Doctor Who: The Name of the Doctor
May. 19th, 2013 05:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabeth*hugs episode*
Emotional rollercoaster. What a ride.
and with time for random funny. Strax finding out about Glasgow. *facepalm*
but it got very serious when it went there.
The answer to the Impossible Girl was what many of us had figured, that she got fractured through space and time, but the details were lovely and twisty and poetic. All the things that turned out to be Clues, and in the end everything works.
I was right to worry about River. As others were too. The Doctor ran out of her days, so she is, even for him, dead. :-( We saw that first thing but I think most of us wanted to stay in the middle of the story for always. But there was that DVD extra with River's nights on the TARDIS and the Doctor was taking her to that next to last day and we already knew the last day and boom, she's dead, she's her echo, her backup copy in the Library.
Like Clara was an echo. But she has the Doctor.
The Doctor is daft. River knows he doesn't like endings so he won't visit and he's been pretending not to hear her OMG how often did he do that OW, really, haven't you had that nightmare? The most important person and he just won't hear her. Because it would hurt too much. Stupid boy though, of course it hurts, there's all these FEELINGS happening, it's not only hurt though. Kissing! Wife! Properly <3 for all her life. Well if he'd hurry up and think about it I'm sure it could be for all her lives.
This is important though, because if all those other Claras were echoes, then the Doctor fell for her echoes first, and repeatedly, and why does it matter if they're echoes. It doesn't. Go get River! Silly Doctor.
... er, yeah, invested in this 'ship I am.
I like how awkward Vastra was introducing River and Clara. Because there is no good way to introduce a dead wife to the new girl. In either direction.
I was worried in the middle about Jenny. Bad things happen far too frequently. Very worried. But then it worked out okay :-D It was proper scary though, 'I think I've been murdered'. *shudders*
The whispermen were good. And the Great Intelligence. We don't know their functions or their limits yet, we just know they can't be killed and they can kill you. That's proper scary. And the idea that if you hear them whisper they see you. Also, we know the Great Intelligence dies at the Doctor's grave, and he spread himself all over space and time so he'd fight the Doctor a lot, and he always gets stopped up until the 11th Doctor because that was when Clara had seen up until and that means we don't know about the future at all, but he would attack the Doctor then as well. So we've got a proper recurring villain there.
Plus the whispermen look like those dudes that keep offering deals to change time, and if a dude steps into the timestream and gets torn apart, maybe they learn to mess with time? If someone wants to do that story. Or not.
Clara saw all the Doctors. We saw all the first seven and maybe 9 running past. I didn't see 8. Was there 8? I wanted to see 8. I shall have to watch again with a score card.
I like how they got everyone in, all the clips, and all in color, and all fitting Clara in to them. 50th anniversary year not working like the 5 Doctors but still having all everyone involved and a bit set on Gallifrey.
I like Clara's costumes for all the years always everywhere ever. Now has best wardrobe.
Giant TARDIS had the window broken just like crashed on Trenzalore TARDIS.
And we didn't really see the Doctor leave.
And there is still much, much room to be worried. (very) (very worry)
I do love how everyone has been complaining about telling the Doctor's name since they heard the title, for values of everyone mostly encompassing a lot of fanboys who think 4 was best or whatever, and then we don't hear it because River says it again, and then the title didn't mean what everyone thought.
Not done in the name of the Doctor...
... introducing John Hurt as The Doctor.
And we don't know if he's past or future. The Great Intelligence mentioned the Valeyard. Time's a big mess, anything could happen.
:-D
If Clara remembers what she learned in the crashed TARDIS, which she did for a while in the middle, she remembers what she saw in the library book. She remembers learning what he was called. Or she did, for a while, until she jumped in his time stream and learned all everything about him while actually forgetting everything too. Her memory must be a big mess by now. So anything could be true.
Also, there are absolutely endless possibilities for alt!Clara's adventures in Time and Space. It's an invitation to take any Doctor Who story ever and add a Clara, who saves his life, mostly without him ever knowing. Awesome.
I like how Moffat keeps telling us things that we hear but don't hear the way he means. Like, secret/grave/it is discovered. It is way more interesting being his grave than being his secret. That's a very good trick. Especially when everyone thought they were waiting for the secret.
Clara is still a bit empty. I mean, she exists to save the Doctor, as the Impossible Girl, but now that story is done. Okay, good, now she needs a lot of personality and an agenda that is nothing to do with the Doctor and possibly choosing destinations and having a plan and, you know, being her and not The Impossible Girl. I had a lot of feelings this episode, but not so many about her.
