(Untitled)

[janie_aire]

Doctor Who: Hide

A Forest of Meta

spoilers through the episode

Tree / Mirror / Evangelium, Psychochronography, and Gender

Comments

[mr_squiddle]

As usual you're watching better episodes than I am!

"The scene in the darkroom is all Red -- this is a conversation between two men who are in Hell."

Alternatively, the Doctor's gotten to rubedo. In "The Next Doctor" among other places they hammer the idea "Poor Doctor, nobody ever thanks him", but his analogue here says to his face that there are quite a lot of dead people he would like to thank.

"'Caliburn' is a previous name for 'Excalibur,'"

Note also that what the Professor says (pronounces) is "Caliban".

The riffing on The Haunting Of Hill House is probably worth mentioning.

The Wallace-Bechdel test -- there is this notion that Mercury flips gender (toggle toggle) depending on which sign (house?) it's in, so maybe a special case there...

[janie_aire]

Yeah, I thought it was "Caliban" at first, but upon hearing the three pronunciations in the show, seeing the subtitles, and reviewing the BBC website, it's "Caliburn." Which is a damn shame, as I was already licking my chops for another Island reference! And the wild, deformed man -- could our "Romeo" be a Caliban, too?

Speaking of rubedo, there's another Rose reference in this story. One of the psychochronographic clocks is situated on a crate of Mateus Rose, a popular wine in the 70s. It in turn sits on a crate that's got the word "Tate" in the middle of a blue diamond.

[janie_aire]

I was so excited to see the TARDIS mirroring Clara that I didn't even notice the underlying stereotypes that made their dynamic problematic the first few times I watched the episode.

I'm now in love with the idea that Clara's a kind of TARDIS in her own right, which means that's almost assuredly not the case. *sigh*

[radiolaires]

This was great

[janie_aire]

There are reversed images for the Forest Cliffs, Emma wearing the Third Eye Crystal when she's calling out to the Doctor through the mirror-portal, the Forest Beast as it's attacking the Doctor... and for some reason, Clara starts wearing her red satchel over her right shoulder instead of her left at the end.

What's upsetting about the mirror-shots?

[radiolaires]

Really fascinating.

It's a bit like waiting for Hitchcock to pop up in his films... You are only able to see THAT :).

[purplefringe]

Mmmmmmmmm reading your meta always makes beautiful episodes even more beautiful. All those mirror shots are wonderful! And I can't believe you picked out all that stuff about Milk. Gosh.

Another ring - 'Hila' is a Hebrew name, meaning 'Halo'. Rings, angels.....it just goes on and on.

V interested by radiolaires's comment above too, about boundary crossing and transgressions....We've not seen the Tardis interface project outside before, have we? I mean, in LKH, the Doctor *really* struggled just so he could get inside the Tardis and talk to her. Is Clara herself being projected from somewhere else?

[janie_aire]

No, the Voice Interface hasn't been seen outside the TARDIS before. That's new. I love how it projects a ghostly image of Clara -- what with all the talk of ghosts this episode. This season.

The whole story functions as a metaphor for the Doctor's issues with Clara. Seeing her as a ghost, to the point where she starts seeing *herself* as a ghost. Being dead and alive at the same time, like Schroedinger's Cat, which is also inside a Box.

[lonewytch]

I know what you mean about the World Tree, some weeks i'm like "AGAIN!!!" Thing is, the use of the symbols has become sooooo overt his series. it's a hugely rich series. I love this about it