Thin Ice (DW S10.3) - Review Part 2 (the fannish part)

[elisi]

And here's the other part!! (Serious political post here)




Doctor What?
He says he’s a man of peace/But he walks in war






(x)

This is the episode where the harsh realities set in. In both The Pilot and Smile, the problems came more from accidents than maliciousness, and Bill - through her sleuthing and putting things together - works out that basically the Doctor runs about the universe helping people.

What that MEANS becomes clear here… People die. And sometimes (if the options are limited) the Doctor kills them. And it’s interesting the way the Doctor frames it:

DOCTOR: A few hours ago, we were standing in a garden full of dead people.
BILL: That was different.
DOCTOR: How?
BILL: They were dead already.
DOCTOR: Morally and practically, that is not a useful distinction. Unlearn it.
BILL: Don't tell me what to think.
DOCTOR: I'm your teacher. Telling you things is what I do.

It really, really helps that they already know each other well, that they have six months (minimum) of interactions under their belt. The Doctor is not a stranger to Bill, not a mysterious creature she has run off with on the spur of the moment, or out of curiosity. She is trying to broaden her understanding, make what she already know fit with what she is just discovering, not learning from scratch:

BILL: Have you ever killed anyone? There's a look in your eyes sometimes that makes me wonder. Have you?

He hesitates, tries to fudge the issue, but she demands an answer, and she gets one. And then of course he puts it into a wider context:

DOCTOR: You know what happens if I don't move on? More people die. There are kids living rough near here. They may well be next on the menu. Do you want to help me? Do you want to stand here stamping your foot? Because let me tell you something. I'm two thousand years old, and I have never had the time for the luxury of outrage.

Incidentally, I am SO HAPPY that the thing about ‘never having time for outrage’ was a set-up, because duuuuude:

BILL: No time for outrage. You've never had time for anything else, right?
DOCTOR: Don't be smug. Smug belongs to me.

If only she had met Ten… I’m still laughing.

Anyway, what happens next is wonderful.

DOCTOR: I don't know the answers. Only idiots know the answers. But if your future is built on the suffering of that creature, what's your future worth?
BILL: Why is it up to me?
DOCTOR: Because it can't be up to me. Your people, your planet. I serve at the pleasure of the human race, and right now, that's you. Give me an order. Not long till noon. I need an order.
(Long, long pause, then -)
BILL: Save her.
DOCTOR: I'll take care of this. You get everyone off the ice.

Now he may have forgotten Clara, but her lessons clearly made a deep, deep impact:

CLARA: Oh, don't you ever tell me to mind my language. Don't you ever tell me to take the stabilisers off my bike. And don't you dare lump me in with the rest of all the little humans that you think are so tiny and silly and predictable. You walk our Earth, Doctor, you breathe our air. You make us your friend, and that is your moon too. And you can damn well help us when we need it.
Kill the Moon

This episode might be the best Doctor-Companion dynamic we have ever seen, and hopefully the blueprint for the future. The dynamic has always been unequal; the Doctor having so much power, the Companion there by his grace.

But by giving the Companion the authority to direct and control that power, they are much more even. And that can only be a good thing, both in terms of keeping the Doctor in check, and in terms of letting the Companion shoulder some the responsibility. And they do it together, supporting each other.

We also see another way in which the Doctor has ‘moved on’:

BILL: Yeah. Travelling to the past, There's got to be rules. If I step on a butterfly, it could send ripples through time that mean I'm not even born in the first place and I could just disappear.
DOCTOR: Definitely. I mean, that's what happened to Pete.
BILL: Pete?
DOCTOR: Your friend, Pete. He was standing there a moment ago, but he stepped on a butterfly and now you don't even remember him.
BILL: Shut up! I'm being serious!
DOCTOR: Yeah, so was Pete.
Thin Ice

Now the interesting thing is that this almost exactly what happened to Rory. Not stepping on a butterfly, but the Doctor has walked beside a woman whose love had been erased out of time… The fact that he can now joke about it, speaks to how much *better* he is overall (i.e. not eaten up by guilt). Here is to hoping that he has learned not to blame himself for EVERYTHING.

What Clara did was take full responsibility for her life and her choices, and this might be another lesson that’s made a deep impact. ‘Duty of care’ doesn’t mean he can usurp other’s choices.

