Although I'm sure the main question everyone's asking is simply "Clara Oswald: What the FUCK is her problem?!?!?".
But we'll get back to that. There are a few other points to cover first.
First and most obvious is of course the ongoing trend of disturbing similarity. And, once again we here have more than a hint of things gone past. As I postulated last time there's a large dose of Waters Of Mars (near future setting, space base under siege from mysterious indigenous force, crew being consumed one by one, hard bitten older female commander making tough choices, lot's pointed glances from said commander as time travel stuff is discussed or hinted at, events forming a crucial step in humanities journey to the stars, overall tone of doomy grimness etc) along with a healthy splash of, somewhat unexpectedly, The Beast Below (Companion leaping in at the last moment to push the button that saves the giant space creature, advertised monsters turning out to be somewhat incidental to the main plot of aforementioned giant space creature).
I'm starting to wonder if it's just me. Maybe it's because I'm somewhat steeped in Dr Who that I notice little similarities, and then I start subconsciously looking for them, and before you know it the whole thing has spiraled out of control and suddenly everything looks like a remake of The Krotons or something.
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Although to be fair I'm pretty sure Courtney was clinging to something shaped like that when the hull breach happened.
Anyway, point is it's getting REALLY suspicious now. I know that Doctor Who has been going for 50 years now, and that there are an awful lot of stories in that time, even discounting the fact that Big Finish keeps doing everything first and better. But even so.... Odd. I think it worked better when the show mercilessly plagiarized Hammer Horror films and classical literature rather than it's own past. Especially now that we've apparently moved up to the very recent past.
Speaking of the past, you know what else is really interesting about this episode? The age of the Moon. The Doctor consistently refers to it as being one hundred million years. Obviously the actual moon is much older than this, but do you remember when we had a look at the various possible ages of the Silurian race? One hundred million years put's the moons arrival right in the middle of the Cretaceous period. So rather than being an obvious error it's just possible that someone is actually trying to build some sort of consistent internal chronology.
Maybe not exactly as educational as Sydney Newman originally intended, but commendable in it's own way.
Still it's no wonder the Silurians went and hid underground. Seeing that thing being laid must have been like getting Goatse'd on a cosmic scale.
Of course then there's the whole political angle. Anyone else get the impression that a lot of this episode is a subtle dig at the current lamentable state of the space program? Specifically in America. They're not just needling with the whole angle of everyone having given up on space in the future and it being bad. No, they had to go one step extra and make the last lunar explorers MEXICANS.
Which I'm sure we can all agree looked exactly like this.
Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but there does seem to be a bit of a dig there. Not that there's anything wrong with Mexico having a space program of course, but you do have to wonder how it was they managed to get there without any spaceships.
Just think about that for a second. The Mexicans last transmission according to the episode was 10 years previously. And it took them TEN WHOLE YEARS to mount any sort of investigation because they had to glue a shuttle back together from theme park ride parts. Because nobody had a functioning shuttle. So... how did the Mexicans get there in the first place? I'm pretty sure that, no matter what the rabid rednecks of the KKK might tell you to contrary they couldn't just tunnel their way into space. They clearly had the sort of resources required to establish and supply a moonbase. You know, because they HAD A MOONBASE. And since it was for prospecting they had to have some way of getting the goddamn cheese back to earth.
Aye Carumba, Gromit.
So... yeah. Let me know if you figure out how that's supposed to work.
NExt I suppose we should discuss the issue of Courtney. Last week you may recall I was not exactly impressed with the character, coming across as one of those ghastly, willfully ignorant more attitude than brains sorts of problem children you just want to beat in the face with a shovel. By the end of this weeks episode I'm happy to say that has been downgraded to someone in need of a good slap. And next to Clara maybe not even that.
At the start of course she's pure shovel fodder. All that business about the Doctor somehow ruining her whole life and sending her off a blazing trail of teenage alcoholism because he told her she wasn't special?
FUCK OFF.
