It was a pretty badass death scene, just a shame the prelude was a lot of yackage that could rival a Shakespearean death.
I just hope, after going out like that, facing it head on, they won't cheapen it by any "she's not really dead" gimmick.
Readers please note: THIS IS A POST-UK BROADCAST REVIEW – THERE WILL BE SPOILERS! So this week we have our hero stumbling upon a Harry Potter-like set, with Clara and returning character Rigsy (remember him?) in tow. A mysterious tattoo on the back of Rigsy's neck counts down to zero and – with the clock ticking – the hunt is …
"I just hope, after going out like that, facing it head on, they won't cheapen it by any "she's not really dead" gimmick."
'Don't run; stay with her. Why do they always run?'
Clara didn't run, she was the only one that "faced the raven" freely. Also, note at the point of impact of the quantum shadowy that's taken a bird-shape for no adequately explained reason, there was a flash of white light that didn't happen on the "demo-victim" earlier in the episode.
I see tropes and plot-hammers are being wielded with wild abandon. There is going to be a poor deus ex machina reason she didn't die, or I will eat my (fourth doctors) hat.
(Ah, Tom, we miss you....)
Yeah it stuck out, sitting in the background while everyone talked. Of course putting a souleaten body in stasis still means it's dead, and you can still kill someone in a stasis pod. They could have at least mentioned that.
Me, I'm thinking Clara's soul would make an excellent house for a new quantum shadeling. She didn't run.
I agree that he was believably angry, although I disagree somewhat that the others didn't do that (just maybe not as well).
Still, as the Doctor said of the Quantum Shade: "You can flee across all of time and all of the universe but it will still find you".
Hmm, does that remind you of anyone else...?!
Now he's been given some good scripts and stories to work with he's doing quite well. Ecclestone and Tennant had all memory of the War Doctor activities repressed but Capaldi's incarnation is fully aware of what he is capable of if he lets himself do it. What we see is that internal struggle of someone trying not to take life and to save it where possible despite him and his friends being attacked and threatened.
Unlike the reviewer, and despite the spoilers which, do my best, I couldn't avoid, this was an excellent episode IMO.
Hidden streets and the like in London existed long before Harry Potter (Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere to mention but one, much better example) and the idea of one being a refugee camp for all sorts of nasties is a very nice idea.
The "ticking clock" tattoo was also a clever bit of nastiness and "Retcon"? Hmm, this is at least the second time we've had a Torchwood reference (cf Captain Jack Harkness).
As for "Clara death fatigue"? Dear me, has KF become so cynical that Clara's brave acceptance of her fate just becomes an "emotional, lengthy scene"? IMO the not-extermination of her *and* Missy was blatantly obviously a trick, whereas this was a good and fitting ending for the Impossible Girl.
I can't wait for this one To Be Continued...
PS If there was any "Next Week..." or trailer after the episode, I didn't see it because I don't *WANT* to see it, so if anyone has seen that, do me and everyone else a favour and put a spoiler warning *before* talking about it, thanks...
There was a 'Next Week...' trailer; after there was also a very minor post-credits sequence that was just about tying up that episode. I don't think you're missing any important plot points — it was highly skippable — but if you want an excuse to skip back after next week then there it is.
"Hidden streets and the like in London existed long before Harry Potter (Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere to mention but one, much better example) and the idea of one being a refugee camp for all sorts of nasties is a very nice idea."
My first thought was Cornelius and Tuppe would have found the streets with the help of the re-invented ocarina and an A-Z in Robert Rankin's 1994 classic Raiders of the Lost Car Park. I think it was 1993's The Book of Ultimate Truths that introduced the Forbidden Zones.
I'm so tired of the windy speeches that the characters, especially the Dr, enter into each episode. But Clara is so pretty, smart and knowing that it won't be the same without her. I hope it wasn't her last episode.
My 9 year old spotted a continuity error tonight. The tattoo on the back of the man's neck disappeared in one shot while he was talking to Clara BEFORE she took the tattoo off of him.
Similar continuity issue with Ashildr's tattoo. During the first execution, she allows her tattoo to move to the raven. While it's chasing its victim (supposedly a cyberman), the camera occasionally comes back to the watchers, and in one shot, the tattoo is back on Ashildr's yes please.
This computer simulation River has barely been used. There's a lot of wasted potential. Consider that this character is running on the highest-capacity storage system ever built, with a processor so powerful it occupies the interior of the entire library planet, and has nothing to do but sit around and read the entire collected knowledge of a highly advanced civilization. She's a singularity waiting to happen.
