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Bite-size meta: Looking (observing/perceiving) vs mirroring
Thoughts on 'The Pilot' and 'Smile', whilst also looking back to Clara.
Looking vs mirroring
DOCTOR: You can't see me, can you? You look at me, and you can't see me. Have you 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.
Deep Breath
The Doctor observes Bill:
DOCTOR: Well, most people when don' t understand something, they frown. You smile.
Bill observes Heather:
BILL: Sorry, can I ask? What's that in your eye?
HEATHER: It's just a defect in the iris.
BILL: Looks like a star.
BILL: Okay. Sorry, none of my business, but are you freaking out about something?
She notices both the physical (the ‘defect’ that looks like a star) and the more subtle things (are you freaking out about something?)
And then there is the puddle – the puddle which observes, choosing Heather as its pilot, but also mirrors people’s faces back at them… But not in the way they usually see them, but how other people see them.
Then the puddle absorbs Heather, and she becomes a mirror just like the puddle, reflecting back to Bill what Bill says and does.
It is its only way of communicating, but it is very ineffective as the result is that Bill runs away, until the very end…
And then:
DOCTOR: Bill, let go! You have to let go! She is not human any more.
Looks human, but isn’t.
Obviously one could level the same accusation at the Doctor – what will Bill become if she travels with him?
Because out there, somewhere in space, is are two women who were once human, in a stolen TARDIS, flying around the universe… Both of them irreversibly changed by their encounter with an alien.
I’ll get back to this.
In Smile, the mirroring is front and centre. The emoji robots are almost literal mirrors, copying – and then reflecting back - the moods of the people around them.
Mood-mirrors, you could say.
Except – much like Heather after she is consumed by the puddle – their understanding is limited.
Once they mirror something that to them seems fatal (grief), they move to eliminate the pain in the only way they can – by quite literally destroying the source.
But it’s also interesting to note that the emoji bots operate by simple observation. A smile is reflected back as a smiley, sadness by one or two tears… They lack the understanding that prompts Bill to ask if Heather is OK, and the Doctor to appreciate Bill’s smile when she can’t understand something. Or Bill’s continual discoveries about the Doctor throughout the episode. She puts together the information on the phone box and relates it to the man she is with, uncovering information.
Teaching the robots to appreciate all the different kinds of emotions might have been interesting, but the option the episode goes for is to treat them as the piece of technology they are – to quite simply reboot them.
And it’s interesting to note how we can see the fact of their independence as a new life form, in the rather silly exchange about rent, which results in little £ signs… And yet, this is the first time we have seen them display an independent reaction. They are no longer mirroring, they are interacting.
Now there are interesting points to be made wrt Clara… Because Clara was a mirror, right from the start, and that was both her strength and her downfall. She mirrored the Doctor back to him to such an extent that they were caught in an eternal feedback-loop, which had to be severed for the good of both of them.
And the Doctor got the ‘reboot’ (/memory wipe) like the emoji bots to allow him to get back on track, and Clara took off on her own to keep seeing the universe like Heather.
Which is a roundabout way of saying that Clara’s narrative and ending very quietly haunts the new series.
Be careful what you wish for.
You may want to leave, but what will be the price you pay?
Although the Doctor seems to have learned a few lessons, which is always good. :)
DOCTOR: You can't see me, can you? You look at me, and you can't see me. Have you 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.
Deep Breath
The Doctor observes Bill:
DOCTOR: Well, most people when don' t understand something, they frown. You smile.
Bill observes Heather:
BILL: Sorry, can I ask? What's that in your eye?
HEATHER: It's just a defect in the iris.
BILL: Looks like a star.
BILL: Okay. Sorry, none of my business, but are you freaking out about something?
She notices both the physical (the ‘defect’ that looks like a star) and the more subtle things (are you freaking out about something?)
And then there is the puddle – the puddle which observes, choosing Heather as its pilot, but also mirrors people’s faces back at them… But not in the way they usually see them, but how other people see them.
Then the puddle absorbs Heather, and she becomes a mirror just like the puddle, reflecting back to Bill what Bill says and does.
It is its only way of communicating, but it is very ineffective as the result is that Bill runs away, until the very end…
And then:
DOCTOR: Bill, let go! You have to let go! She is not human any more.
Looks human, but isn’t.
Obviously one could level the same accusation at the Doctor – what will Bill become if she travels with him?
Because out there, somewhere in space, is are two women who were once human, in a stolen TARDIS, flying around the universe… Both of them irreversibly changed by their encounter with an alien.
I’ll get back to this.
