[DrBen @replies]

Another solid episode, with good writing, good acting, and good directing.  Thirteen continues to impress.

That said, I’m beginning to miss some of the timey-wimey bonkers elements of previous incarnations (har) of the show, as well as hints of larger (series arc) plot points.  I recognize that that’s not Chibbers’ style, and that he is clearly going for a more straightforward approach with self-contained episodes, and I can’t really complain about any of them.  But the current season lacks some of the whimsy and goofiness of prior seasons.

I also realized that I’m missing a sense of in-show history.  The fez and the reference to Agatha Christie in this episode were delightful, and I want more.  I understand that the BBC is trying to cultivate new viewers, and that’s great, but there is 55 years of canon to work with and it seems a shame not to do more with that.  Jodie Whittaker certain nails the Doctor’s alien nature, but I’d like to see more “2000-year-old alien who has lived through some incredibly tragic stuff and needs to keep moving in order to run away from her past and the mistakes she’s made.”

My favorite AG Doctor moments are when the mask begins to slip and you see how truly ancient and tortured this being is — Nine’s monologues in “Dalek,” Ten’s breakdown in “Waters of Mars,” Eleven’s isolation in “The Snowmen,” Twelve’s temper tantrum at not finding Gallifrey.  I hope that Chibnall won’t abandon that history entirely, and that Whittaker’s Doctor will get some juicier character moments in the future.

[DrBen @replies]

Two full boxes of Kleenex this week. Beautifully written, performed, and shot.

@jimthefish I’ll have to respectfully disagree. This season does have a completely different feel from prior seasons, for a multitude of reasons, but Thirteen is undoubtedly the Doctor in my opinion. A bit more unsure and sentimental, perhaps (like some early Eleven), but certainly the same character.

[DrBen @replies]

Another solid episode. A clever idea and good performances all around. Solid Who themes about teamwork and perseverance and all that.  Chibbers is really digging into the Graham/Ryan relationship to great effect. I hope they will give Yaz more to do.

Whittaker is undoubtedly the Doctor. I could have heard the line, “Didn’t I tell you? I’m *really* smart” spoken by any of her previous selves. For my money, she is nailing it.

Great callback to Venusian Aikido, and the “you’ve redecorated” line. New TARDIS is a bit dark but I love the crystal over the center console.

“Timeless Child” is definitely going to come back.  Ashildr seems too obvious (and I doubt there’s going to be much trawling through recent seasons this year) – maybe some Gallifreyan legend that scares the Doctor?

B+ overall – can’t wait to see what happens next!

[DrBen @replies]

Loved it!  My 10-year-old daughter is now a Whovian. I agree with those who said that Thirteen is somewhere in temperament between Ten and Eleven, with some pretty clear Tennant-isms at times. I liked that she was light and breezy with the character, as Twelve was a little portentous towards the end.

All in all a good start and I can’t wait for the rest!

Quick question: Did you get a full opening with theme song in the UK? We didn’t get it on BBC America – just a bit of the tune when the Doctor first showed up.

[DrBen @replies]

@ichabod raises some interesting points about Twelve believing he’d rather die than regenerate.  I would be interested to hear from someone with more subject-matter knowledge than me on the subject of The Doctor as Manic-Depressive.  If you think about, Eleven was ready to die.  He was a Time Lord who had reached the end of his allotted regenerations, and had reached peace with his coming end.  Clara (without asking permission, mind you) negotiates a new regeneration cycle, and poof! – crazed, angry Doctor Eyebrows.

In a way, it’s like the terminal patient who only wants to die with dignity, only to be kept alive through artificial means.  Twelve, by extrapolation, is a Doctor with a death wish.  He still has enough compassion for others that his instinct to save the lives of others generally wins over his desire to end his own.  After Clara’s “death,” I’d postulate that it was only a chance encounter with River that allowed the Doctor to keep trying to live.  But he has now lost River, lost Bill and Missy and Nardole, and is again being robbed of his noble death, being forced to live on despite never wanting further incarnations.

I think there are a lot of parallels to depression there.  You can generally function, as long as you keep moving and don’t think about things too much, but sometimes the effort gets to be too much.  Presumably, a visit from his younger (!) self will change his mind.

Also, one assumes that Thirteen will be far more pragmatic, as it is presumably true throughout the universe that, while men are generally allowed to rage and pontificate and feel sorry for themselves, woman are far more likely to put aside such useless affectations and get sh*t done.

[DrBen @replies]

I need some distance before I know for sure, but Peter Capaldi’s Doctor may turn out to be my favorite AG Doctor.

I do think the writing during his era has been a tad inconsistent, although, as @jimthefish notes above, not nearly the number of stinkers as in the early RTD era.  For me, the writing was more consistently good during Matt Smith’s tenure — I only discovered the show for real in the summer of 2013, so I binged through the end of Series 7 and didn’t experience the loss of momentum that the Fish describes.

That said, while some of Capaldi’s episodes have been on the “meh” side, he has been consistently compelling — a lengthy Capaldi speech will elevate even a so-so episode, and turn the good episodes into great episodes (see, e.g., the end of Zygon Invasion/Inversion).

Highlights for me are Listen, Time Heist, and Flatline in Series 8, the The Girl Who Lived/Woman Who Died two-parter, Zygon two-parter, and Heaven Sent in Series 9 (as well as the GLORIOUS Christmas episode with River Song), and Thin Ice, Knock Knock, and the last four episodes of Series 10.  I probably would have considered Series 10 to be my favorite Capaldi season were it not for the fact that I really didn’t care for the monks three-parter.

