"Somehow I doubt that Rose or Martha or Amy lost their breakfast on the first trip."
I guess that was an okay resolution...
I just feel like more could have happened. Clara, Lunn, and Cass just run around the Drum for a bit and the Doctor, Bennett, and O'Donnell just wander around the army base for a bit before the Fisher King gets drowned. Maybe it's the whole time loop thing. As an answer to everything, it's kind of underwhelming because it feels a bit lazy. The Doctor knew how to save the day because he heard how to save the day from his "ghost". Yes, it's a head scratcher but no one takes any initiative. It's just reacting.
Between episodes, I figured out that Lunn wasn't attacked by a ghost because he hadn't read the message, but that was pretty obvious. The Doctor inside of the casket? I had jokingly thought to myself, "Oh, it's the Doctor in there", never expecting to be right. It seemed kind of obvious, too, in that other stories have done the same twist. You think it's something bad inside the sealed box, but hey! It's your hero or someone we know. I think the only thing that make the second part interesting is the whole dilemma of messing with time. It's always a meaty subject. If you know you're going to die, do you cry and bemoan your fate? Or do you keep going so more people don't die?
Clara begging the Doctor change time isn't anything new, she did the same thing when Danny died, but I'm seriously starting to wonder if Clara is dying. Some of her dialogue could be taken that she's talking about herself. Maybe that's been Clara's character arc all along. Maybe she has some terminal condition. Maybe it's the same condition that killed her mother. She doesn't know when it will hit her, so she lived her life being afraid of taking big chances or really getting close to anyone. That's why she stayed with the Maitlands for so long. She wanted to travel but couldn't bring herself to take that big step. Then along comes this guy with this box and he promises her the universe. After thinking about it, Clara takes the plunge. Her destroying the leaf in "The Rings of Akhaten" is her letting go of her fear and moving on. So she expands her horizons and meets a nice guy and maybe that was the rambling conversation she was trying to have with Danny before he got hit by that car. Clara was trying to tell him that she could take a turn for the worse out of the blue. And now, instead of going back to her previous ways of being afraid to live, she's totally embraced her crazy life with the Doctor. That would explain why she's suddenly so gung ho. She wants to see as much as she can before she dies. Anyway, that's my head canon. I'm sure Moffat came up with something more convoluted. ;-)
But back to the story. The Fisher King was kind of cool looking and since he towers over the Doctor he does have a menacing presence. The bit with Cass where the audio cuts out because she's deaf was nice. It was different and if done in a horror movie, it would totally work. How creepy must it be to know there's something out there trying to kill you but you can't hear a thing. Aside from that and the Doctor and Clara's conversation over the phone, there wasn't much I took away from the episode.
Random: The bit with the Doctor at the beginning where he breaks the fourth wall was an interesting way to start off the episode. I got excited when he put on his guitar and then, to my great surprise, the theme music had some electric guitar playing over it. Please tell me they got Peter Capaldi to play the Doctor Who theme. Why am I loving the electric guitar so much? The one thing that annoyed me was how there are exactly two women on the base and both had guys who loved them. Yes, people will be attracted to each other, but that's Cass and O'Donnell's only function? To be objects of desire? I didn't even sense that Bennett had feelings for O'Donnell. Or maybe I just suck at judging emotional cues. When the Doctor plugged his sunglasses into the control panel, it looked kind of ridiculous. If that had been the sonic screwdriver, it would have looked cool. O'Donnell says something about "the Minister of War". Significant? Or a red herring? You know, if she hadn't died, O'Donnell might have made a decent Companion. We've never had a fan of the Doctor as a Companion. I noticed that Clara now owns an iPhone. I feel like this is another ploy to get fans to buy stuff, like with the Doctor's Ray Bans.
So it's Maisie Williams' episode next week. I can't wait to find out who's she playing. I really hope it's a good twist.
ETA: But I just had a thought about Maisie Williams' character...
The episode titles are the clue. "The Girl Who Died" and "The Woman Who Lived". So when we first meet the character, she's just some girl in a village that's being attacked by space Vikings. She dies, as the title suggets. But then she comes back somehow and that's why the Doctor is so surprised to see her. She seems to be in a different time period completely and very much not dead. So this character could be nobody we've met before. Hiring Maisie Williams was just happy happenstance. Hmm, that's so boring if it turns out to be true.
