Yeah, that’s one of the reasons I think “Hide” was the best episode of the season, their chemistry was perfect.
Also this:
John Hurt is, by my figuring, the incarnation of the Doctor that ended the Time War by destroying the Daleks and the Time Lords.
The main problem with Clara, IMHO, is that she was defined as a puzzle to be solved, not a person that we should care about. That doesn’t exactly make for a satisfying character arc. Jenna-Louise Coleman is cute as a button and made Clara pretty endearing, but there’s only so much she can do with an inherently flawed concept.
So you agree with my friend? He’ll be so pleased! :)
Also that indeed. :) That gif is a perfect snapshot of what should have happened more this season.
EXACTLY. If we’d had more of this, it’d likely have been a better season.
I have to admit, it was nice to see the TARDIS bigger on the outside for once.
I really dislike Clara, more than any companion in the show’s history other than Mel.
As written? Acted?
One I can understand. The other? We’re watching different shows, I think.
I never warmed to Clara either. Part of it was having a tough act to follow in the Ponds. Part of it was that she was written as a cypher. Most of it was that she looked like a cartoon character and was hard to take seriously. I half expected the finale to be that she was an alien cosplaying a human to trick the Doctor into giving it Jelly Babies.
The problem with Clara is she really only had a Christmas special and half a season for us to get to know her. On top of that she didn’t get the awesomeness of Amy Pond’s introduction. The combination of new doctor , companion, and eventually Rory was a lot of awesome a few seasons ago. Now while we still have the awesome doctor, Clara is just sort of there.
Hide and Journey to the Center of the TARDIS were my 2 favorite episodes this season. And Clara was really good in both of them.
Some people on reddit pointed out that Hurt’s doctor was the doctors greatest secret. And it’s not really a secret that he ended the time war by killing everyone. So, maybe his secret is that he STARTED the time war, not that he ended it. Or at least, I doubt that the only thing he did was end the time war.
Just watched the finale. I came straight to this thread in a blind panic thinking “HOLY SHIT, they did not just get rid of both Clara and Matt Smith’s Doctor and totally reboot the show to be some sort of darker version of the series…OMG! PANIC! BREATHE DAMN YOU BREATHE!!! ARGGHHHNOOOOOO!!!”
Then I read the comments here and stabalized. Whew! I totally think the theory about John Hurt being the “missing” reincarnation that started/ended the Time War and was generally held responsible for the deaths of the Timelords and zillions of Daleks is spot on. It makes perfect sense in context. I’m not sure what they would do with it in reference to the current Doctor though. Perhaps next season will have the Doctor becoming more introspective and dealing with his guilt by trying to right even greater wrongs with Clara in tow. Or, knowing Moffat, they could forget the whole damn thing ever happened and just have Clara and Matt Smith traipse about the universe happy as you please with no further mention of events from this episode.
At least now I feel reasonably confident that the show isn’t undergoing some horrific change that would suck out everything I love about the series.
Also I found this which would seem to confirm Smith is returning for next season.
Editer
1893
Clara will be back as well. So hopefully with the Impossible Girl storyline behind her*, they’ll be able to flesh her out a bit.
- It would be great to see one of her time manifestations pop up to help save the Doctor and have her meet herself, though.
Seriously? Worse than Adric? Worse than Ace? I’m not sure how that is possible…
Hey now, Ace was bad/ass/.
PeterK
1896
It is inconceivable to me that anyone would have a companion other than Peri at the bottom of their list. Also surprising is someone thinking Ace was a bad companion. She was the first good companion after the Tom Baker years!
A lot of otherwise weak companions were redeemed by some of the fantastic stories they were in - I liked the entire E-space arc in Tom Baker’s last season, and Earthshock remains my favorite single story of the series, so Adric is a-o.k. with me. Ditto Peri, who was in the amazing Caves of Androzani, and got killed off so bizarrely in Trial of a Time Lord (later retconned after writer Robert Holmes left during that season).
Mel was the only truly excruciating companion, and it certainly didn’t help that she was with Colin Baker (and Sylvester McCoy’s 1st season was pretty dreadful too). I also wasn’t a huge fan of Ace, although I agree that she was a huge relief after Mel.
I liked a bunch of the other Davison companions - Tegan was one of my favorites, especially in his last season, and Turlough was interesting if underdeveloped too. I liked the “crew” period of Doctor Who during the Davison era.
The modern companions have actually all been decent - Donna was probably my favorite, followed by Rose, largely because she was so integrated in the early success of the relaunch. But I liked Amy and grew to like Rory, and Martha was at least gorgeous, even though probably the weakest actor to play a companion (and underdeveloped too). I also loved Captain Jack during his Eccelston stint (only).
I think my dislike for Clara is magnified by my distaste for the current direction of the series, but I also don’t like the actress, the character, or anything that she’s done in any episode - despite the mystery around her nature giving her a fantastic introduction to leverage, she’s just dull, and goofy, and always overacting with expressions or physical comedy - and the resolution of her background mystery was the standard nonsensical gibberish the show doles out so frequently currently.
I do have high hopes for the 50th anniversary though - when he has the time and is motivated, Moffat can be a lot better than he’s recently demonstrated in regular season episodes
Reemul
1898
My 6 year old son has just asked if he can start watching Dr Who. Not sure where to start with it though. Maybe start of David Tennant as Dr Who. Any thoughts?
Just start at the beginning of the reboot, which is where most of the shows concept are best explained (along with introducing characters/creatures relevant later on)
Reemul
1900
I always found the Eccleson stuff quite a bit darker than Tennant / Smith. To add I have to watch em as well :)
Good idea though, maybe I will watch the first couple again to see.
