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Whisht — thanks!  It’s all kind of exploding confetti inside the skull right now — with a stressful home situation at last resolved, I’m getting lots more sleep, and cutting back on stupid tranq dose as well.  I’s as light as possible, but just cutting a pill in half seems to be boosting energy, and also endlessly fractally budding brain activity, all pleasing but also chaotic.  I’m not usually this disorganized in my thinking, but as that’s what seems to be going on, I’m happy to ride with it; having a bit of company to play with helps tons!

Sweet dreams — no face-crabs need apply.

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Lisa (and everybody) — I am hanging out here way too much (speaking of addictions!), so many good thoughts flying around, for which thanks of my now.  Only  “procrastination” isn’t my middle name any more; it’s my first name, thanks to alla you guys here.

MUST go buy cat food.  They insist.

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Arbutus — I missed your post, so unwittingly doubled your take on the tangerine — it is nicely ambiguous, isn’t it?  Santa is real and delivered a momentus gift to our friends — or he isn’t and didn’t, and for all we know one or both of them are still dreaming . . . There are probably camera things you can do to manipulate P.O.V. into telling us whose dream it is, but that would be oh so complicated.  At the end, though, P.O.V. says it’s maybe Santa’s dream!  Looking out through the window and down on the Tardis, after leaving his signature.  Not for me — I’m allergic to the things, although I had no trouble scarfing down clementines in Italy a couple of decades ago, and I think those are Italian tangerines.

Loved that “Brave” from D.  This was Danny showing a kind of courage D really respects because it doesn’t involve battlefields but relationships, *so* much more difficult and more so for D than for regular humans anyway.  Respect is a point on which the natural Officer and the actual soldier can meet without clashing (at least in Clara’s dream).  Dead, maybe not, so a longer exchange between the two of them is probably not on the menu.  Which is too bad.  I think now that some serious talk between D and Danny alone earlier on would have made Danny a lot more acceptable (and even likable) for many viewers who talk about how much they hate Danny.  They don’t — what’s to hate?  I think they’re reacting to the constriction of the character, in large part by his lack of direct connection with D.  Of course, if they’d had some contact before, that would have taken away from the “big reveal” of Danny’s massive gesture of accepting command of the cyber-army from D and turning the army into a means of rescue for humanity.

Funny how easily we lose sight of the fact that no, you can’t have everything: every decision *for* something is also a decision *against* a myriad of other possibilities (unless you’re a Time Lord, I suppose — but then you save your ability to make two opposite decisions about the same thing for moments like The Moment), or you’d spend *all* your time reviewing and revising every decision to get to the “outcome” you discover in retrospect that you really wanted.

Which assumes that there is “an outcome” of every decision, when there isn’t.  There is a widening field of outcomes that goes on for a very long time, spreading and spreading like the moving rings outward from a splash in water.  And that’s as far as I can think it, which suggests that I am certainly not the stuff of which Time Lords are made . . . too much pudding, not enough brain.

 

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Papermoon — that damned tangerine on the windowsill — I think it’s a reply to D’s question just before he follows Clara into the Tardis at the end: she says it’s nice to see him smile for a change; he says something like, well look, here’s a second chance (for us, out from under dream crabs 62 yrs later, but you’re your young self again); I never get second chances, so how come there’s this one?  “I don’t even know who to thank!”

Camara draws back, and there’s the tangerine on the windowsill, which I read as “Your second chance is what Santa brought you and Clara for Xmas.”

But where does *that* leave us, in terms of where the dream envelope of all the other dreams inside began and ended?

 

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bluesqueak — love the class confusing the Rector about Heaven —

Lefty — yep, like your idea of a conversation bw the Doctor and Danny, now that the Doctor seems to have at least stepped over his anti-soldier hang-up and into a more reasonable space on the subject.  I’m sorry Danny’s gone, although I hadn’t much use for him until he showed his true and admirable colors at the end.

And yeah, the Doctor may have already regained some of *his* balance (MissyMaster almost knocked him on his keester with that kiss, didn’t she?) with the moral question (Of course you’re a good man, you idiot) as settled as it ever gets.  And he’s not one to go off alone and think about it, too much fizzy energy, strong action orientation even though for him “action” often = or includes thought, more than for most of us.  So where’s he gone, and how long will he have been away when Season 9 begins (in terms of Clara-time)?