Although I must also mention what might be my favourite bonding moment so far:

BILL: So the Tardis has dresses and likes a bit of trouble? Yeah, I think I'm low-key in love with her.
DOCTOR: Me too.

It’s hard to think of a single thing more likely to make the Doctor adore Bill more. :)


CUT SCENES
I am aware of two cut scenes from Thin Ice. One is funny, the other makes me want to scream silently for along time...

There was a scene cut from 'Thin Ice' where the Doctor declares his love for pangolins and reveals that they are aliens. #DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/SPN3szl1hq

— Girly Letters (@GirlyLetters) May 4, 2017

And via Sarah Dollard’s Tumblr:



Go read her post for more insight. Personally I’m just going to roll up into a ball…





♥ ♥ ♥



Overall arc
In my ongoing ‘What is Moffat Doing This Season’ thoughts, this Tumblr Post sums it up quite well (the whole post is worth reading, but this is at the heart):

So far, it looks like Moffat has decided to use his final season on the show to revisit the first principles of the show, and compose a love letter to the glorious legacy of Doctor Who.

The Doctor reading stories to children (♥), the eternal grandfatherly hero, fits into that beautifully. As does Twelve’s wonderful, heartfelt speech later on - the Doctor always looks out for and protects those seen as ‘unimportant’.

Or as Amy put it:

AMY: So is this how it works, Doctor? You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets, unless there's children crying?
DOCTOR: Yes.

Comments

[kass]

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

[elisi]

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ right back atcha!

[beer_good_foamy]

Of course pangolins are aliens.



Loved this episode. And I'm half-tempted to write the epic story of The Doctor, Bill and Pete travelling time and space.

[elisi]

Of course pangolins are aliens.
It's so obvious that I am surprised no one has suggested it before...

Loved this episode. And I'm half-tempted to write the epic story of The Doctor, Bill and Pete travelling time and space.
Do iiiit! Maybe Pete was a pangolin?

[promethia_tenk]

I'd never even heard of these things before. That is insane, I love it.

[purplefringe]

<3 This is beautiful and true, as is your other post. I wish I had the brain to think properly about Doctor Who right now, because I really am enjoying it so much.

It really, really helps that they already know each other well, that they have six months (minimum) of interactions under their belt.

Yes, this makes for such an interesting and different dynamic! And absolutely means he can say things like that to her and isn't being a total dick - she knows how to talk to him. And I love that he still thinks of himself as her teacher.

I am SO HAPPY that the thing about ‘never having time for outrage’ was a set-up

ME TOO FRIEND. I also thought of Ten and did a little dance inside. Omg, Ten, honey. Every now and then I look at Eleven and Twelve, and I *really* just get what River meant when she said 'god, you're hard work young'. At the time that was just a kind of funny line, and Ten didn't (to me, anyway) seem like 'hard work' at all. But knowing how River is used to Eleven and Twelve, Ten must be SO IRRITATING. (ilu Ten)

Now he may have forgotten Clara, but her lessons clearly made a deep, deep impact

See, this is interesting. Because the Den of Geek review of the ep said the exact opposite: "in Thin Ice the Doctor has Bill make the choice on behalf of humanity - showing he’s learned nothing from 2014’s Kill The Moon, in which he alienated Clara by forcing her to make a similar decision about the giant dragon hatching from the moon." It's tricky, because the Doctor has also had a tendency to go to the other extreme and make unilateral decisions on behalf of humanity (eg. in Pompeii, Waters of Mars, etc), and it's striking that balance that he seems to find hard sometimes. Giving the companion power, without putting everything on their shoulders. I think he does veer a little close to the Kill The Moon side of things here, with his rather demanding 'I need an order', but on the other hand he has basically told Bill what the right answer is ('if your future is built on the suffering of that creature, what's your future worth?') and he is right there to deal with the fallout, should the creature start rampaging and eating everyone. There's an interesting discussion to be had about the trifecta of episodes that are The Beast Below, Kill The Moon and Thin Ice, which all effectively weigh an innocent creature's life against the lives of thousands/billions of humans, and how the Doctor reacts in each scenario (and how it differs from his previous reaction.)

Er, anyway. Yay <3

[elisi]

<3 This is beautiful and true, as is your other post. I wish I had the brain to think properly about Doctor Who right now, because I really am enjoying it so much.
My brain is beginning to kick into gear. And what's happening now is putting so much of the Clara era into proper focus. This is all fun, but there's not much meat on it yet, whereas I am now working on a post on the Hybrid...

