Doctor Who EP 7.13: The Name of the Doctor

This review post is really late but here you go anyway. If for some bizarre reason you're reading this and still haven't watched the episode yet, there are spoilers ahead.

clara saving the universe and all that. caps from here

Episode Summary: The Great Intelligence has returned to rewrite history and destroy the Doctor, threatening not only him but also his friends, at the final resting place of the Doctor - Trenzalore.

"I blew into this world on a leaf. I don't think I'll ever land. My name is Clara Oswald. I'm the impossible girl. I was born to save the Doctor."

The finale was mindblowingly amazing, particularly in comparison to some of the previous episodes of series 7, which have kept Clara's mystery secret but have lacked character development (Clara, the Doctor, and some of the villains). Throughout this series we have seen Clara die in several different timestreams, leading not only the Doctor, but also the audience, to wonder how this could be possible if she's an ordinary human? I think this contributed to my annoyance with the series because at times Clara was positioned as a mystery to be solved, a plot device - "You are the only mystery worth solving" - rather than an actual person.

i really want to know more about the whispermen

Clara finally became aware of past conversations with the Doctor that had wiped from her memory, and she realised that she had only one choice to save the Doctor and the universe from being rewritten - namely, stepping into the the Doctor's timestream after the Great Intelligence (GI) so that, she too, could be split into a million pieces and be scattered across time and space to save the Doctor from the GI's plan to destroy everything he had done. I remember reading a Clara theory that I agreed with on a discussion forum early in the series that suggested Clara was similar to that of a Horcrux, that parts of her soul had been scattered across time and space for some reason. I think it's safe to say that this theory has in essence proved to be true and that we now know the reason behind it - to save the Doctor.

Doctor Who EP 7.12: Nightmare in Silver

I am so unbelievably close to watching the finale right now. As soon as I finish writing this post you can guess what I'll be doing and a review will come in the next day or so. Spoilers ahead folks.

the doctor vs mr clever oh yeah. caps from here

Episode Summary: What do you get when you put the Cybermen, Clara, two children, the Doctor, and the most hopeless army you've ever seen, together? A whole lot of trouble. Especially when the Doctor is attacked by cybermites and keeps switching between his identity as the Doctor and the Cybermen's Mr Clever.

This episode (penned by Neil Gaiman) was, enjoyable, but nothing compared to his triumph with The Doctor's Wife, arguably one of the best episodes of the last series. What's bothering me about series 7B is that there is simply not enough character development for Clara. I know I said this in the last post but I still don't know her. She meets with the Doctor every Wednesday, when the Doctor tells her to do something she does it (but this is mainly because the alternative is terrifying), she's a nanny, and she's the impossible girl! But where are her opinions? Her beliefs? How does she really feel about the Doctor and what he does? Does she want to know more? WHO ARE YOU CLARA? I just??? I'm hoping that this will be somewhat rectified in the finale.

u go clara. 4 for u.

Moving on to Nightmare in Silver, this new generation of Cybermen allowed them to attach cybermites to the flesh of humans (or time lords) and move in lightning speed - which only happened once - but overall they were quite brilliant. Usually, the Cybermen just sort of stomp around grabbing people to build up their army and attack the Doctor. However, the Doctor ended up being one of their first targets and it resulted in a battle between his cyber-identity, Mr Clever, and himself. The fight for survival moved backwards and forwards, as Mr Clever mocked him and flirted with Clara, and it was hard to tell who was who at times. But with a slap in the face or a neck-jerking twist, the Doctor was back in control of his body, but most importantly his mind, leaving Clara with the job of ordering the army and making sure the planet didn't get blown up. Nonetheless, the identity struggle was definitely my favourite part of the episode, partly because I so desperately want to see the Doctor break loose and turn dark and evil. Or start flirting with Clara. Yes. And by Clara I actually mean me.