Capaldi’s Doctor, for me, gets the best character arc out of the modern Doctors.  He begins surly and confused, spends some time being angry and superior, and ultimately re-learns how to have compassion and empathy in a way that allows him to connect with others again.  I thought that making him a college professor this last season was brilliant (and a perfect extension of the chalkboard stuff in Series 8) – he reads as a Doctor so in love with the universe that he just has to share it with everyone.

Nine could have had that arc, but could only do so much in 13 episodes (about half of which were pretty bad).  I would have loved to have seen what Eccleston would have done with the role if he’d gotten over himself and stuck around.  Ten had some wonderful moments, and Tennant is a stunningly good actor, but his Doctor is just too perfect for me.  Generally confident, generally genial, just gallivanting around the universe doing his thing.  My favorite Ten episodes are the ones where the facade slips and he loses it — Waters of Mars is the best example, but also Human Nature/Family of Blood and Midnight.  For a show to have stakes and drama, you have to really believe that the hero could fail, and I rarely felt that during the Ten era.  Eleven is equal parts wonderful and irritating — I thought Smith was at his best when he managed to portray an ancient, alien being in the body of a young guy (The Snowmen stands out in my head for that reason).  It helps to put the silliness in context — Ten and Eleven are masks in their own ways, while Nine and Twelve show you more of the raw pain beneath.

All of which is to say, Peter Capaldi’s portrayal of the Doctor has been a master class of acting.  I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to watch without seeing Malcolm Tucker, and now I’m already mourning the loss of his Doctor prospectively.

@jimthefish – As for your question about whether 12’s reluctance to regenerate will be seen as problematic, I have in my head a view of how the regeneration will go (based on Moffat’s comment that it will be “different”).  I assume that, by the end of the Christmas episode, 12 and 1 will have managed to convince each other that change is good and necessary, and 12 will no longer dread regeneration.  Then, I want to see his regeneration be much more peaceful — not fire and destruction like 10-11, or crash landing the TARDIS like 11-12.  Just a change, and 13 opens her eyes without confusion or dread, but in full awareness of her past and an eagerness to move forward.  Wouldn’t that be lovely?

[DrBen @replies]

@mirime – For all we know Gallifreyan has gender neutral terms and the Tardis just translates as appropriate to make sense to us. Bill points out that they still call themselves Time Lords despite the Doctor saying that they’re way beyond us on gender, but perhaps subtleties get lost in translation

Well, it’s certainly true in-universe that the Time Lords are a lot stuffier than the Doctor says they are, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the Doctor continues to be more progressive than his/her people.

@robynhod – I believe this will effect Jodie Whittaker’s career negatively , because most every actor who has played the Doctor has spent their career being Doctor Who # whatever. 

That’s demonstrably untrue, especially in the modern era.  David Tennant has had three successful TV shows since leaving Doctor Who (not counting Duck Tales), and Matt Smith was excellent as Prince Philip in The Crown.

More importantly, I think your question of “what right is he trying to wrong” is the wrong question.  It’s only those who disagree with the choice who seem to believe that it MUST be some sort of “statement” or political correctness run amok.  It’s just a casting choice.  Since the very first regeneration, DW writers and showrunners have struggled with how to keep the show innovative and attracting new viewers.  No one wants a TV show to remain the same for 50 years.  DW is a show in which the traditional elements (time-traveling alien, blue box, monsters, etc.) have been used as a jumping-off point for the ideas of the writers of that era — the Jon Pertwee era created a James Bond-like Doctor who knocked out monsters with Venusian Aikido chops and worked as a government operative; the Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy eras experimented with a less-trustworthy Doctor who was more alien and harder to figure out; the reboot gave us a Doctor crippled with remorse, who needed his companions more than his predecessors did; and the Matt Smith era added a layer of whimsy and fantasy, creating an entirely different tone than RTD’s show.  As I said earlier upthread, the constant change is what has enabled the show to survive for as long as it has.

So this is another change.  I don’t think it’s a “gesture” or a “statement” at all.  It’s a choice.  You’re welcome to disagree with the choice (not all choices made by DW writers and showrunners have been successful), but I personally think it’s silly not to at least wait and see what happens.

[DrBen @replies]

@craig – Oh how wonderful.  I am SO looking forward to just listening to her speak for the next 3+ seasons.

@jimthefish – I think it’s such a difficult balance between fan service and innovation.  I am certainly one of the first to get excited at a call-back to something I know (“Sontarans perverting the course of human history!”), but you are absolutely right that it can easily get the show into a rut.  Generally, however, I’m pretty pleased with the way they have handled it.  I had gotten pretty tired of the Cybermen during the whole Danny Pink thing at the end of S9, but then they got a break and were reintroduced in S11 so cleverly.  Even the Ice Warriors, who I’ve never found particularly interesting, were pretty compelling in the Victorians on Mars episode.

Even the new monsters can be overused.  The Weeping Angels are an excellent example – by having to raise the stakes each episode (an Angel on a TV screen can become a real Angel in your eye?  huh?), they creep towards the ridiculous.  Angels Take Manhattan held almost no menace because the monsters had been stretched beyond their usefulness.  In any event, I’m looking forward to seeing what the new crew comes up with.

[DrBen @replies]

@habemusdoctorem – Well, in BG Who, all the Doctors used received pronunciation until #7 (Sylvester McCoy), who got to use a hint of his native Scottish brogue.  Tom Baker, for example, is from Liverpool, but I doubt you could find any video of him speaking in his native accent.  I can’t recall any companions off the top of my head with regional accents, outside of Tegan being Australian and Peri putting on that ridiculous American accent.

Between 1988 and 2005, I gather that a lot changed in the UK regarding acceptance of regional accents.  Nine (Eccleston) had that beautiful Manchester accent.  Still not sure why Tennant put on an English accent, but I find him very difficult to understand in the Scottish accent, so maybe that’s why. 🙂

As an American Anglophile, I find all of this fascinating!

