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Well, that episode was "rubbish". The plot was stupid, the ageless woman got over on the Doctor way too easy (and of course she's working for some vague bad guys), and the death was ridiculous. I mean, I'm glad Clara's dead, its the only good thing this episode did, but when you actively dislike the character, the type of death they went with doesn't effect you at all. I was just hoping it would be a bit darker, more sudden and with less attempts to tug on the heartstrings. As it is, it was a stupid episode where one good thing happened, but the good event was done badly.
I guess if I had to say one more good thing about it, Rigsy was ok. He was the only good character in the episode outside of The Doctor.
I was easily going to call this the best episode of a very disappointing season until the ending came. I've never been a fan of Clara and thought how people saw Rose and Tennant's Doctor, Clara and Smith/Capaldi's Doctor was about 10x worse. This was build as Colman's last episode and when she got the Chronolock, I figured yeah that's how she dies. There was nothing cleaver or special about it. It was long, too soap opera-ish, and I too was saying "Get on with it". Now something that would have been better would have been if we got halfway through the monologue and then she dies in the Doctor's arms. It would have been tragic, it would have been disturbing, but it would have been really really impactful and set the stage for the Season finale and the whole thing about Ashildr facing the Doctors wrath all the more serious.
In the end, Clara got her death scene, and all I can say is good riddance. Hopefully the next companion will be like Donna, with maybe a little Martha mixed in. Basically no lovey dovey. I don't want the next companion to be special. I want him/her to just be normal.
I was easily going to call this the best episode of a very disappointing season until the ending came. I've never been a fan of Clara and thought how people saw Rose and Tennant's Doctor, Clara and Smith/Capaldi's Doctor was about 10x worse. This was build as Colman's last episode and when she got the Chronolock, I figured yeah that's how she dies. There was nothing cleaver or special about it. It was long, too soap opera-ish, and I too was saying "Get on with it". Now something that would have been better would have been if we got halfway through the monologue and then she dies in the Doctor's arms. It would have been tragic, it would have been disturbing, but it would have been really really impactful and set the stage for the Season finale and the whole thing about Ashildr facing the Doctors wrath all the more serious.
In the end, Clara got her death scene, and all I can say is good riddance. Hopefully the next companion will be like Donna, with maybe a little Martha mixed in. Basically no lovey dovey. I don't want the next companion to be special. I want him/her to just be normal.
I think the editing of the scene is what killed it. She didn't have to die in the Doctor's arms, but we already had an established process and time frame for the raven killing someone, and the death of Clara completely broke that. The editing on the scene was atrocious. The raven launched before the timer hit zero, it flew around for an eternity while they talked. They repeated her starting to scream 3 times in different angles. She hung on just a beat too long than was established before. Her scream was silenced by music.....the editing was just bad....the ingredients were there, but they were mixed all wrong.
I agree with you that the next companion should not be special at all. The idea of the companion being central to the universe or the Doctor is long since played out.
I'm not sure if anyone else has pointed this out yet, but it seems that Clara is the first full-time companion from modern-day Earth to die in the entire run of Doctor Who (new and old).
The only other full-time companion I can think of who died was Adric, in the Fifth Doctor era, but although he was human, he wasn't from Earth.
I'm not sure if anyone else has pointed this out yet, but it seems that Clara is the first full-time companion from modern-day Earth to die in the entire run of Doctor Who (new and old).
The only other full-time companion I can think of who died was Adric, in the Fifth Doctor era, but although he was human, he wasn't from Earth.
Katarina (from ancient Troy) spaced herself in The Daleks' Master Plan and her replacement future Earth security agent Sara Knigdom was aged to death by the Daleks' time dextructer later that story. Katarina, at least, was supposed to be a full-time companion but got written out when the writers realised the character wasn't working.
I'm not sure if anyone else has pointed this out yet, but it seems that Clara is the first full-time companion from modern-day Earth to die in the entire run of Doctor Who (new and old).
The only other full-time companion I can think of who died was Adric, in the Fifth Doctor era, but although he was human, he wasn't from Earth.
Adric wasn't human. The Alzarians are identical in appearance, but different biologically (rapid healing, for example). They're not even from the same dimension.
I'm not sure if anyone else has pointed this out yet, but it seems that Clara is the first full-time companion from modern-day Earth to die in the entire run of Doctor Who (new and old).
The only other full-time companion I can think of who died was Adric, in the Fifth Doctor era, but although he was human, he wasn't from Earth.