Yes, this makes for such an interesting and different dynamic! And absolutely means he can say things like that to her and isn't being a total dick - she knows how to talk to him. And I love that he still thinks of himself as her teacher.
Echoes of Ace & her 'Professor'. Love it. And that he chooses *that* dynamic, rather than 'friend'. It works very well.

ME TOO FRIEND. I also thought of Ten and did a little dance inside. Omg, Ten, honey. Every now and then I look at Eleven and Twelve, and I *really* just get what River meant when she said 'god, you're hard work young'. At the time that was just a kind of funny line, and Ten didn't (to me, anyway) seem like 'hard work' at all. But knowing how River is used to Eleven and Twelve, Ten must be SO IRRITATING. (ilu Ten)
LOL, this. I adore Ten, but it's BECAUSE he is an irrational ball of man!pain. Poor poor River. I'm so glad she got a final farewell from Eleven.

See, this is interesting. Because the Den of Geek review of the ep said the exact opposite: "in Thin Ice the Doctor has Bill make the choice on behalf of humanity - showing he’s learned nothing from 2014’s Kill The Moon, in which he alienated Clara by forcing her to make a similar decision about the giant dragon hatching from the moon."
Proton mentioned a review that got it completely backwards. I didn't realise it was Den of Geek. *headdesk* Sometimes I feel like handing out basic comprehension guides, y'know? Just LOOK AT THE ENDING. Furious, crying Clara, who's had to make a decision affecting the whole planet, pretty much ALL ON HER OWN, and Bill, *thrilled* at the fact that they saved the day and also helped the little street urchins.

It's tricky, because the Doctor has also had a tendency to go to the other extreme and make unilateral decisions on behalf of humanity (eg. in Pompeii, Waters of Mars, etc), and it's striking that balance that he seems to find hard sometimes.
Well, saving the world isn't easy. But he's doing much much better.

I think he does veer a little close to the Kill The Moon side of things here, with his rather demanding 'I need an order'
I think the 'ordering' and the 'Boss' are also leftovers from Clara. Somewhere in his subconscious he knows that this is how the Companion wants to do things. *pets him* Although it also forces Bill into Big Picture Thinking, looking at what needs doing, rather than focussing on 'being outraged'.

There's an interesting discussion to be had about the trifecta of episodes that are The Beast Below, Kill The Moon and Thin Ice, which all effectively weigh an innocent creature's life against the lives of thousands/billions of humans, and how the Doctor reacts in each scenario (and how it differs from his previous reaction.)
I was vaguely thinking of that, but time is not my friend... But certainly Thin Ice shows the best way forward. :)

Er, anyway. Yay <3
YAY <3 I have missed you...

[promethia_tenk]

At the time that was just a kind of funny line, and Ten didn't (to me, anyway) seem like 'hard work' at all. But knowing how River is used to Eleven and Twelve, Ten must be SO IRRITATING.
Lol, so, that is one of my very favorite River lines of all, still. I started watching Who with season five and went back and watched the RTD years while season five was airing/afterwards/somewhere in there. I had a . . . contentious time of it (Rusty and I are un-mix-y things). A lot of strong profanity and loss of dignity was involved. But I regularly and whole-heartedly credit River's quip about Ten being hard work as one of the few things that made watching Ten even remotely tolerable. (It's not even the epic manpain that gets to me. I actually like Ten more in his really late-stage episodes. Just to have someone on-screen acknowledge that he was irritating was like thank you.)

(Lest anyone take offense, I'm actually rather fond of the RTD era anymore. You have to grapple with it seriously in order to get anything out of Moff, so I did. And it's impossible to hate anything that meticulously without coming out on the other side with an affection for it. Also The Writer's Tale is just *kisses fingertips*)

See, this is interesting. Because the Den of Geek review of the ep said the exact opposite: "in Thin Ice the Doctor has Bill make the choice on behalf of humanity - showing he’s learned nothing from 2014’s Kill The Moon
Ah, thank you. I'd forgotten where I'd read it and just kind of had to go to Elisi in mute incomprehension.

There's an interesting discussion to be had about the trifecta of episodes that are The Beast Below, Kill The Moon and Thin Ice, which all effectively weigh an innocent creature's life against the lives of thousands/billions of humans, and how the Doctor reacts in each scenario (and how it differs from his previous reaction.)
Good point. I'm gonna go think that one over.

