Doctor Who: "The Bells of St John"

[lizbee]

HELLO, SHOW!  YOU ARE BACK, AND IT IS LOVELY!  HERE ARE SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS!

- Totally spotted Shibuya in the pre-credits sequence.  GO TEAM.  Nice green screening, too.
- "Aliens use wi-fi to possess humans" is the kind of "modern technology is EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL!" plot characteristic of the RTD years, and reminiscent of the bluetooth stuff in the Cybermen episodes.  Only, you know, not outdated before it goes to air.  But also, I think it worked better because we do sometimes expose ourselves to risk by clicking on unfamiliar wi-fi networks -- well, I do when I'm travelling and don't have 3G -- and didn't have that air of "Stupid people, using technology!" that sometimes accompanied RTD's plots.
- Saving those who were uploaded and didn't have bodies to go back to, no PoC died in this episode.
- What we see of the uploadees is predominantly white, though. 
- CLARA

I need to break out of the bullet points to celebrate Clara.  She's clever, but not computer literate until the Great Intelligence upgrades her.  I'm torn between hoping that stays because it's AWESOME, and feeling a bit sad that one of her AWESOME traits is given to her by Evil Richard E Grant.  But that only really becomes a problem if it's perceived as the only good thing about her, which is not the case at all.  She's kind!  She loves books!  She wants to travel!  She doesn't want to leave people who need her!

"Everyone has plans," she says, and I laughed, because, honey, you should meet some of your predecessors.  But I like that she was just putting her plans for travel on the backburner -- contrary to popular belief, your life isn't over if you haven't travelled by your 30th birthday! -- and just needed to take care of some things first.  Like, you know, people. 

We also know that she has a dad who hates the government, so she just hasn't mysteriously appeared out of thin air to make the Doctor happy.  Which is good, because the whole "universe creates the perfect companion for the Doctor" theory is kind of creepy to me, and it's not a coincidence that it seems particularly popular among those who also believe the Doctor is now and always has been asexual and celibate, picked up Susan from a cabbage patch somewhere, and would never, ever suffer the touch of something as detestable and gross as a woman.

Anyway, CLARA, SHE'S SO GREAT.  Not weird and broken like Amy, but I guess not all companions have to appeal that strongly to my id.  She's a bit like Martha, only the Doctor is 100% keen to have her around, which is lovely.  I kind of wish she was played by an actress of colour, because Jenna-Louise Coleman is made of puppies and sunshine and sparkles, but, you know, the show could stand to be less white. 

Incidentally, I do like that the Doctor seems to have a massive crush on Clara, or at least, he's utterly enthralled and fascinated by her, and she (not unreasonably) interprets that as attraction.  And he's not exactly saying no, eh?  I want to smush their faces together and make them kiss. 

OH YES, SOMETHING ELSE RATHER EXCITING HAPPENED TOO

My fic: totally canon now.  Not just that Amy became an author, but that she wrote classic children's novels in the vein of Enid Blyton.  LIZ FOR THE WIN!  (Lizwin!)

Um, other things.  Back to pullet points...

- after two and a half seasons, Moffat finally gives us an RTD-style older woman as a villain.  Without, imho, being horribly gross about it -- yes, she turns out to have been manipulated since childhood by the Great Intelligence, but so was Richard E Grant in "The Snowmen".  And she's alive at the end, and presumably can be re-educated and rehabilitated and stuff.  So I'm calling that a win.
- I have this increasing feeling that I should watch the Troughton-era Great Intelligence serials, or at least, those bits of them that still exist. 
- I hope there's Yeti in this season.