[DrBen @replies]

Agreed, @holodeckguy – I used subtitles for most of Capaldi’s first season.  The music is too damn loud!

I just love Yorkshire though.  Would love for her to refer to the TARDIS as “luv.”

[DrBen @replies]

@nick – Broadchurch was supposed to be a particular place, wasn’t it?  On DW, after all, lots of planets have a North.

[DrBen @replies]

So I haven’t seen Broadchurch or anything else Jodie Whittaker has been in.  Watching the “Adult Life Skills” trailer just now, however, has brought me to what is THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION:

Is she going to get to keep that wonderful Yorkshire accent?

[DrBen @replies]

@holly110 – It’s more about knowing your audience.  There are a ton of dark corners on the Internet where you can post about how much you hate this decision and how the show is ruined forever.  A quick perusal of this site, however, reveals a membership of people who view Doctor Who with enthusiasm and hope, who acknowledge its shortcomings but nevertheless exult in the joy of fandom.

There is negativity and there is disagreement, for sure — most people didn’t like the episode where the Moon was an egg, for instance, and no one was shy about saying so — but it’s a community of people who generally give the show the benefit of the doubt and are generally excited to see what will happen next.

Maybe Whittaker will be a failure as the Doctor.  Maybe Chibnall will be a crap showrunner.  Maybe the writing will be terrible.  I doubt it, but it’s possible.  But all of that is in the future and “I’m taking my ball and going home” comments are just unhelpful.

[DrBen @replies]

@juniperfish – That would be fun.  A lot of “my dear girl” and so on.  I have also missed Vastra and Jenny — I still very much want a “Paternoster Gang” spin-off series.  Clara and Ashildr could show up in their Diner-TARDIS for the occasional cameo.

@mirime – I suspect we’ve seen the last of Missy (in that form, at least) but boy would that be fun.  Missy would surely play up the “two best girlfriends” aspect for laughs, just to irritate the Doctor.

Missy: Want to borrow my eyeliner?
Doctor: Shut up.
Missy: Really, that coat is doing nothing for your figure.
Doctor: Shut up.
Missy: Let’s have a sleepover – I’ll braid your hair and we can talk about boy bands.
Doctor: Shut up.

[DrBen @replies]

@blenkinsopthebrave – Why aren’t we coming up with bonkers theories about S11?

Capital idea!  OK, here goes:

• The S11 premiere will have to deal with the elephant in the room.  The difficulty, however, is that the Doctor is now thoroughly alone with no one to say “you’ve changed!” — no Bill, no Nardole, no Missy, etc.  She can’t go immediately to Vastra & Jenny, because that would be a copy of Twelve’s first episode.  So my bonkers theory would be that the Doctor gets halfway through the episode before realizing she’s a woman – she meets new people, runs away from monsters, generally does Doctor-y stuff, and suddenly catches sight of herself in the mirror.
• The Doctor somehow learns of Missy’s death and is distraught.  She travels through the Master’s timeline to try to prevent it somehow, and learns that the Simm-Master does NOT regenerate into Missy (she’s further down the regeneration line, apparently) but into someone entirely different.  I vote Chiwetel Ejiofor, playing creepy efficiency as in Serenity.
• New companions are a teenage girl and her father.  Daughter is brilliant but surly, sees the Doctor as everything she wants to grow up to be.  Dad starts out as a daft mansplainer, ultimately learns to keep his mouth shut.

[DrBen @replies]

@frostfair – I agree that it will not be ignored.  Indeed, it is the elephant in the room, so to speak.  I only meant that I don’t think the Doctor’s gender switcheroo will impede her in any meaningful way.

[DrBen @replies]

The discussion (here and elsewhere) that “if we let things slip, the Doctor could just as easily be a cow or a dolphin or a small lump of green putty I found in my armpit one midsummer morning” reminded me of something important.  No, in fact the Doctor could NOT appear as another species, because it is canonical that Time Lords look human (or vice versa).  Viz:

Amy Pond: You look human.
The Doctor: No, you look Time Lord. We came first.
– Series 5, The Beast Below

So there are still rules (and the Doctor must be British, of course!).

@frostfair – I’m sure the Doctor will deal with historical sexism the way she deals with anything, by striding in like she owns the place and not taking any crap from anyone.

MARTHA: Oh, but hold on. Am I all right? I’m not going to get carted off as a slave, am I?
DOCTOR: Why would they do that?
MARTHA: Not exactly white, in case you haven’t noticed.
DOCTOR: I’m not even human. Just walk about like you own the place. Works for me.
— Series 3, The Shakespeare Code

[DrBen @replies]

Her “sexual bias”?

[DrBen @replies]

@glasgowboy

“This concerns the changing of a character that has been formed over 50 years.”

Perhaps you haven’t noticed, but Doctor Who is a television show about a character who LITERALLY CHANGES into a new person every few seasons.

[DrBen @replies]

@only1loki and others expressing similar thoughts:

[DrBen @replies]

Came in this morning specifically to post the “Times Doctor Who Was Ruined Forever” link but @serahni beat me to it!  If you haven’t clicked yet (here it is again), do so – it’s a good laugh and a little historical perspective.

As for the conversation about the Doctor’s (apparent) age, yes of course all explanations are after-the-fact justifications for casting choices, but I always liked the Tenth Doctor’s speech to the Fifth Doctor in the mini-sode “Time Crash” (sorry, no good video):

“You know, I loved being you. Back when I first started at the very beginning, I was always trying to be old and grumpy and important, like you do when you’re young. And then I was you, and it was all dashing about and playing cricket and my voice going all squeaky when I shouted. I still do that, the voice thing. I got that from you.”