More importantly, *what does he know*?  Was he really in the LC group dream, or did Clara imagine him there for the comfort of healing the breach between them, if only in her sleep?  If so, then that breach *is* healed, and (providing she’s taken enough deep breaths to clear her head and maybe even her heart a bit and be ready to move on) Clara is really up for more adventures (she’s made her choice — but, in the dream, or after it ended?), and there’s no reason for him not to turn up at breakfast, have a crumpet, and whisk her off somewhere right from the get-go, with an occasional wistful look-back at Season 9 and its ending.

But if the dream was Clara’s dream, from sucker-face or otherwise, and no healing of the breach occurred in waking life, where do we all stand now?  If LC was 100% Clara’s dream, with no actual Doctor involvement, then as far as he knows, they are done (signed, sealed and delivered each to their seperate lives on the basis of two whopping, uncorrected lies), and he has no reason to come back.  On the other hand, if any part of the dream was real, chances are they both know they’ve been in touch and in trouble together since the Cafe of Lies, and they would have reason to meet and try to hash out what the hell *actually( happened, and where to go from there over — not coffee, for god’s sake, the Doctor runs hot and high strung as it is, how the hell is coffee a positive addition?  Decaf?  Yuck.  Probably not crumpets, either — sugar high (or has that been disproven?).

I wasn’t thinking of Clara having a breakdown, really, but needing a *rest* — which, of course, is not what traveling with D is going to get her, no matter what their intentions.  I like your idea that he would prescribe action, an adventure, to counter brooding on her part: the “let’s go!” of the dream would become “let’s go!” in reality, preferably “go” someplace far, far away for a change, to do a bit of “helping out”.

Oh, I can see the Obscuritant holiday parade now — don’t forget the blindfold (gauzy, so you can *sort* of see through) — but what comes to mind is the Autumn whatever-they-call-it parade in Seattle, their version of Halloween — I want once, loved it, very fey and imaginative and gothicky stuff.  They would have to suspend their Rule of Brevity so the parade wouldn’t be too short to bring out spectators (but being Obscuritants, they have trouble discerning the nature of the Rule of Brevity, so it is most often ignored — oh, shut up, shut up, shut up, me, shuttety-up-up-up for crying out loud).  I do have the Sandman comics around here somewhere, but haven’t read them in years, but they’re certainly apposite; Gaiman has done a script or two for DW, hasn’t he?  Are Sleep and Death Invisibles?  I don’t remember . . .

signed,

Jesus of Gallifrey (definitely not visible)

 

 

 

 

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Lisa — Really good point, thanks — yes, if it was all (the whole body of the dreamindream story of Last Christmas) a dream, then no, she would not want to wake up from it (good heavens, what *for*, given the super-wish fulfillment nature of her dream — never gonna get *that* in waking life!).

Puro — Thanks for the friendly welcome, and not to worry about the wine, one way or another — a glass with dinner is about it, since I really can’t afford the time for a 2 hr. wine-nap in the evening, so moderation is simply required.  As for writing here — I have a “noisy” head (nothing unusual in that, lots of people do, which is why various forms of meditation are so popular, in an attempt to quiet the chatter of the monkey-mind), and one way to calm it down is to grab onto something really rich to think about; and Doctor Who is an excellent Rx for that.  I’m more likely to over-think it than not, at least for some tastes, but I really like thinking about the stuff I like thinking about, and thinking through fingers+keyboard in a congenial atmosphere is about as good as it gets.

So je suis et j’y reste, no fooling; with lots of writing (how *else* are we to pass the almost interminable wait for the next season?!).  Lots of good heads around here = huge bonus

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Oh, yikes, please go here if you can!

http://www.reddit.com/r/doctorwho/comments/2rbhx0/a_unique_problem_for_pastors_who_are_doctor_who/

I can’t stop laughing —

 

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lisa — Well, the next season will likely show us how Clara sees her choices now that Danny is — so far as we know — very, very dead, gone with the collapsing Nethersphere.  Realistically speaking, since Season 8 was in part about the Doctor dealing with several levels of PTSD — a very sharp regeneration from, say, State D to State O (that is, quite a reach) and its resultant confusions, plus whatever he’s carrying from the war and his part(s) in it that makes him react so harshly to Danny-the-soldier, I wouldn’t be surprised if Clara now has her own shock-wave of experience and emotions to try to come to terms with.