Right now? Brain the size of a planet and they send her to open a door.
A good exit done well.
Will be interesting to see how angry he is next week.
And since Clara is the Impossible Girl - what's to stop there being other versions of her? Not that I want it coz it would cheapen things. But there are meant to be Clara's all over the Doctors timeline.
> But there are meant to be Clara's all over the Doctors timeline.
Good point - so *this* Clara might be pining for the fjords but there are plenty of others dotted about so even if she isn't immortal maybe she doesn't die with quite the sort of never-again finality that requires being nailed to the perch.
Maybe the body evaporates into the ether to avoid complicated questions over time and space and the stuff that's in it, otherwise we end up with some bizarre handwavey thing involving twangy elastic and some very strange looking trousers of time.
"Good point - so *this* Clara might be pining for the fjords but there are plenty of others dotted about"
Actually, I took Clara's "You're alone now" line to the Doctor as a sort of hint that this marks the end of Impossible Girl. That is, from this point on in the Doctor's timeline, there's no version of Clara around to help him out.
Given that the Doctor is now in a new set of regenerations, the events in the "...Of The Doctor" episodes seem to only refer to the first cycle, and Clara has been around for real up to now, this would make some sense.
I agree the build-up to the Big Goodbye was a bit elongated, and there were a couple of silly plot-holes in the run-up, but Clara's final few lines were right on the money. Knowing The Doctor as she does, she knew his threats to Mayor Me were far from idle - that warrior, the promise-breaker, is evidently still not far beneath the surface, and you saw it in his face when he swore to rain Hell down on Ashilda.
And her last lines, and the expression on her face at the evident pain with which she died. Yeah, JLC came close to breaking me there.
But then Capaldi did it. He looks at Ashilda, and you know that brave defiant face she's putting-on is a sham, and her guts have turned to liquid and are trying to get out really fast. And he says he's going to do his best, to try to uphold Clara's last wish, to not be The Oncoming Storm. And you see it in his eyes, the struggle, the despair, the fury. And that 1000-yard-stare, the one that Eccleston and Smith never quite mastered but which Tennant had and now Capaldi so clearly has, just blasts through her and she knows, she knows, that being immortal isn't going to be defence enough.
I've said this before - you do not want to be on a Time Lord's shit-list. Ever.
"I've said this before - you do not want to be on a Time Lord's shit-list. Ever."
Sigh, time lords a figment of children's imagination, you don't have to worry your little head about them.
Santa Clause on the other hand will work his way into your bedroom and f**k you up if you're not grateful for all your presents. Especially clothes.
Yes, my upbringing was strange, what of it?
Moffat seems to be into his long trails and they've been boring me . The Ponds, who i enjoyed had a half season of they'll be leaving soon. then we go the belaboured dragged out "she's the impossible girl".Then they kept her around for another year, then she was supposed to leave and changed her mind and for some reason we had to have her back for another year. I'm still dreading another press conference where she announces she's changed her mind and will do another season.
To paraphrase Robert Downey Jnr (because some one else mentioned him) as Iron Man.
Please be dead, please be dead, please be dead..... YAY!
If they bring her back in any way shape or form... I honestly think I will be done with this show. She has been a noose around it's neck for far too long (as I've often said) and I too have been suffering from death fatigue this series.
Ding Dong Clara's Dead, Clara's Dead, Clara's Dead... Ding Dong the useless Clara's dead.... I hope.
Capaldi on the other hand was fantastic, he has been the one bright light shining through the terrible writing of this series. A menacing darkness bubbling just underneath the surface the whole time that just slips through the cracks at the end. A testament to Maisie Williams acting ability in how she reacted to it... and thus the small ray of hope that she may become a future companion is dashed.
So the Doctor is teleported away some where mysterious and cannot be tracked without his tardis key... so I'm kinda thinking that they'll simply have had Clara slip her key into his pocket at some point towards the end.
But that would just be lazy writing wouldn't it... and they've not offered up predictable lazy stuff like that this series have they.... Oh... wait a minute.
There are a couple of lines in Sarah Jane Adventures that hint at what some companions are up to.
I'd really like to see what happened to Ace - she was a very eighties character. As the final companion of the classic series she never had her story resolved. She was last seen walking off towards the next adventure with the doctor, and was not there when the series resumed. So what became of her?
I'd ideally like her to come back as a one-episode character (She's too eighties to work any longer than that), initially unidentified - she's older now, she's matured, no longer the punk we knew and not even recognizable. She may wear a suit and work in an office at a steady job, perhaps applying her talent for chemistry as a scientist, but there's still a bit of Ace beneath that - and when she uncovers a world-threatening conspiracy or an alien invasion, she knows it's time to call the number that the Doctor left her all those years ago - because there are days when the world needs a respectable scientist, and there are days when the world needs the Doctor, his trusted companion, and a flask of nitro-nine.