So I think the Doctor’s (apparent) age says something about his personality and level of maturity at that particular time (which, like any of us, fluctuates).  Ten had taken on so much of the weight of the world on his shoulders but the end (Waters of Mars, for example, being one of my favorite episodes), that I think Eleven’s childish whimsy was a reaction in the other direction.  Similarly, by the end of Eleven’s time he was ready to grow up (after finally ceasing to run and actually settling down on a single planet for several hundred years), and we got Twelve’s surly grandpa.

Perhaps the same is true of his (her) gender.  Once we get a sense of Thirteen’s character, I think we will see another logical progression.

(Also, cheers @thane15 – happy to be back!)

[DrBen @replies]

Something else that occurred to me – What a wonderful challenge for an actor, to inhabit a character who has been externally male for several thousand years, with all the memories that go with it.

New Doctors have always struggled with the “who am I?” question and, with the right writing, that could be so much more interesting in this case.

[DrBen @replies]

YES!!!

Yes yes yes.

Honestly, I didn’t think the Beeb had the guts to do it, but I’m so glad it decided to take a risk. The best part of DW is that it’s a show that constantly reinvents itself while also respecting its own history. I think this is exactly the sort of kick in the pants the show needs now.  (I mean, if Tilda Swinton was unavailable.)

The worst part is that I now have to wait five months for her introduction, and then another four (?) for her real start on the show.

And to all of you heartbroken people who can’t even, I say :PPPPPPPPPPPP.

[DrBen @replies]

@wolfweed – A+.  I laughed out loud.

[DrBen @replies]

Hello all!  I can’t really add to your excellent comments on this week’s episode (I loved it!), so instead, here’s my wish list for what comes next:

— A mid-episode regeneration (next week, not at Xmas) that results in a completely unexpected Thirteenth Doctor, and THEN, through bonkers plot necessity, the new Doctor has to go back in time through the story, so that it becomes Thirteen and Twelve fighting TOGETHER to save Bill (through the Xmas episode).

— Redemption for Missy that leads simultaneously to her destruction AND to Simms-Master regenerating into Missy, culminating in Missy hatching her Cyberman plot from two seasons ago.

Is that too much to ask?

[DrBen @replies]

I’m chiming in even though I haven’t read all the comments, because otherwise I’ll never get the opportunity (absolutely slammed at work – never had the chance to comment on the thoroughly brilliant Heaven Sent last week).

I think this finale was wonderful.  It was not perfect — a fair amount of the story was unfocused, making it difficult to follow what was going on (the AV Club review sagely suggested that this was Moffat being coy about what the story was actually going to be about because Moffat likes being coy).  But the overall effect was brilliant, and the framing device at the diner was a wonderful setup leading to an even more wonderful twist.

I’m in the camp of those who agrees that this ending does not in any way cheapen Clara’s death-with-dignity in Face the Raven.  Rather, it is the culmination of her two-season arc to Become The Doctor — just like the Doctor has been at so many times, she was fully prepared to embrace death nobly BUT, having been presented with an out (or at least a delay), she takes it.  Nothing could be more Doctor-like.  And after all our comments from two seasons about Clara acting more and more like the Doctor, and bossing around her own companions (Rigsy, Jaq, the deaf woman from Before the Flood, etc.), Clara finally gets her wish — she is a mini-Doctor in a Tardis with her own companion!  Even with death looming someday (which it does for all of us), it’s the happiest of all happy endings for Clara.

I guarantee that someone even now is writing fanfiction for The Further Adventures of Clara and Ashildr in the Tardis Diner in which they visit Clara’s gal-pal Jane Austen for additional shenanigans.  It practically writes itself.

[DrBen @replies]

@kharis – I don’t think they’re after the TARDIS itself (after all, it’s an obsolete model with a busted chameleon circuit); rather, they wanted to make sure that it would be the Doctor who wielded the key and put his arm into the machine, thereby getting the teleporter thingy.

@nerys – Yup!

[DrBen @replies]

@kharis — Very thorough!

If (as it now appears), Ashildr is in league with the Time Lords (how else could the trap involve the TARDIS key?), it could very well be that it is the Time Lords who create and deploy the Nightmare Child.

As for the question of why the Doctor didn’t offer to take the quantum shade, my interpretation of “The Rules” was that the obligation could only be given away once, not passed around like a hot potato.  Just a thought.

Fascinated to see what happens in the next three episodes!

[DrBen @replies]

Oh, and also:  I liked how they treated Ashildr in this episode.  She was clearly playing with forces beyond her control, and her reaction when things got out of hand was great.  She was over-confident and it came back to bite her.

[DrBen @replies]

I only skimmed the posts here, cuz I wanted to get my own thoughts down quickly.

I loved this one, pretty much start to finish.  I fully disagree with those who say that Clara’s death was pointless or unnecessary.  Rather, Clara’s had a death wish since Danny died — that’s why she’s been acting so rashly, being so over-confident, taking so many risks.  She’s wanted to die all season, and didn’t realize it until now.  Finally all the risk-taking caught up to her, and she accepted it with aplomb and dignity.  It was beautifully written, shot, and acted.

My 12-year-old son pointed out, however, that they missed a golden opportunity by not having Clara’s last line be “Run, you clever boy, and remember.”  Totally agree.

And, actually, my only complaint (which is not the show’s fault) is the completely unavoidable spoilers everywhere.  Aside from the fact that it was widely announced that this would be Clara’s last season, I inadvertently saw several headlines earlier this week confirming that this was her swan song.  Why would you put that in the newspaper?!  So, because I knew that this episode would end with Clara’s death, it kind of removed the dramatic intensity of the moment.  Can you imagine how completely shattering it would have been if none of us had known she was going to die?  Wow.

No bonkers theorizing from me this week – I’m inclined to take this one at face value, and I’m looking forward to what comes next.

