Mummy on the Orient Express

[llywela]

Oh, that was better. I enjoyed that! What a difference it makes when both leads are given a perspective!

I mean, I could grumble at length about having wasted half a season building up to Clara's little meltdown, only for her to realise at last that the Doctor is...the Doctor, same guy he's always been, making hard choices and trying to save lives, he just doesn't have the patience for social niceties any more. Is that seriously the arc? Clara slowly learns something she already knew. I mean, seriously, haven't we been told that she supposedly understands him better than anyone? Clearly she doesn't, and she's also rather a slow learner - any one of his previous companions would have made this breakthrough weeks ago. I could also talk how she has been projecting totally unrealistic expectations onto him (because she's a control freak who wishes to control situations that are fundamentally uncontrollable) and then punishing him for being fallible...but I'm always so much less inclined to pick nits when I enjoyed an episode.

It just makes such a difference being given insight into the Doctor's point of view. Pretty much the whole season so far has been told from Clara's point of view, and Clara is extremely self-important, she always believes she is right, so she's been as blinkered in her own way as the Doctor is when he's too focused on problem solving to be nice. He wasn't reacting or behaving as she wanted him to behave, she couldn't control him, and she reacted badly to that - and her negative reaction has clouded the whole season, because it's all we've been shown. Now we get to see the Doctor's perspective at last - he's still abrasive, still painfully blunt, still lacking social niceties, but we're allowed to see what drives him, his focus and intent...and Clara's little meltdown comes off poorly in comparison with his ancient wisdom and expertise. "Sometimes the only choices you have are bad ones, but you still have to choose."

Both flawed characters, but each with a point of view that's valid to them, and portrayed as such, plus open lines of communication to help them understand one another. And a cracking good story with fleshed out supporting characters. Great stuff.

This episode was written by Jamie Mathieson, a newbie to Doctor Who - an excellent start, he can come again!

Comments

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

I am coming to feel that part of the problem with Clara is that the writers are trying to make her be too many different things, and all those elements they are trying to jam together don't go, some of them are directly opposed to one another - like, she can't be both the person who understands him best in the universe because she's met every version of him AND the companion who is freaked out by regeneration and rejects him because he's different. Yet she has been presented as both and it doesn't work, it makes the character too inconsistent and destroys suspension of disbelief. I think...the concept of Clara was cooked up out of a bunch of different ingredients and requirements that didn't blend together well at all, because they didn't add up to a complete individual - and now that an actual personality is being built for her, it jibes with that original concept less and less. She wasn't well established last season and her development this season has been so extremely clumsy, which makes it hard to believe in her as an actual person. She is too obviously a construct, designed to suit whatever plot purpose she needs to fulfill now.

It is far more gratifying when the plot is driven by the specific characters involved in it, the way those personalities react and interact, rather than having the personalities of the characters involved shaped by the requirements of the plot.

[issy5209.livejournal.com]

I do think you are right, she's whatever the plot is wanting her to be.
Which is why I said to catsdownunder it just feels like Merlin (particularly s5) all over again, its not really character growth and I don't really like or root for any of the characters, which is sad.