Pink bits

[sttngfan1701d]

^I also never really bought that Clara cared for him, which made me like Clara less. He clearly cared for her but I don't think the way it was portrayed on the show did a convincing job. It made it feel very flat and only existing because the script said it should. It seemed that Clara declared her feeling for him but we never really SAW it in her actions.

*Shrug* Dunno. Maybe it was just me.

Some people just aren't good at relationships. Clara is probably one of those people (men get all the flak here but women can be just as bad sometimes). I believe that she liked Danny. If she wasn't TARDISing around, she probably would've done the whole bit with him, as shown in "Last Christmas" -- they would've gotten a house, owned a cat, gone to Paris, the whole nine yards.

But Clara loved being in the TARDIS. She tried the double life...it didn't work. I believe that Danny was her "anchor" to Earth. Not in the sense that he held her back, but that he still gave her purpose to be the "old" Clara, the pre-TARDIS Clara. She cared for him, and she appreciated him, but she never gave him more than probably 60%...because she loved exploring too much. The "Forest" episode showed their differing perspectives, and did it for a reason.

Then when he died, suddenly she lost her anchor. She probably felt guilty as well as realization of how much he probably meant to her, but she never properly told him or showed him...because as she said to him herself in Death in Heaven, she "wasn't very good at it." She lied to him and realized too late that she took him for granted.

That's not to say that Danny didn't deserve some blame too. He was jealous and resented her other life. Unlike Rory and Amy, who bonded by traveling together with the Doctor, Clara's relationship with Danny was doomed to fail because they didn't bridge the "TARDIS gap."

And I think she made the decision to resume traveling with the Doctor in Last Christmas because, with her anchor gone, she realized that she's just not cut out for a regular Earth-girl life.

Also, 90-year old Clara had plenty of flings in 62 years but never married...

 

[Captain Crow]

Can't vote because there's no "Wooden Plank" option.

Anderson's wooden performance really put me off the character. Even his big moments are flat and wooden.

 

[Worf2DS9]

As a character, I found Danny to be okay, though I really didn't like his behaviour towards the Doctor, such as his "Yes, SIR, right away, SIR" b.s. in "The Caretaker." What I found to be "unpleasant" was the whole Danny/Clara relationship, which I didn't find convincing and seemed designed as a vehicle to keep DW more Earth-based than previous seasons, though maybe that's a perception issue.

 

[Venardhi]

They added an inconsistently-written love interest to an already inconsistently written character. It wasn't that he was a bad character, or badly acted, but the entire concept of the character resulted in frustration for much of the audience because he was supposed to be a likable sympathetic character but actively hated everything that the audience loves about the show. He's that boyfriend/girlfriend that tries to get you to put away your "toys" and stop watching "those silly shows" and be a "goddamned grown-up." As much as you may like them in other ways, they just don't fit in your life unless you're willing to change everything about you that makes you, you.

 

[Stevil2001]

I liked Danny a lot, except when Moffat overdid the Coupling-esque stuff. S8 took Clara from my least-favorite νWho companion to second-favorite, and the relationship with Danny was a big part of it. The stuff with him in the two-part finale was just brutal.

 

[Ithekro]

The dirty mind comes up with so much from the title of this thread.

First thought: "Its a family show for children, we aren't going to be seeing Clara's 'pink bit'."

Then it was all "Oh Danny Pink, right."

 

[Sindatur]

The dirty mind comes up with so much from the title of this thread.

First thought: "Its a family show for children, we aren't going to be seeing Clara's 'pink bit'."

Then it was all "Oh Danny Pink, right."

Yea, LOL, I didn't want to say anything first, but, definitely, every time I see the title of the thread, I imagine it's a Jeremy Clarkson Euphemism

 

[Orac]

So far the results of this poll are what I expected they would be, i.e that people who hate Danny Pink are a vocal minority of people who vote in polls in the Doctor Who forum on the trekbbs.

 

[Turbo]

I voted for "greatly dislike him" but honestly, it's because my feelings for the character himself are more the middle option - "no strong feelings". My hate comes in in the fact that he's supposed to be this fantastic match for Clara and also have a strong enough personality/love for her that he overcame the cyber-conversion - neither of which came through one jot in Series 8. Either the acting was abysmal or the writing and direction was abysmal - in either case, the execution was deplorable and really soured what was otherwise a great finale.

 

[RoJoHen]

Either the acting was abysmal or the writing and direction was abysmal - in either case, the execution was deplorable and really soured what was otherwise a great finale.

After rewatching Series 8 last week, I definitely think it was the writing. We were told that they love each other, but we weren't really shown it. Too much of their relationship happened off-screen. It's hard to build a real romance when your whole life is a big time travelly distraction.

There should have been a whole episode in between "Kill the Moon" and "Mummy on the Orient Express" where Clara did not see the Doctor, where she spends the whole episode with Danny. She swears him off and says she's done with him forever, but then the very next episode opens with her and Doctor exiting the TARDIS.

 

[Mytran]

Given the lack of dynamic between Clara and Danny, a while "Doctor light" episode would have been ratings suicide!

 

[Turbo]

Given the lack of dynamic between Clara and Danny, a while "Doctor light" episode would have been ratings suicide!

Heh. It is interesting that the Doctor-lite episode barely featured Danny at all.

 

[RoJoHen]

Given the lack of dynamic between Clara and Danny, a while "Doctor light" episode would have been ratings suicide!

Maybe not "Doctor Lite," but split 50/50. The Doctor could have own story while Clara and Danny had one too, with each of them trying to figure out what to do about the other.

 

[Mytran]

So; two parallel investigations, with the Doctor doing his utmost to avoid interacting with Clara (typical comedy hijinks ensue)

I can see that.