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DW 9.06. The Woman Who Lived
So, we’re pretty much at the half-way point, and yay, themes are emerging!
At the moment I can see three, although they are of course connected: Friendship, godhood (specifically in a father/creator sense) and loss.
I shall tackle them in that order.
The Woman Who Lived
Although first of all, a little sidebar or two.
I love how the time = water metaphor is still front & centre:
CLARA: No. You can change things.
DOCTOR: I can't. Even the tiniest change, the ramifications could be catastrophic. It could spread carnage and chaos across the universe like ripples on a pond.
Before the Flood
DOCTOR: I can do anything. There's nothing I can't do. Nothing. But I'm not supposed to. Ripples, tidal waves, rules. I'm not supposed to.
[…]
DOCTOR: I was angry. I was emotional. Just possibly, I have made a terrible mistake. Maybe even a tidal wave.
The Girl Who Died
Incidentally, then using saving Caecilius & family as his main example to remind him to save people? Clearly he never heard of what happened to Frobisher. (RTD is on record somewhere saying how Frobisher's death was as payment for saving Caecilius who should have died... This strikes me as possibly stretching the power of Fixed Points. But...)
And another thought - the Doctor feels very guilty over Ashildr's death, but - being perfectly logical about it - she was the one that brought the fight back to her village. Clara had successfully talked the Mire into leaving. Of course Ashildr was a child, and didn't understand what she was doing. I just want to point it out.
Also:
"What could be worse than losing your children?"
There are worse things… (Not that Ashildr is likely to have been in a situation like Children of Earth. But. This show does not shy away from brutal truths.)
Friendship
DOCTOR: He and I've known each other a long time.
OHILA: You've been enemies for all of it.
DOCTOR: An enemy's just a friend you don't really know yet. Sorry. What, was that me being cynical again?
OHILA: Aren't we friends, Doctor?
DOCTOR: That's different. I don't like you!
OHILA: (laughs) Which means you can trust me.
Prologue to Magician’s Apprentice
CLARA: Since when do you care about the Doctor?
MISSY: Since always. Since the Cloister Wars. Since the night he stole the moon and the President's wife. Since he was a little girl. One of those was a lie. Can you guess which one?
CLARA: He's not your friend. You keep trying to kill him.
MISSY: He keeps trying to kill me. It's sort of our texting. We've been at it for ages.
CLARA: Mmm. Must be love.
MISSY: Oh, don't be disgusting. We're Time Lords, not animals. Try, nano-brain, to rise above the reproductive frenzy of your noisy little food chain, and contemplate friendship. A friendship older than your civilisation, and infinitely more complex.
The Magician’s Apprentice
MISSY: In a way, this is why I gave her to you in the first place. To make you see. The friend inside the enemy, the enemy inside the friend.
The Witch’s Familiar
DOCTOR: So are we enemies now?
ASHILDR: Of course not. Enemies are never a problem. It's your friends you have to watch out for. And, my friend, I'll be watching out for you.
The Woman Who Lived
Apart from the rather tacked-on O’Donnell/Bennet and Cass/Lunn, we have not had any love stories at all this year. Instead the show has emphasised friendship - and enmity - and how these are often two sides of the same coin. Something beautifully illustrated in the character of Missy.
Of course it’s an old theme, one that goes back to the beginning. The Doctor’s friends, his companions, the ones who travel with him. (The ones who keep him to the mark.) The ones who get close to him, and therefore make him vulnerable...
DOCTOR: Oh, you remember Clara, do you?
ASHILDR: Of course. I take particular note of anyone's weaknesses.
And we saw in the S8 finale how the closer someone is, the more they can hurt you - and also how deeply the Doctor values their friendship:
DOCTOR: Do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?
Love is a psychopath. And I don’t think that refers to only romantic love…
Odin (cont.)/Allfather/Gods
Basically, the Doctor created another god in Ashildr. (Or ‘Immortal hybrid’, if you like that term better.) And it’s interesting that this time it was all on him...
- River was literally a hybrid, a human with Time Lord DNA, created as a weapon in response to the Doctor.
- Jack was more like a comic accident, created by a child with god-like powers that she could not control.
But Ashildr was created by the Doctor, and he was aware what he was doing.
DOCTOR: I was angry. I was emotional. Just possibly, I have made a terrible mistake. Maybe even a tidal wave.
I wonder if he has forgotten the words of Copper, from Voyage of the Damned:
COPPER: Of all the people to survive, he's not the one you would have chosen, is he? But if you could choose, Doctor, if you decide who lives and who dies, that would make you a monster.
I talked in my meta last week about the Doctor being Odin: a father-figure, a creator, and this is directly addressed.
The Doctor is mistaken for Ashildr’s father, and she - repeatedly - holds him responsible for creating her. And for the subsequent abandonment:
DOCTOR: Why should I be responsible for you?
ASHILDR: You made me immortal.
DOCTOR: I saved your life. I didn't know that your heart would rust because I kept it beating. I didn't think your conscience would need renewing, that the well of human kindness would run dry. I just wanted to save a terrified young woman's life.
ASHILDR: You didn't save my life, Doctor. You trapped me inside it.
And oh, he has made her in his own image:
ASHILDR: You should try my journals. I read them myself now and then. Drink pomace wine, have a little me time.
DOCTOR: You don't seem the nostalgic type.
ASHILDR: It's not nostalgia, it's curiosity. I can't remember most of it. That's the trouble with an infinite life and a normal sized memory.
DOCTOR: It can't have been easy, outliving the people you love.
ASHILDR: According to my journals, hell.
DOCTOR: Sorry.
He most definitely knows both the pain – and the loss, moreso than he lets on. Ashildr’s diaries echo a very old exchange:
VICTORIA: You probably can't remember your family.
2nd DOCTOR: Oh yes, I can when I want to. And that's the point, really. I have to really want to, to bring them back in front of my eyes. The rest of the time they... they sleep in my mind and I forget.
We see his forgetfulness in other ways. He forgot Reinette, and the whole clock-work story. He forgot Pompeii (until he remembered, last episode). Despite having a brain the size of a planet we know he keeps diaries.
ASHILDR: You'll have to remind me, what's sorrow like? It all just runs out, Doctor. I'm just what's left. In fact, I've done all I can here. I look up to the sky and wonder what it's like out there. Please, take me with you. All these people here, they're like smoke, they blow away in a moment. You don't know what it's like.
DOCTOR: I do know what it's like.
And he does…
DOCTOR: Immortality isn't living forever. That's not what it feels like. Immortality is everybody else dying.
