Doctor Who

[lizbee]

yiduiqie told me on Friday night that she didn't know there was a Doctor Who episode last week, because I didn't blog about it.

I'm just very busy with Continuum stuff, and also other things, and also I'm a bit run down, and the thought of having actual, coherent thoughts about Doctor Who makes me want to go back and go to sleep.

Quick summary of my feelings about "The Crimson Horror" and "Nightmare in Silver":

Monsters bad. Doctor good. Vastra and Jenny great. Strax very nice. Clara very nice. Artie and Angie very nice. Warwick Davis very very nice.

I'm also coming to the conclusion that while I like Clara just fine, I can't really get a grip on her character. She's reminding me a lot of Mel, in that her skills and attitudes are just whatever the script needs to be, and no one has actually communicated as to what she's meant to be about. (Also like Mel, she's supposed to have these amazing computer skills that never get used.)

I mean, I like Mel a lot -- she was my very first companion, and I think she has an unfairly bad reputation -- but it's kind of a throwback in terms of companion writing, especially after Amy. I am hoping very much that Clara's sort of genericness is just a consequence of her being The Impossible Girl, and she'll be a bit more fleshed out when her impossibility is resolved. As it is, she's starting to remind me of Rose -- we're told a lot about how great she is, but she doesn't seem all that out of the ordinary.

(And not that ordinary people aren't great, which is maybe the point? IDK. I hate being a hater. And now I'm really tired again.)

Comments

[nostalgia]

Maybe it was just a bad idea to make her a Mystery? Idk like it creates a distance between her and the Doctor, and between her and the viewer as well.

[sabotabby]

Yes, this. The companion does not need to be an arc.

[wolfy_writing]

Clara seems...pleasant, but not compelling? It's like you said, she doesn't seem to have a solid and distinct sense of what she's meant to be about. The acting's good, which helps a lot, but beyond "Reasonably brave and competent twenty-first century young woman", there isn't a strong sense of her as an individual.

[jennaw]

An AV Club commenter said that he'd read in an interview that Victorian!Clara was who Gaiman thought he was writing for (and the Victorian kids, too) because apparently Moffat didn't decide which version of Clara would be the ongoing companion until later.

When I read that, it all clicked for me for this episode, because this Clara was TOTALLY Victorian!Clara and V!C acting/doing everything Clara does in this episode is totally in character where Modern!Clara has not been shown to be a take-charge, storm the battlements type at all (more the opposite).

I don't think that's meaningful to the story but more underscores the feeling that Moffat didn't really have a handle on who Modern!Clara was in the same way that Oswin and Victorian!Clara were completely realized and this has hurt the 7.2 episodes.

Which is really weird to me because why wouldn't she be similar to her counterparts, personality-wise? Hopefully there is some story reason why this is so that we learn next week.

[nonelvis]

I just came from reading a thread elsewhere about this exact thing. It's true that the initial script was written for Victorian!Clara, but Gaiman lost his laptop with that draft. Not long afterwards, Moffat made the decision that S7b would focus on Modern!Clara, and Gaiman rewrote the script accordingly.

[jennaw]

Ah, okay.... but she's still got that personality so I'm assuming that Gaiman assumed she'd be consistently written like V!C? Did you read the interview or another person citing it?

I think I need to read the interview...

[nonelvis]

It's mentioned in this post on Gallifrey Base about deleted scenes from this episode.

Even if Gaiman had assumed this Clara would be written more like the Victorian model, though, it's ultimately up to Moffat to decide whether she sounded properly in-character.

[jennaw]

Right, that was my original point.

[nonelvis]

Hmm, you may have a point about Clara, even though I like her a lot. I don't think it's helped that we got virtually no character development for her at all in one of the scripts this series, and with so few episodes to establish who she is, that's a problem.

[capri0mni]

I'm still struggling to climb over my disappointment that Moffat did not actually write the the new companion this way -- in calapine's marvelous fic Outside In (Inside Out).

[jesuswasbatman]

Yes, I think that the decision to keep the mystery in all eight episodes has badly damaged the character. I also have a nasty feeling that whatever the answer is and however it turns out, she still won't be continuing as a regular afterwards.

[jennaw]

I believe she's confirmed already for series 8.

[jesuswasbatman]

Great!

[amaresu]

Yeah. I just keep wishing we had Victorian!Clara to be honest. I liked her and I feel like she had a much better developed personality.

I first encountered Mel through the audios where she is amazing. Her computer skills are used and amazing and Davros wants her to come work for him. I still like show!Mel, but she's a bit of a let down after audio!Mel.

[infiniteviking]

Agreed -- Clara has a lot of cool traits, but I haven't been able to pin her down.

And yyyyup on your quick summary.