I actually struggle to remember most of the last season: did anyone really care about the Spoonhead guys? Or the Ice Warrior on the submarine? The non-arc episodes seem like they were written as an afterthought, and I’m sick of Moffatt’s reliance on supposed grand, paradigm-shaking story arcs {will the Doctor die? will he reveal his True Name and destroy time itself?*} that invariably fizzle out in disappointment. They need to get back to some straightforward old-fashioned Doctor vs. Evil two-parters. And bring back Sil: he was just the sort of proper evil little cackling bastard they need right now.
I’ve enjoyed Jenna, though I think, rather like Matt Smith, she’s been somewhat hampered by being saddled with the disappointing Moffat. It’s about time for a new companion, in any event, so I’m content to let her go and cross my fingers we get a new showrunner next season or so.
In her final episode, Jenna Coleman (previously Jenna-Louise Coleman) sees the episode credits and discovers, to her horror, that she is now billed as simply Jen Coleman. Realizing that prolonged exposure to the Doctor is causing her name to slowly vanish from existence, she flees to ensure that she doesn’t wake up one day to discover that she is down to being just J-Cole.
Good. I’m looking forward to the show starting fresh - of course, the guy I really want out is Moffat, but I hope this is a sign things are going to change. There aren’t any plots anymore, just ridiculously convoluted non-stories that use their needless complexity to hide the fact that it’s all meaningless fluff. It’s the opposite of the old Doctor Who - they’ve got all the fancy special effects a show could ever want, but there’s no writing to back it up. I’d rather have a monster who’s a guy in a garbage bag and a dollar store mask while having great scripts.
[/old curmudgeon]
I’m also happy the new guy’s older - seriously, the whole 900 year old hitting it off with 25 year olds thing was getting creepy.
I remember reading somewhere that she was angry when Matt Smith decided to leave, who knows. I quite liked her but felt she was pretty one dimensional.
I felt like Clara was crammed down our throats splinter by splinter. Since she’s actually multiple versions, that’s multiple origin stories heaped upon the audience, giving them no time to build rapport with a single Clara.
In The Name of the Doctor, she becomes infused into every Doctor Who storyline ever as an unseen guardian angel. In the following episodes, there’s no mention of Dr. Simeon’s efforts being thwarted, since more blockbusting events such as Gallifrey’s rescue and Matt Smith’s swan song took precedence. It’s like Clara’s importance was quietly swept under the rug. I would accuse the DW makers of wankery, but I enjoyed it too much.
It’s unfortunate Clara is leaving, but she was caught up in a whirlwind.
I agree completely. Having a mystery girl with a mystery origin and a mystery future completely failed to hook me with any curiosity. It just felt like a constant retcon backpedaling. It’s why I stopped caring about Lost shortly into its second season.
That said, “Asylum of the Daleks” was one of the greatest Who episodes in history, thanks primarily to Jenna Coleman. It’s a damn shame that that instance of her character didn’t become the later companion foundation.
One of my favorite things about Doctor Who fans is how wildly opinions vary about the show.
I saw Asylum of the Daleks as more-or-less garbage (albeit garbage with a couple solid performances). On the other hand, I love “Love & Monsters,” which is an opinion…not universally shared.
Uh…I’ve actually seen* the first 3 episodes with Peter Capaldi and I only mention it because I really think Jenna Coleman really shines in the new episodes, especially compared to in the past. I think it massively is helping to have a new Doctor. When she entered the show, Matt Smith had been with two companions for a very long time and he had a ton of story/emotional baggage and attachment with them.
Capaldi, who plays the Doctor quite differently, does not have that baggage. Yes, it is technically the same Doctor, but we all know how different they seem after regeneration.
I especially think she shines in the first and third episode of the new series and I think it is a shame that she is leaving. She’s a good companion for the kind of Doctor Peter Capaldi is portraying.
I won’t say any more since we would enter spoiler zone, but if you are curious about my thoughts on Capaldi and her, PM me and I’ll share freely.
*Yes…I bootlegged them. It’s bad and perhaps irredeemable to some, but know that I will watch the show as it airs and very likely purchase a DVD set of the series when it hits shelves. They will “get my money”, so to speak.
There’s an old Doctor Who thread back in the RTD era where pepperlandgirl remarked on some stylistic traits that allows the viewer to immediately identify a Moffat story among all the other writers (a cute girl with a penchant for snappy lines, singular lines becoming creepy mantras like “don’t blink” or “silence will fall” and unusual baddies outside of the regular who complement) which was fine every 7 episodes or so but gets tiring season long.
I still think there’s a huge narrative hiccup between The Name of the Doctor and the anniversary special.
