Doctor Who - Regeneration 9 - Part 8

[THUNDERSTRIKE]

and b***h was just my being nice... I would have RATHER used a shorter word by one letter to describe Peri Brown...

 

[Llama_Shepherd]

It looked like a ton of star systems were winking out of existence after the Intelligence messed up the Doctor's timeline, I imagine it was in reference to that.

I thought that could have been a referece to Davros' reality bomb, and without the Doctor to prevent it, the stars went out again.

Moffat really screwed up with that, we still don't know how the TARDIS was actually blown up.

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

I say its a 50/50 chance but:

Spoiler

If the Hurt Doctor ends up going really bad he'd be the best candidate for actually being able to pull it off.

Also the rumors of the [blackout] McGann minisode seem very plausible if Hurt is his successor. [/blackout]

 

[DarthSkywalker]

If they killed him, he would've never gone to Trenzalore. If the Doctor were dead, the Great Intelligence would not have been able to use Strax, Jenny and Vastra to blackmail the Doctor into opening the tomb. The event would NOT have happened if the Silence were successful. Therefore their plain kind of makes sense.




I don't think I've ever met anyone who dislikes A Good Man Goes to War before today.

I like "A Good Man Goes to War", but I think it is definitely one of Moffat's lesser efforts.

 

[Gold Samurai]

Since the Master was used as a weapon in the time war odd are The Doctor was too.

The timelords probably forced 8 to regenerate into something that could end the war(Hurt)

Hurt does the job and uses "The moment"

Using one of Moffat's favorite story trick "It happened but didn't happen also"

Hurt is erased and McGann returns but can still remember it happening(Moffat story trick #3453)

McGann runs away but is injured and regenerates into Eccelston

 

[haephestus]

It was an entertaining finale, but also a confusing finale.

Spoiler

Obviously the John Hurt Doctor (or NOT Doctor) will be expanded upon in the 50th Anniversary Special. I'm not entirely opposed to John Hurt being an aged Eight Doctor (although I'm sure that Paul McGann would have been happy to reprise the role).

I'm less interested in the idea of a "secret" Doctor between the Eighth and Ninth, but the idea does have potential especially given the importance of the Time War in the Doctor's personal timeline and character development.

I'm a little lost as to what version of Clara was rescused by the Doctor. Is it the "original" Clara, even though she was broken into a million pieces. Or was it simply an "echo" of the original Clara? Or was it some kind of super-Clara who is the combination of the millions of other Claras that have been scattered throughout the Doctor's timeline? If so, will she be a radically different character when she returns?

I'm also a little confused about how the millions of Claras undid all of the Great Intelligence's meddling without any of the Doctors realising what the Great Intelligence and Clara were up to. Using the one example shown, it appears that the Great Intelligence somehow "influenced" the First Doctor to take the "wrong" TARDIS and then Clara "corrected" that by directing the First Doctor to take Sexy. I can kind of understand how that played out because it was obvious, but given no other Doctor except for the Eleventh Doctor appears to have directly interacted with Clara, despite her presence on the TARDIS and during various adventures, I'm not quite sure how she corrected everything that the Great Intelligence did.

And I also don't understand why Clara only saw eleven Doctors if she jumped into his timeline which should have included ALL regenerations, including the Twelth, Thirteenth and possibly more. Unless the Great Intelligence only targetted the first eleven Doctors, although that doesn't make much sense. Or unless the implication was that the Eleventh Doctor is the FINAL regeneration, especially as his tomb was the current TARDIS control room and the access to his tomb was his "current" wife (as opposed to Susan's grandmother or any other "wife" (or husband?) that the Doctor has probably had during the ages that he's spent travelling in the TARDIS and will have in the future).

I'm still unclear on what The Silence were trying to prevent. Were they trying to prevent the events of this episode or were they trying to prevent the events that will occur in the future on Trenzalore which result in the Doctor's final "death"? It's all a little confusing, especially if The Silence were trying to prevent the events of this episode because if the Great Intelligence has been successful then surely the Doctor wouldn't have lived long enough to make it to Trenzalore to die his final death. Or that's just the timey wimey nature of time paradoxes and fixed points in time, etc.

And while I understand that The Whispermen were meant to be "new" monsters, the fact that they look near identical to the Trickster was also confusing. I guess they could be a sub-species of the Trickster since the Great Intelligence's manipulation of his timeline would cause a lot of chaos, which is the Trickster's main goal.

Finally, while I understand Moffat's "everybody lives" mantra and as much as I enjoy the adventures of Madame Vasta, Jenny and Strax, it may have been a more powerful finale if Jenny had truly died. At the very least, it would have made the Great Intelligence slightly more threatening, although it would have raised it's own questions because I didn't quite understand why Jenny was killed yet Vastra and Strax were taken alive. Unless the Whisperman were genuinely fearful of Vastra and needed to keep her distracted by Jenny's death?

Anyway, it was exciting, but a little confusing. I'm sure the 50th Anniversary special will answer at least some of these niggling queries.

 

[Sawyer]

[YT]COF-efEwMUQ[/YT]
lol I love Colin Baker's Doctor just strutting around behind her in that stupid costume of his.

 

[jonathancrane]

That is what I liked about six: a stupid costume, but, he did not take **** from anybody.

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

Gaiman was asked about [blackout] Clara picking the TARDIS for the Doctor [/blackout]

Spoiler

Q: How do you feel about Moffat retconning on how the Doctor got the TARDIS? You wrote in the Doctor's Wife that TARDIS picked the Doctor but in this new episode, it shows Clara telling the Doctor which TARDIS to pick. I think the general consensus is that we the Fandom are deciding the Doctor didn't go with Clara's advice and Sexy picked the Doctor instead. What do you think?

