Doctor Who A Nightmare in Silver

[selenak]

In which I agree with what seems to have been the above cut lj consensus: not as good as The Doctor's Wife, but a fun adventure.

Comments

[astrogirl2]

You know, I'm rather taken with Clara, but it somehow seems to me that almost every episode I'm having this, "Oh, yes, I like her!" moment all over again, as if she's a character I've only just met, rather than having some consistent feel for her as a person. Which, now that you point it out, does seem rather strange. Maybe it's a side effect of the odd way in which she was introduced. Or maybe not. It's certainly not an issue I had with Amy, though.

[selenak]

I'm having this, "Oh, yes, I like her!" moment all over again, as if she's a character I've only just met, rather than having some consistent feel for her as a person.

Yes, that's it. She's very likeable, but it's also as if every episode is her first or second. By now I've also seen a mention in another review that when Neil Gaiman wrote the script, he thought he was writing for Victorian Clara, and only later was told it would be 21st century Clara, which made some rewrites necessary but also explains why he wrote the kids into the episode. It also made me wonder whether it would not have been better if Moffat had gone with the Victorian version as the steady companion and a 21st century version as the second Clara who died, because Victorian!Clara with her double life as governess and barmaid and way of storytelling to her charges had a more, hm, "defined" feel to it, and we'd have had a historical companion again at last.

[astrogirl2]

Ah, that's interesting! I hadn't heard about that. But I do kind of have to agree, Victorian Clara did feel more defined in the one episode she had, and it would have been interesting to have her as a regular companion. And I'm all for more companions from anywhere but contemporary Earth.

[lokifan]

Doctor Who kids' books have been around for ages, they're a big part of BBC merchandising.

Basically very agreed. I like Clara but I don't feel like I really get her, and I don't love her the way I loved Amy or Martha. Donna and Rory took time but I got to love them and they felt very recognisable to me so maybe it will still happen. Idk.

And yeah, I liked the meta moment - because as you say, it wasn't just a mirror to the Doctor, it was a mirror to the manpain-ness of focussing on the angst of one man over his power rather than the people hurt by it.

[reverancepavane]

Due to the temporal distance, it can't have been himself, but he obviously is aware he may have to do something similar due to his position.

Actually I have the feeling that he was the poor sod that pulled the trigger. Given that the Imperial Flagship was able to warp in from wherever it had been looking for the Emperor (or just ready to go at the first sign) in a very very very large dominion, transmat the Emperor (and any humans in the vicinity out of trouble and then reach minimum safe distance, in less than 80 seconds, I suspect he could have pulled the trigger. And even if he didn't, the ultimate responsibility for pulling the trigger was probably his

[zahrawithaz]

while Jeanne-Louise Coleman's performance is very endearing, Clara v.3 has not become quite real for me yet

A million times this. I often find myself thinking about how good the actress is, and how I like her in an intellectual way rather than having a usual character investment. And I did fall hard for both Amy and River on their first appearances.

I think for me it's that while I understand the Doctor's investment in her, I don't understand her investment in him in any meaningful way. So perhaps it's the lack of the POV that's bothering me.

But I do agree that she seems a bit insubstantial when I try to think of her between episodes. Whereas I always had a sense of what Amy was running from--or what it meant to her that she was running--and that River's life outside the Doctor existed and that she had some conflict about having to hide it from him.