Plus, there's this, from a recent Moffat interview:
We don’t know the extent to which he’s capable of real love. This is a thing we have to discuss sometimes on the set, about what he is feeling right now. What did he feel for River? What did he feel for Rose? The answer always has to kind of be, we don’t know. That’s all locked in a box somewhere. We know that he’s wired like any other Time Lord, and they all do that sort of thing. We know that as an incontrovertible fact that he’s been a father in his life, and it’s not something you can dismiss or ignore. He’s capable of all that. I think he just doesn’t. This is my theory, and just the fact that I write it right now doesn’t make it more important than anyone else’s theory. I don’t think he’s incapable of feeling real love at all, in fact I think he’s quite badly susceptible to crushes, but he doesn’t seem to do anything about it. He seems to have taken the position that that is no longer what he does. He’s something of a gentleman, really, and to do all that would mean proper commitment, in his book, and he’s not really good at proper commitment. He can’t even stay on the same planet. It’s hard not to assume that there’s tremendous heartbreak from way before we knew him, since we first encountered him traveling with his granddaughter and nobody else. It’s reasonable to assume that there’s something awful back there. The answer I tend to prefer is not that he’s incapable, but that’s he decided not to, but at times those hearts are at war with each other. He wants what he thinks he shouldn’t have. It’s much more dramatic if it’s that way. He’s made a decision that as much as he might fall in love now and then, he never does anything about it. I think you see him fall in love quite a lot. You don’t see him embark on a fool relationship and all that that entails. As far as we know. Heaven knows what he gets up to between episodes—I’ve never asked him.
He leaves her Ashildr the means to create herself a companion, but – as her chosen name implies – she does not want one, instead choosing a path very much like the Doctor's when it comes to relationships. She has clearly been burnt the same as he has:
ASHILDR: I call myself ‘Me’. All the other names I chose died with whoever knew me. Me is who I am now. No one's mother, daughter, wife. My own companion. Singular. Unattached. Alone.
She does not define herself in relation to anyone else, instead standing aside from the world, watching it pass by as she stays the same. Interestingly it's almost the exact opposite of the Doctor, who acknowledges that his name is not even a simple description, more like an aspiration, or a story:
DOCTOR: There's no such thing as the Doctor. I'm just a bloke in a box, telling stories. And I didn't come here because I'm ashamed. A bit of shame never hurt anyone. I came because you're sick and you asked. And because sometimes, on a good day, if I try very hard, I'm not some old Time Lord who ran away. I'm the Doctor.
Names are important. River Song was Melody Pond. The Doctor’s real name is unknown – and so is Captain Jack’s. But this episode made it crystal clear that Lady Me’s original name (Ashildr’s = Odin’s Valkyrie) was most definitely not chosen at random.
The Valkyries brought fallen warriors to Valhalla, which is pretty much exactly what Ashildr vows to do:
ASHILDR: Someone has to look out for the people you abandon. Who better than me? I'll be the patron saint of the Doctor's leftovers.
The Valkyrie aspect is even inherent to the episode’s plot-related thingamajig:
DOCTOR: Look, why would an alien artefact resemble the Eyes of Hades, King of the Underworld? An ancient Greek talisman which wards off evil and protects those in death on their journey to an afterlife?
What the Doctor gives her - or rather, what she finds for herself - is a purpose. A little like how the Doctor stayed in Christmas, protecting it (and the crack) against anything the universe could throw at it, so Ashildr will protect the Earth. She - like him - is stuck, but in this episode she learns to make something imposed on her, into her own choice.
Also, it’s very interesting that she is, essentially, creating her own little, very personalised Torchwood, for basically the same reasons Queen Victoria does centuries later…
Loss
ASHILDR: So what's wrong with Clara, then?
DOCTOR: There's nothing wrong with her.
ASHILDR: Why haven't you made her immortal?
DOCTOR: Well, look how you turned out.
ASHILDR: She'll die on you, you know. She'll blow away like smoke.
Last season was all about the Doctor dealing with his regeneration - a whole season dedicated to something usually dealt with in a single episode.
The same applies here. Clara’s departure is front and centre, although - I now realise - it was partly disguised at the beginning by using her mirroring qualities, and the fact that in S8 we were firmly in Clara’s POV as she tried to grapple with his new persona, as well as falling in love – and then, of course, she lost Danny, something she did not cope well with. (/understatement) So it makes sense for us to start with her side of it. She’s still coming to terms with last seasons’ loss, and she does not deal well with the Doctor’s apparent imminent death:
DOCTOR: I'm sorry.
CLARA: Don't apologise. Make it up to me. There, see? Ha. Now you have to come back.
Magician’s Apprentice
DOCTOR: I've got to go sometime.
CLARA: Not with me! Die with whoever comes after me. You do not leave me.
DOCTOR: Listen to me. We all have to face death eventually, be it ours or someone else's.
CLARA: I'm not ready yet. I don't want to think about that, not yet.
DOCTOR: I can't change what's already happened. There are rules.
CLARA: So break them. And anyway, you owe me. You've made yourself essential to me. You've given me something else to, to be. And you can't do that and then die. It's not fair.
DOCTOR: Clara.
CLARA: No. Doctor, I don't care about your rules or your bloody survivor's guilt. If you love me in any way, you'll come back.
Before the Flood
However now we have switched back to the Doctor’s viewpoint, much like in S7. Then she was someone he’d found, but was unsure of. Now she’s someone he knows he will lose; he will live on, and she will blow away like smoke…
DOCTOR: Every time we do something like this, I keep thinking, what if something happens to you?
Because as we know, the Doctor isn’t going anywhere. Clara is. Not just from the fact that the press releases have said she’s leaving, but because the show is dropping hints as subtle as a brick:
DOCTOR: I've missed you, Clara Oswald.
CLARA: Well, don't worry, daft old man. I'm not going anywhere.
The opener brought up the question of why the Doctor left Gallifrey. Why does he run? Promethia reckons he lost someone, and it’s hard to argue with that…
DOCTOR: I'm sick of losing people. Look at you, with your eyes, and your never giving up, and your anger, and your kindness. One day, the memory of that will hurt so much that I won't be able to breathe, and I'll do what I always do. I'll get in my box and I'll run and I'll run, in case all the pain ever catches up. And every place I go, it will be there.
The thing is, it’s been getting worse.
- After losing Donna, he decided to travel alone.
- After losing his Ponds, he decided to retire completely
Clara, his Impossible Girl, was what dragged him down from his cloud-based exile. Her mystery re-awakened his sense of wonder, and he’s kept her close ever since. But he knows time is running out, that their time together is limited.
That said, simple death seems to easy… What will her fate be? She was wearing a bird necklace again at the end of this episode, much like the one she wore in Bells of St John. She’s done so much, can even pull off ‘being the Doctor’ as we have seen repeatedly. Her ‘fairy godmothers’ are River and Missy. She’s been trained by the best.
Except like I say above the show is moving back to the Doctor’s perspective. And we don’t need another Doctor… However there is plenty of room for more gods, as Ashildr so ably illustrates.
Clara has always been the Impossible Girl, a ‘rebellious bird’. Living in stories, creating stories, watching over and looking after the Doctor.
If Ashildr (by name and by choice) is/has become the Doctor’s Valkyrie, the patron saint of those left behind, then Clara (=bright) Oswin (=god’s friend) Oswald (=god’s power) – his self-appointed patron saint when she jumps into his time stream – is, surely, destined for something… more than just death.