There was a final story planned for Ace, but the series was canceled before it could be made - the Doctor was to sponsor her enrollment at the Time Lord Academy, recognizing what he always saw in her. That she may look, dress, speak and act like a punk street kid, but the appearance is deceptive, and though she may lack the discipline to do well at school she still has the mind of a gifted intellectual. I guess the Time War pretty much kills off that possibility.
If Ace is anything like the 80's punks I know she won't have changed much, except maybe brighter hair. Was the weirdest thing going to see The Damned in Manchester earlier this year and seeing men and women in their 50's and 60's still looking like they'd walked off a documentary on 80's subculture...
I think you'll find Captain Jack camping* it up on some vet program I had the misfortune of stumbling over and couldn't turn it off quick enough without my children noticing. I had to sit through half an hour of the rubbish.
*Before I get flamed, this is not a homophobic comment. I seriously thought he was going to brake out into song while some poor cat was being injected with radioactive bromine.
@ Anonymous Cow Herder:
"I think you'll find Captain Jack camping* it up on some vet program"
That was probably John Barrowman, the actor, rather than Captain Jack Harkness, the Dr. Who character, who was in that program (camping it up or not, something he's definitely capable of) but he's excellent in Arrow, and was excellent in Dr. Who and Torchwood too (yes, not Shakespearean, but these are superhero / sci-fi/fantasy shows) so I think it'd be good to have him back for a while.
Just watched the first two seasons of Arrow and couldn't help play "spot the Dr Who actor". Yes, Barrowman was good as Merlyn. He didn't break into song once but was actually rather menacing.
(Can't watch season 3 because 1 and 2 were free and I'm tight. I've added the DVD to my wishlist and continue to watch season 4 on Sky1 instead hoping that I won't miss too much)
was I the only one shouting at the TV, saying "Go on, hurry up and die you boring ******?" That death scene was far too long
And anyway I don't think she's dead - that Raven looked like it bounced off her bullet-proof longline cross-your heart bra and stunned itself.............(how else does she keep her waist so trim and her feminine bulges so pointy?)
And she certainly looked trim and very pointy.
Easily the best of the season, acting wise if not quite story wise. Capaldi was on fire as an angry Timelord, he really let the darkness of the character show. Coupled with Maisie William's Ashildir looking terrified it summed up a terrific 45 minute episode.
I have never been a fan of the impossible girl, but I have to admit that last night, as she died, I did hope for one second that the Doctor would save her. Seems that was not to be and Clara will join Adric as one of the shows dead and truly dead (although didn't Adric come back in one of the Big Finish productions?).
No you weren't the only one (hurry up, not the undergarments)
Actually, I thought it good that one of the Doctor's companions finally had to face up to their rash decisions without a convenient McGuffin to bail them out. I reckon Clara's death would have had far more impact if she hadn't gone on about it for so long though... I was rooting for the raven to appear halfway through her farewell speech. That's the sort of thing that Joss Whedon excels at; an unexpected* death, showing that death isn't pretty and sometimes it just is futile.
* yeah, well it wasn't going to be unexpected in Clara's case, but cutting her short mid-speech would have done the trick.
Going to call balls on that, as there were McGuffins all over the place - with cheese and a side of fries - just as many to save her as kill her off.
Why would Ashildr be able to take the curse off Rigsy, but not Clara? She promised a death, so does that mean she was ready to die from it herself if she took it back? It didn't seem like it, so that's one fix that doesn't make sense.
Secondly, whilst they're all standing around saying there's nothing they can do (which the Doctor has already done once that episode and changed his mind) there's a blωdy STASIS POD right behind them that no-one even tries to mention (even if the Doctor is ready to pull out another McGuffin to explain why it won't work).
Then there's the 'Don't Run' thing we heard earlier, which (apparently, pre-'To be continued') makes no apparent difference, but presumably Part II will show the King of the Rocket-Men swooping down from the sky and pushing Clara out of the way of the raven at the last minute and saying 'thank goodness she was standing still'...
She did say that she can only take the curse off the one she gives it to, that her contract with the Raven is between herself, the victim and the Raven. If the curse is transferred to a fourth person it negates the original contract leaving only Raven and the new cursed person, so she can't call it back.
