Confession: I’m not sure what the
hell happened in this weekend’s episode. The time and space woo-woo going on
was to be expected for an episode that centered on the TARDIS, I guess, but I’m
still not certain on how the whole problem worked itself out. I keep waiting
for a smarter version of me from another timeline to pop through a glowing
crack in my wall and explain it. Just make sure you don’t knock down the
autographed Go Fug Yourself picture, Smart Alterna-Eric.
And take out the recyclables with you.
The basic gist of the episode was
that The Doctor, in an effort to broker peace — or at least an understanding –
between Clara and the TARDIS itself, put the ship into “safe mode” so that she
could try to interact with it on a lower, more basic level. He picked the worst
possible moment to do this, as the TARDIS flew past a giant salvage ship run by
some unscrupulous brothers who illegally snap up whatever of value they come
across in space. One magno beam later the TARDIS was
on board the salvage ship, The Doctor was bickering with its crew, and Clara was
stuck inside, her life jeopardized by a fuel leak – and whatever lurked inside
the TARDIS itself.
I actually enjoyed the first chunk
of the episode, where The Doctor more or less forced the salvage crew into
helping him search for Clara, and Clara explored the twisting, turning
corridors of the TARDIS. We’ve seen so little of the ship since the reboot, but
here we got some interesting throwbacks: the bassinet from the episode in which
we discovered River’s origins, the swimming pool that has been mentioned
several times, a telescope that looked an awful lot like the one Queen Victoria
was building in the werewolf episode, and – most interestingly – the library.
There Clara found “The History of the Time War,” which she paged through, and found
something very interesting: the actual name of The Doctor.
I’m going to pause here to bring up
something that has become an important discussion point for this episode across
the internet. It has been established that the TARDIS translates any language,
except Gallifreyan, the language of the Time Lords.
(Why would it need to translate the language of the people who built it?) It is
highly unlikely that a history book on the Time War was written in Earth
English. And yet, Clara was able to read it. Which strongly
suggests that Clara is able to read Gallifreyan.
Carrying on. Clara’s exploration of the TARDIS became more pressing after
she encountered some ghoulish creature. The Doctor also encountered problems in
the form of the salvage crew, which was just blatantly trying to steal parts of
the TARDIS. The TARDIS did not like that, and went into high defense mode. Then
more creepy monster things popped up. Poles started
shooting out of walls, there was a room with a sun
trapped in it, a beach that wasn’t a beach, an android that wasn’t an android,
and finally the engine room, where The Doctor discovered that the TARDIS’s
heart had already exploded.
I won’t even attempt to explain what
happened to reset everything to the beginning of the episode. I think I get it,
but it still makes my head hurt. The truly interesting thing to come out of it
all was that The Doctor finally grilled Clara about her multiple deaths
throughout time, and demanded to know if she was “a trick or a trap.” Clara
seemed genuinely confused and terrified by the whole thing, so The Doctor – I
think quite stupidly, given all the evidence to the contrary – decided that
it’s fine, because she’s “just Clara.” Not that either of them remember having that
conversation, because the end of the episode brought us back to the beginning,
minus the salvage ship misadventure.
There were a few other points this
episode that I think are worth discussing.
1. When the TARDIS first gets sucked
into the salvage ship, the crew noted that there was a body trapped underneath
the debris. Did we ever determine whose body that was? Was it The Doctor?
Because he just appeared out of nowhere seconds later, fine as can be. And it
wasn’t Clara, because she was still inside the TARDIS.
2. Again, I don’t think it was a
coincidence that they showed us some of the things they showed us in the TARDIS.
The bassinet is another reference to The Doctor’s children/grandchildren, which
again brings up the Susan stuff.
3. In the library, Clara knocks over
a vial of Encyclopedia Gallifreyan. But that is after
she reads the book about the Time War. It spills on her and we heard whispers.
But I guess all of that is moot since it was reset along with the rest of the
episode.
4. The Doctor was unhappy when Clara
tried to talk to him about his true name. Please tell me that’s
not the big question that The Silence has been fussing about for the past two
seasons. I will be sorely disappointed if that’s the case.
5. This whole thing started because
The Doctor wanted Clara to get along with the TARDIS, a plotline that keeps
getting brought up. A commenter on my previous blog argued that this is the
TARDIS just being jealous, because it is also a woman. I have to respectfully
disagree there. The Doctor almost always has a female companion, and we’ve
never seen the TARDIS react like this before. And certainly it would have more
cause to be jealous of Rose – for whom The Doctor had obvious feelings – and
even Martha and (early on) Amy, both of whom threw themselves
at The Doctor. So it can’t just be petty female jealousy. Something more is
going on there.
6. When looking for an out-of-phase
Clara, The Doctor made the salvage crews’ sensors tune in for a human female.
That did eventually produce Clara. However, there seemed to be a hesitation on
the sensor’s part. Maybe I read too much into that, but it sure didn’t seem like
a conclusive reading to me.
7. I think the salvage crew and
their interpersonal dynamics were largely pointless, just an excuse for the
plot. But I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the crew was struggling with
issues of identity (the “android” not being what he thought he was, even though
he truly believed it – just like Clara) and the dysfunctional nature of
families.