But this is fantasy, so she’s left with one very complex and more than usually frightening choice (bc. of all the Death in Heaven uproar, so who knows what crazy, scary, totally unpredictable stuff might come next in the Doctor’s company?), which is to get into the box and try to fly away from it all.  The Danny choice is gone, and would returning to teaching at Coal Hill be attractive without Danny?  Repellent because always reminding her of Danny and her failure to rescue him?  Or she might ask the Doctor to take her to some (supposedly) quiet and restful place to recover from all this (ah, the planet of the bushes sounds likely– ? ); or he might just do that on his own, hoping to get some quiet recuperation time for himself too, and to put some buffering distance between Clara and whatever fall-out might be coming from DIH (can he really believe for a moment that MissyMaster is truly dead and gone?).

Or he could select one of his most troubling past “mistakes” and go see if there’s anything he can do about it: “And now for something completely different!” sort of therapy, for himself or for both of them.  Truth to tell, I don’t see them traveling together for a while — too much shock, maybe disappointment in each other over the outcome, but also a much deeper and stronger bond between them on the level of war buddies who’ve been through WWIII driving the same tank — and that itself might be too uncomfortable for one or both of them.  You don’t just get in your car and drive away from the Tunguska Incident, with or without your companion.  No shock waves = selling your story short and mashing your characters down to “Flatline” dimensions.

But my own preferences in fiction are for the developments that happen among the affected characters in *between* the Big Events.  That’s where you begin to see the true impact of the violence etc. that has occurred, IMO.  That’s where people start to grow and change: in between the flashes of lightning and booms of thunder, or after the immediate crisis is over.

I like your idea that what Clara needs is a “gang” of her own to support her in whatever she does next; not sure the Doctor will have the energy and focus to help with that.  Maybe Shona & crew, or just Shona, joining the Tardis passenger manifest?  If Clara and the Doctor do continue to travel together, I agree that it would help (and be interesting) to have someone new in there trying to help (or hinder) the establishment of a new balance of some kind.  In character terms, I think Dark Water and DIH left us with a super cliff-hanger, and you’ve put your finger right on it: What now?

 

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Whoa nsgirl13 — Clara’s dad is Dave?  Not Shona’s Dave, surely?  That’d be timey-wimey with knobs on.  Any other “Daves” lurking around out there?  I like Shona; I hope she has a future with the show.

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Barbara Lefty: just so.  It seems very unfair to me that people (well, some fans etc.) get all judgmental about Clara for her “dishonesty”, good God!  Seriously!  It’s a tightrope walk she’s been doing, and not at all badly, I’d say, trying not to hurt Danny’s obviously quite vulnerable feelings, and as for the Doctor, who the Hell knows what might hurt *his* feelings and what would not, assuming you’d rust your own judgment as to what those feelings were — and *that’s* assuming that *he* knows.  I mean, the creature has not one heart to figure out, but TWO.  As it were.

I think I’m some sort of Obscuritantist (made up word, how’s that for wods!) at heart (just one).  I think we live an enormous proportion of our lives in a shared mystery play, unsure of our own feelings and intentions, but sure we can read the feelings and intentions of others around us when a good deal of the time we are mistaken in both cases.  Not to mention what goes on in our heads when we sleep and dream (and remember, or not, after we wake).  It’s just astonishing to me that we stir from one spot at all — people blather on about faith in this, faith in that, when almost every step we take is taken on stilts, half blindfolded and wearing earmuffs!  We see what we want to see, hear what we want to hear, and somehow most of us stagger to our conclusion in some semblance of order anyway.  Talk about miracles!  We are them.

That’s why we are so eager to look to art for glimpses of creative perception (a Sandman comic book, the Sistine Chapel, a beautiful dressage round, a Coldplay song, take your pick) into the continual chaos we live in what, if anything, it all “means”.

