Meta: Swift musings on the Moffat era

[elisi]

Cautiously opens the door to the meta café a tiny bit...

I have been saying for years now that Moffat has been re-booting the show… Here is how he did it.

Comments

[sea_thoughts]

Clara was consistently associated with a bird (as you often pointed out) from her first appearance and I just realised that this reaches its culmination in Heaven Sent with the Doctor telling the story of the bird and the mountain: "Every hundred years a little bird comes and sharpens its beak on the diamond mountain. And when the entire mountain is chiseled away, the first second of eternity will have passed.’ You may think that’s a hell of a long time. Personally, I think that’s a hell of a bird.” Clara only has one second of eternity but she will take it and live in it, like a bird in a cage. But she also graduates to a different, infinite cage, her own TARDIS.

And then - he dies. (Well, if we see a mindwipe as a kind of death.)It was explicitly equated with death in Donna's case so I certainly think it counts here. I see this as the final part of dealing with Ten's legacy. I've said before that Moff's immediate reaction to Donna's mindwipe was to write a companion who was obviously damaged by having her memory altered and whose

[elisi]

Clara was consistently associated with a bird (as you often pointed out) from her first appearance
'Love is a rebellious bird...'

I just realised that this reaches its culmination in Heaven Sent with the Doctor telling the story of the bird and the mountain
Mmm yes. He even writes 'bird'. (I went back & looked at my review, but I didn't bring it up because that post ended up more like poetry...)

Clara only has one second of eternity but she will take it and live in it, like a bird in a cage. But she also graduates to a different, infinite cage, her own TARDIS.
This is genius!

It was explicitly equated with death in Donna's case so I certainly think it counts here.
IKR? And since Davros keeps going on about how 'one of them will die' clearly it's accurate. After all, what are we without our memories?

I see this as the final part of dealing with Ten's legacy. I've said before that Moff's immediate reaction to Donna's mindwipe was to write a companion who was obviously damaged by having her memory altered and whose ultimate power

[sea_thoughts]

'Love is a rebellious bird...'

Exactly! And also "Be on your guard!"

And since Davros keeps going on about how 'one of them will die' clearly it's accurate. After all, what are we without our memories?

Different, which is what makes Alzheimer's so cruel. And also why River found it so hard to deal with Ten as he had no memories of her or their relationship. No memories means no context; no context means no understanding

"You know when you see a photograph of someone you know, but it's from years before you knew them. It's like they're not quite finished; they're not done yet. Well, yes, the Doctor's here. He came when I called, just like he always does, but not my Doctor..."

"I am the Doctor!"

"Yeah." *looks down* "Someday."

and also

"God, you're hard work when you're young!"

And I don't think we ever see Eleven do mind wipes? I can't recall any.

No, although he does spend the first Christmas special substantially altering Kazran's memories as Kazran watches which isn't exactly a good thing. But no mind wipes. Not with the

[ext_4082182]

No, although he does spend the first Christmas special substantially altering Kazran's memories as Kazran watches which isn't exactly a good thing. But no mind wipes. Not with the Silence there to show him how awful it was. *cough*
Eleven also seemed less telepathically inclined in general than either Ten or Twelve. Particularly less so than Twelve. I remember him implanting instructions in Amy's head when he was putting her in the Pandorica, but other than that? Remind me if I'm missing something.

There was a lot of headcannon going around in season eight that Twelve didn't like to be touched because he's a lot more telepathically sensitive than his predecessor. Which sounded plausible to me.

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[elisi]

Woo! Hurrah for the meta café! :D

[ragnarok_08]

This whole post was very compelling, and it's given me a lot to think about.

[elisi]

Glad to hear it. :)

[ever_neutral]

it was RTD who brought the show back and in the process transformed it. He came up with the Time War

Remember when fandom was outraged about Moffat’s ret-conning on the grounds that not committing genocide made the Doctor less heroic… Good times.

She literally is the ur-Companion

S;LJDFL;DSJFLDSKJF legends only.

Intriguing ideas in this post and comments therein! I anticipate having more to say about the structure as the season shapes up. ;D

[elisi]

Remember when fandom was outraged about Moffat’s ret-conning on the grounds that not committing genocide made the Doctor less heroic… Good times.
Pft. He's committed genocide LOTS of times, they are all fools!

S;LJDFL;DSJFLDSKJF legends only.
Q: Why is Clara so special?
A: Because she is!!

Intriguing ideas in this post and comments therein! I anticipate having more to say about the structure as the season shapes up. ;D
Yes, it's very interesting to see where it goes. Because it could go ANYWHERE.

[verdande_mi]

This is wonderful ♥♥ Thank you sharing. I don't have anything to add, but I echo all of this.

[elisi]

Thank you!

I may delve deeper at a later stage, but I wanted something just for reference. :)