Doctor Who EP 7.11: The Crimson Horror

The race to catch up to the finale before I glimpse any massive spoilers is causing me great pain. Especially, when I probably need to be writing my dissertation at this exact same moment, and yet, here I am writing about The Crimson Horror, which I only just watched this morning. Spoilers ahoy.

these ladies are some kickass detectives let me tell you that. caps from here

Episode Summary: The Doctor takes Clara back to 1893, and instead of arriving in London, they happen upon Yorkshire, where mysterious crimson bodies are turning up in the morgue. They are joined, and saved, by the trio of detectives we saw in last year's Christmas special: the Silurian Madame Vastra, her human (kickass) wife Jenny Flint, and the Sontaran Strax. The resident villain, this week, appears to seek a world of perfection and is preserving those deemed "desirable" in her new world (and wants to kill everyone who isn't). She also has a repulsive little alien thing attached to her. I think that says enough.

yeah this is pretty darn creepy

This episode was well paced and enjoyable with a whirlpool of different genres on the table: period feature, sci-fi/fantasy, and a bit of classic horror. As a side-note, Mark Gatiss wrote this episode, and I'm honestly surprised that he didn't write a character for himself because he's been known to do that in the past. Anyway, I was so excited to see my favourite trio of detectives getting up to their shenanigans in Victorian England, and they certainly did not disappoint. Strax provided some much needed comic relief, as he offered suggestions of invasions, explosions, and killing everyone in his way to get where he needed to be. One of his standout lines: "Horse! You have failed in your mission! You're lost with no sign of Sweetville. Do you have any final words before your summary execution?" (It's okay the horse didn't die.) And then there was the wonderful Jenny, who infiltrated Sweetville, saved the Doctor, and then as the duo were surrounded and the Doctor prepared himself for a fight, Jenny ripped off her period dress to reveal tight leather fighting clothing and eliminated the hoard of attractive employees. BOOM. She would make an excellent companion for the Doctor. Madame Vastra sought out information and shocked everyone with her appearance. You go Vastra.

Doctor Who EP 7.10: Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS

I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to review all the episodes over the next day or so, considering I also have class work to do, but I'm trying my best to do what I can. Oh well. Spoilers ahead for this episode.

they are precious to me. caps from here

Episode Summary: The Doctor turns off the shield oscillators so that Clara can try to fly the TARDIS, and they are consequently pulled in by a salvage vessel using a magnograb. Clara is lost in the TARDIS and the Doctor recruits the salvagers to help find her. The TARDIS then starts to reconfigure itself and there are crispy molten rock people chasing after them all. Yeah.

This has to be my favourite episode among those that have been reviewed so far. There were flaws but overall the episode was brilliant. Both Clara and The Doctor were dashing in their outfits as tried to find each other within the labyrinth that is the TARDIS. But, as soon as, the Van Baalen brothers wandered away to start tearing apart the TARDIS console for scraps, that was when it got tricky. The architecture of the ship was constantly reinventing itself, and making them run around in endless looping hallways to protect its equipment being stolen. Fair enough.

you better have the answer doctor

I loved being able to see into the hidden rooms that have been mentioned over the past few series, such as the swimming pool, and the all important library, where Clara managed to get a glimpse of the Doctor's real name in The History of the Time War book. Conveniently, this book was on a display stand and after opening it to a random page, she only had to turn it to the next page to find his name. However, at the end of the episode the Doctor was able to re-set time so that Clara didn't remember this information. CONVENIENT. To me, this seems like a 'get out of jail free' card and was just way too easy. It would've been far more interesting if Clara had been able to keep her memories and have the Doctor deal with the fact that she knows secrets that she shouldn't.

It's always really interesting (and exciting) when there are links back to the past. Clara discovered a room full of items that had been collected over the years, including: Melody Pond's cot, Amy's handmade TARDIS, and a magnifying glass that was probably used by both Amy and Donna. There are more items listed here. Then when one of the brother's started pulling apart the console, there was a leak in time, as voices from the past were heard including previous Doctor's and companions. I know I definitely heard Amy shout, "We are in space!"