Can you tell I’ve had wine with my dinner?  Well, I have.  This is what happens . . . good thing two glasses put me to sleep.

 

 

 

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Ah, Pratchett . . . what an excellent idea!  I know exactly where to put my hand on it, on the shelf in the, er, well, the cats’ room. I shouldn’t let them hang around with Pratchett books — they little f**kers are too damn smart already . . . on the other, hand, they also make me laugh, a very Pratchett-like attribute and much appreciated.

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[[@Bluesqueakpip Totally agree with 99% of your thoughts but not on board with the rock bottom part
[maybe]? This is because Clara sets high standards for herself.]]

Thinking about Clara’s lies: I’m thinking that most of those lies are responses to specific situations that threaten her idea of herself and her ambitions — it’s not just a regular sort of childish lying-by-habit, so far as I can see.  She lies to Danny and the Doctor in order to protect and preserve he access to two kinds of living, one of which she will have to choose over the other — but she’s putting off the choice as long as she can.  With whatever lies she can come up with at the time.  For me, this makes the lying less reprehensible: I’d lie too, if I had a great guy at work who made me feel safe and loved and normal, but also a charismatic alien on the side, a man-like person with a spaceship who’s essentially my pusher with regard to my adrenaline rush addiction along with forcing me to grow by means of the challenges he presents — as well as granting me my own air of mystery by virtue of the fact that a lot of the time he obviously doesn’t understand me at all.

I try very hard to keep my access open to both, and if lying helped me do that, I’d lie.  And, of course, watching the Doctor operate is itself a crash course in lying to get the result you want in any situation.

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“Timescape” has always struck me as the perfect example of time travel as tragedy.

[[[SPOILERS]]]] for the book.

It illustrates an idea of heroism that I hadn’t really seen dealt with that much in my reading at the time and didn’t see stated outright until I read a novel about European vampires in the Southwest by a “Native American” author who was, I think, and academic and brought his novel, “Eye Killers”, through the Oklahoma University Press.  In this book locals here in my town chase down bad guys with the help of an old shaman from one of the pueblos, and he reminds them (in word and deed) that for some groups, a hero is the person who goes to meet the enemy, defeats it, and sends something of value home; but he (or she) does not return.  The essence of this hero is leaving to do a dangerous job, doing it, and dying in the process, which is just what he (or she) knew was going to happen or expected to happen.  No celebrations for you, bub; no parades.  You just give the job everything you’ve got to see that that precious something gets home, and you’re done — and people remember you.  Like the scientists living on the dying-Earth timeline in “Timescape” who have provided us (in their past) a means of escape, but have none for themselves.

I’ve not read Priest’s book, but I like his work, and will; Mike’s book I read years ago, and Gordon’s. Way back down *my* “time stream”, when I was reading everything I could get my hands on . . . Bet everybody here remembers their own version of that time.  Have you read “Among Others”, about exactly that feeling?  Super book — Jo Walton, I think.

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IANotAFish — Holy crow!  That chart!  You know the traditional Navajo rug called “Eye Dazzler”?  Kinda like that.  Also why I have *never* written a time travel story and *never* will.  I usually don’t read them, either, because they make my brain scream.  One huge exception: “Timescape”, a very old novel by Greg Benford.  It’s a — sort of a time travel story that can make your eyes tear up.  Tears or no tears, the Doctor is the only one who can lure me into a time travel story these days.  I’ll go any-when with the right guy.

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Catch-up reading back on this discussion (thank god, something to do until Season 9!):

Purofilion: “I wonder if the Dr’s need to fix things means he needs to ‘let go and let Clara’ – see her as ‘just’ human (still exceptional) not only as The Imposs Girl-others above mentioned this.”

What an interesting idea . . . why shouldn’t it work both ways?  And certainly the Doctor’s frequent puzzlement or complete bafflement suggests that he often does *not* “see” Clara in the way he is desperate to be seen by her — as himself, the enduring being who just now happens to be wearing and engaging the universe from behind a Peter Capaldi face and set of personal features and quirks.