The season’s tagline is ‘Born to Save the universe’. And somehow that line was what sprung to mind during this exchange:
DOCTOR: Ashildr, I think I'm very glad I saved you.
ASHILDR: Oh, I think everyone will be.
We have themes. We also have plot points. The word ‘hybrid’ is attached to Gallifrey and Skaro, to Daleks and Time Lords.
We have players – the Doctor, Davros, Missy, Ashildr, Clara.
How will it all pan out? What has Moffat got up his sleeve?
And what will the Doctor do when he loses Clara…
DOCTOR [OC]: Who's going to tell me that Clara Oswald is really dead?
MISSY: He'll burn everything. Us too.
He doesn’t. But do not tempt a desperate man…
At the moment I can see three, although they are of course connected: Friendship, godhood (specifically in a father/creator sense) and loss.
I shall tackle them in that order.
Although first of all, a little sidebar or two.
I love how the time = water metaphor is still front & centre:
CLARA: No. You can change things.
DOCTOR: I can't. Even the tiniest change, the ramifications could be catastrophic. It could spread carnage and chaos across the universe like ripples on a pond.
Before the Flood
DOCTOR: I can do anything. There's nothing I can't do. Nothing. But I'm not supposed to. Ripples, tidal waves, rules. I'm not supposed to.
[…]
DOCTOR: I was angry. I was emotional. Just possibly, I have made a terrible mistake. Maybe even a tidal wave.
The Girl Who Died
Incidentally, then using saving Caecilius & family as his main example to remind him to save people? Clearly he never heard of what happened to Frobisher. (RTD is on record somewhere saying how Frobisher's death was as payment for saving Caecilius who should have died... This strikes me as possibly stretching the power of Fixed Points. But...)
And another thought - the Doctor feels very guilty over Ashildr's death, but - being perfectly logical about it - she was the one that brought the fight back to her village. Clara had successfully talked the Mire into leaving. Of course Ashildr was a child, and didn't understand what she was doing. I just want to point it out.
Also:
"What could be worse than losing your children?"
There are worse things… (Not that Ashildr is likely to have been in a situation like Children of Earth. But. This show does not shy away from brutal truths.)
DOCTOR: He and I've known each other a long time.
OHILA: You've been enemies for all of it.
DOCTOR: An enemy's just a friend you don't really know yet. Sorry. What, was that me being cynical again?
OHILA: Aren't we friends, Doctor?
DOCTOR: That's different. I don't like you!
OHILA: (laughs) Which means you can trust me.
Prologue to Magician’s Apprentice
CLARA: Since when do you care about the Doctor?
MISSY: Since always. Since the Cloister Wars. Since the night he stole the moon and the President's wife. Since he was a little girl. One of those was a lie. Can you guess which one?
CLARA: He's not your friend. You keep trying to kill him.
MISSY: He keeps trying to kill me. It's sort of our texting. We've been at it for ages.
CLARA: Mmm. Must be love.
MISSY: Oh, don't be disgusting. We're Time Lords, not animals. Try, nano-brain, to rise above the reproductive frenzy of your noisy little food chain, and contemplate friendship. A friendship older than your civilisation, and infinitely more complex.
The Magician’s Apprentice
MISSY: In a way, this is why I gave her to you in the first place. To make you see. The friend inside the enemy, the enemy inside the friend.
The Witch’s Familiar
DOCTOR: So are we enemies now?
ASHILDR: Of course not. Enemies are never a problem. It's your friends you have to watch out for. And, my friend, I'll be watching out for you.
The Woman Who Lived
Apart from the rather tacked-on O’Donnell/Bennet and Cass/Lunn, we have not had any love stories at all this year. Instead the show has emphasised friendship - and enmity - and how these are often two sides of the same coin. Something beautifully illustrated in the character of Missy.
Of course it’s an old theme, one that goes back to the beginning. The Doctor’s friends, his companions, the ones who travel with him. (The ones who keep him to the mark.) The ones who get close to him, and therefore make him vulnerable...
DOCTOR: Oh, you remember Clara, do you?
ASHILDR: Of course. I take particular note of anyone's weaknesses.
And we saw in the S8 finale how the closer someone is, the more they can hurt you - and also how deeply the Doctor values their friendship:
DOCTOR: Do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?
Love is a psychopath. And I don’t think that refers to only romantic love…
Basically, the Doctor created another god in Ashildr. (Or ‘Immortal hybrid’, if you like that term better.) And it’s interesting that this time it was all on him...
- River was literally a hybrid, a human with Time Lord DNA, created as a weapon in response to the Doctor.
- Jack was more like a comic accident, created by a child with god-like powers that she could not control.
But Ashildr was created by the Doctor, and he was aware what he was doing.
DOCTOR: I was angry. I was emotional. Just possibly, I have made a terrible mistake. Maybe even a tidal wave.
I wonder if he has forgotten the words of Copper, from Voyage of the Damned:
COPPER: Of all the people to survive, he's not the one you would have chosen, is he? But if you could choose, Doctor, if you decide who lives and who dies, that would make you a monster.
I talked in my meta last week about the Doctor being Odin: a father-figure, a creator, and this is directly addressed.
The Doctor is mistaken for Ashildr’s father, and she - repeatedly - holds him responsible for creating her. And for the subsequent abandonment:
DOCTOR: Why should I be responsible for you?
ASHILDR: You made me immortal.
DOCTOR: I saved your life. I didn't know that your heart would rust because I kept it beating. I didn't think your conscience would need renewing, that the well of human kindness would run dry. I just wanted to save a terrified young woman's life.
ASHILDR: You didn't save my life, Doctor. You trapped me inside it.
And oh, he has made her in his own image:
ASHILDR: You should try my journals. I read them myself now and then. Drink pomace wine, have a little me time.
DOCTOR: You don't seem the nostalgic type.
ASHILDR: It's not nostalgia, it's curiosity. I can't remember most of it. That's the trouble with an infinite life and a normal sized memory.
DOCTOR: It can't have been easy, outliving the people you love.
ASHILDR: According to my journals, hell.
DOCTOR: Sorry.
He most definitely knows both the pain – and the loss, moreso than he lets on. Ashildr’s diaries echo a very old exchange:
VICTORIA: You probably can't remember your family.
2nd DOCTOR: Oh yes, I can when I want to. And that's the point, really. I have to really want to, to bring them back in front of my eyes. The rest of the time they... they sleep in my mind and I forget.
We see his forgetfulness in other ways. He forgot Reinette, and the whole clock-work story. He forgot Pompeii (until he remembered, last episode). Despite having a brain the size of a planet we know he keeps diaries.
ASHILDR: You'll have to remind me, what's sorrow like? It all just runs out, Doctor. I'm just what's left. In fact, I've done all I can here. I look up to the sky and wonder what it's like out there. Please, take me with you. All these people here, they're like smoke, they blow away in a moment. You don't know what it's like.
DOCTOR: I do know what it's like.
And he does…
DOCTOR: Immortality isn't living forever. That's not what it feels like. Immortality is everybody else dying.