[promethia_tenk]

Morally and practically, that is not a useful distinction. Unlearn it.
I love that line ridiculously much. Utterly true.

If only she had met Ten… I’m still laughing.
Good point. Holy hell, I can't even imagine how much of a disaster that would be; my brain just short-circuits.

Now the interesting thing is that this almost exactly what happened to Rory.
! Completely missed that. Good catch.

It’s hard to think of a single thing more likely to make the Doctor adore Bill more. :)
Heck, the TARDIS told the Doctor to go after her, and we know that she thinks of the companions collectively as 'strays.' So the feeling may be mutual ; )

It's an interesting contrast to her opinions on Clara. (Out of curiosity, what's your vote on why the TARDIS hated Clara? Probably we're meant to think that it's her being scattered across time and/or that she's running around the universe during the second of her death. But I'd rather believe it's Clara's stunt with the TARDIS keys. We all know the TARDIS is in charge, and she knows it too, going by The Doctor's Wife. Never try to control a control freak. Though, heh, if the TARDIS couldn't stand Jack, how does Clara's TARDIS feel about playing host to two immortals? It would be hysterical if she kept trying to dump Clara back on Gallifrey, like, gotta fix this shit asap . . . )

There was a scene cut from 'Thin Ice' where the Doctor declares his love for pangolins and reveals that they are aliens.
I missed that revelation. Pity. Surely that would have fit?

In my ongoing ‘What is Moffat Doing This Season’ thoughts, this Tumblr Post sums it up quite well
Your link appears to be borked in the italicized quotations marks manner.

ETA:
I'm your teacher. Telling you things is what I do.
*forehead!smack* He got that from Clara too! It goes away later in her run, but the early Twelve episodes he regularly talks about her as his teacher. Particularly in Into the Dalek.

[promethia_tenk]

This made me think about the mini character arc Bill went on this ep.

She starts out being scared of making any choices for fear of consequences and then ends up with the Doctor making her make a real choice.

It's like Sarah Dollard knows how to write well or something!

ETA: more darkly, there's the parallel between their little joke about forgetting Pete and what happened to the first orphan boy, who didn't step on a butterfly either but just stood still on the wrong bit of ice a moment too long, and the Doctor seeming to forget about him immediately.

[elisi]

I love that line ridiculously much. Utterly true
Mmmmm, yes. If I wasn't so rushed at the moment, I'd probably have highlighted it more. But especially from a time traveller's perspective, it's vital.

Good point. Holy hell, I can't even imagine how much of a disaster that would be; my brain just short-circuits.
IKR? He's like outrage; condensed.

! Completely missed that. Good catch.
I can't even remember if I thought of it myself or if I got it from elsewhere. If I accidentally stole it I apologise to whoever it was for not crediting them.

Heck, the TARDIS told the Doctor to go after her, and we know that she thinks of the companions collectively as 'strays.' So the feeling may be mutual ; )
Awww. OT3.

But I'd rather believe it's Clara's stunt with the TARDIS keys.
Hmmm, yes. The TARDIS is not as forgiving as her thief.

Though, heh, if the TARDIS couldn't stand Jack, how does Clara's TARDIS feel about playing host to two immortals?
Jack's immortality is different: he's a fixed point that's why the TARDIS freaks out. She'll be fine with Clara & Me.

I missed that revelation. Pity. Surely that would have fit?
I am wondering about the context though. How do you fit in a line like that?

Your link appears to be borked in the italicized quotations marks manner.
Thank you. (Posted this after being at the dentist's - clearly didn't check the coding as well as I should have...)

*forehead!smack* He got that from Clara too! It goes away later in her run, but the early Twelve episodes he regularly talks about her as his teacher. Particularly in Into the Dalek.
Clara is allllllll the things! :D

[owlboy]

>>This episode might be the best Doctor-Companion dynamic we have ever seen, and hopefully the blueprint for the future. The dynamic has always been unequal; the Doctor having so much power, the Companion there by his grace.


The power dynamic here is also significant i think for the fact it's a woman of colour and a parable for British exceptionalism old white dude discussing capitalism/slavery and he steps aside for her. That has ~implications Sarah Dollard seems well aware of.

[promethia_tenk]

Ooo, good point.

