Just watched Clara's first scene (spoilers)

[Candlelight]

Least I think it was. On the graham norton show.

Spoiler: Xmas

the doctor jumps into a carriage with Clara and introduces her to the sontaran, who is ordered to get the 'memory worm', which will erase part of her memory. He comes back with no memory...

Ran for almost a minute. Was quite funny.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

^What, does he eat it himself?

 

[Candlelight]

It was a touch thing. He forgot to use gloves.

 

[Candlelight]

He also kept getting Clara's gender wrong.

Stupid aliens.

 

[Peacemaker]

Oh that's truly funny. I am really looking forward to this episode!

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

He also kept getting Clara's gender wrong.

Stupid aliens.

And he's a nurse.

Well, maybe Sontarans have no gender since they're clones.

 

[Christopher]

Despite being clones, Sontarans seem to self-identify as male and have a long history of showing contempt toward females of other species. Presumably they must've originally reproduced normally before turning themselves into a clone race (and there's a comic-book story that supports that), and the creators of the clones must've considered females unworthy and created an all-male clone race that inherited that misogyny.

 

[Unionized Elf]

He also kept getting Clara's gender wrong.

Stupid aliens.

This kind of ties into A Good Man Goes to War, when Strax said to that female soldier "Come on, boy." Vastra then commented to Jenny, "she's definitely a girl."

 

[Guy Gardener]

Why don't women like to be called men?

It's like an instant promotion.

 

[Peacemaker]

The scene is now up on Blogtor Who.

 

[The Grinch Doctor]

I found the Graham Norton portion even more entertaining than the clip from the episode. Matt Smith is hilarious, but Billy Connolly is a riot and Dustin Hoffman is always a treat. I would love to see either of them on the show even if they aren't all that familiar with it.

 

[diankra]

Despite being clones, Sontarans seem to self-identify as male and have a long history of showing contempt toward females of other species. Presumably they must've originally reproduced normally before turning themselves into a clone race (and there's a comic-book story that supports that), and the creators of the clones must've considered females unworthy and created an all-male clone race that inherited that misogyny.

Or just that, when the war began and they moved over to cloning as a form of total mobilisation (that's how their creator Robert Holmes always put it, saying that the Sontarans had a marvellous culture in terms of literature, song, the lot, but they'd just put luxuries like that on hold for the duration of the war) - they had a culture where women didn't fight on the frontline, if at all. The Sontaran generals may even have felt that it was a kindness, saving the fairer sex from having to endure all the unpleasantness of the next few years (/centuries/millennia, as it turned out).

 

[Gov Kodos]

I just wish they'd stop running Strax's comical moments, it's killing half the fun these character ought to bring to the show. He looks to be a lot of fun in this, so leave something for Christmas. Spoilers folks...

 

[Cutter John]

My goodness, using brain worms on people. The Doc seems to be reverting to his Bill Hartnell self.

 

[StCoop]

And today's lesson from Moffat-World... (Mental) Rape is funny.

 

[Christopher]

And today's lesson from Moffat-World... (Mental) Rape is funny.

How did you get there? Memory erasure is a common enough SF trope -- consider the Men in Black's neuralyzers, or the ST:TNG crew erasing memories to preserve the Prime Directive, or Professor X wiping bystanders' memories of the X-Men's presence. I don't think I've seen it likened to rape before. Sure, I can see how a rapist could exploit something like that, but that doesn't mean that applies to every use of it.

And I don't think the idea is for the Doctor's willingness to wipe people's memories to be funny. I think it's meant to be dark, to show how he's changed. What's funny is Strax bungling it so that he takes the hit instead of Clara.

 

[Peacemaker]

How is that remotely deducible from that the scene? If you say that the use of the memory worm is an act of rape, then it's the Doctor who, with Strax is about to commit it. The humor of the scene isn't found in the act they are going to perpetrate on Clara, it's found in the reversal of fortune upon Strax who goes to get the worm and doesn't use the gauntlet. On that level, there is no "rape," rather there is a reversal of fortune - a form of poetic justice, and there is nothing innately wrong with finding humor in a poetic reversal of fortune. Rather the reverse is often true (pun intended). I find your accusation sorely misplaced.

 

[Mitty]

I'm wondering how long it is in the Doctor's personal time since Asylum of the Daleks, and how long it's going to take him to realise that somehow Clara and Oswin are connected. I'm still tipping that the way he'll work it out is that she'll somehow say something about Souffles.

EDIT meanwhile I'm guessing someone around here will do a poll/discussion thread fairly soon now?

 

[Cutter John]

I'm wondering how long it is in the Doctor's personal time since Asylum of the Daleks, and how long it's going to take him to realise that somehow Clara and Oswin are connected. I'm still tipping that the way he'll work it out is that she'll somehow say something about Souffles.

The thing is though he never actually saw Oswin's human face did he?

 

[Unionized Elf]

So wait, the Doctor condoning the use of a memory-erasing worm is upsetting people, but no one cared that Jack and the Torchwood gang drugged people to make them forget? Hell, in the pilot episode, Jack takes Gwen to a bar, and slips the retcon drug into her drink. That's practically date rape. But this is okay, but someone touching a worm has everyone upset?

There are times I wonder...