[DrBen @replies]

@geoffers – we had hardwired holograms* in ‘mummy on the orient express.’ maybe the rescue crew in this ep are those, as well?

This brings up a good point.  And thank you to everyone (@purofilion in particular) for all of your comments, which have forced me to rethink my opinion of this episode.  I still didn’t care for it, but I think now my reasoning is that, while I didn’t dislike any specific element of the episode (except, perhaps, the eye booger monster explanation), I actually think they didn’t go far enough with them.  To wit:

It Was All a Story:  Similar to what Geoffers says above, I would have liked the facade to be pulled back even further.  What if the entire rescue ship crew (including the “dead” ones) had appeared behind Rasmussen right at the end, revealing that they were in on the story the entire time?  In that context, the Doctor and Clara would essentially have materialized in the middle of (essentially) a tele-play, albeit one with a nefarious purpose.  I think that would have sold Gatiss’ meta intentions even better, and would have explained why all the rescue crew were stock characters.

The Doctor Failed:  I’m cool with the Doctor not always getting it right, but this could have been played up even more.  What if he’d been completely wrong in his “eye booger” hypothesis, and these are just evil alien creatures using a good story to infiltrate a population?  He’s so quick to make up his mind about what’s going on, and while we got to see some doubt and uncertainty, I think this could have been played up as well.

I read an interview with Gatiss about this episode, and it revealed a couple interested bits of information that explain a lot for me (it’s not spoilery, so don’t worry):

1. Gatiss pitched this story idea several years ago as one of several story ideas, and Moffat picked this one for this season.

2. Gatiss says that he tries to avoid season arcs and merely create standalone episodes, except when Moffat insists on certain elements (here, his direction was that Clara be more confident and independent).  1 and 2 explain why this episode didn’t quite seem to “fit” with what had come before.  I remember feeling the same way about Gatiss’ “Cold War”, which didn’t seem to follow what had come before.  I guess I’ve been spoiled with season arcs. 🙂

3. This had originally been conceived as a two-parter, but was shortened to one episode when he came up with the found-footage conceit, because they figured they couldn’t keep that up over two episodes.  This explains to me why the informational parts of the episode (both the exposition and the conclusion) felt rushed to me.

So I’m starting to sound like a retread, but this is productive for me.  Thanks for humoring me.

[DrBen @replies]

@nerys – Here’s the best I can work out about the ending.  The story we were made to believe for most of the episode was as follows:

— Rasmussen creates Morpheus Mk. 2 machines.  Something about the machines causes your eye boogers to evolve into Sandman creatures who want to eat people.

— Rasmussen is somehow under psychic control by these monsters, and intends to use the “man who hasn’t slept for five years” (who turns out just to be another Sandman) to infect all of Neptune and give the Sandman creatures more people to eat.

— The Doctor sort of stops the plan, because Nagata kills Rasmussen and the Doctor shuts off the grav things, which causes the Sandman things to erode.  Fin.

The twist at the end, as best as I can follow, is:

— Surprise! Rasmussen is not dead, but is actually a Sandman creature himself (so why can he see and appear to be a person?)

— The virus is not in the Morpheus pods, but is in the electronic glitches in the video he’s editing on the fly.

— He’s made up the whole story to make a Blair Witch-style horror viral video that everyone will watch and be infected by the electronic glitches.

— Therefore, apparently, the Doctor has lost and humanity is doomed (as are we all).

But so, if Rasmussen made it up, which parts did he make up?  Presumably the rescue was a set up, as was the killing off of all of the rescue crew.  The Sandmen, apparently, are real, and still want to eat everyone.  So is the only lie that the “virus” is in the video itself and not the pods?  I suppose that could be some kind of message about how viral videos get in our heads, but if so, it’s a complete retread of The Ring, which came out like 10 years ago.

Am I missing something?

[DrBen @replies]

@pedant – The the Black Hats realise they can pulverise the glass to powder and spread it in crop dusters  to create an all pervasive surveillance system.

Part of my disappointment was that I was predicting something along the lines of what you mentioned.  The Morpheus pods reminded me of the sleeping drugs Soma in Brave New World and Somec in The Worthing Saga (although obviously with the reverse effect), and the whole productivity speech immediately made me think of a Big Brother-like police state.  When we learned that the sleep dust (eye boogers, whatever) were being hacked into, my immediate reaction was that it was a fascist total surveillance plot.  That, to me, would have been more interesting than what we ultimately got.  I guess bonkers theorizing can sometimes have its down sides. 😉

To clarify, there was certainly a lot to like about this episode.  I want to begin all conversations with “May the Gods look favorably upon you.”  And my disappointment wasn’t with the experimental nature of the episode or the found-footage conceit – it was that the underlying story (eye-booger monsters) was too weak and underdeveloped to sustain the episode, and the ending made literally no sense.

I’m not angry – every Doctor Who season has had at least one dud (and, of course, opinions differ about which episodes are duds and which are not), and it would be unrealistic to expect otherwise, from Doctor Who or any other show.  I love Star Trek: TNG, for example, but there are a TON of bad episodes.

In any event, I have faith in the powers that be that there are elements in Sleep No More that will prove to be important later on, and that certain events in the last three episodes will provide context for this episode in retrospect.  We’ll see.

[DrBen @replies]

@purofilion – I took no offense.  Even I reacted strongly to those who announced that they had joined the forum JUST to tell everyone how much this episode sucked.  Why would you do this?

Anyway, I didn’t *hate* this episode (the only DW episode I actually hated was “Fear Her”), but I didn’t love it either.  I know Gatiss is capable of better.  I didn’t think the storyline was smart enough to deserve the twist ending, and the ending itself (as I said) made very little sense.

Regardless, I don’t have to love every episode, and I’d rather they take risks and occasionally fail than never take risks at all.

