Didn’t see a thread for it just yet.
Not posting anything specific for any who haven’t seen it yet, but I would have enjoyed this so much better without being bludgeoned over the head with the Clara Who? mystery. The Doctor’s speech when face to face with Grandfather was awesome, though.
Just watched it, so until it’s aired everywhere…
[spoiler]It looked terrific. Good costumes, decent CGI, fantastic performances but… a rather predictable story: As soon as I saw the date on The Beano and the meet-cute, I thought Clara’s parents. As soon as I saw the cute little girl running and hiding I thought she’s a sacrifice.
At least we got the back story to the leaf. And that was a rather touching speech Clara’s father gave:
Why [did you keep the leaf]?
Because this exact leaf had to grow in that exact way in that exact place so that precise wind could tear it from that precise branch and make it fly into this exact face at that exact moment. And if just one of those tiny little things had never happened, I’d never have met you.
And this made me laugh:
Oh, that’s interesting. A frequency modulated acoustic lock. The key changes ten million, zillion, squillion times a second.
Can you open it?
Technically, no. In reality, also no. But still, let’s give it a stab.
So basically, enjoyed everything but the plot, which I found rather dull. And the TARDIS doesn’t like Clara. I wonder if that means anything.[/spoiler]
Not sure what to think about this episode. Don’t think I liked it. Seemed weak, and full of convenient solutions. Like a Russell T Davies script.
I agree with all of the above. I was excited when I saw that they were going to an alien planet. The marketplace with all the different creatures was kind of fun. But the rest was just kind of ‘meh.’
The Tardis ‘not liking’ Clara is interesting. But don’t you need a key for the Tardis? I seem to recall the Doctor giving one to previous companions.
The Tardis probably doesn’t like Clara because there is something screwy about her.
The middle was extremely weak, but I liked the beginning and the ending.
Do you think the TARDIS is not translating for her because it doesn’t like her? My daughter was pointing out that the TARDIS usually translates for the companions right off the bat…
It was a bit formulaic. Amy’s first trip was similar. First show the companion something cool. Amy floated in space. Clara saw the rings of Akhaten. Visit a shopping area. Amy and Clara both walked around amazed, saw some aliens, and then wandered off by themselves. Both episodes involved chasing after a kid.
I guess in fairness the Doctor would follow a similar approach with each new companion. Giving them a cool experience in space is a logical first step. Then taking them to a safe tourist or shopping planet step 2. But of course nothing is ever safe when the Doctor visits. 
I still don’t have a clue what the heck Grandpa did to the Doctor. Absorb his memories? It didn’t seem to affect the Doctor whatever the heck it did.
Boooooooooring!
I caught the translation issue too, but I’m guessing the Tardis “doesn’t like her” because she doesn’t have a key yet.
The Doctor’s speech to the silly sun-face god was fun. Reminded me of his speech to the assembled spaceships in The Pandorica Opens. Those mask-faced guardians or whatever they were looked delightfully creepy.
And … not much else good to say. The alien marketplace looked right out of Babylon 5 (which I love, but is 20 years old now. Man, I’m getting old.) very dated, very fake. The plot was somehow both confusing and boring at the same time. The leaf bit was cute, but man do I not care about Clara much. And I liked Oswin. And Victorian Clara. The only time I really liked her was the part where she demanded to be there on her own terms and not to fill the void of the other Clara. Very Donna-ish there.
And while I’ll admit that rocket-scooter thing was kinda neat looking, if I were Clara, I’d be saying: "Let me get this straight. You want me to give this memento of my dead beloved mother to a barking alien so we can rent her little spaceship. When we have a perfectly serviceable spaceship that we came here in sitting right over there. If the TARDIS can catch a falling River Song, it could have caught the little girl getting sucked through space. Clara doesn’t know that, but the Doctor does. So I’m forced to conclude that despite his fascination with her, he doesn’t give a rats ass for Clara’s feelings. Once again: Eleven’s companions are pets, not people. :rolleyes:
If the Tardis doesn’t like Clara, and it went a gajillion years into the future because it didn’t like Jack, does that mean we’re getting a hint of how Clara has been repeating in different lives?
Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but I happened to notice that the tombstone for Clara’s mother’s grave listed her birth date as September 11th. True it was Sept. 11th, 1960 (rather than 2001), but given the to-do about Victorian Clara’s birth date on her own tombstone (Nov. 23, 1966 - the same month & day, but not the same year that “Doctor Who” premiered in the real world), is this meant to be a clue of some kind?
Not that Clara’s mother is somehow related to the Sept. 11th tragedy, but that Clara is somehow related to some great, profound cataclysm.
And the flashback moment with Clara’s mother saying “no matter where you go, I will find you” (or words to that effect) - I’m guessing we haven’t seen the last of the late Mrs. Oswald.
As sweet as the story of Clara’s parents was, the Doctor snooping in on her throughout her entire life seemed more than a little creepy. And I realize that it’d be hard to relate the whole story to her, but how long will it be before the Doctor tells Clara that she doesn’t just "remind him of someone else’ but that he knew her as someone else?
I liked the Farscape/Babylon 5 atmosphere of the alien planet, and I’m still liking Clara and her interactions with the Doctor, but this was an uninspired/uninspiring episode.
And I can’t shake the idea that I would like Clara more if she was just a normal person, and not some Big Mysterious Mystery, because that aspect is already feeling like a mashup rehash of River’s origins and the Cracks in Amy’s walls.
Well I liked it! I thought it was a lot of fun and much more like an episode from the RTD years. I am getting so very tired of Moffat’s over-plotting and making the companions the focus of the whole season.
Laughed at the Adams reference (“That’s a Hooloovoo”–though he didn’t mention it was a super-intelligent shade of anything, damn it). But I’m kind of sliding back into not liking Matt Smith’s Doctor much, and this Clara isn’t grabbing me all that hard.
I thought the stalking of Clara’s past was…stalkerish. The Doctor wasn’t researching things of univeral proportion, he was watching Clara’s life, from pre-conception forward.That’s a little more than flipping through someone’s photo album.
And way to make every child feel like a snowflake: From the Big Bang through billion and billions of cataclysm, just to make you.
StG
Very meh, I’m afraid. Singing little girls and silly planet-faces just do not do it for me. Did like the alien marketplace, though.
RE the singing and three protector guys; kind of Kraftwork meets X Factor.
So this is where Clara and The Doctor establish common cause and belief. Okay.
There was something here that escaped me. The girlie bonding - older sister/little sister stuff between the Queen and Clara. RTD was saying something there … maybe it was something as simple as ‘try hard at school’ kind of thing.
Her dad wore a Harrington in 1981, that either makes him a post-skinhead (still with his gear) or a bit late to the cause. Either way, it’ll do for me. Top man.
What did Clara’s mother die of?
I agree that The Doctor’s Childhood stalking of Clara was just creepy.
I didn’t like the sinister/apprehensive look the Doctor gave Clara as she left the Tardis at the end. It seemed too extreme. The Doctor rarely shows that kind of emotion. Even when he’s up against a bad alien the Doctor seems outwardly calm.
Either that was some bad acting or theres something about Clara that has the Doctor extremely worried. Its more than curiosity. He didn’t react like this even with Amy’s crack.
Here’s the lingering troubled look that the Doctor gives as Clara walks way. Yikes!
Nah, I think it was just: Clara’s a nanny in at least 2 of her lifetimes. She knows how to talk to kids, so the writers give her a moment that her “(sorta) unique talents” come in handy. Surely she was better suited to it than the doctor, who, when talking to kids, sometimes comes off as a perv.