In fact, in this episode, Clara rails at the Doctor: (approx, quote) “Don’t you lump me in with the other silly little animals (humans) that you look down on as childish etc.!”  Which says quite a bit about how Clara sees *herself*, but that’s another subject.  (No, maybe not — back to that in a moment).  In the series finale, MissyMaster chides the Doctor for doing mad things to protect his “pets” — us from harm.  So, seriously, what *are* we to this alien traveler, who says he was only trying to show Clara respect by refusing to try to influence her choice, but who doesn’t hesitate to give orders and demand that them to be obeyed (“Do as you are told!”); and who gives every evidence of not just respecting but loving dinosaurs as if they were his equals (cuz they’re old like him?  And boys love dinosaurs anyway?  They’re bigger and more impressive-looking than we humans are, and their kind ruled the planet for xxx many thousands of years and we will probably have wrecked the place beyond repair within maybe 50,000 yrs of developing what we are pleased to call “intelligence”?  Or what?).

As for Clara — she demands to be “seen” as more than just another pudding brain, doesn’t she?  She doesn’t care about the rest of humanity, and although she at times makes Doctor-moves in the Doctor’s place, I don’t think she sees herself as his “equal” because she clearly is not, just by virtue of comparative length of experience if nothing else.  I’m not sure she wants to be “seen” as anything in particular — I think she wants from him what we all want from out intimates: to be seen, recognized, and accepted regardless, as just exactly what we are, fears and inadequacies included.  If the Doctor saw her that way — *if he paid enough close attention to do that* — he would have known, she’s saying, that she wasn’t emotionally ready for this trial/lesson/exercise in independence that he left her with.  The “lesson” was to big and too brutal for her emotional self to handle, in part because it required her to make the right decision on the most difficult grounds there are — on the grounds of what her *intuition* told her was right (after all the reasoned arguments, that’s what it came down to).

How terrifying is *that*?  No wonder she blew up at him!  She wasn’t ready for his respect, which was an assumption on his part that she could and would work up the nerve and the faith in the soundness of her own intuition to decide for herself, regardless of what the others thought.  I don’t think the nature of the decision mattered to him at all: *deciding* did, because he has to make hard decisions often and carry the consequences.  If she can’t do that and keep her balance, then is she just another “pet” for him to take along for company?

Clearly, the Doctor loves Clara, and says so (“Do you think that I care for you so little . . . “).  He doesn’t *want* her to be just a “pet”, but he knows she is not and can never be his equal in any strict sense of that term; but can he teach her to stand in what I can only think to call a position of parity with him, which is similar to but not the same as equality?  I think she can learn what he has to teach her, but not without perfectly appropriate protest.  We think of Clara as being necessary to the “humanizing” of her alien companion; but he’s surely necessary to force her to grow to the height of her potentiality, whatever that may be.

So, no, he needs to see her not as “just” human (which would make her a mere pudding brain), but as human with the potentiality to be something more.  She’s a teacher; so is he.  If he wanted just human, a very smart dog would do.  He wants a dynamic companion; he needs the challenge.

Damn it all, blah blah blah, I just love thinking about this stuff — too long, I’m sure.  Sorry; and I can use the practice in trying to write more concisely.  This isn’t an all-night bull session in a college dorm, after all; people have lives.

 

 

 

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Thanks, ScaryB and janetteB; it’s good to feel so welcome.  I’m not a fast thinker these days, but I do like to ruminate over matters of interest, so I appreciate a place where I can come and comment about long-past events that I’ve been thinking over, on and off, for quite a while.  I find DW particularly rich in stuff to think about, and I’m at a regroup-and-think-about-everything point in life, and an outlet for some of that is really nifty.  And judging by the quality of the posts here, this is one smart bunch of people, which is always a joy.

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Whoops — Allons-y, sorry, I forgot that this particular discussion had only gotten us to ep #2, I think, so of course you’d had no chance to observe much of what I’ve listed above in Capaldi’s portrayal.  Still, I’ve seen others asserting even later in the series that Capaldi’s range of expression is narrow, which it most certainly is not.

Still, if I knew how to edit this flipping thing, I’d remove the post above as not an appropriate response to your post (ye gods) 30 September, with apologies.

