Doctor Who: Bells of St. John's Spoilers

[rabid1st]

I say spoilers, but I don't think there will be too many actually. Instead, I want to talk about my ideas about the new and improved Matt Smith Doctor...but, I will take it under a cut just to be safe...

First, cracking episode. I wouldn't have said Moff had that in him, if you had asked me last week. It had a genuine serious bent to it, without being all over the top. Suddenly, Matt was actually menacing, which he never once was with the Ponds and River. And those poor people being fed to "The Great Intelligence."

So, I said there would be references to previous episodes and there were references in spades. But, again, we ask, is it just Moff having trouble coming up with anything original. But, on asking that, we must also remember that Amy acted like a child for her first season and was, indeed, still a child. So...Matt is acting like the Doctor. And, has anyone noticed that the opening credits have references to past Doctor's. There is the dissolving face and the crumpled paper tunnel and the squiggly pop-a-delic lines...all from past opening sequences. I may have mentioned this before, because I noticed it straight off in the first episode we had the new stuff.

Also, I like the new TARDIS design, all of that High Gallifreyan. And I like the purple coat and the Triumph. I gave The Doctor a Triumph in I&B and now I shall have to change that, because it will look unoriginal. It is a very cool bike though, so kudos to Moff for knowing that. Also, I loved the anti-gravity part.

And that brings me to things we have had before...didn't we have a mention of the anti-gravity Olympics from the past? I can't remember where...the ones I did get were...

1. Screen Uploads...companion trapped in one...Idiot's Lantern. Also, the motorbike...but the Triumph was cooler, so I won't count that.
2. Phone Ringing on the TARDIS...clever for the title...but still lifted from The Empty Child. And yet the Doctor acted like he'd never seen it happen. Certainly, I don't blame him for being surprised that Clara called him.
3. Number from a woman in a shop. Harks back to Rose and her mother, "Nothing wrong with working in a shop." Who was the woman in the shop who gave her the number? River? Rose? The Woman in White?
3. Wardrobe change...a classic new Doctor move...and I think it was used before in Old School. Can't remember where. Anyone?
4. Everyone stopping...Age of Steel.
5. Home in time for Tea...also, Age of Steel. And I could now say, hmmm...alternative universe reference. One you have all heard me make a few times.

And, okay, I can feel you all rolling your eyes, but we are running out of regenerations come Christmas. So, I'm back to the Valyard for "The Great Intelligence." And John Hurt to play him would be fantastic. The gate to Gallifrey was opened for a second or two and let's face it, Rassilon isn't the only power on Gallifrey...there is the Matrix. And...virtual reality Rose and Ten would also be a way to have them and yet not have them. I already feel Clara is more virtual than real. I think the question about her becoming a nanny again is interesting, it is like she goes through a reset herself.

But...of course...this isn't what is happening. I must hold out no hope about any of this. It will be some silliness with the Flesh and River. So, instead, we have...what? Homage? Little tidbits of homage and then Ten2/Rose being Clara's parents or something. Is Moff simply recycling bits from the show because they are handy set-pieces for a commercial enterprise? Might he break free from romance? That pet of Clara's head looked quite fatherly to me, though, I do know that the lines are being blurred by the Doctor wanting a kiss. And, yes, I liked Clara better because she didn't fawn on him and made him come back later. It is the sensible thing to do when an alien in a box shows up on your doorstep. A sensible companion really does make for a refreshing change. Too bad I just can't believe that Moff and Matt have let go of their cartoon Doctor. So, I'm still down for this all being some sort of virtual experience.

On the list for who Clara might be:
1. The Woman in White...I love this one, because it might well mean what I hope it all means...that Eleven has lived a virtual life from the moment the TARDIS shattered.
2. Rose and Ten2's Daughter
3. River born again (I don't like this one).
4. A composite companion created by the Great Intelligence, which is probably some version of the Doctor...or perhaps, is holding the Doctor hostage and feeding on his mind. Being held hostage would explain the "Run, you clever boy, and remember." As in, break free, remember who you are...Doctor Who?


Rae

Comments

[dragon-bait21.livejournal.com]

See, it wasn't horrid. That is probably only the second episode I've liked since MS came on board. The anti-grav olympics I think was Tooth and Claw, on the list of fun places to take a TARDIS.

Also noted: The "warning" at the beginning had the same rhythm and inflection as the Don't Blink" speech

You said you missed a few season three episodes. Was that one of them?

Edited because i got curious

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

It wasn't horrid at all. It was quite good, in fact. I do love Clara. If I could be sure she would have a less romantic relationship with the Doctor, I would be content with her. For the first time Matt seems like the Doctor to me, which is ironic, because I don't believe he IS the Doctor.

And yes I saw Blink. The ones I missed where the Dalek ones, 42 and the Lazarus one. I got very tired of Martha after Gridlock. And you are completely correct. That is the same tone. All of these pieces go hand in hand with the "Run, you clever boy, and remember!" which does tend to lend me the belief that the Doctor has been captured and all of this is part of his mental game to escape from "The Great Intelligence."

And, again, I return to the idea of the Matrix from Gallifrey, capturing him...or the time trap in End of Time. I will say, if Moff is playing that long a game...if he has had this entire idea in mind since he took over...then, I forgive him all.