In Smile, the mirroring is front and centre. The emoji robots are almost literal mirrors, copying – and then reflecting back - the moods of the people around them.
Mood-mirrors, you could say.
Except – much like Heather after she is consumed by the puddle – their understanding is limited.
Once they mirror something that to them seems fatal (grief), they move to eliminate the pain in the only way they can – by quite literally destroying the source.
But it’s also interesting to note that the emoji bots operate by simple observation. A smile is reflected back as a smiley, sadness by one or two tears… They lack the understanding that prompts Bill to ask if Heather is OK, and the Doctor to appreciate Bill’s smile when she can’t understand something. Or Bill’s continual discoveries about the Doctor throughout the episode. She puts together the information on the phone box and relates it to the man she is with, uncovering information.
Teaching the robots to appreciate all the different kinds of emotions might have been interesting, but the option the episode goes for is to treat them as the piece of technology they are – to quite simply reboot them.
And it’s interesting to note how we can see the fact of their independence as a new life form, in the rather silly exchange about rent, which results in little £ signs… And yet, this is the first time we have seen them display an independent reaction. They are no longer mirroring, they are interacting.
Now there are interesting points to be made wrt Clara… Because Clara was a mirror, right from the start, and that was both her strength and her downfall. She mirrored the Doctor back to him to such an extent that they were caught in an eternal feedback-loop, which had to be severed for the good of both of them.
And the Doctor got the ‘reboot’ (/memory wipe) like the emoji bots to allow him to get back on track, and Clara took off on her own to keep seeing the universe like Heather.
Which is a roundabout way of saying that Clara’s narrative and ending very quietly haunts the new series.
Be careful what you wish for.
You may want to leave, but what will be the price you pay?
Although the Doctor seems to have learned a few lessons, which is always good. :)
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I knew there was something *there* (see my previous post on Smile), but it took a while for my brain to properly kick in...
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This is all very psychological.
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And yes. I love delving down and working out what lies beneath...
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Speaking from experience.
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Although it's a lot easier to analyse fictional characters than people in RL.
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It is just an indicator. There's the Greek mythology...
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Obviously one could level the same accusation at the Doctor – what will Bill become if she travels with him?
Touche.
Because Clara was a mirror, right from the start, and that was both her strength and her downfall. She mirrored the Doctor back to him to such an extent that they were caught in an eternal feedback-loop, which had to be severed for the good of both of them.
THIS PAIN IS JUST TOO REAL…......
Also, the Doctor mindwiping/resetting the emoji bots in order for everyone to move on from their grief... No further comment.
Ghosts of seasons past truly are haunting this season. Just saw "Thin Ice" -- what a throwback! o.O
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It's amazing when that happens!!
Touche.
Thankfully, he seems very aware of this.
THIS PAIN IS JUST TOO REAL…......
I KNOW!
Also, the Doctor mindwiping/resetting the emoji bots in order for everyone to move on from their grief... No further comment.
Aye. If he could have mindwiped the people too, I'm sure he would have... (Maybe he's not learned All The Lessons. Even if Bill made him check himself at the end of The Pilot.)
Ghosts of seasons past truly are haunting this season. Just saw "Thin Ice" -- what a throwback! o.O
♥ Thoughts hopefully coming soon...
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Just occurred to me how much Me's continual forgetting of her past is a good compare/contrast to the Doctor's forgetting of Clara. It was an interesting compare/contrast to the Doctor's methods of dealing with his own extensive memories even before that--he admits he has to put old memories away and move on most of the time, but he does have them whereas Ashildr has to go back to her diaries to know her own past. And we see the advantages and disadvantages of each one's coping mechanism. But to what extent is the Doctor's memory of Clara like Ashildr's 'memory' of the people from her past?: knowing the shape they made in her life but not the person.
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Oh very good. Yes. And Ashildr as a Doctor mirror really makes much more sense.
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ETA: And they really made a point of Me having forgotten Clara. 'Oh, you must be Clara, I enjoyed reading about you!' And Clara being very disconcerted.
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Hmmm, this is all lovely. <3
And they really made a point of Me having forgotten Clara. 'Oh, you must be Clara, I enjoyed reading about you!' And Clara being very disconcerted.
*claps* I love it. :)
(Still lacking a Me icon. I must remedy this.)
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Wow. It's true. His brain was switched off and then on again.
Which is a roundabout way of saying that Clara’s narrative and ending very quietly haunts the new series.
Like an echo? :)
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It's funny, because the ending doesn't fit very well with the rest of the story. But it fits well with the THEMES.
Like an echo? :)
Ooooh. I see what you did there!
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