[DrBen @replies]

This one just didn’t work for me.  Much of the story seemed like a retread (two base-under-siege stories in one season?), and the found footage aspect was more of a distraction for me than an enhancement.

And really, can someone explain to me what the hell happened?  Rassmussen faked the whole thing in order to create a Blair Witch-style horror movie that the people of Neptune will want to watch, into which is embedded… what, some sort of virus?… in the video glitches?  So which parts are real and which are faked?  Is the Doctor just plain wrong about the “sleep boogers in the corner of your eye evolve into a monster” thing?  (And really, that’s about the weakest explanation for a monster I’ve seen in AG Who.)  Is the human race doomed now because the Doctor failed to guess what was really going on?  Seriously, what the hell?

You all know that I am generally an enthusiastic supporter of DW, and able to look past a lot of issues and still enjoy myself.  But this one was a complete mystery to me.

[DrBen @replies]

@blenkinsopthebrave – Ah I see.  I think we can assume that Bonnie/Osgood’s darkest days are ahead of her.  Nine was still able to be outwardly cheerful despite having just (apparently) slaughtered his entire race, but the guilt and remorse were there nonetheless.

I think we can say Bonnie/Osgood is “good” because of the choices she chooses to make, regardless of what has happened in the past.  That’s all any of us can do really.

[DrBen @replies]

@blenkinsopthebrave – I understand the point, but what purpose would be served by punishing Bonnie?  Any action against her would cause more hostilities from the separatist Zygons.  The only path to peace involved a blank slate.

Something else I forgot to mention earlier.  The Doctor’s throwaway line of “that’s what you said the first 14 times” (or something) is tremendously significant and chilling.  That means that the Doctor has been in that room, making that same impassioned speech, and that 14 times in a row, somebody pushed a button anyway.  That’s an all-too-true metaphor for high-stakes conflict resolution – a 1-in-15 success rate if you’re lucky.  The Doctor, thankfully, had a reset button, but that’s usually not the case.

[DrBen @replies]

@nerys – Agreed.  BUT, we re-watched Name of the Doctor last night after Zygon Inversion, and there is still some sort of connection between River and Clara that remains unexplored.

[DrBen @replies]

Completely brilliant and I can’t stop thinking about it.

Peter Capaldi has brought so much to this character, and his acting is revelatory.  As fond as I am of Ten and Eleven, neither could have pulled off that tour-de-force speech at the end of this episode.  Their Doctors were cagier, more used to hiding behind artifice, speechifying for its own sake rather than as a matter of desperate persuasion (for this reason, my favorite Ten and Eleven moments are when the artifice cracks — Ten in Waters of Mars, Eleven’s post-Amy depression, etc.).  By contrast, Twelve has an emotional immediacy that his predecessors lacked – underneath the puns and the cynical retorts, Twelve’s true feelings are always just beneath the surface, ready to explode with the right provocation.  (That said, Nine certainly had the capacity for rage and pain to deliver much of this speech, but he was still relearning love and compassion at the time of his regeneration.)  We’ve heard everyone in the modern series (War Doctor included) recount their experiences during the Time War, but I don’t think I’ve ever felt it as deeply as Twelve expressed it.  The senseless brutality of it all, the complete lack of purpose.  That amazing scene was the product of the amazing evolution of this character, and of Peter Capaldi’s unbeatable acting chops.  I was riveted.

Here’s my underdeveloped Clara theory (cribbed in part from others on this forum):  Clara is a bootstrap paradox that, before the end of the season, will cease to have ever existed.  Similar to those who say there is no Clara Prime, we will learn relatively soon that either Clara or the Doctor played a role in bringing Clara into being in the first place (I don’t think she *is* the Doctor, but there is something of him in her).  This might connect with Ashildr, or River, but Clara’s existence will be revealed to be entirely cyclical.  I keep thinking of the bit from Death in Heaven where she says “Clara Oswald never existed.”  In some respect, subconsciously at least, she knows that is true.

With any paradox or self-repeating circle, you pull one thread and the whole thing falls apart.  I think the Clara Ouroborous will eat its own tail and swallow itself whole, leaving nothing remaining.  This won’t be a “Turn Left” scenario where Clara’s absence from the universe will change a bunch of things (mainly because that’s been done); rather, her particular Clara-ness will become integrated such that her presence is felt without her existence being necessary.  Perhaps she will become integrated with the Doctor (hybrid!), and everything she’s done will have been done by him instead, and he will have well and truly been alone for years.  Can you imagine anything more tragic?

[DrBen @replies]

I wonder if there’s any significance to the fact that we had the Nightmare Scenario right on the heels of the Knightmare herself.

[DrBen @replies]

A random thought.  This occurred to me when Osgood was first introduced in Day of the Doctor, but I haven’t thought much about it since.

However, now that there are all these hints about the bootstrappiness of Clara’s existence and whether or not other characters may or may not be related to her (or be her), what do we think about the similarity in names between Clara OSwin OSwald and OSgood?

[DrBen @replies]

@lisa – 1. When I think about the idea of an older man talking o 2 young girls
and then they get snatched well just saying that it felt unnerving and i cant decide
if I think that scene is courageous or crude

I actually found this scene very funny, in the way that it flipped expectations.  I expected the Doctor to be mistaken, and to look like a fool (or worse, a creep) by freaking out two innocent girls at a playground – as a sign of his alien denseness about proper human interaction.  I was honestly surprised when he turned out to be right about them being the Zygon commanders.

