Shrimp_8: Hey there! I enjoyed reading your joining form; you said so many things which are all excellent reasons to like this show. I find it kind of interesting how the episode that introduced you to the show happened to be Midnight - it's definitely an amazing episode, and one of my favourites too, but it's quite unlike the standard fare for episodes. It's a good thing you weren't put off when you watched some more of the more normal kinds of episodes and saw that they're not all as dark and deconstruction-y as Midnight is. Welcome to the club, and do please contribute as much as you want!
...oookay, so my rambles on the last episode are kinda late; I was pretty tired shortly after both watching and rewatching it last weekend. But I made sure to get around to rambling about it eventually because despite my tiredness I really did enjoy it and had a lot of feelings about it that I needed to get down.
Also, regarding Crasher's theory from Dark Water that is still relevant and unconfirmed as of now: yeah, I've been thinking Clara might be pregnant, too. It would explain some of the oddness of her phone call to Danny, and the "three months" on the post-it notes. Her phone call otherwise doesn't quite make sense to me, even as of Death in Heaven. That and her being pregnant would allow Orson Pink to still exist even though Danny really did stay dead. The only other thing I can think that the "three months" might mean is that she's got some kind of terminal illness and that's how long she has left to live, but that doesn't seem particularly likely to be a direction they'd go in.
So... yeah. A month and nine days to go until Christmas!
-elyvorg/Amelia
...oookay, so my rambles on the last episode are kinda late; I was pretty tired shortly after both watching and rewatching it last weekend. But I made sure to get around to rambling about it eventually because despite my tiredness I really did enjoy it and had a lot of feelings about it that I needed to get down.
Hey, I thought this was a thoroughly good finale. Okay, so the opening credits trying to play up the "Clara is the Doctor" thing when it was obvious she was just lying to stay alive was kind of silly, but the rest of it was pretty solid, Missy was very fun and suitably bonkers yet threatening, and towards the end I was having all of the emotions. I think it's the most emotionally affected I've been by any episode this series.
Danny's death was pretty distressingly sudden in the previous episode, so it was nice that he and Clara got to have these moments in the graveyard to say a proper goodbye. I especially liked Clara saying "I wasn't very good at it"; it gives a nice little bit of depth to her standard "I love you" that reflects how she kind of hates the way she was often lying to him and prioritising her time-travelling adventures over her time with him. Since she really did love him despite this, she must have felt he deserved better than that.
Then this stuff with Danny also allowed us another interesting look at Danny's opinion of the Doctor, which I think in some ways actually says more about Danny than it does about the Doctor. Danny must harbour so much anger - understandably, really! - towards the officer who caused him to kill that boy, because he was projecting that onto the Doctor way more than he deserved. You could see it was agony for the Doctor to have to have Danny's emotions deleted in order to be able to find out and stop the Cybermen's plan. As the Doctor pointed out, feeling that pain is the difference between being forced to do terrible things and just plain being a terrible person.
Missy giving the Doctor the power to control the Cybermen, as well as UNIT designating him temporary President of Earth, served as a further opportunity to explore the Doctor's morality. The Doctor shouldn't ever have that kind of power, and he knows it - the thought of what he might do with it if he had it clearly terrifies him. I'm not certain whether Missy did it because she genuinely does want him to understand her and be her friend again in a twisted kind of way, or if she just did it because she knew it would hurt him. Probably both, knowing the Master. I'm sure there is a tiny dark part of the Doctor deep down that did want that power and did want to be able to just go and crush all of the creatures that he hates. However, the fact that he didn't listen to that part of him is what makes him not a bad person. He may not be a "good man" in the sense of a super-incorruptible perfect fairytale hero, and he's also definitely not the kind of "good man" who's convinced he's right and will slaughter millions in the name of that. But even though he's just a fool in a box passing through and trying to help wherever he goes, the fact that he tries to help is what makes him a good person at heart in my book. I stand by Clara's statement of "you try to be, and I think that's probably the point" from Into the Dalek.
The Brigadier! I dunno why, since I've seen only like two or three old serials that have him in, but I've always been touched by the little nods to him there've been in the new series since he passed away. So this was really sweet, especially with the Doctor finally getting to salute him instead of the other way around. Losing Osgood was bad enough, so I'm glad that thanks to the Brig we didn't have to lose Kate too. Then it was good of him to be the one to kill Missy so that the Doctor didn't have to. Similarly, it meant a lot that before that the Doctor was willing to kill the Master here even though it was clearly going to hurt him to do it because he'd rather that than Clara doing it and living with that on her conscience.
Then, THE ENDING. Guh. Both Clara and the Doctor are not okay! Of course Danny would use his one ticket back from the dead to save the life of the boy he killed, rather than himself - of course he would - and I'm sure Clara understands that better than anyone, but still, that hurt. Meanwhile I have never seen this Doctor in more pain and anguish than when he didn't find Gallifrey. They need each other so badly right now but neither of them knows it. People lying that they're happy when they're anything but is always heartwrenching, but it's even more so in this instance because they're doing it to each other. They both think the other is happier without them, and the only reason each of them is telling their lie is so their friend won't worry about them. And the Doctor's reason for disliking hugs is that they're a way for people to hide their true feelings from each other, just like the two of them were doing there! Gaaaaah.
It actually makes a lot of sense to me that this Doctor in particular would dislike hugs for the specific reason of them being an excuse to hide your face. In this incarnation he's got less of an affected personality to hide what he's truly like - less of a "mask" to hide his "face", so to speak - so it totally fits that he'd be against something that allows people, especially friends, to hide their face and how they're truly feeling. I really don't think Rule 1 is "The Doctor lies" any more. Which makes it all the more of a big deal that he actually did lie to Clara here anyway.
