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DW 8.08. Mummy on the Orient Express.
This is pretty short, especially compared to my usual offerings...
I have a few thoughts, but I think I'm a bit meta'd out after last week. My main observation is that this one I just found immensely likeable. It carried through all the themes of the season (soldiers - really, that whole part was beautiful - fear as a motivator, Clara's Doctor-ness etc), but above all this was a character piece. It picked up from last week beautifully, and since Clara has had a normal upbringing with loving parents she is able to deal with, and voice, her emotions. We see the Doctor's unease, but she says her piece and both we, and the Doctor, know where she stands. Of course then the plot begins to unfold and she is taken through another emotional rollercoaster, and ends up with a change of heart.
Those that think it comes out of nowhere, please see the conversation between Clara and Maisie:
'It would be so much easier if we could just like the people we're supposed to like. But then I guess we wouldn't need fairy tales.'
The whole nature of the story, the way they're all being manipulated, is also the sort of stuff I love. I wonder who is pulling the strings...
Perkins! Almost forgot Perkins. He was wonderful, and I could totally see Twelve/Perkins. (I've not really thought about Twelve and relationships, because he's so abrasive, but Perkins... Yes, I could see it.)
But above all I adore that scene on the beach (the music! I don't think I've mentioned Twelve's theme yet, but I love it, and how oddly sombre it is), which of course evokes another...
CLARA: Weren't we just on a train?
DOCTOR: Oh, that was ages ago.
There is something about the way he says that line that reminds me of something I can't quite put my finger on. Although it might be this Seventh Doctor quote:
MEL: I'm going now.
DOCTOR: Yes, that's right, you're going. You've been gone for ages. You're already gone. You're still here. You've just arrived. I haven't even met you yet. It all depends on who you are and how you look at it. Strange business, time.
But of course then they talk. Love this exchange more than words can say:
CLARA: So you saved everyone.
DOCTOR: No I just saved you and let everyone else suffocate. Hahaha.
But here's the heart of it of course:
CLARA: So when you lied to me, when you made me lie to Maisie-
DOCTOR: I couldn't risk Gus finding out my plan to stop him.
CLARA: So you were pretending to be heartless.
DOCTOR: Would you like to think that about me? Would that make it easier? I didn't know, if I could save her. I couldn't save Quayle, I couldn't save Moorhouse, there was a good chance that she would die too. At which point, I would have just moved onto the next, and the next, until I beat it. Sometimes the only choices you have are bad ones. But you still have to choose.
This seeming heartlessness is not a new thing of course. To pull out the two quotes that sprang to my mind:
RIVER: There are five people in this room still alive, focus on that. Dear God, you're hard work young!
Forest of the Dead
RIVER: Father Octavian, when the Doctor's in the room, your one and only mission is to keep him alive long enough to get everyone else home.
Flesh and Stone
The trajectory here is interesting, actually. River was very much the Doctor's protector (the very few times she loses it, it is because the Doctor gets shot). Morally, she doesn't much care - she's a Pond, she is very much focussed on 'her' people. Clara starts out the same way, sort of. The Doctor deeply impresses her on Akhaten, and she sees a way using her natural people-caring skills on a much bigger scale. It is centred around the Doctor, and we see how devoted she is in Name of the Doctor especially. Of course there was an undercurrent of slight mistrust, as the Doctor did not understand her impossibleness, which led to odd suspicions on both sides. But of course it got resolved, and everything was lovely.
Enter Twelve. And Clara's absolutes being to crumble. I've been saying that she is becoming more and more Doctor-y, and it's an fascinating process. She is becoming more detached from the Doctor, and rather than seeing the world as centred around him she is coming to see the world from his point of view. Not looking at him, but looking through his eyes. ('Sometimes the only choices you have are bad ones. But you still have to choose.' She understands this now. it would probably have been better if he'd explained this before abandoning her on the Moon, but better late than never.)
Which, sort of, brings me to my new header.
The comments/discussions on my Kill the Moon post were rather excellent, and the most interesting point was that Caecilius and Frobisher were both involved in Fixed Point events. (Well Children of Earth might be a 'fuzzy' point - either way, the Doctor will not go near it.) And this could have something to do with why he has this particular face...
Also Clara is of course 'the woman twice dead', so we have three separate characters for each of them. Which was just so plain neat that I couldn't not do something with it.
The words are from this song, and are just beautiful and poetic:
(Lyrics)
And that's all for today. :)
(Spoilers for Flatline in comments.)
I have a few thoughts, but I think I'm a bit meta'd out after last week. My main observation is that this one I just found immensely likeable. It carried through all the themes of the season (soldiers - really, that whole part was beautiful - fear as a motivator, Clara's Doctor-ness etc), but above all this was a character piece. It picked up from last week beautifully, and since Clara has had a normal upbringing with loving parents she is able to deal with, and voice, her emotions. We see the Doctor's unease, but she says her piece and both we, and the Doctor, know where she stands. Of course then the plot begins to unfold and she is taken through another emotional rollercoaster, and ends up with a change of heart.