Vastra and Jenny and Strax having ALL the feelings! ... it's a very good trick having so many feelings under that much makeup. And everyone watching cares. Well, can't say everyone about anyone, but I reckon most of us loves them to pieces and cares when stuff happens. And that's a good trick because there is some accepted wisdom about stories about people under lots of makeup or people from the past or whatever. We're supposed to need a contemporary person to connect us. But I don't reckon that's so, with these stories, because it's a love story with the ladies and a fighting story with Strax (who was 12 at Demon's Run, so he's kind of a teenage boy now, which makes it even funnier), and it's easy to understand. And then Vastra is awesome detective lady and science fiction stuff happens with conference calls. (Time travel is always possible in dreams, of course. :-) )
... I mostly want to hug everyone and bounce and squee.
Answers! Clues! Feelings!
All the things!
I shall totally be rewatching this episode.
Probably quite a lot.
Emotional rollercoaster. What a ride.
and with time for random funny. Strax finding out about Glasgow. *facepalm*
but it got very serious when it went there.
The answer to the Impossible Girl was what many of us had figured, that she got fractured through space and time, but the details were lovely and twisty and poetic. All the things that turned out to be Clues, and in the end everything works.
I was right to worry about River. As others were too. The Doctor ran out of her days, so she is, even for him, dead. :-( We saw that first thing but I think most of us wanted to stay in the middle of the story for always. But there was that DVD extra with River's nights on the TARDIS and the Doctor was taking her to that next to last day and we already knew the last day and boom, she's dead, she's her echo, her backup copy in the Library.
Like Clara was an echo. But she has the Doctor.
The Doctor is daft. River knows he doesn't like endings so he won't visit and he's been pretending not to hear her OMG how often did he do that OW, really, haven't you had that nightmare? The most important person and he just won't hear her. Because it would hurt too much. Stupid boy though, of course it hurts, there's all these FEELINGS happening, it's not only hurt though. Kissing! Wife! Properly <3 for all her life. Well if he'd hurry up and think about it I'm sure it could be for all her lives.
This is important though, because if all those other Claras were echoes, then the Doctor fell for her echoes first, and repeatedly, and why does it matter if they're echoes. It doesn't. Go get River! Silly Doctor.
... er, yeah, invested in this 'ship I am.
I like how awkward Vastra was introducing River and Clara. Because there is no good way to introduce a dead wife to the new girl. In either direction.
I was worried in the middle about Jenny. Bad things happen far too frequently. Very worried. But then it worked out okay :-D It was proper scary though, 'I think I've been murdered'. *shudders*
The whispermen were good. And the Great Intelligence. We don't know their functions or their limits yet, we just know they can't be killed and they can kill you. That's proper scary. And the idea that if you hear them whisper they see you. Also, we know the Great Intelligence dies at the Doctor's grave, and he spread himself all over space and time so he'd fight the Doctor a lot, and he always gets stopped up until the 11th Doctor because that was when Clara had seen up until and that means we don't know about the future at all, but he would attack the Doctor then as well. So we've got a proper recurring villain there.
Plus the whispermen look like those dudes that keep offering deals to change time, and if a dude steps into the timestream and gets torn apart, maybe they learn to mess with time? If someone wants to do that story. Or not.
Clara saw all the Doctors. We saw all the first seven and maybe 9 running past. I didn't see 8. Was there 8? I wanted to see 8. I shall have to watch again with a score card.
I like how they got everyone in, all the clips, and all in color, and all fitting Clara in to them. 50th anniversary year not working like the 5 Doctors but still having all everyone involved and a bit set on Gallifrey.
I like Clara's costumes for all the years always everywhere ever. Now has best wardrobe.
Giant TARDIS had the window broken just like crashed on Trenzalore TARDIS.
And we didn't really see the Doctor leave.
And there is still much, much room to be worried. (very) (very worry)
I do love how everyone has been complaining about telling the Doctor's name since they heard the title, for values of everyone mostly encompassing a lot of fanboys who think 4 was best or whatever, and then we don't hear it because River says it again, and then the title didn't mean what everyone thought.
Not done in the name of the Doctor...
... introducing John Hurt as The Doctor.
And we don't know if he's past or future. The Great Intelligence mentioned the Valeyard. Time's a big mess, anything could happen.