[elisi]

The power dynamic here is also significant i think for the fact it's a woman of colour and a parable for British exceptionalism old white dude discussing capitalism/slavery and he steps aside for her. That has ~implications Sarah Dollard seems well aware of.
Yes, excellent. Don't think I'd thought of it quite like that, thank you!

[ex_peasant441]

giving the Companion the authority to direct and control that power, they are much more even

Interesting. That is the exact opposite of what I got from that scene - he wasn't giving Bill any real power, he was just teaching her how to think it through. And I assume that just like any teacher if she had got the answer completely wrong he would have stepped in and corrected her. Plus he would have thrown her off 'Tardis 101' or whatever he calls his course - he did say she would be out if she ever got less than an A. That's very different to the Clara situation where, if memory serves, he was too afraid to make the decision himself.

makes me want to scream silently for along time...
But I think yours is good screaming, yes? Unless you have realised what I realised when I read this, and you got cross too. I must have not heard the bit where he said he had visited several times before and I'm really glad they didn't include this scene because much as I love continuity it would have made me even crosser about the episode if I had twigged he had been there before. I will go explain on my own journal when I have worked out how to say it politely. :(

The Doctor reading stories to children
Yes, I love that. I love that he actually treated them as children not just generic People.

[elisi]

Interesting. That is the exact opposite of what I got from that scene - he wasn't giving Bill any real power, he was just teaching her how to think it through. And I assume that just like any teacher if she had got the answer completely wrong he would have stepped in and corrected her. Plus he would have thrown her off 'Tardis 101' or whatever he calls his course - he did say she would be out if she ever got less than an A. That's very different to the Clara situation where, if memory serves, he was too afraid to make the decision himself.
I wouldn’t say he was *afraid* in Kill the Moon. He was aware that it was a Fixed Point, and therefore he cleared off (and of course from his POV there might be uncomfortable Waters of Mars flashbacks). But in the process he left Clara on her own (well, with two others, but not any guidance) and terrified. This episode was on a much smaller scale, but they shared the power and the responsibility. I liked it a lot. Yes, he was obviously teaching her how to think, but he was also deferring to her judgement, rather than quite simply telling her what he was going to do. (As purplefringe says over on the LJ side, it’s interesting to compare The Beast Below – the Doctor decides what to do, the Companion jumps in at the last minute when she realises that he got it wrong; Kill the Moon – the Doctor abandons the Companion so she can deal with it; and Thin Ice, where they work it out together.)

But I think yours is good screaming, yes?
Oooh yes. Those lines would have been the most incredible shout-out. (And yes, seeing Eleven & River ice skating at a Frost Fair with Steve Wonder playing the piano is one of those stupidly romantic moments that I would give my right arm to see, and never will.)

Unless you have realised what I realised when I read this, and you got cross too. I must have not heard the bit where he said he had visited several times before and I'm really glad they didn't include this scene because much as I love continuity it would have made me even crosser about the episode if I had twigged he had been there before. I will go explain on my own journal when I have worked out how to say it politely. :(
If you are implying that he somehow callously refused to save the big fish on previous occasions, then I think it’s a pretty long jump to go from ‘lights under the ice’ to ‘giant fish in the Thames being kept enslaved by enterprising callous aristocrat’. Indeed, they had to go diving in order to work out what was going on.
He may have noticed the lights on previous occasions but as he was there to celebrate his wife’s birthday he might have decided to save his enquiries for another time.
(And no, he didn’t know the fish was there, because it hadn’t happened yet. If Bill had checked her phone before she left, there would not have been any mentions of Lord Sutcliffe drowning etc.)

Yes, I love that. I love that he actually treated them as children not just generic People.
Yes, Twelve hasn’t really been great with kids so far, so it was good to see. 

[ruuger]

Okay, so I already liked the episode when I watched it, but after reading your post I like it even more :)

(also, I may have accidentally binge-rewatched Twelve's entire run this week and have *all the feels* about him - Yes, I finally like the Doctor :D)

[elisi]

Okay, so I already liked the episode when I watched it, but after reading your post I like it even more :)
*cheers* (I saw your post but had to quickly scan it, because time... *hands* Ugh, so busy right now.)

also, I may have accidentally binge-rewatched Twelve's entire run this week and have *all the feels* about him - Yes, I finally like the Doctor :D
Hurrah! There should be a Doctor for everyone, I'm glad one of them finally won you over. And Twelve has a fascinating arc, so good choice!!

