99% of people grieving for a loved one don't try to murder their friends.
99% of grieving people don't know someone with a time machine. I think her actions make sense given that level of desperation and the ultimate arc of her character. She's the one who went "too far," got cocky, got herself killed, and ultimately got to become her own version of the Doctor.
Now, Clara attempting to destroy all of the TARDIS keys is not necessarily one of my favorite moments for her character. However, I forgive it because it gives us one of Capaldi's most badass moments. "Either throw the key or stop threatening me! There really isn't a 3rd option here."
Also, she's not the only one to use deadly force to try to force a time traveler to save a dead loved one. SEE this (starting around the 3:00 mark):
I’ll be honest, the only companion who ever annoyed me was Mel, but I am a bit unfair there because I have successfully only seen her first and last episodes.
Mel was just kinda there. I think she had potential. She wasn't as downright abrasive as Tegan or Peri and wasn't as annoying as Adric or Turlough. But they just never gave her anything to do! She didn't even have much of a personality besides "fitness instructor who wants to force the 6th Doctor to lose weight."
Happy endings are fine, it's the weird way RTD in particular found of compensating characters that's always bugged me!
The worst has gotta be Elton's girlfriend getting brought back as a paving slab in "Love & Monsters." Once Me decided to take it upon herself to look after former companions and other human wreckage that the Doctor leaves in his wake, I decided in my head-canon that she showed up a couple weeks later and put Moaning Myrtle out of her misery.
I suspect the writers of the back half of series 6 had no idea that there were serious emotional issues with Rory and Amy there to address. Of course, "The Girl Who Waited" and "The God Complex" had their own heavy issues, but some dialogue about how the Doctor let what happened with the infant Melody happen would not have been out of place.
The worst of it was "Night Terrors," which is all about parenting, so it really should have come up at some point! (Although, as I understand it, "Night Terrors" was originally supposed to air during the first half of the season and it was a fairly late decision to have it swap places with "The Curse of the Black Spot.")
I remember the wilderness years of the show, and I am not exaggerating to say being ‘outed’ as a Doctor Who fan was not entirely dissimilar to being outed as gay in an all boys school. (Given the existence of Real world fan group ‘the sisterhood of karn’ there’s probably a big crossover, but it’s not really my area) so I definitely know a thing or two about growing up with the show and watching it evolve across media. It still shocks me to see it as this international thing, lauded drama etc....I mean there’s that feeling of vindication, but I also have this feeling of ‘where the fuck were all you guys twenty years ago? We coulda used the help..’ xD
While I didn't start watching
Doctor Who until I was in college, as someone who spent all of middle school and high school as an ostracized Trekkie, I can certainly relate. I think that's part of the reason why "gatekeeping" has become such a thing in certain segments of fan cultures. SF/F has traditionally been a haven for people who feel socially marginalized, giving them something they can feel a sense of control & ownership over. The more mainstream it becomes, the more diluted that sense of identity becomes, generating a greater strain between existing fans & new fans who bring different expectations to the material.
I'm hoping the comics will tackle it and BF at some point.. But the Impossible girl sets the stage that Clara can reappear with no memory of the Doctor and yet be his companion again..
I seem to recall reading a portion of a story in the DWM comics where the 12th Doctor & Clara meet one of the Clara splinters in some Antarctic base.
I am ambivalent to be honest, all I know is, there’s less rocks with his name on now than there was twenty years ago. I think people generally like Philip Segal again too.
I think because, regardless of the quality of their efforts, they kept the TV franchise going when no one else was. In retrospect, I'm kinda less annoyed with Rick Berman now too (although that changes every time I see his name in a writing credit on an
Enterprise episode
).
She "threw away his keys" alright...on a fucking dangerous planet that was literally going to kill them if he couldn't enter the TARDIS. Sure, Doctor Who fans know that The Doctor can literally snap his fingers to open the TARDIS, a power he may not use much but I doubt he lost the ability between his 10th and 12th incarnations, but Clara (and possibly the writer) didn't know that.
Unfortunately, the writer did know that, since the finger snapping was introduced in "Forest of the Dead," which, like "Dark Water," was written by Moffat. Also, Clara would have at least known that snapping fingers could close the doors while inside the TARDIS, since she did just that at the beginning of "The Day of the Doctor." I also seem to recall a bit in an episode where Clara & the 12th Doctor kept snapping the doors closed & open again, Clara because she wanted to talk to him and the Doctor because he was trying to get rid of her. I don't 100% remember which episode that was, but I'm pretty sure it was either at the beginning of "The Caretaker" or during their big argument at the end of "Kill the Moon."
I would love to see a M & M Team Spin off.. or Audio Drama, or Comic..
At the very least, it would be nice if Martha & Mickey showed up as a married couple in one of the Tennant audios.
I almost made a reference to 500 Days of Summer having someone end a nine-month relationship, be engaged to someone she met after the breakup four months later, and then married three months after that
Great movie. I own it on DVD, although it was so devastating that I'm not sure I could bear to watch it again.
I'm making that part of my head canon now.