Plus, there's this, from a recent Moffat interview:
We don’t know the extent to which he’s capable of real love. This is a thing we have to discuss sometimes on the set, about what he is feeling right now. What did he feel for River? What did he feel for Rose? The answer always has to kind of be, we don’t know. That’s all locked in a box somewhere. We know that he’s wired like any other Time Lord, and they all do that sort of thing. We know that as an incontrovertible fact that he’s been a father in his life, and it’s not something you can dismiss or ignore. He’s capable of all that. I think he just doesn’t. This is my theory, and just the fact that I write it right now doesn’t make it more important than anyone else’s theory. I don’t think he’s incapable of feeling real love at all, in fact I think he’s quite badly susceptible to crushes, but he doesn’t seem to do anything about it. He seems to have taken the position that that is no longer what he does. He’s something of a gentleman, really, and to do all that would mean proper commitment, in his book, and he’s not really good at proper commitment. He can’t even stay on the same planet. It’s hard not to assume that there’s tremendous heartbreak from way before we knew him, since we first encountered him traveling with his granddaughter and nobody else. It’s reasonable to assume that there’s something awful back there. The answer I tend to prefer is not that he’s incapable, but that’s he decided not to, but at times those hearts are at war with each other. He wants what he thinks he shouldn’t have. It’s much more dramatic if it’s that way. He’s made a decision that as much as he might fall in love now and then, he never does anything about it. I think you see him fall in love quite a lot. You don’t see him embark on a fool relationship and all that that entails. As far as we know. Heaven knows what he gets up to between episodes—I’ve never asked him.
He leaves her Ashildr the means to create herself a companion, but – as her chosen name implies – she does not want one, instead choosing a path very much like the Doctor's when it comes to relationships. She has clearly been burnt the same as he has:
ASHILDR: I call myself ‘Me’. All the other names I chose died with whoever knew me. Me is who I am now. No one's mother, daughter, wife. My own companion. Singular. Unattached. Alone.
She does not define herself in relation to anyone else, instead standing aside from the world, watching it pass by as she stays the same. Interestingly it's almost the exact opposite of the Doctor, who acknowledges that his name is not even a simple description, more like an aspiration, or a story:
DOCTOR: There's no such thing as the Doctor. I'm just a bloke in a box, telling stories. And I didn't come here because I'm ashamed. A bit of shame never hurt anyone. I came because you're sick and you asked. And because sometimes, on a good day, if I try very hard, I'm not some old Time Lord who ran away. I'm the Doctor.
Names are important. River Song was Melody Pond. The Doctor’s real name is unknown – and so is Captain Jack’s. But this episode made it crystal clear that Lady Me’s original name (Ashildr’s = Odin’s Valkyrie) was most definitely not chosen at random.
The Valkyries brought fallen warriors to Valhalla, which is pretty much exactly what Ashildr vows to do:
ASHILDR: Someone has to look out for the people you abandon. Who better than me? I'll be the patron saint of the Doctor's leftovers.
The Valkyrie aspect is even inherent to the episode’s plot-related thingamajig:
DOCTOR: Look, why would an alien artefact resemble the Eyes of Hades, King of the Underworld? An ancient Greek talisman which wards off evil and protects those in death on their journey to an afterlife?
What the Doctor gives her - or rather, what she finds for herself - is a purpose. A little like how the Doctor stayed in Christmas, protecting it (and the crack) against anything the universe could throw at it, so Ashildr will protect the Earth. She - like him - is stuck, but in this episode she learns to make something imposed on her, into her own choice.
Also, it’s very interesting that she is, essentially, creating her own little, very personalised Torchwood, for basically the same reasons Queen Victoria does centuries later…
ASHILDR: So what's wrong with Clara, then?
DOCTOR: There's nothing wrong with her.
ASHILDR: Why haven't you made her immortal?
DOCTOR: Well, look how you turned out.
ASHILDR: She'll die on you, you know. She'll blow away like smoke.
Last season was all about the Doctor dealing with his regeneration - a whole season dedicated to something usually dealt with in a single episode.
The same applies here. Clara’s departure is front and centre, although - I now realise - it was partly disguised at the beginning by using her mirroring qualities, and the fact that in S8 we were firmly in Clara’s POV as she tried to grapple with his new persona, as well as falling in love – and then, of course, she lost Danny, something she did not cope well with. (/understatement) So it makes sense for us to start with her side of it. She’s still coming to terms with last seasons’ loss, and she does not deal well with the Doctor’s apparent imminent death:
DOCTOR: I'm sorry.
CLARA: Don't apologise. Make it up to me. There, see? Ha. Now you have to come back.
Magician’s Apprentice
DOCTOR: I've got to go sometime.
CLARA: Not with me! Die with whoever comes after me. You do not leave me.
DOCTOR: Listen to me. We all have to face death eventually, be it ours or someone else's.
CLARA: I'm not ready yet. I don't want to think about that, not yet.
DOCTOR: I can't change what's already happened. There are rules.
CLARA: So break them. And anyway, you owe me. You've made yourself essential to me. You've given me something else to, to be. And you can't do that and then die. It's not fair.
DOCTOR: Clara.
CLARA: No. Doctor, I don't care about your rules or your bloody survivor's guilt. If you love me in any way, you'll come back.
Before the Flood
However now we have switched back to the Doctor’s viewpoint, much like in S7. Then she was someone he’d found, but was unsure of. Now she’s someone he knows he will lose; he will live on, and she will blow away like smoke…
DOCTOR: Every time we do something like this, I keep thinking, what if something happens to you?
Because as we know, the Doctor isn’t going anywhere. Clara is. Not just from the fact that the press releases have said she’s leaving, but because the show is dropping hints as subtle as a brick:
DOCTOR: I've missed you, Clara Oswald.
CLARA: Well, don't worry, daft old man. I'm not going anywhere.
The opener brought up the question of why the Doctor left Gallifrey. Why does he run? Promethia reckons he lost someone, and it’s hard to argue with that…
DOCTOR: I'm sick of losing people. Look at you, with your eyes, and your never giving up, and your anger, and your kindness. One day, the memory of that will hurt so much that I won't be able to breathe, and I'll do what I always do. I'll get in my box and I'll run and I'll run, in case all the pain ever catches up. And every place I go, it will be there.
The thing is, it’s been getting worse.
- After losing Donna, he decided to travel alone.
- After losing his Ponds, he decided to retire completely
Clara, his Impossible Girl, was what dragged him down from his cloud-based exile. Her mystery re-awakened his sense of wonder, and he’s kept her close ever since. But he knows time is running out, that their time together is limited.
That said, simple death seems to easy… What will her fate be? She was wearing a bird necklace again at the end of this episode, much like the one she wore in Bells of St John. She’s done so much, can even pull off ‘being the Doctor’ as we have seen repeatedly. Her ‘fairy godmothers’ are River and Missy. She’s been trained by the best.
Except like I say above the show is moving back to the Doctor’s perspective. And we don’t need another Doctor… However there is plenty of room for more gods, as Ashildr so ably illustrates.