Those that think it comes out of nowhere, please see the conversation between Clara and Maisie:
'It would be so much easier if we could just like the people we're supposed to like. But then I guess we wouldn't need fairy tales.'
The whole nature of the story, the way they're all being manipulated, is also the sort of stuff I love. I wonder who is pulling the strings...
Perkins! Almost forgot Perkins. He was wonderful, and I could totally see Twelve/Perkins. (I've not really thought about Twelve and relationships, because he's so abrasive, but Perkins... Yes, I could see it.)
But above all I adore that scene on the beach (the music! I don't think I've mentioned Twelve's theme yet, but I love it, and how oddly sombre it is), which of course evokes another...
CLARA: Weren't we just on a train?
DOCTOR: Oh, that was ages ago.
There is something about the way he says that line that reminds me of something I can't quite put my finger on. Although it might be this Seventh Doctor quote:
MEL: I'm going now.
DOCTOR: Yes, that's right, you're going. You've been gone for ages. You're already gone. You're still here. You've just arrived. I haven't even met you yet. It all depends on who you are and how you look at it. Strange business, time.
But of course then they talk. Love this exchange more than words can say:
CLARA: So you saved everyone.
DOCTOR: No I just saved you and let everyone else suffocate. Hahaha.
But here's the heart of it of course:
CLARA: So when you lied to me, when you made me lie to Maisie-
DOCTOR: I couldn't risk Gus finding out my plan to stop him.
CLARA: So you were pretending to be heartless.
DOCTOR: Would you like to think that about me? Would that make it easier? I didn't know, if I could save her. I couldn't save Quayle, I couldn't save Moorhouse, there was a good chance that she would die too. At which point, I would have just moved onto the next, and the next, until I beat it. Sometimes the only choices you have are bad ones. But you still have to choose.
This seeming heartlessness is not a new thing of course. To pull out the two quotes that sprang to my mind:
RIVER: There are five people in this room still alive, focus on that. Dear God, you're hard work young!
Forest of the Dead
RIVER: Father Octavian, when the Doctor's in the room, your one and only mission is to keep him alive long enough to get everyone else home.
Flesh and Stone
The trajectory here is interesting, actually. River was very much the Doctor's protector (the very few times she loses it, it is because the Doctor gets shot). Morally, she doesn't much care - she's a Pond, she is very much focussed on 'her' people. Clara starts out the same way, sort of. The Doctor deeply impresses her on Akhaten, and she sees a way using her natural people-caring skills on a much bigger scale. It is centred around the Doctor, and we see how devoted she is in Name of the Doctor especially. Of course there was an undercurrent of slight mistrust, as the Doctor did not understand her impossibleness, which led to odd suspicions on both sides. But of course it got resolved, and everything was lovely.
Enter Twelve. And Clara's absolutes being to crumble. I've been saying that she is becoming more and more Doctor-y, and it's an fascinating process. She is becoming more detached from the Doctor, and rather than seeing the world as centred around him she is coming to see the world from his point of view. Not looking at him, but looking through his eyes. ('Sometimes the only choices you have are bad ones. But you still have to choose.' She understands this now. it would probably have been better if he'd explained this before abandoning her on the Moon, but better late than never.)
Which, sort of, brings me to my new header.
The comments/discussions on my Kill the Moon post were rather excellent, and the most interesting point was that Caecilius and Frobisher were both involved in Fixed Point events. (Well Children of Earth might be a 'fuzzy' point - either way, the Doctor will not go near it.) And this could have something to do with why he has this particular face...
Also Clara is of course 'the woman twice dead', so we have three separate characters for each of them. Which was just so plain neat that I couldn't not do something with it.
The words are from this song, and are just beautiful and poetic:
(Lyrics)
And that's all for today. :)
(Spoilers for Flatline in comments.)
no subject
Don't blame me, blame the show.
Y E S. I've been fascinated by Clara's character arc lately but hadn't managed to pin down what exactly she's been turning into. THIS IS IT. And so distinct from the ways Amy and Eleven were the same but codependent -- Clara and Twelve aren't "addicted" to each other so much as Clara is becoming more and more his "accomplice".
Flatline. That's all I'm saying.
Special golden star for The Pierces.
You can thank Promethia for that one. She was going to make an Amy-River-Clara vid to it...
no subject
I JUST SAW IT. EVERYTHING I WANTED.
Btw, happy upcoming birthday!
no subject
IKR? For me, it was like the writers took my Let's Kill the Moon post and went out of their way to tick every box...
Btw, happy upcoming birthday!
Thank you! :)