Jack died, lots
River died, including post regeneration in the library
Rory died/wiped from existence
Kylie died
Clara died in the snowmen and dalek-clara
Mars woman died
Donna died in turn left
Danny pink died
Other unimpressive fates awaited Donna and dalek-head
Well as much as Clara's death was the strongest part of the episode, it also couldn't help but feel incredibly anticlimactic to me. Like it or not, this is a companion who's played a huge role in the Doctor's life and who's been a part of many massive, epic storylines in her run... and she essentially dies in an alley from an evil tattoo?!? And this is somehow the one thing the Doctor can't find a magical, last minute solution for?
Coleman certainly did a fantastic job in trying to make the ending feel as meaningful as she could, but it still just completely pales in comparison to the more magical and touching sendoff she almost had in Last Christmas. And I can't help but feel both Clara and Coleman deserved a lot better.
Good episode however the death was pretty poor. However it did make me thing that if he hadn't been the 12th Doctor, PC would have made a fantastic War Doctor.
The key thing - well who can replicate a Tardis lock = Timelords.
As for Clara being dead - isn't that undercut a bit with her being in the final episode?
Well as much as Clara's death was the strongest part of the episode, it also couldn't help but feel incredibly anticlimactic to me. Like it or not, this is a companion who's played a huge role in the Doctor's life and who's been a part of many massive, epic storylines in her run... and she essentially dies in an alley from an evil tattoo?!?
That's the rub. You have one side saying that the death took too long to happen, and another side side saying that it was anticlimactic because Clara has been a HUGE part of two Doctors' lives. Well it's like the writers gave us one half of that, and that's why I'm not bothered with the death being drawn out with a 5-minute sequence before it occurred.
Seriously, it was just 5 minutes, and people are acting like it was a quarter of the episode and criticizing the editing that made it seem like the Raven took forever to find Clara and whatever else....just silly nitpicking. At least we got a good interaction between the Doctor and his best friend before she died. And let's be clear...two actors that adore each other and adore working together got a nice dialogue to say goodbye.
On the other hand, as I've been saying all along, it still seemed...not enough. She's given a death scene, but it has nowhere near the emotional weight of previous companion exits, and they don't even let the Doctor retrieve her body! I can only think that the next two episodes are going to touch on these events somehow, because it seems incomplete as it is.
...And I'm sure there's a 3rd camp that hates how companions are given huge importance, made special, and given important sendoffs. So you can't please everyone.
Clara as we've known her since "Bells of St. John" is dead. Her many time-splinters still exist. We will meet another one of those in the final episode.
Clara as we've known her since "Bells of St. John" is dead. Her many time-splinters still exist. We will meet another one of those in the final episode.
I loved the idea of a trap street acting as a refugee camp for a variety of aliens, passive and aggressive. Although the idea has been done before (most notably in recent time Diagon Alley), I loved the way the episode presented the idea and leading up to its discovery.
I was thrilled by the showdown between The Doctor and Ashlidr (or whatever she wants to call herself now), particularly how she lured The Doctor into her trap with a mystery. I also loved how causing Clara's death wasn't her intentional at all, even though we all expected it to be and she was genuinely sorry for causing that to happen. Maisie didn't get much to work with but she was brilliant with what she had.
The farewell between The Doctor and Clara was very touching, especially how she told him not to seek revenge and to stay The Doctor and not become The Warrior again. That being said, her actual death was very drawn out and overdone with the cliché slow-motion sequence and over-dramatic music, which took away from the emotional core of the farewell.
I'm really looking forward to next week's episode because
The episode looks like a terrific one-man show for Peter Capaldi and the setting looks brilliant.
One note for the whole season so far: I don't think I've seen it commented on before, but I really like the underlying theme of how The Twelfth Doctor is hesitant about helping in a situation and Clara has to push him into it, for better or for worse. It's another layer to the whole Doctor/companion relationship and how the companion helps ground The Doctor.
I would really love that idea and it would shake up the Doctor/companion relationship. Also it reminds of the notion of The Master traveling with The Doctor as suggested in "Last of the Time Lords" and I still wish that had happened.
That being said, I doubt it'll happen because Maisie still has at least another whole season of Game of Thrones to do.
Rewatched the last ten minutes or so. Actually, that death scene didn't seem half as overdone the second time around. I guess it was a question of the music and slo-mo popping up unexpectedly.
Clara's death was drawn out and nowhere near as shocking as Peri's death in Mindwarp and not as clever as we were lead to believe. The whole ep. though was little more than a set up for the two part finale.
....Perfect