8. When the one crew member climbed
underneath the main control platform he touched something that shocked him, and
he also heard voices. I recognized some of them as audio clips from what I
believe are previous episodes – I’m pretty sure I caught Donna screaming,
“We’re in space!” Did anyone else catch any other snippets? Was this just a
tip-off that time was leaking into the TARDIS? Or another
clue to something else? Again, we’re three episodes to the season finale
and we have yet to get a “Big Bad” established…
NEXT: More Victorian fun with
everyone’s favorite lesbian reptilian detective, plus Diana Rigg
will have a busy weekend guesting on both this and “Game of Thrones.”
This article appears in Apr 24-30, 2013.
I think that Cara Could be Dr. Who child. Her mother would be River.
No. Clara could understand it because of the Encyclopedia Gallifrey leaking.
The bomb like device future Doctor gave to past Doctor disrupted the magnetic beam from the salvage ship – saving the Tardis. Also, I’m pretty sure the Doctor retained his memory of the event based on his, “do you feel safe?” questions.
I think the whole thing about the Doctor also trying to get Clara to like the Tardis is because she has been completely underwhelmed, unimpressed, and even mean to it right from the get-go. Chalking it up to the same way a boy would react when the new girlfriend hates his fancy vintage sports car that he spent so much time refurbishing and putting love/care into.
The only glaring thing here that really bothered me: he said the Tardis can’t self destruct. It can, and it has – back in the episode where he blew it up to create a new sun. Also the Text of the book should not have been readable, you’ve got a really good lead there.
I seriously hope it’s not River’s daughter. But I’m beginning to wonder about the granddaughter comment he made in an earlier episode, plus the mention of the Time War here… Maybe hints that we will learn more about the Time War and his original family?
L: I will have to rewatch the episode again, but I am almost positive that Clara did not tip over the bottle of Encyclopedia Gallifrey until AFTER she read the book. She knocked over the bottles while hiding from the monster. She was unaware of the bogeyman while reading the book (otherwise she wouldn’t have been reading the book).
Deb: My reading of the Doctor’s line about “Do you feel safe?” was not that he remembered the events of the episode, but that there was a kind of emotional echo — that he knew he should be worrying about those issues, but didn’t know why. I have absolutely nothing to base that on aside from a gut feeling and the way that changing time has been shown on this series before. Do I think that ultimately both the Doctor AND Clara will remember what went down this past episode? Yep. It all served the purpose of dramatic irony, letting the audience know that a) the Doctor is still completely freaked out by whatever Clara is and b) Clara really does not seem to know that she isn’t what she seems. But for the next two episodes, before the finale, they can operate as though nothing has changed.
I believe the Big Bad this season is the great intelligence. He’s been in two (maybe 3) eps this season. He also may have been the one that controlled, and subsequently exploded, the TARDIS during the Pandorica arc.
We’re seeing some throwback to “The Silence will fall…question asked…Doctor who?” The Silence wanted to take the Doctor out to prevent him from revealing his name. Now that Clara knows it (albiet she was mind wiped, it could still be there), the Silence may come after her. There is also a plot line from a novel where the Daleks create a perfect companion for the Doctor to lure him into a trap. I believe the G.I. created Clara inorder to learn the Doctor’s name.
We also know that River will return at some point this season.
Clara being River and the Doctor’s daughter is interesting, but I feel like that’s too easy.
I also caught Christopher Eccelston’s voice when that salvage crew member got shocked. My husband mentioned about the “Smiths” key that he thought he’s called himself Smith once or twice in the past. Maybe to hide who he was for a purpose.
I think the feet we saw were the Doctor’s. Maybe that’s why he popped up so quickly.
I agree with Deb that I think the Doctor remembers the whole event because he kept asking Clara if she felt safe.
I don’t think Clara being River and The Doctor’s daughter would be appropriate (mainly because they’ve kissed). The Doctor went back to her parents to see how they met and how Clara grew up. She seemed perfectly normal. The TARDIS may not have bothered with women before because he wasn’t… “married” in his timeline. However, now he has another girl who isn’t River or Amy (his mother-in-law) and the TARDIS is not amused.
To address point 7 in the list, the voices were all taken from previous Doctors, both from the classic and new series, listen carefully and you’ll notice. Now, the Big Bad isn’t clear or obvious but it must be related to The Silence because we know the season has to end with his name being revealed before we hit the 50th anniversary special. The Silence is a movement. We don’t know its founder yet. We know only of the members. For all we know, it could be The Great Intelligence who is behind all of it. Although it would make little sense since The Silence wants to avoid the answer and the Great Intelligence would most likely seek it out. However, why would his name be so important? Furthermore, why would the TARDIS let Clara into the library where she immediately found out his true name? The episode made it a point to show that the TARDIS lets you go where she wants you to go. The plot thickens.
There is at least one thing that we should consider, his name must be meaningful to us. It cannot be something like “John Smith” because it would just be that… a name. Why hide your name if it doesn’t mean anything to anyone? His name means something and something he may not even be proud of. Why else would River have said “I’m sorry, I’m so very sorry” before whispering his name to him while dealing with the Vashta Nerada?
hmm… that makes me think of a possible answer, but it’s all still speculation… by the way, who could’ve possibly written the book about the Time War? I thought no one got out but The Doctor so how can a finished book survive without its author having finished it? Also… how is it that the author knows The Doctor’s true name if no one but The Doctor himself knows? As I understood it, not even the time lords knew… is the author The Doctor?
…now I won’t be able to sleep peacefully.