[DrBen @replies]

And now for the ramblings of Dr Ben, in no particular order:

I agree with those who say that the message and symbolism were laid on a bit thick.  Not because I disagree with the message, or because I think such political issues are inappropriate for DW, but rather because I found myself being pulled out of the drama and instead playing a game of “spot the reference” (that is, identifying each line or plot point that is a direct parallel to something in our current xenophobic crisis).  The hostage videos, the “splinter group”, the “radicalization”, the fact that they’re more difficult to kill when they look like us, the downing of an airplane with an anti-aircraft weapon, etc.  We had to pause a lot to explain to the 12-year-old that this is stuff that is really happening in the world right now.

That said, I think they missed an opportunity that would have been nice.  They mention that the “bad” Zygons are a small group, and most want to live in peace, but I think it would’ve been nice to show that — maybe include a “good” Zygon character who is trying to assimilate, and is caught up in negative sentiment against Zygons in general.  (Although, given the current theorizing, it could well be that one or more of the characters we’ve already met is a good Zygon in disguise.)

Honestly, I tend to find the modern UNIT episodes a bit hard to follow, perhaps because I keep getting distracted by how inept they seem for a huge covert international organization.  This season in particular, they’ve seemed incapable of getting anything right, and I still don’t understand why they would grant any authority to Clara, who is (at most) the Doctor’s pal.  This one was a bit confusing because the action was happening on three different fronts in three different countries, which didn’t seem to be adequately explained.  (Drawing a line from the phrase “truth or consequences” to the actual NM town seemed a bit of a stretch.)

The 127 missed calls didn’t strike me as suspicious.  I imagine that the Doctor (lacking social graces) is the type who would simply call over and over until you pick up, so I figured that those 127 missed calls happened just during the time Clara was on the motorcycle from work to home.

I liked the episode overall, and I’m interested to see how they wrap it up next week.  Osgood was well handled – I like that her character is being taken more seriously.  And the question marks were a hoot.  The two Osgoods, representing the peace process itself, reminded me of Tom Robbins’ “Skinny Legs and All”, in which one of the big points is that the Israelis and the Palestinians have ancestors (and gods) in common, and are basically two sides of the same coin.

Regarding the Tarot: I kept thinking of the Wheel of Fortune card which, to me, is often about duality.  On opposite sides of the wheel are light and dark, good and evil, man and woman, etc.  Depending on the spin of the wheel, you never know what you will get in a particular moment.

[DrBen @replies]

@blenkinsopthebrave – Well, I envisage a scenario where Ashildr will be there to stop the Doctor from saving Clara. In other words, to allow Clara to fulfill her destiny.

Oh Master Blenkinsop, what a beautiful thought.  For the Doctor to be in a position (yet again) to save Clara’s life, and for Ashildr, with her (by then) 1100 or so years of life, convincing him that the kinder choice is to let her go rather than prolong the inevitable.  It’s poetic – bravo.

I also envision this as being part-and-parcel of the whole Clara-as-bootstrap-paradox thing, and her death will reverberate across centuries, with shots of Claricles from all times and places, as the singularity collapses upon itself, so to speak.

Would make a boffo season ender.

[DrBen @replies]

@jimthefish – You are correct that that never gets old!  It’s funny – when Capaldi was announced, I thought I would never be able to unsee Malcolm Tucker.  Now that he’s been the Doctor for over a year, I’m having trouble the other way!  Why is the Doctor in a suit swearing at people?

@kharis – The (K)Nightmare Child thing is tantalizing.  I can easily picture Twelve putting it together (“you’re just a child!”) and interspersing clips of the last three Doctors saying “nightmare child”.  Could be chilling.

And I’m wavering on the Clara’s mom thing — after all, it wouldn’t be the first time Ashildr had faked her own death.

[DrBen @replies]

@kharis — Point well taken about how Ashildr could probably alter her face/voice with technology.  Totally plausible.

Tangent: @pedant taking someone to task for misspelling his name is, as they say over at Metafilter, “eponysterical”. 🙂

Presumably the X-rated Doctor Who outtake would also include Capaldi employing some of the language that made him so famous as Malcolm Tucker.

[DrBen @replies]

I greatly enjoyed this episode, and again, my comments are going to come out as stream of consciousness and replies to what I’ve read here, most of which will be un-tagged because I can never remember who said what.  You’ve been warned.

— @missy – I disagree.  I think her acting was quite good.  She shows a tremendous self-possession for such a young actress, and other than a slightly distracting head wobble, she didn’t have much in the way of tics that young actors tend to have.  I thought she subtly conveyed a pretty wide range of emotions, and as the folks at the A.V. Club pointed out, there’s absolutely nothing of last week’s Ashildr in this week’s performance, underlining just how much the character has lost.

— I would not have made this a two-parter.  I would have left last week’s episode as-is, stuck another two episodes after, and THEN come back to Ashildr’s story.  I think that was a missed opportunity to convey the sheer length of time Ashildr has had to endure.  Felt too much like a fast-forward to jump right there.

— I thought the greatest idea of the week was that an immortal with a human-sized brain would necessarily forget the vast majority of her experiences.  That really rings true and is a completely terrifying thought.

— My other favorite part of this episode was the guitar break near the end.  As a musician, I can fully relate to the fact that there is some melancholy that can only be expressed through a good E-minor chord.  The contrast between this and the previous punk-rock power chords communicated as much about the Doctor’s mental state as anything that came out of Capaldi’s mouth.

— Speaking of which, Capaldi continues to blow me away with the detail and nuance in his performance.  He inhabits the character so fully that his performance just drips with subtext.  Like watching a master class in Shakespeare.

— My whole family (including me) fan-girled at the Jack Harkness reference.  Bring back Jack!