The worst part of all this was that I didn't know whether Clara would be continuing as a companion, so for all I knew this really would be the last time they see each other and neither of them would ever find out how utterly not-okay the other is, which would have been the saddest companion departure ever. I am so glad we got that teaser at the end to reassure us that won't be the case. Also, in-universely I am glad Santa showed up immediately after the Doctor left Clara, because at least this means he won't be alone and miserable for who-knows-how-long before it's fixed. Christmas cannot come soon enough, because then the Doctor and Clara will be brought back together and start to be somewhat happy again!
Danny's death was pretty distressingly sudden in the previous episode, so it was nice that he and Clara got to have these moments in the graveyard to say a proper goodbye. I especially liked Clara saying "I wasn't very good at it"; it gives a nice little bit of depth to her standard "I love you" that reflects how she kind of hates the way she was often lying to him and prioritising her time-travelling adventures over her time with him. Since she really did love him despite this, she must have felt he deserved better than that.
Then this stuff with Danny also allowed us another interesting look at Danny's opinion of the Doctor, which I think in some ways actually says more about Danny than it does about the Doctor. Danny must harbour so much anger - understandably, really! - towards the officer who caused him to kill that boy, because he was projecting that onto the Doctor way more than he deserved. You could see it was agony for the Doctor to have to have Danny's emotions deleted in order to be able to find out and stop the Cybermen's plan. As the Doctor pointed out, feeling that pain is the difference between being forced to do terrible things and just plain being a terrible person.
Missy giving the Doctor the power to control the Cybermen, as well as UNIT designating him temporary President of Earth, served as a further opportunity to explore the Doctor's morality. The Doctor shouldn't ever have that kind of power, and he knows it - the thought of what he might do with it if he had it clearly terrifies him. I'm not certain whether Missy did it because she genuinely does want him to understand her and be her friend again in a twisted kind of way, or if she just did it because she knew it would hurt him. Probably both, knowing the Master. I'm sure there is a tiny dark part of the Doctor deep down that did want that power and did want to be able to just go and crush all of the creatures that he hates. However, the fact that he didn't listen to that part of him is what makes him not a bad person. He may not be a "good man" in the sense of a super-incorruptible perfect fairytale hero, and he's also definitely not the kind of "good man" who's convinced he's right and will slaughter millions in the name of that. But even though he's just a fool in a box passing through and trying to help wherever he goes, the fact that he tries to help is what makes him a good person at heart in my book. I stand by Clara's statement of "you try to be, and I think that's probably the point" from Into the Dalek.
The Brigadier! I dunno why, since I've seen only like two or three old serials that have him in, but I've always been touched by the little nods to him there've been in the new series since he passed away. So this was really sweet, especially with the Doctor finally getting to salute him instead of the other way around. Losing Osgood was bad enough, so I'm glad that thanks to the Brig we didn't have to lose Kate too. Then it was good of him to be the one to kill Missy so that the Doctor didn't have to. Similarly, it meant a lot that before that the Doctor was willing to kill the Master here even though it was clearly going to hurt him to do it because he'd rather that than Clara doing it and living with that on her conscience.
Then, THE ENDING. Guh. Both Clara and the Doctor are not okay! Of course Danny would use his one ticket back from the dead to save the life of the boy he killed, rather than himself - of course he would - and I'm sure Clara understands that better than anyone, but still, that hurt. Meanwhile I have never seen this Doctor in more pain and anguish than when he didn't find Gallifrey. They need each other so badly right now but neither of them knows it. People lying that they're happy when they're anything but is always heartwrenching, but it's even more so in this instance because they're doing it to each other. They both think the other is happier without them, and the only reason each of them is telling their lie is so their friend won't worry about them. And the Doctor's reason for disliking hugs is that they're a way for people to hide their true feelings from each other, just like the two of them were doing there! Gaaaaah.
It actually makes a lot of sense to me that this Doctor in particular would dislike hugs for the specific reason of them being an excuse to hide your face. In this incarnation he's got less of an affected personality to hide what he's truly like - less of a "mask" to hide his "face", so to speak - so it totally fits that he'd be against something that allows people, especially friends, to hide their face and how they're truly feeling. I really don't think Rule 1 is "The Doctor lies" any more. Which makes it all the more of a big deal that he actually did lie to Clara here anyway.
The worst part of all this was that I didn't know whether Clara would be continuing as a companion, so for all I knew this really would be the last time they see each other and neither of them would ever find out how utterly not-okay the other is, which would have been the saddest companion departure ever. I am so glad we got that teaser at the end to reassure us that won't be the case. Also, in-universely I am glad Santa showed up immediately after the Doctor left Clara, because at least this means he won't be alone and miserable for who-knows-how-long before it's fixed. Christmas cannot come soon enough, because then the Doctor and Clara will be brought back together and start to be somewhat happy again!
Also, regarding Crasher's theory from Dark Water that is still relevant and unconfirmed as of now: yeah, I've been thinking Clara might be pregnant, too. It would explain some of the oddness of her phone call to Danny, and the "three months" on the post-it notes. Her phone call otherwise doesn't quite make sense to me, even as of Death in Heaven. That and her being pregnant would allow Orson Pink to still exist even though Danny really did stay dead. The only other thing I can think that the "three months" might mean is that she's got some kind of terminal illness and that's how long she has left to live, but that doesn't seem particularly likely to be a direction they'd go in.
So... yeah. A month and nine days to go until Christmas!
-elyvorg/Amelia