Doctor Who Dark Water
You know, I'm not going to mount a defense of Torchwood: Miracle Day as great tv (though I think it's better on avarage than TW's first season, if you must know - just way worse than Children of Earth), but it had its moments, and one of these was when Gwen was ready to trade Jack in to save her family and Jack was ready to kill Gwen to save his life (having gotten over any death wish by that point), and they were still friends not in spite, but because of that - they saw each other clearly now, without idealization, and accepted what they got. This was when I realised that the Gwen & Jack relationship had won me over in a way I'd never have anticipated back in s1 when they were trying to play it as UST. That scene - culmination of a long term development - did it for me. Why do I mention it now? Because you won't be in the least surprised the sequence starting with Clara trying to blackmail the Doctor into changing time to save Danny and culminating into "I' don't deserve a friend like you"/"I'm sorry, Clara, but I am exactly what you deserve" did it for me, too. Also I'm not in the least surprised that Clara, who has seen the Doctor (all three of him) rewrite time so Gallifrey is saved (somewhere), reacts to losing Danny with the immediate decision that this needs to be rewritten, too. This is Clara-as-Doctor-in-Time-Lord-Victorious mode, after she's already been the Doctor-as-hero.
We also get an explanation for where several of this season's dead ended up, and it's spectacularly nasty. If I get the principle right, the dead get uploaded into the Nethersphere (btw, knew this had to be something along the same lines as the Matrix on Gallifrey, more about that in a moment), get told that they remain linked to their body and hence are subjected to the pain and horror of whatever happens to it (burning, rotting), unless they delete their emotions, once they've been tricked into doing that, they're downloaded again into Cybermen bodies, presto, new Cybermen. This is literally body horror, and when What's-his-name told the Doctor and Clara (while his colleague told Danny pretty much the same thing) that the dead are still conscious in their bodies, the idea creeped me out to no end. And the gradual reveal of the Cyber bodies was brilliant (I was unspoiled for that, since I hadn't seen the trailer which I take it included a Cyberman shot), when the implication of "only organic matter is visible in dark water" sank in, I whistled.
But of course what fandom will talk about isn't the latest appearance of the Cybermen. Back when I reviewed the season opener, I wrote "my crack theory" and then found out it was practically everyone's crack theory: Missy is the Master. But the more time passed, the more inevitably logical it seemed. Because I was pretty sure Moffat is done with River and won't bring her back, Evil!Romana would be awful, not to mention New Who only watchers don't know her (or the Rani, who in any case wasn't into playing games with the Doctor, she was into getting her experiments to succeed). The only other theory that made thematic sense was Missy as an alternate future version of Clara. But really, it had to be the Master. And it was! I'm so staying away from fandom the next few weeks, because if there ever was something so designed to invite kerfuffles... Meanwhile, thoughts:
1.) Yes, letting the Doctor/Master relationship go from subtext to text only now when the Master has regenerated into a female body is everyone's favourite word, problematic. Mind you, the Moff isn't responsible for the lack of previous Doctor/Master main text, only for what happens under his own watch. However, it doesn't escape my attention that the only other time he's written the Master, the Children in Needs sketch "The Curse of Fatal Death" which was broadcast before RTD ever revived the show, Doctor/Master ended up as m/f, too, that time with the Doctor as the one ending up in a female body.
2.) This being said, I'm still delighted that one of the best known Time Lords after the Doctor - arguably the most famous non-Doctor Gallifreyan in the decades of show history - is the first one to get an on screen female incarnation. Two seasons ago, The Doctor's Wife established Time Lords can change gender when regenerating via the Doctor reminiscing about his old friend the Corsair (who had both male and female regenerations), but dialogue about a never seen character (unless you count The Sarah Jane Adventures and RTD declaring that yes, that was the Corsair, too) doesn't carry the same narrative weight as an on screen example.
3.) Of couse Missy is theatrical. The Master doesn't do low key. No reason why she should start now she's a woman. (BTW, re: pronouns - I'll use "he" for past regenerations and "she" for the current one, that seems to make the most sense.) And Missy is still less camp than Ainsley!Master.
4.) Considering the Master has a long and proud tradition of allying with the monsters du jour, only for that to bite him in the second act so he's forced to temporarily work with the Doctor, I'm tempted to assume the Mistress actually did unearth some Cybermen to start this latest enterprise with, but she might as well have just gotten her hands on the technology and used it.
5.) Though that still leaves unexplained what the whole "my Clara" thing was about, so I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop in that regard.
Lastly, the obvious mythical comparison to what Clara is trying to do is the one with Orpheus, making Danny Eurydike. (Which btw makes the Doctor Hermes, who in some versions guides Orpheus to and back. Of course he'd be a trickster god.) Orpheus loses Eurydike the second time when he turns around, which is forbidden. What Eurydike thinks about nearly getting resurrected, the Greeks and Romans don't tell us, though later writers had an opinion. Here, Danny, having accepted this is the afterlife, wants to save Clara from it and thus says what she said would make her break the connection, but at a guess, this very selflessness proves to Clara he is actually Danny, and she will turn around, i.e. look for him further. Of course, Orpheus ends up not only losing Eurydike again but also getting torn apart by maenads later. Not a good prospect for Clara. Honestly, I have no idea how this will play out. Moffat is notoriously the writer who doesn't let anyone die, so it could simply be that Danny will be re-uploaded (with emotions) in his body and Clara will have saved him, with the two departing the tale. But there's a first time for everything, and it may be this time Clara-as-Orpheus will be the one who dies as the price for Danny's resurrection, leaving Danny and the Doctor stuck with each other for the next season. But I'm pretty sure about is that not both Clara and Danny will die/remain dead; killing Danny at the start of this episode was an (intended) shock, but killing Clara while leaving Danny dead wouldn't be, and far too depressing for Moffat. And there'd better be some resolution for the not-Danny people currently trapped in the Netherworld and not yet Cyberfied, not just some "they couldn't be saved" handwaving.
In conclusion: I'm looking forward to next week - which may yet change my feelings about everything, granted, bad endings can do that -, but so far, so good, with some nitpicks.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1026900.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.