approval/disapproval is still important to him. No matter what he grumps about.
*HUGS*
(Hope your foot is better, lovie)
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::nods:: She met Eleven when he was immensely comfortable in his own skin. Twelve is just... weird. ;)
None of them are meant to be enjoyed the same way, but I know what you mean.
As Anna once said: We don't love in amounts, we love in ways.
I don't think it is so much he doesn't need her (because he has begged for her help in his own Doctory way three times at least within the first two episodes), but because he expects her to always be there because SHE ALWAYS HAS BEEN.
Oh, that's excellent! Yes. Thank you.
This makes sense to me. And we know her approval/disapproval is still important to him. No matter what he grumps about.
It's what we all suspected - he's been turned inside out. Eleven looked harmless, but was v. dangerous. Twelve looks fearsome, but inside he can be very uncertain. <3
(Hope your foot is better, lovie)
Well I'm not going to work today. But it's slowly on the mend...
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(her brain has been working better than mine)
Funny, I would have said the same about you. Look at you with your coherence and stuff. I feel like the mad lady sitting in the corner babbling to herself about collar lines and snatches of vids.
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:D
Funny, I would have said the same about you. Look at you with your coherence and stuff. I feel like the mad lady sitting in the corner babbling to herself about collar lines and snatches of vids.
But you have IMAGERY and stuff. (Your Ne is bouncing ideas off everywhere, and I'm gathering them up and knitting them together?)
ETA: Did you like the vid? You wanted parallels, and it was rather neat. :)
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And 100% word on how Clara is now our point of reference. NGL, this is exactly why her characterisation has been working for me way more than last season. I didn't like that we were given hardly any of her internal life (which is not the same as hard details ABOUT her life), but this season is so much about HER POV I'm ecstatic.
Every regeneration is a reaction against the previous one, so is it any wonder he reacts so badly to Robin Hood?
Y E S. Eleven's coping mechanism of "laughing too much" and running away from his problems ("the man who forgets") was toxic for sure, and Twelve is right to react against that. But rather than being "the anti-Eleven" what he really needs to do is find a balance between Eleven and this new non-Eleven persona.
And that diagram is A+, very enlightening indeed.
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Clara is competent, smart and resourceful. Fandom reaction: She is too perfect and unrealistic, we can't relate!
Clara is unsettled, unhappy and trying not to freak out. Fandom reaction: For goodness sake, pull yourself together! It's just a regeneration, we figured this would be a walk in the park for you!
And 100% word on how Clara is now our point of reference. NGL, this is exactly why her characterisation has been working for me way more than last season. I didn't like that we were given hardly any of her internal life (which is not the same as hard details ABOUT her life), but this season is so much about HER POV I'm ecstatic.
Awwww. Well I'm happy. I think her POV was there originally, but it was hard to see past 'WHAT IS SHE?' If you go back, you can see her much more clearly. :)
Y E S. Eleven's coping mechanism of "laughing too much" and running away from his problems ("the man who forgets") was toxic for sure, and Twelve is right to react against that. But rather than being "the anti-Eleven" what he really needs to do is find a balance between Eleven and this new non-Eleven persona.
Dunno about *toxic*, but certainly not all that healthy (although that in turn was a reaction against Ten wallowing in all his losses)... Maybe by the 50th Doctor we'll have someone well-adjusted. *g*
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I agree - it's hard to look past Eleven for a near perfect era, but I too am enjoying Twelve.
I also am liking Clara a lot more this series. I found her characterisation too patchy last series, because often the mystery obscured the person which made her feel 2D. So, for me, Bells of St John, Ring of Akhaten were Clara feeling real, but then she became cipher for the rest of the series. She only became a person again for me The Name of The Doctor on.
Someone said last series that they hoped Twelve would be Clara's Doctor in the way Eleven was defined by the Pond's and I am quite glad this seems to be happening.
Yes, re the unanswered Clara questions. Intrigued by the leaf and the woman in the shop.
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Thank *you* for reading! <3
I agree - it's hard to look past Eleven for a near perfect era, but I too am enjoying Twelve.