As you can tell from my River/Doctor clip at the beginning of I&B the only scenario I am comfortable with for Eleven is that he is some sort of child Doctor in development. But it works for me virtually, too. If the shattering of the TARDIS at the regeneration caused the Doctor to be shunted into a sort of virtual afterlife with the magical Ponds and River and now Clara trying to break him out of it...I would be happy with Moff at long last. But, I just can't imagine he would try something so bold, or we would be so lucky, as to have his screwy universe make sense at last. If, however, he did pitch this idea to RTD and David and the BBC to get his job as showrunner...well...good on him. It would certainly explain all of the screwy elements in End of Time as well, the explosion and the woman in white...and the Ood being elevated by something.

Rae

[dragon-bait21.livejournal.com]

That would be a truly clever twist. Then those repeating themes would be a warning that something is not right. Are you voting that he was captured during his regeneration by the GI? Iwas thinking that season 6 was the one which made the least sense so that was the break out of reality but your idea works. I know which I prefer. Unfortunately I don't see Moffat giving up his magical River Song and her weird twisted relationship so easily. I doubt he could pitch a three season plot arc to BBC, it relies on too many variables and it would enrage a small but vocal segment of the fan base who hate Rose and love RS.

Speaking of RS, i was thinking about why I dislike her so much and I think it ties into your comment about why you dislike Eleven. She is special because of some accident of birth. "Yea, she can regenerate she must be destined for the Doctor" It has nothing to do with her choices and developing herself, I don't recall her making any good choices or accepting any consequences for bad choices. Even her behavior in the library was selfish, yes she chose to die instead of him but she did her best to claim his future before she did. She only did it to not lose him.

Anyway I love your idea, you have much more creativity than Moffat.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the compliment...though...perhaps, damning with faint praise to say I'm more creative than Moff. :snicker:

As for his love of the twisted River Song relationship, I believe you are right. But, on the other hand, maybe that is what upset Ten so much in the library. Not that River was his wife...but what it would mean for him, personally, in a time twisted way...if she knew his real name. We are all assuming that Moff had romance in mind, because of what he said about Rose and because he pushed for a more sexualized Doctor in all of his episodes. But, it is possible that he was setting up a longer game in that episode...because it does fall so close to his take over of the show. And we do know that he pitched some idea to David...it wouldn't necessarily have been a three season pitch at that time...but rather a one season one...with the whole fracture and cul-de-sac universe as part of it.

I'm just purposing that, perhaps, Moff had an original idea, pitched it to David, worked with RTD to establish it from, say, Silence in the Library onward...because remember, RTD said he didn't know who River was, at the time. And then, Moff kept going for his entire run with the certainty that he could get both David and Billie back to reset or set up something other than what happened in End of Time. For that to work though, I think we would need to assume that the Doctor is aware of timelines to come...which I would say is a Time Lord power, given what Nine told Rose while she had the Time Vortex inside her head.

[wickedgillie.livejournal.com]

What I wouldn't give for you to be the show runner, if only for one season. Between your grasp of character and plotting major arcs, you'd be so bloody brilliant at it.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Gillie! I only wished I loved my own characters the way I love the Doctor. Or even the way I loved Mulder and Scully. Then, perhaps, I would have a show of my own that you could all talk about and rant against. I would turn evil, of course, as soon as I got the job. GRIN

[wickedgillie.livejournal.com]

Ah, but of course. Going evil is practically a requirement.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Yes. I mean, we can't all start off like Moff or Joss Whedon.

Look what happened to RTD. He was firmly committed to the Rose/Doctor love for four years. He touched our hearts and gently pulled us into his cozy world. He created the lovely, bossy Donna, and then suddenly, he wrote the end of JE in a burst of inexplicable evilness.

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

I'd love you to be right. But I fear that you are a lot cleverer than SM. And I'm trying not to take any of it too seriously. That way madness leads.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Oh, Cat...I know that way lies madness. I'm just...half mad already, I suppose. I really shouldn't put any of my attention on it. I shall only end up disappointed. SIGH!

[wickedgillie.livejournal.com]

I truly don't know what to think. I do think some of the nods are very purposeful, but yeah, it felt like Idiot's Lantern without a soul (or a plot that makes sense).

I do find Clara enjoyable, but I can't say that I have any more sense of who she is. This was what, her third episode? Three episodes of Rose and we had a very firm grasp of who she was as an individual. What Clara is seems to be more important than WHO Clara is. With a less-capable actress, I probably wouldn't be watching.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

I have mentioned that I think Moff's problem as a writer is that he is more concerned with WHAT people are than WHO.

I do feel that there is a solid link from The Silence...and the Question being Doctor Who? To this "Run, you clever boy and remember." I could see how Clara is trying to jog the Doctor into remembering who he is. I sort of hated that whole "Doctor Who?" as a continuous question, but it would be lovely to have it answered. I say lovely...but...I mean...not so much. It is like I said somewhere else recently...you can't just keep raising questions in a narrative that you have no intention of answering. And Doctor Who has pretty much become nothing more than a binder full of unanswered questions. You want to know where that leads...go watch a few seasons of Lost.

LOL

Rae