A: Ah, but we do not know how the Great Intelligence had already changed things, in a wibbly wobbly timey wimey way, that Clara was changing things back to. If you see what I mean.

 

[AnneFan]

Well, pretty much everything I read spoiler wise was true. Something wasn’t there

Spoiler

8 was apparently going to regenerate into Hurt

but that’s fine.

It was a great cliff-hanger and I want to see where this goes.

I’ve been reciting 11’s closing comments to Hurt over and over. It was epic.

11 grabbing River’s arm and giving his farewell speech was spine tingling. The music elevated it even more. I really liked that moment.

Once they arrived at Trenzalore it was a slam dunk. I adored the gloomy setting and the

Spoiler

oversized tomb TARDIS

Job well done, I say.

 

[Artistsean]

Did I miss something? Did they reveal his name? My DVR was acting up and skipping and jumping a little.

 

[AnneFan]

Did I miss something? Did they reveal his name? My DVR was acting up and skipping and jumping a little.

Spoiler

No, we don't hear it. And I'm glad. River uses it to open The Doctor's tomb, but nobody bar the Doctor can see or hear her.

 

[haephestus]

Did I miss something? Did they reveal his name? My DVR was acting up and skipping and jumping a little.

Spoiler

The Doctor's real name was not said on-screen.

But, it's possible that, in addition to River Song, Clara also now knows the Doctor's real name either because she may have heard River speak it (although Clara was being killed at the time, so possibly not) or because her memories of being lost in the TARDIS and reading it in the Time War book were restored.

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

Spoiler

No, we don't hear it. And I'm glad. River uses it to open The Doctor's tomb, but nobody bar the Doctor can see or hear her.

Yeah [blackout] not saying the name but going into the significance of it as a promise and then revealing the Hurt Doctor was a great save to that whole little thread. [/blackout]

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I felt a little ripped off about it, but it wasn't really important to the episode.

 

[RetroNaz]

I'm glad we keep some of that mystery about the Doctor. That's part of the charm of the show.

 

[chamber-music]

I would be happy to never know the doctors real name

 

[Manic]

How does everybody feel about Clara being a companion for some of the classic Doctors too? She only bumped into him briefly in some of those clips, but she was aboard the TARDIS with Four & Six, on Gallifrey during "Arc of Infinity" with Five, and on Iceworld during "Dragonfire" with Seven. She didn't just spontaneously manifest in those places either, because Clara even says she remembers living different lives (we even see clips of Victorian Clara growing up).

 

[RetroNaz]

I'm getting to the point where I'm actually looking forward to another change in the show. Be it a new Doctor or show runner, I think it needs a breath of fresh air. Moffat is getting a little too complicated with his stories, I seriously don't know how kids can keep up.

 

[regwec]

[YT]COF-efEwMUQ[/YT]
lol I love Colin Baker's Doctor just strutting around behind her in that stupid costume of his.

I am so pissed off: since I live in the UK and own a television, I am obliged to pay a license fee that directly funds the BBC, allowing Doctor Who to be made and the whole world to enjoy it. And, because that clip is from BBC America, and I am in the UK, I am blocked from viewing it.

Screw you, BBC.

How does everybody feel about Clara being a companion for some of the classic Doctors too? She only bumped into him briefly in some of those clips, but she was aboard the TARDIS with Four & Six, on Gallifrey during "Arc of Infinity" with Five, and on Iceworld during "Dragonfire" with Seven. She didn't just spontaneously manifest in those places either, because Clara even says she remembers living different lives (we even see clips of Victorian Clara growing up).

She said that The Doctor never noticed her, though, so she is more like a guardian angel than a companion. You have to accept that she is influencing no.1 subliminally to make this work.

 

[wobbly]

I'm getting to the point where I'm actually looking forward to another change in the show. Be it a new Doctor or show runner, I think it needs a breath of fresh air. Moffat is getting a little too complicated with his stories, I seriously don't know how kids can keep up.

Oddly enough I think Moffat's simplistic explanations for his undoubtedly complicated arcs plots works better for the kids.

Seriously, I read (and come up with) complicated theories to try and explain what might be going on, then the 'solutions' given (if given at all) are far simpler (these consistently fail utterly to answer all the questions his arcs raise, but I'm getting used to this now from Moffat).

He throws in something to cover the 'big picture' (Like the Doctors 'death'), but the details to explain how all these things presented in the arcs are meant to have worked are absent leaving those who think about them hanging.

Kids I think are less bothered by these details. As longs as they get the big picture covered they seem ok with it all.

 

[RetroNaz]

Hmm I dunno, I think the Doctor, his enemies, companions and the awesome effects keep the kids happy. But some of these complicated story arcs are just too much to keep up with.
It's not really a complaint per se, but if ratings are dropping them I can see why.

I find episodes of Sherlock easier to follow than Doctor Who.

 

[regwec]

My guess is that ratings are dropping because of the disjointed and occasional way that the show is scheduled.

 

[Great Mind(s)]

To be honest I still don't even see how kids watch the show. I mean I guess I can understand Matt Smith's appeal to kids. He's very Pee Wee Herman-y but... the stories have gotten darker.. Season 6? How young are kids who watch this exactly? I mean, it's hard enough for grown ups to make sense of everything.

 

[regwec]

I don't agree. Children tend to take things at face value, and they do not expect to understand everything perfectly. They learn by being interested in things they don't fully understand, after all.