Clara has always been the Impossible Girl, a ‘rebellious bird’. Living in stories, creating stories, watching over and looking after the Doctor.
If Ashildr (by name and by choice) is/has become the Doctor’s Valkyrie, the patron saint of those left behind, then Clara (=bright) Oswin (=god’s friend) Oswald (=god’s power) – his self-appointed patron saint when she jumps into his time stream – is, surely, destined for something… more than just death.
The season’s tagline is ‘Born to Save the universe’. And somehow that line was what sprung to mind during this exchange:
DOCTOR: Ashildr, I think I'm very glad I saved you.
ASHILDR: Oh, I think everyone will be.
We have themes. We also have plot points. The word ‘hybrid’ is attached to Gallifrey and Skaro, to Daleks and Time Lords.
We have players – the Doctor, Davros, Missy, Ashildr, Clara.
How will it all pan out? What has Moffat got up his sleeve?
And what will the Doctor do when he loses Clara…
DOCTOR [OC]: Who's going to tell me that Clara Oswald is really dead?
MISSY: He'll burn everything. Us too.
He doesn’t. But do not tempt a desperate man…
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*Draws hearts everywhere*
*SQUISHES*
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Well done!
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(And I did it before Saturday afternoon! Go me! *g*)
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Considering how much foreshadowing they've been throwing in about the Doctor losing Clara- at this point- I highly doubt that Clara will actually die.
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'Leaving' and 'dying' are different things...
(SHE COULD STILL BE A GALLIFREYAN EGG!)
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Gallifreyan Time Egg!Clara. Maybe one of her echoes could have been one. :D
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Also Donna... Although I don't think they'll go either route. Something DIFFERENT for Clara.
Gallifreyan Time Egg!Clara. Maybe one of her echoes could have been one. :D
Oh no, has to be the original. See LEAF.
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The introduction of Ashildr fills a gap left by Jack's absence while also adding another female character to the roster (yay!). We have the two Jennys (the Doctor's daughter and Jenny Flint), Madame Vastra, Osgood, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, Jackie from UNIT, Missy and now Ashildr (plus River's coming back). I mean, SO MANY GREAT FEMALE CHARACTERS AAAAAH. I do hope Jack comes back as well, though. I loved the Doctor's "Are you kidding me?" look when Ashildr didn't recognise the name. But then Jack WAS buried under Welsh marshland during the 17th century so how would she?
I also suspect that Ashildr's met Missy (although I doubt she knows the extent of their relationship) what with her "Enemies are never a problem. It's your friends you have to watch out for" and her judgement of him.
Immortality isn't living forever. That's not what it feels like. Immortality is everybody else dying. - if this doesn't sum up Jack-in-Torchwood, I don't know what does.
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Oh totally. But since I think I've talked about this in every single post so far, I'd figured I'd skip it this time and just focus on Me, and what Me's fate can maybe tell us about Clara...
I mean, SO MANY GREAT FEMALE CHARACTERS AAAAAH.
IKR? I was mentioning this the other day to Owls - I'm a bit apprehensive about the Zygon episodes, but SO MANY WOMEN! Clara, Kate, Osgood, UNIT science lady (I need to look up her name). All the main parts - apart from the Doctor - are women. And how utterly awesome is that? :)
But then Jack WAS buried under Welsh marshland during the 17th century so how would she?
Very true. (I might have a little ficlet knocking about in my head about when they first meet...)
I also suspect that Ashildr's met Missy (although I doubt she knows the extent of their relationship) what with her "Enemies are never a problem. It's your friends you have to watch out for" and her judgement of him.
Well, she's met SOMEONE, clearly. Missy would be awesome.
if this doesn't sum up Jack-in-Torchwood, I don't know what does
IKR? BLESS YOU JACK YOU'LL GET AN IMMORTAL FRIEND AND SHE'S AWESOME. <3
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Excellent, I'd love to read it!
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//worries
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Or email me - elisi at livejournal dot com
:)
You Know Who
(Anonymous) 2015-10-30 12:53 am (UTC)(link)I have a small objection when it comes to “Children of Earth”, now that you mentioned it. I know you Torchwood followers love it, but you have to admit: it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to fit it –and Miracle Day- into post RTD Doctor Who canon. Personally, I usually consider them –and most of Torchwood- to be in their own, nice, slightly alternate universe.
First of all, like you had said, Moffat “re-invented” Doctor Who, and now they don’t really…fit in my opinion. Plus, in-universe, would the Doctor ignore such events? 11? Seriously?
Plus, Moffat seems to ignore them. I mean, chronologically, Amy and Rory where on Earth during that while the Doctor was searching for baby Melody, wouldn’t they, I don’t know, at least MENTION it? I’m not saying one *can’t* make them -and Torchwood events in general- fit (I can, really, if you want...). It just needs A LOT of work, I think.
But I’m not going into the whole “What is canon in the Whoniverse” debate because dear God, shoot me. The Classic Series fanatics alone would eat us alive (This is how Skaro wasn’t destroyed, and that’s how the Doctor isn’t half human, it was a trick to fool the Master, and that’s where Romana is, and Faction Paradox was behind it all, and Lungbarrow explains everything, and 8 went to the Divergent Universe but he also did the novels, and Ace became a Time Lady, and where the flying fuck is Susan, and we know where Iris Wildthyme is, and Braxiatel isn’t really dead, but Bernice Summerfield is, and everything depends on the mystical, long-lost Hairdryer of Rassilon, but it fell into a black hole –okay, I made the last one up).
In my opinion MainShow!Canon reigns supreme, and everything else, audio plays, books, comics, Big Finish, spin-offs, what have you, are selective canon (with some of it being “more selective, can’t do it” let’s say, than the rest): If *you* want something to be canon, it is; everyone has a choice. Even if there are contradictions, we don’t care (timey-wimey), WE ARE WHOVIANS!
What has Moffat got up his sleeve?
Oh, you sweet summer child. Come on. Look, we are talking about the man who wrote a cliffhanger where half the main characters got killed, reality itself proceeded to get destroyed, the fucking background music stopped, mid-note, there was no “Next Time” trailer, everyone lost their shit, and he spent the whole week after that sitting in his dark, dungeon-style office full of bats and demons, deep inside the depths of the BBC HQ where none dare enter, feeding on our fear and anguish, and maniacally laughing in every interview, saying that there’s no more Doctor Who - the universe blew up, that’s your lot! What do you expect? "You may as well go stand upon the beach and bid the main flood bate his usual height".
I wanted to add that the fact that the “Doctor’s apparent imminent death[s]” do not trouble us, while Clara’s possible fate does, (regardless of the numerous aforementioned brick-sized hints), is because –let’s get real cynical here- he’s the bloody title character. Regeneration is the worst that can happen to him as long as we watch the show.
Did we *really* think he was going to die in season 6? On Trenzalore? On Skaro? With the ghosts? No. It’s all about “how is he going to get out of this one”, what does it symbolize, what it adds to his character, and how *he* reacts to and deals with it, since he isn’t of course aware that he has Plot Armor.
