She seems the kind of person who, if asked too many uncomfortable questions just bribes the questioner to be quiet. If that doesn't work, she resorts to less pleasant methods of persuasion.
Because it's boring.
"The Woman Who Lived" Grading and Discussion Thread
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She seems the kind of person who, if asked too many uncomfortable questions just bribes the questioner to be quiet. If that doesn't work, she resorts to less pleasant methods of persuasion.
Because it's boring.
More importaly once found the Time War starts all over again, so looking for it is a waste of time.
The writers beat a big bloody drum to make sure we understood their (not) clever subtext.
Danny in 12 ways had 12 barely different stump speeches that amounted to "I'm a soldier who follows orders that get people killed, and you're an officer who orders soldiers to get killed or kill people, and you're not guilty about it, hell you probably get off on it, and you're going to get my girlfriend killed."
Sometimes twice an episode he said this.
Really, you only need to repeat yourself that much when talking to an idiot.
Danny in 12 ways had 12 barely different stump speeches that amounted to "I'm a soldier who follows orders that get people killed, and you're an officer who orders soldiers to get killed or kill people, and you're not guilty about it, hell you probably get off on it, and you're going to get my girlfriend killed."
Sometimes twice an episode he said this.
Really, you only need to repeat yourself that much when talking to an idiot.
I love that you brought this up because if there was one thing I appreciated about the early Doctor Who years (2005), it was a sense of the character relationships and how the Doctor affected the family dynamic. I loved Rose's mother, mickey as supporting characters, giving Rose kind of the sense of what she was giving up traveling with the Doctor and a sense that maybe she would return one day. The same can be said even with Martha and her family and then her leaving the Tardis and joining Torchwood. What does Clara have? Have we even met Clara's family? I know she's a school teacher, but is the Doctor really all she has? This is part of the whole missed opportunity of not developing Clara as Clara. She's the impossible girl, but whatever happened about just being the girl from earth? I think they tried to give her something in Danny but it didn't work. We needed something more personal. I'm afraid if Clara does die (And again going back to the unsubtle themes of the season) I won't care because I'm already annoyed with the character and there is no one back home to give us those emotional moments that The Doctor is incapable of giving.
Not only that, it's very strange that all of her diaries are written down in the exact same type of book.
This is my core problem with the last season. Doctor Who is all about the great sense of adventure and exploration. Instead, it became "Shall we pop out to the universe when you have time?" How horribly mundane.
You buy them in bulk in advance. That way if the publisher goes out of business you don't look like an idiot.
She might have just learned to make books. Eternity gives you a lot of time to develop hobbies.
At least this year it's just heavy foreshadowing that Clara is going to die. It really doesn't help that the news told me she was leaving.
To answer a question upthread... We met Clara's family in Time of the Doctor. And her Gran reappears in Dark Water to comfort her after Danny dies.
I don't think we'd complain nearly as much if Danny was a well-written or acted character. I mean, by all means, Rory wasn't that well-written (after the fifth series, especially), but he was superbly portrayed by Arthur Darvill, and had an interesting chemistry with Gillian's Amy, thus making the part work. Danny and Clara never convinced me they were in-love, or that Danny was a war veteran.
In fact, I think I expressed here at first when I groaned when they showed him having Britain's most unconvicing tear in his first episode. Great introduction!
How Danny was going to die was known (by the produces/writers, it had to be) from the first moment he got screen time.
How he died is connected completely with his ongoing story and his "theme song".
Danny wasn't a living growing character flowering into something immense and unexpected, he was a tool used for a specific job designated to persist for a specific duration and then self destruct (10 episodes after his origin point).
How he died is connected completely with his ongoing story and his "theme song".
Danny wasn't a living growing character flowering into something immense and unexpected, he was a tool used for a specific job designated to persist for a specific duration and then self destruct (10 episodes after his origin point).
Why set it up when they have no idea how to bring back Gallifrey without restarting the war? And why we can't get back to the Doctor being a wanderer though time and space and just helping people without some major plotline?
Speaking of which, who is the woman in the Christmas special next to Clara's dad? The woman who keeps going on about boy bands?
Clara's aunt? Clara's evil stepmother?
Gallifrey is out of the time war and the timelock, and it was never, even destroyed by the Doctor using the moment. Meanwhile the Daleks all shot themselves dead.
The Doctors, all 13 of them pushed their homeworld out of time space to somewhere else far away, which one would think is outside of the timelock, which is why they could send a message to Trenzelor (through a crack) and hand over a new cycle of regenerations to the Doctor.
It seems likely that Gallifrey is fine, but it is not willing to come back to the regular universe until it wants to. They waited 900 years for the Dopctor to send word that it was a good time to come back (but they stayed put), even though they must have known that he was there, and were still waiting for his go ahead for a thousand years almost.
The Doctors, all 13 of them pushed their homeworld out of time space to somewhere else far away, which one would think is outside of the timelock, which is why they could send a message to Trenzelor (through a crack) and hand over a new cycle of regenerations to the Doctor.