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LordAllons-y, I have to say that I do enjoy seeing the Doctor act like a jerk (he’s not usually “made to” do things or do them in some particular way).  He’s a Time Lord with super-powers (sometimes, anyway).  If he didn’t have flaws and weaknesses, he’d be not just insufferable, but deeply, deeply boring, at least to some of his audience.  Not to mention completely unreal and basically weightless fluff.  Error is the plot engine of life (and stories): error in choices, error through accident, other stuff too no doubt.  That’s why Utopias are so hard to write, and even if you succeed, hardly ever read.

As for Capaldi’s Doctor showing no emotion but contempt or frustration, what can I say?  Other than, *Look Harder*.  This actor has an amazingly mobile and expressive face, and subtlety in the way he uses his body as part of his character’s, er, character.  Can I offer a short version of a long list here?  Contempt, yes; frustration, of course; also sorrow, many grades of confusion, fear and horror (Missy/Master!), guilt, righteous rage (“I am the Doctor!”), and condemnation, joy (“I’m driving a sleigh!”), edgy competitiveness (Robin), triumph (the spoon duel), satisfaction (Clara is going out with the right fella), care and concern (all over the place), a tenderness that hardly bears looking upon (the hug in the cafe), resolution, self-loathing (final ep, talking with CyberDan), and and and — Don’t let this guy’s talent be wasted on you!

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I think one qualifier needs to be added in the choice debate, and that is this: since we can not possibly know in advance *all* of the consequences of whichever choice we make, at the moment of making the choice there is no “right” choice or “wrong”  choice in practical terms.  And what appears, with our limited vision into the future (as in, *none*, since a methane exploding from deep layers within the earth could blow the whole place to smithereens at any moment, or the final pandemic could just have been launched in Buenos Aires, etc.) to be a “better” choice can always turn out to be a much worse one, depending on where you (or others) in the future choose to draw the line and say, “There, this is how that choice turned out” (which will always be incorrect, since much of the time we have no idea of how that past choice has spread its consequences into the future and meshed and melded them with the consequences of everybody else’s choices since then)..

In terms of our little lives, of course, we go by whatever rule of thumb about the probabilities of consequences of this choice or that, because the alternative is an extreme form of Quietism — to do literally nothing at all, thus producing no consequences (which is also impossible; you take a breath of air, and there are consequences).  But for the Doctor, while operating on this basis (because even for a time traveler, could it ever be possible to follow out *all* of the consequences, good or bad — however you would determine that — of any choice?), he would also, I should think, be well aware of the elements of contingency in every choice, now and moving on into whatever future the interplay of all our choices produces, moment by moment.  He is (potentially at least) much closer to the “God’s eye” view (just the view — I’m not getting into the “God” part) than any of us, yet must live and act largely in a state of blindness as to the real-world ethical significance of his own choices, intermeshed with ours.

Now I have a headache, and am going to eat some cookies.  If this contributes something of use to the discussion, I’m glad; if not, please forgive me for thinking out loud, and I’ll try not to in future.

Whatever that may turn out to be . . .

 

 

 

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Yes, whoever said it 2-3 pages ago (I can’t get the hang of posting an answer at the end of the list for something interesting someone else posted back in the middle, so please bear with), the episode, with its Significant Tangerine at the end, invites us to reconnect a bit, with and through our kids (and for some, grandkids) with our childhood belief in Santa.  Moreover, Peter Capaldi embodies that action right before our eyes, while flying the sleigh — If ever I’ve seen a grown man re-connect with childhood joy, that was him in that scene.  You’d expect in in the others on the sleigh, but our newly dour Doctor?  Especially since he knows they’re all still dreaming?  Well — what the Hell,  YEAH!

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Sonic Bilby:  “I haven’t read all the posts, so my apologies if this has already been discussed.  I took this story to be an allegory for current political events.”

I like your point; I agree that it can be read that way.  I certainly like it better than the idea that this is an anti-abortion story.  The abortion issue, as it presents in the US, is about a woman making her own decision about her own reproduction; there is no planet with a rich and busy biosphere anybody thinks is going to instantly “die” whether an individual woman decides to abort her own unborn or not.