Finally, were you making a Romeo and Juliet reference there, or do I need to repair my overly sensitive Intertextuality Radar? :)
Re: You Know Who
*I* make you nervous? Moffat has been slacking then. ;)
it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to fit it –and Miracle Day- into post RTD Doctor Who canon. Personally, I usually consider them –and most of Torchwood- to be in their own, nice, slightly alternate universe.
Well, Children of Earth isn't too difficult. It's set in 2009 - so, before Eleven turns up - and most of the population probably didn't know exactly how far and how desperate it all was. There were weird aliens (and compared to the Dalek invasion the year before...), but in the end everything was fine.
As for Miracle Day (supposedly set between AGMGTW and LKH!) then the explanation is very simple: The crack ate it. Gone! :) (I can excuse/fanwank most things. Miracle Day is one of the few things that I genuinely dislike and find not just unpalatable, but impossible to reconcile with the rest of the 'verse.)
I love all your talk about what does (and doesn't) constitutes canon. Esp mystical, long-lost Hairdryer of Rassilon that fell into a black hole. I case you didn't know - Doctor Who doesn't have a canon. (Relevant post here. *g*)
Oh, you sweet summer child. Come on.
Dearest, I'm not talking about *plot*. Plot is impossible to predict. I'm talking about story. We can take S5 as the best example, esp as you already brought it up. I didn't know how S5 would pan out, except for one thing: It had to end with Amy's wedding. How that would WORK when she was dead, Rory was erased (and then an auton), the Doctor locked up and the universe exploded... Why I didn't have the faintest idea. That's the plot. Could be anything. But I KNEW that there'd be a wedding at the end, or the whole thing was a lie. (And I was right!) I was also hoping that the Doctor would save the universe by being kind (such a key word for Eleven - see icon) - and HE DID.
So, that's what I mean. That's what I'm trying to work out. What will Clara's fate be, what ending is most fitting, symbolically, metaphorically (and narratively)? Some kind of godhood seems plausible, quite probably involving Gallifrey (and Daleks) but beyond that I'm not sure. I can see a vague shape, but nothing more.
is because –let’s get real cynical here- he’s the bloody title character
I sort of said that, didn't I? /vaguely confused
Finally, were you making a Romeo and Juliet reference there, or do I need to repair my overly sensitive Intertextuality Radar? :)
Oh totally Romeo & Juliet reference. Am glad someone spotted it! :)
Re: You Know Who
(Anonymous) 2015-10-30 11:12 pm (UTC)(link)Isn’t our fandom amazing? Yes. Yes it is. Do *you* have such neat explanations Marvel? Do you? OM NOM NOM NOM.
"I am a crack on crack and I eat plot holes!" (gets booed)
I love all your talk about what does (and doesn't) constitute canon. Esp mystical, long-lost Hairdryer of Rassilon that fell into a black hole. I case you didn't know - Doctor Who doesn't have a canon. (Relevant post here)
Well, I’m glad that it’s canon that our show doesn’t have a canon!...Wait...
Also, “I hate the Doctor Who canon like Dawkins hates God”, is one of the greatest and most hilarious similes ever.
(Seriously though Dawkins, tone it down a bit. Okay, I’m religious -I classify myself as a humanist anti-nihilist and an Orthodox Christian/Nature-Worshipping/Agnostic hybrid, so I’m not the norm I think, but anyway- but you are annoying atheists with your stance! Wow. Not helping your cause, is what I’m saying. There’s a very nice Cracked article –written by an atheist no less- on the subject by the way. Isn't there enough pointless arguing and petty hate in the world already? Can’t we all just get along? [Distributes hugs to friends of various beliefs and non-beliefs alike])
I didn't know how S5 would pan out, except for one thing: It had to end with Amy's wedding. How that would WORK when she was dead, Rory was erased (and then an auton), the Doctor locked up and the universe exploded... Why I didn't have the faintest idea. That's the plot. Could be anything.
It is my most sincere conviction that Moffat writes by the Reverse Don Bluth Principle: No matter how happy an ending is, if the characters go through complete, absolute, total, fucking HELL first, the Whovians will be able to take it (and like it a lot) :)
I was also hoping that the Doctor would save the universe by being kind (such a key word for Eleven - see icon) - and HE DID.
ELEVEN!!!!!!! (cries) I miss you.
12 is amazing, don’t get me wrong, but soft spots are soft spots. Plus, I cosplay as 11, so I feel unreasonably protective of him.
Oh totally Romeo & Juliet reference. Am glad someone spotted it! :)
MWA HA HA! Every cell of my being burns with white-hot ecstasy! Intertextuality is my God, and I am the human instrument of its will!
Re: You Know Who
The crack is the BEST random plot point ever.
"I am a crack on crack and I eat plot holes!" (gets booed)
*cheers*
Well, I’m glad that it’s canon that our show doesn’t have a canon!...Wait...
LOL.
Also, “I hate the Doctor Who canon like Dawkins hates God”, is one of the greatest and most hilarious similes ever.
I love that post.
Isn't there enough pointless arguing and petty hate in the world already? Can’t we all just get along? [Distributes hugs to friends of various beliefs and non-beliefs alike])
If god doesn't exist... Then surely he should just chill. Why get angry over something that's made up? An if God DOES exist - well, God loves him anyway. <3
It is my most sincere conviction that Moffat writes by the Reverse Don Bluth Principle: No matter how happy an ending is, if the characters go through complete, absolute, total, fucking HELL first, the Whovians will be able to take it (and like it a lot) :)
Oh totally. Here's a quote:
"Because, just sentimentally, I like big victories. I don't like sacrificial lambs. I like the hero that brings everybody home, I think that's exciting, and I can't really be arsed with this feeling of 'Shame we didn't bring Trevor back with us as well...'. I like 'Aaah! Here comes Trevor - he's alive too!'. I like that! [...] Well, I'm saying this, but you haven't seen The Girl in the Fireplace... if there's a point to the bittersweet thing, fair enough - but I like big victories. And I like it when a film teases you with the possibility of a really dark ending [and ends up being the happiest thing evar] Doctor Who's on at 7 o'clock in the evening and it should be a bit like that. Also, it does buy you the right to be a bit darker earlier on."
I much prefer this to the RTD/Joss Whedon model where, whenever people are happy, you know that TERRIBLE THINGS WILL HAPPEN NOW AND NOTHING WILL EVER BE OK AGAIN!
12 is amazing, don’t get me wrong, but soft spots are soft spots. Plus, I cosplay as 11, so I feel unreasonably protective of him.
I like Twelve perfectly well, he's a very good Doctor. But Eleven is MY Doctor. (My middle girl cosplayed him when we went to see Day of the Doctor in the cinema. She looked awesome. Littlest girl was Amelia. Suitcase and all.)
MWA HA HA! Every cell of my being burns with white-hot ecstasy! Intertextuality is my God, and I am the human instrument of its will!