Doctor Who EP 7.09: Hide

WOAH LONG TIME NO SEE! Well actually I don't see you per se because you're apart of my invisible audience but it is not the time to start talking about these technical issues is it? You want all the Doctor Who reviews before I watch the finale don't you? I'm glad you just said yes because that's what I'm going to try and do like right now. Obviously don't read on if you don't like spoilers.

the doctor was actually afraid and this is important to me. caps from here

Episode Summary: The Doctor and Clara travel to 1974 to visit a well-known psychic and a war veteran with a ghost problem. And a monster problem. And the ghost isn't actually a ghost. And the Doctor actually came here to ask the psychic a few questions about Clara. And the Doctor also plays cupid. It's really good.

I was hooked from the start of this episode, and while I'd say that the first half may have been stronger than the second half, it was excellent and I loved it. I would like to thank the writer for not having the characters ask the  "Doctor who?" question when the Doctor introduced himself and Clara to Alec Palmer and Emma Grayling. "I'm the Doctor." "Doctor what?" "If you like." THANK YOU.

but she's definitely not afraid here she's feeling awesome

Clara is afraid. She may be trying to hide it from the Doctor and the people she meets but she is afraid and it's so refreshing to see how she reacts differently to some of the previous companions, that wandered off as soon as they got the chance. When the Doctor asks her to come with him and search the ~spooky~ house for the ghost, unlike other companions, she doesn't even want to because the actual idea that someone who might be dead is screeching through the hallways is terrifying. 

The Doctor is afraid. We don't get to see the Doctor show fear very often but when he's stuck in a pocket universe with no TARDIS, and no other devices to help him get back, it's fair enough that he was afraid. Oh and he was being chased by an unknown creature as well. So there's that. But what I loved about this creature, is that for most of the episode we believe that it's this terrifying monster that wants to kill the Doctor, and then it's revealed that it was actually chasing the Doctor because it was looking for a way home, back to its partner inside the spooky house. It was just nice to have a so-called monster not looking to take over the world, or destroy earth, or destroy the Doctor, but to get back to it's loved one.

Doctor Who EP 7.08: Cold War

WoAH no wAY! An episode review on a M0nDaY?? This can’t be tRUE! I only just got around to watching the episode a few hours ago and amazingly I am now writing a review. It may or may not be because I have a lot of work for uni to complete this week, as well as, it being more ideal to write an episode review for something that is still in the forefront of people’s minds. Spoilers ahead folks, so if you haven’t watched then don’t read.

note: all screencaps are from grande-caps and here is clara legitimately looking terrified

Episode Summary: The Doctor messes up his co-ordinates (as he so often does) and he and Clara end up on a sinking Russian submarine in 1983 during the Cold War. The professor on board believes that they have obtained a frozen mammoth on their travels. The professor is wrong.

In comparison to the last two episodes, the pacing for ‘Cold War’ felt right. It didn’t need to be any longer to fully develop the storyline and characters, and there didn’t appear to be any major plot holes either. It was definitely visually impressive (as usual) in a perfect kind of way, the blue, pink, yellow and red colour palette for the episode was just gorgeous. I wouldn’t say it’s one of the best episodes I’ve ever seen and I’m a bit undecided on how to feel because it felt like there was something missing, but it was still a good episode overall. There were definitely some great one-liners though. But if there’s one thing to note, I would have expected the characters to be a bit more scared considering the TARDIS just, you know, DISAPPEARED and they were all AT THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN but I guess they were kind of preoccupied by Skaldak the Ice Warrior.

noooooooow KISS

Let’s talk about the Doctor/Clara relationship because it’s so precious. Clara is supposed to be the impossible girl, the girl who can’t exist, and yet she does and she’s just so normal it’s hard to believe. It’s becoming clear that the Doctor is quite protective of her, which is entirely reasonable considering she has died twice in two separate time streams. Last week on the pyramid when she asked to help, he told her to leave and that “when we hold something precious, we run, until we are out from under the shadow.” This may not just be referring to the child, but also to Clara. If this is the case, does this mean there will be an episode in which they simply run? And this week when she wanted to face Slakdak, the Doctor outright refused ("You?! No. No, no way! You’re not going in there alone, Clara. Absolutely not. No, no, never.") but she went ahead and did it anyway. I think I’ll wait for more to be revealed throughout the series.