It seems likely that Gallifrey is fine, but it is not willing to come back to the regular universe until it wants to. They waited 900 years for the Dopctor to send word that it was a good time to come back (but they stayed put), even though they must have known that he was there, and were still waiting for his go ahead for a thousand years almost.
It's fine if the Doctor is just about random spacey adventures, but I still need good characters to fall back on. The adventures haven't been fun for a while now, and the characters have been unlikable.
I really do wonder what's going on in Clara's personal life now. How much time has passed since Danny died? How well is she coping? Is it possible that she's actually in a deep depression when she's at home by herself? While I wasn't a fan of the Danny story, it was a big deal for Clara's character. I want to see the consequences.
I suppose "Last Christmas" was intended to give her some closure, but I just don't feel it.
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Well, that went clunk for me, for one specific reason.
For all these years the Doctor has wanted an immortal companion... and now he doesn't want one. The excuses he made were lame, lame, lame. To be a companion is to receive an education, imagine the education an immortal would have. And then... when she died, because she's immortal, not invulnerable, it would be more poignant. Your "tears in rain" wouldn't be in it.
Using Ms Williams was stunt casting. And now there another Most Important Girl Evar, who lurks in the background to save companions (and didn't that work out so well last season, or in past years (time travel cuts both ways)).
Silly, silly, silly. I haven't seen a script that holds a candle to 'Blink' in the last 3 seasons, with the possible exception of 'Time of the Doctor', and only then because it had to really lift its game.
Disappointed.
For all these years the Doctor has wanted an immortal companion... and now he doesn't want one. The excuses he made were lame, lame, lame. To be a companion is to receive an education, imagine the education an immortal would have. And then... when she died, because she's immortal, not invulnerable, it would be more poignant. Your "tears in rain" wouldn't be in it.
Using Ms Williams was stunt casting. And now there another Most Important Girl Evar, who lurks in the background to save companions (and didn't that work out so well last season, or in past years (time travel cuts both ways)).
Silly, silly, silly. I haven't seen a script that holds a candle to 'Blink' in the last 3 seasons, with the possible exception of 'Time of the Doctor', and only then because it had to really lift its game.
Disappointed.
Yeah, this.
It's not just a question of scaring/buying off one or two enquiries though. A self-styled aristocrat with a mysterious past popping up out of nowhere would attract official attention at the best of times. In the aftermath of a civil war, with everyone suspect and large swathes of the country effectively controlled by a paranoid theocratic militia (hardly the comedy yokels seen here), Me would be the one most likely to become exposed to less pleasant methods of persuasion.
Me, too! I didn't find the actor to be so bad in of himself, but the character and what he was to do was really bad. And I found Clara to be much less likable because of it. I would have been happy to see her go last year, too.
Now this year, as she was in these last 6 episodes, I'd like her to stay. I don't mind if she does go, but I no longer actively want her to leave.
evilheadhunter said:
I could see where they were trying to go but it just made things much much worse. I really didn't like last year's finale with all of the dead people being cybermen and Pink is the reason they were stopped.
It seemed like Vincent* and the whole invasion plot was kind of an excuse for the Doctor to run into Ashildr after all of this time. While the idea of an immortal person that knows the Doctor and can pop up anytime is appealing in some ways, where has she been through the first 12 incarnations adventures on Earth? Maybe this will be addressed later on, but it seems strange that she's been there all along yet not appeared until now.
For example:
She could have been in Blink for example and just met the Doctor after he and Martha were sent back to the 60s and just waited until the time it happened or even just prevented it, there would have been no need of messages, she would have been there herself.
She could have prevented that business where Rory and Amy got sent back to Manhattan in the 30s. I wonder if while they were back there they ran into the Daleks in Manhattan.
She could have been in just about every Earth bound story ever made from 900 on, including such eternal classics as Kill the Moon and Forest of the Night.
She could have been there at the end of Waters of Mars when he's doing his Timelord Victorious dance to say "Nope!"
They can cgi her into all kinds of episodes and then we can have a "Where's Ashildr ?" series of picture books and a drinking game.
Also, parts of this episode reminded me too much of an Adam and the Ants video I saw.
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Yes! This!
You put this very well here. I've never quite thought about it like this but, yes, you're right!
I disagree here. I've always thought Jenna as Clara was great! Didn't care for the Danny Pink fiasco. I could do without the on again, off again companion bit. But, she does a great job with the character and I do care about Clara.
Capaldi as the Doctor has been great too. He's really grown into the role this year.
I think what we're seeing is showrunner fatigue. We keep seeing him trying the same things over and over, outdoing what he did it before, and it's just time for a change. I know he doesn't write every story, but he does set the tone and style for the entire season.
Mr Awe
Has he, or has he regressed?
Last year we had something different, which admittedly may have ended up being offputting to some of the more casual audience but this year we have a slightly more grumpy version of Matt Smith with awful clothes, stupid sunglasses and that bloody guitar.
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