It was only a quote... Seriously, everything I write is connected to everything else. Not usually Shakespeare though. Sometimes Dante. Or Dorothy Sayers. Or Buffy. I'm very random. :)
Re: You Know Who
(Anonymous) 2015-10-31 12:37 pm (UTC)(link)Exactly! (I take it you are on the “existing” camp in some form?) There are many much more urgent issues to worry, argue and get angry about in the world. Also, yes, screw whoever says that God hates atheists (Percy Shelley, Alan Turing, Stephen Fry, Terry Pratchett, Sylvester McCoy, Christopher Eccleston etc, etc seriously? ). God doesn’t hate anyone, *we* normal, flawed human beings can get along, and like and admire people who disagree with us on such matters, do you really think the possibly existing Supreme Being would be that petty?
I much prefer this to the RTD/Joss Whedon model where, whenever people are happy, you know that TERRIBLE THINGS WILL HAPPEN NOW AND NOTHING WILL EVER BE OK AGAIN!
You know, whenever you say that –and it’s very accurate, really- I can’t help but picture you SUDDENLY SHOUTING and wildly waving your hands about like Doc Brown. :)
My middle girl cosplayed him when we went to see Day of the Doctor in the cinema. She looked awesome. Littlest girl was Amelia. Suitcase and all.
(Tries to imagine and dies of cuteness). Also, we didn’t get it on cinemas in my country. THREE QUARTERS OF THE FUCKING GLOBE DID, COME ON. (waves fist at whoever is responsible)
It was only a quote... Seriously, everything I write is connected to everything else. Not usually Shakespeare though. Sometimes Dante. Or Dorothy Sayers. Or Buffy. I'm very random. :)
And I was paraphrasing an obscure comic book Supervillain called Snowflame, who is powered by cocaine (and then gives us many awesome, incredibly hammy quotes). I’m not exactly consistent either ;)
Re: You Know Who
Catholic, born & bred. But a) grew up in a Protestant country, so was always a minority and b) my father is a deacon, so I absorbed vast quantities of theology. (I find people such as f.ex. Philip Pullman insanely frustrating. I read an interview with him and all his arguments against faith/religion were excellent - it was just a shame that what he thinks faith/religion are bears very little resemblance to the actual thing. Criticism is good. Fighting your own made-up straw men is just stupid. /tangent
screw whoever says that God hates atheists
And God SMOTE the Philistines... (Or maybe they've just watched too much FOX News and think white, Evangelical Republicans are actually representative of Christianity?)
You know, whenever you say that –and it’s very accurate, really- I can’t help but picture you SUDDENLY SHOUTING and wildly waving your hands about like Doc Brown. :)
Only in my head. I'm very quiet in RL.
Tries to imagine and dies of cuteness)
They were v. adorbz. (Here, I've unlocked the post for you...)
Also, we didn’t get it on cinemas in my country. THREE QUARTERS OF THE FUCKING GLOBE DID, COME ON. (waves fist at whoever is responsible)
It's still so weird to be IN the country where they make my favourite show. As I said, my first fandom was Buffy and we got everything LATE.
And I was paraphrasing an obscure comic book Supervillain called Snowflame, who is powered by cocaine (and then gives us many awesome, incredibly hammy quotes).
Re: You Know Who
(Anonymous) 2015-10-31 04:11 pm (UTC)(link)Good point, and it applies to many, many critics, unfortunately.
Pullman frustrates me for another reason –and it’s a shame, because he’s a good writer: You say you are the anti-C.S Lewis, right? Okay. The Narnia books are all a total Bible allegory, and Christian propaganda? Cool. Well, *your* books are a total *atheist* allegory and propaganda by that standard!
The main problem in both cases, is that THEY ARE A VERY *SPECIFIC* ALLEGORY, AND PROPAGANDA. And that is BORING. I don’t care what the message is. Just because I agree with Lewis, it doesn’t mean that I won’t be annoyed when there’s VERY SYMBOLIC SYMBOLISM, HE IS JESUS, END OF STORY. Same goes with you. Ooooh, that is the Vatican and you hate it, I get that. Can’t I just enjoy a story without having an interpretation *forced* on me? I’m not saying there should be A BILLION different ones, but yeah, I want a choice. When your allegory *overtakes* the story, when it distracts me, when it seems to me that you are just looking for another medium to state your beliefs, I can’t enjoy it.
Of course your personal beliefs will play a part in what you write, it might even be a basic one. But stories whose main purpose is not propaganda, not a concealed blow against something you don’t like, which can be enjoyed by people no matter what they believe in –and they are, are SUPERIOR. (Worships Tolkien, Terry Prachett and Rowling like gods). /reply tangent
And God SMOTE the Philistines... (Or maybe they've just watched too much FOX News and think white, Evangelical Republicans are actually representative of Christianity?)
And even if they *did*, not all white Evangelical Republicans hate atheists, homosexuals etc, so those who do, don’t really have an excuse…People, just don’t be assholes to each other? Love thy neighbor and all that? People *reject* Christianity because of your behaviour, it’s impractical if nothing else, is what I’m saying.
"God prefers kind atheists over hateful Christians." Basically, yeah, the hateful part, that’s the problem, stop it. Really, everything else is cool. Believe or don’t believe whatever you want, marry whomever you like (yay, for the legalization), God loves everyone, He won’t reject you. Live, and be happy, and make others so :)
(looks above) And all this began out of Doctor Who, people. Wow, we got really off topic, specific, political and serious here!
They were v. adorbz. (Here, I've unlocked the post for you...)
Oh, it wants me to log in :( Doesn’t matter, really, thanks for the effort. ;)
Re: You Know Who
(Anonymous) 2015-10-31 04:12 pm (UTC)(link)Good point, and it applies to many, many critics, unfortunately.
Pullman frustrates me for another reason –and it’s a shame, because he’s a good writer: You say you are the anti-C.S Lewis, right? Okay. The Narnia books are all a total Bible allegory, and Christian propaganda? Cool. Well, *your* books are a total *atheist* allegory and propaganda by that standard!
The main problem in both cases, is that THEY ARE A VERY *SPECIFIC* ALLEGORY, AND PROPAGANDA. And that is BORING. I don’t care what the message is. Just because I agree with Lewis, it doesn’t mean that I won’t be annoyed when there’s VERY SYMBOLIC SYMBOLISM, HE IS JESUS, END OF STORY. Same goes with you. Ooooh, that is the Vatican and you hate it, I get that. Can’t I just enjoy a story without having an interpretation *forced* on me? I’m not saying there should be A BILLION different ones, but yeah, I want a choice. When your allegory *overtakes* the story, when it distracts me, when it seems to me that you are just looking for another medium to state your beliefs, I can’t enjoy it.
Of course your personal beliefs will play a part in what you write, it might even be a basic one. But stories whose main purpose is not propaganda, not a concealed blow against something you don’t like, which can be enjoyed by people no matter what they believe in –and they are, are SUPERIOR. (Worships Tolkien, Terry Prachett and Rowling like gods). /reply tangent
And God SMOTE the Philistines... (Or maybe they've just watched too much FOX News and think white, Evangelical Republicans are actually representative of Christianity?)