[sea_thoughts]

I mean The Shakespeare Code comparisons are there, of course, but I felt like this also harked back to Gridlock where Martha spent the entire episode trying to get Ten to TELL HER SOMETHING.

Bill only has to spend one scene doing that - "That's not what I asked," she repeats, increasing the pressure with each repetition until the Doctor has to give her an answer. But she's not nasty or aggressive, just stubborn, refusing to let him fob her off.

If only she had met Ten… I’m still laughing.

Being a teenager, Ten was made of pure outrage... and sometimes just pure rage.

Now the interesting thing is that this almost exactly what happened to Rory. Not stepping on a butterfly, but the Doctor has walked beside a woman whose love had been erased out of time… The fact that he can now joke about it, speaks to how much *better* he is overall (i.e. not eaten up by guilt).

I smiled at this because it reminded me of the last time we saw Rory and how when Amy scoffed "What, you think you'll just come back to life?" his whip-smart response was "When don't I?!" But Eleven could never have made the same kind of joke. It says a lot about how much Twelve's healed that he can.

[elisi]

but I felt like this also harked back to Gridlock where Martha spent the entire episode trying to get Ten to TELL HER SOMETHING. Bill only has to spend one scene doing that - "That's not what I asked," she repeats, increasing the pressure with each repetition until the Doctor has to give her an answer. But she's not nasty or aggressive, just stubborn, refusing to let him fob her off.
Oh excellent catch. Yes. Although the biggest difference is the fact that the Doctor has stopped running... Ten was running from everything, himself most of all. (I am working on a post re all this.)

Being a teenager, Ten was made of pure outrage... and sometimes just pure rage.
True dat.

I smiled at this because it reminded me of the last time we saw Rory and how when Amy scoffed "What, you think you'll just come back to life?" his whip-smart response was "When don't I?!"
I MISS THEM SO MUCH!

But Eleven could never have made the same kind of joke. It says a lot about how much Twelve's healed that he can.
The Doctor was very compelling when he was hurting. But I'm glad he's better now.

[promethia_tenk (from livejournal.com)]

"What, you think you'll just come back to life?" his whip-smart response was "When don't I?!"
That line basically cemented my love of Rory Williams forever.

[kazzy-cee.livejournal.com]

Nodding all the way through this :)

[elisi]

Doing a Churchill impression? (The dog, not the politician. *g*)

[ever-neutral.livejournal.com]

She is trying to broaden her understanding, make what she already know fit with what she is just discovering, not learning from scratch

From Clara the teacher to Bill the (wannabe) student. Possibly a Class nod??

I am SO HAPPY that the thing about ‘never having time for outrage’ was a set-up

I love that this was set up just for the punch, tbh.

Now he may have forgotten Clara, but her lessons clearly made a deep, deep impact

My ecstatic agony will go on...

The fact that he can now joke about it, speaks to how much *better* he is overall (i.e. not eaten up by guilt).

I TOTALLY MISSED THIS. (PERHAPS I, TOO, AM BETTER NOW? lol.)

I’d also completely forgotten the River Thames birthday line. They passed up a great opportunity for audience torment tbh.

So far, it looks like Moffat has decided to use his final season on the show to revisit the first principles of the show, and compose a love letter to the glorious legacy of Doctor Who.

MTE.

This show doing us good.

[elisi]

From Clara the teacher to Bill the (wannabe) student. Possibly a Class nod??
More of a 'this is what he should have done at Coal Hill'... Rather than leaving them alone to work it out. (Don't get me wrong, I adore Class, and I don't want the Doctor to turn up & pull a magic solution out of his hat, BUT he does leave them with the most basic of guidelines & massive problems.)

I love that this was set up just for the punch, tbh.
Ah yes, that too. <3

My ecstatic agony will go on...
As I keep saying, Clara is ALL THE THINGS.

I TOTALLY MISSED THIS. (PERHAPS I, TOO, AM BETTER NOW? lol.)
We are all calm & zen about everything.

I’d also completely forgotten the River Thames birthday line. They passed up a great opportunity for audience torment tbh.
Considering we were supposed to care about the street urchins & the whale, it was probably for the best that they didn't have people search every scene for a glimpse of River & Eleven...

This show doing us good.
♥

[cynthia2015.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the program: Whovians?

[elisi]

I don't think so.