I just feel like more could have happened. Clara, Lunn, and Cass just run around the Drum for a bit and the Doctor, Bennett, and O'Donnell just wander around the army base for a bit before the Fisher King gets drowned. Maybe it's the whole time loop thing. As an answer to everything, it's kind of underwhelming because it feels a bit lazy. The Doctor knew how to save the day because he heard how to save the day from his "ghost". Yes, it's a head scratcher but no one takes any initiative. It's just reacting.
Between episodes, I figured out that Lunn wasn't attacked by a ghost because he hadn't read the message, but that was pretty obvious. The Doctor inside of the casket? I had jokingly thought to myself, "Oh, it's the Doctor in there", never expecting to be right. It seemed kind of obvious, too, in that other stories have done the same twist. You think it's something bad inside the sealed box, but hey! It's your hero or someone we know. I think the only thing that make the second part interesting is the whole dilemma of messing with time. It's always a meaty subject. If you know you're going to die, do you cry and bemoan your fate? Or do you keep going so more people don't die?
Clara begging the Doctor change time isn't anything new, she did the same thing when Danny died, but I'm seriously starting to wonder if Clara is dying. Some of her dialogue could be taken that she's talking about herself. Maybe that's been Clara's character arc all along. Maybe she has some terminal condition. Maybe it's the same condition that killed her mother. She doesn't know when it will hit her, so she lived her life being afraid of taking big chances or really getting close to anyone. That's why she stayed with the Maitlands for so long. She wanted to travel but couldn't bring herself to take that big step. Then along comes this guy with this box and he promises her the universe. After thinking about it, Clara takes the plunge. Her destroying the leaf in "The Rings of Akhaten" is her letting go of her fear and moving on. So she expands her horizons and meets a nice guy and maybe that was the rambling conversation she was trying to have with Danny before he got hit by that car. Clara was trying to tell him that she could take a turn for the worse out of the blue. And now, instead of going back to her previous ways of being afraid to live, she's totally embraced her crazy life with the Doctor. That would explain why she's suddenly so gung ho. She wants to see as much as she can before she dies. Anyway, that's my head canon. I'm sure Moffat came up with something more convoluted. ;-)
But back to the story. The Fisher King was kind of cool looking and since he towers over the Doctor he does have a menacing presence. The bit with Cass where the audio cuts out because she's deaf was nice. It was different and if done in a horror movie, it would totally work. How creepy must it be to know there's something out there trying to kill you but you can't hear a thing. Aside from that and the Doctor and Clara's conversation over the phone, there wasn't much I took away from the episode.
Random: The bit with the Doctor at the beginning where he breaks the fourth wall was an interesting way to start off the episode. I got excited when he put on his guitar and then, to my great surprise, the theme music had some electric guitar playing over it. Please tell me they got Peter Capaldi to play the Doctor Who theme. Why am I loving the electric guitar so much? The one thing that annoyed me was how there are exactly two women on the base and both had guys who loved them. Yes, people will be attracted to each other, but that's Cass and O'Donnell's only function? To be objects of desire? I didn't even sense that Bennett had feelings for O'Donnell. Or maybe I just suck at judging emotional cues. When the Doctor plugged his sunglasses into the control panel, it looked kind of ridiculous. If that had been the sonic screwdriver, it would have looked cool. O'Donnell says something about "the Minister of War". Significant? Or a red herring? You know, if she hadn't died, O'Donnell might have made a decent Companion. We've never had a fan of the Doctor as a Companion. I noticed that Clara now owns an iPhone. I feel like this is another ploy to get fans to buy stuff, like with the Doctor's Ray Bans.
So it's Maisie Williams' episode next week. I can't wait to find out who's she playing. I really hope it's a good twist.
ETA: But I just had a thought about Maisie Williams' character...
The episode titles are the clue. "The Girl Who Died" and "The Woman Who Lived". So when we first meet the character, she's just some girl in a village that's being attacked by space Vikings. She dies, as the title suggets. But then she comes back somehow and that's why the Doctor is so surprised to see her. She seems to be in a different time period completely and very much not dead. So this character could be nobody we've met before. Hiring Maisie Williams was just happy happenstance. Hmm, that's so boring if it turns out to be true.