:-D
If Clara remembers what she learned in the crashed TARDIS, which she did for a while in the middle, she remembers what she saw in the library book. She remembers learning what he was called. Or she did, for a while, until she jumped in his time stream and learned all everything about him while actually forgetting everything too. Her memory must be a big mess by now. So anything could be true.
Also, there are absolutely endless possibilities for alt!Clara's adventures in Time and Space. It's an invitation to take any Doctor Who story ever and add a Clara, who saves his life, mostly without him ever knowing. Awesome.
I like how Moffat keeps telling us things that we hear but don't hear the way he means. Like, secret/grave/it is discovered. It is way more interesting being his grave than being his secret. That's a very good trick. Especially when everyone thought they were waiting for the secret.
Clara is still a bit empty. I mean, she exists to save the Doctor, as the Impossible Girl, but now that story is done. Okay, good, now she needs a lot of personality and an agenda that is nothing to do with the Doctor and possibly choosing destinations and having a plan and, you know, being her and not The Impossible Girl. I had a lot of feelings this episode, but not so many about her.
Vastra and Jenny and Strax having ALL the feelings! ... it's a very good trick having so many feelings under that much makeup. And everyone watching cares. Well, can't say everyone about anyone, but I reckon most of us loves them to pieces and cares when stuff happens. And that's a good trick because there is some accepted wisdom about stories about people under lots of makeup or people from the past or whatever. We're supposed to need a contemporary person to connect us. But I don't reckon that's so, with these stories, because it's a love story with the ladies and a fighting story with Strax (who was 12 at Demon's Run, so he's kind of a teenage boy now, which makes it even funnier), and it's easy to understand. And then Vastra is awesome detective lady and science fiction stuff happens with conference calls. (Time travel is always possible in dreams, of course. :-) )
... I mostly want to hug everyone and bounce and squee.
Answers! Clues! Feelings!
All the things!
I shall totally be rewatching this episode.
Probably quite a lot.
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no subject
Date: 2013-05-19 05:58 am (UTC)Nos was annoyed because the TARDIS stole her Doctor - well yes, but the Great Intelligence tried to break all the things, Clara was only there to fix them, so even the GI knows you need to break up the TARDIS and the Doctor before you can break the universe. Together they heal all the things.
Really, EVERYone thinks this is River being final all the ending goodbye. I would think it was a good ending if that were true, but I don't see it. Which is why it is a good ending, because not breaking the toys, no fridge, just... different lives now. One of which is not technically alive. Maybe I read too many ghost stories? One moving on with their alive life while the other makes good afterlife seems like a middle to me.
If John Hurt is the secret then he's the name in the book and he's the Time War guy. Except that's not very secret. Except it might be.
Whatever secret we find out will not be the secret we think we're getting, I'm confident in that prediction by now.
Oh good, found one person who thinks this means Library River can have all the adventures in all of time and space. Granted they're incorporeal, except for with the Doctor, but if you can only touch one being I think your husband would be the best pick.
Clara doing all the saving and Clara deciding to do all the saving = agency and choice and power and all that good stuff. And there were lots of women and they talked to each other and that is awesome.
... my only remaining complaint about gender is the structural one, because while the Doctor is the most important and the Doctor is male there is no fixing the difficulty. The solution is obvious though.
This review thinks the whole thing made no sense. I don't agree, I thought a Time Lord turning into a glowy timeline in the heart of a TARDIS was no weirder than anything else DW. But they also say that death has stopped meaning anything because it lasts about two seconds on DW lately. That one has merit. What are the stakes? The Doctor's stakes are clear, he's risking his soul, becoming too dark, a monster. He's also risking losing people, except not exactly. River has a backup. The exact thing I'm happy about does reduce the stakes a lot. You're always saved if you're with the Doctor (and not Adric). But the stakes are a bit of a mess of late, yes. And that is a problem.
I hope John Hurt is not 8. I hope he's like 8.5, regenerated after 8. Because there is no good way to be someone you later or potentially earlier hate, but I like 8, so it would be harder. But not for any good reason because they're all the guy that was also the Doctor anyway.
I kind of hope John Hurt is not the Time War, because we know what was done for peace and sanity there, except not exactly. If he's a proper future the Doctor is going to try not to become then that's more interesting.
Actually by logic of Clues there's only two he can be, before One and after Eleven. Because Clara saw all Eleven of the Doctor. If she was protecting a span of his life then a quick name change in the middle would not put her off.
So he is not Time War Doctor.
Cool.
I think this story left lots of room for other stories, which is the proper way to do story after 50 years and hoping for another 50.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-19 08:47 am (UTC)