It would appear from the storyline that Me didn't realise that the Doctor's enemies are devious bastards and it would not surprise me at all if Clara's death was part of the plan. Not only do they get to remove the Doctor to some unforeseen place, but they also in one fell swoop remove his only support. A plan worthy of the Master (Missy) perhaps?
Fair point Joefish... there were any number of ways that Clara could have been bailed out. I was expecting Ashildr to take the curse on herself and see how it fares on an 'immortal'.
I liked that Clara wasn't bailed out this time - that's all.
Have to admit, for the first time this weekend, after countless watchings, I noticed Dr Gillian Taylor in Star Trek IV has rather pronoun... well, let's just say it must have been quite cold the day they filmed that bit where she was shouting at the Klingon spaceship in he park.
at face value there is of course a major continuity problem with this episode.....
if the street had been in alien use as long as was implied, then either UNIT or Torchwood London would already have discovered it.........which in turn suggests that the only way the street could exist would be with Torchwood / UNITs connivance
Now with the destruction of Torchwoods London and Cardiff, only the unknown Scottish office still exists.....so if they've taken over the oversight of whats left of Torchwood it could be they, still operating on the original Victorian remit, who are trying to catch the Doctor.
They must have put a perception filter over the 12 minutes of tedious goodbye from when the Doctor gets wheel clamped to when Clara gets deaded then, because it seems some people didn't notice it. There was also one over the stasis pod behind them too, because I'd at least have given that a go as a way of saving Clara.
I recorded the Sat night showing from BBC One HD on Freesat onto my trusty Humax DVR and got a terrible audio mix coming out of my 5.1 system (which has never happened before). The background music was twice as loud as it should have been and almost obliterated the dialogue.
I "obtained" another copy of the show and the mix was much better, though the odd dialogue snippet was competing with the background music again. Did anyone else out there have a similar audio issue? As for the episode, it yet another "meh" reaction from me, like so many of the episodes in recent years. My weekend was better spent watching Jessica Jones, which is so much better than Doctor Who currently is...
Adam, Rose, Donna, Astrid, Amy/Rory, River Song and now Clara ... since coming back for the new version, being a companion to the Doctor is a bit of a risky business, isn't it? None of that lot got to bail out on their own terms. At least Micky and Martha are out there somewhere, running the Doctor's fan club and Captain Jack is definitely not dead.
On a different point, I'm glad the BBC finally got it right about waiting until *after* the credits to preview next week's episode.
Both Rose and Donna are still alive and functioning though.
Admittedly, one in a parallel universe, and the other with no memory of when she stopped being a classless ginger gobshite, but still - very much still consuming oxygen.
And didn't Sexy Pond and Annoying Big Nose Pond simply get sent back in time together where they lived until 80+ each before dying of old age? Admittedly again perhaps not 100% exactly how they'd've chosen to go out, but still better than what could have happened!
Still better than Adric, who got to unwittingly fly a space-freighter into the Earth at very high speed. At least it'd've been quick.
I think they've left themselves an 'out' here.
When the first guy got killed, one of the guards said something like "Don't run,... why do they always run?" implying that running is somehow a bad idea, even though they're facing 'certain death' .. so I wonder if there is a catch in there about it only working if you're scared or some other hand waving ..
we shall see.
Very emotionally powerful episode... But they missed two obvious outs.
1: The stasis pod. Quoth the Doctor, "if you're alive, it keeps you alive." They could've bunged Clara in that.
2: Clara could have said "No. I'm going to run. And do you know what I'm going to run? It's not because I'm scared, Doctor. It's because if you don't SEE me die, it wasn't final. If you don't SEE it happen, it's not a Fixed Point in Time. So I am going to run, and you aren't going to look back. You're going to look forward, you're going to make whoever put Ashildr up to this sorry they ever heard the name Doctor, and then you're going to do something so CLEVER, you're going to put on a bowtie, a leather jacket, combat boots and a pinstriped waistcoat when you play your guitar at my welcome back party. Got it?"
Cue an epic legging it. The "out" leaves a hole in Clara's death you could pilot s Death Star through, let alone a TARDIS, but my favorite would be to go find those blokes who ride around in micro-miniaturized kaiju recreations of folks, get them to lend him another one of those person-imitating thingies, then grab Clara off the street when the group split up to do their searching, bung her inside it, and tell her to do what comes naturally.
Then cue an epic rock ballad version of the Doctor's theme, played by the Doctor himself.
[e]Come to think of it, on reflection, that could STILL work. But first, the Doctor has to get his Oncoming Storm, his Time Lord Triumphant, on upon those pitiable fools who set this nonsense up in the first place.