Doctor Who EP 7.07: The Rings of Akhaten

This is an undeniably late review for, in my opinion, an undeniably good episode. As per last week, and every following week, there will be spoilers in this post so I would recommend not reading on until you’ve watched the episode.

note: all screencaps are from grande-caps BUT AREN'T THESE TWO SO PRECIOUS??

Episode Summary: Clara sets off for her first adventure with the Doctor to the Rings of Akhaten. There are aliens strolling around market stalls everywhere but they’re primarily all there for the Festival of Offering and to hear a young girl sing to keep the Old God asleep. Shenanigans ensue!

Firstly, I need to address the disappointment surrounding this episode. It appears as though the critics enjoyed it, however after browsing the comments and trawling through Twitter, there were a fair few people who didn’t like this latest installment (or the speech???), with some going so far as to call it the “worst episode ever”. Really?

the epic symbolism of the Doctor/companion relationship

I thought this episode was heartfelt and was very much focused on establishing the Doctor/Clara relationship for the rest of the series. I will admit, that some aspects were quite similar to Amy’s first adventure on ‘The Beast Below’ and it risked being a bit samey; but there were different needs and values explored in ‘The Rings of Akhaten’. However, I think that there were too many monster villains for the length of the episode and I would have honestly enjoyed more character development of the Vigil, whom could have been a standalone DW villain. But did I still love the episode? Yes. Yes I did.

It became clear that Clara is not someone we, and the Doctor, should just view as a problem to solve or just view as “the new companion” as a portion of her back-story was revealed and we learned about her parents and the significance of that mysterious leaf. There was also the bonus of her quite bluntly saying that she would travel with the Doctor but she is not there to replace a ghost of his past. A+ response.

Doctor Who EP 7.06: The Bells of Saint John

It is time for the delayed post-mortem discussion, examination, timey wimey exploration (or whatever you want to call it) of the latest Doctor Who episode. As a forewarning, if you still haven’t watched the latest episode, this post will be rife with spoilers and I would suggest that you stop reading right about now (and y’know go watch the episode).

note: all screencaps are from grande-caps but otherwise clara pLS

Episode Summary: There is an unknown WiFi connection appearing around the world and each person who clicks the mysterious symbol (┓┏ 凵 =╱⊿┌┬┐) will have their souls taken from them and uploaded to a soul keeping (??) server. I think at this point we should acknowledge the “cleverly” nicknamed Spoonheads committing the deed on behalf of an organisation.

I personally thought that this episode was a good start to series 7B (yo I watched it twice). The storyline was definitely intriguing as WiFi is basically a huge part of our lives now but I honestly thought that the ideas presented could have been further explored and developed in an hour-long episode rather than the given 45 minutes. Besides, who wouldn’t want to spend more time watching Doctor Who?

Since their fateful meeting in 1892, the Doctor has been searching for the mysterious Clara who we have now seen die in two separate time streams. There was definitely some great chemistry between the duo which has been built on since the Christmas episode.

bless the hairstylist

Exhibit A:

Doctor: You and me, inside that box now.

Clara: I’m sorry?

Doctor: Just get inside.

Clara: Both of us?

Doctor: Oh trust me, you’ll understand once we’re in there.

Clara: I bet I will!

Doctor: No...

Clara: What is that box anyway? Why have you got a box?

Doctor: Clara...

Clara: Is it a snogging booth?

Doctor: A what?

Clara: Is that what you do? You bring a booth. There’s such a thing as too keen.

I just...how can you not fall in love with this exchange? I’m looking forward to seeing how her character develops throughout the series and I really hope she’s not too ‘samey’ by basically being the same character as Amy and River. There were a few moments that reminded me of Donna though - like when the Doctor realises that he’s talking on the phone to the girl he’s been trying to find for years and he just rushes across time like a bumbling idiot (still dressed like a monk from 1207) and greets her at her house. She is confronted by this odd man wanting her to repeat the phrase “Doctor who?” over and over, and like any sane person would, she slams the door in his face. By the way the "Doctor who?" joke is getting old.