In “Kill the Moon”, as I understood it, the moon’s change could have effects on Earth tides etc. that could be catastrophic, and the thing being born wasn’t human, and its progenitors weren’t involved in the decision making either.  So the plot hinged not on somebody deciding wither or not to bring their own kid into the world, given bank accounts, genetic background flaws, etc., but on the threat to the existence of Earth and everything on it if the moon-egg were allowed to hatch.  Not the same thing *at all*, IMO.  On the other hand, the idea that Clara’s decision in favor of risking the life of Earth against the hatching of a new but alien life-form could be seen as voting strongly against the illusion of safety (kill the egg, our life goes on fine — until the next potential disaster arrives) and for the impulse to take on the risks of space exploration (which are, let’s be clear, pretty damn huge).

I’m left with a question, though: at the end, when the egg has hatched, and the Doctor predicts that because of that pro-risk action of Clara’s in stopping the killing of the moon mankind will go to the stars and endure til the end of time; but what his *face* says is, Oh god. more god damn tragedy!

But why?  Is he lying — does he know that we don’t make it past 2016 for some reason, or does he foresee the huge amount of destruction that we are bound, in our notoriously selfish and energetic way, to wreak havoc everywhere we go out there, and this time he didn’t “do it”, Clara did, in an instant of compassionate action?

Or — ?  What gives?  Anybody got other ideas?  (I feel like I’m missing something . . . obvious . . .  and you know how that is)

 

 

 

 

[ichabod @replies]

Yow, the forum let me in again!  I don’t have to create another damned identity here.  A word, though — I use “Ichabod” because whatever, but am actually a female person.  Having lived through the uproar over James Tiptree Jr. being accidentally outed as Allie Sheldon, (this is about someone female writing under a male pseudonym in SF, for those not familiar), I just want to make sure that nobody gets mad at me later for having “concealed” my gender.

Next, thank you, welcomers, for your warm welcome.  We’re likely to be more than forty days in the desert here, until Season 9 starts, and that’s a long time to have hardly anyone to talk with about DW.

And next, I tend to talk tech a little bit, but in the theatrical sense, and not everybody likes that.  E.g., if I bring up the music (and how they’re clever enough to make it *really big* at just the right times, so that a good deal of the “all of time and space” comes over on the music even when they don’t have the budge to take stories to the Planet of made entirely of Bushes, say), some people might find that they don’t *want* to be thinking about  how the music works when they’re in the middle of a scene that’s super-shippy and they don’t want to be distracted.  So just a suggestions that if you prefer to avoid questions about “how” effects are achieved, you might just want to skim or even skip posts from Ichabod.  I love thinking and talking about the how and why stuff, but I don’t want to be any kind of spoiler-y for others.

 

 

[ichabod @replies]

Green wooden sheep?  As long as I don’t have to a) cook it or b) eat it, it’s fine with me.

Speaking of “The Hour” (and a PC retrospective — you do that here?  How, and when?), I can’t say I ever cared a lot about Freddie, though I certainly wouldn’t wish him ill.  Capaldi’s Randall Brown (Programming Manager or some such?) and the search for his daughter was a Wrenching Scene source for me.  My God, that man can play misery (Dr. Pete in “Fields of Blood”, anyone?).  It’s nice to see him laugh once in a while as DW.

Hello and personal introduction, though I might have posted here before a good while ago (and under another name — every time I come to the Forum the sign in thing refuses to accept my name or my password so I have to change one of them to get back on, and now have three identities here though I’d be oh so happy with just one — ).  No photo/avatar, I’m afraid; I’m not that computer savvy.

I’m not a “Whovian”, I guess, since I don’t give a hang about the details about how time travel could or couldn’t work or which Doctor is #X.  I watch for the great banter and emotional depth of the characters and the admirable skills of the writers and the cast.  The current series plays, for me, as darkish-comedy-over-common-tragedy (the fact that for all of us, everything and everybody from memory worms — I presume — to star systems, dies eventually and mature life can easily be seen as a series of losses).  Here in my seventies I’m finding that very satisfying.  Well; maybe more compelling than *satisfying.*

Talking too much, apologies of a newbie here, and I hope 2015 is gorgeous for everybody!

 

 

 

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