— @kharis – Spectacular commentary, both on Ashildr as the Strength card (I had the same thought), and the amazing catch on her outfit at the end (which I never would have caught in a million years).  I am with those (@janetteB most recently) who believe that Ashildr is not necessarily Clara’s mom, but that the clothing is no accident.  I remain convinced that Clara will be shown to be a bootstrap paradox, somehow having created her own existence (or the Doctor having done so).  I suppose it’s not out of the question that she could be Clara’s mom (and the Doctor’s visits to Clara’s childhood could have been clouded by his terrible memory for faces), but I suspect that the solution will be more bizarre.

— I’m slightly dismayed by Ashildr’s intention to protect the Doctor’s discarded humans, just because such a large-scale pronouncement raises questions that the show clearly has no intention of answering (Why didn’t Ashildr protect Donna so that she wouldn’t have to have her memory wiped?  Did she show up in Aberdeen with a car to pick up Sarah Jane?).  I suppose a simple answer could be that Ashildr is unaware of the principal of regeneration, and hasn’t connected those other fellows to the Doctor she knows.  But it’s not a terribly satisfying answer.  It’s a huge declaration for the purpose of a small in-show impact (whatever she’s planning for Clara).  But I’ll get over myself.

— My only eye-rolling bit was the fact that Ashildr perfected a deep male voice (clearly a different actor) by “practice”.  Cop out.  Also, my wife and 12-year-old groaned at the reappearance of the Sonic Shades.

Overall, a strong episode, and I look forward to seeing how everything plays out.

 

[DrBen @replies]

@purofilion – What’s your opinion @jphamlore of the Orson paradox?

I’m not @jphamlore but shall answer nonetheless.

I am 90% convinced at this point (although I would welcome being surprised) that Moffat has no intention of answering the remaining questions he asked in “Listen”.  I think this is not sloppy writing, but rather fits in completely with the theme of the episode — sometimes it’s all in your head.

With Danny’s death, I think we are left to draw the conclusion that Orson has nothing to do with Clara — either he is a descendant of Danny’s from a sibling’s line, or he is completely unrelated to Danny and the Tardis merely selected someone with the same name and a similar face.  Either way, any resemblance to Danny Pink is purely coincidental (or all in your head).

Same goes for the thing in the bed.  Any answer would be ultimately less satisfying than the mystery itself.

[DrBen @replies]

@mirime – Yes and no.  Adelaide Brooks, after all, felt very strongly that history needed to play out the way it was supposed to.  I think that was more about the Doctor’s God complex – realizing that he was letting bad things happen to good people because of rules that he felt no longer applied to him.

Here, a bigger difference was that he was directly responsible for Ashildr’s death.  I agree with those who said that he knew what he was asking her to do when he put on that helmet – he probably had that healing chip idea in the back of his mind before he put the plan into action, and the rest was convincing himself to use it.

I thought this episode was primarily about the war between the Doctor’s head (“these people having been dead for centuries and there is no point in getting involved”) and his hearts (“I’ve never met a person who wasn’t important”).

[DrBen @replies]

So much to say!  This was actually my favorite episode so far this season, and perhaps my favorite episode since Flatline or Orient Express.  None of the historical inaccuracies bothered me at all, as the monster-of-the-week plots are increasingly employed as a means to advance the character development and the larger arcs.

And oh what a reveal at the end!  The bit where Ashildr stood in the middle as countless ages proceeded behind her was fascinating, especially with the simple and effective transition in her face from joy to rage.  She is clearly not happy with the Doctor’s cavalier decision to grant her quasi-immortality.

And why not?  The references to Jack Harkness have already been mentioned, but my initial thought was of Claudia in Interview with the Vampire (played by the 12-year-old Kirsten Dunst in the movie), and of the horrible implications of being trapped as a child for all eternity.  (Maisie Williams, of course, is 18, but looks much younger.)  And to be left on her own as her civilization collapses, having to make her own way for centuries while looking like a teenaged girl – yikes.  I’ll bet she’s angry.

Shades of “Time Lord Victorious” in this episode, but with a wholly different feel.  While Ten in “The Waters of Mars” was basically completely unhinged by the thought of letting history take its course in that particular instance, Twelve views his predicament as freeing in a way — as an old rebel, he is used to breaking the rules and getting away with it, so why pretend he doesn’t?

Regarding the comments about Twelve’s aging-rock-star look (t-shirt, hoodie, and shades), I’d draw a parallel between Eleven, who appeared outwardly young but dressed old, and Twelve, who appears outwardly older but dresses young.  I think this says something about their particular characters — Eleven felt a weight of responsibility despite his apparent youth, while Twelve conveys a certain air of “not giving any f***s” that can only come with (apparent) age.

That said, Twelve is clearly still troubled by the choices he makes.  The defining moment of the episode for me was the better-left-unsaid fact that he could have given Clara one of those immortality patches and chose not to.  On one hand, this can be interpreted as the Doctor truly believing that immortality is more of a curse than a blessing, and not wishing that on Clara.  On the other hand, I think the Doctor may be a bit of a hypocrite, and ultimately not as sorry to lose people as he says he is.  His outburst about watching other people die was moving, but at the same time, he bristles at the names of former companions, and lives in an eternal now (ironically, for a Time Lord).  An immortal (or even mostly immortal) companion, I think, would represent a narrowing of options that the Doctor simply couldn’t handle.  I think there is a dark part of him that recognizes that, ultimately, he will always get a reset.

Which brings me to Clara.  While I am definitely ready for her exit, I think she has become one of the most interesting and flawed companions of the series (old and new).  Not idealized like Rose or Amy, or basically a good person like Martha or Donna, Clara’s motives are far more unclear.  The Doctor increasingly finds her cavalier attitude towards danger to be disturbing (perhaps because it echoes his own), and her repeated insistence that the Doctor will always have a plan eventually is beginning to grate.  In my opinion, she has reacted to the loss of Danny by shutting down emotionally, becoming more a thrill junkie than ever.  This is dangerous and cannot end well.

[Author]

Posts