Doctor Who, Season Seven, Episode Eight
So, how do the Doctor and Clara fare on their first purposeful adventure together (as opposed to their "accidental" previous meetings)? It was an enjoyable episode, in my humble opinion, although almost a bit formulaic. Still, even the most fomulaic Doctor Who episode provides some food for thought and some fun moments.
From the episode title, I almost expected an Egyptian adventure, and was enjoying the thought of a scene where The Doctor explains Clara to Nefertiti. We got an outer-space, alien-bazaar, alien-god story instead.
I didn't recognize the bazaar world, although I did pick up on The Doctor's comment that he'd been there once before "with my grand-daughter." Keeping in mind that I've only seen the first half of the Eccleston season, a relatively small smattering of the Tennant seasons, and more Matt Smith than either of those, my fellow Whovians can tell me whether this is a reference to a "modern era" story or if I should be looking for the reference in something from the original run. Yes, I can look it up, and probably will, but wanted to use this as an example of how the writers capably throw in nods to earlier Who history that will hopefully inspire newer viewers to dig deeper without making those new viewers feel lost. Likewise, The Doctor's speech near the end about the thousand years worth of stories he had stored up inside, listing off things like "ending the Time War, seeing the beginning of Time and the end...." -- some of these are stories we've seen, and some have only been alluded to, and just that little bit of dialogue is intriguing.
The Doctor-Clara dynamic continues to build. I liked the way the episode was set up, coming right off of the Doctor's final line of dialogue from last week ("Right, Clara Oswald, let's find out just who you are..."), showing us what the Doctor does before returning to pick Clara up for their first date ... err, adventure. I did find it curious that she remembered vaguely seeing The Doctor at her mother's funeral, but not either of the times she saw him in childhood -- the instance we saw in this episode, kicking him in the head with the ball, or the meet-cute on the swings from the online "prequel" to last episode. Maybe those will come up in later episodes, as Clara realizes the Doctor has essentially stalked her childhood.
As far as the plot itself goes, yes, I do think this one was a bit formulaic. In fact, it felt an awful lot like Rose's first trip in the TARDIS: "where do you want to go?" "someplace [fill in the blank -- I don't recall exactly what Rose said]," and then they end up at a gathering of unusual aliens, with The Doctor pointing out all these races he's met before, including comic-misunderstanding encounter and meet-cute between Rose/Clara and Female Alien (Rose with the station worker who couldn't believe she was being acknowledged, Clara with a little girl who couldn't believe Clara didn't know who she was). The "I will always find you" dialogue from Clara's mother felt a bit too familiar, since I've been hearing it repeatedly for almost two seasons on Once Upon A Time, but that's hardly the Who-writers' fault.
Am I the only one afraid that Clara will at some point ask to go back to the day her mother died? I'm hoping Moffatt and company will not be that cutesy with the parallels between Rose and Clara that most fans are already noticing, but it's entirely possible. (Speaking of those similarities, this episode gave us another one with the "one parent dead, one alive" situation, albeit with reversed genders.)
And that last scene. The Doctor looked rather angry after Clara walked away, didn't he? Did the "I'm Clara, not anyone else" conversation bother him that much? I'd say it did, and we know he's not going to let it rest. Whether Clara knows he's doing it or not, he's going to continue trying to figure out what her connection is to the other Clara Oswalds he's encountered. This, if nothing else, should alter the dynamic between them in ways that wouldn't have happened with the earlier Doctors and Rose.
Also, is this the only time the Doctor has done in-depth research into a Companion's past after meeting them? I mean, he first met Pond as a little girl, so he had a sense of where she came from when he re-met her as an adult. But everyone else's history unfolded for him as they chose to reveal it, right? This seems to be an uncharacteristic move for him, which just adds to the sense that this mystery is obsessing him.
Perhaps we'll get more of a sense of what's up with Clara next week....
From the episode title, I almost expected an Egyptian adventure, and was enjoying the thought of a scene where The Doctor explains Clara to Nefertiti. We got an outer-space, alien-bazaar, alien-god story instead.
I didn't recognize the bazaar world, although I did pick up on The Doctor's comment that he'd been there once before "with my grand-daughter." Keeping in mind that I've only seen the first half of the Eccleston season, a relatively small smattering of the Tennant seasons, and more Matt Smith than either of those, my fellow Whovians can tell me whether this is a reference to a "modern era" story or if I should be looking for the reference in something from the original run. Yes, I can look it up, and probably will, but wanted to use this as an example of how the writers capably throw in nods to earlier Who history that will hopefully inspire newer viewers to dig deeper without making those new viewers feel lost. Likewise, The Doctor's speech near the end about the thousand years worth of stories he had stored up inside, listing off things like "ending the Time War, seeing the beginning of Time and the end...." -- some of these are stories we've seen, and some have only been alluded to, and just that little bit of dialogue is intriguing.
The Doctor-Clara dynamic continues to build. I liked the way the episode was set up, coming right off of the Doctor's final line of dialogue from last week ("Right, Clara Oswald, let's find out just who you are..."), showing us what the Doctor does before returning to pick Clara up for their first date ... err, adventure. I did find it curious that she remembered vaguely seeing The Doctor at her mother's funeral, but not either of the times she saw him in childhood -- the instance we saw in this episode, kicking him in the head with the ball, or the meet-cute on the swings from the online "prequel" to last episode. Maybe those will come up in later episodes, as Clara realizes the Doctor has essentially stalked her childhood.
As far as the plot itself goes, yes, I do think this one was a bit formulaic. In fact, it felt an awful lot like Rose's first trip in the TARDIS: "where do you want to go?" "someplace [fill in the blank -- I don't recall exactly what Rose said]," and then they end up at a gathering of unusual aliens, with The Doctor pointing out all these races he's met before, including comic-misunderstanding encounter and meet-cute between Rose/Clara and Female Alien (Rose with the station worker who couldn't believe she was being acknowledged, Clara with a little girl who couldn't believe Clara didn't know who she was). The "I will always find you" dialogue from Clara's mother felt a bit too familiar, since I've been hearing it repeatedly for almost two seasons on Once Upon A Time, but that's hardly the Who-writers' fault.
Am I the only one afraid that Clara will at some point ask to go back to the day her mother died? I'm hoping Moffatt and company will not be that cutesy with the parallels between Rose and Clara that most fans are already noticing, but it's entirely possible. (Speaking of those similarities, this episode gave us another one with the "one parent dead, one alive" situation, albeit with reversed genders.)
And that last scene. The Doctor looked rather angry after Clara walked away, didn't he? Did the "I'm Clara, not anyone else" conversation bother him that much? I'd say it did, and we know he's not going to let it rest. Whether Clara knows he's doing it or not, he's going to continue trying to figure out what her connection is to the other Clara Oswalds he's encountered. This, if nothing else, should alter the dynamic between them in ways that wouldn't have happened with the earlier Doctors and Rose.
Also, is this the only time the Doctor has done in-depth research into a Companion's past after meeting them? I mean, he first met Pond as a little girl, so he had a sense of where she came from when he re-met her as an adult. But everyone else's history unfolded for him as they chose to reveal it, right? This seems to be an uncharacteristic move for him, which just adds to the sense that this mystery is obsessing him.
Perhaps we'll get more of a sense of what's up with Clara next week....