It's not Twelve's fault that he's not Eleven. *g* Also he's so very different, it makes for a good change.
I also am liking Clara a lot more this series.
Yay for Clara love. <3 Her introduction was interesting, but not ideal for a character POV.
Someone said last series that they hoped Twelve would be Clara's Doctor in the way Eleven was defined by the Pond's and I am quite glad this seems to be happening.
Quite probably that was me. *g* (Although the fact that he is grumpy & difficult reflects back on her quite interestingly... *g*)
Yes, re the unanswered Clara questions. Intrigued by the leaf and the woman in the shop.
Her story is so very far from over. And Listen only brought that into sharper focus!
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Oh, this is beautiful. I've never seen it described like this before, and it turns out I really needed it. Thank you! :)
Great meta, as always!
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*beams* Thank you! I have a whole essay devoted to this somewhere. I can link you if you like? :)
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ETA: Yes! Yes it is. :)
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Completely agreeing about Clara's reaction. I had a few problems about the episode, but this wasn't one of them… as you very well stated, she had one hell of a day. And in the end, her Doctor is gone. The Doctor is still there. Her Doctor is gone. And indeed, Twelve's own confusion hardly helps; if he was asserted in himself and their relationship, it might be yet another thing, but here he is the one who went through the change and it's a hot mess. No wonder Clara would be lost, too.
Very interesting thoughts about the importance of being seen, too, all throughout—and the shift of the unknown between the Doctor and Clara…
Also - for all those who say that Clara is so much more interesting *now* - go watch Bells of St John! (She hasn't changed - the Doctor has.)
Yes, this! ^_^
Really loving all the thoughts about Daleks vs. the Doctor and how they influence the way he defines himself—the idea that a "good Dalek" doesn't only completely turn his bearings upside down, it also further compromises his already shaky grasp of himself… oh, Twelve.
Both Oswin and the Doctor had to face that what they thought they were might not be the reality. And in both cases (to tie back to the previous section) it’s about being seen. Eleven sees Oswin, and Rusty sees Twelve. The thing is, that’s not the end. Oswin fights the Dalek impulses (as does Tasha Lem later), and so - similarly - does the Doctor.
Fascinating ^_^
I just love
Thanks for the thoughts! They're always fascinating :)
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Indeed. (Finally.)
Completely agreeing about Clara's reaction. I had a few problems about the episode, but this wasn't one of them… as you very well stated, she had one hell of a day. And in the end, her Doctor is gone. The Doctor is still there. Her Doctor is gone.
Whatever has happened, he has been there. And I forgot to mention this, but she lost her mother - she has BIG issues when it comes to losing people.
And indeed, Twelve's own confusion hardly helps; if he was asserted in himself and their relationship, it might be yet another thing, but here he is the one who went through the change and it's a hot mess. No wonder Clara would be lost, too.
*nods a lot* Rose was fortunate - after some initial confusion Ten just slept a lot, and once he woke up he was pretty lucid and perfectly in control (of his madness).
Very interesting thoughts about the importance of being seen, too, all throughout—and the shift of the unknown between the Doctor and Clara…
It's like a red thread. That, and mirroring, and things being two things at once. ;)
Really loving all the thoughts about Daleks vs. the Doctor and how they influence the way he defines himself—the idea that a "good Dalek" doesn't only completely turn his bearings upside down, it also further compromises his already shaky grasp of himself… oh, Twelve.
You'll like my 'Listen' meta!
I just love promethia_tenk's picture! :D
Good, isn't it? I don't feel qualified to tackle it yet, though.
Thanks for the thoughts! They're always fascinating :)
Thank you for commenting. :)
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Itʼs always good whenever it comes!
And I forgot to mention this, but she lost her mother - she has BIG issues when it comes to losing people.
Ohhh yes, very good point.
Rose was fortunate - after some initial confusion Ten just slept a lot, and once he woke up he was pretty lucid and perfectly in control (of his madness).
Another good point!
You'll like my 'Listen' meta!
I did! ^_^