Doctor Who, Season Seven, Episode Eight

[talekyn]

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.

Comments

[hermitlibrarian]

From what I know, the Doctor's granddaughter (Susan) appeared in the original run with the First Doctor. The only episode I've seen her in was an Aztec themed one with two of the Doctor's other companions (Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright).

[talekyn]

I didn't think I'd heard of anything grand-daughter related in season since the relaunch, but wasn't quite sure. This makes more sense.

My thoughts

[anonymous]

So, I actually thought, rather than formulaic, just about every piece of the episode called back to a previous episode. Some bits are: of course, the "where do you want to go?", but also the pocketwatch (after the Master's watch as well as the Doctor's own, that contains their time-lordiness and allows them to be human) (and what happens to that pocketwatch?), the story that Clara tells echoing Martha's story that saves the Doctor, the marketplace that he took Donna to on one of their first adventures, the song of the Ood, the devil that Tenant's Doctor fought, and all the imagery that went with that... I know there are some that I was missing, but I felt like this one episode paid tribute to so many other episodes. And doesn't Matt Smith seem very much more like the 1st Doctor, the concerned grandparent, with Clara than either Eccleston or Tenant seemed with Rose?

Re: My thoughts

[talekyn]

You picked up far more references than I did, but then again you've seen far more of the Tennant episodes than I have.