And even if they *did*, not all white Evangelical Republicans hate atheists, homosexuals etc, so those who do, don’t really have an excuse…People, just don’t be assholes to each other? Love thy neighbor and all that? People *reject* Christianity because of your behaviour, it’s impractical if nothing else, is what I’m saying.
"God prefers kind atheists over hateful Christians." Basically, yeah, the hateful part, that’s the problem, stop it. Really, everything else is cool. Believe or don’t believe whatever you want, marry whomever you like (yay, for the legalization), God loves everyone, He won’t reject you. Live, and be happy, and make others so :)
(looks above) And all this began out of Doctor Who, people. Wow, we got really off topic, specific, political and serious here!
They were v. adorbz. (Her, I've unlocked the post for you...)
Oh, it wants me to log in :( Doesn’t matter, really, thanks for the effort. ;)
Re: You Know Who
(Anonymous) 2015-10-31 04:15 pm (UTC)(link)Good point, and it applies to many, many critics, unfortunately.
Pullman frustrates me for another reason –and it’s a shame, because he’s a good writer: You say you are the anti-C.S Lewis, right? Okay. The Narnia books are all a total Bible allegory, and Christian propaganda? Cool. Well, *your* books are a total *atheist* allegory and propaganda by that standard!
The main problem in both cases, is that THEY ARE A VERY *SPECIFIC* ALLEGORY, AND PROPAGANDA. And that is BORING. I don’t care what the message is. Just because I agree with Lewis, it doesn’t mean that I won’t be annoyed when there’s VERY SYMBOLIC SYMBOLISM, HE IS JESUS, END OF STORY. Same goes with you. Ooooh, that is the Vatican and you hate it, I get that. Can’t I just enjoy a story without having an interpretation *forced* on me? I’m not saying there should be A BILLION different ones, but yeah, I want a choice. When your allegory *overtakes* the story, when it distracts me, when it seems to me that you are just looking for another medium to state your beliefs, I can’t enjoy it.
Of course your personal beliefs will play a part in what you write, it might even be a basic one. But stories whose main purpose is not propaganda, not a concealed blow against something you don’t like, which can be enjoyed by people no matter what they believe in –and they are, are SUPERIOR. (Worships Tolkien, Terry Prachett and Rowling like gods). /reply tangent
And God SMOTE the Philistines... (Or maybe they've just watched too much FOX News and think white, Evangelical Republicans are actually representative of Christianity?)
And even if they *did*, not all white Evangelical Republicans hate atheists, homosexuals etc, so those who do, don’t really have an excuse…People, just don’t be assholes to each other? Love thy neighbor and all that? People *reject* Christianity because of your behaviour, it’s impractical if nothing else, is what I’m saying.
"God prefers kind atheists over hateful Christian." Basically, yeah, the hateful part, that’s the problem, stop it. Really, everything else is cool. Believe or don’t believe whatever you want, marry whomever you like (yay, for the legalization), God loves everyone, He won’t reject you. Live, and be happy, and make others so :)
(looks above) And all this began out of Doctor Who, people. Wow, we got really off topic, specific, political and serious here!
They were v. adorbz. (I've unlocked the post for you...)
Oh, it wants me to log in :( Doesn’t matter, really, thanks for the effort. ;)
Re: You Know Who
As far as I was aware he's quite open about that fact?
When your allegory *overtakes* the story, when it distracts me, when it seems to me that you are just looking for another medium to state your beliefs, I can’t enjoy it.
I adore the Narnia books, but I know what you mean. (Especially negative allegory. You wrote something just because you hate it? How awful. Why would I want to read that?)
(Worships Tolkien, Terry Prachett and Rowling like gods). /reply tangent
As I'm sure you know, Tolkien is on record saying that he always despised allegory in all its forms, ever since he was old enough to detect it. (This is reply to people who thought that LotR was an allegory of the Second World War.)
Believe or don’t believe whatever you want, marry whomever you like (yay, for the legalization), God loves everyone, He won’t reject you. Live, and be happy, and make others so :)
Hear, hear!
(looks above) And all this began out of Doctor Who, people. Wow, we got really off topic, specific, political and serious here!
Welcome to my livejournal. Have I offered you a cup of tea and a biscuit yet? Please make yourself at home.
Oh, it wants me to log in :( Doesn’t matter, really, thanks for the effort. ;)
That's because I'm an idiot who WROTE that I unlocked it, and then forgot to do so. (Or maybe my subconscious is trying to lure you onboard...)
RE: Re: You Know Who
And, yes, they are highly allegorical. Though I have no problems with this, which should surprise nobody *g*
Re: Re: You Know Who
Fair nuff. I haven't read them (I don't even have time to read the stuff I WANT to read), so I don't have a [particularly informed opinion on them as literature.
And, yes, they are highly allegorical. Though I have no problems with this, which should surprise nobody *g*
Why I NEVER!!!
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but don't spring something like that on me again!
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Partly because tonight's episode was such a monumental allegory that, well. Narnia would be a good comparison.
(But let's discuss it elsewhere. Am TRYING to keep posts spoiler free.)
:)
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SLJIDO;SJFLK;DSJF;KLSDJV;ISDJG;IDJGSD
I was dreading Clara's fate before but now I'm ready for it. So, thanks! ♥
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♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
SLJIDO;SJFLK;DSJF;KLSDJV;ISDJG;IDJGSD
Well, that might just be my favourite response out of all of them! :)
I was dreading Clara's fate before but now I'm ready for it. So, thanks! ♥
My pleasure, that makes me very happy. Any particular reason, or just the fact that 'mere death' seems too simple?
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Pretty much. I JUST DO NOT WANT TO MOURN CLARA OSWALD. LET THIS SHOW DO JUSTICE TO MY GIRL.
/fragile state
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He often went out alone, and when he came back you were never absolutely certain whether he had had an adventure or not. He might have forgotten it so completely that he said nothing about it; and then when you went out you found the body; and, on the other hand, he might say a great deal about it, and yet you could not find the body.
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But the Doctor certainly has the same sort of qualities, and lives by the same rules/in the same kind of world.
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Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in FAQ (https://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=303).
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Does the way the Doctor "die" before he regenerates effects how he recuperates?.
Ten was in bed for most of his first episode.
Eleven was "up and go!.
Twelve was partially incoherent.
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Hmmmm. Possibly. Partly I think it's story-led, but on the whole his regeneration never goes smoothly. :)
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I think it took longer for Ten to get out of bed because he was physically worn out when Nine took the power of the vortex back from Rose. When Rose was crying that the Doctor was gone, I thought: "Give the man a break, he just died from saving you, from saving him!".
But yeah mainly plot purposes is the most likely reason.:)
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LOL!
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That's why my feeling towards Rose are conflicting. She would sometimes react in ways I couldn't agree to.
I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt in this case because with the Doctor recuperating, it was up to her to figure out how to deal with the threat from the Sycorax.
She was still inexperience and younger than Clara, who seems to have transition from champion to stand in Doctor rather flawlessly.