Firstly, have you actually MET this version of the Doctor? He's not really the touchy feely type is he? Slagging you off is just part of how he communicates. The simple fact that he will then happily (well, grudgingly, but for him that's the same thing) take you INTO SPACE afterwards doesn't show that he maybe actually likes you? Or at least doesn't hate you. I could also mention the fact that hald=f the purpose of school is to crush any hopes or dreams out of children to prepare them for a life of thankless drudgery and existential dread, but let's cut to the chase here. Courtney ISN'T special. She's not especially bright, she's not even especially dim. Neither is she especially brave or cowardly. Although I have to give her credit for knowing when to say she's had enough. The only thing you could really say is that given how quickly she switches from the terror of alien death stalking the shadows to obnoxiously going on about phone reception, video games or taking the piss out of Clara for having a boyfriend there's a fair chance she might be a sociopath. But given the inherent limits of the character and child actors in general I'd say she acquits herself quite well. I'd be almost intruiged to see how she'd develop in the future. Let's face it, an alcoholic chav would at least make for a more interesting child companion than John Or Gillian.
Although probably more suitable for family viewing.
But really the big thing is the whole Clara situation. I'll readily admit that whilst the character hasn't exactly become particularly likable at any point, she has at least been more interesting since they decided to try giving her an actual personality. Even if that personality is somewhat inconsistent and objectionable. And I suppose it's this objectionable inconstancy that's coming to a head here. Albeit in a rather baffling way. If you thought that Courtney was acting like a petulant child at times she did at least have the excuse of actually BEING a child. Clara is meant to be both a grown adult AND a seasoned traveler in time and space. She's meant to have, in one form or another, been around EVERY incarnation of the Doctor at some point. But here....?
Seriously, you can't have it both ways. She has a go at the Doctor for being all high and mighty and acting like he's above everyone else, and then turns around and has a massive go at him for not making all the tough decisions for her. If there's a theme to this episode it's one of taking responsibility and making hard decisions. And the only character that doesn't seem to get this is Clara. The Doctor get it. He realizes that what's going down is big, important, and humanity needs to make it's own decision. Mrs Not The One From Waters Of Mars gets it. She's willing to make the tough calls and do the dirty for the greater good. Hell, she's even willing to lay down her life in the process in order to protect the planet. Even Courtney gets it to some degree, She runs away at first, but then faces up to things once she see's what's really going on. But Clara?
Not a damn clue. She's wrong about pretty much everything. Up to and including the fact that she pressed the button, seeing as how she didn't actually pick up on the fairly massive hint that if the Doctor thought the creature was a serious threat to humanity he'd probably have shanked it himself when he was down the pit and no one was looking. I think he's proved by now that he's willing to go a little further than other incarnations in these sort of circumstances.
As a side note, whilst Claras big idea for taking a vote on the situation (apparently in an attempt to shirk the responsibility for the decision rather than through any notion of fairness seeing as how she then ignores the results) seems fairly clever at first look, I can't help but think it's not really going to be a particularly representative sample. Depending as it does on whatever side of the Earth is both visible from the moon at the time AND at night AND populated AND having a functioning infrastructure not devastated by a decade of natural disasters. I mean, what if the view had been over the pacific or something? By the sounds of it most of coastal settlements have been wiped out or abandoned. Not gonna get much lighting there.
Anyway, I digress. We were trying to talk about Clara being a hysterical bitch. Her little rant at the end just doesn't quite hang together. I know she's meant to be being more emotional than logically consistent, but still. It's way too much like a teenager expecting a parent to do everything for them and then having a go when their actually expected make a life decision.
The Doctor said it was time to take the training wheels off, and she immediately crashed headfirst into a ditch.
I probably wouldn't mind but for two things. Firstly is the fact that obviously it's not going to stick as the series isn't over yet. Of course she'll be back. They tried this before at the end of The God Complex remember? Shocking sudden departure of companion that was quickly undone. Secondly of course is the fact that the build up to this was a little lacking. Not that there hasn't been a certain amount of friction between the Doctor and Clara before now. But the big foreshadowing moment of Danny Pink telling her that one day the Doctor may push her to far and she needs to walk away? That was only last week. It just feels like there should have been a little more time for that particular prophecy to come to fruition. Maybe if they'd spent less time fannying about at the begininng of the series?
Ah well, such are the perils of TV production I suppose. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Overall it wasn't really a bad episode. It just has continues this odd trend of feeling like it's all stuff we've seen before. Still, maybe that'll change next week when they're absolutely NOT redoing Voyage Of The Damned or anything. I mean, a big old luxury space transport done up like a a famous old Earth luxury long distance vehicle? With everyone dressed up like it's the 20's or something? With a famous celebrity guest star? How many times could that happen?
Umm...twice?
And do we get to count untelivised adventures?
Seriously, this HAS to be deliberate, right?
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