Listening. And seeing Clara
Hey, I haven't said anything about Listen yet, and I've not much time before I have to go out...
Well, yes, it was a very good episode, and I like the fact that it depended on psychology rather than what the Doctor would call rubbish robots from the dawn of time, but I don't really have all that much to say about it - you probably know my weakness for flawed episodes.
It's finally dawned on me that one reason why I don't share Steven Moffat's nightmares about things under the bed is that I grew up sleeping on a divan, which didn't leave much room for monsters. In fact, off the top of my head, I can't remember having a bed with legs until I went to university, but that didn't seem to scare me. And these days I have the sort with storage drawers in the base.
Actually, the big thing about this episode is that I finally started fancying Clara. I could always see that she was good-looking from an objective point of view; she just didn't happen to do anything for me. Until Listen. She was gorgeous. Her outfit for the date was stunning (I particularly liked the coat). Her hairstyle was the best she's had so far. She even made me see the point of make-up, which ability is almost certainly a superpower given my normal reaction to make-up. And I liked the fact that she saw all this when she watched herself stalking away from the restaurant, and borrowed Hermione's line "Is that what I look like from the back?" "It's fine," says the Doctor. "I was thinking it was good," says Clara admiringly.
Oh yes, and the fact that she's been playing up the Lancashire accent this season must help.
On top of Clara suddenly being fanciable, it was another episode which made the most of her being a teacher. I was saying the other week that there are deliberate echoes of the Ninth Doctor and Rose; but obviously, by putting her in Coal Hill School, not to mention in some sort of relationship with another teacher at Coal Hill School, Moffat's looking back to Barbara, Ian and the First Doctor*. Telling off the Doctor is very Barbaraish, and she does it beautifully, especially in the scene where she's setting up the guard of toy soldiers around Rupert's bed. Dealing with young children (younger than Courtney, at least) has always been Clara's strength, but she's got better and better at it, which is probably why she's also getting better at managing the Doctor, whose arrival insisting that he needed her for a thing reminded me irresistibly of a child demanding that she come out to play. And I loved the transmission of Dan the Soldier Man from hand to hand across centuries and galaxies.
And, of course, I loved the Doctor's riff on "Scared is a superpower! Your superpower! There is danger in the room - and guess what? - it's you!" Translated in the closing scenes to Clara's more thoughtful speech: "Fear is a superpower. Fear doesn't have to make you cruel or cowardly; fear can make you kind. Fear can bring you home. Fear makes companions of us all*." I think there was a hint of Midnight in this episode, in the scenes at the end of the universe where something may or may not be knocking on the outside of the stranded spaceship; Clara acknowledges that fear can make you cruel and cowardly, like most of the passengers in Midnight, but it doesn't have to, if you use it rightly.
And I was grateful for that, this week; I didn't think voting No was an act of cowardice, but given the number of Yeses making out that No was driven by fear, I was glad to have someone point out that fear may be what you need.
* I am very grateful to elisi for pointing out, in a lovely piece about how seriously the Doctor takes children's nightmares, that "Fear makes companions of us all" is a line spoken by the First Doctor to Barbara in the second episode of Doctor Who, back in 1963. That's perfect.
Also posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.
Well, yes, it was a very good episode, and I like the fact that it depended on psychology rather than what the Doctor would call rubbish robots from the dawn of time, but I don't really have all that much to say about it - you probably know my weakness for flawed episodes.
It's finally dawned on me that one reason why I don't share Steven Moffat's nightmares about things under the bed is that I grew up sleeping on a divan, which didn't leave much room for monsters. In fact, off the top of my head, I can't remember having a bed with legs until I went to university, but that didn't seem to scare me. And these days I have the sort with storage drawers in the base.
Actually, the big thing about this episode is that I finally started fancying Clara. I could always see that she was good-looking from an objective point of view; she just didn't happen to do anything for me. Until Listen. She was gorgeous. Her outfit for the date was stunning (I particularly liked the coat). Her hairstyle was the best she's had so far. She even made me see the point of make-up, which ability is almost certainly a superpower given my normal reaction to make-up. And I liked the fact that she saw all this when she watched herself stalking away from the restaurant, and borrowed Hermione's line "Is that what I look like from the back?" "It's fine," says the Doctor. "I was thinking it was good," says Clara admiringly.
Oh yes, and the fact that she's been playing up the Lancashire accent this season must help.
On top of Clara suddenly being fanciable, it was another episode which made the most of her being a teacher. I was saying the other week that there are deliberate echoes of the Ninth Doctor and Rose; but obviously, by putting her in Coal Hill School, not to mention in some sort of relationship with another teacher at Coal Hill School, Moffat's looking back to Barbara, Ian and the First Doctor*. Telling off the Doctor is very Barbaraish, and she does it beautifully, especially in the scene where she's setting up the guard of toy soldiers around Rupert's bed. Dealing with young children (younger than Courtney, at least) has always been Clara's strength, but she's got better and better at it, which is probably why she's also getting better at managing the Doctor, whose arrival insisting that he needed her for a thing reminded me irresistibly of a child demanding that she come out to play. And I loved the transmission of Dan the Soldier Man from hand to hand across centuries and galaxies.
And, of course, I loved the Doctor's riff on "Scared is a superpower! Your superpower! There is danger in the room - and guess what? - it's you!" Translated in the closing scenes to Clara's more thoughtful speech: "Fear is a superpower. Fear doesn't have to make you cruel or cowardly; fear can make you kind. Fear can bring you home. Fear makes companions of us all*." I think there was a hint of Midnight in this episode, in the scenes at the end of the universe where something may or may not be knocking on the outside of the stranded spaceship; Clara acknowledges that fear can make you cruel and cowardly, like most of the passengers in Midnight, but it doesn't have to, if you use it rightly.
And I was grateful for that, this week; I didn't think voting No was an act of cowardice, but given the number of Yeses making out that No was driven by fear, I was glad to have someone point out that fear may be what you need.
* I am very grateful to elisi for pointing out, in a lovely piece about how seriously the Doctor takes children's nightmares, that "Fear makes companions of us all" is a line spoken by the First Doctor to Barbara in the second episode of Doctor Who, back in 1963. That's perfect.
Also posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.