Hey youtubers it’s Charlie and this week Doctor Who was a big Clara story with a very
big WTF reveal.
So I feel like that’s what we should spend most of our time talking about.
There were a lot of great gags and some good social commentary, so let’s start with Top
5 moments and then I’ll do my review.
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Careful for spoilers, here we go.
Top 5 Moments
Number 5 - The Tiny TARDIS
Great gag that provides the reason for Clara turning into Doctor Clara.
The Doctor is freaking out and people are vanishing so there is a sense of urgency.
But I feel like the locked room mystery storyline makes them completely forget the tension between
them.
Last week during Mummy they said weeks had passed, so it seems like by the time things
really get going, Clara has completely done a 180 on hating the Doctor and is ignoring
Danny’s phone calls.
I think a couple of my favorite Tiny TARDIS gags were the walking hand from Addams family
on the Train Tracks, any time he passed Clara something normal size, like it was one of
the handbags from the Jetsons Cartoon.
And Siege Mode.
The TARDIS in siege mode looked a lot like the Pandorica.
And to be fair, he said that while it was locked down, nobody could get in or out.
Which was the whole point of the pandorica, to contain The Doctor.
I don’t think there’s any special significance to it.
They just wanted it to look like a super strong indestructible cube.
The Door of the TARDIS was also a nice nod to the shrinking door in Charlie and The Chocolate
Factory, the classic Gene Wilder movie, actually I think that was called Willy Wonka and the
Chocolate Factory.
Number 4 - Two Dimensional Languages
Math is always going to be the Universal Language, so that wasn’t a huge surprise.
In real life, when nations send transmissions into deep space, they always broadcast mathematical
formulas.
The Doctor used Pi.
It was a fun bit of science that turned into a great gag.
I always love the stories he slips in when he’s solving similar problems.
Like the Gas Creatures that communicate with belches of flame and the stomach creatures
that say hello by digesting.
Douglas Mackinnon wrote the episode, so at some point he sat down and had to think of
crazy sounding aliens and think of weird non-human ways for them to speak.
That’s one of my favorite things about science fiction.
Just working through the mechanics of simple things like that.
In the end the aliens seemed more like an invasion force than an exploration team.
But it did make you wonder if The Doctor would find a way to use the TARDIS to enter the
second dimension.
Physics was a big thing in the episode, so there were a lot of TARDIS facts being thrown
around.
Like flattening the surface of the earth.
That’s actually true by the way.
The TARDIS is powered by the eye of harmony, which is like a dying star.
The mass of that just by itself is so great it’s ridiculous.
Number 3 - Everybody Is Turning Into Banksy Paintings
The Graffiti People aspect provided some nice social commentary.
The creatures were transporting people into the second dimension and dissecting them for
study.
That’s what the wall art was all about.
Eventually they learn to use the bodies to exist in three dimensional space.
They fudge the logic a little bit on that part, but I usually give Doctor Who a pass
when it comes to science.
It’s meant to be fiction, so when it gets a little ridiculous it doesn’t take me out
of the story too much.
I did really like The Doctor’s 2 Dimensional Gun that clara used to transform things.
It reminded me of David Tennant’s machine that goes Ding.
The Graffiti artist was played by Joivan Wade.
He was great as far as pudding brains go.
I love how quickly the Doctor turns around on people.
No wait, he might be useful.
Don’t scare him off.
Number 2 - Doctor Oswald
So many things we could say about this.
One, it’s probably the closest we’ll get to seeing a female Doctor in the short term.
Not accounting for the fact Missy might be a Time Lady.
But a Time Lady isn’t the same thing as a Lady Doctor.
Either way, it was a big moment in Doctor Who history.
I love that later in the episode the Doctor turns his congratulations into something darker.
When he was getting ready to die he sounded really happy about her playacting as him,
but at the end of the episode he made me think he knows something is going on a la Missy.
I don’t think he knows about Missy, I just think he knows something isn’t right with
Clara.
I’ve seen a lot of blog posts recently about the show presenting Clara as if she were a
Time Lady, technically she’s the impossible girl.
But since she’s been a companion, the stories have given her so much authority the Doctor
rolls over for her all the time.
He even called her Boss.
Now that we know Missy has something to do with Clara, it makes you wonder if Moffat
is trying to say something about her true nature.
I think my favorite Doctor Clara moments were Jenna Coleman doing a version of the Matt
Smith Doctor when he would get all crazy with an idea.
Like when she thought to trick the two dimensional beings into recharging the TARDIS and of course
when she said “I am The Doctor”
Very good lying Doctor Oswald.
Until the big twist at the end it felt like this episode was all about The Doctor teaching
Clara how to be The Doctor.
and my Number 1 WTF Moment - Missy is connected to Clara
In case you were confused.
Missy was watching Clara in the same way The Doctor was watching Clara on the TARDIS console.
Not exactly the same way.
I saw some of you on twitter thought that Missy was looking through Clara’s eyes like
she was jacked into Clara the same way The Doctor was.
But she was seeing her in third person, so either that scene on her ipad there was from
a few minutes ago when The Doctor was talking to her and Missy is jacked into him or she’s
watching Clara in some other way.
This is what we should spend all our time in the comments talking about.
Is Missy jacked into The Doctor instead of Clara or is she just connected to Clara.
I think when we’re seeing Clara on this screen the Doctor has already gone back inside
the TARDIS, so I don’t think she’s jacked into him.
But what about the room she’s in, doesn’t that look kind of like a version of the Doctor’s
TARDIS with the window holes?
It seems like more evidence that Missy is a Time Lady or a dark aspect of the doctor.
In the past, when the TARDIS has gotten hijacked, the lights always change color or go down.
They could just be messing with us a little, I really want Missy to be a separate person
from The Doctor.
It would make it easier for her to come back at some point.
If it turned out she’s just a dark part of the doctor’s own mind, she’s really
just his subconscious acting out.
I just think that would be a big middle finger.
Moffat just saying, it was all in his head the whole time.
He does talk to himself a lot, but I still want Missy to be a separate person.
It does seem like they’re implying she has her own TARDIS though.
So it’s time to Rani Time Lady theorycraft.
Let me know what your favorite moment in the episode was and do you think Missy is another
Time Lady
and do you
think she’s using Clara?